A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

580 AN APPEAL TO INDIANS.reason, judgment, discrimination, or reference to theWhatever ideas, whatever manners the whitemen prais%*cr like, are good ; whatever things they dislikeor censure are bad ! Alas ! What can be a more tangibleproof of foolishness than this ?The Western ladies move freely everywhere, tnerefore,that is good ; theychoose for themselves the rhusbands, therefore, that is the highest step of advancement ;the Westerners disapprove of our dress, decorations,food and ways of living, therefore, they must tyx verybad ;the Westerners condemn Image-worship as "sinful^33surely then, Image-worshipis the greatest sin, there is nodoubt of it !The Westerners say, that worshipping a single Dityis fruitful of the highest spiritual good, therefore, let usthrow our Gods and Goddesses into the river Ganges The!Westerners hold caste distinctions to be obnoxious,therefore, let all the different castes be jumbled into one !The Westerners say, that child -marriageis the root of allevils, therefore, that is also very bad, of a certainty it is!We are not discussing here, whether these customsdeserve countenance or rejection ;but if the mere disapproval of the Westerners be the measure of the abominablenessof our manners and customs, then, it is our dutyto raise our emphatic protest against it.The present waiter has, to some extent, personal experience of Western society. His conviction resultingfrom such experience has been, that there is such a wide*divergence between the Western society and the Indianas regards the primal course and goal of each, that any sectin India, framed after the Western model, will* miss theaim. We have not the least sympathy with those who,never having lived in Western society and, therefore,