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Vivekananda on the Vedas (Part 191)

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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 191

 

It is a significant fact that spiritual giants have been produced only in those systems of religion where there is an exuberant growth of rich mythology and ritualism. The dry, fanatical forms of religion which attempt to eradicate all that is poetical, all that is beautiful and sublime, all that gives a firm grasp to the infant mind tottering in its Godward way - the forms which attempt to break down the very ridge-poles of the spiritual roof, and in their ignorant and superstitious conceptions of truth try to drive away all that is life-giving, all that furnishes the formative material to the spiritual plant growing in the human soul - such forms of religion too soon find that all that is left to them is but an empty shell, a contentless frame of words and sophistry with perhaps a little flavor of a kind of social scavenging or the so-called spirit of reform.

The vast mass of those whose religion is like that are conscious or unconscious materialists - the end and the aim of their lives here and hereafter being enjoyment, which indeed is to them the alpha and omega of human life, and which is their ishtapurta [ merit of works stored up in heaven]; work like street-cleaning and scavenging, intended for the material comfort of humanity is, according to them, the be-all and end-all of human existence; and the sooner the followers of this curious mixture of ignorance and fanaticism come out in their true colors and join, as they well deserve to do, the ranks of atheists and materialists, the better it will be for the world. One ounce of the practice of righteousness and of spiritual self-realization outweighs tons and tons of frothy talk and nonsensical statements. Show us one, but one, gigantic spiritual genius growing out of this dry dust of ignorance and fanaticism; and if you cannot, close your mouth, open the windows of your hearts to see the clear light of truth, and sit like children at the feet of those who what they are talking about - the sages of India. Let us then listen attentively to what they say.(31)

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