Arya

ARYA

by Swami Vivekananda In India there never was any religious persecution by the Hindus, but only that wonderful  reverence, which they have for all the religions of the world. They sheltered a portion  of the Hebrews, when they were driven out of their own  country; and the Malabar Jews remain as a result. They received at another time the remnant of the Persians, when they were almost  annihilated; and they remain to us this day, as a part of us and loved by us, as the  modern Parsees of Bombay.  There were Christians who claimed to have come with St. Thomas, the disciple of Jesus  Christ; they were allowed to settle in India and hold their own opinions; and a colony of  them is even now in existence in India. And this spirit of toleration has not died out.                    It will not and cannot die there. You may be a dualist, and I may be a monist. You may believe that you are eternal  servant of God, and I may declare that I am one with God Himself; yet both of us  are good Hindus. How is that possible? Read then                                                   "Ekam sat viprah bahudha vadanti" --  "That which exists is One; sages call It by various names." One peculiarity of the Hindu mind is that it always inquires for the last possible generalization , leaving the details to be worked out afterwards. The question is raised in the Vedas,    "What is that, knowing which we shall know everything?"  Thus, all books, and all philosophies that have been written, have been only to prove  that by knowing which everything is known. The Hindus were bold, to their credit be it said, bold thinkers in all their ideas, so bold that  one spark of their thought frightens the so called bold thinkers of the West. Well has it been  said by Prof. Max Muller about these thinkers, that they climbed up to heights where their  lungs only could breathe, and where those of other beings would  have burst. These brave people followed reason wherever it led them, no matter at what  cost, never caring what society would think about them, or talk about them, but what they  thought was right and true, they preached and they talked. The ancient Hindus were  wonderful scholars, veritable living encyclopedias.  They said, "Knowledge in books and money in other people's            hands is like no knowledge and no money at all." With the ancient Hindus you will find one national idea: spirituality. In no other religion,  in no other sacred books of the world, will you find so much energy spent in defining the  idea of God. They tried to define the idea of soul so that no earthly touch might mar it.  The spiritual must be divine; and spirit understood as spirit  must not be made into a man.