Guest guest Posted May 3, 2002 Report Share Posted May 3, 2002 Parts 1 to 99 were posted earlier. This is part 100. Your comments are welcome... Vivekananda Centre London Earlier postings can be seen at http://www.vivekananda.btinternet.co.uk/veda.htm SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS By Sister Gayatriprana part 100 2. Working Towards the Goal of Realization i) Religion Is a Practical Science, the Opening of the Book of the Heart If you ask me how [all of] this can be practical, my answer is: it has been practical first and philosophical next. You can see that first these things have been perceived and realized, and then written. This world spoke to the early thinkers. Birds spoke to them, animals spoke to them, the sun and the moon spoke to them; and little by little they realized things and got into the heart of nature. Not by cogitation, not by the force of logic, not by picking the brains of others and making a big book, as is the fashion in modern times; not even as I do, by taking up one of their writings and making a long lecture, but by patient investigation and discovery they found out the truth. Its essential method was practice, and so it must be, always. Religion is ever a practical science and there never was, nor will be any theological religion. It is practice first and knowledge afterwards. (27) Hinduism indicates one duty, only one, for the human soul. It is to seek to realize the permanent amidst the evanescent. No one presumes to point any one way in which this may be done. Marriage or non-marriage, good or evil, learning or ignorance - any of these is justified if it leads to the goal. (28) Get rid of the fundamental superstition that we are obliged to act through the body. We are not. Go into your own room and get the Upanishads out of your own Self. You are the greatest book that ever was or ever will be, the infinite depository of all that is. Until the inner teacher opens, all outside teaching is in vain. It must lead to the opening of the book of the heart to have any value. (29) Cross reference to: Rig Veda, 10.125.5 Ka. Up., 1.2.23 Cha. Up., 4.4.1-5 Mund. Up., 1.1.5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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