对赫特里大君致辞的回复
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回复凯特里王公的致辞
印度——宗教之邦
斯瓦米在美国旅居期间，收到了来自凯特里王公（拉杰普塔纳）的如下致辞，日期为1895年3月4日：
亲爱的斯瓦米，
作为今日为此特殊目的而举行的达巴尔（正式的庄严集会）之主持，我谨以本州及臣民的名义，向您致以衷心的谢意，感谢您在美国芝加哥举行的世界宗教议会上，对印度教所作出的卓越代表。
我以为，在语言本身之局限这一极为自然的限制之下，您所呈现的印度教总体原则，已是迄今用英语所作出的最为准确、清晰的表达，无出其右者。
您在异邦的言论与举止所产生的影响，不仅在不同国家、不同宗教的人士中赢得了广泛的仰慕，更使您与他们结下了深厚的情谊，从而推进了您无私事业的发展。我们所有人对此都深感珍贵，无以言表。若我不正式地致函于您，即便仅此寥寥数行，以表达我们对您远赴异邦、在美国宗教议会上宣扬我们久所珍视的古老宗教真理所受辛劳的诚挚谢忱，我们便有失职之嫌。印度拥有像您这样卓越的代表，实乃印度之骄傲，更是印度之幸。
感谢之情也应献予那些促成宗教议会得以举办的高尚灵魂，以及给予您最为热烈接待的人士。作为那片大陆上的一位异乡人，他们对您的厚爱，源于他们对您所具备诸多才德的喜爱，这充分体现了他们高贵的本性。
兹随函附上此信的印刷本二十份，恳请您留存一份，将其余各份分赠于您的友人。
谨此致意，
您至诚的，
凯特里的拉贾·阿吉特·辛格·巴哈杜尔
斯瓦米回复如下：
"每当正法衰微、邪恶抬头，我便降临世间以恢复宗教的荣光"——
这是永恒者在神圣的《薄伽梵歌》（Bhagavad Gita）中所言，高贵的王子，此言道出了宇宙间灵性能量起伏涨落的主旋律。
这些变化周而复始地以其特有的节律呈现自身，如同一切其他的重大变迁，虽多少影响到其作用范围之内的每一微粒，却在那些天然对其力量易于感应的微粒上表现得更为强烈。
如同在宇宙的意义上，原始状态乃是一种诸质力平衡的状态——这种平衡一旦被打破，其后一切为重归平衡而进行的挣扎，便构成了我们所谓的自然界的显化，即这个宇宙，而这种状态将一直持续到原始的平衡再度达成为止——同样，在我们地球上这个有限的范围内，分化及其不可避免的对立面，即趋向同质的挣扎，也将与人类存在共始终，在世界各地的族群划分、亚族群乃至个体之间，形成鲜明的差异性。
因此，在这个公允地分化与平衡的世界里，每个民族仿佛都是储存与分配某种特定能量的奇妙发电机，在一切其他特质之中，这种特定属性作为该民族的特殊标志而熠熠生辉。而人类本性中任何一部分的动荡，虽多少会影响到其他部分，却会深刻地撼动以此为特殊属性、并以此为通常起源中心的那个民族；因此，宗教世界中任何动荡，必然会在印度产生深远的变革——那片一次又一次不得不成为大规模宗教变革中心的土地；因为，首先，印度就是宗教之邦。
每个人都只将有助于他实现理想的东西称为真实的。对世俗之人而言，一切可以换取金钱的东西都是真实的，不可兑换者则是虚幻的。对于怀有控制欲望的人而言，一切有助于他统御同类之野心的东西都是真实的——其余皆虚无；人在那些不能回应他内心对生命之特殊挚爱的心跳声的事物中，什么也找不到。
那些唯以用生命的能量换取黄金、名誉或其他任何享乐为目标之人；那些以列阵的军队踏步声为权力之唯一体现之人；那些以感官享乐为生命所能给予的唯一幸福之人——对这些人来说，印度永远会显现为一片茫茫荒漠，其每一阵风都对他们所认知的那种生命的发展是致命的。
然而，对那些从感官世界之外遥远地流淌而来的不死之流中饮水、永远熄灭了生命之渴的人；对那些灵魂已经像蛇蜕皮一样，褪去了贪欲、黄金与名声这三重桎梏的人；对那些从其宁静的高处，以爱和慈悲俯视那些被感官奴役者争夺着被称为"享乐"的、充满尘埃的镀金小球的人；对那些过去善业的积累促使无明的鳞片从眼前脱落、使他们看透名相之虚妄的人——无论身处何处，印度这片灵性的故土与永恒的矿藏，都以变容之姿巍然矗立，为一切寻觅那在幻影消散的宇宙中唯一真实的存在者的人，指引着希望的灯塔。
大多数人只能理解以具体形式呈现给他们的力量，以符合他们的认知。对他们而言，战争的冲锋与激情，连同其力量与魔力，是极为切实可感之物，而任何不像旋风一般横扫一切的生命表现形式，对他们来说都无异于死亡。而印度，数百年来匍匐于异族征服者的脚下，毫无抵抗的念头与希望，民众之间毫无凝聚力，毫无爱国主义的意识——在这些人眼中，印度必然显现为一片烂骨堆积之地，一团了无生气的腐朽之物。
据说——唯有最能适者得以存活。那么，按照普遍接受的观念，这个最不能适者的民族，为何竟能承受历史上一个民族所曾遭受的最为惨烈的不幸，而不显现出丝毫衰败的迹象？为什么，当所谓强健活跃的民族的繁衍能力日益萎缩之时，那不道德（？）的印度教徒却展现出超越他们所有人的增长力量？固然，那些能够在一瞬间使世界血流成河者理应获得极高的赞誉；那些为了维持数百万人口的富足、而不得不让地球上半数人口忍饥挨饿者，其荣耀固然巨大；然而，那些能够在数百年间，不从任何人口中夺取面包，便使数亿人得以和平安居、丰衣足食者，难道不同样值得称颂吗？数百年间，在对他人毫无暴力的情况下，养育并引导着数亿人类的命运——这难道不是一种所展示的力量吗？
古代各民族的神话传说都为我们提供了英雄的故事，这些英雄的生命集中于其身体的某一小部分，只要该部分不受触碰，他们便所向无敌。仿佛每个民族也有这样一个特殊的生命中心，只要它未被触及，任何数量的苦难与不幸都无法将其摧毁。
宗教是印度的活力之源，只要印度教民族不忘其祖先的伟大遗产，地球上便没有任何力量能够将其摧毁。
如今，人们普遍批评那些不断回望历史的人。据说，过于回望历史是印度一切苦难的根源。在我看来，恰恰相反，情况正好相反。当印度教民族遗忘历史之时，他们沉陷于一种昏愦之中；而当他们开始审视历史之时，处处都呈现出生命新鲜的展现。正是从这历史中，未来需要被塑造；这历史将成为未来。
因此，印度教徒越是深入研究历史，其未来越是辉煌灿烂；凡是努力将历史带到每个人面前的人，都是其民族的大恩人。印度的衰落，并非因为古人的法律与习俗有所欠缺，而是因为它们未能被允许发展到其合理的结局。
每一位具有批判精神的学者都知道，印度的社会法则历来都经历着重大的周期性变革。这些法则在其创立之初，是一个宏大计划的体现，这个计划本应随着时间的推移而缓缓展开。古代印度的伟大先见者们的眼光如此超前，以至于世界还需等待数百年才能领悟他们的智慧；而他们自己的后代无法充分领会这个奇妙计划的全貌，正是印度衰落的唯一根源。
数百年来，古代印度一直是其两个最重要阶层——婆罗门与刹帝利——雄心抱负相互角力的战场。
一方面，祭司阶层屹立于诸侯对民众的无法无天的社会暴政与刹帝利宣称民众为其合法猎物之间。另一方面，刹帝利的权力是唯一一股能够与祭司阶层的精神暴政，以及他们正在锻造以束缚民众的不断增加的礼仪锁链进行有效抗争的强大力量。
这场拉锯战从我们民族历史的最早时期便已开始，在整部《天启圣典》（Shrutis）中都可以清晰地追溯到它的踪迹。当克里希纳（Krishna）领导刹帝利力量与智慧（Jnana）的阵营，指出和解之路时，出现了短暂的平息。其结果便是《薄伽梵歌》的教义——哲学、博大与宗教的精华。然而原因既在，结果必将随之而来。
这两个阶层争当贫苦无知民众主宰者的野心依然存在，纷争再度激烈起来。流传至今的那段时期的稀疏文献，只为我们带来了那场宏大历史纷争的隐约回响，但最终，它以刹帝利的胜利、智慧的胜利、自由的胜利而告终——许多繁复的礼仪不得不退出历史舞台，其中许多是永久性的。这场变革便是所谓的佛教改革运动。在宗教层面，它代表着从礼仪中获得解脱；在政治层面，它代表着刹帝利对祭司阶层的推翻。
一个意味深长的事实是，古代印度诞生的两位最伟大的人物，皆为刹帝利——克里希纳与佛陀——更为意味深长的是，这两位神人都向所有人敞开了知识的大门，不分出身，不分性别。
尽管佛教具有卓越的道德力量，但它极度崇尚破旧立新；其大量的力量耗费于纯粹的否定性尝试之上，因此在其诞生之地走向了衰落，其留存下来的部分充满了迷信与礼仪，比它原本意图压制的那些礼仪粗陋百倍。尽管它在一定程度上成功地压制了吠陀的动物献祭，却使这片土地充满了庙宇、神像、符号以及圣人的遗骨。
尤其是，在它所造就的雅利安人、蒙古人与土著居民的混合之中，它不自觉地为某些骇人听闻的左道密法铺平了道路。这正是商羯罗（Shankara）及其游方僧（Sannyasins）团队不得不将这位伟大导师教义的歪曲形式从印度驱逐出去的主要原因。
就这样，即便是由曾穿戴人身的最伟大灵魂——薄伽梵佛陀（Bhagavan Buddha）本人——所激起的生命洪流，也变成了一潭瘴气弥漫的死水；印度不得不等待数百年，直至商羯罗崛起，继之以罗摩努迦（Ramanuja）与摩陀婆（Madhva）的相继出现。
此时，印度历史上一个全新的篇章已然开启。古代的刹帝利与婆罗门已经消失。喜马拉雅山（Himalayas）与温迪亚山脉之间的土地——雅利安人的家园，克里希纳与佛陀的诞生之地，伟大的王仙与梵仙的摇篮——沉寂了下来；从印度半岛的最南端，从言语与形貌皆已殊异的民族之中，从声称出身于古代婆罗门家族的姓族之中，兴起了对腐化的佛教的反动力量。
在佛教运动中，刹帝利是真正的领导力量，大批刹帝利成为佛教徒。在改革与皈依的热忱之中，民间方言几乎被专门推广，以至于梵文受到冷落，大部分刹帝利与吠陀文献和梵文学问渐渐脱节。因此，这股来自南方的改革浪潮，在一定程度上对祭司阶层有所裨益，且仅此而已。对于印度其余的数亿民众而言，它所锻造的枷锁比他们从前所知的更为沉重。
刹帝利历来是印度的脊梁，他们也是科学与自由的支持者，他们的声音一次又一次地回响于大地之上，以廓清迷信；而纵观印度历史，他们始终构成抵御侵略性祭司暴政的铜墙铁壁。
当他们中的大多数人沉沦于无知之时，另一部分人则将血脉与来自中亚的蛮族相互混合，并以刀剑之力在印度建立起祭司的统治，于是印度的苦难之杯溢满，婆罗多（Bharata）之邦由此沉沦，再难振兴，直至刹帝利重新振起，让自身得到解放，并斩断其余人足上的枷锁。祭司专权是印度的祸根。人可以贬低自己的兄弟，而自身却能逃脱堕落吗？
王爷，请知悉您的祖先所发现的最伟大真理：宇宙是一体的。人能伤害他人而不伤及自身吗？婆罗门与刹帝利暴政的重压，已以复利的方式反弹到他们自己头上；千年的奴役与堕落，正是不可逃避的业力（Karma）法则对他们的惩罚。
这是您的一位祖先所说的话："甚至在此生，心念安住于平等中者，已征服了相对性"——此人被认为是神的化身。我们都相信这一点。那么他的话难道是徒劳而无意义的吗？若非如此，而我们知道并非如此，那么任何违背所有造物——不分出身、性别、乃至资质——完全平等的举动，都是可怕的错误；只有达到这种平等之境的人，才能得到拯救。
因此，高贵的王子，请遵循吠檀多（Vedanta）的教义，不是按照这位或那位注释者的诠释，而是按照您内在的主所理解的那样。尤其要遵循这一伟大的平等教义，在一切事物、一切众生中，处处见到同一位神。
这是通向自由之路；不平等则是通向束缚之路。没有任何人或民族能在没有物质平等的情况下谋求物质自由，也没有任何人或民族能在没有精神平等的情况下谋求精神自由。
无明、不平等与欲望，是人类苦难的三大根源，彼此相随，不可分割。为什么人要认为自己高于其他任何人，乃至高于动物？道理始终如一：
त्वं स्त्री त्वं पुमानसि त्वं कुमार उत वा कुमारी।
——"汝即男，汝即女，汝即少年，汝即少女。"
许多人会说："那对游方僧（Sannyasins）来说或许不错，但我们是在家之人。"诚然，在家之人因有许多其他职责要尽，不能像游方僧那样完全达到这种平等；然而这也应当是他们的理想，因为这是一切社会、全体人类、一切动物与自然界的理想——达到这种平等。然而可悲的是！他们以为不平等是达到平等的途径，仿佛他们能够通过行恶来达到正义！
这是人类本性的祸根，是人类的诅咒，是一切苦难的根源——这种不平等。这是一切束缚的根源，无论是肉体的、心智的，还是精神的束缚。
समं पश्यन् हि सर्वत्र समवस्थितमीश्वरम् ।
न हिनस्त्यात्मनात्मानं ततो याति परां गतिम् ॥
समं पश्यन् हि सर्वत्र समवस्थितमीश्वरम् ।
न हिनस्त्यात्मनात्मानं ततो याति परां गतिम् ॥
——"由于处处见到平等安住之自在天（Ishvara），他不以自我伤害真我（Atman），从而趋达最高目的地"（《薄伽梵歌》第十三章第二十八节）。这一句话以寥寥数语，道出了普世的解脱之道。
你们拉杰普特人，曾是古代印度的荣耀。随着你们的堕落，民族也随之衰落；印度的振兴，有赖于刹帝利的后裔与婆罗门的后裔携手合作，不是为了瓜分财富与权力，而是为了扶助弱者，启迪蒙昧，恢复他们祖先圣地的昔日荣光。
谁又能说时机不已到来呢？转轮再度向上，来自印度的振动再度被激起，注定在不远的将来到达地球的最遥远之处。一个声音已经发出，其回响正在滚滚向前、日益壮大，这个声音甚至比以往任何一个都更为雄浑，因为它是所有声音的总和。那曾经向萨拉斯瓦蒂河畔的圣人们说话的声音，那曾经从"山之父"的峰峦间回响、并通过克里希纳、佛陀与柴坦尼亚（Chaitanya）以覆盖一切的洪流倾泻于平原的声音，再度发出了。大门再次敞开了。进入光明的殿堂吧，那大门已再度洞开。
你，我亲爱的王子——你，那个以活柱擎持着永恒宗教、誓死卫护并扶持它的民族的后裔，罗摩（Rama）与克里希纳的子孙，你会置身门外吗？我知道，这不可能。我相信，你必将是那只最先伸出、再度扶持宗教的手。当我想到你，拉贾·阿吉特·辛格，一个将你家族卓著的科学造诣与一种连圣者都应为之自豪的纯洁品格、以及对人类无尽的爱融为一体的人，我不由得深信永恒宗教的辉煌复兴——当这样的双手愿意重建它之时。
愿罗摩克里希纳（Ramakrishna）的祝福永远庇佑您及您的家人，愿您长寿，造福众生，传播真理——这是您虔诚祈祷者的殷切祝愿——
English
REPLY TO THE ADDRESS OF THE MAHARAJA OF KHETRI
INDIA — THE LAND OF RELIGION
During the residence of the Swamiji in America, the following Address from the Maharaja of Khetri (Rajputana), dated March 4th, 1895, was received by him:
My dear Swamiji,
As the head of this Durbar (a formal stately assemblage) held today for this special purpose, I have much pleasure in conveying to you, in my own name and that of my subjects, the heartfelt thanks of this State for your worthy representation of Hinduism at the Parliament of Religions, held at Chicago, in America.
I do not think the general principles of Hinduism could be expressed more accurately and clearly in English than what you have done, with all the restrictions imposed by the very natural shortcomings of language itself.
The influence of your speech and behaviour in foreign lands has not only spread admiration among men of different countries and different religions, but has also served to familiarise you with them, to help in the furtherance of your unselfish cause. This is very highly and inexpressibly appreciated by us all, and we should feel to be failing in our duty, were I not to write to you formally at least these few lines, expressing our sincere gratitude for all the trouble you have taken in going to foreign countries, and to expound in the American Parliament of Religions the truths of our ancient religion which we ever hold so dear. It is certainly applicable to the pride of India that it has been fortunate in possessing the privilege of having secured so able a representative as yourself.
Thanks are also due to those noble souls whose efforts succeeded in organising the Parliament of Religions, and who accorded to you a very enthusiastic reception. As you were quite a foreigner in that continent, their kind treatment of you is due to their love of the several qualifications you possess, and this speaks highly of their noble nature.
I herewith enclose twenty printed copies of this letter and have to request that, keeping this one with yourself you will kindly distribute the other copies among your friends.
With best regards,
I remain,
Yours very sincerely,
Raja Ajit Singh Bahadur of Khetri .
The Swamiji sent the following reply:
"Whenever virtue subsides, and wickedness raises its head, I manifest Myself to restore the glory of religion" — are the words, O noble Prince, of the Eternal One in the holy Gitâ, striking the keynote of the pulsating ebb and flow of the spiritual energy in the universe.
These changes are manifesting themselves again and again in rhythms peculiar to themselves, and like every other tremendous change, though affecting, more or less, every particle within their sphere of action, they show their effects more intensely upon those particles which are naturally susceptible to their power.
As in a universal sense, the primal state is a state of sameness of the qualitative forces — a disturbance of this equilibrium and all succeeding struggles to regain it, composing what we call the manifestation of nature, this universe, which state of things remains as long as the primitive sameness is not reached — so, in a restricted sense on our own earth, differentiation and its inevitable counterpart, this struggle towards homogeneity, must remain as long as the human race shall remain as such, creating strongly marked peculiarities between ethnic divisions, sub-races and even down to individuals in all parts of the world.
In this world of impartial division and balance, therefore, each nation represents, as it were, a wonderful dynamo for the storage and distribution of a particular species of energy, and amidst all other possessions that particular property shines forth as the special characteristic of that race. And as any upheaval in any particular part of human nature, though affecting others more or less, stirs to its very depth that nation of which it is a special characteristic, and from which as a centre it generally starts, so any commotion in the religious world is sure to produce momentous changes in India, that land which again and again has had to furnish the centre of the wide-spread religious upheavals; for, above all, India is the land of religion.
Each man calls that alone real which helps him to realise his ideal. To the worldly-minded, everything that can be converted into money is real, that which cannot be so converted is unreal. To the man of a domineering spirit, anything that will conduce to his ambition of ruling over his fellow men is real — the rest is naught; and man finds nothing in that which does not echo back the heartbeats of his special love in life.
Those whose only aim is to barter the energies of life for gold, or name, or any other enjoyment; those to whom the tramp of embattled cohorts is the only manifestation of power; those to whom the enjoyments of the senses are the only bliss that life can give — to these, India will ever appear as an immense desert whose every blast is deadly to the development of life, as it is known by them.
But to those whose thirst for life has been quenched for ever by drinking from the stream of immortality that flows from far away beyond the world of the senses, whose souls have cast away — as a serpent its slough — the threefold bandages of lust, gold, and fame, who, from their height of calmness, look with love and compassion upon the petty quarrels and jealousies and fights for little gilded puff-balls, filled with dust, called "enjoyment" by those under a sense-bondage; to those whose accumulated force of past good deeds has caused the scales of ignorance to fall off from their eyes, making them see through the vanity of name and form — to such wheresoever they be, India, the motherland and eternal mine of spirituality, stands transfigured, a beacon of hope to everyone in search of Him who is the only real Existence in a universe of vanishing shadows.
The majority of mankind can only understand power when it is presented to them in a concrete form, fitted to their perceptions. To them, the rush and excitement of war, with its power and spell, is something very tangible, and any manifestation of life that does not come like a whirlwind, bearing down everything before it, is to them as death. And India, for centuries at the feet of foreign conquerors, without any idea or hope of resistance, without the least solidarity among its masses, without the least idea of patriotism, must needs appear to such, as a land of rotten bones, a lifeless putrescent mass.
It is said — the fittest alone survive. How is it, then, that this most unfitted of all races, according to commonly accepted ideas, could bear the most awful misfortunes that ever befall a race, and yet not show the least signs of decay? How is it that, while the multiplying powers of the so-called vigorous and active races are dwindling every day, the immoral (?) Hindu shows a power of increase beyond them all? Great laurels are due, no doubt, to those who can deluge the world with blood at a moment's notice; great indeed is the glory of those who, to keep up a population of a few millions in plenty, have to starve half the population of the earth, but is no credit due to those who can keep hundreds of millions in peace and plenty, without snatching the bread from the mouth of anyone else? Is there no power displayed in bringing up and guiding the destinies of countless millions of human beings, through hundreds of centuries, without the least violence to others?
The mythologists of all ancient races supply us with fables of heroes whose life was concentrated in a certain small portion of their bodies, and until that was touched they remained invulnerable. It seems as if each nation also has such a peculiar centre of life, and so long as that remains untouched, no amount of misery and misfortune can destroy it.
In religion lies the vitality of India, and so long as the Hindu race do not forget the great inheritance of their forefathers, there is no power on earth to destroy them.
Nowadays everybody blames those who constantly look back to their past. It is said that so much looking back to the past is the cause of all India's woes. To me, on the contrary, it seems that the opposite is true. So long as they forgot the past, the Hindu nation remained in a state of stupor; and as soon as they have begun to look into their past, there is on every side a fresh manifestation of life. It is out of this past that the future has to be moulded; this past will become the future.
The more, therefore, the Hindus study the past, the more glorious will be their future, and whoever tries to bring the past to the door of everyone, is a great benefactor to his nation. The degeneration of India came not because the laws and customs of the ancients were bad, but because they were not allowed to be carried to their legitimate conclusions.
Every critical student knows that the social laws of India have always been subject to great periodic changes. At their inception, these laws were the embodiment of a gigantic plan, which was to unfold itself slowly through time. The great seers of ancient India saw so far ahead of their time that the world has to wait centuries yet to appreciate their wisdom, and it is this very inability on the part of their own descendants to appreciate the full scope of this wonderful plan that is the one and only cause of the degeneration of India.
Ancient India had for centuries been the battlefield for the ambitious projects of two of her foremost classes — the Brâhmins and the Kshatriyas.
On the one hand, the priesthood stood between the lawless social tyranny of the princes over the masses whom the Kshatriyas declared to be their legal food. On the other hand, the Kshatriya power was the one potent force which struggled with any success against the spiritual tyranny of the priesthood and the ever-increasing chain of ceremonials which they were forging to bind down the people with.
The tug of war began in the earliest periods of the history of our race, and throughout the Shrutis it can be distinctly traced. A momentary lull came when Shri Krishna, leading the faction of Kshatriya power and of Jnâna, showed the way to reconciliation. The result was the teachings of the Gita — the essence of philosophy, of liberality, of religion. Yet the causes were there, and the effect must follow.
The ambition of these two classes to be the masters of the poor and ignorant was there, and the strife once more became fierce. The meagre literature that has come down to us from that period brings to us but faint echoes of that mighty past strife, but at last it broke out as a victory for the Kshatriyas, a victory for Jnana, for liberty — and ceremonial had to go down, much of it for ever. This upheaval was what is known as the Buddhistic reformation. On the religious side, it represented freedom from ceremonial; on the political side, overthrow of the priesthood by the Kshatriyas.
It is a significant fact that the two greatest men ancient India produced, were both Kshatriyas — Krishna and Buddha — and still more significant is the fact that both of these God-men threw open the door of knowledge to everyone, irrespective of birth or sex.
In spite of its wonderful moral strength, Buddhism was extremely iconoclastic; and much of its force being spent in merely negative attempts, it had to die out in the land of its birth, and what remained of it became full of superstitions and ceremonials, a hundred times cruder than those it was intended to suppress. Although it partially succeeded in putting down the animal sacrifices of the Vedas, it filled the land with temples, images, symbols, and bones of saints.
Above all, in the medley of Aryans, Mongols, and aborigines which it created, it unconsciously led the way to some of the hideous Vâmâchâras. This was especially the reason why this travesty of the teaching of the great Master had to be driven out of India by Shri Shankara and his band of Sannyâsins.
Thus even the current of life, set in motion by the greatest soul that ever wore a human form, the Bhagavân Buddha himself, became a miasmatic pool, and India had to wait for centuries until Shankara arose, followed in quick succession by Râmânuja and Madhva.
By this time, an entirely new chapter had opened in the history of India. The ancient Kshatriyas and the Brahmins had disappeared. The land between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas, the home of the Âryas, the land which gave birth to Krishna and Buddha, the cradle of great Râjarshis and Brahmarshis, became silent, and from the very farther end of the Indian Peninsula, from races alien in speech and form, from families claiming descent from the ancient Brahmins, came the reaction against the corrupted Buddhism.
In the Buddhistic movement, the Kshatriyas were the real leaders, and whole masses of them became Buddhists. In the zeal of reform and conversion, the popular dialects had been almost exclusively cultivated to the neglect of Sanskrit, and the larger portion of Kshatriyas had become disjointed from the Vedic literature and Sanskrit learning. Thus this wave of reform, which came from the South, benefited to a certain extent the priesthood, and the priests only. For the rest of India's millions, it forged more chains than they had ever known before.
The Kshatriyas had always been the backbone of India, so also they had been the supporters of science and liberty, and their voices had rung out again and again to clear the land from superstitions; and throughout the history of India they ever formed the invulnerable barrier to aggressive priestly tyranny.
When the greater part of their number sank into ignorance, and another portion mixed their blood with savages from Central Asia and lent their swords to establish the rules of priests in India, her cup became full to the brim, and down sank the land of Bharata, not to rise again, until the Kshatriya rouses himself, and making himself free, strikes the chains from the feet of the rest. Priestcraft is the bane of India. Can man degrade his brother, and himself escape degradation?
Know, Rajaji, the greatest of all truths, discovered by your ancestors, is that the universe is one. Can one injure anyone without injuring himself? The mass of Brahmin and Kshatriya tyranny has recoiled upon their own heads with compound interest; and a thousand years of slavery and degradation is what the inexorable law of Karma is visiting upon them.
This is what one of your ancestors said: "Even in this life, they have conquered relativity whose mind is fixed in sameness" — one who is believed to be God incarnate. We all believe it. Are his words then vain and without meaning? If not, and we know they are not, any attempt against this perfect equality of all creation, irrespective of birth, sex, or even qualification, is a terrible mistake, and no one can be saved until he has attained to this idea of sameness.
Follow, therefore, noble Prince, the teachings of the Vedanta, not as explained by this or that commentator, but as the Lord within you understands them. Above all, follow this great doctrine of sameness in all things, through all beings, seeing the same God in all.
This is the way to freedom; inequality, the way to bondage. No man and no nation can attempt to gain physical freedom without physical equality, nor mental freedom without mental equality.
Ignorance, inequality, and desire are the three causes of human misery, and each follows the other in inevitable union. Why should a man think himself above any other man, or even an animal? It is the same throughout:
त्वं स्त्री त्वं पुमानसि त्वं कुमार उत वा कुमारी।
—"Thou art the man, Thou the woman, Thou art the young man, Thou the young woman."
Many will say, "That is all right for the Sannyasins, but we are householders." No doubt, a householder having many other duties to perform, cannot as fully attain to this sameness; yet this should be also their ideal, for it is the ideal of all societies, of all mankind, all animals, and all nature, to attain to this sameness. But alas! they think inequality is the way to attain equality as if they could come to right by doing wrong!
This is the bane of human nature, the curse upon mankind, the root of all misery — this inequality. This is the source of all bondage, physical, mental, and spiritual.
समं पश्यन् हि सर्वत्र समवस्थितमीश्वरम् ।
न हिनस्त्यात्मनात्मानं ततो याति परां गतिम् ॥
समं पश्यन् हि सर्वत्र समवस्थितमीश्वरम् ।
न हिनस्त्यात्मनात्मानं ततो याति परां गतिम् ॥
— "Since seeing the Lord equally existent everywhere he injures not Self by self, and so goes to the Highest Goal" (Gita, XIII. 28). This one saying contains, in a few words, the universal way to salvation.
You, Rajputs, have been the glories of ancient India. With your degradation came national decay, and India can only be raised if the descendants of the Kshatriyas co-operate with the descendants of the Brahmins, not to share the spoils of pelf and power, but to help the weak to enlighten the ignorant, and to restore the lost glory of the holy land of their forefathers.
And who can say but that the time is propitious? Once more the wheel is turning up, once more vibrations have been set in motion from India, which are destined at no distant day to reach the farthest limits of the earth. One voice has spoken, whose echoes are rolling on and gathering strength every day, a voice even mightier than those which have preceded it, for it is the summation of them all. Once more the voice that spoke to the sages on the banks of the Sarasvati, the voice whose echoes reverberated from peak to peak of the "Father of Mountains", and descended upon the plains through Krishna Buddha, and Chaitanya in all-carrying floods, has spoken again. Once more the doors have opened. Enter ye into the realms of light, the gates have been opened wide once more.
And you, my beloved Prince — you the scion of a race who are the living pillars upon which rests the religion eternal, its sworn defenders and helpers, the descendants of Râma and Krishna, will you remain outside? I know, this cannot be. Yours, I am sure, will be the first hand that will be stretched forth to help religion once more. And when I think of you, Raja Ajit Singh, one in whom the well-known scientific attainments of your house have been joined to a purity of character of which a saint ought to be proud, to an unbounded love for humanity, I cannot help believing in the glorious renaissance of the religion eternal, when such hands are willing to rebuild it again.
May the blessings of Ramakrishna be on you and yours for ever and ever, and that you may live long for the good of many, and for the spread of truth is the constant prayer of —
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。