Prayer Book

15. True Religion

1. Religion is the realisation of spirit as spirit. What are we doing now? Just the opposite, realising spirit as matter. Out of the immortal God we manufacture death and matter, and out of dead dull matter we manufacture spirit.


2. Religion is the inherent divinity of the soul; the soul is perfect, and religion is the manifestation of divinity already existing in man.Religion is the manifestation of the natural strength that is in man.


3. It is the nature of the brute to remain where he is (not to progress); it is the nature of man to seek good and avoid evil; it is the nature of God to seek neither, but just to be eternally blissful. Let us be God!


4. Behind everything the same divinity is existing, and out of this comes the basis of morality. Do not injure another. Love everyone as your own self, because the whole universe is one. In injuring another, I am injuring myself; in loving another, I am loving myself.


5. Religions of the world have become lifeless mockeries. What the world wants is character.


6. It is very good to be born in a church, but it is very bad to die in a church. It is very good to be born within the limits of certain forms that help the little plant of spirituality, but of a man dies within the bounds of these forms, it shows that he has not grown, that there has been no development of the soul.


7. Religion is not in books, not in theories, nor in dogmas, nor in talking, not even in reasoning. It is being and becoming.


8. My children, the secret of religion lies not in theories but in practice. To be good and to do good - that is the whole of religion.


9. Religion is the idea which is raising the brute unto man, and man unto God.


10. I do not believe in a God or religion which cannot wipe the widow's tears or bring a piece of bread to the orphan's mouth.