Give up all these mad pursuits :

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To,
All  Members,

 Be free; hope for nothing from anyone. 

 I am sure if you look back upon your lives you will find that you were always vainly trying to get help from others which never came. 
All the help that has come was from within yourselves. 

 You only had the fruits of what you yourselves worked for, and yet you were strangely hoping all the time for help. 

 A rich man's parlour is always full; but if you notice, you do not find the same people there. 

 The visitors are always hoping that they will get something from those wealthy men, but they never do. 

 So are our lives spent in hoping, hoping, hoping, which never comes to an end. 

 Give up hope, says the Vedanta. 

 Why should you hope? 

 You have everything, nay, you are everything. 

 What are you hoping for? 

 If a king goes mad, and runs about trying to find the king of his country, he will never find him, because he is the king himself. 

 He may go through every village and city in his own country, seeking in every house, weeping and wailing, but he will never find him, because he is the king himself. 

 It is better that we know we are God and give up this fool's search after Him; and knowing that we are God we become happy and contented. 

 Give up all these mad pursuits, and then play your part in the universe, as an actor on the stage.
(p.324, V.2, Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Swamiji’s lecture on Practical Vedanta –II, delivered at London on 12th Nov. 1896)

 To be continued ...

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