Swami Vivekananda

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Swami Vivekananda On Religion

 

Posted by: " Bhakta Dhruva " bhakta_dhruva bhakta_dhruva

 

The ultimate goal of all mankind, the aim and end of all

religions, is but one †" re-union with God, or, what amounts to the

same, with the divinity which is every man's true nature.

 

So long as religion was in the hands of a chosen few or of a body of

priests, it was in the temples, it was in the churches, it was in the

books, in dogmas, in ceremonials, forms, and rituals. When men have

come to the real, universal, spiritual concept, then, and then alone,

religion will become real and living; it will come into our very

nature, live in every movement of the human being, it will penetrate

every pore of society, and be infinitely more a power for good than it

has ever been before.

 

The mainspring of the strength of every race lies in the spirituality

manifested in religion and the death of that race begins the day that

spirituality wanes and materialism begins.

 

It is good and very grand to conquer external nature, but grander

still to conquer the internal nature of man. It is grand and good to

know the laws that govern the stars and planets; it is infinitely

grander and better to know the laws that govern the passions, the

feelings, the will, of mankind. This conquering of the inner man,

understanding the secrets of the subtle workings that are within the

human mind, and knowing its wonderful secrets, belong entirely to

religion.

 

No man is born to any religion; he has a religion in his own soul.

Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man.

 

As soon as you make a sect, you protest against universal brotherhood.