##47 (Vivekananda) Back In India Poem by Rajaram Ramachandran

At Colombo, the ship halted.
Vivekananda never expected
Such a big crowd of people
At the port would assemble.

The people of Ceylon
Took him in procession
Thro’ decorated arches
Erected in all the streets.

It wasn’t, he felt, his victory,
But a success to the spirituality,
For which he went the West,
And returned back to the East.

He visited Kandy, Aruradhapuram,
Jaffna, Pamban, Rameswaram,
Ramnad, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli,
Kumbakonam, and Madras finally.

Everywhere people gathered,
And he blessed the multitude.
He revealed his intentions,
To start many institutions.

He wanted more preachers
To preach on Hindu scriptures,
In India and abroad as well,
And enlighten more people.

On 19th February 1897,
At Kolkata, he was given
A hearty public reception
In a grand welcome function.

The Ramakrishna Mission,
A noble Hindu Association,
With his blessings, came up,
Under his able leadership.

A bold statement he made,
That he had worshiped
The one and only God,
On this earth, who existed.

At the end, he declared,
“My God is the wicked.
The poor, the miserable,
The sum total of all souls.”