iuMice and reason as I understand it. Our poor people, these down-trodden liuilses of India thercfoic, lequire to hear and to know what they leally are. A>e, Id .veiv man and vvoin.m and child, without respect of caste or birth, weakness o', .iienglh hear and Icam that behind the strong and the weak, behind the hig^ •md \he’ low, behind eveiy one, iheie is that Infinite Soul, assuring the mamte posM- luluv and the infinite capacity of all to become great and good. Let wrrf5rgrgfr. — Arise, awake and sto| THE mSEION OF THE VEDANTA 51 weakness. None is really weak; the soul is infinite, omnipotent, anJ ornniscient. Stand up, asseil yourself, proclaim ‘the (lod within )ou, do not deny! Too much of inactivity, too much of weakness, too much of hypnotism, has been and is upon our race. ye modern Hindus, de-hypnotise }oui selves. The w'.\y to do that, 19 found in yoiu own sacred books. Teach youi selves, leach eveiy one hi.s leal natuie, call upon the sleeping soul to sec how it awakes. Power will come, gloiy wdl come, goodness will come, puiity will come, and evei} thing that is excellent wilt come when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity. Aye, \i there is an} thing in the Gita that I like, it is these two vei.ses, coming out strong as the very gist, the veiy essence, of Kiishna’s teaching “ He who secs the Supiemc Loid dwelling alike in all beings, the Impenshahlc in things that peiish, he secs indeed. For seeing the f.oid as the same, e\ei)wheie piesent, he docs not destioy the Self by the self, and thus he goes to the highest goal."
'I'hus there is a gical ojiening foi the Vedanta to do beneficent work both here and elsewheie. This wonderful idea of the sameness and omnipiesence of the Suineme Soul has to be pieachcd foi the amelioialiou and elevation of die human race, heie a.s elscwlieic. Whcicvei tlieie is e\il and wheiever theic i.s ignoiance and w'ant of knowledge, I ha\e found out by expeiience that all c\il comes, as our sciipluics say, by iel)ing upon ditfeiences, and that all good comes, fiom faith in equality, in the undei lying sameness and oneness of things. This is the great Vedantic ideal. To h.ue the ideal is one thing, and to apply it practically la thii details of daily hie is qniLc another thing. It is \ery good to point out an ideal, but wheie is the ]iracUcal wa\ to icacli it?
Hole iialiuall} comes the diOicuIt and the vexed question, of caste and of social refoi inalion, which has been uppciinost foi cenliuics in the minds of our peojile I must fiankl) tell you lhai I am neither a caste-breaker nor a mere soual lefoimci, I ha\c nothing to do diieclly with your castes or with your social icfoinialioii. l-nc in any caste you like, but that is no reason why you should hale aiv’iiier man 01 another caste. It is love and love alone that I preach, find I ba-^e my teaching on the great Vedantic truth of the sameness and omnipicsonce of llic.Soul of the Univcise. For nearly the last one hundred }cais, our country has been flooded with social icformcis aiul various social reform proposals. Pcisonally, I have no fault to find with these leformers. Most of them are good well-meaning men, and their aims too arc veiy laudable on certain points; but It is quite a patent fact that ihi.s one bundled yeais of social reform has pio- duced no permanent and valuable result, appreciable throughout the country. Plat- foim speeches have been made by the thousand, denunciations in volumes after volumes have been hurled upon the devoted head of the Hindu race and its civilisa- tion, and yet no good piactical result has been achieved; and where is the reason* for that.!* The reason is not haul to find. It is in the dcmmciaiion itself. As I told you before, in the first place we mu.st'Try to keep our liistoiically acquired character as a people. I grant that we have to take a gioal many things from other nations, that we have to learn many lessons from outside; but I am soiry to say that most of our modern reform-movements have been inconsiderate imitations of Western means and methods of w^ork, and that surely will not do for India; therefore it is that all our recent reform-movements have had no result. In the second place, denunciation is not at all the way to do good. That there are evils in our society even a child can see, and in what society are lliere no evils ^ And let me take thia 53 lECTVRKS FROM COLOMBO TO ALMORA opportunity, niy countrymen, of telling you that, in comparing the different races and nations of the world I have been among, I have come to the conclusion that our people aic on the whole the most moial ami the most godly, and our institutions are, in their plan and puipose, best suited to make mankind happy. I do not there- fore want any leformaiion. My Ideal Is grouth, expansion, development on national lines. As I look hack upon the history of ni) country, f do not find in the whole vorld another country winch has done (^uite so much for the improvement of the huinap mind. 'I'hercfore, I have no words of condemnation for my nation. 1 tell them, “ You have done well; only try to do belter.” (beat things have been done in the past in this land, and thcie is both time and room for greater things to be done yet, I am sure you know that we cannot stand still. If we stand still wc. die. Wc have either to go forwaid or to go backward. We have either to progress oi to degenerate. Our aticcstor.s did great things in the past, hut we have to grow into a fuller life and march be} ond even their great achievements, ITow can we now go back and degenerate ourselves? That cannot be; that must not be; going back will lead to national decay and death. Therefore, let us go forward and do yet greater things; that la what I have to tell vou. T am no preacher of any rnomentaiy social refoim. I am not trying to remedy evils, I only ask you to go foiward and to complete the piactical realisation of the scheme of human progress, that has been laid out in tlie most peifect order by our ancestors. I only ask you to work to >eabs,<3 more the Vedantic ideal of the solidarity of man and his inborn divine nature. ^ ^ would gladly show you how^ eveiytliing wc have pow to do, was laid Out jv.'^rs ago by our ancient law-givqrs, and how they actually anticipated all the diO^reut in our national in.stitutipns. They "also b.-akers of caste, but they were not l|ke ojir modem men. They did not mean by the breaking of caste that all the people in a city.should sit down together to a dinner pt champa^me, nor that all fools and lunatics in the country should marry whgyu Ihpy pho&e, and reduce the countiy to a lunatic asylum, nor did they bobevc ‘ ^ prospeiity of a nation, is to be gauged by the numbei of hushaiuls its \vidows I haye yet tp see such a pro.spcioiis nation.
The ideal man of our ancestors was the Brah'nv.in. In all our books stands out prominently this ideal of the Brahman. In Europe, there is my Lord the Caid'nal, w'ho IS struggling hard and spending thousands of pounds to prove the nobijity of his ancestors, and he will not he sati.sfied until he. has tiaccd his ancestry to some dreadful tyrant, who lived op a hill, and watched the people passing by, and whenever he had the oppoitunity, sprang out on them and robbed them. That vyas the business of these nobility-bestowing ancestors, and my Lord Cardinal is not satisfied until he can trace his ancestry to one of these. In India, on tlie other hand, the greatest piinces seek to trace their descent to some ancient sage, who dressed in a hit of loin-cloth, lived in a foiest, eating roots, and studying the Vedas, It is there that the Indian prince goes to trace his ppcestry. You are of the high caste when you can trace your ancestry to a Rishi, apd not otherwise. Our ideal of high birth, therefore, is different from that of otheis. Our ideal is the Bnihman of spiritual culture and reniiuciation. By the Bi^hman ideal what do 1 mean? I mean the ideal Biahman-ness in w-hich woildliness is altogether absent, and true wisdom is abundantly present. That is tlie ideal of the JJipdu rape, Have pu not heard how it js declared tliat he, the Brilhman, is not THE MISiSJOK OF THE VEDANTA 53 amenable to law, that he has no law, that ho is not.t?oveme<l by and that his body cannot be hurt? That is j)eifcclly tuie. Do not undcistand it in the light thrown upon it by interested and ignorant fools, hut undei stand it in the light of the uuc and original VedanUc conception. If the Rruhinan is he who has killed all seltishness and who lives and woiks to acqniic and piopagate wisdom and the power of love, — if a countiy is altogethci inliabiled by such Hiahnians, by men and women who arc spiiitual and moral and good, is it strange to think ot that countiy as being above aiul beyond all law? What police, what militaiy aio neccssaiy to go\ein them? Why should any one govern them at all? Why sliould they li\e under a government? 'I'licy are good and noble, and they aic the men of (iod; tliese aie our ideal Riahmans, and we read that in the Salva-Vii'ya there was only one caste, ami that was the Biahinan We read in the iMahahh.\rata that the whole world was in the beginning peopled with Hiahmans, and that as they began to degenerate they became divided into diffeient castes, and that when the cycle turns lound they will all go back to that Rrahmamcal origin. 'I'ltis cede is tuining louncl now, and I draw' your allenliou to this fact, 'riiorefoic oui solution of the caste ciiieslion is not degiadmg those who are alieady high up. is not running amntk tluough food and dunk, is not jumping out of onr own limits iu older to have moic enjoyment, but it comes by eveiy one of us fuKilluig the dictates of our Vcdaniic icligion, b)’ our attaining spiiiluality, and by our becoming the ideal Biahman. There is a law laid on each one of you in this land by youi ancestors, whellicr yon arc Ar}ans, or non- Aryans, Rishis, or Bi,\hmans, or the vciy lowest outcastes. The command is the .same to you all, that you must make progiess without slopping, and that, from the highest man to the lowest Paiiah, cveiy one in this country has to try and become the ideal Biahman. 'This Vcdaniic idea is applicable not only here but over the whole woild. Such IS our ideal of caste, as meant for raising all humanil) slowly and gently towaids the realisaucm of that great ideal of the spiiitual man, w'ho is non- resistiiig, calm, steady, w'orshipful, puic, and meditative. In that ideal there is God.
How aie these things to be brought about? I must again draw your atten- fioij to the fact that cursing and \ilif}ing and aimsing do not and cannot produce anything good. 'Fhey have been tried foi years and ycais, and no valuable result has been obtained. Good lesults can be pioduced only tluough love, tluough sympathy. It is a great subject, and it leqiiiies several Iccluies to elucidate all the tha* ^ in view, and all the ideas that are, in this connection, coming to my ^ ^nd cj '^’1' day. 1 must tlierefore conclude, only reminding you of tiiis fact, I } ^ our nar'‘^ii3 ^ Hindus, has been usefully plying here for ages, d'o- t atUis blip.01..-ui-jo- a leak; to-day, perhaps, it has became a little worn day perhaps, h ha?
out, ant I sue is >o coiinl'vnien of the danger, let them awake tile eak and boles. Let ns te 1.0u», r and help ns. I will cry at the top of my f.'om one part of tins country to the other, to awaken the people to the sitnatioi)?n4 ‘ hear me, still, 1 shall not have one word of abuse for.then*, ® cursing.
Great has beeti our nation’s work in the past, and if we paunoi f ^ I’- ^ in the future, let us haye this consolation, that we can sink and die fogetthirT m peace. Be patriots, love tl}c race which has done such great things for us in the pa^f* the more I compare notes the more I love you, my fellow-countrymen | ypu are good and pure and gentle. You have been tyrannised over, and such 54 LECTURES— FROM COLOMBO TO ALMORA the iioiiy of this material world of Maya. Never mind that; the spirit will tiiumph in the lon^r iLin. In the meanwhile let us work and let us not abuse our country, let us not emse and abuse the weather-beaten and work-worn institutions of our thnee-holy motherland. Have no woid of condemnation, even for the most super- slilious and tlie most irrational of its institutions, for they also must have seived some good in the past. Remember always, that there is not in the woild any other country uhose institutions aie leally belter in theii aims and objects than the institu- tions of this land. I have seen castes in almost evciy countiy in the woild, but nowhere is their plan'and purpose so glorious as here. If caste is thus unavoidable, I would lather have a caste of puiity anrl cultuie and.self-sacii(ice, than a caste of dollars, 'rhcielore utter no woids of condemnation. Close your lips and let ) our hearts open. Woik out the salvation of this land and of the whole world, each of you thinking that the entiie buiden is on your shoulders. Cai ry the light and the life of the V’edaiUa to every door, and rouse up the divinity that is hidden within eveiy soul. 'I'hen, whatever may be the measuie of your success, you will have this satufaction, that you have lived, worked and died for a great cause. In the success of this cause, howsoe\ei brought about, is centicd the salvation of humanity here and heieafter.
REPLY TO THE ADDRESS OF WELCOME AT MADRAS.
When Swami Vivekan.inda arnved at Madras, an address of welcome was present- ed to him by the Madias Reception Committee. It lead as follows; — Rlnekei) Smamin. - On behalf of your Hindu co-reli^,donists in Madras, wc offer yon a most hearty welcome on the occasion of your return fiom your Religious Mission in the West. Our object in appioaching you with this address is not the peiformance of any merely formal or ceremonial function; we come to offer you the love of our hearts and to give expression to oui feeling of thankfulness tor the seivices which you, by the giace of God, have been able to tender to the gieat cause of 'riulh by pioclaiming India’s lofty leligious ideals. Wlien the Parliament of Religions was organised at Chicago, some of oui countrymen felt natuially anxious that our noble and ancient lehgion should bo w'oithily rejnesented therein and projieily expounded to the Anieiican nation, and thiough them to the Western Woild at laige. It was then our piivilege to meet you and to lealise once again, wdial has so often proved Hue in the history of nations, that w'ltli the hour uses the man who is to help lorwaid the cause of Tiuih. When you iindei took to repiesenl Hinduism at the Paihament of Relig- ions, most of us felt, fiom what we had known of your gieat gifts, that the cause of Hinduism would be ably upheld by its lepiesentative m that memoiable lehgious assembly. 'S'our presentaiion of the docliiues of Hinduism at once clear, correct, and aulhoiiiaiive, not only piodticed a rcmaikablc impression at the Paihament of Religions itself, but has also led a numbei of men and women even in foieign lands to lealise, that out of the fountain of Indian spirituality refreshing diaughls of im- moUal life and love may be taken, so as to biing about a larger, fuller and holier e\olution of humanity than lias yet been witnessed on this globe of ours. We are pauitularly ihanktul to you toi having called the attention of the representatives of the Woild’s Gical Religious to the chaiacteiisLic Hindu doctiine of the Harmony and Biotherhood of Religions. No longei is it possible for leally enlightened and cainest men to insist that Truth and Holiness arc the exclusive possessions of any pauicular locality or body of men or system of docliiiie and discipline, or to hold that any faith or philosophy will suivive to the exclusion and destruction of all others. In your own happy language which biings out fully the sweet harmony in the heart of the BhagavaJ-Giu, d'he whole world of religions is only a tiavelling, a coming up of dilTeienl men and women through various conditions and cucumstances to the same goal.” Had you contented yourself with simply discharging this high and holy duly entiuslcd to your caie, even then, your Hindu co-iehgionists would have been glad to recognise with joy and thankfulness the inestimable value of your work. But m making your way into Western countries you have also been the bearer of a message of light and peace to the whole of mankind, based on the old teachings oif India’s “ Religion Eternal.” In thanking you for all that you have done in the way of upholding the profound rationality of the religion of the Vedanta, it gives us great pleasure to allude to the great task you have in view, of establishing an active mission with permanent centres for the propagation of our religion and philosophy.
LECTL’RES—FJWM COLOMJW TO ALMORA 56 'J'l)c tilnlcrtakii)^' to wliicli \ou j)i()j)Obe to dexote xour encrgieb ib \xorlhy of the holy tradillons you leprestMit and w'oiiljy, loo, of the spiiit of the great Gum who has inspired xour life and its aims. We hope and trust that it may be given to us also to associate OLitsehes with )0u in this noble w’oik. We feixcntly pray to Him who is the all-knoaing and all-meiciful Lend of llie Unixerse, to bestow on you long life and full sirenglh and to bles^ xoiir labours xvith lli.it ciown of gloi’} and success, wliicli exei deserxes to shine on the brow of iinnioiial 'riulh.
Next xvas lead the following addicss fiom the Mahaiajah of Khelti.
Yoi’r lloj.iM ss: — 1 wish to lake ihisieatly oppoitunity of your airival and icception at Madias to expiess my feelings of joy and pleasure on youi safe letuin to India, and to offei my heartfelt congraiuiation on the gieai success which has attended xour unsellisdi effoils in Western lamis, whcie it is the boast of the highest intellects that, “ Not an inch of ground once conquered by science has ever been reconqueied by Keligioir' — although indeed Science has luudly ever claimed to oppose tine Religion. 'I'his holy land of Aryaxarla has been singularly fortunate in haxing been able to secure so xvorthy a lepieseniative of her sages at the Pailiament of Religions held at C’hicago, and it is cntiicly due to )out xvisdom, enteipiise and enlhusiasin that the Western xxoild has come to understand what an inexhaustible stole of spuitualily India has, even lo-(lay. Youi labouis have now pioved bexond the possibililx of doubt, that the contradictions of the xvoild's numerous cieeds aie all reconciled in the univeisal light of the N'edaiila. and that all the jieoples of the xvorld have need to imdei stand iiiul jiraclically realise the gieal liulh that, ‘ Ibiit) in xaiiet) ’ is natuie’s jilan in the evoluiion of the univcise, ami that only bx haimony and biotheihood among Relig- ions and by mutual tolcialion and licdp cun the mission ami destiny of humanilx be accomplished. Under xoui high and holx auspices and the inspiring inlhience of x'OLii lofty teacliings, we of the present generation Jiaxe the j)iixilege of xvitnessing the inauguration of a nexv era in the xvoild’s histoiv, in which bigoliy, hatred and conflict may, I hope, cease, and peace, sympathy and love loign among men. And 1 in common xviih my people pray that the blessings of God may lest on you and your labouis.
When the addresses had been lead, tlie Swaini left the hall and mounted to the box seat of a carnage in xxailing! Oxving to the intense cnlliiisiasm of the large cioxvd assembled to xvelconie him, the Sxxami w.ts only able to make the following short reply, postponing his rc])ly iirojiei' to a fuluie occasion: — Man proposes and God di.sposes. It was pioposed that the addresses and the replies sliould be cairied in the English fashion. But here God dispo.ses — 1 am speak- ing to a scattered audience from the chanol> in the Gita fashion. Thankful we are, therefore, that it should have hapj>ened so. It gives a zest to the speech, and strength to xvhal I am going to tell yon. 1 do not knoxv whether my voice xxill leach all of you, but I will tiv my best. 1 never bcfoie had an opportunity of addressing a large open-air meeting. The wonderful kindness, the feivent and enthusiastic joy xvith xvhich 1 have been leceivcd from Colombo to Madras, and seem likely to be received xvith all over India, have passed even my most sanguine expectations, but that only makes me glad, for it piovcs ibe asseitiOn xvhich 1 have made again and again in n^PLY TO THE ADDRESS OF WELCOME AT MADRAS 57 the past, that as each nation has one ideal as its vitality, as each nation has ona particular groove which is to become its own, so religion is the pecuhanly of the giowth of the Indian mind. In other parts of the world, leligion is one of the niany considerations, in fact it is a minor occupation. In England, for instance, religion is part of the national policy. The English Chuich belongs to the rul- ing class, and, as such, whether they believe in it oi not, they all support it, thinking that it is their Church. Every gentleman and eveiy lady is expected to belong to that Church. It is a sign of gentility. So with other countries, there IS a great national power; either it is repicscnled by politics or it is repiesentcd by some intellectual pursuits; either it is represented by militaiism or by commer- tialism. There the heart of the nation beats; and lehgion is one of the many secondary ornamental things wliich th.al nation possesses. Here in India, it is leligion that forms the veiy core of the national heart. It is the backbone, tlie bed-rock, the foundation upon which the national edifice has been built. Politics, powei, and even intellect form a secondary consideration here. Religion, thcieforc, is the one consideration in India. 1 have been told a hundied times of the want of infoimation there IS among the masses of the Indian jieople; and that is tiue Landing in Colombo 1 found not one of them had heard of the political ujiheavals going on in Europe^ the t hanges, the downfall of ministries, and so foith. Not one of them had hcaid of what lis meant by socialism, and anarchism, and of this and that change in the poli- tical atmosphere of Em ope. But that there was a Sannyasin from India went over to the Pailiament of Religions, and that' he ha<l achieved some soit of success, had bee omc known to eveiy man, woman, and child in Ce}lon. It pioves that tliere IS no lack of infoimation, nor lack of desire for information where it is of the character that suits them, when it falls in line with the neces.sitie.s of their life. lk>liiiLS and all these things nevei formed a necessity of Indian life, but Religion and spii iliialily hav'c been the one condition upon which it lived and thrived, and h.is got to liv’o in the future. 'Pwo gie.U problems arc being decided bv the nations of the woild. India has taken up one side, and the rest of the woild has taken the other side. And the pioblem is this; who is to survive? Wliat makes one nation survive and the others die.Should love survive or hatred, should enjoyment suivive or lenunciation;.should matter survive or the spiiil, in the struggle of life AVc think as our ancestors did, away b.ick in pie-hisloiic ages. Where even tradi- tion cannot pierce the gloom of that past, there, our gloiious anceslois have taken u]) tbcii side of the pioblem and have thrown the challenge to the world. (Jur solution is renunciation, giving up, foailessness and love, these arc the fittest to suivive. Giving up the senses makes a nation survive. As a pioof of this, lieie is hisloiy to-day telling us of mushroom nations rising and falling almost eveiy cenliiiy — starting up from nothingness, making vicious play for a few days and then melting.
This big, gigantic lace, winch had to gmpple w'ith some of the gioatest problems of' misfortunes, dangers, and vicissitudes,.such as never fell upon the head of any other nation of the world, survives, because it has taken the.side of i enunciation; for without renunciation how can there be Religion. Euiope is living to solve the other side of the pioblem as to how^ much a man can liavc; how much more power a man can possess, by hook or by crook, by some means or other. Compeliiion, cruel, cold and hcaitless, is the law of Emopc. Oui law is caste, the breaking of competition, checking its forces, mitig.ating its cruelties, smoolhening the passage of the human soul through tins mystcrv of life, 11 58 LECTURES—FROM COLOMBO TO ALMORA At this stage tlic crowd became so unmanageable that the Swami could not make himself heaid to advantage. He tlierct'ore ended his address with these words: — • Friends, 1 am very much pleased with your enthusiasm. It is maivellous. Do not think that I am displeased with you at all; I am, on the other hand, intensely pleased at the show of enthusiasm. That is what is required — tiemendous enthusi- asm. Only make it permanent; keep it up. Let not the fiie die out. We want to work out great things in India. For that I require your help; such enthusiasm Is necessary. It is impossible to hold this meeting any longer. I thank you very mucli for youi kindness and enthusiastic welcome. In calm moments we shall have bettei thoughts and ideas to exchange; now for the time, my fiiends, good-bye.
It is impossible to addiess you on all sides, therefore )Ou must content your- selves this e\eningwith merely seeing me. 1 will leseive my speech for some other occasion. I thank you veiy much for your enthusiastic welcome.
PLAN OF CAMPAIGN.
{Delivered at the Viitoria Hall, Madtas^