HOW DOES A UNIVERSAL PHILOSOPHY
AND RELIGION
APPROACH THE UNIVERSE?
SCIENCE
AND RELIGION
Reason asks: " Is there a science of religion?"
FROM THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
"Experience is the only source of knowledge.
In the world, religion is the only source where
there is no surety, because it's not taught as a
science of experience. This shouldn't be. There
is however, always a small group of people who teach
religion from experience. They're called mystics,
and these mystics in every religion speak the same
tongue and teach the same truth.
This is the real science of religion.
As mathematics in every part of the world doesn't
differ, so the mystics don't differ. They're all
similarly constituted and similarly situated. Their
experience is the same; and this becomes law.
In the church, religionists first learn a religion,
then begin to practise it; they don't take experience
as the basis of their belief.
But the mystic starts out in search of truth, experiences
it first, and then formulates his creed. The church
takes the experience of others; the mystic has his
own experience. The church goes from the outside
in; the mystic goes from the inside out.
Religion deals with the truths of the metaphysical
world just as chemistry and the other natural sciences
deal with the truths of the physical world.
The book one must read to learn chemistry is the
book of nature. The book from which to learn religion
is your own mind and heart.
The sage is often ignorant of physical science,
because he reads the wrong book, the book within;
and the scientist is often ignorant of religionl,
because he reads the wrong book, the book without.
All science has its particular methods; so has the
science of religion.
In fact, it has more methods because it has more
material to work upon. The human mind isn't homogeneous
like the external world. According to different
nature, there must be different methods.
As some
special sense predominates - one person will tend
towards seeing, another will tend towards hearing,
so there's a predominant mental sense; and through
this gate must the individual reach his own mind.
Yet through all minds runs a unity, and there's
a science which may be applied to all.
This science of religion is based on the analysis
of the human soul. It has no creed.
No one form of religion will do for all.
Each is
a pearl on a string. No man is born to any religion;
he has a religion in his own soul. Any system which
seeks to destroy individuality, is in the long run,
disastrous. Each life has a current running though
it, and this current will eventually take it to
God. The end and aim of all religions is to realise
God. The greatest of all training is to worship
God alone. If each man chose his own ideal and stuck
to it, all religious controversy would vanish."
