A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

""290 REALIZATION.religionis to us a mere nothing, mere intellectual assent,mere talk this man talks well, and that man evil. This isto us religion,oricalwonderful methods of joining words, rhetpowers, and explaining texts of the books in variousways, these are for the enjoyment of the learned, not religion."Religion will begin when that actual realisation inour own souls begins. That will be the dawn of religion!then you will become religious, and then, and then alone,morality will begin. Now we are not much more moralthan the animals in the streets. We are only held downby the whips of society. If society said to-day I will notpunish you if you go and steal, we should just make arush for everyone s property. It is the policeman that makesus moral. It is social opinion that makes a great deal ofour morality, and really we are little better than the animals. We understand how much this is so, in the secretof our own rooms. So let us not be hypocrites. Let usconfess we are not religious and have no right to lookdown on others. We are all brothers, and we shall bemoral, we hope, when we have realised religion.If you have seen a certain country, a man may cutyou to pieces, but you will never in your heart of heartssay you have not seen the country. Extraordinary physicalforce may compel you to say you have not seen it, but inyour own mind you know you have seen When it.you seeReligion and God in a more intense sense than you seethis external world, nothing will be able to shake yourbelief. Then will the real faith begin. That is what ismeant by the words in your Gospel, He who has faitheven as a grain of mustard seed." Then you will knowthe truth because you have become the truth, for mereintellectual assent is nothing.