GIRL FLOATING IN THE AIR

Swami Vivekananda

I shall tell you a story which I heard from a great scholar in the West. … A girl was brought forward and seated cross-legged upon a stool made of sticks crossed. After she had been seated for a time, the show-man began to take out, one after another, these cross-bars; and when all were taken out, the girl was left floating in the air. The Governor thought there was some trick, so he drew his sword and violently passed it under the girl; nothing was there.

Now, what was this? It was not magic or something extraordinary. That is the peculiarity. No one in India would tell you that things like this do not exist. To the Hindu it is a matter of course. You know what the Hindus would often say when they have to fight their enemies — "Oh, one of our Yogis will come and drive the whole lot out!" It is the extreme belief of the race. What power is there in the hand or the sword? The power is all in the spirit.

NEWS: INDIA'S TALLEST MONOLITH STATUE

COURTESY: Bangalore Mirror                          Read more

VIVEKANANDA WRITES AND INSPIRES US

LETTER NO. 32

Dear.................*

". . . Every work has got to pass through hundreds of difficulties before succeeding. Those that persevere will see the light, sooner or later.

"……to put the Hindu ideas into English and then make out of dry philosophy and intricate mythology and queer startling psychology, a religion which shall be easy, simple, popular, and at the same time meet the requirements of the highest minds — is a task only those can understand who have attempted it. The dry, abstract Advaita must become living — poetic — in everyday life; out of hopelessly intricate mythology must come concrete moral forms; and out of bewildering Yogi-ism must come the most scientific and practical psychology — and all this must be put in a form so that a child may grasp it. That is my life's work. The Lord only knows how far I shall succeed. "To work we have the right, not to the fruits thereof." It is hard work, my boy, hard work! To keep one's self steady in the midst of this whirl of Kâma-Kânchana (lust and gold) and hold on to one's own ideals, until disciples are moulded to conceive of the ideas of realisation and perfect renunciation, is indeed difficult work, my boy. Thank God, already there is great success.

May you be blessed for ever and ever!

Yours with love,

VIVEKANANDA.

*[You may treat these letters as if addressed to you]

SOURCE: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 

                   Volume-5 (Epistles - First Series Letter No. LVIII)

BRAHMAN WHO PRODUCES FRUITS AND FLOWERS:ANECDOTE

Swami Vivekananda

Another time I was in the city of Hyderabad in India, and I was told of a Brâhmin there who could produce numbers of things from where, nobody knew. This man was in business there; he was a respectable gentleman. And I asked him to show me his tricks. It so happened that this man had a fever, and in India there is a general belief that if a holy man puts his hand on a sick man he would be well. This Brahmin came to me and said, "Sir, put your hand on my head, so that my fever may be cured." I said, "Very good; but you show me your tricks." He promised. I put my hand on his head as desired, and later he came to fulfil his promise. He had only a strip of cloth about his loins, we took off everything else from him. I had a blanket which I gave him to wrap round himself, because it was cold, and made him sit in a corner. Twenty-five pairs of eyes were looking at him. And he said, "Now, look, write down anything you want." We all wrote down names of fruits that never grew in that country, bunches of grapes, oranges, and so on. And we gave him those bits of paper. And there came from under his blanket, bushels of grapes, oranges, and so forth, so much that if all that fruit was weighed, it would have been twice as heavy as the man. He asked us to eat the fruit. Some of us objected, thinking it was hypnotism; but the man began eating himself — so we all ate. It was all right.

He ended by producing a mass of roses. Each flower was perfect, with dew-drops on the petals, not one crushed, not one injured. And masses of them! When I asked the man for an explanation, he said, "It is all sleight of hand."

SOURCE:  The Complete Works of Vivekananda, 

                     Volume-2 [The Powers of the mind]  

VIVEKANANDA'S CHICAGO ADDRESS

Swami Vivekananda's Chicago Address made him famous overnight and he became the most sought speaker at the Parliament of  Religions. Seeing this animation film one can get an idea about the historical event which brought glory to India of ancient culture. 

COURTESY: Youtube