Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Trying to Rise Above Brute Nature

Ideals come into our head far beyond the limit of our sense-ideals, but when we seek to express them, we cannot do so.
On the other hand, we are crushed by the surging mass around us. Yet if I give up all ideality and merely struggle through this world, my existence is that of a brute, and I degenerate and degrade myself. 

Neither way is happiness. Unhappiness is the fate of those who are content to live in this world, born as they are. 
A thousand times greater misery is the fate of those who dare to stand forth for truth and for higher things and who dare to ask for something higher than mere brute existence here.

Swami Vivekananda, 
Jnana-Yoga, London



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