"To The 4th Of July" - A Great Prophet Who Poured Blessings on America

After returning from the West Swamiji’s health completely broke down. He used to say, “Whatever I had I have left in that country.”

During the lectures in America, it appeared as though a power emanated from His body and infused the audience. The thought current of the entire country had undergone a change which was not an easy matter..!

Budo Baba (Swami Satchidananda) had begged Swamiji to grant him Nirvikalp Samadhi. Swamiji said, “If I put on the loin cloth and become absorbed in spiritual practice without thinking of ways and means of maintenance, then perhaps the power to grant Nirvikalpa Samadhi may come. It has become exhausted, or lost, by giving lectures in America."

In January 1894 Swamiji wrote to Sw. Ramakrishnanada, “As our country is lacking in social virtues, so this country is lacking in spirituality.” No doubt Swamiji gave spirituality to Americans individually as well as collectively.

Marie Louise Burke says, 'The fact is that American devotees view him, not as an intellectual expounder of the Vedanta philosophy, but as the first great prophet sent to this country by God. Swamiji himself said that he did not lecture, He Gave. Being what he was - a completely illumined soul whose heart cried over the suffering of all men - he inevitably poured out his blessings as the sun pours out its light. In and through everything he said and did, his profound calm and peace, his boundless compassion for all humanity, and his ready ability to awaken spirituality in others loomed large. And it was these things - not his patriotism or his intellectual genius - that captured the heart of this country."

I love the way Swami Abhedananda interprets and evaluates Swamiji’s visit to the West, as he was in America, and closely knew Him. In the lecture before the Vedanta Society of New York on March 8, 1903, Swami Abhedananda said: "The preachers of truth are very few, but their powers are felt by those who happen to come within the atmosphere of their divine personality. Such a preacher of truth occasionally appears like a Gigantic Comet above the horizon, dazzling the eyes and filling the hearts of ordinary mortals with wonder and admiration, and silently passes away into the invisible and unknown realms of the universe. The late Swami Vivekananda was one of those great comets who appeared in the spiritual firmament once perhaps after several centuries."

Yes, indeed He was a divine prophet who moved among the people of America, talking with them and blessing them which formed one of the most important parts of his entire mission to the West.

May be due to His love for America He has chosen 4th of July to be immortal. His famous poem was written in 1898 at Kashmir when He was with His American disciples Sister Nivedita, Josephine Macleod and Sara Ole Bull. He gifted this poem by reading it to them at the early breakfast. 

Imagine the joy they must have felt.!!