Hinduism-a Universal Religion - Part 2

barney · February 12, 2004

Swami Vivekananda

(The following is an excerpt taken from Swami Vivekananda's lecture given at the Parliament of Religions held at Chicago in 1893)

(Continued from Hinduism-a Universal Religion - Part 1)

Thus it is that the Vedas proclaim not a dreadful combination of unforgiving laws, not an endless prison of cause and effect, but that at the head of these laws, in and through every particle of matter and force, stands One "by whose command the wind blows, the fire burns, the clouds rain, and death stalks upon earth."

And what is His nature ?

He is everywhere, the pure and formless one, the Almighty and All-merciful. "Thou art our father. Thou art our mother. Thou art our beloved friend. Thou art the source of all strength; give us strength. Thou art He that beareth the burdens of the universe.; help me to bear the little burden of this life". Thus sang the Rishis of the Vedas. And how to worship Him? Through love. "He is to be worshipped as the one beloved, dearer than anything in this life and next."

This is the doctrine of love declared in the Vedas. And let us see how it is fully developed and taught by Krishna, whom the Hindus believe to have been God incarnate on the earth.

He taught that a man ought to live in this world like a lotus leaf, which grows in water but is never moistened by water, so a man ought to live in the world--his heart to God and his hands to work or Karma. It is good to love God for hope of reward in this or the next world, but it is better to love God for love's sake. And the prayer goes: "Lord, I do not want the wealth, nor children, nor learning. If it be Thy will, I shall go from birth to birth, but grant me this, that I may love Thee without the hope of reward--love unselfishly for love's sake."

The Vedas teach that the soul is divine, only held in the bondage of the matter; perfection will be reached when this bond will burst and the word they use for it is, therefore, Mukti--freedom, freedom from the bonds of imperfection, freedom from death and misery.

And this bondage can only fall off through the mercy of God and this mercy comes on the pure. So purity is the condition of His mercy. How does that mercy act? He reveals Himself to the pure heart; the pure and the stainless see God, yea, even in this life; then and then only all the crookedness if the heart is made straight. Then all doubt ceases. He is no more the freak of a terrible law of causation. This is the very center, the very vital conception of Hinduism. The Hindu does not want to live upon words and theories. If there are existences beyond the ordinary sensuous existence, he wants to come face to face with them. If there is a soul in him which does not matter, if there is an all-merciful Universal Soul, he will go to Him direct. He must see Him, and that alone can destroy all doubt. So the best proof of a Hindu sage gives about the soul, about God is: "I have seen the soul, I have seen God". And that is the only condition of perfection.

The Hindu religion does not consist in struggles and attempts to believe a certain doctrine or dogma, but in realizing--not in believing, but in being and becoming. Thus the whole object of their system is by constant struggle to become perfect, to become divine, to reach God and see God, and this reaching God, seeing God, becoming perfect constitutes the religion of the Hindus.

And what becomes of a man when he attains perfection? He lives a life of bliss infinite. He enjoys infinite and perfect bliss--having obtained God, the only thing in which man ought to find pleasure,--and enjoys the bliss with the God.

(To be continued.....)