Vivekananda's Straight Talk on Religion, Part 1

[Guest guest]

Some of our members often post lengthy excerpts by various teachers

they admire; so I thought I would share one of the most clear-minded

ruminations of religion I've ever read. It's quite brief, and it's

really worth reading. Please don't be put off by Vivekananda's

gender-biased language "Men must ...; a man knows .." etc. It was

simply the customary style of the time (early 20th century) when he

wrote this:

 

STRAIGHT TALK ON RELIGION

 

A man may believe in all the churches in the world, he may carry in

his head all the sacred books ever written, he may baptize himself

in all the rivers of the earth, still, if he has no perception of

God, I would class him with the rankest atheist.

 

And a man may have never entered a church or a mosque, nor performed

any ceremony, but if he feels God within himself and is thereby

lifted above the vanities of the world, that man is a holy man, a

saint, call him what you will.

 

As soon as a man stands up and says he is right or his church is

right, and all others are wrong, he is himself all wrong. He does

not know that upon the proof of all the others depends the proof of

his own. The test of true religiousness is love and charity for the

whole human race. I do not mean the sentimental statement that all

men are brothers, but that one must feel the oneness of human life.

 

So far as they are not exclusive, I see that the sects and creeds

are all mine; they are all grand. They are all helping men towards

the real religion. I will add, it is good to be born in a church,

but it is bad to die there. It is good to be born a child, but bad

to remain a child. Churches, ceremonies, and symbols are good for

children, but when the child is grown, he must burst the church or

himself.

 

We must not remain children forever. It is like trying to fit one

coat to all sizes and growths. I do not deprecate the existence of

sects in the world. Would to God there were twenty millions more,

for the more there are, there will be a greater field for selection.

What I do object to is trying to fit one religion to every case.

 

Though all religions are essentially the same, they must have the

varieties of form produced by dissimilar circumstances among

different nations. We must each have our own individual religion,

individual so far as the externals of it go.

 

(Excerpted from "The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda," published

by the Vedanta Press, a service of the Vedanta Society of Southern

California.)