Vivekananda Forum Meet 16 January 2025
TIME: July 29 to August 8, 1898.
02 Aug 1898
Amarnath Cave
Shiva – Dhyana Mein
Kali the Mother
September 30
30 to the Coloured Springs of Kshir Bhavani
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Dev Vani – Preta Atma – Jo Hum Nahi Dekh Paate Wah Kya Hai hi Nahi –
Atma Pratyakash – Shashtra –
Poorva Janma
Shraddha Karma
PLACE: Kashmir.
Shri Ranadaprasad Das Gupta, the founder and professor of the Jubilee Art Academy, Calcutta.
Kali,the Mother
Vivekananda invokes mother to come “scattering plagues and sorrows/ dancing mad with joy”. Here the image conjured is not that of the protective mother but associates death. In the next stanza the association is strengthened and it is made explicit that she is not merely individual death, but ‘Time, the All-destroyer’ whose very name is Terror and whose very breath is ‘Death’. (96)
How beautifully he says-
For Terror is Thy name
Death is in Thy breath,
And every shaking step
Destroys a world for ever.
Thou ‘Time’, the All-destroyer!
Come, o Mother, come! (19-24)
Kali, The Mother
The stars are blotted out,
The clouds are covering clouds,
It is darkness vibrant, sonant.
In the roaring, whirling wind
Are the souls of a million lunatics
Just loose from the prison-house,
Wrenching trees by the roots,
Sweeping all from the path.
The sea has joined the fray,
And swirls up mountain-waves,
To reach the pitchy sky.
The flash of lurid light
Reveals on every side
A thousand, thousand shades
Of Death begrimed and black —
Scattering plagues and sorrows,
Dancing mad with joy,
Come, Mother, come!
For Terror is Thy name,
Death is in Thy breath,
And every shaking step
Destroys a world for e’er.
Thou “Time”, the All-Destroyer!
Come, O Mother, come!
Who dares misery love,
And hug the form of Death,
Dance in Destruction’s dance,
To him the Mother comes.
(Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 4.)
The Swami then set out on a journey through
India with a select group of his disciples. After a
stay at Almora, were the Seviers were already
established, and then after a journey to Kashmir
up the river Jhelum through the Vale of Srinagar,
the Swami undertook, at the end of July 1898, the
great pilgrimage to the cave of Amarnath in the
glacial gorge of the Western Himalayas. Only Sister
Nivedita was permitted to accompany him to that
holy place. On August 2, the day of the annual
festival, they arrived at the sacred cave where there
was the famous ice-Shiva. Behind the other
pilgrims, Swami Vivekananda, trembling with
emotion, entered the sanctuary in an almost semi-
conscious condition. A great mystical experience
came to him. So saturated became his personality
with the Presence of the Lord that for days
afterwards he could speak of nothing but Shivaó
the Eternal One, the Great Monk, rapt in
meditation, aloof from all worldliness.
Following the pilgrimage to Amarnath the
Swamiís devotion concentrated itself on the
Mother, and he was soon blessed with a wonderful
vision of Kali the Divine Mother. While his vision
was most intense he wrote ëKali the Mother íóa
poem, where he is seen at his best. After this
experience he retired alone abruptly on September
30 to the Coloured Springs of Kshir Bhavani where
he practised severe austerities. He was found
completely transfigured when he returned to his
disciples after a few days. All thought of leader,
worker, or teacher was gone. He was now only the
Monkóin all nakedness of pure Sannyasa. So, he
feelingly said to them, ëIt is all ?Mother? now! All
my patriotism is gone. Everything is gone. Now it
is only ?Mother, Mother?!í The party then came
back to Lahore. The Swamiís health was so much
undermined that he had to be brought back to
Bengal by Swami Sadananda, who had hurried
down from Almora after learning of the Swamiís
poor health.
consecrating ceremony of the monastery on
December 9. From January 2, 1899, this place, now
known as Belur Math, became the permanent
headquarters of the monks of the Ramakrishna
Order.
Second Visit to West
June 20, 1899.
In one of his letters he definitely says,
ë?pray for me?that my works may stop for ever, and
my whole soul be absorbed in the Mother.?The
battles are lost and won. I have bundled my things,
and am waiting for the Great Deliverer.?I am only
the boy who used to listen with rapt wonderment
to the wonderful words of Ramakrishna under the
banyan of Dakshineswar. That is my true nature;
works and activities, doing good and so forth are
all superimpositions. Now, I again hear his voice;
the same old voice thrilling my soul. Bonds are
breaking, love dying, work becoming tasteless; the
glamour is off life. Now only the voice of the Master
calling??Let the dead bury the dead, follow thou
Me.? ?I come, my Beloved Lord, I come??Nirvana
is before me. I feel it at times, the same infinite ocean
of peace, without a ripple, a breath
https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/sisternivedita1910/08_amarnath.htm
THE MASTER AS I SAW HIM
VIII
AMARNATH
CHAPTER X
THE SHRINE OF AMARNATH
PLACE: Kashmir.
PLACE: Kashmir.
TIME: July 29 to August 8, 1898.
20, 1899.
Converstaions With
Shri Ranadaprasad Das Gupta, the founder and professor of the Jubilee Art Academy, Calcutta.
……No sooner does one take the help of machinery than all originality vanishes — one cannot give expression to one’s ideas……
In the Paris Exhibition I saw a wonderful figure carved in marble
Art unveiling Nature
inner beauty of nature by drawing away with its own hands the covering veils
praising the sculptor who has tried to express this exquisite idea.