— Swami Vivekananda, lectures, Complete Works
About this quote
हिन्दी में
उठो, साहसी बनो, बलवान बनो। सारी ज़िम्मेदारी अपने कंधों पर लो, और जान लो कि अपने भाग्य के रचयिता तुम स्वयं हो।
What it means
Read the verbs in order: stand, be, be, take — and only then know. Three postures and a burden come first, and the large claim arrives last, as something you recognise once the weight is already on you, not as the premise that talks you into picking it up.
Whole is the demanding word. The ordinary human arrangement is a split account — some of this is mine, some is circumstance, some belongs to people who failed me — and the sentence refuses the split. Note also what creator does not promise: a creator is answerable for the work, including the parts that come out badly. This is a claim about authorship, not about getting what you wanted.
What it teaches you
Find the reserve you keep — the one part of a stuck situation you have filed under bad luck, bad timing, or someone else’s failure — and ask what you would do this week if that file did not exist. You need not believe the file is empty, and the line does not require you to. It is useful mainly as an experiment in what becomes visible the moment you stop consulting it.
अर्थ और सीख
पहले तीन छोटे आदेश — उठो, साहसी बनो, बलवान बनो — फिर पूरी ज़िम्मेदारी, और सबसे आख़िर में यह जानना कि भाग्य के रचयिता आप स्वयं हैं। सबसे कठिन शब्द ‘सारी’ है, क्योंकि आमतौर पर हम ज़िम्मेदारी बाँट देते हैं — कुछ अपनी, कुछ क़िस्मत की, कुछ दूसरों की। सीख यह है कि जिस हिस्से को आपने ‘बदक़िस्मती’ या ‘उसकी ग़लती’ कहकर अलग रख छोड़ा है, कुछ दिन के लिए उसे हटाकर देखिए कि तब करने लायक़ क्या दिखता है।
Where it comes from
Notice what he does with destiny here. Fate is not denied — it is handed back to you as your own manufacture. Taking “the whole responsibility” sounds crushing until you see the second half of the bargain: whoever carries the responsibility also holds the authorship.
From his lectures in the Complete Works. Swami Vivekananda’s lectures and letters are collected in the nine-volume Complete Works, which is fully searchable — so his sayings can be checked, and we flag the ones that cannot.
