Swami Vivekananda at Trivandrum

This photo was taken by Prince Martanda Varma of Travancore. K. Sundararama Iyer, the tutor of Prince Martanda Varma (the first prince of Travancore), remarked in his reminiscences: “The Prince was struck, like all others who had come into contact with him, with the swami’s striking figure and attractive features; and being an amateur photographer, asked the swami for a sitting and took a fine photograph which he skillfully developed into an impressive picture and later on sent as an interesting exhibit to the next Fine Arts Exhibition held in the Chennai Museum.”18 ❊ ❊ ❊ The son of K. Sundararama Iyer, K. S. Ramaswami Sastri, who met Swamiji in Trivandrum in 1892, mentioned in his reminiscences these fiery words that Swamiji told him: Man alone, out of all living beings, has a hunger in his heart to know the whence and whither, the whys and wherefores of things. There are four key words which you must remember, [namely] abhaya (fearlessness), ahimsa (non-injury), asanga (non-attachment), and ananda (bliss). These words really sum up the essence of all our sacred books. Remember them. (RSV, 101)