Jnana-Yoga : 4-5.

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CHAPTER-4. Maya and the Evolution of the Conception of God-5.
(Delivered in London, 20th October 1896)

These ideas, in the setting of past times, were harmonious and not more hideous than our present ideas.

It is only when we try to take them out of their settings and apply to our own present circumstances that the hideousness becomes obvious.

For the old surroundings are dead and gone.

Just as the ancient Jew has developed into the keen, modern, sharp Jew, and the ancient Bharatiya into the intellectual Hindu similarly Jehovah has grown, and Devas have grown.


The great mistake is in recognising the evolution of the worshippers, while we do not acknowledge the evolution of the Worshipped.

He is not credited with the advance that his devotees have made.

That is to say, you and I, representing ideas, have grown; these gods also, as representing ideas, have grown.

This may seem somewhat curious to you — that God can grow.

He cannot.

He is unchangeable.

Swami Vivekananda
To be continued ...


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