#059, SO WRETCHED AND DIFFERENT FROM WHAT YOU SEE AROUND
Swami Vivekananda is a Hindu-monk. But he is worried that if his American disciple sees him in loin-cloth, she will be shocked. He is also worried about the wretched environment in India. He writes from Belur Math. to Ms. Christina Greenstidel ( Christine ) on 26th Jan. 1899. The context: She wants to come to India. Vivekananda is trying to discourage her. "... Then all the surroundings are so, so wretched and different from what you see around you, e.g. you will find me going about in loin-cloth — will that shock you? Three-fourths of the population only wearing a strip of white cloth about their loins — can you bear that? ..." BLOGGER'S VIEWs *This is the same girl to whom Vivekananda wrote a poem on 18th January 1896 entitled "To an Early Violet". In it he said "... What though no mate to cheer thy path, Thy sky with gloom o'ercast -- What though of love itself doth fail, Thy fragrance strewed in vain; What though if bad o'er good prevail...