The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
by Srila Narayana Maharaja | 2003 | 1,508,963 words | ISBN-10: 8175053925 | ISBN-13: 9788175053922
"The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda" compiles the teachings and writings of Swami Vivekananda, capturing his vast influence as a pivotal figure in the introduction of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world. Swami Vivekananda, a chief disciple of the mystic Ramakrishna, delivered profound lectures across the United States and Europe af...
Boston Evening Transcript, March 27, 1896
(New Discoveries, Vol. 4, pp.64-65.)
[Boston Evening Transcript, March 27, 1896]
Swami Vivekananda told the large audience that crowded the Allen Gymnasium to hear him speak on the "Ideal of a Universal Religion," last night, (Of which no verbatim transcript is available.) that the recent Parliament of Religions at Chicago proved, to that date, that universal religion was impossible. "Nature," he said,
is wiser than we have thought her to be.
It is competition of ideas, the clash of thought, that keeps thought
alive. Sects have always been antithetical, and always will be
splitting into little varieties of themselves. And the way to get out
of this fight of religions is to let the sects go on subdividing.
There is no unity in the three elements of religion � philosophy
[theology?], mythology and ceremony. Each theologian wants unity, but
his idea of unity is the adjustment of all other creeds to his own. I
agree with the old prophets as long as they agree with me. But there is
an element of religion that towers above all; that is, philosophy. The
philosopher seeks truth, which is one and the same always. And it is
acceptable to the four sides of every religious nature � the emotional,
mystical, active and philosophical. And he who dares to seek the truth
for truth's sake is greatest among men.