From The Hinduism Address
Presented at the 1893 Parliament of Religions

"Children of Immortal Bliss" –– what a sweet, what a hopeful name! Allow me to call you, brethren, by that sweet name –– "heirs of Immortal Bliss." Yea, the Hindu refuses to call you sinners. We are the children of God, the sharers of Immortal Bliss, holy and perfect beings. Ye divinities on earth –– sinners? It is a sin to call a man so! It is a standing libel on human nature! Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are not bodies; matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter.

Thus the Vedas proclaim not an endless prison of cause and effect, but the glorious truth that at the head of all natural laws, and in and as every particle of matter and force stands the One Infinite Existence. And what is His nature? He is everywhere, the pure and formless One, the Almighty and All-merciful. "Thou art our Father, Thou art our Mother, Thou art our beloved Friend, Thou art the source of all strength." Thus sang the rishis of the Vedas. And how are we to worship Him? Through love. "He is to be worshiped as the one Beloved, dearer than everything in this and the next life." This is the doctrine of love declared in the Vedas.