'Thousand Island Park' knew that the Master, the World Teacher was coming....!!!

I started writing ‘Vivekanvesha’ on 20^th June 2011. It means today is the 3^rd birthday of my blog on Swamiji. I had chosen this day as it reminisces with Swami Vivekananda’s 2^nd visit to America. Also, as June begins my mind always keeps soaring at Camp Percy and then in Thousand Island Park.

He left Camp Percy on 18^th June 1895 to move to a yet one more serene place which was eager and ready to receive Him. It appeared as though right from the beginning 'Thousand Island Park' knew that the World Teacher was to arrive and it had prepared itself to welcome Him when the time was ready!

Camp Percy was like some Indian Ashram hidden in the remote place. Swamiji's body, mind and soul had the complete rest it needed after the tiring schedule of classes in New York. Sometimes He would walk alone in the woods and yet another time made merriment with the friends. Sometimes He would sing to His heart’s content and sometimes would enjoy rowing in the lake.

With these happy 12 days spent at Camp Percy in White Mountains and with serene state of mind Swamiji left from New Hampshire by train to 'Thousand Island Park' where His students eagerly awaited Him. At Clayton He took the steamer St. Lawrence which also had prepared itself for His arrival. It was newly painted into gleaming white, decorated and the new flag happily blew.

The two storeyed dock was also rebuilt and the electric lights of the Park too were totally renovated. The entire village had been cleaned up for the summer, the sewer system reconstructed and the lights were already glowing from the dock to the Columbian Hotel to the Tabernacle.

So on Tuesday, 18^th June 1895 Swamiji came to this newly cleaned, brightly lighted and refurbished community of Thousand Island Park.....'Thousand Island Park'...! As earlier i had mentioned, the moment  even mentally i utter these words, my whole being goes into oblivion. A state of immense happiness prevails in and out of my whole existence. 

 Some may think that it was a mere coincidence but we know for sure that ‘Thousand Island Park’ knew in the heart of hearts that The Master was coming..!

Ridgely Manor - First visit of Swami Vivekananda

Josephine and her sister Besse Macleod Sturges kept the discovery of their godlike man a secret for many months. That time Mr. Francis Leggett was courting Betty but they hid Swamiji from him too.

The entire winter these two sisters went religiously for Swamiji’s lectures, thrice a week at 11 a.m. in the mornings. As they were so regular, two front seats were always kept for them in the sitting room of the Swamiji.

They never spoke to Swamiji but one day He turned to them and said, “Are you sisters?”

“Yes” was the answer.

Then He said, “Do you come very far?”

“No, not very far, about 30 miles up the Hudson.”

“So far? That is wonderful!”

These were the only words spoken with Him. But Swamiji couldn’t be kept hidden for long from Francis Leggett. One day they both were dining with Mr. Leggett at Waldorf hotel which was on the same street where Swami Vivekananda lived. But before accepting the invitation they had told him, “We can dine with you but cannot spend the evening with you.” He said, “Very well, just dine with me.”

As the dinner was over, he asked, “Where are you going this evening?”

“We are going for a lecture” they answered.

“May I come?”

The answer could have just been “Yes” isn’t it?

Mr. Leggett went for the lecture, listened and when the lecture got over, he simply went to Swamiji, shook hands with Him and said, “Swami, when will you dine with me?” They became intimate friends instantly.

Thus that day the two sisters socially got introduced to Swamiji.

Soon after this Francis Leggett invited Swamiji to his country home, Ridgely. He had bought this country estate Ridgely as a place of recreation for himself and his friends and was very proud of it. In 1895 the landscape of Ridgely was still in a embryo stage and to the north not at very far distance were the rolling CATSKILL Mountains which is again a special place for us!

Though the property had many houses on it, Mr. Leggett had built a ‘Manor’ and a ‘Casino’ with a large playhouse equipped with bowling alleys and space for gymnastic and tennis court.

Mr. Leggett at that time was a prosperous businessman and president of a high-quality grocery firm founded by him and his brother. He was that time interested in Betty Sturges so she was invited with her two children, Alberta and Holister along with Josephine.

Swamiji must be surely relieved to get this invitation as he could get away from the noisy and soot filled city to the green countryside blossoming with spring. This was to be His first visit to Ridgely Manor. 

Josephine Macleod: HIS Presence Was Dynamic, Like The Sun That You Will Never Forget Once You Have Seen....

Today i must tell you about the first meeting of Swamiji and Miss Josephine Macleod.

"Josephine counted her 'real' birth from the time she met Swami Vivekananda on 29th January 1895 when she had just turned 37."

On 25th January 1895 Josephine received a letter from Mrs. Dora Roethlesberger asking her and her sister Betty Sturges to come down to New York to see and hear a Wonderful Man from India. Dora was a very dear friend, a psychic and very spiritual lady. Her invitation meant a lot. Josephine and Betty loved to attend lectures, concerts and various art exhibitions to acquire all the best the world had to offer. They accepted the invitation and came to New York to hear the Hindu monk in the small sitting room at 54, West 33rd Street.

It was probably Tuesday on 29th January and mostly it was Swamiji’s 2nd class in His new house. As per the memoirs of Miss Sarah Ellen Waldo and Josephine the number of people had increased. I have read 2 versions of Josephine meeting Swamiji and have combined both to make it simple.  Let us hear from Josephine herself -

“I first met Swamiji in New York when my elder sister Mrs. Sturges had her days of courtship with Mr. Francis Leggett.... At that time I used to read the Gita, translated by Mohini Mohan Chatterjee.

On the 29th of January 1895, we two sisters came to New York by the Hudson River, and went to listen to Swami Vivekananda's lecture at 54, West 33rd Street, New York and heard the Swami Vivekananda in his sitting room where more than one hundred persons were present. The room was crowded, they were all scattered in the room. All the arm chairs were taken; so I sat on the floor in the front row.

Swami stood in the corner. The subject of the talk was the Gita: When Swamiji started speaking... I lifted my eyes and saw with these very eyes (she pointed to her own eyes) Krishna himself standing there and preaching the Gita. That was my first wonderful vision. I stared and stared... I saw only the figure, and all else vanished.

He said something, the particular words of which I do not remember, but instantly to me that was truth, and the second sentence he spoke was truth, and the third sentence was truth. And I listened to him for seven years and whatever he uttered was to me truth. From that moment life had a different import. It was as if he made you realize that you were in eternity. It never altered. It never grew. It was like the sun that you will never forget once you have seen....

…His power lay, perhaps, in the courage he gave others. He did not ever seem to be conscious of himself at all. It was the other man who interested him. "When the book of life begins to open, then the fun begins," he would say. He used to make us realize there was nothing secular in life; it was all holy. "Always remember, you are incidentally an American, and a woman, but always a child of God. Tell yourself day and night who you are. Never forget it." That is what he used to tell us.

His presence, you see, was dynamic. You cannot pass that power on unless you have it, just as you cannot give money away unless you have it. You may imagine it, but you cannot do it.  

Mrs Ella Wheeler Wilcox and "The Man" on Swamiji

Today we shall meet a famous poetess Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Actually i met her in the 1st volume of New Discoveries when she writes a letter to her friend Mrs Kate Tannat Woods. I kept reading the passage where Swamiji talks about 'To do good for goods' sake'. Then i met her again in Volume III when He comes to New York and was fascinated to know about her husband whom she addressed as 'Man'.  They met Swamiji in New York and their life changed.

Swamiji started taking parlour lectures at Dr. Guernsey's house after moving from Dr. Guernsey's house to His new residence. It is here that Ell Wheeler Wilcox and 'Man' were drawn to the lectures and met Swamiji.

Later in 1907 in her memoirs she wrote:

Twelve years ago I chanced one evening to hear that a certain teacher of philosophy from India, a man named Vivekananda, was to lecture a block from my home in New York. We went out of curiosity,… and before we had been ten minutes in the audience, we felt ourselves lifted up into an atmosphere so rarefied, so vital, so wonderful, that we sat spell - bound and almost breathless, to the end of the lecture.

When it was over we went out with new courage, new hope, new strength, new faith, to meet life's daily vicissitudes. "This is the Philosophy, this is the idea of God, the religion which I have been seeking," said the Man. And for months afterwards he went with me to hear Swami Vivekananda explain the old religion and to gather from his wonderful mind jewels of truth and thoughts of helpfulness and strength. It was that terrible winter of financial disasters, when banks failed and stocks went down like broken balloons and business men walked through the dark valleys of despair and the whole world seemed topsy - turvy.... Sometimes after sleepless nights of worry and anxiety, the Man would go with me to hear the Swami lecture, and then he would come out into the winter gloom and walk down the street smiling and say, "It is all right. There is nothing to worry over." And I would go back to my own duties and pleasures with the same uplifted sense of soul and enlarged vision.

Later Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote about the lectures to her friend Mrs. Kate Tannatt Woods of Salem, Massachusetts, who had been Swamiji's hostess before the Parliament. One of her letters, dated "May, 1895," says: 

I was listening to Vivekananda this morning an hour. How honored by fate you must feel to have been allowed to be of service to this Great Soul. I believe him to be the re - incarnation of some great Spirit - perhaps Buddha - perhaps Christ. He is so simple - so sincere, so pure, so unselfish. To have listened to him all winter is the greatest privilege life has ever offered me. It would be surprising to me that people could misunderstand or malign such a soul if I did not know how Buddha and Christ were persecuted and lied about by small inferiors. His discourse this morning was mat uplifting - his mere presence is that. His absolute sinking of self is what I like. I am so tired of people who place the capital "I" before truth - and God. "To do good for good's sake"- with no expectation or desire of reward, and never to speak of what we have done - but to keep on working for the love of doing God's work - is Vivekananda's grand philosophy of life. He always makes me feel ashamed that I have ever thought for one moment I was burdened or that I ever spoke of any good act of my own.

Vedanta Center takes a leap in New York - January 18, 1895

The New Year of 1895 was a surprise for Hales as Swamiji suddenly dropped in unannounced. He stayed in Chicago for almost 3 weeks of which very few details are available. He also might have stayed with Leons for some time as we come to know from the memoirs of Cornelia Conger. But before He landed in New York the preparations for His parlour lectures and classes to be held had already begun.

Swamiji in His earlier visit had started the Vedanta center in New York. Miss Mary Phillips was its secretary. Though the Vedanta center was in an infant stage, whoever had heard Him earlier were eager to attend the classes.

 New York hereafter was to become Swamiji's main center of activity and the beginning of His new, independent way of working.

The famous concert singer, Miss Emma Thursby and her friend Miss Sarah Farmer were making arrangements for His parlour lectures. These two famous ladies were friends of Mrs. Sara Bull whom we also know as Dhira Mata, Swamiji’s American mother. She was a real inspiration behind all these arrangements.

So after coming to New York on 18^th January 1895, Swamiji continued to sleep at Dr. Guernsey’s house at 528, fifth Avenue. Dr. Egbert Guernsey was also a well known philanthropist, writer, editor and founder –director of various important journals, clibs, medicl institutions etc.

He held Swamiji in a high esteem and showered his parental affection on Him.

But for the sake of convenience and also for the total independence, Swamiji moved His bed and boarding from Dr. Guernsey's to the lodging at 54, West, Thirty Third Street. Compared to Dr. Guernsey’s palatial mansion on 5^th Avenue, this place was very simple.

But Swamiji’s earlier work in New York started at this lodging itself…

First visit to New York.....2nd April 1894

After the vacation at Camp Percy, Swamiji left for another destination where He was much awaited, to The Thousand Island Park. The moment I utter or even think of Thousand Island Park I get goose bumps and my entire being goes into oblivion. 

When ever I have to speak on this topic, i keep visualising me on stage and talking about 'The Thousand Island Park'.  All the time I keep waiting for those moments of happiness which would be commonly shared by me and the listeners.

But before we move to Thousand Island Park, I want you to meet some people in the three families of New York. Swamiji had earlier visited New York in early 1894 and now had decided to stay in this city. For time being His hectic touring in the Midwestern, eastern and southern America had come to a halt before He began the lecture classes in New York city.

After the trials & triumphs at Detroit He directly came to New York on 2^nd April 1894 and was there till almost 10^th April 1894. He was invited by a small group who were interested in studying Metaphysics which consisted of Mrs. Smith, Dr. Egbert Guernsey & his wife, Ms. Helen Miller Gould (the elder daughter and heiress of one of the richest American) etc.

Swamiji stayed with the Guernsey family at 528, 5^th Avenue, between 43^rd & 44^th streets. We come to  know about this family from the letters Swamiji wrote to Mrs. Hale. As I earlier said, HE was a very good SON, always prompt in writing letters to His mother.

Even today having all the facilities I sometimes delay or even forget to call my mother at home. Swamiji constantly reminds me of the duty, the nityakarma to be done. 

He wrote 2 letters to Mrs. Hale, one on 2^nd & other on 10^th April giving detailed account of His stay. These letters were earlier not published and we got to read them only after the research works of Marie Louis Burke were published.

Dr. Egbert Guernsey was one of the chief physicians of the city and a very good gentleman. He lived with his wife and daughter. He had lost his only son in July and the couple were yet in a shock.

The Guernseys looked upon Swamiji as their recently lost son and lovingly welcomed Him in their home and hearts.

More about them tomorrow....

I shall not leave my body in your country....

Can't keep you waiting anymore from reading this which i wanted to share since May 2013 - 

In New York, Swamiji always had to restrain Himself from entering into Samadhi, to allow a free rein to His mind which would at once rush to its “Own Abode”. But at Camp Percy, with the people very dear to Him, who loved and respected Him, Swamiji was able to move effortlessly from the playful mood of summer vacation to the highest bliss.

During one of her stays at Belur Math, Josephine Macleod narrated the following incidence to Swami  Vijayananda. Let us now delve into the realm of Swamiji’s Nirvikalpa Samadhi along with Swami Vijayananda as told by Joe -

One morning before breakfast Swamiji came out from his room with a Sanskrit Gita in his hand. I (Josephine MacLeod) was behind him. Seeing me, he said, "Joe, I am going to sit under that pine (pointing to a nearby pine) and read the Bhagavad Gita. See that the breakfast is sumptuous today. 

"Half an hour later I went over to the pine tree and saw Swamiji sitting there motionless. The Gita had fallen from his hand and the front of his robe was wet with tears.

I went nearer and saw that his breathing had stopped altogether. I trembled in fear - Swamiji must be dead. I did not shout, but ran to Francis Leggett and told him, "Come quick, Swami Vivekananda has left us." 

My sister ran to the spot with loud cries and my future brother - in - law also came with tears in his eyes.

 By now seven or eight minutes had passed. Swamiji was still in the same position. But my brother - in - law said, "He is in a trance; I will shake him out of it" I stopped him, shouting, "Never do that!"

I remembered that Swamiji had said once that when he would be in deep meditation one should not touch him. Another five minutes or so passed, then we saw the signs of breathing. 

His eyes had been half closed; now slowly they opened. And then Swamiji, as if soliloquizing, said, "Who am I, where am I?" 

Thrice he spoke like that, and then, wide awake, he saw us, was very much embarrassed, stood up, and said, "I am sorry to have frightened you all. But I have this state of consciousness now and then. I shall not leave my body in your country. Betty, I am hungry, let's hurry."