Source: Preface by the Editor, to the Book ‘Letters of Swami Vivekananda’, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, India.
Letters are the reflections of one's mind. From private letters where thoughts flow freely, we can study the growth and development of a person's mind and the inner history of his being. It is for this reason that the private letters of many public men are so much in demand. From their letters many aspects of the personality of those persons are known to the public, which would otherwise have been a sealed book to all.
The history of Swami Vivekananda's life is correlated with the awakening of India and the resuscitation of Indian religion. But how much agony and suffering that mighty soul had to undergo before he was able to set in motion a machinery which was to bring about an all-round awakening in Indian national life! A nation that seemed to have lost all self-respect and self-confidence, and was apparently dead, had to be roused. That was a tremendous task. Swami Vivekananda felt that this task was his. Very often, he would say he was born with that mission. But he had to accomplish in a short span of life (his real activities covered a period of not more than nine years) a work whose influence would last for many centuries. He wrote to some of his followers in India from across the sea: "Fifty centuries are looking on you, the future of India depends on you." Perhaps the disciples were amazed at such bold words. But the Seer with his prophetic vision saw across the corridor of time what was coming ahead.
The following letters [Swami Vivekananda’s letters published in the book] show the plan of his work and the means he wanted to adopt for the fulfillment of his mission. Swami Vivekananda was impatient of the delay and the slow progress the country was making. People listened to him with rapt attention, admired him with almost fanatical zeal, but their actual works were not commensurate with their enthusiasm for hero-worship. Therefore they called for a sharp rebuke from the great Swami who wanted not worship but action.
With the passing of time, however, we find that more and more of Swami Vivekananda's ideas are being fulfilled.
But still many things remain unaccomplished. These letters [Swami Vivekananda’s letters published in the book] contain hints for the present and future workers for the cause of India as to how the nation should be guided. "What is the secret of a successful organization?" "Why do Indians lack the power of collective action?" "How India's future is doomed if those defects in national character are not remedied"—these vital questions are answered in these letters, sometimes in very strong language by one whose sharpness of expression was only the outer garb of his great love for his people.
But Swami Vivekananda was not a patriot only. He was a Seer first and a patriot next. As Guru, as a Teacher, as a spiritual leader, he had to solve the deeper problems of the life of many. Every man is a hidden Brahman, but in life almost all act like miserable wretches. What is the cause of this disastrous anomaly? How to remove it? How can a man rise to the full stature of his Divinity?—by answering these questions one who had known his own Divinity was anxious to make others Divine. This is what we find in many of Swami Vivekananda's letters.
Swami Vivekananda was a militant monk, a dynamic personality, and a fiery soul. We can imagine what magnetic effects his letters had upon the life of those to whom they were addressed. His letters contain many passages, a single one of which is sufficient to bring about a great revolution and complete transformation in one's life. The same fire is hidden in them even now, though they were written many years ago. We have no doubt that this smouldering fire may be ablaze at any time and illumine any life in any clime. So they are presented to the general readers. "The Epistles of Swami Vivekananda" were formerly published in six parts. In the present edition [First edition - 1940] we have brought them out in one handy volume, with some additional matter that has recently reached our hands. The letters are now arranged chronologically as far as possible.
