his and his alone, and if I have told you many things which were not true, which were not coirect, which were not beneficial to the human race, they were all mine, and on me is the responsibility.
loeciooeeeo* I^THE WORK BEFORE US.
( Delivered at the Triplicane Literary Society, Madras ).
The problem of life is becoming deeper and broader every day as the world moves on. The watchword and the essence have been preached in the days of yoie, when the Vedantic tiiith was first discoveied, the solidarity of all life. One atom in this univeise cannot move without dragging the whole woild along with it. Theie cannot be any piogress without the whole woild following in the wake, and it is becoming every day clcaier that the solution of any problem can never be attained on racial, or national, or nairow gioiinds. Every idea has to become bioad till it coveis the whole of this woild, eveiy aspiiation must go on increasing till it has engulfed the whole of humanity, nay, the whole of life, within its scope. This will explain why our countiy for the last few cenluiies has not been what she was in the past. We find that one of the causes which led to this degeneiation was the nariow- ing of our view, narrowing the scope of our actions.
Two cuiious nations there have been, — sprung of the same race, but placed in different circumstances and environments, w'Oiking out the pioblems of life each in its owm particulai w'ay. 1 mean the ancient Hindu and the ancient Gieek. d'he Indian Aryan bounded on the noith, by the snow-caps of the Himalayas, with fresh- water livers like lolling oceans sui rounding him in the plains, with eternal forests which, to him, seemed to be the end of the woild, - turned his vision inw'aid; and given the natural instinct, the supeifine biain of the Ai)an, w'ltli this sublime scenery surrounding him, the natiiial lesult was —that he became intiospective. The analysis of his own mind was the great theme of the Indo-Aiyan. With the Greek, on the other hand, who arrived at a pait of the caith which was more bcniitilul than sublime, the beautiful islands of the Grecian Archipelago, nature all aiound him generous yet simple, — his mind naturally went outside. It ^y'anted to analyse the external woild. And, as a result we find, that fiom India have sprung all the analy- tical sciences, and from Gieece all the sciences, of gencralisaiion. The Hindu mind w’ent on in its own direction and produced the most marvellous results. Even at the present day, the logical capacity of the Hindus, and the tremendous power which the Indian brain still possesses is beyond compare. We all know that our boys pitched against the boys of any other country triumph always. At the same lime when the national vigour went, perhap.s one or tw'o centuries before the Mahommedan conquest of India, this national faculty D».came so much exaggerated that it degraded itself, and we find some of this degradation in everything in India, in ait, in music, in sciences, in eveiy thing. In art no more was there a broad con- ception, no more the symmetry of form and sublimity of conception, but the tremendous attempt at the ornate and florid style had aiiscn. The oiiginality of the lace seemed to have been lost. In music no more were there the soul-stirring ideas of the ancient Sanskrit music, no more did each note stand, as it were, on its own feet, and produce the inaivellous harmony, but each note had lost its indivi- duality. The whole of modern music is a jumble of notes, a confused mass of curves. Thai, is a sign of dcgiadalion in music. So, if you analyse your idealistic conceptions, you will find the same attempt at ornate figures, and loss of originality.
THE WORK BEFORE VS 93 And even in religion, your special field, there came the most horrible degradations. What can you expect of a race which for hundreds of years has been busy in discussing such momentous problems as whether we should drink a gla^ of water with the right hand or the left? What more degradation can there be tl^lJfli-^that the gieaiest minds of a country have been discussing about the kitchen fw seveial hundieds of yeais, discussing whether llmay touch you or you touch me, and what is the penance for this touching! The themes of the Vedanta, the siiblimest and the most gloiious conceptions of God and soul ever pleached on earth, were half-lost, buried in the forests, pieserved by a few Sannyasins, while the rest of the nation discussed the momentous questions of touching each other, and dress and food. The Mahommedan conquest gave us many good things, no doubt; even the lowest man in the world can teach something to the highest; at the same time it could not bring vigour into the race. Then for good or bad, the English conquest of India took place. Of course every conquest is bad, for conquest is an evil, foreign Goveinmenl is an evil, no doubt, but even through evil comes good sometimes, and the great good of the English conquest is this: England, nay the whole of Europe, has to thank Gieece for its civilisation. It is Greece that speaks thiough eveij thing m Europe. Every building, every piece of furniluie has the impicss of Greece upon it; Euiopcan science and ail are nothing but Giccian. To-day the ancient Gieek is meeting the ancient Hindu on the soil of India. Thus, slowly and silently, the leaven has come, the broadening out, the life-giving, and the levivalist movement, that we see all aiound us, has been woiked out by all these foices together. A bioader and moie geneious conception of life is befoie us, and, although at first wc have been deluded a little and wanted to nan ow things down, we aic finding out to-day that these geneious impulses which are at work, these bioader conceptions of life, arc the logical intcrprc- talion of what IS in our ancient books. They aie the carrying out, to the rigoiously logical effect, of the pi unary conceptions of our own ancestors. To become broad, to go out, to amalgamate, to uni vet salisc, IS the end of oui aims. And all the lime we have been making ourselves smaller and smaller, and dissociating ourselves, contrary to the plans laid down in oui scriptuies.
Several dangers are m the way, and one is that of the extreme conception that we are the people in the world. With all my love for India, and with all my patriotism, and venciaiion for the ancients, I cannot but think that we have to learn many things fiom other nations. We must be always icady to sit at the feet of all, for, maik you, every one can leach us great lessons. Says our great law-giver, Manu; Receive some good knowledge even from the low-born and even from the man of lowest bulb, learn by service the road to heaven.’' We, therefore, as true childicn of Manu, must obey his commands, and be ready to learn the lessons of this life, or the life hereafter from any one who can leach us. At the same time we must not forget, that we have also to teach a great lesson to the world. We cannot do without the woild outside India; it was our foolishness that we thought wc could, and we have paid the penalty by about a thousand years of slavery. That we did not go out to compare things with other nations, did not mark the workings that have been all aiound us, has been the one great cause of this degradation of the Indian mind. We have paid the penalty; let us do it no moie. All such foolish ideas, that Indians must not go out of India, are childish. They must be knocked on the head; the more you go out and tiavcl among the nations of the world, the better for you and for your countiy If you had done that for hundreds of years past you would not be 94 LECTURES— FROM COLOMBO TO ALMORA heic to-day, at the feet of every nation that wants to rule India. The first manifest effect of life is expansion. You must expand if you want to live. The moment )ou have ceased tQ^ expand, death is upon you, danger is ahead. I went to America and Europe, to whiw^u so kindly allude; I had to, because that is the first sign of the revival of national life, expansion. This national reviving life, expanding inside, threw me off and thousands will be thrown off in that way. Mark my words, it has got to come if this nation lives at all. This expansion, therefore, is the greatest of the signs of the revival of national life, and through this expansion our quota of offering to the general mass of human knowledge, our part of the general upheaval of the world, is going out to the external world. Again, this is not a new thing. Those of you who think that the Hindus have been always confined within the four walls of their country through all ages, aic entiiely mistaken; you have not studied the whole books, you have not studied the history of the race aright if you think so. Each nation must give in older to live. When you give life you will have life; when you receive you must pay it by giving to all others, and that we have been living for so many thousands of )ears is a fact that stares us m the face, and the solution that remains is that wc have been always giving to the’outside world, wh.atever the ignorant may think.
Ikit the gift of India is the gift of lehgion and philosophy, and wisdom, and spirituality, and religion docs not want cohorts to march before its path and clear its way. Wisdom and philosophy do not want to be carried on floods of blood. Wisdom and philosophy do not march upon bleeding human bodies, do not march with violence but come on the wings of peace and love, and that has always been so. Therefore we had to give. I was asked by a young lady in London, “ What have you Hindus done? You have never even conquered a single nation.’' That is true from the point of view of the Englishman, the brave, the heioic, the Kshatriya — conquest is the greatest glory that one man can have over another. That is true from his point of view, but from ours it is quite the opposite. If I ask myself what has been the cause of India’s greatness, 1 answer, because wc have never conquered. That is our glory. You are hearing every day, and sometimes 1 am sorry to say from men who ought to know better, denunciations of our religion, because it is not at all a conquering religion. To my mind that is the argument why our religion is truer than any other religion, because it never conquered, because it never shed blood, because its mouth always shed on all, woids of blessing, of peace, words of love and sympathy. It is heie and here alone that the ideals of toleration were first preached; and it is here and here alone that toleration and sympathy have become practical; it is theoretical in every other country; it is here and here alone, that the Hindu builds mosques for the Mahommedans and churches for the Christians. So, you see, our message has gone out to the world many a time, but slowly, silently, unperceived. It is on a par with everything in India. The one charac- teristic of Indian thought is its silence, its calmness. At the same time fhe tremen- dous powxr that is behind it is never expressed by violence. It is always the silent mesmerism of Indian thought. If a foieigner takes up our literature to study, at first it is disgusting to him; there is not the same stir, perhaps, the same amount of go that rouses him instantly. Compare the tragedies of Europe with our tragedies. The one is full of action, that rouses you for the moment, but when it is over there comes the reaction, and everything is gone, washed off as it were from your brains. Indian tragedies are like the mesmeiist's power, quiet, silent, but as you go on Studying them they fascinate you; you cannot move; you are bound; and THE WORK BEFORE US 95 whoever has dared to touch our literature has felt the bondage, and is there bound for ever.
Like the gentle dew that falls unseen and unheard, and yet brings into blossom the fairest of roses, so has been the contiibution of feidia to the thought of the world, bilent, unperceived, yet omnipotent in its effect, it has revolu- tionised the thought of the world, yet nobody knows when it did so. It was once remaiked to me, “ How difficult it is to ascertain the name of any writer in India,” to which 1 replied, ‘ That is the Indian idea.’ Indian writers are not like modern wi iters, who steal ninety per cent, of their ideas fiom other authors, while only ten per cent, is their own, and they take care to write a preface in which they say, ‘ For these ideas I am responsible.’ Those great master-minds pioducing momentous results in the hearts of mankind, were content to wiite their books without even putting their names, and to die quietly, leav- ing the books to posterity. Who knows the wi iters of our philosophy, who knows the wiiteis of our Puianas? They all pass under the generic name of V) asa, and Kapila, and so on. They have been true children of Sn Kiishna. d'hey have been true tolloweis of the Gita; they piactically earned out the gieat mandate, “ I'o woik you have the right, but not to the fruits thereof.”
Thus, India is woiking upon the world, but one condition is necessary. Thoughts, like merchandise, can only run through channels made by.somebody. Roads have to be made before even thought can travel fiom one place to another, and whenever in the history of the woi Id a gieat conquenng nation has arisen, link- ing the dilfeient paits of the world together, then has poured through these channels the thought of India, and thus enteied into the veins of every race. Befoie cvtui the Buddhists w'ere boin, iheie aie evidences accumulating eveiy day that Indian thought pcnctiated the world. Before Buddhism, Vedanta had penetialed into China, into Peisia, and the Islands of the Kastern Archipelago. Again, when the mighty mind of the Greek had linked the different paits of the castcin woild together, Iheie came Indian thought; and Cluistianity with all Its boasted civilisation is but a collection of little bits of Indian thought. Ours is the religion of which Buddhism, with all Us greatness, is a lebel child, and of which Christianity is a veiy patchy imitation. One of these cycles has ag.un ariived. There is the tremendous power of England which has linked the dillerent parts of the woild together. English loads no mote are content like Roman roads to run over lands, but they have also ploughed the deep in all directions. Fiom ocean to ocean run the roads of Fmgland. Flveiy Iiait of the world has been linked to every other pait, and electiicity plays a most marvellous part as the new messenger. Under all these circumstances we find again India leviving, and ready to give her own quota to the progiess and civilisation of the world. And that I have been forced, as it were, by nature, to go over and preach to America and England, is the result. Every one of us ought to have seen that the time h^ad arrived, Ivveiything looked propitious, and Indian thought, philosophical and spiritual, must once moie go over and conquer the woild. I he problem before us, therefore, is assuming larger proportions every day. It is not only that we must revive our own country, — that is a small matter; I am an imaginative man, and my idea is the conquest of the whole world by the Hindu race.
There have been great conquering races in the w'oild. We also have been great conquerors. The stoiy of our conquest has been desciibed by that noble Emperor of India, Asoka, as the conquest of religion and of spiiituality. Once more the 96 LECTURES—FROM COLOMBO TO AlMORA woi Id must be conquered by India. This is the dream of my life, and I wish that each one of you who hear me to-day will have the same dream in your minds, and stop not till you have realised the dream. They will tell you every day that we had better look to our own homes first, and then go to work outside. But I will tell you in plain language that you work best when you work for others. The best work that you ever did for yourselves was when you worked for others, trying to disseminate your ideas in foreign languages, beyond the seas, and this very meeting is proof how the attempt to enlighten other countries, with your thoughts is helping your own country. One fourth of the effect that has been produced in this country by my going to England and America would not have been brought about had I confined my ideas only to India. This is the great ideal before us, and every one must be ready for it, — the conquest of the whole world by India, — nothing less than that, and we must all get ready for it, strain every nerve for it. I^t foreigners come and flood the land with their armies, never mind. Up, India, and conquer the world with your spirituality I Aye, as has been declared on this soil first, love must conquer hatred, hatred cannot conquer itself. Materialism and all its miseries can never be conquered by mateiialism. Armies when they attempt to conquer armies only multiply and make brutes of humanity. Spirituality must conquer the West. Slowly they are finding out that what they want is spirituality to preserve them as nations. They are wailing for it, they are eager for it. Where is the supply to come from? Where are the men ready to go out to every country in the world with the messages of the great sages of India? Where are the men who are ready to sacrifice every- thing, so that this message shall reach every corner of the world? Such heroic souls are wanted to help the spread of truth. Such heioic workers are wanted to go abroad and help to disseminate the great truths of the Vedanta. The world wants it; without it the world will be destroyed. The whole of the Western woi Id is on a volcano which may burst to-morrow, go to pieces to-morrow. They have searched every corner of the world and have found no respite. They have drunk deep of the cup of pleasure and found it vanity. Now is the time to work so that India’s spiritual ideas may penetiate deep into the West. Therefoie, young men of IMadras, I specially ask you to remember this. We must go out, we must conquer the world through our spirituality and philosophy. There is no other alternative, we must do it or die. The only condition of national life, of awakened and vigorous national life, is the conquest of the world b)- Indian thought.
At the same time we must not forget that what I mean by the conquest of the world by spiritual thought, is the sending out the life-giving principles, 'not the hundreds of superstitions that we have been hugging to our breasts for centuries. These have to be weeded out even on this soil, and thrown aside, so that they may die for ever. These are the causes of the degradation of the race and will lead to softening of the brain. That brain which cannot think high and noble thoughts, which has lost all power of originality, which has lost all vigour, that brain which is always poisoning itself with all sorts of little superstitions passing under the name of religion, wc must beware of. In our sight, here in India, there are several dangers. Of these, the two, Scylla and Charybdis, rank materialism and its rebound, arrant superstition, must be avoided. There is the man to-day who after drinking the cup of western wisdom, thinks that he knows everything. He laughs at the ancient sages. All Hindu thought to him is arrant trash, philosophy, mere child’s prattle, and religion, the superstition of fools. On the other hand, there is THE WORK BEFORE CS 97 (he niAii oduLMlcel, bill a bOil ol nionomani.ic, ulio iiins lo llie oilioi ivlieinc, and lo explain ihc omen uf ihi'j ami Uial. lie has pliilu^ophieal and incUpliybical, and Luid knows what other iiueiiie cxpianaliniis loi c\eiy sii[)('ibiilion that l)elongs to 111-, peculiar laee, or las [)cculiai ^^ods, oi his peculiar villai^e. Kveiy little villaj^c buper^liUon is to him a mandate of the \"edas. and ii[)on the cari) ing out of it, aecoiding to him, depends the national hie. Vou must bewaie of this. I vonld lathcr see everyone of >oii lank atheists than siipeostitious tools, for the atlieibt is alive, and you can make something out of him. Ikit if supeistition entcis, the biain is gone, the brain is softening, degradation ha.s seized upon the life. A\oid these two. Iliave, bold men, the.se aie what we \tant. What we want is vigour in the blood, strength in the iieives, iron muscles and nerves of steel, not.softening namby-pamby ideas. Avoid all these. Avoid all rn)stety. There is no m)steiy m leligion. Is there any mysteiy in the Vedanta, or in the Vedas, or in the Samhitas, or in the Puranas? What set ret societies did the.s.rges of )Oie establish to pieach their leligion? What sleight-of-hand trieks are Iheie recorded, as used by them to luiiig their giand truths lo humanity? Mysteiy-mongeiing and supeisti- lion aie always signs of weakness. These are alwa)s signs of degiadatiou ami of death. Theiefore beware of them; be st long, and slaiid on youi own feel, Gieat things aic theie, most marvellous things. We may call iheiir supeinatuial things so far as our ideas of natuie go, but not one of these things is a myslciy. It was never pleached on this.sod that the liulhs of religion were m)steiies or that they weie the po^P^'i'ty s>ocictie.s sitting on the snow-caps of ihe Tlim.rlayas. T liave been m the Himalayas. You have not been thcie; it is sevcml humheds of miles liom }oui lionies. lama Samr>asin, and I have been for the last louiteen years on my feet. These mysleiioris societies do not exist ainwheie. Do not inn after those supeisUlrons. Detlci for you and for the uu c ih.U \ou bee mie rank atheists, because you would have sliength,'btil ihesc are degiadaiion.uid de.uh. Shame on humaniLy that stiong men should spend ihcii lime on iheso sai.eiSLuioiis, spend all ilieirtimcin inventing allegoues. to e.xplain the most loiten supeisblions of the world He bold; do not liy to explain cveiylhmg that w.iy d'ho fact is that we have rii.iny supeistitions, m.any bid spots and soios on oui bod) -these have to be excised, cut oil, and destroyed -but these do not desio.y oui religion, our national hlo, our spiiitu.tlu>. Tvei) piinciple of u bgimi is safe, md the sooner the.se black spcAs are puiged away, the belter the piinciiiK s w.ll shine, the moie gloiiously. Stick You hear claims made by cvciy religion as being the nniveisal o^ligion of he woild r.et me tell you in the fust pl.ice inal pei Inin iheie nevei will be.such a thing, but if there IS a religion uhmh can lay claim to th.tt, it is only onis and none else, because every olhei lehgiou depends on smne peison oi peisons All the olhei religions have been built round die hie caf wl.at ihe) ihmkar, h.sionca man, and what Ihev think the strength of religion is reali) llie weakness, hu dispiove the histon- cahty of the man and the whole fabiie tumbles to the giound Hall the lives caf lhe.se great founders of religions irave been broken inro pieces, and ll.e other ha f dorrbted very seriously As such, eveiy t.uth that liad its..ruction only m then vvonls vanishes into air But the tuiths of om religion, although we h.oe pcisoiis by the sune. chmiot depend upon them. 'Ihe gloiy ol Kndnu is riot that he vvas kn.hma but that he was the groat teacher of Vedauta. If ho had rrot been so, hrs name would bavc died out of India m tire same way as the uaniv. ot HuJdiia ha^ done, ihus our allegiance LECTURES~i'ROM> COLOMBO TO ALMORA