Chapter 3

Chapter III

In the parlor [ground floor] was a central round table and four chairs, a fireplace opposite the door. There was an easy chair near it for Swamiji; except for Sturdy no one else used it. There was a secretary table. The ceiling had a lotus flower design in gesso. The lighting was gas. The following hilarious scene is described: Both Swami Saradananda and Mohendra are up in their room with (recurrent) malarial fever. Swami Saradananda is walking around, delirious, “rehearsing” a lecture. He tells Mohendra, “Are you listening? You say ‘Hm’ from time to time so that I will know.” With great difficulty Mohendra replies ‘Hm’. On the day when Swami Saradananda was recovering, Swamiji came in and Saradananda, falling down before him on his knees, clung to Swamiji’s feet and wept like a child. “Make me well. Lift off this burden!” he said again and again, keeping his head on Swamiji’s feet.
    Swamiji smilingly said, “Sit up, you fat rascal! Just see what the malarial fever has wrought! You will have to lecture, or I will beat you with a stick and throw you down to the street from this window. I will send you to the workhouse; do you not know how much money has been spent? (To bring him there.)
    Swami Saradananda replied, “Beat me or do whatever you like, only make me well or I will not let you go.”
    “So be it, rascal,” said Swamiji. “Now get up.” Swami Saradananda stood up like one utterly obedient. “Look,” Swamiji said, “sitting in my chair in the dining-room I was building up power. Don’t you know how to build up power? But what you have seen I did before your eyes.” (Apparently he means that he has done a “miraculous” cure of Mohendra.)
Swami Saradananda said, “Fine, you have done well; set my mind at rest.”
Swamiji said to Mohendra, “Don’t take any more quinine; take it out and throw it away; will-power is everything. Don’t eat any bread today, take sago milk.” And he went away. Swami Saradananda said: “This is not the old Naren any more; today I have seen at first hand how by will the fever of so many years’ standing has been driven off.” This was the day of the first class lecture [i.e. 7th May?] Swami Saradananda used to teach Miss Muller a bit of Sanskrit.
    Swami Saradananda and Mohendra went to the Indian Empire Exhibition at Earls Court.
    Around the first of May, Mr. John P. Fox, a young man from America arrived and spent some time. Fox was very fond of Swami Vivekananda whom he had met at Mrs. Bull’s house in Cambridge, Mass. where Fox was secretary for a conference. For this reason everyone treated him well.
    Miss Muller had studied at Cambridge University with a Dr. John Venn, (author of Logic of Chance). One day she took Swamiji to meet him. They talked about philosophy in various forms in different countries. Swamiji impressed the professor very much and he was most pleased with the encounter. Mohendra did not hear a word of this from Swamiji, who said only that someone had been pleased to meet him.
    Miss Muller once mentioned seeing all the old cows in India and their pitiful condition. She remarked that in England such unproductive and suffering animals are done away with. Swami Saradananda made the mistake of asking her, “Then why not do away with our parents too, when they get old?” Miss Muller, whose elderly mother was living, would not speak to him for three days.
    “You see, Sarat,” said Swamiji on hearing about it. “In this country there are two kinds of old maids: some grow fat; they are cool-hearted and comfortable; the others get dried up and they are peevish.
Around old maids you must take great care – stand up when they come into the room; ask, “How are you?”; keep your hands out of your pockets etc.
Quickly give them whatever they want.”
    There used to be lectures on Tuesday, from eleven to one. The same subject was given again at 7 p.m. The same arrangement on Fridays. [This must be a mistake in his memory]. After about a month there was a Sunday lecture at 4 p.m. in the gallery of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolors. The former were called class lectures and they began with the Yoga Aphorisms; then, bearing on this, whatever works there were, Eastern or Western, be it history, chemistry, physics etc. he would talk on without let; afterwards, questions. At this time there was no particular formality, the conversation being all quite spontaneous. Some days it was the answer period which was more attractive than the lecture. But the subject matter was so deep and difficult and he spoke so fluently, that it was impossible to keep in mind what he said – and even the speaker would sometimes forget what he had said a moment before.
    Goodwin had many shorthand notes of the speeches Swami had given in America; now there was talk of getting these ready for printing. Whenever he had time Goodwin would transcribe these and try to get them printed. In this, Sturdy was the most enterprising, while Miss Muller and others were also agreeable.
    Swamiji on many days did not eat lunch at home. Some particularly big person or other would come and take him out to lunch, or to tea. Goodwin would breathe easier when Swamiji was out of the house. Fox, not being a vegetarian would go out to eat. This day Goodwin, having finished his work began to dance and cut up, showing different folk dances. Swami Saradananda said, “Just see, what exertion the English are capable of! This fellow Goodwin has gone around the whole city, has read his proof-sheet, and now see him dance! Without this energy could the race have risen up?”