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Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism336
The Karma Yogi is continually asking “How?” or “What?” The Gnani Yogi’s
eternal question is “Why?” And this “Why?” is beginning to unfold in the
minds of more people every day. The thirst for real spiritual knowledge is
rendering many uncomfortable, and causing them to seek that with which
to quench the thirst—the spiritual hunger is demanding nourishing food for
the soul.
People are beginning to see the unreality of the material things around
them, great as these material things may seem to be. They see that civilization
follows civilization—races rise, flourish and fall—people rise from savagery
up and on to the heights of material achievement, and then begin to decay.
In the ruins found buried beneath the earth’s surface may be found traces of
former great civilizations, of which history has no record. And one is awed
by the thought that the people of those civilizations must have thought
themselves at the apex of human achievement and that there was but little
left for the generations to come. And yet, they have faded away, leaving
not even a trace on the pages of history. The great warriors, statesmen,
philosophers and teachers of these civilizations are unknown, and the
people themselves are without a name to us. Nothing is left to tell the tale,
but a broken column here, or a mutilated statue there. And the thinker sees
that this fate must meet all races—all civilizations—even our own. We must
pass away—our work will be forgotten—future races, building a civilization
upon the ruins of that which is our proudest boast, will wonder who and
what we were.
Religions have risen, flourished, dominated millions, and have faded away,
borne down by the weight of the superstition and outward forms which
man persists in building around the bit of truth which originally caused
the religion to spring into existence. It has ever been so, and must be so
in the future. We may doubt this fact (so, doubtless, did the people of the
vanished civilizations), but it must come. It is mortal—man’s work—and the
mortal ever must perish and pass away.