Sunday, September 25, 2011

GO TO HIS LEVEL AND HELP HIM IF YOU CAN. HE MUST GROW - WHAT RIGHT HAVE YOU TO SAY THAT THIS MAN'S METHOD IS WRONG ?


Each one thinks his method is best. Very good! But remember, it may be good for you. One food which is very indigestible to one is very digestible to another. Because it is good for you, do not jump to the conclusion that your method is everybody's method, that Jack's coat fits John and Mary. All the uneducated, uncultured, unthinking men and women have been put into that sort of strait jacket! Think for yourselves. Become atheists! Become materialists! That would be better. Exercises the mind! ... What right have you to say that this man's method is wrong? It may be wrong for you. That is to say, if you undertake the method, you will be degraded; but that does not mean that he will be degraded. Therefore, says Krishna, if you have knowledge and see a man weak, do not condemn him. Go to his level and help him if you can. He must grow. I can put five bucketfuls of knowledge into his head in five hours. But what good will it do? He will be a little worse than before.


- Swami Vivekananda
(Delivered in San Francisco, on May 29, 1900)The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/The Gita III

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