Swami Vivekananda - Group Photo Kashmir

Sitting on chairs (left to right): Swami Sadananda, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Niranjanananda, Swami Dhirananda.12 This photograph has often been dated 1898. However it appears to have been taken during Swamiji’s first visit to Kashmir in 1897. In a letter to Swami Brahmananda from Amritsar dated September 2, 1897, Swamiji mentioned that his party which consisted of Niranjan (Swami Niranjanananda), Latu, Krishnalal (Swami Dhirananda), Dinanath, Gupta (Swami Sadananda), and Achyut were accompanying him to Kashmir. Krishnalal was the familiar name of Swami Dhirananda. There is no mention of Swami Dhirananda being in the party that visited Kashmir in 1898. During this first visit to Kashmir, Swamiji was trying to acquire some land for the Math. He was received by various officials of high rank and nobility, for example, the brothers of the Maharaja of Kashmir, Rajas Rama Singh and Amar Singh. “Raja Rama Singh received the Swami with marked cordiality and honor, seating him on a chair, and himself sitting with officials on the floor. The interview lasted two hours. Matters of religion, and the problem of improving the condition of the poor, were discussed.” 13 He was literally besieged by visitors and “was busy filling many engagements, private and public, and visiting places of historic interest with which Kashmir abounds.” 14 No doubt this photograph was taken on one of these occasions where people had assembled to meet Swamiji. His second visit to Kashmir in 1898 was under entirely different circumstances and was prompted by another mood, which was sparked by the sudden death of his beloved disciple, J. J. Goodwin. ❊ ❊ ❊ [Letter to Sister Nivedita written from Kashmir, October 1, 1897] It is absolutely necessary for the work that I must have the enthusiastic personal love of as many as possible; at the same time, mine must be entirely impersonal, otherwise jealousy and fight will smash up everything in no time. The leader must be impersonal. I am sure you understand this perfectly. I do not mean that one should be a brute, and simply make use of others’ devotion for his own ends, laughing in one’s sleeve all the time. What I mean is what I am—intensely personal in my love, but having the power to pluck out my own heart with my own hand if it becomes necessary “for the good of many, for the welfare of many,” as Buddha said. Madness of love, and yet in it no bondage. Matter changed into spirit by the force of love.