In Greenacre.
M. Malloy, a great personal friend of Emerson, told Rama as to how Emerson had strongly recommended to him the study of Bhagavad Gita and lent him a copy for just three weeks, claiming that that was the first copy brought into America. It cost Emerson a full Pound, $ 5. It is translated by Sir Charles Wilkins, with an Introduction by Warren Hastings.
This copy is still in the Boston Public Library. Special attention was drawn by Emerson to the translation of the verse mayi sarvamidam protam etc.
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The man who can kill most is king by divine right. The mighty hunter becomes chief or the great warrior is king.
Those who dispute the title are apt to die suddenly.
People always readily believe the thing that is profitable to believe.
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A politician is a civilized savage. A few years ago he would have swooped down and seized the thing. Now the opposition of Forces forbids it and he has to do by legal means what the savage chief did by violence.
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The civilized world is clutching for Respectability through strenuous – conspicuous waste of time and material. And that the European and Yankee world is succeeding in its complete devotion to futility, none can deny.
This soulless something we call Society dictates to the so-called leader what he shall do and what not!
Rama’s address to a respectable audience begins – Brave Soldiers,
Not that ye kill men, but ye kill Time.
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Respectability = The desire not to be but to seem; not to elevate our own self, but to make an impression on other people.
Vedanta = what others say of me matters little. What I myself say and do matters much.
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Co-operation is better than competition.
Gossip is vice enjoyed vicariously – the subtle satisfaction without the risk.
Bring me cheerful messages or none!
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The study of Grammar is as useless as the letter “q” in the English Alphabet.
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A man loves himself and marries his ideal, then blames his wife because she does not live up to all the virtues he can imagine.