The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 9/Writings: Prose and Poems(Original and Translated)/Lecture Notes

Probably at the turn of the century, Miss Ellen Waldo gave these undated notes in Swami Vivekananda’s handwriting to her friend Sister Devamata, a member of the Boston Vedanta Centre, where they were later made available for publication.

Man will need a religion so long as he is constituted as at present. The forms will change from time to time The dissatisfaction with the senses. The yearning beyond. There were encroachments of religion on the domains of physical science — these [encroachments] religion is giving up every day. Yet there is a vast field covered by religion where physical science[s] are mute. The [vain?] attempt to keep man strictly within the limits of the senses — Because — there are men who catch a glimpse now and then of the infinite beyond. The types of men. The worker — the mystic the emotional the intellectual. Each type is necessary for the well — being of society. The dangers of each — A mixture minimizes the danger The East is too full of mystics and meditative the West of workers — An exchange will be for the good of both. The necessity of religion — The four types of men that come to religion — the basis of Unity — the Divinity in man. Why use this term? the western Society has work and intellectual philosophy — But work must not be destructive of others. Philosophy — must not be only dry intellectuality