Ye Children of Immortal Bliss...... what a sweet address

[Guest guest]

Continuing with the talk by Vivekananda......

 

But here is another question: Is man a tiny boat in a tempest, raised

one moment on the foamy crest of a billow and dashed down into a

yawning chasm the next, rolling to and from at the mercy of good and

bad actions - a powerless, helpless wreck in an ever-raging,

ever-rushing, uncompromising current of cause and effect - a little

moth placed under the wheel of causation, which rolls on crushing

everything in its way and waits not for the widow's tears or the

orphan's cry?

 

The heart sinks at the idea, yet this is the law of nature. Is there

no hope? Is there no escape? - was the cry that went up from the

bottom of the heart of despair.

 

It reached the throne of mercy, and words of hope and consolation

came down and inspired a Vedic sage, and he stood up before the world

and in trumpet voice proclaimed the glad tidings: "Hear, ye children

of immortal bliss! even ye that reside in higher spheres! I have

found the Ancient One who is beyond all darkness, all delusion:

knowing Him alone you shall be save from death over again. "Children

of immortal bliss" -what a sweet, what a hopeful name! Allow me to

call you, brethren, by that sweet name -heirs of immortal bliss -

yea, the Hindu refuses to call you sinners. We are the Children of

God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect beings. We

divinities on earth - sinners! It is a sin to call a man so; it is

standing libel on human nature. Come up, O lions, and shake

off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal,

spirits free, blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are

not bodies; matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter.