A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

MAYA AND ILLUSION. 163things And when I ! try to think of this, I cannot butthink that this theory of maya, this statement that it isallmaya, is the best and only explanation. What anamount of misery there is in this world, and ifyou travelamong various nations you will find out this, that onenation has attempted to cure its evils by one means, andanother by another. The very same evil has been takenup by the various races, and attempts have been made invarious ways to check the evil, yet no nation has succeeded.If it has been minimised in one point, a mass of evil hasbeen crowded into another point. Thus it goes. TheHindus, to produce a little chastity in the race, havedegraded all their children by child-marriage, which, in thelong run., has degraded the race. At the same time, Icannot deny that this child-marriage makes the race morechaste. What would you have ? If you want the nation tobe more chaste, you degrade men and women physicallyby this awful child -marriage. On the other hand, are yousafe on your side ? No, because chastity is the life of anation. Do you not find in history that the first deathsignof a nation has come through unchastity ? Whenthat has entered, the end of the race is in sight. Whereshall we get a solution of these miseries then ?If parentsselect husbands and wives for their own children, then thisevil of love is prevented. The daughters of India aremore practical than sentimental. Very little of poetryremains in their lives. Again, if people select their ownhusbands and wives, that does not bring much happiness.The Indian woman is very happy ;there is scarcely a caseof quarrelling between husband and wife. On the otherhand, in the United States, where the greatest libertyobtains, scarcely is there a happy home. There may besome, but the number of unhappy homes and marriages