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MYTHOLOGY
absurd such a supposition really is, If you try to picm ture to yourself further the two famous trees, that of Life and that of knowledge of Good and Evil, you will see the absurdity of the supposition becoming still more ridiculous. Then, why should knowledge of Good and Evil be forbidden to man? Why, again, should hę be punished so cruelly for just one piece of the fruit as to be cursed and turned out of the Garden, to become subject to death, and to have his children and grand-children, and their remotest descendants, down to the very last man, inflicted with wretchedness and misery ? And if the punishment was what · was intended from the very first and an omniscient god must be deemed to have known from the very outset that Adam will prove disobedient--why do we find Jehovah repeatedly sending down prophets for the guidance of the fallen humanity ? Could he not have redeemed them with a word, just as he had cursed them with a word ?
If you ponder over these aud other similar questions that arise on the literal interpretation of this legend, you will agree with Origen that it is not to be taken as a narrative of facts. Its purport is hidden, like the purport of the Vedic deities,
I shall now place before you the esoteric interpretation of this fable. (1) The Garden of Eden is a represention of the
attributes of the soul.
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