SWADESH MANTRA

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SWADESH MANTRA - Swami Vivekananda

 

O India! With this mere echoing of others, with this base imitation of

others, with this dependence on others, this slavish weakness, this vile

detestable cruelty -- wouldst thou, with these provisions only, scale the

highest pinnacle of civilisation and greatness? Wouldst thou attain, by

means of thy disgraceful cowardice, that freedom deserved only by the brave

and the heroic?

 

O India! Forget not that the ideal of thy womanhood is Sita, Savitri,

Damayanti;

 

forget not that the God thou worshippest is the great Ascetic of ascetics,

the all- renouncing Shankara, the Lord of Uma;

 

forget not that thy marriage, thy wealth, thy life are not for

sense-pleasure, are not for thy individual personal happiness;

 

forget not that thou art born as a sacrifice to the Mother's altar;

 

forget not that thy social order is but the reflex of the Infinite Universal

Motherhood;

 

forget not that the lower classes, the ignorant, the poor, the illiterate,

the cobbler, the sweeper, are thy flesh and blood, thy brothers.

 

Thou brave one, be bold, take courage, be proud that thou art an Indian,

and proudly proclaim, " I am an Indian, every Indian is my brother. " Say,

" The ignorant Indian, the poor and destitute Indian, the Brahmin Indian, the

Pariah Indian, is my brother. "

 

Thou, too, clad with but a rag round thy loins proudly proclaim at the top

of thy voice: " The Indian is my brother, the Indian is my life, India's gods

and goddesses are my God. India's society is the cradle of my infancy, the

pleasure-garden of my youth, the sacred heaven, the Varanasi of my old age. "

 

 

Say, brother; " The soil of India is my highest heaven, the good of India is

my good, " and repeat and pray day and night, " O Thou Lord of Gauri, O Thou

Mother of the Universe, vouchsafe manliness unto me! O Thou Mother of

Strength, take away my weakness, take away my unmanliness, and make me a

Man! "

 

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. 4 [Page:479], MODERN INDIA

 

Request: Forward this message to all your contacts. Let these thoughts

reach every Indian residing in any corner of this planet.