J.J. Goodwin

Josiah John Goodwin (20 September 1870 – 2 June 1898) was a British stenographer and a disciple of Indian philosopher Swami Vivekananda. Goodwin is known for recording Vivekananda's speeches, and it is thought that without his efforts most of Vivekananda's works would have been lost.

During his lecture tour in the United States, Vivekananda's disciples could not find a stenographer who could keep pace with his rapid speech. Therefore, his friends and admirers engaged a very expensive court-reporter, J. J. Goodwin.

Early life and early career Goodwin was born on 20 September 1870 at Batheaston, England. His father Josiah Goodwin was a stenographer and an editor of the Birmingham Advertiser, the Wilts Country Mirror and the Exeter Gazette. Goodwin worked as a journalist from the age of fourteen, and had an unsuccessful journalistic venture in Bath in 1893. He left Bath and travelled to Australia, and later on, to America. Gooodwin mentioned about his early days in a conversation with Swami Saradananda and Mahendranath Dutta. He was a resident of a village near Bath. He had a widowed mother and two unmarried sisters. Goodwin knew shorthand and used to earn his living as a typist in England, Australia and America. He loved cricket, football and also gambling. He became one of Vivekananda's staunchest followers and played an important role in recording Vivekananda's ex tempore speeches. After the first week, Goodwin refused any money, saying, "If Vivekananda gives his life, the least I can do is to give my service." He accepted only what was necessary for his basic subsistence. Goodwin was a hard worker amidst Vivekananda's strenuous schedule: after taking the lectures stenographically, he would type them and hand over the manuscript to the newspapers and Brahmavadin and used to get prepared for the same work on the following day. Goodwin was appointed by the Vedanta Society of New York, and he rented a room across the street from Vivekananda's. In the weeks between 9 December and 23 December Vivekananda gave at least 20 classes. These lectures were taken down in shorthand by Goodwin. He transcribed them and prepared full lectures for press, while short articles were prepared by another disciple Kripananda. Goodwin then went with Vivekananda to Detroit and the expenses of Goodwin was defrayed by Sara Bull who sent him $100. Goodwin was also very intimate with Sara Bull, and he wrote to her about the Swami's activities and all information pertaining to his lectures and other issues. Mahendranath describes his impressions about J. J Goodwin that Goodwin was twenty-three or twenty-four years old, but he looked like that of a thirty-five as he had a hard life. His heart was simple and sweet. He loved verbal jousting and if he got no chance to argue with someone he was not happy. He was an ardent British Nationalist and loved cricket and all sports. Goodwin accompanied Vivekananda in his tours in India in 1897 and took shorthand of his lectures from Colombo to Almora. Goodwin later went to Madras and became a Brahmachari. He helped in the publishing of Brahmavadin and worked with Alasinga Perumal, another disciple of Swami Vivekananda. To earn his living he had taken up a temporary job of a correspondent of a local newspaper, Madras Mail. Later he went to Ooty where after playing a game of cricket in rain he caught illness and died from the same on 2 June 1898 at the age of 27 years.

Legacy In August 1898, Swami Vivekananda wrote the poem Requiescat in peace in memory of Goodwin. The poem began: Speed forth, O soul! upon thy star-strewn path, Speed, blissful one, where thought is ever free, Where time and sense no longer mist the view, Eternal peace and blessings be on thee! J.J Goodwin is remembered and honored as a disciple of Swami Vivekananda to whom are owed most of the lectures of the Swami which are written down accurately. Vivekananda had said on Goodwin, He is chosen for my work. What would I do without him! If I have a mission, he is indeed a part of it.

Death Goodwin died on 2 June 1898 at the age of 27. He was cremated at Ootcamund (ooty) Christian crematory. Soon after, Vivekananda, who was in India at that time, was informed about it. Very recently, in the same year, Vivekananda had received the news of Indian yogi Pavhari Baba's death too. According to Vivekananda researcher Pravrajika Vrajaprana after receiving the death news of Goodwin, Vivekananda was "visibly disturbed".

In August 1898 Vivekananda wrote in tribute: With infinite sorrow I learn the sad news of Mr. Goodwin's departure from this life, the more so as it was terribly sudden and therefore prevented all possibilities of my being at his side at the time of death. The debt of gratitude I owe him can never be repaid, and those who think they have been helped by any thought of mine ought to know that almost every word of it was published through the untiring and most unselfish exertions of Mr. Goodwin. In him I have lost a friend true as steel, a disciple of never-failing devotion, a worker who knew not what tiring was, and the world is less rich by one of those few who are born, as it were, to live only for others.

Goodwin's mother and sister wrote to Swami Vivekananda in reply to his condolence letter, thanking him for the influence for good Vivekananda had been to Goodwin.