HINDU AND HIS RELIGION: Swami Vivekananda

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HINDU AND HIS RELIGION

Swami Vivekananda

 

Our ancestors tried many other things;they like other nations, first went to

bring out the secrets of external Nature as we all know, and with their gigantic

brains that marvellous race could have done miracles in that line of which the

world could have been prove for ever. But they gave it up for something higher;

something better rings out from the pages of the Vedas : "That science is the

greatest which makes up know Him who never changes!" The science of Nature,

changeful, evanescent, the world of death, of woe, of misery, may be great,

great indeed; but the science of Him who changes not, the Blissful One, where

alone is peace, where alone all misery ceases - that according to our ancestors,

was the sublimest science of all. After all, sciences that can give up only

bread and clothes and power over our fellow-beings, to rule over them, which

teach the strong to domineer over the weak- those they could have discovered he

they willed; but praise be unto the Lord, they caught at once the other side,

which was grander, infinitely higher, infinitely more blissful, till it has

become the nationat characteristic, till it has come down to us, inherited from

father to son for thousands of years, till it has become a part and parcel of

up, till it tingles in every drop of blood that runs through our veins, till it

has become our second nature, till the name of religion and Hindu have become

one. This is the national characteristic, and this cannot be touched.

 

(Extracted from 'The common bases of Hinduism:Swami Vivekananda)