Saturday, February 14, 2015

I KNOW MY MISSION IN LIFE, AND NO CHAUVINISM ABOUT ME


Dear Alasinga, ( Pasis, 9th September, 1895 )

...I am surprised you take so seriously the missionaries nonsense.....If the people in India want me to keep strictly to my Hindu diet, Please tell them to send me a cook and money enough to keep him. This silly bossism without a mite of real help makes me laugh. On the other hand, if the missionaries tell you that I have even broken the two great vows of the Sannyasin - chastity and poverty - tell them that they are big liars. Please write to the missionary Hume asking him categorically to write you what mis demeanour he saw in me, or give you the names of his informants, and whether the information was first-hand or not; that will settle the question and expose the whole thing.....

As for me, mind you, I stand at nobody's dictation. I know my mission in life, and no chauvinism about me; I belong as much to India as to the world, no humbug about that, I have helped you all I could. You must now help yourselves. What country has any special claim on me ? Am I any nation's slave ? Don't talk any more silly nonsense, you faithless atheists.

- Swami Vivekananda
Page 257 - Letters of Swami Vivekananda