印度所需的教育
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中文
关于工作方法，我要说的最重要的一点是：工作的规模应当与所期望的成果相称。我从缪勒小姐那里听说了许多关于您思想开明、爱国情操与坚忍不拔的故事，而您学识渊博之证明亦有目共睹。能有幸得您问询这微不足道的生命所曾尝试之事，实为莫大幸运；我将在此尽力陈述。但首先，我要将自己深思熟虑后所得的见解呈交您审阅。
我们向来是奴隶，也就是说，印度的民众从未被赋予表达其内在光明之机会——而那光明本是他们的遗产。西方近数百年来已迅速迈向自由。在印度，从库利纳制度到日常饮食的一切，皆由国王来规定。而在西方国家，凡事皆由民众自己来处置。
国王如今在任何社会事务上都无权置喙；然而另一方面，印度人民甚至尚无一丝自信，更遑论自力更生了。吠檀多（Vedanta）所依赖的对自我的信仰，迄今尚未被付诸哪怕是最微小的实践。正因如此，西方的方法——即先讨论所期望之目标，再凝聚全力加以实现——在当今这片土地上仍然行不通；也正因如此，我们在外族统治之下显得极为保守。若此论不差，则试图以公开讨论来成就任何大事，终究是徒劳的。"无头之处岂有头痛之虞"——公众究竟在哪里？况且我们如此软弱无力，但凡着手讨论任何事情，全部精力便已耗尽，无一余留于实际行动。我想正因如此，在孟加拉几乎始终可见——"雷声大，雨点小"。其次，正如我此前所写，我对印度的富人不抱任何期望。最好是在青年一代中默默耕耘、稳步前进，不事张扬，因为他们才是我们的希望所在。
现在谈谈工作。自教育与文化等渐次从贵族阶层向平民传播之日起，近代文明（如西方国家）与古代文明（如印度、埃及、罗马等）之间的分野便由此形成。我亲眼所见：一个国家的进步程度，与教育和知识在民众中传播的广度成正比。印度衰落的根本原因，在于少数人凭借权贵之威与王室之权，将全国的教育与智慧独占垄断。若要重新崛起，我们必须以同样的方式——即向大众普及教育。半个世纪以来，社会改革的呼声喧嚣不已。过去十年间游历印度各地，我发现全国遍布社会改革团体。然而，我却未见一个协会是为那些被所谓"绅士"们吸尽了血汗的人所设立的！穆斯林带来了多少士兵？英国人有多少？除了印度，哪里还能找到数以百万计的人，为区区六个卢比便甘愿割断自己父亲兄弟的喉咙？七百年穆罕默德统治，产生了六千万穆斯林；一百年基督教统治，产生了两百万基督徒——这是为何？为何原创精神已在这片土地上销声匿迹？为何我们心灵手巧的工匠日益凋零，无力与欧洲人竞争？德国工人又凭借何种力量，撼动了英国工人历经数百年建立起来的稳固根基？
教育，教育，唯有教育！游历欧洲众多城市，目睹连穷苦人都享有的舒适生活与受教机会，我不禁想到我们自己穷苦同胞的处境，常常泪如泉涌。这差距从何而来？答案是：教育。通过教育，人获得对自我的信仰；通过对自我的信仰，他们内在的梵性（Brahman）正在觉醒，而我们内在的梵性却在逐渐沉睡。在纽约，我曾见到爱尔兰移民的到来——他们在故乡备受欺凌，面容憔悴，一无所有，身无分文，木讷迟钝——仅有的家当便是一根棍子和棍头挂着的一个破旧包袱，步履中带着惶恐，眼神里充满惊惧。六个月后，景象迥然不同——那人昂首挺胸，衣着焕然一新！眼神与步伐中再无惧色。原因何在？我们的吠檀多说：那爱尔兰人在故乡时，被重重的鄙视包围——整个天地仿佛异口同声地对他说："帕特，你再无希望，你生来是奴隶，也将以奴隶终老。"从出生起便如此被告知，帕特信以为真，并将自己催眠，以为自己极为卑微，于是内在的梵性便消隐退缩。然而他一踏上美利坚的土地，四面八方便传来这样的呼声："帕特，你与我们一样是人。人可以成就一切，像你我这样的人皆能有所作为——鼓起勇气！"帕特抬起头来，见果然如此，内在的梵性由此觉醒。大自然本身仿佛在说："起来，奋起，不达目标誓不停歇"（《卡塔奥义书》，一·二·4）。
同样地，我们学童所受的教育也是极为消极的。学生什么都没有学到，反而自身本有的一切都被摧毁殆尽——丧失信心（Shraddha）便是结果。那种信心，本是吠陀与吠檀多（Vedanta）的基础——正是那种信心，使纳奇科塔斯勇敢地直面阎摩，向他追问，这片土地上竟要毁灭如此信心！
——"无知者、无信者、疑虑重重的自我，走向毁灭。"因此我们已濒临覆灭。当前的补救之道在于普及教育。首先是自我认知。我所说的自我认知，并非那种令人联想到蓬头乱发、持杖携钵、隐居山洞的苦修之道。那我指的是什么呢？那连解脱世俗束缚的知识，难道不能带来普通的物质繁荣吗？当然可以。自由、离欲（Vairagya）、出离，这些固然是最崇高的理想，但——
——"即便极少量的此种法（Dharma），也能使人从生死大恐惧中解脱出来。"二元论者、有限制的不二论者、不二论者、湿婆派、毗湿奴派、性力派，乃至佛教徒、耆那教徒及其他——印度所产生的一切宗派——在这一点上无不一致：无量的力量潜藏于个体灵魂（Jivatman）之中；从蚂蚁到圆满之人，其中皆有同一真我（Atman），差别仅在于显现程度。"犹如农夫清除障碍（使水流通畅）"（帕坦伽利《瑜伽经》，独存品，第3条）。那力量一旦得到机缘、处于合适的地点与时机，便会彰显。从最高的天神到最渺小的草木，同一力量存于万物之中——无论显现与否。我们必须挨家挨户地去唤醒那力量。
其次，与此同时，教育也必须加以传授。说来容易，但如何付诸实践？我国有数以千计无私慈悲的仁人志士，他们已放弃了一切。就如同他们走遍各地，分文不取地传授宗教教导一样，其中至少一半可以经过培训，成为我们最迫切所需的那种教育的教师或传播者。为此，首先需要在各主要城市分别建立一个中心，从那里逐渐向整个印度辐射。最近已在马德拉斯和加尔各答（Calcutta）建立了两个中心；希望不久将有更多。此后，对穷苦百姓的大部分教育应以口授方式进行，建立学校的时机尚未成熟。这些主要中心将逐渐开展农业、工业等方面的教学，并设立作坊以促进技艺的发展。为将这些作坊的制品销往欧美，将仿照现有组织，成立各类协会。为妇女设立中心的必要性与为男性设立中心不相上下。但您深知在这个国家这有多困难。再者，"被蛇咬者，必由蛇来取毒"——而我坚信这一切终将实现；这些事业所需的资金必须来自西方。正因如此，我们的宗教必须在欧洲和美洲广为传播。现代科学已动摇了基督教等宗教的基础。不仅如此，奢靡的风气更几乎将宗教本能本身扼杀殆尽。欧美如今正满怀期待地凝望着印度：此刻正是行善的时机，此刻正是占领敌方堡垒的时机。
在西方，女性主导一切；一切影响力与权力皆在她们手中。如果像您这样大胆而才华横溢、精通吠檀多的女性肯前往英国传道，我深信每年将有数以百计的男女有幸得沐婆罗多圣地之宗教的恩泽。我国唯一赴海外的女性是罗摩白，她的英语水平和对西方科学与艺术的了解有限，却依然令众人惊叹。若有像您这样的人前往，英国必将为之震动，更遑论美国了！若一位身着印度服饰的印度女性，在那里传扬从印度仙人唇间流传下来的宗教——我预见一个先知式的异象——必将掀起一股巨浪，淹没整个西方世界。在麦特雷伊、卡纳、丽拉婆提、萨维特里与乌帕雅帕拉提的土地上，难道就没有愿意挺身而出的女性吗？天主知晓。征服英国，占有英国，凭借的是我们的灵性之力。
——"此外别无解脱之道。"依靠召集大会、组建社团，救赎真能降临吗？我们的征服者必须凭借我们灵性的力量，化为天神（Devas）。我不过是一个卑微的托钵行者、一个云游之僧；我无依无靠，孤立无援。我能做什么？您拥有财富、智识与教育的力量；您难道要放弃这个机会吗？征服英国、征服欧洲、征服美国——这应当是我们当前唯一至高的真言（Mantra），其中蕴含着国家的福祉。扩张是生命的标志，我们必须以灵性的理想向全世界传播。唉！这副躯体太过孱弱，加之又是孟加拉人的体格；即便在这劳苦之中，一场致命的疾病已向它袭来，但仍有这样的希望：
उत्पत्स्यतेऽस्ति मम कोऽपि समानधर्मा।
कालो ह्ययं निरवधिर्विपुला च पृथ्वी॥
उत्पत्स्यतेऽस्ति मम कोऽपि समानधर्मा।
कालो ह्ययं निरवधिर्विपुला च पृथ्वी॥
——"在无边无际的时间长河与广阔的人世间，一定已或将有与我志同道合之人来成就此业"（婆婆菩提）。
关于素食，我要说：首先，我的上师是素食者；但若有人将供奉女神的肉食献与他，他会将其举至头顶以示敬意。杀生无疑是有罪的；但只要化学的进步尚未使植物性食物完全适合人体所需，便别无其他选择，只能食肉。只要人们还须在当前这种环境下过着激性（Rajasika）的积极生活，便没有别的出路，只能食肉。诚然，阿育王皇帝曾以剑威来拯救了数以百万计的动物生命；然而千年的奴役难道不比这更为可怕吗？宰杀几只山羊，与无力保护自己妻女的贞节、眼睁睁看着孩子们口中的食物被强夺——两者相较，哪个更是罪孽？不必从事体力劳动谋生的上层人士，倒是不妨不食肉；但将素食主义强加于那些必须日夜劳作换取口粮之人，乃是我们失去民族自由的原因之一。日本便是良好而滋养的饮食所能成就之事的明证。
愿全能的毗湿婆里启示您的心灵！
注释
English
In reply to your questions about the methods of work, the most important thing I have to say is that the work should be started on a scale which would be commensurate with the results desired. I have heard much of your liberal mind, patriotism, and steady perseverance from my friend Miss Müller; and the proof of your erudition is evident. I look upon it as a great good fortune that you are desirous to know what little this insignificant life has been able to attempt; I shall state it to you here, as far as I can. But first I shall lay before you my mature convictions for your deliberation.
We have been slaves for ever, i.e. it has never been given to the masses of India to express the inner light which is their inheritance. The Occident has been rapidly advancing towards freedom for the last few centuries. In India, it was the king who used to prescribe everything from Kulinism down to what one should eat and what one should not. In Western countries, the people do everything themselves.
The king now has nothing to say in any social matter; on the other hand, the Indian people have not yet even the least faith in themselves, what to say of self-reliance. The faith in one's own Self, which is the basis of Vedânta, has not yet been even slightly carried into practice. It is for this reason that the Western method — i.e. first of all, discussion about the wished-for end, then the carrying it out by the combination of all the forces — is of no avail even now in this country: it is for this reason that we appear so greatly conservative under foreign rule. If this be true, then it is a vain attempt to do any great work by means of public discussion. "There is no chance of a headache where there is no head" — where is the public? Besides, we are so devoid of strength that our whole energy is exhausted if we undertake to discuss anything, none is left for work. It is for this reason, I suppose, we observe in Bengal almost always — "Much cry but little wool." Secondly, as I have written before, I do not expect anything from the rich people of India. It is best to work among the youth in whom lies our hope — patiently, steadily, and without noise.
Now about work. From the day when education and culture etc. began to spread gradually from patricians to plebeians, grew the distinction between the modern civilisation as of Western countries, and the ancient civilisation as of India, Egypt, Rome, etc. I see it before my eyes, a nation is advanced in proportion as education and intelligence spread among the masses. The chief cause of India's ruin has been the monopolising of the whole education and intelligence of the land, by dint of pride and royal authority, among a handful of men. If we are to rise again, we shall have to do it in the same way, i.e. by spreading education among the masses. A great fuss has been made for half a century about social reform. Travelling through various places of India these last ten years, I observed the country full of social reform associations. But I did not find one association for them by sucking whose blood the people known as "gentlemen" have become and continue to be gentlemen! How many sepoys were brought by the Mussulmans? How many Englishmen are there? Where, except in India, can be had millions of men who will cut the throats of their own fathers and brothers for six rupees? Sixty millions of Mussulmans in seven hundred years of Mohammedan rule, and two millions of Christians in one hundred years of Christian rule — what makes it so? Why has originality entirely forsaken the country? Why are our deft-fingered artisans daily becoming extinct, unable to compete with the Europeans? By what power again has the German labourer succeeded in shaking the many-century-grounded firm footing of the English labourer?
Education, education, education alone! Travelling through many cities of Europe and observing in them the comforts and education of even the poor people, there was brought to my mind the state of our own poor people, and I used to shed tears. What made the difference? Education was the answer I got. Through education comes faith in one's own Self, and through faith in one's own Self the inherent Brahman is waking up in them, while the Brahman in us is gradually becoming dormant. In New York I used to observe the Irish colonists come — downtrodden, haggard-looking, destitute of all possessions at home, penniless, and wooden-headed — with their only belongings, a stick and a bundle of rags hanging at the end of it, fright in their steps, alarm in their eyes. A different spectacle in six months — the man walks upright, his attire is changed! In his eyes and steps there is no more sign of fright. What is the cause? Our Vedanta says that that Irishman was kept surrounded by contempt in his own country — the whole of nature was telling him with one voice, "Pat, you have no more hope, you are born a slave and will remain so." Having been thus told from his birth, Pat believed in it and hypnotised himself that he was very low, and the Brahman in him shrank away. While no sooner had he landed in America than he heard the shout going up on all sides, "Pat, you are a man as we are. It is man who has done all, a man like you and me can do everything: have courage!" Pat raised his head and saw that it was so, the Brahman within woke up. Nature herself spoke, as it were, "Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached" (Katha Upanishad, I. ii. 4.)
Likewise the education that our boys receive is very negative. The schoolboy learns nothing, but has everything of his own broken down — want of Shraddhâ is the result. The Shraddha which is the keynote of the Veda and the Vedanta — the Shraddha which emboldened Nachiketâ to face Yama and question him, through which Shraddha this world moves the annihilation of that Shraddha!
— "The ignorant, the man devoid of Shraddha, the doubting self runs to ruin." Therefore are we so near destruction. The remedy now is the spread of education. First of all, Self-knowledge. I do not mean thereby, matted hair, staff, Kamandalu, and mountain caves which the word suggests. What do I mean then? Cannot the knowledge, by which is attained even freedom from the bondage of worldly existence, bring ordinary material prosperity? Certainly it can. Freedom, dispassion, renunciation all these are the very highest ideals, but
— "Even a little of this Dharma saves one from the great fear (of birth and death)." Dualist, qualified-monist, monist, Shaiva, Vaishnava, Shâkta, even the Buddhist and the Jain and others — whatever sects have arisen in India — are all at one in this respect that infinite power is latent in this Jivatman (individualised soul); from the ant to the perfect man there is the same Âtman in all, the difference being only in manifestation. "As a farmer breaks the obstacles (to the course of water)" (Patanjali's Yoga-Sutra, Kaivalsapâda, 3). That power manifests as soon as it gets the opportunity and the right place and time. From the highest god to the meanest grass, the same power is present in all — whether manifested or not. We shall have to call forth that power by going from door to door.
Secondly, along with this, education has to be imparted. That is easy to say, but how to reduce it into practice? There are thousands of unselfish, kind-hearted men in our country who has renounced every thing. In the same way as they travel about and give religious instructions without any remuneration, so at least half of them can be trained as teachers or bearers of such education as we need most. For that, we want first of all a centre in the capital of each Presidency, from whence to spread slowly throughout the whole of India. Two centres have recently been started in Madras and Calcutta; there is hope of more soon. Then, the greater part of the education to the poor should be given orally, time is not yet ripe for schools. Gradually in these main centres will be taught agriculture, industry, etc., and workshops will be established for the furtherance of arts. To sell the manufactures of those workshops in Europe and America, associations will be started like those already in existence. It will be necessary to start centres for women, exactly like those for men. But you are aware how difficult that is in this country. Again, "The snake which bites must take out its own poison" — and that this is going to be is my firm conviction; the money required for these works would have to come from the West. And for that reason our religion should be preached in Europe and America. Modern science has undermined the basis of religions like Christianity. Over and above that, luxury is about to kill the religious instinct itself. Europe and America are now looking towards India with expectant ewes: this is the time for philanthropy, this is the time to occupy the hostile strongholds.
In the West, women rule; all influence and power are theirs. If bold and talented women like yourself versed in Vedanta, go to England to preach, I am sure that every year hundreds of men and women will become blessed by adopting the religion of the land of Bharata. The only woman who went over from our country was Ramâbâai; her knowledge of English, Western science and art was limited; still she surprised all. If anyone like you goes, England will be stirred, what to speak of America! If an Indian woman in Indian dress preach there the religion which fell from the lips of the Rishis of India — I see a prophetic vision — there will rise a great wave which will inundate the whole Western world. Will there be no women in the land of Maitreyi, Khanâ, Lilâvati, Sâvitri, and Ubhayabhârati, who will venture to do this? The Lord knows. England we shall conquer, England we shall possess, through the power of spirituality.
— "There is no other way of salvation." Can salvation ever come by getting up meetings and societies? Our conquerors must be made Devas by the power of our spirituality. I am a humble mendicant, an itinerant monk; I am helpless and alone. What can I do? You have the power of wealth, intellect, and education; will you forgo this opportunity? Conquest of England, Europe, and America — this should be our one supreme Mantra at present, in it lies the well-being of the country. Expansion is the sign of life, and we must spread over the world with our spiritual ideals. Alas! this frame is poor, moreover, the physique of a Bengali; even under this labour a fatal disease has attacked it, but there is the hope:
उत्पत्स्यतेऽस्ति मम कोऽपि समानधर्मा।
कालो ह्ययं निरवधिर्विपुला च पृथ्वी॥
उत्पत्स्यतेऽस्ति मम कोऽपि समानधर्मा।
कालो ह्ययं निरवधिर्विपुला च पृथ्वी॥
—"A kindred spirit is or will be born out of the limitless time and populous earth to accomplish the work" (Bhavabhuti).
About vegetarian diet I have to say this — first, my Master was a vegetarian; but if he was given meat offered to the Goddess, he used to hold it up to his head. The taking of life is undoubtedly sinful; but so long as vegetable food is not made suitable to the human system through progress in chemistry, there is no other alternative but meat-eating. So long as man shall have to live a Râjasika (active) life under circumstances like the present, there is no other way except through meat-eating. It is true that the Emperor Asoka saved the lives of millions of animals by the threat of the sword; but is not the slavery of a thousand years more dreadful than that? Taking the life of a few goats as against the inability to protect the honour of one's own wife and daughter, and to save the morsels for one's children from robbing hands — which of these is more sinful? Rather let those belonging to the upper ten, who do not earn their livelihood by manual labour, not take meat; but the forcing of vegetarianism upon those who have to earn their bread by labouring day and night is one of the causes of the loss of our national freedom. Japan is an example of what good and nourishing food can do.
May the All-powerful Vishveshvari inspire your heart!
Notes
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。