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The Second Lesson: The Inner Teachings.1149
and which would end by smothering true religious philosophy by the cover
of ecclesiasticism. This fear has been found to be well grounded, by the
experience of men in all times and lands—the growth of organized churches
and priesthoods having invariably been accompanied by a decrease in the
philosophical freedom and clearness of thought, and a perversion of the
original teachings of the religion in question. Such seems to be the laws of
church organization and the crystallization of creeds. And, so, these ancient
sages wished to establish a co-ordinate branch of thought—one founded
on Pure Reason rather than on Faith and Authority—and which would tend
to keep pure the teachings and bright the flame of Truth, even when the
pall of ecclesiasticism would descend upon the Hindu Teachings, from time
to time.
And this precaution has tended to keep true philosophical thought alive
in India for over five thousand years—fifty centuries. From time to time the
religious teachers and leaders would become more and more orthodox,
and ritual, form, ceremonies and creeds would cause the people to forget
the Ancient Wisdom. Gods, demi-gods and supernatural creatures and
beings of all kinds would take the place of the thought of that in the minds
of the people, and that would appear only as a shadowy and nebulous
background to the personifications of Deity, and the numerous Avatars, or
Incarnations of the Divine. And so religious forms would flourish and the
religious spirit would wither and fade away. Then there would be sure to
arise some Heretic or Dissenter—Protestant or Reformer—who would
return to the ancient teachings and philosophies of the Fathers, sounding
again the old note of that, and the employment of Pure Reason as a basis for
Faith, rather than the ecclesiastical formalism and dogmatic theology upon
which so much so-called “religion” is based. These reformers would attract
many of the thinking people to them, who would be followed by a number
of the less intelligent ones, and a new school, or form of religion would be
adopted, and if based upon sound reasoning and practical precepts would
grow and flourish and prosper as did the old denominations. But sooner or