the greatest spiritual discipline. Work, my children, work with your whole heart and
soul! That is the thing. Mind not the fruit of work. What if you go to hell working for
others? That is worth more than to gain heaven by seeking your own salvation....Sri
Ramakrishna came and gave his life for the world. I will also sacrifice my life. You
also, every one of you, should do the same. All these works and so forth are only a
beginning. Believe me, from the shedding of our lifeblood will arise gigantic, heroic
workers and warriors of God who will revolutionize the whole world.'
He wanted his disciples to be all-round men. 'You must try to combine in your life
immense idealism with immense practicality. You must be prepared to go into deep
meditation now, and the next moment you must be ready to go and cultivate the fields.
You must be prepared to explain the intricacies of the scriptures now, and the next
moment to go and sell the produce of the fields in the market....The true man is he who
is strong as strength itself and yet possesses a woman's heart.'
He spoke of the power of faith: 'The history of the world is the history of a few men
who had faith in themselves. That faith calls out the inner divinity. You can do
anything. You fail only when you do not strive sufficiently to manifest infinite power.
As soon as a man loses faith in himself, death comes. Believe first in yourself and then
in God. A handful of strong men will move the world. We need a heart to feel, a brain
to conceive, and a strong arm to do the work....One man contains within him the whole
universe. One particle of matter has all the energy of the universe at its back. In a
conflict between the heart and the brain, follow your heart.'
'His words,' writes Romain Rolland, 'are great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven,
stirring rhythms like the march of Handel choruses. I cannot touch these sayings of his,
scattered as they are through the pages of books at thirty years' distance, without
receiving a thrill through my body like an electric shock. And what shock, what
transports must have been produced when in burning words they issued from the lips
of the hero!'
The Swami felt he was dying. But he said: 'Let me die fighting. Two years of physical
suffering have taken from me twenty years of life. But the soul changes not, does it? It
is there, the same madcap — Atman — mad upon one idea, intent and intense.'
SECOND VISIT TO THE WEST
On December 16, 1898, Swami Vivekananda announced his plan to go to the West to
inspect the work he had founded and to fan the flame. The devotees and friends
welcomed the idea since they thought the sea voyage would restore his failing health.
He planned to take with him Sister Nivedita and Swami Turiyananda.
Versed in the scriptures, Turiyananda had spent most of his life in meditation and was
averse to public work. Failing to persuade him by words to accompany him to