SWVVKA

 Here are all three — source, duration, and comparison — about the “everything including horse-drawn carriage as one” experience of Swami Vivekananda.

1. Original biographical source

The anecdote appears in early biographies based on Vivekananda’s own reminiscences, especially:

• The Life of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Disciples
• Also echoed in reminiscences recorded in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda

The account describes that after a powerful spiritual transmission from Ramakrishna Paramahamsa:

• Vivekananda walked outside
• saw houses, people, carts, horses as the same reality
• felt no distinction between subject and object
• even struck his head against an iron railing to test if the world was real

He later said the experience made the world appear like a dream made of consciousness.

This is the source behind the “horse carriage” version — it refers to seeing passing carriages and horses as himself.

2. How long the state lasted

This was not just a moment — it persisted for several days, sometimes described as intermittent over a longer period.

Reported effects:

• He couldn’t eat normally (felt food and himself were one)
• Roads, carts, and people appeared unreal or unified
• He feared losing normal functioning
• The intensity gradually reduced, but the certainty of non-duality remained

Later he said something like:

• The vision faded, but
• the knowledge never left

So:

• Peak intensity: hours to a few days
• After-effect: permanent philosophical conviction

3. Comparison with Ramakrishna’s similar experiences

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had very similar but more frequent non-dual experiences.

Ramakrishna example

He once tried to step on grass and stopped because:

• he felt the grass as his own body
• he couldn’t bear to crush it

Another time:

• he saw a man beating another person
• Ramakrishna felt the blows on his own back

This is nearly identical in structure to Vivekananda’s carriage experience:

• no separation between self and world
• physical empathy with everything
• total unity perception

Key difference

• Ramakrishna: spontaneous, frequent, emotional
• Vivekananda: rare, powerful, more philosophical afterward

Ramakrishna lived in that state often
Vivekananda experienced it briefly but built a worldview from it

These experiences later shaped Vivekananda’s core teaching:

• All beings are one
• Service to man is service to God
• Religion is realization, not belief

And that’s why he could later declare:

“You are all divine — not sinners.”