KendraUnfolds

article in the section on Vivekananda, I request you to make
the article sufficiently exhaustive to do justice to the subject. It
should run into about twenty-five typed fullscape sheets.

The construction work on the memorial project is advancing
steadily. The work will be over by March 1970. I am enclosing a
folder containing photo-pictures depicting construction activity
at Kanyakumari.

Plans about further activities by the Committee are yet to be
crystallised. We shall very much need your guidance before we
finalise the whole scheme. I shall soon send to you a copy of the
write-up under preparation for being placed before distinguished
persons of light and leading, for their perusal and suggestions,
if any.

When are you likely to return home? The country is showing
dangerous symptoms of Tridosha. May be, the crack-up, in the
circumstances, is necessary to facilitate rebuilding. In whatever
terms one may describe it, the present situation is really
challenging and it has been our unique privilege to have been
called upon to take up the challenge.

I am keeping fit and enjoying sound health and hope the same
with you.

Yours affectionately

12-08-1969

Mananiya Shri Achal Singh,

Respectful Pranams.

I hope, my previous letter, dated 14-4-1969, giving useful
information regarding the progress of the memorial-construction
work at Kanyakumari, must have duly reached your hands.

I am writing this to seek your help in the implementation of
our plan of publication of a Souvenir in the form of Vivekananda
Commemoration Volume of about 800 pages.

151

The Volume is to be brought-out on the Inauguration of the
Memorial which, with all its subsidiary structures, is expected to
be completed by March 1970.

I request you to go through the accompanying pamphlet
which explains the form and significance of the Volume and also
furnishes other details including its price as well as advertisement-
rates and the unique mode of advertising adopted by us to befit
the dignity of its subject matter.

I appeal to you to use your good offices with your friends
in the commercial and industrial fields to help this Souvenir-
publication with advertisements, the minimum acceptable
advertisement-space being half page, valued at Rs.1,000/-

The entire proceeds of this publication, I may add, will be
earmarked and used for setting up at Kanyakumari, alongside
the memorial in granite, a center for training cadres of young
men and women dedicated to the cause of social and spiritual
uplift of the people.

I also request you to commend this rich volume of abiding
value to schools, colleges, libraries and other similar institutions
under your care or in your contact for pre-publication purchase
of its copies, priced at Rs. 100/- per copy.

We shall eagerly await your communication, kindly conveying
to us how and in what manner you could conveniently help us
in the matter. If you desire the Committee to formally write to
certain parties of your acquaintance to whom you would be
introducing the subject, we shall do so after hearing from you in
that regard.

With respects,

Yorus sincerely,

152

13-8-1969

Mananiya Shri G.M. Bakshi,

Respectful Pranams.

I hope, my previous letter, dated 20-4-’69, giving useful
information regarding the progress of the memorial – construction
work at Kanyakumari, must have duly reached your hands.

I am writing this to seek your help in the implementation of
our plan of publication of a Souvenir in the form of Vivekananda
Commemoration Volume of about 800 pages.

The Volume is to be brought out on the Inauguration of the
Memorial which, with all its subsidiary structures, is expected to
be completed by March 1970.

I request you to go through the accompanying pamphlet
which explains the form and significance of the Volume and also
furnishes other details including its price as well as advertisement-
rates and the unique mode of advertising adopted by us to befit
the dignity of its subject matter.

I appeal to you to use your good offices with your friends
in the commercial and industrial fields to help this Souvenir-
publication with advertisements, the minimum acceptable
advertisement-space being half page, valued at Rs. 1,000/-

The entire proceeds of this publication, I may add, will be
earmarked and used for setting up at Kanyakumari, alongside
the memorial in granite, a centre for training cadres of young
men and women dedicated to the cause of social and spiritual
uplift of the people.

I also request you to commend this rich Volume of abiding
value to schools, colleges, libraries and other similar institutions
under your care or in our contact for pre-publication purchase of
its copies, priced at Rs. 100/- per copy.

We shall eagerly await your communication, kindly conveying
to us how and in what manner you could conveniently help us
in the matter. If you desire the Committee to formally write to

153

certain parties of your acquaintance to whom you would be

introducing the subject, we shall do so after hearing from you in

that regard.

With respects,

Yours sincerely,

11-9-1969

Dear Shri N. Subramanian,

Saprema Namaskar.

Following the receipt of your letter and the personal talk
you had with me in connection with its subject-matter, I
had opportunities to meet Shri Ramachandra Rao, Shri T.T.
Krishnaswamy as also Shri V. Mahalingam and discuss the
matter with them individually.

I also enquired from Shri Ramprakash Goel about the incident
referred to by you in your letter. He had, however, somewhat
different story to tell.

I very much wanted to talk to you …. I thought you would meet
me before my departure from Kanyakumari. But, unfortunately,
as I missed you, I am writing these lines to convey to you my
opinion over the subject. To put it in short, I do not think, you
will be justified in resigning from your present assignment on
the ground that some derogatory remarks on your efficiency
were made by one of your colleagues in an informal talk with
you in the presence of others. The cause we are serving is too
great to allow our minds to get agitated over these incidents,
which should rather be overlooked than discussed and harped
upon. If one were at all to take cognizance of such happenings,
they should be considered useful in so far as they provide us
opportunities to introspect and, at the same time, to learn to
ride rough weather which is again, in majority of the cases,
the creation of our own inexperienced and wrong handling of
matters. I shall, therefore, be very happy if you give up the idea
of leaving the assignment.

154

If, however, you feel that you do not, temperamentally, fit

in the whole set-up at Kanyakumari and that the atmosphere

there is not congenial enough to enable you to pull on for long, I

give you full freedom to try to make a search for more agreeable

surroundings and give up the Committee’s work, with one

month’s prior intimation, when the search materializes. Because,

I cannot, with all your affection and regard for me, force you for

long to continue in a situation which, due to whosoever’s fault

it may be, gives rise to frequent occasions for friction with your

colleagues.

With affection,

Brotherly yours,

02-02-1970
Camp, Bombay

Dear Shri Ramachandra Rao,

Saprema Namaskars.

I am writing this letter sitting in Cochin-Bombay flight.
Certain things that struck me while ruminating over all that we
discussed at Kanyakumari, are being conveyed to you through
this letter.

1. Shripadam is not to be kept open to public view till the
Mandapam is ceremoniously consecrated. Besides covering the
Shripadam with a suitable stone-slab, the door of the sanctum
sanctorum should be kept locked all the time. The Shripadam
site could be shown to visitors through the windows. Only
when some construction work is to be executed in the sanctum
sanctorum, the door should be opened.

While the workers or visitors return from the Rock to the
shore in the evening, all the four doors of the inner Prakaram
should be locked and the keys brought to the P.R. office by Shri
Subramanyam, Engineer-in-charge at the Rock and deposited in
the P.R. office. The doors should be opened only in the morning
for the benefit of the public. The opening and closing of the doors

155

of the Shripada Mandapam should be assigned to one of the
officers.

2. Our old practice of posting our officers, in rotation, at the
Rock for night-stay, is to be, commenced with immediate effect.
Hereafter, someone or the other of the officers must stay at the
Rock, during nights, and not a single night should be made an
exception on any score.

3. The number of night-chowkidars on the Rock should be
increased so that both the rear and the front of the Mandapam as
well as its flanks could be properly guarded during nights.

4. We should lay down a rule that every labourer to be newly
recruited on our Project should obtain a good reference from one
or two of our workers or other gentlemen known to us.

Proper screening of such labourers as are already working on
our project but are of doubtful character should also be taken up.

5. Measures should also be taken to tighten our security
arrangements at all points including the shore-jetty and the
stone-dressing yard.

Surprise visits to all the centres during nights should be
increased by giving a suitable assistant to Shri Lakshmanan. The
surprise visits should be reported to the Secretary the subsequent
morning and duly recorded in a separate book, which should be
placed before me during my visits.

6. I am anxious to know what arrangements you are making
to put the wireless instruments in order. You should devise some
alternative arrangements for inter-communication between the
Rock and the shore on all such days when the wireless apparatus
is not functioning. Those arrangements are to be put in force
immediately after the wireless goes out of order. A rowing boat
with trustworthy and responsible boatmen at the Rock-side
during nights as well as during the day when the normal plying of
ferry boats stops would be one of such alternative arrangements.

156

7. Besides the usual elaborate weekly report sent to me by you,
I request you to assign to someone the task of sending me a daily
report of the important happenings on the project, after meeting
the officers-in-charge of the Rock, the lands, the stone-dressing
yard, transport and the office. You may request Shri Ramprakash
Goel to do so.

8. Please show this letter to all departmental heads. About

other matters, I shall write to you soon in a separate letter. Please

acknowledge the receipt of this letter. I am to stay here till at

least the 10th of this month. I shall let you know my further

programme when it gets finalised.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

11-02-1970

Smt. Indira Gandhi
Prime Minister,
Govt. Of India
Prime Minister’s House
1, Safdarjung Road
New Delhi

Madam,

Sub: Vivekananda Rock Memorial Inauguration.

I recall with great pleasure our meeting on 22nd January when
I had called on you to apprise you of (1) the progress of work
on the Vivekananda Rock Memorial project which is nearing
completion as also of (2) our contemplated scheme of organising
an 8-week celebration programme to mark the inauguration
of this national memorial as well as of (3) our further plan of
activities to perpetuate the memory of Swami Vivekananda.

I consider myself fortunate that I could have, in our meeting
of only a short duration, your valuable views and suggestions
on important matters pertaining to our present undertaking and
future plans.

157

Your appreciation for our plan to establish at Kanyakumari,
alongside the memorial in granite, a suitable center for training
an All India cadre of dedicated workers, both men and women,
pledged to life-long service, for being deployed in various
backward areas of the country for social and spiritual uplift of
the people has enthused all of us. We shall, of course, keep in
mind your word of caution in respect of selection of persons to
be entrusted with the moulding or training of workers. We fully
agree with you that the stature, integrity and character of those
very persons will eventually determine the success or failure of
the great mission we are contemplating to take up.

About inviting dignitaries from abroad, especially from the
neighbouring countries like Ceylon, Nepal, Indonesia, Mauritius
etc. to preside over various programmes planned to be organised
on different days during the 8-week celebrations at Kanyakumari,
you opined that the idea was good but expressed doubts about
any favourable response in so short a time given to them. Even
six or seven month prior intimation, you said, was too short for
availing any foreign dignitary of eminence whose programmes
were booked far in advance. However, you asked me to meet
one of the Government officials in the External Affairs Ministry
to discuss the matter. You said that you would think over and let
me know the name of the official later.

I left Delhi soon after our meeting. I am again scheduled to
camp at Delhi from 13th to 25th of this month. If, therefore, you
kindly communicate to me the name of the official, I shall meet
him in person and discuss the matter fully. I am giving below my
Delhi address where I may be favoured with a communication
in that regard.

With respects, Yours sincerely,


158

12-02-1970

Shrimati Mekhala Jha,

Sasneha Namaskars.

I recall with great pleasure our meeting on 16th January 1970
when I, accompanied by my co-workers, had called on you to
apprise you of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial Project and the
allied plans.

Subsequently, I met Swami Ranganathananda at Delhi.
He felt very happy when I told him about my meeting and
discussion with Shri Lakshmikantji and yourself, in connection
with the Committee’s present undertaking and future plans. The
Swamiji, in fact, congratulated me for having approached the
right persons.

When I shall visit Bombay next, I may not be able to meet
you as both of you would have, by that time, left India to join
the new assignment. I utilise this opportunity to wish both of
you a happy journey. I also wish you glory and success in your
respective spheres during your stay there. I am glad that the
Americans will have now a real opportunity to understand the
ideals of Bharateeya womanhood. Because, it is our common
experience, that ideals are understood not so much by hearing
or reading about them but by seeing and experiencing them
embodied in someone’s life.

It is culture that withstands shocks, not a simple mass of
knowledge.

It is the “desireless” who bring great results to pass.

One’s destiny is in one’s own hands – the Guru only makes
this much understood.

-Swami Vivekananda

159

Please find enclosed an 8-page miniature-dummy of the
ensuing 800-page Vivekananda Commemoration Volume about
which I had spoken to you in my last visit. I also present to you a
picture of Swami Vivekananda. I am sure you will like it.

Please convey my respectful Pranams to Shri Lakshmikantji.
I assure you that even though both of you will soon be away, I
shall keep you posted with the progress of our work here.

With regards, Your Brother,


Organising Secretary.

22-02-1970

Dear Shri R.N. Venkataraman,

Saprema Namaskars.

I am writing this to request you to attend to the following
urgent work.

We have planned to write to all Colleges and Higher
Secondary Schools in the country regarding the Vivekananda
Commemoration Volume. Obviously, it is not feasible to type
personal letters to heads of all educational institutions in the
country. I am, therefore, getting the letter printed. Each such
letter will be accompanied by an informatory pamphlet and the
relevant order-form. The whole operation is to be taken up by
our central office. All these letters must reach their destinations
before 15th of March.

You have to immediately make suitable arrangements to
that effect. You may appoint additional hand or hands for that
purpose. I am arranging to dispatch to you the printed letters
and the requisite number of pamphlets within the next few days.
But you should take up the following works forthwith.

The immediate thing to be done is to (1) procure covers of
suitable size in requisite number (2) next item of work is to

160

carefully type correct address on the covers (3) the third is to
paste requisite postage (probably –0-35 nps) on the covers and
keep them ready. By that time, you will be receiving the printed
letters and pamphlets from Bombay so that the inserting of letters
in the covers and mailing of those dispatches could follow suit
immediately.

Such a bulk-despatching should be done with proper
precautions. This outgoing mail should be handed over to
competent officer on duty at the main post office and all
precautions should be taken against any foul play at the clearance
end.

I am preparing a draft letter to be addressed to all educational
institutions. If you have any suggestions to make regarding the
inclusion of any instructions (about proforma bill etc.) in that
communication, please send the same by return of post to Delhi.
I would suggest that you should yourself prepare the whole
draft and send it to me for my perusal.

I have to further suggest that you first prepare the covers with
the addresses of all colleges in the country. All Higher Secondary
Schools in the southern zone should be taken up thereafter. The
Western Zone and other Zones should follow next.

I hope you will be able to procure authentic lists or relevant
Government publications, giving up-to-date information about
all educational institutions in various States, together with their
addresses. I shall visit the Government Publications Department
tomorrow and see if any consolidated list is available. But I am
afraid, we shall have to ultimately send an urgent communication
to our friends at various State capitals with a request to send us
up-to-date lists at the earliest. To start the work forthwith, you
may procure the list of Tamilnadu and of other adjoining States.

I have gone through the report of the Managing Committee. I
have made corrections wherever necessary, I am sending it back
to you in this cover to enable you to take further steps in the
matter. I wanted to redraft Resolution No.1. But, now it is useless
as you have already brought the present draft on record.

161

While preparing the lists of parties that have placed orders
for Volume-copies, places should be listed according to States
and Zones. In some of the lists, places are wrongly shown. For
example, Dhanbad (Regn.No. 196) which is in Bihar is shown as
in West Bengal and in Easten Zone. Katihar (Regn. No.310) also
is shown in West Bengal though it is in Bihar and, therefore, in
Northern Zone.

Similarly, the names of places are wrongly spelt. You may
check up Regn. Nos. 196, 214, 254, 257, 285, 289 and 316 for
locating the mistakes.

With regards, Brotherly yours,


19-4-1970
Kanyakumari

Dear Shri Tilakraj,

Saprema Namaskars.

Received your letter, dated 10-4-1970. The proof copies which
are only specimens of paper (J.K. Maplitho and Srigopal Mill’s
paper) with some Urdu matter and pictures printed on them,
are kept in a packet in my almirah in Shri Chamanlal’s room. If
you still fail to locate the packet, you may request Shri Vishnu
Bhargav to arrange to send fresh copies of the same to Dr. Lokesh
Chandra and the other three of his co-editors.

You are to keep in your safe custody, the 600 copies of the
miniature-volume (received by you recently from Bombay) for
being used by me when I visit Delhi next.

Regarding your request, I am very clear in my mind that you
cannot be relieved so early, as desired by you. Till the Volume
gets published during the inauguration-celebrations, you should
not think of, nay, even dream of withdrawal.

162

I already gave you a firm commitment that you would not be
left in the lurch after the Volume work was over. Reciprocally, I
expect you also to stand by your commitment to an unreserved
and undivided attention to the Volume-work assigned to you.

Remember the maxim: “In whichever field one works, the
assignment in hand carried out and fulfilled with total absorption of
mind, invariably opens up vistas of greater possibilities.”

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

5-8-1970
Bombay

Dear Shri Raghunath,

Received your letter. The title you have suggested for the
exhibition is “The Great Heritage”. If I know your mind correctly,
what you really mean and intend, I think, is “The Great Legacy”
and not simply the general term “The Great Heritage”.

I would prefer this suggestive title; “The Great Legacy”.
This title would be helpful in making our people conscious of
the responsibility we have been called upon to shoulder-the
responsibility of addressing ourselves to the task of completing
the work so thoroughly enunciated and initiated by Swami
Vivekananda.

I am reaching Calcutta on 11th morning. I shall stay there till
13th.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

163

25-8-1970
Mumbai
Dear Shri R.N. Venkataraman,
Saprema Namaskars.

In your correspondence with different parties, especially in
the chart printed at Madras, I found the following discrepancies,
which should not be repeated.

1. We are to receive delegate-subscription and not delegate-
fees from the celebration-participants.

2. It is true that we assure ‘free accommodation’ to delegates.
But regarding trip to Vivekananda Rock, it has been always
free, our’s being a free ferry service. The adjective ‘free’ before
‘trip to Vivekananda Rock’ is not merely unnecessary but
also misleading. It may give an impression that we have been
charging for a ferry-trip. The position is, admission in our boats
is only restricted by passes obtained from the office.

3. The term “without any extra fees” is meaningless. Because,
we are not charging any fees from anybody for any programme.
Of course, admission to programmes is by passes and we reserve
the right of admission. Even the Exhibition is without any fees.

In short, the language we use should not give a distorted picture of
what we have in our mind.

With regards, Brotherly yours,

Dirt cannot wash dirt; hate cannot cure hate.
Our business is to verify, not to swallow

-Swami Vivekananda

164

01-10-1970
Mumbai

Dear Shri K.V. Raghavan,

I was in due receipt of your letter, dated 3-9-1970. A little
respite needed to write a line in reply, I could find only today. I
hope you would be generous enough to condone this enormous
delay.

I went through your letter very closely. The letter shows
beyond doubt that you are keenly interested in our work. That
has produced a great urge in me to meet you in person to have
the benefit of your views and experience on matters concerning
planning and execution. As you stay in Trivandrum, I hope to be
able to call on you during one of my visits to Trivandrum in the
near future.

For the present, I may state only this much that the
shortcoming you could notice in us and in our organisation are
only a fraction of what they are in reality, and we are regretfully
aware of the same. But we do hope that with the affectionate
guidance available to us from people like you, we shall learn
and, in the fullness of terms, may be able to give a good account
of ourselves.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

15-06-1971
Lonavla
Mrs. D.N. Sinha,

I received the sad news about Mr. D.N. Sinha’s death
yesterday morning at village Lonavla (hill station, Maharashtra)
where I have been camping for rest. I was informed about it
telegraphically by our Kanyakumari office.

165

In his premature death, it is not only your family and our
Vivekananda Rock Memorial Committee that have lost their
beloved guide and guardian, but our Mother India has lost one
of her worthy sons.

Quite active and cheerful as he was till the other day, all of us
were rightly expecting him to live for many more years to give
the benefit of his mature experience and wise counsel to various
organisations working for the good of the country. When I met
him in the hospital on 5th May, he said he was feeling far better
than before, and, as per his wish, I conveyed that message to
your daughter at Calcutta after I reached there on the 9th. But
Alas! The mighty Kala has snatched him away from us.

At this grim hour, instead of allowing ourselves to get dazed
and nervous, we have to summon all our courage and rededicate
ourselves to our respective paths of duty lying before us. You may
be remembering how the late Mr. Sinha, in one of our meetings
in the hospital, referred to your courageous frame of mind and
admired the superb boldness you displayed in many difficult
situations in the past. It is superfluous on my part, therefore, to
try to give you solace or courage, which you yourself possess in
abundance.

I do not personally know other members of the family. But,
you may inform all of them that there is a soul at Lonavla also,
sharing their sorrows and grief.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

No duty is ugly, no duty is impure.
Education is not filling the mind with a lot of facts.

-Swami Vivekananda

166

29-06-1971
Delhi
Dear Shri M.V. Hanumantha Rao,

Please refer to your letter dated 17th December 1970.

It is true that I was taken ill immediately after the inauguration-
celebrations. After taking complete rest for three-four months I
could restore my former health and have recently resumed my
normal activities.

I am, at present, engaged in working out details of the
Committee’s plan of founding a Non-Sannyasi Service Mission
and establishing a Centre for training an All India Cadre of
dedicated workers for being deployed especially in backward
areas of the country for the social and spiritual well-being of the
people. The plan is expected to take another about four months
to take a final shape before it is announced to the public.

As we did last year, we are to celebrate this year also, the 78th
anniversary of Swamiji’s speech at Chicago. The anniversary
falls on 22nd August (as per Indian time and calendar). The
three-day programme of celebrations will be publicised after it
gets finalised in due course.

I am enclosing an informatory pamphlet about the
Vivekananda Commemoration Volume, title “India’s
Contribution to World Thought and Culture”, published by
the Committee on 31st October 1970, the concluding day of the
inauguration celebrations.

I am also enclosing a copy of our Committee’s pamphlet
published some time back, giving useful information about the
Committee’s present undertaking and the future plans.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

167

25-07-1971
Delhi
Dear Shri Varnekar,

Saprema Namaskars.

Following our conversation on phone the other day, during
my stay in Bombay, I was daily expecting your letter that you
said you had already dispatched at my Bombay address. May
be, the said letter has become a casualty during the disruption
of postal services reported by you in your letter. However, your
letter, datelined 22nd July, has been duly received here yesterday.

After our talk at your residence at Nagpur, I had an opportunity
to sound some of the members of the Committee, regarding the
advisability of publishing ‘Vivekananda-Vijayam’, a Sanskrit
Drama on the life of Swami Vivekananda composed by you. I
noticed a favourable reaction from all with whom I discussed
and I can say with confidence that there will be no difficulty
whatsoever in our Committee’s agreeing to the publication of the
Drama on its behalf.

But, some formalities have to be gone through to enable the
Committee to include the Drama in its publication-programme.
You should formally address a letter to the Organising Secretary,
conveying your desire to donate (as understood by me, but
subject to correction) the said Drama together with rights of its
publication as well as of sale of its copies, in favour of Swami
Vivekananda Centenary Celebration and Vivekananda Rock
Memorial Committee.

As you will have to prepare a fair press-copy for being
handed over to the Press, I also request you to send the existing
manuscript-copy to our Head Office for the perusal of Sanskrit-
Pandits in our Committee. That will provide them an opportunity
to see for themselves the high quality of your work. Incidentally,
that will fulfil a necessary formality.

You may send the desired communication to our Head Office,
with a copy endorsed to me at my Delhi address. Manuscript-

168

copy should be sent to Madras by registered post for the sake of
safety.

One more small request before I close this letter. When you
read out portions of the Drama, page by page, to me at Nagpur, I
remember to have noted a reference to my name in the preamble.
As you are aware, it is the Vivekananda Rock Memorial
Committee that has put up the Vivekananda Rock Memorial at
Kanyakumari. To pick up one individual-member and to credit him
with the work of the whole Committee is neither right nor fair. You
are, therefore, requested to make a suitable alteration in the said
portion, which, in its present form, sounds to me quite improper
and in bad taste.

Regarding the paper to be chosen for printing, I am sure, you

may have made fruitful enquiries in the market and succeeded in

locating good paper of requisite poundage. Today, here, I have

talked to a reputed Paper Distributing Firm M/S Omprakash

and Jitendra Kumar for supplying us paper at concessional

rate. Tomorrow, I shall communicate to you the address of their

branch office at Nagpur. You are requested to procure the paper

from them. I am requesting their Delhi Head Office to talk to

their Nagpur Branch in that regard.

You are also requested to send to us detailed quotation of M/S

Narayan Mudranalaya for our perusal and record. While some

time may be required to go through necessary formalities, you

may go ahead with the preliminaries in anticipation of our formal

approval. Within a week after receiving your communication, I

shall, on behalf of the Committee, send to you an authorisation

letter, empowering you to get the book printed in the Narayan

Mudranalaya. I shall also arrange to send some advance to

the Press either directly or through you or through Shri Baba

Talatule, Zonal Organiser, Vivekananda Shila Smarak Samiti,

Maharashtra, whichever may be convenient from the sale’s tax

point of view.

Brotherly yours,

169

26-07-1971
Delhi

Shraddheya Shri Suniti Babu,

Received your long letter dated 29th June. Earlier, I had
received a communication from Shri Ramachandra Rao Buldeo
of Kanyakumari, conveying to me about the happy time our
senior workers spent in your enlightening company when you
visited that sacred place. After reading Shri Buldeo’s letter, I
strongly felt, I should have been by your side when you went
round the Memorial as well as other places in Kanyakumari.

Your letter was a virtual shower of affection and admiration
on me and my colleagues. But whatever cheer we got from your
choicest epithets of praise for us, the inner agony of your mind
distinctly manifests in your expression “with the situation in our
country being what it is, I am eagerly looking forward for my
release from the earth”, at the end of that letter, has, more or less,
wiped out that pleasurable feeling. It may be said that the pangs
felt by the grand old generation at the mad fury of the misguided
few and the abject inactivity of the so called sober and sagacious,
has been very vividly expressed in that small sentence of yours.
Your remark has put us all on our mettle and with all humility I
say, God willing, our endeavours will, in time to come, succeed
in giving the desired direction to our nation’s energies, and,
thereby, create in you a fresh urge to live longer to witness the
nation’s wonderful achievements, far greater than what they had
been in the past.

I am likely to visit Calcutta within the next few months. If I do
so, I shall certainly call on you to pay my respects.

It is man-making education all round that we want.
Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in
man.

-Swami Vivekananda

170

Your son may have, by now, returned to Calcutta from abroad.

Convey my Sasneha Namaskars to him. Please also convey my

respectful Pranams to all elders and affection and blessings to

youngsters.

With respects,

Brotherly yours,

31-7-1971
Delhi

Dear Shri Ramachandra rao Buldeo,

Saprema Namaskars.

I returned from Patna yesterday. I am giving below my replies
to the queries made by you in your previous letters.

1) I am not much in favour of spending money over another
wooden launch of 12 passenger-capacity, ‘Virginia’, even if its
draft is found suitable and engine etc. satisfactory.

2) It is true that in the last meeting we had obtained sanction
for Rs. 15,000/- only, to meet the estimated expenditure on the
78th anniversary function. As a result of our present plan to
put up a temporary auditorium, the estimated expenditure will
naturally be doubled. You may go ahead with the work. We shall
get the expenditure ratified in the next meeting.

In your weekly despatches of progress-reports (which are
extremely irregular these days, and to call them ‘weekly’ is a
misnomer), I request you to make a mention of only those items
of work that have made some progress during the preceding
week. Because, I am not interested in your repeated enumeration
of items under which no progress or little progress has been made
or in the explanation for the non-progress. In fact, it gives me
a great mental strain while gleaning out molecules of progress
from out of the lengthy pages of your report. I would love to
obtain from you, every week, a precise report of progress alone.
Regarding the items not reported in your periodical despatch, I

171

shall presume that no worth mentioning progress may have been
made under those heads and that there may be valid reasons for
that.

One more request I have to make in this connection. You
may totally avoid referring to your expectations regarding the
completion of various items of work. Instead, you may inform
me telegraphically as soon as any important item of work is
executed. That will be more exhilarating. For example, if, per
chance, before my next visit to Kanyakumari on August 19,
‘Trusses for Garrages’ reach Kanyakumari or Vikrama is put
in water after the completion of its repairs and starts plying,
such pleasant surprises will be the events worth reporting
telegraphically.

I have received a copy of the communication No. 8560/G2/71-
1, dated 17-7-1971 from Shri I.G. Hardas, State Port Officer. I
request you to draft a reply and send it to me for my perusal and
consideration. I intend to write a reply myself. But I need your
views in the matter. Your draft will naturally reflect your views.

I learn from Shri V. Mahalingam, who came over here from
Calcutta yesterday night, that Shri Pemgirikar has been assigned
the work of assisting Shri Narayanrao Buldeo in the construction
of the Temporary Auditorium etc. This arrangement is quite
good, for the time being. We shall have opportunity to discuss
the matter in my next visit and take a final decision.

Shri V. Mahalingam will write to you separately regarding the
programme to be chalked out for the anniversary function. He
will also write to you regarding his fruitless efforts at Calcutta
to obtain steel quota. He is to proceed to Bombay tomorrow to
explore the Bombay Market.

I am writing a reply to the letter received from the Editor of

Landscape Architecture.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

172

2-9-1971

Dear Sunilda,

Saprema Namaskars.

Received your letter of 27th August on Monday the 30th. Only
the previous day, our General Body had met. The work entrusted
to you was discussed threadbare in that Annual General Body
Meeting.

On my suggestion—nay, insistence—the Committee resolved
to abandon the plan of fixing bronze-relief-panels, depicting
important incidents in Swamiji’s life, on the inside-walls of the
Meditation Hall. Failure on your part to fulfil the assignment
given to you, coupled with your utter carelessness even to
respond to our urgent letters, no doubt, contributed considerably
towards driving the Committee to that decision.

This non-execution of the lone item out of the total number
of items under the Vivekananda Rock Memorial Plan, could be
interpreted in a different way. May be, I feel, the invisible hand
or the Higher Power, that has been behind the success we have
hitherto been able to achieve, has not liked our idea of putting
the contemplated panels in the Meditation Hall. Otherwise,
there is no reason why the Committee which could succeed in
surmounting mountain-high obstacles, should have stumbled
across this small mole-hill. May be, we were working against the
promptings of that Power and the result is what it is.

I request you to preserve the drawings and sketches you had
prepared for the work. We may still decide to have the relief-
panels prepared for being fixed in one of the structures that may
be put up within the Vivekanandapuram Campus, Kanyakumari.
Evidently, the measurements and sizes will have to be freshly
determined. We shall be able to discuss the matter when I happen
to visit Calcutta next, probably towards October end.

I am scheduled to camp at Kanyakumari from 12th of
September to atleast 2nd of October. If it is convenient to you, I
request you to take a trip to Kanyakumari, during these days of

173

my stay at Kanyakumari. This Committee will be willing to bear
the fare of your return passage from Kanyakumari to Calcutta, if
you come.

Please acknowledge the receipt of this letter.

Convey my respectful Pranams to all elders. My affection and
blessings to youngsters.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

13-10-1971
Mumbai

Dear Shri Priyabrata Rath,

Received your letter, dated 25-9-1971, and read the contents
with interest.

The ‘Vivekananda Kendra’ (the name we have chosen for
the Service Mission under formation) is expected to be formally
launched on 7th January, 1972, the auspicious day of Swamiji’s
birth anniversary. On that day, the aims and objects of the
Kendra as well as its programme and method of work would be
announced to the public.

Though formal recruitment for the Kendra would naturally
commence after the inauguration of the Kendra, informal search
for persons of dedication has already started.

You have, in your letter, described the situation existing in
Western Orissa. Similar situation exists in various other parts
of the country as well. In fact, the situation is such that even if
services of 10,000 dedicated persons are made available today, a
lot of ground in the country would still be left uncovered.

Your letter abundantly reflected the intensity of your urge for
promoting useful activity for the benefit of our neglected kith and
kin in the hilly tracts of your region and also of your eagerness

174

to utilise, towards that end, various favourable circumstances
obtaining in that area at present. But, I would very much like to
know in what way your personal services could be harnessed in
the uplift of the downtrodden in the backward areas of Orissa or
elsewhere. I desire to be enlightened on this specific point.

Your suggestion to us to try to utilise the unemployed medical
graduates for manning the contemplated Mission did not appeal to
me. I feel, we shall hardly get the right one if we go in for those who,
owing to their unemployment, may persuade themselves to join our
Mission in the absence of opportunities to obtain any of the lucrative
assignments cherished by them. I would rather prefer those who, even
though employed and well placed, were willing to give up their present
lucrative jobs and join us to achieve real fulfilment in their life. If you
think more deeply, I hope, you will also begin to share my views.

I hope, I have answered all your queries.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

26-10-1971
Delhi

Dear Shri S.R. Doraiswami,

I returned from Simla today. On arrival, I received your letter,
dated 19-10-1971. I was greatly impressed by your crowded
programme of discourses at various places.

Your reference to Shringeri Swamiji’s offer to you to be In-
charge of the College of Post Graduate and Advanced studies,
in Sanskrit, proposed to be started soon, at Kaladi, prompts me
to write to you immediately. I think, you should avail of the
opportunity and accept the offer without any hesitation. Your
preference for an opportunity to work with us at Kanyakumari
is quite understandable. But, the assignment proposed by H.H.
Acharya Swamiji of Shringeri may prove more useful to you for
two reasons.

175

Firstly, the country’s situation being what it is today, the
Committee has, at present, to move but slowly in expectation
of propitious times some time later, when all the programmes
under the Second Phase could be launched in a big way, followed
by a country-wide collection campaign. It appears that though
we may decide to have a formal opening of the ‘Vivekananda
Kendra’ within the next few months, we may not be able, for
want of funds, to increase the pace, for quite some time. In those
circumstances, no useful purposes will be served by your joining
our work, at this stage, as there will be, for you, no work befitting
your genius and worthy of your precious time.

Secondly, I am given to understand that you are not yet free
from your family responsibilities and cannot afford to take to
real Vanaprastha life. The batch of retired people which is at
present working with us consists of dedicated Vanaprasthis who
do not take any remuneration whatsoever from the Committee
for the services rendered by them. As your family circumstances
preclude you from joining the Committee on identical basis, you
should avail the assignment proposed by Acharya Swamiji of
Shringeri, if the remuneration or the honorarium is enough to
meet your family needs.

As the exchange of views between us in connection with the
‘Vivekananda Kendra’ and about the possibility of your joining
us, has all along been exploratory in nature, I never considered
that you had made any commitment to us. You are certainly free
to accept any assignment that may suit you.

In our next meeting, I wanted to place before you many things
including those that I have mentioned above. But I hastened to
write to you when I received your letter referring to H.H. Acharya
Swamiji’s offer and to ‘your being committed to the Vivekananda
Rock Memorial Committee’.

The only way of getting our divine nature manifested is by
helping others to do the same.

-Swami Vivekananda

176

From your letter, I learn that you will be at Trivandrum till
31st October. I am sending this letter at the address of our local
representative, Shri M. Gopinath, for being personally handed
over to you, so that you may receive it at the earliest.

With respects,

Brotherly yours,



27-10-1971
Delhi

Dear Dr. Paresh,

Your letter reached my hands the very next day of my arrival
here. Your presence at the Simla bus-stand was a pleasant
surprise to me. For only a few moments we met and with un-
spoken volumes on our lips we had to part company. When, on
my query to you about your plan of visit to Kanyakumari, you
expressed your willingness to join me forthwith, my first impulse
was to ask you to sit by my side in the car. But, immediately I
realized that sentiments alone do not make a robust and purposeful
life, though they, in limited proportions, do make the life sweet and
colourful.

The questions that you have put to me in your letter,
unmistakably show that your restless mind is in search of
something that you do not know. One may go a step further and
say that you do not seem to have, as yet, discovered yourself.

If there is no appreciable increase in the tensions on our
borders, in the immediate future, I shall be in Delhi from 1st to
4th of December. It is better that we meet here at that time and
discuss the whole matter thoroughly and in depth. It is only from
out of such a threadbare discussion that the right course for you
will emerge. How to spend the next vacation in January-February
usefully, or how to make the rest of the life more meaningful, are
but corollaries of that theorem.

177

I am enclosing, for your information, a copy of our Committee’s
preceding year’s report presented to the audience assembled
on the occasion of the First Anniversary of the Memorial-
Inauguration, celebrated on 22nd August, 1971, at Kanyakumari.

I am scheduled to leave Delhi on 4th morning. Visiting Patna,
Ranchi, Calcutta, Bhuvaneshwar, Hyderabad etc., I propose to
reach Madras by the middle of November, enroute Kanyakumari.

Please convey my affection and blessings to your wife and
children.

With regards,

Yours affectionately,

27-10-1971

Dear Shri K.E. Ramaswami,

I received a bundle of copies of letters written by you to
various institutions and persons.

Your stereotype letters addressed uniformly to different
categories of persons, betray your lack of correct understanding
of men and matters. I request you not to use the same broom while
dealing with Provincial heads like Shri Laxmanrao Inamdar,
Shri Bhaskar Rao, Shri Brahmadeoji, Shri K.S. Sudarshan, Shri
Somayya, Shri Keshavrao Gore, Shri Laxmanrao Bhide, Shri
Madhavrao Devle, Shri Baburao Paldhikar etc., that you may
prefer to use while dealing with your subordinates. The list of
addresses made available to you is not for indiscriminate use.
Your letters may reasonably cause resentment in those circles.
Your letter sounds like an order and not a request.

Shri B.N. Mullick, to whom you have directed for filling up
the proforma, is the Former Chief of the Intelligence Bureau of
the Union Government. Being a devotee of Swami Vivekananda,
he has been kindly using his good offices with his erstwhile
colleagues for the purchase of copies of our Volume. The letter

178

addressed to him sounds awkward and may be deemed as even
arrogant.

It is always safe to use beseeching language. Because majority
of the people are allergic to blunt expressions. We have to be all
the more careful while writing to people of light and leading.

If you show your drafts for stereotype letters to Prof.K.
Seshadri, it would do immense good to you.

In the whole bundle, I did not find a single copy of the
proforma stated to have been sent to various persons.

You have written that Shri R.B.V.S. Manian has taken with

him 50 copies of Tariff Card printed on art paper. You could have

sent at least a copy to me for my perusal.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,



28-10-1971
Delhi

Dear Shri Heeralal Sancheti,

Please refer to your letter, dated 2-10-1971. I could not write a
reply earlier due to crowded programmes during the preceding
two-three weeks.

We are thankful to you for the kind sentiments expressed by
you about the Vivekananda Memorial on the Vivekananda Rock.
The countrywide support that the project received has been the
secret of its successful execution.

The peoples’ eyes are now set on the Second Phase of the
Memorial-scheme, which is to be found a Service Mission on
the lines of the Ramakrishna Mission with the difference that
this new mission would be, primarily, a Non-Sannyasi Order of
social and spiritual workers, unlike the Ramakrishna Mission
which is purely a Sannyasi Order. With that end in view there is
also a plan, as rightly pointed out by you, to establish a Centre at

179

Kanyakumari to train dedicated workers, both men and women,
for being deployed especially in backward areas of the country
for the social and spiritual well-being of the people.

The whole scheme under the Second Phase, is on the anvil and
is yet to take final shape. The plan of buildings for the Training
Centre, including the library, auditorium, etc., is also still to be
finalised. It is hoped that the blue print of the whole scheme and
the master-plan for all the contemplated structures will be ready
soon.

Your kind and spontaneous offer to bear the cost of
constructing one room of one of the contemplated structures is
very much encouraging and most welcome. I shall approach you
at the opportune time when the details, as desired by you, get
ready. If you have in your view, friends having similar charitable
disposition, you may commend this project to them also for their
magnificent help.

In the meantime, I request you to take a trip to Kanyakumari
within the next couple of months, at some time convenient to
you. While such a visit would give you an opportunity to see for
yourself the magnificent Memorial, it will also provide me an
opportunity to have an exchange of views with you on subjects
of common interest. As I visit Kanyakumari almost every month,
it may not be difficult for me to synchronise my visit with yours,
if intimated to me sufficiently in advance.

I am enclosing, for your information, a copy of our Committee’s
preceding year’s report presented to the audience assembled
on the occasion of the First Anniversary of the Memorial-
Inauguration, celebrated on 22nd August, 1971, at Kanyakumari.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

180

Camp: Kanyakumari
22-11-‘71

Dear Shri Devendra,

You might remember, I had, in my previous visit to Delhi
told you that our Committee was to soon switch on to the
Second Phase of its Memorial-Plan, namely, the founding of
‘Vivekananda Kendra’, a Service Mission or a Non-Sannyasi
Order of dedicated missionaries.

While the founding of the ‘Vivekananda Kendra’ is to be
formally announced to the public on January 7, the 108th
birth-anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, at Kanyakumari, the
Vivekananda Kendra Patrika (English), the official organ of the
Kendra, is to be brought out on February 16, the auspicious
anniversary of the advent of Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

A distinctive feature of this half-yearly magazine will be
that each of its issues will devote itself mainly to highlighting
one of the subjects that vitally concern our national well being.
Accordingly, the Inaugural issue will focus our country’s
attention on the need of ‘Service Oriented Spiritual Pursuit’ by
bringing out what the saints and savants all over the world, and
especially in our own country, have taught in the past and have
been stressing in the present, in that regard.

Each issue of this half-yearly will contain articles from
erudite thinkers, reputed social workers and eminent leaders
of the country and will run into over 300 pages, including
advertisements.

The price of each issue will be Rs. 8/- and the annual
subscription will be Rs. 15/-. It will be of Crown Quarto size
(18.5 cm x 24.5 cm) and will abound in illustrations, both black
and white and multi-colour.

We have been very fortunate in having Prof. K. Seshadri, the
one time Head of the Philosophy Department, Kerala University,
to look after the editorial work of the Patrika. The purpose of
this communication is not only to apprise you of the ensuing

181

publication but also to introduce Prof. K. Seshadri to you and
others connected with your esteemed paper. Because, he will
need your help, from time to time, in procuring information and
material pertaining to your region, to do justice to varied themes
that may be set for different issues of the Patrika.

When I visit Delhi next, I shall seek an opportunity to meet

you and explain in detail about the total plan of the Committee’s

future activities.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

23-12-1971
Kanyakumari

Dear Shri Sourin Guha,

Received your letter, dated nil, at Kanyakumari where I
reached a couple of days back.

I do not know how to help you out of your present unhappy
state described by you. Had you listened to my words when
you first met me at Madras, you may have been, by this time,
perhaps, on some sure ground.

You are, no doubt, well-informed and highly educated. But
you are still as fickle-minded as a child. As you yourself need
motherly care coupled with stern guardianship, it would not be
advisable to put you in charge of others. I do not, therefore, think
that any work suitable to you could be found either at Madras or
Kanyakumari.

Personally speaking, I would have loved to take charge of you,
an intelligent young man of great potentialities as you are. But,
how can I indulge in that sort of exercise, a confirmed wanderer
as I am.

When I come to Calcutta next, probably in March or April,
I shall make it a point to see you, unless you leave that place
by that time. May be, something useful for being suggested to

182

you may occur to me then, if you continue to be in the same
depressed state even at that time.

With affection, Brotherly yours,


08-01-1972
Kanyakumari

Dear Vasudev,

During my previous visit to Calcutta, I very much desired
to see you. With that end in view, I visited your residence. But,
unfortunately, I could meet neither you nor Shri Purushottam,
as both of you were out of station. I came to know from Shri
Satyanarayan that you were at Hathras. Since then, I have been
thinking of writing to you.

Last week, Shri Satyanarayan and his wife, visited
Kanyakumari in the course of their tour of the South. Again,
the thought about you dominated my mind. But, my desire to
write to you could not materialise as I was busy with several
pressing matters in connection with the Second Mission.
Yesterday, on the auspicious 110th birthday of Swamiji, the
Mission has been founded and named ‘Vivekananda Kendra’. A
little after that function solemnising the birth of the Vivekananda
Kendra, I addressed a press-conference. I am enclosing, for your
information, a printed copy of the statement released at that
press-conference.

Being somewhat free today, and the thought about you being
uppermost in my mind, I am writing these lines to you.

Whatever might have been your immediate reason for getting
relieved of the work you had been doing for the last few years,
I had anticipated all this to happen. If you remember, I had
expressed to you my fears even at the time of your undertaking
the venture. I was, therefore, the least surprised over your
stoppage.

183

But, I did feel a little depressed and defeated when I found that
you did not feel like opening your heart to me before deciding to
change your course. The depression was certainly not because of
any fault on your part, but it came in the wake of a realisation by
me that I could not win your full confidence.

I now invite you here to come and stay for a few days in
the invigorating and sacred atmosphere of Kanyakumari. You
had worked hard for the Vivekananda Memorial, during the
collection campaign of West Bengal. It is time for you to come
to Kanyakumari at least to witness the sweet fruits of the
labour you put in, in company with several others, towards its
implementation. Though, I admit, I may not be capable of solving
all your problems, the Rock which could illumine the mind of
Swami Vivekananda, might certainly help you in discovering the
path chalked out for you by the Almighty.

I shall be staying here till 25th of January. If you make up your
mind to come, I request you to visit the place at your earliest.

Please convey my Saprema Namaskars to Shri Suraj Prakash.

With affection,

Brotherly yours,

11-01-1972

Mananiya Shri B.M. Birla,

It is after a long gap that I am writing to you. I am sure, this
finds you in perfect health.

I trust, you may have learnt through newspapers about our
launching the Second Phase of our activity, namely, the starting
of a Service Mission named ‘Vivekananda Kendra’. The occasion
of Swamiji’s 110th birth-day, which fell this year on 7th January,
was chosen by us to found the ‘Kendra’. The enclosed copy of
my press-release spells out its broad features.

184

It has been decided to publish, as a part of the Kendra’s
activity, a six-monthly journal under the title ‘Vivekananda
Kendra Patrika’ (English), as the official organ of the Kendra. Its
Inaugural Number is to be brought out on 16th February, the
anniversary of the advent of Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
The enclosed small informatory leaflet gives details about the
nature of its two issues during the current year.

It was only as a result of the unstinted support that we got from
well-wishers like you that the Committee could, so far, progress
from target to target. Naturally, even in the implementation of
this Second Phase, we look to you for full support. This letter,
however, is for seeking only your advertisement-support, for the
‘Patrika’. I am enclosing, for your perusal, a copy of the tariff-
card to enable you to see what maximum yearly help you can
conveniently extend to this publication, through advertisements.

As the Kendra can grow only in proportion to the number of
dedicated youngsters coming forward to join it, the Committee
has also decided to start a Monthly Journal (English) by name
‘Yuva Bharati’ (Voice of the Youth) from the ensuing 1st Vaisakh
i.e. 14th April, 1972, to cater to the needs of the Youth for their
all-sided unfoldment. That Journal also will need your generous
help. But about that, I shall approach you only after the ‘Patrika’
sees the light of the day.

Trusting that you will certainly feel like making a yearly

allotment of some pages, ordinary or otherwise, on behalf of

different concerns under your benign guidance, to the ‘Patrika’,

we shall be expecting to receive, from your office, the necessary

advice in that regard, within the next few days.

With respects,

Yours Sincerely,

185

11-01-1972
Camp: Kanyakumari

Dear Ram Batra,

You must have learnt through newspapers about the founding
of the ‘Vivekananda Kendra’ on 7th January. Shri J.N. Rathi was
present on the occasion. He may give you the first hand report.
A copy of my statement released at the press-conference, a little
after the function, is enclosed for your information.

Shri G.D. Birla was here on 5th January. He was accompanied
by Shri B.K. Birla, his wife and daughters and his son-in-law.
Shri D.P. Mandalia was also in the party. All felt very happy,
Shri G.D. Birla is keen about the ‘Vivekananda Kendra’. He has
promised to help us in a big way. To start with, he has donated
Rs. 50,000/- on the spot.

Shri K.E. Ramasway, In-charge of Advertisements and
Circulation of our publication, who is at present at Bombay, must
have been meeting you. I hope, he will be able to do something
substantial with your help and guidance.

I am writing this with a special purpose. Since 7th January,
the Vivekananda Kendra flag (of saffron colour and with OM
symbol inscribed on it) is hoisted on the Vivekananda Rock, at
sunrise and lowered down at sunset, every day. To our great
dismay we find that flag made out of cotton or silk does not
withstand the high velocity of the wind on the Rock. Parachute
cloth alone can, perhaps, stand the strain. I, therefore, request
you to procure atleast two bundles (Thans) of parachute cloth,
preferably in saffron colour, for being sent to Madras where the
flags would be sewn and sent here. Shri Nusli Wadia may be
of help of this matter as they are known to manufacture that
variety. Please treat this as urgent. At present we have to replace
a new flag every day.

I expect to hear from Shri Mafatlal shortly. Regarding their
advertisements, I hope, you have received a copy of my letter
addressed to Shri Arvindbhai and that you are pursuing it.

186

I am here till the end of January. It would be nice if you could
prompt and enthuse Shri Yogendrabhai, Shri Nusli Wadia, Shri
Harish Mahendra and such other friends to visit Kanyakumari
during my stay here.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

12-01-1972

Dear Shri Madhavrao Scindia,

I trust, you may have learnt through newspapers about our
launching the Second Phase of our activity, namely, the starting
of a Service Mission named ‘Vivekananda Kendra’. The occasion
of Swamiji’s 110th birth-day, which fell this year on 7th January,
was chosen by us to found the ‘Kendra.’ The enclosed copy of
my press-release spells out its broad features.

It has been decided to publish, as a part of the Kendra’s
activity, a six-monthly journal under the title ‘Vivekananda
Kendra Patrika’ (English), as the official organ of the Kendra. Its
Inaugural Number is to be brought out on 16th February, the
anniversary of the advent of Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
The enclosed small informatory leaflet gives details about the
nature of its two issues during the current year.

It was only as a result of the unstinted support that we got from
well-wishers like you that the Committee could, so far, progress
from target to target. Naturally, even in the implementation of
this Second Phase, we look to you for full support. This letter,
however, is for seeking only your advertisement-support, for the
‘Patrika’. I am enclosing, for your perusal, a copy of the tariff
card to enable you to see what maximum yearly help you can
conveniently extend to this publication, through advertisements.

As the Kendra can grow only in proportion to the number of
dedicated youngsters coming forward to join it, the Committee
has also decided to start a Monthly Journal (English) by name

187

‘Yuva Bharati’ (Voice of the Youth) from the ensuing 1st Vaisakh
i.e. 14th April, 1972, to cater to the needs of the youth for their
all-sided unfoldment. That Journal also will need your generous
help. But about that, I shall approach you only after the ‘Patrika’
sees the light of the day.

Trusting that you will certainly feel like making a yearly
allotment of some pages, ordinary or otherwise, on behalf of
different concerns under your benign guidance, to the ‘Patrika’,
we shall be expecting to receive, from your office, the necessary
advice in that regard, within the next few days.

I utilize this occasion to extend to you our humble and earnest
invitation to visit Kanyakumari to witness fruition of the kind
patronage and help you have been rendering to the Committee.

With respects,

Yours sincerely,

16-01-1972
Kanyakumari

Dear Shri A.P. Meenakshisundaram,

Please refer to your letter, dated 17-12-1971.

You have rightly pointed out that the ‘Pranava Peetham’ in
our Meditation Hall should have been situated in the northern
(or eastern) direction and not in the south-west, as has presently
been done. In this connection, we wish to inform you that we
could be conscious of the flagrant mistake only at a later stage of
construction, when it was too late. Rectification of the error will
involve lot of dismantling and remodelling and, consequently,
considerable expenses. But, we have not ruled it out on that
account. When shall we be able to take it up, depends, obviously,
on the fund-position.

We are thankful to you for the keen interest evinced by you in
the Memorial. In fact, suggestions made by well-wishers like you

188

have been helping us considerably in bringing about more and
more improvements in the Memorial.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

Camp: Calcutta
07-04-1972

Dear Bholanath Yaduka,

Received your letter dated 10-03-1972. It is true that the
Committee has no plans at present to have a half-yearly Hindi
journal on the lines of ‘Vivekananda Kendra Patrika’ which is
in English. It is also true that, in addition, we are planning to
publish from July, an English monthly by name ‘Yuva Bharati’
which will cater to the needs of the Youth in the country.

Subsequently, however, we have plans to publish ‘Yuva
Bharati’ in all the indigenous languages, starting with Hindi,
Tamil, Bengali, etc., in succession.

Even this letter I have to write in English for the convenience of
our Head Office at Madras. I hope, you appreciate our difficulties
and the order of priorities we have set up for our work which is
of All India character.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

We need to have three things; the heart to feel, the brain
to conceive, the hand to work.
We must have life-building, man-making, character-mak-
ing assimilation of ideas.

-Swami Vivekananda

189

22-04-1972

Dear Shri Brahma Swaroop,

Received your letter dated 25th February and was glad to
learn that you were doing fruitful work in Canada in keeping
with your dynamic nature and Sangh-Sanakaras.

That you will be visiting Bharat in the coming July is a refreshing
news. As I visit Delhi almost every other month, we are bound
to meet there. But our meeting at Delhi would not be enough. If,
by that time, your present intention to visit Kanyakumari grows
into a firm decision, we shall be meeting at Kanyakumari also.
A significant organization by name ‘Vivekananda Kendra’ is
taking shape there. The enclosed informatory pamphlet about
the ‘Vivekananda Kendra’ will give you a glimpse of the shape
of things to come.

Your craving to return to Bharat or, so to say, to the lap of the
Mother is quite natural. But, I do not attach more importance to
your mere returning. If you are returning with a well chalked
out plan for doing Mother’s work, it has some significance. And
if Mother’s work is the only thing that occupies your mind, you
can as well stay there as the Mother’s emissary.

More when we meet.

With affection,

Brotherly yours,

18-05-1972

Dear Shri C.R. Paranjape,

I had duly received your letter, dated 4-5-1972. I could not
write a reply earlier as I was busy with other pressing matters.

It seems that you are not aware that Kamarpukur, the birth-
place of Shri Ramakrishna, has long been adorned with a
Memorial to Shri Ramakrishna in the form of an active centre
of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Your impression that

190

Kamarpukur is in Bangla Desh is also not correct. It is, in fact, in
the Hoogly district of West Bengal.

You seem to labour under one more misconception that
building memorials to great men and women has been my primary
life-interest. My intimate association with the Vivekananda Rock
Memorial Project may have led you to form that impression.

The main theme of my life is to take the message of Sanatana
Dharma to every home and pave the way for launching, in a big
way, the man-making programme preached and envisaged by
great seers like Swami Vivekananda .

Please go through the enclosed brochure which gives
information about our launching the next phase of the
Vivekananda Rock Memorial Scheme and about the emergence
of the VIVEKANANDA KENDRA at Kanyakumari on January
7, 1972. I trust, the KENDRA will not only interest you but may
also soon envelop your mind.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

20-05-72
Camp: Kanyakumari

Manyavar Sri Kakasaheb,

Sashtang Namaskar Vinanti Vishesh

Received your congratulatory letter. I have always been the
recipient of love and blessing from senior Swayamsevaks like
you. My only desire is that I should be worthy of such affectionate
blessings all my life.

When at the meeting at Kanyakumari unknown to us and
unexpectedly Poojyapad Srimat Shankaracharya honoured me, I
was bewildered and thought that I had gone wrong somewhere.
Even now, that impact is on my mind. But when I read in your

191

letter that all of you were gladdened by that incident, it has
become easier for my mind to come back to its normal state.

I was pleased to know that you have slowly started reading

and writing after the cataract operation of your left eye. You

will be able to use both your eyes for the service of the patients.

Your both eyes will now be eligible to serve the patients with full

capacity. I am sure that your desire to come to Kanyakumari to

see Vivekananda Rock Memorial will be fulfilled within a period

of 5-6 months time.

Please convey my Namaskar to all Adhikaris and

Swayamsevaks.

Yours,

21-05-1972
Dear Shri Dayakrishna, Kanyakumari

I had duly received your letter dated 17-4-1972. I could not
write to you earlier as I was heavily occupied all these days.

In your letter you have asked me various questions relating to
God and other spiritual matters. That these questions have started
tormenting your mind is, indeed, a welcome development. But
it has been said that knowledge of these deeper realities is not

attained through mere discourses Zm`_mË_m àdMZoZ bä`mo Z _oY`m Z
~hþZm l¥VoZ .

“ However, I suggest to you to read “H$R>mon{ZfX“. While studying

that Upanishad you will come to know that the questions you
have in your mind were put ages ago by a young boy, by name
Nachiketa, to the God of death, Yama. The dialogue between the
two given in that Upanishad will help you in enlightening yourself on
the subject.

You have asked another question abo ut the hostile attitude of
our Government towards the R.S.S. You are pained and puzzled
to find that though the R.S.S. works for the good of the people,

192

the Government nurtures a desire and an intention to crush this
organization. To me there is no puzzle. It is seen all the world
over that the ruling party of a country is all the time engaged
in denouncing its rivals – and vice versa – and the more a rival
political force has a potentiality to become popular and to oust
the ruling party from power, the more it tries to malign it and, if
opportunity presents itself, even to crush it. Unfortunately, the
ruling party in this country has been considering the R.S.S. as a
rival political force of high potentialities.

The last question you have asked is about the Vivekananda
Kendra and its training programme. While the enclosed brochure
will give answers to some of your queries, you will have to wait
for a few months more to get a clearer picture.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

26-07-1972

Dear Shri Martand,

Received your letter, dated nil, after I reached Madras on 18th
July.

Regarding your offer to join ‘Vivekananda Kendra’ as a life-
worker, I have to frankly express my opinion that you are not,
perhaps, cut for leading a dedicated life. You seem to be too
fickle-minded to follow that difficult path which requires, among
many other things, the resoluteness of mind and the purity of
heart in considerable measure.

I would, instead, advice you to aspire to lead a normal and
good Gruhastha life and, with that end in view, to bend your
energies to acquire proficiency in some trade or vocation which
would help you in finding your feet on solid earth. I do not, in
the least, mean that the suggested path is quite easy. What I
mean is that if you give up your present wanderings, both mental
and physical, and start thinking and moving in the indicated

193

direction in right earnest, you would soon, intelligent as you are,
succeed in finding a suitable opening.

It is good of you that you remembered me. I shall be happy
if you keep me posted about your further movements. I shall
be glad to meet you if and when you happen to return to the
mainland.

Please convey my Sasneha Namaskars to Shri Krishnarao,
Shri Pyarelal Vinode and others.

With affection,

Brotherly yours,

(TRANSLATED FROM HINDI LETTER) 28.10.72
Bombay
Kumari Uma Bharati
Vidya Mandir
Vill & P.O. Doonda
Dist. Tikamgarh ( M.P.)

Chiranjeevi Uma

Received your letter dated 16.10.72 written from Kanyakumari
only last week. That time I was in Delhi. I did not reply
immediately because I thought that it would take 10-12 days for
you to reach your village. I met Shri Ambalalji and other brothers
at Ratlam station last night, while I was travelling from Delhi.
When I came to know from them that you have reached home, I
am writing you this letter today itself from Bombay.

Each and everyone like the sacred ambience at Kanyakumari,
its natural beauty and the Vivekananda Rock Memorial. It
is nothing special that you too liked the place. But the special
thing is that, in such peaceful atmosphere you became restless
and great churning started within you. I am very pleased with
your restlessness and it makes me hopeful. This is also a matter

194

of happiness that a desire has awakened within you to stay
in Kanyakumari for at least two months to discover your life-
mission.

If God wishes we might meet again in Raipur where you
plan to stay from 8 to 12 February. According to your letter it
seems that you want to go to Kanyakumari after your February
programme. If you decide so, please inform me so. I will make
proper arrangements accordingly.

I am thinking to tour widely in the country from January to
May. Naturally, I will not be able to be in Kanyakumari during
your stay there. But whether I am there or not, it would not make
any difference.

I will be in this region approximately for two weeks and then I
will be reaching Kanyakumari in the middle of November. I stay
there till the end of November.

Please convey my Pranam to your parents and Sasneh
Namaskar to your brother and all other family members.

I received your letter of dated 29.10.72 just now. Shri Kakaji
also met me just ten minutes before.

Yours

18-01-1973
Camp: Kanyakumari

Mananeeya Shri K.K. Shah,

Respectful Pranams.

I trust that you will forgive me for the liberty of addressing
you on an official matter which would come up before you for
final disposal in due course, if you have not already been seized
of it.

It concerns the mercy petitions submitted to you by two
convicts now in the Coimbatore Central Jail awaiting the extreme
penalty of law for committing homicide. Their youth, ignorance,

195

inexperience, and above all their recital of how, in jail, they came
to know of, and read the inspiring life and life-work of Swami
Vivekananda, leading to a profound change of heart in them,
have moved me as I am sure they must move all humane and
enlightened men, specially in authority. As the convicts have
approached me to add my voice in support of their plea for
mercy, I do so gladly and hopefully. It is to your prerogative
powers that they have appealed, as I also do in their behalf.

I hasten to add that, even without my humble intercession
you would certainly give their cases your most sympathetic
consideration.

Recent trends in humanitarian thought have promoted a
world-wide consensus against capital punishment as a relic of
inhuman practices belonging to the past. I have no doubt that you
are fully aware of it and would take it into your consideration.

The latest post-card we have received from the convicts has
been enclosed for your kind perusal.

Assuring you of my highest regards, Yours sincerely,


Organising Secretary.

16-04-1973
Calcutta

Dear Shri K.K. Misra,

I am in due receipt of your letter dated 27th March. It was
redirected to me at my Calcutta address by our Kanyakumari
office. I have also before me your earlier correspondence with
the Kanyakumari office.

I quite appreciate the indignation you have expressed in
your letter over the social ills that are eating into the vitals of
our society. But simply enumerating the ills and condemning the
present degenerated system in strong language will not in any

196

manner lead us towards betterment. What is needed today is that
every one who really feels for the society should, according to his lights,
take up or join some humble work or the other to bring about a desired
change. With that spirit, we have recently launched a movement under
the title ‘Vivekananda Kendra’. As a part of the movement, we have also
planned to build up a national cadre of life-workers from among the
youth, both men and women, dedicated to the cause of nation-building.

Though you may not fit in the proposed cadre of life-workers
for reasons which must have been obvious to you by now (I
presume that you have closely gone through the latest Kendra
bulletin of February 20, 1973), you may try to find out some
other avenue of social service by following which you may be
able to fulfil, side by side, what you have mentioned as your
psycho-spiritual desires, ambitions, hobbies, etc. But my fear is
that before you come across such a non-existent avenue of social
service, you will either shed your so called psycho-spiritual
desires etc. or your present zest for social service.

By the way, I wish to suggest to you to prosecute your studies
further and to graduate yourself. I do not think that your present
service will, in any manner, come in your way of further studies.

I utilize this opportunity to send to you a booklet containing
the full text of a speech delivered some time back by Swami
Ranganathananda of the Ramakrishna Mission on the theme:
THE NEED OF THE HOUR-A NON-SANNYASI ORDER OF
DEDICATED WORKERS. I hope you will find its contents
thought-provoking.

With affection,

Brotherly yours,

So long as you have faith and honesty and devotion, every-
thing will prosper.

-Swami Vivekananda

197

06-08-1973

Dear Swami Bhaktananda,

I returned to Kanyakumari yesterday. I was in due receipt of
your letters dated 7-6-1973 and 9-7-1973, together with enclosures.
I handed over your papers to competent persons here who are
entrusted with the work of preparing syllabuses for various
subjects. I am leaving Kanyakumari again on 11th August, for
some urgent works at Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi and Srinagar. I
shall return to Kanyakumari by 25th August, i.e. about 5 days
prior to the commencement of the training class. The syllabuses
will be finalised after my return, by which time others, who are
to participate in the classes as teachers and instructors, will also
be available for consultations.

You may be eager to know about the result of my country-
wide search for life-workers. For your information, I may briefly
state that though the number of aspirants and applicants ran
into several hundreds, the persons who technically fulfilled all
the conditions laid down in our circular numbered only about
a hundred and these people were called for interview. Out of
these we have been able to select only 12 uptill now. There are a
few more persons yet to be interviewed. But in any case I do not
expect the number to exceed twenty. Personally speaking, I shall
be satisfied even if there is no addition to the present twelve.

With regards,

Brotherly yours,

Everything will come to you if you have faith.

Great results are attained only by great patience, great
courage, and great attempts.

-Swami Vivekananda

198

[TRANSLATED LETTER]

10-08-1973
Kanyakumari

Shraddheya Sri Janardan Swami,

Sashtang Namaskar Vinanti Vishesh

I hope that by now you must have finalised the dates of your
Madras & Kanyakumari tour and the reservations etc. must have
been done. If not, it is very necessary to get it done immediately.
Otherwise it will be difficult to get the reservation at the eleventh
hour. Sri Govind Malode, son of Sri Annasaheb Malode from
Nagpur is also coming as Shiksharthi for the course. I have
written him to start by Dakshin Express of 25th. You also can
start by the same train so that you get a good company. You can
get the ticket done through Sri Krishnarao Moharil. I am writing
to him also today regarding this.

It has been told to all the Shiksharthis and Shikshaks to reach
Kanyakumari by 28th August. It will be good if you also reach by
28th. You were telling that you have two days work at Madras.
If it is so then you will have to start a little earlier and will have
to prepare Sri Malode also for the same. Please do whatever is
convenient to you.

I am going to Calcutta on 14th by Mumbai – Calcutta morning
flight. I am writing to Karyalaya to send Sri Balu Motlag or
someone to the airport from Karyalaya. It will remove my tension
if you could send with them your finalised tour programme.

I will be reaching Kanyakumari on 24th August after finishing
my tour of Calcutta, Delhi, etc. Preparation for Varga is going on
well.

My Sadar Namaskar to all. Yours,


199

11-08-1973
Kanyakumari
Dear Shri Ram,

I feel as if I am writing after ages, though it was only as recently
as in March that we exchanged letters. The feeling is verily due to
the passing away of Shri Guruji from our midst. While departing
from this world, Shri Guruji carried away with him, as it was, the
era he belonged to.

Things, however, are settling down satisfactorily. Those
who used to always look to Shri Guruji for guidance, have now
become conscious of the new responsibilities fallen on their
shoulders. All have accepted the challenge thrown before them
by the present critical times and they are expected to give a good
account of themselves.

On my part, I have vigorously readdressed myself to the
task of building up the new mission ‘Vivekananda Kendra’.
My country-wide tour from state to state, which I started in
February, has been just completed. As a result of a series of
my press-conferences, all over the country in the preceding
months, over 700 aspirants wrote to us about their desire to join
the Kendra as life-workers. Out of them, only about 100 were
found to be satisfying the conditions prescribed for preliminary
selection. But when they were actually interviewed, only twelve
out of them were found to be of right motivation and worthy of
selection. By the time the training class opens on 30th August,
there may be a few more additions. But in any case, the number
is not likely to exceed 20 in the first batch.

The inaugural issue of Yuva Bharati is now out. The magazine
is brought out with an eye to channelising the energies of the
youth towards the task of national renaissance. I also hope that
the journal will be of great help in finding recruits to an ever
growing cadre of non-sannyasi life-workers envisaged under the
Vivekananda Kendra plan.

200