A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"">The"""""""""""""""""""SWAMl S REPLY TO THE ADDRESSES. 57common to all the sects ;Tantras,"but as to theeach sect has its own.PuranasTantras, as we have said, represent theand theVedicrituals in a modified form, and before any one jumps intothe most absurd conclusions about them, I will advise himto read the Tantras in conjunction with the Brahmanas,"especially of the Adhvaryu portion. And most of theMantras used in the Tantras will be found takenverbatim form their Brahmanas." As to their influence,apart from the Srouta and the Smarta rituals,all other forms of ritual observed from the Himalayas tothe Comorin have been taken from the Tantras, and theydirect the worship of the Saktas, the Saivas, the Vaishnavasand all others alike.Of course I do not pretend that all the Hindus arethoroughly acquainted with these sources of their religion.have not even heard theMany, especially in Lower Bengal,names of these sects and these great systems but;consciously or unconsciously it is the plan laid down inthe three Prasthaiias that they are all working out.Wherever on the other hand the Hindvi languageisspoken, even the lowest classes have more knowledge ofthe Yedantic religion than many of the highest in LowerBengal,And why so ?Transported from the soil of Mithila to Navadvipa,nurtured and developed by the fostering genius of Siromani,"Gadadhar,"Jagadis," and a host of other greatnames, an analysis of the laws of reasoning, in some pointssuperior to every other system in the whole world, express--ed in a wonderful and precise mosaic of language, standsthe Nyaya of Bengal, respected and studied throughoutthe length and breadth of Hindustan. But, alas, Vedic