Chapter (অধ্যায়): XXII MONASTICISM AND MARRIAGE PAGE-272Page: 272 of 336

unmarried. Some missionaries on board the ship, during this voyage, were displaying silver wedding-bracelets bought from Tamil women in the stress of famine; and the talk ran on the superstitious dislike of wives, East and West, to the removal of the wedding-ring from finger or wrist. "You call it a superstition?" exclaimed the Swami, in low pained tones of astonishment, "You cannot see the great ideal of chastity, behind?" *

The institution of marriage, however, was always seen by him in its relation to the ideal of spiritual freedom. And freedom, in the Eastern sense, must be understood, not as the right to do, but the right to refrain from doing - that highest inaction which transcends all action. "Against marriage, in order to rise beyond marriage," he admitted one day, in argument, "I have nothing to say."

The perfect marriage was, to his thinking, of the type that he had seen in his Master, in his brother Yogananda, and in his disciple Swarupananda. And these were what would in other countries have been regarded as merely nominal. "You see there is a difference of outlook on this point!" he said once, discussing the question. "The West regards marriage as consisting in all that lies beyond the legal tie, while in India it is thought of as a bond thrown by society round two people, to



Foot Note:

* The chastity of the wife, as Hindus think of it, is a word that connotes not only faithfulness to one alone, but also unwearying faithfulness. In this ideal, there is no room for the slightest fluctuation of distaste.