The Mild Hindu

By Br. Aadi, Probationers’ Training Center, Belur Math

In Swamiji's epic lecture tour across India recorded in "Lectures from Colombo to Almora," delivered after returning from his momentous trip to America, he broadcast his discerning insights about India’s national character, her place and purpose in the world order, and the correct line of her future development. In the first public lecture he delivered in the East, in Colombo, he mentions the term “the mild Hindu” which Westerners of that time used as a subtle insult. To the modern Western world this trait may appear as a weakness, but Swamiji here states that “if ever a reproach concealed a wonderful truth, it is in the term, ‘the mild Hindu’.”

While other nations have advanced their ideas in the sphere of human thought “with the blast of war trumpets and with the march of embattled cohorts,” we find India’s wonderful spiritual thought more deeply pervading sphere of human thought thanks only to its sheer endurance over time and to its fascinating nature. For both of these qualities, the principal cause is peace or mildness. Swamiji says that this harmonizing spiritual peace of the Indian nation is like the gentle dew that silently brings into bloom masses of roses. This divine peace or mildness is at the core of the message which India must give to the world, and this of course must be done without hypocrisy, for peace is the only firmament upon which an enduring and fascinating religion can be practiced and preached.

Swamiji says that it is the Hindu who pre-eminently has this peace, and here in Belur Math are many examples of this peaceful nature. When I arrived in the training center, I noticed a big spider Babu in one of the shower stalls. Every day the shower would be used by many brahmacharins and this spider was right next to the door, so you couldn’t miss it. A killer needn't have gotten his hands dirty; the hand bucket was a ready weapon. But in this place where there is the fragrance of Advaita, the whole is seen rather than only the frontal appearance. The brahmacharins try to feel that this spider Babu is a little piece of the Virat Brahma; it is the Universal Intelligence giving forth a form to participate in its own cosmic game. Therefore, they do not stupidly react but rather see how the spider is giving back to the whole by clearing the mosquitos from the place where they are a nuisance. The same goes for the lizards in the rooms and the stray cats and dogs that get leftover bits of fish after lunch every day. For a long time during this kali yuga, India was mostly closed off to the world, but now she is again getting ready to participate in the cosmic game, to give forth her treasures, and it is thanks to this Divine mildness or peace that she has been able to realize this need.