wanted : everything else will be ready; but strong, vigorous, believing young men,
sincere to the backbone, are wanted. A hundred such and the world becomes
revolutionized. The will is stronger than anything else. Everything must go down
before the will, for that comes from God: a pure and strong will is
omnipotent.' (Extracts from 'My Plan of Campaign.')
'If the brahmin has more aptitude for learning on the grounds of heredity than the
pariah, spend no more money on the brahmin's education, but spend all on the pariah.
Give to the weak, for there all the gift is needed. If the brahmin is born clever, he can
educate himself without help. This is justice and reason as I understand it.' (From 'The
Mission of the Vedanta.')
'For the next fifty years let all other vain Gods disappear from our minds. This is the
only God that is awake: our own race — everywhere His hands, everywhere His feet,
everywhere His ears, He covers everything. All other Gods are sleeping. Why should
we vainly go after them, when we can worship the God that we see all around us, the
Virat? The first of all worships is the worship of the Virat, of those all around us.
These are all our Gods — men and animals; and the first Gods we have to worship are
our own countrymen.' (From 'The Future of India.')
These stirring words did not fall on deaf ears. The spirit of India vibrated to the
Swami's call. India became aware of the power of the soul — of God sleeping in man
and of His illimitable possibilities. Ramakrishna and Vivekananda were the first
awakeners of India's national consciousness; they were India's first nationalist leaders
in the true sense of the term. Ramakrishna was the power and Vivekananda the voice.
The movement for India's liberation started from Dakshineswar. The subsequent
political leaders of the country, consciously or unconsciously, received their inspiration
from Vivekananda's message, and some of them openly acknowledged it. The Bengal
revolutionaries were ardent readers of Vivekananda's books, some of which were
frowned upon by the British Government. The uplift of the masses, the chief plank in
Gandhi's platforms was Vivekananda's legacy.
Yet the militant Vivekananda was not a politician. 'Let no political significance ever be
attached falsely to my writings or sayings. What nonsense!' — he had said as early as
September 1894. A year later he wrote: 'I will have nothing to do with political
nonsense. I do not believe in politics. God and Truth are the only politics in the world.
Everything else is trash.'
Swami Vivekananda longed for India's political freedom; but he thought of a free India
in relation to her service to humanity. A free India would take her rightful place in the
assembly of nations and make a vital contribution towards bringing peace and goodwill
to mankind. His message was both national and international.
While Swami Vivekananda was enjoying the restful boat trip from Madras to Calcutta,
a reception committee was busy preparing for him a fitting welcome in the metropolis