The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Lectures from Colombo to Almora/Reply to the Address of Welcome at Ramnad
REPLY TO THE ADDRESS OF WELCOME AT RAMNAD
At Ramnad the following address was presented to Swami Vivekananda by the
Raja:
His Most Holiness,
Sri Paramahamsa, Yati-Râja, Digvijaya-Kolâhala, Sarvamata-Sampratipanna,
Parama-Yogeeswara, Srimat Bhagavân Sree Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Karakamala
Sanjâta, Râjâdhirâja-Sevita, Sree Vivekananda Swami, May It Please Your Holiness,
We, the inhabitants of this ancient and historic Samsthânam of Sethu Bandha
Rameswaram, otherwise known as Râmanâthapuram or Ramnad, beg, most
cordially, to welcome you to this, our motherland. We deem it a very rare
privilege to be the first to pay your Holiness our heartfelt homage on your
landing in India, and that, on the shores sanctified by the footsteps of
that great Hero and our revered Lord — Sree Bhagavân Râmachandra.
We have watched with feelings of genuine pride and pleasure the
unprecedented success which has crowned your laudable efforts in bringing
home to the master-minds of the West the intrinsic merits and excellence of
our time-honoured and noble religion. You have with an eloquence that is
unsurpassed and in language plain and unmistakable, proclaimed to and
convinced the cultured audiences in Europe and America that Hinduism fulfils
all the requirements of the ideal of a universal religion and adapts itself
to the temperament and needs of men and women of all races and creeds.
Animated purely by a disinterested impulse, influenced by the best of
motives and at considerable self-sacrifice, Your Holiness has crossed
boundless seas and oceans to convey the message of truth and peace, and to
plant the flag of India's spiritual triumph and glory in the rich soil of
Europe and America. Your Holiness has, both by precept and practice, shown
the feasibility and importance of universal brotherhood. Above all, your
labours in the West have indirectly and to a great extent tended to awaken
the apathetic sons and daughters of India to a sense of the greatness and
glory of their ancestral faith, and to create in them a genuine interest in
the study and observance of their dear and priceless religion
We feel we cannot adequately convey in words our feelings of gratitude and
thankfulness to your Holiness for your philanthropic labours towards the
spiritual regeneration of the East and the West. We cannot close this
address without referring to the great kindness which your Holiness has
always extended to our Raja, who is one of your devoted disciples, and the
honour and pride he feels by this gracious act of your Holiness in landing
first on his territory is indescribable.
In conclusion, we pray to the Almighty to bless your Holiness with long
life, and health, and strength to enable you to carry on the good work that
has been so ably inaugurated by you.
With respects and love,
We beg to subscribe ourselves,
Your Holiness' most devoted and obedient
Disciples and Servants.
- Ramnad,
25th January, 1897.
The Swami's reply follows in extenso:
The longest night seems to be passing away, the sorest trouble seems to be
coming to an end at last, the seeming corpse appears to be awaking and a
voice is coming to us — away back where history and even tradition fails to
peep into the gloom of the past, coming down from there, reflected as it
were from peak to peak of the infinite Himalaya of knowledge, and of love,
and of work, India, this motherland of ours — a voice is coming unto us,
gentle, firm, and yet unmistakable in its utterances, and is gaining volume
as days pass by, and behold, the sleeper is awakening! Like a breeze from
the Himalayas, it is bringing life into the almost dead bones and muscles,
the lethargy is passing away, and only the blind cannot see, or the
perverted will not see, that she is awakening, this motherland of ours, from
her deep long sleep. None can desist her any more; never is she going to
sleep any more; no outward powers can hold her back any more; for the
infinite giant is rising to her feet.
Your Highness and gentlemen of Ramnad, accept my heartfelt thanks for the
cordiality and kindness with which you have received me. I feel that you are
cordial and kind, for heart speaks unto heart better than any language of
the mouth; spirit speaks unto spirit in silence, and yet in most
unmistakable language, and I feel it in my heart of hearts. Your Highness of
Ramnad, if there has been any work done by my humble self in the cause of
our religion and our motherland in the Western countries, if any little work
has been done in rousing the sympathies of our own people by drawing their
attention to the inestimable jewels that, they know not, are lying deep
buried about their own home — if, instead of dying of thirst and drinking
dirty ditch water elsewhere out of the blindness of ignorance, they are
being called to go and drink from the eternal fountain which is flowing
perennially by their own home — if anything has been done to rouse our
people towards action, to make them understand that in everything, religion
and religion alone is the life of India, and when that goes India will die,
in spite of politics, in spite of social reforms, in spite of Kubera's
wealth poured upon the head of every one of her children — if anything has
been done towards this end, India and every country where any work has been
done owe much of it to you, Raja of Ramnad. For it was you who gave me the
idea first, and it was you who persistently urged me on towards the work.
You, as it were, intuitively understood what was going to be, and took me by
the hand, helped me all along, and have never ceased to encourage me. Well
is it, therefore, that you should be the first to rejoice at my success, and
meet it is that I should first land in your territory on my return to India.
Great works are to be done, wonderful powers have to be worked out, we have
to teach other nations many things, as has been said already by your
Highness. This is the motherland of philosophy, of spirituality, and of
ethics, of sweetness, gentleness, and love. These still exist, and my
experience of the world leads me to stand on firm ground and make the bold
statement that India is still the first and foremost of all the nations of
the world in these respects. Look at this little phenomenon. There have been
immense political changes within the last four or five years. Gigantic
organizations undertaking to subvert the whole of existing institutions in
different countries and meeting with a certain amount of success have been
working all over the Western world. Ask our people if they have heard
anything about them. They have heard not a word about them. But that there
was a Parliament of Religions in Chicago, and that there was a Sannyasin
sent over from India to that Parliament, and that he was very well received
and since that time has been working in the West, the poorest beggar has
known. I have heard it said that our masses are dense, that they do not want
any education, and that they do not care for any information. I had at one
time a foolish leaning towards that opinion myself, but I find experience is
a far more glorious teacher than any amount of speculation, or any amount of
books written by globe-trotters and hasty observers. This experience teaches
me that they are not dense, that they are not slow, that they are as eager
and thirsty for information as any race under the sun; but then each nation
has its own part to play, and naturally, each nation has its own peculiarity
and individuality with which it is born. Each represents, as it were, one
peculiar note in this harmony of nations, and this is its very life, its
vitality. In it is the backbone, the foundation, and the bed-rock of the
national life, and here in this blessed land, the foundation, the backbone,
the life-centre is religion and religion alone. Let others talk of politics,
of the glory of acquisition of immense wealth poured in by trade, of the
power and spread of commercialism, of the glorious fountain of physical
liberty; but these the Hindu mind does not understand and does not want to
understand. Touch him on spirituality, on religion, on God, on the soul, on
the Infinite, on spiritual freedom, and I assure you, the lowest peasant in
India is better informed on these subjects than many a so-called philosopher
in other lands. I have said, gentlemen, that we have yet something to teach
to the world. This is the very reason, the raison d'être, that this nation
has lived on, in spite of hundreds of years of persecution, in spite of
nearly a thousand year of foreign rule and foreign oppression. This nation
still lives; the raison d'être is it still holds to God, to the
treasure-house of religion and spirituality.
In this land are, still, religion and spirituality, the fountains which will
have to overflow and flood the world to bring in new life and new vitality
to the Western and other nations, which are now almost borne down,
half-killed, and degraded by political ambitions and social scheming. From
out of many voices, consonant and dissentient, from out of the medley of
sounds filling the Indian atmosphere, rises up supreme, striking, and full,
one note, and that is renunciation. Give up! That is the watchword of the
Indian religions. This world is a delusion of two days. The present life is
of five minutes. Beyond is the Infinite, beyond this world of delusion; let
us seek that. This continent is illumined with brave and gigantic minds and
intelligences which even think of this so called infinite universe as only a
mud-puddle; beyond and still beyond they go. Time, even infinite time, is to
them but non-existence. Beyond and beyond time they go. Space is nothing to
them; beyond that they want to go, and this going beyond the phenomenal is
the very soul of religion. The characteristic of my nation is this
transcendentalism, this struggle to go beyond, this daring to tear the veil
off the face of nature and have at any risk, at any price, a glimpse of the
beyond. That is our ideal, but of course all the people in a country cannot
give up entirely. Do you want to enthuse them, then here is the way to do
so. Your talks of politics, of social regeneration, your talks of
money-making and commercialism — all these will roll off like water from a
duck's back. This spirituality, then, is what you have to teach the world.
Have we to learn anything else, have we to learn anything from the world? We
have, perhaps, to gain a little in material knowledge, in the power of
organisation, in the ability to handle powers, organising powers, in
bringing the best results out of the smallest of causes. This perhaps to a
certain extent we may learn from the West. But if any one preaches in India
the ideal of eating and drinking and making merry, if any one wants to
apotheosise the material world into a God, that man is a liar; he has no
place in this holy land, the Indian mind does not want to listen to him. Ay,
in spite of the sparkle and glitter of Western civilisation, in spite of all
its polish and its marvellous manifestation of power, standing upon this
platform, I tell them to their face that it is all vain. It is vanity of
vanities. God alone lives. The soul alone lives. Spirituality alone lives.
Hold on to that.
Yet, perhaps, some sort of materialism, toned down to our own requirements,
would be a blessing to many of our brothers who are not yet ripe for the
highest truths. This is the mistake made in every country and in every
society, and it is a greatly regrettable thing that in India, where it was
always understood, the same mistake of forcing the highest truths on people
who are not ready for them has been made of late. My method need not be
yours. The Sannyasin, as you all know, is the ideal of the Hindu's life, and
every one by our Shâstras is compelled to give up. Every Hindu who has
tasted the fruits of this world must give up in the latter part of his life,
and he who does not is not a Hindu and has no more right to call himself a
Hindu. We know that this is the ideal — to give up after seeing and
experiencing the vanity of things. Having found out that the heart of the
material world is a mere hollow, containing only ashes, give it up and go
back. The mind is circling forward, as it were, towards the senses, and that
mind has to circle backwards; the Pravritti has to stop and the Nivritti has
to begin. That is the ideal. But that ideal can only be realised after a
certain amount of experience. We cannot teach the child the truth of
renunciation; the child is a born optimist; his whole life is in his senses;
his whole life is one mass of sense-enjoyment. So there are childlike men in
every society who require a certain amount of experience, of enjoyment, to
see through the vanity of it, and then renunciation will come to them. There
has been ample provision made for them in our Books; but unfortunately, in
later times, there has been a tendency to bind every one down by the same
laws as those by which the Sannyasin is bound, and that is a great mistake.
But for that a good deal of the poverty and the misery that you see in India
need not have been. A poor man's life is hemmed in and bound down by
tremendous spiritual and ethical laws for which he has no use. Hands off!
Let the poor fellow enjoy himself a little, and then he will raise himself
up, and renunciation will come to him of itself. Perhaps in this line, we
can be taught something by the Western people; but we must be very cautious
in learning these things. I am sorry to say that most of the examples one
meets nowadays of men who have imbibed the Western ideas are more or less
failures.
There are two great obstacles on our path in India, the Scylla of old
orthodoxy and the Charybdis of modern European civilisation. Of these two, I
vote for the old orthodoxy, and not for the Europeanised system; for the old
orthodox man may be ignorant, he may be crude, but he is a man, he has a
faith, he has strength, he stands on his own feet; while the Europeanised
man has no backbone, he is a mass of heterogeneous ideas picked up at random
from every source — and these ideas are unassimilated, undigested,
unharmonised. He does not stand on his own feet, and his head is turning
round and round. Where is the motive power of his work? — in a few
patronizing pats from the English people. His schemes of reforms, his
vehement vituperations against the evils of certain social customs, have, as
the mainspring, some European patronage. Why are some of our customs called
evils? Because the Europeans say so. That is about the reason he gives. I
would not submit to that. Stand and die in your own strength, if there is
any sin in the world, it is weakness; avoid all weakness, for weakness is
sin, weakness is death. These unbalanced creatures are not yet formed into
distinct personalities; what are we to call them - men, women, or animals?
While those old orthodox people were staunch and were men. There are still
some excellent examples, and the one I want to present before you now is
your Raja of Ramnad. Here you have a man than whom there is no more zealous
a Hindu throughout the length and breadth of this land; here you have a
prince than whom there is no prince in this land better informed in all
affairs, both oriental and occidental, who takes from every nation whatever
he can that is good. "Learn good knowledge with all devotion from the lowest
caste. Learn the way to freedom, even if it comes from a Pariah, by serving
him. If a woman is a jewel, take her in marriage even if she comes from a
low family of the lowest caste." Such is the law laid down by our great and
peerless legislator, the divine Manu. This is true. Stand on your own feet,
and assimilate what you can; learn from every nation, take what is of use to
you. But remember that as Hindus everything else must be subordinated to our
own national ideals. Each man has a mission in life, which is the result of
all his infinite past Karma. Each of you was born with a splendid heritage,
which is the whole of the infinite past life of your glorious nation.
Millions of your ancestors are watching, as it were, every action of yours,
so be alert. And what is the mission with which every Hindu child is born?
Have you not read the proud declaration of Manu regarding the Brahmin where
he says that the birth of the Brahmin is "for the protection of the treasury
of religion"? I should say that that is the mission not only of the Brahmin,
but of every child, whether boy or girl, who is born in this blessed land
"for the protection of the treasury of religion". And every other problem in
life must be subordinated to that one principal theme. That is also the law
of harmony in music. There may be a nation whose theme of life is political
supremacy; religion and everything else must become subordinate to that one
great theme of its life. But here is another nation whose great theme of
life is spirituality and renunciation, whose one watchword is that this
world is all vanity and a delusion of three days, and everything else,
whether science or knowledge, enjoyment or powers, wealth, name, or fame,
must be subordinated to that one theme. The secret of a true Hindu's
character lies in the subordination of his knowledge of European sciences
and learning, of his wealth, position, and name, to that one principal theme
which is inborn in every Hindu child — the spirituality and purity of the
race. Therefore between these two, the case of the orthodox man who has the
whole of that life-spring of the race, spirituality, and the other man whose
hands are full of Western imitation jewels but has no hold on the
life-giving principle, spirituality — of these, I do not doubt that every
one here will agree that we should choose the first, the orthodox, because
there is some hope in him — he has the national theme, something to hold to;
so he will live, but the other will die. Just as in the case of individuals,
if the principle of life is undisturbed, if the principal function of that
individual life is present, any injuries received as regards other functions
are not serious, do not kill the individual, so, as long as this principal
function of our life is not disturbed, nothing can destroy our nation. But
mark you, if you give up that spirituality, leaving it aside to go after the
materialising civilisation of the West, the result will be that in three
generations you will be an extinct race; because the backbone of the nation
will be broken, the foundation upon which the national edifice has been
built will be undermined, and the result will be annihilation all round.
Therefore, my friends, the way out is that first and foremost we must keep a
firm hold on spirituality — that inestimable gift handed down to us by our
ancient forefathers. Did you ever hear of a country where the greatest kings
tried to trace their descent not to kings, not to robber-barons living in
old castles who plundered poor travellers, but to semi-naked sages who lived
in the forest? Did you ever hear of such a land? This is the land. In other
countries great priests try to trace their descent to some king, but here
the greatest kings would trace their descent to some ancient priest.
Therefore, whether you believe in spirituality or not, for the sake of the
national life, you have to get a hold on spirituality and keep to it. Then
stretch the other hand out and gain all you can from other races, but
everything must be subordinated to that one ideal of life; and out of that a
wonderful, glorious, future India will come — I am sure it is coming — a
greater India than ever was. Sages will spring up greater than all the
ancient sages; and your ancestors will not only be satisfied, but I am sure,
they will be proud from their positions in other worlds to look down upon
their descendants, so glorious, and so great.
Let us all work hard, my brethren; this is no time for sleep. On our work
depends the coming of the India of the future. She is there ready waiting.
She is only sleeping. Arise and awake and see her seated here on her eternal
throne, rejuvenated, more glorious than she ever was — this motherland of
ours. The idea of God was nowhere else ever so fully developed as in this
motherland of ours, for the same idea of God never existed anywhere else.
Perhaps you are astonished at my assertion; but show me any idea of God from
any other scripture equal to ours; they have only clan-Gods, the God of the
Jews, the God of the Arabs, and of such and such a race, and their God is
fighting the Gods of the other races. But the idea of that beneficent, most
merciful God, our father, our mother, our friend, the friend of our friends,
the soul of our souls, is here and here alone. And may He who is the Shiva
of the Shaivites, the Vishnu of the Vaishnavites, the Karma of the Karmis,
the Buddha of the Buddhists, the Jina of the Jains, the Jehovah of the
Christians and the Jews, the Allah of the Mohammedans, the Lord of every
sect, the Brahman of the Vedantists, He the all-pervading, whose glory has
been known only in this land — may He bless us, may He help us, may He give
strength unto us, energy unto us, to carry this idea into practice. May that
which we have listened to and studied become food to us, may it become
strength in us, may it become energy in us to help each other; may we, the
teacher and the taught, not be jealous of each other! Peace, peace, peace,
in the name of Hari!