A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

THE TRUE METHOD OF SOCIAL REFORM.jthe reformers I Vill point out, I am a greater re-former ^JT/ than any one of them. They want to ref6hir*only little bits. I want root and branch reform.Where we differ is exactly in the method. Theirsisthe method of destruction, mine is that of construction.I do not believe in reform; I belive : n growth. I do not*dare to put myself in the positionof God and dictateunto our society This way you shall move and notthat way. I simply want to do my humble work, likethe scfiiirrel in the case of the building of llama s bridgewhich was quite content to put on the bridge hislittle quota of sand dust. This is my position. Thiswonderful national machine has worked through ages ;this wonderful river of national life is flowing before us.Who knows anrf dares say whether it is good, and how itshall move ? Thousands of circumstances are crowdingaround it, giving it a special impulse, makingit dull attimes, and quicker at others. Who dares command itsmotion? Ours is only to work, as the Gita says, and standby contented. Feed it with the fuel it wants, but the growthis its own ;none can dictate its growth to it. Evils thereare plentiful in our society. So are there evils in everyother society, too. Here the earth is soaked sometimesxvith widows tears ; there, in the West, the air is poisonedwith the breath of the sobs of the unmarried. Herepoverty is the great bane of life ;there the life-weariness* From the lecture onMadras."My Plan of "Campaigndelivered in