A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"THE SAGES OF INDIA. 453ideal, a more living and idolised ideal, than any ideal youor I can conceive of in our minds, and, therefore it is thatthey always command the worship of mankind, even to theexclusion of all imaginary deities. This our sages knew,_*,and, therefore, left it open to all Indian people to worshipsuch great personages, such incarnations. Nay, the greaterof th^e incarnations goes further. "Wherever there isan extraordinary spiritual power manifested by externalman know that I am there ;it is from me that that manifestation comes."for the HinduThat leaves the door open ( to worship the incarnations of all the countries in theworld. The Hindu can worship any sage and any saintfrom any country whatsoever, and as a fact we know thatwo go and worship many times,in the churches of theChristians, and many, many times in, the^Mahomedan Mosques, and that is good. Why not ? Ours, as I have said,is the universal religion. It is inclusive enough,it is broadenough to include all the ideals. All the ideals of religionthat already exist in the world can be immediately included, and we can patiently wait for all the ideals that are tocome in the future to be taken in the same fashion, embraced inthe infinite arms of the religion of the Vedanta.to fcheThis, more or less, is our f position with regardgreat sages, the incarnations of God. There are also secondary characters. We find the word Rishi again and againmentioned in the Yedas, and it has become a common wordat the present time. The Rishi is the great authority. Wehave to understand that idea. The definition is that theRishi is the Mantra draskta, the seer of thought.the proof of religion ?What isthis was asked in very ancient times.There is no proof in the senses, was the declaration.Fromwhence words reflect back with thought without reachingthe goal. There the eyes cannot reach, neither can the