Peculiar Psychic Experience

MADAME CALVÉ, the celebrated opera singer, was in Chicago in 1894. The world was at her feet. Calvé, the toast of two continents, was seen by her flamboyant admirers as well as by the celebrities composing the cream of the society as a bright new star sailing forth to conquer the world. One evening in the opera she had had her worst attack of stage fright to date. She felt nervous going to the stage after the interval, although the first act was a tremendous success. She felt terribly depressed and thought of giving up the performance that night. She could hardly stagger from her dressing room to the wings. She stood stock still as though paralyzed, and had to be persuaded by the stage manager. But she sang magnificently. After her second act, coming back to her dressing room, she virtually collapsed and asked the manager to announce her inability to appear due to her illness. She had her breathing trouble and was horrifyingly depressed. The manager and the people around her almost carried her to the stage for the last act and she made the greatest efforts of her life to finish the performance. Her performance proved to be one of the most glorious of her entire career and the public gave her a tremendous applause. After a blazing exit she ran to her room only to see the long faces of several people. Her mind was filled with the foreboding of some impending grave peril. The tragic news---her only beloved daughter was dead, having been burnt to death during that performance. Calvé fainted.

Attempt to Commit Suicide

Calvé showered every mark of tender affection on her daughter. How can she live now? Her unprecedented triumph of success had worn thin. She resolved to put an end to her agonizing suffering by committing suicide by throwing herself in the lake. Notwithstanding all the pious entreaties of her well wishers, she was helplessly borne, like a straw on the stream, upon the current of emotion. Swami Vivekananda was at that time in Chicago and news of his great and saving spiritual power was in the air. Many sought interviews seeking his help and guidance. This was well-known to her. She had vaporish misconception about spiritual power. She won't visit the Swami.

Work of Destiny

Three different times she left her house to drown herself and went towards the lake, and each time destiny brought her unconsciously on the road to Swamiji's house. Each time she refused to see the Swami and went back to her house. Finally, the fourth or fifth time, she unintentionally came, as though in a daze, to the Swami's house and sat down in a chair. She was in a dreaming state, when she heard a consoling voice coming from the next room saying, "Come my child. Don't be afraid". She got up and went to Swamiji as though being hypnotized. It would be interesting to give here the reminiscences of Madame Calvé of her first meeting with Swami Vivekananda---and of the profound impact the Swami's teaching produced upon her life.

Her Reminiscences

"It has been my good fortune and my joy to know a man who truly 'walked with God', a noble being, a saint, a philosopher and a true friend. His influence upon my spiritual life was profound. He opened up new horizons before me, enlarging and unifying my religious ideas and ideals; teaching me a broader understanding of truth. My soul will bear him eternal gratitude.

"He was lecturing in Chicago one year when I was there; and as I was at that time greatly depressed in mind and body, I decided to go to him, having seen how he had helped some of my friends. When I entered the room, I stood before him in silence for a moment. He was seated in a noble attitude of meditation, his eyes on the ground. After a pause he spoke without looking up.

"'My child', he said, 'what a troubled atmosphere you have about you; Be calm; It is essential'.

"Then in a quiet voice, untroubled and aloof, this man who did not even know my name talked to me of my secret problems and anxieties. He spoke of things that I thought were unknown even to my nearest friends. It seemed miraculous, supernatural.

"'How do you know all this ' I asked at last. 'Who has talked of me to you?'

"He looked at me with his quiet smile as though I were a child who had asked a foolish question.

"'No one has talked to me', he answered gently. 'Do you think that it is necessary? I read in you as in an open book'.

"Finally it was time for me to leave.

"'You must forget', he said as I rose. 'Become gay and happy again. Build up your health. Do not dwell in silence upon your sorrows. Transmute your emotions into some form of eternal expression. Your spiritual health requires it. Your art demands it'.

"I left him, deeply impressed by his words and his personality. He seemed to have emptied my brain of all its feverish complexities and placed there instead his clean and calming thoughts. I became once again vivacious and cheerful, thanks to the effect of his powerful will. He did not use any of the hypnotic, or mesmeric influences. It was the strength of his character, the purity and intensity of his purpose that carried conviction. It seemed to me, when I came to know him better, that he lulled one's chaotic thoughts into a state of peaceful acquiescence, so that one could give complete and undivided attention to his words."

Scientific Explanation

A great spiritual personality who is perfectly established in higher realization can transmit this knowledge to a disciple even if the disciple has not undergone vigorous spiritual practices. Swami Vivekananda himself experienced it and says in his lecture,

"I began to go to that man, (Shri Ramakrishna) day after day, and I actually saw that religion can be given. One touch, one glance, can change a whole life. I have read about Buddha and Christ and Mohammed, about all those different luminaries of ancient times, how they would stand up and say, "Be thou whole", and the man became whole. I now found it to be true, and when I myself saw this man, all skepticism was brushed aside. It could be done, and my Master used to say, "Religion can be given and taken more tangibly', more really than anything else in the world". (Complete Works, Vol. IV, My Master, P. 179).

Dr. Hans Jacobs, an eminent Western psychiatrist, has written a wonderful book---"Western Psychotherapy and Hindu Sadhana". He says,

"There can be no greater inspiration for strength and power than the idea of the Indian Vedanta that the soul is essentially divine .... Actually, the more we can think of our divine heritage the more divine we become. Error brings about sorrow and is ultimately the result of weakness. Consequently, remedy is seen in strength and strength is conveyed by basing oneself not on the individual but on the universal".

Dr. Jacobs believes that the repetition of mantras under the guidance of a spiritual preceptor is of great help to the seekers after truth. He says,

"If well selected, the mantra is of such a nature that by, the vibrations it produces it counteracts the psychological drawbacks of the sadhaka, providing those elements which, in his subtle body, are lacking, counteracting those which are in excess... We want healers of souls rather than of bodies. A pure heart is the most essential requisite for mental and physical health".

St. Paul has beautifully expressed the truth: "Be Ye transformed by the renewal of your mind". Great spiritual souls or their messages of the holy mantra given by them only arouse the latent divinity in the sadhaka and thereby help him to know his inner potentiality. This brings success in his life.

Value of Association with the Great

Psychosis is generated by the conflicts, confusion, and frustration of the mind and by uncontrolled emotions. Those tendencies can hardly be removed unless higher values are absorbed by the person and then practically applied in his life. When a man has the religious ideal and regulates all his activities by it, he has a satisfactory way of life. Hence, we are to associate ourselves with spiritual souls or their messages. Their snow_white peaks of sanctity, purity and holiness in life will act as a lighthouse of inspiration to the drooping souls. This is the value of having an exalted ideal, a strong love for a noble person, a lofty purpose which translates itself into service, and an absorbing devotion to a holy cause.

This article is from Swami Tathagatananda's book, Glimpses of Great Lives published by The Vedanta Society of New York.

Comments on the article can be sent to: VedantaSoc@aol.com

Books by Swami Tathagatananda:

1. The Vedanta Society of New York -- A Brief History, 2000
2. Mahabharat--Katha (Bengali), 1998
3. Ramayan Anudhyan (Bengali), 1996
4. Healthy Values of Living, 1996
5. Meditation on Swami Vivekananda, 1994
6. Meditation on Shri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, 1993
7. Glimpses of Great Lives, 1989
8. Shubha Chinta (Bengali), 1988
9. Smaran--Manan (Bengali), 1987

You can order these books from The Vedanta Society of New York.

Other books on Vedanta can be purchased from any Vedanta Center.

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