A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"HaveBHAKTI OR DEVOTION. 345Himself in older times, tested His powers, by getting thesetilings in shape, but He really worked them out in Christian&y,later on. That, at least, is a good step. Fifty years.ago, they would not have said even that ; everything wasnothing, except their own religion and that was everything-This idea is not limited to any religion, or any nation,or any state of persons ; people are always thinking thatthe only tiling to be done, is what they themselves do, andthat is where the study of different religions help us. Itshows us that the same thoughts that we have beencalling ours, and ours alone, were present hundreds ofyears ago in others, and sometimes even in a better formof expression than our own.These are the external forms of devotion, throughwhich man has to pass, but * if he is sincere, if he reallywants to reach the truth, he gets t higher than these, to aplane where forms are as nothing. Forms are simply thekindergarten of religion, the child s preparation. Templesor churches, books or forms, are just for the child splay, so as to make the spiritual man strong enoughto take yet higher steps, and these first steps are necessaryto be taken if he wants religion. With that thirst, thatwant for God, comes real devotion, real Bhakti. Whowants ? That is the question. Religion is not doctrines,nor dogmas, nor intellectual argumentationit is ; being andbecoming ;it is realization. We here everybody talkingabout God and soul, and all the mysteries of the universe,but ifyou will take them one by one, and ask them,you realized God ? Have you seen your Soul ?"how many dare say they have ? And yet they are allfighting ! I remember once, in India, representatives ofdifferent sects got together, and began to dispute. One-said that the only God was Siva ;another said the only