Face The Brutes:
Once when I was in
Varanasi, I was passing through a place where there was a large tank of water
on one side and a high wall on the other. It was in the grounds where there
were many monkeys. The monkeys of Varanasi are huge brutes and are sometimes
surly. They now took it into their heads not to allow me to pass through their
street, so they howled and shrieked and clutched at my feet as I passed. As
they pressed closer, I began to run, but the faster I ran, the faster came the
monkeys and they began to bite at me. It seemed impossible to escape, but just
then I met a stranger who called out to me, "Face the brutes." I
turned and faced the monkeys, and they fell back and finally fled.
That
is a lesson for all life — face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys,
the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them. If we are
ever to gain freedom, it must be by conquering nature, never by running away.
Cowards never win victories. We have to fight fear and troubles and ignorance
if we expect them to flee before us.
SOURCE: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume-1 (Lectures & Discourses: What is Religion?)
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