Sunday, July 12, 2015

HOW THEN CAN WE FIND THE PATH TO LIBERTY ?

For in the case of a Vivekananda or of any other man cast in the heroic mold, there can be no question of throwing up the arms in advance, raising the hands and resigning himself to despair - still less is it possible to cover the eyes as do some agnostics, while they chant " What do I know ? " and to gulp down the fleeting and passing pleasures which past our bodies like ghosts floating along the edge of the river!....What is it that will assuage the cry of the soul, the Great Hunger? Certainly such rags of flesh will not fill up the gulf: all the Epicure's roses will not keep him from starting back, like the horses of Orcagna in the Campo Santo, from the stench of putrefying corpses. He must get out of the graveyard, out of the circle of tombs, away from the crematorium. He must win freedom or die: and better to die, if need arises, for freedom! " Better to die on the battlefield than to live a life of defeat ! "


- Swami Vivekananda
The life of Vivekananda And The Universal Gospel - Romain Rolland - Page 150