________________
for the safety of all this borrowed paraphernalia : Does he not feel a non-payable obligation, nay, even a sense of degradation and humiliation at this pretence, this deceit? These borrowed robes may make him appear resplendent on the outside, but with each passing moment, at the core of his being his loneliness, his humiliation increases.
Gradually, his inner glow, his true self, that which is most important in him, disintergrates.
Thus a man, who goes around in borrowed trappings may seem to exude well-being, but in truth it reveals his inner weakness. He is like a man who is being ravaged by a terrible fever. His face is flushed and to the casual observer it might even seem like ruddiness of complexion, but in reality his flushed face is a sign of ill-health and weakness. So too, the man or woman who lacks inner firmness and independence of mind and spirit may seem prosperous from without with all this borrowed finery, but so long as he lacks inner contentment and self-sufficiency, he suffers from a terrible disease and his face will not show that zest, that liveliness, that healthy bloom of the cheek which can come only with a serene contentment.
