Book Title: Karma Yoga
Author(s): Swami Vivekanand
Publisher: Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta

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Page 136
________________ [124] abnegation is complete, and who do only good to others even at the sacrifice of their own lives. These are the highest of men. If there are a hundred of such in any country, that country need never despair. But they are unfortunately too few. Then there are the good men who do good to others so long as it does not injure themselves; and there is a third class, the diabolical people, who, to do good to themselves, injure others. It is said by a Sanskrit poet that there is a fourth unnameable class of people who injure others merely for injury's sake. Just as there are at one pole of existence the highest good men, who do good for the sake of doing good, so, at the other pole, there are others who will injure others just for the sake of the injury. They do not gain anything thereby, but it is their nature to do evil. We thus see that, according to our poet, the man who sacrifices himself to do good to others, the man with the highest self-abnegation, is really the greatest man. Here are two Sanskrit words. One is Pravritti," which means' revolving towards, and the

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