吠檀多的使命
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中文
吠檀多（Vedanta）的使命
此次辨喜造访贡伯戈讷姆（Kumbakonam）之际，当地印度教社区向其呈递了如下颂辞：
尊敬的斯瓦米，
谨代表此座历史悠久、宗教意涵深厚的贡伯戈讷姆古城全体印度教居民，恭请允准我等向您致以最诚挚的欢迎，欢迎您自西方世界归来，重回这片圣寺林立、先贤辈出的神圣故土。我等虔心感谢上帝，感谢您在美洲与欧洲宗教使命中所取得的非凡成就，感谢他使您得以在芝加哥世界宗教大会上，于汇聚一堂的各大宗教杰出代表面前，彰显了印度教哲学与宗教之宏博气象与理性的普世精神，足以提升并调和世间一切关于上帝与人类灵性的思想。
真理之业历来安于宇宙生命与灵魂的守护之下——这一信念已成为我等活生生的信仰数千年之久。今日若我等对您在基督教土地上之圣功成果感到欣慰，正是因为此举使印度境内外的人们开始认识到印度教这一卓越宗教民族之精神遗产的无可估量的价值。您的事业之成功自然为您伟大导师（Guru）已然著名之令名增添了巨大的光彩；也使我等在文明世界的眼中地位得以提升；尤为重要的是，它令我等感受到——我等作为一个民族，有理由为先人昔日的成就感到自豪，我等文明中缺乏咄咄逼人的进攻性，绝非其已然枯竭或走向衰亡的标志。有您这样明察秋毫、虔诚奉献且大公无私的工作者在我等之中，印度教民族的未来定然光明而充满希望。愿宇宙的神——亦是万国众民的伟大神明——赐予您健康与长寿，使您在履行印度教宗教与哲学之崇高使命时，愈发强健智慧。
城中印度教学生亦另行呈递了第二份颂辞。
随后，斯瓦米就吠檀多的使命发表了如下演讲：
极少量的宗教修行，便能带来大量的成果。若说薄伽梵歌（Bhagavad Gita）中的这一论断需要印证，我在自己微末的生命中，每日都能亲身见证这一伟大格言的真实性。我的工作实属微不足道，然而从科伦坡一路至此的旅途中，每一步所遇到的热情款待与诚挚欢迎，实远超一切预期。然而与此同时，这亦无愧于我等身为印度教徒的传统，无愧于我等的民族——我等即是印度教民族，其生命力、其生命原则、其灵魂，可谓全然寄托于宗教之中。我于东方与西方诸民族中游历，略见世界一隅；而在每一个民族中，我都发现有一种伟大的理念构成其脊梁，所谓其民族精神之骨骼。有些民族以政治为重，有些以社会文化为重，另一些则以理智文化为重，如此等等，各有其民族底色。然而我等的母邦，其根基、其脊梁、其整个生命大厦所依托的基石，唯有宗教，唯有宗教而已。你们中有些人或许还记得，在我对马德拉斯人民致我于美洲的颂辞所作的答辞中，我曾指出一个事实：印度的一位农夫，在许多方面所受的宗教教育，优于西方许多绅士；而今日，我正在用自己的亲身经历验证这些话，毋庸置疑。曾经有一段时期，我对印度民众缺乏见识、对知识缺乏渴求感到颇为不满，但现在我理解了。凡是他们所关切之处，他们对信息的热切追求，较我所见过或游历过的任何其他民族的民众都有过之而无不及。且问问我等的农夫，欧洲的重大政治变革，欧洲社会正在经历的风云激荡——他们对此一无所知，亦毫不关心；然而，即便是锡兰的农夫，那些在许多方面与印度相隔绝、与印度的切身联系已然断裂的农夫——我发现就连田间劳作的农夫，也已知晓美洲曾举办一场宗教大会，一位印度游方僧（Sannyasin）赴会，并取得了若干成就。
因此，凡是他们所关心之处，他们便与任何民族一样，对信息充满热切之情；而宗教，正是印度人民唯一的、至高无上的关切所在。我并非此刻要讨论将民族生命力寄托于宗教理想还是政治理想孰优孰劣，但至此已明确的是：无论利弊，我等的生命力集中于宗教之中。你们无法改变它，无法摧毁它而另植他物。你们无法将一棵枝繁叶茂的大树从一方土壤移植到另一方，令其立即生根。无论利弊，宗教理想流入印度已历千载；无论利弊，数千年来印度的天空始终充盈着宗教的理想；无论利弊，我等在这些宗教理念的正中降生成长，直至它渗入我等的血液，随每一滴血脉的跳动而流淌，已与我等的气质浑然一体，成为我等生命的根本活力。你们能够抛弃这样的宗教而不激起同等能量的反弹，而不去填补那条大河历经千年冲刷而成的壮阔河道吗？你们可愿让恒河（Ganges）回返冰雪之源，另辟新途？即使那是可能的，这个国家也绝不可能放弃其特有的宗教生命轨迹，转而走向政治或其他什么新道路。你们只能顺应最小阻力的法则而行，而这宗教之路，正是印度阻力最小之路。这是生命之路，这是成长之路，这是印度安康之路——追循宗教的轨迹而行。
诚然，在其他国家，宗教不过是生活诸多必需品之一。借我惯用的一个浅近比喻：那位贵妇人的客厅中摆设着诸多物品，如今流行摆放日本花瓶，她必得置办一个；若没有，便显得不够体面。因此，这位贵妇或贵绅，生命中尚有诸多事务，而宗教不过是其中一小片，用以点缀完整的人生。于是，他或她便有了一点宗教。政治、社会改良，一言以蔽之，这个世界，便是西方人类的目标，而上帝与宗教，则悄然以助手的身份出现，帮助实现这一目标。他们的上帝，可以说是帮助清洁和装点这个世界的那位神灵；这大约便是上帝对他们的全部价值。你们难道不知道，在过去百年乃至两百年间，你们一再从那些本应更有见识的人们口中，从那些至少自称更有见识的人们嘴里，听到他们反对印度宗教的种种论调——说我等的宗教无益于世间福祉，说它不能为我等带来黄金，说它不能使我等成为劫掠他邦之辈，说它不能使强者踩踏弱者的身躯而以弱者的鲜血为食。诚然，我等的宗教绝不如此。它不能派出大军，使大地在其铁蹄下颤抖，以征服、劫掠、毁灭他族。因此他们说——这样的宗教有什么用？它既不能磨坊里磨出粮食，又不能使筋骨强健；这样的宗教，有何价值？
他们殊不知，正是这一论点，恰恰证明了我等宗教的正当性——因为它并非为了这个世界。我等的宗教是唯一真实的宗教，因为依据它，这短短三日的感官小世界，不当成为一切的目的与目标，不当成为我等至高的鹄的。我等宗教的视野，绝非这片数尺之隔的尘世地平线所能囿限。我等的目光超越于此，更远，更远；超越感官，超越空间，超越时间，遥遥超越，直至此世一切荡然无存，宇宙本身亦不过是灵魂超越性荣光的汪洋中一滴水珠。我等的宗教是真实的宗教，因为它教导上帝（梵，Brahman）是唯一真实的，此世是虚幻而短暂的，你们的黄金不过是尘土，你们的权力不过是有限的，而生命本身往往是一种苦难；正因如此，我等的宗教才是真实的宗教。我等的宗教是真实的宗教，因为它首先教导弃绝，以亘古的智慧昂然挺立，向那些与我等印度教徒相比不过是昨日孩童的民族——那些我等祖先在此印度大地上所发现的智慧之宏古传承的继承者——向他们明白宣告："孩子们，你们是感官的奴隶；感官中只有局限，感官中只有毁灭；此间短短三日的逸乐，最终只会带来覆灭。放弃这一切，弃绝对感官与世界的贪恋；这才是宗教的道路。"经由弃绝而通向目标，而非经由享乐。因此，我等的宗教是唯一真实的宗教。
诚然，有一个奇异的事实：一个又一个民族登上了世界的舞台，以猛烈之势扮演了片刻，便几乎悄无声息地消逝，在时间的汪洋中未留下丝毫痕迹或涟漪；而我等，却仿佛活在一种永恒的生命之中。他们大肆谈论关于适者生存的新理论，以为肌肉之强健便是最适于生存的条件。若果真如此，那些在古代世界以好战著称的民族中，任何一个今日都当雄霸天下，而我等柔弱的印度教徒，从未征服过一个民族或国家，早应销声匿迹；然而我等依然生活于此，三亿之众！（一位年轻的英国女士曾问我：印度教徒做了什么？他们连一个民族都未曾征服过！）而且，绝非如有些人所说，我等的生命力已然耗尽，肌体已经萎缩——这是不实之言。生命力依然充沛，时机成熟之时，它便如洪流涌出，漫溢世界。
我等自远古时代便已向全世界抛出了一个挑战。在西方，他们正努力解决一个人所能拥有多少的问题；而在这里，我等则努力解决一个人最少可以维持怎样生活的问题。这种角力与差异还将延续若干世纪。但若历史有任何真理可言，若预言尚能应验，则必然是：那些锻炼自己以最少为生、并善于自制的人，最终将赢得这场较量；而那些追逐享乐与奢靡的人，无论眼下看来多么精力充沛，终将走向凋零与湮灭。人生历程中，乃至民族历史中，有时会出现一种令人痛苦地弥漫开来的世间厌倦之感。西方世界似乎正被这样一股厌倦之潮所笼罩。那里也有伟大的思想家；他们已经发现，这场追逐黄金与权力的赛跑，不过是虚空的虚空；许多——不，大多数——那里有教养的男女，已然厌倦了这种竞争、这种角逐、这种商业文明的粗野，他们正期盼着某种更美好的事物。仍有一部分人坚持认为政治与社会变革是欧洲诸多弊病的唯一良药，然而在那里的伟大思想家中，另一些理想正在生长。他们已然发现，任何程度的政治或社会操弄，都无法根治生命的弊病。唯有灵魂本身向善的转变，方能根治生命的弊病。任何程度的强制、政府或立法手段，都无法改变一个民族的风气，唯有灵性修养与伦理修养，方能改变错误的民族倾向以臻善美。因此，西方这些民族渴望某种新思想、新哲学；他们所拥有的宗教——基督教，虽在许多方面美好而崇高，却长期以来未能被充分理解，如今被理解的程度亦显不足。西方的思想家们在我等古老哲学中，尤其是在吠檀多中，发现了他们所寻求的思想新动力，发现了他们饥渴已久的精神食粮与饮料。这本是理所当然之事，不足为奇。
我已习惯于听闻以各种奇妙的主张来为普天之下每一种宗教辩护。你们也曾在近年间听到我的一位好友巴罗斯博士的主张——基督教是唯一的普世宗教。让我就此问题略作思考，向你们陈述我认为唯有吠檀多、且只有吠檀多能够成为人类普世宗教的理由，以及其他宗教为何不适合承担这一角色。除我等自身的宗教以外，世界上几乎所有其他伟大宗教，都不可避免地与其一位或数位创始人的生平相连。它们的一切理论、教义、教导与伦理，皆围绕一位个人创始人的生平而构建，从中获取权威与力量；而奇异的是，此类宗教整个架构的建立，似乎都依托于创始人生平的历史真实性。若对这一生平的历史真实性给予一击——正如近代以来对几乎所有所谓宗教创始人的生平所发生的情形——我们知道，此类生平细节中有半数已无人当真相信，另一半则受到严重质疑——若这种情况成立，若他们所谓的历史性基石动摇并崩裂，则整栋建筑轰然倒塌，彻底破碎，永难恢复其昔日的地位。
世界上几乎所有其他伟大宗教，都是建立在此类历史人物之上的；唯有我等的宗教，是建立在原则之上的。没有任何男男女女可以声称自己创造了吠陀（Vedas）。吠陀是永恒原则的体现；仙人（Rishi）发现了它们；而这些仙人的名字，有时在吠陀中偶有提及——仅仅是名字而已；我等甚至不知道他们究竟是何许人也。在许多情况下，我等不知道他们的父亲是谁，而在几乎所有情况下，我等都不知道他们生于何时何地。但他们——这些仙人——又何尝在意自己的名字呢？他们是原则的传播者，他们自身在力所能及的范围内，也竭力成为其所宣扬之原则的体现。与此同时，正如我等的上帝既是无位格的又是有位格的，我等的宗教也是极度无位格的——一种以原则为基础的宗教——却又为位格的展现留有无限空间；因为还有哪种宗教能赋予你更多化身、更多先知与先见之明者，而且仍在等待更多无穷无尽的到来？《薄伽梵往世书》言道，化身是无穷无尽的，为任何你所愿见的化身预留了充裕的空间。因此，倘若印度宗教史上的任何一位或数位人物、任何一位或数位化身、任何一位或数位先知，被证明从未真实存在，这对我等的宗教绝无损害；即便如此，它依然如磐石般稳固，因为它的根基在于原则，而非人物。我等若试图将世界所有人民凝聚于单一人格周围，是徒劳无益的。即便围绕永恒而普世的原则，要让他们聚合，也是困难重重的事。倘若将人类中最大的部分聚于同一宗教思维方式之下的目标有朝一日能够实现，须知，这必然永远只能通过原则而非人物来实现。然而正如我已说过的，我等的宗教为人物的权威与影响力预留了充裕的空间。有一个最奇妙的理论，即"所选本尊"（Ishta）的理论，赋予你在这些伟大宗教人物中最充分、最自由的选择权。你可以选择任何一位先知或导师作为你的引路人与特别崇拜的对象；甚至允许你认为你所选择者是最伟大的先知、是一切化身（Avatar）中最伟大者——这并无任何妨碍，但你必须持守永恒真理原则这一坚实的背景。此间奇异之处在于：我等的化身之所以具有影响力，仅在于他们是吠陀原则的体现。克里希纳（Krishna）之荣光，在于他是我等永恒原则宗教的最佳传播者，也是曾在印度存世的吠檀多最佳诠释者。
吠檀多引起世界关注的第二个理由，是在世界所有典籍中，它的教义与现代科学对外部自然界的研究成果，处于完全的和谐之中。历史遥远的过去，有两个心灵，在形态与亲缘和共鸣上相互契合，却被置于不同的道路上出发。其一是古代印度的心灵，其一是古代希腊的心灵。前者通过分析内在世界出发；后者通过分析外在世界来寻求那超越的目标。而在各自历史的诸多曲折之中，仍不难辨别出这两股思想的振动趋向于产生相近的目标的回响。现代唯物主义科学的结论，似乎只有吠檀多信奉者或印度教徒，才能在与自身宗教的和谐中欣然接受。似乎，现代唯物主义能够在坚守自身立场的同时，通过采纳吠檀多的结论而趋近灵性。我等以及所有有心了解者都清楚地看到，现代科学的结论，正是吠檀多在久远以前便已达到的结论；只不过，在现代科学中，它们是以物质的语言书写的。这便是吠檀多对现代西方心灵的另一吸引力所在，即吠檀多的理性，吠檀多惊人的理性主义。当今西方最优秀的科学头脑中，有人亲口告诉我，吠檀多的结论何等合乎理性。我亲身认识其中一位，他几乎忙得连饭也顾不上吃，甚至不得出实验室，却愿意站立数小时来聆听我的吠檀多讲座；他的说法是，这些讲座如此科学，如此精确地契合着这个时代的期望，与当今现代科学正在趋近的结论完美吻合。
我特别想提请你们注意的是，比较宗教学研究所得出的两个科学结论：其一关于宗教普世性的理念，其二关于万物一体的理念。在巴比伦和犹太人的历史中，我们观察到一个有趣的宗教现象。我们发现，巴比伦人和犹太人各自被划分为许多部落，每个部落都有自己的神，而这些小部落神往往有一个通称。巴比伦人的神全都称为"巴力"（Baal），其中以巴力·麦罗达赫（Baal Merodach）为首。随着时间推移，其中一个部落征服并同化了其他血脉相近的部落，自然的结果便是，征服部落的神被置于所有其他部落之神的首位。闪米特人所夸耀的一神论，便是如此产生的。在犹太人中，众神称为"摩洛"（Moloch）。其中有一位摩洛，属于称作"以色列"的部落，被称为"摩洛-亚威"或"摩洛-雅瓦"。随着时间推移，以色列这一部落慢慢征服了同族的若干其他部落，摧毁了他们的摩洛，宣布本部落的摩洛为所有摩洛中至高无上的摩洛。我确信，你们大多数人都知道，这场宗教征服带来了多少流血、多少暴政与野蛮的残酷。其后，巴比伦人试图摧毁摩洛-亚威的至高地位，却未能成功。
在我看来，此类部落之间在宗教事务上争夺自我主导权的图谋，或许也曾发生在印度的边疆地带。在这里，雅利安人的各个部落或许也曾相互冲突，争相宣称本部落神明的至高性；然而印度的历史，命中注定与犹太人的历史不同，走上另一条路。印度，在所有土地中，注定成为宽容与灵性的国度；因此，部落与神明之间的争斗，在这里并未长久延续。因为在那个遥远的时代，历史的眼光无从触及，甚至传说本身也不敢窥探其黑暗幽深之处——在那个遥远的时代，印度诞生了有史以来最伟大的仙人之一，他在此宣告：एकं सद् विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति——"存在者是一，智者以不同名字称之。"这是曾经被说出的最值得铭记的句子之一，是曾被发现的最宏伟的真理之一。对于我等印度教徒而言，这一真理始终是我等民族生存的脊梁。因为，在我等民族生活的悠悠岁月里，这同一个理念——एकं सद् विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति——世代相传，越来越充盈壮大，最终渗透了我等整个民族的生命，融入了我等的血液，成为我等不可分割的一部分。我等以每一根血脉活出这一宏伟真理，而我等的国度已成为宗教宽容的光荣之地。唯有在此，方有人专门为那些来此目的是谴责我等宗教的教派修建神庙与教堂。这是世界正等待从我等这里学习的一个伟大原则。诶，你们不知道当今世上还有多少宗教不宽容依然存在。我曾不止一次感到，我可能要因为宗教不宽容之盛行，而将骸骨遗留在异域他乡。为了宗教缘故杀人，在西方被夸耀为文明之邦的心脏，或许他们今日虽未明目张胆地这样做，明日却可能付诸实行。在西方，若一个人胆敢说一句反对本国正统宗教的话，极其可怕的驱逐出教，往往会降临在他头上。他们在这里大声批评我等的种姓制度。若你们像我一样到西方生活过，你们便会知道，就连你们所听闻的一些最著名的教授，也是十足的懦夫，因为害怕公众舆论，不敢说出他们认为在宗教问题上真正正确之事的百分之一。
因此，世界正等待着这一关于普世宽容的宏伟理念。这将是文明的一大收获。不仅如此，任何文明若不融入这一理念，都将无法长久维系。任何文明，若不消除狂热者、流血事件与野蛮行径，便无从发展。任何文明，若我们不能彼此善待，便无从抬起头颅；而走向那亟需的善待的第一步，是以善意与宽厚对待他人的宗教信仰。不仅如此，要明白我们不仅应当以善待之心，更应当积极地相互帮助，无论我们的宗教理念与信仰有多大的不同。而这正是我等在印度的所作所为，如我方才向你们所讲述的那样。正是在印度这片土地上，印度教徒已经并仍在为基督徒修建教堂，为伊斯兰教徒修建清真寺。这才是应当去做的事。尽管他们充满憎恨，尽管他们野蛮粗暴，尽管他们残酷无情，尽管他们横行专制，尽管他们惯于出口恶毒之词，我等仍将继续、也必须继续为基督徒修建教堂、为伊斯兰教徒修建清真寺，直至我等以爱征服，直至我等向世界证明：能够生存的是爱，而非仇恨；能够长存并结出果实的是温柔，而非单纯的野蛮与肉体力量。
世界今日还向我等索求的另一伟大理念，是思想界的欧洲，乃至全世界所渴望的——或许下层阶级比上层阶级更渴望，普通民众比有教养者更渴望，无知者比有学识者更渴望，弱者比强者更渴望——这便是整个宇宙灵性一体的那个永恒宏伟的理念。来自马德拉斯大学的诸君，我今日毋须告诉你们，西方的现代研究如何通过物质手段证明了整个宇宙的一体性与整体性；如何从物质意义上说，你我以及日月星辰，不过是无限物质汪洋中的小波浪或无波浪而已；印度心理学在数千年前便已证明，同样地，身体与心灵，不过是物质之海——即"总集"（Samashti）——中的名称或小波浪而已；而更进一步，吠檀多亦揭示，在那整体存在之统一性的理念背后，真正的灵魂是唯一的。宇宙中只有一个灵魂，一切不过是一个存在。这一关于整个宇宙之真实的和根本的整体性的伟大理念，在这个国家也曾令许多人望而生畏。直至今日，它有时遇到的反对者仍多于支持者。然而我依然告诉你们，这正是世界今日需要从我等这里获得的最具生命力的理念，也是印度沉默的大众为求自身提升所需要的——因为没有这一万物一体的理念的实际应用与有效运作，任何人都无法使我等的这片土地获得新生。
理性主义的西方正热切地寻求其全部哲学与伦理的理性依据；你们都知道，伦理不能单凭任何人格的权威来确立，无论那个人格多么伟大神圣。对伦理权威的这种解释，已不再能打动世界最高思想者的心；他们需要比人的权威更为永恒的东西，来作为具有约束力的伦理与道德规范的根据；他们需要某种永恒的真理原则，来作为伦理的依凭。而这种永恒的依凭，除了在你我以及一切存在中唯一存在的无限实在，即真我（Atman）、即灵魂之外，还能在哪里找到呢？灵魂无限的一体性，是一切道德的永恒依凭——你我不仅是兄弟——每一部表达人类对自由之追求的文学都已为此而宣扬——而且你我在本质上是真正合一的。这是印度哲学的命令。这种一体性，是一切伦理和一切灵性的理性依据。欧洲今日渴求它，正如我等受压迫的民众所渴求的一样；而这一伟大原则，此刻已在无意识中成为当今英国、德国、法国与美国涌现的一切最新政治与社会理想的基础。请你们注意，我的朋友们，在一切表达人类争取自由——争取普世自由——之渴望的文学作品中，你们会一次又一次地发现，印度吠檀多的理想处处显现，卓然突出。在某些情况下，作者并不知晓自己的灵感来源；在另一些情况下，他们试图显得非常独创；而其中少数勇敢而心存感激的人，则明确指出来源，承认他们对其所负的债。
在美洲时，我曾听到有人抱怨，说我宣扬不二（Advaita）过多，而宣扬有二论（dualism）过少。诚然，我知道有二论的爱与崇拜理论中有着怎样的宏伟，怎样的爱的汪洋，怎样无边的喜乐与庄严。我深知这一切。然而此时此刻，对我等而言，即便是在欢喜中哭泣也不是时候；我等已哭泣够了；更不是变得柔软的时候。这种柔软已伴随我等太久，直至我等已如棉花一般，生气全无。我等的国家如今所需要的，是铁的肌肉与钢的神经，是任何力量都无法抵御的巨大意志，这种意志能够洞穿宇宙的奥秘与秘密，无论以何种方式都能达成其目的，哪怕意味着沉入海底，直面死亡。这才是我等所需要的，而这只能通过理解和实现不二吠檀多的理想——万物一体的理想——来创造、建立和强化。信仰，信仰，对自身的信仰，信仰，信仰上帝——这是伟大的秘密。倘若你们信仰你们神话中三亿三千万位神祇，信仰外来者历代引入你们中间的一切神明，却依然对自己没有信仰，那便无从得救。对自己有信仰，以这信仰为根基昂然挺立，坚强起来；这才是我等所需要的。为什么我等三亿三千万人，在过去千年间，竟被每一批选择践踏我等于脚下的少数外来者统治？因为他们对自己有信仰，而我等没有。我在西方学到了什么，又从基督教各派那些满口"人是堕落且绝无希望的罪人"的泡沫言辞背后看到了什么？我在那里看到的是，在欧洲与美洲的民族心灵深处，居住着这些人对自身巨大的信仰力量。一个英国男孩会告诉你："我是英国人，我能做任何事。"美国男孩也会说同样的话，所有欧洲男孩也一样。我等的男孩在这里能说同样的话吗？不能，就连他们的父亲也不能。我等已经失去了对自己的信仰。因此，宣扬吠檀多的不二方面，对于唤醒人心、向人们展示其灵魂的荣光，是必要的。这正是我宣扬不二的原因；而且我这样做，并非以宗派立场，而是以普世的、被广泛接受的立场为据。
不难找到一条和解之道，它既不伤害有二论者，也不伤害限定不二论者。印度没有一个体系不持有"上帝内在于一切"这一教义，不持有"神性居于万物之中"这一主张。我等吠檀多的每一个体系都承认，所有纯洁、完美与力量，已然存在于灵魂之中。依照某些体系，这种完美有时仿佛收缩，有时又再度扩展，然而它始终在那里。依照不二论，它既不收缩也不扩展，而是时而隐藏，时而显现。效果上说，二者相差无几。一种或许比另一种更具逻辑性，但就结果与实践结论而言，二者大体相同；而这正是世界迫切需要的那个核心理念，而最迫切需要它的地方，莫过于我等的母邦本身。
诶，我的朋友们，我必须向你们道出几句严厉的实话。我在报纸上读到，每当我等中的一人被英国人杀害或虐待，全国哀号之声四起；我读到后满怀悲痛，而下一刻，心中便升起一个问题：这一切谁是责任人？作为一个吠檀多信奉者，我不得不问自己这个问题。印度教徒是一个善于内省的人；他想在自身之内、透过主观的眼光观察事物。因此，我问自己：谁是责任人？每次得到的答案都是：不是英国人，不，他们没有责任；是我等，我等要为自己的一切苦难与堕落负责，唯有我等应当承担责任。我等贵族先祖不断地将国家的普通民众踩在脚下，直至他们无力反抗，直至在这种折磨之下，那些可怜的人们几乎忘记了自己还是人。数百年来，他们被迫沦为单纯的伐木者与汲水者，以至于他们竟相信自己生而为奴，生而为伐木者与汲水者。以我等所夸耀的现代教育，若有人为他们说一句好话，我常常发现我等中的人们立即退缩，回避提升这些贫苦受压迫之人的责任。不仅如此，我还发现，各种极其恶魔般的、残酷的论调——从西方世界的遗传传递等粗陋概念中拼凑而来的胡言乱语——被用来为进一步地虐待和欺压穷人提供依据。在美洲的宗教大会上，曾有一位年轻人到来，他是一位天生的黑人，一位真正的非洲黑人，并发表了一篇精彩的演讲。我对这位年轻人产生了兴趣，时常与他交谈，却对他的身世一无所知。然而有一天在英格兰，我遇到了一些美国人，他们告诉我这件事：这个男孩是一位居住在非洲腹地的黑人酋长之子，一天，另一位酋长对这个男孩的父亲动了怒，将他的父亲连同母亲一起杀死，并加以烹食；他下令也将这个孩子杀死烹食；然而男孩出逃了，历经千辛万苦，翻越数百英里，终于抵达海岸，在那里被一艘美国船只带到了美洲。而这个男孩，发表了那篇演讲！经历了这些，我还能怎样看待你们的遗传学说！
诶，婆罗门们，若婆罗门基于遗传，在学习方面确实比贱民（Pariah）更有才能，那就不要再在婆罗门的教育上花费更多金钱，而将所有的钱都用于贱民的教育。把一切给予弱者，因为正是在那里，馈赠才最为需要。若婆罗门天生聪慧，他可以自行求学无需帮助。若其他人天生不够聪慧，就让他们拥有他们所需要的一切教育与教师。这是我所理解的公正与理性。我等印度贫苦的人民，那些受尽压迫的大众，因此需要听到并了解他们究竟是什么。诶，让每一个男人、女人和孩子，不论种姓或出身，不论强弱，都来听取并了解这一真理：在强者与弱者的背后，在高贵与低贱的背后，在每一个人的背后，都有那无限的灵魂，向所有人保证着无限的可能性与无限的成就伟大善美的能力。让我等向每一个灵魂宣告：उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्निबोधत——觉起，觉醒，不达目的绝不停止。觉起，觉醒！从这软弱的催眠状态中觉醒。没有人是真正软弱的；灵魂是无限的、全能的、全知的。挺立起来，肯定自己，宣扬你内心的神明，不要否认祂！过度的惰性、过度的软弱、过度的催眠状态，已然并仍然笼罩着我等的民族。噢，现代的印度教徒们，从催眠状态中解脱吧。解脱的方法就在你们自己的圣典之中。教导你们自己，教导每一个人认识他真实的本性，呼唤那沉睡的灵魂，看它如何觉醒。力量将会到来，荣耀将会到来，善良将会到来，纯洁将会到来，一切卓越的事物都将到来，当这沉睡的灵魂被唤醒到自觉的活动之时。诶，若说薄伽梵歌中有什么令我喜爱的，那便是这两节经文，犹如克里希纳教义的精髓与核心，有力地迸发而出——"那见到最高主宰平等居于一切众生之中，在消逝之物中见到那不灭者，他才是真正地看见了。因为见到主宰同样地普遍临在，他不以自我毁灭自我，因此他达到了最高的目标。"
因此，吠檀多有着在此处与他处做出裨益之事的广阔契机。这一关于最高灵魂的平等性与无处不在的美妙理念，必须被宣扬，以在此处乃至各处改善和提升人类。无论哪里有邪恶，无论哪里有愚昧与知识的匮乏，我已从经验中发现，如我等典籍所言，一切邪恶都依托于差异而来，而一切善好则来自对平等、来自对万物底层的相同性与一体性的信仰。这便是吠檀多的伟大理想。持有这一理想是一回事，而将其实际地应用于日常生活的细节，则是另一回事。指出一个理想，是很好的；然而抵达那里的实践之道在哪里呢？
由此自然而然地引出了关于种姓制度与社会改革这一困难而复杂的问题，这一问题数百年来始终居于我等人民心中的首要位置。我必须坦率地告诉你们，我既非废除种姓者，也非单纯的社会改革者。我与你们的种姓制度或社会改革，并无直接关系。你们尽可生活在任何种姓之中，但这绝非你们应当憎恨他人或他人种姓的理由。我所宣扬的唯有爱，而我的教导建立在吠檀多关于宇宙灵魂之平等性与无处不在的伟大真理之上。近百年来，我等的国家充斥着社会改革者以及各种社会改革方案。就我个人而言，我对这些改革者并无指责。他们大多数是善意之人，其目标在某些方面也颇为值得称道；然而一个显而易见的事实是，这百年来的社会改革并未在全国产生任何持久而有价值的成果。台上演讲发表了何止千次，对印度教民族及其文明的谴责一卷又一卷地堆积于其可怜的头顶，然而并未取得任何实际的良好结果；这是为何？原因并不难找，恰恰就在于谴责本身之中。如我先前所说，首先，我等必须努力保持作为一个民族在历史上所形成的性格。我承认我等须向其他民族学习许多事物，须从外部汲取许多教训；然而我遗憾地说，我等大多数现代改革运动不加考量地模仿了西方的手段与工作方式，这对印度而言绝然不适；因此，我等所有近年来的改革运动，均未收到成效。
其次，谴责绝非行善的方式。即便是一个孩子也能看出我等社会中存在弊病；而哪个社会中没有弊病呢？让我借此机会，我的同胞们，向你们说明：在我游历所及的世界各民族与国家中比较之后，我得出的结论是，我等人民从整体而言是最有道德、最敬神的，我等的制度在其设计与目的上，最适合使人类幸福。因此，我并不想要任何改革。我的理想是沿着民族的脉络成长、扩展、发展。当我回顾我国的历史，我发现全世界没有另一个国家，曾如此全力地为提升人类心灵做出贡献。因此我对我的民族没有任何谴责之词。我告诉他们："你们做得很好，只需努力做得更好。"这片土地上曾成就了伟大的事业，而未来仍有时间与空间成就更伟大的事业。我相信你们知道，我等不能停滞不前。若停滞，便是死亡。我等要么前进，要么退步。我等要么进步，要么退化。我等的祖先在过去成就了伟大的事业，而我等必须生长为更充盈的生命，向前迈进，超越他们已然伟大的成就。我等现在如何能退步、如何能使自己堕落？这不可能；这决不能如此；退步将导致民族的衰败与死亡。因此让我等前进，成就更伟大的事业；这便是我要告诉你们的。
我不是任何一时社会改革的鼓吹者。我并非试图矫正弊病，我只是请求你们前进，去完善那已被我等祖先以最完美的次序规划好的人类进步方案的实际实现。我只是请求你们工作，去使吠檀多关于人类整体性与其内在神圣本性的理想越来越充分地得到实现。倘若我有时间，我将乐于向你们说明，我等今日所须做的一切，是如何在多年前就已被我等古代立法者规划好，他们实际上如何预见到了已然发生和尚待发生于我等民族制度中的所有不同变化。他们也是破除种姓的人，然而他们与我等现代人不同。他们所说的破除种姓，并非意味着一座城市里的所有人坐在一起共享牛排与香槟大餐，也非意味着全国的愚人与疯子随心所欲地嫁娶，将国家变成疯人院，他们也不认为一个国家的繁荣，可以以其寡妇再嫁的人数来衡量。我尚待见到如此繁荣的国家。
我等祖先的理想之人是婆罗门。在我等所有的典籍中，婆罗门的理想都处于突出的位置。在欧洲，有我那位枢机主教大人，他竭尽所能、耗费千金，试图证明其祖先的高贵，直到他能将自己的祖先追溯至某位住在山丘上、窥伺过路行人的可怕暴君，一有机会便扑出来劫掠于他们，方才满足。这便是那些被视为高贵之赐予者的祖先所经营的事业，而我那位枢机主教大人，非得将自己的血统追溯至其中一位，方才心满意足。而在印度，另一方面，最伟大的王公们争相追溯自己的血统，回溯至某位身着一块腰布、居于森林中、以树根为食、研习吠陀的古代仙人。这才是印度王公所追寻的祖先。当你能够将你的血统追溯至一位仙人之时，你方是高贵种姓，否则便不是。
因此，我等对高贵出身的理想，与他人的截然不同。我等的理想是灵性修养与弃绝（Tapas）的婆罗门。我所说的婆罗门理想，是指什么？我所说的，是那种理想的婆罗门精神——在其中，世俗性彻底缺席，而真实的智慧充沛丰盈。这便是印度教民族的理想。你们难道没有听说过，婆罗门不受法律约束，他没有法律，他不受国王的统治，他的身体不能被伤害？这是完全真实的。不要以那些自私无知的愚人所加诸其上的曲解来理解它，而要在真正的、原本的吠檀多观念之光中来理解它。若婆罗门是那已然杀尽一切自私之心、其生活与工作皆为获取并传播智慧与爱之力量的人——若一个国家完全居住着这样的婆罗门，居住着灵性的、有道德的、善良的男男女女，认为这个国家超越于一切法律之上，难道是奇怪的吗？什么样的警察，什么样的军队，才有必要来统治他们？为什么要对他们进行任何形式的统治？他们为什么要生活在政府之下？他们是善良而高尚的，他们是上帝的子民；这些便是我等理想的婆罗门，我等读到，在萨蒂亚时代（Satya Yuga）只有一个种姓，那便是婆罗门。我等在《摩诃婆罗多》（Mahabharata）中读到，整个世界最初居住的都是婆罗门，当他们开始退化，便分成了不同的种姓，而当时代的循环转回，他们将重新回到那婆罗门的源头。这个循环如今正在转回，我请你们注意这一事实。因此，我等对种姓问题的解决，不是使已然高贵者堕落，不是在饮食上冲破一切限制，不是跳出自己的界限以求更多的享乐，而是通过我等每一个人履行吠檀多宗教的诫命，通过我等达到灵性，通过我等成为理想的婆罗门来实现。在这片土地上，你们每一个人，无论是雅利安人还是非雅利安人，是仙人还是婆罗门，抑或是最低等的被驱逐者，你们的祖先都为你们立下了一条法则。对你们所有人的命令都是一样的：你们必须不停地前进，而从最高等的人到最低等的贱民，这个国家的每一个人都须努力成为理想的婆罗门。这一吠檀多的理念，不仅适用于此处，也适用于全世界。这便是我等关于种姓的理想——它旨在慢慢地、温和地将全人类提升，走向那灵性之人的伟大理想的实现，那灵性之人是不抵抗的、平静的、稳定的、虔敬的、纯洁的，且善于冥想的。在那理想中，有上帝。
这些事情如何才能实现？我必须再次请你们注意，咒骂、丑化与谩骂，无法也不可能产生任何善好。这些手段已被尝试了年复一年，却未取得任何有价值的结果。善好的结果只能通过爱、通过同情来产生。这是一个宏大的课题，阐明我心中所有的计划与所有在这一关联中日复一日涌现的思想，需要数次演讲；因此，我必须就此结束，仅提醒你们这一事实：这艘我等民族之船，噢，印度教徒们，在这里已有益地航行了数千年。今日，或许它已漏水；今日，或许它已略显破旧。若果真如此，我等有责任尽力堵塞漏洞与破损之处。让我等告诉我等的同胞这危险所在，让他们觉醒并助我等一臂之力。我将在这个国家从一个角落呼号到另一个角落，唤醒人民认识当前形势与他们的责任。即便他们不听我的，我依然不会对他们说一句辱骂之词，不说一句诅咒之语。我等的民族在过去做过伟大的事业；若我等在未来无法成就更伟大的事业，便让我等得此安慰——我等可以平静地共同沉没与消逝。做爱国者，热爱这个在过去为我等成就了如此伟大事业的民族。诶，我比较得越多，就越爱你们，我的同胞们；你们是善良的、纯洁的、温柔的。你们始终遭受着压迫，而这正是幻力（Maya）这个物质世界的讽刺。不要紧；灵性终将在长远中获胜。同时，让我等工作，不让我等诽谤我等的国家，不诅咒谩骂我等这三度神圣的母邦历经风雨、饱经沧桑的制度。即便对最为迷信、最不理性的制度，也不出一言谴责，因为它们在过去也必然提供过一些善益。永远记住，世界上没有另一个国家，其制度在目的与宗旨上真正优于这片土地上的制度。我在世界上几乎每一个国家都见过种姓制度，然而没有任何地方，其设计与目的能与此间相比。若种姓因此是不可避免的，我宁愿要一个纯洁、文化与自我牺牲的种姓，也不要一个金钱的种姓。因此，不出任何谴责之词。闭上你们的嘴，敞开你们的心。为这片土地与整个世界的解脱而工作，每个人都想着全部的重担落在自己肩上。将吠檀多的光明与生命带到每一扇门前，唤醒每一个灵魂中隐藏着的神性。无论你们的成就如何，你们都将有这样的满足感——你们曾为一项伟大的事业而生活、工作和献身。在这一事业的成功之中，无论以何种方式实现，人类在此世与来世的解脱，皆寄托其中。
English
THE MISSION OF THE VEDANTA
On the occasion of his visit to Kumbakonam, the Swamiji was presented with the following address by the local Hindu community:
Revered Swamin ,
On behalf of the Hindu inhabitants of this ancient and religiously important town of Kumbakonam, we request permission to offer you a most hearty welcome on your return from the Western World to our own holy land of great temples and famous saints and sages. We are highly thankful to God for the remarkable success of your religious mission in America and in Europe, and for His having enabled you to impress upon the choicest representatives of the world's great religions assembled at Chicago that both the Hindu philosophy and religion are so broad and so rationally catholic as to have in them the power to exalt and to harmonise all ideas of God and of human spirituality.
The conviction that the cause of Truth is always safe in the hands of Him who is the life and soul of the universe has been for thousands of years part of our living faith; and if today we rejoice at the results of your holy work in Christian lands, it is because the eyes of men in and outside of India are thereby being opened to the inestimable value of the spiritual heritage of the preeminently religious Hindu nation. The success of your work has naturally added great lustre to the already renowned name of your great Guru; it has also raised us in the estimation of the civilised world; more than all, it has made us feel that we too, as a people, have reason to be proud of the achievements of our past, and that the absence of telling aggressiveness in our civilisation is in no way a sign of its exhausted or decaying condition. With clear-sighted, devoted, and altogether unselfish workers like you in our midst, the future of the Hindu nation cannot but be bright and hopeful. May the God of the universe who is also the great God of all nations bestow on you health and long life, and make you increasingly strong and wise in the discharge of your high and noble function as a worthy teacher of Hindu religion and philosophy.
A second address was also presented by the Hindu students of the town.
The Swami then delivered the following address on the Mission of the Vedanta:
A very small amount of religious work performed brings a large amount of result. If this statement of the Gita wanted an illustration, I am finding every day the truth of that great saying in my humble life. My work has been very insignificant indeed, but the kindness and the cordiality of welcome that have met me at every step of my journey from Colombo to this city are simply beyond all expectation. Yet, at the same time, it is worthy of our traditions as Hindus, it is worthy of our race; for here we are, the Hindu race, whose vitality, whose life-principle, whose very soul, as it were, is in religion. I have seen a little of the world, travelling among the races of the East and the West; and everywhere I find among nations one great ideal which forms the backbone, so to speak, of that race. With some it is politics, with others it is social culture; others again may have intellectual culture and so on for their national background. But this, our motherland, has religion and religion alone for its basis, for its backbone, for the bed-rock upon which the whole building of its life has been based. Some of you may remember that in my reply to the kind address which the people of Madras sent over to me in America, I pointed out the fact that a peasant in India has, in many respects, a better religious education than many a gentleman in the West, and today, beyond all doubt, I myself am verifying my own words. There was a time when I did feel rather discontented at the want of information among the masses of India and the lack of thirst among them for information, but now I understand it. Where their interest lies, there they are more eager for information than the masses of any other race that I have seen or have travelled among. Ask our peasants about the momentous political changes in Europe, the upheavals that are going on in European society — they do not know anything of them, nor do they care to know; but the peasants, even in Ceylon, detached from India in many ways, cut off from a living interest in India — I found the very peasants working in the fields there were already acquainted with the fact that there had been a Parliament of Religions in America, that an Indian Sannyasin had gone over there, and that he had had some success.
Where, therefore, their interest is, there they are as eager for information as any other race; and religion is the one and sole interest of the people of India. I am not just now discussing whether it is good to have the vitality of the race in religious ideals or in political ideals, but so far it is clear to us that, for good or for evil, our vitality is concentrated in our religion. You cannot change it. You cannot destroy it and put in its place another. You cannot transplant a large growing tree from one soil to another and make it immediately take root there. For good or for evil, the religious ideal has been flowing into India for thousands of years; for good or for evil, the Indian atmosphere has been filled with ideals of religion for shining scores of centuries; for good or for evil, we have been born and brought up in the very midst of these ideas of religion, till it has entered into our very blood and tingled with every drop in our veins, and has become one with our constitution, become the very vitality of our lives. Can you give such religion up without the rousing of the same energy in reaction, without filling the channel which that mighty river has cut out for itself in the course of thousands of years? Do you want that the Gangâ should go back to its icy bed and begin a new course? Even if that were possible, it would be impossible for this country to give up her characteristic course of religious life and take up for herself a new career of politics or something else. You can work only under the law of least resistance, and this religious line is the line of least resistance in India. This is the line of life, this is the line of growth, and this is the line of well-being in India — to follow the track of religion.
Ay, in other countries religion is only one of the many necessities in life. To use a common illustration which I am in the habit of using, my lady has many things in her parlour, and it is the fashion nowadays to have a Japanese vase, and she must procure it; it does not look well to be without it. So my lady, or my gentleman, has many other occupations in life, and also a little bit of religion must come in to complete it. Consequently he or she has a little religion. Politics, social improvement, in one word, this world, is the goal of mankind in the West, and God and religion come in quietly as helpers to attain that goal. Their God is, so to speak, the Being who helps to cleanse and to furnish this world for them; that is apparently all the value of God for them. Do you not know how for the last hundred or two hundred years you have been hearing again and again out of the lips of men who ought to have known better, from the mouths of those who pretend at least to know better, that all the arguments they produce against the Indian religion is this — that our religion does not conduce to well-being in this world, that it does not bring gold to us, that it does not make us robbers of nations, that it does not make the strong stand upon the bodies of the weak and feed themselves with the life-blood of the weak. Certainly our religion does not do that. It cannot send cohorts, under whose feet the earth trembles, for the purpose of destruction and pillage and the ruination of races. Therefore they say — what is there in this religion? It does not bring any grist to the grinding mill, any strength to the muscles; what is there in such a religion?
They little dream that that is the very argument with which we prove out religion, because it does not make for this world. Ours is the only true religion because, according to it, this little sense-world of three days' duration is not to be made the end and aim of all, is not to be our great goal. This little earthly horizon of a few feet is not that which bounds the view of our religion. Ours is away beyond, and still beyond; beyond the senses, beyond space, and beyond time, away, away beyond, till nothing of this world is left and the universe itself becomes like a drop in the transcendent ocean of the glory of the soul. Ours is the true religion because it teaches that God alone is true, that this world is false and fleeting, that all your gold is but as dust, that all your power is finite, and that life itself is oftentimes an evil; therefore it is, that ours is the true religion. Ours is the true religion because, above all, it teaches renunciation and stands up with the wisdom of ages to tell and to declare to the nations who are mere children of yesterday in comparison with us Hindus — who own the hoary antiquity of the wisdom, discovered by our ancestors here in India — to tell them in plain words: "Children, you are slaves of the senses; there is only finiteness in the senses, there is only ruination in the senses; the three short days of luxury here bring only ruin at last. Give it all up, renounce the love of the senses and of the world; that is the way of religion." Through renunciation is the way to the goal and not through enjoyment. Therefore ours is the only true religion.
Ay, it is a curious fact that while nations after nations have come upon the stage of the world, played their parts vigorously for a few moments, and died almost without leaving a mark or a ripple on the ocean of time, here we are living, as it were, an eternal life. They talk a great deal of the new theories about the survival of the fittest, and they think that it is the strength of the muscles which is the fittest to survive. If that were true, any one of the aggressively known old world nations would have lived in glory today, and we, the weak Hindus, who never conquered even one other race or nation, ought to have died out; yet we live here three hundred million strong! (A young English lady once told me: What have the Hindus done? They never even conquered a single race!) And it is not at all true that all its energies are spent, that atrophy has overtaken its body: that is not true. There is vitality enough, and it comes out in torrents and deluges the world when the time is ripe and requires it.
We have, as it were, thrown a challenge to the whole world from the most ancient times. In the West, they are trying to solve the problem how much a man can possess, and we are trying here to solve the problem on how little a man can live. This struggle and this difference will still go on for some centuries. But if history has any truth in it and if prognostications ever prove true, it must be that those who train themselves to live on the least and control themselves well will in the end gain the battle, and that those who run after enjoyment and luxury, however vigorous they may seem for the moment, will have to die and become annihilated. There are times in the history of a man's life, nay, in the history of the lives of nations, when a sort of world-weariness becomes painfully predominant. It seems that such a tide of world-weariness has come upon the Western world. There, too, they have their thinkers, great men; and they are already finding out that this race after gold and power is all vanity of vanities; many, nay, most of the cultured men and women there, are already weary of this competition, this struggle, this brutality of their commercial civilisation, and they are looking forward towards something better. There is a class which still clings on to political and social changes as the only panacea for the evils in Europe, but among the great thinkers there, other ideals are growing. They have found out that no amount of political or social manipulation of human conditions can cure the evils of life. It is a change of the soul itself for the better that alone will cure the evils of life. No amount of force, or government, or legislative cruelty will change the conditions of a race, but it is spiritual culture and ethical culture alone that can change wrong racial tendencies for the better. Thus these races of the West are eager for some new thought, for some new philosophy; the religion they have had, Christianity, although good and glorious in many respects, has been imperfectly understood, and is, as understood hitherto, found to be insufficient. The thoughtful men of the West find in our ancient philosophy, especially in the Vedanta, the new impulse of thought they are seeking, the very spiritual food and drink for which they are hungering and thirsting. And it is no wonder that this is so.
I have become used to hear all sorts of wonderful claims put forward in favour of every religion under the sun. You have also heard, quite within recent times, the claims put forward by Dr. Barrows, a great friend of mine, that Christianity is the only universal religion. Let me consider this question awhile and lay before you my reasons why I think that it is Vedanta, and Vedanta alone that can become the universal religion of man, and that no other is fitted for the role. Excepting our own almost all the other great religions in the world are inevitably connected with the life or lives of one or more of their founders. All their theories, their teachings, their doctrines, and their ethics are built round the life of a personal founder, from whom they get their sanction, their authority, and their power; and strangely enough, upon the historicity of the founder's life is built, as it were, all the fabric of such religions. If there is one blow dealt to the historicity of that life, as has been the case in modern times with the lives of almost all the so-called founders of religion — we know that half of the details of such lives is not now seriously believed in, and that the other half is seriously doubted — if this becomes the case, if that rock of historicity, as they pretend to call it, is shaken and shattered, the whole building tumbles down, broken absolutely, never to regain its lost status.
Every one of the great religions in the world excepting our own, is built upon such historical characters; but ours rests upon principles. There is no man or woman who can claim to have created the Vedas. They are the embodiment of eternal principles; sages discovered them; and now and then the names of these sages are mentioned — just their names; we do not even know who or what they were. In many cases we do not know who their fathers were, and almost in every case we do not know when and where they were born. But what cared they, these sages, for their names? They were the preachers of principles, and they themselves, so far as they went, tried to become illustrations of the principles they preached. At the same time, just as our God is an Impersonal and yet a Personal God, so is our religion a most intensely impersonal one — a religion based upon principles — and yet with an infinite scope for the play of persons; for what religion gives you more Incarnations, more prophets and seers, and still waits for infinitely more? The Bhâgavata says that Incarnations are infinite, leaving ample scope for as many as you like to come. Therefore if any one or more of these persons in India's religious history, any one or more of these Incarnations, and any one or more of our prophets proved not to have been historical, it does not injure our religion at all; even then it remains firm as ever, because it is based upon principles, and not upon persons. It is in vain we try to gather all the peoples of the world around a single personality. It is difficult to make them gather together even round eternal and universal principles. If it ever becomes possible to bring the largest portion of humanity to one way of thinking in regard to religion, mark you, it must be always through principles and not through persons. Yet as I have said, our religion has ample scope for the authority and influence of persons. There is that most wonderful theory of Ishta which gives you the fullest and the freest choice possible among these great religious personalities. You may take up any one of the prophets or teachers as your guide and the object of your special adoration; you are even allowed to think that he whom you have chosen is the greatest of the prophets, greatest of all the Avatâras; there is no harm in that, but you must keep to a firm background of eternally true principles. The strange fact here is that the power of our Incarnations has been holding good with us only so far as they are illustrations of the principles in the Vedas. The glory of Shri Krishna is that he has been the best preacher of our eternal religion of principles and the best commentator on the Vedanta that ever lived in India.
The second claim of the Vedanta upon the attention of the world is that, of all the scriptures in the world, it is the one scripture the teaching of which is in entire harmony with the results that have been attained by the modern scientific investigations of external nature. Two minds in the dim past of history, cognate to each other in form and kinship and sympathy, started, being placed in different routes. The one was the ancient Hindu mind, and the other the ancient Greek mind. The former started by analysing the internal world. The latter started in search of that goal beyond by analysing the external world. And even through the various vicissitudes of their history, it is easy to make out these two vibrations of thought as tending to produce similar echoes of the goal beyond. It seems clear that the conclusions of modern materialistic science can be acceptable, harmoniously with their religion, only to the Vedantins or Hindus as they are called. It seems clear that modern materialism can hold its own and at the same time approach spirituality by taking up the conclusions of the Vedanta. It seems to us, and to all who care to know, that the conclusions of modern science are the very conclusions the Vedanta reached ages ago; only, in modern science they are written in the language of matter. This then is another claim of the Vedanta upon modern Western minds, its rationality, the wonderful rationalism of the Vedanta. I have myself been told by some of the best Western scientific minds of the day, how wonderfully rational the conclusions of the Vedanta are. I know one of them personally who scarcely has time to eat his meal or go out of his laboratory, but who yet would stand by the hour to attend my lectures on the Vedanta; for, as he expresses it, they are so scientific, they so exactly harmonise with the aspirations of the age and with the conclusions to which modern science is coming at the present time.
Two such scientific conclusions drawn from comparative religion, I would specially like to draw your attention to: the one bears upon the idea of the universality of religions, and the other on the idea of the oneness of things. We observe in the histories of Babylon and among the Jews an interesting religious phenomenon happening. We find that each of these Babylonian and Jewish peoples was divided into so many tribes, each tribe having a god of its own, and that these little tribal gods had often a generic name. The gods among the Babylonians were all called Baals, and among them Baal Merodach was the chief. In course of time one of these many tribes would conquer and assimilate the other racially allied tribes, and the natural result would be that the god of the conquering tribe would be placed at the head of all the gods of the other tribes. Thus the so-called boasted monotheism of the Semites was created. Among the Jews the gods went by the name of Molochs. Of these there was one Moloch who belonged to the tribe called Israel, and he was called the Moloch-Yahveh or Moloch-Yava. In time, this tribe of Israel slowly conquered some of the other tribes of the same race, destroyed their Molochs, and declared its own Moloch to be the Supreme Moloch of all the Molochs. And I am sure, most of you know the amount of bloodshed, of tyranny, and of brutal savagery that this religious conquest entailed. Later on, the Babylonians tried to destroy this supremacy of Moloch-Yahveh, but could not succeed in doing so.
It seems to me, that such an attempt at tribal self-assertion in religious matters might have taken place on the frontiers and India also. Here, too, all the various tribes of the Aryans might have come into conflict with one another for declaring the supremacy of their several tribal gods; but India's history was to be otherwise, was to be different from that of the Jews. India alone was to be, of all lands, the land of toleration and of spirituality; and therefore the fight between tribes and their gods did not long take place here. For one of the greatest sages that was ever born found out here in India even at that distant time, which history cannot reach, and into whose gloom even tradition itself dares not peep — in that distant time the sage arose and declared, एकं सद् विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति — "He who exists is one; the sages call Him variously." This is one of the most memorable sentences that was ever uttered, one of the grandest truths that was ever discovered. And for us Hindus this truth has been the very backbone of our national existence. For throughout the vistas of the centuries of our national life, this one idea — एकं सद् विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति — comes down, gaining in volume and in fullness till it has permeated the whole of our national existence, till it has mingled in our blood, and has become one with us. We live that grand truth in every vein, and our country has become the glorious land of religious toleration. It is here and here alone that they build temples and churches for the religions which have come with the object of condemning our own religion. This is one very great principle that the world is waiting to learn from us. Ay, you little know how much of intolerance is yet abroad. It struck me more than once that I should have to leave my bones on foreign shores owing to the prevalence of religious intolerance. Killing a man is nothing for religion's sake; tomorrow they may do it in the very heart of the boasted civilisation of the West, if today they are not really doing so. Outcasting in its most horrible forms would often come down upon the head of a man in the West if he dared to say a word against his country's accepted religion. They talk glibly and smoothly here in criticism of our caste laws. If you go, to the West and live there as I have done, you will know that even some of the biggest professors you hear of are arrant cowards and dare not say, for fear of public opinion, a hundredth part of what they hold to be really true in religious matter.
Therefore the world is waiting for this grand idea of universal toleration. It will be a great acquisition to civilisation. Nay, no civilisation can long exist unless this idea enters into it. No civilisation can grow unless fanatics, bloodshed, and brutality stop. No civilisation can begin to lift up its head until we look charitably upon one another; and the first step towards that much-needed charity is to look charitably and kindly upon the religious convictions of others. Nay more, to understand that not only should we be charitable, but positively helpful to each other, however different our religious ideas and convictions may be. And that is exactly what we do in India as I have just related to you. It is here in India that Hindus have built and are still building churches for Christians and mosques for Mohammedans. That is the thing to do. In spite of their hatred, in spite of their brutality, in spite of their cruelly, in spite of their tyranny, and in spite of the vile language they are given to uttering, we will and must go on building churches for the Christians and mosques for the Mohammedans until we conquer through love, until we have demonstrated to the world that love alone is the fittest thing to survive and not hatred, that it is gentleness that has the strength to live on and to fructify, and not mere brutality and physical force.
The other great idea that the world wants from us today, the thinking part of Europe, nay, the whole world — more, perhaps, the lower classes than the higher, more the masses than the cultured, more the ignorant than the educated, more the weak than the strong — is that eternal grand idea of the spiritual oneness of the whole universe. I need not tell you today, men from Madras University, how the modern researches of the West have demonstrated through physical means the oneness and the solidarity of the whole universe; how, physically speaking, you and I, the sun, moon, and stars are but little waves or waveless in the midst of an infinite ocean of matter; how Indian psychology demonstrated ages ago that, similarly, both body and mind are but mere names or little waveless in the ocean of matter, the Samashti; and how, going one step further, it is also shown in the Vedanta that behind that idea of the unity of the whole show, the real Soul is one. There is but one Soul throughout the universe, all is but One Existence This great idea of the real and basic solidarity of the whole universe has frightened many, even in this country. It even now finds sometimes more opponents than adherents. I tell you, nevertheless, that it is the one great life-giving idea which the world wants from us today, and which the mute masses of India want for their uplifting, for none can regenerate this land of ours without the practical application and effective operation of this ideal of the oneness of things.
The rational West is earnestly bent upon seeking out the rationality, the raison d' être of all its philosophy and its ethics; and you all know well that ethics cannot be derived from the mere sanction of any personage, however great and divine he may have been. Such an explanation of the authority of ethics appeals no more to the highest of the world's thinkers; they want something more than human sanction for ethical and moral codes to be binding, they want some eternal principle of truth as the sanction of ethics. And where is that eternal sanction to be found except in the only Infinite Reality that exists in you and in me and in all, in the Self, in the Soul? The infinite oneness of the Soul is the eternal sanction of all morality, that you and I are not only brothers — every literature voicing man's struggle towards freedom has preached that for you — but that you and I are really one. This is the dictate of Indian philosophy. This oneness is the rationale of all ethics and all spirituality. Europe wants it today just as much as our downtrodden masses do, and this great principle is even now unconsciously forming the basis of all the latest political and social aspirations that are coming up in England, in Germany, in France, and in America. And mark it, my friends, that in and through all the literature voicing man's struggle towards freedom, towards universal freedom, again and again you find the Indian Vedantic ideals coming out prominently. In some cases the writers do not know the source of their inspiration, in some cases they try to appear very original, and a few there are, bold and grateful enough to mention the source and acknowledge their indebtedness to it.
When I was in America, I heard once the complaint made that I was preaching too much of Advaita, and too little of dualism. Ay, I know what grandeur, what oceans of love, what infinite, ecstatic blessings and joy there are in the dualistic love-theories of worship and religion. I know it all. But this is not the time with us to weep even in joy; we have had weeping enough; no more is this the time for us to become soft. This softness has been with us till we have become like masses of cotton and are dead. What our country now wants are muscles of iron and nerves of steel, gigantic wills which nothing can resist, which can penetrate into the mysteries and the secrets of the universe, and will accomplish their purpose in any fashion even if it meant going down to the bottom of the ocean and meeting death face to face. That is what we want, and that can only be created, established, and strengthened by understanding and realising the ideal of the Advaita, that ideal of the oneness of all. Faith, faith, faith in ourselves, faith, faith in God — this is the secret of greatness. If you have faith in all the three hundred and thirty millions of your mythological gods, and in all the gods which foreigners have now and again introduced into your midst, and still have no faith in yourselves, there is no salvation for you. Have faith in yourselves, and stand up on that faith and be strong; that is what we need. Why is it that we three hundred and thirty millions of people have been ruled for the last one thousand years by any and every handful of foreigners who chose to walk over our prostrate bodies? Because they had faith in themselves and we had not. What did I learn in the West, and what did I see behind those frothy sayings of the Christian sects repeating that man was a fallen and hopelessly fallen sinner? There I saw that inside the national hearts of both Europe and America reside the tremendous power of the men's faith in themselves. An English boy will tell you, "I am an Englishman, and I can do anything." The American boy will tell you the same thing, and so will any European boy. Can our boys say the same thing here? No, nor even the boy's fathers. We have lost faith in ourselves. Therefore to preach the Advaita aspect of the Vedanta is necessary to rouse up the hearts of men, to show them the glory of their souls. It is, therefore, that I preach this Advaita; and I do so not as a sectarian, but upon universal and widely acceptable grounds.
It is easy to find out the way of reconciliation that will not hurt the dualist or the qualified monist. There is not one system in India which does not hold the doctrine that God is within, that Divinity resides within all things. Every one of our Vedantic systems admits that all purity and perfection and strength are in the soul already. According to some, this perfection sometimes becomes, as it were, contracted, and at other times it becomes expanded again. Yet it is there. According to the Advaita, it neither contracts nor expands, but becomes hidden and uncovered now and again. Pretty much the same thing in effect. The one may be a more logical statement than the other, but as to the result, the practical conclusions, both are about the same; and this is the one central idea which the world stands in need of, and nowhere is the want more felt than in this, our own motherland.
Ay, my friends, I must tell you a few harsh truths. I read in the newspaper how, when one of our fellows is murdered or ill-treated by an Englishman, howls go up all over the country; I read and I weep, and the next moment comes to my mind the question: Who is responsible for it all? As a Vedantist I cannot but put that question to myself. The Hindu is a man of introspection; he wants to see things in and through himself, through the subjective vision. I, therefore, ask myself: Who is responsible? And the answer comes every time: Not the English; no, they are not responsible; it is we who are responsible for all our misery and all our degradation, and we alone are responsible. Our aristocratic ancestors went on treading the common masses of our country underfoot, till they became helpless, till under this torment the poor, poor people nearly forgot that they were human beings. They have been compelled to be merely hewers of wood and drawers of water for centuries, so much so, that they are made to believe that they are born as slaves, born as hewers of wood and drawers of water. With all our boasted education of modern times, if anybody says a kind word for them, I often find our men shrink at once from the duty of lifting them up, these poor downtrodden people. Not only so, but I also find that all sorts of most demoniacal and brutal arguments, culled from the crude ideas of hereditary transmission and other such gibberish from the Western world, are brought forward in order to brutalise and tyrannise over the poor all the more. At the Parliament of Religions in America, there came among others a young man, a born Negro, a real African Negro, and he made a beautiful speech. I became interested in the young man and now and then talked to him, but could learn nothing about him. But one day in England, I met some Americans; and this is what they told me. This boy was the son of a Negro chief who lived in the heart of Africa, and that one day another chief became angry with the father of this boy and murdered him and murdered the mother also, and they were cooked and eaten; he ordered the child to be killed also and cooked and eaten; but the boy fled, and after passing through great hardships and having travelled a distance of several hundreds of miles, he reached the seashore, and there he was taken into an American vessel and brought over to America. And this boy made that speech! After that, what was I to think of your doctrine of heredity!
Ay, Brâhmins, if the Brahmin has more aptitude for learning on the ground of heredity than the Pariah, spend no more money on the Brahmin's education, but spend all on the Pariah. Give to the weak, for there all the gift is needed. If the Brahmin is born clever, he can educate himself without help. If the others are not born clever, let them have all the teaching and the teachers they want. This is justice and reason as I understand it. Our poor people, these downtrodden masses of India, therefore, require to hear and to know what they really are. Ay, let every man and woman and child, without respect of caste or birth, weakness or strength, hear and learn that behind the strong and the weak, behind the high and the low, behind every one, there is that Infinite Soul, assuring the infinite possibility and the infinite capacity of all to become great and good. Let us proclaim to every soul:उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्निबोधत — Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached. Arise, awake! Awake from this hypnotism of weakness. None is really weak; the soul is infinite, omnipotent, and omniscient. Stand up, assert yourself, proclaim the God within you, do not deny Him! Too much of inactivity, too much of weakness, too much of hypnotism has been and is upon our race. O ye modern Hindus, de-hypnotise yourselves. The way to do that is found in your own sacred books. Teach yourselves, teach every one his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity. Ay, if there is anything in the Gita that I like, it is these two verses, coming out strong as the very gist, the very essence, of Krishna's teaching — "He who sees the Supreme Lord dwelling alike in all beings, the Imperishable in things that perish, he sees indeed. For seeing the Lord as the same, everywhere present, he does not destroy the Self by the Self, and thus he goes to the highest goal."
Thus there is a great opening for the Vedanta to do beneficent work both here and elsewhere. This wonderful idea of the sameness and omnipresence of the Supreme Soul has to be preached for the amelioration and elevation of the human race here as elsewhere. Wherever there is evil and wherever there is ignorance and want of knowledge, I have found out by experience that all evil comes, as our scriptures say, relying upon differences, and that all good comes from faith in equality, in the underlying sameness and oneness of things. This is the great Vedantic ideal. To have the ideal is one thing, and to apply it practically to the details of daily life is quite another thing. It is very good to point out an ideal, but where is the practical way to reach it?
Here naturally comes the difficult and the vexed question of caste and of social reformation, which has been uppermost for centuries in the minds of our people. I must frankly tell you that I am neither a caste-breaker nor a mere social reformer. I have nothing to do directly with your castes or with your social reformation. Live in any caste you like, but that is no reason why you should hate another man or another caste. It is love and love alone that I preach, and I base my teaching on the great Vedantic truth of the sameness and omnipresence of the Soul of the Universe. For nearly the past one hundred years, our country has been flooded with social reformers and various social reform proposals. Personally, I have no fault to find with these reformers. Most of them are good, well-meaning men, and their aims too are very laudable on certain points; but it is quite a patent fact that this one hundred years of social reform has produced no permanent and valuable result appreciable throughout the country. Platform 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 civilisation, and yet no good practical result has been achieved; and where is the reason for that? The reason is not hard to find. It is in the denunciation itself. As I told you before, in the first place, we must try to keep our historically acquired character as a people. I grant that we have to take a great many things from other nations, that we have to learn many lessons from outside; but I am sorry to say that most of our modern reform movements have been inconsiderate imitations of Western means and methods of work; 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 there no evils? And let me take this opportunity, my 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 are on the whole the most moral and the most godly, and our institutions are, in their plan and purpose, best suited to make mankind happy. I do not, therefore, want any reformation. My ideal is growth, expansion, development on national lines. As I look back upon the history of my country, I do not find in the whole world another country which has done quite so much for the improvement of the human mind. Therefore I have no words of condemnation for my nation. I tell them, "You have done well; only try to do better." Great things have been done in the past in this land, and there 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, we die. We have either to go forward or to go backward. We have either to progress or to degenerate. Our ancestors did great things in the past, but we have to grow into a fuller life and march beyond even their great achievements. How 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 is what I have to tell you.
I am no preacher of any momentary social reform. I am not trying to remedy evils, I only ask you to go forward and to complete the practical realisation of the scheme of human progress that has been laid out in the most perfect order by our ancestors. I only ask you to work to realise more and more the Vedantic ideal of the solidarity of man and his inborn divine nature. Had I the time, I would gladly show you how everything we have now to do was laid out years ago by our ancient law-givers, and how they actually anticipated all the different changes that have taken place and are still to take place in our national institutions. They also were breakers of caste, but they were not like our modern men. They did not mean by the breaking of caste that all the people in a city should sit down together to a dinner of beef-steak and champagne, nor that all fools and lunatics in the country should marry when, where, and whom they chose and reduce the country to a lunatic asylum, nor did they believe that the prosperity of a nation is to be gauged by the number of husbands its widows get. I have yet to see such a prosperous nation.
The ideal man of our ancestors was the Brahmin. In all our books stands out prominently this ideal of the Brahmin. In Europe there is my Lord the Cardinal, who is struggling hard and spending thousands of pounds to prove the nobility of his ancestors, and he will not be satisfied until he has traced his ancestry to some dreadful tyrant who lived on a hill and watched the people passing by, and whenever he had the opportunity, sprang out on them and robbed them. That was 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 the other hand, the greatest princes seek to trace their descent to some ancient sage who dressed in a bit of loin cloth, lived in a forest, eating roots and studying the Vedas. It is there that the Indian prince goes to trace his ancestry. You are of the high caste when you can trace your ancestry to a Rishi, and not otherwise.
Our ideal of high birth, therefore, is different from, that of others. Our ideal is the Brahmin of spiritual culture and renunciation. By the Brahmin ideal what do I mean? I mean the ideal Brahmin-ness in which worldliness is altogether absent and true wisdom is abundantly present. That is the ideal of the Hindu race. Have you not heard how it is declared that he, the Brahmin, is not amenable to law, that he has no law, that he is not governed by kings, and that his body cannot be hurt? That is perfectly true. Do not understand it in the light thrown upon it by interested and ignorant fools, but understand it in the light of the true and original Vedantic conception. If the Brahmin is he who has killed all selfishness and who lives and works to acquire and propagate wisdom and the power of love — if a country is altogether inhabited by such Brahmins, by men and women who are spiritual and moral and good, is it strange to think of that country as being above and beyond all law? What police, what military are necessary to govern them? Why should any one govern them at all? Why should they live under a government? They are good and noble, and they are the men of God; these are our ideal Brahmins, and we read that in the Satya Yuga there was only one caste, and that was the Brahmin. We read in the Mahâbhârata that the whole world was in the beginning peopled with Brahmins, and that as they began to degenerate, they became divided into different castes, and that when the cycle turns round, they will all go back to that Brahminical origin. This cycle is turning round now, and I draw your attention to this fact. Therefore our solution of the caste question is not degrading those who are already high up, is not running amuck through food and drink, is not jumping out of our own limits in order to have more enjoyment, but it comes by every one of us, fulfilling the dictates of our Vedantic religion, by our attaining spirituality, and by our becoming the ideal Brahmin. There is a law laid on each one of you in this land by your ancestors, whether you are Aryans or non-Aryans, Rishis or Brahmins, or the very lowest outcasts. The command is the same to you all, that you must make progress without stopping, and that from the highest man to the lowest Pariah, every one in this country has to try and become the ideal Brahmin. This Vedantic idea is applicable not only here but over the whole world. Such is our ideal of caste as meant for raising all humanity slowly and gently towards the realisation of that great ideal of the spiritual man who is non-resisting, calm, steady, worshipful, pure, and meditative. In that ideal there is God.
How are these things to be brought about? I must again draw your attention to the fact that cursing and vilifying and abusing do not and cannot produce anything good. They have been tried for years and years, and no valuable result has been obtained. Good results can be produced only through love, through sympathy. It is a great subject, and it requires several lectures to elucidate all the plans that I have in view, and all the ideas that are, in this connection, coming to my mind day after day I must, therefore, conclude, only reminding you of this fact that this ship of our nation, O Hindus, has been usefully plying here for ages. Today, perhaps, it has sprung a leak; today, perhaps, it has become a little worn out. And if such is the case, it behaves you and me to try our best to stop the leak and holes. Let us tell our countrymen of the danger, let them awake and help us. I will cry at the top of my voice from one part of this country to the other, to awaken the people to the situation and their duty. Suppose they do not hear me, still I shall not have one word of abuse for them, not one word of cursing. Great has been our nation's work in the past; and if we cannot do greater things in the future, let us have this consolation that we can sink and die together in peace. Be patriots, love the race which has done such great things for us in the past. Ay, the more I compare notes, the more I love you, my fellow-countrymen; you are good and pure and gentle. You have been always tyrannised over, and such is the irony of this material world of Mâyâ. Never mind that; the Spirit will triumph in the long run. In the meanwhile let us work and let us not abuse our country, let us not curse and abuse the weather-beaten and work-worn institutions of our thrice-holy motherland. Have no word of condemnation even for the most superstitious and the most irrational of its institutions, for they also must have served some good in the past. Remember always that there is not in the world any other country whose institutions are really better in their aims and objects than the institutions of this land. I have seen castes in almost every country in the world, but nowhere is their plan and purpose so glorious as here. If caste is thus unavoidable, I would rather have a caste of purity and culture and self-sacrifice, than a caste of dollars. Therefore utter no words of condemnation. Close your lips and let your hearts open. Work out the salvation of this land and of the whole world, each of you thinking that the entire burden is on your shoulders. Carry the light and the life of the Vedanta to every door, and rouse up the divinity that is hidden within every soul. Then, whatever may be the measure of your success, you will have this satisfaction that you have lived, worked, and died for a great cause. In the success of this cause, howsoever brought about, is centred the salvation of humanity here and hereafter.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。