A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

70 SWAMI S REPLY TO THE ADDRESSES.Shall India die ? Then fromthe world all spiritualitywill be extinct ;all moral perfection will Le extinct ;allsweet-souled spmpathy for religion will be extinct ;ailideality will be extinct, and in its place will reign the dualityof lust and luxury as the male and female deities, withmoney as its priest, fraud, force and competition itsceremonies,can never be.and the human soul its sacrifice. Sucha thingThe power of suffering is infinitely greaterthan the power of doing the power of love is of ; infinitelygreater potency than the power of hatred. Those thatthink that the present revival of Hinduism is only afestation of patriotic impulse are deluded.maniFirst let us study this quaint phenomenon.Is it not curious that, whilst under the terrific onsetof modern scientific research, all the old forts of Westerndogmatic religions are crumbling into dust ; whilst thesledge-hammer blows of modern science are pulverizingthe porcelainmass of systems whose foundation is eitherin faith or in belief or in the majority of votes of churchsynods whilst Western theology is at its wits end to;accommodate itself to the ever-rising tide of aggressivemodern thought whilst in all other sacred books;the textshave been stretched to their utmost tension, under theever-increasing pressure of modern thought, and themajority of them have been broken and stored away inlumber rooms ;whilst the vast majority of the thoughtfulWestern humanity have broken asunder all their ties withthe church, and are drifting about in a sea of unrest,the religions which have drunk the water of life at thatfountain-head of light the Vedas Hinduism andBuddhism alone are reviving?