The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 8/Epistles - Fourth Series/XLVI Sister
XLVI
To Miss Mary Hale
54 W. 33RD STREET,
NEW YORK,
22nd June, 1895.
DEAR SISTER,
The letters from India and the parcel of books reached me safe. I am so happy to know of Mr. Sam's arrival. I am sure he is "bewaring of the vidders" nicely. I met a friend of Mr. Sam's one day on the street. He is an Englishman with a name ending in "ni". He was very nice. He said he was living in the same house with Sam somewhere in Ohio.
I am going on pretty nearly in the same old fashion. Talking when I can and silent when forced to be. I do not know whether I will go to Greenacre this summer. I saw Miss Farmer the other day. She was in a hurry to go away, so I had but very little talk with her. She is a noble, noble lady.
How are you going on with your Christian Science lessons? I hope you will go to Greenacre. There you will find quite a number of them and also the Spiritualists, table turnings, palmists, astrologers, etc., etc. You will get all the "cures" and all the "isms" presided over by Miss Farmer.
Landsberg has gone away to live in some other place, so I am left alone. I am living mostly on nuts and fruits and milk, and find it very nice and healthy too. I hope to lose about 30 to 40 lbs. this summer. That will be all right for my size. I am afraid I have forgotten all about Mrs. Adam's lessons in walking. I will have to renew them when she comes again to N.Y. Gandhi has gone to England en route to India from Boston, I suppose.
I would like to know about his "chaperon" Mrs. Howard and her present
bereaved state. I am very glad to hear that the rugs did not go down to the
bottom of the Atlantic and are at last coming.
This year I could hardly keep my head up, and I did not go about lecturing.
The three great commentaries on the Vedanta philosophy belonging to the
three great sects of dualists, qualified dualists, and monists are being
sent to me from India. Hope they will arrive safe. Then I will have an
intellectual feast indeed. I intend to write a book this summer on the
Vedanta philosophy. This world will always be a mixture of good and evil, of
happiness and misery; this wheel will ever go up and come down; dissolution
and resolution is the inevitable law. Blessed are those who struggle to go
beyond. Well, I am glad all the babies are doing well but sorry there was no
"catch" even this winter, and every winter the chances are dwindling down.
Here near my lodgings is the Waldorf-Hotel, the rendezvous of lots of titled
but penniless Europeans on show for "Yankee" heiresses to buy. You may have
any selection here, the stock is so full and varied. There is the man who
talks no English; there are others who lisp a few words which no one can
understand; and others are there who talk nice English, but their chance is
not so great as that of the dumb ones — the girls do not think them enough
foreign who talk plain English fluently.
I read somewhere in a funny book that an American vessel was being foundered in the sea; the men were desperate and as a last solace wanted some religious service being done. There was "Uncle Josh" on board who was an elder in the Presbyterian Church. They all began to entreat, "Do something religious, Uncle Josh! We are all going to die." Uncle Joseph took his hat in his hand and took up a collection on the spot!
That is all of religion he knew. And that is more or less characteristic of
the majority of such people. Collections are about all the religion they
know or will ever know. Lord bless them. Good-bye for present. I am going to
eat something; I feel very hungry.
Yours affectionately,
VIVEKANANDA.