The Turbaned Superman 41
relationship, Vivekananda began spending more time at the compound and prac-
ticing various austerities. He would smear himself with ashes and don the garb
of a renunciant. Incidentally, he would later blame his diabetes on this period of
asceticism. After Ramakrishna’s passing in 1886, much of the patronage for his
Cassipore establishment dwindled. Vivekananda and his fellow young aspirants
were reluctant to let go of the property and dreamed of erecting a temple there to
honor their guru. The group, now largely estranged from Ramakrishna’s house-
holder disciples, established a sort of bohemian commune where they would
go naked, share communal meals from food that they begged in the streets, and
smoke hookah while discussing Vedāntin scriptures. However, given the strained
financial situation, Vivekananda’s austerities were as much compulsory as they
might have been voluntary.^50
Of special interest, given the current topic, is the relatively short amount
of time that Vivekananda spent with Ramakrishna and the apparently spiritu-
ally therapeutic rather than instructive nature of their relationship. Even more
important, Elizabeth De Michelis asserts that, based on the available evidence,
one thing is certain:
Ramakrishna never formally initiated the future Vivekananda and the
other young devotees. This is a stark fact that both Vivekananda and the
early Ramakrishna movement have been at pains to underplay and to
counterbalance with informal or “mystical” types of initiation.^51Thus, whatever his relationship with Ramakrishna may have been, to the extent
that Vivekananda was a Yogi he was certainly a self- made one, who was to no small
extent influenced by Western and Westernized models of what such an identity
entailed. This fact would also have profound ramifications with regard to the kind
of practice that Vivekananda might have taught while in America. Ramakrishna’s
own spiritual practice was complex and eclectic. Although it was overall ecstatic
and devotional in character, he did receive significant instruction from a female
tantric guru known as Bhairavi Brahmani. It does not appear, however, that he
transmitted any brand of systematized tantric sādhana to Vivekananda.
Nor was Vivekananda a proponent of the then emerging modern reincarna-
tion of āsana- based (postural) haṭha yoga. Vivekananda suffered from diabetes
(possibly genetic in nature) from his teenage years onward, and this, coupled with
his sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy personal habits including diet and predilec-
tions toward smoking and snuff, led to a host of other ailments. It is attested that
during his Indian travels in 1890 he had contact with a famous ascetic and mystic
named Pavhari Baba at Ghazipur, from whom he attempted to learn haṭha yoga.
However, Vivekananda quickly abandoned the enterprise due to its difficulty,