But the monks were quite averse to preaching. Their ideal was the realization of God, first and foremost; after that, their example would be the teacher even as their Master's had been; and the former urgings of the Swami had confirmed them in this._x000d_
Now, though he continued to insist on the necessity of making oneself fit by realization for preaching, yet sometimes the spirit of the preacher would take hold of him. Once, when this mood was on him, he said to a brother-monk who was inveighing against lectures and sermons: "Everyone is preaching; what they do unconsciously I will do consciously. Ay, even if you, my brother-monks, stand in my way, I will go and preach among the Pariahs in the lowest slums.