SISTER DEVAMATA FORGET NOT Sister Devamata H. MUKHERJEE aura Glenn, later Sister Devamata 1895. Laura Glenn was one day walking (1867-1942), was born in Ohio. She along the Madison Avenue in New York and Lalong with her mother and sister had saw a small notice on the window of a hall gone to attend the ‘Great Fair’ held in mentioning one Swami Vivekananda’s talks Chicago in June, 1893, and had then left the on two consecutive Sundays. The topic on city. They had decided to return to Chicago the first Sunday at 3 p.m. would be ‘What is to attend the ‘Congress of Religions’ which Vedanta? ‘and the topic on the following was to be held there in September of the Sunday would be ‘What is Yoga?’. She same year. They left for Chicago but had to found the name of the lecturer familiar and stop en route on getting news about the recalled the talk the minister had with them death of a member of their family. They about the brilliant speeches given by this stayed in a small town and during their stay Indian monk at the Congress of Religions at there they met a Swedenborgian minister Chicago. She became interested and arrived who had just returned from a visit to the next Sunday before the scheduled time. The Congress of Religions in Chicago. He spoke hall was small and two-storied and the in glowing terms about the successful speaker’s platform was on the second floor. holding of the Congress and about various Laura writes later: speakers who had spoken there but reserved By the time three o’clock had arrived, hall, his best praise for one speaker who stood stairs, window-sills, and railings, all were apart from others in his knowledge, crowded to their utmost capacity. Many eloquence and personality —and when even were standing below, hoping to catch a asked about his name, the minister said—‘A faint echo of the words spoken in the hall Hindu—Swami Vivekananda’. above. A sudden hush, a quiet step on The name lingered in Laura’s mind. The the stairs, and Swami Vivekananda passed family came to New York City in the in stately erectness up the aisle to the platform. He began to speak; and memory, autumn of 1894 and decided to stay there. time, place, people, all melted away. Meanwhile, Laura had graduated from Nothing was left but a voice ringing through Vassar College and lived in Europe for some the void. It was as if a gate had swung open time. She had actually spent time as a lay and I had passed out on a road leading to sister in a Christian convent. She had studied limitless attainment. The end of it was not Edwin Arnold’s Light of Asia which was visible; but the promise of what it would be about the life of Lord Buddha and his shone through the thought and flashed teachings. She had also studied the through the personality of the one who gave 2 Bhagavad-Gità and the Upanishads in it. He stood there—prophet of infinitude. English translations and had developed Laura Glenn had regularly attended the interest in Hindu spiritual teachings.1 lectures given by Swamiji in New York in It was some time in the early months of 1895 and 1896. These were held in various Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture September 2018 33 H. MUKHERJEE rented halls. The students came from a the Vedanta Society of New York. She used mixed group consisting of the rich and the to take down notes during Swamiji’s classes poor, old and young, and also included and lectures which were later published in teachers with notebooks in hand. The the journal Messages of the East; some of students did not like to miss a single class. them had been included in Swamiji’s They followed the classes on Bhakti Yoga, Complete Works as well. Jnàna Yoga, Karma Yoga and Ràja Yoga. Laura was to become a source for a They were so keen to attend these classes wealth of information on Swami that they felt sorry that there were only four Vivekananda because of her close Yogas and not six or eight, for in that case association and friendship with Miss Ellen the number of classes could get multiplied. Waldo, a close devotee of Swamiji. The Sometimes there would be three lectures— latter was a middle-aged and affectionate one in the morning, the next one in the lady having a good knowledge of Western afternoon and the third one in the evening. philosophy. She was initiated by Swami The topics included philosophy, metaphysics Vivekananda as a brahmacharini (novice) and astrology. The students were totally and given the name ‘Haridasi’ meaning the focused on the message Swamiji gave servant of the Lord. Miss Waldo acted through his teachings. practically as Swamiji’s personal secretary. On a Sunday, Swami Vivekananda She did everything—right from cooking, delivered his last lecture on ‘ My Master— cleaning, taking dictations, reading proof, His Life and Teachings’. It was held in the editing and finally seeing visitors. She also Madison Square Concert Hall. The large hall had the uncanny ability to follow Swamiji’s was full to its capacity. To quote Miss Laura line of thinking which gave the latter Glenn: confidence to give her the type-written transcriptions of his lectures and class talks He began his lecture with a long preamble; but once in his subject, it swept him. The and ask her to do the final editing, which 4 force of it drove him from one end of the would then go for printing. platform to the other. It overflowed in a Out of many incidents mentioned by swift-running stream of eloquence and Miss Waldo to Laura concerning Swamiji a feeling. The large audience listened in awed very few are related here. Laura reminisces: stillness and at the close many left the hall ‘One morning the Swami found Miss Waldo without speaking. As for myself, I was in tears. “What is the matter, Ellen?” he transfixed. The transcendent picture drawn asked anxiously, “Has anything happened?” overwhelmed me. The call had come, and I “I seem unable to please you”, she replied, answered.3 “Even when others annoy you, you scold me Surprisingly, Laura could never become for it”. The Swami said quickly: “I do not Swami Vivekananda’s disciple or even know those people well enough to scold become close to him personally. She them. I cannot rebuke them, so I come to ascribed it to her shyness coupled with a you. Whom can I scold if I cannot scold my disapproval of her family. As a matter of own?” It goes without saying that Miss fact, her father had threatened to disinherit Waldo no longer felt the same about his her if she continued her association with scoldings; on the contrary, she was Swamiji or his students. Undaunted by all convinced that they were “a proof of these hurdles, she nevertheless involved nearness”.’ herself later in works related to Swamiji and We came to know from Laura many 34 Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture September 2018 SISTER DEVAMATA instances of Miss Waldo’s utmost devotion teachings in the West. Of course, she could to Swamiji. At the same time, the latter went take down only a part ‘as her long hand on watching Swamiji closely to find out lagged behind Swamiji’s flow of words’. whether he had any weakness. One day she Laura wrote: ‘Once Swamiji heard Miss found Swamiji watching himself again and Waldo reading a part of the notes taken again in a full length mirror in a drawing- down by her to some visitors. Later he was room at New York. Miss Waldo was also in to ask her: “How could you have caught my the room. She thought: ‘He is full of thoughts and words so perfectly? It is as if I personal vanity’. Suddenly he turned to her heard myself speaking.”’ and said: ‘Ellen, it is the strangest thing. I These notes lay with Miss Waldo and cannot remember how I look. I look and one day she read it to Laura when the latter look at myself in the glass, but the moment I had exclaimed: ‘It is criminal for you to turn away I forget completely what I look keep the notes to yourself. They belong to like.’6 the world.’ Miss Waldo was hesitant to get Laura mentions another incident which them published as she felt that her notes she heard from Miss Crane, the housekeeper were “too fragmentary, too inadequate for at the New York Vedanta Society. One day, publication—she felt that publishing her during his stay at New York in 1900, notes, as it were, would give a wrong Swamiji was taking his breakfast when the impression of the wonderful teachings of printer arrived and requested him to suggest Swami Vivekananda in the mind of the an emblem for a circular for the Society. readers”. After remaining silent for some Swamiji took a piece of paper, drew the time, however, her face lighted up. She told waves, the swan, the lotus and the sun Laura: ‘If you are willing to take them and circled by a serpent and then gave the paper work on them and bring them out, I am glad with the design to the printer and asked him to pass them over to you.’ to draw it to scale. Henry van Hagen, the Laura Glenn edited the notes taken by printer, converted the rough sketch into a Miss Waldo with the latter’s approval and finished drawing.7 these were published in 1908 as Inspired Laura saw Miss Waldo often when Talks.