A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"In464 THE SAGES OF INDIA.the gross to the fine, from the fine to finer, untiij, it reachestheabsolute, the goal. That is what is in the Gita. Eventhe Karma Khanda is taken up, and it is shown tuat itcannot give ^salvation direct, but indirectly ;that is alsovalid ; images are valid indirectly ; ceremonies, forms,everything is valid only with one condition, purity of th&heart. For a worshipis valid and leads to the goal, if theheart is ,?ure and the heart is sincere ;and all these various modes of worship are necessary, else, wliyshould, theybe here ? Religions and sects are not the work of hypocrites and wicked people, who invented all these to geta little money, as some of our modern men want to think.However reasonable that explanation may seem, it is nottrue, and they were not invented that way at all. Theyare the outcome of the necessity of the human soul. Theyare all here to satis! y the hankering and thirst of differentclasses of human minds, and you need not preach againstthem. The day when that necessity will cease they vanishalong with the cessation of that necessity, and so long asthat necessity remains they must be there, in spite of yourpreaching, in spite of your criticisms. You may bring thesword or the gun into play, you may deluge the world withhuman blood, but so long as there is a necessity for idolsthey must remain. These forms, and all the various stepsin religion will remain, and we understand from the LordSri Krishna why they should remain.A rather sadder chapter of India s history comes now.In the Gita we already hear the distant sound of conflictsofsects, and the Lord comes in the middle to harmonisethem all, the great preacher of harmony, the greatestteacher of harmony, Lord Krishna Himself. He says,me they are all strung like pearls upon a thread."We already hear the distant sounds, the murmurs of