Swami Vivekananda - Lectures, Dialogues & Life

Swamiji: Playing on the Khol and Kartal and dancing in the frenzy of Kirtana has degenerated the whole people. They are, in the first place, a race of dyspeptics -- and if in addition to this they dance and jump in that way, how can they bear the strain? In trying to imitate the highest Sadhana, the preliminary qualification for which is absolute purity, they have been swallowed in dire Tamas. In every district and village you may visit, you will find only the sound of the Khol and Kartal! Are not drums made in the country? Are not trumpets and kettle - drums available in India? Make the boys hear the deep - toned sound of these instruments. Hearing from boyhood the sound of these effeminate forms of music and listening to the kirtana, the country is well - nigh converted into a country of women. What more degradation can you expect? Even the poet's imagination fails to draw this picture! The Damaru and horn have to be sounded, drums are to be beaten so as to raise th...

India will be raised, not with the power of the flesh, but with the power of the spirit; not with the flag of destruction, but with the flag of peace and love, the garb of the Sannyâsin; not by the power of wealth, but by the power of the begging bowl. Say not that you are weak. The spirit is omnipotent. Look at that handful of young men called into existence by the divine touch of Ramakrishna's feet. They have preached the message from Assam to Sindh, from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. They have crossed the Himalayas at a height of twenty thousand feet, over snow and ice on foot, and penetrated into the mysteries of Tibet. They have begged their bread, covered themselves with rags; they have been persecuted, followed by the police, kept in prison, and at last set free when the Government was convinced of their innocence. They are now twenty. Make them two thousand tomorrow. Young men of India, your country requires it. The world requires it. Call up the divinity withi...

Year 1902, Place: Belur Math Swami   Vivekananda  was staying in the Math. Some Santhal laborers used to work in the Math. They were poor, uneducated and simple. Swamiji had great sympathy, bordering on love, for these laborers who, despite honest and hard labor, could not feed their family adequately. The compassionate heart of  Swami   Vivekananda  would grieve and melt for these poor fellows. He would inquire about their family, say simple jokes, and mix with these 'lowly fellows'. The spiritual personality of Swamiji would see suffering Narayana in them. His heart would get filled with unparalleled pity, compassion, and kindness towards these Santhal workers.  Like Gopis of Vraja, who would protest to Krishna not to play the sweet music on his flute, for it attracted them to Him and His Raas Lila with such great intensity that they used to forget their homes and husbands, these workers would also protest: "O my Swamiji, do not come to us when ...