Update: Swami V. Still Clean

File under: Reference Library

We've been in contact with Geoffrey D. Falk, author of Stripping the Gurus: Sex, Violence, Abuse and Enlightenment. He corrected us regarding our speculation about one of our heroes, Swami Vivekananda; with this passage from the book Ramakrishna Prasad Prasanga by Swami Jagadishwaranda, translated from the Bengali by Professor Narasingha P. Sil:

I (Subodhananda) asked Swamiji one day: "Hey, have you ever been to a brothel?" Swamiji replied: "Yes, after my father's death our situation [financial] worsened, and my mind was overwhelmed with all sorts of problems. A few friends advised alcohol as a panacea for such predicament: let's visit a brothel. I consumed a little alcohol in their company. Thereafter I felt inspired to lecture to them [friends]: "What would become of you in your afterlife, etc." Then my friends felt that I was a killjoy and they kicked me out. I returned home tottering, thoroughly inebriated."

That's sounds like our Vivekananda; pedantically lecturing anyone within earshot, even while drunk it seems.