BIOGRAPHY OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

mental depression. The Swami, who did not at that time know even her name,talked to her about her worries and various personal problems. It was clear thathe was familiar with them, even though she had never revealed them to him orto anyone else. When Madame Calve expressed surprise, the Swami assured herthat no one had talked to him about her. 'Do you think that is necessary?' heasked. 'I read you as I would an open book.' He gave her this parting advice: 'Youmust forget. Be gay and happy again. Do not dwell in silence upon your sorrows.Transmute your emotions into some form of eternal expression. Your spiritualhealth requires it. Your art demands it.'Madame Calve later said: 'I left him, deeply impressed by his words and hispersonality. He seemed to have emptied my brain of all its feverish complexitiesand placed there instead his clean and calming thoughts. I became once againvivacious and cheerful, thanks to the effect of his powerful will. He used nohypnosis, no mesmerism — nothing of that sort at all. It was the strength of hischaracter, the purity and intensity of his purpose, that carried conviction. Itseemed to me, when I came to know him better, that he lulled one's chaoticthoughts into a state of peaceful acquiesences, so that one could give completeand undivided attention to his words.'Like many people, Madame Calve could not accept the Vedantic doctrine of theindividual soul's total absorption in the Godhead at the time of final liberation. 'Icannot bear the idea,' she said. 'I cling to my individuality — unimportantthough it may be. I don't want to be absorbed into an eternal unity.' To this theSwami answered: 'One day a drop of water fell into the vast ocean. Finding itselfthere, it began to weep and complain, just as you are doing. The giant oceanlaughed at the drop of water. "Why do you weep?" it asked. "I do not understand.When you join me, you join all your brothers and sisters, the other drops ofwater of which I am made. You become the ocean itself. If you wish to leave meyou have only to rise up on a sunbeam into the clouds. From there you candescend again, little drop of water, a blessing and a benediction to the thirstyearth."'Did not the Swami thus explain his own individuality? Before his presentembodiment, he had remained absorbed in communion with the Absolute. Thenhe accepted the form of an individual to help humanity in its spiritual struggle.A giant soul like his is not content to remain eternally absorbed in the Absolute.Such also was the thought of Buddha.In the company of great men and women, the Swami revealed his intellectualand spiritual power. But one sees his human side especially in his contact withhumble people. In America he was often taken to be a negro. One day, as healighted from a train in a town where he was to deliver a lecture, he was given awelcome by the reception committee. The most prominent townspeople were all