letter to Sri chakravarti Sulebele from Vivekananda sevashrama

We are going nowhere. Do we have a purpose and goal for our life. Life has a beginning and an end, so is our life on this earth. We have started the journey, we are moving forward, not knowing any direction. The earth is rotating on its own axis and around the sun. Rotating on the own axis changes day to night and again night to day. 365 days makes an year. We were born in some year and started our journey, grown from childhood to youth and now on to old age. We have passed through joyous moments and moments of suffering, one after the other. Neither suffering nor joy is permanent. Life has taken twists and turns some times reaching a dark dead end, making the mind blank with despair and frustration, it is only for a few days only and slowly that darkness turns into twilight and to bright sunlight. this has gone on for many many years and now we are old. We are nearer our exit, not knowing when exactly we will be pushed out into nowhere, our own personality vanishes, our body thrown into flames by those who are alive to experience our end. This end is inevitable for all who are born on this earth. We may or may not believe in Lord Krishna's saying that rebirth is equally true, as true as death, but death is certain. What is uncertain and not known about our own death is when, where and how. Strange thins do happen, people commit suicide, end their own life with their own effort. It is temporary insanity, totally depressed condition that forces the mind to commit such insane act. Otherwise people have to wait till death snatches them in a natural course of events. Whether there is purpose for life, whether we strive to achieve that purpose, Whether we are happy or unhappy, healthy or unhealthy a day has been fixed for our exit, we will never be told about it. Death is always a surprise for everybody old or young, What can we do to prevent death, nothing practically. Death is not in our hands. It is controlled by nature or say God who is the creature of this universe. We do not have control over both birth and death, but we can exert some control over our lives. It is the mind which forces you to act, under pressure from natural forces of creation. Your own mind acts as your own enemy when it is under the control of natural forces. You have to make your own mind your own friend by systematically controlling it from within. this requires Abhasa yoga- constant practice with tremendous effort both from within and without, this requires self sacrifice and detachment. To tame your own mind is not easy, a very difficult task, only a few succeed in their effort. They are the saints who can think about others welfare, their thought is for the universal good of all that exists in God's creation. We cannot dream of such transformation. We have to exist as a community we require some degree of self control and sacrifice, otherwise we will be like brutes, like animals in the jungle, preying on each other. Let us be good and do good to others. Let us not be greedy and make others suffer. Faith in God helps us to lead sane lives. Accept God verdict in Toto, not complaining about the sorrows and suffering that may come our way. Hope that life have a happy ending in death.