Jnâna Yoga, Part II: Seven LecturesVivekananda, Swami
Religion
Jnâna Yoga, Part II: Seven Lectures
Vivekananda, Swami
Vedanta; Yoga, Jñana
This universe of ours, the universe of the senses, the rational,
the intellectual, is bounded on both sides by the illimitable, the
unknowable, the ever unknown. Herein is the search, herein are the
inquiries, here are the facts, from this comes the light which is known
to the world as religion. Essentially, however, religion belongs to the
supersensuous and not to the sense plane. It is beyond all reasoning
and is not on the plane of intellect. It is a vision, an inspiration, a
plunge into the unknown and unknowable, making the unknowable more than
known, for it can never be “known.” This search has been in the human
mind, as I believe, from the very beginning of humanity. There cannot
have been human reasoning and intellect in any period of the world’s
history without this struggle, this search beyond. In our little
universe, this human mind, we see a thought arise. Whence it arises we
do not know, and when it disappears, where it goes we know not either.
The macrocosm and the microcosm are, as it were, in the same groove,
passing through the same stages, vibrating in the same key.
In these lectures I shall try to bring before you the Hindu theory that
religions do not come from without, but from within. It is my belief
that religious thought is in man’s very constitution, so much so that
it is impossible for him to give up religion until he can give up his
mind and body, until he can give up thought and life. As long as a
man thinks, this struggle must go on, and so long man must have some
form of religion. Thus we see various forms of religion in the world.
It is a bewildering study, but it is not, as many of us think, a vain
speculation. Amidst this chaos there is harmony, throughout these
discordant sounds there is a note of concord, and he who is prepared
to listen to it will catch the tone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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