A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

. idealKARMA-YOGA. 95son s wife gave him her portion also. That was sufficientand {he guest departed, blessing them. That night thosefoiur people died of starvation. A few ^granules of thatflour had fallen on the ground, and when I rolled on themhalf of my body became golden, as you see it. Since thenI have been all over the world, hoping to find anothersacrifice like that, but never have I found one ; nowhereelse has the other half of my body been turned into gold.That iswhy I say this is no sacrifice.This idea of charity is going out of India ;grand menare becoming less and less. When 1 was first learningEnglish I read an English story book, where the first storywas about a dutiful boy who had gone out to work andhad given some of his money to his old mother, and thiswas praised in three or four pages. What was that ? NoHindu boy could ever understand that story. Now Iunderstand it when I hear the Western idea every manfor himself. And some men take everything, and fathersand mothers, and wives and children go to the wall. Thatshould never and nowhere be the ideal of the householder.Now you see what Karma- Yoga means ;even at thepoint of death to help anyone, without asking questions.Be cheated millions of times and never ask a question, andnever think of what you are doing. Never vaunt of yourgifts to the poor or expect their gratitude,but rather begrateful to them for giving you the occasion of practisingcharity on them. Thus it is plain that to be an idealhouseholder is a much more difficult task than to be anSannyasin ; the true life of work is, indeed, harderthan the equally true life of renunciation.