The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 6/Lectures and Discourses/The Methods and Purpose of Religion
THE METHODS AND PURPOSE OF RELIGION
In studying the religions of the world we generally find two methods of
procedure. The one is from God to man. That is to say, we have the Semitic
group of religions in which the idea of God comes almost from the very
first, and, strangely enough, without any idea of soul. It was very
remarkable amongst the ancient Hebrews that, until very recent periods in
their history, they never evolved any idea of a human soul. Man was composed
of certain mind and material particles, and that was all. With death
everything ended. But, on the other hand, there was a most wonderful idea of
God evolved by the same race. This is one of the methods of procedure. The
other is through man to God. The second is peculiarly Aryan, and the first
is peculiarly Semitic.
The Aryan first began with the soul. His ideas of God were hazy,
indistinguishable, not very clear; but, as his idea of the human soul began
to be clearer, his idea of God began to be clearer in the same proportion.
So the inquiry in the Vedas was always through the soul. All the knowledge
the Aryans got of God was through the human soul; and, as such, the peculiar
stamp that has been left upon their whole cycle of philosophy is that
introspective search after divinity. The Aryan man was always seeking
divinity inside his own self. It became, in course of time, natural,
characteristic. It is remarkable in their art and in their commonest
dealings. Even at the present time, if we take a European picture of a man
in a religious attitude, the painter always makes his subject point his eyes
upwards, looking outside of nature for God, looking up into the skies. In
India, on the other hand, the religious attitude is always presented by
making the subject close his eyes. He is, as it were, looking inward.
These are the two subjects of study for man, external and internal nature;
and though at first these seem to be contradictory, yet external nature
must, to the ordinary man, be entirely composed of internal nature, the
world of thought. The majority of philosophies in every country, especially
in the West, have started with the assumption that these two, matter and
mind, are contradictory existences; but in the long run we shall find that
they converge towards each other and in the end unite and form an infinite
whole. So it is not that by this analysis I mean a higher or lower
standpoint with regard to the subject. I do not mean that those who want to
search after truth through external nature are wrong, nor that those who
want to search after truth through internal nature are higher. These are the
two modes of procedure. Both of them must live; both of them must be
studied; and in the end we shall find that they meet. We shall see that
neither is the body antagonistic to the mind, nor the mind to the body,
although we find, many persons who think that this body is nothing. In old
times, every country was full of people who thought this body was only a
disease, a sin, or something of that kind. Later on, however, we see how, as
it was taught in the Vedas, this body melts into the mind, and the mind into
the body.
You must remember the one theme that runs through all the Vedas: "Just as by
the knowledge of one lump of clay we know all the clay that is in the
universe, so what is that, knowing which we know everything else?" This,
expressed more or less clearly, is the theme of all human knowledge. It is
the finding of a unity towards which we are all going. Every action of our
lives—the most material, the grossest as well as the finest, the highest,
the most spiritual—is alike tending towards this one ideal, the finding of
unity. A man is single. He marries. Apparently it may be a selfish act, but
at the same time, the impulsion, the motive power, is to find that unity. He
has children, he has friends, he loves his country, he loves the world, and
ends by loving the whole universe. Irresistibly we are impelled towards that
perfection which consists in finding the unity, killing this little self and
making ourselves broader and broader. This is the goal, the end towards
which the universe is rushing. Every atom is trying to go and join itself to
the next atom. Atoms after atoms combine, making huge balls, the earths, the
suns, the moons, the stars, the planets. They in their turn, are trying to
rush towards each other, and at last, we know that the whole universe,
mental and material, will be fused into one.
The process that is going on in the cosmos on a large scale, is the same as
that going on in the microcosm on a smaller scale. Just as this universe has
its existence in separation, in distinction, and all the while is rushing
towards unity, non-separation, so in our little worlds each soul is born, as
it were, cut off from the rest of the world. The more ignorant, the more
unenlightened the soul, the more it thinks that it is separate from the rest
of the universe. The more ignorant the person, the more he thinks, he will
die or will be born, and so forth—ideas that are an expression of this
separateness. But we find that, as knowledge comes, man grows, morality is
evolved and the idea of non-separateness begins. Whether men understand it
or not, they are impelled by that power behind to become unselfish. That is
the foundation of all morality. It is the quintessence of all ethics,
preached in any language, or in any religion, or by any prophet in the
world. "Be thou unselfish", "Not 'I', but 'thou'"—that is the background
of all ethical codes. And what is meant by this is the recognition of
non-individuality—that you are a part of me, and I of you; the recognition
that in hurting you I hurt myself, and in helping you I help myself; the
recognition that there cannot possibly be death for me when you live. When
one worm lives in this universe, how can I die? For my life is in the life
of that worm. At the same time it will teach us that we cannot leave one of
our fellow-beings without helping him, that in his good consists my good.
This is the theme that runs through the whole of Vedanta, and which runs
through every other religion. For, you must remember, religions divide
themselves generally into three parts. There is the first part, consisting
of the philosophy, the essence, the principles of every religion. These
principles find expression in mythology—lives of saints or heroes,
demi-gods, or gods, or divine beings; and the whole idea of this mythology
is that of power. And in the lower class of mythologies—the primitive—
the expression of this power is in the muscles; their heroes are strong,
gigantic. One hero conquers the whole world. As man advances, he must find
expression for his energy higher than in the muscles; so his heroes also
find expression in something higher. The higher mythologies have heroes who
are gigantic moral men. Their strength is manifested in becoming moral and
pure. They can stand alone, they can beat back the surging tide of
selfishness and immorality. The third portion of all religions is symbolism,
which you call ceremonials and forms. Even the expression through mythology,
the lives of heroes, is not sufficient for all. There are minds still lower.
Like children they must have their kindergarten of religion, and these
symbologies are evolved—concrete examples which they can handle and grasp
and understand, which they can see and feel as material somethings.
So in every religion you find there are the three stages: philosophy,
mythology, and ceremonial. There is one advantage which can be pleaded for
the Vedanta, that in India, fortunately, these three stages have been
sharply defined. In other religions the principles are so interwoven with
the mythology that it is very hard to distinguish one from the other. The
mythology stands supreme, swallowing up the principles; and in course of
centuries the principles are lost sight of. The explanation, the
illustration of the principle, swallows up the principle, and the people see
only the explanation, the prophet, the preacher, while the principles have
gone out of existence almost—so much so that even today, if a man dares to
preach the principles of Christianity apart from Christ, they will try to
attack him and think he is wrong and dealing blows at Christianity. In the
same way, if a man wants to preach the principles of Mohammedanism,
Mohammedans will think the same; because concrete ideas, the lives of great
men and prophets, have entirely overshadowed the principles.
In Vedanta the chief advantage is that it was not the work of one single
man; and therefore, naturally, unlike Buddhism, or Christianity, or
Mohammedanism, the prophet or teacher did not entirely swallow up or
overshadow the principles. The principles live, and the prophets, as it
were, form a secondary group, unknown to Vedanta. The Upanishads speak of no
particular prophet, but they speak of various prophets and prophetesses. The
old Hebrews had something of that idea; yet we find Moses occupying most of
the space of the Hebrew literature. Of course I do not mean that it is bad
that these prophets should take religious hold of a nation; but it certainly
is very injurious if the whole field of principles is lost sight of. We can
very much agree as to principles, but not very much as to persons. The
persons appeal to our emotions; and the principles, to something higher, to
our calm judgement. Principles must conquer in the long run, for that is the
manhood of man. Emotions many times drag us down to the level of animals.
Emotions have more connection with the senses than with the faculty of
reason; and, therefore, when principles are entirely lost sight of and
emotions prevail, religions degenerate into fanaticism and sectarianism.
They are no better than party politics and such things. The most horribly
ignorant notions will be taken up, and for these ideas thousands will be
ready to cut the throats of their brethren. This is the reason that, though
these great personalities and prophets are tremendous motive powers for
good, at the same time their lives are altogether dangerous when they lead
to the disregard of the principles they represent. That has always led to
fanaticism, and has deluged the world in blood. Vedanta can avoid this
difficulty, because it has not one special prophet. It has many Seers, who
are called Rishis or sages. Seers—that is the literal translation—those
who see these truths, the Mantras.
The word Mantra means "thought out", cogitated by the mind; and the Rishi is
the seer of these thoughts. They are neither the property of particular
persons, nor the exclusive property of any man or woman, however great he or
she may be; nor even the exclusive property of the greatest spirits—the
Buddhas or Christs—whom the world has produced. They are as much the
property of the lowest of the low, as they are the property of a Buddha, and
as much the property of the smallest worm that crawls as of the Christ,
because they are universal principles. They were never created. These
principles have existed throughout time; and they will exist. They are
non-create—uncreated by any laws which science teaches us today. They
remain covered and become discovered, but are existing through all eternity
in nature. If Newton had not been born, the law of gravitation would have
remained all the same and would have worked all the same. It was Newton's
genius which formulated it, discovered it, brought it into consciousness,
made it a conscious thing to the human race. So are these religious laws,
the grand truths of spirituality. They are working all the time. If all the
Vedas and the Bibles and the Korans did not exist at all, if seers and
prophets had never been born, yet these laws would exist. They are only held
in abeyance, and slowly but surely would work to raise the human race, to
raise human nature. But they are the prophets who see them, discover them,
and such prophets are discoverers in the field of spirituality. As Newton
and Galileo were prophets of physical science, so are they prophets of
spirituality. They can claim no exclusive right to any one of these laws;
they are the common property of all nature.
The Vedas, as the Hindus say, are eternal. We now understand what they mean
by their being eternal, i.e. that the laws have neither beginning nor end,
just as nature has neither beginning nor end. Earth after earth, system
after system, will evolve, run for a certain time, and then dissolve back
again into chaos; but the universe remains the same. Millions and millions
of systems are being born, while millions are being destroyed. The universe
remains the same. The beginning and the end of time can be told as regards a
certain planet; but as regards the universe, time has no meaning at all. So
are the laws of nature, the physical laws, the mental laws, the spiritual
laws. Without beginning and without end are they; and it is within a few
years, comparatively speaking, a few thousand years at best, that man has
tried to reveal them. The infinite mass remains before us. Therefore the one
great lesson that we learn from the Vedas, at the start, is that religion
has just begun. The infinite ocean of spiritual truth lies before us to be
worked on, to be discovered, to be brought into our lives. The world has
seen thousands of prophets, and the world has yet to see millions.
There were times in olden days when prophets were many in every society. The
time is to come when prophets will walk through every street in every city
in the world. In olden times, particular, peculiar persons were, so to
speak, selected by the operations of the laws of society to become prophets.
The time is coming when we shall understand that to become religious means
to become a prophet, that none can become religious until he or she becomes
a prophet. We shall come to understand that the secret of religion is not
being able to think and say all these thoughts; but, as the Vedas teach, to
realise them, to realise newer and higher one than have ever been realised,
to discover them, bring them to society; and the study of religion should be
the training to make prophets. The schools and colleges should be training
grounds for prophets. The whole universe must become prophets; and until a
man becomes a prophet, religion is a mockery and a byword unto him. We must
see religion, feel it, realise it in a thousand times more intense a sense
than that in which we see the wall.
But there is one principle which underlies all these various manifestations
of religion and which has been already mapped out for us. Every science must
end where it finds a unity, because we cannot go any further. When a perfect
unity is reached, that science has nothing more of principles to tell us.
All the work that religions have to do is to work out the details. Take any
science, chemistry, for example. Suppose we can find one element out of
which we can manufacture all the other elements. Then chemistry, as a
science, will have become perfect. What will remain for us is to discover
every day new combinations of that one material and the application of those
combinations for all the purposes of life. So with religion. The gigantic
principles, the scope, the plan of religion were already discovered ages ago
when man found the last words, as they are called, of the Vedas—"I am He"
—that there is that One in whom this whole universe of matter and mind
finds its unity, whom they call God, or Brahman, or Allah, or Jehovah, or
any other name. We cannot go beyond that. The grand principle has been
already mapped out for us. Our work lies in filling it in, working it out,
applying it to every part of our lives. We have to work now so that every
one will become a prophet. There is a great work before us.
In old times, many did not understand what a prophet meant. They thought it
was something by chance, that just by a fiat of will or some superior
intelligence, a man gained superior knowledge. In modern times, we are
prepared to demonstrate that this knowledge is the birthright of every
living being, whosoever and wheresoever he be, and that there is no chance
in this universe. Every man who, we think, gets something by chance, has
been working for it slowly and surely through ages. And the whole question
devolves upon us: "Do we want to be prophets?" If we want, we shall be.
This, the training of prophets, is the great work that lies before us; and,
consciously or unconsciously, all the great systems of religion are working
toward this one great goal, only with this difference, that in many
religions you will find they declare that this direct perception of
spirituality is not to be had in this life, that man must die, and after his
death there will come a time in another world, when he will have visions of
spirituality, when he will realise things which now he must believe. But
Vedanta will ask all people who make such assertions, "Then how do you know
that spirituality exists?" And they will have to answer that there must have
been always certain particular people who, even in this life, have got a
glimpse of things which are unknown and unknowable.
Even this makes a difficulty. If they were peculiar people, having this
power simply by chance, we have no right to believe in them. It would be a
sin to believe in anything that is by chance, because we cannot know it.
What is meant by knowledge? Destruction of peculiarity. Suppose a boy goes
into a street or a menagerie, and sees a peculiarly shaped animal. He does
not know what it is. Then he goes to a country where there are hundreds like
that one, and he is satisfied, he knows what the species is. Our knowledge
is knowing the principle. Our non-knowledge is finding the particular
without reference to principle. When we find one case or a few cases
separate from the principle, without any reference to the principle, we are
in darkness and do not know. Now, if these prophets, as they say, were
peculiar persons who alone had the right to catch a glimpse of that which is
beyond and no one else has the right, we should not believe in these
prophets, because they are peculiar cases without any reference to a
principle. We can only believe in them if we ourselves become prophets.
You, all of you, hear about the various jokes that get into the newspapers
about the sea-serpent; and why should it be so? Because a few persons, at
long intervals, came and told their stories about the sea-serpent, and
others never see it. They have no particular principle to which to refer,
and therefore the world does not believe. If a man comes to me and says a
prophet disappeared into the air and went through it, I have the right to
see that. I ask him, "Did your father or grandfather see it?" "Oh, no," he
replies, "but five thousand years ago such a thing happened." And if I do
not believe it, I have to be barbecued through eternity!
What a mass of superstition this is! And its effect is to degrade man from
his divine nature to that of brutes. Why was reason given us if we have to
believe? Is it not tremendously blasphemous to believe against reason? What
right have we not to use the greatest gift that God has given to us? I am
sure God will pardon a man who will use his reason and cannot believe,
rather than a man who believes blindly instead of using the faculties He has
given him. He simply degrades his nature and goes down to the level of the
beasts—degrades his senses and dies. We must reason; and when reason
proves to us the truth of these prophets and great men about whom the
ancient books speak in every country, we shall believe in them. We shall
believe in them when we see such prophets among ourselves. We shall then
find that they were not peculiar men, but only illustrations of certain
principles. They worked, and that principle expressed itself naturally, and
we shall have to work to express that principle in us. They were prophets,
we shall believe, when we become prophets. They were seers of things divine.
They could go beyond the bounds of senses and catch a glimpse of that which
is beyond. We shall believe that when we are able to do it ourselves and not
before.
That is the one principle of Vedanta. Vedanta declares that religion is here
and now, because the question of this life and that life, of life and death,
this world and that world, is merely one of superstition and prejudice.
There is no break in time beyond what we make. What difference is there
between ten and twelve o'clock, except what we make by certain changes in
nature? Time flows on the same. So what is meant by this life or that life?
It is only a question of time, and what is lost in time may be made up by
speed in work. So, says Vedanta, religion is to be realised now. And for you
to become religious means that you will start without any religion work your
way up and realise things, see things for yourself; and when you have done
that, then, and then alone, you have religion. Before that you are no better
than atheists, or worse, because the atheist is sincere—he stands up and
says, "I do not know about these things—while those others do not know but
go about the world, saying, "We arc very religious people." What religion
they have no one knows, because they have swallowed some grandmother's
story, and priests have asked them to believe these things; if they do not,
then let them take care. That is how it is going.
Realisation of religion is the only way. Each one of us will have to
discover. Of what use are these books, then, these Bibles of the world? They
are of great use, just as maps are of a country. I have seen maps of England
all my life before I came here, and they were great helps to me informing
some sort of conception of England. Yet, when I arrived in this country,
what a difference between the maps and the country itself! So is the
difference between realisation and the scriptures. These books are only the
maps, the experiences of past men, as a motive power to us to dare to make
the same experiences and discover in the same way, if not better.
This is the first principle of Vedanta, that realisation is religion, and he
who realises is the religious man; and he who does not is no better than he
who says, "I do not know", if not worse, because the other says, "I do not
know", and is sincere. In this realisation, again, we shall be helped very
much by these books, not only as guides, but as giving instructions and
exercises; for every science has its own particular method of investigation.
You will find many persons in this world who will say. "I wanted to become
religious, I wanted to realise these things, but I have not been able, so I
do not believe anything." Even among the educated you will find these. Large
numbers of people will tell you, "I have tried to be religious all my life,
but there is nothing in it." At the same time you will find this phenomenon:
Suppose a man is a chemist, a great scientific man. He comes and tells you
this. If you say to him, "I do not believe anything about chemistry, because
I have all my life tried to become a chemist and do not find anything in
it", he will ask, "When did you try?" "When I went to bed, I repeated, 'O
chemistry, come to me', and it never came." That is the very same thing. The
chemist laughs at you and says, "Oh, that is not the way. Why did you not go
to the laboratory and get all the acids and alkalis and burn your hands from
time to time? That alone would have taught you." Do you take the same
trouble with religion? Every science has its own method of learning, and
religion is to be learnt the same way. It has its own methods, and here is
something we can learn, and must learn, from all the ancient prophets of the
world, every one who has found something, who has realised religion. They
will give us the methods, the particular methods, through which alone we
shall be able to realise the truths of religion. They struggled all their
lives, discovered particular methods of mental culture, bringing the mind to
a certain state, the finest perception, and through that they perceived the
truths of religion. To become religious, to perceive religion, feel it, to
become a prophet, we have to take these methods and practice them; and then
if we find nothing, we shall have the right to say, "There is nothing in
religion, for I have tried and failed."
This is the practical side of all religions. You will find it in every Bible
in the world. Not only do they teach principles and doctrines, but in the
lives of the saints you find practices; and when it is not expressly laid
down as a rule of conduct, you will always find in the lives of these
prophets that even they regulated their eating and drinking sometimes. Their
whole living, their practice, their method, everything was different from
the masses who surrounded them; and these were the causes that gave them the
higher light, the vision of the Divine. And we, if we want to have this
vision, must be ready to take up these methods. It is practice, work, that
will bring us up to that. The plan of Vedanta, therefore, is: first, to lay
down the principles, map out for us the goal, and then to teach us the
method by which to arrive at the goal, to understand and realise religion.
Again, these methods must be various. Seeing that we are so various in our
natures, the same method can scarcely be applied to any two of us in the
same manner. We have idiosyncrasies in our minds, each one of us; so the
method ought to be varied. Some, you will find, are very emotional in their
nature; some very philosophical, rational; others cling to all sorts of
ritualistic forms—want things which are concrete. You will find that one
man does not care for any ceremony or form or anything of the sort; they are
like death to him. And another man carries a load of amulets all over his
body; he is so fond of these symbols! Another man who is emotional in his
nature wants to show acts of charity to everyone; he weeps, he laughs, and
so on. And all of these certainly cannot have the same method. If there were
only one method to arrive at truth, it would be death for everyone else who
is not similarly constituted. Therefore the methods should be various.
Vedanta understands that and wants to lay before the world different methods
through which we can work. Take up any one you like; and if one does not
suit you, another may. From this standpoint we see how glorious it is that
there are so many religions in the world, how good it is that there are so
many teachers and prophets, instead of there being only one, as many persons
would like to have it. The Mohammedans want to have the whole world
Mohammedan; the Christians, Christian; and the Buddhists, Buddhist; but
Vedanta says, "Let each person in the world be separate, if you will; the
one principle, the units will be behind. The more prophets there are, the
more books, the more seers, the more methods, so much the better for the
world." Just as in social life the greater the number of occupations in
every society, the better for that society, the more chance is there for
everyone of that society to make a living; so in the world of thought and of
religion. How much better it is today when we have so many divisions of
science—how much more is it possible for everyone to have great mental
culture, with this great variety before us! How much better it is, even on
the physical plane, to have the opportunity of so many various things spread
before us, so that we may choose any one we like, the one which suits us
best! So it is with the world of religions. It is a most glorious
dispensation of the Lord that there are so many religions in the world; and
would to God that these would increase every day, until every man had a
religion unto himself!
Vedanta understands that and therefore preaches the one principle and admits
various methods. It has nothing to say against anyone—whether you are a
Christian, or a Buddhist, or a Jew, or a Hindu, whatever mythology you
believe, whether you owe allegiance to the prophet of Nazareth, or of Mecca,
or of India, or of anywhere else, whether you yourself are a prophet—it
has nothing to say. It only preaches the principle which is the background
of every religion and of which all the prophets and saints and seers are but
illustrations and manifestations. Multiply your prophets if you like; it has
no objection. It only preaches the principle, and the method it leaves to
you. Take any path you like; follow any prophet you like; but have only that
method which suits your own nature, so that you will be sure to progress.