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 graceful cowardice, that freedom deserved only by the brave and 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 Sankar, the Lord of Uma; Forget not - that thy marriage, thy wealth, they life are not for sense-pleasure, are not for thy individual happiness; Forget not - that thou are 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 India, 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!"
- Swami Vivekandanda
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