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A Series of Lessons on the Inner Teachings of the Philosophies and Religions of India1198
of his true nature. He wallowed in the mud, and grew fat and big, with great
tusks. He took unto himself a pig-wife, and soon found himself surrounded
by a brood of baby-pigs, and was very happy by reason of his pig-family.
Some of the other gods, seeing his loss of recollection of his real self, and his
belief in the reality of his pig-nature, sought to arouse him from his illusion,
saying: ‘Arouse thyself, Indra, thou art a god’; but Indra grunted lazily, ‘Go
away, and disturb me not—I am a pig, and am happy. What do I care for
your heavens, with my mud, and my sow and baby-pigs. Go away!’ But the
friendly companion-gods, wishing to arouse him, killed his baby-pigs, and
later his wife-pig; but Indra wept and wailed, squealed and bit, and snorted
his rage and sorrow. Finally, in despair, they killed his pig-body itself, as they
would any other pig, whereupon Indra emerged freed from his delusion,
and laughed when told what a dream he had indulged in, and once more
resumed his god-life. But what would have been Indra’s sorrow, had he
been compelled to work out his Freedom through the repeated rebirths
and Karma, of Samsara, as do the individual souls in their road to Freedom
and Emancipation?”
Those of you who have read our views regarding the nature of the
manifestation of the universe by The Absolute, in our lessons on “Gnani Yoga,”
will realize that while we accept the Vedanta conception of the Oneness of
Being, and the All being All in All, yet we do not admit or hold that The
Absolute loses the knowledge of itself in its creations, but on the contrary
preserves that knowledge intact. And that the reflection of The Absolute
in each individual soul constitutes the Indwelling Spirit of the soul—its Real
Self. And that while the nature of the Universe is that of a Mental Creation
of The Absolute, and The Absolute finds itself reflected in the ideas of the
universe—and that all in that universe are ideas of The Absolute—still the
creation is deliberate and in pursuance with some design and plan of The
Absolute (the reason thereof being beyond human knowledge) and is not
the result of Ignorance or Avidya on the part of the Absolute, such thought
being inconsistent with the fundamental conception of Infinite Wisdom.