Serve The Nation

1. 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 Sannyasin; not by the power of wealth, but by the power of begging bowl…………..But one vision I see clear as life before me, that the ancient mother has awakened once more, sitting on her throne---------------rejuvenated, more glorious than ever.

2. Your country requires heroes; be heroes. Stand firm like a rock. Truth always triumphs. What India wants is a new electric fire to stir up a fresh vigour in the national veins. Be brave, be brave; man dies but once. My disciples must not be cowards. I hate cowardice. Keep the deepest mental poise; take not even the slightest notice of what puerile creatures may be saying against you. Indifference! Indifference! Indifference! Bear in mind the eyes are two in number, and so the ears, but the mouth is but one. All great undertakings are achieved through mighty obstacles. Put forth your manly effort. Wretched people under the grip of lust and gold deserve to be looked upon with indifference.

3. And if we were all brave and had stout hearts, and with absolute sincerity put our shoulders to the wheel, in twenty-five years the whole problem [of India] would be solved, and there would be nothing here to fight about.

4. Hold on with faith and strength; be true, be honest, be pure, and don’t quarrel among yourselves. Jealousy is the bane of our race.

5. We must go out, we must conquer the world through our spirituality and philosophy. There is no other alternative, we must do it or die.

6. Hold on with faith and strength; be true, be honest, be pure, and don’t quarrel among yourselves. Jealousy is the bane of our race.

7. With five hundred men………….the conquest of India might take fifty years; with as many women, not more than a few weeks.

8. We have to learn from others.

9. So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.

10. So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.

11. First bread and then religion. We stuff them too much with religion, when the poor fellows have been starving. No dogmas will satisfy the cravings of hunger…………..You may talk doctrines by the millions, you may have sects by the hundreds of millions; ay, but it is nothing until you have the heart to feel. Feel for them as your Veda teaches you, till you find they are parts of your own bodies, till you realise that you and they, the poor and the rich, the saint and the sinner, are all parts of One Infinite Whole, which you call Brahman.

12. Only have faith. Do not look up to the so called rich and great; do not care for the heartless intellectual writers, and their cold-blooded newspaper articles. Faith, sympathy-fiery faith and fiery sympathy! Life is nothing, death is nothing, hunger nothing, cold nothing. Glory unto the Lord----------march on, the Lord is our General.

13. The one vital duty incumbent on you, if you really love your religion, if you really love your country, is that you must struggle hard to be up and doing, with this one great idea of bringing out the treasures from your closed books and delivering them over to their rightful heirs.

14. My idea is to bring to the poor of the meanest, the poorest, the noble ideas that the human race has developed both in and out of India, and let them think for themselves.

15. Feel, my children, feel; feel for the poor, the ignorant, the downtrodden; feel till the heart stops and the brain reels and you think you will go mad------------then pour the soul out at the feet of the Lord, and then will come the power, help, and indomitable energy.

16. Who will bring light to the poor? Who will travel from door to door bringing education to them? Let these people be your God—think of them, work for them, pray for them incessantly. The Lord will show you the way.

17. All the wealth of the world cannot help one little Indian village, if the people are not taught to help themselves. Our work should be mainly educational, both moral and intellectual.

18. Do something for the nation; then they will help you, then the nation will be with you.

19. We have not done badly in the past, certainly not. We are not bad but good, only I want you to be better still.

20. Think not that you are poor; money is not power, but goodness, holiness.

21. May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls; and above all, my God the wicked, my God the miserable, my God the poor of all races, of all species, is the special object of my worship.

22. Truce to all quarrels and jealousies and bigotry! These will spoil everything.

23. Rouse yourselves, therefore, or life is short. There are greater works to be done than aspiring to become lawyers and picking quarrels and such things.

24. Then only will India awake, when hundreds of large-hearted men and women, giving up all desires of enjoying the luxuries of life, will long and exert themselves to their utmost for the well-being of the millions of their countrymen who are gradually sinking lower and lower in the vortex of destitution and ignorance.

25. Give up jealousy and conceit. Learn to work unitedly for others. This is the great need of our country.

26. Love makes no distinction between man and man, between an Aryan and a Mlechchha, between a Brahmana and a Pariah, nor even between a man and a woman. Love makes the whole universe as one’s own home. True progress is slow but sure. Work among those young men who can devote heart and sole to this one duty------------the duty of raising the masses of India. Awake them, unite them, and inspire them with this spirit of renunciation. It depends on wholly on the young people of India.

27. What we want are brave young men, who will work; not tomfools.

28. Vow, then, to devote your whole lives to the cause of the redemption of these three hundred millions, going down and down everyday.

29. What we want are some young men who will renounce everything and sacrifice their lives for their country’s sake. We should first form their lives and then some real work can be expected.

30. Bring forth the power of the spirit, and pour it over the length and breadth of India; and all that is necessary will come of itself.

31. Before flooding someone with socialistic or political ideas, first deluge her with spiritual ideas.

32. Ever praying that the Lord may make of you a great instrument for the help of mankind, and especially of our poor, poor motherland.

33. Let each one of us pray day and night for the down-trodden millions in India who are held fast by poverty-----------------pray day and night for them.

34. Until the absence of jealousy and obedience to leaders are learnt by the Hindu, there will be no power of organisation.

35. God comes to you in the blind, in the halt, in the poor, in the weak, in the diabolical.

36. Men, men, these are wanted; everything else will be ready, but strong, vigorous, believing young men, sincere to the backbone, are wanted. A hundred such and the world becomes revolutionized.

37. Be a man and try to make those immediately under your care, brave, moral and sympathising. No religion for you, my children, but morality and bravery. No cowardice, no sin, no crime, no weakness--------------the rest will come of itself.

38. …………….. 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”………………..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 Mother of Strength, take away my weakness, take away my unmanliness, and make me a man!”