We must remember that the Hindu religion lays down distinctly and clearly that every one who wants salvation must pass through the stage of Rishihood, must become a Mantra-drashta, must see God. That is salvation; that is the law laid down by our scriptures.

Vivekananda in San Francisco
"All glory, power, and purity are within your soul already. Stand up and express the divinity within You!"

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Then it becomes easy to look into the scripture with our own eyes, understand the meaning for ourselves, to analyse just what we want, and to understand the truth for ourselves. This is what has to be done. At the same time we must pay all reverence to the ancient sages for their work. They were great, these ancients, but we want to be greater. They did great work in the past, but we must do greater work than they.

They had hundreds of Rishis in ancient India. We will have millions - we are going to have, and the sooner every one of you believes in this, the better for India and the better for the world. Whatever you believe, that you will be. If you believe yourselves to be sages, sages you will be tomorrow. There is nothing to obstruct you. For if there is one common doctrine that runs through all our apparently fighting and contradictory sects, it is that all glory, power, and purity are within the soul already; only according to Ramanuja, the soul contracts and expands at times, and according to Shankara, it comes under a delusion.

Never mind these differences. All admit the truth that the power is there - potential or manifest it is there - and the sooner you believe that, the better for you. All power is within you; you can do anything and everything. Believe in that, do not believe that you are weak; do not believe that you are half-crazy lunatics, as most of us do nowadays. You can do anything and everything without even the guidance of any one. All power is there. Stand up and express the divinity within you!

Related reading at this site:

Source: Complete works of Swami Vivekananda, Lectures from Colombo to Almora, "The Work Before Us"

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