Referring to the students who had gathered around the Swami, a village shopkeeper
said to a new arrival who inquired for the cottage, 'Yes, there are some queer people
living up on the hill; among them there is a foreign-looking gentleman.' A young girl
of sixteen, living with her family at the foot of the hill, one day expressed the desire to
talk to the Swami. 'Don't go near him,' her mother said sternly. 'He is a heathen.' Mr.
Tom Mitchell, a carpenter who helped to restore the cottage for the Ramakrishna-
Vivekananda Centre in 1948, and had originally built the Swami's quarters in 1895,
told the present writer that he had read the Swami's lectures in Chicago from the
newspapers long before his arrival at the island.
The students wanted, at first, to live as a community without servants, each doing a
share of the work. Nearly all of them, however, were unaccustomed to housework and
found it uncongenial. The result was amusing; as time went on it threatened to become
disastrous. When the tension became too great, the Swami would say with utmost
sweetness, 'Today, I shall cook for you.' At this Landsberg would ejaculate, in an aside,
'Heaven save us!' By way of explanation he declared that in New York, whenever the
Swami cooked, he, Landsberg, would tear his hair, because it meant that afterwards
every dish in the house required washing. After a few days an outsider was engaged to
help with the housework.
Swami Vivekananda started his class at Thousand Island Park on Wednesday, June 19.
Not all the students had arrived. But his heart was set on his work; so he commenced at
once with the three or four who were with him. After a short meditation, he opened
with the Gospel according to Saint John, from the Bible, saying that since the students
were all Christians, it was proper that he should begin with the Christian scriptures. As
the classes went on, he taught from the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, the Vedanta
Sutras, the Bhakti Sutras of Narada, and other Hindu scriptures. He discussed Vedanta
in its three aspects: the non-dualism of Sankara, the qualified non-dualism of
Ramanuja, and the dualism of Madhva. Since the subtleties of Sankara appeared
difficult to the students, Ramanuja remained the favourite among them. The Swami
also spoke at length about Sri Ramakrishna, of his own daily life with the Master, and
of his struggles with the tendency to unbelief and agnosticism. He told stories from the
inexhaustible storehouse of Hindu mythology to illustrate his abstruse thoughts.
The ever recurring theme of his teaching was God-realization. He would always come
back to the one, fundamental, vital point: 'Find God. Nothing else matters.' He
emphasized morality as the basis of the spiritual life. Without truth, non-injury,
continence, non-stealing, cleanliness, and austerity, he repeated, there could be no
spirituality. The subject of continence always stirred him deeply. Walking up and
down the room, getting more and more excited, he would stop before someone as if
there were no one else present. 'Don't you see,' he would say eagerly, 'there is a reason
why chastity is insisted on in all monastic orders? Spiritual giants are produced only
where the vow of chastity is observed. Don't you see there must be a reason? There is a
connexion between chastity and spirituality. The explanation is that through prayer and
meditation the saints have transmuted the most vital force in the body into spiritual
energy. In India this is well understood and yogis do it consciously. The force so
transmuted is called ojas, and it is stored up in the brain. It has been lifted from the