HINTS ON PRACTICAL SPIRITUALITY - Swami Vivekananda-1.

(Delivered at the Home of Truth, Los Angeles, California)

1.
This morning I shall try to present to you some ideas about breathing and other exercises. We have been discussing theories so long that now it will be well to have a little of the practical.

A great many books have been written in India upon this subject. Just as your people are practical in many things, so it seems our people are practical in this line.

Five persons in this country will join their heads together and say, "We will have a joint-stock company", and in five hours it is done; in India they could not do it in fifty years; they are so unpractical in matters like this.

But, mark you, if a man starts a system of philosophy, however wild its theory may be, it will have followers. For instance, a sect is started to teach that if a man stands on one leg for twelve years, day and night, he will get salvation — there will be hundreds ready to stand on one leg.

All the suffering will be quietly borne. There are people who keep their arms upraised for years to gain religious merit. I have seen hundreds of them.

And, mind you, they are not always ignorant fools, but are men who will astonish you with the depth and breadth of their intellect. So, you see, the word practical is also relative.


Swami Vivekananda

To be continued ..