A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"| u> h u \,,14 v MYMASTER.worst. There is hut one solution of life, says the Hinduand that solution is what they call Cod and (Religion. Ifthese be true, life becomes explained, life becomes bearable,becomes enjoyable. Otherwise, life is hut a useless burden.That is our idea, hut no amount of reasoning can demonstrate it ;it can only make it probable, and there it rests,are only in the s<Religionto demonstrate it to ourselves. We have to sense Godto be convinced that there is a Cod. Nothing but our ownperceptions can make these things real to us.Tins idea took e^ion of the|H>hoy and his whole lifebecame concentrated upon that. Day aft.-r day he wouldweep and say:Moti.true that Thou existest, oils it all poetry? Is the Blis>ful Mother an imagination ofnid misguided people, or i- there su<h a reality ? *\Veh that of books,of education in our sense ofthe word, he had none and so much the moie natural,so much the more healthy was his mind, so much the puierhis thoughts, undiluted by drinking in the thoughts ofothers. This Thought which was uppermost in his mindgained iu strength every dayuntil he could think ofnothing else. He could no more conduct the worshipproperly,could no more attend to the various details in alltheir minuteness. Often he would forget to place the foodoflering before the image, sometimes he would forget towave the light, at other times he would wave the lighta whole day, and forget everything else. At List it becameimpossible for him to serve in the temple. He left it andentered into a little wood that was near find lived there.About this part of his life he has told me many times thathe could not tell when the sun rose or set, nor how helived. He lost allthought of himself and forgotto eat.