A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"HINDUISM AS A RELIGION.>41ceases. Man is no more the freak of a terrible lawof causation. tfSo this is the very centre, the very vitalConception of Hinduism. The Hindu does not want tolive upon words and theories. If there are existencesbeyond the ordinary sensual existence, he wants to comeface to face with them. If there is a soul in him whichis not matter, if there is an All-merciful Universal Soul, hewill goto Him direct. He must see Him and that alonecan destroy all doubts. So the best proof a Hindu sagegives, about the soul, about God, is,I have seen the soul,I have seen God."And that is the only condition of perfection. TheHindu religion does not consist in struggles and attemptsto believe a certain doctrine or dogma, but in realizingnot inbelieving, but in being and becoming.THE RELIGION OF THE HINDUS.So the whole struggle in their systemis a constantstruggle to become perfect, to become divine, to reach Godand see God, and in thus reaching God, seeing God, andbecoming perfect, even as the father in Heaven is perfect,consists the religion of the Hindus.And what becomes of man when he becomes perfect?He lives a life of bliss infinite. He enjoys infinite andperfect bliss having obtained the only thing in whichman ought to have pleasure God and enjoys the blisswith God.So far all the Hindus are agreed.This is the commonreligion of all the sects of India, but then the questioncomes, perfection is absolute, and the absolute cannot betwo or three. It cannot have any qualities. It cannot bean individual. And so when a soul becomes perfect andabsolute, it must become one with Brahman, and sucha soul would only realize the Lord as the perfection, the