Vivekananda and his love for humanity - part 3

Sister Christine’s memoirs mention of two specific examples of Swamiji’s love for the weakest and the meanest. In New York once there was pitiful little group that clung to him with pathetic tenacity. In the course of a walk he had gathered up first one and then another. This ragged retinue returned with him to the house of 58th Street which was the home of the Vedanta Society. Walking up the flight of steps leading to the front door the one beside him thought. "Why does he attract such queer abnormal people?" Quick as a flash he turned and answered the unspoken thought. "You see, they are Shiva's demons." Walking along Fifth Avenue one day, with two elderly forlorn devoted creatures walking in front, he said. "Don't you see, life has conquered them!" The pity. the compassion for the defeated in his tone!

What a boundless love did he reserve for Sister Christine? Like his own daughter he guided, chided, admonished and led her in spiritual as well as in worldly life. His concerns for her were apparent in his various letters addressed to her, even if the responses to those were sometimes inadequate. This shows that even in supreme detachment supreme love can blossom.

His love for his Madrasi disciples who worked untiringly for his mission’s success, knew no bounds. It was evident from his letters to the foremost of them, Alasinga Perumal, whom he addressed thus, “I may perish of cold and hunger in this land, but I bequeath to you young men this sympathy, this struggle for the poor, the ignorant, the oppressed”. He was bequeathing his greatest and grandest treasures to those noble souls who were his own lot.

It is the same love that enabled him to shed copious tears of agony for the unchaste women in the streets of Cairo, who came to realize him as the “divine man”. Only a divine man can cry in genuine anguish for a fallen and lost angel. The love enabled him to see to know the eternal truth in the Sur Das’s song sung by a courtesan and expressing his gratitude to her.

Was his family any way deprived of the love? He took adequate care of their material needs through his disciples like king of Khetri. He had however one soft corner, that not being able to take good care of his mother who had to fought a lone battle for survival along with her young sons and daughters during his itinerant period. During the last days of his earthly sojourn he took her to a pilgrimage in Eastern Bengal and also did some menial services at her behest which comforted him.

Even those relatives who had hounded him from his ancestral property, were they to be left out? He provided for the sustenance of his aunt who had fought such a vicious battle and who was responsible for ruining the financial position of the family.

Towards the end of his days his boundless love found way among some animals who he gave shelter in the Math premises. They were his constant companions and unlike human beings, they never betrayed him. The kid Matru and the dog Bagha were the most notable among them.