The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 8/Epistles - Fourth Series/XX Diwanji Saheb
XX
To Shri Haridas Viharidas Desai
CHICAGO,
20th June, 1894.
DEAR DIWANJI SAHEB,
Your very kind note came today. I am so sorry that I could have caused pain
to such a noble heart as yours with my rash and strong words. I bow down to
your mild corrections. "Thy son am I, teach me thus bowing" — Gita. But you
well know, Diwanji Saheb, it was my love that prompted me to say so. The
backbiters, I must tell you, have not indirectly benefited me; on the other
hand, they have injured me immensely in view of the fact that our Hindu
people did not move a finger to tell the Americans that I represented them.
Had our people sent some words thanking the American people for their
kindness to me and stating that I was representing them! . . . have been
telling the American people that I have donned the Sannyasin's garb only in
America and that I was a cheat, bare and simple. So far as reception goes,
it has no effect on the American nation; but so far as helping me with funds
goes, it has a terrible effect in making them take off their helping hands
from me. And it is one year since I have been here, and not one man of note
from India has thought it fit to make the Americans know that I am no cheat.
There again the missionaries are always seeking for something against me,
and they are busy picking up anything said against me by the Christian
papers of India and publishing it here. Now you must know that the people
here know very little of the distinction in India between the Christian and
the Hindu.
Primarily my coming has been to raise funds for an enterprise of my own. Let
me tell it all to you again.
The whole difference between the West and the East is in this: They are
nations, we are not, i.e., civilisation, education here is general, it
penetrates into the masses. The higher classes in India and America are the
same, but the distance is infinite between the lower classes of the two
countries. Why was it so easy for the English to conquer India? It was
because they are a nation, we are not. When one of our great men dies, we
must sit for centuries to have another; they can produce them as fast as
they die. When our Diwanji Saheb will pass away (which the Lord may delay
long for the good of my country), the nation will see the difficulty at once
of filling his place, which is seen even now in the fact that they cannot
dispense with your services. It is the dearth of great ones. Why so? Because
they have such a bigger field of recruiting their great ones, we have so
small. A nation of 300 millions has the smallest field of recruiting its
great ones compared with nations of thirty, forty, or sixty millions,
because the number of educated men and women in those nations is so great.
Now do not mistake me, my kind friend, this is the great defect in our
nation and must be removed.
Educate and raise the masses, and thus alone a nation is possible. Our reformers do not see where the wound is, they want to save the nation by marrying the widows; do you think that a nation is saved by the number of husbands its widows get? Nor is our religion to blame, for an idol more or less makes no difference. The whole defect is here: The real nation who live in cottage have forgotten their manhood, their individuality. Trodden under the foot of the Hindu, Mussulman, or Christian, they have come to think that they are born to be trodden under the foot of everybody who has money enough in his pocket. They are to be given back their lost individuality. They are to be educated. Whether idols will remain or not, whether widows will have husbands enough or not, whether caste is good or bad, I do not bother myself with such questions. Everyone must work out his own salvation. Our duty is to put the chemicals together, the crystallisation will come through God's laws. Let us put ideas into their heads, and they will do the rest. Now this means educating the masses. Here are these difficulties. A pauper government cannot, will not, do anything; so no help from that quarter.
Even supposing we are in a position to open schools in each village free,
still the poor boys would rather go to the plough to earn their living than
come to your school. Neither have we the money, nor can we make them come to
education. The problem seems hopeless. I have found a way out. It is this.
If the mountain does not come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain.
If the poor cannot come to education, education must reach them at the
plough, in the factory, everywhere. How? You have seen my brethren. Now I
can get hundreds of such, all over India, unselfish, good, and educated. Let
these men go from village to village bringing not only religion to the door
of everyone but also education. So I have a nucleus of organising the widows
also as instructors to our women.
Now suppose the villagers after their day's work have come to their village
and sitting under a tree or somewhere are smoking and talking the time away.
Suppose two of these educated Sannyasins get hold of them there and with a
camera throw astronomical or other pictures, scenes from different nations,
histories, etc. Thus with globes, maps, etc. — and all this orally — how
much can be done that way, Diwanji? It is not that the eye is the only door
of knowledge, the ear can do all the same. So they would have ideas and
morality, and hope for better. Here our work ends. Let them do the rest.
What would make the Sannyasins do this sacrifice, undertake such a task? —
religious enthusiasm. Every new religious wave requires a new centre. The
old religion can only be revivified by a new centre. Hang your dogmas or
doctrines, they never pay. It is a character, a life, a centre, a God-man
that must lead the way, that must be the centre round which all other
elements will gather themselves and then fall like a tidal wave upon the
society, carrying all before it, washing away all impurities. Again, a piece
of wood can only easily be cut along the grain. So the old Hinduism can only
be reformed through Hinduism, and not through the new-fangled reform
movements. At the same time the reformers must be able to unite in
themselves the culture of both the East and the West. Now do you not think
that you have already seen the nucleus of such a great movement, that you
have heard the low rumblings of the coming tidal wave? That centre, that
God-man to lead was born in India. He was the great Ramakrishna Paramahamsa,
and round him this band is slowly gathering. They will do the work. Now,
Diwanji Maharaj, this requires an organisation, money — a little at least to
set the wheel in motion. Who would have given us money in India? — So,
Diwanji Maharaj, I crossed over to America. You may remember I begged all
the money from the poor, and the offers of the rich I would not accept
because they could not understand my ideas. Now lecturing for a year in this
country, I could not succeed at all (of course, I have no wants for myself)
in my plan for raising some funds for setting up my work. First, this year
is a very bad year in America; thousands of their poor are without work.
Secondly, the missionaries and the Brahmo Samajists try to thwart all my
views. Thirdly, a year has rolled by, and our countrymen could not even do
so much for me as to say to the American people that I was a real Sannyasin
and no cheat, and that I represented the Hindu religion. Even this much, the
expenditure of a few words, they could not do! Bravo, my countrymen! I love
them, Diwanji Saheb. Human help I spurn with my foot. He who has been with
me through hills and dales, through deserts or forests, will be with me, I
hope; if not, some heroic soul would arise some time or other in India, far
abler than myself, and carry it out. So I have told you all about it.
Diwanji, excuse my long letter, my noble friend, one of the few who really
feel for me, have real kindness for me. You are at liberty, my friend, to
think that I am a dreamer, a visionary; but believe at least that I am
sincere to the backbone, and my greatest fault is that I love my country
only too, too well. May you and yours be blessed ever and ever, my noble,
noble friend. May the shadow of the Almighty ever rest on all those you
love. I offer my eternal gratitude to you. My debt to you is immense, not
only because you are my friend, but also because you have all your life
served the Lord and your motherland so well.
Ever yours in gratitude,
VIVEKANANDA.