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BOOK III
THE LIFE
Faith is the basis of Conduct. False faiths lead to the strengthening of impulses and cravings, in one way or another. They are all centred round the physical personality, whose welfare is ever kept at heart. People beg for boons-long life (immortality they dare not ask from their gods), health, wealth, and the like. Worship is mostly paid to one or more gods through fear of their wrathfulness. Some hold that there is a creator to whom they owe their being and well-being, and to whom they should be thankful. Sad conclusions these. There is no creator of substances, their attributes and qualities to be found in nature. Nature is self-sufficient. If nature can create a creator (for otherwise he will have to have a creator of his own being) it could certainly 'create' other things! As for gratitude, how many living beings are really well off or happy? Shall we look at the moth who is destroyed in millions, or the insect, or the tigers and wolves and goats and sheep that prey upon living beings and tear their flesh or are devoured themselves by others? Is, then, man really happy? Can we attribute happiness to our big men even? The truth is that creation is the cruellest of pastimes to think of;
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