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A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga602
men who give similar reports regarding their own particular deities. The
Persians have given similar reports, and even the ancient Egyptians have
left records of similar occurrences. These conflicting reports have led to
the belief, on the part of those who did not understand the nature of the
phenomena, that these things were “all imagination” and fancy, if indeed
not rank falsehood and imposture. But the Yogis know better than this.
They know that underneath all these varying reports there is a common
ground of truth, which will be apparent to anyone investigating the matter.
They know that all of these reports (except a few based upon fraudulent
imitation of the real phenomenon) are based upon truth and are but the
bewildered reports of the various observers. They know that these people
were temporarily lifted above the ordinary plane of consciousness and
were made aware of the existence of a Being or Beings higher than mortal.
It does not follow that they saw “God” or the Absolute, for there are many
Beings of high spiritual growth and development that would appear to the
ordinary mortal as a very God. The Catholic doctrine of Angels and Archangels
is corroborated by those among the Yogis who have been “behind
the Veil,” and they give us reports of the “Devas” and other advanced Beings.
So the Yogi accepts these reports of the various mystics, saints and inspired
ones, and accounts for them all by laws perfectly natural to the students of
the Yogi Philosophy, but which appear as supernatural to those who have
not studied along these lines.
But we cannot speak further of this phase of the subject in this lesson,
for a full discussion of it would lead us far away from the phase of the
general subject before us. But we wish to be understood as saying that
there are certain centers in the mental being of Man from which may come
light regarding the existence of the Absolute and higher order of Beings.
In fact, from these centers come to man that part of his mental “feelings”
that he calls “the religious instinct or intuition.” Man does not arrive at that
underlying consciousness of “Something Beyond” by means of his Intellect—
it is the glimmer of light coming from the higher centers of the Self. He