三 阿拉辛迦
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中文
三
东方饭店
横滨。
一八九三年七月十日。
亲爱的阿拉辛伽、巴拉吉、G. G.、银行商会，以及我所有的马德拉斯友人：
请恕我未能及时将行踪告知诸位。每日事务繁忙，尤其对我而言，初次体验拥有财物、照管诸事的生活，颇为耗神。这着实令人烦扰不已。
我们从孟买抵达科伦坡。轮船在港停泊将近一整天，我们趁机上岸游览市容。我们驾车穿行街巷，所记得的唯有一座寺庙，其中供奉着一尊极为巨大的佛陀神像（Murti），佛陀呈卧姿，正入涅槃（Nirvana）……
下一站是槟城，此地不过是马来半岛沿海的一条狭长地带。马来人皆为穆斯林，昔日以海盗著称，令商船闻风丧胆。然而如今，现代炮舰的巨炮已迫使马来人另谋更为和平的营生。从槟城驶往新加坡途中，我们隐约望见苏门答腊高耸的山峦，船长还指给我看几处昔日海盗盘踞的巢穴。新加坡是海峡殖民地的首府，拥有一座精美的植物园，收藏着最为壮观的棕榈植物。那种优美的扇形棕榈，名为旅人蕉，在此地随处可见，面包树亦遍布各处。这里的著名山竹与马德拉斯的芒果一样俯拾皆是，然而芒果仍是无与伦比。此地居民的肤色远不及马德拉斯人深，尽管纬度如此相近。新加坡还拥有一座颇具规模的博物馆。
其次是香港。一抵此地，便觉身已入华，中国元素浓厚至极。劳力与贸易似乎尽在华人之手。香港便是真正的中国。轮船一抛锚，便有数百艘中国小舟蜂拥而至，争相载客上岸。这些配有双舵的小船颇为特别。船夫携家人同住船上。几乎总是妻子把舵，一手持一舵，一足踩另一舵。十之八九，背后绑着一个婴儿，小中国人的手脚都松散自由地晃荡着。看那小约翰·中国人悄无声息地悬挂在母亲背上，而她时而奋力划桨，时而推移重载，时而在船与船之间矫健飞跃，真是奇异的景象。各式船只与小汽艇穿梭往来，川流不息。小约翰随时都有被挤压得头颅粉碎、连同发辫一起消失的危险，然而他毫不在意。这忙碌的生活对他似乎毫无吸引力，他只是悠然自得地啃着母亲不时递给他的一小块年糕，研究其中的奥妙。中国孩子颇具哲人气质，在你们印度孩子尚不能爬行的年纪，他便已从容地干起了活计。他对生活必需的哲学了悟得太过透彻。极度的贫困正是中国人与印度人的文明停滞于僵化状态的原因之一。对于普通的印度教徒或中国人而言，每日为衣食所困，已使他们无暇他顾。
香港是一座十分秀美的城市，依山而建，山顶气候比城区凉爽许多。有一条几近垂直的缆车线路通向山顶，由钢缆和蒸汽机牵引。
我们在香港停留三日，并前往广州参观，广州在一条河流上游约八十英里处。河道宽阔，足以容纳最大的轮船通行。多艘中国轮船往来于香港与广州之间。我们傍晚登上其中一艘，翌日清晨抵达广州。何等喧嚣热闹的景象！河面上几乎布满船只！不仅有往来贸易之船，还有数百艘用作住所的船屋，其中不乏颇为宽敞精致者——事实上，有些船屋高达两三层，四周环绕走廊，船与船之间形成通道，一切皆漂浮于水上！
我们登上一片由中国政府划拨给外国人居住的土地。环顾四周，河道两岸绵延数英里，尽是这座大城——人潮涌动，推搡挣扎，喧嚣沸腾，如汪洋之势。然而尽管人口众多、活动频繁，这却是我所见过的最为污秽的城市——并非印度意义上的那种脏乱，因为中国人断不允许一丝污物白白废弃；而是因为那中国人，似乎已立誓永不沐浴！每家每户都是店铺，人们仅住在楼上。街道极为狭窄，行走其间，双肘几乎同时触碰两侧的店铺。每隔十步便有肉摊，还有专卖猫肉、狗肉的店铺。当然，只有最贫苦的中国人才食犬猫之肉。
中国女眷从不露面于街头。她们所受的深闺禁锢，与北印度印度教徒的闺阁制度一般严苛；劳动阶层的妇女方可出现于公众场所。即便在这些妇女之中，有时也能见到脚比您最幼小的孩子之足还要纤小的女子，她们当然称不上行走，不过是蹒跚挪步而已。
我参观了数座中国寺庙。广州最大的一座寺庙供奉着第一位佛教帝王及佛教最初五百弟子的塑像。中央供奉的自然是佛陀，其下是端坐的帝王，两侧依次排列着弟子们的雕像，皆由木材精雕细刻而成。
从广州返回香港后，我便启程前往日本。第一个靠岸的港口是长崎。我们上岸数小时，驾车穿行全城。何等鲜明的对比！日本人是世界上最为洁净的民族之一。一切井然有序，整洁雅致。街道几乎都宽阔笔直，铺砌规整。他们的小屋精巧如笼，苍翠常青的松山构成了几乎每座城镇与村落的背景。矮小白皙、衣着别致的日本人，其一举一动、姿态神情，无不充满画意。日本真乃写意之国！几乎每家都在屋后辟有庭园，依日式风格精心布置，植有矮灌木丛、草坪、小型人工水景与石桥。
从长崎到神户，在那里我舍弃轮船，改走陆路前往横滨，以便游览日本内地。
在内地，我参观了三座大城市——大阪，工业重镇；京都，旧都；以及东京，现任首都。东京的面积约为加尔各答的两倍，人口几乎也是两倍。
外国人在内地游历须持护照，方得通行。
日本人如今似乎已充分认识到时代的需求，彻底觉醒。他们现已拥有一支装备精良的正规军，配备的枪械由本国军官发明，据称堪称世界一流。与此同时，他们的海军也在持续扩充。我见到了一条由日本工程师开凿的隧道，长近一英里。
火柴工厂实属壮观，他们矢志不渝，要将所需一切皆产自本国。目前已有一条日本轮船航线往来于中日之间，不久即将开辟孟买至横滨的航线。
我参观了相当多的寺庙。每座寺庙中都有用古孟加拉文字书写的梵文真言（Mantra）。只有少数祭司通晓梵文，然而他们是颇为睿智的一群人。现代的进步热潮甚至已渗透至祭司阶层。关于日本人，我心中所想，一封短信难以尽述。我唯一的愿望，是希望每年有大批我们的年轻人前往日本和中国访问游历。尤其对日本人而言，印度至今仍是一切崇高与美好的梦想之乡。而你们呢？……终日空谈废话，徒逞口舌之快，你们究竟是什么？来吧，看看这些民族，然后回去羞愧地掩面而走。你们这些懒散之人，出门一步便要失去种姓！这数百年来，你们负着与日俱增、已然僵化的迷信重担安坐不动，数百年来将全部精力耗费在争论此食物可触、彼食物不可触，在几百年的社会专制压迫下，人性已被你们消磨殆尽——你们究竟是什么？而你们如今又在做什么？……手持书本漫步海边——咀嚼着未经消化的欧洲思想碎片，全副心思扑在谋一份月俸三十卢比的文书职位上，或顶多当个律师——这便是青年印度的最高抱负——每个学生身后还拖着一窝嗷嗷待哺的孩子讨要饭食！难道海中的水还不足以将你们——连同书本、长袍、大学文凭，一并淹没？
来吧，做个堂堂男儿！驱逐那些始终阻碍进步的祭司，因为他们永远不会改变，他们的心永远不会宽广。他们是数百年迷信与专制的产物。首先铲除祭司特权。来吧，做个堂堂男儿！走出你们狭小的窠臼，放眼四望。看看各民族正在奋勇前行！你们爱人类吗？你们爱自己的祖国吗？那么来吧，让我们为更崇高、更美好的目标而奋争；莫要回顾，不，纵使你看见至亲至爱之人哭泣，也不要回头。莫要回顾，只向前看！
印度需要至少一千名年轻人的牺牲奉献——是男儿，切记，而非莽夫。英国政府不过是上帝差遣而来的工具，来打破你们已然僵化的文明，而马德拉斯最初提供了协助英国立足的先行者。如今马德拉斯准备贡献多少无私而彻底的男儿，去为实现一种新的社会状态奋争至死——对穷苦者的同情，让饥者得食，让民众得到启蒙——并为那些被你们祖先的专制压迫降至禽兽之列者使其重为人，奋争至死？
您等的，
辨喜（Vivekananda）
附言：沉静、无声、坚定地工作，切莫追名逐利于报章之上——这一点，你们须时刻铭记于心。
English
III
Oriental Hotel
Yokohama.
10th July, 1893.
Dear Alasinga, Balaji, G. G., Banking Corporation, and All My Madras Friends,
Excuse my not keeping you constantly informed of my movements. One is so busy every day, and especially myself who am quite new to the life of possessing things and taking care of them. That consumes so much of my energy. It is really an awful botheration.
From Bombay we reached Colombo. Our steamer remained in port for nearly the whole day, and we took the opportunity of getting off to have a look at the town. We drove through the streets, and the only thing I remember was a temple in which was a very gigantic Murti (image) of the Lord Buddha in a reclining posture, entering Nirvâna....
The next station was Penang, which is only a strip of land along the sea in the body of the Malaya Peninsula. The Malayas are all Mohammedans and in old days were noted pirates and quite a dread to merchantmen. But now the leviathan guns of modern turreted battleships have forced the Malayas to look about for more peaceful pursuits. On our way from Penang to Singapore, we had glimpses of Sumatra with its high mountains, and the Captain pointed out to me several places as the favourite haunts of pirates in days gone by. Singapore is the capital of the Straits Settlements. It has a fine botanical garden with the most splendid collection of palms. The beautiful fan-like palm, called the traveller's palm, grows here in abundance, and the bread-fruit tree everywhere. The celebrated mangosteen is as plentiful here as mangoes in Madras, but mango is nonpareil. The people here are not half so dark as the people of Madras, although so near the line. Singapore possesses a fine museum too.
Hong Kong next. You feel that you have reached China, the Chinese element predominates so much. All labour, all trade seems to be in their hands. And Hong Kong is real China. As soon as the steamer casts anchor, you are besieged with hundreds of Chinese boats to carry you to the land. These boats with two helms are rather peculiar. The boatman lives in the boat with his family. Almost always, the wife is at the helms, managing one with her hands and the other with one of her feet. And in ninety per cent of cases, you find a baby tied to her back, with the hands and feet of the little Chin left free. It is a quaint sight to see the little John Chinaman dangling very quietly from his mother's back, whilst she is now setting with might and main, now pushing heavy loads, or jumping with wonderful agility from boat to boat. And there is such a rush of boats and steamlaunches coming in and going out. Baby John is every moment put into the risk of having his little head pulverised, pigtail and all; but he does not care a fig. This busy life seems to have no charm for him, and he is quite content to learn the anatomy of a bit of rice-cake given to him from time to time by the madly busy mother. The Chinese child is quite a philosopher and calmly goes to work at an age when your Indian boy can hardly crawl on all fours. He has learnt the philosophy of necessity too well. Their extreme poverty is one of the causes why the Chinese and the Indians have remained in a state of mummified civilisation. To an ordinary Hindu or Chinese, everyday necessity is too hideous to allow him to think of anything else.
Hong Kong is a very beautiful town. It is built on the slopes of hills and on the tops too, which are much cooler than the city. There is an almost perpendicular tramway going to the top of the hill, dragged by wire-rope and steam-power.
We remained three days at Hong Kong and went to see Canton, which is eighty miles up a river. The river is broad enough to allow the biggest steamers to pass through. A number of Chinese steamers ply between Hong Kong and Canton. We took passage on one of these in the evening and reached Canton early in the morning. What a scene of bustle and life! What an immense number of boats almost covering the waters! And not only those that are carrying on the trade, but hundreds of others which serve as houses to live in. And quite a lot of them so nice and big! In fact, they are big houses two or three storeys high, with verandahs running round and streets between, and all floating!
We landed on a strip of ground given by the Chinese Government to foreigners to live in. Around us on both sides of the river for miles and miles is the big city — a wilderness of human beings, pushing, struggling, surging, roaring. But with all its population, all its activity, it is the dirtiest town I saw, not in the sense in which a town is called dirty in India, for as to that not a speck of filth is allowed by the Chinese to go waste; but because of the Chinaman, who has, it seems, taken a vow never to bathe! Every house is a shop, people living only on the top floor. The streets are very very narrow, so that you almost touch the shops on both sides as you pass. At every ten paces you find meat-stalls, and there are shops which sell cat's and dog's meat. Of course, only the poorest classes of Chinamen eat dog or cat.
The Chinese ladies can never be seen. They have got as strict a zenana as the Hindus of Northern India; only the women of the labouring classes can be seen. Even amongst these, one sees now and then a woman with feet smaller than those of your youngest child, and of course they cannot be said to walk, but hobble.
I went to see several Chinese temples. The biggest in Canton is dedicated to the memory of the first Buddhistic Emperor and the five hundred first disciples of Buddhism. The central figure is of course Buddha, and next beneath Him is seated the Emperor, and ranging on both sides are the statues of the disciples, all beautifully carved out of wood.
From Canton I returned back to Hong Kong, and from thence to Japan. The first port we touched was Nagasaki. We landed for a few hours and drove through the town. What a contrast! The Japanese are one of the cleanliest peoples on earth. Everything is neat and tidy. Their streets are nearly all broad, straight, and regularly paved. Their little houses are cage-like, and their pine-covered evergreen little hills form the background of almost every town and village. The short-statured, fair-skinned, quaintly-dressed Japs, their movements, attitudes, gestures, everything is picturesque. Japan is the land of the picturesque! Almost every house has a garden at the back, very nicely laid out according to Japanese fashion with small shrubs, grass-plots, small artificial waters, and small stone bridges.
From Nagasaki to Kobe. Here I gave up the steamer and took the land-route to Yokohama, with a view to see the interior of Japan.
I have seen three big cities in the interior — Osaka, a great manufacturing town, Kyoto, the former capital, and Tokyo, the present capital. Tokyo is nearly twice the size of Calcutta with nearly double the population.
No foreigner is allowed to travel in the interior without a passport.
The Japanese seem now to have fully awakened themselves to the necessity of the present times. They have now a thoroughly organised army equipped with guns which one of their own officers has invented and which is said to be second to none. Then, they are continually increasing their navy. I have seen a tunnel nearly a mile long, bored by a Japanese engineer.
The match factories are simply a sight to see, and they are bent upon making everything they want in their own country. There is a Japanese line of steamers plying between China and Japan, which shortly intends running between Bombay and Yokohama.
I saw quite a lot of temples. In every temple there are some Sanskrit Mantras written in Old Bengali characters. Only a few of the priests know Sanskrit. But they are an intelligent sect. The modern rage for progress has penetrated even the priesthood. I cannot write what I have in my mind about the Japs in one short letter. Only I want that numbers of our young men should pay a visit to Japan and China every year. Especially to the Japanese, India is still the dreamland of everything high and good. And you, what are you? . . . talking twaddle all your lives, vain talkers, what are you? Come, see these people, and then go and hide your faces in shame. A race of dotards, you lose your caste if you come out! Sitting down these hundreds of years with an ever-increasing load of crystallised superstition on your heads, for hundreds of years spending all your energy upon discussing the touchableness or untouchableness of this food or that, with all humanity crushed out of you by the continuous social tyranny of ages — what are you? And what are you doing now? . . . promenading the sea-shores with books in your hands — repeating undigested stray bits of European brainwork, and the whole soul bent upon getting a thirty-rupee clerkship, or at best becoming a lawyer — the height of young India's ambition — and every student with a whole brood of hungry children cackling at his heels and asking for bread! Is there not water enough in the sea to drown you, books, gowns, university diplomas, and all?
Come, be men! Kick out the priests who are always against progress, because they would never mend, their hearts would never become big. They are the offspring of centuries of superstition and tyranny. Root out priest craft first. Come, be men! Come out of your narrow holes and have a look abroad. See how nations are on the march! Do you love man? Do you love your country? Then come, let us struggle for higher and better things; look not back, no, not even if you see the dearest and nearest cry. Look not back, but forward!
India wants the sacrifice of at least a thousand or her young men — men, mind, and not brutes. The English Government has been the instrument, brought over here by the Lord, to break your crystallised civilisation, and Madras supplied the first men who helped in giving the English a footing. How many men, unselfish, thorough-going men, is Madras ready now to supply, to struggle unto life and death to bring about a new state of things sympathy for the poor, and bread to their hungry mouths, enlightenment to the people at large — and struggle unto death to make men of them who have been brought to the level of beasts, by the tyranny of your forefathers?
Yours etc.,
Vivekananda.
PS. Calm and silent and steady work, and no newspaper humbug, no name-making, you must always remember.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。