condition of the Indian masses, victims of the unscrupulous whims of their rulers,
landlords, and priests. The tyranny of caste had sapped their last drop of blood. In most
of the so-called leaders who shouted from the housetops for the liberation of the
people, he had seen selfishness personified. And now he asked himself what his duty
was in this situation. Should he regard the world as a dream and go into solitude to
commune with God? He had tried this several times, but without success. He
remembered that, as a sannyasin, he had taken the vow to dedicate himself to the
service of God; but this God, he was convinced, was revealed through humanity. And
his own service to this God must begin, therefore, with the humanity of India. 'May I
be born again and again,' he exclaimed, 'and suffer a thousand miseries, if only I may
worship the only God in whom I believe, the sum total of all souls, and above all, my
God the wicked, my God the afflicted, my God the poor of all races!'
Through austerity and self-control the Swami had conserved great spiritual power. His
mind had been filled with the wisdom of the East and the West. He had received in
abundance Sri Ramakrishna's blessings. He also had had many spiritual experiences of
his own. He must use all of these assets, he concluded, for the service of God in man.
But what was to be the way?
The clear-eyed prophet saw that religion was the backbone of the Indian nation. India
would rise through a renewal and restoration of that highest spiritual consciousness
which had made her, at all times, the cradle of nations and the cradle of faith. He
totally disagreed with foreign critics and their Indian disciples who held that religion
was the cause of India's downfall. The Swami blamed, rather, the falsehood,
superstition, and hypocrisy that were practised in the name of religion. He himself had
discovered that the knowledge of God's presence in man was the source of man's
strength and wisdom. He was determined to awaken this sleeping divinity. He knew
that the Indian culture had been created and sustained by the twin ideals of
renunciation and service, which formed the core of Hinduism. And he believed that if
the national life could be intensified through these channels, everything else would
take care of itself. The workers for India's regeneration must renounce selfishness,
jealousy, greed, and lust for power, and they must dedicate themselves to the service of
the poor, the illiterate, the hungry, and the sick, seeing in them the tangible
manifestations of the Godhead. People required education, food, health, and the
knowledge of science and technology to raise their standard of living. The attempt to
teach metaphysics to empty stomachs was sheer madness. The masses everywhere
were leading the life of animals on account of ignorance and poverty; therefore these
conditions should be removed.
But where would the Swami find the fellow workers to help him in this gigantic task?
He wanted whole-time servants of God; workers without worldly ties or vested
interests. And he wanted them by thousands. His eyes fell upon the numerous monks
who had renounced the world in search of God. But alas, in present-day India most of
these led unproductive lives. He would have to infuse a new spirit into them, and they
in their turn would have to dedicate themselves to the service of the people. He hit