Nivedita, continued...

Essentially she was what one would call, the Mother of the People. Hers was not the kind of motherly feeling that remained confined within her family, only. It was a vast love that enveloped an entire people, creating an example hitherto unseen by us. Perhaps I had some sense of a how a man may feel duty and responsibility towards his nation. However, I had never seen before such force of tenderness in a woman, towards a nation.  When she used to say ‘Our people’ the kinship with the ‘people’ that came through in her voice, I had never heard in any of our own voices. Those who  have seen how wholeheartedly and completely Nivedita loved the peoples of India, will realize that many of us give our time, our money, even sometimes our lives, to the people, but we have not been able to give them our hearts.  We do not know what it is to really draw them close to ourselves and feel their pulse beat.