is dry knowledge to be attained by a desert path, killing out the tenderest faculties of
the heart! Your bhakti is sentimental nonsense which makes one impotent. You want to
preach Sri Ramakrishna as you have understood him, which is mighty little! Hands off!
Who cares for your Ramakrishna? Who cares for your bhakti and mukti? Who cares
what your scriptures say? I will go into a thousand hells cheerfully if I can rouse my
countrymen, immersed in tamas, to stand on their own feet and be men inspired with
the spirit of karma-yoga. I am not a follower of Ramakrishna or anyone, but of him
only who serves and helps others without caring for his own bhakti and mukti!'
The Swami's voice was choked with emotion, his body shook, and his eyes flashed
fire. Quickly he went to the next room. A few moments later some of his brother
disciples entered the room and found him absorbed in meditation, tears flowing from
his half-closed eyes. After nearly an hour the Swami got up, washed his face, and
joined his spiritual brothers in the drawing-room. His features still showed traces of the
violent storm through which he had just passed; but he had recovered his calmness. He
said to them softly:
'When a man attains bhakti, his heart and nerves become so soft and delicate that he
cannot bear even the touch of a flower!...I cannot think or talk of Sri Ramakrishna long
without being overwhelmed. So I am always trying to bind myself with the iron chains
of jnana, for still my work for my motherland is unfinished and my message to the
world not fully delivered. So as soon as I find that those feelings of bhakti are trying to
come up and sweep me off my feet, I give a hard knock to them and make myself firm
and adamant by bringing up austere jnana. Oh, I have work to do! I am a slave of
Ramakrishna, who left his work to be done by me and will not give me rest till I have
finished it. And oh, how shall I speak of him? Oh, his love for me!'
He was again about to enter into an ecstatic mood, when Swami Yogananda and the
others changed the conversation, took him on the roof for a stroll, and tried to divert
his mind by small talk. They felt that Vivekananda's inmost soul had been aroused, and
they remembered the Master's saying that the day Naren knew who he was, he would
not live in this body. So from that day the brother disciples did not again criticize the
Swami's method, knowing fully well that the Master alone was working through him.
From this incident one sees how Vivekananda, in his inmost heart, relished bhakti, the
love of God. But in his public utterances he urged the Indians to keep their
emotionalism under control; he emphasized the study of Vedanta, because he saw in it
a sovereign tonic to revivify them. He further prescribed for his countrymen both
manual and spiritual work, scientific research, and service to men. Vivekananda's
mission was to infuse energy and faith into a nation of 'dyspeptics' held under the spell
of their own sentimentality. He wished in all fields of activity to awaken that austere
elevation of spirit which arouses heroism.
As with his Master, the natural tendency of Vivekananda's mind was to be absorbed in
contemplation of the Absolute. Again, like Sri Ramakrishna, he had to bring down his
mind forcibly to the consciousness of the world in order to render service to men. Thus
he kept a balance between the burning love of the Absolute and the irresistible appeal