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A Series of Lessons on the Inner Teachings of the Philosophies and Religions of India1148
are considered, it would be well for you to acquaint yourselves thoroughly
with the above lines of reasoning of the early Hindu sages. You will find that
once well grounded in them you will be able to consider any metaphysical or
philosophical question with a new clearness of thought and discrimination.
They are the Axioms of the Hindu Thought, which were formulated many
centuries ago by the keenest philosophical intellects of which we have any
record. And they are well worth the careful consideration of everyone who
wishes to think along philosophical lines.
* * *
It will be noticed that in the formulation of the above mentioned
Fundamental Principles of the Hindu Philosophies, the early teachers
considered the problem exclusively from the standpoint of Pure Reason,
and independent of any religious teachings or the voice of religious
authority. This occurred not because the early teachers wished to express
their disbelief in the prevailing religions of their day, but because they
felt that Truth must be above the exercise of mere Faith, or acceptance of
doctrines and dogmas issued upon the bidding of real or assumed authority.
They felt that man had been given Reason wherewith to examine for himself
into the great problems of life, being and the universe—Reason which
was not required for the needs of the struggle for material existence, but
which was evidently evolved for the purpose of purely intellectual work
and function—and, this being so, it became the duty of advanced men to
exercise this Reason to the utmost—to inquire of its highest reports and
conclusions, and then to abide by the results of the inquiry.
And there were other reasons inspiring these early thinkers to formulate
schools of philosophy, which should run along side by side with the
religious teachings of the race. These wise men foresaw the rise of dogmatic
religious teachings, or theology, fostered and nurtured by a priesthood
which would profit thereby, the end being that the populace would have
borne upon them a mass of dogma and so-called “authoritative” teaching,
ceremonies, ritual and creeds utterly foreign to the essence of the true faith,