论印度教的边界
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AI-translated. May contain errors. For accurate text, refer to the original English.
中文
据编辑指派，我们的记者前去采访斯瓦米·辨喜（Vivekananda），就皈依印度教的问题进行访谈。一天傍晚，我在一艘恒河游船的顶层找到了机会。那时夜幕已经降临，我们停靠在罗摩克里希纳（Ramakrishna）修道院的河堤旁，斯瓦米走下来与我交谈。
时间与地点都令人心旷神怡。头顶繁星点点，四周是奔流不息的恒河；一侧矗立着灯光朦胧的建筑，背景是棕榈树和高大的遮荫乔木。
"斯瓦米，我想就一个问题请教您，"我开口道，"关于将那些被迫脱离印度教的人重新接纳回来的问题。您认为应该接纳他们吗？"
"当然，"斯瓦米说，"他们能够而且应该被接纳回来。"
他神情庄重地静坐了片刻，若有所思，然后继续说道。"况且，"他说，"否则我们的人数将会不断减少。穆斯林最初到来时，据说——我想这是依据最早的穆斯林历史学家费里什塔的权威记载——我们曾有六亿印度教徒。现在我们大约只有两亿了。而且每一个离开印度教范围的人，不仅意味着少了一个人，更意味着多了一个敌人。
"再者，皈依伊斯兰教和基督教的印度教徒中，绝大多数是被武力胁迫而改宗的，或者是这些人的后裔。对这些人施加任何形式的歧视显然是不公正的。至于天生的外族人的情况，您说呢？在过去，外族人曾大批皈依，而且这个过程至今仍在继续。
"依我看来，这种说法不仅适用于原住民部落、边远民族以及穆斯林征服之前几乎所有的征服者，而且也适用于往世书中记载的情况。我认为他们都是以这种方式被接纳的外族人。
"对于那些自愿回归'母教'的皈依者，赎罪仪式无疑是合适的；但对于那些因征服而被迫离开的人——如在克什米尔和尼泊尔——或对于希望加入我们的外族人，不应施加任何苦行。"
"但是斯瓦米吉，这些人应属于什么种姓呢？"我冒昧地问道。"他们必须有某种种姓归属，否则永远无法融入印度教的大群体。我们应该从哪里为他们找到合适的位置？"
"回归的皈依者，"斯瓦米平静地说，"当然会回到他们原来的种姓。而新加入的人将自己建立种姓。您会记得，"他补充道，"这在毗湿奴派中已经实现过了。来自不同种姓和外族的皈依者都能在那面旗帜下联合起来，自行形成一个种姓——而且是一个相当受尊敬的种姓。从罗摩奴阇到孟加拉的柴坦尼亚，所有伟大的毗湿奴派导师（Guru）都做过同样的事。"
"那这些新加入的人应该与谁通婚呢？"我问道。
"在他们自己之间通婚，正如他们现在所做的那样，"斯瓦米平静地说。
"那么关于姓名，"我接着问，"我想那些已经采用非印度教名字的外族人和改宗者应该重新取名。您会给他们种姓姓氏，还是怎样呢？"
"当然，"斯瓦米若有所思地说，"名字确实大有深意！"在这个问题上他不愿再多说了。
但我的下一个问题触及了要害。"斯瓦米吉，您是否会让这些新来者在印度教的众多面向中自行选择其信仰形式，还是会为他们规划一种宗教？"
"这还用问吗？"他说。"他们将自己做出选择。因为除非一个人自己做出选择，否则印度教的精神本身就被摧毁了。我们信仰的本质仅仅在于这种'伊什塔'的自由。"
我认为这番话意义深远，因为面前这位修行者比我所知的任何在世之人都花费了更多年月，以科学而同情的精神研究印度教的共同基础——而"伊什塔的自由"这一原则显然宏大得足以容纳整个世界。
但话题转向了其他事情，随后这位伟大的宗教导师亲切地道了晚安，提起灯笼回到了修道院，而我则沿着恒河上那些无路可循的小径，在大小不一的船只之间穿行，尽力赶回我在加尔各答的家。
English
Having been directed by the Editor, writes our representative, to interview Swami Vivekananda on the question of converts to Hinduism, I found an opportunity one evening on the roof of a Ganga houseboat. It was after nightfall, and we had stopped at the embankments of the Ramakrishna Math, and there the Swami came down to speak with me.
Time and place were alike delightful. Overhead the stars, and around — the rolling Ganga; and on one side stood the dimly lighted building, with its background of palms and lofty shade-trees.
"I want to see you, Swami", I began, "on this matter of receiving back into Hinduism those who have been perverted from it. Is it your opinion that they should be received?"
"Certainly," said the Swami, "they can and ought to be taken."
He sat gravely for a moment, thinking, and then resumed. "Besides," he said, "we shall otherwise decrease in numbers. When the Mohammedans first came, we are said — I think on the authority of Ferishta, the oldest Mohammedan historian — to have been six hundred millions of Hindus. Now we are about two hundred millions. And then every man going out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less, but an enemy the more.
"Again, the vast majority of Hindu perverts to Islam and Christianity are perverts by the sword, or the descendants of these. It would be obviously unfair to subject these to disabilities of any kind. As to the case of born aliens, did you say? Why, born aliens have been converted in the past by crowds, and the process is still going on.
"In my own opinion, this statement not only applies to aboriginal tribes, to outlying nations, and to almost all our conquerors before the Mohammedan conquest, but also in the Purânas. I hold that they have been aliens thus adopted.
"Ceremonies of expiation are no doubt suitable in the case of willing converts, returning to their Mother-Church, as it were; but on those who were alienated by conquest — as in Kashmir and Nepal — or on strangers wishing to join us, no penance should be imposed."
"But of what caste would these people be, Swamiji?" I ventured to ask. "They must have some, or they can never be assimilated into the great body of Hindus. Where shall we look for their rightful place?"
"Returning converts", said the Swami quietly, "will gain their own castes, of course. And new people will make theirs. You will remember," he added, "that this has already been done in the case of Vaishnavism. Converts from different castes and aliens were all able to combine under that flag and form a caste by themselves — and a very respectable one too. From Râmânuja down to Chaitanya of Bengal, all great Vaishnava Teachers have done the same."
"And where should these new people expect to marry?" I asked.
"Amongst themselves, as they do now", said the Swami quietly.
"Then as to names," I enquired, "I suppose aliens and perverts who have adopted non-Hindu names should be named newly. Would you give them caste-names, or what?"
"Certainly," said the Swami, thoughtfully, "there is a great deal in a name!" and on this question he would say no more.
But my next enquiry drew blood. "Would you leave these new-comers, Swamiji, to choose their own form of religious belief out of many-visaged Hinduism, or would you chalk out a religion for them?"
"Can you ask that?" he said. "They will choose for themselves. For unless a man chooses for himself, the very spirit of Hinduism is destroyed. The essence of our Faith consists simply in this freedom of the Ishta."
I thought the utterance a weighty one, for the man before me has spent more years than any one else living I fancy, in studying the common bases of Hinduism in a scientific and sympathetic spirit — and the freedom of the Ishta is obviously a principle big enough to accommodate the world.
But the talk passed to other matters, and then with a cordial good night this great teacher of religion lifted his lantern and went back into the monastery, while I by the pathless paths of the Ganga, in and out amongst her crafts of many sizes, made the best of my way back to my Calcutta home.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。