Religion as a daring dash into the dark

Swami Vivekananda, an Indian mystic, has influenced everyone from Mahatma Gandhi to Narendra Modi. Is religion akin to exploration? Why does inspiration both harm and help? What is the fundamental nature of the world? Read Vivekananda’s take on all this and more👇👇👇

Religion as exploration. Just like ancient settlements were surrounded by a mysterious jungle, life itself is surrounded by a puzzling darkness. Where do babies come from? Where do the dead go? The curiosity about this unknown dark space kickstarted religion.

Why go in the dark? The unknown might be unknowable. Why bother? Vivekananda asks: “Why shall we not rest satisfied with eating, drinking, and doing a little good to society?” His answer: without seeing the full picture, the human heart is restless and human soul is lost.

Decades before the discovery of quantum physics, Vivekananda wrote: “The gross melts into the fine, physics into metaphysics.” The known world is sustained by, and comes from, the unknown. Religion is a “a plunge into the unknown” - a bold search for the true nature of the world.

Everything cuts both ways. The fire heats food, but sometimes burns down cities. Instead of “good or evil,” think of the world as “a great gymnasium” where we come to become strong. God didn’t build a perfectly good world because in it is no opportunity to develop strength.

Inspiration: a double edged sword. When we explore the unknown dark, neither the eyes nor our existing mental models help. What helps is an inspiration that seems to come from “beyond the senses.” But beware of frauds who, under the pretense of inspiration, peddle illusions.

Beliefs v/s becoming. For Vivekananda, religion is not a set of beliefs, but rather a “question of becoming.” Religion starts with questions and a bold dash into the dark. In our attempt to give firm shape to what is currently unknown, we become higher beings than before.

Universe - systematic or unknowable? Vivekananda calls the universe both “systematic through and through,” and also “eternally unknowable.” There’s a tension in the mystic’s mind: Is there a firm boundary at the far end of the world, or more darkness to venture into?

“Be an atheist if you want.” Few men have been more religious than Vivekananda, and yet he preferred atheists to those who were religious through blind faith. “ To believe blindly,” he said, “is to degenerate the human soul.” 

Bottom line. True religion is not an unthinking loyalty to a belief system, but a daring attempt to map the terrain beyond the known world. In Vivekananda’s eyes, therefore, religion and science aren’t at odds. Religion is simply the highest form of science.