Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 170)

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SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS

By Sister Gayatriprana

part 170

5. Lack of Faith and Physical Weakness Have Broken the Backbone of India

 

What do we want in India? If foreigners want [the teachings of the Upanishads]

we want them twenty times more. Because, in spite of the greatness of the

Upanishads, in spite of our boasted ancestry of sages, I must tell you that,

compared with many other races, we are weak, very weak. First of all is our

physical weakness. That physical weakness is the cause of at least one third of

our miseries. We are lazy, we cannot work, we cannot combine, we do not love

each other; we are intensely selfish, no three of us can come together without

hating each other, without being jealous of each other. That is the state in

which we are - hopelessly disorganized mobs, immensely selfish, fighting each

other for centuries as to whether a certain mark is to be put on our foreheads

this way or that, writing volumes and volumes upon such momentous questions as

to whether the look of someone spoils my food or not! This we have been doing

for the past few centuries. We cannot expect anything from a race whose whole

brain energy has been occupied in such wonderfully beautiful problems and

researches! And are we not ashamed of ourselves? Ay, sometimes we are; but

though we think these things frivolous, we cannot give them up. We speak of many

things parrot-like, but never do them; speaking and not doing has become a habit

with us. What is the cause of that? Physical weakness. This sort of weak brain

is not able to do anything; we must strengthen it.(52)

 

What we want is… shraddha, [faith]. Unfortunately, it has nearly vanished from

India, and that is why we are in our present state. What makes the difference

between person and person is the difference in this shraddha, and nothing else.

What makes one person great and another weak and low is this shraddha… This

shraddha must enter into you. Whatever material power you see manifested by the

Western races is the outcome of this shraddha, because they believe in their

muscles; and if you believe in your Spirit, how much more will it work? Believe

in that infinite Soul, the infinite power which, with consensus of opinion, your

books and sages preach. That Atman, which nothing can destroy, is, in Its

infinite power and glory, only waiting to be called out. For here is the great

difference between all other philosophies and the Indian philosophy, whether

dualistic, qualified monistic, or monistic - they all firmly believe that

everything is in the Soul itself. It has only to come out and manifest itself.

Therefore, this shraddha is what I want, and what all of us here want - this

faith in ourselves; and before you is the great task to get that faith. Give up

the awful disease that is creeping into our national blood, that idea of

ridiculing everything, that loss of seriousness. Give that up. Be strong and

have shraddha, and everything else is bound to follow. (53)

 

Would you believe me, we have less faith than the Englishman or woman - a

thousand times less faith! These are plain words, but I say them; I cannot help

it. Don’t you see how the Englishmen and women, when they catch our ideals,

become mad, as it were; and, although they are the ruling class, they come to

India to preach our own religion, notwithstanding the jeers and ridicule of

their own countrymen? How many of you [indians] could do that? And why cannot

you do it? Do you not know why? You know more than they do; you are more wise

than is good for you, that is your difficulty! Simply because your blood is like

water, your brain sloughing, your body is weak! You must change the body.

Physical weakness is the cause, and nothing else. You have talked of reforms, of

ideals, and all these things for the past hundred years, but when it comes to

practice you are not to be found anywhere - till you have disgusted the whole

world, and the very name of reform is a thing of ridicule! And what is the

cause? Do you not know? You know too well. The only cause is that you are weak,

you have no faith in yourselves! Centuries and centuries, a thousand years of

crushing tyranny of castes and kings and foreigners and your own people have

taken out all your strength…. Your backbone is broken, you are like downtrodden

worms. Who will give you strength? Let me tell you, strength, strength is what

we want. And the first step in getting strength is to uphold the Upanishads, and

believe " I am the Soul " , " me the sword cannot cut, nor instruments pierce, me

the fire cannot burn, me the air cannot dry; I am the omnipotent, I am the

omniscient. " [Gita 2.24] So repeat those blessed, saving words. Do not say we

are weak; we can do anything and everything. What can we not do? Everything can

be done by us. We all have the same, glorious Soul; let us believe in it.(54)