Swami Vivekananda in Kashmir

Swami Vivekananda in Kashmir       
Swami Vivekananda in Kashmir
Compiled by Swami Bodhasarananda, Kolkata

Swami Vivekananda
(Parliament of World's Religions', Chicago, U.S.A., Photograph)

This article has been compiled from authentic life of Swami
Vivekananda. It gives a day to day record of his stay in Kashmir more
than one hundred years ago. He visited many shrines. From the visions
and experiences he had, we find these shrines surcharged with God's
presence. Only we have to open our hearts to allow the God's grace
flow inside us.
Swami Vivekananda visited Srinagar twice. The first time he reached
Srinagar was on 10th September 1897. At Srinagar he was the guest of
Justice Rishibar Mukhopadhyaya. On the third day after his arrival he
paid an informal visit to the place of the Maharaja. Since the
Maharaja was then at Jammu, his brother Raja Rama Singh received the
Swami with marked cordiality and honour, seating him on a chair, and
himself sitting with officials on the floor. The Raja was deeply
impressed by Swamiji's thoughts on religion and his eagerness to
improve the condition of the poor. He voiced his desire to help the
Swami in carrying out his plan of work.
Early in the first week of October the Swami was busy filling many
engagements, private and public, and visiting the places of historic
interest with which Kashmir abounds. Sadhus, Pandits, students,
officials of high rank went to meet him.
The Swami left Srinagar for Baramulla and reached Murree on October 8
and from there to Rawalpindi on October 16, 1897.
The second time also Swami Vivekananda had to go to Srinagar via
Rawalpindi, Murree and Baramulla. The distance had to be covered
partly by tonga and partly by boat. Sister Nivedita, Mrs. Ole Bull and
Miss MacLeod accompanied him.
Swami Vivekananda had great fascination for Lord Shiva during his
childhood. As he grew older his love for Shiva, the Lord of monks and
yogis deepened. And now in the Himalayas, the abode of the Great God,
the thought of Him was uppermost in the Swami's mind. To his disciples
he spoke of the Puranic conception of the oneness of Shiva and His
consort, Uma, under the guise of half-man and half-woman. It
represented the junction of two great streams of thought, Monasticism
and Mother-worship; or it represented the vision of truth where
renunciation through philosophy and supreme love become inseparable.
And "he understood, he said, for the first time the meaning of the
nature-story that made the Ganga fall on the head of the Great God,
and wander in and out amongst His matted locks, before she found an
outlet on the plains below. He had searched long, he said, for the
words that the rivers and waterfalls uttered, among the mountains,
before he had realized that it was the eternal cry `Vyom! Vyom! Hara!'
`Yes!' he said of Shiva one day, `He is the Great God, calm, beautiful
and silent; and I am His great worshipper'."
While coming from Baramulla when he entered further into Kashmir, the
Swami's mind was filled with the legends of the Kashmiris. The Vale of
Kashmir had once been a lake; and it is related that at this point
where the Swami was entering the Vale, the Divine Boar pierced the
mountains with his tusks, and let the Jhelum go through.
The period from June 22 to July 15, 1898 was spent in houseboats
(dungas) on the Jhelum, in and about Srinagar. He told his Western
disciples many things about Kashmir, for instance, the different
religious periods through which Kashmir had passed, with special
attention given to the period under Kanishka; the morality of Buddhism
and the religious imperialism of Ashoka; and again the history of
Shiva-worship.
On June 26, the Swami suddenly felt a longing to leave the party and
go to a quiet place. But not knowing that this was his intention, the
party followed him to Kshir Bhavani. It was said to be the first time
that Christian or Muslim had set foot there. The irony of the occasion
was that the Muslim boatman would not allow the Swami and his
Christian disciples to land with shoes on, "so thoroughly Hinduistic,"
says Nivedita, "is the Mohammedanism of Kashmir with its forty Rishis,
and pilgrimages made fasting, to their (i.e. the Hindus') shrines."
Among the local excursions that the Swami made with his disciples was
that on July 29 to the small, massively built Shiva temple that stands
atop the Shankaracharya Hill. This hill is also known as
Takt-i-Suleiman, and rises a thousand feet above the surrounding
terrain. The famous floating gardens can be seen below, for miles
around. The beauty and extensive sweep of the scene drew from the
Swami the exclamation : "Look, what genius the Hindu shows in placing
his temples! He always chooses a grand scenic effect! See, the Takt
commands the whole of Kashmir. The rock of Hari Parvat rises red out
of blue water, like a lion couchant, crowned. And the temple of
Martand has the valley at its feet!"
On July 4, the day of American Independence, he wrote a poem entitled
"To the Fourth of July" which can be interpreted as a passionate
utterance of his own longing for the Final Freedom in the Infinite.
Time was to prove that it had been penned in a prophetic vein; for,
four years later, on that very day, his shackles of work broken, he
entered in "springing joy" into the Final Freedom, concerning which he
had written.
A desire for quiet and peace seemed to grow more and more upon Swami
Vivekananda in these days. On July 10 he left alone for a pilgrimage
to Amarnath ji by way of Sonamarg. On the 15th he returned, having
found that route impracticable because the summer heat had melted some
of the glaciers.

On July 19 the whole party started for Anantnag by boat. On the first
afternoon they sought out and found the quaint old Temple of
Pandrethan (derived from Puran-adhishthana meaning "old capital"),
sunken in a scum-covered pond within a wood, by the side of the
Jhelum. This is four and a half miles to the southeast of Srinagar.
The temple is a small cell, with four doorways opening to the cardinal
points. He drew their attention to the interior decorations, with
their sun-medallion, and to the fine sculpture, in low relief, of male
and female figures intertwined with serpants. Among the outside
sculptures is a fine one of the Buddha standing with hands uplifted.
And there is a much-defaced frieze, showing a seated woman and a tree.
This evidently represents Maya Devi, the Buddha's mother. The temple
is built of grey lime-stone, and dated from the tenth century A.D. "To
the Swami," writes Sister Nivedita, "the place was delightfully
suggestive," and she adds :

Kashmir, 1897. Sitting on chairs, left to right: Swamis Sadananda,
Vivekananda, Niranjanananda, and Dhirananda.

Kashmir, 1898. Left to right : Jesophine McLeod, Mrs. Ole Bull,
Vivekananda, and Sister Nivedita.
On a houseboat in Kashmir, 1898. Left to right : Jesophine MacLeod,
Vivekananda, Mrs. Ole Bull, and Sister Nivedita.

"It was a direct memorial of Buddhism, representing one of the four
religious periods into which he had already divided the history of
Kashmir : 1) Tree and snake worship, from which dated all the names of
the springs ending in Nag, as Veernag and so on; 2) Buddhism; 3)
Hinduism in the form of sun-worship; and 4) Mohammedanism. Sculpture
he told us, was the characteristic art of Buddhism. The figures with
the serpants reffered to pre-Buddhism."
Moving up the river, the party came next day (July 20) to the ruins of
the two great temples of Avantipur; legend of which relates to Pandava
times. Its sculptures drew his admiration. In his view the temples
were more than two thousand years old. Swamiji said in the course of
conversation : "In order to strengthen the national life, we must
reinforce the current of that life itself along the line of its own
culture of ideals. For instance, Budha preached renunciation, and
India heard. Yet within a thousand years, she had reached her highest
point of national prosperity. The national life in India has
renunciation as its source. Its highest ideals are service and Mukti."
On July 21 when the party landed at the temple of Bijbehara, then
already thronged with Amarnath pilgrims, he was able to join them for
a little while. After visiting the temple, they left for Anantnag
which was reached on the afternoon of July 22. He sat on the grass of
an apple orchard and he started talking about the rarest of rare
personal experiences. Picking up two pebbles, he said, "Whenever death
approaches me, all weakness vanishes. I have neither fear, nor doubt,
nor thought of the external. I simply busy myself making ready to die.
I am as hard as that" — and the stones struck one another in his hand
— "for I have touched the feet of God!"
On the 23rd morning the party went to see the ruins of Martand. "It
had been a wonderful old building — evidently more abbey than temple —
in a wonderful position," writes Nivedita, "and its great interest lay
in the obvious agglomeration of styles and periods in which it had
grown up."
On July 25 the party went on to Achabal and in the afternoon came back
to Anantnag. It was at Achabal that the Swami announced his intention
of going to Amarnath with the two or three thousand pilgrims then en
route to that shrine. As a special privilege, Sister Nivedita was
allowed to join him as a pilgrim. It was settled that his other
Western disciples would accompany the party as far as Pahalgam and
there wait for the Swami's return.
On July 27 they halted for a night at Bhavan (Martand, also called
Matan) and reached Pahalgam on July 28. Throughout the rest of the
journey Swami Vivekananda would bathe in the holy waters, offer
flowers, fruits and sweets to the object of worship before breaking
his fast, make obeisance by prostrating himself on the ground, tell
his beads, make ritual circumambulation, and the rest. At every halt,
the Swami's tent was besieged by scores of monks seeking knowledge
from him. Many of them could not understand his broad and liberal
views on religious matters. The Muslim Tehsildar, the state official
in charge of the pilgrimage, and his subordinates, were so attracted
to the Swami that they attended his talks daily and afterwards
entreated him to initiate them.
On July 30 the Swami left for Chandanwari. Next day a steep climb
towards Pishu top followed and then a long walk on the narrow path
that twisted round the mountain-side. At last they camped (July 31) at
Wavjan at a height of 12,500 ft.
Next day (August 1), after crossing the Mahagunus Top, a pass at
14,500 ft., they reached Panchtarani, the "place of five streams".
On August 2, the day of Amarnath itself, there was first a steep climb
followed by a descent, where a false step would have meant death. They
walked across a glacier till they reached a flowing stream. When Swami
Vivekananda reached the cave, his whole frame was shaking with
emotion. The cave itself, says Nivedita, was "large enough to hold a
cathedral, and the great ice-Shiva in a niche of depressed shadow,
seemed as if throned on its own base." His body covered with ashes,
his face aflame with devotion to Shiva, the Swami entered the shrine
itself, nude except for a loin-cloth, and prostrated in adoration
before the Lord. A song of praise from a hundred throats resounded in
the cave, and the shining purity of the great ice-linga over-powered
him. He almost swooned with emotion. A profound mystical experience
came to him, of which he never spoke, beyond saying that Shiva Himself
had appeared before him, and that he (the Swami) had been granted the
grace of Amarnath, the Lord of Immortality, namely not to die until he
himself should choose to do so. Shri Ramkrishna had prophesied
regarding this disciple of his : "When he realizes who and what he is,
he will no longer remain in the body!"
Never had the Swami, in visiting a holy place, felt such spiritual
exaltation. Afterwards he said to his European disciple, "The image
was the Lord Himself. It was all worship there. I never have been to
anything so beautiful, so inspiring!" Later on, in the circle of his
brother disciples and his own disciples, he said dreamily : "I can
well imagine how this cave was first discovered. A party of shepherds,
one summer day, must have lost their flocks and wandered in here in
search of them. What must
have been their feeling as they found themselves unexpectedly before
this unmelting ice-Linga, white like camphor, with the vault itself
dripping offerings of water over it for centuries, unseen of mortal
eyes! Then when they came home, they whispered to the other shepherds
in the valleys how they had suddenly come upon Mahadeva!" Be that as
it may, for the Swami this was truly so : he entered the cave and came
face to face with the Lord!
On the journey back the Swami and party returned to Anantnag, and from
there by boat to Srinagar which they reached on August 8.
In Kashmir the Swami and his party were treated with great respect by
the Maharaja; and during his stay various high officials visited the
Swami's houseboat to receive religious instruction and converse with
him on general topics. The Swami had come at the invitation of the
Maharaja, to choose a piece of land for the establishment of a
monastery and a Sanskrit college. It was a disappointment to the Swami
when, about the middle of September, he heard that official discussion
of the site that he had chosen, had been twice vetoed by the British
Resident.
Following the pilgrimage to Amarnath, the Swami's devotion became
concentrated on the Mother. It was touching to see him worship, as
Uma, the four-year old daughter of his Muslim boatman. He once told
his disciples, during these days, that "wherever he turned, he was
conscious of the Presence of the Mother, as if she were a person in
the room."
His meditation on Kali became intense, and one day he had a vision of
Her, the mighty Destructress lurking behind the veil of life, the
terrible one, hidden by the dust of the living who pass by, all the
appearances raised by their feet. In a fever he groped in the dark for
pencil and paper and wrote his famous poem "Kali the Mother"; then he
dropped to the floor, losing consciousness, while his soul soared into
Bhava-samadhi.
On September 30, the Swami abruptly went to Kshir Bhavani, leaving
strict instructions that no one was to follow him. It was not until
October 6 that he returned. Before this famous shrine of the Mother he
daily performed Homa (Havan), and worshipped Her with offerings of
Kheer (thickened milk) made from one maund of milk, rice, and almonds.
He told his beads like any humble pilgrim. Every morning he worshipped
a Brahmin Pandit's little daughter as Uma Kumari, the Divine Virgin.
He practised severe austerities. He became like a child before the
Divine Mother. All thought of Leader, Worker, or Teacher was gone. He
was now only the monk, in all the nakedness of pure Sannyasa.
One day at Kshir Bhavani he had been pondering over the ruination and
desecration of the temple by the Muslim invaders. Distressed at heart,
he thought : "How could the people have permitted such sacrilege
without offering strenuous resistance! If I had been here then, I
would never have allowed such a thing. I would have laid down my life
to protect the Mother." Thereupon he heard the voice of the Goddess
saying : "What if unbelievers should enter My temple and defile My
image? What is that to you? Do you protect Me, or do I protect you?"
Referring to this experience after his return, he said to his
disciples : "All my patriotism is gone. Everything is gone. Now it is
only Mother! Mother! I have been very wrong. I am only a little
child."
Another day, in course of his worship, the thought flashed through the
Swami's mind that he should try to build a new temple in the place of
a present dilapidated one, just as he had built a monastery and temple
at Belur to Shri Ramkrishna. He even thought of trying to raise funds
from his wealthy American disciples and friends. At once the Mother
said to him : "My child! If I so wish I can have innumerable temples
and monastic centres. I can even this moment raise a seven-storied
golden temple on this very spot."
"Since I heard that divine voice," the Swami later said, "I have
ceased making any more plans. Let these things be as Mother wishes."
Thus we see during his stay in Kashmir, Swami Vivekananda was in a
different world altogether. Visions of Shri Amarnath, Mother Kali and
Kshir Bhavani remained always with him. Later at Belur Math he said :
"Since visiting Amarnath, I feel as though Shiva were sitting on my
head for twenty-four hours a day and will not come down."
The party left Kashmir on October 11 and came down to Lahore. Swamiji
reached Belur Math on October 18, 1898.

Posted by :Vipul Koul

Edited by: Ashok Koul