A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

180 MAYA AND THE CONCEPTION OF GOD.the streets. These Charvakas were allowed to preach from ftemple to temple, and city to city, that religion was allnonsense, that it was priestcraft that the;Yedas were thewords and writings of fools, rogues and demons, and thatIf there were athere was neither God nor an eternal soul.soul why did it not come back after death, drawn by loveof wife and children ? Their idea was that if there was asoul it must still love after death, and want nice things toeat and nice dresses. Yet no one hurt these Charvakas.Thus India has always had this magnificent idea ofreligious freedom for you must always remember thatfreedom is the first condition of growth. What you don tmake free will never grow. The whole of that idea thatyou can make others grow, and help their growth, anddirect and guide them, always retaining yourself thefreedom of the teacher, is nonsense, simply a lie,a danger,and it has retarded the growth of millions and millions ofhuman beings in this world. Let men have the light ofliberty. That is the only condition of growth.We, in our country, allowed liberty in spiritual matters, and we have a tremendous spiritual power inreligiousthought, even to-day. You grant the same liberty insocial matters, and so have a splendid social organisation."We have not given any freedom to the expansion of socialmatters, and ours is a cramped society. You never gaveany freedom in religious matters. Fire and sword fellupon that, and the result is that religion is a stunted,degenerated growth in the European mind. In India wehave to take off the shackles from society, and in Europe thechains must be taken from the feet of spiritual growth.Then will come a wonderful growth and development ofmen. If we discover that there is one unity runningbehind all these developments, either spiritual, moral or