Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 147)

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Parts 1 to 146 were posted earlier. This is part 147. Your comments are welcome... Vivekananda Centre London

Earlier postings can be seen at http://www.vivekananda.btinternet.co.uk/veda.htm

 

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS

By Sister Gayatriprana

part 147

We are talking of the occupation of India by England.

From very ancient times, the fame of India’s vast wealth and her rich granaries has enkindled in many powerful foreign nations the desire to conquer her. She has been, in fact, again and again conquered by foreign nations. Then why should we say that the occupation of India by England was something new and foreign to the Indian mind?

From time immemorial the Indians have seen the mightiest royal power tremble before the frown of the ascetic priest, devoid of worldly desire, armed with spiritual strength - the power of mantras and religious lore - and the weapon of curses. They have also seen the subject people silently obey the commands of their heroic, all-powerful suzerains, backed by their armies, like a flock of sheep before a lion. But that a handful of vaishyas (traders) who, despite their great wealth, have ever crouched awe-stricken not only before the king but also before any member of the royal family, would unite, cross for purposes of business, rivers and seas, would, solely by virtue of their intelligence and wealth, by degrees make puppets of the long-established Hindu and Muslim dynasties; not only so, but that they would also buy the services of the ruling powers of their own country and use their valor and learning as powerful instruments for the influx of their own riches - this is a spectacle entirely novel to the Indians, as also the spectacle that the descendants of the mighty nobility of [England]… would, in no distant future, consider it the zenith of human ambition to be sent to India as obedient servants of a body of merchants called the East India Company - such a sight was, indeed, a novelty unseen by India before!(18)