A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

""EvenTHE SAGES OF INDIA. 465the conflict, and possibly there was a period of harmonyand calmness when it broke anew, not only on religiousgrounds, but most possibly on caste grounds, the fightbetween the two powerful factors in our community, thekings and the priests. And from the topmost crest ofthe wave that deluged India for nearly a thousand years wesee another glorious figure,and that was our GautamaSakyamuni. You all know about his teachings a*.d preachwor*ship Him as God incarnate, the greatest, theings We .boldest preacher*of morality that the world ever saw, thegreatest Karma Yogi ;as a disciple of himself, as it were,the same Krishna came to show how to make his theoriespractical there came once again the same voice that in;tho Gita preached, The least bit done of this religion savesfrom great fear. Women, or Yaisyas, or ven Sudras, allreach the highest goal."Breaking the bondages of all, thechains of all, declaring liberty to all to reach the highestgoal come the words of the Gita, rolls like thunder themighty voice of Krishnain this life they haveconquered heaven whose minds are firmly fixed upon thesameness, for God is pure and the same to all, therefore,such are said to be living in God." "Thusseeing the sameLord equally present everywhere the sage does not injureself with self, and thus reaches the highest goal."As itwere to give a living example of this preaching, as it wereto make at least one part of it practical, the preacher himself came in another form, and this was Sakyamuni, thepreacher to the poor and the miserable, he who rejectedeven the language of the Gods to speak in the language ofthe people, so that he might reaeh the hearts of the people,he who gave up a throne to live with beggars, and thepoor, and the downcast, he who pressed the Pariah untohis breast like a second Rama. All of you know about30