A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

426 THE MISSION OF THE VEDANTA.midst of these ideals of religion, till it has entered intoour very blood, and tingles with every drop of it in ourveins, and has become one with our constitution, b^omethe very vitality of our lives. Can you give such a religionup without the rousing of the same energy in reaction,,without filling the channel which that mighty river has cutout for itself in the course of thousands of years? Doyou want that the Ganges should go back tq^ i^s icy bedand begin a new course ? Even if that were possible,itwould be impossible for this country to give up hercharacteristic course of religious life and take up a newcareer of politics or something else for herself. Youcan only work under the law of least resistance, andthis religious line is the line of least resistance inIndia. This is the linevof life, this is the line of growthand this is the line of well-being in India to follow thetrack of religion. Aye, in other countries religionis onlyone of the manynecessities in life. To use a commonhasillustration which I am in the habit of using, my ladymany things in her parlour, and it is the fashion now-adaysto have a Japanese vase, and she must procureit : itdoes not look well without it. So my lady, or my gentleman, has many other occupationsin life : a little bit ofreligion also must come in to complete it. Consequentlyshe has a little religion. Politics, social improvement, inone word, this world, is the goal of the rest of mankind,and God and religion come in quietly as the helpers out ofthe world. There God is, so to speak, the being who helps tocleanse and to furnish this world of ours ;that isapparently all the value of God for them. Do you not knowhow for the last hundred or two hundred years, you havebeen hearing again and again out of the lips of men whoought to have known better, from the mouths of those who-