Freedom breathes in the throb of the universe. Unless there is unity at the universal heart, we cannot understand variety.Such is the conception of the Lord in the Upanishads. Sometimes it rises even higher,presenting to us an ideal before which at first we stand aghast -- that we are in essence one with God. He who is the coloring in the wings of the butterfly, and the blossoming of the rose - bud, is the power that is in the plant and in the butterfly. He who gives us life is the power within us.



Out of His fire comes life, and the direst death is also His power. He whose shadow is death,His shadow is immortality also. Take a still higher conception. See how we are flying like hunted hares from all that is terrible,and like them,hiding our heads and thinking we are safe. See how the whole world is flying from everything terrible. Once when I was in Varanasi,I was passing through a place where there was a large tank of water on one side and a high wall on the other. It was in the grounds where there were many monkeys. The monkeys of Varanasi are huge brutes and are sometimes surly. They now took it into their heads not to allow me to pass through their street, so they howled and shrieked and clutched at my feet as I passed.

As they pressed closer, I began to run, but the faster I ran, the faster came the monkeys and they began to bite at me. It seemed impossible to escape, but just then I met a stranger who called out to me, "Face the brutes." I turned and faced the monkeys, and they fell back and finally fled. That is a lesson for all life -- face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them. If we are ever to gain freedom, it must be by conquering nature, never by running away. Cowards never win victories. We have to fight fear and troubles and ignorance if we expect them to flee before us.

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