The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 5/Epistles - First Series/XVIII Alasinga
XVIII
U. S. A.,
29th September, 1894.
Dear Alasinga,
You all have done well, my brave unselfish children. I am so proud of you. .
. . Hope and do not despair. After such a start, if you despair you are a
fool. . . .
Our field is India, and the value of foreign appreciation is in rousing
India up. That is all. . . . We must have a strong base from which to
spread. . . . Do not for a moment quail. Everything will come all right. It
is will that moves the world.
You need not be sorry, my son, on account of the young men becoming
Christians. What else can they be under the existing social bandages,
especially in Madras? Liberty is the first condition of growth. Your
ancestors gave every liberty to the soul, and religion grew. They put the
body under every bondage, and society did not grow. The opposite is the case
in the West — every liberty to society, none to religion. Now are falling
off the shackles from the feet of Eastern society as from those of Western
religion.
Each again will have its type; the religious or introspective in India, the
scientific or out-seeing in the West. The West wants every bit of
spirituality through social improvement. The East wants every bit of social
power through spirituality. Thus it was that the modern reformers saw no way
to reform but by first crushing out the religion of India. They tried, and
they failed. Why? Because few of them ever studied their own religion, and
not one ever underwent the training necessary to understand the
Mother of all religions. I claim that no destruction of religion is necessary to
improve the Hindu society, and that this state of society exists not on
account of religion, but because religion has not been applied to society as
it should have been. This I am ready to prove from our old books, every word
of it. This is what I teach, and this is what we must struggle all our lives
to carry out. But it will take time, a long time to study. Have patience and
work. उध्दरेदात्मनात्मानम् — Save yourself by yourself.
Yours etc.,
Vivekananda.
PS. The present Hindu society is organised only for spiritual men, and
hopelessly crushes out everybody else. Why? Where shall they go who want to
enjoy the world a little with its frivolities? Just as our religion takes in
all, so should our society. This is to be worked out by first understanding
the true principles of our religion and then applying them to society. This
is the slow but sure work to be done.