A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

174 MAYA AND THE CONCEPTION OF GOD.him to do. It is impossible. Thus comes the idea ofrestraint. The whole social fabric is basefl upon that ideaof restraint, and we all know that the man or woman whohas not learnt the great lesson of bearing and forbearingleads a most miserable life.Now when these ideas of religion came, a glimpse ofsomething higher, more ethical, dawned upon the intellectsof mankind. The old gods were found to be incongruous,these boisterous, fighting, drinking, beef-eating gods of theancients, whose delight was in the smell of burning flesh.and libations of strong liquor. Sometimes Indra drank somuch that he fellupon the ground and began to talk unintelligibly. These gods could no longer be tolerated. Thenotion had arisen of inquiring into motives, and he godshad to come in for their share of inquiry? What is thereason for such an action of such and such a god ? andthe reason was wanting. Therefore men gave up (thesegods, or rather they developed higher ideas of gods ; theycollected together all the actions and qualities of thegods which they could not harmonise and they kept thosewhich they could understand and harmonise, and combining these, labelled them with one name, Deva-Deva, theGod of gods of the Universe. The god to be worshippedwas no more a simple symbol of power ; something more wasrequired than power. He was an ethical god he loved;mankind, did good to mankind. But the idea of god stillremained. They increased his ethical significance, and increased also his power. He became the most ethical being inthe Universe, as well as almost Almighty.But all this patchwork would not do. Asthe explanation assumed greater proportion, the difficulty which itwanted to solve did the same. If qualities of the god increased in arithmetical progression, the difficulty and doubt