Swami Vivekananda’s Wanderings in Gujarat : Swami Nikhileswarananda

Introduction

the wanderings of great personalities have been of special significance in the task of regeneration of our motherland. The historical wanderings of Buddha, Mahavir and Shankaracharya bear testimony to this. In our own times the wanderings of Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba Bhave and others throughout the length and breadth of the whole country played a crucial part in shaping their own lives and in shaping the destiny of the nation and through that the whole world. According to Sister Nivedita

… the Shastras, the Guru and the Motherland are the three notes that mingle themselves to form the music of the works of Swami Vivekananda … He had yet to wander throughout the length and breadth of India, from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, mixing with saints and scholars and simple souls alike, learning from all, teaching to all, and living with all, seeing India as she was and is, and so grasping in its comprehensiveness that vast whole of which his Master’s life and personality had been a brief and intense epitome. (he Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (17th Edition) Vol. I p. XVII, Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati. )

After the mahasamadhi of Sri Ramakrishna in 1886, Swami Vivekananda and his brother-disciples took sannyasa and stayed in Baranagore monastery while going for pilgrimages occasionally. The historic wandering of Swami Vivekananda, however, began when he started from Kolkata (old Calcutta) in July 1890 after taking blessing from the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi with a firm determination of not returning till he acquired such realization that his very touch would transform a man. Indeed, he did not return to Kolkata (old Calcutta) until February 1897, when he had become a world-conquering hero. From July 1890 to May 1893, when he sailed for USA, he wandered throughout the country. This period played an important part in transforming his personality and preparing him for the task of regeneration of the nation and the world. And of this period perhaps the maximum duration (and very important too) was spent in Gujarat. After taking leave of Maharaja of Khetri and passing through Ajmer, Swami Vivekananda proceeded towards what was then the Bombay Presidency (later merged with Gujarat and Maharashtra). This was an important phase of Swamiji’s life. His biography states: ‘Indeed, he had become transformed into a MAN, aching with pain because of the dangers of the modern transition through which he found the whole land passing. He had turned a great patriot, his heart throbbing with love and aspiration, his whole personality afire with an intellectual struggle to solve the problems with which he found India confronted. … His mind had become a whirlwind of ideas.’ (Life of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Disciples—1st Edition (1913) Vol. II. p. 177, Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati.) He wandered throughout Gujarat—mostly in the peninsula of Kathiawad which was a division of Bombay Presidency comprising 188 states (The pre-independent India comprised about 800 states) with its headquarters at Rajkot. Even the later period of May to September 1892 was also spent by Swamiji mostly with Gujarati hosts.

According to the earliest biographers of Swami Vivekananda, this period of his wandering in Gujarat had been very fruitful and significant when his whole outlook had been reoriented:

It was as though all India were pressing its life through the channels of his personality. He passed through terrible commotion. It might have been at Porbandar that this spirit took birth. (Life of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Disciples—1st Edition (1913) Vol. II. p. 176, Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati.)

It was during the wanderings in Gujarat (in Porbandar) that he came to realize that he had a mission to perform. He told Maharaja of Porbandar and his friends :

I have a MISSION to perform! But I cannot clearly see at present how I shall begin or where it is to be ! (Life of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Disciples—1st Edition (1913) Vol. II. p. 169, Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati.)

He told his brother-disciple Swami Trigunatitananda at Porbandar :

Sarada, I am beginning to understand to some extent, now what the Master has said of me. Really there is so much power in me, I feel as though I could revolutionise the world! (Ibid p. 168-169)

It was during his wanderings in Gujarat (in the cell of Sharada Math, Dwarka) that “he perceived a great light, as it were—and that was the bright future of India.” (Ibid p. 173-174) It was during his wanderings in Gujarat while visiting the ancient temple of Sati Ranak Devi that he came to realize the sacredness of the marriage relationship as idealized in the Hindu Shastras. It was during his wanderings in Gujarat, while visiting historic Jain temples of Palitana that “he saw India as one Huge Temple, as it were with chapels and sanctuaries everywhere. He saw the glory of Maha Bharat.” (Ibid p. 161) It was in Gujarat while looking at the ruins of the magnificent temple of Somnath which was destroyed and rebuilt several times that Swamiji came to know the glory of India’s past. It was in Gujarat that Swamiji for the first time received inspiration for going to the West to preach Sanatana Dharma (from Thakore Saheb of Limbdi). (Earlier Mr. Pennington at Ghazipur had suggested to Swamiji to go to the West but it was for receiving higher education according to Sri Mahendranath Dutta. In any case, the matter did not receive serious attention of Swamiji earlier.) It was in Gujarat that Swamiji, for the first time, heard of the great religious convention that was to be held sometime in the following year. (Life of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Disciples—1st Edition (1913) Vol. II. p. 174, Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati.) It was in Gujarat while deeply studying the Vedas with Shankar Pandurang Pandit that Swamiji came to appreciate the glory of Sanatana Dharma and the need to preach it to the whole world and became convinced that “India was truly the Mother of Religions, the fountain-head of spirituality and the cradle of civilization.” (Life of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Disciples—1979 Edition, Vol. I. p. 296, Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati.) Here in Gujarat, not only his mental outlook but even his physical look got transformed. His brother-disciple Swami Akhandananda wrote in his memoirs:

I at last reached Mandavi … I saw that Swamiji had undergone a great change in his appearance. His beauty illuminated the whole room. (From Holy wandering to service of God in Man—Swami Akhandananda, second edition (1981) p. 40, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras.)

Here in Gujarat, Swamiji got a new life as if were after being rescued by Thakore Saheb of Limbdi from the clutches of tantric sadhus.

In Gujarat, Swamiji came in contact with some of the most prominent princes, Diwans, scholars and eminent personalities of his time. Thakore Saheb of Limbdi Sri Yashwantsinhji, Maharaja of Bhavanagar Sri Takhtsinhji, Maharao of Kutch Sri Khengarji (III), Maharaja of Porbandar Sri Vikamatji, Maharaja of Baroda Sri Sayaji Rao Gaekwad III, Diwan of Junagadh Sri Haridas Viharidas Desai, Administrator of Porbandar Sri Shankar Pandurang Pandit, Diwan of Kutch Sri Motichand Lalchand, Diwan of Baroda Sri Manibhai Jashbhai, the great Gujarati Scholars Sri Mansukhram Tripathi and Sri Manibhai N. Dwivedi, the great philanthropist Sub-judge Sri Lalshankar Umiashankar Travadi, all became great friends and admirers of Swamiji and some of them became even his disciples. In Gujarat (at Junagadh), Swamiji also met Sri Jhandu Bhatt of Jamnagar about whom he said:

I had been to many places and have seen many a bountiful persons, but nowhere have I seen a generous man like Jhandu Bhatt Vithalji. (lbid p. 55)

It was in Gujarat while travelling through the desert of Kutch that Swamiji had a wonderful experience, he saw a mirage. In his lecture delivered in New York entitled ‘The Real and the Apparent Man’ Swamiji gave a description of the phenomenon and drew a very important moral from it. (The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (14th impression) Vol. II. p. 281-282 and Vol. III 9-10.)

In Gujarat Swamiji discussed with the princes and Diwans not only philosophy and religion but also various important economic and political problems for the welfare of the States. He gave them practical advice; even sometimes to the extent of drafting letters of diplomatic nature.

Sri Mahendranath Dutta narrates an interesting incident in his Bengali book ‘Srimat Swamijir Jeevaner Ghantanabali’. “While Swamiji was staying with the Diwan of Junagadh, Swamiji saw him depressed. On being asked about the reason, Diwanji at first hesitated but then said, “There is a letter from British Government from Bombay to the Nawab of Junagadh; I am worried as to what reply I should give because I am appointed by British Government and on the other hand I am an employee of Nawab. I cannot afford to displease either of them and I am, therefore, in a great dilemma.” Swamiji did not speak a word, just took up a paper and started scribbling something. After some time he told Diwanji, “Will this letter do?” Diwanji was extremely astonished and exclaimed “This is just the type of letter I wanted to send!” Immediately he made out a copy of the letter and sent to Bombay. Diwanji became highly impressed with the practical wisdom of Swamiji.” (Mahendranath Dutta, Srimat Swamijir Jeevaner Ghantanabali, Vol. II, p. 152–153.)

For the first time Swamiji came to the notice of Intelligence Department while he was wandering in Gujarat. The following appeared in “Amrita Bazar Patrika”, Dt. 15.8.1971—”A brief account of Swami Vivekananda’s career appears in a note on the Ramakrishna Mission compiled by the office of the Director, Criminal Intelligence in 1909. The note states that after visiting all the holy places in India, Swami Vivekananda first came to notice in 1892, when he was touring through the various states in Kathiawad and was entertained by some of the petty chiefs. His religious lectures did not exercise much influence on his hearers but it was noticed that he took an interest in politics.” (Amrita Bazar Patrika, dated 15.8.1971.)Although he had nothing to do with politics, his association with the Princess and Diwans did create a significant stir.

Even before Swamiji entered Gujarat in 1891, he met Shyamji Krishna Varma of Mandvi (1857-1930), who later became a nationalist leader. Swamiji was his guest in Ajmer for a few days. He was the founder of the Home Rule Society, the India House near London and the famous paper ‘Indian Sociologist’, which are all instrumental in inspiring many people to fight for India’s freedom. His meeting with Swamiji must have definitely influenced him and awakened in him a deep love for India, though the means they adopted for her regeneration were different. (Ramakrishna Movement in Gujarat, Swami Sarvasthananda, Swami Vivekananda in Baroda, Souvenir, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Memorial, Vadodara. p. 77)

Swamiji had also later travelled with Sri Jamshetji Tata of Navsari (old Nausari), Gujarat from Yokohama to Vancouver in the ship Empress of India and inspired him to start industries and promote scientific research, which led to the birth of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Swamiji’s influence can be found in the letter of Sri Jamsetji Tata dated 23 November 1898 addressed to Swami Vivekananda.

Swami had also later met Sri Virchand Gandhi of Gujarat in USA during the Parliament of Religions at Chicago, and befriended him.

It would be, therefore, interesting to know the details of the wanderings of Swamiji in Gujarat.

In The Historic City of Karnavati (Ahmedabad)

one day when a sub-judge of Ahmedabad was coming out of Ahmedabad Railway Station, he saw a sturdy and stout sannyasi sitting under a pipal tree, who had a look of greatness around him. He went to the monk and talked with him and became so much impressed that he at once requested him to be his guest. Both got into the waiting tonga and soon arrived at the house of the host—Sri Lalshankar Umiashankar Travadi—residing at 36 Amritlal’s Pole in Khadia the heart of the city of Ahmedabad.

Soon Sri Lalshankar realized that his guest was an unusual person with a good knowledge of almost everything in the world. The unknown monk was of course, none other, than Swami Vivekananda. Although the house was spacious, it lacked the required tranquility for meditation and reading, so Sri Lalshankar took Swamiji to another house he had in Ellisbridge behind the townhall. The house became a beehive of activity with many people flocking to hear and meet Swamiji, who lectured on several topics including high philosophy.

Sri Lalshankar (1845-1912) was decorated with the titles of Kaiser-e-Hind, Rao Bahadur and certificates of merit by the Government as a reward for his social services. He was one of the pioneers in Gujarat to start a campaign for women’s education and to work for uplifting the untouchables. There was hardly any institution of social service at Ahmedabad with which he was not associated. Both the host and the guest presumably discussed many important issues concerning education and social service apart from philosophy and religion.

During his stay in the historic city of Ahmedabad which was known as Karnavati in the olden times, Swamiji visited many places of historic interest. In the olden times it was the capital of Sultans of Gujarat and one of the handsomest cities of India. Sir Thomas Roe spoke of it, it was in his day “a goodly city as large as London”. Swami Vivekananda rejoiced in the Jain culture of the place with its beautiful temples and also in its Mohammedan culture and marvelled at the glory of its mosques and tombs. Here he improved his knowledge of Jainism and held conversations with several Jain scholars. Earlier he had acquired knowledge of Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, but he did not have an opportunity to have in-depth knowledge of Jainism. His stay in Ahmedabad provided a golden opportunity for him to increase his knowledge about Jainism and this might have helped him in having a good friendship with Sri Virchand Gandhi in America.

After spending a few days in this manner Swamiji proceeded towards Wadhwan—then an important state of Kathiawar. (Additional information about Swamiji’s stay in Ahmedabad obtained from Sri N. Radhakrishnan’s article published in Indian Express (21.4.1984) and from the descendants of Sri Lalshankar.)

At Ranak Devi Temple, Wadhwan

after staying for a few days in Ahmedabad, Swamiji journeyed on to Wadhwan in Kathiawad, where he visited the old temple of Ranak Devi. The story behind the building of this temple runs thus: Ranak devi (also called Ranik Devi) was a beautiful girl born in the Junagadh territory, when Raja Sidh was ruling Patan State. She was betrothed to him, but the ruler of Junagadh, Ra Khengar, was in love with her. He abducted and married her. This caused a deadly feud between the two chieftains. In time Raja Sidh invaded Junagadh and slew Ra Khengar. When Ranak Devi heard of the death of her husband, and of the invader’s wish to marry her, she performed sati; that is, to protect her chastity she offered herself into fire at the cremation of her beloved husband. In her memory the broken-hearted conqueror raised the temple. (The Life of Swami Vivekananda—by His Eastern and Western Disciples, Chapter 16 (In Western India), p. 288.) Visiting it, and knowing how it came to be built, Swamiji could not but ponder on the sanctity of the marriage relationship as viewed in the Hindu tradition.

Sadhu In Danger

after seeing the ancient temple of Sati Ranak Devi at Wadhwan, Swamiji came to Limbdi, the chief town of the cotton producing Limbdi State. Arriving in the evening, Swamiji noticed a Shiva temple at the outskirts in a dilapidated condition. But since the place was inhabitable, the priest of the temple directed him to another place nearby. He had not the slightest idea of the character of that place but soon he found out that the sadhus belonged to a degenerate sect of sex-worshippers whose religious ideas were exceedingly crude and horribly vulgar! He wanted to leave the place at once but to his horror he found that he had been made a prisoner. He trembled with fear when he was made aware of the nefarious purpose of these sadhus. The high-priest of this sect accosted him saying,

“You are a Sadhu with a magnetic personality, evidently you have practiced Brahmacharya for years. Now you must give us the fruit of your long austerity. We shall break your Brahmacharya in order to perform a special Sadhana, and thereby we shall be enabled to acquire certain Sidhhis, or psychic powers.”

“Now what to do?” Swamiji started thinking after he had been left alone in the room. While praying to the Mother of Universe he made up his mind and his whole personality shook with a terrible resolve, “Not even if they kill me, will I let them break my life long vows!”

Just then, the boy who used to deliver milk to him, and who had become his devotee at first sight, came there. When Swamiji told the boy of this situation, the boy asked him in a whisper if he could be of any help to him. Swamiji thought for a moment and then eagerly said, “Yes! Yes! my boy.”

He had jumped to a sudden conclusion, and seizing a bit of charcoal lying near, he picked up a piece of earthen jar and scribbled as well as he could, few words about his sad plight then putting it into the boy’s hand he said,

“Here ! Hide this beneath your chaddar and run with it as fast as you can to the Maharaja’s palace and hand it over to the Maharaja himself and inform him of my situation.”

The boy did as he was told. He hurried to the palace and gained access to Maharaja who immediately sent some of his guards to his rescue.

Now Swamiji came to stay in the palace at the earnest request of Maharaja. It was a beautiful palace built by Maharaja in 1881 under the supervision of Mr. Brush, the Engineer of Kathiawad Agency at a cost of Rs. 5 lacs from a prototype building plan of a typical town hall of an American city with a unique clock tower with musical chimes. Maharaja had brought special furniture from abroad and decorated the beautiful palace with the help of the famous artist Mr. Vanaruth, well-known all over the country in those days.

Swamiji stayed in this beautiful palace for a few days and held discussion in Durbar hall of the palace with Maharaja Thakore Saheb of Limbdi, Sri Yashwantshinji (1859-1907) who was a brilliant, learned and cultured prince. He was the first Kathiawad Chief to visit England (in 1876). During his second trip to England, he took part in the Jubilee Celebration of Her Majesty the Queen Empress in 1887, who with her own hands bestowed upon him the decoration of K.C.I.E. He had also visited America. President Cleveland had warmly greeted the Maharaja at the White House in Washington DC. Thakore Saheb described in detail what he had learnt from his visits to England and America and requested Swamiji to go to these countries for preaching Sanatana Dharma. Thakore Saheb of Limbdi was the first among the Maharajas to inspire Swamiji to go to the West for preaching work.

Swamiji discussed various topics with Thakore Saheb. Both were young (Thakore Saheb was about four years older than Swamiji. He was born on 23-5-1859) and soon both became intimate friends. Thakore Saheb was astonished to find that Swamiji’s knowledge was not only limited to spiritual matters but his extraordinary brilliance, could comprehend almost any subject on earth. Swamiji too, started to admire the extra-ordinary genius of Thakore Saheb who did much in the cause of education. Thakore Saheb was of the firm opinion that for the regeneration of India to take place, Indian women must be educated. His adroit handling of the difficult problems that arise between the ruler and the ruled, and his ability to express his views in good English, attracted the attention of His Excellency Sir James Fergusson, who offered him a seat in the local Legislative council. Thakore Saheb, performed his duties in such an efficient manner that His Excellency Lord Raey wrote:

“My dear friend, now that your term of office in the Legislative Council has expired, I write to say how sorry I am. The Government will be deprived in the future of your service and I must be permitted to add that in you Kathiawar had a most worthy representative.” (The Representative Men of the Bombay Presidency; ed. John Houston (Bombay—William Watson & Co. ) p. 23.)

Efficient in administration and a great philanthropist at heart, he was a pious man, a true Rajarshi. English writer John Houston wrote about him :

“The purity of his life has elicited for him the title, ‘Great Janaka’ who was an ornament in bygone ages and was endowed with great wisdom. Upon the authority of the Vedanta philosophy the Maharaja says that one may divert the Nile, drink the Pacific Ocean dry, root out from the base the Himalayan mountains, and swallow fire, but more difficult than all these is to control the mind, without which no liberation is possible. He further thinks that all desire is ignorance, the destruction of desire is liberation, and this liberation is brought about only by ceasing to desire.” (Ibid p. 25.)

Most of the discussion between Swamiji and Thakore Saheb were presumably on spiritual matters because Thakore Saheb was a highly spiritual man. He used to spend a lot of time reading and discussing about religion and philosophy. He had already studied a great many Hindu scriptures as well as books of Western writers. Moreover, Thakore Saheb had no children and his younger brother had passed away on 25-8-1891. So he was in a solemn and receptive mood to discuss about spiritual matters. Having been charmed with the spiritual power of Swamiji, he took mantra-diksha and became his disciple.

In Limbdi, Swamiji had many discussions in Sanskrit with the local pundits. Sri Vaijanath Motiram Bhatt, a priest in the temple of Akaleshwar Mahadev, was present on several of those occasions. Later this priest took sannyasa and eventually became Sri Shankar Jagannath Tirtha, the Shankaracharya of the Govardhan Math, Puri. (Gunavantarai Jani, Sri Shankar Jagannath Tirtha (Gujarati) (Limbdi Sri Jagadish Ashrama, 1980), 1. 233.)

After spending a few days in the pleasant company of Thakore Saheb, Swamiji left Limbdi for visiting other places in Gujarat. He obtained letters of introduction from Thakore Saheb who advised him to be more circumspect while choosing his lodging. Swamiji too had learnt his lesson and began to be more careful. After visiting Junagadh, Dwarka, Somnath, Porbandar, Bhuj, Narayan Sarovar, Bhavnagar, Palitana, Nadiad, Baroda etc. Swamiji reached Mumbai (old Bombay) (in the end of April 1892) and from there he went to Mahabaleshwar to spend the summer there. He found to his surprise and joy that Thakore Saheb was also holidaying there. Thakore Saheb was delighted to meet his Guru and requested him to be his guest. Swamiji gladly agreed. After spending the summer at Mahabaleswar, Swamiji went to Pune (old Poona) and again spent a few days with Thakore Saheb. During this period both of them discussed many spiritual topics. These discussions were noted down by Thakore Saheb in his diary. Extracts of this diary (Nondhpothi) have been published in the book “Sri Yashwant Charit” in Gujarati (First published in 1896). Thakor Saheb wrote:

“I am pleasantly surprised at Swami Sri Vivekananda’s deep knowledge of the Shastras. Whatever knowledge of the Shastras I had, has been much increased through discussions with him. At the end of yesterday’s discussion it was proved that in ancient times the cast system was based only upon Guna and Karma. There was a considerable discussion on Adharma or sin. Any action contrary to the ten characteristics (Lakshanas) of Dharma is to be considered as Adharma, that is, sin. Such actions are of three kinds—Bodily, oral, and mental. Different dispositions of men are caused due to the effect of Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. Swami Sri Dayananda has stated that Jivas, Ishvara, and Maya are beginningless (Anadi), but according to Vivekananda, Prakriti and Purusha are beginningless and the effect caused by their combination is the Jiva; I believe his opinion to be better.” (V. V. Raghavji Joshi, Sri Yashwant Jivan Charitra (Gujarati), Sri Ramakrishna Prarthana Mandir, Limbdi Second edition, 1988 (first published in 1896), p. 218)

Thakore Saheb become so much attached to Swamiji that he requested him repeatedly “Swamiji, do come with me to Limbdi and remain there for good.” Swamiji replied, “Not now, Your Highness. For I have work to do. I cannot rest now. But if ever I live the life of retirement it shall be with you.” … But alas ! Swamiji was never to lead the life of retirement. He entered Mahasamadhi in harness of work on 4th July 1902 before reaching his fortieth year. Thakore Saheb too passed away soon after, on 15th April 1907. According to Elizabeth Sharpe –

“He had never quite recovered from the shock of a part of his palace being accidentally burnt down from which he and his surviving Rani had to escape at night. The memory of the magnificent Limbdi Library with its wonderful Old Sanskrit manuscripts would invariably bring tears to the Prince’s eyes.” (Elizabeth Sharpe,Thakore Saheb Sri Daultsingh of Limbdi (London, John Murray, First edition 1931), p. 97)

After returning from the West, Swamiji tried many times to visit Limbdi at the earnest invitation of Thakor Saheb but failed to do so. While Swamiji was in Khetri he received invitation from Thakore Saheb of Limbdi and decided to go to Limbdi. In his letter dated 14.12.1897 he wrote to his Gurubhai Swami Brahmanandaji,

“The Raja of Limbdi, too is writing earnestly. I cannot avoid going there also. I shall make a lightning tour of Kathiawar—that is what it will come to…” (The Complete works of Swami Vivekananda, Mayavati Memorial Edition (1986), Vol. 8 p. 440)

Swamiji started for Limbdi from Khetri and came as far as Ratlam Railway Junction but owing to indifferent health, he was forced to give up his idea of visiting Gujarat.

In 1898, Swamiji went to Kashmir and from there he thought of coming to Gujarat. He wrote to Sri Haripada Mitra from Kashmir in his letter dated 17th September, 1898

“I shall probably visit Kutch, Bhuj, Junagadh, Bhavnagar, Limbdi and Baroda and then proceed to Calcutta.” (Ibid Vol. 2 p. 378)

However, this time also he could not carry out his intention due to poor health.

After returning from his second visit to the West, Swamiji again decided to visit Gujarat at the invitation of Thakore Saheb of Limbdi and others. He wrote from Belur Math to his Gurubhai Swami Ramakrishnanandaji on 3rd June, 1901:

“After you have taken a month’s rest here, you and I together will make a grand tour via Gujarat, Bombay, Poona, Hyderabad, Mysore to Madras. Would not that be grand?” (Ibid Vol. 2 p. 598)

He wrote to Miss Macleod in 1901 from Belur Math:

“I will drag myself through the Bombay Presidency even if only to say “How do you do?” to all friends. The Bombay people have waited and waited till they are sick—must see them this time.” (Ibid Vol. 5 p. 164-165)

This time also Swamiji’s desire of visiting Limbdi and other places of Bombay Presidency remained unfulfilled.

Thus Swamiji could not fulfil his promise given to Thakore Saheb of coming to Limbdi to stay with him. Devotees however feel that in a mystical sense he did keep his promise. He could not come to Limbdi in physical form but perhaps he came in his subtle form and that too, not alone, he brought Sri Ramakrishna and Holy Mother with him.

The fire in 1906, which consumed a major portion of the beautiful Limbdi palace, left untouched the Darbar Hall where Swamiji had stayed. Sixty five years later Sri Chhatrasalji, the present Thakore Saheb of Limbdi, donated the palace to a public body named ‘Sri Ramakrishna Prarthana Mandir’. And now this trust has handed over the palace along with other properties to Ramakrishna Mission.

Today the portraits of Sri Ramakrishna, the Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda and a marble statue of Sri Ramakrishna are worshipped daily in what was earlier the Darbar Hall. How did it all happen? There is an interesting story behind it. (Facts of the story gathered by the author directly from Rajamata Pravinkunverba and Sri Niranjabhai Shah, son of Sri Chhabilbhai Shah.)

Sri Chhabilbhai Shah, a cotton merchant belonging to an orthodox Jain family had business interests in Rangoon, Kolkata (old Calcutta) and Mumbai (old Bombay). Chronic stomach trouble compelled him to return to his hometown where he recovered his health. In October 1966, his wife Smt. Ajavaliben became a victim of acute diabetes. One day she told Sri Chhabilbhai that she had a vision of a yogi on the previous night and after saluting him she was feeling better. Sri Chhabilbhai started wondering as to who might be this yogi who saved the life of his wife. None could identify the Yogi. Meanwhile, Sri Chhabilbhai accidently happened to read a short sketch of Sri Ramakrihna’s life in a Gujarati periodical (Akhand Ananda—August 67) and became curious to learn more about him. He got some books from the Rajkot centre of Ramakrishna Math and read them. Seeing a picture of Sri Ramakrishna in one of those books, Ajavaliben exclaimed that this was the Yogi she had seen in her vision. Both husband and wife became interested in Sri Ramakrishna. Soon a group was formed which frequently met and conducted prayer meetings. They started work in a small rented house. Their number grew and they felt the need of a more spacious and permanent place for their gathering. At that time the palace where Swamiji had stayed was lying idle. The Library etc. had already been destroyed in fire in 1906 and because of a few attempted thefts, valuables of gold and silver had already been shifted to some other place. Some local gentlemen had tried to get it for a college but the project had fallen through. Some one (may be jokingly) suggested, “why not ask for the palace for our prayer meetings?” But Sri Chhabilbhai could not summon enough courage to ask for the palace for this purpose.

One night Sri Chhabilbhai heard a voice telling him, “Ask for it, you will get it.” The voice was heard thrice. The next morning he phoned to the Secretary of Rajamata to fix up an interview with her, informing her the purpose of his visit. The same evening he had an audience with Rajamata who was overjoyed to listen to this request of Sri Chhabilbhai but she did not show any outward sign. She said that she must get the concurrence of her son—Lalji (Sri Chhatrasalji) who was away in Delhi, before she takes final decision in the matter. In a week’s time Sri Chhatrasalji returned and readily agreed to the proposal of conducting prayers in the Darbar Hall and later donated the whole palace to Sri Ramakrishna Prarthana Mandir (on 14.10.71).

Rajamata had readily agreed to donate the palace because she had already heard that some people had started Prarthana Mandal in Limbdi in the name of Sri Ramakrishna. In fact she had thought of visiting their place of prayer incognito with a companion on the same day when Sri Chhabilbhai put up this request. But the cause of her thrilling joy was not solely due to this strange coincidence.

Rajamata Sri Pravinkunverba was the wife of late Sri Digvijaysinhji who succeeded Sri Daulatsinhji (who was selected by Sri Yashwantsinhji as his heir, as he had no issue). In 1954, she had visited Mount Abu. There in the Ashrama of her Guru—Swami Shraddhanandaji she saw a picture hanging on the wall and asked excitedly “whose picture is it?” The Swami replied, “Why, he is Ramakrishna Paramahansa—a renowned saint of Bengal.” Rajamata revealed that she had been having the vision of Sri Ramakrishna since 1951. While lying down she used to see a Yogi, with her open eyes, and the picture would travel on the wall facing her. She was exceedingly glad to know from her Guru that the visions she had were of Sri Ramakrishna. Later in 1954, when she was seriously sick she saw Sri Ramakrishna standing before her with a drop of tear in his eyes. He disappeared while blessing her with his right hand. Rajamata recovered from her illness and asked her Guru about the significance of this vision. Swami Shraddhanadaji said, “Probably Sri Ramakrishna wants to get some work done through you.” Rajamata could not understand this work until 1968, 18 years later when Sri Chhabilbhai requested for the palace for Sri Ramakrishna.

Rajamata as well as other devotees feel that Swamiji kept his promise of coming to Limbdi, though in subtle form and brought with him Sri Ramakrishna and the Holy Mother as well.

Meditation in Sihor (bhavnagar)

with letters of introduction from Thakore Saheb of Limbdi to various Rajas and Diwans of Kathiawad, Swamiji proceeded to Junagadh via Bhavnagar and Sihor after spending a few days at Limbdi. At Sihor, Swamiji is believed to have deeply meditated in the ancient temple of Gautameshwar Mahadev apart from seeing many places of historic importance. At Bhavnagar Swamiji must have spent a good deal of time in important discussions with the Maharaja of Bhavnagar. From him Swamiji got the letter of introduction addressed to Maharani of Kolhapur. Maharaja of Bhavnagar Sir Takhtsinhji, (1858-1896) was, according to Houston “One of the most enlightened and progressive rulers that India has known”. He spent over Rs. 1,25,00,000 on public works during his reign exclusive of the large outlay of Rs. 70 lakhs on construction of railway line. After returing from the West, Swamiji sent two of his Gurubhais, Swami Turiyananda and Swami Saradananda to Gujarat to preach and to collect funds. Both of them spent about 3 months in Gujarat. At Bhavnagar they received a telegram from Swamiji to return directly as his health had deteriorated. This indicates that Swamiji’s stay in Bhavnagar, though short, must have remained fruitful. (‘Glimpses of a Great Soul’ by Swami Aseshananda. The Vedanta Society of Portland, Oregon, USA, p. 32.)

Moreover, Maharaja of Bhavnagar Takhtsinhji was a lover of music, he used to quite often organise musical programmes of the State Musician Sri Maganbhai Pitambarbhai Andharia in his palace. Sri Maganbhai was a knower of classical music and was of a religious temperament. It is no wonder that he was attracted to Swamiji, who was also a lover of music. He took Swamiji to his house and made him stay there for a few days.

Fortunately, this house still exists thanks to the efforts of the descendants of Sri Maganbhai.

Austerities at Girnar (junagadh) Austerities at Girnar

after reaching junagadh, swamiji became the guest of Sri Haridas Viharidas Desai, Diwan of Junagadh and later he stayed with Sri Chhaganlal Pandya, who was Manager in Diwan’s office. Swamiji saw many ancient monuments and ruins—an old fortress called Uparkot, an old Rajput palace, two ancient wells, Khapra Khodia caves dating back to the Buddhist period, perhaps used as monasteries, ‘Ashoka Shilalekh’ in which the edicts of Emperor Ashoka and of the other emperors are inscribed and many other places of historical importance.

Girnar, a group of about ten hills, highest of which is Gorakhnath (about 3600 ft.) has been a place of pilgrimage sacred to Buddhists, Jains and Hindus alike before the days of Ashoka (272-231 B.C.). For Swamjji, it must have been of special interest because here Pavahari Baba was initiated into the mysteries of yoga. (Life of Swami Vivekananda (1979 edition) Vol. 1. p. 229) Climbing starts from Girnar Taleti. There are 10,000 or more steps cut in the rock, leading to the many Jain and Hindu temples built on the different hills. After the first half of the climb, the way becomes very narrow, and at times turns on the edge of a great precipice. Used to mountain paths, Swamiji made the ascent with ease. How many of the hills he climbed is not known; but his pilgrimage to the place brought on a yearning to be absorbed in spiritual practices; for he soon sought out a solitary cave, where he practised meditation for a few days. While he was there, the Diwan took all possible care of him. This is known from the letter Swamiji wrote to him from Girnar: (The Life of Swami Vivekananda—by His Eastern and Western Disciples, Chapter-16 (In Western India), p. 291)

“Very kind of you to send up a man inquiring about my health and comfort. But that’s quite of a piece with your fatherly character. I am all right here. Your kindness has left nothing more to be desired here. I hope soon to see you in a few days. I don’t require any conveyance while going down. Descent is very bad, and the ascent is the worst part of the job, that’s the same in everything in the world. My Heartfelt gratitude to you. Yours faithfully, Bibekananda.” (The Life of Swami Vivekananda—by His Eastern and Western Disciples, Chapter-16 (In Western India), p. 292)

After a few days at Girnar, Swamiji refreshed in mind, returned to his friends at Junagadh. From the signature to the letter just cited, it is evident that at Junagadh he gave his name as ‘Vivekananda’. This is confirmed by Akhandananda who, as will be seen presently, was tracking Swamiji down. At Wadhwan, Akhandananda met someone recently arrived from Junagadh. This person said that at Junagadh he had met a learned monk named Vivekananda. The description of the monk tallied with that of Akhandananda’s beloved ‘Naren’.

Swami Abhedananda was also wandering in Gujarat at this time. He happened to meet Swamiji at Junagadh. This is the account that he gives in his autobiography of their meeting:

“On arrival at Junagadh, I came to hear from people that a Bengali sannaysin with high English education was staying for some days at the house of Mansukhram Suryaram Tripathi, a Gujarati Brahmin, who was the Private Secretary of the local Nawab … Elated with joy, I reached the house of Mansukhram … by enquiry and immediately found that my conjecture was true. Narendranath brightened up with joy to see me unexpectedly. I too could not check my tears to meet him after a long time. Fortunately, when I arrived there, Narendranath was discussing some topic of non-dualistic Vedanta with Mr. Tripathi … Mr. Tripathi requested me with courtesy to take rest and sent order in his house for arranging food for me along with Narendranath. … I gladly stayed in his house for three or four days in the company of Narendranath, and then I got ready to start for Dwarka.” (The Life of Swami Vivekananda—by His Eastern and Western Disciples, Chapter-16 (In Western India), p. 292)

With Sri Chhaganlal Pandya in Junagadh

for a few days, Swamiji stayed with Sri Chhaganlal Harilal Pandya (1859-1936), a great scholar and Manager of Diwanji Saheb, who became his staunch admirer. He was a great scholar, educationist and well known in Gujarat’s literary world as translator of Sanskrit classics like ‘Kadambari’. He also happened to be the brother-in-law of the famous Gujarati writer, Sri Govardhanram Tripathi and was the Director of Education of Junagadh State. About Swamiji’s stay in his house he gave a delightful account—how he charmed everybody by his personality, vast scholarship, songs and discourses and not the least by his proficiency in the art of cuisine, specially by the excellent ‘rasagollas’ he prepared. He was deeply impressed by Swamiji’s personality and in the introduction to his book ‘Christnu Anukaran’, a Gujarati translation of The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas á Kempis, published in 1915 (which includes as footnotes Sanskrit quotations from Hindu scriptures that resemble Kempis’s thoughts), Pandya gives a wonderful account of the days he spent in his holy company. (The Life of Swami Vivekananda—by His Eastern and Western Disciples, Chapter-16 (In Western India), p. 295)

Swamiji spoke in glorious terms about the wonderful life of Jesus Christ, which inspired Chhaganlal Pandya to write the above book. In his talks at Junagadh, Swamiji said that he had long since come to understand the influence of Christ in regenerating the ethics of the Western world. Becoming fervent in his eloquence, he went on to relate how all the medieval greatness of Europe—the paintings of Raphael, the devotion of Saint Francis of Assisi, the Gothic cathedrals, the Crusades, the political systems of the West, its monastic orders and its religious life—all were interwoven in one way or another with the teachings of the sannyasi Christ. From this he went on to narrate the excellences of the Sanatana Dharma, illuminating and enlarging his listeners’ understanding of it. And then, in a patriotic spirit, Swamiji made clear to them the nature and extent of the influence exerted by Hinduism on the Western religious imagination, and showed how Central and Western Asia was the scene of this interracial exchange of ideas. He brought out the values for which their own culture stood, and the essential worth of the Hindu experience in the development of spiritual ideals throughout the world. He told them also about the life and teaching of the Saint of Dakshineswar; and thus Sri Ramakrishna came to be known and appreciated in those distant parts.

While giving his opinion about a book on Sri Ramakrishna (in Gujarati) Sri Pandya wrote (in Gujarati) in his letter dated 2.3.1918 to the publisher:

“I heard directly from Swami Vivekananda as to how much joy he derived while listening to the nectar-like words of Sri Ramakrishna, how he received special grace of Sri Ramakrishna and how due to his overwhelming love and faith towards him it was possible for him to acquire Brahmavidya. I spent a long time with him at Junagarh.” (Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (Gujarati) Author and publisher : Dahyabhai Ramachandra Mehta, Danapith, Navovas, Vachali Pole, Ahmedabad, 2nd edition (1947) p. 3-4)

Chhaganlal Harilal Pandya became Swamiji’s staunch admirer. While giving his opinion about the book of Swami Vivekananda in Gujarati, he wrote (in Gujarati) in his letter dated 9.10.1921 to the publisher:

“I had the blessed privilege of coming in contact with Swami Vivekananda, therefore he himself had told me many things about his life… I had come to know as to how many difficulties he had to face for keeping up his vows of Brahmacharya. And when I think, with how much simplicity and humility he used to stay with us, in spite of being such a great scholar, feelings of great regard inevitably fill my mind.” (Swami Vivekananda Jeevan Charitra, (Gujarati) Author & Publisher : Dahyabhai Ramachandra Mehta, Ahmedabad, p. 15)

Chhaganlal Pandya also gave a vivid description of how Swamiji charmed and influenced everybody by his spirituality. This is what he had to say:

“The Swami’s simplicity of life, his unostentatiousness, his profound knowledge of various arts and sciences, his catholicity of views, his devotion to religion, his stirring eloquence, his magnetic powers and extraordinary personality influenced all of us in Junagadh. Added to these qualities he possessed a great proficiency in music and was conversant with all forms of Indian art. Ay, withal he was even an artist of the cuisine and could prepare excellent rasogollas. We were devoted to him.” (The Life of Swami Vivekananda—by His Eastern and Western Disciples, Chapter-16 (In Western India), p. 290)

With Sri Mansukhram Tripathi and Govardhanram Tripathi

swamiji visited junagadh many times. During one of the trips he had also stayed with Sri Mansukhram Tripathi, the well-known writer and scholar of Gujarat, a man of high character, who preferred higher values of life. Sri Mansukhram Tripathi (b.1840, d.1907) was born in Nadiad, the hometown of Haridas Desai. He had possessed ambition for public and civic honours, his high qualities would have been the means of gratifying it, but being a man of studious disposition, he was reluctant to accept honours even if thrust upon him. He had a lot of reservations about the new reformist wave inspired by Brahmo Samaj and others. Owing to these traits of his character, he was able to enrich the vernacular literature of India by his contribution in literary, and philosophical subjects through the medium of Gujarati. He became the protagonist of Sanskritik revival in Gujarati literature by starting with the help of like-minded scholars, an association named as ‘Dharmasabha’ in 1870. He also became the editor of ‘Dharma Prakasha’, which became the mouthpiece for the revival of the religious glory of ancient India in Gujarat. Swamiji must have enjoyed the company of his host (although he was 23 years older than him) their common interest being Vedanta. We get confirmation about Swamiji’s stay with Sri Mansukhram Tripathi from the account given by Swami Abhedananda in his auto-biography.

Mansukhram was the uncle of one the greatest literary figures that Gujarat produced in the last century, Govardhanram M. Tripathi (b.1855, d.1907). It was Mansukhram who moulded the mind of his beloved nephew through all the vicissitudes of life. Govardhanram was not only a great novelist, but also a poet of considerable merit and a distinguished writer of Gujarati prose. His magnum opus ‘Saraswatichandra’, published in four parts, is a landmark in the history of Gujarati literature. It is essentially an offering of devotion unto the motherland and the spiritual culture she stands for. It is not known whether Govardhanram met Swamiji during his visit to Nadiad. But the fact that he had read Swamiji’s works and was deeply inspired by his message is evident from his Scrap Book (3 vols, 7 parts), published after his demise in 1959. According to Ushnas, one of the famous poets of contemporary Gujarati literature, the third and fourth parts of ‘Saraswatichandra’, which were published in 1894 and 1901 respectively, after Swamiji’s visit to Nadiad, clearly shows the influence of Swamiji’s Practical Vedanta on the writer. Govardhanram was very much impressed by the prospectus of Advaita Ashrama, established by Swamiji in the Himalayas (Mayavati) and he expressed his desire to go and live there. (Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi’s Scrap Book (Bombay: N. M. Tripathi Ltd., 1959), Vol.2, p.287)

Sri Haridas Viharidas Desai, Diwan of Junagadh

during his very first visit to Junagadh, Swamiji had become a guest of Sri Haridas Viharidas Desai, the Diwan of Junagadh (whom Swamiji used to address as Diwanji Saheb). Diwanji Saheb was so much charmed with the company of Swamiji that every evening with all the state officials he used to meet Swamiji and converse with him until late at night.

Diwanji Saheb became so much attached to Swamiji that even after Swamiji had left Junagadh, he continued to keep contact with him. Diwanji Saheb found in Swamiji a unique personality and teacher and Swamiji in turn loved and respected him as a son does his father, the difference in their age being 22 years. What a great respect and love Swamiji bore towards Diwanji Saheb is evident from the inspiring and important letters of Swamiji addressed to him.

Swamiji wrote to Diwanji Saheb from Mumbai (old Bombay) on 22 August, 1892:

“The world really is enriched by men, high souled, noble-minded and kind like you, ‘the rest are only as axes, which cut at the tree of youth of their mothers’ as the Sanskrit poem puts it.”

He wrote from Khetri in May 1893,

“Believe me that I love you and respect you like a father and that my gratitude towards you and your family is surely unbounded … my dear Diwanji Saheb, I am the same frolicious, mischievous but I assure you, innocent boy you found me at Junagadh and my love for your noble self is the same or increased a hundredfold because I have had a mental comparison between yourself and the Diwans of nearly all the States in Dakshin and the Lord be my witness how my tongue was fluent in your praise (although I know that my powers are quite inadequate to estimate your noble qualities) in every southern court…”

“A friend in need is a friend indeed”. Like a true friend, Swamiji helped Diwanji Saheb to overcome his problems, whenever needed. Swamiji drafted out a letter for him and helped him to keep up good relations with both—the Nawab of Junagadh as well as British Government. He continued to guide him in this regard. He wrote from Pune (old Poona) on 15th June, 1892, “Perhaps by this time every hitch has been removed from your way in Junagadh, at least I hope so”. Again when he was in distress, Swamiji wrote to him from Mumbai (old Bombay) on 22nd May, 1893, a letter which will be ever inspiring to every good person:

“Often and often we see that the very best of men even are troubled and visited with tribulations in this world. It may be inexplicable but it is also the experience of my life that the heart and core of everything here is good, that whatever may be the surface of waves, deep down and underlying everything, there is an infinite basis of goodness and love and so long we do not reach that basis we are troubled but once reached that zone of calmness, let winds howl and tempest rage, the house which is built upon the rock of ages cannot shake. I thoroughly believe that a good, unselfish and holy man like you whose whole life has been devoted in doing good to others has already reached the basis of firmness which the Lord himself has styled as ‘rest’ upon Brahman in the Gita. May the blows you have received draw thee closer and closer to that Being who is the only one to be loved here and hereafter so that you may realise him in everything past, present and future and find everything present or lost in Him and Him alone.”

Similarly, when Swamiji was in trouble, while some vested interests in America raised all sorts of scandalous charges against his character and conduct, Diwanji Saheb, as soon as he came to know about it, wrote on 26 June, 1894 to Mr. G. W. Hale in staunch defence of his beloved Swamiji. This was a timely and important help Swamiji received from his dear Diwanji Saheb. Swamiji wrote to him in September 1894, “your kind note to G.W. Hale has been very gratifying as I owed them that much.”

From the above we get a glimpse of the extra-ordinary personality of Diwanji Saheb. Extremely pious by nature and efficient in administration his whole life (1840-1895) was devoted to the good of the people. His administration of more than a decade in Junagadh was marked by the most important reforms in every department of the State. Apart from building 12,000 stairs up Mount Girnar (by collection of Rs. 3 lacs from the public through lottery), construction of a bridge connecting the approach road from Junagadh to Mount Girnar, a temple of Narsi Mehta and Damodar Kund (all at his own cost), his greatest work was the construction of a railway line joining the capital town Junagadh with Veraval, the principal port, and connecting both with the great railway system of India. In 1894, he was appointed by Her Majesty the Queen to be a member of Royal Opium Commission. For serving admirably on the Royal Commission, Lord Brussey had proposed to the British Government the conferment of Knighthood on Diwanji Saheb; but in the meanwhile he suddenly, but peacefully, passed away after a brief illness on 17 June, 1895 in Nadiad his hometown. The whole town mourned his death and newspapers all over India and abroad lamented his death. The Amrit Bazar Patrika (Editorial) Kolkata (old Calcutta), dated 30 June, 1895 remarked,”In him India has lost one of her best sons.” ‘India’, London (Editorial) September 1895 remarked:

“By the death of Mr. Haridas Viharidas, India has suffered a great and lamentable loss. The people of India had no more unselfish, simple-minded and enlightened champion.” (‘Haridas—the Gladstone of India’ by Swami Ekatmananda, Prabuddha Bharata, Nov-Dec 1984, p. 18)

The Wonderful Experience of Mirage in Kutch

swami vivekananda describes mirage in his lecture on ‘The Real and Apparent Man’ delivered in New York:

“Once in Western India, I was travelling in the desert country on the coast of the Indian Ocean. For days and days, I used to travel on foot through the desert, but it was to my surprise that I saw every day beautiful lakes, with trees all round them, and the shadows of the trees upside down and vibrating there. “How wonderful it looks and they call this a desert country!” I said to myself. Nearly a month I travelled, seeing these wonderful lakes and trees and plants. One day I was very thirsty and wanted to have a drink of water, so I started to go to one of these clear, beautiful lakes, and as I approached, it vanished. And with a flash it came to my brain, “This is the mirage about which I have read all my life,” and with that came also the idea that throughout the whole of this month, every day, I had been seeing the mirage and did not know it.

The next morning I began my march. There was again the lake, but with it came also the idea that it was the mirage and not a true lake. So is it with this universe. We are all travelling in this mirage of the world day after day, month after month, year after year, not knowing that it is a mirage. One day it will break up, but it will come back again; the body has to remain under the power of past Karma, and so the mirage will come back. This world will come back upon us so long as we are bound by Karma: men, women, animals, plants, our attachments and duties, all will come back to us, but not with the same power. Under the influence of the new knowledge, the strength of Karma will be broken, its poison will be lost. It becomes transformed, for along with it there comes the idea that we know it now, that the sharp distinction between the reality and the mirage has been known.”

Swami Vivekananda might have experienced the above while passing through the deserts of Kutch while travelling from Junagadh to Kutch.

With Maharao of Kutch

after spending a few days in Junagadh, Swamiji proceeded towards Kutch with a letter of introduction from Diwanji Saheb to his bosom friend Motichand Lalchand, Diwanji of Bhuj. Bhuj was the capital of Kutch, situated at the base of a fortified hill on the northern side of the Rann of Kutch. Swamiji stayed with the Diwanji of Bhuj who introduced him to the Maharao and had long talks with him both upon the industrial, agricultural and economic problems of the land. He impressed upon them the need for ameliorating the condition of the masses as he had a great faith in the ability of the rulers to do good to their subjects, if they could be taught about the ancient Indian ideals of civil government.

Maharao of Kutch—Khengarji Bahadur was one of the most cultured, advanced and enlightened native rulers of India, who had the honour of an audience with Her Majesty during his visit to England (1887) who on this occasion Conferred upon him the title of Rao, the Knight Grand Commander of the Indian Empire. He took keenest interest in the subject of female education, got many standard English works translated into Gujarati and carried out considerable improvement in public works.

Being three years younger to Swamiji, he must have entered into intimate friendship with him. During Swamiji’s visit to Prabhas, he again met Swamiji and had long conversation with him. Maharao was deeply impressed by Swamiji’s magnetic personality and was astonished at his vast knowledge. He used to say:

“Swamiji, as after reading many books the head becomes dazed, even so after hearing your discourses my brain becomes dizzy. How will you utilise this talent? You will never rest until you have done wonderful things!”

Swamiji afterwards went to Mandvi at the invitation of Maharao of Kutch, who made all arrangement for his pilgrimage to various places in Kutch—Narayan Sarovar, Ashapura (Devi Temple) etc.

Later when Swamiji was again at Bhuj with his brother-disciple Swami Akhandananda, he told him:

“The Raja is paying us too much attention and that may be an eyesore to many if we stay here long. Twenty five years ago a Bengali sannyasin named Ananda Ashrama came to Bhuj and helped much in the improvement of the State. But such reforms did not find favour in the eyes of the State officers. Ananda Ashrama became their eyesore. His enemies mixed poison with his food and killed him. We may have the same fate. Let us move off even tomorrow.” (From Holy Wanderings to Service of God in Man, Swami Akhandananda, 1st edition, p. 45.)

The Call of Somnath

after returning from his first visit to Bhuj and resting for a few days at Junagadh, he was off again. This time to Veraval and Patan-Somnath,also known as Prabhas.

Legend

as per shiva mahapurana, once Brahma (the Hindu God of creation) and Vishnu (the Hindu God of protection) had an argument in terms of supremacy of creation. To test them, Shiva pierced the three worlds as a huge endless pillar of light, the jyotirlinga. Vishnu and Brahma split their ways to downwards and upwards respectively to find the end of the light in either directions. Brahma lied that he found out the end, while Vishnu conceded his defeat. Shiva appeared as a second pillar of light and cursed Brahma that he would have no place in ceremonies while Vishnu would be worshipped till the end of eternity. The jyotirlinga is the supreme partless reality, out of which Shiva partly appears. The Jyothirlinga Shrines, thus are places where Shiva appeared as a fiery column of light. Originally there were believed to be 64 jyothirlingas while 12 of them are considered to be very auspicious and holy. Each of the twelve jyothirlinga sites take the name of the presiding deity—each considered different manifestation of Shiva. At all these sites, the primary image is lingam representing the beginningless and endless Stambha pillar, symbolizing the infinite nature of Shiva. The Twelve Jyothirlingas are Somnath in Gujarat, Mallikarjuna at Srisailam in Andra Pradesh, Mahakaleswar at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh, Kedarnath in Himalayas, Bhimashankar in Maharastra, Viswanath at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Tryambakeshwar in Maharastra, Vaidyanath (Baidyanath) in Jharkhand, Nageshwar in Gujarat or Uttarakhand, Ramanathaswamy at Rameswaram in Tamilnadu and Ghrishneshwar in Maharashtra. Ancient Indian traditions maintain a close relationship of Somnath with release of Chandra (Moon God) from the curse of his father-in-law Daksha Prajapati. Moon was married to Twenty-Seven daughters of Daksha. However, he favoured Rohini and neglected other queens. The aggrieved Daksha cursed Moon and the Moon lost power of light. With the advice of Prajapita Brahma, Moon arrived at the Prabhas Teerth, built a Shivalinga and worshipped Bhagvan Shiva. Pleased with the great penance and devotion of Moon, Bhagvan Shiva blessed him and relieved him from the curse of darkness partially letting the periodic waning of the Moon. Lord Shiva decided to rest in that Lingam till eternity, and hence called Jyotirlingam. Pauranic traditions maintain that Moon had built a golden temple, followed by a silver temple by Ravana, Bhagvan Shree Krishna is believed to have built Somnath temple with Sandalwood.

The second temple, built by the Yadava kings of Vallabhi in Gujarat, replaced the first one on the same site around 649 CE.

In 725 CE Junayad, the Arab governor of Sind, sent his armies to destroy the second temple. The Gurjara Pratihara king Nagabhata II constructed the third temple in 815, a large structure of red sandstone.

In 1024, the temple was once visited by Mahmud of Ghazni who raided the temple from across the Thar Desert. The temple was rebuilt by the Gujjar Paramara King Bhoj of Malwa and the Solanki king Bhimadev I of Anhilwara, Gujrat (present day Patan) between 1026 and 1042. The wooden structure was replaced by Kumarpal (r.1143-72), who built the temple of stone.

In 1296, the temple was once again destroyed by Sultan Allauddin Khilji’s army. According to Taj-ul-Ma’sir of Hasan Nizami, Raja Karan of Gujarat was defeated and forced to flee, “fifty thousand infidels were dispatched to hell by the sword”and “more than twenty thousand slaves, and cattle beyond all calculation fell into the hands of the victors”. The temple was rebuilt by Mahipala Deva, the Chudasama king of Saurashtra in 1308 and the Linga was installed by his son Khengar sometime between 1326 and 1351.

In 1375, the temple was once again destroyed by Muzaffar Shah I, the Sultan of Gujarat.

In 1451, the temple was once again destroyed by Mahmud Begda, the Sultan of Gujarat.

In 1701, the temple was once again destroyed by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb built a mosque on the site of the Somnath temple, using some columns from the temple, whose Hindu sculptural motifs remained visible.

Later on a joint effort of Peshwa of Pune, Raja Bhonsle of Nagpur, Chhatrapati Bhonsle of Kolhapur, Queen Ahalyabai Holkar of Indore & Srimant Patilbuwa Shinde of Gwalior rebuilt the temple in 1783 at a site adjacent to the ruined temple which was already converted to a mosque.

The present temple, which was built by Sri Vallabhbhai Patel and Sri Kanhaiyalal Munshi, is managed by Shree Somnath Trust.

The present temple is built in the Chalukya style of temple architecture or Kailash Mahameru Prasad Style and reflects the skill of the Sompura Salats, Gujarat’s master masons. The temple’s shikhar, or main spire, is 150 feet in height, and it has a 27 foot tall flag pole at the top.

The temple is situated at such a place that there is no land in straight-line between Somnath seashore till Antarctica, such an inscription in Sanskrit is found on the Arrow-Pillar called Baan-Stambh erected on the sea-protection wall at the Somnath Temple. This Baan-Stambh mentions that it stands at a point on the Indian landmass, which happens to be the first point on land in the north to the south-pole on that particular longitude.

In 1782-83 AD, Maratha king, Mahadaji Shinde (Ruler of North India: Ujjain/ Gwalior/ Mathura) victoriously brought the Three Silver Gates from Lahore, after defeating Muhammad Shah of Lahore. After refusal from Pandits of Gujarat and the then ruler Gaekwad to put them back on Somnath temple, these silver gates were placed in temples of Ujjain. Today they can be seen in Two Temples of India—Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga Mandir and Gopal Mandir of Ujjain.

In 1842, Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough issued his famous ‘Proclamation of the Gates’ in which he ordered the British army in Afghanistan to return via Ghazni and bring back to India the sandalwood gates from the tomb of Mahmud of Ghazni in Ghazni, Afghanistan. These were believed to have been taken by Mahmud from Somnath. There was a debate in the House of Commons in London in 1843 on the question of the gates of the Somnath temple. After much cross-fire between the British Government and the opposition, the gates were uprooted and brought back in triumph. But on arrival, they were found to be replicas of the original. So they were placed in a store-room in the Agra Fort where they still lie to the present day.

In the 19th Century novel, The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, the diamond of the title is presumed to have been stolen from the temple at Somnath and, according to the historian Romila Thapar, reflects the interest aroused in Britain by the gates.

Sir Henry Elliot records that 10,000 populated villages were held by Somnath temple as an endowment and that 300 musicians were attached to it. There were also 300 barbers to shave the heads of the pilgrims. Several times this temple was destroyed and several times rebuilt. Swamiji paused by this great ruin and pondered over the greatness that had been India’s in the past. He realised that in India religious life forms the centre, the keynote of the whole music of national life. Later (in 1897) he was to address his countrymen,

“Some of these old temples of Southern India and those like Somnath of Gujarat will teach you volumes of wisdom, will give you a keener insight into the history of the race than any amount of books.”(The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda,12th reprint, Vol. III, p. 289)

Today at the same spot stands the magnificent renovated temple of Somnath. How happy Swamiji would have been to see it? Or who knows, perhaps he saw it in his mental vision or perhaps it is the fulfilment of his vision!

After seeing the ruins of Somnath temple, the Suraj Mandir, and the new temple of Shiva built by Rani Ahalyabai of Indore (just near Somnath temple) Swamiji bathed at the confluence of three rivers (Hiranya, Kapila and Saraswati). Swamiji paused by this great ruin and pondered over the greatness that had been India’s in the past. The very dust for miles about is sacred to the devout Hindu, for, as the story goes, it was here that the Yadavas—slew one another, and thus their extensive kingdom was brought to ruin by Sri Krishna’s divine will. After this, knowing that his time was come, Krishna sat in Yoga under the spreading branches of an ancient tree. He left his body as the arrow of an aboriginal, who mistook him for a deer, struck him. At Prabhas, Swamiji again met the Maharaja of Kutch and had many long conversations with him. The prince was deeply impressed by the monk’s magnetic personality and was astonished at his vast knowledge.

The Vision of a Mission in Sudamapuri (Porbandar)

after a brief stay at Veraval, Swamiji returned to Junagadh and leaving it the third time, he came to Porbandar with a letter of introduction to the Administrator Sri Shankar Pandurang Pandit. After Swamiji had visited the ancient temple of Sudama, Sri Shankar Pandurang Pandit introduced him to the Maharaja who took an instant liking to him and urged him to dwell in the palace. (Maharaja of Porbandar Sri Vikmatji ruled from 1831 to 1900 AD. His state was in first grade but because he had ordered to cut the nose and ears of his subject, British Government had appointed an administrator from 1886. (Information provided by Late Sri M. P. Vora, a historian of Porbandar)) He was received at the Railway Station by Sri Ranchhodlal Vaishnav, Daroga of Porbandar, and taken to the residence of Sri Shankar Pandurang Pandit. After reaching the house, Swamiji came to know that Sri Shankar Pandurang Pandit was not at home. He refused to go inside the house and sat down near the staircase. When Sri Shankar Pandurang Pandit came, he warmly welcomed Swamiji and took him upstairs, holding his hands while climbing the staircase. The Daroga was waiting downstairs because he was told to arrange accommodation for Swamiji in a Shiva temple. But the news came to him that Swamiji will stay with Sri Shankar Pandit. The special food prepared for him was distributed among Brahmins. Next day the Daroga told Swamiji to show around the city, at that time he could understand that Swamiji was not ordinary monk but was full of wit and humour. (Sri Prabhakar Vaishnav, ‘Gandhi, Vivekananda, and Porbandar’, Times of India, dated 18 October 1991.)

Porbandar is also an ancient port city at present having an all-weather port, with direct berthing facilities up to 50,000 DWT ships. Onshore explorations in and around Porbandar brought to light, for the first time, the remains of a late Harappan settlement dating back to the 16th – 14th century BC, which is similar to that from Bet Dwarka. This is another evidence to suggest that the Harappan legacy of maritime activity continued till the late Harappan period on the Saurashtra coast.

The discovery of ancient jetties along the Porbandar creek signifies the importance of Porbandar as an active centre of maritime activities in the past. The Indian mythology says it is the birthplace of Sudama (Friend of Lord Krishna), hence it is being referred to as Sudamapuri.

Porbandar was formerly the seat of the eponymous princely state in British India. The ruling family of the state belonged to the Jethwa clan of rajputs and had been established in the area since at least the mid-16th century. The state was subordinate to the Mughal Governor of Gujarat until being overrun by the marathas in the latter half of the 18th century, whereafter they came under the authority of the Gaekwad court at Baroda, and eventually of the Peshwa. In common with the other states of Kathiawad, the state first came into the ambit of British influence in 1807, when the HEIC guaranteed security in the area in lieu of a fixed annual tribute to be paid to the Peshwa and the Gaekwad. In 1817, the Peshwa ceded his share to the HEIC; in 1820, the Gaekwad agreed to have the HIEC collect his due tributes in Kathiawad and remit the same to his treasury.

During the British Raj, the state covered an area of 1,663 square kilometres (642 sq mi), encompassing 106 villages and a population, in 1921, of over 100,000 people. It enjoyed a revenue of Rs.21,00,000/-. By 1947, the rulers held the style of ‘Highness’ and the title of ‘Maharaj Rana Sahib’; they were entitled to a salute of 13 guns as a hereditary distinction.

Upon the Independence of India in 1947, the state acceded unto the dominion of India. It was merged with the ‘United State of Kathiawar’, effective from February 15, 1948 and eventually came to form part of the present-day state of Gujarat.

As the birthplace of one of the most famous leaders of the world, Porbandar has a significant tourism-led infrastructure and economy. The area around Mahatma Gandhi’s home has been renovated to become a temple of peace.

With Sri Sankar Pandurang Pandit at Porbandar

swamiji visited porbandar twice. According to Swami Shivananda, it was the large beautiful library of Sri Sankar Pandurang Pandit which had attracted Swamiji’s special notice when he had come to Porbandar at the time of his earlier visit and that Panditji had requested him to stay as long as he liked at his place and utilize the library. Swamiji had consented to do so and hence he came again to Porbandar and this time stayed for about four months. During his travels Swami Abhedananda had come to Porbandar and learnt from Shankar Pandurang Pandit that a few days back an English-knowing Bengali Sannyasi named Swami Sachhidananda had come there. Later he found out that he was none other than Swami Vivekananda.

Pandit Shankar Pandurang (1840-1894) of Konkan was not only a Sanskrit scholar of eminence, but he was a man of affairs being at the time in high favour with the British Government. After his return from England in 1874, he was appointed as Oriental Translator in Bombay Government as he was proficient in nine languages. In 1886, he was appointed as Registrar in Bombay High Court and shortly afterwards as administrator of Porbandar. He was a great Vedic scholar and was at that time translating Vedas. Apart from editing ‘Atharvaveda’ and ‘Raghuvansha’ of Kalidas, he started a journal ‘Vedarthyatra’ for propagation of Rigveda. His numerous Sanskrit work were appreciated by great scholars all over the world. Prof. Max Müller had said:

“The editions of Sanskrit texts published at Bombay by Prof. Bhandarkar and Mr. S. P. Pandit and others need not fear comparison with the best works of European scholars.” (Rao Bahadur Shankar Pandurang Yanche Charitra, (Marathi) by Sri Nivas Narayan Karnataki, pub. by Prabha & Co. Goregaon, Bombay—4, p. 29)

Apart from this, he was a great philanthropist. He arranged for irrigation facilities for farmers, started telegraph offices all over the State of Porbandar, started schools for girls as he was a staunch supporter of female education, opened hospitals in the villages and carried out various works for the benefit of the public.

During his long stay at Porbandar Swamiji became very intimate with Pandit Shankar Pandurang and his family. He used to ride with Panditji on horse back to have a look at the distant villages. Being an artist of the cuisine, he taught the wife of Panditji, Ushadevi, various delicious preparations. Two sons of Panditji—Madhav and Vaman played with him, learnt swimming from him and became great friends of Swamiji. Three daughters Tara, Kshama and Bhadra who were at first shy, received greater affection and blessings of Swamiji. (One of them Pandita Kshama Row became one of the foremost Sanskrit poet of our times. According to the Sunday Standard of March 6, 1955 “Never before in the history of Sanskrit literature had a woman written such original works of outstanding merit—And so many of them. For Pandita Row is the author of nine epics, five full length dramas, even short plays and thirty five short stories, all in Sanskrit!” In 1983, she wrote her father’s biography ‘Sankar Jeevan Akhyanam’ (in Sanskrit) for which she was awarded the title of ‘Sahitya Chandrika’. The book contains details of Swami Vivekananda’s relationship with pandit family. A copy of the book was made available by her daughter Mrs. Leela Row Dayal with whom the author came in contact through Sri Umakant Pandit and Sri Madhav Pandit—descendants of Pandit family. To all the three the author is grateful.)

When Swamiji was at Porbandar, Pandit Shankar Pandurang was editing Sayanacharya’s commentary on the ‘Atharva Veda’. Struck with Swamiji’s scholarship, he often asked his help to explain some of the more abstruse passages which Swamiji did with his usual lucidity. Both kept at the work constantly, Swamiji becoming more and more engrossed in it as his perception of the greatness of Vedic thought grew still keener. Swamiji also finished reading of Panini’s ‘Mahabhasya’ at Porbandar. Swamiji told Swami Akhandananda that in the whole of India he had not seen Pandurang’s equal in Vedic learning. (From Holy Wanderings to service of God in Man, Swami Akhandananda cited p. 42.) Swamiji also learnt French at the instance of Panditiji who said, “It will be of great use to you Swamiji.” He wrote a letter in French to his brother-disciples at Alambazar and gave them a great surprise.

Pandit Shankar Pandurang told Swamiji:

“I am afraid you cannot do much in this country. Few will appreciate you here. You ought to go to the West. Surely you can throw a great light on Western culture by preaching the Sanatana Dharma.”

Swamiji heard for the first time about the religious convention that was to be held sometime in the following year at Chicago, while he was travelling from Junagadh to Porbandar, at Jetalsar Railway Station from Shri Hargovindadas Ajaramar Pandya, the Asstt. Station Master of Jetalsar Station.

Pandit Shankar Pandurang had two sons and three daughters. One of his daughters, (Pandita) Kshama Rao, grew to become an eminent Sanskrit scholar, and had many writings in Sanskrit to her credit. She wrote a biography in Sanskrit, of her illustrious father under the title Shankar Jeevan Akhyanam. The book gives, among other things, a graphic description of Swamiji’s stay at Bhojeshwar Bungalow. Presented here is a free translation—of her vivid account of the impression Swamiji left on her young mind. Her following account poignantly portrays Swamiji’s childlike simplicity and unassuming nature.

Among the many people who visited his (Pandit Shankar Pandurang’s) house as guest, was the well-known great Yogi Swami Vivekananda in whose company one felt blessed and sanctified. While coming from Dwarka city by boat, this sannyasin saw the Bhojeshwar Bungalow and asked, ‘Whose residence is this?’ His co-passenger answered ‘This is the house of one celebrated Srimat Shankar (Pandurang). Just as a jeweler after hearing the praise of a good gem wants to see it, so also after hearing about the erudition of Shankar Pandurang, the Muniraj (Swami Vivekananda) wanted to see him. Endowed with wisdom and austerities, as Swamiji was, he requested for halting the boat, and along with another co-scholar, he alighted from the boat. Shankar Pandit, who (always) liked to play a good host, welcomed this special guest to Bhojeshwar Bungalow with warmth and devotion. After finishing his bath and daily worship, etc., the Muniraj (Swami Vivekananda) took some rest. After rest, the Shankar Pandit escorted Swamiji to the well-lit dining hall which was full of sweet aroma. When Swamiji entered the dining hall, Shankar Pandit’s two sons—Madhav and Vaman—greeted Swamiji with folded hands. But Shankar Pandit’s three daughters—Tara, Kshama and Bhadra—stood silent, startled at the luminous personality of Swamiji. Swamiji was more pleased with these girls than with the two boys who kept on talking every minute. After the food, Shankar Pandit entertained Swamiji, who had a luminous personality, by conversing about various interesting subjects. Next day, Shankar pandit, took Swamiji to the sea shore and also to many other places of interest. Swamiji was amazed at Shankar Pandit’s intelligence by seeing the new institution(s) Shankar Pandit had started. Then they both came to the sea shore (again). Sweet breeze had added charm to the atmosphere. They saw Shankar Pandit’s two sons learning how to swim with the help of a coach. Three girls (Shankar Pandit’s daughters) were joyfully playing, along with their maid, on the sea shore. They had carefully built a small castle of sand. The girls were sweetly singing a song and were going round the sand castle, while clapping their hands. Hearing their hazy but sweet song, Swamiji also joined their song-and-dance play. Overjoyed at seeing he had joined them like a child, these girls happily included this yogi in their play. After this Swamiji, laughing, seated the two boys (pandit’s sons) on his shoulders, and entered the waters in order to swim. An expert in all plays and games, Swamiji taught all the nuances of swimming to Pandit’s two sons. In the evening, Swamiji and Shankar Pandit riding on the horse-back, travelled a long distance and visited many villages. Swamiji was an expert in culinary arts. He taught (our mother) Ushadevi how to make many vegetarian and cereal dishes. Thus Swamiji sanctified this city (Porbandar) by staying for four months. Thereafter, having accepted our hospitality, Swamiji went his way (to further wanderings). (‘Swami Vivekananda: A Profile in Innocence and Simplicity’, A Monastic Sojourner, Vedanta Kesari, February 2006, p. 67.)

Humour at Porbandar

acharya revashankar anupram dave who was a centenarian, used to go to Bhojeswar Bungalow to meet Swamiji with his friend Madhav, when he was sixteen years old. Narrating his memories of those days, he said that one day the students of Sanskrit school were brought to Swamiji who talked to them mostly in Hindi, but at times Bengali and Sanskrit words used to creep in. One of the students Govindaji replied to Swamiji, “I went to Varanasi and have studied the ‘Sama-veda’. I have learnt six Mantras (Shastras?)” Then Swamiji asked, “Why did you not study further ?” Govindaji replied, “I happened to have Karela so I had to come back.” On hearing the word ‘Karela’, Swamiji had a hearty laugh. ‘Karela’ means bitter gourd, but the boy had meant that he had an attack of cholera.

Then Swamiji asked him to recite some Shlokas (Verses), which he did. Next, he asked Revashankar, “What are you studying?” Revashankar replied, “Panchatantra and Aesop’s Niti Katha[Fables]”, and recited a verse from each. Swamiji smiled and seemed to be pleased with him. Then Swamiji went for a walk. Revashankar remembers that he used to go for walks in the desert of Bhojeshwar with Sri Shankar Pandurang. The Swami always had his staff with him, and Sri Shankar Pandit, a spear. (The Life of Swami Vivekananda—by His Eastern and Western Disciples, Chapter-16 (In Western India), p. 297)

The Vision of a Mission

the maharaja of porbandar, Vikmatji, known as Raja Bhoj, heard from Sri Shankar Pandurang about Swami Vivekananda and developed an instant liking for him and invited him to stay in the palace. At that time an interesting incident took place.

Swami Trigunatitananda had been journeying afoot for some time, making the round of pilgrimages. He was the first of the band of brethren at baranagore to determine to become the parivrajaka. In his wanderings in Rajputana and Kathiawad, he had head of “a great Sadhu who is touring the country and who has aroused unusual interest and enthusiasm in religion among the princes and the people.” He wondered who this could be; he thought, “Perhaps it is our Noren!” But of course he could do no more than speculate. He had just then come from various places in Gujarat to the city of Porbandar and was staying in the company of some wandering Sannyasins. The monks desired to make the pilgrimage of Hinglaj next. But it was an arduous journey of many miles, and they were weary and footsore from long marches; so they thought, “Let us make this pilgrimage by taking the steamer to Karachi and then by camel ride through the desert country.” But where was money to come from? They were at a loss. Then one of the group suggested, “O there is a learned Paramahamsa staying with the Maharaja of Porbandar. He speaks English fluently and is accounted a great Pandit. Moreover he has a good influence over the Prince. Let Swami Trigunatita go and interview him. Perhaps the Mahatma will intercede with the Maharaja for us so that our expenses may be paid for doing the Tirtha.” But Trigunatita wavered. He was anxious to continue the journey afoot. There was no need, he thought, either to bothering the sannyasin or the Maharajah. But he had a secret suspicion that it might be the Leader himself who was at the palace. So finally curiosity got the better of him, and then, too, the monks pressed him hard. So he being the most learned of their group, headed the band and was strolling towards the palace.

But it so happened that at that very evening hour Swamiji was pacing on the parapeted roof of the palace, his mind absorbed in deep thought, as if searching for the solution of some important problem. Suddenly his eyes looked up from the ground where they had been unconsciously fixed while his mind was in abstraction, and he saw a group of sadhus at a distance coming towards the palace. He stared in surprise. He felt a sudden thrill passing through his whole body. He thought, ” What is this! Am I mistaken! Surely there is Sarada among them! What is he doing here? What does he want? How did he find me out?” A host of other thoughts suddenly stirred his mind and he was as if suddenly transported to Baranagore and to all the anxiety and all the clear attraction of that place. “No, it is not the time yet,” he said under his breath. “I cannot have him live with me now! I have still to find out my mission and test the words of my Master! Have I not told them to leave me alone! Again the old attachment will arise, unless I tear it out of my heart immediately!” And so, in spite of himself he assumed an attitude of indifference, and going down the flight of stairs to his room on the ground-floor, he received Trigunatita.

No words can describe the feelings which both had on meeting each other after a long time. Finding that the leader resented this discovery, his gurubhai, putting aside his joy at seeing him, said, “O Swamiji, I only came to ask if you can help us on our way to the hinglaj Tirtha that we have in mind to do? We are foot-worn and weary, and my companions wish you to intercede with the Maharajah that he may give us enough money for our purpose.” But Swamiji answered, “Why should I intercede for you? You ought to know that I do not beg money from anyone. Today I may be in a Maharajah’s palace, tomorrow I may be in a hovel. But what does that matter? It is nothing to a real Sannyasin. Indeed, I am thinking to take to the road myself in a few days. You are all parivrajakas and should face fate as it comes to you. So, now go away, and don’t show your face to me again!”

As Trigunatitananda was about to leave, Swamiji’s heart softened and he helped him and his friends; but he insistently urged upon his brother disciple never to follow him again, even if he had the slightest suspicion of where he was. And Trigunatitananda and those other monks, bowing down before Swamiji, took their leave and went whither their souls longed to go. Then Swamiji, with a sigh, returned to his study-room in the palace, saying under his breath, “O, it is all Maya!” And his heart felt weary for the moment and he longed for a glimpse of his gurubhais in the monastery of Baranagore; Next day he went to Hatkeshwar temple where Swami Trigunatitananda was staying and brought him to the palace to stay with him for a few days. But he soon blotted out all sentiment and all shadows of attachment and in the depth of his nature resolved to move on from Porbandar as soon as possible.

But when he made his intention known to the Maharaja, the latter insisted that he must remain sometime longer. And so Swamiji thinking perhaps that there was purpose in his stay settled down to hard intellectual labour.

During this time Swamiji was exceedingly restless. Indeed, before he had dismissed his brother-disciple, Trigunatitananda, he had called him to his side and had said, “Sarada, I am beginning to understand to some extent, now, what the Master has said of me. Really, there is so much power in me, I feel as though I could revolutionise the world! And all the learned men at the court of the Prince of Porbandar, saw this likewise, and agreeing with the Pandit told him, “Surely, Swamiji, India is no place for you. Go to the West, and when you have taken the West by storm, come back and you will find your countrymen following you and taking up your ideas!” Everywhere he travelled and at all the courts he visited the Pandits and the Princes found in him the same “terrible restlessness to do some work for his country, sometime, somewhere!” Later on when he visited Palitana, Baroda, and Mahabaleshwar, those who met him found the same “restless spirit”. They could not fathom the man. Swamiji seemed to be one who was as though literally consumed by a raging fever.

After a time, he grew uncontrollably restless at the court of Porbandar and was eager to break up his student habits and wander. Anyway he thought that would give him rest and was preferable whilst he was thus pursued by this tempest of inner restlessness. And he said to the Maharaja and his friends, “I have a MISSION to perform! But I cannot clearly see at present how I shall begin, or where it is to be!” It seemed as if his brain would burst. And the uppermost idea in his mind was the spiritual redemption of India. He saw the limitations of orthodoxy and the dread blunders of reform. He saw the sophisticated knowledge and stupid activity of some who were styled ‘leaders of men,’ and everywhere he found petty jealousies, mutual animosity, and want of unity. He saw India as potentially supreme, glorious beyond words, rich with the actual contents of Hinduism and Aryan culture; but he saw that all this was being degraded by demagogues of sweeping reform and bigoted orthodoxy. He had met some who were great in wisdom and these saw with him as to the necessity for certain changes, preserving, however, what was really true and great in the Hindu traditions. On the other hand, he saw hosts of minds blinded by the glare of an extraneous culture and its ephemeral power, making effort to throw overboard the whole cargo of the race’s experience, without a mature and far-sighted reflection.

Everywhere and at all times he confided to those who loved and admired him that the time had come for a new order of things. He saw that deeper than meditation and vaster even than the ascetic life was the immediate and pressing necessity to protect and rejuvenate the whole country. To the ruling chiefs and to their Prime Ministers he had announced this message. And they, seeing in him an intellectual genius and a man of realization gifted with an irresistible power of personality, respected him and listened to his words. Somehow he felt that to raise India in the estimation of the civilised world, we must first preach the glories of the Sanatana Dharma to the West, and so, when the Pandit of Porbandar addressed him in this regard, his inner self responded with waves upon waves of great depth of feeling. The more he studied the Vedas, the more he pondered over the philosophies which the Aryan Rishis had thought out, the surer he was that India was in very truth the Mother of Religions, the cradle of civilization, and the fountainhead of spirituality. But he was bitter in his soul that all this glory should seemingly lie buried under ignorance and that the millions were unconscious of it. He knew that the tides of the invasion of foreign culture for centuries, had incalculably swept away many of the glories of the culture of the race in the eyes of the people themselves, and that many of the Pandits, who ought to be the custodians of this culture, had become mere chatterers of Sanskrit grammar and philosophy and were only as so many phonographic records of its past, without being possessed of its spirit and of the sense of responsibility as to their adding to that culture the fruits of original, intellectual, and spiritual researches.

More and more these thoughts seized Swamiji’s brain and he fell into a paroxysm of pain. “What can I do?” he thought. “What can I do?” And despairing for the time, he broke from his associates at Porbandar and went as the wandering monk to Dwarka.

A Vision of Future India in Dwarka In The City of Sri Krishna

after a brief stay in Porbandar, Swamiji as a wandering monk reached Dwarka, holy with innumerable memories and legends of Sri Krishna. But of its glories nothing remains at present.

Dwarka is mentioned in the Mahabharata, the Harivansha, the Bhagavata Purana, the Skanda Purana, and the Vishnu Purana. It is said that this Dwarka was located near the site of the current city of Dwarka, but was eventually deserted and submerged into the sea.

The city was built by Vishwakarma on the order of Lord Krishna. Land was reclaimed from the sea near the western shores of Saurashtra. A city was planned and built here. Dwarka was a planned city, on the banks of Gomati River. This city was also known as Dvaramati, Dvaravati and Kushsthali. It had six well-organized sectors, residential and commercial zones, wide roads, plazas, palaces and many public utilities. A hall called ‘Sudharma Sabha’ was built to hold public meetings. The city also boasted having the possession of a good sea harbour. Each one of Lord Krishna’s wives had her own palace. Besides this, the city had beautiful gardens filled with flowers of all seasons and beautiful lakes.

Dwarkadheesh temple in present Dwarka city, believed to have been originally built by Lord Krishna’s grandson, Vajranabha, over the Hari-griha (Lord Krishna’s residential place)

After Sri Krishna left the earth for Vaikuntha,about 36 years after the Mahabharat War (3138 BC), and the major Yadava leaders were killed in disputes among themselves, Arjuna went to Dwarka to bring Sri Krishna’s grandsons and the Yadava wives to Hastinapur, to safety. After Arjuna left Dwarka, it was submerged into the sea.

In this place, Swamiji was again the itinerant monk, living where he could, eating what he might receive as bhiksha, now recollected in deep meditation, now abstracted in some vision of the past that told of the glories of the Yadavas and of their ruin, and of the greatness of Sri Krishna. And gazing out upon the ocean, his soul rose up in waves of agony at the thought of that India which was Mahabharata, nothing now remained except a faint outline of ruin. He sat beside the ocean’s shore and yearned ardently to stem the tide of another ocean, the ocean of the invasion of foreign culture, which threatened the very existence of the Dwarka of Hinduism Itself. And across the ocean he gazed, trying to fathom, as it were, its vast depths, and trying, also, to fathom the contents of the future years. Something seems to stir within him in the way of a faint glimmering of hope. He hoped and prayed. Then rising from a dream, as it were, he betook himself to the monastery founded by Sri Sankaracharya, known as the sarada Math, where he was received by the Mohanta, and was assigned an apartment among its numerous lonely rooms. He thought of the ages long ago when this monastery was a seat of great learning, and often he was overcome with pity at its departed glory and tears flowed from his eyes. And like another Jeremiah, he lamented over the evils which had befallen his country. But he was different from Jeremiah in that he struggled, in the sadness of his thought, for a solution of the national problems. He did not sit down and weep only; he thought; he passed through a tumult of intellectual struggle. And there in the silence of his cell in the Sharada Math in the ruined city of the Yadavas, he perceived a great light, as it were,—and that was the bright Future of India.

From Dwarka Swamiji went to Bet Dwarka, (Island Dwarka) Mandvi etc.

An Interesting Chase

on the eve of Swamiji’s departure from Delhi, his brother-disciple Swami Akhandananda had told him “Even if you go to the nether world, I shall hunt you out”. The interesting story of that hunt throws light on the route of Swamiji. While chasing him, Swami Akhandananda heard at Ahmedabad that Swamiji had gone to Wadhwan. At Wadhawan he heard that he had gone to Junagadh; at Junagadh he learnt that Swamiji had left for Dwarka via Porbandar; at Dwarka that he had left for Bet Dwarka; at Bet Dwarka that at the invitation of the Maharao of Kutch, he had gone to Mandvi; at Mandvi that accompanied by a party of body guards, he had gone to Narayan Sarovar, which was eighty miles away.

Swami Akhandananda was warned at Mandvi that the road to Narayan Sarovar was infested with dacoits. But heedles‑–of danger he sped on. On the way, he was beaten and robbed by dacoits. At Narayan Sarovar, he learnt that the journey to the place which might have cost him his life had been fruitless for he was told that Swamiji had left for Mandvi via Ashapura. The road lay through desert wastes and was also infested with dacoits and it meant a journey for a hundred miles, yet he heroically marched on in spite of having fallen sick.

Fate at long last looked with a kindly eye at Swami Akhandananda. For after reaching Mandvi this time, he learnt that Swamiji was indeed there staying in the house of a merchant belonging to the Bhatia community. On reaching Bhatia’s house Swami Akhandananda was overwhelmed with joy to meet Swamiji at last. He was surprised to see a change in Swamiji’s face which had a sublime radiance. Swamiji was also astonished and no less glad to meet his beloved brother disciple but when he heard the story of his chasing him, he got worried that his brother-disciple would not leave him alone as he had come all the way at the risk of his life. He told Swami Akhandananda, “Look, I have become a spoiled man, you leave me.” Swami Akhandananda replied:

“What would it matter to me even if you had lost your character? I love you, and that is not in any way affected by your good or bad character. But I do not wish to be in your way. I had a longing to see you, and now I am satisfied. Now you can go alone.”

Swamiji was happy to hear this and next day left for Bhuj, which Swami Akhandananda reached a day later. Both of them then went back to Mandvi and halted for a fortnight. There Swamiji made many friends. From there Swamiji went to Porbandar. Swami Akhandananda joined him at Porbandar after about a week and after spending a few days at Porbandar, he went to Jamnagar via Jetpur, Gondal, Rajkot and thus spent about a year in Kathiawad.

In The City of Temples (Palitana)

from porbandar, swamiji came to Junagadh and then started for Palitana—a city of temples many of which date back to the eleventh century. Here is the holy mountain Shatrunjaya, most sacred to all pilgrims, and especially to jainas. Palitana is a veritable City of Temples, and in the mornings one hears now and then the sounds of bells and chants and the beating of drums. And then the rest of the days is silent save for the noise made by vast flocks of pigeons that fly from the roof of one temple to that of another. Here paroquets and squirrels, doves and ringdoves are numerous, and even wild peacocks are to be seen perched in state upon the outer walls of the temple compounds. Many of the temples here are old, dating as far back as the eleventh century. High up on the Shatrunjaya maountain is a Hindu Temple, dedicated to Hanuman, and a Muslim Shrine dedicated to Hengar, a Mohammedam Pir or Saint. The view from the summit of this mountain is magnificent. For miles upon miles the plains extend, whilst to the east, the Gulf of Cambay is visible, and to the north stretches the granite range of the Sihor and the Chamaardi peak is seen. The Swami ascended this mountain and from its summit he saw this grand perspective. For miles upon miles was the scene of forgotten nations and races, and only some few miles away was the ancient city of Vallabhipur, once the capital of all this part of India and probably more ancient than Rome itself.

According to Mr. James Fergusson, the number of temples and small Shrines number over 500. It is a city of the Gods and meant for them only. All the peculiarities of Jain Architecture are found in more marked degree at Palitana than at almost any other known place.(A Handbook for Travellers in India (cited) p. 204)

Swamiji climbed to the top of the mountain to enjoy the view which is magnificent.

During his stay at Palitana, Sri Chunilal Sarabhai, Diwan of Palitana, had once invited him for meals. This was the last place in Kathiawar where he is known to have halted. (The great grandson of Diwan Sri Chunilal Sarabhai, Sri H. Angiras a life worker of Vivekananda Kendra, wrote to the author in his letter dated 10.02.92: “When Swamiji visited Palitana, naturally he was the Government guest and then Diwan of Palitana, Sri Chunilal Sarabhai Hazrat invited him for meals. His daughter Smt. Jayalaxmi was the hostess. During his visit he referred his plans to visit Kanyakumari and talked highly about it. She remembered it and visited Kanyakumari when she went on a South India tour in October 1935. She was very much impressed by Swamiji’s personality and her husband had subscribed to Prabuddha Bharata right from its beginning up to his death in 1983. She was younger sister of my grandfather and lived with us till her death in 1956 when she was 83.”)

Descending from Shatrunjaya, Swamiji passed by hundreds of Shrines belonging to this city of Temples. At Palitana, as also at Prabhas, he was well-known as a master in the art of singing and playing on musical instruments.

In The Company of Scholars at Nadiad With Sri Manilal Dwivedi

from palitana, swamiji started for Baroda; but how could he avoid going to Nadiad on the way—which was the home town of his friends Sri Haridas Viharidas Desai, Sri Chhaganlal Pandya and Sri Manasukhram Tripathi. It appears from Swamiji’s letter of April 26, 1892, written from Baroda to Diwan Haridas Viharidas Desai, that his first stop after Palitana was Nadiad, where he stayed at the Diwanji’s House.

During his short stay here he met Sri Manilal Nabhubhai Dwivedi, the well-known Gujarati writer. His life (1858-1898) was spent in writing many books in Gujarati, English and Sanskrit including ‘Imitation of Shankara’, ‘Rajayoga’, ‘Siddhanta Sar’, ‘Bhagavad Gita’ etc. Sri Manilal tried to interpret all aspects of human life and civilization in the light of Advaita Vedanta of writings in Gujarati and English, which comprises of essays, plays, poems, novels, translations, edited works, compilations, literary criticisms and book reviews. He could not go to Chicago Parliament of Religions but his paper was read out there. Swamiji also immensely enjoyed his company during his stay at Nadiad and spoke highly of him in his letter dated April 26, 1892 to Haridas V. Desai. Apart from writing more than sixty books during his lifetime, Manilal also left behind a few unpublished manuscripts including a work on Swamiji, ‘Swami Vivekanandani Americani Mulakato’, which he wrote before his death in 1898. This gives us an idea of the reverence with which he looked upon Swamiji. He was one of the pioneers in spreading Advaita Vedanta in Gujarat hence Swamiji must have enjoyed his company at Nadiad by holding discussions on Vedanta. (Dhirubhai Thaker, Manilal Nabubhai Sahitya Sadhana, (Ahmedabad : Gurjara Grantharatna Karyalaya, 1956) p. 336)

At Nadiad, Swamiji might have also met Sri Chhaganlal Pandya (who hosted him at Junagadh and originally belonged to Nadiad), Sri Manasukhram Tripathi (the popular Gujarati writer who hosted Swamiji at Junagadh and later at Mumbai and originally belonged to Nadiad), and Sri Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi (nephew of Sri Mansukhram Tripathi).

In Baroda—The Cultural Capital of Gujarat
Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwad of Baroda

from nadiad, swamiji came finally to Baroda before leaving Gujarat for Mumbai (old Bombay), with a letter of introduction from the Diwan of Junagadh addressed to his intimate friend Sri Manibhai Jashbhai Mehta, Diwan of Baroda, who was a man of piety and noble character. In 1884-85 he had received the title of ‘Diwan Bahadur’ from the Government of India along with a medal and gift of Rs. 75,000. In Kutch, he introduced great and beneficial reform in all departments—collection of revenue, education, sanitation etc. Sir Thomas Ferguson, Governor of Bombay invested Shri Manibhai with the title of Diwan Bahadur.

At Baroda, Diwan Sri Manibhai worked hard and there was spectacular progress in the field of education. Swamiji spent sometime with him in discussing about the education system of the State. Swamiji wrote from Baroda on 26th April, 1892 to Diwanji Saheb of Junagadh:

“I had not the least difficulty in reaching your house from the station of Nadiad. And your brothers, they are what they should be, your brothers. May the Lord shower his choicest blessings on your family. I have never found such a glorious one in all my travels. Your friend Mr. Manibhai has provided every comfort for me but as to his company, I have only seen him twice, once for a minute, the other time for 10 minutes at the most when he talked about the system of education here. Of course, I have seen the library and the pictures by Ravi Varma and that is about all seeable here. So I am going off this evening to Bombay.”

Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906) was a famous Artist. His paintings were sent to World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 and he was awarded two gold medals.

Sayajirao Gaekwad III (born Shrimant Gopalrao Gaekwad, 11 March 1863 – 6 February 1939) was the Maharaja of Baroda State from 1875 to 1939, and is notably remembered for reforming much of his state during his rule. He belonged to the royal Gaekwad dynasty of the Marathas which ruled most of present day Gujarat. Sayajirao was born in a Maratha family at Kavlana in Malegaon Tahsil, Dist. Nashik as Shrimant Gopalrao Gaekwad, second son of Meherban Shrimant Kashirao Bhikajirao [Dada Sahib] Gaekwad (1832–1877) and Shrimant Akhand Soubhagyavati Ummabai Sahib.

On assuming the reins of government, some of his first tasks included education of his subjects, uplifting of the downtrodden, and judicial, agricultural and social reforms. He played a key role in the development of Baroda’s textile industry, and his educational and social reforms included among others, a ban on child marriage, legislation of divorce, removal of untouchability, spread of education, development of Sanskrit, ideological studies and religious education as well as the encouragement of the fine arts.

His economic development initiatives included the establishment of a railroad and the founding in 1908 of the Bank of Baroda, which still exists and is one of India’s leading banks, with numerous operations abroad in support of the Gujarati diaspora.

Fully aware of the fact that he was a Maratha ruler of Gujarat, he identified himself with the people and shaped their cosmopolitan attitude and progressive, reformist zeal. His rich library became the nucleus of today’s Central Library of Baroda with a network of libraries in all the towns and villages in his state. He was the first Indian ruler to introduce, in 1906, compulsory and free primary education in his state, placing his territory far in advance of contemporary British India.

He recognised talent from among his people. He supported education and training of persons who in his opinion would shine in life. Those persons whom he patronised included Dr. Babasaheb Alies Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the architect of Indian Constitution; Dadabhai Naoroji, who started his public life as the Diwan (Minister) to the Maharaja in 1874 and thereafter went on to become the first Asian Member of the British House of Commons where he made no secret of the fact that he would also be representing 250 million of his fellow subjects in India.He also sent his Agriculture Commissioner Chintaman Vishnu Sane to The United States of America for research in that field.

Sayajirao used to visit England every year to select outstanding young people to join his service and in one of such visits he met 20-year Sri Aurobindo whom he immediately offered a job at Baroda College. Sri Aurobindo returned to India in 1893 to join the Baroda service.

In 1895 the Maharaja is claimed to have witnessed the successful flight of an unmanned aircraft constructed by S. B. Talpade, which happened eight years before the Wright brothers took to the skies.

Though it is not known where and when Swamiji met Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad of Baroda, but he had later told Prince Martanda Varma at Trivandrum that :

of all the ruling princes he had met, he had been most impressed with the capacity, patriotism, energy and foresight of H. H. the Gaekwad of Baroda. (Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda, published by Advaita Ashrama (1983), p. 60.)

However, the State records reveal that Maharaja was not in Baroda at the time of visit of Swamiji. He had gone to place called Lonavali (Lonavala?) In all probability Swamiji met him while he was in Mahabaleshwar or Pune (old Poona). After his return from the West, Swamiji wanted to visit Baroda and meet the Maharaja but it did not materialise.

Swamiji was also perhaps impressed with the Maharani of Gaekwad because he wrote on 17.2.1901 to Miss Macleod from Belur Math “I hope you will go to Baroda and see Maharani.”

In 1901, the Diwan of Baroda, invited Swami Swarupananda, a disciple of Swamiji, to Delhi and introduced him to all the royal guests. His Highness of Baroda also met Swarupananda there and was very much impressed with him. After meeting Swarupananda, he entertained a great regard for Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. He also invited Swamiji and Swarupananda to Baroda to preach Vedanta. Coming to know of this, Swamiji wrote to Swarupananda on 15 May 1901: ‘Dear Swarup, your letter written from Nainital is quite exciting. … If some real good comes out of a visit to H. H. of Baroda I am ready to come over.’ However, Swamiji could not make the visit. (See Monastic Disciples of Swami Vivekananda, (Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, 2009), p. 137.)

Probably on 26 April 1892 Swamiji left Gujarat and proceeded to Mumbai (old Bombay) and thus ended his historical tour of Gujarat.

The Story Continues

in spite of loving invitations from the people of Gujarat Swamiji could not come to Gujarat again, but for a short visit to Nadiad, on his way from Khetri to Mumbai in May 1893. But he continued to keep contact with many of them. He wrote thirteen inspiring letters to Sri Haridas Viharidas Desai, whom he used to refer as Diwanji Saheb.

Even after leaving Gujarat, Swamiji continued to get excellent hospitality from Gujarati people. At Mahabaleshwar, he was the guest of Seth Morarji Gokuldas and Maharaja of Limbdi and at Mumbai, he was the guest of Sri Chhabildas Lallubhai Bhansali and Sri Mansukhram Tripathi.

Although Swamiji could not come to Gujarat again, his association with Gujarati people continued. He travelled with Sir Jamshetji Tata of Navsari (old Nausari) (Gujarat), in the ship ‘Empress of India’, from Yokohama to Vancouver from 14 July to 25 July, 1893. Sir Jamshetji Tata was so much impressed by Swamiji that he requested him to be the General of the campaign for starting ‘Indian Institute of Science’ through his letter dated 23 November 1898.

Swamiji also became the friend of the Jain scholar, Sri Virchand Gandhi of Gujarat, who had participated in the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Both of them helped each other when they were in trouble.

The seeds of thoughts sown by Swamiji in Gujarat did not go in vain. It has resulted in a big banyan tree of Ramakrishna Vivekananda Movement with four affiliated centres of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission and several non-affiliated centres engaged in spreading Ramakrishna-Vivekananda ideology. The historic palace sanctified by the stay of Swamiji was gifted by Maharaja Sri Chhatrasalji of Limbdi to Sri Ramakrishna Prarthana Mandir on 14.10.1971, now it is an affiliated centre of Ramakrishna Mission.

The historic Bhojeshwar Bungalow, Porbandar, sanctified by the stay of Swami Vivekananda was handed over by the Government of Gujarat to Ramakrishna Mission on 12 January 1997 for converting it into a befitting memorial of Swami Vivekananda, now it is an affiliated centre of Ramakrishna Mission.

The historic Dilaram Bungalow, Vadodara, sanctified by the stay of Swami Vivekananda was handed over by the Government of Gujarat on 18 April 2005 to Ramakrishna Mission for converting it into a befitting memorial of Swami Vivekananda, now it is an affiliated centre of Ramakrishna Mission.

There are some more places in Gujarat waiting for being converted into memorials. Who knows what is in the womb of future! Many people have been inspired and have joined the movement. Many more are waiting to join. May the blessings of Swamiji be with them!