THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SISTER NIVEDITA BIRTH CENTENARY PUBLICATION VOLUME II *swfo. SISTER NIVEDITA GIRLS' SCHOOL Published by The Secretary, Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Sister Nivedita Girls' School 5 Nivedita Lane Calcutta 3 Printed by P. C. Ray Sri Gouranga Press Private Ltd. 5 Chintamani Das Lane Calcutta 9 RAMAKRISHNA SARADA MISSION SISTER NIVEDITA CIRLS* SCHOOL Fint Edition 0ctober 1955 C\ \ 0/ .Dato.A£jLl/£ "^ PricePrire Rs. 1200 "Fourth Five Year Plan—Development of Modern Indian Langu- ages. The popular price of the book has been made possible through a subvention received from the Government of West Bengal." SOLE DISTRIBUTORS: ANANDA PUBLISHERS PRIVATE LTD. 5 CHINTAMANI DAS LANE CALCUTTA 9 — CONTENTS Page Editor's Preface ... ... ... ... ... ix Chronological Table ... ... ... ... xix The Web of Indian Life I. The Setting of the Warp ... ... ' ... 1 II. The Eastern Mother ... ... ... 16 III. Of The Hindu Woman As Wife ... ... 27 IV. Love Strong As Death ... ... ... 41 V. The Place Of Woman In The National Life ... 52 VI. The Immediate Problems Of The Oriental Woman 70 VII. The Indian Sagas ... ... ... 86 VIII. Noblesse Oblige: A Study Of Indian Caste ... 105 IX. The Synthesis Of Indian Thought ... 124 X. The Oriental Experience ... ... ... 152 XL The Wheel Of Birth And Death ... ... 161 XII. The Story Of The Great God: Shiva Or Mahadeva 173 XIH. The Gospel Of The Blessed One ... ... 186 XJV. Islam In India ... ... ... 200 XV. An Indian Pilgrimage ... ... ... 215 XVI. On The Loom Of Time ... ... ... 230 Appendix ... ... ... ... 252 An Indian Study Of Love And Death An Office For The Dead ... ... ... 257 Meditations Of The Soul ... ... ... ... 262 Of Love ... ... ... ... 266 Of The Inner Perception ... ... ... 267 Of Peace ... ... ... ... 269 Of Triumphant Union ... ... ... 270 It Page The Communion Of The Soul With The Beloved ... 271 A Litany Of Love: Invocation ... ... 275 Some Hindu Rites For The Honoured Dead ... 277 The Beloved ... ... ... ... ... 285 Play ... ... ... ... ... ... 286 Death ... ... ... ... ... 289 Studies From An Eastern Home I. Life In The Hindu Quarter Of Calcutta ... 293 II. Our Zenana Terrace ... ... ... 300 III. The Hindu Widow And The Zenana ... ... 304 IV. The Sacred Year ... ... ... ... 311 V. Dol-Jatra ... ... ... ... 316 VI. Janmashtami: The Day Of The Great Birth ... 320 VII. The Saraswati Puja ... ... 325 VIII. The Durga Puja ... ... ... ... 331 IX. The Festival Of Ras ... ... ... 336 X. The Plague ... ... ... 340 XI. The Mediaeval University Of India ... ... 348 XII. An Old Collegiate Village .. ... ... 352 XIII. The Holy City ... ... ... ... 358 XIV. Chitore ... ... ... ... 361 XV. An Indian Amulet ... ... ... 364 XVI. Gopaler-Ma: The Mother Of The Christ-Child ... 369 XVTI. The Indian Ash, Or Tree Of Healing ... ... 373 XVni. The Dread Seven ... ... ... ... 381 XIX. The Kashmir Shawl ... ... ... 387 XX. The Ship Of Flowers ... ... ... 393 Lectures And Articles Vedanta Missionary Work: Wimbledon (London) ... 399 Influence Of The Spiritual Thoughts Of India In England 406 The Birthday Festival Of Sri Ramakrishna ... ... 411 Amarnath ... ... ... ... ... 416 The Sociological Aspect Of The Vedanta Philosophy ... 422 Kali, And Her Worship ... ... ... 429 KaliWorship ... ... ... ... 444 New Interpretations Of Life In India 449 India Has No Apology To Make ... 460 How And Why I Adopted The Hindu Religion 470 Indian Women As They Strike An English Woman 473 An Open Letter To Hindu Women 475 Islam In Asia 478 Beauties Of Islam 481 Synthesis Of Ideals 491 Etiquette, Eastern And Western ... 494 Hinduism And The Modern Transition 503 Appendix I The Education Of Hindu Women And Their Ideals ... 505 Indian Womanhood ... ... ... ... 507 Family Life And Nationality In India ... ... 508 Appendix II List Of Lectures Delivered By Sister Nivedita Abroad ... 509 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Facing Pack SISTER NIVEDITA 1 ON THE TERRACE 22 THE HOLY MOTHER AND SISTER NIVEDITA 23 THE LANE 294 ON THE ROOF ... 295 * GOPALER-MA AND SISTER NIVEDITA 370 A PENCIL-SKETCH OF SISTER NIVEDITA 371 : EDITOR'S PREFACE The Second Volume of the present edition of the Complete Works of Sister Nivedita mainly includes books, lectures and articles which shed light on Indian life, thought and culture. These writings give a wide survey of Indian people as they lived and thought, to the world which only knew of the horror and ugliness of Indian life as depicted by the foreign missionaries. Nivedita spoke with authority on this subject for since the beginning of 1898 when she first landed in India till the Autumn of 1911, when she breathed her last, she stayed with the people of this country in close intimacy. It is true that her stay in a northern section of Calcutta made her familiar with the Bengali way of life, and in the series of charming pictures of family life, festivals etc. she describes what she saw and heard around her. But her deep study of Indian literature combined with her keen intellect and deep comprehensive mind helped her to understand— India as a whole also. As in a lecture she said: " ... the life that I was thus allowed to share was that of the common Indian world. Bengali in its details, it was in its main features that of the masses of the people the country over." (Complete Works, vol. n, p. 460). In this Volume are included the following works The Web of Indian Life. An Indian Study of Love And Death. Studies from- an Eastern Home. The book that created the greatest stir in the world after its publication was The Web of Indian Life. In a letter to Miss Josephine Mac Leod from Norway (19.7.1901) Nivedita writes that R. C. Dutt first prompted her to write this book. "Now I am at work on the book which Mr. Dutt commissioned and have just written on caste." The diffe- rent chapters of the book were written during her stay in America, England, Norway and India between 1901 and 1903. At the back of the title page prepared by herself she wrote: "I finished writing this book Sept. 7th 1903 at 4 p.m. Annotated-Evening Oct. 13th. Posted Oct. 14th 1903." It was first published in 1904 by William Heine- mann, London, and since then has gone into six impres- sions. It was reviewed by the leading newspapers and periodicals of the East as well as the West. To name a few of them : Christian, Outlook, The Church Times, The Detroit Free Press, The Daily Graphic, Queen, The Indian Spectator, The Yorkshire Post, Pall Mall Gazette, St. James's Gazette, The Westminister Gazette, The Sun, The Sunday Mail, The Madras Mail, and Birmingham Post. Some of these reviewed the book favourably and some criticised it bitterly. To quote some instances. Queen (August 24, 1904). It is seldom that a Western-born author succeds as absolutely as Miss Noble in her "The Web of Indian Life" in penetrating the Eastern mind and heart. ... If love is the first qualification towards understanding the charac- ter of a people, Miss Noble was thoroughly qualified, for she writes of the East as a lover might write of his beloved ; each intimacy, each familiarity adds to the mystery and fascination exercised by this wonderful alluring East over her spirit. ... It would be well if those who gather their impressions of our Indian Empire solely from missionaries of preconceived ideas and little sympathy, or from the abstruse works of scholars, or the chatter of the Anglo- Indians, were to revise the impressions they gathered from these sources by the light of this poetically written and scholarly work." XI The Detroit Free Press (July 24, 1904). "The Western world, speaking generally, knows the Indian woman only through the testimony of missionaries. For this reason a book published in London a few days ago, "The Web Of Indian Life" by the Sister Nivedita comes as a revelation ; it is attracting immediate attention ; it is being regarded as an epoch-making book. For in it the inner life of the Indian woman, the life below the surface, the ideals, the mainsprings of action, the aspirations, hopes and all the mysticism of the East, and the reality of the Unseen, are set forth, as has never been done before, by a Western woman imbued with a spirit of reverent sympathy." The Athenaeum (1904). "If Sister Nivedita is an unsafe guide in social ques- tions, she is still less to be trusted when she undertakes to deal with matters of Indian History or literature, and it is much to be regretted that no scholarly friend was at hand to prevent the publication of such chapters as those on "The Indian Sagas" and "The Synthesis of Indian Thought". It would be as easy as it would be distasteful to multiply instances of misunderstanding and misstate- ment". The Church Times (August 19, 1904). "In "The Web of Indian Life" the authoress lets her- self go, so to say, with entire abandon, to give us a couleur de rose picture of Indian life and thought. ... It is all pure undiluted optimism. ... It is the suppression of the other side of the picture that we deprecate in the interest, not only of the truth, but of the cause of Indian women themselves, whose lot will never be improved if this sort of sentimental idealism about them is allowed to obtain credence. Potentially, we are fully prepared to believe the Indian woman is what she is here described as beingi XII Actually, the ideas, the sanctions, the customs of the men of India must undergo radical transformation before the ideal can be realised. And only Christianity can effect that transformation". In a letter to Miss Mac Leod (30.6.1904) Nivedita makes her purpose in writing this book clear. "You know that my book is out. I trust that you will really feel that it was written by Swami, I suppose it is. Early day yet to say whether or not it is a success.