Jnana-Yoga : - 1-12.

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CHAPTER  : I - THE NECESSITY OF RELIGION-12.

And if we read the history of nations between the lines, we shall always find that the rise of a nation comes with an increase in the number of such men; and the fall begins when this pursuit after the Infinite, however vain Utilitarians may call it, has ceased.

That is to say, the mainspring of the strength Of every race lies in its spirituality, and the death of that race begins the day that spirituality wanes and materialism gains ground.


Thus, apart from the solid facts and truths that we may learn from religion, apart from the comforts that we may gain from it, religion, as a science, as a study, is the greatest and healthiest exercise that the human mind can have.

This pursuit of the Infinite, this struggle to grasp the Infinite, this effort to get beyond the limitations of the senses — out of matter, as it were — and to evolve the spiritual man — this striving day and night to make the Infinite one with our being — this struggle itself is the grandest and most glorious that man can make.


Some persons find the greatest pleasure in eating.

We have no right to say that they should not.

Others find the greatest pleasure in possessing certain things.

We have no right to say that they should not.


But they also have no right to say "no" to the man who finds his highest pleasure in spiritual thought.

The lower the organisation, the greater the pleasure in the senses.

Very few men can eat a meal with the same gusto as a dog or a wolf.

But all the pleasures of the dog or the wolf have gone, as it were into the senses.

Swami Vivekananda
To be continued  ...

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