Question: Swamiji, what do you consider the purpose of religion?

Swamiji: A mature man who has lived his experiences intelligently and has maintained an alert, critical attention upon the incidents of life that he will come to such an inner maturity that he will feel a certain unrest. He has the necessities of life, but not a complete satisfaction. He sits back and listens to muffled questions from within. “Where did I come from?” “Where will I go (as one day I must)?” “Is life an empty and meaningless accident?” “Has life a purpose?”

Religion is for this man; it provides assurance and guidance in his endeavor to answer these inner questions.

Q: You make religion sound so positive. But so many injustices and wars have occurred in the name of religion that the mature, intelligent, critical person rejects it.

S: It is true the villainy, cruelty, ambition, madness and even wars have repeatedly reached the arena of life clothed in the cloak of glorious religion. Even today it is a regrettable fashion to go mad in the fury of war and loot, kill, plunder, rape and dishonor ourselves in the name of religion. Thus religion has come to signify a danger signal to the peace loving and the honorable. But this is not religion. What prompts these fanatics to draw out their weapons and murder the weak and the helpless is not their faith in religion, but their own base and low animalism, disguised in the pious robes of religion.

Q: What you say is true, but what about those who are working in church organizations, yet never seem spiritual; that is, they lack the qualities of love and compassion. Actually, they are rather narrow-minded.

S: Remember, I said religion is for the mature person who has conscientiously lived and examined the experiences of life. Of course, the majority never questions the why of the sorrows of the body and the torments of the mind. They just hurriedly discover a new set of excitements and a fresh pattern of distractions to engage the momentary fancy of the mind. They may even turn to God in the usual formalistic religions—visit churches, give to charitable causes or even build a temple. They will even run to their pews on Sunday or go to the temple for daily prayers. But all of these are only a variety of distractions to keep the mind from looking at itself, thereby escaping from its unhappiness.

Q: You have referred to religion as a philosophy which gives the answers to life, yet even in India the majority of the people who call themselves Hindus do not know the Vedanta philosophy.

S: Yes, that is true. Hinduism has in its vast amphitheater preserved and worshiped many ideals as contained in the Puranas [epics], the numerous scriptures including the Vedas and the 1,001 interpretations of these scriptures. All of this overgrowth has so effectively concealed the real beauty and grandeur of the tiny Temple of Truth that today it is hidden behind its own banners.

A true religion has two important limbs: the ritualistic injunctions and the philosophical support. Most of us generally accept the former as religion. But the rituals and formalities are mere superstitions without philosophy; philosophy reinforces the external practices of the formalities and blesses them with a purpose and an aim. Even so, philosophy without any actual practice is madness. Ritual and reason must go hand and hand.

Religion promises no magical change in the nature of the material objects or in the pattern in their various arrangements. The world will remain the same and circumstances will continue to function according to the Eternal Law, whether or not one has spiritual insight. Religion only lends the faithful ones a psychological balance and spiritual poise to enable them to face the inevitable vicissitudes of life.

Q: Then a person who condemns other religions cannot have a true spiritual insight.

S: No. ALL religions have the same goal. Once the individual realizes this goal he can never ridicule others nor fanatically proclaim that his is the only way. Humility, not fanaticism, is the character of one who has realized the Truth. We are all One; there is one God.

Q: How does one acquire the faith that you mentioned?

S: Faith springs from understanding. It is a conviction that grows from understanding. Therefore, one develops it by study of the scriptures and reflection on the ideas given there. As the conviction grows, desire to experience the highest state grows.

Q: Is faith really necessary?

S: Yes, just as it is necessary for any endeavor in the world. You must have faith that the work you are now doing will bring results in the future—at least the paycheck. But faith is already in everyone; even Ravana [a demon king] had faith in his power to gain glory for himself.

So having faith in the Lord; you gain the Lord. It cannot be a vague, wandering faith, but based on a true intellectual understanding of the goal to be reached.