practising spiritual disciplines and helping the Swami in carrying out the idea of
building a monastery in the Himalayas. Faithful Goodwin, who had already taken the
vows of a brahmacharin, would work as the Swami's stenographer. It was also planned
that Miss Müller and Miss Noble would follow the party some time after, the latter to
devote her life to the cause of women's education in India.
The Swami was given a magnificent farewell by his English friends, devotees, and
admirers on December 13 at the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours, in
Piccadilly. There were about five hundred people present. Many were silent, tongue-
tied and sad at heart. Tears were very near in some eyes. But the Swami, after his
farewell address, walked among the assembled friends and repeated over and over
again, 'Yes, yes we shall meet again, we shall.' It was decided that Swami
Abhedananda would continue the work after the Swami's departure.
Of the impressions left by the Swami's teachings in England, Margaret Noble writes:
To not a few of us the words of Swami Vivekananda came as living water to men
perishing of thirst. Many of us have been conscious for years past of that growing
uncertainty and despair, with regard to religion, which has beset the intellectual life of
Europe for half a century. Belief in the dogmas of Christianity has become impossible
for us, and we had no tool, such as now we hold, by which to cut away the doctrinal
shell from the kernel of Reality, in our faith. To these, the Vedanta has given
intellectual confirmation and philosophical expression of their own mistrusted
intuitions. 'The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light.'... It was the
Swami's I am God that came as something always known, only never said before....
Yet again, it was the Unity of Man that was the touch needed to rationalize all previous
experiences and give logical sanction to the thirst for absolute service, never boldly
avowed in the past. Some by one gate, and some by another, we have all entered into a
great heritage, and we know it.
The practical Englishman saw in the Swami's life the demonstration of fearlessness
which was the necessary corollary of his teaching regarding the divinity of the soul. It
was revealed in many incidents.
One in particular illustrates this. He was one day walking with Miss Müller and an
English friend across some fields when a mad bull came tearing towards them. The
Englishman frankly ran, and reached the other side of the hill in safety. Miss Müller
ran as far as she could, and then sank to the ground, incapable of further effort. Seeing
this and unable to aid her, the Swami — thinking, 'So this is the end, after all' — took
up his stand in front of her, with folded arms.
He told afterwards how his mind was occupied with a mathematical calculation as to
how far the bull would be able to throw him. But the animal suddenly stopped a few
paces off, and then, raising its head, retreated sullenly. The Englishman felt ashamed of
his cowardly retreat and of having left the Swami alone to face the bull. Miss Müller