are
in a deep gloom, but those who are given up to fruitless meditations are
in a still greater darkness._

UPANISHADS, FROM VEDAS.

Yes, in our time all these things must be cleared away in order that
mankind may escape from self-inflicted calamities that have reached an
extreme intensity. Whether an Indian seeks liberation from subjection
to the English, or anyone else struggles with an oppressor either of his
own nationality or of another--whether it be a Negro defending himself
against the North Americans; or Persians, Russians, or Turks against
the Persian, Russian, or Turkish governments, or any man seeking the
greatest welfare for himself and for everybody else--they do not need
explanations and justifications of old religious superstitions such as
have been formulated by your Vivekanandas, Baba Bharatis, and others, or
in the Christian world by a number of similar interpreters and exponents
of things that nobody needs; nor the innumerable scientific theories
about matters not only unnecessary but for the most part harmful.
(In the spiritual realm nothing is indifferent: what is not useful is
harmful.) What are wanted for the Indian as for the Englishman, the
Frenchman, the German, and the Russian, are not Constitutions and
Revolutions, nor all sorts of Conferences and Congresses, nor the many
ingenious devices for submarine navigation and aerial navigation,
nor powerful explosives, nor all sorts of conveniences to add to the
enjoyment of the rich, ruling classes; nor new schools and universities
with innumerable faculties of science, nor an augmentation of papers and
books, nor gramophones and cinematographs, nor those childish and for
the most part corrupt stupidities termed art--but one thing only is
needful: the knowledge of the simple and clear truth which finds
place in every soul that is not stupefied by religious and scientific
superstitions--the truth that for our life one law is valid--the law of
love, which brings the highest happiness to every individual as well
as to all mankind. Free your minds from those overgrown, mountainous
imbecilities which hinder your recognition of it, and at once the
truth will emerge from amid the pseudo-religious nonsense that has been
smothering it: the indubitable, eternal truth inherent in man, which is
one and the same in all the great religions of the world. It will in due
time emerge and make its way to general recognition, and the nonsense
that has obscured i