Myself: Well, Swamiji, it has always puzzled me that, while men of our country, unable to understand their own religion, were embracing alien religions, such as Christianity, Mohammedanism, etc., you, instead of doing anything for them, went over to England and America to preach Hinduism.
Swamiji: Don't you see that circumstances have changed now? Have the men of our country the power left in them to take up and practise true religion? What they have is only pride in themselves that they are very Sattvika. Time was when they were Sattvika, no doubt, but now they have fallen very low. The fall from Sattva brings one down headlong into Tamas! That is what has happened to them.
Do you think that a man who does not exert himself at all, who only takes the name of Hari, shutting himself up in a room, who remains quiet and indifferent even when seeing a huge amount of wrong and violence done to others before his very eyes, possesses the quality of Sattva? Nothing of the kind, he is only enshrouded in dark Tamas.
How can the people of a country practise religion who do not get even sufficient food to appease their hunger? How can renunciation come to the people of a country in whose minds the desires for Bhoga (enjoyment) have not been in the least satisfied? For this reason, find out, first of all, the ways and means by which men may get enough to eat and have enough luxuries to enable them to enjoy life a little; and then gradually, true Vairagya (dispassion) will come, and they will be fit and ready to realise religion in life.
The people of England and America, how full of Rajas they are! They have become satiated with all sorts of worldly enjoyment. Moreover, Christianity, being a religion of faith and superstition, occupies the same rank as our religion of the Puranas. With the spread of education and culture, the people of the West can no more find peace in that. Their present condition is such that, giving them one lift will make them reach the Sattva.
Then again, in these days, would you accept the words of a Sannyasin clad in rags, in the same degree as you would the words of a white - face (Westerner) who might come and speak to you on your own religion?
- Conversations and Dialogues,
Recorded by Shri Priya Nath Sinha
(CW of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 5, P353 )
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