THE POWERS OF THE MIND- 14. - Swami Vivekananda

(Delivered at Los Angeles, California, January 8, 1900)
14.

Now, I shall tell you a theory, which I will not argue now, but simply place before you the conclusion.

Each man in his childhood runs through the stages through which his race has come up; only the race took thousands of years to do it, while the child takes a few years.

The child is first the old savage man — and he crushes a butterfly under his feet.

The child is at first like the primitive ancestors of his race.

As he grows, he passes through different stages until he reaches the development of his race.

Only he does it swiftly and quickly.

Now, take the whole of humanity as a race, or take the whole of the animal creation, man and the lower animals, as one whole.

There is an end towards which the whole is moving.

Let us call it perfection.

Some men and women are born who anticipate the whole progress of mankind.

Instead of waiting and being reborn over and over again for ages until the whole human race has attained to that perfection, they, as it were, rush through them in a few short years of their life.

And we know that we can hasten these processes, if we be true to ourselves.

Swami Vivekananda
  To be continued  ....