The Turbaned Superman 45
illustrate. Furthermore, some of the attacks against Vivekananda originated from
what should have been his own camp. For example, Pratap Chandra Mazumdar,
who represented the Brahmo Samāj at the World Parliament of Religions,
accused Vivekananda of being a “Bohemian impostor who preached a pseudo-
Hinduism.”^67 Thus Vivekananda was never quite at home in— and never quite
conformed to the ideals of— either the American metaphysical community or the
heart of the nationalism neo- Hindu movement, two groups who have since made
him their model representative.
Early American Yogis
Despite his extraordinarily long shadow, Vivekananda was actually a rather minor
presence on the landscape of American Yogis. He arrived in 1893 and toured
the United States (with two brief visits to England) until 1897. He returned to
America and Europe between 1899 and 1902 and established a handful of Vedanta
Society centers, but his declining health reduced his visibility. His longtime asso-
ciate, Swami Abhedananda, did however join him in England in 1896 and went
on to continue Vivekananda’s work in New York. Abhedananda remained in the
United States for the better part of twenty- five years, finally departing back to
India in 1921.
During his time in New York, Abhedananda maintained an active Vedanta
Society center where he reputedly taught basic postural haṭha yoga and medita-
tion.^68 His How to Be a Yogi (1902) affirms the historical and religious universality
of yoga and advocates a “practical spirituality.” Likely having picked up on his
audience’s concerns with health, Abhedananda declares that the goal of haṭha
yoga is “the cure of disease through breathing exercises and the regulation of
diet and of the general habits of daily life.”^69 Notably, right alongside this claim,
rests his assertion that a Yogi “can fascinate or madden another by his optical
powers... . A Yogi can likewise read the thoughts of another by looking at his
eyes; for according to the Yogi the eye is the index of the mind.”^70 Of course,
Abhedananda’s audience would not have been shocked to learn that hypnotism
was within the purview of a Yogi’s powers. However, he is careful to note not
only that “the process of hypnotism or mesmerism verifies this claim” but that
Yogis “do not get [these powers] from outside. These powers are dormant in
every individual, and through practice the Yogis bring them out.”^71 In this way,
Abhedananda continued Vivekananda’s project of universalizing yoga and, with
it, the Yogi. He emphasized that the Yogi is not in fact akin to the “fakir” or “jug-
gler”— associations for which he blames the Theosophists— but rather to the
“Rishis” or “Seers of Truth.” Thus, as in many of Vivekananda’s writings, which we