My ideal, indeed, can be put into a few words, and that is: to
preach unto mankind their divinity, and how to make it manifest in every
movement of life.
Education is the
manifestation of the perfection already in man.
We want that
education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the
intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one's own feet.
So long as the
millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having
been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.
Whatever you
think, that you will be. If you think yourselves weak, weak you will be; if you
think yourselves strong, strong you will be.
If you have
faith in all the three hundred and thirty millions of your mythological gods, …
and still have no faith in yourselves, there is no salvation for you. Have
faith in yourselves, and stand up on that faith and be strong; that is what we
need.
Strength,
strength it is that we want so much in this life, for what we call sin and
sorrow have all one cause, and that is our weakness. With weakness comes
ignorance, and with ignorance comes misery.
The older I
grow, the more everything seems to me to lie in manliness. This is my new
Gospel.
Purity,
patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success, and above all,
love.
Religion is
realization; not talk, not doctrine, nor theories, however beautiful they may
be. It is being and becoming, not hearing or acknowledging; it is the whole
soul becoming changed into what it believes.
Religion is the
manifestation of the Divinity already in man.
Teach
yourselves, teach everyone his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see
how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity
will come, and everything that is excellent will come when this sleeping soul
is roused to self-conscious activity.
They alone live
who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.
This is the gist
of all worship – to be pure and to do good to others.
It is love and
love alone that I preach, and I base my teaching on the great Vedantic truth of
the sameness and omnipresence of the Soul of the Universe.
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