Character and Steadiness

The nation is sinking, the curse of unnumbered millions is on our heads -- those to whom we have been giving ditch-water to drink when they have been dying of thirst and while the perennial river of water was flowing past, 
the unnumbered millions whom we have allowed to starve in sight of plenty, the unnumbered millions to whom we have talked of Advaita and whom we have hated with all our strength, the unnumbered millions for whom we have invented the doctrine of Lokachara (usage), to whom we have talked theoretically that we are all the same and all are one with the same Lord, without even an ounce of practice. 

"Yet, my friends, it must be only in the mind and never in practice!" Wipe off this blot. "Arise and awake." 
What matters it if this little life goes? Everyone has to die, the saint or the sinner, the rich or the poor. The body never remains for anyone. 
Arise and awake and be perfectly sincere. Our insincerity in India is awful; what we want is character, that steadiness and character that make a man cling on to a thing like grim death.  

                  - Swami Vivekananda, 
                    Address at Lahore, 
                    Lectures From Colombo to Almora