A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

>allWORK AND ITS SECRET. 585That is the one cause of misery we are attached we*: ;are A>emg caught. Therefore, says the Gita : WjrK constantly; worl, but be not attached be notf; caught.Reserve unto yourself the power of detaching yourselffroin, everything, however beloved, however much the soulmight yearn for it, however greaff the pangs of misery youfeel,* if you were going to leave it ;still reserve the powerof le^Hng it whenever you want. The weak have no placehere, in this life or in anyother life. Weakness leadsto^sitivery. Weakness leads to all kinds of misery, physical and mental. Weakness is death. There are hundredsof thousands of microbes surrounding us, but they cannotus unless we becomeha>m weak, until the body is readyand predisposedto receive them. There may be a millionmicrobes of misery, floating about us. Never mind. *Theydare not approach us ; they have no power to get a hold onus, until the mind is weakened. This is the great fact :strength is life weakness is death. ;Strength is felicity, lifeeternal, immortal ;weakness is constant strain and misery:weakness is death.Attachment is the source<?four pleasures. Weare attached to our friends, to our relatives : we areattached to our intellectual and spiritual works ;we areattached to external objects, so that we may getpleasurefrom them. What, again, brings misery but this very attachment ? We have to detach ourselves to earn joy. If onlywe had power to detach ourselves at will, there wovid not"beany misery. That man alone will be able to ge^tthebest of nature, who having the power of attaching himseltto a thimj with all his energy, has also the power to detachhimself when he should do so. The difficulty is that theremust be as much power of attachment as that of detachment. There are men who are never attracted by any-