Swami Vivekananda

[Guest guest]

6,

 

51. Look upon every man, women, and every one as God. You cannot

help anyone, you can only serve: serve the children of the Lord,

serve the Lord Himself.... Do it only as a worship. I should see God

in the poor, and it is for my salvation that I go and worship them.

The poor and the miserable are for our salvation, so that we may

serve the Lord, coming in the shape of the diseased, coming in the

shape of the lunatic, the leper, and the sinner!

 

52. Inspiration is not filtered out to the world through one

channel, however great. Each generation should be inspired afresh.

 

53. If you teach Vedanta to the fisherman, he will say, I am as good

a man as you; I am a fisherman, you are a philosopher, but I have

the same God in my as you have in you. And that is what we want, no

privilege for anyone, equal chances for all.

 

54. Give up the awful disease that is creeping into our n ational

blood, that idea of ridiculing everything, that loss of seriousness.

Give that up. Be strong and have ... Shraddha, and everything else

is bound to follow.

 

55. India must conquer the world, and nothing less than that is my

idea.... We must conquer the world or die. There is no other

alternative. The sign of life is expansion; we must go out, expand,

show life, or degreade, fester, and die.

 

56. To the women of this country, I would say exactly what I say to

the men. Believe in India and in our Indian faith. Be strong and

hopeful and unashamed, and remember that with something to take,

Hindus have immeasurably more to give than any other people in the

world.

 

57. ... Misery and happiness are equal factors in the formation

of ... character ... In some instances misery is a greater teacher

than happiness. ... In the vast majority of cases, it would be found

that it was misery that taught more than happiness, it was poverty

that taught more than wealth, it was blows that brought out their

inner fire more than praise.

 

58. My faith is in the younger generation, the modern generation,

out of them will come my worekrs. They will work out the whole

problem, like lions.

 

59. Political greatness or military power is neve the mission of oru

reace; it never was, and mark my words, it never will be. But there

has been the other mission given to us, which is to conserve, to

presere, to accommodate ... all the spiritual energy of the race....

 

60. ...The land where humanity has attained its highest towards

gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness,

above all, the land of introspection and of Spirituality, -- it is

India.

 

61. Inactivity should be avoided by all means. Activity always means

resistance. Resist all evils, mental and physical; and when you have

succeeded in resisting, then will calmness come.

 

62. ...Men should be taught to be practical and physically srong. A

dozen of such lions will conquer the world, and not millions of

sheep can do so. Secondly, men should not be taught to imitate a

personal ideal, however great.