THE MISSION OF THE VEDANTA :20.(Last Part)

 How are these things to be brought about? 

I must again draw your attention to the fact that cursing and vilifying and abusing do not and cannot produce anything good. 

They have been tried for years and years, and no valuable result has been obtained. Good results can be produced only through love, through sympathy. 

It is a great subject, and it requires several lectures to elucidate all the plans that I have in view, and all the ideas that are, in this connection, coming to my mind day after day I must, therefore, conclude, only reminding you of this fact that this ship of our nation, O Hindus, has been usefully plying here for ages. 

Today, perhaps, it has sprung a leak; today, perhaps, it has become a little worn out. And if such is the case, it behaves you and me to try our best to stop the leak and holes. 

Let us tell our countrymen of the danger, let them awake and help us. I will cry at the top of my voice from one part of this country to the other, to awaken the people to the situation and their duty. 

Suppose they do not hear me, still I shall not have one word of abuse for them, not one word of cursing. 

Great has been our nation's work in the past; and if we cannot do greater things in the future, let us have this consolation that we can sink and die together in peace. 

Be patriots, love the race which has done such great things for us in the past. 

Ay, the more I compare notes, the more I love you, my fellow-countrymen; you are good and pure and gentle. 

You have been always tyrannised over, and such is the irony of this material world of Mâyâ. 

Never mind that; the Spirit will triumph in the long run. 

In the meanwhile let us work and let us not abuse our country, let us not curse and abuse the weather-beaten and work-worn institutions of our thrice-holy motherland. 

Have no word of condemnation even for the most superstitious and the most irrational of its institutions, for they also must have served some good in the past. 

Remember always that there is not in the world any other country whose institutions are really better in their aims and objects than the institutions of this land. 

I have seen castes in almost every country in the world, but nowhere is their plan and purpose so glorious as here. 

If caste is thus unavoidable, I would rather have a caste of purity and culture and self-sacrifice, than a caste of dollars. Therefore utter no words of condemnation. 

Close your lips and let your hearts open. 

Work out the salvation of this land and of the whole world, each of you thinking that the entire burden is on your shoulders. 

Carry the light and the life of the Vedanta to every door, and rouse up the divinity that is hidden within every soul. 

Then, whatever may be the measure of your success, you will have this satisfaction that you have lived, worked, and died for a great cause. 

In the success of this cause, howsoever brought about, is centred the salvation of humanity here and hereafter.

END.