A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

394 VEDANTA.*shall come to you. If you want to be great materially,believe that you are so. I may be a little bubble, andyou may be a wave mountain-high, but know th^t forboth of us the infinite ocean is the back-ground,the infinite God is our magazine of power andstrength, and we can draw as much as welike, both of us, the bubble and you the mountain -high wave. Believe, therfore, in yourselves, The secretof Advaitais Believe in yourselves first, and then believein anything else. In the history of the world, you willfind that only those nations that have believed in themselves have become great and strong. In the history ofeach nation, you will always find that individuals that havebelieved in themselves have become great and strong.Here, in this India, an c<\me Englishman, who was only aclerk, and for want of funds and other reasons he tried toblow his brains out twice, and when he failed he believedin himself that he was born to do great things, and thatman became Lord Clive, the founder of the Empire. Ifhe had believed the padris and gone crawlkigall hislife "OhLord, I am weak, and I am low" wherewould he have been ? In a lunatic asylum. They havemade lunatics of you with these evil teachings. I haveseen all the world over the bad effects of these weakteachings of humility, destroying the human race. Ourchildren are brought up in this way, and is it a wonderthat they become semi-lunatics as they are?This is on the practical side. Believe, therefore, inyourselves, and if you want material wealth, work it out ;want to be intellectual let itit will come to you. If youwork out on the intellectual plane, and intellectual giantsyou shall be. And if you want to attain to freedom let itwork out on the spiritual plane, and gods you shall be.