A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

""""SWAMl S REPLY TO THE ADDRESSES. 65learn the forms they are observing. And where do theworshippers iyorship God really ? In the temple, in theimage, or in the temple of their own bodies?First know for sure what they are doing, whichmore than ninety per cent of the revilers are thoroughlyignorant of, and then it will explain itself in the light ofthe Vedantic philosophy.Still these Karmas are not compulsory. On theother hand, open your Manu and see where it orders every"old man to embrace the fourth Asrama," and whether theyembrace it or not, they must give upallIt is reiterated everywhere that all thewholly comprehended in gnana SarvamKarma."Karmas arekarmakhilamPartha gnane pari-samapyate.For the matter of that a Hindu peasant has morereligious education than many a gentleman in othercountries. A friend criticised the use of European termsof philosophy and religion in my addresses.I would havebeen very glad to use Sanskrit terms ;it would have beenmuch more easy as Sanskrit is the only perfect vehicle ofreligious thought. But the friend forgot that I wasaddressing an audience of Western people. And althougha certain Indian missionary declared that the Hindus hadforgotten the meaning of their Sanskrit books, and that itwas the missionaries who unearthed their meaning, Icould not find in that large concourse of missionaries onethat could understand a line in Sanskrit ;and some ofthem read learned papers criticising the Vedas, theVedanta and all the sacred sources of the Hindu religion.It is not true that I am against any religion. It isequally untrue that I am hostile to the Christian missionaries in India. But I protest against certain of theirmethods of raising money in America.