Chapter (অধ্যায়): EPISTLES PAGE-429Page: 429 of 519
driven to the slaughter-house-hastily nibbling a bite of grass on the roadside as they are driven along under the whip. And all this is our work, our fear-fear, the beginning of misery, of disease, etc. By being nervous and fearful we injure others. By being so fearful to hurt we hurt more. By trying so much to avoid evil we fall into its jaws.
What a mass of namby-pamby nonsense we create round ourselves!! It does us no good, it leads us on to the very thing we try to avoid-misery. . . .
Oh, to become fearless, to be daring, to be careless of everything! . . .
Yours etc.,
Vivekananda
CLVI
San Francisco
25th March, 1900
Dear Nivedita,
I am much better and am growing very strong. I feel sometimes that freedom is near at hand, and the tortures of the last two years have been great lessons in many ways. Disease and misfortune come to do us good in the long run, although at the time we feel that we are submerged for ever.
I am the infinite blue sky; the clouds may gather over me, but I am the same infinite blue.
I am trying to get a taste of that peace which I know is my nature and everyone's nature. These tin pots of bodies and foolish dreams of happiness and misery-what are they?
My dreams are breaking. Om Tat Sat!