A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

MAYA AND THE CONCEPTION OF GOD. 179feut religious opinion has.Here a man may dress any wayhe likes, or epfc what he likes no one says nay, orobjects but if he misses; attending his church then Mrs.Orundyis on him. He has to look a thousand times atwhat society says, and then think of the truth. In India,on the other hand,if a man dines with another who doesnot belong to his own caste, down comes society with all itsand crushes him then and there. If heterrible powers,wants to dress a little differently from the way in whichhis ancestor dressed ages ago, he is done for. I haveheard of a man who was outcasted because he went severalmiles to see the first railway train. Well, w T e will presumethat was not true ? On the other hand, in religion wefind Atheists, and Materialists, and Buddhists, and religions, and opinions, and speculations of every phase, themost startling, the most frightening, men going aboutpreaching and getting adherents, and at the very gates ofthe temple full of all the gods, the Brahmins to theircredit be it saidallowing even the Materialist to stand onthe steps of their temples and denounce their gods.Buddha died at a ripe old age. I remember a friendof mine, a great American scientist, who was fond of reading his life. He did not like the death of Buddha, becausehe was not crucified. What a false idea ! For a man to begreat he must be murdered. And such ideas did not prevail in India. This great Buddha was walking up andclown denouncing their gods, and even their God, theGovernor of the Universe he said it was all nonsenseand he died at a ripe old age. Eighty-five years he lived,until he had converted half the country.There were the Charvakas, who preached the mosthorrible things ;the most rank, undisguised materialism?such as in the nineteenth century they dare not preach in