Face the problems

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Face the problems

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Manliness consists in the capacity to face problems

and rise up to any situation. People who run away from

problems have never succeeded in solving any of them.

Swamiji gives an anecdote in which this lesson is

forcefully brought out.

 

"Once when I was in Varanasi, I was passing through a

place where there was a large tank of water on one

side and a high wall on the other. It was situated in

a place where there were many monkeys. The monkeys of

Varanasi are huge brutes and are sometimes surly. They

took it into their heads not to allow me to pass

through their street, so they howled and shrieked and

clutched at my feet as I passed. As they pressed

closer, I began to run, but the faster I ran, the

faster came the monkeys and they began to bite at me.

It seemed impossible to escape but just then I met a

stranger who called out to me, "Face the brutes," I

turned and faced the monkeys, and they fell back and

finally fled.

 

Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when

we cease to flee before them. If we are ever to gain

freedom, it must be by conquering nature, never by

running away. Cowards never win victories. We have to

fight fear and ignorance if we expect them to flee

before us."

 

-- Swami Vivekananda

 

Hari Aum !!!