In spite of the greatness of the Upanishads, in spite of our boasted ancestry of sages, compared to many other races,
I must tell you that we are weak, very weak.
First of all is our physical weakness. That physical weakness is the cause of at least one-third of our miseries.
We are lazy, we cannot work; we cannot combine, we do not love each other; we are intensely selfish, not three of us can come together without hating each other, without being jealous of each other.
That is the state in which we are -- hopelessly disorganised mobs, immensely selfish, fighting each other for centuries as to whether a certain mark is to be put on our forehead this way or that way, writing volumes and volumes upon such momentous questions as to whether the look of a man spoils my food or not!
This we have been doing for the past few centuries.
We cannot expect anything high from a race whose whole brain energy has been occupied in such wonderfully beautiful problems and researches!
And are we not ashamed of ourselves?
Ay, sometimes we are; but though we think these things frivolous, we cannot give them up. We speak of many things parrot-like, but never do them; speaking and not doing has become a habit with us.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Address at Madras,
Lectures From Colombo to Almora
I must tell you that we are weak, very weak.
First of all is our physical weakness. That physical weakness is the cause of at least one-third of our miseries.
We are lazy, we cannot work; we cannot combine, we do not love each other; we are intensely selfish, not three of us can come together without hating each other, without being jealous of each other.
That is the state in which we are -- hopelessly disorganised mobs, immensely selfish, fighting each other for centuries as to whether a certain mark is to be put on our forehead this way or that way, writing volumes and volumes upon such momentous questions as to whether the look of a man spoils my food or not!
This we have been doing for the past few centuries.
We cannot expect anything high from a race whose whole brain energy has been occupied in such wonderfully beautiful problems and researches!
And are we not ashamed of ourselves?
Ay, sometimes we are; but though we think these things frivolous, we cannot give them up. We speak of many things parrot-like, but never do them; speaking and not doing has become a habit with us.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Address at Madras,
Lectures From Colombo to Almora
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