You are here .... HOME > Sanskruti

What Religion is?

By Swami Ramakrishnananda, Belur Math
(Excerpts taken from the book ‘God Lived With Them’ By Swami Chetanananda, Belur Math).

Science is the struggle of man in the outer world. Religion is the struggle of man in the inner world. Science makes man struggle for Truth in the outside universe, and religion makes him struggle for Truth in the inner universe. Both struggles are great, no doubt, but one ends in success and the other ends in failure. That is the difference. Religion begins where science ends. The whole scientific method is based on observation and experiment; but the moment man realises that there is something beyond observation and experiment he will give them up and leave material science behind. Science will always have to deal with finite bodies, and God is infinite.

According to Vedanta philosophy the microcosm and Macrocosm are not different; they originate from the same substance. Actually time, space, and causation are not separate entities outside; they all exist in me, that is, in my mind. The whole universe is inside man

back to top

Truth is of two kinds:

• That which is cognisable by the five ordinary senses of man, and by reasonings based thereon

•  That which is cognisable by the subtle, super-sensuous power of Yoga.
  
  Knowledge acquired by the first means is called science;
  and knowledge acquired by the second is called the Vedas.
  
  The whole body of super sensuous truths, having no beginning or end, and called by the name of Vedas, is ever existent. The Creator Himself is creating, preserving and destroying the universe with the help of these truths.
  
  The person in whom this super-sensuous power is manifested is called a Rishi, and the super-sensuous truths, which he realises by this power, are called the Vedas.
  
  This Rishihood, this power of super-sensuous perception of the Vedas, is real religion. And so long as this does not develop in the life of an initiate, so long is religion a mere empty word to him, and it is to be understood that he has not taken yet the first step in religion.
  
  The authority of the Vedas extends to all ages, climes and persons; that is to say, their application is not confined to any particular place, time and persons.The Vedas are the only exponent of the universal religion.
  
  Although the super sensuous vision of truths is to be met with in some measure in our Puranas and Itihasas (history) and in the religious scriptures of other races, still the fourfold scripture known among the Aryan race as the Vedas being the first, the most complete, and the most undistorted collection of spiritual truths, deserve to occupy the highest place among all scriptures, command the respect of all nations of the earth, and furnish the rationale of all their respective scriptures.With regard to the whole Vedic collection of truths discovered by the Aryan race, this also has to be understood that those portions alone which do not refer to purely secular matters and which do not merely record tradition or history, or merely provide incentives to duty, form the Vedas in the real sense.
  
   

back to top