在马德拉斯欢迎致辞的回复
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中文
在马德拉斯欢迎致辞的答辞
当辨喜抵达马德拉斯时，马德拉斯接待委员会向他呈递了一份欢迎致辞，内容如下：
尊敬的斯瓦米，
我们代表马德拉斯的印度教同胞，在您从西方完成宗教使命归来之际，向您致以最衷心的欢迎。我们呈上此份致辞，并非为履行某种形式上的礼节；我们来此，是为了奉献我们心中的爱，并表达对您所做贡献的感激之情——您在上帝的恩典下，通过宣扬印度崇高的宗教理想，为真理的伟大事业作出了贡献。
当芝加哥宗教议会召开之时，我国同胞自然而然地深感忧虑，希望我们高贵而古老的宗教能在其中得到恰当的代表，并向美国人民及整个西方世界进行妥善的阐释。正是在那时，我们有幸与您相识，并再次见证了在各民族历史上屡屡应验的真理：时势造英雄，推动真理事业前进的人随时势而生。当您承担起在宗教议会代表印度教的重任时，我们大多数人凭借对您卓越才华的了解，已深信印度教的事业必将在那次难忘的宗教大会上得到其代表的有力维护。您对印度教教义的阐释既清晰、准确，又权威，不仅在宗教议会上产生了深远影响，更使异域他乡的众多男女认识到：从印度灵性的源泉中，可以汲取到甘甜的不朽生命与爱的清泉，由此将开创人类历史上前所未有的、更广阔、更丰盈、更神圣的演化历程。我们尤其感激您将印度教关于宗教和谐与宗教兄弟情谊的独特教义提到世界各大宗教代表面前。那些真正开明而热忱的人，再也不能坚持认为真理与神圣是任何特定地域、特定群体或特定教义与戒律体系的专属，也再无人能够主张任何一种信仰或哲学将以排斥和摧毁其他一切信仰为代价而独存。正如您用您那令人欣喜的语言所充分揭示了《薄伽梵歌》内心深处甜美和谐的旋律："世界上所有的宗教，不过是不同的男男女女通过各种条件和境遇走向同一目标的旅程而已。"
即便您仅仅满足于完成委托于您的这项崇高神圣的使命，您的印度教同胞依然会怀着欣喜与感激之情，承认您工作的无价价值。然而在进入西方国家的过程中，您也为全人类带去了光明与和平的福音，这一福音根植于印度"永恒宗教"的古老教义。在感谢您为维护吠檀多宗教的深刻理性所做的一切努力之余，我们由衷高兴地提及您所心怀的伟大使命——建立一个活跃的传教机构，设立永久中心，以弘扬我们的宗教与哲学。您所立志投身的这项事业，无愧于您所代表的神圣传统，也无愧于激励您生命及其志向的伟大导师（Guru）之精神。我们希望并信任，我们也能有幸与您共同参与这项崇高的事业。我们虔诚地祈求那全知全慈的宇宙主宰，赐予您长寿与充沛的精力，并以永恒真理眉间本当闪耀的荣耀与成功之冠，祝福您的劳作。
继而宣读了凯特里土邦王的致辞：
您的神圣，
我希望借您抵达马德拉斯、接受欢迎之际，尽早表达我对您平安归返印度的喜悦之情，并对您在西方土地上无私奉献所取得的巨大成功致以衷心的祝贺——在那里，最高智识者的自豪在于："科学一旦征服之地，宗教从未能够夺回"——尽管事实上科学几乎从未声称要反对真正的宗教。这片神圣的雅利亚瓦尔塔（Âryâvarta）大地格外有幸，在芝加哥举办的宗教议会上，能够找到如此堪当重任的仙人（Rishi）代表。正是由于您的智慧、进取与热忱，西方世界才得以理解印度即使在今日仍拥有取之不尽的灵性宝藏。您的努力已超越一切疑问地证明：世界众多信仰之间的矛盾，皆在吠檀多的普遍光辉中得以调和；世界各族人民都需要理解并切实体认这一伟大真理——"多样中的统一"乃是自然在宇宙演化中的设计，唯有宗教之间的和谐与兄弟情谊、相互包容与扶持，方能完成人类的使命与命运。在您崇高神圣的主持与您高洁教义的鼓舞下，我们这一代人有幸见证了世界历史上一个新纪元的开启——在这个新纪元中，偏执、仇恨与冲突或许将会终止，而和平、同情与爱将在人们之间盛行。我连同我的臣民，祈愿上帝的祝福降临于您及您的劳作之上。
致辞宣读完毕后，斯瓦米离开大厅，登上等候在外的马车箭座。由于到场欢迎的大批人群热情高涨，难以驾驭，斯瓦米只得作了以下简短答辞，将正式答辞推迟至日后的合适时机：
人算不如天算。原本计划按英国方式宣读致辞与答辞，然而上帝另有安排——我正以《薄伽梵歌》的方式，从一辆战车上向分散各处的听众讲话。因此，我们感恩上帝如此安排。这为演讲增添了趣味，也赋予我所要讲述之事以力量。我不知我的声音能否传达到你们所有人，但我将尽力而为。我从未有机会在大型露天集会上发表演讲。
从科伦坡到马德拉斯，以及在整个印度所受到的热情接待，那种美好的善意与热烈的欢迎之情，甚至超越了我最乐观的期望；然而这只令我感到高兴，因为它印证了我过去一再重申的论断——正如每个民族都有其作为生命活力的一个理想，每个民族都有其特有的、注定成为自身特质的发展轨道，宗教便是印度心灵成长的特质所在。在世界其他地方，宗教只是众多关切之一，实际上不过是次要的事务。以英国为例，宗教是国策的一部分。英国国教属于统治阶级，因此无论他们是否信仰它，他们都支持它，认为那是他们的教会。每位绅士和淑女都被期望属于该教会，这是身份高贵的标志。其他国家亦然，存在某种强大的国家力量，或以政治为代表，或以某种智识追求为代表，或以军国主义为代表，或以商业主义为代表。国家的心脏跳动于此，而宗教不过是该民族众多次要装饰品之一。
在这里的印度，宗教构成了国家心脏的核心。它是脊梁，是基石，是国家大厦建立于其上的根基。政治、权力乃至智识在此皆居于次要地位。因此，宗教是印度唯一的首要关切。有人曾百般告诫我，印度广大民众缺乏见识——这一点确实不假。登陆科伦坡时，我发现他们中无一人听说过欧洲正在发生的政治动荡——内阁的更迭与倒台等等。他们中无一人听说过社会主义、无政府主义，以及欧洲政治气候中的种种变革。然而，印度有一位游方僧（Sannyasin）被派往宗教议会，他取得了某些成就——这一消息已传遍锡兰的每一位男女老少。这证明，他们并非缺乏见识，也并非缺乏对信息的渴望，只要那信息具有适合他们的性质，与他们生活的需要相契合。政治以及这一切，从未成为印度生活的必需，而宗教与灵性才是印度赖以生存、繁荣，并将在未来继续生存的唯一条件。
当今世界的各民族正在裁决两大问题。印度选择了一方，其余世界选择了另一方。问题是：谁将存续？是什么使一个民族得以存续而其他民族消亡？在生存的竞争中，是爱存续还是仇恨存续？是享乐存续还是弃绝存续？是物质存续还是精神存续？我们的思考与我们的祖先——远在史前时代——一致。在传统所能穿透的那段遥远过去的黑暗之处，我们光荣的祖先已选定了他们在这一问题上的立场，并向世界发出了挑战。我们的答案是弃绝、舍离、无畏与爱；这些才是最能适存的品质。弃绝感官使一个民族得以存续。历史本身今日便是明证：蕈状般的民族此起彼落，几乎每个世纪都在上演——从虚无中崛起，恶意地喧嚣数日，随即消融。这个庞大的民族不得不与从未降临在世界任何其他民族头上的种种最严峻的不幸、危险和变故相搏斗，之所以能够存续，正是因为它选择了弃绝的一方；因为没有弃绝，何来宗教？欧洲正在努力解答问题的另一面：一个人能拥有多少，一个人能以各种手段掌握多大的权力。竞争——残酷、冷漠而无情——是欧洲的法则。我们的法则是种姓——打破竞争，遏制其力量，缓和其残酷，使人类灵魂在生命奥秘中的旅途更为平顺。
就在此时，人群变得如此混乱，斯瓦米已无法被人们清晰地听到。他因此以这样的话语结束了他的演讲：
朋友们，我对你们的热情深感欢喜。这热情令人叹为观止。请不要以为我对你们有丝毫不满；恰恰相反，我对这番热情的展现感到无比愉悦。这正是所需要的——巨大的热情。只须使它持久；保持它。莫让这把火熄灭。我们希望在印度成就伟大的事业，为此我需要你们的帮助；这样的热情是不可或缺的。此刻的集会已无法继续维持。我非常感谢你们的善意与热情的欢迎。在平静的时刻，我们将有更好的思想与理念可以交流；朋友们，暂且告别。
我无法向四面八方的你们都发表演讲，因此今晚你们只能满足于看见我。我将把我的演讲留待另一个场合。我非常感谢你们热情的欢迎。
English
REPLY TO THE ADDRESS OF WELCOME AT MADRAS
When the Swami Vivekananda arrived at Madras an address of welcome was presented to him by the Madras Reception Committee. It read as follows:
Revered Swamin,
On behalf of your Hindu co-religionists in Madras, we offer you a most hearty welcome on the occasion of your return from your Religious Mission in the West. Our object in approaching you with this address is not the performance of any merely formal or ceremonial function; we come to offer you the love of our hearts and to give expression to our feeling of thankfulness for the services which you, by the grace of God, have been able to render to the great cause of Truth by proclaiming India's lofty religious ideals.
When the Parliament of Religions was organised at Chicago, some of our countrymen felt naturally anxious that our noble and ancient religion should be worthily represented therein and properly expounded to the American nation, and through them to the Western world at large. It was then our privilege to meet you and to realise once again, what has so often proved true in the history of nations, that with the hour rises the man who is to help forward the cause of Truth. When you undertook to represent Hinduism at the Parliament of Religions, most of us felt, from what we had known of your great gifts, that the cause of Hinduism would be ably upheld by its representative in that memorable religious assembly. Your representation of the doctrines of Hinduism at once clear, correct, and authoritative, not only produced a remarkable impression at the Parliament of Religions itself, but has also led a number of men and women even in foreign lands to realise that out of the fountain of Indian spirituality refreshing draughts of immortal life and love may be taken so as to bring about a larger, fuller, and holier evolution of humanity than has yet been witnessed on this globe of ours. We are particularly thankful to you for having called the attention of the representatives of the World's Great Religions to the characteristic Hindu doctrine of the Harmony and Brotherhood of Religions. No longer is it possible for really enlightened and earnest men to insist that Truth and Holiness are the exclusive possessions of any particular locality or body of men or system of doctrine and discipline, or to hold that any faith or philosophy will survive to the exclusion and destruction of all others. In your own happy language which brings out fully the sweet harmony in the heart of the Bhagavad-Gitâ, "The whole world of religions is only a travelling, a coming up of different men and women through various conditions and circumstances to the same goal."
Had you contented yourself with simply discharging this high and holy duty entrusted to your care, even then, your Hindu co-religionists would have been glad to recognise with joy and thankfulness the inestimable value of your work. But in 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 of 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. The undertaking to which you propose to devote yours energies is worthy of the holy traditions you represent and worthy, too, of the spirit of the great Guru who has inspired your life and its aims. We hope and trust that it may be given to us also to associate ourselves with you in this noble work. We fervently pray to Him who is the all-knowing and all-merciful Lord of the Universe to bestow on you long life and full strength and to bless your labours with that crown of glory and success which ever deserves to shine on the brow of immortal Truth.
Next was read the following address from the Maharaja of Khetri:
Your Holiness,
I wish to take this early opportunity of your arrival and reception at Madras to express my feelings of joy and pleasure on your safe return to India and to offer my heartfelt congratulation on the great success which has attended your unselfish efforts in Western lands, where it is the boast of the highest intellects that, "Not an inch of ground once conquered by science has ever been reconquered by religion" — although indeed science has hardly ever claimed to oppose true religion. This holy land of Âryâvarta has been singularly fortunate in having been able to secure so worthy a representative of her sages at the Parliament of Religions held at Chicago, and it is entirely due to your wisdom, enterprise, and enthusiasm that the Western world has come to understand what an inexhaustible store of spirituality India has even today. Your labours have now proved beyond the possibility of doubt that the contradictions of the world's numerous creeds are all reconciled in the universal light of the Vedanta, and that all the peoples of the world have need to understand and practically realise the great truth that "Unity in variety" is nature's plan in the evolution of the universe, and that only by harmony and brotherhood among religions and by mutual toleration and help can the mission and destiny of humanity be accomplished. Under your high and holy auspices and the inspiring influence of your lofty teachings, we of the present generation have the privilege of witnessing the inauguration of a new era in the world's history, in which bigotry, hatred, and conflict may, I hope, cease, and peace, sympathy, and love reign among men. And I in common with my people pray that the blessings of God may rest on you and your labours.
When the addresses had been read, the Swami left the hall and mounted to the box seat of a carriage in waiting. Owing to the intense enthusiasm of the large crowd assembled to welcome him, the Swami was only able to make the following short reply, postponing his reply proper to a future occasion:
Man proposes and God disposes. It was proposed that the addresses and the replies should be carried in the English fashion. But here God disposes — I am speaking to a scattered audience from a chariot in the Gitâ fashion. Thankful we are, therefore, that it should have happened so. It gives a zest to the speech, and strength to what I am going to tell you. I do not know whether my voice will reach all of you, but I will try my best. I never before had an opportunity of addressing a large open-air meeting.
The wonderful kindness, the fervent and enthusiastic joy with which I have been received from Colombo to Madras, and seem likely to be received all over India, have passed even my most sanguine expectations; but that only makes me glad, for it proves the assertion which I have made again and again in the past that as each nation has one ideal as its vitality, as each nation has one particular groove which is to become its own, so religion is the peculiarity of the growth of the Indian mind. In other parts of the world, religion is one of the many considerations, in fact it is a minor occupation. In England, for instance, religion is part of the national policy. The English Church belongs to the ruling class, and as such, whether they believe in it or not, they all support it, thinking that it is their Church. Every gentleman and every 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 represented by politics or it is represented by some intellectual pursuits; either it is represented by militarism or by commercialism. There the heart of the nation beats, and religion is one of the many secondary ornamental things which that nation possesses.
Here in India, it is religion that forms the very core of the national heart. It is the backbone, the bed-rock, the foundation upon which the national edifice has been built. Politics, power, and even intellect form a secondary consideration here. Religion, therefore, is the one consideration in India. I have been told a hundred times of the want of information there is among the masses of the Indian people; and that is true. Landing in Colombo I found not one of them had heard of the political upheavals going on in Europe — the changes, the downfall of ministries, and so forth. Not one of them had heard of what is meant by socialism, and anarchism, and of this and that change in the political atmosphere of Europe. But that there was a Sannyasin from India sent over to the Parliament of Religions, and that he had achieved some sort of success had become known to every man, woman, and child in Ceylon. It proves that there is no lack of information, nor lack of desire for information where it is of the character that suits them, when it falls in line with the necessities of their life. Politics and all these things never formed a necessity of Indian life, but religion and spirituality have been the one condition upon which it lived and thrived and has got to live in the future.
Two great problems are being decided by the nations of the world. India has taken up one side, and the rest of the world has taken the other side. And the problem is this: who is to survive? What makes one nation survive and the others die? Should love survive or hatred, should enjoyment survive or renunciation, should matter survive or the spirit, in the struggle of life? We think as our ancestors did, away back in pre-historic ages. Where even tradition cannot pierce the gloom of that past, there our glorious ancestors have taken up their side of the problem and have thrown the challenge to the world. Our solution is renunciation, giving up, fearlessness, and love; these are the fittest to survive. Giving up the senses makes a nation survive. As a proof of this, here is history today telling us of mushroom nations rising and falling almost every century — starting up from nothingness, making vicious play for a few days, and then melting. This big, gigantic race which had to grapple with some of the greatest 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 renunciation; for without renunciation how can there be religion? Europe is trying to, solve the other side of the problem as to how much a man can have, how much more power a man can possess by hook or by crook, by some means or other. Competition — cruel, cold, and heartless — is the law of Europe. Our law is caste — the breaking of competition, checking its forces, mitigating its cruelties, smoothing the passage of the human soul through this mystery of life.
At this stage the crowd became so unmanageable that the Swami could not make himself heard to advantage. He, therefore ended his address with these words:
Friends, I am very much pleased with your enthusiasm. It is marvellous. 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 — tremendous enthusiasm. Only make it permanent; keep it up. Let not the fire 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 much for your kindness and enthusiastic welcome. In calm moments we shall have better thoughts and ideas to exchange; now for the time, my friends, good-bye.
It is impossible to address you on all sides, therefore you must content yourselves this evening with merely seeing me. I will reserve my speech for some other occasion. I thank you very much for your enthusiastic welcome.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。