Saturday, November 1, 2008

Emma & Swami Vivekananda


Emma had the pleasure of meeting Swami Vivekananda during one of her U.S. tours. She seems to have been quite impressed by the Swami's abilities and remained a friend and admirer through her life. She speaks about him for several pages in her autobiography "My Life" ( pages 185-194) which is surprising as she does not give too many other people this much attention in her book. She doesn't talk about Jules Bois at all, and he is acknowledged in many circles as being very close to Emma for a considerable length of time.  Vivekananda also refers to her in his writings. There is a great website that carries the writings of Vivekananda.(www.vivekananda.net) It is well known that Emma was very generous with her money and in this manner of generosity invites Vivekananda as her guest on a trip to Egypt, Turkey and Greece. They are accompanied by Jules Bois, Miss McLeod, Father Hyacinthe ( Mr. Loyson) and his wife. Father Hyacinthe left the priesthood to marry and there is a story that Emma and his new wife got into an argument over this fact. It seems Mrs. Loyson made a comment about Emma sleeping with Jules Bois out of wedlock with Emma replying that at least she had not stolen a beloved priest from his people! 

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