WOMEN OF INDIA-7.

(Delivered at the Shakespeare Club House, in Pasadena, California, on January 18, 1900)

 For Recap -Read Part-1, 2, 3,4, 5 and 6

THE LECTURE :- Part-7.

Now, I only suggest comparisons; I would state facts so that we may compare the two sides.

Make this comparison.

If you ask, "What is an Indian woman as wife?", the Indian asks, "Where is the American woman as mother?

What is she, the all-glorious, who gave me this body?

What is she who kept me in her body for nine months?

Where is she who would give me twenty times her life, if I had need?

Where is she whose love never dies, however wicked, however vile I am?

Where is she, in comparison with her, who goes to the divorce court the moment I treat her a little badly?

O American woman! where is she?" I will not find her in your country.

I have not found the son who thinks mother is first.

When we die, even then, we do not want our wives and our children to take her place.

Our mother! — we want to die with our head on her lap once more, if we die before her.

Where is she?

Is woman a name to be coupled with the physical body only?

Ay! the Hindu mind fears all those ideals which say that the flesh must cling unto the flesh.

No, no! Woman! thou shalt not be coupled with anything connected with the flesh.

The name has been called holy once and for ever, for what name is there which no lust can ever approach, no carnality ever come near, than the one word mother?

That is the ideal in India.

Swami Vivekananda
To be continued