我的行动计划
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中文
我的行动计划
（在马德拉斯维多利亚厅演讲）
前几日因人群拥挤，演讲未能继续，今日借此机会，向马德拉斯民众致谢，感谢他们始终给予我的一贯关爱。对于诸位在致辞中所表达的美好言辞，我不知如何更好地表达感激之情，唯有向主祈祷，愿主使我配得上这些慷慨宽厚的期许，并愿我终身为我们宗教的事业而劳作，为服务我们的祖国而奉献；愿主使我无愧于此。
尽管我有诸多缺点，但我自信有几分胆气。我曾携印度的讯息奔赴西方，并以大无畏之精神将其传递给美国人和英国人。在进入今日主题之前，我想向诸位讲几句直言。有些情形一直在我周围滋生，试图阻挠我、反对我的事业，若能将我从世间抹去，他们亦在所不惜。感谢上主，这些企图终告失败——此类图谋本就注定失败。然而过去三年间，存在一些误解，当我身在异邦之时，我一直缄默，连一句话都不曾说；但如今，立于祖国的土地之上，我欲作几点说明。并非我在乎这些话会带来何种结果——并非我在乎这些话会在诸位心中激起何种感受。我甚不在乎，因为我仍是那位游方僧（Sannyasin），约四年前手持手杖与净瓶走入此城；广阔的世界依然在我面前铺展。无需多言，请让我直入正题。
首先，我要就神智学会说几句话。无需赘言，该学会确实为印度做了一些有益的工作；有鉴于此，每一位印度教徒都对其怀有感激，尤其是对贝赞特夫人；虽然我对她所知甚少，但所知的一切都让我深信，她是我们祖国真诚的福祉促进者，正在尽其所能振兴我们的国家。为此，每一位真正的印度人都对她心存永恒的感激，愿上主永远庇佑她及其所爱之人。但这是一回事——而加入神智学会则是另一回事。尊重、敬仰与热爱是一回事，而对任何人所说的一切不加推理、不加批判、不加分析地全盘吞纳，则是截然不同的另一回事。坊间流传着一种说法，称神智学者为我在美国和英国的些许成就铺平了道路。我必须坦然告诉诸位：此话句句有误，句句皆虚。我们常听世间高谈阔论，说什么自由思想，说什么对不同意见的包容。此言诚然美好，然而事实上，我们发现，一个人与另一个人的同情，往往只维持到对方赞同他所说的每一句话为止；一旦对方斗胆提出异议，那同情便消散，那爱意便蒸发。还有一些人，各有其个人图谋，若某地出现任何妨碍其图谋的事物，他们便怒火中烧，仇恨之心汹涌而出，不知所措。印度教徒试图清洁自家门户，这对基督教传教士有何妨害？印度教徒竭力自我革新，这对梵社（Brahmo Samaj）及其他改革团体又有何伤害？他们为何要站出来反对？为何要成为这些运动最强劲的敌人？为何？——我要发问。在我看来，他们的仇恨与嫉妒之深，已到了无从追问原委的地步。
四年前，当我一个贫苦、无名、孤立无援的游方僧，将要越洋赴美、前往那片举目无亲之地，我拜访了神智学会的领袖。我自然以为，他身为美国人，又标榜热爱印度，或许会给我写一封引见信。他问我："你愿意加入我们的学会吗？""不，"我回答，"我如何能加入？因为我对你们大多数的教义都不以为然。""那么，恕我爱莫能助，"他回答道。此举并非为我铺路。我抵达美国，诸位知道，是得益于马德拉斯几位朋友的帮助。他们中的大多数此刻就在场。唯有一人缺席——苏伯拉马尼亚·艾耶尔法官先生，我对他怀有最深切的感激。他具有天才的洞察力，是我此生最坚定的朋友之一，真正的挚友，真正的印度之子。我在宗教议会（Parliament of Religions）开幕数月之前便抵达美国。我随身携带的钱不多，很快便告罄。冬天临近，我只有单薄的夏装。在那严寒荒冷的气候中，我不知如何是好，因为若上街乞讨，结果必是被投入牢狱。我口袋里只剩最后几块美元，向马德拉斯的朋友发去一封电报。神智学者得知此事，其中一人写道："现在这个魔鬼要死了；上帝保佑我们大家。"此乃为我铺路？我本不欲提及此事；然而既然我的同胞们欲知实情，便只能道出。三年来，我从未就这些事情开口；沉默是我的座右铭；但今日此事已浮出水面。还不止于此。我在宗教议会上见到了一些神智学者，我想与他们交谈往来。我至今记得他们脸上那种鄙视的神情，仿佛在说："一条小虫有何资格出现在众神之间？"自从我在宗教议会上赢得声誉、在芝加哥名声大噪之后，大量工作随之而来；然而每逢转折，神智学者总是试图贬低我。有人劝告神智学者不要前来聆听我的演讲，否则便会失去学会的同情，因为神智秘传部门的规定宣称，任何加入该神秘部门的人，必须接受库萨米与莫利亚的指导——当然是通过他们的可见代表贾奇先生和贝赞特夫人——因此，加入神秘部门意味着放弃个人的独立性。我当然不能如此行事，凡如此行事者，我亦不能称之为印度教徒。我对贾奇先生抱有深厚的敬意。他是一位值得尊敬的人，坦诚、正直、朴实，是神智学者中最出色的代表。对于他与贝赞特夫人之间的争端——双方各自声称己方的摩诃特玛（Mahatma）是正确的——我无权置评。奇特之处在于，双方声称的竟是同一位摩诃特玛。主自知真相：祂才是法官，当天平平衡之时，无人有权妄下判断。如此，他们便在整个美国大地为我"铺平了道路"！
他们加入了另一股反对力量——基督教传教士。后者所能想象的每一个卑鄙谎言，无不被他们用来攻击我。他们在我流落异乡、贫困孤立之时，从城市到城市地污蔑我的名誉。他们试图将我从每一户人家赶走，试图将每一位成为我朋友的人变成我的敌人。他们试图将我逼至饥饿之境；我遗憾地说，我的一位同胞也参与了对我的反对。此人是印度某改革党派的领袖。这位绅士每天都在宣称："基督已降临印度。"难道这便是基督降临印度的方式？难道这便是改革印度的途径？而这位绅士，我自幼便认识他；他曾是我最好的朋友之一；当我见到他时——久别之后再见同胞——我何等欣喜，然而我从他那里得到的竟是这样的对待。宗教议会为我欢呼的那一天，我在芝加哥成名的那一天，从那日起他的态度便改变了；他以阴险的手段，竭尽所能地想要伤害我。难道这便是基督降临印度的方式？难道这便是他在基督门下坐了二十年所学到的教导？我们伟大的改革者宣称，基督教与基督教的力量将振兴印度人民。这便是其实现方式？倘若那位绅士是其缩影，前景实在不甚乐观。
还有一言：我在社会改革者的机关刊物上读到，我被称为首陀罗（Shudra），并被质疑首陀罗有何资格成为游方僧。对此我回答：我追溯自己的血统，其先祖正是每位婆罗门（Brahmin）在诵念"致阎摩、法王、智多星礼赞"时向其献花的那位；而其后裔乃是最纯正的刹帝利（Kshatriya）。若你们相信自己的神话或往世书（Puranic）典籍，且让这些所谓的改革者知晓：我的种姓，除了过去的种种功绩之外，曾在数百年间统治印度半壁江山。若不算我的种姓，今日印度文明将留存几何？仅在孟加拉一地，我的血脉便孕育了最伟大的哲学家、最伟大的诗人、最伟大的历史学家、最伟大的考古学家、最伟大的宗教传道者；我的血脉为印度贡献了最伟大的近代科学家。这些毁谤者本应多了解一些我们自己的历史，多研究我们的三大种姓，从而明白婆罗门、刹帝利和吠舍（Vaishya）皆有平等的权利成为游方僧：三种姓者对吠陀（Vedas）皆有平等的权利。这不过是顺带一提。我只是提及此事，但若他们称我为首陀罗，我毫不介意。此乃对我先祖压迫穷人之行为的些许赎偿。若我是旃陀罗（Pariah），我会更加欣然，因为我是一位人物的弟子——他是婆罗门中的婆罗门——他渴望亲自去清洁一位旃陀罗的家室。当然，那旃陀罗不肯允许；他怎能让这位婆罗门游方僧来清洁自家房屋！而这位人物在夜深人静之时悄然潜入那旃陀罗的家，清洁其厕所，并以自己的长发擦拭该处，日复一日，如此行事，以使自己成为众人的仆人。我将那人的莲足顶戴于头顶；他是我的英雄；我将竭力效法那位英雄的生命。印度教徒以服务众人的方式提升自我。这便是印度教徒应当振兴民众的方式，而非仰赖任何外来影响。二十年的西方文明，令我心中浮现出这样一幅图景：一个人在异国他乡，仅仅因为他的朋友受人欢迎，仅仅因为他认为这位朋友妨碍了自己的利益，便蓄意令其陷入饥困。而另一幅图景，则是真正的正统印度教传统在本土所能成就的事业。愿我们的改革者中能涌现出那样的人——随时准备服务旃陀罗的人——届时我将坐于其脚下聆听教导，而不是在此之前。一盎司的实践，胜过两万吨的空谈。
如今，我来谈谈马德拉斯的改革社团。他们对我一向礼遇有加，言辞恳切，并指出——我对此深表赞同——孟加拉的改革者与马德拉斯的改革者之间存在差异。诸位中的许多人都记得我曾多次所言：马德拉斯此刻正处于一种极为美好的状态。它尚未陷入孟加拉那般的行动与反应之轮回。这里有稳健而渐进的持续进步，这是成长，而非反动。在许多方面，孟加拉在一定程度上有复兴之势；而马德拉斯则不是复兴，而是成长，是自然的成长。因此，我完全赞同改革者所指出的两地民众之间的差异；但有一点差异，他们尚未理解。我担忧，这些社团中的某些，试图以威吓的方式迫使我加入它们。此举对他们而言实属奇异之举。一个在十四年的生命中与饥饿正面交锋、不知明日之餐从何而来、不知夜宿何处的人，是不会轻易被吓倒的。一个几乎衣不蔽体、却敢于在零下三十度的严寒中生存、不知下顿饭来自何处的人，在印度是不会那么容易被吓倒的。这是我要对他们说的第一件事——我有几分自己的意志。我也有一些自己的经验；我有一个要传递给世界的讯息，我将无所畏惧、不计后果地传递它。对于改革者，我要指出，我是一个比他们任何人都更彻底的改革者。他们只想改革些许细枝末节。我要的是根本性的彻底改革。我们的分歧在于方法。他们的方法是破坏，我的方法是建设。我不相信改革；我相信成长。我不敢自居上帝之位，向我们的社会发号施令："你应当如此前行，而非那样。"我只是想像羽毛球松鼠那样——在建造罗摩之桥时，它心满意足地在桥上铺上自己那一小撮沙尘。这便是我的立场。这部奇妙的民族机器已运转了数千年，这条奇妙的民族生命之河正在我们眼前流淌。谁知晓，又谁敢断言它究竟好不好，它应当如何流动？千万种情势汇聚于其四周，给予它特殊的冲力，使它时而迟滞，时而激涌。谁敢命令其流向？我们的任务唯有，如《薄伽梵歌》（Bhagavad Gita）所说，不计结果地劳作。以民族生命所需的燃料滋养它，但成长属于它自身；无人可向它指令其成长方向。我们社会中固然存在种种弊端，但其他任何社会中亦有弊端。这里，大地有时被寡妇的泪水所浸渍；那里，西方的空气被未婚者的叹息所撕裂。这里，贫困是生命的大患；那里，奢靡之厌倦则是笼罩于那个种族之上的大患。这里，人们因无食可进而寻死；那里，人们因食物过剩而轻生。弊端无处不在；它如同慢性风湿病。从脚驱它，便至头顶；从头顶驱它，便至他处。不过是将它从一处追赶到另一处；仅此而已。啊，孩子们，试图补救弊端并非正道。我们的哲学告诉我们，善与恶永远相连，是同一枚硬币的正反两面。若你有其一，必有其二；海洋中的波峰必以他处的波谷为代价。不仅如此，一切生命皆有弊端。没有一口呼吸不在杀灭某种生命；没有一口食物不是从他者那里夺取。此乃法则；此乃哲理。因此，我们唯一能做的是：认识到所有对抗弊端的努力，其主观意义大于客观意义。对抗弊端的工作，其教育意义大于实际意义，无论我们言辞多么宏大。这首先是对抗弊端的理念；它应当使我们更加平静，应当将狂热主义从我们的血液中驱除。世界历史告诉我们，凡有狂热改革之处，唯一的结果是它们使自身的目的落空。无法想象比美国废除奴隶制之战更为剧烈的、为确立权利与自由而进行的变革。诸位皆知其事。其结果如何？今日的奴隶，比废除前要悲惨百倍。废除之前，这些可怜的黑人是某人的财产，作为财产，他们须被照管，不得损耗。今日，他们不属于任何人的财产。他们的生命毫无价值；他们在莫须有的罪名下被活活烧死。他们被枪杀，凶手却无须受法律制裁；因为他们是黑鬼，不是人，甚至不如动物；这便是以法律或狂热主义强行去除弊端所带来的后果。历史作证，反对每一场狂热运动——即便是以行善为名——莫不如此。我亲眼所见。我自身的经历告诉了我这一切。因此，我不能加入任何此类谴责性的社团。为何谴责？每个社会都有弊端，众所周知。今日每一个孩子都知道；他可以站在讲台上，就印度教社会中那些可怕的弊端发表一篇慷慨陈词。每一个来此走马观花、在火车上匆匆一瞥印度的未受教育的外国人，都能就印度那些可怕的弊端作出最有学问的演讲。我们承认弊端存在。每个人都能指出弊端所在，但真正能为人类找到出路的，才是人类的朋友。就像那个溺水的男孩与哲学家——当哲学家在滔滔说教时，男孩喊道："先把我从水里拉出来！"——我们的人民也在呼喊："我们已经听够了演讲，接受够了社团，读够了文章；谁是那个愿意伸出援手将我们拖出困境的人？谁是那个真正爱我们的人？谁是那个对我们抱有同情的人？"啊，那样的人才是所需之人。这正是我与这些改革运动的根本分歧所在。他们在这里已有百年之久。除了创作出一大批最具毁谤性、最充满谴责性的文字，又有何善举？愿上主它们从未出现！他们批评、谴责、辱骂正统派，直到正统派们以其人之道还治其人之身；结果是每一种方言中都产生了一种文字，那是种族的耻辱，国家的耻辱。这算改革？这算引领民族走向荣耀？此乃谁之过错？
另有一大重要考量。在印度，我们历来由国王统治；国王制定了我们所有的法律。如今国王已去，再无人出手推动。政府不敢妄动；它必须依照民意的演变来调整其方式。形成一种健全有力的公众舆论，以解决自身的问题，需要时日，相当长的时日；在此过渡期间，我们唯有等待。社会改革的整个问题，因此归结于此：有志改革者在哪里？先培育出他们。民众在哪里？少数人的专制是世间最恶劣的专制。少数几个认为某些事物是弊端的人，不能使一个民族动起来。为何民族不动？首先，教育民众，创建你们的立法机构，法律方会随之而来。首先创建权力，创建法律将由此生发的权威。国王已去；民众那新的权威、新的力量在哪里？将其唤醒。因此，即便为了社会改革，首要职责也是教育民众，你们必须等待那个时刻到来。过去一个世纪所鼓吹的大多数改革，不过是装点门面之举。这些改革中的每一项，只涉及前两个种姓，此外无他。寡妇再嫁的问题，对百分之七十的印度女性毫无影响，所有此类问题只触及印度受过教育的高种姓人群——而他们的教育，请注意，是以牺牲大众为代价换来的。所有的努力都花在清洁自家门户上。但这不是改革。你们必须触及事物的根基，触及问题的根本所在。这就是我所称的根本性改革。将火焰点燃于此，让它向上燃烧，铸造一个印度民族。这个问题的解决并不容易，因为它是一个宏大而广泛的问题。不必急于求成，这个问题已为人所知数百年。
今日时兴谈论佛教与佛教不可知论，尤其是在南方。他们几乎不知道，我们今日的这种堕落正是佛教留下的遗产。这是佛教留给我们的遗产。你们读的那些著作，出自从未研究过佛教兴衰的人之手，说佛教的传播归功于乔达摩佛陀（Gautama Buddha）奇妙的伦理与奇妙的人格。我对佛陀（Buddha）佛主抱有充分的尊敬与崇仰，但请注意我的话：佛教的传播，与其说归因于这位伟大传道者的教义与人格，不如说归因于所建造的寺庙、所竖立的偶像，以及呈现于民众面前的华丽仪典。佛教由此兴盛。百姓家中那些供人礼祭的小小火坛，在这些华丽寺庙与仪典面前无以自立；然而后来，这一切皆走向堕落。它变成了一堆腐败的集成，我无法在这位听众面前描述其详情；但有意了解的人，可在南印度那些满是雕刻的宏大庙宇中略窥一斑；而这便是我们从佛教徒那里继承的全部遗产。
继而出现了伟大的改革者商羯罗（Shankaracharya）及其门徒，自其时至今日，数百年来，印度大众被缓慢地引领回吠陀（Vedanta）宗教的原初纯净。这些改革者深知弊端之所在，然而他们并不谴责。他们不说："你们所有的一切皆是错误，必须全盘抛弃。"此种做法永远不可行。今日我读到我的友人巴罗斯博士说，在三百年内，基督教推翻了罗马与希腊宗教的影响。这并非出自一个亲眼见过欧洲、希腊与罗马的人之口。罗马与希腊宗教的影响依然遍在，即便在新教国家，只不过换了名称——旧神以新的方式重新受洗。它们更换名称；女神们变成了圣母玛利亚，男神们变成了圣人，仪典也焕然一新；就连"Pontifex Maximus"（大祭司）的古老头衔依然存在。因此，骤然的变革是不可能的，商羯罗深知此理。罗摩奴阇（Ramanuja）亦然。留给他们的唯一道路，是缓慢地将现有宗教提升至最高理想。若他们寻求采用另一种方法，便会成为伪善者，因为他们宗教最根本的教义是进化——灵魂经由所有这些不同的阶段与形态趋向最高目标，而这些阶段与形态因此是必要的、有益的。谁又敢加以谴责？
拜偶像崇拜是错误的——这已成为陈词滥调，当今几乎人人不假思索地接受。我曾经也如此想，为了偿还这一代价，我不得不在一位通过偶像实现了一切的人的脚下学习自己的功课；我所指的是罗摩克里希纳（Ramakrishna Paramahamsa）。若偶像崇拜能培育出这样的罗摩克里希纳，那么你要哪个——改革者的信条，还是再多的偶像？我要一个答案。若偶像崇拜能造就出罗摩克里希纳，就再多取一千尊偶像吧，愿上主护佑你们！以任何方式去培育这样高贵的品性。然而偶像崇拜仍遭谴责！为何？无人能知。只因数百年前，一位具有犹太血统的人偶然对此加以谴责？也就是说，他偶然谴责了其他所有人的偶像，唯独不谴责自己的。那位犹太人说，若上帝以任何美丽的形象或任何象征性的形式来呈现，那便极为不妥，那便是罪孽。然而，若祂以一只木柜的形式呈现，两侧各坐一位天使，上有云彩笼罩，那便是至圣之所。若上帝以鸽子的形式降临，那是神圣的。但若祂以牛的形式降临，那便是异教的迷信，加以谴责！世间就是如此运转的。这便是为何诗人说："我们这些凡人是何等的愚昧！"要透过彼此的眼睛来看是多么困难，而这正是人类的祸根。这是仇恨与嫉妒、争吵与战斗的根源。那些从未离开马德拉斯的小伙子，满脸胡茬的孩子，站起来向拥有数千年传统的三亿人民发号施令！你们难道不感到羞耻？退后，莫要犯下如此亵渎之举，先去学习你们自己的功课！无知妄为的孩子们，仅仅因为你们能在纸上涂写几行文字，找到某个蠢人为你们刊印，你们便以为自己是世界的教化者，以为自己代表印度的公众舆论！果真如此？我必须对马德拉斯的社会改革者们说，我对他们怀有最深的尊重与热爱。我爱他们宽广的胸怀与他们对祖国、对穷人、对被压迫者的热爱。但我以兄弟之情告诉他们：他们的方法不对；这种方法已被尝试了百年，以失败告终。让我们来尝试一些新的方法。
印度曾有过缺乏改革者的时候吗？你们读过印度历史吗？罗摩奴阇是谁？商羯罗是谁？纳纳克是谁？柴坦尼亚是谁？卡比尔是谁？达杜是谁？这些伟大的传道者一代接一代，如同一群第一等级的璀璨星辰，他们是谁？罗摩奴阇难道没有为低层阶级悲悯？他难道没有穷尽一生试图将旃陀罗接纳入自己的社群？他难道没有试图将穆斯林也纳入自己的群体？纳纳克难道没有与印度教徒和穆斯林会谈，并试图带来一种新的境况？他们都曾努力过，他们的工作至今仍在延续。差别在于：他们没有今日改革者的虚张声势；他们唇边没有现代改革者所有的那些诅咒；他们的唇上只有祝福。他们从不谴责。他们告诉民众，这个种族必定永远成长。他们回望历史，说道："哦，印度教徒，你们所做的是善的，但，我的兄弟们，让我们做得更好。"他们不说："你们一直是邪恶的，现在让我们变得善良。"他们说："你们一直是善的，但现在让我们变得更好。"这造就了天壤之别。我们必须依照自身的本性而成长。试图效仿外国社会强加给我们的行动路线，是徒劳无功的，是不可能的。感谢上帝，这正是不可能的——我们不能被扭曲和折磨成其他民族的形状，这是多么幸运。我不谴责其他种族的制度；它们对那些种族是好的，但对我们却不然。对他们是滋养的，对我们或许是毒药。这是首先要学会的一课。其他种族有着不同的科学、不同的制度与不同的传统，由此才形成了他们现有的体系。我们，带着我们的传统，带着数千年的业力（Karma）积淀，自然只能遵循自身的禀赋，在自身的轨道中运行；这是我们不得不走的路。
那么，我的计划是什么？我的计划是遵循那些伟大古代先师的理念。我已研究了他们的工作，并得以发现他们所走的行动路线。他们是社会的伟大创建者。他们是力量、纯净与生命的伟大赐予者。他们成就了最为奇妙的工作。我们也必须成就最为奇妙的工作。时代情势已略有不同，因此行动路线须略有调整，仅此而已。我看到，每一个民族，如同每一个个体，在其生命中都有一个主题，这是其中心，是所有其他音符围绕其形成和声的主调。在某一民族，政治权力是其生命力，如英格兰；在另一民族，是艺术生命，如此等等。在印度，宗教生命构成中心，是整个民族生命音乐的主调；若任何民族试图抛弃其民族生命力——那个经由数百年传承而成为其自身的方向——若其成功，那个民族便会死亡。因此，若你们成功地抛弃了你们的宗教，转而以政治、社会或任何其他事物为你们民族生命的中心与生命力，其结果将是你们走向灭绝。为防止此事，你们必须使一切事物皆通过你们宗教那生命力而运作。让你们所有的神经都通过你们宗教的脊梁振动。我已发现，即便向美国人传教宗教，若不向他们展示宗教对社会生活的实际影响，也无济于事。我在英国无法传讲宗教，除非向他们展示吠檀多（Vedanta）将带来的奇妙政治变革。同样，在印度，社会改革必须通过展示新体系将带来多么更为精神性的生活来加以传讲；政治也必须通过展示它将多大程度地改善民族所需之物——即其灵性——来加以传讲。每个人都必须做出自己的选择；每个民族亦然。我们在远古时代就已做出我们的选择，我们必须坚守。而且，归根结底，这并非一个坏的选择。在这个世界上，不思物质而思精神，不思人而思上帝，这难道是一个坏的选择吗？那种对另一个世界的强烈信仰，那种对这个世界的强烈厌离，那种强烈的弃绝力量，那种对上帝的强烈信仰，那种对不朽灵魂的强烈信仰，皆在你们之中。我向任何人挑战，让他们放弃它。你们无法放弃。你们或许试图通过几个月的唯物主义言论、通过谈论唯物主义来蒙蔽我，但我知道你们是什么；若我牵起你们的手，你们便会回归，成为有史以来最虔诚的有神论者。你们如何能改变自身的本性？
因此，印度的每一项进步，首先需要的是宗教领域的一次振兴。在以社会主义或政治理念灌注印度之前，首先以精神理念浸灌这片土地。首先需要我们关注的工作，是将那些收藏于我们奥义书（Upanishads）、我们的典籍、我们的往世书（Puranas）中的最奇妙的真理，从书本中带出来，从寺院中带出来，从森林中带出来，从少数人群的掌握中带出来，广播于全地，使这些真理如烈火般在举国上下从北至南、从东至西，从喜马拉雅山到科摩林角，从信德到布拉马普特拉河奔腾流传。人人皆须知晓，因为经典所云："此须先闻，次加思虑，再加冥想。"让民众先听闻，今日凡有助于使民众得闻其本国典籍中伟大真理的人，莫能为自己造就更好的业力（Karma）。我们的毗耶沙（Vyasa）言道："在迦利时代（Kali Yuga），只剩一种业力。祭祀与艰苦的苦行（Tapasya）如今已无济于事。唯余一种业力，那便是施舍的业力。"在这些施舍之中，灵性与灵性知识的施舍是最高的；其次是世俗知识的施舍；再次是生命的施舍；第四是食物的施舍。看看这个无比慷慨的种族；看看在这个贫穷、贫穷的国度中有多少施舍；看看这里的款待之道——一个人可以从北旅行到南，享用最上乘的饮食，无论何处皆被人如同朋友般对待，而只要还有一片面包，就没有乞丐会挨饿！
在这施舍的国度，让我们承担起第一施舍的事业——灵性知识的传播。而这种传播不应局限于印度的边界之内；它必须走出去，走向全世界。这是历来的惯例。那些告诉你们印度思想从未走出印度的人，那些告诉你们我是第一位去往外国传道的游方僧的人，他们不了解自己种族的历史。这种现象一次又一次地出现。每当世界有此需要，这道涌流不息的灵性洪流便会漫溢而出，浸灌整个世界。政治知识的施舍，可以伴随号角的轰鸣与军团的行进而给予。世俗知识与社会知识的施舍，可以以刀与剑来给予。但灵性知识只能在寂静中给予，如同无声无息地降落的露水，却使成片的玫瑰怒放盛开。这便是印度一次又一次给予世界的礼物。每当出现一个伟大的征服民族，将世界各民族汇聚一处，使道路与交通成为可能，印度便即刻崛起，将其灵性力量的配额奉献于世界进步的总和之中。此事发生于佛陀降生之前数个时代，其遗迹至今仍留存于中国、小亚细亚与马来群岛的腹地。此事亦发生于伟大的希腊征服者统一彼时已知世界四方之时；于是印度的灵性奔涌而出，西方所夸耀的文明不过是那场洪流的遗迹。如今，同样的机缘再度降临；英格兰的力量将世界各民族联结在一起，这是前所未有的。英国的道路与通讯渠道从世界一端延伸至另一端。凭借英国人的天才，今日的世界以前所未有的方式被联结起来。今日，史无前例的贸易中心已然形成。于是，印度立即，无论有意还是无意，崛起并倾泻出其灵性的馈赠；它们将穿越这些道路奔流，直达世界的尽头。我前往美国，并非我之所为，亦非你们之所为；而是那引领印度命运的印度之神遣我前往，并将遣送数百位这样的人奔赴世界各民族。世间任何力量都无法阻挡。此事亦须完成。你们必须出去向世界传讲你们的宗教，向日光所照之下的每一个民族传讲，向每一个人民传讲。这是首先要做的事。在传播灵性知识之后，世俗知识与你们所需的一切其他知识将随之而来；但若你们试图不借助宗教而获得世俗知识，我直言相告，你们的努力在印度是徒劳的，它永远不会在民众中扎根。甚至伟大的佛教运动，也部分因此而失败。
因此，我的朋友们，我的计划是在印度创建机构，培养我们的青年人，使其成为在印度内外传讲我们典籍真理的传道者。人，需要的是人：一切其他条件都会随之具备，但需要的是坚强、精力充沛、有信仰的青年，是脊梁坚定的诚实之人。有百人如此，世界便得以变革。意志力比任何事物都更强大。一切事物都必须向意志力低头，因为意志来自上帝，本身即是上帝；纯粹而强大的意志力是全能的。难道你们不相信吗？传讲，向世界传讲你们宗教的伟大真理；世界在等待它们。数百年来，人们一直被灌输堕落的理论。他们被告知，他们什么都不是。世界各地的大众都被告知，他们不是人。他们数百年来一直处于惊吓之中，几乎快变成动物了。他们从未被允许听闻真我（Atman）。让他们听闻真我——即便是最卑微者之中也有真我（Atman），它永不死亡，永不诞生——听闻那不可被剑刺穿、不可被火焚烧、不可被风吹干的祂——不朽的、无始无终的、至纯的、全能的、无处不在的真我（Atman）！让他们对自身产生信念，因为是什么造就了英国人与你们之间的差异？让他们谈论自己的宗教与职责等等。我已找到了这个差异。差异在于：英国人相信自己，而你们不相信。他相信自己是英国人，他能成就一切事情。这将他内在的上帝唤醒，他能为所欲为。你们被告知和教导说，你们什么都做不了，你们每天都在变得越来越虚无。我们需要的是力量，所以要相信你们自己。我们已变得软弱，这便是为何神秘主义与玄学向我们袭来——这些令人不寒而栗的事物；其中或许有伟大的真理，但它们几乎毁灭了我们。让你们的神经变得强韧。我们所需要的是钢铁一般的肌肉和钢铁一般的神经。我们已哭泣得太久。不要再哭泣了，站立起来，做个真正的人。我们需要的是一种造人的宗教。我们需要的是造人的理论。我们需要的是全方位造人的教育。而这便是检验真理的标准——凡是使你们在体力、智力和灵性上趋于软弱的，皆弃之如毒药；其中没有生命，它不可能是真理。真理使人强大。真理是纯净，真理是全知；真理必定使人强大，必定使人开化，必定使人振奋。这些神秘主义，尽管其中有些真理的颗粒，通常是使人软弱的。请相信我，这是我一生的经验，而我得出的唯一结论是：它使人软弱。我走遍了整个印度，几乎走遍了这里的每一个洞穴，并在喜马拉雅山中生活过。我认识终生居住在那里的人。我热爱我的民族，我无法看着你们再这样堕落、软弱下去。因此，为了你们的缘故，也为了真理的缘故，我不得不高呼："停止！"并高声反对我的种族的这种堕落。放弃这些令人软弱的神秘主义，变得强大起来。回归你们的奥义书（Upanishads）——那灿烂的、振奋的、光明的哲学——远离所有这些神秘的事物，所有这些令人软弱的事物。接受这种哲学；最伟大的真理是世间最简单的事物，如同你们自身的存在一样简单。奥义书的真理就在你们面前。接受它们，依照它们而活，印度的救赎便近在眼前。
再一言，我便告终。他们谈论爱国主义。我相信爱国主义，我也有自己对爱国主义的理想。成就伟大事业，需要三件事。第一，用心感受。理智或理性能走几步，便止步不前。但灵感来自心灵。爱开启了最不可能的门；爱是通向宇宙所有秘密的门扉。感受吧，因此，我有志改革者，我有志爱国者！你们感受到了吗？你们是否感受到，数以百万的神明与仙人（Rishi）的后裔，已成为野兽的近邻？你们是否感受到，今日数以百万的人在挨饿，数以百万的人已挨饿了数个世纪？你们是否感受到，无知像乌云一样笼罩着这片土地？这使你们不安吗？这使你们夜不能寐吗？它是否已进入你们的血液，在你们的血管中奔流，与你们的心跳同频共振？它是否使你们几近疯狂？你们是否被那种对苦难与毁灭的强烈感受所抓住，是否已忘却了你们的名誉、你们的声望、你们的妻儿、你们的财产，乃至你们自己的身躯？你们做到了吗？这是成为爱国者的第一步，最初的第一步。我去美国，如你们大多数人所知，并非为了宗教议会，而是这个感受的魔鬼在我的内心与灵魂深处涌动。我在印度各地行走了十二年，找不到为同胞尽力的途径，这便是我前往美国的原因。你们中认识那时的我的人，大多知道这一点。谁在乎那宗教议会？我自己的骨肉之民每日都在沉沦，谁来关心他们？这是我的第一步。
你们或许感受到了；但与其将精力消耗于泡沫般的空谈，你们是否找到了任何出路，任何实际的解决方案，某种帮助而非谴责，某些温柔的话语以抚慰他们的苦难，将他们从这活生生的死亡中拯救出来？
然而这还不够。你们是否拥有足以克服高山般阻碍的意志力？若整个世界手持利剑与你们为敌，你们是否仍然敢于坚守你们认为正确的事情？若你们的妻儿反对你们，若你们的金钱散尽，你们的名誉消逝，你们的财富化为乌有，你们是否仍然坚守？你们是否会继续追寻，坚定地向着自己的目标前行？正如伟大的国王婆利诃罗诃（Bhartrihari）所言："任凭贤者批评或赞美；任凭幸运女神降临或随她所愿离去；任凭死亡今日降临，或在数百年后降临；那确实是坚定之人——不从真理之路移动半寸的人。"你们是否拥有那种坚定？若你们拥有这三件事，你们每个人都将创造奇迹。你们无需在报章上撰文，无需四处演讲；你们的面容本身将焕发光芒。若你们居住于洞穴之中，你们的思想将穿透岩石之壁，向全世界振动数百年，或许直至它们与某个头脑相接，并在那里得以实现。如此是思想的力量，是诚恳的力量，是目标纯净的力量。
我担忧我耽误了诸位的时间，但再说一言。这艘民族之船，我的同胞们，我的朋友们，我的孩子们——这艘民族之船数百年来已将千百万的灵魂渡过生命之水。数十个光辉的世纪以来，它一直在这水上穿梭，藉着它，千百万的灵魂已被送抵彼岸，走向福祉。然而今日，或许因为你们自身的过失，这只船已略有损坏，出现了漏洞；你们因此要咒骂它吗？你们是否觉得，站起来对它宣读诅咒是合适的——对那个比世上任何事物都做了更多工作的东西？若这艘民族之船——我们的社会——有了漏洞，我们便是它的孩子。让我们去堵住那些漏洞。让我们欣然以我们心头的鲜血来堵住它；若我们做不到，那就让我们死去。我们将以我们的智慧做成堵塞之物，嵌入这艘船中，但永远不要谴责它。莫说一句刻薄之语来针对这个社会。我爱它的过去的伟大。我爱你们所有人，因为你们是神明的孩子，因为你们是荣耀的先辈的孩子。我怎能咒骂你们！永远不能。愿所有的祝福都临到你们！我来到你们中间，我的孩子们，是要将我所有的计划告诉你们。若你们聆听，我准备与你们同工。但若你们不愿倾听，甚至将我踢出印度，我也会回来，告诉你们：我们都在沉沦！我如今来到你们中间，若我们注定要沉沦，就让我们一同沉沦，但永远莫让咒骂升于我们的唇间。
English
MY PLAN OF CAMPAIGN
(Delivered at the Victoria Hall, Madras)
As the other day we could not proceed, owing to the crowd, I shall take this opportunity of thanking the people of Madras for the uniform kindness that I have received at their hands. I do not know how better to express my gratitude for the beautiful words that have been expressed in the addresses than by praying to the Lord to make me worthy of the kind and generous expressions and by working all my life for the cause of our religion and to serve our motherland; and may the Lord make me worthy of them.
With all my faults, I think I have a little bit of boldness. I had a message from India to the West, and boldly I gave it to the American and the English peoples. I want, before going into the subject of the day, to speak a few bold words to you all. There have been certain circumstances growing around me, tending to thwart me, oppose my progress, and crush me out of existence if they could. Thank God they have failed, as such attempts will always fail. But there has been, for the last three years, a certain amount of misunderstanding, and so long as I was in foreign lands, I held my peace and did not even speak one word; but now, standing upon the soil of my motherland, I want to give a few words of explanation. Not that I care what the result will be of these words — not that I care what feeling I shall evoke from you by these words. I care very little, for I am the same Sannyâsin that entered your city about four years ago with this staff and Kamandalu; the same broad world is before me. Without further preface let me begin.
First of all, I have to say a few words about the Theosophical Society. It goes without saying that a certain amount of good work has been done to India by the Society; as such every Hindu is grateful to it, and especially to Mrs. Besant; for though I know very little of her, yet what little I know has impressed me with the idea that she is a sincere well-wisher of this motherland of ours, and that she is doing the best in her power to raise our country. For that, the eternal gratitude of every trueborn Indian is hers, and all blessings be on her and hers for ever. But that is one thing — and joining the Society of the Theosophists is another. Regard and estimation and love are one thing, and swallowing everything any one has to say, without reasoning, without criticising, without analysing, is quite another. There is a report going round that the Theosophists helped the little achievements of mine in America and England. I have to tell you plainly that every word of it is wrong, every word of it is untrue. We hear so much tall talk in this world, of liberal ideas and sympathy with differences of opinion. That is very good, but as a fact, we find that one sympathises with another only so long as the other believes in everything he has to say, but as soon as he dares to differ, that sympathy is gone, that love vanishes. There are others, again, who have their own axes to grind, and if anything arises in a country which prevents the grinding of them, their hearts burn, any amount of hatred comes out, and they do not know what to do. What harm does it do to the Christian missionary that the Hindus are trying to cleanse their own houses? What injury will it do to the Brâhmo Samâj and other reform bodies that the Hindus are trying their best to reform themselves? Why should they stand in opposition? Why should they be the greatest enemies of these movements? Why? — I ask. It seems to me that their hatred and jealousy are so bitter that no why or how can be asked there.
Four years ago, when I, a poor, unknown, friendless Sannyasin was going to America, going beyond the waters to America without any introductions or friends there, I called on the leader of the Theosophical Society. Naturally I thought he, being an American and a lover of India, perhaps would give me a letter of introduction to somebody there. He asked me, "Will you join my Society?" "No," I replied, "how can I? For I do not believe in most of your doctrines." "Then, I am sorry, I cannot do anything for you," he answered. That was not paving the way for me. I reached America, as you know, through the help of a few friends of Madras. Most of them are present here. Only one is absent, Mr. Justice Subramania Iyer, to whom my deepest gratitude is due. He has the insight of a genius and is one of the staunchest friends I have in this life, a true friend indeed, a true child of India. I arrived in America several months before the Parliament of Religions began. The money I had with me was little, and it was soon spent. Winter approached, and I had only thin summer clothes. I did not know what to do in that cold, dreary climate, for if I went to beg in the streets, the result would have been that I would have been sent to jail. There I was with the last few dollars in my pocket. I sent a wire to my friends in Madras. This came to be known to the Theosophists, and one of them wrote, "Now the devil is going to die; God bless us all." Was that paving the way for me? I would not have mentioned this now; but, as my countrymen wanted to know, it must come out. For three years I have not opened my lips about these things; silence has been my motto; but today the thing has come out. That was not all. I saw some Theosophists in the Parliament of Religions, and I wanted to talk and mix with them. I remember the looks of scorn which were on their faces, as much as to say, "What business has the worm to be here in the midst of the gods?" After I had got name and fame at the Parliament of Religions, then came tremendous work for me; but at every turn the Theosophists tried to cry me down. Theosophists were advised not to come and hear my lectures, for thereby they would lose all sympathy of the Society, because the laws of the esoteric section declare that any man who joins that esoteric section should receive instruction from Kuthumi and Moria, of course through their visible representatives — Mr. Judge and Mrs. Besant — so that, to join the esoteric section means to surrender one's independence. Certainly I could not do any such thing, nor could I call any man a Hindu who did any such thing. I had a great respect for Mr. Judge. He was a worthy man, open, fair, simple, and he was the best representative the Theosophists ever had. I have no right to criticise the dispute between him and Mrs. Besant when each claims that his or her Mahâtmâ is right. And the strange part of it is that the same Mahatma is claimed by both. Lord knows the truth: He is the Judge, and no one has the right to pass judgement when the balance is equal. Thus they prepared the way for me all over America!
They joined the other opposition — the Christian missionaries. There is not one black lie imaginable that these latter did not invent against me. They blackened my character from city to city, poor and friendless though I was in a foreign country. They tried to oust me from every house and to make every man who became my friend my enemy. They tried to starve me out; and I am sorry to say that one of my own countrymen took part against me in this. He is the leader of a reform party in India. This gentleman is declaring every day, "Christ has come to India." Is this the way Christ is to come to India? Is this the way to reform India? And this gentleman I knew from my childhood; he was one of my best friends; when I saw him — I had not met for a long time one of my countrymen — I was so glad, and this was the treatment I received from him. The day the Parliament cheered me, the day I became popular in Chicago, from that day his tone changed; and in an underhand way, he tried to do everything he could to injure me. Is that the way that Christ will come to India? Is that the lesson that he had learnt after sitting twenty years at the feet of Christ? Our great reformers declare that Christianity and Christian power are going to uplift the Indian people. Is that the way to do it? Surely, if that gentleman is an illustration, it does not look very hopeful.
One word more: I read in the organ of the social reformers that I am called a Shudra and am challenged as to what right a Shudra has to become a Sannyasin. To which I reply: I trace my descent to one at whose feet every Brahmin lays flowers when he utters the words — यमाय धर्मराजाय चित्रगुप्ताय वै नमः — and whose descendants are the purest of Kshatriyas. If you believe in your mythology or your Paurânika scriptures, let these so-called reformers know that my caste, apart from other services in the past, ruled half of India for centuries. If my caste is left out of consideration, what will there be left of the present-day civilisation of India? In Bengal alone, my blood has furnished them with their greatest philosopher, the greatest poet, the greatest historian, the greatest archaeologist, the greatest religious preacher; my blood has furnished India with the greatest of her modern scientists. These detractors ought to have known a little of our own history, and to have studied our three castes, and learnt that the Brahmin, the Kshatriya, and the Vaishya have equal right to be Sannyasins: the Traivarnikas have equal right to the Vedas. This is only by the way. I just refer to this, but I am not at all hurt if they call me a Shudra. It will be a little reparation for the tyranny of my ancestors over the poor. If I am a Pariah, I will be all the more glad, for I am the disciple of a man, who — the Brahmin of Brahmins — wanted to cleanse the house of a Pariah. Of course the Pariah would not allow him; how could he let this Brahmin Sannyasin come and cleanse his house! And this man woke up in the dead of night, entered surreptitiously the house of this Pariah, cleansed his latrine, and with his long hair wiped the place, and that he did day after day in order that he might make himself the servant of all. I bear the feet of that man on my head; he is my hero; that hero's life I will try to imitate. By being the servant of all, a Hindu seeks to uplift himself. That is how the Hindus should uplift the masses, and not by looking for any foreign influence. Twenty years of occidental civilisation brings to my mind the illustration of the man who wants to starve his own friend in a foreign land, simply because this friend is popular, simply because he thinks that this man stands in the way of his making money. And the other is the illustration of what genuine, orthodox Hinduism itself will do at home. Let any one of our reformers bring out that life, ready to serve even a Pariah, and then I will sit at his feet and learn, and not before that. One ounce of practice is worth twenty thousand tons of big talk.
Now I come to the reform societies in Madras. They have been very kind to me. They have given me very kind words, and they have pointed out, and I heartily agree with them, that there is a difference between the reformers of Bengal and those of Madras. Many of you will remember what I have very often told you, that Madras is in a very beautiful state just now. It has not got into the play of action and reaction as Bengal has done. Here there is steady and slow progress all through; here is growth, and not reaction. In many cases, end to a certain extent, there is a revival in Bengal; but in Madras it is not a revival, it is a growth, a natural growth. As such, I entirely agree with what the reformers point out as the difference between the two peoples; but there is one difference which they do not understand. Some of these societies, I am afraid, try to intimidate me to join them. That is a strange thing for them to attempt. A man who has met starvation face to face for fourteen years of his life, who has not known where he will get a meal the next day and where to sleep, cannot be intimidated so easily. A man, almost without clothes, who dared to live where the thermometer registered thirty degrees below zero, without knowing where the next meal was to come from, cannot be so easily intimidated in India. This is the first thing I will tell them — I have a little will of my own. I have my little experience too; and I have a message for the world which I will deliver without fear and without care for the future. To the reformers I will point out that I am a greater reformer than any one of them. They want to reform only little bits. I want root-and-branch reform. Where we differ is in the method. Theirs is the method of destruction, mine is that of construction. I do not believe in reform; I believe in growth. I do not dare to put myself in the position of God and dictate to our society, "This way thou shouldst move and not that." I simply want to be like the squirrel in the building of Râma's bridge, who was quite content to put on the bridge his little quota of sand-dust. That is my position. This wonderful national machine has worked through ages, this wonderful river of national life is flowing before us. Who knows, and who dares to say whether it is good and how it shall move? Thousands of circumstances are crowding round it, giving it a special impulse, making it dull at one time and quicker at another. Who dares command its motion? Ours is only to work, as the Gita says, without looking for results. Feed the national life with the fuel it wants, but the growth is its own; none can dictate its growth to it. Evils are plentiful in our society, but so are there evils in every other society. Here the earth is soaked sometimes with widows' tears; there in the West, the air is rent with the sighs of the unmarried. Here poverty is the great bane of life; there the life-weariness of luxury is the great bane that is upon the race. Here men want to commit suicide because they have nothing to eat; there they commit suicide because they have so much to eat. Evil is everywhere; it is like chronic rheumatism. Drive it from the foot, it goes to the head; drive it from there, it goes somewhere else. It is a question of chasing it from place to place; that is all. Ay, children, to try to remedy evil is not the true way. Our philosophy teaches that evil and good are eternally conjoined, the obverse and the reverse of the same coin. If you have one, you must have the other; a wave in the ocean must be at the cost of a hollow elsewhere. Nay, all life is evil. No breath can be breathed without killing some one else; not a morsel of food can be eaten without depriving some one of it. This is the law; this is philosophy. Therefore the only thing we can do is to understand that all this work against evil is more subjective than objective. The work against evil is more educational than actual, however big we may talk. This, first of all, is the idea of work against evil; and it ought to make us calmer, it ought to take fanaticism out of our blood. The history of the world teaches us that wherever there have been fanatical reforms, the only result has been that they have defeated their own ends. No greater upheaval for the establishment of right and liberty can be imagined than the war for the abolition of slavery in America. You all know about it. And what has been its results? The slaves are a hundred times worse off today than they were before the abolition. Before the abolition, these poor negroes were the property of somebody, and, as properties, they had to be looked after, so that they might not deteriorate. Today they are the property of nobody. Their lives are of no value; they are burnt alive on mere presences. They are shot down without any law for their murderers; for they are niggers, they are not human beings, they are not even animals; and that is the effect of such violent taking away of evil by law or by fanaticism. Such is the testimony of history against every fanatical movement, even for doing good. I have seen that. My own experience has taught me that. Therefore I cannot join any one of these condemning societies. Why condemn? There are evils in every society; everybody knows it. Every child of today knows it; he can stand upon a platform and give us a harangue on the awful evils in Hindu Society. Every uneducated foreigner who comes here globe-trotting takes a vanishing railway view of India and lectures most learnedly on the awful evils in India. We admit that there are evils. Everybody can show what evil is, but he is the friend of mankind who finds a way out of the difficulty. Like the drowning boy and the philosopher — when the philosopher was lecturing him, the boy cried, "Take me out of the water first" — so our people cry: "We have had lectures enough, societies enough, papers enough; where is the man who will lend us a hand to drag us out? Where is the man who really loves us? Where is the man who has sympathy for us?" Ay, that man is wanted. That is where I differ entirely from these reform movements. For a hundred years they have been here. What good has been done except the creation of a most vituperative, a most condemnatory literature? Would to God it was not here! They have criticised, condemned, abused the orthodox, until the orthodox have caught their tone and paid them back in their own coin; and the result is the creation of a literature in every vernacular which is the shame of the race, the shame of the country. Is this reform? Is this leading the nation to glory? Whose fault is this?
There is, then, another great consideration. Here in India, we have always been governed by kings; kings have made all our laws. Now the kings are gone, and there is no one left to make a move. The government dare not; it has to fashion its ways according to the growth of public opinion. It takes time, quite a long time, to make a healthy, strong, public opinion which will solve its own problems; and in the interim we shall have to wait. The whole problem of social reform, therefore, resolves itself into this: where are those who want reform? Make them first. Where are the people? The tyranny of a minority is the worst tyranny that the world ever sees. A few men who think that certain things are evil will not make a nation move. Why does not the nation move? First educate the nation, create your legislative body, and then the law will be forthcoming. First create the power, the sanction from which the law will spring. The kings are gone; where is the new sanction, the new power of the people? Bring it up. Therefore, even for social reform, the first duty is to educate the people, and you will have to wait till that time comes. Most of the reforms that have been agitated for during the past century have been ornamental. Every one of these reforms only touches the first two castes, and no other. The question of widow marriage would not touch seventy per cent of the Indian women, and all such questions only reach the higher castes of Indian people who are educated, mark you, at the expense of the masses. Every effort has been spent in cleaning their own houses. But that is no reformation. You must go down to the basis of the thing, to the very root of the matter. That is what I call radical reform. Put the fire there and let it burn upwards and make an Indian nation. And the solution of the problem is not so easy, as it is a big and a vast one. Be not in a hurry, this problem has been known several hundred years.
Today it is the fashion to talk of Buddhism and Buddhistic agnosticism, especially in the South. Little do they dream that this degradation which is with us today has been left by Buddhism. This is the legacy which Buddhism has left to us. You read in books written by men who had never studied the rise and fall of Buddhism that the spread of Buddhism was owing to the wonderful ethics and the wonderful personality of Gautama Buddha. I have every respect and veneration for Lord Buddha, but mark my words, the spread of Buddhism was less owing to the doctrines and the personality of the great preacher, than to the temples that were built, the idols that were erected, and the gorgeous ceremonials that were put before the nation. Thus Buddhism progressed. The little fire-places in the houses in which the people poured their libations were not strong enough to hold their own against these gorgeous temples and ceremonies; but later on the whole thing degenerated. It became a mass of corruption of which I cannot speak before this audience; but those who want to know about it may see a little of it in those big temples, full of sculptures, in Southern India; and this is all the inheritance we have from the Buddhists.
Then arose the great reformer Shankarâchârya and his followers, and during these hundreds of years, since his time to the present day, there has been the slow bringing back of the Indian masses to the pristine purity of the Vedantic religion. These reformers knew full well the evils which existed, yet they did not condemn. They did not say, "All that you have is wrong, and you must throw it away." It can never be so. Today I read that my friend Dr. Barrows says that in three hundred years Christianity overthrew the Roman and Greek religious influences. That is not the word of a man who has seen Europe, and Greece, and Rome. The influence of Roman and Greek religion is all there, even in Protestant countries, only with changed names — old gods rechristened in a new fashion. They change their names; the goddesses become Marys and the gods become saints, and the ceremonials become new; even the old title of Pontifex Maximus is there. So, sudden changes cannot be and Shankaracharya knew it. So did Râmânuja. The only way left to them was slowly to bring up to the highest ideal the existing religion. If they had sought to apply the other method, they would have been hypocrites, for the very fundamental doctrine of their religion is evolution, the soul going towards the highest goal, through all these various stages and phases, which are, therefore necessary and helpful. And who dares condemn them?
It has become a trite saying that idolatry is wrong, and every man swallows it at the present time without questioning. I once thought so, and to pay the penalty of that I had to learn my lesson sitting at the feet of a man who realised everything through idols; I allude to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. If such Ramakrishna Paramahamsas are produced by idol-worship, what will you have — the reformer's creed or any number of idols? I want an answer. Take a thousand idols more if you can produce Ramakrishna Paramahamsas through idol worship, and may God speed you! Produce such noble natures by any means you can. Yet idolatry is condemned! Why? Nobody knows. Because some hundreds of years ago some man of Jewish blood happened to condemn it? That is, he happened to condemn everybody else's idols except his own. If God is represented in any beautiful form or any symbolic form, said the Jew, it is awfully bad; it is sin. But if He is represented in the form of a chest, with two angels sitting on each side, and a cloud hanging over it, it is the holy of holies. If God comes in the form of a dove, it is holy. But if He comes in the form of a cow, it is heathen superstition; condemn it! That is how the world goes. That is why the poet says, "What fools we mortals be!" How difficult it is to look through each other's eyes, and that is the bane of humanity. That is the basis of hatred and jealousy, of quarrel and of fight. Boys, moustached babies, who never went out of Madras, standing up and wanting to dictate laws to three hundred millions of people with thousands of traditions at their back! Are you not ashamed? Stand back from such blasphemy and learn first your lessons! Irreverent boys, simply because you can scrawl a few lines upon paper and get some fool to publish them for you, you think you are the educators of the world, you think you are the public opinion of India! Is it so? This I have to tell to the social reformers of Madras that I have the greatest respect and love for them. I love them for their great hearts and their love for their country, for the poor, for the oppressed. But what I would tell them with a brother's love is that their method is not right; It has been tried a hundred years and failed. Let us try some new method.
Did India ever stand in want of reformers? Do you read the history of India? Who was Ramanuja? Who was Shankara? Who was Nânak? Who was Chaitanya? Who was Kabir? Who was Dâdu? Who were all these great preachers, one following the other, a galaxy of stars of the first magnitude? Did not Ramanuja feel for the lower classes? Did he not try all his life to admit even the Pariah to his community? Did he not try to admit even Mohammedans to his own fold? Did not Nanak confer with Hindus and Mohammedans, and try to bring about a new state of things? They all tried, and their work is still going on. The difference is this. They had not the fanfaronade of the reformers of today; they had no curses on their lips as modern reformers have; their lips pronounced only blessings. They never condemned. They said to the people that the race must always grow. They looked back and they said, "O Hindus, what you have done is good, but, my brothers, let us do better." They did not say, "You have been wicked, now let us be good." They said, "You have been good, but let us now be better." That makes a whole world of difference. We must grow according to our nature. Vain is it to attempt the lines of action that foreign societies have engrafted upon us; it is impossible. Glory unto God, that it is impossible, that we cannot be twisted and tortured into the shape oil other nations. I do not condemn the institutions of other races; they are good for them, but not for us. What is meat for them may be poison for us. This is the first lesson to learn. With other sciences, other institutions, and other traditions behind them, they have got their present system. We, with our traditions, with thousands of years of Karma behind us, naturally can only follow our own bent, run in our own grooves; and that we shall have to do.
What is my plan then? My plan is to follow the ideas of the great ancient Masters. I have studied their work, and it has been given unto me to discover the line of action they took. They were the great originators of society. They were the great givers of strength, and of purity, and of life. They did most marvellous work. We have to do most marvellous work also. Circumstances have become a little different, and in consequence the lines of action have to be changed a little, and that is all. I see that each nation, like each individual, has one theme in this life, which is its centre, the principal note round which every other note comes to form the harmony. In one nation political power is its vitality, as in England, artistic life in another, and so on. In India, religious life forms the centre, the keynote of the whole music of national life; and if any nation attempts to throw off its national vitality — the direction which has become its own through the transmission of centuries — that nation dies if it succeeds in the attempt. And, therefore, if you succeed in the attempt to throw off your religion and take up either politics, or society, or any other things as your centre, as the vitality of your national life, the result will be that you will become extinct. To prevent this you must make all and everything work through that vitality of your religion. Let all your nerves vibrate through the backbone of your religion. I have seen that I cannot preach even religion to Americans without showing them its practical effect on social life. I could not preach religion in England without showing the wonderful political changes the Vedanta would bring. So, in India, social reform has to be preached by showing how much more spiritual a life the new system will bring; and politics has to be preached by showing how much it will improve the one thing that the nation wants — its spirituality. Every man has to make his own choice; so has every nation. We made our choice ages ago, and we must abide by it. And, after all, it is not such a bad choice. Is it such a bad choice in this world to think not of matter but of spirit, not of man but of God? That intense faith in another world, that intense hatred for this world, that intense power of renunciation, that intense faith in God, that intense faith in the immortal soul, is in you. I challenge anyone to give it up. You cannot. You may try to impose upon me by becoming materialists, by talking materialism for a few months, but I know what you are; if I take you by the hand, back you come as good theists as ever were born. How can you change your nature?
So every improvement in India requires first of all an upheaval in religion. Before flooding India with socialistic or political ideas, first deluge the land with spiritual ideas. The first work that demands our attention is that the most wonderful truths confined in our Upanishads, in our scriptures, in our Purânas must be brought out from the books, brought out from the monasteries, brought out from the forests, brought out from the possession of selected bodies of people, and scattered broadcast all over the land, so that these truths may run like fire all over the country from north to south and east to west, from the Himalayas to Comorin, from Sindh to the Brahmaputra. Everyone must know of them, because it is said, "This has first to be heard, then thought upon, and then meditated upon." Let the people hear first, and whoever helps in making the people hear about the great truths in their own scriptures cannot make for himself a better Karma today. Says our Vyasa, "In the Kali Yuga there is one Karma left. Sacrifices and tremendous Tapasyâs are of no avail now. Of Karma one remains, and that is the Karma of giving." And of these gifts, the gift of spirituality and spiritual knowledge is the highest; the next gift is the gift of secular knowledge; the next is the gift of life; and the fourth is the gift of food. Look at this wonderfully charitable race; look at the amount of gifts that are made in this poor, poor country; look at the hospitality where a man can travel from the north to the south, having the best in the land, being treated always by everyone as if he were a friend, and where no beggar starves so long as there is a piece of bread anywhere!
In this land of charity, let us take up the energy of the first charity, the diffusion of spiritual knowledge. And that diffusion should not be confined within the bounds of India; it must go out all over the world. This has been the custom. Those that tell you that Indian thought never went outside of India, those that tell you that I am the first Sannyasin who went to foreign lands to preach, do not know the history of their own race. Again and again this phenomenon has happened. Whenever the world has required it, this perennial flood of spirituality has overflowed and deluged the world. Gifts of political knowledge can be made with the blast of trumpets and the march of cohorts. Gifts of secular knowledge and social knowledge can be made with fire and sword. But spiritual knowledge can only be given in silence like the dew that falls unseen and unheard, yet bringing into bloom masses of roses. This has been the gift of India to the world again and again. Whenever there has been a great conquering race, bringing the nations of the world together, making roads and transit possible, immediately India arose and gave her quota of spiritual power to the sum total of the progress of the world. This happened ages before Buddha was born, and remnants of it are still left in China, in Asia Minor, and in the heart of the Malayan Archipelago. This was the case when the great Greek conqueror united the four corners of the then known world; then rushed out Indian spirituality, and the boasted civilisation of the West is but the remnant of that deluge. Now the same opportunity has again come; the power of England has linked the nations of the world together as was never done before. English roads and channels of communication rush from one end of the world to the other. Owing to English genius, the world today has been linked in such a fashion as has never before been done. Today trade centres have been formed such as have never been before in the history of mankind. And immediately, consciously or unconsciously, India rises up and pours forth her gifts of spirituality; and they will rush through these roads till they have reached the very ends of the world. That I went to America was not my doing or your doing; but the God of India who is guiding her destiny sent me, and will send hundreds of such to all the nations of the world. No power on earth can resist it. This also has to be done. You must go out to preach your religion, preach it to every nation under the sun, preach it to every people. This is the first thing to do. And after preaching spiritual knowledge, along with it will come that secular knowledge and every other knowledge that you want; but if you attempt to get the secular knowledge without religion, I tell you plainly, vain is your attempt in India, it will never have a hold on the people. Even the great Buddhistic movement was a failure, partially on account of that.
Therefore, my friends, my plan is to start institutions in India, to train our young men as preachers of the truths of our scriptures in India and outside India. Men, men, these are wanted: everything else will be ready, but strong, vigorous, believing young men, sincere to the backbone, are wanted. A hundred such and the world becomes revolutionized. The will is stronger than anything else. Everything must go down before the will, for that comes from God and God Himself; a pure and a strong will is omnipotent. Do you not believe in it? Preach, preach unto the world the great truths of your religion; the world waits for them. For centuries people have been taught theories of degradation. They have been told that they are nothing. The masses have been told all over the world that they are not human beings. They have been so frightened for centuries, till they have nearly become animals. Never were they allowed to hear of the Atman. Let them hear of the Atman — that even the lowest of the low have the Atman within, which never dies and never is born — of Him whom the sword cannot pierce, nor the fire burn, nor the air dry — immortal, without beginning or end, the all-pure, omnipotent, and omnipresent Atman! Let them have faith in themselves, for what makes the difference between the Englishman and you? Let them talk their religion and duty and so forth. I have found the difference. The difference is here, that the Englishman believes in himself and you do not. He believes in his being an Englishman, and he can do anything. That brings out the God within him, and he can do anything he likes. You have been told and taught that you can do nothing, and nonentities you are becoming every day. What we want is strength, so believe in yourselves. We have become weak, and that is why occultism and mysticism come to us — these creepy things; there may be great truths in them, but they have nearly destroyed us. Make your nerves strong. What we want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel. We have wept long enough. No more weeping, but stand on your feet and be men. It is a man-making religion that we want. It is man-making theories that we want. It is man-making education all round that we want. And here is the test of truth — anything that makes you weak physically, intellectually, and spiritually, reject as poison; there is no life in it, it cannot be true. Truth is strengthening. Truth is purity, truth is all-knowledge; truth must be strengthening, must be enlightening, must be invigorating. These mysticisms, in spite of some grains of truth in them, are generally weakening. Believe me, I have a lifelong experience of it, and the one conclusion that I draw is that it is weakening. I have travelled all over India, searched almost every cave here, and lived in the Himalayas. I know people who lived there all their lives. I love my nation, I cannot see you degraded, weakened any more than you are now. Therefore I am bound for your sake and for truth's sake to cry, "Hold!" and to raise my voice against this degradation of my race. Give up these weakening mysticisms and be strong. Go back to your Upanishads — the shining, the strengthening, the bright philosophy — and part from all these mysterious things, all these weakening things. Take up this philosophy; the greatest truths are the simplest things in the world, simple as your own existence. The truths of the Upanishads are before you. Take them up, live up to them, and the salvation of India will be at hand.
One word more and I have finished. They talk of patriotism. I believe in patriotism, and I also have my own ideal of patriotism. Three things are necessary for great achievements. First, feel from the heart. What is in the intellect or reason? It goes a few steps and there it stops. But through the heart comes inspiration. Love opens the most impossible gates; love is the gate to all the secrets of the universe. Feel, therefore, my would-be reformers, my would-be patriots! Do you feel? Do you feel that millions and millions of the descendants of gods and of sages have become next-door neighbours to brutes? Do you feel that millions are starving today, and millions have been starving for ages? Do you feel that ignorance has come over the land as a dark cloud? Does it make you restless? Does it make you sleepless? Has it gone into your blood, coursing through your veins, becoming consonant with your heartbeats? Has it made you almost mad? Are you seized with that one idea of the misery of ruin, and have you forgotten all about your name, your fame, your wives, your children, your property, even your own bodies? Have you done that? That is the first step to become a patriot, the very first step. I did not go to America, as most of you know, for the Parliament of Religions, but this demon of a feeling was in me and within my soul. I travelled twelve years all over India, finding no way to work for my countrymen, and that is why I went to America. Most of you know that, who knew me then. Who cared about this Parliament of Religions? Here was my own flesh and blood sinking every day, and who cared for them? This was my first step.
You may feel, then; but instead of spending your energies in frothy talk, have you found any way out, any practical solution, some help instead of condemnation, some sweet words to soothe their miseries, to bring them out of this living death?
Yet that is not all. Have you got the will to surmount mountain-high obstructions? If the whole world stands against you sword in hand, would you still dare to do what you think is right? If your wives and children are against you, if all your money goes, your name dies, your wealth vanishes, would you still stick to it? Would you still pursue it and go on steadily towards your own goal? As the great King Bhartrihari says, "Let the sages blame or let them praise; let the goddess of fortune come or let her go wherever she likes; let death come today, or let it come in hundreds of years; he indeed is the steady man who does not move one inch from the way of truth." Have you got that steadfastness? If you have these three things, each one of you will work miracles. You need not write in the newspapers, you need not go about lecturing; your very face will shine. If you live in a cave, your thoughts will permeate even through the rock walls, will go vibrating all over the world for hundreds of years, maybe, until they will fasten on to some brain and work out there. Such is the power of thought, of sincerity, and of purity of purpose.
I am afraid I am delaying you, but one word more. This national ship, my countrymen, my friends, my children — this national ship has been ferrying millions and millions of souls across the waters of life. For scores of shining centuries it has been plying across this water, and through its agency, millions of souls have been taken to the other shore, to blessedness. But today, perhaps through your own fault, this boat has become a little damaged, has sprung a leak; and would you therefore curse it? Is it fit that you stand up and pronounce malediction upon it, one that has done more work than any other thing in the world? If there are holes in this national ship, this society of ours, we are its children. Let us go and stop the holes. Let us gladly do it with our hearts' blood; and if we cannot, then let us die. We will make a plug of our brains and put them into the ship, but condemn it never. Say not one harsh word against this society. I love it for its past greatness. I love you all because you are the children of gods, and because you are the children of the glorious forefathers. How then can I curse you! Never. All blessings be upon you! I have come to you, my children, to tell you all my plans. If you hear them I am ready to work with you. But if you will not listen to them, and even kick me out of India, I will come back and tell you that we are all sinking! I am come now to sit in your midst, and if we are to sink, let us all sink together, but never let curses rise to our lips.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。