VIVEKANANDA AND KHETRI ... 2

Mount Abu. The resort located in the hills of Rajputana, the seat of the famous Dilwara Temple of the Jains. Such exquisite architecture has been rare in the annals of world history and Swamiji was immersed in absorbing its substance and essence for days. What a contrast it must have been for the monk to go back every day from the splendour of the Dilwara to his habitat then in an abandoned cave where he had made his seat of 'sadhana' (spiritual austerity)! It was here that one day a Muslim pleader met the Swami and persuaded him to accept his hospitality.

The pleader was acquainted with Munshi Jagmohanlal, the Private Secretary to the Raja of Khetri and invited him one day to meet the Swami. At first sight the visitor brushed off the sleeping Swami as one of those vagrant monks who had no better job at hand than to live off the earnings of others. But the moment Swamiji awoke, Munshiji rather bluntly sought of him an explanation as to why as a Hindu monk he had sought refuge with a Muslim. After all, the food served to him might be polluted by the touch of a Muslim, might it not be? This quickened the ire of Swamiji who imperiously retorted that he was a monk and, therefore, above all social or scriptural injunctions as to mode of living. To him all were manifestations of Brahman and same-sightedness towards all was the essence of his realisation. Thus, he was free to reside with or partake of the food of any, be it an untouchable or one from another faith. The perception of the essential divinity in all had made him transcend all limiting social impositions and he was in no way bound any more by the conditional constraints of convention. Struck by the dazzling reply of the monk, Munshi Jagmohanlal fast settled in his mind that his master Raja Ajit Singh must make the acquaintance of Swamiji and so proposed to the latter that he should pay a visit to the royal palace to meet the king. Swamiji accepted and what followed was of the stuff of which legends are made. But more of that later.