Talks Excerpt 657. Swamiji speaks about character and modesty.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

Swami Vivekananda said we need to learn about our character. He said that he did not want weak men. A man can be weak in body but if he has a strong character, he is the strongest of men. What is the use of having a big healthy body with bulging muscles, but with an immoral character? That kind of a man or woman is not wanted.

There are many forms of modesty. One of these is modesty in speaking. You must utter words that are sweet, loving and encouraging – never run anybody down.

Another kind of modesty is to dress in such a way that it does not expose your body to awaken sensuality in other people. Even the dressing of your hair should not be like the Himalayan mountains. [laughter] There is modesty in simplicity.

Sri Sarada Devi was born in the modern times and you can see how simple and modest she was. And what she thought, she lovingly said.

Simplicity, purity, love, service – all this that Sri Ramakrishna told us – falls into the category of a modest woman.

You are a woman but that does not mean that you have no strength. Though our great scriptures depict women as modest, they also show that she can become Kali or Durga in times of trouble. She is the ‘Almighty Strength’. She [woman] is not weak in any way. She is not below man. If anything, she is equal to man; but her office demands that she be more sattvic, more patient, more loving and more serving.

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These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.