A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

SWAMI S REPLY TO THE ADDRESSES. 69theiv misdirected attempts. Those galvanic shocks ofreformatory zml were necessary to rouse the sleepingLeviathan. But they were entirely destructive, and notconstructive, and as such they were mortal and have,therefore, died.Let us bless them and profit by their experience.They did not learn the lesson that all growth is a growthfrom inside out, that all evolution is only a manifestationof a preceding involution. They did not know the seedcan only assimilate the surrounding elements, and grow atree in its own nature. Until the Hindu race becomesextinct and a new race takes possession of the land, such athing can never be ; try East or West India can neverbecome Europe until she dies.And will she die ? This old mother of all that is nobleor moral or spiritual ;the land which the sages trod ;theland in which God-like men still live and breathe ? I willborrow the lantern of the Athenian sage and follow you,my brothers, through the cities and villages, plains andforests, of this broad world ;show me such men in otherlands, if you can. Truly have they said, the tree isknown by its fruits. Go under every mango tree in India,pick up bushels of the worm-eaten, unripe, fallen fruitsfrom the ground, and write hundreds of the most learnedvolumes on each one of them,still you have not describeda, single mango. Pluck a luscious, full-grown, juicy onefrom the tree, and now you know all that the mango is.Similarly, these Man-Gods show what the Hindureligion is. They show the character, the power, and thepossibilities of that racial tree which counts culture bycenturies, and has borne the buffets of a thousand years ofhurricane, and still stands with the unimpaired vigour ofeternal youth.