Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals - 17.4
26/12/2018 17 - The Awakening Message : 4. The purpose of this conference is, therefore, to awaken our consciousness to a state of its own self-consciousness. We are not here to preach religion which people generally define as a kind of opium. It is to call a dog a bad name and hang it, as they say. We do not know what religion is, and then we call it opium. We do not know what the world is, and we call it a reality. And we do not know who we ourselves are! We are in a world of total ignorance, darkness and misconception. We have no idea of our own selves; we do not know what we are made of; we do not know what our relationship is with the world and human society; we do not know what is beneath our own skin! This is the life that we live today. And yet we are great, gloried! We do not know what will happen to us tomorrow, or the next moment. We are controlled by forces over which we have absolutely no power or restrictive capacity. Our greatness is our simple ignorance! I