二十五 湿婆南达兄弟
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
二十五
（译自孟加拉文）
美国，
1894年。
亲爱的师弟湿婆难陀：
你的信刚刚寄到。或许此时你已收到我的其他来信，得知不必再向美国寄任何东西了。凡事过犹不及。这些报纸的大肆宣扬固然给我带来了声誉，然而其影响在印度远胜于此地。在这里，持续不断的吹捧反而令上层人士心生反感；因此，适可而止。如今，你们要在印度按照这些集会的模式组织起来，无需再向这个国家寄送任何东西。至于钱财，我已决定首先为圣母（圣母妙吉祥·沙拉达·黛维）建一处居所，因为女性最需要这个。……我可以汇约七千卢比，用于圣母的居所。只要先把居所安置妥当，其他一切我都不在乎。我希望即便我离开后，每年仍能从这个国家筹得约一千六百卢比。这笔款项我将用于维持女众道场，它必将逐渐壮大。我已写信嘱你为此置地。……
我本应早已返回印度，奈何印度没有资金。数以千计的人崇敬罗摩克里希纳·帕拉玛汉萨，却无人肯捐出一分一厘——这就是印度。……与此同时，无论如何都要和睦相处。世人极少在乎原则，他们在乎的是人。对于自己喜爱之人所说的话，哪怕是胡言乱语，他们也会耐心聆听；而对于自己不喜欢的人，任何话他们都不愿倾听。想清楚这一点，并据此调整你的行为。一切终将好转。若你甘愿为仆，你便能驾驭一切——此乃真正的秘诀。你的爱意自会感人心弦，即便你言辞严厉。人们在本能上能感受到隐藏于任何语言之中的爱。（此段及第四段的后半部分均以英文写就。）
我亲爱的师弟，罗摩克里希纳·帕拉玛汉萨乃是神之化身，对此我毫无疑惑；但你们必须让人们自行探寻他所教导的真理——你们不能将这些东西强加于他人——这是我唯一的异议。
让人们自由表达各自的见解，我们为何要加以反对？若不先研习罗摩克里希纳·帕拉玛汉萨，就永远无法理解吠陀、吠檀多（Vedanta）及《薄伽梵往世书》等典籍的真实含义。他的生命是一道射向印度宗教思想全域的万丈强光。他是吠陀及其目的的活注脚。他以一生之修行，走完了印度民族宗教存在的整个历程。
至于薄伽梵湿婆克里希纳究竟是否降世，我们尚无定论；佛陀与柴坦尼亚此类化身不免流于单调；而罗摩克里希纳·帕拉玛汉萨是最新、最完美的——是知识、爱、舍离、宽容与济世愿心的集中体现。如此人物，天下谁堪与比？不懂得欣赏他之人，其一生岂非枉度！我最大的福分，便是生生世世做他的仆人。他的一言一语，对我而言远比吠陀与吠檀多更为重要。——噢，我是他仆人之仆人之仆人。然而，狭隘的偏执与他的原则背道而驰，这令我深感焦虑。倒不如让他的名字沉入遗忘，而让他的教义结出果实！他难道是名誉的奴隶吗？当年，几个渔夫和目不识丁的人称耶稣为神，而有识之士却将他置于死地。佛陀在世时，受到一些商人和牧民的礼敬。而罗摩克里希纳却在他有生之年——在这十九世纪末叶——被大学里的俊杰翘楚奉为神之化身而顶礼膜拜。……关于克里希纳（Krishna）、佛陀、基督等人，书中只记载了寥寥数事。"从未与我们共同生活过的人，必定是了不起的当家人！"孟加拉谚语如此说。然而此间有一位与我们日夜相伴的人，我们却认为他远比任何人都更为伟大。你能理解这一现象吗？
你们还未曾理解圣母生命的奇妙意义——你们中没有一个人真正理解。但你们将会逐渐明白。没有夏克提（Shakti，力量），世界便无从振兴。我们的国家为何是所有国家中最为积弱落后的？——因为夏克提在那里遭受轻视。圣母降世，是为了在印度复兴那奇妙的夏克提；以她为核心，伽尔基与迈特雷依式的女圣将再次诞生于世。亲爱的师弟，你如今所知有限，但你将逐渐明了一切。因此，我首先要建的是她的道场（Math）。……没有夏克提的恩典，一事无成。我在美国与欧洲看到了什么？——对夏克提的礼拜，对力量的崇奉。然而他们以无知之心礼拜她，通过感官享乐来崇拜她。试想，那些以纯洁之心、以悦性精神礼拜她、视她为母的人，将成就何等的善业！我对事物的理解每天都在深化，洞见不断开显。因此，我们首先必须为圣母建一座道场。先是圣母与她的女儿，然后才是圣父与他的儿子——你能理解这一点吗？……对我而言，圣母的恩典比圣父的恩典贵重十万倍。圣母的恩典、圣母的祝福，对我而言至高无上。……请原谅我。我在对圣母的信奉上确实有几分偏执。若是圣母降旨，她的弟子们可以成就任何事业。师弟，在前往美国之前，我曾写信请求圣母赐福。她的祝福降临，我便一跃而越大洋。你看，在这严酷的冬天，我奔波各处演讲，与重重阻碍搏斗，只为能为圣母的道场筹集资金。巴布拉姆的母亲必定是年迈昏聩，才会去礼拜泥塑的杜尔迦（Durga），而忽视了活着的她（即圣母沙拉达·黛维）。师弟，信仰殊难成就。师弟，我将示现如何礼拜那活着的杜尔迦，到那时我才配得上自己的名字。当你们购得一块土地、迎请那活着的杜尔迦、安立圣母之处，我便如释重负。在此之前，我不会返回故土。一旦你们能做到这一点，待我汇去资金之后，我便可长舒一口气。你们要做好一切必要的安排，为我完成这场杜尔迦盛典。吉里什·高斯正以美好的方式礼敬圣母；他是有福之人，他的追随者们亦是有福之人。师弟，每当我想起圣母，便常常脱口而出："罗摩又算得了什么？"师弟，这便是我的偏执之处，我告诉你。关于罗摩克里希纳，你可以说他是化身，或任何你愿意说的，但对那没有对圣母虔信（Bhakti）之心的人，羞哉！尼兰扬性情刚强好斗，然而他对圣母有着深厚的虔信，他的种种怪癖我都能宽容接受。他如今正在做着最令人叹服的工作。我一直密切关注着。你们与马德拉斯人的合作也做得极好。亲爱的师弟，我对你寄予厚望，你应当将众人组织起来，协同工作。一旦你们为圣母置得土地，我便径直赴印。土地须宽阔，可先建一座土坯房，日后我将建起一座像样的建筑，不必担忧。
疟疾的主要根源在于水。你们为何不建两三个过滤装置？若先将水烧开再过滤，便可无害饮用。……请购置两只大型巴斯德细菌过滤器。烹饪与饮用均使用过滤水，疟疾之患从此不再。……继续前进，工作，工作，工作，这不过是刚刚开始。
你永远的，
辨喜
English
XXV
(Translated from Bengali)
U. S.A.,
1894.
DEAR BROTHER SHIVANANDA,
Your letter just reached me. Perhaps by this time you have received my other letters and learnt that it is not necessary to send anything to America any more. Too much of everything is bad. This newspaper booming has given me popularity no doubt, but its effect is more in India than here. Here, on the other hand, constant booming creates a distaste in the minds of the higher class people; so enough. Now try to organise yourselves in India on the lines of these meetings. You need not send anything more in this country. As to money, I have determined first to build some place for Mother, (Holy Mother, Shri Sarada Devi.) for women require it first. . . . I can send nearly Rs. 7,000 for a place for Mother. If the place is first secured, then I do not care for anything else. I hope to be able to get Rs. 1,600 a year from this country even when I am gone. That sum I will make over to the support of the Women's place, and then it will grow. I have written to you already to secure a place. . . .
I would have, before this, returned to India, but India has no money. Thousands honour Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, but nobody will give a cent — that is India. . . . In the meanwhile live in harmony at any price. The world cares little for principles. They care for persons. They will hear with patience the words of a man they like, however nonsense, and will not listen to anyone they do not like. Think of this and modify your conduct accordingly. Everything will come all right. Be the servant if you will rule. That is the real secret. Your love will tell even if your words be harsh. Instinctively men feel the love clothed in whatever language. (These two paragraphs and the last half of the fourth were written in English.)
My dear brother, that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was God incarnate, I have not the least doubt; but then you must let people find out for themselves what he used to teach — you cannot thrust these things upon them — this is my only objection.
Let people speak out their own opinions, why should we object? Without studying Ramakrishna Paramahamsa first, one can never understand the real import of the Vedas, the Vedanta, of the Bhâgavata and the other Purânas. His life is a searchlight of infinite power thrown upon the whole mass of Indian religious thought. He was the living commentary to the Vedas and to their aim. He had lived in one life the whole cycle of the national religious existence in India.
Whether Bhagavân Shri Krishna was born at all we are not sure; and Avataras like Buddha and Chaitanya are monotonous; Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is the latest and the most perfect — the concentrated embodiment of knowledge, love, renunciation, catholicity, and the desire to serve mankind. So where is anyone to compare with him? He must have been born in vain who cannot appreciate him! My supreme good fortune is that I am his servant through life after life. A single word of his is to me far weightier than the Vedas and the Vedanta. [25_brother_shivananda_01.jpg] — Oh, I am the servant of the servants of his servants. But narrow bigotry militates against his principles, and this makes me cross. Rather let his name be drowned in oblivion, and his teachings bear fruit instead! Why, was he a slave to fame? Certain fishermen and illiterate people called Jesus Christ a God, but the literate people killed him. Buddha was honoured in his lifetime by a number of merchants and cowherds. But Ramakrishna has been worshipped in his lifetime — towards the end of this nineteenth century — by the demons and giants of the university as God incarnate. . . . Only a few things have been jotted down in the books about them (Krishna, Buddha, Christ, etc.). "One must be a wonderful housekeeper with whom we have never yet lived!" so the Bengali proverb goes. But here is a man in whose company we have been day and night and yet consider him to be a far greater personality than any of them. Can you understand this phenomenon?
You have not yet understood the wonderful significance of Mother's life — none of you. But gradually you will know. Without Shakti (Power) there is no regeneration for the world. Why is it that our country is the weakest and the most backward of all countries? — Because Shakti is held in dishonour there. Mother has been born to revive that wonderful Shakti in India; and making her the nucleus, once more will Gârgis and Maitreyis be born into the world. Dear brother, you understand little now, but by degrees you will come to know it all. Hence it is her Math that I want first. . . . Without the grace of Shakti nothing is to be accomplished. What do I find in America and Europe? — the worship of Shakti, the worship of Power. Yet they worship Her ignorantly through sense-gratification. Imagine, then, what a lot of good they will achieve who will worship Her with all purity, in a Sattvika spirit, looking upon Her as their mother! I am coming to understand things clearer every day, my insight is opening out more and more. Hence we must first build a Math for Mother. First Mother and Mother's daughters, then Father and Father's sons — can you understand this? . . . To me, Mother's grace is a hundred thousand times more valuable than Father's. Mother's grace, Mother's blessings are all paramount to me. . . . Please pardon me. I am a little bigoted there, as regards Mother. If but Mother orders, her demons can work anything. Brother, before proceeding to America I wrote to Mother to bless me. Her blessings came, and at one bound I cleared the ocean. There, you see. In this terrible winter I am lecturing from place to place and fighting against odds, so that funds may be collected for Mother's Math. Baburam's mother must have lost her sense owing to old age and that is why she is about to worship Durga in the earthen image, ignoring the living one. (Viz. Holy Mother Shri Sarada Devi.) Brother, faith is very difficult to achieve. Brother, I shall show how to worship the living Durga and then only shall I be worthy of my name. I shall be relieved when you will have purchased a plot of land and established there the living Durga, the Mother. Till then I am not returning to my native land. As soon as you can do that, I shall have a sigh of relief after sending the money. Do you accomplish this festival of Durga of mine by making all the necessary arrangements. Girish Ghosh is adoring the Mother splendidly; blessed is he, and blessed are his followers. Brother, often enough, when I am reminded of the Mother, I ejaculate, "What after all is Rama?" Brother, that is where my fanaticism lies, I tell you. Of Ramakrishna, you may aver, my brother, that he was an Incarnation or whatever else you may like but fie on him who has no devotion for the Mother. Niranjan has a militant disposition, but he has great devotion for Mother and all his vagaries I can easily put up with. He is now doing the most marvellous work. I am keeping myself well posted. And you too have done excellently in co-operating with the Madrasis. Dear brother, I expect much from you, you should organise all for conjoint work. As soon as you have secured the land for Mother, I go to India straight. It must be a big plot; let there be a mud-house to begin with, in due course I shall erect a decent building, don't be afraid.
The chief cause of malaria lies in water. Why do you not construct two or three filters? If you first boil the water and then filter it, it will be harmless. . . . Please buy two big Pasteur's bacteria-proof filters. Let the cooking be done in that water and use it for drinking purposes also, and you will never hear of malaria any more. . . . On and on, work, work, work, this is only the beginning.
Yours ever,
VIVEKANANDA.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。