A Place where devotees gather to share inspiration.
"Holy Mother" painted by Swami Tadatmananda
Used courtesy of the Vedanta Society of Southern California
Dear Ankur, et al,
This is indeed an interesting discussion. Ankur, I agree with Tom ji, and I express my own sentiment that your remarks show great thought and understanding and that they give me inspiration.
It is interesting to note (before moving on) that Swamiji himself makes comment about his own "methods".
He says this by letter to Joe and it is written by Swamiji from California, dated April 18.
"I am so sorry Mr. Leggett resigned the presidentship. Well, I keep quiet for fear of making further trouble. You know my methods are extremely harsh, and once roused I may rattle Abhedananda too much for his peace of mind...You understand why I do not want to meddle with Abhedananda. Who am I to meddle with any, Joe? I have long given up my place as a leader--I have no right to raise my voice. Since the beginning of this year I have not dictated anything in India. You know that. Many thanks for what you and Mrs. Bull have been to me in the past. All blessings follow you ever!" p. 96, Tantine, Pravrajika Prabuddhaprana
This is also interesting from p. 94
"Mrs. Hansbrough later remarked about Joe: 'She set asider her superior airs when she was with us....And she never made the mistake of putting on airs with Swamiji. He often told her "where to get off" when she had a tendency to be too high-toned. But the only time I heard him speak sharply to her was before a class in the ballroom of the Green Hote. She was expressing an opinion as to what should be done aout some phases of his work, and he suddenly turned on her. "Keep quiet about what should be done."
No doubt, Joe was scold-proof by now. For so long, she had been nearest the Swami in situations of stress. Whatever he might say to her could not destroy her ecstatic mood, nor Betty's, from their constant association with him. Vivekananda once wrote to her: 'I can't even in imagination, pay the immense debt of gratitude I owe you. Wherever you are you never forget my welfar: and there, you are the only one who bears my burdens, all my brutal outbursts.' p. 94, Tantine
Heading to Amazon to order the Frances Leggett book.
Yours ever,
Rosemary
Location: North Carolina
Dear Tom, et al,
I think it to be a very sweet commentary on their relationship, that in California, Swamiji allowed himself to be "torment"ed by a certain Mrs. Melton in whom Joe had great faith in as a "magnetic healer".
p. 86, Tantine
"These torments, Joe also submitted herself to, but was far more stoic about them than the Swami who wrote a letter to Mrs. Bull on December 22, 1899, in which he said his health had gone down recently, since his "'physician' had rubbed his body very hard so that several inches of skin had worn off and that he was still suffering from pain caused by manipulation."
On p. 88 we hear more about Swami's view of Mrs. Melton:
"The Swami wrote in a letter to Mrs. Bull dated December 27: 'Joe thinks she is pulling me up splendidly. On her has been worked a miracle, she claims. Whether it is magnetic healing, California ozone, or the end of the present spell of bad Karma, I am improving. It is a great thing to be able to walk three miles, even after a heavy dinner.'....
...'I bless Mrs. Melton, the magnetic healer, daily & only hope those I love--& hate?--may have the benefit of her power. But the Swami wrote to Mrs. Bull in March, 'With all Joe's enthusiasm, I have not yet found any real benefit from the magnetic healer, except a few red patches on my chest from scratching!"
The fee for the treatment was $3.00 per sitting, which was quite a lot in those days. But the Swami submitted himself to it for along time because he did not want to hurt Joe's feelings--after all, she was spending her last penny (or her sister's) on the hope that he would be cured. In April he informed her that he had given up hope of becoming well--though Magnetic Melton assured him that she would certainly cure him completely. After all, she said there was nothing wrong with him but indigestion." p 88, Tantine, Pravrajika Prabuddhaprana
Mrs. Melton is later sent for to join the Leggett party in Paris. Swamiji writes a very funny letter to Betty Leggett (who had to leave the Paris parlor parties in order to look for healing waters to heal the sore under her knee) which involves the tortures of Mrs. Melton. I will try to share some of that tomorrow.
The Leggetts certainly had a seemingly unending supply of money at their disposal.
Yours,
Rosemary
PS.
There was a nice sunset glow streaming on the Palace yesterday, and I had great fun taking photos...
Location: North Carolina
Dear Tom,
That is so funny. I'll have to remember not to complain about anything!!
Tonight I have been reading through some of the letters of Swamiji (while trying to find this letter below, re: Mrs. Melton in Paris). I am feeling some contradiction in Swamiji, perhaps it isn't contradiction so much, but it is the only word that I can think of to cover my feeling.
It seems to me that people wear him out. Sometimes, he says he just wishes he were somewhere deep in the Himalayas, and once he told his devotees that he wanted to make money so that he could maintain a cabin in the Himlayas. That was while he was still in America. It seems to me that he got tired or something. I'm not really sure, nevertheless, if he is like me, then people would wear him out, and perhaps I am just projecting!!!
To Mrs. Francis Leggett
6 PLACE DES ETATS UNIS, PARIS,
3rd Sept., 1900.
DEAR MOTHER,
We had a congress of cranks here in this house.
The representatives came from various countries, from India in the south, to Scotland in the north, with England and America buttressing the sides.
We were having great difficulty in electing the president, for though Dr. James (Professor William James) was there, he was more mindful of the blisters raised on him by Mrs. Melton (probably a magnetic healer) than solution of world problems.
I proposed Joe (Josephine MacLeod), but she refused on the ground of non-arrival of her new gown — and went to a corner to watch the scene, from a coign of vantage.
Mrs. (Ole) Bull was ready, but Margot (Sister Nivedita) objected to this meeting being reduced to a comparative philosophy class.
When we were thus in a fix — up sprung a short, square, almost round figure from the corner, and without any ceremony declared that all difficulties will be solved, not only of electing a president but of life itself, if we all took to worshipping the Sun God and Moon God. He delivered his speech in five minutes; but it took his disciple, who was present, fully three quarters of an hour to translate. In the meanwhile, the master began to draw the rugs in your parlour up in a heap, with the intention, as he said, of giving us an ocular demonstration of the power of "Fire God", then and there.
At this juncture Joe interposed and insisted that she did not want a fire sacrifice in her parlour; whereupon the Indian saint looked daggers at Joe, entirely disgusted at the behaviour of one he confidently believed to be a perfect convert to fire worship.
Then Dr. James snatched a minute from nursing his blisters and declared that he would have something very interesting to speak upon Fire God and his brethren, if he were not entirely occupied with the evolution of Meltonian blisters. Moreover his great Master, Herbert Spencer, not having investigated the subject before him, he would stick to golden silence.
"Chutney is the thing", said a voice near the door. We all looked back and saw Margot. "It is Chutney," she said, "Chutney and Kali, that will remove all difficulties of Life, and make it easy for us to swallow all evils, and relish what is good." But she stopped all of a sudden and vehemently asserted that she was not going to speak any further, as she has been obstructed by a certain male animal in the audience in her speech. She was sure one man in the audience had his head turned towards the window and was not paying the attention proper to a lady, and though as to herself she believed in the equality of the sexes, yet she wanted to know the reason of that disgusting man's want of due respect for women. Then one and all declared that they had been giving her the most undivided attention, and all above the equal right, her due, but to no purpose. Margot would have nothing to do with that horrible crowd and sat down.
Then Mrs. Bull of Boston took the floor and began to explain how all the difficulties of the world were from not understanding the true relation between the sexes. She said, "The only panacea was a right understanding of the proper persons, and then to find liberty in love and freedom in liberty and motherhood, brotherhood, fatherhood, Godhood, love in freedom and freedom in love, in the right holding up of the true ideal in sex."
To this the Scotch delegate vehemently objected and said that as the hunter chased the goatherd, the goatherd the shepherd, the shepherd the peasant, and the peasant drove the fisher into the sea, now we wanted to fish out of the deep the fisher and let him fall upon the peasant, the peasant upon the shepherd, and so on; and the web of life will be completed and we will be all happy. He was not allowed to continue his driving businesss long. In a second everyone was on his feet, and we could only hear a confusion of voices — "Sun God and Moon God", "Chutney and Kali," "Freedom holdings up right understanding, sex, motherhood", "Never, the fisherman must go back to the shore", etc. Whereupon Joe declared that she was yearning to be the hunter for the time and chase them all out of the house if they did not stop their nonsense.
Then was peace and calm restored, and I hasten to write you about it.
Yours affly.,
VIVEKANANDA
Tonight's scene on the bank of the Trent River (facing West, as Swamiji standing in my dream of him)
Location: North Carolina
Dear Tom,
Yes, it is the sense that I am getting that he was physically "going down". This is part of what I am trying to put together and some of what he said and what others around him also said is a small source of complexity for synthesizing my assessment and my perceptions surrounding his life.
For instance, I remember that Holy Mother said that he suffered from a malady with his urine (which would be completely in line with diabetes). Still, in my experience with relatives (two first cousins) who suffer with diabetes, and even with the use of insulin, they are constantly battling with necrosis of the feet. One of the cousins had to have a foot removed and I don't recall that Swamiji had any issues with his feet. Last night, I read about him looking at the soles of his feet for signs of circular patterns which would indicate a tendency for a vagabond nature, but all he found were cracks on the bottom of his feet (a vitamin deficiency?) Also, with severe diabetes, he would have had to have some visual issues, which so far, I haven't encountered in any of my reading. Mrs. Melton said that "indigestion" was his only trouble, and somewhere else, I read something about "kidney" troubles. Also, I read recently on the Internet, the assertion that Swamiji died of apoplexy.
Sri Ramakrishna said that Swamiji would have the ability to give his body up at will. During his visit in Kashmir, Swamiji had an experience in a temple of the Divine Mother where he received direct assurance that when he was ready, he would be able to give his body up at will.
In the book about Tantine, I am now embarking on a journey with Tantine, Swamiji, and some contemporary notables of the time. Right now, we are on the Orient Express and we are heading to Egypt and the Holy Land. I must admit to having read ahead in the book and I know already that Swamiji abruptly cuts his trip short and tells the rich and exuberant ladies that he wants to go back to India--he wants to die and he wants to be with his brethren.
While in America, he wants money to maintain a cottage in the Himalayas, and not long after, while traveling to Egypt, he wants to die. There is a point in between where I recall him saying that he has realized that he is never going to get better.
Really, all of this doesn't matter or amount to anything really. Swamiji wanted to die on the 4th of July, and he did so. There is a great message in the date that he chose. Is that message the message of freedom??
Yours,
Rosemary
Location: North Carolina
Here is an easier way to access the radio interview
with my daughter, entitled: "Dr. Lipscombe Discusses
Diabetes and Women" (as mentioned in the previous posting).
Simply click on the banner below:
