The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Lectures from Colombo to Almora/Reply to the Address of Welcome at Shivaganga and Manamadura
REPLY TO THE ADDRESS OF WELCOME AT SHIVAGANGA AND MANAMADURA
At Manamadura, the following address of welcome from the Zemindars and
citizens of Shivaganga and Manamadura was presented to the Swami:
TO SRI SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
Most Revered Sir ,
We, the Zemindars and citizens of Shivaganga and Manamadura, beg to offer
you a most hearty welcome. In the most sanguine moments of our life, in our
widest dreams, we never contemplated that you, who were so near our hearts,
would be in such close proximity to our homes. The first wire intimating
your inability to come to Shivaganga cast a deep gloom on our hearts, and
but for the subsequent silver lining to the cloud our disappointment would
have been extreme. When we first heard that you had consented to honour our
town with your presence, we thought we had realised our highest ambition.
The mountain promised to come to Mohammed, and our joy knew no bounds. But
when the mountain was obliged to withdraw its consent, and our worst fears
were roused that we might not be able even to go to the mountain, you were
graciously pleased to give way to our importunities.
Despite the almost insurmountable difficulties of the voyage, the noble
self-sacrificing spirit with which you have conveyed the grandest message of
the East to the West, the masterly way in which the mission has been
executed, and the marvellous and unparalleled success which has crowned your
philanthropic efforts have earned for you an undying glory. At a time when
Western bread-winning materialism was making the strongest inroads on Indian
religious convictions, when the sayings and writings of our sages were
beginning to be numbered, the advent of a new master like you has already
marked an era in the annals of religious advancement, and we hope that in
the fullness of time you will succeed in disintergrating the dross that is
temporarily covering the genuine gold of Indian philosophy, and, casting it
in the powerful mint of intellect, will make it current coin throughout the
whole globe. The catholicity with which you were able triumphantly to bear
the flag of Indian philosophic thought among the heterogeneous religionists
assembled in the Parliament of Religions enables us to hope that at no
distant date you, just like your contemporary in the political sphere, will
rule an empire over which the sun never sets, only with this difference that
hers is an empire over matter, and yours will be over mind. As she has
beaten all records in political history by the length and beneficience of
her reign, so we earnestly pray to the Almighty that you will be spared long
enough to consummate the labour of love that you have so disinterestedly
undertaken and thus to outshine all your predecessors in spiritual history.
We are,
Most Revered Sir,
Your most dutiful and devoted
Servants.
The Swami’s reply was to the following effect:
I cannot express the deep debt of gratitude which you have laid upon me by
the kind and warm welcome which has just been accorded to me by you.
Unfortunately I am not just now in a condition to make a very big speech,
however much I may wish it. In spite of the beautiful adjectives which our
Sanskrit friend has been so kind to apply to me, I have a body after all,
foolish though it may be; and the body always follows the promptings,
conditions, and laws of matter. As such, there is such a thing as fatigue
and weariness as regards the material body.
It is a great thing to see the wonderful amount of joy and appreciation
expressed in every part of the country for the little work that has been
done by me in the West. I look at it only in this way: I want to apply it to
those great souls who are coming in the future. If the little bit of work
that has been done by me receives such approbation from the nation, what
must be the approbation that the spiritual giants, the world-movers coming
after us, will get from this nation? India is the land of religion; the
Hindu understands religion and religion alone. Centuries of education have
always been in that line; and the result is that it is the one concern in
life; and you all know well that it is so. It is not necessary that every
one should be a shopkeeper; it is not necessary even that every one should
be a schoolmaster; it is not necessary that every one should be a fighter;
but in this world there will be different nations producing the harmony of
result.
Well, perhaps we are fated by Divine Providence to play the spiritual note
in this harmony of nations, and it rejoices me to see that we have not yet
lost the grand traditions which have been handed down to us by the most
glorious forefathers of whom any nation can be proud. It gives me hope, it
gives me adamantine faith in the destiny of the race. It cheers me, not for
the personal attention paid to me, but to know that the heart of the nation
is there, and is still sound. India is still living; who says she is dead?
But the West wants to see us active. If they want to see us active on the
field of battle, they will be disappointed — that is not our field — just as
we would be disappointed if we hoped to see a military nation active on the
field of spirituality. But let them come here and see that we are equally
active, and how the nation is living and is as alive as ever. We should
dispel the idea that we have degenerated at all. So far so good.
But now I have to say a few harsh words, which I hope you will not take
unkindly. For the complaint has just been made that European materialism has
wellnigh swamped us. It is not all the fault of the Europeans, but a good
deal our own. We, as Vedantists, must always look at things from an
introspective viewpoint, from its subjective relations. We, as Vedantists,
know for certain that there is no power in the universe to injure us unless
we first injure ourselves. One-fifth of the population of India have become
Mohammedans. Just as before that, going further back, two-thirds of the
population in ancient times had become Buddhists, one-fifth are now
Mohammedans, Christians are already more than a million.
Whose fault is it? One of our historians says in ever-memorable language:
Why should these poor wretches starve and die of thirst when the perennial
fountain of life is flowing by? The question is: What did we do for these
people who forsook their own religion? Why should they have become
Mohammedans? I heard of an honest girl in England who was going to become a
streetwalker. When a lady asked her not to do so, her reply was, "That is
the only way I can get sympathy. I can find none to help me now; but let me
be a fallen, downtrodden woman, and then perhaps merciful ladies will come
and take me to a home and do everything they can for me." We are weeping for
these renegades now, but what did we do for them before? Let every one of us
ask ourselves, what have we learnt; have we taken hold of the torch of
truth, and if so, how far did we carry it? We did not help them then. This
is the question we should ask ourselves. That we did not do so was our own
fault, our own Karma. Let us blame none, let us blame our own Karma.
Materialism, or Mohammedanism, or Christianity, or any other ism in the
world could never have succeeded but that you allowed them. No bacilli can
attack the human frame until it is degraded and degenerated by vice, bad
food, privation, and exposure; the healthy man passes scatheless through
masses of poisonous bacilli. But yet there is time to change our ways. Give
up all those old discussions, old fights about things which are meaningless,
which are nonsensical in their very nature. Think of the last six hundred or
seven hundred years of degradation when grown-up men by hundreds have been
discussing for years whether we should drink a glass of water with the right
hand or the left, whether the hand should be washed three times or four
times, whether we should gargle five or six times. What can you expect from
men who pass their lives in discussing such momentous questions as these and
writing most learned philosophies on them! There is a danger of our religion
getting into the kitchen. We are neither Vedantists, most of us now, nor
Paurânics, nor Tântrics. We are just "Don't-touchists". Our religion is in
the kitchen. Our God is the cooking-pot, and our religion is, "Don't touch
me, I am holy". If this goes on for another century, every one of us will be
in a lunatic asylum. It is a sure sign of softening of the brain when the
mind cannot grasp the higher problems of life; all originality is lost, the
mind has lost all its strength, its activity, and its power of thought, and
just tries to go round and round the smallest curve it can find. This state
of things has first to be thrown overboard, and then we must stand up, be
active and strong; and then we shall recognise our heritage to that infinite
treasure, the treasure our forefathers have left for us, a treasure that the
whole world requires today. The world will die if this treasure is not
distributed. Bring it out, distribute it broadcast. Says Vyasa: Giving alone
is the one work in this Kali Yuga; and of all the gifts, giving spiritual
life is the highest gift possible; the next gift is secular knowledge; the
next, saving the life of man; and the last, giving food to the needy. Of
food we have given enough; no nation is more charitable than we. So long as
there is a piece of bread in the home of the beggar, he will give half of
it. Such a phenomenon can be observed only in India. We have enough of that,
let us go for the other two, the gifts of spiritual and secular knowledge.
And if we were all brave and had stout hearts, and with absolute sincerity
put our shoulders to the wheel, in twenty-five years the whole problem would
be solved, and there would be nothing left here to fight about; the whole
Indian world would be once more Aryan.
This is all I have to tell you now. I am not given much to talking about
plans; I rather prefer to do and show, and then talk about my plans. I have
my plans, and mean to work them out if the Lord wills it, if life is given
to me. I do not know whether I shall succeed or not, but it is a great thing
to take up a grand ideal in life and then give up one's whole life to it.
For what otherwise is the value of life, this vegetating, little, low life
of man? Subordinating it to one high ideal is the only value that life has.
This is the great work to be done in India. I welcome the present religious
revival; and I should be foolish if I lost the opportunity of striking the
iron while it is hot.