There has been some dearth of activity here for quite some time, comments have long since dried up, and I haven’t written anything as such for more than a month or so. A short write-up for now; Just yesterday I was going through one website having quotes of the only person whom I’ve come close to worshiping in modern times – Swami Vivekananda. And over there I found a quote of Him (taken from the Complete Works, I suppose)
An atheist can be charitable but not religious.But the religious person must be charitable.
What exactly did He try to mean by this? I was wondering it because lot’s of contradictory statements were coming to my mind on reading this, and apparently I was forced to think that this time He had ended up in a contradiction. Firstly, because He himself had stated –
To be Good and To do Good– That is the whole of Religion
If an atheist is charitable, he’s good and by His above quote he must be Religious. On another occasion He states
Where are you looking for God – when he is in front of you in every living being, in many different forms? Those who serve mankind (and any other living being) are serving God…
Charitable implies the atheist serves mankind – implies he serves God, implies he IS religious!
These were the very obvious, and I had made up my mind that I’m going to put this thought of mine up here in my blog, either way – be it contradictory or explained! I got an explanation after some time, from myself, and I think it is the best available in the market for such things. The situation is equivalent to explaining Linear Algebraic Models to a literature student!
For someone who has never known a penny about a subject, say Mathematics, the best way to explain what the subject is all about is to make him understand what the subject mainly deals with! For Example, to explain a literature student what Mathematics is, we would say – “A subject that deals with digits or numbers…” Similarly if we were to explain an atheist what Religion is – we would say – ” To be Good and To do Good – That is the whole of Religion”….
Religion in reality is a bit different than that in reality. It is realization and has mainly to do with one’s mental development – but all these are for people who understand Religion in the true sense of the term! If one develops his mind and becomes a better human being, he is bound to be a charitable and humane.