*Today's Vivekananda Quote * “Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is within you. Again he says, “Our father who art in Heaven.” How do you reconcile the two sayings? In this way: He was talking to the uneducated masses when he said the latter, the masses who were uneducated in religion. It was necessary to speak to them in their own language. The masses want concrete ideas, something the senses can grasp. “A man may be the greatest philosopher in the world but a child in religion. When a man has developed a high state of spirituality, he can understand that the kingdom of heaven is within him. That is the real kingdom of the mind. “Thus we see that the apparent contradictions and perplexities in every religion mark but the different stages of growth. And as such we have no right to blame anyone for his religion. There are stages of growth in which forms and symbols are necessary; they are the language that the souls in that stage can understand.” [Talk given at Unity Hall, Hartford (Connecticut), USA, on March 8, 1895, as reported in “Hartford Times” (March 11, 1895). Complete Works, 1. 324.]