Page:Advice to the Indian Aristocracy.djvu/224



Western people do not usually make vows, unless religious ones. A vow is a very troublesome and generally a ruinous thing amongst us, Hindus. A religious vow does not usually cause much harm in this world to the man who makes it. Anyhow it is not good even to make a religious vow without forethought. There are two kinds of vows, private .and public. Only a few people have, at the entire risk of their own lives, fulfilled or acted up to their vows, private or public. For an example, I will give you an account of a great man who, at the risk of his life and with great difficulty, acted up to his public and private vows. He was the great hero, Arjuna, one of the five Pandava brothers. On one of the days of the great battle described in the Mahabharata, a Rajah called Saindhava fought with and