2023-02-16 06:27:21 by ambuda-bot
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INTRODUCTION
39
was causing there at one time can be known from the
scathing words of one of the noblest sons of Bengal,
Swami Vivekananda. In one of his speeches in
Calcutta, soon after his return from America in 1897,
the Swami said :
"Give up this filthy Vámächära that is killing
your country. You have not seen the other parts of
India. When I see how much the Vamachara has
entered our society, I find it a most disgraceful place
with all its boast of culture. These Vamachara sects
are honeycombing our society in Bengal.... Fathers
of Calcutta, do you not feel ashamed that such horrible
stuff as these Vämacira Tantras, with translations
too, should be put into the hands of your boys and
girls, and their minds poisoned and that they should
be brought up with the idea that these are the
Shastras of the Hindus? If you are ashamed, take
them away from your children, and let them read the
true Shastras-the Vedas, the Gita, the Upanishads. "
How like a breath of fresh air come these words
into the fetid atmosphere of degenerate Tantrik
rituals! From this denunciation we should not conclude
that the Swami was blind to the merits of the better
types of Tantras. For, in a speech delivered at Dacca
on 31st March, 1901, we find him saying:
"Barring some of the abominable things in the
Tantras, such as the Vâmāchara, etc., the Tantras are
not so bad as people are inclined to think. There are
many high and sublime Vedāntic thoughts in them. In
fact, the Brāhmana portions of the Vedas were
39
was causing there at one time can be known from the
scathing words of one of the noblest sons of Bengal,
Swami Vivekananda. In one of his speeches in
Calcutta, soon after his return from America in 1897,
the Swami said :
"Give up this filthy Vámächära that is killing
your country. You have not seen the other parts of
India. When I see how much the Vamachara has
entered our society, I find it a most disgraceful place
with all its boast of culture. These Vamachara sects
are honeycombing our society in Bengal.... Fathers
of Calcutta, do you not feel ashamed that such horrible
stuff as these Vämacira Tantras, with translations
too, should be put into the hands of your boys and
girls, and their minds poisoned and that they should
be brought up with the idea that these are the
Shastras of the Hindus? If you are ashamed, take
them away from your children, and let them read the
true Shastras-the Vedas, the Gita, the Upanishads. "
How like a breath of fresh air come these words
into the fetid atmosphere of degenerate Tantrik
rituals! From this denunciation we should not conclude
that the Swami was blind to the merits of the better
types of Tantras. For, in a speech delivered at Dacca
on 31st March, 1901, we find him saying:
"Barring some of the abominable things in the
Tantras, such as the Vâmāchara, etc., the Tantras are
not so bad as people are inclined to think. There are
many high and sublime Vedāntic thoughts in them. In
fact, the Brāhmana portions of the Vedas were