Glory of the Mother

This is an extract from a long letter written by Sri Swami Chinmayananda from Uttarkasi (Himalayas) on 20th October 1950, which happened to be the Vijaya Dasami Day, to Sri. P. B. Menon of Ernakulam, Kerala. It is interesting to note that Sri Swamiji started writing this letter around midnight and completed it at 4 am, the sacred Brahma-Muhurta on the Vijaya Dasami Day. We are grateful to Menon's family, who made the precious manuscript available to us for our use.

Religion without philosophy is superstition. Philosophy without religion is mere theory. And nowhere is the wedding of these two so perfect and enduring as in the great religion of Hindusim.

Religion, everywhere, includes three sections: the ritualistic forms and symbols, the mythology and the philosophy. These three are the three stages regular, systematic, measured and graded. A deluded Jiva (embodied soul) is to be taken from the first, through the second previous ones also must have for their basis the essence of the last. This is true in Hinduism. All our rituals and mythology represent the God-consciousness is the message, be it in the ritualistic stage or in the mythological stage of evolution.