American heiress, founder of Greenacre Religious Conferences, an offshoot of the Parliament of Religions at Chicago. Daughter of Moses Gerrish Farmer, a pioneer inventor of electric bulbs, famous scientist in the field of e electricity. Dedicated many acres of her estate at Greenacre in the Maine region of America to setting up the Greenacre Religious Conferences, with the aim of bringing about the harmony of all religions. Swamiji was there (26.7.1894 12.8.1894), invited by Miss Farmer, to give lectures and taught Vedanta in traditional Indian style, sitting under a pine tree, subsequently known as Swamiji’s pine. This was the beginning of his teaching Advaita Vedanta in America. Taught Raja Yoga too. Later Swami Saradananda (1896, 1897) and Swami Abhedananda (1898, 1899) delivered lectures under that tree. The latter held classes, gave lectures, conducted meditation sessions from 21.8.1900 8.9.1900 900 under the tree, also initiating Miss Truman there (Amar Jiban Katha, p. 271). Swami Paramananda delivered two series of lectures there (1908, 1910). At Greenacres Swamiji met Mrs. Bull and Dr. L.G. Janes.
In 1896 Miss Farmer and Dr. Janes set up “Monsalvat School of Comparative Religions” in partial fulfillment of Swamiji’s objective of establishing an International University in America, “Temple Universal”. Greenacre Voice, a journal, the mouthpiece of the Conferences, was published by them.
Swami Vivekananda paid Sarah Farmer a great tribute when he wrote to her: “Our scripture teaches that he who serves the servants of the Lord is His highest worshipper. You are a servant of the Lord, and…. I will always consider it a privilege and worship to render you any service in the carrying out of your inspired mission wherever I may be.”
When Sarah was two years old, she became very ill. Her mother, Hannah, prayed that if her daughter would live, her life would be dedicated to God. Sarah’s inspired life of complete consecration was evidence of the fulfillment of that prayer. It was also evidence of her mother’s strong spiritual character. Hannah and her husband Prof. Moses Farmer were Transcendentalists. Professor Farmer, who became famous as an inventor and electrician, taught electrical science. At the age of fourteen, Sarah began to go to Churches other than her own to compare different sects. She felt disturbed to find them divided by what seemed to her unimportant issues. In 1872, when they shifted their home to Newport, Rhode Island, the family’s charitable service to the community drew the attention of a newspaper journalist who wrote: “Professor Farmer and his estimable daughter are two of the best friends which the poor of Newport have ever found.”
Sarah’s parents encouraged her to visit the slums of the city to help the poor. At this time, she also taught a class in the local Sunday school and studied German.
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In those summer classes representative men and women in each department of scientific, philosophic, and religious thought were invited to present their views. Those who associated themselves with the Greenacre summer community were expected to set aside all sectarian sentiments and listen to the views of other faiths with respectful attention and an open mind. As Sarah would say, “Never despise any rung of the ladder by which another is rising.” Each point of view was listened to with respect; destructive criticism was not allowed.
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The reputation of Greenacre grew fast. It was reported that the list of signatures on the register of the inn read like a copy of ‘Who’s who’. There was such universality of views, the liberating, expanding effect of new thought gave all those present a sense of euphoria. If the Parliament of Religions in Chicago had been the beginning, the camp at Greenacre gave tremendous impetus to the study of comparative religions.
Swamiji’s talks from beginning to end, carried the prevailing message of Greenacre: of unity and of the truth expressed in all religions that all are children of one God.
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Swamiji spoke on an average of seven or eight hours a day at Greenacre. He taught that: “The whole secret of knowledge is concentration. [The] Soul best develops itself by loving God with all the heart….” He said: “Real love is love for love’s sake. I do not ask health or money or life or salvation. Send me to a thousand hells, but let me love thee for love’s sake. Mirabai, the great Queen, taught the doctrine of love for love’s sake.” He defined a Mahatma, a great soul, as “one whose mind, word and deed are full of the nectar of virtue, whose only pleasure is in doing good to the universe, who looks upon other’s virtues be they only as a mustard seed, even as though they were a mountain; thus expanding his own self and helping others to expand.”
Swamiji’s last talk at Greenacre was on the 12th of August. He left the next day. Sarah was eager to invite him again for the following summer. However, Swamiji wanted to train a group of intimate disciples in an intense course of spiritual disciplines. Therefore, he went to Thousand Island Park in the summer of 1895, and did not get to Greenacre. It was not mere mystical experience that the he wanted to teach, but the building of character. He wrote: “It is in the patient upbuilding of character, the intense struggle to realize the truth, which alone will tell in the future of humanity. So this year I am hoping to work along this line training up to practical Advaita realization a small band of men and women.”
For this reason he could not go to Greenacre. But the importance he gave to the Greenacre work is apparent from his letter to Mrs. Ole Bull of the 14th of February, 1895, in which he wrote: “I sincerely believe that you ought to turn all your help to Miss Farmer’s Greenacre work this year. India can wait as she is waiting for centuries and an immediate work at hand should always have preference.”
Sarah Farmer continued to oversee every detail of the Greenacre work, giving it her utmost. She laboured day and night, sleeping little. She kept up a tremendous correspondence and constantly met visitors. People were irresistibly attracted to her because of her sincere, all-embracing love. She wrote to Dr. Janes on the 19th of June, 1895: “Greenacre will have a distinct mission as along as it affords an opportunity of giving, whether it be of time, strength, money, or thought. The impersonal character of the giving determines its value. The words of the Swami ring ever in my ears: ‘Love for love’s sake only’.”
During the following winter, when Swamiji was lecturing in New York, Sarah often went to New York to the classes and to help him in his work. She thought of him as a revered brother and coworker. He affectionately addressed her as ‘dear Sister’ in a beautiful letter he wrote to her from New York on the 29th of December, 1895:
“In this universe where nothing is lost, where we live in the midst of death in life, every thought that is thought, in public or in private, in crowded thoroughfares or in the deep recesses of primeval forests, lives… nothing can be destroyed — those thoughts that caused evil in the past are also seeking embodiments, to be filtered through repeated expressions and, at last, transfigured into perfect good…
“As such, there is a mass of thought, which… teaches us that it is not a world of bad and good, but good and better — and still better. It stops shorts of nothing but acceptance [of]… every form of mental, moral, or spiritual thought where it already stands, and without a word of condemnation … It, above all, teaches that the kingdom of heaven is already in existence if we will have it, that perfection is already in man if he will see it.
“The Greenacre meetings last summer were so wonderful, simply because you opened yourself fully to that thought, which has found in you so competent a medium of expression, and because you took your stand on the highest teaching of this thought that the kingdom of heaven already exists.
“You have been consecrated and chosen by the Lord as a channel for converting this thought into life, and everyone that helps you in this wonderful work is serving the Lord.”
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In later years, when Sarah was seriously and nearly fatally ill, one day, finding herself feeling well and recovered, she remembered Swami Vivekananda and the lines of the poem he composed as expressing her own cherished vision:
Wake up the note! The song that had its birth
Far off, where worldly taint could never reach;
In mountain caves, and glades of forest deep,
Whose calm no sigh for lust or wealth or fame
Could ever dare to break; where rolled the stream
Of knowledge, truth and bliss….
In that most critical, precarious moment, Sarah vividly remembered Swamiji. She did not consider herself a Vedantin or a follower of Swamiji. She was a sister and co-worker in bringing to others the ideal of spiritual freedom. Throughout her life this ideal and her inspired vision glowed ever more luminous. (Source: Western Women in the Footsteps of Swami Vivekananda)