"Now let us go on with our subject-matter — the East and the West. First see the irony of it. Jesus Christ, the God of the Europeans, has taught: ‘Have no enemy, bless them that curse you; whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also; stop all your work and be ready for the next world; the end of the world is near at hand.’
And our Lord in the Gita is saying: ‘Always work with great enthusiasm, destroy your enemies and enjoy the world.’
But, after all, it turned out to be exactly the reverse of what Christ or Krishna implied. The Europeans never took the words of Jesus Christ seriously. Always of active habits, being possessed of a tremendous Râjasika nature, they are gathering with great enterprise and youthful ardour the comforts and luxuries of the different countries of the world and enjoying them to their hearts' content.
And we are sitting in a corner, with our bag and baggage, pondering on death day and night, and singing, “नलिनी-दल-गत-जलं अति चपलं, तद्वद् जीवन्ं अतिशय चपलम्
— Very tremulous and unsteady is the water on the lotus-leaf; so is the life of man frail and transient.”
With the result that it is making our blood run cold and our flesh creep with the fear of Yama, the god of death. And Yama, too, alas, has taken us at our word, as it were. Plague and all sorts of maladies have entered into our country!
Who are following the teachings of the Gita? — the Europeans.
And who are acting according to the will of Jesus Christ? —The descendants of Shri Krishna!
This must be well understood."
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA, “Prachya O Pashchatya”
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