Swami Vivekananda Portrait - Prince studio

In various publications this photo is often mistaken for Chicago, 1893. The background studio setting is the same as no. 35. Josephine MacLeod’s life was revolutionized by her meeting with Swamiji during the early part of 1895 in New York. She remarked that when she heard Swamiji speak: Instantly to me that was truth, and the second sentence he spoke was truth, and the third sentence was truth. And I listened to him for seven years and whatever he uttered was to me truth. From that moment life had a different import. It was as if he made you realize that you were in eternity. It never altered. It never grew. It was like the sun that you will never forget once you have seen. . . . His presence, you see, was dynamic. You cannot pass that power on unless you have it. 26 ❊ ❊ ❊ The end of all religions is the realizing of God in the soul. That is the one universal religion. If there is one universal truth in all religions, I place it here—in realizing God. Ideals and methods may differ, but that is the central point. . . . There is that beyond all books, beyond all creeds, beyond the vanities of this world, and it is the realization of God within yourself. (CW [1984] 1:324-25)