A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"CHRIST, THE MESSENGER. 479al circles, *^ you are very practical. There, perhaps, theorien^l is dot but he is ; practical in his own field : he ispractical in rSligion. If he preaches a philosophy, to-morrowthere are hundreds who will struggle their best to makeit practical in their lives.If a man preaches that standingon one foot would lead to salvation he will immediatelyget fire hundred to stand on one foot, justfor salvation.You may call it ludicrous; but mark you,* beneaththeir philosophyis that intense practicality. In the West,^plans of salvation mean intellectual gymnastics, neverto be worked up, never to be brought into practical life.The preacher who talks the best is the greatest preacher.^ So, Jesus of Nazareth, we find him, in the first place,the* true son of the Orient intensely practical. He has nofaith in this world and all its belongings ;it ^-evanescent :it goes. No need of text-torturing, as is the fashion inthe West in modern times ;until theyno need of stretching out textswill not stretch more. Texts are not Indiarubber,and even that has its limits. Now no making ofreligion panders to the same sense vanity of the presentday.Mark you, let us be all honest.If we cannot follow,let us confess our weakness ;bt do not degrade the ideal,do no not try to pull the ideal down. One gets sickat heart when the different accounts of his life that theWestern people give are true. I do not know what he wasnot. One would make him a great politician, stumping thecountry for a Presidential election another;perhaps, wouldmake of him a great military general ; another a greatpatriotic Jew and so on.Well, but the best commentary on the life of a greatteacher is his own life. Is there any warrant in the booksfor all such assumptions?The birds have their nests,