Once Swami Vivekananda had made a prophetic statement when he said: 'I have a message to the West as Buddha had a message to the East'. What was his message? It was Vedanta. And by compiling this selection from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda the compiler has performed a most valuable task in keeping before the readers that grand message. Moreover, nothing need be mentioned about the electrifying words of the great Swami that have been resounding that voice of freedom ever since they were first uttered.
What about this marvelous experience of standing alone, discarding all help, breasting the storms of life, of working without any sense of recompense, without any sense of putrid duty, and of working a whole life, joyful, free -- not goaded on to work like slaves by false human love or ambition?Nature grinds all of us. Keep count of the ounce of pleasure you get. In the long run, nature did her work through you, and when you die your body will make other plants grow. Yet we think all the time that we are getting pleasure ourselves. Thus the wheel goes round. - Swami Vivekananda