7rcTIX1xP

The Second Lesson: The Inner Teachings.1143
followed that nothing had been, or could have been really “created,” and
that therefore the Phenomenal Universe, and all it contained, including the
Individual Souls, must have “emanated from,” or been “manifested by” that
in some manner and by means of processes beyond the power of the mind
of man to determine, although not beyond his power to imagine. And upon
that Basic Proposition the Sages rested their speculation and reasoning
regarding the Phenomenal Universe. And upon that firm basis have been
erected the many structures of subsequent Hindu Philosophy. And, now, let
us give you a little summing up of the conclusions that were arrived at by
these Ancient Hindu Sages, and their earlier followers, before we pass to
the subsequent developments of the philosophical thought of India.
* * *
To begin with, the Hindu Sages assumed Three Axioms, or Self-Evident
Truths, upon which they based their Thought regarding the Phenomenal
Universe, and the Reality which they held was to be found behind it. These
Three Axioms were as follows:
i. From Nothing, Nothing can come; Something cannot be caused by, or
proceed from Nothing; Nothing Real can be Created, for if it is Not now
it never Can Be—if it Ever Was Not, it Is Not Now—if it Is Now, it Ever Has
Been.
ii. Something Real cannot be dissolved into Nothing; if it Is Now, it Always
Will Be; Nothing That Is can ever Be Destroyed; Dissolution is merely the
Changing of Form—the resolving of an Effect into its Preceding Cause (real
or relative).
iii. What is Evolved must have been Involved; the Cause (real or relative)
must contain the Effect; the Effect must be the reproduction of the Cause
(real or relative).
As we have seen, from the beginnings of the Hindu Philosophical thought,
there was manifested an almost intuitive desire to go back and through the
phenomenal aspect of things—back through the things which bore names,
even though these things were conceived of as universal principles—back