The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 5/Epistles - First Series/LXX Indian Mirror
LXX
28th October, 1896.
(On the eve of the lecture-tour of Dr. Barrows in India at the end of 1896,
Swami Vivekananda in a letter to the Indian Mirror, Calcutta, introduced the
distinguished visitor to his countrymen and advised them to give him a
fitting reception. He wrote among other things as follows:)
Dr. Barrows was the ablest lieutenant Mr. C. Boney could have selected to
carry out successfully his great plan of the Congresses at the World's Fair,
and it is now a matter of history how one of these Congresses scored a
unique distinction under the leadership of Dr. Barrows.
It was the great courage, untiring industry, unruffled patience, and
never-failing courtesy of Dr. Barrows that made the Parliament a grand
success.
India, its people, and their thoughts have been brought more prominently
before the world than ever before by that wonderful gathering at Chicago,
and that national benefit we certainly owe to Dr. Barrows more than to any
other man at that meeting.
Moreover, he comes to us in the sacred name of religion, in the name of one
of the great teachers of mankind, and I am sure, his exposition of the
system of the Prophet of Nazareth would be extremely liberal and elevating.
The Christ-power this man intends to bring to India is not that of the
intolerant, dominant superior, with heart full of contempt for everything
else but its own self, but that of a brother who craves for a brother's
place as a co-worker of the various powers already working in India. Above
all, we must remember that gratitude and hospitality are the peculiar
characteristics of Indian humanity; and as such, I would beg my countrymen
to behave in such a manner that this stranger from the other side of the
globe may find that in the midst of all our misery, our poverty, and
degradation, the heart beats as warm as of yore, when the "wealth of Ind"
was the proverb of nations and India was the land of the "Aryas".