A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

10 MY MASTER.Ieven held that a man ought to do that. And it is expected ^of a Brahmin to carry this idea out to the very extremeThose who are acquainted with the liteiiture of India willremember a beautiful old story about this extreme charity,how a whole family, M related in the Mahabl, .rvedthemselves to deatli and gave their last meal to a bejThis is not an:ti<>n,for such thingsstill exi>t.The characters of the father ;md mother of my Mwere very much lik<- that. Very poor they were and yetmany a time the mother would starve herself a whole dayto help a poor man. Of them this child was lorn and In.iliar child from very babyhood, lie remembered.om liisbirth, and \\.tsconscious for what purposehe came into the woi-ld, and every power\\.-\s devoted tothe fulfilment of that purpose. While he was quite youngliis father died and the boy \\a- ^>nt to school. ABrahmin sboy must go to <school; the :rict>him to a learned profession only. The old system ofeducation in India, still prevalent, in many parts of thecountry, .-specially in connection with Sjuinyasins, wasvery different from the modern system. The students hadnot to pay. It was thought that i--knowledge BO s.-credthat no man ought to sell it. Knowledge must be gi\enfreely and without any price. The teachers usd tostudents without charge, and not only so, but most ofthem gave their students food and clothes. To supportthese teachers the wealthy families on certain occasions,such as a marriage festival, or at the ceremonies for thedead, made gifts to them. They were considered the tii>tand foremost claimants to certain gifts,and they, in theirturn, had to maintain their students. This boy aboutwhom I am speaking had an elder brother, a learned