A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda
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A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

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10.07.2015 Views

"You226 THE ABSOLUTE AND MANIFESTATION.its enemies which are in the water. How does it conquer ?By flying up into the air, becoming a bird. The fishdid not change the water, or the air the ; change WPSin itself. Change is always in the subjective. So on allthrough evolution you find that conquest of Natureconies by change in the subjective. Apply this to leligion,and morality, and you will find that the conquestof evil comes by the change in the subjective also. Thatis how the Advaita system gets its whole force, on thesubjective side of man. To talk of evil and miseryisnonsense, because they do not exist outside. If I aminured against all anger, I never feel anger. If I amproof againstall hatred, I never feel hatred, because itwill not touch me. This is, therefore, the process toget that conquest, through the subjective, by perfectingthe subjective. Therefore, you find one more thingthat the only religion, I may make bold tosay, which agrees with, and even goes a little further than modern researches, both on physicaland morallines, is the Advaita, and that iswhy it appeals to themodern scientist so much. They find that the old dualistictheories are not enough for them, do not satisfy their necessities. But this Advaita satisfies their intellectual necessities.A man must not only have faith, but intellectual faith too.To make a man take up everything and believe it wouldmake him a lunatic. I once had a book sent me which said Imust believe everything. It said there was no soul, or anything, but there were gods and goddesses in heaven, and athread of light going from each of our heads to heaven. Howthe writer did know all these things? She had been inspired,and wanted me to believe it too, and because I refused, shesaid,must be a very bad man there is no; hopefor you." Now, in this latter part of the 1 9th century,

THE ABSOLUTE AND MANIFESTATION. 227such ideas as that religion coming from any other sourceexcept one s own forefather s religion must be false, show? vlittle weakness left yet, and it will have to go. I do notmean that it is alone in this country, but in everycountry, and nowhere more than in my own, where it isterrible. This Advaita was never allowed to come to thepeople. At first some monks got hold of it,and took itto the forests, and so it came to be called the ForestPhilosophy, when, by the mercy of the Lord, the Buddhacame, and preachedit to the masses, and the whole nationarose to Buddhism. Long after that, when Atheists andAgnostics had destroyed the nation again, the old preachers found out that it was the only way to save Indiafrom materialism. ^Twice it saved India from materialism,once, just before the Buddha came, materialism hadspread to a fearful extent, and of a most hideous kind, notlike that of the present day, but of a far worse nature. Iam a materialist of a certain kind, because I believe thatthere is only One. That is what the materialist wantsto tell you, only he calls it matter, and I call it God.The materialists admit that out of this one matter, allhope, and religion, and everything have come. Isay all these have come out of Brahman. I meanhere the old crude sort of materialism, eat, drinkand be merry; there is neither God, nor soul, norheaven ; religion is a concoction of wicked priests, thematerialism which taught the morality, that so long as youlive, try to live happily eat, though you have to borrow;money for it, and mind you never think of paying. Thatwas the way materialism went, and that kind of philosophyspread so much that even to-day it has got the name ofthe popular philosophy. Buddha brought the Vedantaout, gave it to the people, and saved India. Then a thou-

THE ABSOLUTE AND MANIFESTATION. 227such ideas as that religion coming from any other sourceexcept one s own forefather s religion must be false, show? vlittle weakness left yet, and it will have to go. I do notmean that it is alone in this country, but in everycountry, and nowhere more than in my own, where it isterrible. This Advaita was never allowed to come to thepeople. At first some monks got hold of it,and took itto the forests, and so it came to be called the ForestPhilosophy, when, by the mercy of the Lord, the Buddhacame, and preachedit to the masses, and the whole nationarose to Buddhism. Long after that, when Atheists andAgnostics had destroyed the nation again, the old preachers found out that it was the only way to save Indiafrom materialism. ^Twice it saved India from materialism,once, just before the Buddha came, materialism hadspread to a fearful extent, and of a most hideous kind, notlike that of the present day, but of a far worse nature. Iam a materialist of a certain kind, because I believe thatthere is only One. That is what the materialist wantsto tell you, only he calls it matter, and I call it God.The materialists admit that out of this one matter, allhope, and religion, and everything have come. Isay all these have come out of Brahman. I meanhere the old crude sort of materialism, eat, drinkand be merry; there is neither God, nor soul, norheaven ; religion is a concoction of wicked priests, thematerialism which taught the morality, that so long as youlive, try to live happily eat, though you have to borrow;money for it, and mind you never think of paying. Thatwas the way materialism went, and that kind of philosophyspread so much that even to-day it has got the name ofthe popular philosophy. Buddha brought the Vedantaout, gave it to the people, and saved India. Then a thou-

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