A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

THE MISSION OF THE VEDANTA. 431then the names of these sages are mentioned, just theirnames ;we do not know who or what they were. Inman cases we do not know who their fathers were, andalmost in every case we do not know when and where theywere born. But what cared they, these sages, for their names?They were the preachers of principles, and they themselves,as forjis they went, tried to become illustrations of theprincipled they preached. At the same time, just as our* God is an impersonal and yet a personal God, so is our religion a most intensely impersonal one, a religion based uponprinciples, and yet it has an infinite scope for the play ofpersons ;for what religion gives you more incarnations,more prophets and seers, and still waits for infinitely more ?Says the Bhagavad-Gita that incarnations are infinite, leaving ample scope for as many as youlike to come. Therefore, if any one or more of these persons in India s religioushistory, any one or more of these incarnations, and any oneor more of our prophets, are proved not to have been historical, it does not injure our religion a bit ;even then itremains there firm as ever, because it is based upon principles, and not on persons.It is vain to try to gather allthe peoples of the world around a single personality. It isdifficult to make them gather together even round eternaland universal principles.If it ever becomes possible to bringthe largest portion of humanity to one way of thinking in regard to religion, mark you, it must be always through principles and not through persons. Yet as I have said, our religionhas ample scope for the authority and influence of persons.There is that most wonderful theory of Ishta which givesyou the fullest and the freest choice possible among thesegreat religious personalities. You may take up anyoneof the prophets or teachers as your guide and the object ofjour special adoration ;you are even allowed to think that