At nine o'clock in the evening the Swami boarded the steamer for Clayton, where he
was to catch the train for New York. While taking leave of the Island he said, 'I bless
these Thousand Islands.' As the steamer moved away, he boyishly and joyously waved
his hat to the disciples still standing at the pier.
Some of his devotees thought that the Swami had planned at Thousand Island Park to
start an organization. But they were mistaken. He wrote to a disciple:
We have no organization, nor want to build any. Each one is quite independent to
teach, quite free to teach, whatever he or she likes. If you have the spirit within, you
will never fail to attract others.... Individuality is my motto. I have no ambition beyond
training individuals. I know very little; that little I teach without reserve; where I am
ignorant I confess it.... I am a sannyasin. As such I hold myself as a servant, not as a
master, in this world.
Vivekananda, the awakener of souls, was indeed too great to be crammed within the
confines of a narrow organization. He had had a unique experience of inner freedom at
Thousand Island Park, which he expressed eloquently in his poem 'The Song of the
Sannyasin.' He wrote from there to a friend: 'I am free, my bonds are cut, what do I
care whether this body goes or does not go? I have a truth to teach — I, the child of
God. And He that gave me the truth will send me fellow workers from earth's bravest
and best.'
A month after his return from Thousand Island Park, Swami Vivekananda sailed for
Europe. Before we take up that important chapter of his life, however, it will be well to
describe some of his interesting experiences in America, especially his meeting with
noted personalities.
Robert Ingersoll, the famous orator and agnostic, and Swami Vivekananda had several
conversations on religion and philosophy. Ingersoll, with a fatherly solicitude, asked
the young enthusiast not to be too bold in the expression of his views, on account of
people's intolerance of all alien religious ideas. 'Forty years ago,' he said, 'you would
have been hanged if you had come to preach in this country, or you would have been
burnt alive. You would have been stoned out of the villages if you had come even
much later.' The Swami was surprised. But Ingersoll did not realize that the Indian
monk, unlike him, respected all religions and prophets, and that he wanted to broaden
the views of the Christians about Christ's teachings.
One day, in the course of a discussion, Ingersoll said to the Swami, 'I believe in
making the most of this world, in squeezing the orange dry, because this world is all
we are sure of.' He would have nothing to do with God, soul, or hereafter, which he
considered as meaningless jargon. 'I know a better way to squeeze the orange of this
world than you do,' the Swami replied, 'and I get more out of it. I know I cannot die, so
I am not in a hurry. I know that there is no fear, so I enjoy the squeezing. I have no
duty, no bondage of wife and children and property, so I can love all men and women.