A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

THE MISSION OF THE VEDANTA *very small amount of religious work performedbrings a very large amount of result "-*>are theeternal words of the author of the ^ita, and ifthat statement wanted an illustration, in my humble life Iam finding everyday the truth of that great saying. Mywork, gentlemen of Kumbakonam, has been very insignificant indeed, but the kindness and the cordiality of welcome that have met me at every step of my journey fromColombo to this city, are simply beyond all expectation.Yet, at the same time, it is worthy of our traditions asHindus, it is worthy of our race for here we are the;Hindu race, whose vitality, whose life-principle, whose verysoul, as it were, is in religion. I have seen a little of theworld, travelling among the races of the West and theEast ;and everywhere I find among nations one greatideal, which forms the backbone, so to speak, of thatrace. AVith some it is politics, with others it is socialculture ;others again have intellectual culture and soon for their national back-ground. But this our motherland, has religion and religion alone for its basis forits backbone, for the bedrock upon which the wholebuilding of its life has been based. Some of you mayremember that in my reply to the kind address which thepeople of Madras sent over to me in America, I pointed* In reply to the addresses of welcome presented to SwamiVivekananda at Kumbakonam, he delivered the following speech,which we publish here as it bears upon the mission of theVedanta in the world.