A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

tMY MASTER.childish we are ! The baby in his childishness thinks thathis doll is the only possession that is to be co^atedin thiswhole universe. So a nation which* is great in thepossession of material powers thinks that that is all thatis to be coveted, that that is all that is meant by progress,that that is all that is meant by civilization, and if thereare other nations which do not care to possess, and do notpossess these powers, they are not fit to live, their wholeexistence is useless. On the other hand, another nationmay think that mere material civilization is utterly useless.From the Orient came the voice which once told the worldthat, if a man possess everything that is under the sun or,above it,and does not possess spirituality, what mattersit ? This is the Oriental type, the other is the Occidentaltype.Each of these types has its grandeur, each has its glory.The present adjustment will be the harmonizing, themingling of these two ideals. To the Oriental, the worldof spiritis as real as to the Occidental is the world ofsenses. In the spiritual,the Oriental finds everything hewants or hopes for ;in it he finds all that makes life realto him. To the Occidental he is a dreamer ;to t theOriental, the Occidental is a dreamer, playing with dolls offive minutes, and he laughs to think that grown-wp.menand women should make so much of a handful of matterwhich they will have to leave sooner or later. Each milsthe other a dreamer. But the Oriental ideal is as necessary for the progress of the human race as is theOccidental, and I think it is more necessary. Machinesnever made mankind happy, and never will ma^ke. Hewho is trying to make us believe this, will claim thathappiness is in the machine, but it is always in the mind.