A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

. At8 i MY MASTER.ithroughout all time, but let them not give up their God,. let them not forget that they are the children of. the sages.as in the West even the man in theestreet wants toijust trace his descent from some robber-baron of the MiddleAges, so in India even an Emperor on the throne wants totrace his descent from some beggar-sage in the foieM,from a man who wore the bark of a tree, lived upon thefruits of the forest and communed with (Jod. That is thetype of ^descent we want, and while holiness is thussupremely vein-rated, India cannot die.It was while "reforms of various kinda were beinginaugurated in India, that a child was born of poorBrahmin parents on the 20th of February, 1835, in one ofthe remote villagesof Bengal. The father and motherwer very orthodox people. The life of a really orthodoxBrahmin is one of continuous renunciation. Very fewthings can ho do, and over and beyond them the orthodoxBrahmin must not occupy himself with any secular bu>ithesame time he must not receive gifts fromeverybody. You may imagine how rigorousthat lifebecomes. You have heard of the Brahmins and theirpriestcraft many times, but very few of you have 6Aferstopped to ask svliat makes this wonderful band of men therulers of their fellows. They are the poorest of all theclasses in the country, and the secret of their power lies intheir renunciation. They never covet wealth. Theirs isthe poorest priesthood in the world. and, therefore, the mostpowerful. Even in this poverty, a Brahmin s wife willnever allow a poor man to pass through the village withoutgiving him somethingto eat. That is considered thehighest duty of the mother in India ;and because she isthe mother it is her duty to be served last ;she must see