BIOGRAPHY OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

have found the way. Enter all of you!"'Then the talk would drift to the conception of sin among the Egyptian, Semitic,and Aryan races. According to the Vedic conception, the Swami said, the Devil isthe Lord of Anger, and with Buddhists he is Mara, the Lord of Lust. Whereas inthe Bible the creation was under the dual control of God and Satan, in HinduismSatan represented defilement, never duality.Next the Swami would speak about the chief characteristics of the differentnations. 'You are so morbid, you Westerners', he said one day. 'You worshipsorrow! All through your country I found that. Social life in the West is like apeal of laughter, but underneath it is a wail. The whole thing ends in a sob. Thefun and frivolity are all on the surface; really, it is full of tragic intensity. Here itis sad and gloomy on the outside, but underneath are detachment andmerriment.'Once, at Islamabad, as the group sat round him on the grass in an appleorchard, the Swami repeated what he had said in England after facing a madbull. Picking up two pebbles in his hand, he said: 'Whenever death approachesme all weakness vanishes. I have neither fear nor doubt nor thought of theexternal. I simply busy myself making ready to die. I am as hard as that' — andthe stones struck each other in his hand — 'for I have touched the feet of God!'At Islamabad the Swami announced his desire to make a pilgrimage to the greatimage of Siva in the cave of Amarnath in the glacial valley of the WesternHimalayas. He asked Nivedita to accompany him so that she, a future worker,might have direct knowledge of the Hindu pilgrim's life. They became a part of acrowd of thousands of pilgrims, who formed at each halting-place a whole townof tents.A sudden change came over the Swami. He became one of the pilgrims,scrupulously observing the most humble practices demanded by custom. He ateone meal a day, cooked in the orthodox fashion, and sought solitude as far aspossible to tell his beads and practise meditation. In order to reach thedestination, he had to climb up rocky slopes along dangerous paths, cross severalmiles of glacier, and bathe in the icy water of sacred streams.On August 2 the party arrived at the enormous cavern, large enough to contain avast cathedral. At the back of the cave, in a niche of deepest shadow, stood theimage of Siva, all ice. The Swami, who had fallen behind, entered the cave, hiswhole frame shaking with emotion. His naked body was smeared with ashes,and his face radiant with devotion. Then he prostrated himself in the darknessof the cave before that glittering whiteness.