Religion is Realisation
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This is one great idea to learn and to hold on to,
this idea of realization. This turmoil and fight and difference in religions
will cease only when we understand that religion is not in books and temples. It
is an actual perception. Only the man who has actually perceived God and soul
has religion.[1]
If there were one in a thousand who had actually realized
religion, this world would soon be greatly changed... We are all in the dark;
religion is to us a mere intellectual accent, a mere talk, a mere nothing. We often
consider a man religious who can talk well. But this is not religion.
Religion comes when that actual realization in our own
souls begins. That will be the dawn of religion; and then alone we shall be
moral. Now we are not much more moral than animals. We are only held down by
the whips of society. If society said today, “I will not punish you if you steal”,
we should just make a rush for each other’s property. It is the policeman that
makes us moral. It is social opinion that makes us moral, and really, we are
little better than animals. We understand how much this is so in the secret of
our own hearts. So let us not be hypocrites.[2]
The great question that generally arises is the
utility of philosophy. To that there can be only one answer: if on the utilitarian
ground it is good for men to seek for pleasure, why should not those whose
pleasure is in religious speculation seek for that? Because sense-enjoyments
please many, they seek for them, but there may be others whom they do not
please, who want higher enjoyment.
The mistake is that we want to tie the whole world
down to our own plane of thought and to make our mind the measure of the whole
universe. … That is the difference between the worldly utilitarian and the
religious man. The first man says, “See how happy I am. I get money, but do not
bother my head about religion. It is too unsearchable, and I am happy without
it.” … But when this man comes to me and says, “You too must do these things,
you will be a fool if you do not,” I say, “You are wrong, because the very
things, which are pleasurable to you, have not the slightest attraction for me.
If I had to go after a few handfuls of gold, my life would not be worth living!
I should die.” That is the answer the religious man would make. The fact is
that religion is possible only for those who have finished with these lower
things. We must have our own experiences, must have our full run. It is only
when we have finished this run hat the other world opens.[3]
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