BIOGRAPHY OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

Los Angeles. As she was leaving for the West coast, the Swami uttered aSanskrit benediction and told her that he would soon meet her there. Sheproceeded straight to the home of Mrs. S. K. Blodgett, where her brother wasstaying, and after spending a few minutes with the patient, asked Mrs. Blodgettwhether her brother might be permitted to die in the room in which he was thenlying; for she had found a large picture of Vivekananda, hanging on the wall atthe foot of the patient's bed. Miss MacLeod told her hostess of her surprise onseeing the picture, and Mrs. Blodgett replied that she had heard Vivekananda atthe Parliament of Religions in Chicago and thought that if ever there was a Godon earth, it was that man. (See) Miss MacLeod told her that she had just left theSwami at Ridgely Manor, and further, that he had expressed the desire to cometo Los Angeles. The brother died within a few days, and the Swami started forthe West Coast on November 22. He broke his trip in Chicago to visit his oldfriends, and upon his arrival in Los Angeles became the guest of Mrs. Blodgett,whom he described in a letter to Mary Hale as 'fat, old, extremely witty, andvery motherly.'The impression the Swami left in the mind of this good woman can be gatheredfrom the following lines of a letter written by her to Miss MacLeod afterSwamiji's passing away:I am ever recalling those swift, bright days in that never-to-be-forgottenwinter, lived in simple freedom and kindliness. We could not choose butto be happy and good....I knew him personally but a short time, yet inthat time I could see in a hundred ways the child side of Swamiji'scharacter, which was a constant appeal to the mother quality in all goodwomen....He would come home from a lecture, where he had beencompelled to break away from his audience — so eagerly would theygather around him — and rush into the kitchen like a boy released fromschool, with 'Now we will cook!' Presently Joe would appear and discoverthe culprit among the pots and pans, and in his fine dress, who was bythrifty, watchful Joe admonished to change to his home garments....Inthe homely, old-fashioned kitchen, you and I have seen Swamiji at hisbest.Swami Vivekananda gave many lectures before large audiences in Los Angelesand Pasadena; but alas! there was no Goodwin to record them, and most of whathe said was consequently lost. Only a little has been preserved in thefragmentary notes of his disciples.At the Universalist Church of Pasadena he gave his famous lecture 'Christ, theMessenger'; and this was the only time, Miss MacLeod said later, that she sawhim enveloped in a halo. The Swami, after the lecture, was returning homewrapped in thought, and Miss MacLeod was following at a little distance, whensuddenly she heard him say, 'I know it, I know it!''What do you know?' asked Miss MacLeod.