Yoga philosophy : lectures delivered in New York, winter of 1895-6 ... on râja yoga or conquering the internal nature also Patanjali's yoga aphorisms, with commentaries / by the Swâmi Vivekânanda.

  • Swami Vivekananda
Date:
1896
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Yoga philosophy : lectures delivered in New York, winter of 1895-6 ... on râja yoga or conquering the internal nature also Patanjali's yoga aphorisms, with commentaries / by the Swâmi Vivekânanda. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    there is a great Being sitting above the clouds and governing the whole universe, and he asks me to believe that, solely on the authority of his assertion. In the same way I may have my own ideas, which I am asking others to believe, and if they ask a reason, I cannot supply them with any. This is why religion and meta- physical philosophy have a bad name nowadays. Every educated man seems to say: “ Oh, these religions are only bundles of theories without any standard to judge them by, each man preaching his own pet ideas.” At the same time I must tell you that there is a basis of uni- versal belief in religion, governing all these different theories, and all the varying ideas of different sects of men in different countries. Going to the basis of them w'e find that they also are based upon universal experiences. In the first place I will ask you to analyse all the various religions of the world. You will find that these are divided into two classes, those with a book, and those without a book. Those with a book are the strongest, and have the largest number of followers. Those with- out books have mostly died out, and the few new ones have very small followings. Yet, in all of them we find one consensus of opinion, that the truths they teach are the results of the experiences of particular persons. The Christian asks you to believe in his religion, ta believe in Christ, and to believe in Him as the incarna- tion of God, to believe in a God, in a soul, and in a better state of that soul. If I ask him for reasons he
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