but had insight into the shape of things to come.
The immediate task before him, the Swami felt, was to work for India's regeneration
from within the country itself. India could be liberated by her own efforts alone. But he
was carrying from the West a priceless asset to help him in his herculean task: The
West had given him an authority which, it appears, he did not have before in the land
of his birth. He had been successful in planting the seeds of India's spiritual ideas in the
very heart of the English-speaking world — in New York and London. Did he know
then that within a half century these ideas would be broadcast over the Western world,
and earn its respect for his motherland? Though he had come to America as a giver, he
was now, in a sense, going back to India as a gift from the New World.
RETURN TO INDIA
Swami Vivekananda enjoyed the sea voyage back to India, relaxing from his strenuous
activities in the West. But his mind was full of ideas regarding his future plan of work
in his motherland.
There were on the boat, among other passengers, two Christian missionaries who, in
the course of a heated discussion with the Swami, lost their tempers and savagely
criticized the Hindu religion. The Swami walked to one of them, seized him by the
collar, and said menacingly, 'If you abuse my religion again, I will throw you
overboard.'
'Let me go, sir,' the frightened missionary apologized; 'I'll never do it again.'
Later, in the course of a conversation with a disciple in Calcutta, he asked, 'What
would you do if someone insulted your mother?' The disciple answered, 'I would fall
upon him, sir, and teach him a good lesson.'
'Bravo!' said the Swami. 'Now, if you had the same positive feeling for your religion,
your true mother, you could never see any Hindu brother converted to Christianity. Yet
you see this occurring every day, and you are quite indifferent. Where is your faith?
Where is your patriotism? Every day Christian missionaries abuse Hinduism to your
face, and yet how many are there amongst you whose blood boils with righteous
indignation and who will stand up in its defense?'
When the boat stopped at Aden, the party went ashore and visited the places of interest.
The Swami saw from a distance a Hindusthani betel-leaf seller smoking his hookah, or
hubble-bubble. He had not enjoyed this Indian way of smoking for the past three years.
Going up to him, the Swami said, 'Brother, do give me your pipe.' Soon he was puffing
at it with great joy and talking to him as to an intimate friend.