BIOGRAPHY OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

to see the women of this country. They are Lakshmi, the Goddess ofFortune, in beauty, and Sarasvati, the Goddess of Learning, in virtues —they are the Divine Mother incarnate. If I can raise a thousand suchMadonnas — incarnations of the Divine Mother — in our country before Idie, I shall die in peace. Then only will our countrymen become worthy oftheir name.'Perhaps his admiration reached its highest pitch in a letter to the Maharaja ofKhetri, which he wrote in 1894:American women! A hundred lives would not be sufficient to pay my deepdebt of gratitude to you! Last year I came to this country in summer, awandering preacher of a far distant country, without name, fame, wealth,or learning to recommend me — friendless, helpless, almost in a state ofdestitution; and American women befriended me, gave me shelter andfood, took me to their homes, and treated me as their own son, their ownbrother. They stood as my friends even when their own priests weretrying to persuade them to give up the 'dangerous heathen' — even when,day after day, their best friends had told them not to stand by this'unknown foreigner, maybe of dangerous character.' But they are betterjudges of character and soul — for it is the pure mirror that catches thereflection.And how many beautiful homes I have seen, how many mothers whosepurity of character, whose unselfish love for their children, are beyondexpression, how many daughters and pure maidens, 'pure as the icicle onDiana's temple' — and withal much culture, education, and spirituality inthe highest sense! Is America, then, only full of wingless angels in theshape of women? There are good and bad everywhere, true — but anation is not to be judged by its weaklings, called the wicked, for they areonly the weeds which lag behind, but by the good, the noble and the pure,who indicate the national life-current to be flowing clear and vigorous.And how bitter the Swami felt when he remembered the sad plight of the womenof India! He particularly recalled the tragic circumstances under which one of hisown sisters had committed suicide. He often thought that the misery of Indiawas largely due to the ill-treatment the Hindus meted out to their womenfolk.Part of the money earned by his lectures was sent to a foundation for Hinduwidows at Baranagore. He also conceived the idea of sending to India womenteachers from the West for the intellectual regeneration of Hindu women.Swami Vivekananda showed great respect for the fundamentals of Americanculture. He studied the country's economic policy, industrial organizations,public instruction, and its museums and art galleries, and wrote to Indiaenthusiastically about them. He praised highly the progress of science, hygiene,institutions, and social welfare work. He realized that such noble concepts as thedivinity of the soul and the brotherhood of men were mere academic theories inpresent-day India, whereas America showed how to apply them in life. He feltindignant when he compared the generosity and liberality of the wealthy men of