The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 4/Lectures and Discourses/Is India a Benighted Country?
IS INDIA A BENIGHTED COUNTRY?
The following is a report of a lecture at Detroit, United States, America,
with the editorial comments of the Boston Evening Transcript, 5th April,
1894:
Swami Vivekananda has been in Detroit recently and made a proofed impression
there. All classes flocked to hear him, and professional men in particular
were greatly interested in his logic and his soundness of thought. The
opera-house alone was large enough for his audience. He speaks English
extremely well, and he is as handsome as he is good. The Detroit newspapers
have devoted much space to the reports of his lectures. An editorial in the
Detroit Evening News says: Most people will be inclined to think that Swami
Vivekananda did better last night in his opera-house lecture than he did in
any of his former lectures in this city. The merit of the Hindu's utterances
last night lay in their clearness. He drew a very sharp line of distinction
between Christianity and Christianity, and told his audience plainly wherein
he himself is a Christian in one sense and not a Christian in another sense.
He also drew a sharp line between Hinduism and Hinduism, carrying the
implication that he desired to be classed as a Hindu only in its better
sense. Swami Vivekananda stands superior to all criticism when he says, "We
want missionaries of Christ. Let such come to India by the hundreds and
thousands. Bring Christ's life to us and let it permeate the very core of
society. Let him be preached in every village and corner of India."
When a man is as sound as that on the main question, all else that he may
say must refer to the subordinate details. There is infinite humiliation in
this spectacle of a pagan priest reading lessons of conduct and of life to
the men who have assumed the spiritual supervision of Greenland's icy
mountains and India's coral strand; but the sense of humiliation is the sine qua non
of most reforms in this world. Having said what he did of the
glorious life of the author of the Christian faith, Vivekananda has the
right to lecture the way he has the men who profess to represent that life
among the nations abroad. And after all, how like the Nazarene that sounds:
"Provide neither gold nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for
your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves; for the
workman is worthy of his meat." Those who have become at all familiar with
the religious, literature of India before the advent of Vivekananda are best
prepared to understand the utter abhorrence of the Orientals of our Western
commercial spirit — or what Vivekananda calls, "the shopkeeper's spirit" —
in all that we do even in our very religion.
Here is a point for the missionaries which they cannot afford to ignore.
They who would convert the Eastern world of paganism must live up to what
they preach, in contempt for the kingdoms of this world and all the glory of
them.
Brother Vivekananda considers India the most moral nation in the world.
Though in bondage, its spirituality still endures. Here are extracts from
the notices of some of his recent Detroit addresses: At this point the
lecturer struck the great moral keynote of his discourse stating that with
his people it was the belief that all non-self is good and all self is bad.
This point was emphasised throughout the evening and might be termed the
text of the address. "To build a home is selfish, argues the Hindu, so he
builds it for the worship of God and for the entertainment of guests. To
cook food is selfish, so he cooks it for the poor; he will serve himself
last if any hungry stranger applies; and this feeling extends throughout the
length and breadth of the land. Any man can ask for food and shelter and any
house will be opened to him.
"The caste system has nothing to do with religion. A man's occupation is
hereditary — a carpenter is born a carpenter: a goldsmith, a goldsmith; a
workman, a workman: and a priest, a priest.
"Two gifts are especially appreciated, the gift of learning and the gift of
life. But the gift of learning takes precedence. One may save a man's life,
and that is excellent; one may impart to another knowledge, and that is
better. To instruct for money is an evil, and to do this would bring
opprobrium upon the head of the man who barters learning for gold as though
it were an article of trade. The Government makes gifts from time to time to
the instructors, and the moral effect is better than it would be if the
conditions were the same as exist in certain alleged civilised countries."
The speaker had asked throughout the length and breadth of the land what was
the definition of "civilization", and he had asked the question in many
countries. Sometimes the reply has been, "What we are, that is
civilization." He begged to differ in the definition of the word. A nation
may conquer the waves, control the elements, develop the utilitarian
problems of life seemingly to the utmost limits, and yet not realise that in
the individual, the highest type of civilization is found in him who has
learned to conquer self. This condition is found more in India than in any
other country on earth, for there the material conditions are subservient to
the spiritual, and the individual looks to the soul manifestations in
everything that has life, studying nature to this end. Hence that gentle
disposition to endure with indomitable patience the flings of what appears
unkind fortune, the while there is a full consciousness of a spiritual
strength and knowledge greater than that possessed by any other people.
Therefore the existence of a country and people from which flows an unending
stream that attracts the attention of thinkers far and near to approach and
throw from their shoulders an oppressive earthly burden.
This lecture was prefaced with the statement that the speaker had been asked
many questions. A number of these he preferred to answer privately, but
three he had selected for reasons, which would appear, to answer from the
pulpit. They were: "Do the people of India throw their children into the
jaws of the crocodiles?" "Do they kill themselves beneath the wheels of
Jagannâtha?" "Do they burn widows with their husbands?" The first question
the lecturer treated in the same vein as an American abroad would in
answering inquiries about Indians running round in the streets of New York
and similar myths which are even today entertained by many persons on the
Continent. The statement was too ludicrous to give a serious response to it.
When asked by certain well-meaning but ignorant people why they gave only
female children to the crocodiles, he could only ironically reply that
probably it was because they were softer and more tender and could be more
easily masticated by the inhabitants of the river in that benighted country.
Regarding the Jagannatha legend, the lecturer explained the old practice of
the Car-festival in the sacred city, and remarked that possibly a few
pilgrims in their zeal to grasp the rope and participate in the drawing of
the Car slipped and fell and were so destroyed. Some such mishaps had been
exaggerated into the distorted versions from which the good people of other
countries shrank with horror. Vivekananda denied that people burned widows.
It was true, however, that widows had burned themselves. In the few cases
where this had happened, they had been urged not to do so by holy men, Who
were always opposed to suicide. Where the devoted widows insisted, stating
that they desired to accompany their husbands in the transformation that had
taken place, they were obliged to submit themselves to the fiery tests. That
is, they thrust Her hands within the flames, and if they permitted them to
be consumed, no further opposition was placed in the way of the fulfilment
of their desires. But India is not the only country where women, who have
loved, have followed immediately the beloved one to the realms of
immortality; suicides in such cases have occurred in every land. It is an
uncommon bit of fanaticism in any country — as unusual in India as
elsewhere. "No," the speaker repeated, "the people do not burn women in
India; nor have they ever burned witches."
This latter touch is decidedly acute by way of reflection. No analysis of
the philosophy of the Hindu monk need be attempted here, except to say that
it is based in general on the struggle of the soul to individually attain
Infinity. One learned Hindu opened the Lowell Institute Course this year.
What Mr. Mozoomdar began, might worthily be ended by Brother Vivekananda.
This new visitor has by far the most interesting personality, although in
the Hindu philosophy, of course, personality is not to be taken into
consideration. At the Parliament of Religions they used to keep Vivekananda
until the end of the programme to make people stay until the end of the
session. On a warm day, when a prosy speaker talked too long and people
began going home by hundreds, the Chairman would get up and announce that
Swami Vivekananda would make a short address just before the benediction.
Then he would have the peaceable hundreds perfectly in tether. The four
thousand fanning people in the Hall of Columbus would sit smiling and
expectant, waiting for an hour or two of other men's speeches, to listen to
Vivekananda for fifteen minutes. The Chairman knew the old rule of keeping
the best until the last.