A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"KARMA-YOGA. 81non-resistance come. It is very easy to say Hate notanybody, resis^ not any but we all know what thatevil,"igivariably means. When the eyes of Societytowards us, we make a show ofare turnednon-resistance, but in ourhearts it is canker all the time. We feel the utter want offthe calm of non-resistance ;we feel that it would be betterfor us to resist. If you desire wealth and know that thewhole world will tell you that he who aims at wealth is avery wicked man, you, naturally, do not dare to plungeinto the struggle for wealth ; yet, at the same time, themind isrunning day and night after money. This ishypocrisy, and will serve no purpose. Plunge into theworld, and then, after a time, when you have enjoyed andfound hollow all that is in it, will renunciation come, thenwill calmness come. So fulfilyour desire for power andeverything else, and after you have fulfilled the desire,will come the time when you will know that these are allvery little things ; but until you have fulfilled this desire,until you have passed through that activity, it is impossiblefor you to come to that state of calmness and serenitywhich is characterised by sincere renunciation and honestnon-resistance. These ideas of serenity and the calmness ofself-surrender have been preached for thousands of years ;everybody born has heard of them from his childhood, andyet we see very few in the world that have really reachedthat stage of moral perfection. I do not know if I haveseen twenty persons in my life who were really calm andnon-resisting, and I have travelled over half the world.Every man should take up his own ideal and endeavour to accomplish it that is a surer ; way of progress thantaking up other men s ideals, which he can. never hope toaccomplish. For instance, we take a baby and at oncegive him the task of walking twenty miles ; either the6