The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Lectures from Colombo to Almora/On Charity
ON CHARITY
During his stay in Madras the Swami presided at the annual meeting of the
Chennapuri Annadâna Samâjam, an institution of a charitable nature, and in
the course of a brief address referred to a remark by a previous speaker
deprecating special alms-giving to the Brahmin over and above the other
castes. Swamiji pointed out that this had its good as well as its bad side.
All the culture, practically which the nation possessed, was among the
Brahmins, and they also had been the thinkers of the nation. Take away the
means of living which enabled them to be thinkers, and the nation as a whole
would suffer. Speaking of the indiscriminate charity of India as compared
with the legal charity of other nations, he said, the outcome of their
system of relief was that the vagabond of India was contented to receive
readily what he was given readily and lived a peaceful and contented life:
while the vagabond in the West, unwilling to go to the poor-house — for man
loves liberty more than food — turned a robber, the enemy of society, and
necessitated the organisation of a system of magistracy, police, jails, and
other establishments. Poverty there must be, so long as the disease known as
civilisation existed: and hence the need for relief. So that they had to
choose between the indiscriminate charity of India, which, in the case of
Sannyâsins at any rate, even if they were not sincere men, at least forced
them to learn some little of their scriptures before they were able to
obtain food; and the discriminate charity of Western nations which
necessitated a costly system of poor-law relief, and in the end succeeded
only in changing mendicants into criminals.