穆罕默德对世界的信息
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
穆罕默德致世界的信息
（《新发现》第五卷，第401—403页。参见《全集》第一卷"穆罕默德"篇。）
〔艾达·安塞尔整理之辨喜（Vivekananda）首稿节录——此讲演于1900年3月25日（星期日）在旧金山举行〕
穆罕默德
〔辨喜表示将"以穆罕默德为例，揭示这位伟大阿拉伯先知的独特贡献"，随后继续讲演。〕
每一位伟大的使者，不仅开创了新的时代秩序，他自身也是特定历史秩序的产物。世间并不存在独立自为的能动原因。一切原因皆互为因果，交替循环。父者，亦曾为子；母者，亦曾为女。我们有必要理解这些〔伟大使者〕降临时所处的社会环境与历史境遇。……
文明的特殊之处正在于此：一个民族的某支浪潮，会从发源地迁徙至遥远的土地，缔造辉煌的文明；其余部分则留守于蛮荒之中。印度雅利安人进入印度，而中亚诸部落则滞留于野蛮状态。另有一些人进入小亚细亚与欧洲。我们还记得以色列人出埃及的历史——他们的家园本是阿拉伯沙漠，新的事业就从那里萌发。……一切文明皆以此方式生长：某一民族开化文明后，游牧民族随之而来。游牧者素来崇尚战斗，他们来势汹汹，征服已有文明的民族，带来更强的血脉与更健壮的体魄。他们汲取被征服民族的精神智慧，将其融入自身的体魄，推动文明再度向前迈进。一个民族走向文化与文明的极盛，直至形体耗尽；于是，如旋风般，一个在体魄上强健的民族呼啸而来，他们接受前人的艺术、科学与思想，将文明推向更高峰。这是必然之势，否则世界便无以为继。
每当一位伟大人物崛起，人们便会在他的周围编织出华美的〔神话〕。科学与真理，乃是世间一切宗教之根基。真理的壮美，远胜世间任何神话。……
昔日的古希腊已然消亡，整个民族〔俯伏〕于罗马人的脚下；而罗马人则汲取着希腊的科学与艺术。罗马人本是蛮族，是征服者。他们不懂诗歌，不识艺术，只知如何统治，如何将一切集中于罗马的体制之中，坐享其成——这对他们而言甘甜无比。然而那个罗马帝国已然覆灭，毁于种种困境：奢靡腐化、外来新宗教，诸如此类。基督教进入罗马帝国已达六百年之久。……
每当一种新宗教试图强行渗入另一民族，若该民族尚未开化，则往往得逞；若该民族已有文明底蕴，则会将〔该宗教〕摧毁。……罗马帝国便是明证，波斯人也看到了这一点。基督教对北方蛮族是另一番景象。〔然而〕罗马帝国的基督教本是百味杂陈之物，糅合了来自波斯、犹太、印度、希腊的种种成分。
民族总是被〔战争〕所摧残。战争夺走最优秀的男儿，令其血洒疆场，懦弱之辈则留守家中，民族由此走向衰落。……人变得渺小，为什么？因为所有豪杰都成了〔战士〕，这便是战争毁灭民族的方式——将其中最优秀者送入战场。
再说那些修道院。人们纷纷遁入荒漠，躲进山洞冥想。修道院逐渐成为财富与奢靡的中心。……
若非这些修道院，盎格鲁-撒克逊人便不会成为今日之盎格鲁-撒克逊人。每一个孱弱之人，其处境比奴隶更为悲惨。……在那片混乱之中，这些修道院是光明与庇护的中心。
〔文化〕差异悬殊之处，往往反而不生争端。所有这些彼此冲突、格格不入的元素，〔本来〕原是一体。
就在这片混沌之中，先知诞生了。……
〔这是辨喜此次讲演第一部分的结语。参见《全集》第一卷"穆罕默德"篇。〕
English
MOHAMMED'S MESSAGE TO THE WORLD
(New Discoveries, Vol. 5, pp. 401-3. Cf. “Mohammed”, [6]Complete Works, I.)
[Excerpts of Ida Ansell’s first transcript of Swami Vivekananda's San Francisco lecture delivered Sunday, March 25, 1900]
Mohammed
[After stating that he would "take Mohammed and bring out the particular work of the great Arabian prophet", Swami Vivekananda continued his lecture.]
Each great messenger not only creates a new order of things, but is himself the creation of a certain order of things. There is no such thing as an independent, active cause. All causes are cause and effect in turn. Father is father and son in turn. Mother is mother and daughter in turn. It is necessary to understand the surroundings and circumstances into which they [the great messengers] come. . . .
This is the peculiarity of civilization. One wave of a race will go from its birthplace to a distant land and make a wonderful civilization. The rest will be left in barbarism. The Hindus came into India and the tribes of Central Asia were left in barbarism. Others came to Asia Minor and Europe. Then, you remember the coming out of Egypt of the Israelites. Their home was the Arabian desert. Out of that springs a new work. . . . All civilizations grow that way. A certain race becomes civilized. Then comes a nomad race. Nomads are always ready to fight. They come and conquer a race. They bring better blood, stronger physiques. They take up the mind of the conquered race and add that to their body and push civilization still further. One race becomes cultured and civilized until the body is worn out. Then like a whirlwind comes a race strong in the physical, and they take up the arts and the sciences and the mind, and push civilization further. This must be. Otherwise the world would not be.
The moment a great man rises, they build a beautiful [mythology] around him. Science and truth is all the religion that exists. Truth is more beautiful than any mythology in the world. . . .
The old Greeks had disappeared already, the whole nation [lay] under the feet of the Romans who were learning their science and art. The Roman was a barbarian, a conquering man. He had no eye for poetry or art. He knew how to rule and how to get everything centralized into that system of Rome and to enjoy that. That was sweet. And that Roman Empire is gone, destroyed by all sorts of difficulties, luxury, a new foreign religion, and all that. Christianity had been already six hundred years in the Roman Empire. . . .
Whenever a new religion tries to force itself upon another race, it succeeds if the race is uncultured. If it [the race] is cultured, it will destroy the [religion]. . . . The Roman Empire was a case in point, and the Persian people saw that. Christianity was another thing with the barbarians in the north. [But] the Christianity of the Roman Empire was a mixture of everything, something from Persia, from the Jews, from India, from Greece, everything.
The race is always killed by [war]. War takes away the best men, gets them killed, and the cowards are left at home. Thus comes the degeneration of the race. . . . Men became small. Why? All the great men became [warriors]. That is how war kills races, takes their best into the battlefields.
Then the monasteries. They all went to the desert, to the caves for meditation. The monasteries gradually became the centres of wealth and luxury. . . .
The Anglo-Saxon race would not be Anglo-Saxon but for these monasteries. Every weak man was worse than a slave.. . . In that state of chaos these monasteries were centres of light and protection.
Where [cultures] differ very much they do not quarrel. All these warring, jarring elements [were originally] all one.
In the midst of all this chaos was born the prophet. . . .
[This concluded the first part of the Swami's lecture. Vide “Mohammed”,
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。