Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay

“ He said gently: 'If I do not have to give up my wife and daughter, you may initiate me as a Child.'
'He who joins our order,' Bhavan said gravely, 'must give up everything. If you really wish to join the order, you cannot ever be with your wife and child. Everything will be properly arranged for their sustenance and protection. But it is forbidden for you even to look at their faces until you have attained the goal of your mission.'
'Then I do not care to join the order of the Children.' ”

“ Look here, Mahendra Singh, the serpent crawls on its breast in order to move about. It is the lowest of animals in creation. And yet, if you tread on a snake it raises its head to bite you. But nothing can disturb your criminal composure! Can you find another country on earth outside India where human beings are forced by starvation to live on grass? Here in India famine-stricken people today are eating creepers, ant-hills, jackals, dogs and even human flesh! And the British are shipping our wealth to their treasuries in Calcutta ”

“ What does physical strength matter? Greater physical strength will not make the bullet fly farther."
"Then," asked Mohendra, "why is there such a difference between an Englishman and a Mussulman?"
"Take this first;" said Bhavananda, "an Englishman will not run away even from the certainty of death. A Mussulman runs as soon as he perspires and roams in search of a glass of sherbet. Next take this, that the Englishman has tenacity; if he takes up a thing, he carries it through. "Don't care" is a Mussulman's motto. ”

“ He is giving his life for a hire, and yet the soldiers don't get their pay. Then the last thing is courage. A cannon ball can fall only in one place, not in ten; so there is no necessity for two hundred men to run from one cannon ball. But one cannon ball will send a Mussulman with his whole clan running, while a whole clan of cannon balls will not put even a solitary Englishman to flight."
"Have you all these virtues?" asked Mohendra.
"No," said Bhavananda, "but virtues don't fall from the nearest tree. You have to practise them." ”

“ We, too, have wives and children at home.'
'You have renounced your families. But have you been able to free yourselves from the ties of love and affection?'
'A Child may not tell a lie — nor may we brag. ”

“ Do you not see we are sannyasins? It is for this practice that we have made renunciation. When our work is done, when our training is complete, we shall again become householders. We also have wives and daughters. ”