Vivekananda and his fellow Ramakrishna disciples were not the only ones who come to America in the aftermath of the Parliament. Published in the St Louis Republic in 1902, the clip below is first hand account written by journalist turned Vaishnava missionary Baba Bharati.
The Republic, 1902
He was the Original of Rudyard Kipling’s Holy Man in ‘Kim’
Baba Bharati, from India, has arrived in New York to make converts to his faith, which is ‘Love for all Men.’
Source: TW
As a journalist Bharati apparently knew Kipling, and sources suggest that he was the inspiration for the holy man in Kipling’s novel, Kim!
Bharati distinguished himself through his missionary approach. Not only did he push back on the distortions of Claudius Buchanan and his ilk— he argued that Hindu thought was in fact preferable to Christianity! Needless to say, this was a source of controversy.
Baba was a man of influence and a successful editor. He suddenly resigned his editorship and joined the ecstatic followers of Krishna, a Hindoo deity.
When the time comes the West will be perhaps rudely awakened from its pleasant dream that its civilization, born only yesterday, is all-powerful and is Westernizing the unprogressive Hindoo.
These European dreamers will awaken to find that all their so-called civilization of the Hindoos is but as a layer of moss upon rock. In the final test the moss will vanish, leaving the granite unchanged, eternal…
The Hindoo and his spirituality are the same today as thousands of years ago. They have outlived Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans— their systems, Governments and religions. The Hindoos alone remain imperishable.
The only hope for these so-called modern civilizations is in adopting the spirituality of the Hindoos. His vast, all-pervading spiritual power is realized by all— by English and Americans alike.