by Betty Robinson
This article is among a series highlighting Western women devotees who have played a role in shaping Vedanta’s history.
In his preface to The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Swami Nikhilananda writes, “Miss Margaret Woodrow Wilson and Mr. Joseph Campbell have worked hard in editing my translation.” Joseph Campbell is known for introducing the significance of myth into modern thought. But the name Margaret Woodrow Wilson also fosters recognition.
It was in Swamiji’s Cottage at Thousand Island Park that I came across a history of the United States written by Woodrow Wilson, given to Swami Nikhilananda by the President’s daughter, Margaret. It interested me to learn that Swami had requested these volumes and that Margaret had given them on the condition that he read them, since he had encouraged my own interest in history.
Margaret had retired to India long before I first came to the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center in 1951, but clearly she was held in great esteem. Older disciples related instances and told of her important role in translating M.’s Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita into English. Swami himself indicated that Margaret had insight into how words should read. She would stop his tendency toward excessive prose by asking him to imagine himself seated in Sri Ramakrishna’s room with the disciples, listening to the Master’s own words. This helped him capture and convey into English the simple imagery and beauty of the original Bengali text.
Margaret was born in 1886, the year Sri Ramakrishna died. In a book about their father, Eleanor Wilson offers us a colorful glimpse into her older sister’s character and their Presbyterian family life.
Margaret never lied. She was “defiantly truthful.” She was “vividly intelligent and interested in other people” ….A leader in everything….I looked up to her with awe and admiration: she was so fearless, so energetic, so independent. I spent countless hours of my life following Margie, wringing my hands and begging her to “come down” or “come back”. She had a passion for being alone.
Margaret, Jessie and I walked to chur ch with father and mother every Sunday morning, rain or shine. Every Sunday we read religious books that mother had carefully chosen to improve our minds and character. No games or songs w ere permitted on Sunday…no unnecessary work of any sort was done on the Sabbath. Father and mother loved poetry and took turns reading it aloud. Favorites were Wordsworth, Shakespeare and Browning….A deep happy peace permeated the household…much laughter and teasing and warm friendliness…
An early love for fine music brought Margaret to New York City where she studied music and took voice lessons. Throughout the first World War she gave frequent recitals in many American cities and at Army camps, the former usually for the benefit of the Red Cross. Leaving for France in October 1918, she spent the next eight months visiting camps to entertain troops in the Allied armies. A New York Times critic wrote that her voice has “a sympathetic quality, which is its most commendable attribute” and that she sang “with intelligence and feeling and without affectation”. Margaret also arranged concerts for her talented musical contemporaries and was responsible for bringing the famous pianist, Paderewski, to the White House during her father’s presidency.
Margaret’s introduction to Vedanta in the early 1930’s ignited within her the deep devotion to Sri Ramakrishna which would prove beneficial to future Western devotees who now read The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. It was a lasting spiritual commitment, one which led Margaret to take a five-year residence at Sri Aurobindo’s Ashram in Pondicherry, India, where she remained until her death on February 12, 1944 at the age of 57. Interviewed a year earlier by a New York Times correspondent, she was quoted as saying, “ I am not homesick. In fact, I never felt more at home anywhere any time in my life.” Her name at the ashram was Dishta meaning “leading to the discovery of the divine self in every human being.”
