Maya and the evolution of the conception of God

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With the advance of ethical ideas came the fight. There arose a

certain sense in man, called in different languages and nations by

different names. Call it the voice of God, or the result of past

education, or whatever else you like, but the effect was this that it

had a checking power upon the natural impulses of man. There is one

impulse in our minds which says, do. Behind it rises another voice

which says, do not. There is one set of ideas in our mind which is

always struggling to get outside through the channels of the senses,

and behind that, although it may be thin and weak, there is an

infinitely small voice which says, do not go outside. The two

beautiful Sanskrit words for these phenomena are Pravritti and

Nivritti, " circling forward " and " circling inward " . It is the

circling forward which usually governs our actions. Religion begins

with the circling inward. Religion begins with this " do not " .

Spiritual begins with this " do not " . When the " do not " is not there,

religion has not begun. And this " do not " came, causing men's ideas

to grow, despite the fighting gods which they had worshipped.

 

A little love awoke in the hearts of mankind. It was very small

indeed, and even now it is not much greater. It was at first confined

to a tribe embracing perhaps members of the same tribe; these gods

loved their tribes and each god was a tribal god, and the protector

of that tribe. And sometimes the members of a tribe would think of

themselves as the descendants of their god, just as the clans in

different nations think that they are the common descendants of the

man who was the founder of the clan. There were in ancient times, and

are even now, some people who claim to be descendants not only of

these tribal gods, but also of the Sun and the Moon. You read in the

ancient Sanskrit books of the great heroic emperors of the solar and

the lunar dynasties. They were first worshippers of the Sun and the

Moon, and gradually came to think of themselves as descendants of the

god of the Sun, of the Moon, and so forth. So when these tribal ideas

began to grow there came a little love, some slight idea of duty

towards each other, a little social organisation. Then, naturally,

the idea came: How can we live together without bearing and

forbearing? How can one man live with another without having some

time or other to check his impulses, to restrain himself, to forbear

from doing things which his mind would prompt him to do? It is

impossible. Thus comes the idea of restraint. The whole social fabric

is based upon the idea of restraint, and we all know that the man or

woman who has not learnt the great lesson of bearing and forbearing

leads a most miserable life.

 

Now, when the ideas of religion came, a glimpse or something higher,

more ethical, dawned upon the intellect of mankind. The old gods were

found to be incongruous--these boisterous, fighting, drinking, beef-

eating gods of the ancients--whose delight was in the smell of

burning flesh and libations of strong liquor. Sometimes Indra drank

so much that he fell upon the ground and talked unintelligibly. These

gods could no longer be tolerated. The notion had arisen of inquiring

into motives, and the gods had to come in for their share of inquiry.

Reason for such-and-such actions was demanded and the reason was

wanting. Therefore man gave up these gods, or rather they developed

higher ideas concerning them. They took a survey, as it were, of all

the actions and qualities of the gods and discarded those which they

could not harmonise, and kept those which they could understand, and

combined them, labelling them with one name, Deva-deva, the God of

gods. The god to be worshipped was no more a simple symbol of power;

something more was required than that. He was an ethical god; he

loved mankind, and did good to mankind. But the idea of god still

remained. They increased his ethical significance, and increased also

his power. He became the most ethical being in the universe, as well

as the most almighty.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued