Saturday 11 May 2013

9th April Swami Vivekananda Life

9 April :
 

9 Apr 1894 : Letter to Alasinga : My whole ambition in life is to set in motion a machinery which will bring noble ideas to the door of everybody, and then let men and women settle their own fate. Let them know what our forefathers as well as other nations have thought on the most momentous questions of life. Let them see specially what others are doing now, and then decide. We are to put the chemicals together, the crystallization will be done by nature according to her laws. Work hard, be steady, and have faith in the Lord. Set to work, I am coming sooner or later. Keep the motto before you — "Elevation of the masses without injuring their religion".
 

Remember that the nation lives in the cottage. But, alas! nobody ever did anything for them. Our modern reformers are very busy about widow remarriage. Of course, I am a sympathiser in every reform, but the fate of a nation does not depend upon the number of husbands their widows get, but upon the condition of the masses. Can you raise them? Can you give them back their lost individuality without making them lose their innate spiritual nature? Can you become an occidental of occidentals in your spirit of equality, freedom, work, and energy, and at the same time a Hindu to the very backbone in religious culture and instincts? This is to be done and we will do it. You are all born to do it. Have faith in yourselves, great convictions are the mothers of great deeds. Onward for ever! Sympathy for the poor, the downtrodden, even unto death — this is our motto.
 

Onward, brave lads!
 

9 Apr 1900 : Eve: First lecture in Divine Love series, Red Men's Building, SF, CA- WORSHIPED AND WORSHIPER (CW 6:49-58) - The former deals with man as unlimited being, [as] principle, the latter with man as limited being. . . .
 

The one has no time to stop for a few tear - drops or pangs; the other cannot proceed without wiping the tear - drop, without healing that misery.
 

One is great, so great and grand that sometimes we are staggered by the magnitude; the other [is] commonplace, and yet most beautiful and dear to us.
 

One gets hold of us, takes us up to the heights where our lungs almost burst. We cannot breathe [in] that atmosphere. The other leaves us where we are and tries to see the objects of life, [takes the limited] view.
One will accept nothing until it has the shining seal of reason; the other has faith, and what it cannot see it believes.
 

Both are necessary. A bird cannot fly with only one wing.

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