Bhakti as Source of Fanaticism?

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Writings of Swami Vivekananda -- Bhakti or the Love of God

By Vivekananda

The one great advantage of Bhakti is that it is the easiest, and the

most natural way to reach the great divine end in view; its great

disadvantage is that in its lower forms it often-times degenerates

into hideous fanaticism. The fanatical crew in Hinduism, or

Mohammedanism, or Christianity, have always been almost exclusively

recruited from these worshippers on the lower planes of Bhakti.

 

In every mind, utility... is conditioned by its own peculiar wants.

To men, therefore, who never rise higher than eating, drinking,

begetting progeny, and dying, the only gain is in sense-enjoyments;

and they must wait and go through many more births and

reincarnations to learn to feel even the faintest necessity for

anything higher.

 

But those to whom the eternal interest of the soul are of much

higher value than the fleeting interests of this mundane life, to

whom the gratification of the senses is but like the thoughtless

play of the baby, to them, God and the love of God form the highest

and the only utility of human existence.

 

Get the mercy of God and of His greatest children; these are the two

chief ways to God. The company of these children of Light is very

hard to get; five minutes in their company will change a whole life,

and if you really want it enough, one will come to you. The presence

of those who love God makes a place holy, "such is the glory of the

children of the Lord". They are He; and when they speak, their words

are Scriptures. The place where they have been becomes filled with

their vibrations, and those going there feel them and have a

tendency to become holy also.