The motherland is nothing in the world but a vast university, and every child born within her sphere is one of its students. The ideas and ideals that constitute India have never suffered any rude wholesale interruption. They have grown steadily, always ready to adopt a new light on the old truth, the most extraordinary example in the world of absorption mingled with conservation, acceptance and resistance in one breath.
India is a vast university, and every child born within her owes to her the service of a student. Every life, however simple, helps to build up the inheritance for the future. Infinite as is our debt to the famous names of the past, it 1s still greater to the shadowy crowds of the Unknown Dead, with whom we ourselves may look to be one day joined. We must remember that in all universities, not only in the Indian university, behind all intellectual cultures, not only behind that of the dharma,
the driving force is character, and the mind of humanity—which for each man is the heart of his own people—is the treasure-house, in which the fruit of our lives should rest.
It is our duty to the nation to make the most of our opportunities of learning. In order to make the most of them we must first cultivate fine character. Fine character is always known by the nobility of its tastes. Its leisure is always well spent, on ends both lofty and refined. Tell me your hobbies, and I will tell you what sort of citizens you will make. Why must a man be poor in order to be admirable? The modern type of university specially sets itself to create activities to which even rich men must devote all their resources if they are to succeed. Great libraries, archaeological collections, fine instruments, the culture of to-day offers careers of a thousand kinds in all these directions. But in all these things a man must toil for himself. He cannot employ a servant to do his learning for him. Scholarship was never done by proxy.
The man who has fine tastes can never be vulgar. He is true to his own refinement in every moment of his life. The respect which he has for himself he accords to other people. He seeks noble company, and his manners tell of his own freedom of heart and his reverence for the freedom of others.
We should carry with us into all companies the memory of having been with noble persons. Without this, we are not fit for great associations, for we are ourselves without dignity. And without a constant upspringing of love and reverence to those who are about us, we cannot realise this memory. Only by respect for ourselves, respect for women as women, and respect for old age, can we build up true dignity. Accustomed to our language with its fine gradations of terms, those who speak English are apt to imagine that there are in modern languages no means of expressing delicate degrees of honour. But let the feeling of honour be in the mind, and you will find that any language will express it for you. The word you becomes fifty different words for the man who is really conscious of what 1s due to others.: Yet in fine manners there is no slavishniess. There must be grandeur and freedom of bearing. The man's homage must be to the idzal that he recognises, not merely to the person who for the moment embodies it. There must be no laziness. The quiet of outward conduct must be expressive of intense activity of mind and heart. Laziness, like cowardice, is an affront to those who call us theirs. For their sake, if not for our own, we must bear ourselves as those entrusted with great parts. But our activity must not be fussiness. Are these distinctions not of the very essence of fine manners?
Above all, our great duty as Hindus is to hold the world always as a net-work of ideals. Behind the new fact we must strive to find the ideal that it illustrates. In our reverence for those about us we must pay our homage to the ideals of our ownt past. We must remember that the problems of today are all the problems of the ideal world. If we can step from ideal to ideal, from the realisation of the known to the struggle for the unknown, then we shall do our whole duty.
India is a vast university, and every child born within her owes to her the service of a student. Every life, however simple, helps to build up the inheritance for the future. Infinite as is our debt to the famous names of the past, it 1s still greater to the shadowy crowds of the Unknown Dead, with whom we ourselves may look to be one day joined. We must remember that in all universities, not only in the Indian university, behind all intellectual cultures, not only behind that of the dharma,
the driving force is character, and the mind of humanity—which for each man is the heart of his own people—is the treasure-house, in which the fruit of our lives should rest.
It is our duty to the nation to make the most of our opportunities of learning. In order to make the most of them we must first cultivate fine character. Fine character is always known by the nobility of its tastes. Its leisure is always well spent, on ends both lofty and refined. Tell me your hobbies, and I will tell you what sort of citizens you will make. Why must a man be poor in order to be admirable? The modern type of university specially sets itself to create activities to which even rich men must devote all their resources if they are to succeed. Great libraries, archaeological collections, fine instruments, the culture of to-day offers careers of a thousand kinds in all these directions. But in all these things a man must toil for himself. He cannot employ a servant to do his learning for him. Scholarship was never done by proxy.
The man who has fine tastes can never be vulgar. He is true to his own refinement in every moment of his life. The respect which he has for himself he accords to other people. He seeks noble company, and his manners tell of his own freedom of heart and his reverence for the freedom of others.
We should carry with us into all companies the memory of having been with noble persons. Without this, we are not fit for great associations, for we are ourselves without dignity. And without a constant upspringing of love and reverence to those who are about us, we cannot realise this memory. Only by respect for ourselves, respect for women as women, and respect for old age, can we build up true dignity. Accustomed to our language with its fine gradations of terms, those who speak English are apt to imagine that there are in modern languages no means of expressing delicate degrees of honour. But let the feeling of honour be in the mind, and you will find that any language will express it for you. The word you becomes fifty different words for the man who is really conscious of what 1s due to others.: Yet in fine manners there is no slavishniess. There must be grandeur and freedom of bearing. The man's homage must be to the idzal that he recognises, not merely to the person who for the moment embodies it. There must be no laziness. The quiet of outward conduct must be expressive of intense activity of mind and heart. Laziness, like cowardice, is an affront to those who call us theirs. For their sake, if not for our own, we must bear ourselves as those entrusted with great parts. But our activity must not be fussiness. Are these distinctions not of the very essence of fine manners?
Above all, our great duty as Hindus is to hold the world always as a net-work of ideals. Behind the new fact we must strive to find the ideal that it illustrates. In our reverence for those about us we must pay our homage to the ideals of our ownt past. We must remember that the problems of today are all the problems of the ideal world. If we can step from ideal to ideal, from the realisation of the known to the struggle for the unknown, then we shall do our whole duty.
(By Sister Nivedita - Published in Prabuddha Bharat August 1928)
--
The main theme of my life is to take the message of Sanatana Dharma to every home and pave the way for launching, in a big way, the man-making programme preached and envisaged by great seers like Swami Vivekananda. - Mananeeya Eknathji
| विवेकानन्द केन्द्र कन्याकुमारी (Vivekananda Kendra Kanyakumari) Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Vivekananda Kendra : http://www.vivekanandakendra.org Read Article, Magazine, Book @ http://eshop.vivekanandakendra.org/e-granthalaya Cell : +91-941-801-5995, Landline : +91-177-283-5995 | |
| . . . Are you Strong? Do you feel Strength? — for I know it is Truth alone that gives Strength. Strength is the medicine for the world's disease . . . This is the great fact: "Strength is LIFE; Weakness is Death." | |
| Follow us on blog twitter youtube facebook g+ delicious rss Donate Online | |
No comments:
Post a Comment