Page 40 - SocialHarmony

44 Social Harmony

immense sea of life. It has been floating in the ocean of the world
since centuries, and it has helped many lives to reach fulfillment.
Today perhaps this boat has been a little damaged by your own
fault, and developed a small leak. Does that mean that the boat
is guilty? It is right to blame the national boat which has served
its people better than any other nation? If there is a leak in the
boat of our nation and our society, we are sitting in it and hence
we have to work hard to plug the leak irrespective of whether
we are successful in doing so or not. If we are unable to plug
the leak, we should die trying. We should not utter a single
word against our own society. We are sinking, our boat is
sinking. I have come to sit with you. If we have to sink, we will
sink together. But not a single curse or bad word should be
uttered from our mouths.”

Concern about the Progress of the Suppressed Class
Swami Vivekanand was not a narrow-minded monk who

only focused on spiritual progress. Every suggestion of his was
concerned with the upliftment of the deprived, the backward,
the tyrannized, persecuted and downtrodden people. He had
presented a new concept of the poor people to society and that
illustrated the excellence of his thought processes. Unlike the
vote-hungry politicians of the present, who only make false
promises to the downtrodden, he was a high-order thinker who
showed the best direction for the bright future of India. He
originated the development of backward classes in the real
sense. He was concerned about last person from the lowest strata
of the society. He said: “Our resolution is to provide the highest
prosperity even to the lowest person, and in doing so, to accept
whatever comes our way.” For Swami Vivekanand, the progress
of the downtrodden and persecuted was more important than
salvation.

Swami Vivekanand, who was devoted to the Vedant, was
unhappy with social evils and firmly determined to eradicate
them from society. He strongly believed that a harmonious
society is the first step towards the welfare of mankind.

Swami Vivekanand chose the path of unity for achieving
the highest goal. He worked very hard to build the bridge of