are arising in the nature of the studies that are being carried on, and
we have that wonderful theory of Sir William Crookes of the genesis of
the elements. He takes protyle as a starting-point, which is really Vâyu
in its form on this physical plane--Prithivî Vâyu--and out of that
builds one atom after another, making all the chemical elements to be
bodies aggregated together by the action of a positive and a negative
force. Let me just remind you of this, because some amongst you go so
eagerly after modern science and despise your own literature. If you had
read your _Vishnu Purâna_, with your brain, and not merely with your
eyes through modern spectacles, you might have learnt that theory of Sir
William Crookes long, long before he gave it. He has drawn a picture,
and the picture shows an immovable axis, and around it a spiral coil,
and at points in that coil are atoms of the chemical elements, generated
by that coil which represents a swinging and cooling force. That spiral
is in the great ocean of protyle, or primeval matter, and, as that
spiral goes round and round the immovable axis, it generates chemical
elements one after another, and so brings into existence the materials
out of which the world is to be formed. That is the dry scientific
statement summarised from his own address. But I have read in an ancient
book of a mountain--which is the emblem of stability, of an axis round
which everything is to revolve--thrown into a mighty ocean; and I have
read of a great serpent turned round that mountain in spiral coils; on
the one side the Suras are pulling and on the other side the Asuras are
equally busy. Between the two--the positive and negative of modern
science--evolution is started and the serpent spiral begins to turn and
turn round that axis. They call the axis Mount Mandara, and they call
the spiral coil the serpent Vâsuki while the axis rests on Hari as a
pivot; they call the positive and the negative forces the Gods and
Demons, and their churning of the ocean gives rise to the materials of
the universe. Aye! That is from the seer, who, looking at the ocean of
matter, described pictorially what the eyes of the spirit beheld there;
while the other is the dry scientific statement of the modern thinker,
who works out his magnificent generalisation as the result of his study
of the forms. The seer and the scientist have met.
I shall show you, when I come to deal with life, that modern science is
coming towards our view of life. I shall give you, from the latest
declarations of our modern scientific teachers, points which will show
you how they are climbing towards the ancient view which is found in our
sacred books; and I will now finish this first part of our subject this
morning by one plea addressed to all of you, which I would pray you to
think over at your leisure.
There is but One Life, the Life of God, within everything in His universe.
No life save His life, no consciousness save His consciousness, no
thought save His thought. This is our glory; for inasmuch as we are in
His image, we can answer to the vibrations of His thinking, and can
reproduce in our minds that which He has initiated in order that we may be
evolved. In all the different parts of this universe, different lines of
evolution are going on; the sun is doing part of it, the vegetable world
another part, the animal world another, the world of man another; but in
the world of man there is more diversity, because there Self-consciousness
is arising. The final image of the Supreme on earth is man; in man alone
is the highest life; the others are climbing towards it, but in them it
has not yet evolved. Therefore in man there is more difference; therefore
in man, for the time, more separation; therefore in man the great danger
of antagonism that the lower kingdoms know not, because they are not
sufficiently evolved. Then comes the conflict: I take my own poor
reflection of one tiny bit of thought of Íshvara, and I say: "This is
Íshvara Himself," and not my poor thought of Him; "Worship this as I see
it," that is, "Worship me instead of Íshvara, and my thought of Him
instead of Him." So man after man puts up his idea of God as God, and we
see all the world divided into many forms of thought and of worship. Then
a man imagines that his brother men are worshipping other Gods, and he
becomes anxious and troubled, not realising that Gods are many because we
are worshipping our own thoughts of God instead of God, our own limited
representations instead of the Universal Self. Nay more--I, perhaps, not
only say to you that you must worship my conception of God instead of your
own, that my knowledge is the limit of manifestation, that my small
fancies make up the universe instead of the infinite diversity that alone
can represent His might; but perhaps I go further and say: "If you do not
worship my idea of God, you are outcaste, you are alien, you belong to a
different faith, you belong to a different creed; stand outside; for I am
orthodox, you are heretic and blasphemous your faith." So speaks religion
after religion, fanatic after fanatic; so one man after another makes his
own reflection the God of the universe, and hence antagonises his
brethren, whose representations of the divine image are as necessary to
its completeness as his own.
That is what I ask you to realise. God cannot be expressed wholly in you
or in me, in our miserable limitations, in our poverty of thought, in
our wretchedness of impudent assumption. He can only be even partially
expressed by all the worlds together; His whole universe is His mirror,
and every fragment in the universe gives back to Him, in part His own
perfections. Is it not nobler, greater, more glorious, to be a fragment
of a perfect whole, making a part of the whole unity itself, subserving
it in mirroring Íshvara, than to be shut in with our own fragment of a
looking glass, trying vainly to make it perfectly reflect the whole, and
refusing any partial reflection of the perfect in our brethren on every
side? That is the thought which these lectures will embody, and they
will fail in their purpose if they do not carry it home to your minds.
For Íshvara, who is Existence and Intelligence, is also A'nanda, Joy,
Bliss inexpressible, and that Bliss is only realized when union is
consciously accomplished, when the whole is known as one. May I but help
you to see the Self in all things: what better service may man do for
man?
[SECOND LECTURE.]
THE FUNCTIONS OF THE GODS.
My Brothers:--Those of you who are familiar with your own sacred
literature will know how great a part is played therein by those
spiritual Intelligences who are spoken of as the Devas, or Gods. As I
said yesterday, the existence, the presence, and the working of these
Intelligences in the administration of nature, in the carrying out of
the will of Íshvara, are recognised in every great faith that the world
has known. The Hindu speaks of them sometimes as Suras, sometimes as
Devas; the Hebrew, the Christian, the Mussulman, speak of them as Angels
and Archangels, making the distinction between the higher and the lower;
the Zoroastrian also recognises their work, speaking of them as
Feristhas; and so, in each of the great religions, we find the presence
of these workers in the Kosmos recognised, and we see their functions
defined. Now it is exceedingly important, especially perhaps for the
Hindu, to understand how wide is the area of their working, how general
their functions, for no subject perhaps is more often made a subject for
attack by those who desire to injure the ancient religion of India, than
the actions of the Gods as detailed in the sacred books. You will
continually find that those actions are being misunderstood or
mis-represented. The mis-representation, one may always hope, is not
deliberate and conscious. It is due to the general materialism of the
age. It is due to the fact that men who believe in a religion nominally
do not realise the effect of that religion in their consciousness. So
that while a man may say that he believes in Angels and Archangels and
so on, he leads his life as though they did not exist. Among our
Christian brothers there is considerable difference of opinion with
regard to these Angels. In the different sections of the great Christian
community, the vast majority of those that profess Christianity--making
up the old Greek Church, sometimes called the Eastern Christian Church,
and those who are numbered in the Roman Communion, the Roman Catholic
Church, the two ancient Churches which have preserved an unbroken
antiquity and an unbroken tradition from the time of Christ and His
Apostles--have maintained and maintain, uninjured and complete, the
ancient belief in the ministry of angels. They really lead their lives
as recognising the part that is played in the world by the angelic
hosts, and not only do they regard the Archangels as the great rulers of
animated nature--the seven chief Archangels taking the place of the
seven Gods in other faiths--but they also recognise the lower host of
angels as concerned continually in administering natural laws, in
guiding human evolution; and indeed they go so far as to say that every
individual man is in special charge of a guardian angel, who ministers
to him from the cradle to the grave, who tries to help him in danger, to
advise him in temptation, to protect him in peril, to ward off all the
evils levelled against him, and who, helping him through the gateway of
death, accompanies him on the other side through the invisible world,
until he surrenders up his charge into the hands of Christ Himself. The
Protestant communities, however, breaking off as they did, roughly and
abruptly, from the ancient tradition, full of occult truth, have lost,
among many other valuable things, this real belief in the work of the
angels. Most members of the Protestant communities, while they
acknowledge the existence of the angels and vaguely regard them as
"ministers of God," have no very definite idea of the part that they
play in the world. They do not address them, as do the Roman Catholics
and the Greeks. They do not pay them reverence and homage day by day,
or look on them as helpers, as intelligences superior to themselves,
always willing to render assistance. Practically the angels have passed
out of their lives, so far as any conscious realisation of their
presence is concerned; and I cannot help thinking that the loss is a
very serious loss when you are dealing with spiritual evolution; the
whole idea of the Supreme tends to become degraded and anthropomorphised
when the intermediate agents are forgotten, and when every petty concern
of human life is, as it were, thrown directly under the immediate
superintendence of the Supreme. We must not, of course, in recognising
the working of the Gods, or the Devas, as I shall call them for the rest
of the lecture, lose sight of the unity of the Supreme Deity. We do not,
in Hinduism, deny or ignore the existence of Íshvara because we
recognise the hosts of the Devas; we do not cloud our belief in the One
because we recognise the innumerable hosts of the ministers of His will;
there is nothing more against the unity of God in the recognition of the
hosts of the Devas, than there is in recognising the diversity of men,
yet it is not pretended that we are clouding the unity of the Divine
Existence when we recognise the hosts of individuals who make up the
whole of humanity. It is mere prejudice or ignorance that makes any one
think that because the Hindu recognises the action of the Devas,
therefore he has lost his belief in the One Existence beyond even
Íshvara Himself, in the fundamental unity that underlies diversity. What
he does is, that instead of regarding the world as superintended by an
extra-kosmic God, separated as it were from His universe, with a mighty
gulf existing between Him and it, he sees in Íshvara the manifestation
of the one Life that pervades and sustains all, he sees in Íshvara the
one Root out of which all separated existences spring; and he sees,
stretching between himself and that Supreme, innumerable hosts of
Intelligences, step after step, rank after rank, and he looks to
climbing up that celestial ladder until he also stands at its very top;
for he knows that he also is divine, although as yet in an early stage
of evolution, and he recognises the more highly evolved divinity above
him, as he recognises the divinity in the stone beneath his feet, in
everything that exists in this universe of God.
With that beginning, so that our study may not lead to a misconception,
let us pass on to ask what are the functions of these Devas, of these
Intelligences, who work in the world. You will at once realise that the
functions must be very different, according to the grade of the Devas
that we may happen to be studying. Through the whole of the Kosmos they
are working. Some are very lofty, some are very little evolved above the
level of humanity. One great difference there is between us and them,
that whatever may be the grade of their mental, emotional, and spiritual
life, they do not, normally, use a physical body. That is a clear mark
or line of separation. The being functioning as man, while spiritual,
intellectual and emotional, uses a physical body, in order to carry on
the activities connected with the physical world. All the hosts of Devas
are without that physical covering or vehicle; they normally use as
their vehicle a body which belongs to the particular region in the
universe in which their normal activities lie. Suppose, for instance,
that a Deva belongs essentially to the spiritual world, he will normally
use a spiritual body; if he wants to function on the mânasic plane, he
will create for himself a temporary mânasic body, drawing together for
this purpose the matter of that plane and holding it as his vehicle
during the period of his functioning thereupon; if he wants to function
in the kâmic region, he will draw together the material of that region
and make of it for himself a temporary body; if he wants to function
visibly in the world of man, he will draw round himself the matter of
the physical plane, and make for himself a body suitable to the
immediate purpose that he has in view. So with every other grade. The
Devas of the mânasic world use normally the mânasic body, and create the
kâmic or physical body as they may want a temporary vehicle. Those of
the kârmic region use the kârmic body normally, and create a physical
vehicle when they require it. Thus, in every case, the Deva's ordinary
body is composed of the matter of the region of the universe to which he
belongs; but he has always the power to create any vehicle that he needs
for carrying out any purpose with which he is charged. This will perhaps
suggest to you one reason for the great variety of forms which a single
God may assume. Those whose inner sight is developed, who can see in the
regions which to ordinary men are invisible, say that the Gods use many
forms. And some of their forms have come down traditionally, described
originally perhaps by a great Ṛishi, preserved by his disciples, then
thrown into some form of earth, or stone, or metal, painted or
sculptured as the case may be; then such an image of the God is handed
down generation after generation, and represents that Deva under that
particular form to his worshippers. We find many forms for one Deva,
just because of the fact that the God makes the form he wants for the
particular work he has upon hand, and that none of those forms bind him.
They are merely transitory vehicles created for a definite purpose. Some
of these forms are indeed relatively permanent, partly because of the
worship which is addressed to them. For the Deva will often graciously
use a particular form in order to meet the thought of his worshippers.
Suppose for instance, taking a lofty example, that Shrî Kṛiṣhṇa willed
to reveal Himself to some Bhakta of His, in order that that devotee
might have the joy of consciously realising the presence of his Lord, He
then most certainly would clothe Himself in the form which that Bhakta
was in the habit of worshipping and which drew up the deepest emotions
of his heart. For these forms are taken for the very purpose of
stimulating devotion, for the very object of attracting the heart by
presenting the illimitable Deity in some conditioned form which the
concrete mind of man is able more or less to grasp, to understand, to
admire and to worship. You cannot love the void of space. You cannot fix
your heart on the depths of infinity; you deceive yourself if, with your
limited intelligence, untrained even in the lowest forms of Yoga, you
think that you can realise Brahman, the Supreme. Too often when we speak
of THAT, no real thought responds to our speaking; the lips speak, not
the intelligence or the heart. Step by step we have to climb from the
manifested to the unmanifested, and, in His compassionate love, God
veils Himself in forms of beauty to attract the human heart, in order
that the human heart may rise adoringly to His Feet, and that some
portion of His life, pouring down thereinto, may enable the Self of the
worshipper to realise even partially its unity with Him.
The Devas, then, in their many ranks and divisions, perform functions
according to their grade. Speaking generally, their work in the world is
to guide evolution according to the design of Íshvara. That really sums
up their functions, although we are going to study them in detail. I say
nothing of the vast functions of the higher Devas that lie beyond our
knowing, beyond the teaching that Ṛishis have given. I deal only with
those lower functions that are concerned with our world, and with the
solar system of which our world is part. Taking that limitation,
suitable to our ignorance, we can study some of the functions of the
Gods within the limits of our solar system.
Speaking generally, as I said, that function is to guide evolution, to
adapt, to correlate, to carry out the living will of the Supreme, and to
carry out that will by bringing together in time and space all the
agents and conditions necessary for carrying it out. There is only one
supreme Will that guides the universe, and that Will points steadily to
progress, to the goal set forth for the universe, the goal towards which
it is evolving. Unchangeable, stable, perpetual, that Will knows no
swerving; to use a Christian phrase, "there is no shadow of turning" in
that immutable Will. The universe rolls along the road traced out by the
Divine Will. It cannot be diverted from that road; it cannot change its
path; that is the law of the universe, the law on which we rest with
faith unshakable. But in the working out of the law in this universe
where men are evolving--men in whom is the germ of that same sovereign
and imperial Will of God, man being made in the Divine image and
containing within himself the germ of the Divine powers--in this
universe, as man evolves, wills also evolve which are separate,
personal, individual. All the confusion in the world of man is due to
this evolution of the separated wills that do not recognise their root
in God, but try to follow their own diverse ways, and want to move after
their own separated fashions; so that in the world of man, as nowhere
else in nature, you have discord instead of harmony, clash instead of
peace, struggle and war instead of tranquillity. The world of minerals
obeys the compulsion of the law; the world of vegetables obeys the
compulsion of the law; the world of animals obeys the compulsion of the
law; but when man arises, man in whom the Supreme is to be developed
after he has climbed through the lower stages, in man there awakens the
germ of the will, and the separated wills bring about the discord which
will yet end in something greater and richer than the harmony of the
stones, of the vegetables, of the animals. For when human evolution is
over, millions of separated wills will join in one mighty chord of
harmonious union, and that union of the wills that voluntarily give
themselves is mightier in its powers, more beautiful in its expression,
than compelled obedience can ever be. The music that humanity sends up
to God, in all its varied melody, is a far more perfect expression of
Divinity than can be drawn from the monochord that we find in the lower
kingdoms of nature; but you will readily understand that when these
warring wills arise, something, some one, is wanted in order to adapt,
to correlate, to bring about equilibrium among the contending forces, so
that the one purpose may be steadily subserved. Let me take a concrete
illustration. Suppose I had here a ball which I want to move. That ball
can be moved along a straight line in innumerable ways. I might give it
a single impulse in the direction in which I want it to move; and it
would move straight on in that direction following my primary impulse.
So would the universe move if it contained only minerals, vegetables and
animals, if there were no clashing wills within it, if it were within
the iron grip of compulsion, which never in any fashion could be
resisted. But I can equally well drive my ball along that straight line,
if I know enough of physics, by correlating different and opposed
forces. I may send two forces against it at a particular angle, and if
my angle be properly measured according to the strength of the forces,
then the ball will travel along the same line by the interaction of the
two forces as well as by the impact of the one; and I may bring three,
or four, or five, or a million forces, to bear upon that ball, and still
it will move along that one definite line, if only the forces are
calculated and balanced so that their resultant shall always be a force
along that straight line. That balancing is one of the functions of the
Gods. They take these warring wills, these different directions that are
being impressed, as it were, on the rolling world that is going along
the road of evolution; they balance, adapt, and correlate them, and thus
always keep the world travelling along the straight line, always
bringing about the same resultant, the accomplishment of the Will of the
Supreme; without them, these wills of ours would work infinite
confusion, and the world would never complete its evolution, would never
roll upwards to its place at the Feet of God.
We find the Gods discharging other functions which subserve the same
purpose. They mould the forms in which the growing life is to express
itself. Evolution depends upon the growing power of the unfolding life,
but it needs forms whereby that growth shall be carried on. These forms
are moulded by the Devas, so that the life, which breaks by expansion
its containing form that is out-worn, may have another form into which
to go fitted for the capacity that was evolved in the form it has
out-grown. We shall find also that they break up forms as well as build
them; being always fixed on the one object of serving the evolution of
the life. Then again they act as teachers, as guides, as councillors, to
those that have gone beyond the normal evolution, that are the first
fruits of the human race. Not acting as teachers directly to the masses,
they take the more advanced human beings in charge, directly instruct
them, test them and try them, as presently we shall see. So that while
the general purpose is the helping forward of evolution, this help is
rendered in a million ways, according to the needs of the time.