Vivekananda mailing List-1/20/03

[Guest guest]

From time immemorial symbols have been used by all kinds of religions.

In one sense we cannot think but in symbols; words themselves are

symbols of thought. In another sense everything in the universe may be

looked upon as a symbol. The whole universe is a symbol, and God is the

essence behind. This kind of symbology is not simply the creation of

man; it is not that certain people belonging to a religion sit down

together and think out certain symbols, and bring them into existence

out of their own minds. The symbols of religion have a natural growth.

Otherwise, why is it that certain symbols are associated with certain

ideas in the mind of almost every one? Certain symbols are universally

prevalent. Many of you may think that the cross first came into

existence as a symbol in connection with the Christian religion, but as

a matter of fact it existed before Christianity was, before Moses was

born, before the Vedas were given out, before there was any human

record of human things. The cross may be found to have been in

existence among the Aztecs and the Phoenicians; every race seems to

have had the cross. Again, the symbol of the crucified Saviour, of a

man crucified upon a cross, appears to have been known to almost every

nation. The, circle has been a great symbol throughout the world. Then

there is the most universal of all symbols, the Swastika. At one time

it was thought that the Buddhists carried it all over the world with

them, but it has been found out that ages before Buddhism it was used

among nations. In Old Babylon and in Egypt it was to be found. What

does this show? All these symbols could not have been purely

conventional. There must be some reason for them; some natural

association between them and the human mind.