The journey’s end

The journey’s end

At the Math, the Swami heard the Capt. Sevier had passed away on 28th October; he left immediately for Mayavati to console Mrs. Sevier. He stayed for a fortnight there; the grandeur of the scenery of this Himalayan Ashram dedicated to Advaita, delighted him much.

Returning to Belur, he stayed there for seven weeks and then left for East Bengal and Assam. His Mother, who had expressed an earnest desire to visit the holy places there, went with him. “This is the one great wish of a Hindu widow”, he wrote to Mrs. Bull. “I have brought only misery to my people. I am trying to fulfill this one wish of hers.”

After return, Swami tried to lead a little restful life at the monastery. He would roam about the Math grounds, sometimes clad in a loincloth, or he would supervise the cooking, or sit with the monks, singing devotional songs. His spiritual advice to whoever came to him continued in abated. But he freed himself from all formal duties by executing a Deed of Trust in favour of his brother disciples, transferring to them all the properties including the Belur Math, which had been so far held in his name. One day he arranged for feeding of the santhal coolies who were working at the Math. They had never tasted such delicacies and such a sumptuous feast in their lives. They were immensely happy. The Swami said to them, “You are Narayanas, manifestations of God, today I have offered food to Narayana. He told his disciples later “I found them the veritable embodiments of God-such simplicity, such sincere guileless love I had seen nowhere else. Sometimes I feel a desire to sell this Math and everything and distribute the money to the poor and destitute.”

The sunset of his life was approaching. On 4th of July,1902, he meditated from 8 to 11 in the morning, rather unusually in the afternoon he went out for a walk. In the evening, he retired to his room and spent an hour in meditation. Then, he lay down quietly and after sometime took two deep breaths and passed into Eternal Rest- His work seemed to have been completed and the Master seemed to have given him back the promised “key” to the Treasure of the Absolute.

He had once said in London, “It may be that I shall find it good to get outside my body, to cast it off like a worn garment. But I shall not cease to work. I shall inspire men everywhere until the world shall know that it is one with God.” Only the mortal body he had cast out, but his immortal self continues to illumine the world.

“The abstract Advaitha must be lived. It must become like a poetic expression in everyday life: out of the hopelessly bewildering Yogism must come the most scientific and practical psychology-all this must be put in so simple form that a child may grasp it. That is my life’s work. The Lord knows how far I have succeeded,” Vivekananda used to say.

Surely, he has succeeded in this to a very large extent. “If you want to know India, study Vivekananda. In him everything is positive and nothing negative”, said Tagore. “I have gone through his works very thoroughly and after having gone through them, the love that I had for my country became a thousand-fold”, said Mahatma Gandhi.