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Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism338
the inquiring student is perplexed more than ever to know just what is the
truth.
Let not our students suppose that we are speaking alone of the Western
schools of religion and philosophy—the Eastern world is just as bad. In India
there are countless sects, schools and cults. Each started with a bit of the
truth, but they have added much nonsense to that sacred thing, until the
real truth has been lost sight of by the followers, and superstition and idle
theories have taken the place of the calm, clear reasoning of the founders.
The East and the West stand alike in this respect—but while this is so, there
is a small number of men in all parts of the world, who keep alive the lamp
of truth—who keep the flame burning by watchful care, and unceasing
devotion. These men refuse to allow any theories of their own, or others, to
be mixed up with the truth. They say: “Let us speculate if we see fit—let us
listen to the speculations of others—but let us not confound it with the bit
of Divine Truth that has been handed down to us. Let us mix no alloy with
the pure metal.” It is true that India always has been the source and center of
great spiritual truths. All great religions have had their real birth in the East.
And in India to-day the conditions are more favorable for deep thought
and study than is the case in the hustling West. But this does not mean that
the masses of the Hindu people are highly developed spiritually. On the
contrary, there is no land where the weed of superstition grows more rankly.
And the reason of this may be understood, readily, when we consider that
the same conditions which are conducive to high metaphysical and spiritual
research and study, likewise furnish the best soil in which the weeds of
superstition may grow. In the soil of California, fruits and flowers grow in a
way unknown to the rest of the United States, but the same soil will grow a
rank vegetation of weeds if untended and neglected. In India, if a farming
settlement be neglected, in a year or so the jungle has again claimed its
former home, and rank vegetation flourishes where the field of the farmer
formerly stood.