A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

THE TRUE METHOD OF SOCIAL REFORM. 545To-day I* read that my friend, Dr. Barrows, says that in30(Pyears Christianity overthrew the Roman and Greekreligious influences. That is not the word ^5f df man whohas seen Europe, and Greece, and Rome. The influence ofRoman and Greek religions is all there, even in Protestantcountries, only with changed nairies, old gods coming in aKw-*fashion. They change their names; the goddessesbecome Marys^ and the gods become saints,^ and theceremonials become new ;even the old title of PontifexMaximum is there. So these wholesale changes cannot be.Tney are not so easy, and Sankaracharya knew it. So didRamanuja. These changes cannot be. The only otherway left to them was slowly to bring up the masses to thehighest ideal of the existing religion. If they had soughtto apply the other method they would have 1>eenhypocrites, for the very fundamental doctrineof their religion is evolution, the ;soul going up towards the highestgoal, through all these various stages and phases, and allthese stages and phases, therefore, are necessary and helpful, and who dares condemn them ?It has become atrite saying,and every man swallowsit at the present time without questioning, that idolatry iswrong. Aye, I once thought so, and for the penalty ofthat I had to learn my lesson sitting at the feet of a manwho got his everything from idols ;I allude to RamakrishnaParamahamsa. Hindus, if such Ramakrishna Paramahamsasare produced by idol worship, what will you have*the reformer s creed or any number of idols ? I want ananswer. Take a thousand idols more ifyou can. Produce %Ramakrishna Paramahamsas through idol worship. Godspeed you Produce such noble ! creatures by any meansyou have. And idolatry is condemned. Why ? Nobodyknows, except that some hundreds of years ago some man35