对加尔各答致辞的回复
本译文由人工智能辅助工具生成，可能存在不准确之处。如需查阅权威文本，请参考英文原文。
AI-translated. May contain errors. For accurate text, refer to the original English.
中文
复加尔各答市民致敬信
我已收到最近在加尔各答市政厅会议上通过的各项决议，以及我的同市公民们转达给我的亲切话语。
先生，对于您对我微薄贡献的肯定，谨致最诚挚的谢忱。
我深信，任何个人或民族，若将自身与他人的群体割裂开来，都无法真正生存；而每当这种在错误的伟大感、政策考量或神圣旗号下进行的自我隔离尝试出现，其结果对隔离者自身而言，历来都是灾难性的。
在我看来，印度衰落与堕落的一个重大原因，是在民族周围筑起一道以仇恨他人为基础的习俗之墙，而其在古代的真实目的，是阻止印度教徒与周边佛教国家的接触。
无论古代或现代的诡辩用何等外衣加以掩盖，道德律的必然结果——即无人能仇恨他人而不使自身堕落——的印证，便是那曾在古代各民族中居于首位的民族，如今已沦为各国的笑柄与轻蔑对象。我们是违反那条律法的活教训，而我们的祖先正是最先发现并传播这条律法的人。
施与受乃是定律；印度若欲再次振兴，就绝对必须将她的宝藏取出，广散于世界各国之间，同时准备好接受他人所能给予她的。扩展是生命，收缩是死亡。爱是生命，仇恨是死亡。我们从开始仇恨其他民族的那一天起，便已开始走向死亡；除非我们回归扩展——那便是生命，否则没有任何东西能阻止我们的衰亡。
因此，我们必须与地球上所有民族相交流融合。每一个出国旅行的印度教徒，为祖国所带来的益处，远超那数百个迷信与自私的包袱，那些一生中似乎只有一个目的的人，犹如槽中之犬。西方国家所建立的奇妙的民族生命结构，是由品格的坚实支柱所支撑的；除非我们能够培养出这样的成员，否则对某某势力怨声载道、怒火中烧，都是毫无用处的。
那些不愿给予他人自由的人，又怎配获得自由？让我们冷静而像个男子汉一样去工作，而不是将精力消耗在无谓的怨声载道与怒火之中。就我个人而言，我深信宇宙中没有任何力量能够扣押任何人真正应得之物。过去固然伟大，无庸置疑，然而我由衷相信，未来将更为辉煌。
愿商羯罗（Shankara）使我们在纯洁、忍耐与坚忍中保持坚定！
注释
English
I am in receipt of the resolutions that were passed at the recent Town Hall meeting in Calcutta and the kind words my fellow-citizens sent over to me.
Accept, sir, my most heartfelt gratitude for your appreciation of my insignificant services.
I am thoroughly convinced that no individual or nation can live by holding itself apart from the community of others, and whenever such an attempt has been made under false ideas of greatness, policy, or holiness — the result has always been disastrous to the secluding one.
To my mind, the one great cause of the downfall and the degeneration of India was the building of a wall of custom — whose foundation was hatred of others — round the nation, and the real aim of which in ancient times was to prevent the Hindus from coming in contact with the surrounding Buddhistic nations.
Whatever cloak ancient or modern sophistry may try to throw over it, the inevitable result — the vindication of the moral law, that none can hate others without degenerating himself — is that the race that was foremost amongst the ancient races is now a byword, and a scorn among nations. We are object-lessons of the violation of that law which our ancestors were the first to discover and disseminate.
Give and take is the law; and if India wants to raise herself once more, it is absolutely necessary that she brings out her treasures and throws them broadcast among the nations of the earth, and in return be ready to receive what others have to give her. Expansion is life, contraction is death. Love is life, and hatred is death. We commenced to die the day we began to hate other races; and nothing can prevent our death unless we come back to expansion, which is life.
We must mix, therefore, with all the races of the earth. And every Hindu that goes out to travel in foreign parts renders more benefit to his country than hundreds of men who are bundles of superstitions and selfishness, and whose one aim in life seems to be like that of the dog in the manger. The wonderful structures of national life which the Western nations have raised, are supported by the strong pillars of character, and until we can produce members of such, it is useless to fret and fume against this or that power.
Do any deserve liberty who are not ready to give it to others? Let us calmly and in a manly fashion go to work, instead of dissipating our energy in unnecessary frettings and fumings. I, for one, thoroughly believe that no power in the universe can withhold from anyone anything he really deserves. The past was great no doubt, but I sincerely believe that the future will be more glorious still.
May Shankara keep us steady in purity, patience, and perseverance!
Notes
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。