Religion is the realizing of God
Religion is the realizing of God.1
A thinker once said, “More people have died in history because they gave the wrong answer to the Religion question. ‘Do you believe in God?’ ‘No.’ Bam! ‘Do you believe in God?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you believe in my God?’ ‘No.’ Bam!”
Religion has been the greatest boon of human civilization. Religion also has been the worst curse on mankind! No other idea exalts man to heights of divinity; no other idea regresses man to the depths of devilry!
Religion is indeed an enigma. We can’t seem to live with it, nor can we live without it.
One of the greatest contributions of Swami Vivekananda to modern thought has been his exposition of what religion actually is. We shall try and understand his ideas in this regard, using his own words, as far as possible.
In India, there are said to be three hundred millions of Vedantins. But if there were one in a thousand who had actually realized religion, this world would soon be greatly changed. We are all atheists, and yet we try to fight the man who admits it. We are all in the dark; religion is to us a mere intellectual assent, a mere talk, a mere nothing. (Continued on page 50...)
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