92. Want of sympathy and lack of energy are at the root of all misery

228 W. 39, NEW YORK,

24th Jan., 1896.

DEAR YOGEN,

… I am very sorry to hear that your health is not yet all right. Can you go to a very cold climate where there is plenty of snowfall in the winter, Darjeeling, for instance? The severity of the cold will set your stomach right, as it has done in my case. And can you give up altogether the habit of using ghee and spices? Butter digests more quickly than ghee. …

Three months more and I go to England, to try once more to make some stir; the following winter to India—and after that, it depends on the Lord.

Put forth all nerve for the magazine that Sāradā is wanting to publish. Ask Shashi to look to it. One thing, neither Kāli nor anybody else has any need of coming to England at present. I shall train them first when I go to India, and then they may go wherever they please.

We would do nothing ourselves and would scoff at others who try to do something—this is the bane that has brought about our downfall as a nation. Want of sympathy and lack of energy are at the root of all misery, and you must therefore give these two up. Who but the Lord knows what potentialities there are in particular individuals—let all have opportunities, and leave the rest to the Lord. It is indeed very difficult to have an equal love for all, but without it there is no Mukti.

Yours affectionately,
VIVEKANANDA.