Vivekananda Mailing List-9/17/02

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But by this time the search had begun, and the search was inward, and

man continued inquiring more deeply into the different stages of the

mind and discovered higher states than either the waking or the

dreaming. This state of things we find in all the organized religions

of the world, called either ecstasy or inspiration. In all organized

religions, their founders, prophets, and messengers are declared to

have gone into states of mind that were neither waking nor sleeping,

in which they came face to face with a new series of facts relating

to what is called the spiritual kingdom. They realized things there

much more intensely than we realize facts around us in our waking

state. Take, for instance, the religions of the Brahmins. The Vedas

are said to be written by Rishis. These Rishis were sages who

realized certain facts. The exact definition of the Sanskrit word

Rishi is a Seer of Mantras - of the thoughts conveyed in the Vedic

hymns. These men declared that they had realized - sensed, if that

word can be used with regard to the supersensuous - certain facts,

and these facts they proceeded to put on record. We find the same

truth declared amongst both the Jews and the Christians.