[Messages] - Swami Vivekananda and his methods of work

Vivekananda wanted to establish an ideal society. He wanted to bring the best from the West and share it with India, and in turn to share India’s spiritual treasures with the West. For this reason, he wanted Vedanta centers to be established in countries all over the world. This, he felt, would bring about a closer relationship between East and West.
Still, Vivekananda’s ideas were not entirely accepted by all. His main opposition came from some of his own brother disciples. After the first meeting, on 1 May 1897, when the devotees had left, Swami Yogananda openly questioned Vivekananda’s methods of work. The following conversation took place: Yoganada: “You are doing these things by Western methods. Would you say that Sri Ramakrishna left us any such instructions?”
Vivekananda: “How do you know that these methods are not in keeping with his ideas? Sri Ramakrishna was the embodiment of infinite ideas: Do you want to shut him up in your own limits? I shall break those limits and scatter his ideas broadcast all over the world.
He never instructed me to introduce worship of him, and so forth. The methods of spiritual practice, concentration and meditation, and the other higher ideals of religion that he taught –those we must realize and teach to all men. Infinite are the ideas and infinite are the paths that lead to the goal. I was not born to create a new sect in this world, too full of sects already. Blessed are we that we have found refuge at the feet of our Master. It is our duty to give the ideas entrusted to us freely to the whole world.
“Time and again I have received in this life marks of his grace. He himself is at my back and is making me do all these things in these ways. When I used to lie under a tree, exhausted, smitten with hunger; when I had not a strip of cloth even to tie my kaupin with; when I had resolved to travel round the world penniless—even then, through his grace, I received help in every way. Then again, when people in crowds jostled with one another in the streets of Chicago to have sight of this Vivekananda, I was able, through his blessings, to digest without difficulty all that honour, a hundredth part of which would have turned the head of any other man. By the will of the Lord, victory has been mine everywhere. Now I intend to do something for this country. Do you all give up doubts and misgivings and help me in my work; and you will see how, by his grace, wonders will be accomplished.”
Yogananda: “Whatever you will, shall come about. We are always ready to follow your leading. I clearly see that the Master is working through you. Still, I confess, doubts do sometimes arise in the mind,for, as we saw it, his method of doing things was so different; and so I am led to ask myself whether we are not straying from Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings.”
Vivekananda: “The thing is this: Sri Ramakrishna is far greater than his disciples understand him to be. He is the embodiment of infinite spiritual ideas capable of development in infinite ways. Even if one can find a limit to the knowledge of Brahman, one cannot measure the unfathomable depths of our Master’s mind! One gracious glance of his eyes can create a hundred thousand Vivekananda at this instant! But if this time he chooses, instead, to work through me, making me his instrument, I can only bow to his will.”
His Eastern and Western Admirers, Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda [Advaita Ashram: 1981], 2:249-50.