A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

MAYA AND THE CONCEPTION OF GOD. 175increased in geometrical progression. The difficulty ofJehovah was verv littleto the difficulty of the God of theUniverse, and this question remains to the present day.Why should, under the reign of an Almighty and All-loving<*od of the Universe, such diabolical things be allowed toremain ?Why so much more misery than happiness ? andso much more wickedness than good?We may shut oureyes to all these things, but the fact still remains, thisworld is a hideous world. At best it is the hell of Tantalusand nothing else. Here we are with strong impulses, andstronger ideas for sense enjoyments and nothing outside tofill them. There rises a wave which impels us forward inspite of our own will, and as soon as we move one stepcomes a V>low. We are all doomed to live here and die herelike Tantalus. 1deals come into our head, away beyond thelimit of our sense ideals, but if we want to feel them wenever can see them fulfilled. On the other hand, we arecrushed into atoms by the surging mass around us.Yet ifI give up all ideality and just struggle through this world,my existence is that of a brute, and I degenerate anddegrade myself. Neither way is happiness. Unhappinessis the fate of those who are content to live in this worldborn as they are. A thousand-fold unhappinessis the fateof those who dare to stand forth for truth and for higherthings, and dare to ask for something higher than mereenjoyable, brutal existence here. This is a fact there is;no explanation. There cannot be any explanation, but theVedanta shows the way out. You must bear in mind thatI must tellyou facts in this course that will frighten yousometimes, but you must remember what I say, digest it,and think of it, and it will be yours, it will raise us high,and make us capable of understanding and living in truth.Now this is a statement of facts, not a theory, that this