EACH IS GREAT IN HIS OWN PLACE - 6

He must struggle to acquire a good name by all means. He must not gamble, he
must not move in the company of the wicked, he must not tell lies, and must
not be the cause of trouble to others.
Often people enter into things they have not the means to accomplish, with the
result that they cheat others to attain their own ends. Then there is in all things
the time factor to be taken into consideration; what at one time might be a
failure, would perhaps at another time be a very great success.
The householder must speak the truth, and speak gently, using words which people like, which
will do good to others; nor should he talk of the business of other men.
The householder by digging tanks, by planting trees on the roadsides, by establishing resthouses
for men and animals, by making roads and building bridges, goes towards the same goal
as the greatest Yogi.
This is one part of the doctrine of Karma-Yoga — activity, the duty of the
householder. There is a passage later on, where it says that "if the householder
dies in battle, fighting for his country or his religion, he comes to the same goal
as the Yogi by meditation," showing thereby that what is duty for one is not
duty for another. At the same time, it does not say that this duty is lowering and
the other elevating. Each duty has its own place, and according to the
circumstances in which we are placed, we must perform our duties.
One idea comes out of all this — the condemnation of all weakness. This is a
particular idea in all our teachings which I like, either in philosophy, or in
religion, or in work. If you read the Vedas, you will find this word always
repeated — fearlessness — fear nothing. Fear is a sign of weakness. A man
must go about his duties without taking notice of the sneers and the ridicule of
the world.
If a man retires from the world to worship God, he must not think that those
who live in the world and work for the good of the world are not worshipping
God: neither must those who live in the world, for wife and children, think that
those who give up the world are low vagabonds. Each is great in his own place.
This thought I will illustrate by a story.
A certain king used to inquire of all the Sannyasins that came to his country,
"Which is the greater man — he who gives up the world and becomes a
Sannyasin, or he who lives in the world and performs his duties as a house
holder?" Many wise men sought to solve the problem. Some asserted that the
Sannyasin was the greater, upon which the king demanded that they should
prove their assertion. When they could not, he ordered them to marry and
become householders. Then others came and said, "The householder who
performs his duties is the greater man." Of them, too, the king demanded
proofs. When they could not give them, he made them also settle down as
householders.
At last there came a young Sannyasin, and the king similarly inquired of him
also. He answered, "Each, O king, is equally great in his place." "Prove this to
me," asked the king. "I will prove it to you," said the Sannyasin, "but you must
first come and live as I do for a few days, that I may be able to prove to you
what I say." The king consented and followed the Sannyasin out of his own
territory and passed through many other countries until they came to a great
kingdom. In the capital of that kingdom a great ceremony was going on. The
king and the Sannyasin heard the noise of drums and music, and heard also the
criers; the people were assembled in the streets in gala dress, and a great
proclamation was being made. The king and the Sannyasin stood there to see
what was going on. The crier was proclaiming loudly that the princess,
daughter of the king of that country, was about to choose a husband from
among those assembled before her.
It was an old custom in India for princesses to choose husbands in this way.
Each princess had certain ideas of the sort of man she wanted for a husband.
Some would have the handsomest man, others would have only the most
learned, others again the richest, and so on. All the princes of the
neighbourhood put on their bravest attire and presented themselves before her.
Sometimes they too had their own criers to enumerate their advantages and the
reasons why they hoped the princess would choose them. The princess was
taken round on a throne, in the most splendid array, and looked at and heard
about them. If she was not pleased with what she saw and heard, she said to
her bearers, "Move on," and no more notice was taken of the rejected suitors.
If, however, the princess was pleased with any one of them, she threw a
garland of flowers over him and he became her husband.