42 Biography of a Yogiowing to the intense physical exercise and strict dietary regimen required by the
program.^52 Consequently, though we do have reports of Vivekananda giving prac-
tical lessons in the United States,^53 these, in keeping with the character of his pub-
lished Raja Yoga, would have been largely theoretical in nature and emphasized
basic breathing exercises and meditation techniques.
Vivekananda’s less- than- ideal fitness did not, however, seem to detract from
his imposing appearance in the eyes of his American admirers. Cornelius Johannes
Heijblom, a Dutch immigrant who would go on to become Swami Atulananda,
saw Vivekananda in New York in 1899, about which he reminisced:
What a giant, what strength, what manliness, what a personality! Everyone
near him looks so insignificant in comparison... . What was it that gave
Swamiji his distinction? Was it his height? No, there were gentlemen there
taller than he was. Was it his build? No, there were near him some very
fine specimens of American manhood. It seemed to be more in the expres-
sion of the face than anything else. Was it his purity? What was it? ...
I remember what had been said of Lord Buddha— “a lion amongst men.”^54It is beyond doubt that much in such impressions is owed to Vivekananda’s
immense personal presence and charisma. Josephine MacLeod, who would
become an ardent admirer, described him in 1895 as “the fiery missionary whose
physique was like a wrestler’s and whose eyes were deep black.”^55 Transfixed, she
further recalls: “I saw with these very eyes ... Krishna himself standing there and
preaching the Gita. That was my first wonderful vision. I stared and stared ...
I saw only the figure and all else vanished.”^56 Such allusions to the Buddha and
Krishna are telling in that they signify figures who would have been familiar to an
audience of this time as models of Indian spirituality in its “purest” form. Both
of these figures, furthermore, might have been associated with something that
Americans were beginning to recognize as yoga— Krishna explicitly in his teach-
ings in the Bhagavad Gītā, the Buddha more implicitly through his meditative
character— but neither of them was anything like the popularly familiar Yogis of
the time.
However, the impressions left by Vivekananda had as much, or perhaps more,
to do with his presence than with the content of his lectures. Martha Brown
Fincke, who saw Vivekananda lecture in the college town of Northampton,
writes:
The name of India was familiar to me from my earliest childhood. Had not
my mother almost decided to marry a young man who went as a mission-
ary to India, and did not a box from our Church Missionary Association