#SwamiVivekananda discussing his Kayastha caste and associated humiliation.
Source - His speech at Victoria Hall, Madras. Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Vol-3
Thread🧵
Source - His speech at Victoria Hall, Madras. Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Vol-3
Thread🧵
“I shall take this opportunity of thanking the people of Madras for the uniform kindness that I have received at their hands…I read in the organ of the social reformers that I am called a Shudra and am challenged as to what right a Shudra has to become a Sannyasin.”
“To which I reply: I trace my descent to one at whose feet every Brahmin lays flowers when he utters the words — यमाय धर्मराजाय चित्रगुप्ताय वै नमः — and whose descendants are the purest of Kshatriyas.”
“If you believe in your mythology or your Paurânika scriptures, let these so-called reformers know that my caste, apart from other services in the past, ruled half of India for centuries.”
“If my caste is left out of consideration, what will there be left of the present-day civilisation of India?”
“In Bengal alone, my blood has furnished them with their greatest philosopher, the greatest poet, the greatest historian, the greatest archaeologist, the greatest religious preacher; my blood has furnished India with the greatest of her modern scientists.”
“These detractors ought to have known a little of our own history, and to have studied our three castes, and learnt that the Brahmin, the Kshatriya, and the Vaishya have equal right to be Sannyasins: the Traivarnikas have equal right to the Vedas. This is only by the way.”
“I am not at all hurt if they call me a Shudra. It will be a little reparation for the tyranny of my ancestors over the poor. If I am a Pariah, I will be all the more glad, for I am the disciple of a man, who — the Brahmin of Brahmins — wanted to cleanse the house of a Pariah.”
“Of course the Pariah would not allow him; how could he let this Brahmin Sannyasin come and cleanse his house!”
“And this man woke up in the dead of night, entered surreptitiously the house of this Pariah, cleansed his latrine, and with his long hair wiped the place, and that he did day after day in order that he might make himself the servant of all.”
Read more. ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/vo…
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