A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

12 ,MYMASTER.ithe feelings of that boy when he was forced throughpoverty to take up the only occupation on^n to him,that of a temple priest.*There have been various poets in Bengal whose songshave passed down to the people they are sung in the;streets of Calcutta and in every village. Most ofarc religious songs, and their one central idea, which isperh.-ips peculiar to the religions of India, is the idrealisation.There is not a book in India on religion whichdoes n,t breathe tliis idea. Man must reali/e C.od, feel<Cod. B66 tod,talk fcoj |od,atmosphereis full of !That is religion.The Indiansaintly persons havingvisions of(!od. Such doctrines form the basis of theirreligion and : .-ill these ancient books ami a scriptures re thewriting^ of pel-sons who came into direct contact with sinritualfacts. Tin W&ce not written for the intellect,nor can any reasoning understand them because theyhave been written by men who have seen things ofwhich they write, and they can be understood only by menwin; have raised themselves to the same height.They sayis such a tiling as realization even in this life, and itis open 1o everyone, and religion begins with the openingof this faculty, if Imaycall it so. This is the centralidea in air religions and this is why we may find onewith the most finished oratorical powers, or the most convincing logic, preaching the highest doctrines and yet unableto get people to listen to him : and another, a poor man,who scarcely can speak the language of his own motherland, yet with half the nation worshipping him in his ownlife-time as God. The idea somehow or other has gutabroad that he has raised himself to that state of realization, that religion is no more a matter of conjecture to