The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 6/Epistles - Second Series/CXVI Sisters
CXVI
39 VICTORIA ST., LONDON S.W.,
28th Nov., 1896.
DEAR SISTERS, (Misses Mary and Harriet Hale.)
. . . I feel impelled to write a few lines to you before my departure for
India. The work in London has been a roaring success. The English are not so
bright as the Americans, but once you touch their heart, it is yours for
ever. Slowly have I gained, and it is strange that in six months' work
altogether I would have a steady class of 120 persons apart from public
lectures. Here every one means work — the practical Englishman. Capt. and
Mrs. Sevier and Mr. Goodwin are going to India with me to work and spend
their own money on it! There are scores here ready to do the same: men and
women of position, ready to give up everything for the idea, once they feel
convinced! And last though not the least, the help in the shape of money to
start my "work" in India has come and more will follow. My ideas about the
English have been revolutionized. I now understand why the Lord has blessed
them above all other races. They are steady, sincere to the backbone, with
great depths of feeling — only with a crust of stoicism on the surface; if
that is broken, you have your man.
Now I am going to start a centre in Calcutta and another in the Himalayas.
The Himalayan one will be an entire hill about 7,000 ft. high — cool in
summer, cold in winter. Capt. and Mrs. Sevier will live there, and it will
be the centre for European workers, as I do not want to kill them by forcing
on them the Indian mode of living and the fiery plains. My plan is to send
out numbers of Hindu boys to every civilised country to preach — get men and
women from foreign countries to work in India. This would be a good
exchange. After having established the centres, I go about up and down like
the gentleman in the book of Job.
Here I must end to catch the mail. Things are opening for me. I am glad, and I know so you are. Now all blessings be yours and all happiness.
With eternal love,
VIVEKANANDA,
PS. What about Dharmapala? What is he doing? Give him my love if you meet
him.