The very first time the Swami met Mrs. Sevier in private he addressed her as 'Mother'
and asked her if she would not like to come to India, adding, 'I will give you my best
realizations.'
A very affectionate relationship sprang up between the Swami and the Seviers, and the
latter regarded him as their son. They became his intimate companions and offered him
all their savings. But the Swami, anxious about their future worldly security, persuaded
them to keep the greater portion of their fortune. Captain and Mrs. Sevier, together
with Miss Noble and Goodwin, were the choicest among the followers that Swami
Vivekananda gathered in England and all of them remained faithful to him and his
work till the last days of their lives.
Through the generosity of the Seviers, the Swami, as will be seen, established the
Advaita Ashrama at Mayavati, an almost inaccessible place in the Himalayas, for the
training of the disciples, both Eastern and Western, in the contemplation of the
Impersonal Godhead. After Captain Sevier's death at Mayavati Mrs. Sevier lived there
for fifteen years busying herself with the education of the children of the neighbouring
hills. Once Miss MacLeod asked her, 'Do you not get bored?' 'I think of him,' she
replied, referring to Swami Vivekananda.
Though preoccupied with various activities in England, the Swami never for one
moment forgot his work in India. After all, it was his intense desire to find means to
ameliorate the condition of his countrymen that had brought him to the West. That
hope he always cherished in a corner of his mind, both in Europe and in America. He
had to train his brother disciples as future workers in India. And so he is seen writing
to them in detail regarding the organization of the monastery at Alambazar, where they
had been living for some time.
On April 27, 1896, he sent instructions about the daily life of the monks, their food and
clothing, their intercourse with the public, and about the provision of a spacious library
at the monastery, a smaller room for interviews, a big hall for religious discussions
with the devotees, a small room for an office, another for smoking and so forth and so
on. He advised them to furnish the rooms in the simplest manner and to keep an eye on
the water for drinking and cooking. The monastery, he suggested, should be under the
management of a President and a Secretary to be elected by turns by vote. Study,
preaching, and religious practices should be important items among the duties of the
inmates. He also desired to establish a math for women directly under the control of
the Holy Mother. The monks were not to visit the women's quarters. In conclusion, he
recommended Swami Brahmananda as the first President of the math, and said: 'He
who is the servant of all is their true master. He never becomes a leader in whose love
there is a consideration of high or low. He whose love knows no end and never stops to
consider high or low has the whole world lying at his feet.' For his workers the Swami
wanted men with 'muscles of iron and nerves of steel, inside which dwells a mind of
the same material as that of which the thunderbolt is made.'
To quote the Swami's words again: 'I want strength, manhood, kshatravirya, or the