The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Lectures from Colombo to Almora/Reply to the Address of Welcome at Pamban
REPLY TO THE ADDRESS OF WELCOME AT PAMBAN
On the arrival of Swami Vivekananda at Pamban, he was met by His Highness
the Raja of Ramnad, who accorded him a hearty welcome. Preparations had been
made at the landing wharf for a formal reception; and here, under a pandal
which had been decorated with great taste, the following address on behalf
of the Pamban people was read:
May It Please Your Holiness,
We greatly rejoice to welcome Your Holiness with hearts full of deepest gratitude and highest veneration — gratitude for having so readily and graciously consented to pay us a flying visit in spite of the numerous calls on you, and veneration for the many noble and excellent qualities that you possess and for the great work you have so nobly undertaken to do, and which you have been discharging with conspicuous ability, utmost zeal, and earnestness.
We truly rejoice to see that the efforts of Your Holiness in sowing the
seeds of Hindu philosophy in the cultured minds of the great Western nations
are being crowned with so much success that we already see all around the
bright and cheerful aspect of the bearing of excellent fruits in great
abundance, and most humbly pray that Your Holiness will, during your sojourn
in Âryâvarta, be graciously pleased to exert yourself even a little more
than you did in the West to awaken the minds of your brethren in this our
motherland from their dreary lifelong slumber and make them recall to their
minds the long-forgotten gospel of truth.
Our hearts are so full of the sincerest affection, greatest reverence, and
highest admiration for Your Holiness — our great spiritual leader, that we
verily find it impossible to adequately express our feelings, and,
therefore, beg to conclude with an earnest and united prayer to the merciful
Providence to bless Your Holiness with a long life of usefulness and to
grant you everything that may tend to bring about the long-lost feelings of
universal brotherhood.
The Raja added to this a brief personal welcome, which was remarkable for
its depth of feeling, and then the Swami replied to the following effect:
Our sacred motherland is a land of religion and philosophy — the birthplace
of spiritual giants — the land of renunciation, where and where alone, from
the most ancient to the most modern times, there has been the highest ideal
of life open to man.
I have been in the countries of the West — have travelled through many lands
of many races; and each race and each nation appears to me to have a
particular ideal — a prominent ideal running through its whole life; and
this ideal is the backbone of the national life. Not politics nor military
power, not commercial supremacy nor mechanical genius furnishes India with
that backbone, but religion; and religion alone is all that we have and mean
to have. Spirituality has been always in India.
Great indeed are the manifestations of muscular power, and marvellous the
manifestations of intellect expressing themselves through machines by the
appliances of science; yet none of these is more potent than the influence
which spirit exerts upon the world.
The history of our race shows that India has always been most active. Today
we are taught by men who ought to know better that the Hindu is mild and
passive; and this has become a sort of proverb with the people of other
lands. I discard the idea that India was ever passive. Nowhere has activity
been more pronounced than in this blessed land of ours, and the great proof
of this activity is that our most ancient and magnanimous race still lives,
and at every decade in its glorious career seems to take on fresh youth —
undying and imperishable. This activity manifests here in religion. But it
is a peculiar fact in human nature that it judges others according to its
own standard of activity. Take, for instance, a shoemaker. He understands
only shoemaking and thinks there is nothing in this life except the
manufacturing of shoes. A bricklayer understands nothing but bricklaying and
proves this alone in his life from day to day. And there is another reason
which explains this. When the vibrations of light are very intense, we do
not see them, because we are so constituted that we cannot go beyond our own
plane of vision. But the Yogi with his spiritual introspection is able to
see through the materialistic veil of the vulgar crowds.
The eyes of the whole world are now turned towards this land of India for
spiritual food; and India has to provide it for all the races. Here alone is
the best ideal for mankind; and Western scholars are now striving to
understand this ideal which is enshrined in our Sanskrit literature and
philosophy, and which has been the characteristic of India all through the
ages.
Since the dawn of history, no missionary went out of India to propagate the
Hindu doctrines and dogmas; but now a wonderful change is coming over us.
Shri Bhagavân Krishna says, "Whenever virtue subsides and immorality
prevails, then I come again and again to help the world." Religious
researches disclose to us the fact that there is not a country possessing a
good ethical code but has borrowed something of it from us, and there is not
one religion possessing good ideas of the immortality of the soul but has
derived it directly or indirectly from us.
There never was a time in the world's history when there was so much
robbery, and high-handedness, and tyranny of the strong over the weak, as at
this latter end of the nineteenth century. Everybody should know that there
is no salvation except through the conquering of desires, and that no man is
free who is subject to the bondage of matter. This great truth all nations
are slowly coming to understand and appreciate. As soon as the disciple is
in a position to grasp this truth, the words of the Guru come to his help.
The Lord sends help to His own children in His infinite mercy which never
ceaseth and is ever flowing in all creeds. Our Lord is the Lord of all
religions. This idea belongs to India alone; and I challenge any one of you
to find it in any other scripture of the world.
We Hindus have now been placed, under God's providence, in a very critical
and responsible position. The nations of the West are coming to us for
spiritual help. A great moral obligation rests on the sons of India to fully
equip themselves for the work of enlightening the world on the problems of
human existence. One thing we may note, that whereas you will find that good
and great men of other countries take pride in tracing back their descent to
some robber-baron who lived in a mountain fortress and emerged from time to
time to plunder passing wayfarers, we Hindus, on the other hand, take pride
in being the descendants of Rishis and sages who lived on roots and fruits
in mountains and caves, meditating on the Supreme. We may be degraded and
degenerated now; but however degraded and degenerated we may be, we can
become great if only we begin to work in right earnest on behalf of our
religion.
Accept my hearty thanks for the kind and cordial reception you have given
me. It is impossible for me to express my gratitude to H. H. the Raja of
Ramnad for his love towards me. If any good work has been done by me and
through me, India owes much to this good man, for it was he who conceived
the idea of my going to Chicago, and it was he who put that idea into my
head and persistently urged me on to accomplish it. Standing beside me, he
with all his old enthusiasm is still expecting me to do more and more work.
I wish there were half a dozen more such Rajas to take interest in our dear
motherland and work for her amelioration in the spiritual line.