Triumphal Return

The news of Swami's return had already reached India, and the people everywhere, throughout the country, were afire with enthusiasm to receive him. He was no small or big, committees had been formed to give him a fitting reception. As Romain Rolland says, the Swami 'replied' to the frenzied expectancy of the people by his
message to India, a conch sounding the resurrection of the land of Rama, of siva, of Krsna, and calling the heroic spirit, the immortal Atman, to march to war. He was a general, explaining his Plan of Campaign, and calling his people to rise en masses: " My India, arisw ! Where is your vital force? In your Immortal Soul."
However, he had to bear great criticism from other orthodox Hindus for having traveled in the West. In his day there was hardly a Hindu in America and he received criticism for crossing the ocean, at that time a cause for "outcasting." Vivekananda scoffed at these critiques from the orthodox
saying "I cannot be outcast - As a monk, I am beyond caste." His contemporaries also questioned his motives, wondering whether the fame and glory of his Hindu evangelism compromised his original monastic vows. His enthusiasm for America and Britain, and his spiritual devotion to his motherland,
caused significant tension in his last years.