Love is a great power – there is no doubt about it. To pray for the welfare of others, to wish that they may have peace, that they may reach the source of joy – if these desires are a cause of bondage then that bondage is of divine love. It will break the bondage of the world, lead one to immortality and make one blessed.
(p.131, Spiritual treasures, Swami Turiyananda’s letter to Swami Premananda dt 12 December 1915)
I don’t grudge my fate. But oh! now I want a man, one of my boys, to stand by me and fight against all odds! Don’t you vex yourself; if anything is to be done in India, my presence is necessary; and I am much better in health; possibly the sea will make me better. My mistakes have been great; but everyone of them was from too much love. How I hate love! Would I never had any Bhakti! Indeed, I wish I could be an Advaitist, calm and heartless. Well, this life is done. I will try in the next. I am sorry, especially now, that I have done more injury to my friends than there have been blessings on them. The peace, the quiet I am seeking, I never found. I went years ago to the Himalayas, never to come back; and my sister committed suicide, the news reached me there, and that weak heart flung me off from that prospect of peace! It is the weak heart that has driven me out of India to seek some help for those I love, and here I am! Peace have I sought, but the heart, that seat of Bhakti, would not allow me to find it. Struggle and torture, torture and struggle. Well, be it then, since it is my fate, and the quicker it is over, the better. Lord bless you; if the Lord has made me His hack to work and die on the streets, let Him have it. I am more cheerful just now after your letter than I was for years — wah Guru ki Fateh! Victory unto the Guru!! Yes, let the world come, the hells come, the gods come, let Mother come, I fight and do not give in. Ravana got his release in three births by fighting the Lord Himself! It is glorious to fight Mother.
(p.420-1, V.6, Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Swamiji’s letter to Mrs Bull dt 12 December 1899)