Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals : 9-8.
Chapter 9. Gurudev Sivananda – Physician of the Soul-8. Now, to ignore the existence and the operation of the soul in human conduct and activity would be to ignore yourself completely. What would happen to you, if you ignore yourself in the programme of life? The question is very strange. If everybody starts ignoring one's own self – I ignore myself totally, you ignore yourself totally, everybody ignores himself or herself totally in the meaning of life – then what remains in life? There would be no such thing as life itself. So, to remove religion is to remove the soul. That is what I was trying to tell our friend who came to me from All India Radio the other day. Religion is the science of the soul. It is not Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, etc. These are not religions. These are only the shapes that religion has taken in social relationship. Religion is the character of the soul made manifest in outward conduct and activity. And if the soul is what you are