A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"322 THE IDEAL OF A UNIVERSAL RELIGION.and ritual.mythology All those sects who wanted to worship God without any form or ceremony, crushed withoutmercy everything that was beautiful and sublime. Theirreligion becomes a fanaticism at best, a dry thing. Thehistory of the world is a standingwitness to this fact.Therefore, do not decry these rituals and these mythologies.Let people have them; let those who desire go throughthem. Neither have that little derisive smile,, Theyare fools ;let them have it." Not so ;the greatest men Ihave seen in my life, the most wonderfully developed, haveall come from these rituals. I do not hold myself worthyto stand at their feet. For me to criticise them ! How doI know how these ideas act upon the human mind, what toaccept and what to reject ? We^go on criticising everythingin the world. Therefore let them have it. Let peoplehave all the mythology they want, all the beautiful inspirations they want, for you must always know that theseemotional natures do not care for your definition of thetruth. God to them is something tangible, the only thingthat is real ; they feel, hear and see it, and love it ; they donot stop to analyseit. Your rationalist seems to be likethat fool, who, when he saw a beautiful statue, wanted tobreak it to pieces to see the material it was made of. Letthem have God. Bhakti Yoga teaches them how to love,how to love without any ulterior motives, loving good forgood s sake, and not for going to heaven, for instance, to geta child, or wealth, or anything else. It teaches them thatlove itself is the highest recompense of love. The old doctrine that God himself is love. It teaches him to give allsorts of tribute to God as the Creator, the Omnipresent,the Omnipotent, Almighty, Ruler, the Father or Mother,the highest word that can be said of Him, the highest ideathat the human mind can construe about Him is that He is