THE RAMAYANA (Delivered at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, January 31, 1900)-31.

Part-31.


Who knows which is the truer ideal?

The apparent power and strength, as held in the West, or the fortitude in suffering, of the East?


The West says, "We minimise evil by conquering it."

India says, "We destroy evil by suffering, until evil is nothing to us, it becomes positive enjoyment."

Well, both are great ideals.

Who knows which will survive in the long run?

Who knows which attitude will really most benefit humanity?

Who knows which will disarm and conquer animality?

Will it be suffering, or doing?




In the meantime, let us not try to destroy each other's ideals.

We are both intent upon the same work, which is the annihilation of evil.

You take up your method; let us take up our method.

Let us not destroy the ideal.

I do not say to the West, "Take up our method."

Certainly not.

The goal is the same, but the methods can never be the same.

And so, after hearing about the ideals of India, I hope that you will say in the same breath to India, "We know, the goal, the ideal, is all right for us both. You follow your own ideal. You follow your method in your own way, and Godspeed to you!"

My message in life is to ask the East and West not to quarrel over different ideals, but to show them that the goal is the same in both cases, however opposite it may appear. As we wend our way through this mazy vale of life, let us bid each other Godspeed.



"Where there is Rama, there is no Kama; where there is Kama, there Rama is not. Night and day can never exist together."

The voice of the ancient sages proclaim to us, "If you desire to attain God, you will have to renounce Kama-Kanchana (lust and possession)."


Swami Vivekananda

END.

JAI  SRI  RAM!