ON THE SWISS ALPS
(Vivekananda in Indian Newspapers, p. 117.)
[The Indian Mirror, September 22, 1896]
Swami Vivekananda writes from Lake Luzern [Lucerne] Switzerland, under date the 23rd of August last. (Evidently an unpublished extract from one of the three (1, 2, 3 ) letters the Swami wrote from Lucerne (Vide “Epistles”, Complete Works, V and VI).) He has been walking over several parts of the Cis-Alpine country, enjoying the pleasing views of nature there. He says that the scenery is in no respect less grand than that of the Himalayas. Still, he makes out two points of difference between the two mountainous regions. In the former the rapid and thick colonization has been marring the beauty of the place. In the latter, there has not yet been any such marked tendency. The former has become a resort mainly for the sanatorists and summer-residents; and the latter mainly for the pilgrims and devotees. The Swami is shortly going to visit Germany, where an interview will take place with Prof. Deussen, after which, by the 24th of September, he will go back to England. To India, most likely, as he says, he is returning by the next winter. He intends to reside in the Himalayas.