What Vivekananda Felt After Experiencing the ‘Luxurious’ West

The following incident is narrated by Swami Vivekananda himself in ‘The Complete Works Of Swami Vivekananda’:

I was asked by an English friend on the eve of my departure [from England], “Swami, how do you like now your motherland after four years’ experience of the luxurious, glorious, powerful West?” I could only answer, “India I loved before I came away. Now the very dust of India has become holy to me, the very air is now to me holy; it is now the holy land, the place of pilgrimage, the Tirtha.”

The above incident says a lot without saying much. If a person dearly loves his home, he or she would always love returning back to it even after spending a good amount of time in someone else’s home, which might be much more luxurious. The same goes for the country as well. Even if you spend a large amount of time in a country that is far more developed and much more luxurious than yours, you would still have a great and emotional feeling after returning back to your own country. It is like meeting your lover after being away from him or her for long.

I have also experienced the same on numerous occasions, although I have never been outside India. I stay in a polluted and crowded city like Mumbai. There are times when I have visited some peaceful and beautiful locations during a trip, mostly hill stations. But despite staying at such glorious places, I feel a sense of satisfaction when I return back to the same polluted and crowded Mumbai. As they say, home is where the heart is.

In the case of Swami Vivekananda or any spiritual Indian, the country is a headquarter for spirituality, with its thousands of years’ old glorious history in the same domain. Hence, the positive vibe and energy a spiritual Indian finds here is unparalleled. In fact, more and more foreigners have started staying in India after finding their spiritual calling.