"FACE THE BRUTES!"



This is one of my favorite stories of Swami Vivekananda - and something I needed to be reminded of over and over again:

Once at Varanasi, as Swamiji was coming out of the temple of Mother Durga, he was surrounded by a large number of chattering monkeys. They seemed to be threatening him. Swamiji did not want them to catch hold of him, so he started to run away. But the monkeys chased him. An old sannyasin was there, watching those monkeys. He called out to Swamiji, 'Stop! Face the brutes!' Swamiji stopped. He turned round and faced the monkeys. At once, they ran away.

Many years later, Swamiji said:

'If you ever feel afraid of anything, always turn round and face it. Never think of running away.'