Prabuddha Bharata or Awakened India

It was in the year 1898 that —on the occasion of the actual birthday (tithi-puja) of Sri Famakrishna on one of the early days of March —Swamiji (Swami Vivekananda) carried the urn cotaining the sacred remains of Sri Ramakrishna (which he called dtmäriim) in a procession to the site of the new monastery and duly worshipped it there. [...] Of course the majority of the visitors constituted women1953 'REMINISCENCES OF THE HOLY MOTHER a75 devotees and disciples some of whom had completely renounced all family ties and prferred to spend the greater part of the day and night in the company of the Holy Mother. [...] In the dark and dreary arena of the world where men are running a frenzied race for power and self-aggrandizement the need for the ideal of a universal religion underlying the unity at the core of the different relgions of the world cannot be overempli.ied. [...] But here amidst the diversified and majestic beauty of Nature within evergreen forests of tall pines deodars and oaks and with the walnuts and the flaming beauty of thcolourful Rhododedrons in front of the long range of snow-clad mountain peaks and in the deepest solitude of the Himalayan heights its successive Prsidents of illustrious fame have kept burning the torch lighted by Sw [...] In the life of every man 'has arisen a conception of the good things of the soul as having a value distinct from and independent of the good things of the body if not as the pnly things truly good to which other goodness is meirely relative'.