A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

182 MAYA AND THE CONCEPTION OF GOD.There were others who had sympathy in their heartsand who understood this idea, that we must go deep intothe cause, and tKese are the great saints. One fact youmust remember, that all the great teachers of the worldhave declared that they came not to destroy but to fulfil.Many times this has not been understood, it has beenthought to be an unworthy compromise to existing popularopinions. Even now, you hear now and then that theseprophets and great teachers were rather cowardly, darednot say and do what they thought was right ;but it wasnot so. Fanatics very little understand the infinite powerof love in the hearts of these great sages. They lookedupon the inhabitants of this world as their children. Theyare the real fathers, the "realgods, filled with infinite sympathy and patience for everyone, they were* ready to bearand forbear. They knew how human society would grow,,and patiently, slowly, surely, went on applying theirremedies, not by denouncing and not by frighteningpeople, but gently and kindly leading them step by step.These are the writers of the Upanishads. They knewfull well how the old ideas of God were not reconcilablewith the advanced ethical ideas of the time ; they knewperfectlywell that truth was not on that side of thequestion, but on the other side ; they knew full wellthat what the Buddhists and the other Atheists werepreaching contained a good deal of truth, nay, greatnuggets of truth, but, at the same time, we understandthat those men who want to sever the thread that bindsthe beads, want to build a new society upon the air,will entirelyfail.We never build anew, we simply change places, wecannot have anything new, only change the positions ofthings. The seed grows into the tree, and patiently