sensuality among this vast country's heterogeneous elements. People had been swept
off their feet by the newly acquired prosperity created with the aid of science,
technology, and human ingenuity. They often appeared to him naive and noisy, and he
may have wondered if this new nation, l'enfant terrible, the last hope of Western
culture and also the source of potential fear for the rest of the world, would measure up
to the expectations of its Founding Fathers and act as the big brother of the world,
sharing with all the material amenities of life. America had given him the first
recognition and he was aware of it. In America he had started the work of Vedanta in
an organized form, and he hoped America would be the spiritual bridge between the
East and the West. Though his scholarly and conservative mind often felt at home
among the intellectuals of England and Germany, yet to America his heart was
devoted. The monuments of Western culture no doubt fascinated him, but, as he wrote
to Mary Hale from London, in May 1896: 'I love the Yankee land — I like to see new
things. I do not care a fig to loaf about old ruins and mope a life out about old histories
and keep sighing about the ancients. I have too much vigour in my blood for that. In
America is the place, the people, the opportunity for everything new. I have become
horribly radical.'
In that same letter he wrote, too, that he wished he could infuse some of the American
spirit into India, into 'that awful mass of conservative jelly-fish, and then throw
overboard all old associations and start a new thing, entirely new — simple, strong,
new and fresh as the first-born baby — throw all of the past overboard and begin anew.'
Swami Vivekananda bestowed equally high praise upon the Englishman. He felt that in
a sense his work in England was more satisfactory than his work in America. There he
transformed the life of individuals. Goodwin and Margaret Noble embraced his cause
as their own, and the Seviers accompanied him to India, deserting Europe and all their
past to follow him.
But what of Swami Vivekananda's early dream of gathering from America the material
treasures to remedy the sufferings of the Indian masses and raise their standard of
living? He had come to America to obtain, in exchange for India's spiritual wealth, the
needed monetary help and scientific and technological knowledge to rebuild the
physical health of his own people. Though on his return he did not take with him
American scientists and technologists, or carry in his pocket gold and silver from the
New World, yet he had left behind a vast storehouse of goodwill and respect for India.
He had been India's first spiritual ambassador to America, India's herald, who,
remembering the dignity of the royal land whence he had come, had spoken in her
name and delivered her message with appropriate dignity.
The full effect of this contact will be known only in years to come; but a beginning can
be seen even now. Half a century after Swami Vivekananda's visit to America, India
gained her freedom from British rule. When she thus obtained facilities to arrange her
national affairs in her own way, India sent thousands of students to the New World to
acquire advanced knowledge in the physical sciences and technology. Further,
American money is now being spent to improve the material condition of the Indian
masses. Thus it appears that, after all, Swami Vivekananda was not a mere visionary,