Memorable events from the life of Swami Vivekananda - 6

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Memorable events from the life of Swami Vivekananda - 6

 

The following incident took place during Swamiji's wandering days

when he was staying at Varanasi. One day when he was returning from

visiting the Durga temple, a troop of monkeys chased after him. To

save himself Swamiji at first started running, but the monkeys ran

still faster and grew increasingly aggressive. At this time an old

monk who happened to witness the scene called out to him: 'Stop

running. Face the brutes!' Swamiji heard this call and turned to

'face the brutes'. Then the monkeys stopped harassing him.

 

Swamiji drew a great lesson from this apparently simple incident.

He learnt that one should not run away when faced with danger or

difficulty; instead, one must face it boldly. In his later life,

Swamiji referred to this incident while addressing a gathering in

New York. He said: 'That is a lesson for all life - face the

terrible, face it boldly. 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 face fear and troubles and

ignorance if we expect them to flee before us'.

 

 

 

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Taken from the book

" My India The India Eternal " published by

The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Calcutta.

 

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