Vivekananda Mailing List-1/25/03

[Guest guest]

As a boy I had some white mice. They were kept in a little box in which

there were little wheels, and when the mice tried to cross the wheels,

thewheels turned and turned, and the mice never got anywhere. So it is

with the world and our helping it. The only help is that we get moral

exercise. This world is neither good nor evil; each man manufactures a

world for himself. If a blind man begins to think of the world, it is

either as soft or hard, or as cold or hot. We are a mass of happiness

or misery; we have seen that hundreds of times in our lives. As a rule,

the young are optimistic and the old pessimistic. The young have life

before them; the old complain their day is gone; hundreds of desires,

which they cannot fulfil struggle in their hearts. Both are foolish

nevertheless. Life is good or evil according to the state of mind in

which we look at it, it is neither by itself. Fire, by itself, is

neither good nor evil. When it keeps us

warm we say, " How beautiful is fire! " When it burns our fingers, we

blame it. Still, in itself it is neither good nor bad. According as we

use it, it produces in us the feeling of good or bad; so also is this

world. It is perfect. By perfection is meant that it is perfectly

fitted to meet its ends. We may all be perfectly sure that it will go

on beautifully well without us, and we need not bother our heads

wishing to help it.