A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

THE RELIGION WE ARE BpfcNIN.**LMN the remote past, our country made gigantic advances*ff* in spiritual ideas. Let us, to-day, bring before our*mind s ejie that ancient history. But the* one greatdanger in meditating over long-past greatness is, that wecease to exert ourselves for new things, and content our-*selves with vegetating apon that by-gone ancestral glory,and priding ourselves upon it. We should guard againsttkat. In ancient times there were, no doubt, many Rishisanfl*Maharishis, who came face Ub face with Truth. 9ButIf this recalling of our ancient greatness is to be of realbenefit, we too, must become Rishis like them. Aye, notonly that, but it is my firm conviction that we shall be evengreater Rishis than any that our history presents to us.In the past, signal were our attainments., I glory inthem and I feel proud in thinking of them. I am noteven in despair at seeing the present degradation, and Iftm full of hope in picturing to my mind of what is tocome in the future. Why ? Because, I know the seedundergoes a complete transformation, aye, the seed as seedis seemingly destroyed, before it develops into a tree. Inthe same way, in the midst of our present degradationlies, only dormant for a time, the potential potency ofthe future greatness of our religion, ready to spring up again,perhaps more mighty and glorious than ever before.Now let us consider what are the common groundsof agreement in the religion we are born in. At first* From a translation of a lecture delivered at Dacca on the31t March, 1901.