the man to flee from triumph any more than from battle. He regarded the tributes paid
to him, a penniless beggar, as tributes paid to the spiritual ideal of India. In the course
of his reply to the address of welcome given in Colombo, he said, 'The spirituality of
the Hindus is revealed by the princely reception which they have given to a beggar
sannyasin.' He pointed out that though he was not a military general, not a prince nor a
wealthy man, yet men great in the transitory possessions of the world and much
respected by society had nevertheless come to honour him, a homeless monk. 'This,' he
exclaimed, 'is one of the highest expressions of spirituality.' He disclaimed any
personal glory in the welcome he received, insisting that it was but the recognition of a
principle.
Swami Vivekananda's progress from Colombo to Madras and the welcomes he
received at Kandy, Anuradhapuram, Jaffna, Pamban, Rameswaram, Ramnad,
Paramakkudi, Madurai, Trichinopoly, and Kumbakonam demonstrated how deeply he
had endeared himself to the men and women of India. At Anuradhapuram a band of
fanatical Buddhists tried to break up the meeting, but did not succeed. At Rameswaram
the Swami exhorted the people to 'worship Siva in the poor, the diseased, and the weak'.
He received a touching welcome there from the Raja of Ramnad, his disciple, who had
encouraged him to go to America and had helped him materially for that purpose. At
Ramnad the horses were unhitched from the carriage bearing the Swami, and the
people themselves, the Raja among them, drew it. At Rameswaram the Raja erected, in
the Swami's honour, a victory column forty feet high with a suitable inscription. He
also gave a liberal donation to the Madras famine-relief fund to commemorate the
home-coming of the Swami.
At a small railroad station near Madras, hundreds of people gathered for a glimpse of
Vivekananda. The stationmaster did not want to delay the train since no stop was
scheduled. But the crowd of admirers flung themselves on the track, and the train had
to be halted. The Swami was visibly moved and blessed the multitude.
The enthusiasm of the people reached its peak in Madras, where extensive preparations
had been made for the Swami's reception. It was Madras that had first recognized the
greatness of Vivekananda and equipped him for the journey to Chicago. At that time,
when he had first come there, he had been, in effect, only an obscure individual. He
had spent some two months in an unknown bungalow at San Thome, holding
conversations on Hinduism. Yet even then a few educated young men of keen foresight
had predicted that there was something in the man, a 'power' that would lift him above
all others and enable him to be a leader of men. These youths, who had been ridiculed
as 'misguided enthusiasts' and 'dreamy revivalists,' now, four years later, had the
supreme satisfaction of seeing 'our Swami,' as they loved to call him, return to them a
famous personage in both Europe and America.
The streets and thoroughfares of Madras were profusely decorated; seventeen
triumphal arches were erected. The Swami's name was on everybody's lips. Thousands
jammed the railway station, and as the train steamed in, he was received with
thundering shouts of applause. An elaborate procession was formed, and he was taken