Paragraph 5:
Another day he was going with me to visit the old Maharshi Devendra Nath Tagore, in the seclusion of his home in Jorasanko, and before we started, he questioned me about a death-scene at which I had been present the night before. I told him eagerly of the sudden realization that had come to me, that religions were only languages, and we must speak to a man in his own language. His whole face lighted up at the thought. “Yes!” he exclaimed, “And Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was the only man who taught that! He was the only man who ever had the courage to say that we must speak to all men in their own language!”
Paraphrase: One day, while visiting Maharshi Devendra Nath Tagore, Vivekananda discussed a recent death scene Nivedita had witnessed. She realized that different religions are like different languages, and we must communicate with people in their own religious language. Vivekananda agreed enthusiastically, noting that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa taught this principle and had the courage to say that all religions should be respected and understood in their own terms.
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Yet there came a day when he found it necessary to lay down with unmistakeable clearness his own position in the matter of Mother- worship. I was about to lecture at the Kalighat, and he came to instruct me that if any foreign friends should wish to be present, they were to remove their shoes, and sit on the floor, like the rest of the audience. In that Presence no exceptions were to be made. I was myself to be responsible for this.
Paraphrase: Vivekananda was clear about the protocols for Mother worship. Before Nivedita’s lecture at Kalighat, he instructed her that all attendees, including foreigners, must remove their shoes and sit on the floor like everyone else, showing respect and equality in the presence of the Divine Mother.
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After saying all this, however, he lingered before going, and then, making a shy reference to Colonel Hay’s poem of the ‘Guardian Angels’, he said, “That is precisely my position about Brahman and the gods! I believe in Brahman and the gods, and not in anything else!”
Paraphrase: Before leaving, Vivekananda referenced Colonel Hay’s poem ‘Guardian Angels,’ explaining that his belief encompassed both Brahman and the gods. He expressed his faith in both the ultimate reality and the various deities, rejecting any other belief systems.
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He was evidently afraid that my intellectual difficulty would lie where his own must have done, in the incompatibility of the exaltation of one definite scheme of worship with the highest Vedantic theory of Brahman. He did not understand that to us who stood about him, he was himself the reconciliation of these opposites, and the witness to the truth of each. Following up this train of thought, therefore, he dropped into a mood of half-soliloquy, and sat for a while talking disjointedly, answering questions, trying to make himself clear, yet always half- absorbed in something within, as if held by some spell he could not break.
Paraphrase: Vivekananda feared that Nivedita might struggle with reconciling devotion to a specific deity with the abstract Vedantic concept of Brahman. He didn’t realize that to his followers, he himself embodied the reconciliation of these ideas. He then spoke reflectively, answering questions and trying to clarify his thoughts while being deeply introspective.