— Swami Vivekananda, lectures, Complete Works; same argument in his 1893 Chicago addresses
About this quote
हिन्दी में
हमारा कर्तव्य है कि हर व्यक्ति को उसके अपने सर्वोच्च आदर्श तक जीने के संघर्ष में प्रोत्साहित करें, और साथ-साथ यह प्रयास भी करते रहें कि वह आदर्श सत्य के जितना निकट हो सके, उतना निकट हो।
What it means
Notice the object of the encouragement. It is not the man and not his ideal — it is his struggle to live up to it. You are being asked to back the effort, which is visible and assessable, rather than to endorse the standard it is aimed at, which may be one you think poorly of.
The two halves pull against each other on purpose, joined by at the same time. If this were relativism the second clause would be unnecessary; instead it assumes there is a Truth and that ideals sit at measurable distances from it, including yours. Quoting only the first half turns a difficult double instruction into an easy one, and that is how the line usually travels.
What it teaches you
When someone’s standard is not yours, split two questions you normally answer at once: is this person living up to what he himself holds highest, and is that standard sound. Support the first out loud today; pursue the second on a slower clock and as a separate conversation. The failure mode the sentence is built against is withholding encouragement until the argument about the ideal has been won.
अर्थ और सीख
ध्यान दीजिए कि प्रोत्साहन किसका करना है — व्यक्ति के आदर्श का नहीं, उस आदर्श तक पहुँचने के उसके संघर्ष का। दूसरा हिस्सा बताता है कि यह सब कुछ बराबर मान लेना नहीं है: आदर्श सत्य से दूर या पास हो सकते हैं, आपका अपना भी। सीख यह है कि दो सवाल अलग रखिए — क्या वह अपने ही आदर्श पर खरा उतर रहा है (इसमें उसका साथ दीजिए), और क्या वह आदर्श सही है (इस पर अलग से, धीरे-धीरे काम कीजिए)।
Where it comes from
This is Vivekananda’s pluralism stated as a duty rather than a sentiment. You are not asked to agree with another person’s ideal, nor to convert them to yours — you are asked to help them climb their own, while working to make every ideal truer. It is a far more difficult instruction than tolerance.
From his lectures collected in the Complete Works; the same argument runs through his 1893 Chicago addresses. 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.
