A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"46*HINDUISM AS A RELIGION.many centre-, so many pegs to hang the spiritual ideas -*n.It is not that this help is necessary for 1xie many, andthose that do not need it have no right to say that it A<wrong in any way with tho<e who need it.One thing I must tell yon. Idolatryin India doesnot moan anything horrihle. It is not the mother ofharlots. On the other hand, it is the attempt of undeveloped minds to gr.-jsp high spiritual truths. The Hindus have their faults, but mark this, they are alws]punishing their own bodies and never for ruling thethroats of their Ineighbours.f the Hindu fanatic humshimst-lf on tin- pyre, he docs not light the fire of inquisition. And even this weakness of hi- cannot he laid at thedoor of religion any more than the! e laid at the door of Christianity.burning of witofafTo the Hindu, then, the whole world of :only a travelling, a coming up, of different Iwomen, through various conditions rmd circumstances, tothe same go.-d.Kvery religion is only an evolution, out ofthe material man. of a Cod ami the same Cod is theinspirer of all of them. Why, then, are there BO many-a\ -s :ii.- Hindu.-contradictions^ They are only apparent.The contradictions come fromthesame truthit-elf to the diU en-iit circumstances of diflerent natu.COD TX AT.L KELTCTOXS.It is the snme Light coming through different coloi-s.Ami these little variations are necessary for pu.of adaptation. But in the heart of everything thesame truth reigns. The Lord has declared to the Hindu inhis incarnation as Krishna, I am in every religion as thethread through a string of pearls.And wherever thon*extraordinary holiness and extraordinary;raising and purifying humanity, know thon that