Holy Mother Birthday

Today, according to Indian Calendar is Pausa Krisha Saptami, the birthday of Holy Mother Sri Sri Sarada Devi. Many of us know about the illustrious Swami Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, but few know about Sri Sarada Devi. Sri Sarada Devi was the spiritual consort of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna, who accompanied Him for His Divine play, like Sita to Rama and Radha to Krishna.

Here is a small anecdote before the birth of Sri Sarada Devi, which throws some light about the divinity of Her.

“Once when Shyamasundari Devi (mother of Sri Sarada Devi) was living with her father in the northern part of Shihar (in West Bengal of India). She had occasion to sit in the dark beside a potter’s oven under a bel (bilva, aegle marmelos) tree. There suddenly issued a jingling sound from the direction of the oven, and a little girl came down from the branches of the tree. She laid her soft hands round Shyamasundari’s neck, whereupon she fell down unconscious. She had no idea how long she lay there thus. Her relatives came there searching for her and carried her home. On regaining consciousness she felt as though the little girl had entered her womb”.  

Sri Sarada Devi was utterly simple and modest. Therefore, Her divinity was always concealed from the public gaze. For this reason, many people even some of the followers of Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda could not accept her as Supreme Divine Mother incarnated in flesh and blood. In this following incident, the great Swami Saradananda answers the question of a devotee about the divinity of Mother.

“A devotee once said to Swami Saradananda (a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna) that he could easily believe in the divinity of Sri Ramakrishna; at least he cherished that faith. But he could not comprehend Holy Mother as the Divine Mother. The swami replied: “Do you mean to say that God married the daughter of a woman who maintained herself by gathering cow dung?”

Today let us pray to Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi to grant us supreme devotion at Her feet.

What Inspired Me

Well, every man has a religion; has something in heaven or earth which he will give up every thing else for - something which absorbs him - which may be regarded by others as being useless - yet it is his dream, it is his lodestar, it is his master. That, whatever it is, seized upon me made me its servant, slave - induce me to set aside the other ambitions - a trail of glory in the heavens, which I followed with a full heart .... When once I am convinced, I never let go . . .

What is Truth?

What is Truth? A difficult question: indeed become very difficult to define exactly. Just imagine a bridge that is painted yellow on one side, and red on the other. Observers could argue for years about who is right about the colour of the bridge? Because each is right from his own view point, and each is wrong from the view point of the other. Mahatma Gandhi says: “But I have solved it for myself by saying that it is what the voice within tells you.”

LET THE MAGIC BEGIN

LET THE MAGIC BEGIN!

It's a true story that had happened in 1892 at Stanford University, but the morale is still relevant today. A young, 18-year-old student was struggling to pay his fees. He was an orphan, and not know­ing where to turn for money, he came up with a bright idea. A friend and he decided to host a musical concert on campus to raise money for their education. They reached out to the great pianist Ignacy J. Paderewski - who was quite a superstar those days. His manager demanded a guaranteed fee of $2000 for the piano recital. A deal was struck. And the boys began to work to make the concert a success.

The big day arrived. Paderewski performed at Stanford. But unfortunately, they had not managed to sell enough tickets. The total col­lection was only $1600. Disappointed, they went up to Paderewski and explained their plight. They gave him the entire $1600, plus a cheque for the balance $400. They promised to honour the cheque soonest possible.

"No way!" said Paderewski. "This is just not acceptable!" He tore up the cheque, returned the $1600 and told the two boys "Here's the $1600. Please deduct whatever expenses you have incurred. Keep the money you need for your fees. And just give me whatever is left!" The boys were surprised, and quite overjoyed. They thanked him profusely.

It was a small act of kindness. But it clearly marked out Paderewski as a great human being. Someone special. He would have been within his rights to demand his "guaranteed money". And why should he help two people he did not even know? We all come across situations like these in our lives. Times when other people need our help. And most of us only think "If I help them, what would hap­pen to me?" The truly great people think, "If I don't help them, what will happen to them?" We only think of ourselves, the loss we might incur, the trouble we might have to go through and the sacrifice we need to make. The great guys don't think of themselves. They think of the difference it could make to other people. And that's what drives their actions.

They help not because someone else is watching, or because it will look good when the world comes to know about it. They don't do it expecting something in return. They do it because they feel it's the right thing to do.

It may not surprise you to know that Paderewski went on to become the Prime Minister of Poland. He was a great leader, but unfortunately when the World War began, Poland was ravaged. There were over 1.5 mil­lion people starving in his country, and no money to feed them. Paderewski did not know where to turn for help. He reached out to the US Food and Relief Administration for help. The head there was a man called Herbert Hoover - who later went on to become the US President. Hoover agreed to help and quickly shipped tons of food grains to feed the starving Polish people. A calamity was averted. Paderewski was relieved! He decided to go across to meet Hoover and person­ally thank him. When Paderewski began to thank Hoover for his noble gesture, Hoover quickly interjected and said, "You shouldn't be thanking me Mr. Prime Minister. You may not remember this, but several years ago, you helped two young students go through college in the US. I was one of them."

Make it a habit to help others. It is rightly said that you can achieve everything you want in life if only you help other people achieve what they want in their lives.

Do something selfish today. Help some­one! Just do it. And don't expect anything in return. The world is a wonderful place. What goes around usually comes around.

Let the magic begin!

N.B. - I request all to circulate this story to all of your friends. If Possible leave a comment on the blog.

ROUGH SEA

ROUGH SEA: It is foolish to think to take bath in sea after the roughness of waves subsides. When we have an adventurous idea, we should be mentally and physically prepared for a tough job too. In life too we want happiness without a tinge of misery. Swami Vivekananda says: “Because happiness and misery are the obverse and reverse of the same coin; he who takes happiness, must take misery also. We all have this foolish idea that we can have happiness without misery, and it has taken such possession of us that we have no control over the senses…… When I was in Boston, a young man came up to me, and gave me a scrap of paper of which he had written a name and address, followed by these words: "All the wealth and all the happiness of the world are yours, if you only know how to get them. If you come to me, I will teach you how to get them. Charge, $5." He gave me this and said, "What do you think of this?" I said, "Young man, why don't you get the money to print this? You have not even enough money to get this printed!" He did not understand this. He was infatuated with the idea that he could get immense wealth and happiness without any trouble.

There are two extremes into which men are running; one is extreme optimism, when everything is rosy and nice and good; the other, extreme pessimism, when everything seems to be against them……. When we are healthy and young, we think that all the wealth of the world will be ours, and when later we get kicked about by society like footballs and get older, we sit in a corner and croak and throw cold water on the enthusiasm of others. Few men know that with pleasure there is pain, and with pain, pleasure; and as pain is disgusting, so is pleasure, as it is the twin brother of pain. It is derogatory to the glory of man that he should be going after pain, and equally derogatory, that he should be going after pleasure. Both should be turned aside by men whose reason is balanced. Why will not men seek freedom from being played upon?”

To be continued…… under “THE SAGE WANTS LIBERTY”

WAY TO HAPPINESS

WAY TO HAPINESS: We live in an unhappy and discontented age. There is a lack of direction and a lack of faith. Happiness is what everyone is seeking, but the majority seeks in things which are evanescent and not real. No happiness was ever found in the senses. Happiness is only found in Spirit. Vedanta emphatically states that freedom is our real nature and it is only God or experience of our real self that can give us permanent happiness. “Man may try through his technical advances to roll up the sky itself as it were a piece of lather, but with all that, he will never succeed in achieving peace and the end of his sorrows without realizing the luminous Divine within him” (Shvetashvetara Upanishad, 6.20)

CHASING THE CHIMERA OF HAPPINESS

CHASING THE CHIMERA OF HAPPINESS

In some oil mills in India, bullocks are used that go round and round to grind the oil - seed. There is a yoke on the bullock's neck. They have a piece of wood protruding from the yoke, and on that is fastened a wisp of straw. The bullock is blindfolded in such a way that it can only look forward, and so it stretches its neck to get at the straw; and in doing so, it pushes the piece of wood out a little further; and it makes another attempt with the same result, and yet another, and so on. It never catches the straw, but goes round and round in the hope of getting it, and in so doing, grinds out the oil. In the same way you and I who are born slaves to nature, money and wealth, wives and children, are always chasing a wisp of straw, a mere chimera, and are going through an innumerable round of lives without obtaining what we seek. The great dream is love; we are all going to love and be loved, we are all going to be happy and never meet with misery, but the more we go towards happiness, the more it goes away from us.

WHY DOES MAN LOOK FOR A GOD?

WHY DOES MAN LOOK FOR A GOD?

Why does man look for a God? Why does man, in every nation, in every state of society, want a perfect ideal somewhere, either in man, in God, or elsewhere? Because that idea is within you. It was your own heart beating and you did not know; you were mistaking it for something external. It is the God within your own self that is propelling you to seek for Him, to realise Him. After long searches here and there, in temples and in churches, in earths and in heavens, at last you come back, completing the circle from where you started, to your own soul and find that He for whom you have been seeking all over the world, for whom you have been weeping and praying in churches and temples, on whom you were looking as the mystery of all mysteries shrouded in the clouds, is nearest of the near, is your own Self, the reality of your life, body, and soul. That is your own nature. Assert it, manifest it. Not to become pure, you are pure already. You are not to be perfect, you are that already. Nature is like that screen which is hiding the reality beyond. Every good thought that you think or act upon is simply tearing the veil, as it were; and the purity, the Infinity, the God behind, manifests Itself more and more.

LINCOLN'S MISSION

LINCOLN’S MISSION

In Light from Many Lamps: A Treasury of Inspiration (edited by Lillian Eichler Watson) there is a moving passage describing Lincon's departure from his little town of Springfield in Illinois, Or Washington, to take up the office of President of the United States. A small crowd had gathered to give him a warm sendoff. Neither his wife nor his children accompanied him to the station as she had quarreled with him that morning. It was a very rainy day, and as he spoke, before stepping onto the train, his cheeks were wet with rain—or was it tears? He looked tired and worn, but his voice was warm with affection:

My friends, no one in my situation can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting ... Here I have lived a quarter of a century ... here my children were born and one is buried. I now leave not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being Who has ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail.

Lincoln never returned to Springfield. The conduct of those who were closest to him must have pained him no end, but it impeded neither his train journey, nor the more important one as President. Perhaps his most memorable words were in the Gettysberg address, “With malice to none, with goodwill to all.” A man with a purpose is an integrated personality and when the chips are down, he has to show what he stands for Even in the White House, his wife was never very supportive but Lincoln remained undeterred in his purpose.

Lincoln's aim was to preserve the Union of America and abolish slavery. This he thought he would achieve initially providing compensation to the slave owners. But the Southerners seceded and he had to go to war. Then he issued his Proclamation of Emancipation of the Slave, saying, “A nation cannot exist half slave and half free.” On another occasion he said; I know there is a God and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm corning and I know that His hand is in it. If He has a place and work for me, and I think He has, I believe I am ready. I am nothing, but truth is everything; I know I am right because I know that liberty is right.

When, towards the end of the war, his forces were winning over the Southern forces, a man came up to him and asked agitatedly, 'And now, Mr President, how are you going to treat the Southerners?' Lincoln replied: 'As if they never went in war.' Thus, it was his purpose that dominated, not his personal feelings or a desire for revenge. He remained true to his words; “With malice to none, with goodwill to all.”

Another factor that strengthened his purpose was his faith, On the eve of the battle of the Bull Run, the first major land battle of the American Civil War, a colleague remembers passing by a door that was slightly ajar. He saw Abraham Lincoln kneeling at his bedside by candlelight, pleading to God to show him what he should do, saying that his own strength was not enough to serve his people. His purpose was sustained by his faith in a power higher than himself.

VILVAMANGALA

VILVAMANGALA

Taken from: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda  (Volume 1, Page : 486)

*This is a story from one of the books of India, called "Lives of Saints".

There was a young man, a Brahmin by birth, in a certain village. The man fell in love with a bad woman in another village. There was a big river between the two villages, and this man, every day, used to go to that girl, crossing this river in a ferry boat. Now, one day he had to perform the obsequies of his father, and so, although he was longing, almost dying to go to the girl, he could not. The ceremonies had to be performed, and all those things had to be undergone; it is absolutely necessary in Hindu society. He was fretting and fuming and all that, but could not help it. At last the ceremony ended, and night came, and with the night, a tremendous howling storm arose. The rain was pouring down, and the river was lashed into gigantic waves. It was very dangerous to cross. Yet he went to the bank of the river. There was no ferry boat. The ferrymen were afraid to cross, but he would go; his heart was becoming mad with love for the girl, so he would go. There was a log floating down, and he got that, and with the help of it, crossed the river, and getting to the other side dragged the log up, threw it on the bank, and went to the house. The doors were closed. He knocked at the door, but the wind was howling, and nobody heard him. So he went round the walls and at last found what he thought to be a rope, hanging from the wall. He clutched at it, saying to himself, "Oh, my love has left a rope for me to climb." By the help of that rope he climbed over the wall, got to the other side, missed his footing, and fell, and the noise aroused the inmates of the house, and the girl came out and found the man there in a faint. She revived him, and noticing that he was smelling very unpleasantly, she said, "What is the matter with you? Why this stench on your body? How did you come into the house?" He said, "Why, did not my love put that rope there?" She smiled, and said, "What love? We are for money, and do you think that I let down a rope for you, fool that you are? How did you cross the river?" "Why, I got hold of a log of wood." "Let us go and see," said the girl. The rope was a cobra, a tremendously poisonous serpent, whose least touch is death. It had its head in a hole, and was getting in when the man caught hold of its tail, and he thought it was a rope. The madness of love made him do it. When the serpent has its head in its hole, and its body out, and you catch hold of it, it will not let its head come out; so the man climbed up by it, but the force of the pull killed the serpent. "Where did you get the log?" "It was floating down the river." It was a festering dead body; the stream had washed it down and that he took for a log, which explained why he had such an unpleasant odour. The woman looked at him and said, "I never believed in love; we never do; but, if this is not love, the Lord have mercy on me. We do not know what love is. But, my friend, why do you give that heart to a woman like me? Why do you not give it to God? You will be perfect." It was a thunderbolt to the man's brain. He got a glimpse of the beyond for a moment. "Is there a God?" "Yes, yes, my friend, there is," said the woman. And the man walked on, went into a forest, began to weep and pray. "I want Thee, Oh Lord! This tide of my love cannot find a receptacle in little human beings. I want to love where this mighty river of my love can go, the ocean of love; this rushing tremendous river of my love cannot enter into little pools, it wants the infinite ocean. Thou art there; come Thou to me." So he remained there for years. After years he thought he had succeeded, he became a Sannyasin and he came into the cities. One day he was sitting on the bank of a river, at one of the bathing places, and a beautiful young girl, the wife of a merchant of the city, with her servant, came and passed the place. The old man was again up in him, the beautiful face again attracted him. The Yogi looked and looked, stood up and followed the girl to her home. Presently the husband came by, and seeing the Sannyasin in the yellow garb he said to him, "Come in, sir, what can I do for you?" The Yogi said, "I will ask you a terrible thing." "Ask anything, sir, I am a Grihastha (householder), and anything that one asks I am ready to give." "I want to see your wife." The man said, "Lord, what is this! Well, I am pure, and my wife is pure, and the Lord is a protection to all. Welcome; come in sir." He came in, and the husband introduced him to his wife. "What can I do for you?" asked the lady. He looked and looked, and then said, "Mother, will you give me two pins from your hair?" "Here they are." He thrust them into his two eyes saying, "Get away, you rascals! Henceforth no fleshy things for you. If you are to see, see the Shepherd of the groves of Vrindaban with the eyes of the soul. Those are all the eyes you have." So he went back into the forest. There again he wept and wept and wept. It was all that great flow of love in the man that was struggling to get at the truth, and at last he succeeded; he gave his soul, the river of his love, the right direction, and it came to the Shepherd. The story goes that he saw God in the form of Krishna. Then, for once, he was sorry that he had lost his eyes, and that he could only have the internal vision. He wrote some beautiful poems of love. In all Sanskrit books, the writers first of all salute their Gurus. So he saluted that girl as his first Guru.

Spiritual Need

Spiritual knowledge is the only thing that can destroy our miseries for ever; any other knowledge satisfies wants only for a time. It is only with the knowledge of the spirit that the faculty of want is annihilated for ever; so helping man spiritually is the highest help that can be given to him.

GOD'S PLAN FOR YOU

GOD'S PLAN FOR YOU

We need never be anxious about our mission. We need never perplex ourselves in the least in trying to know what God wants us to do, what place He wants us to fill. Our own duty is to do well the work of the present hour. There are some people who waste entire years wondering what God would have them do and expecting to have their life work pointed out to them. But this is not the Divine way. If you want to know God's plan for you, do God's Will each day; that is God's plan for you today. If He has a wider sphere, a larger place for you, He'll bring you to it at the right time, and that will be God's plan for you and your mission.

    —J.R. miller, in green pastures

Sadhu Sant Singh was once travelling through the Himalayas when he saw a great forest fire. Almost everyone present was frantically trying to fight the fire, but he noticed a group of men standing and looking at a tree that was about to go up in flames. When he asked them what they were looking at, they pointed to a nest full of young birds. Above it, the mother bird was circling wildly in the air and calling out warnings to her young ones. There was nothing either she or the men could do to save the nest. Soon the flames started engulfing the branches, just as the nest was about to catch fire, the men were amazed to see the mother bird's reaction. Instead of flying away from the flames, she darted down and settled on the nest, covering her little ones with her wings. The next moment, she and her nestlings were burnt to ashes. None of them could believe their eyes.

Sadhu Sant Singh turned to those standing by and said: 'We have witnessed a truly marvellous thing. God created that bird with such love and devotion that she gave her life trying to protect her young. If her small heart was so full of love, how unfathomable must be the love of her Creator. That is the love that brought him down from heaven to become man. That is the love which made air, water, greeneries for our living. That is the love He has given in our parents heart for our protection and upbringing. That is the love always guide us unseen to our purpose. That is the love which whisper in our heart that God is!

God has a plan and purpose for each one of us. The purpose may not be something grand, though we could well be led to something much bigger than what we may have imagined.

Purpose of Life

There is a soul in all of us searching happiness in this world which continues throughout our lives. This search is defined by ‘purpose of our life’. Lacking purpose in life, despairing millions seek refuge in drugs and alcohol, in crime and other antisocial behavior. They are the walking wound of our society. Those with money may lose themselves in unbridled consumerism or sex, - ‘the good life’ – but deep within, the nagging feeling remains. Man wants to know his place in this bewildering world, a place where he can anchor his spirit, find a direction, and pursue a purpose beyond his own advancement.

But career is not a purpose. A noble purpose is that is deeply satisfying not only to our own self but also beneficial o others. Lucky are those whose career and purposes match. The rest of us are to find a purpose beyond our career or with them.

MOTHER' LOVE

BIRBAL’S WISDOM

MOTHER’S LOVE

The Emperor once saw a woman hugging and kissing a child that did not look particularly appealing. The Emperor expressed surprise that a woman could lavish so much love on such an unattractive child.

“That’s because it’s her own child,” explained Birbal. “To a mother her child is always beautiful.”

But the Emperor was not satisfied by the explanation.

The next day, Birbal called a guard and in the Emperor’s presence ordered him to bring the most beautiful child to the palace.

The following day the guard came to the palace with a small boy with buck teeth and hair that stood up like porcupine quills and hesitantly pushed him in front of the Emperor.

“T-The most beautiful child, Your Majesty,” he stammered.

“How do you know he’s beautiful?” asked the Emperor.

“My wife, his mother, says so,” replied the soldier.

Management Moral: There is no arguing with a mother’s love. It is consistent and unshakable; nothing can suppress it –neither the child’s look nor others’ opinion about the child. There is much to learn from this exemplary love –if we could be half as consistence in our relationships, our dealings with our dear-ones, colleagues and friends would be much steadier and save everyone a lot of heartache. This story teaches us that everybody is special in some way or other, though we may not always be able to perceive what it is that makes each person special and lovable. (116)

DUTIES OF A HOUSEHOLDER

DUTIES OF A HOUSEHOLDER

(As per ‘Maha-Nirvana-Tantra’ and taught by Swami Vivekananda)

Extracted from Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Vol.1

The life of every individual, according to the Hindu scriptures, has its peculiar duties apart from what belongs in common to universal humanity.

The Hindu begins life as a student; then he marries and becomes a householder; in old age he retires; and lastly he gives up the world and becomes a Sannyasin. To each of these stages of life certain duties are attached. No one of these stages is intrinsically superior to another. The life of the married man is quite as great as that of the celibate who has devoted himself to religious work….

….The four stages of life in India have in later times been reduced to two -- that of the householder and of the monk. The householder marries and carries on his duties as a citizen, and the duty of the other is to devote his energies wholly to religion, to preach and to worship God.

I shall read to you a few passages from the Maha-Nirvana-Tantra, which treats of this subject, and you will see that it is a very difficult task for a man to be a householder, and perform all his duties perfectly:

             The householder should be devoted to God; the knowledge of God should be his goal of life. Yet he must work constantly, perform all his duties; he must give up the fruits of his actions to God…..

…The great duty of the householder is to earn a living, but he must take care that he does not do it by telling lies, or by cheating, or by robbing others; and he must remember that his life is for the service of God, and the poor.

             Knowing that mother and father are the visible representatives of God, the householder, always and by all means, must please them. If the mother is pleased, and the father, God is pleased with the man. That child is really a good child who never speaks harsh words to his parents.

             Before parents one must not utter jokes, must not show restlessness, must not show anger or temper. Before mother or father, a child must bow down low, and stand up in their presence, and must not take a seat until they order him to sit.

             If the householder has food and drink and clothes without first seeing that his mother and his father, his children, his wife, and the poor, are supplied, he is committing a sin. The mother and the father are the causes of this body; so a man must undergo a thousand troubles in order to do good to them.

             Even so is his duty to his wife. No man should scold his wife, and he must always maintain her as if she were his own mother. And even when he is in the greatest difficulties and troubles, he must not show anger to his wife.

             He who thinks of another woman besides his wife, if he touches her even with his mind -- that man goes to dark hell.

Before women he must not talk improper language, and never brag of his powers. He must not say, "I have done this, and I have done that."

             The householder must always please his wife with money, clothes, love, faith, and words like nectar, and never do anything to disturb her. That man who has succeeded in getting the love of a chaste wife has succeeded in his religion and has all the virtues.

             The following are duties towards children:A son should be lovingly reared up to his fourth year; he should be educated till he is sixteen. When he is twenty years of age he should be employed in some work; he should then be treated affectionately by his father as his equal. Exactly in the same manner the daughter should be brought up, and should be educated with the greatest care. And when she marries, the father ought to give her jewels and wealth.

             Then the duty of the man is towards his brothers and sisters, and towards the children of his brothers and sisters, if they are poor, and towards his other relatives, his friends and his servants. Then his duties are towards the people of the same village, and the poor, and any one that comes to him for help. Having sufficient means, if the householder does not take care to give to his relatives and to the poor, know him to be only a brute; his is not a human being.

             Excessive attachment to food, clothes, and the tending of the body, and dressing of the hair should be avoided. The householder must be pure in heart and clean in body, always active and always ready for work.

             To his enemies the householder must be a hero. Them he must resist. That is the duty of the householder. He must not sit down in a corner and weep, and talk nonsense about non - resistance. If he does not show himself a hero to his enemies he has not done his duty. And to his friends and relatives he must be as gentle as a lamb.

It is the duty of the householder not to pay reverence to the wicked; because, if he reverences the wicked people of the world, he patronises wickedness; and it will be a great mistake if he disregards those who are worthy of respect, the good people. He must not be gushing in his friendship; he must not go out of the way making friends everywhere; he must watch the actions of the men he wants to make friends with, and their dealings with other men, reason upon them, and then make friends.

             These three things he must not talk of. He must not talk in public of his own fame; he must not preach his own name or his own powers; he must not talk of his wealth, or of anything that has been told to him privately.

             A man must not say he is poor, or that he is wealthy -- he must not brag of his wealth. Let him keep his own counsel; this is his religious duty. This is not mere worldly wisdom; if a man does not do so, he may be held to be immoral.

             The householder is the basis, the prop, of the whole society. He is the principal earner. The poor, the weak, the children and the women who do not work -- all live upon the householder; so there must be certain duties that he has to perform, and these duties must make him feel strong to perform them, and not make him think that he is doing things beneath his ideal. Therefore, if he has done something weak, or has made some mistake, he must not say so in public; and if he is engaged in some enterprise and knows he is sure to fail in it, he must not speak of it. Such self - exposure is not only uncalled for, but also unnerves the man and makes him unfit for the performance of his legitimate duties in life. At the same time, he must struggle hard to acquire these things -- firstly, knowledge, and secondly, wealth. It is his duty, and if he does not do his duty, he is nobody. A householder who does not struggle to get wealth is immoral. If he is lazy and content to lead an idle life, he is immoral, because upon him depend hundreds. If he gets riches, hundreds of others will be thereby supported.

             If there were not in this city hundreds who had striven to become rich, and who had acquired wealth, where would all this civilisation, and these almshouses and great houses be?

             Going after wealth in such a case is not bad, because that wealth is for distribution. The householder is the centre of life and society. It is a worship for him to acquire and spend wealth nobly, for the householder who struggles to become rich by good means and for good purposes is doing practically the same thing for the attainment of salvation as the anchorite does in his cell when he is praying; for in them we see only the different aspects of the same virtue of self - surrender and self - sacrifice prompted by the feeling of devotion to God and to all that is His.

             He must struggle to acquire a good name by all means. He must not gamble, he must not move in the company of the wicked, he must not tell lies, and must not be the cause of trouble to others.

             Often people enter into things they have not the means to accomplish, with the result that they cheat others to attain their own ends. Then there is in all things the time factor to be taken into consideration; what at one time might be a failure, would perhaps at another time be a very great success.

             The householder must speak the truth, and speak gently, using words which people like, which will do good to others; nor should he talk of the business of other men.

             The householder by digging tanks, by planting trees on the roadsides, by establishing rest - houses for men and animals, by making roads and building bridges, goes towards the same goal as the greatest Yogi.

             This is one part of the doctrine of Karma-Yoga -- activity, the duty of the householder. There is a passage later on, where it says that "if the householder dies in battle, fighting for his country or his religion, he comes to the same goal as the Yogi by meditation," showing thereby that what is duty for one is not duty for another. At the same time, it does not say that this duty is lowering and the other elevating. Each duty has its own place, and according to the circumstances in which we are placed, must we perform our duties.