“Oh, to live even for a day in the full light of freedom, to breathe the free air of simplicity! Is not that the highest purity? In this world we work through fear of others, we talk through fear, we think through fear, alas! We are born in a land of enemies. Who is there who has been able to get rid of this feeling of fear, as if everyone is a spy set specially to watch him? And woe unto the man who pushes himself forward! Will it ever be a land of friends? Who knows? We can only try.”
(p.509-10, V.7, complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Swamiji’s letter to Nivedita dt 23rd July 1897)