A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"OneiMY MASTER. 15During this period he was lovingly watched over by arelative who jAit into his mouth food which he mechanic-Mly swallowed.Days ;nid nights thus passed with the boy. When awhole day would pass, towards evening, when the pealsofbells in the temples would reach the forest, the chimes,and the voices of the persons singing, it would make theboy very sad, and he would cry:dayisgone invain, Mother, and Thou dost not come. One day of thisshort life has gone and 1 have not known the Truth." Inthe agony of his soul, sometimes he would rub his faceagainst the ground and weep.This is the tremendous thirst that seizes the humanheart. Later on, this very man said to me "My : child,suppose there is a bag of gold in one room, and a robberin the room next to do it, you think that robber can sleep ?He cannot. His mind will be always thinking how to getinto that room and get possession of that gold. Do youthink then that a man firmly persuaded that there is areality behind all these sensations, that there is a God, thatthere is One who never dies, One that is the infinite amountof al! bliss, a bliss compared to which these pleasures of thesenses are simply playthings, can rest contented withoutstruggling to attain it ? Can he cease his efforts tor a moment ? No. He will become mad with longing."This divinemadness seized this boy. At that time he had no teacher ;nobody to tell him anything except that everyone thoughtthat he was out of his mind. This is the ordinary conditionof things. If a man throws aside the vanities of the worldwe,hear him called mad, but such men are the salt of theearth. Out of such madness have come the powers thathave moved this world of ours, and out of such