Swami Vivekananda describes diff between men and animals

[Guest guest]

Practical Religion: Breathing And Meditation (Delivered in San Francisco,

April 5, 1900)

 

What is the difference between men and animals? ... " Food and [sleep],

procreation of the species, and fear exist in common with the animals. There is

one difference: Man can control all these and become God, the master. " Animals

cannot do it. Animals can do charitable work. Ants do it. Dogs do it. What is

the difference then? Men can be masters of themselves. They can resist the

reaction to anything.... The animal cannot resist anything. He is held ... by

the string of nature everywhere. That is all the distinction. One is the master

of nature, the other the slave of nature. What is nature? The five senses....

 

[The conquest of internal nature] is the only way out, according to Yoga.... The

thirst for God is religion.... Good works and all that [merely] make the mind a

little quiet. To practice this — to be perfect — all depends upon our past. I

have been studying [Yoga] all my life and have made very little progress yet.

But I have got enough [result] to believe that this is the only true way. The

day will come when I will be master of myself. If not in this life, [in another

life]. I will struggle and never let go. Nothing is lost. If I die this moment,

all my past struggles [will come to my help]. Have you not seen what makes the

difference between one man and another? It

is their past. The past habits make one man a genius and another man a fool. You

may have the power of the past and can succeed in five minutes. None can predict

the moment of time. We all have to attain [perfection] some time or other.

 

Source:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_1/L\

ectures_And_Discourses/Practical_Religion:_Breathing_And_Meditation\