A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"Be"MY MASTER.>29tj* streets of the city where they were born, although someof them came from first-class families. At first -they met"jrithgreat antagonism, but they persevered and went onfrom day to day spreading all over India the message ofthat great man, until the whole country was filled with theideas he had preached. This man from a remote villageof Bengal,without education, simply by the sheer force ofhis own determination, realized the truth and gaveit toothers, leaving only a few young boys to keepit alive.To-day the name of Sri Ramakrishnn Paramahamsa i.sknown all over India with its millions of people. Nay,the power of that man has spread beyond India, and ifthere has ever been a word of truth, a word of spiritualitythat I have spoken anywhere in the world, I owe it to myMaster ; only the mistakes are mine.This is the message of Sri Ramakrishna to the modernworld. Do not care for doctrines, do not care for dogmas,or sects, or churches or temples ; they count for littlecompared with the essence of existence in each man whichis spirituality, and the more that this is developed in a man,the more powerfulis he for good. Earn that, first acquirethat, and criticise no one, for all doctrines and creedshave some good in them. Show by your lives thatreligipn does not mean words, nor names, nor sects,but that it means spiritual realization. Only those canunderstand who have felt. Only those that have attainedto spirituality can communicate it to others, can be greatteachers of mankind. They alone are the powers of light."The more such men are produced in a country, themore that country will be raised ;and that country wheresuch men absolutely do not exist is simply doomed, nothingcan save it. Therefore, my Master s message to mankindspiritual and realize truth for yourself."He wouldis,