BHAKTI
(Vivekananda in Indian Newspapers, pp. 203-4.)
[The Indian Mirror, February 24, 1898]
Swami Vivekananda has been urging on the people of Lahore and Sialkote the need of practical work. (Cf. “Bhakti” (a report from The Tribune), Complete Works, III: 391, for a somewhat different paraphrased passage.) The starving millions, he urged, cannot live on metaphysical speculation; they require bread; and in a lecture he gave at Lahore on Bhakti, he suggested as the best religion for to-day that everyman should, according to his means, go out into the street and search for hungry Narayans, take them into their houses, feed them and clothe them. The giver should give to man, remembering that he is the highest temple of God. He had seen charity in many countries, and the reason of its failure was the spirit, in which it was carried out. “Here take this and go away”. Charity belied its name so long as it was given to gain reputation or applause of the world.