SWADESH MANTRA
Uttishthata
O India! With this mere echoing of others, with this base imitation of
others, with this dependence on others, this slavish weakness, this
vile detestable cruelty -- wouldst thou, with these provisions only,
scale the highest pinnacle of civilisation and greatness? Wouldst thou
attain, by means of thy disgraceful cowardice, that freedom deserved
only by the brave and the heroic?
O India! Forget not that the ideal of thy womanhood is Sita, Savitri,
Damayanti;
forget not that the God thou worshippest is the great Ascetic of
ascetics, the all-renouncing Shankara, the Lord of Uma; forget not
that thy marriage, thy wealth, thy life are not for sense-pleasure,
are not for thy individual personal happiness;
forget not that thou art born as a sacrifice to the Mother's altar;
forget not that thy social order is but the reflex of the Infinite
Universal Motherhood; forget not that the lower classes, the ignorant,
the poor, the illiterate, the cobbler, the sweeper, are thy flesh and
blood, thy brothers.
Thou brave one, be bold, take courage, be proud that thou art an
Indian, and proudly proclaim, "I am an Indian, every Indian is my
brother." Say, "The ignorant Indian, the poor and destitute Indian,
the Brahmin Indian, the Pariah Indian, is my brother."
Thou, too, clad with but a rag round thy loins proudly proclaim at the
top of thy voice: "The Indian is my brother, the Indian is my life,
India's gods and goddesses are my God. India's society is the cradle
of my infancy, the pleasure-garden of my youth, the sacred heaven, the
Varanasi of my old age."
Say, brother; "The soil of India is my highest heaven, the good of
India is my good," and repeat and pray day and night, "O Thou Lord of
Gauri, O Thou Mother of the Universe, vouchsafe manliness unto me! O
Thou Mother of Strength, take away my weakness, take away my
unmanliness, and make me a Man!"
The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. 4 [Page:479], MODERN
INDIA
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