Just like it happened in many other places in America – the Leggets and Mrs Bull on the East Coast and the Hale family in Chicago – the blessed privilege of playing a special role in Vivekananda’s work in California went to three sisters who were in attendance at this first lecture at Blanchard Hall on 8th December. They were the Mead sisters who lived in the northern suburb of Pasadena – Carrie (Mrs Wycoff), Alice (Mrs. Hansborough) and Ms Helen Mead. Of them, the middle sister – Alice – was to be with the Swami almost like a shadow during his entire stay of six months in California. It is quite possible that Swamiji’s stay and work in California might not have been on the same lines without Alice Hansborough and no story of his stay and work in the region can be told by not having this simple but highly dedicated lady as its key character.
Alice Hansborough, was then a young widow of 36, almost exactly Swamiji’s age then, had a 4 year old daughter Dorothy, and lived in her parental home with an elderly father, an elder widowed sister Carrie, the latter’s seventeen year old son Ralph, and a younger unmarried sister Helen. Alice was of small height and reticent by nature. The Meads were a family of modest means living in a rented cottage in Lincoln Park, in South Pasadena, about ten miles from what is now downtown Los Angeles. The circumstances under which Alice and the Mead family came in touch with the Vivekananda phenomenon were themselves very interesting.
Alice Hansborough first learnt of Swami Vivekananda in 1897 at a lecture in San Francisco on a metaphysical theme by Mrs. Annie Rix Militz, a prominent spiritual leader of the New Thought Movement on the West Coast and founder of the Metaphysical Bureau and ‘Homes of Truth”. There Alice first heard of the references to Swamiji’s already published book ‘Raja Yoga’. She was to go to Alaska soon and when asked by her friends for a gift for the voyage she promptly asked for ‘Raja Yoga’. The friends happily gave Swamiji’s ‘Karma Yoga’ too knowing both as parts of a set. The captain of the steamer was not a very seasoned campaigner, and losing his way and taking longer time, finally reached Alaska in four weeks. This delay however gave Alice ample time to read and re-read the books she had. While reading she often wondered about the person in whose mind such exalting ideas had come and tried to picture what kind of a person he would be. “All during the two years I had been reading his books in Alaska I had never expected to see him,” she had recalled in her memoirs.
But destiny had other plans for her. She returned to California on 23rd November 1899 knowing not that the person whose ideas she had been marvelling upon would cross her path in just about two weeks from then.
Her memoirs, narrated with remarkable recall, some four decades later to Swami Ashokananda, Head of the Vedanta Society of North California, are one of the key sources of first-hand information we have about Swamiji’s sojourn on the American West Coast.
On the evening of 8th December, the youngest Mead sister, Helen, came home from work in the evening and said to others, “Who do you think is going to speak in Los Angeles tonight? Swami Vivekananda.” The sisters then quickly had the dinner and went for the lecture at the Blanchart Hall.
At the lecture Alice got the same impression of the Swami she had already had in her mind before – that he was a most impressive personality. When the lecture was over, the sisters went up on the platform where a number of people had collected to speak to Swamiiji. She sought out Professor Baumgardt, the organizer of the lecture, and inquired when and where was Swamiiji going to lecture again. He asked her in return if she was interested in the Swami’s teachings. When told that that she had been studying his works for two years, the Professor introduced her to Miss MacLeod, who upon getting to know her familiarity with Swamiji’s works, suggested that she call on the Swami at his place of residence. But it was only after his second lecture that they met him.
Swamiji’s second lecture was also organized by Prof. Baumgardt and his forum, the Academy of Sciences, but the venue had been shifted to the Unity Church. This lecture, unlike the first one was kept free of charge. The subject was ‘Cosmos’ where he spoke about Indian view of cosmology. There were about one thousand people in attendance.
It was on the morning of 13th December that the Mead sisters – Alice and Helen – went to meet Swamiji at Mrs. Blodgett’s house. Alice’s has described the details of that first meeting:
“He was dressed to receive us in the long, knee-length coat. He wore a kind of minister’s collar with what must have been a clerical vest; and his hair was covered by a black turban, which rolled back something like those the women wear here now. This was the dress he always wore on the street.”
Miss MacLeod, after greeting the sisters and introducing Swamiji to them left, as she usually did when someone met Swamiji for the first time, so that they could have a free interaction. Swamiji expressed his gladness that they were interested in his lectures. When asked how long he expected to stay in Los Angeles, he replied that he did not know, but that if a class were to be set up, he would be glad to take that up. This gave the sisters a concrete action item to work on, the first of the many acts of service they would perform for the Vedanta work in California.
The sisters, enthused by the possibility of classes, eagerly went about gathering a group of interested people. And in this way a second stream of Swamiji’s work, in addition to the public lectures, got started. Classes, unlike public lectures, were part of a course, and were aimed at more focused students who would want to undergo a more systematic study.
The Los Angeles work expands
Around mid-December, a course of three classes on Applied Psychology was announced and notices and advertisements of the same were carried on by some local newspapers like the Los Angeles Herald and the Los Angeles Times. The three classes of this first course were on December 19th, 21st, and 22nd, for which each person paid a dollar for every class. The classes were charged for the main reason that one of the aims of Swamiji during the second visit to America was to raise funds for his Indian work. The finances of the fledgling Ramakrishna Mission were in dire state. Also, as has been mentioned before, was his financial requirement towards expenses of a lawsuit his mother and brothers were having with relatives who had denied them their rightful share of the common property. As a matter of fact, Vivekananda had always acutely felt the pain of the hardships and penury his mother had to bear ever since death of his father, and his own long years of inability, even, while being the eldest son, to serve his mother.
The first class of this series was held in the studio rooms of the Blanchard Building. Since the number of attendees was between 150 and 20ù, the venue was not found to be satisfactory. It was around then that one Mr. J. Ransome Bransby, the Director of the ‘Home of truth’ at Georgia Street, offered his institution as an alternate venue. Accordingly, the next two classes in the course were conducted there. Swamiji followed this by giving six morning lectures at the same venue on successive days from 25th to 30th December.
These Home of Truth institutions were considered to be part of the New Thought Movement and Swamiji lectured and visited several of them, particularly in Northern California. These centres were established due to the influence of some celebrated American women like Mary Baker Eddy and Emma Curtis Hopkins Mary Baker Eddy and had elements from Christian Science. These centres were supported by public subscriptions and usually did not charge people any money for their services, something Swamiji greatly appreciated.
On 23rd December, a reception was given to Swamiji at the house of a prominent social figure – Mrs. Caroline Severance – a lady of considerable repute, also called the ‘Mother of Women’s Clubs’, as she had been the founder of a number of such clubs. Long years back, Mrs. Severance had founded the New England Women’s Club in Boston, and had officiated as its President till 1872. Celebrated Americans of the day like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Wendell Philips, and Bronson Alcott had been frequent guests in her home. There is a Severance Street in Los Angeles named after her. She was known to have socially progressive views and had a reputation of being a suffragist and pacifist. Interestingly, she had also attended one of Swamiji’s lectures in Massachusetts even before he went on to become a celebrated figure at the Chicago Parliament of Religions.
At the reception given by Mrs. Severance, Swamiji probably spoke about plans for his Indian work. That Mrs. Severance was a highly celebrated figure in the town also became clear from the fact that this reception, even though a completely private affair, was reported by the Los Angeles Herald in the following words:
“The Swami is preparing to inaugurate a system of itinerant teaching whereby the people may be reached in the fields and at their work wherever it may be. His talk was highly interesting to the guests.”
The reference above was to his plans regarding promoting education among poverty-stricken sections of his countrymen.
It was on the Christmas day that Swamiji gave his lecture, ‘Christ’s Message to the World’, at the ‘Home of Truth’. Josephine Macleod, in her reminiscences, refers to this particular lecture by telling a remarkably interesting story which surely must make its way to the top Vivekananda legends, revealing how great spiritual power, child-like simplicity and innocent inquisitiveness were at once present in that extraordinary man. She writes, “Perhaps the most outstanding lecture I ever heard was his talk on “Jesus of Nazareth”, when he seemed to radiate a white light from head to foot, so lost was he in the wonder and power of Christ. I was so impressed with the obvious halo that I did not speak to him on the way back for fear of interrupting, as I thought, the great thoughts that were still in his mind. Suddenly he said to me, “I know how it is done.” I said, “How what is done?” “How they make mulligatawny soup! They put a bay leaf in it,” he told me. That utter lack of self-consciousness, self-importance was perhaps one of his outstanding characteristics.”
Clearly, Vivekananda neither needed to warm up to raise his mind to a lofty level to hand over something sublime and concrete to his listeners, nor did he need to unwind to bring his mind to a normal state to make a conversation or reflect on so-called ordinary matters of the world. He did not have to feel ‘spiritual’, he was ‘Spirituality’ itself, his first and only nature.
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