The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Lectures from Colombo to Almora/The Common Bases of Hinduism
THE COMMON BASES OF HINDUISM
On his arrival at Lahore the Swamiji was accorded a grand reception by the
leaders, both of the Ârya Samâj and of the Sanâtana Dharma Sabhâ. During his
brief stay in Lahore, Swamiji delivered three lectures. The first of these
was on "The Common Bases of Hinduism", the second on "Bhakti", and the
third one was the famous lecture on "The Vedanta". On the first Occasion
he spoke as follows:
This is the land which is held to be the holiest even in holy Âryâvarta;
this is the Brahmâvarta of which our great Manu speaks. This is the land
from whence arose that mighty aspiration after the Spirit, ay, which in
times to come, as history shows, is to deluge the world. This is the land
where, like its mighty rivers, spiritual aspirations have arisen and joined
their strength, till they travelled over the length and breadth of the world
and declared themselves with a voice of thunder. This is the land which had
first to bear the brunt of all inroads and invasions into India; this heroic
land had first to bare its bosom to every onslaught of the outer barbarians
into Aryavarta. This is the land which, after all its sufferings, has not
yet entirely lost its glory and its strength. Here it was that in later
times the gentle Nânak preached his marvellous love for the world. Here it
was that his broad heart was opened and his arms outstretched to embrace the
whole world, not only of Hindus, but of Mohammedans too. Here it was that
one of the last and one of the most glorious heroes of our race, Guru
Govinda Singh, after shedding his blood and that of his dearest and nearest
for the cause of religion, even when deserted by those for whom this blood
was shed, retired into the South to die like a wounded lion struck to the
heart, without a word against his country, without a single word of murmur.
Here, in this ancient land of ours, children of the land of five rivers, I
stand before you, not as a teacher, for I know very little to teach, but as
one who has come from the east to exchange words of greeting with the
brothers of the west, to compare notes. Here am I, not to find out
differences that exist among us, but to find where we agree. Here am I
trying to understand on what ground we may always remain brothers, upon what
foundations the voice that has spoken from eternity may become stronger and
stronger as it grows. Here am I trying to propose to you something of
constructive work and not destructive. For criticism the days are past, and
we are waiting for constructive work. The world needs, at times, criticisms
even fierce ones; but that is only for a time, and the work for eternity is
progress and construction, and not criticism and destruction. For the last
hundred years or so, there has been a flood of criticism all over this land
of ours, where the full play of Western science has been let loose upon all
the dark spots, and as a result the corners and the holes have become much
more prominent than anything else. Naturally enough there arose mighty
intellects all over the land, great and glorious, with the love of truth and
justice in their hearts, with the love of their country, and above all, an
intense love for their religion and their God; and because these mighty
souls felt so deeply, because they loved so deeply, they criticised
everything they thought was wrong. Glory unto these mighty spirits of the
past! They have done so much good; but the voice of the present day is
coming to us, telling, "Enough!" There has been enough of criticism, there
has been enough of fault-finding, the time has come for the rebuilding, the
reconstructing; the time has come for us to gather all our scattered forces,
to concentrate them into one focus, and through that, to lead the nation on
its onward march, which for centuries almost has been stopped. The house has
been cleansed; let it be inhabited anew. The road has been cleared. March
children of the Aryans!
Gentlemen, this is the motive that brings me before you, and at the start I
may declare to you that I belong to no party and no sect. They are all great
and glorious to me, I love them all, and all my life I have been attempting
to find what is good and true in them. Therefore, it is my proposal tonight
to bring before you points where we are agreed, to find out, if we can, a
ground of agreement; and if through the grace of the Lord such a state of
things be possible, let us take it up, and from theory carry it out into
practice. We are Hindus. I do not use the word Hindu in any bad sense at
all, nor do I agree with those that think there is any bad meaning in it. In
old times, it simply meant people who lived on the other side of the Indus;
today a good many among those who hate us may have put a bad interpretation
upon it, but names are nothing. Upon us depends whether the name Hindu will
stand for everything that is glorious, everything that is spiritual, or
whether it will remain a name of opprobrium, one designating the
downtrodden, the worthless, the heathen. If at present the word Hindu means
anything bad, never mind; by our action let us be ready to show that this is
the highest word that any language can invent. It has been one of the
principles of my life not to be ashamed of my own ancestors. I am one of the
proudest men ever born, but let me tell you frankly, it is not for myself,
but on account of my ancestry. The more I have studied the past, the more I
have looked back, more and more has this pride come to me, and it has given
me the strength and courage of conviction, raised me up from the dust of the
earth, and set me working out that great plan laid out by those great
ancestors of ours. Children of those ancient Aryans, through the grace of
the Lord may you have the same pride, may that faith in your ancestors come
into your blood, may it become a part and parcel of your lives, may it work
towards the salvation of the world!
Before trying to find out the precise point where we are all agreed, the
common ground of our national life, one thing we must remember. Just as
there is an individuality in every man, so there is a national
individuality. As one man differs from another in certain particulars, in
certain characteristics of his own, so one race differs from another in
certain peculiar characteristics; and just as it is the mission of every man
to fulfil a certain purpose in the economy of nature, just as there is a
particular line set out for him by his own past Karma, so it is with nations
— each nation has a destiny to fulfil, each nation has a message to deliver,
each nation has a mission to accomplish. Therefore, from the very start, we
must have to understand the mission of our own race, the destiny it has to
fulfil, the place it has to occupy in the march of nations, the note which
it has to contribute to the harmony of races. In our country, when children,
we hear stories how some serpents have jewels in their heads, and whatever
one may do with the serpent, so long as the jewel is there, the serpent
cannot be killed. We hear stories of giants and ogres who had souls living
in certain little birds, and so long as the bird was safe, there was no
power on earth to kill these giants; you might hack them to pieces, or do
what you liked to them, the giants could not die. So with nations, there is
a certain point where the life of a nation centres, where lies the
nationality of the nation, and until that is touched, the nation cannot die.
In the light of this we can understand the most marvellous phenomenon that
the history of the world has ever known. Wave after wave of Barbarian
conquest has rolled over this devoted land of ours. "Allah Ho Akbar!" has
rent the skies for hundreds of years, and no Hindu knew what moment would be
his last. This is the most suffering and the most subjugated of all the
historic lands of the world. Yet we still stand practically the same race,
ready to face difficulties again and again if necessary; and not only so, of
late there have been signs that we are not only strong, but ready to go out,
for the sign of life is expansion.
We find today that our ideas and thoughts are no more cooped up within the
bounds of India, but whether we will it or not, they are marching outside,
filtering into the literature of nations, taking their place among nations,
and in some, even getting a commanding dictatorial position. Behind this we
find the explanation that the great contribution to the sum total of the
world's progress from India is the greatest, the noblest, the sublimest
theme that can occupy the mind of man — it is philosophy and spirituality.
Our ancestors tried many other things; they, like other nations, first went
to bring out the secrets of external nature as we all know, and with their
gigantic brains that marvellous race could have done miracles in that line
of which the world could have been proud for ever. But they gave it up for
something higher; something better rings out from the pages of the Vedas:
"That science is the greatest which makes us know Him who never changes!"
The science of nature, changeful, evanescent, the world of death, of woe, of
misery, may be great, great indeed; but the science of Him who changes not,
the Blissful One, where alone is peace, where alone is life eternal, where
alone is perfection, where alone all misery ceases — that, according to our
ancestors, was the sublimest science of all. After all, sciences that can
give us only bread and clothes and power over our fellowmen, sciences that
can teach us only how to conquer our fellow-beings, to rule over them, which
teach the strong to domineer over the weak — those they could have
discovered if they willed. But praise be unto the Lord, they caught at once
the other side, which was grander, infinitely higher, infinitely more
blissful, till it has become the national characteristic, till it has come
down to us, inherited from father to son for thousands of years, till it has
become a part and parcel of us, till it tingles in every drop of blood that
runs through our veins, till it has become our second nature, till the name
of religion and Hindu have become one. This is the national characteristic,
and this cannot be touched. Barbarians with sword and fire, barbarians
bringing barbarous religions, not one of them could touch the core, not one
could touch the "jewel", not one had the power to kill the "bird" which the
soul of the race inhabited. This, therefore, is the vitality of I the race,
and so long as that remains, there is no power under the sun that can kill
the race. All the tortures and miseries of the world will pass over without
hurting us, and we shall come out of the flames like Prahlâda, so long as we
hold on to this grandest of all our inheritances, spirituality. If a Hindu
is not spiritual I do not call him a Hindu. In other countries a man may be
political first, and then he may have a little religion, but here in India
the first and the foremost duty of our lives is to be spiritual first, and
then, if there is time, let other things come. Bearing this in mind we shall
be in a better position to understand why, for our national welfare, we must
first seek out at the present day all the spiritual forces of the race, as
was done in days of yore and will be done in all times to come. National
union in India must be a gathering up of its scattered spiritual forces. A
nation in India must be a union of those whose hearts beat to the same
spiritual tune.
There have been sects enough in this country. There are sects enough, and
there will be enough in the future, because this has been the peculiarity of
our religion that in abstract principles so much latitude has been given
that, although afterwards so much detail has been worked out, all these
details are the working out of principles, broad as the skies above our
heads, eternal as nature herself. Sects, therefore, as a matter of course,
must exist here, but what need not exist is sectarian quarrel. Sects must be
but sectarianism need not. The world would not be the better for
sectarianism, but the world cannot move on without having sects. One set of
men cannot do everything. The almost infinite mass of energy in the world
cannot tie managed by a small number of people. Here, at once we see the
necessity that forced this division of labour upon us — the division into
sects. For the use of spiritual forces let there be sects; but is there any
need that we should quarrel when our most ancient books declare that this
differentiation is only apparent, that in spite of all these differences
there is a thread of harmony, that beautified unity, running through them
all? Our most ancient books have declared:
एकं सव्दिप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति । — "That which exists is One; sages
call Him by various names." Therefore, if there are these sectarian
struggles, if there are these fights among the different sects, if there is
jealousy and hatred between the different sects in India, the land where all
sects have always been honoured, it is a shame on us who dare to call
ourselves the descendants of those fathers.
There are certain great principles in which, I think, we — whether
Vaishnavas, Shaivas, Shâktas, or Gânapatyas, whether belonging to the
ancient Vedantists or the modern ones, whether belonging to the old rigid
sects or the modern reformed ones — are all one, and whoever calls himself a
Hindu, believes in these principles. Of course there is a difference in the
interpretation, in the explanation of these principles, and that difference
should be there, and it should be allowed, for our standard is not to bind
every man down to our position. It would be a sin to force every man to work
out our own interpretation of things, and to live by our own methods.
Perhaps all who are here will agree on the first point that we believe the
Vedas to be the eternal teachings of the secrets of religion. We all believe
that this holy literature is without beginning and without end, coeval with
nature, which is without beginning and without end; and that all our
religious differences, all our religious struggles must end when we stand in
the presence of that holy book; we are all agreed that this is the last
court of appeal in all our spiritual differences. We may take different
points of view as to what the Vedas are. There may be one sect which regards
one portion as more sacred than another, but that matters little so long as
we say that we are all brothers in the Vedas, that out of these venerable,
eternal, marvellous books has come everything that we possess today, good,
holy, and pure. Well, therefore, if we believe in all this, let this
principle first of all be preached broadcast throughout the length and
breadth of the land. If this be true, let the Vedas have that prominence
which they always deserve, and which we all believe in. First, then, the
Vedas. The second point we all believe in is God, the creating, the
preserving power of the whole universe, and unto whom it periodically
returns to come out at other periods and manifest this wonderful phenomenon,
called the universe. We may differ as to our conception of God. One may
believe in a God who is entirely personal, another may believe in a God who
is personal and yet not human, and yet another may believe in a God who is
entirely impersonal, and all may get their support from the Vedas. Still we
are all believers in God; that is to say, that man who does not believe in a
most marvellous Infinite Power from which everything has come, in which
everything lives, and to which everything must in the end return, cannot be
called a Hindu. If that be so, let us try to preach that idea all over the
land. Preach whatever conception you have to give, there is no difference,
we are not going to fight over it, but preach God; that is all we want. One
idea may be better than another, but, mind you, not one of them is bad. One
is good, another is better, and again another may be the best, but the word
bad does not enter the category of our religion. Therefore, may the Lord
bless them all who preach the name of God in whatever form they like! The
more He is preached, the better for this race. Let our children be brought
up in this idea, let this idea enter the homes of the poorest and the
lowest, as well as of the richest and the highest — the idea of the name of
God.
The third idea that I will present before you is that, unlike all other
races of the world, we do not believe that this world was created only so
many thousand years ago, and is going to be destroyed eternally on a certain
day. Nor do we believe that the human soul has been created along with this
universe just out of nothing. Here is another point I think we are all able
to agree upon. We believe in nature being without beginning and without end;
only at psychological periods this gross material of the outer universe goes
back to its finer state, thus to remain for a certain period, again to be
projected outside to manifest all this infinite panorama we call nature.
This wavelike motion was going on even before time began, through eternity,
and will remain for an infinite period of time.
Next, all Hindus believe that man is not only a gross material body; not
only that within this there is the finer body, the mind, but there is
something yet greater — for the body changes and so does the mind —
something beyond, the Âtman — I cannot translate the word to you for any
translation will be wrong — that there is something beyond even this fine
body, which is the Atman of man, which has neither beginning nor end, which
knows not what death is. And then this peculiar idea, different from that of
all other races of men, that this Atman inhabits body after body until there
is no more interest for it to continue to do so, and it becomes free, not to
be born again, I refer to the theory of Samsâra and the theory of eternal
souls taught by our Shâstras. This is another point where we all agree,
whatever sect we may belong to. There may be differences as to the relation
between the soul and God. According to one sect the soul may be eternally
different from God, according to another it may be a spark of that infinite
fire, yet again according to others it may be one with that Infinite. It
does not matter what our interpretation is, so long as we hold on to the one
basic belief that the soul is infinite, that this soul was never created,
and therefore will never die, that it had to pass and evolve into various
bodies, till it attained perfection in the human one — in that we are all
agreed. And then comes the most differentiating, the grandest, and the most
wonderful discovery in the realms of spirituality that has ever been made.
Some of you, perhaps, who have been studying Western thought, may have
observed already that there is another radical difference severing at one
stroke all that is Western from all that is Eastern. It is this that we
hold, whether we are Shâktas, Sauras, or Vaishnavas, even whether we are
Bauddhas or Jainas, we all hold in India that the soul is by its nature pure
and perfect, infinite in power and blessed. Only, according to the dualist,
this natural blissfulness of the soul has become contracted by past bad
work, and through the grace of God it is again going to open out and show
its perfection; while according to the monist, even this idea of contraction
is a partial mistake, it is the veil of Maya that causes us to think the,
soul has lost its powers, but the powers are there fully manifest. Whatever
the difference may be, we come to the central core, and there is at once an
irreconcilable difference between all that is Western and Eastern. The
Eastern is looking inward for all that is great and good. When we worship,
we close our eyes and try to find God within. The Western is looking up
outside for his God. To the Western their religious books have been
inspired, while with us our books have been expired; breath-like they came,
the breath of God, out of the hearts of sages they sprang, the
Mantra-drashtâs.
This is one great point to understand, and, my friends, my brethren, let me
tell you, this is the one point we shall have to insist upon in the future.
For I am firmly convinced, and I beg you to understand this one fact - no
good comes out of the man who day and night thinks he is nobody. If a man,
day and night, thinks he is miserable, low, and nothing, nothing he becomes.
If you say yea, yea, "I am, I am", so shall you be; and if you say "I am
not", think that you are not, and day and night meditate upon the fact that
you are nothing, ay, nothing shall you be. That is the great fact which you
ought to remember. We are the children of the Almighty, we are sparks of the
infinite, divine fire. How can we be nothings? We are everything, ready to
do everything, we can do everything, and man must do everything. This faith
in themselves was in the hearts of our ancestors, this faith in themselves
was the motive power that pushed them forward and forward in the march of
civilisation; and if there has been degeneration, if there has been defect,
mark my words, you will find that degradation to have started on the day our
people lost this faith in themselves. Losing faith in one's self means
losing faith in God. Do you believe in that infinite, good Providence
working in and through you? If you believe that this Omnipresent One, the
Antaryâmin, is present in every atom, is through and through, Ota-prota, as
the Sanskrit word goes, penetrating your body, mind and soul, how can you
lose, heart? I may be a little bubble of water, and you may be a
mountain-high wave. Never mind! The infinite ocean is the background of me
as well as of you. Mine also is that infinite ocean of life, of power, of
spirituality, as well as yours. I am already joined — from my very birth,
from the very fact of my life — I am in Yoga with that infinite life and
infinite goodness and infinite power, as you are, mountain-high though you
may be. Therefore, my brethren, teach this life-saving, great, ennobling,
grand doctrine to your children, even from their very birth. You need not
teach them Advaitism; teach them Dvaitism, or any "ism" you please, but we
have seen that this is the common "ism" all through India; this marvellous
doctrine of the soul, the perfection of the soul, is commonly believed in by
all sects. As says our great philosopher Kapila, if purity has not been the
nature of the soul, it can never attain purity afterwards, for anything that
was not perfect by nature, even if it attained to perfection, that
perfection would go away again. If impurity is the nature of man, then man
will have to remain impure, even though he may be pure for five minutes. The
time will come when this purity will wash out, pass away, and the old
natural impurity will have its sway once more. Therefore, say all our
philosophers, good is our nature, perfection is our nature, not
imperfection, not impurity — and we should remember that. Remember the
beautiful example of the great sage who, when he was dying, asked his mind
to remember all his mighty deeds and all his mighty thoughts. There you do
not find that he was teaching his mind to remember all his weaknesses and
all his follies. Follies there are, weakness there must be, but remember
your real nature always — that is the only way to cure the weakness, that is
the only way to cure the follies.
It seems that these few points are common among all the various religious
sects in India, and perhaps in future upon this common platform,
conservative and liberal religionists, old type and new type, may shake
hands. Above all, there is another thing to remember, which I am sorry we
forget from time to time, that religion, in India, means realisation and
nothing short of that. "Believe in the doctrine, and you are safe", can
never be taught to us, for we do not believe in that. You are what you make
yourselves. You are, by the grace of God and your own exertions, what you
are. Mere believing in certain theories and doctrines will not help you
much. The mighty word that came out from the sky of spirituality in India
was Anubhuti, realisation, and ours are the only books which declare again
and again: "The Lord is to be seen". Bold, brave words indeed, but true to
their very core; every sound, every vibration is true. Religion is to be
realised, not only heard; it is not in learning some doctrine like a parrot.
Neither is it mere intellectual assent — that is nothing; but it must come
into us. Ay, and therefore the greatest proof that we have of the existence
of a God is not because our reason says so, but because God has been seen by
the ancients as well as by the moderns. We believe in the soul not only
because there are good reasons to prove its existence, but, above all,
because there have been in the past thousands in India, there are still many
who have realised, and there will be thousands in the future who will
realise and see their own souls. And there is no salvation for man until he
sees God, realises his own soul. Therefore, above all, let us understand
this, and the more we understand it the less we shall have of sectarianism
in India, for it is only that man who has realised God and seen Him, who is
religious. In him the knots have been cut asunder, in him alone the doubts
have subsided; he alone has become free from the fruits of action who has
seen Him who is nearest of the near and farthest of the far. Ay, we often
mistake mere prattle for religious truth, mere intellectual perorations for
great spiritual realisation, and then comes sectarianism, then comes fight.
If we once understand that this realisation is the only religion, we shall
look into our own hearts and find how far we are towards realising the
truths of religion. Then we shall understand that we ourselves are groping
in darkness, and are leading others to grope in the same darkness, then we
shall cease from sectarianism, quarrel, arid fight. Ask a man who wants to
start a sectarian fight, "Have you seen God? Have you seen the Atman? If you
have not, what right have you to preach His name — you walking in darkness
trying to lead me into the same darkness — the blind leading the blind, and
both falling into the ditch?"
Therefore, take more thought before you go and find fault with others. Let
them follow their own path to realisation so long as they struggle to see
truth in their own hearts; and when the broad, naked truth will be seen,
then they will find that wonderful blissfulness which marvellously enough
has been testified to by every seer in India, by every one who has realised
the truth. Then words of love alone will come out of that heart, for it has
already been touched by Him who is the essence of Love Himself. Then and
then alone, all sectarian quarrels will cease, and we shall be in a position
to understand, to bring to our hearts, to embrace, to intensely love the
very word Hindu and every one who bears that name. Mark me, then and then
alone you are a Hindu when the very name sends through you a galvanic shock
of strength. Then and then alone you are a Hindu when every man who bears
the name, from any country, speaking our language or any other language,
becomes at once the nearest and the dearest to you. Then and then alone you
are a Hindu when the distress of anyone bearing that name comes to your
heart and makes you feel as if your own son were in distress. Then and then
alone you are a Hindu when you will be ready to bear everything for them,
like the great example I have quoted at the beginning of this lecture, of
your great Guru Govind Singh. Driven out from this country, fighting against
its oppressors, after having shed his own blood for the defence of the Hindu
religion, after having seen his children killed on the battlefield — ay,
this example of the great Guru, left even by those for whose sake he was
shedding his blood and the blood of his own nearest and dearest — he, the
wounded lion, retired from the field calmly to die in the South, but not a
word of curse escaped his lips against those who had ungratefully forsaken
him! Mark me, every one of you will have to be a Govind Singh, if you want
to do good to your country. You may see thousands of defects in your
countrymen, but mark their Hindu blood. They are the first Gods you will
have to worship even if they do everything to hurt you, even if everyone of
them send out a curse to you, you send out to them words of love. If they
drive you out, retire to die in silence like that mighty lion, Govind Singh.
Such a man is worthy of the name of Hindu; such an ideal ought to be before
us always. All our hatchets let us bury; send out this grand current of love
all round.
Let them talk of India's regeneration as they like. Let me tell you as one
who has been working — at least trying to work — all his life, that there is
no regeneration for India until you be spiritual. Not only so, but upon it
depends the welfare of the whole world. For I must tell you frankly that the
very foundations of Western civilisation have been shaken to their base. The
mightiest buildings, if built upon the loose sand foundations of
materialism, must come to grief one day, must totter to their destruction
some day. The history of the world is our witness. Nation after nation has
arisen and based its greatness upon materialism, declaring man was all
matter. Ay, in Western language, a man gives up the ghost, but in our
language a man gives up his body. The Western man is a body first, and then
he has a soul; with us a man is a soul and spirit, and he has a body.
Therein lies a world of difference. All such civilisations, therefore, as
have been based upon such sand foundations as material comfort and all that,
have disappeared one after another, after short lives, from the face of the
world; but the civilisation of India and the other nations that have stood
at India's feet to listen and learn, namely, Japan and China, live even to
the present day, and there are signs even of revival among them. Their lives
are like that of the Phoenix, a thousand times destroyed, but ready to
spring up again more glorious. But a materialistic civilisation once dashed
down, never can come up again; that building once thrown down is broken into
pieces once for all. Therefore have patience and wait, the future is in
store for us.
Do not be in a hurry, do not go out to imitate anybody else. This is another
great lesson we have to remember; imitation is not civilisation. I may deck
myself out in a Raja's dress, but will that make me a Raja? An ass in a
lion's skin never makes a lion. Imitation, cowardly imitation, never makes
for progress. It is verily the sign of awful degradation in a man. Ay, when
a man has begun to hate himself, then the last blow has come. When a man has
begun to be ashamed of his ancestors, the end has come. Here am I, one of
the least of the Hindu race, yet proud of my race, proud of my ancestors. I
am proud to call myself a Hindu, I am proud that I am one of your unworthy
servants. I am proud that I am a countryman of yours, you the descendants of
the sages, you the descendants of the most glorious Rishis the world ever
saw. Therefore have faith in yourselves, be proud of your ancestors, instead
of being ashamed of them. And do not imitate, do not imitate! Whenever you
are under the thumb of others, you lose your own independence. If you are
working, even in spiritual things, at the dictation of others, slowly you
lose all faculty, even of thought. Bring out through your own exertions what
you have, but do not imitate, yet take what is good from others. We have to
learn from others. You put the seed in the ground, and give it plenty of
earth, and air, and water to feed upon; when the seed grows into the plant
and into a gigantic tree, does it become the earth, does it become the air,
or does it become the water? It becomes the mighty plant, the mighty tree,
after its own nature, having absorbed everything that was given to it. Let
that be your position. We have indeed many things to learn from others, yea,
that man who refuses to learn is already dead. Declares our Manu:
आददीत परां विद्यां प्रयत्नादवरादपि। अन्त्यादपि परं धर्म स्त्रीरत्नं दुष्कुलादपि।
— "Take the jewel of a woman for your wife, though she be of inferior
descent. Learn supreme knowledge with service even from the man of low
birth; and even from the Chandâla, learn by serving him the way to
salvation." Learn everything that is good from others, but bring it in, and
in your own way absorb it; do not become others. Do not be dragged away out
of this Indian life; do not for a moment think that it would be better for
India if all the Indians dressed, ate, and behaved like another race. You
know the difficulty of giving up a habit of a few years. The Lord knows how
many thousands of years are in your blood; this national specialised life
has been flowing in one way, the Lord knows for how many thousands of years;
and do you mean to say that that mighty stream, which has nearly reached its
ocean, can go back to the snows of its Himalayas again? That is impossible!
The struggle to do so would only break it. Therefore, make way for the
life-current of the nation. Take away the blocks that bar the way to the
progress of this mighty river, cleanse its path, clear the channel, and out
it will rush by its own natural impulse, and the nation will go on careering
and progressing.
These are the lines which I beg to suggest to you for spiritual work in
India. There are many other great problems which, for want of time, I cannot
bring before you this night. For instance, there is the wonderful question
of caste. I have been studying this question, its pros and cons, all my
life; I have studied it in nearly every province in India. I have mixed with
people of all castes in nearly every part of the country, and I am too
bewildered in my own mind to grasp even the very significance of it. The
more I try to study it, the more I get bewildered. Still at last I find that
a little glimmer of light is before me, I begin to feel its significance
just now. Then there is the other great problem about eating and drinking.
That is a great problem indeed. It is not so useless a thing as we generally
think. I have come to the conclusion that the insistence which we make now
about eating and drinking is most curious and is just going against what the
Shastras required, that is to say, we come to grief by neglecting the proper
purity of the food we eat and drink; we have lost the true spirit of it.
There are several other questions which I want to bring before you and show
how these problems can be solved, how to work out the ideas; but
unfortunately the meeting could not come to order until very late, and I do
not wish to detain you any longer now. I will, therefore, keep my ideas
about caste and other things for a future occasion.
Now, one word more and I will finish about these spiritual ideas. Religion
for a long time has come to be static in India. What we want is to make it
dynamic. I want it to be brought into the life of everybody. Religion, as it
always has been in the past, must enter the palaces of kings as well as the
homes of the poorest peasants in the land. Religion, the common inheritance,
the universal birthright of the race, must be brought free to the door of
everybody. Religion in India must be made as free and as easy of access as
is God's air. And this is the kind of work we have to bring about in India,
but not by getting up little sects and fighting on points of difference. Let
us preach where we all agree and leave the differences to remedy themselves.
As I have said to the Indian people again and again, if there is the
darkness of centuries in a room and we go into the room and begin to cry,
"Oh, it is dark, it is dark!", will the darkness go? Bring in the light and
the darkness will vanish at once. This is the secret of reforming men.
Suggest to them higher things; believe in man first. Why start with the
belief that man is degraded and degenerated? I have never failed in my faith
in man in any case, even taking him at his worst. Wherever I had faith in
man, though at first the prospect was not always bright, yet it triumphed in
the long run. Have faith in man, whether he appears to you to be a very
learned one or a most ignorant one. Have faith in man, whether he appears to
be an angel or the very devil himself. Have faith in man first, and then
having faith in him, believe that if there are defects in him, if he makes
mistakes, if he embraces the crudest and the vilest doctrines, believe that
it is not from his real nature that they come, but from the want of higher
ideals. If a man goes towards what is false, it is because he cannot get
what is true. Therefore the only method of correcting what is false is by
supplying him with what is true. Do this, and let him compare. You give him
the truth, and there your work is done. Let him compare it in his own mind
with what he has already in him; and, mark my words, if you have really
given him the truth, the false must vanish, light must dispel darkness, and
truth will bring the good out. This is the way if you want to reform the
country spiritually; this is the way, and not fighting, not even telling
people that what they are doing is bad. Put the good before them, see how
eagerly they take it, see how the divine that never dies, that is always
living in the human, comes up awakened and stretches out its hand for all
that is good, and all that is glorious.
May He who is the Creator, the Preserver, and the Protector of our race, the
God of our forefathers, whether called by the name of Vishnu, or Shiva, or
Shakti, or Ganapati, whether He is worshipped as Saguna or as Nirguna,
whether He is worshipped as personal or as impersonal, may He whom our
forefathers knew and addressed by the words,
एकं सद्विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति । — "That which exists is One; sages
call Him by various names" — may He enter into us with His mighty love; may
He shower His blessings on us, may He make us understand each other, may He
make us work for each other with real love, with intense love for truth, and
may not the least desire for our own personal fame, our own personal
prestige, our own personal advantage, enter into this great work of me
spiritual regeneration of India!