A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"Our"YouKARMA-YOGA. 93to eat ;it is not enough ; it is my duty as a wife not to letmy husband s effort be in vain ;let them have my bodyaho" and she plunged down into the fire and was burnedto death. Then the three baby-birds, when they saw whatwas done, and that there was still not enough food for thethree guests, said :parents have done what theycould and still it is not enoughit is our duty to carry on;the work of our parents ;let our bodies go andtoo;" theyall dashed down into the fire. The three people could noteat these birds, and they were amazed at what they saw.Somehow or other they passed the night without food,and in the morning the king and the Sannyasin showed theprincess the way, and she went back to her father. Thenthe Sannyctsin said to the "king King, you have seen:that each is great in his own place. If you want to live inthe world, live like those birds, ready at any moment tosacrifice yourself for others. Ifyou want to renounce theworld be like that young man, to whom the most beautifulwoman and a kingdom were as nothing. If you want tobe a householder, hold yourlife a sacrifice for the welfareof others ;and ifyou choose the life of renunciation, do noteven look at beauty and money and power. Each is greatin his own place, but the duty of the one is not the duty ofthe other."After the battle of Kurukshetra, the five Pandava brothers performed a great sacrifice and made very largegifts to the poor. All the people expressed amazement atthe greatness and richness of the sacrifice, and said thatsuch a sacrifice the world had never seen before. But,after the ceremony, there came a little mungoose ;half hisbody was golden and the other half was brown, and hebegan to roll on the floor of the sacrificial hall. Then hesaid to those round are all liars ;this is no sacrifice."