SWADESH MANTRA - Swami Vivekananda

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Posted by: " Uttishthata " uttishthata

Mon Aug 13, 2007 9:42 pm (PST)

 

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 mail to all your contacts.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Let the mind be cheerful but calm. Never let it run into excesses,

because every excess will be followed by a reaction.

- Swami Vivekananda