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Lesson VII: Bhakti Yoga.365
others and especially favored by God. Non-attendance at the temple is a
serious offense, and God is particular to punish the stay-at-homes. Devils
have been invented as a means of frightening people, and to account for
“evil,” although, in some of the creeds, the devils are not much worse than is
the conception of Deity.
Nearly all people have made images of their Gods, and the less learned
of the people, could see but little difference between the image and the
personal God somewhere afar off. The image was right before them, and
partook of reality, while the Deity itself was a poorly understood being.
We are not mentioning these things in the spirit of unkindly criticism, or of
ridicule. Not a particle of such feelings animate us in this writing. We merely
mention the facts in order to show the student the rough places traveled
over by Man in his search for God. No matter how crude the conception of
Deity—no matter how cruel and barbarous the form of worship—no matter
how buried in superstition are these forms of religion—each is a step in
the progress of man to Union with God, and must be recognized as such.
Man has discarded sheath after sheath of religious ignorance, each sheath
revealing a better form than itself. And this process is still going on, and will
go on. We are growing out of old forms into better ones. This is a part of the
evolutionary process.
The materialist points out these same facts, and argues that all religions are
false because the history of the past shows the falsity of the old conceptions
of age after age. But he does not see that his own conceptions of matter
and Nature are likewise steps in the evolutionary process, and that his
present position is merely a step on the ladder, just as were the forms and
conceptions at which he sneers. He like the savage and his successors, is
seeking God, but he does not realize it.
The student of religions will notice that Man’s conception of God is
growing greater, broader, grander and kinder each year. Even in our own
times is this so. The last twenty years has wrought a mighty change in this
respect. We no longer hear of God burning infants a span long in eternal