Woh Shaam Kuchh Ajib Thi...


I have vast reading. Among all the books I read, I liked this paragraph very much. An afternoon/evening description. Today I want to share this to all of you. Which book? Author? Where? When? All these questions will be addressed later. First just read this.

"... The time was a cold Sunday afternoon in November, and the place, it is true, a West-end drawing room. But he was seated, facing a halfcircle of listeners, with the fire on the hearth behind him, and as he answered question after question, breaking now and then into the chanting of some Sanskrit text in illustration of his reply, the scene must have appeared to him, while twilight passed into darkness, only as a curious variant upon the Indian garden, or on the group of hearers gathered at sundown round the Sadhu who sits beside the well, or under the tree outside the village-bounds.

" Never again in
England did I see the Swami, as a teacher, in such simple fashion. Later, he was always lecturing, or the questions he answered were put with formality by members of larger audiences. Only this first time we were but fifteen or sixteen guests, intimate friends, many of us, and he sat amongst us, in his crimson robe and girdle, as one bringing us news from a far land, with a curious habit of saying now and again "Shiva ! Shiva !" and wearing that look of mingled gentleness and loftiness, that one sees on the faces of those who live much in meditation, that look, perhaps, that Raphael has painted for us, on the brow of the Sistine Child...

"That afternoon is now ten years ago, and;
fragments only of the talk come back to me. But never to be forgotten are the Sanskrit verses that he chanted for us, in those wonderful Eastern tones, at once so reminiscent of, and yet so different from, the Gregorian music of our own churches..."

Excerpts from the book "The Master as I Saw Him: Being Pages from the Life of the Swami Vivekananda. London: Longmans; Calcutta: Ubodhan Office, Bagh Bazar." by Sister Nivedita (Margaret Elizabeth Noble)

Yes, it was an evening/afternoon more than a century ago. November 1895. Still it is as fresh as like yesterday. I read it in my school days in my mother tongue (Gujarati) . I could locate it today, that credit goes to Google

Today is Swami Vivekananda's birthday. I read his short biography in Gujarati during school days for speech competition. The above paragraph is from that book.

So on his birthday let's all pray that we blessed with The Master's eternal practical wisdom. So that we can Express our true self. Let's cultivate those good qualities of Swami Vivekanda in us. I think, exhibit is appropriate word not cultivate. We already have those qualities. Remember my earlier post? Groundnut?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice to read this article. yes, i am also gr8 fan of swami vivekananda.......

his thoughts r good to read, but i wish i can implement those all in my daily routine.....he gave me tremandeous strength....reading him only i could overcome negativity like fear or guilty....

keep writing good posts.
Hiral

parth said...

hopw i had been there during this session with swamiji,, never the less we are still lucky to have a guru in our life. and on Sundays even we dont understand what guru is saying in kannada it is his presence that makes me go there, dont know by just watching him how many Karmas of mine has been burnt.....!!!

Jai Gurudev

Anonymous said...

Very Nice One can almost visualise the scene

Anonymous said...

Manish Bhai,
Thanks for giving my blog a place in the article and glad that at least I am an inspiration for few who have taken up blogging !!!

Have subscribed to your blog posts as well....

Keep rocking and Blogging.

-Himanshu Sheth.

workhard said...

Nice post.. will come back and read more..


Poetry

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