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RECONCILIATION
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lies in the very personification* of karma as an anthropoinorphic creator. As a matter of fact, all actions which lead to good or bad results spring from souls themselves, so that they are truly the authors of their own miseries and woes. This is the truth which was fully known to the ancients, as is evident from our investigation. In course of time this simple truth was distorted by the followers of the mystic school of thought into a doctrine of creation, which reached its natural culmination in the 'inspired' utterances of Isaiah and the Prophet of Islam.
The rise of mysticism itself seems to be due to the poetical genius which delights in puzzling the minds of men by the mythical creations of its fancy. The luxuriant growth of myth and legend and their widespread employment are suggestive of mythology having become, at some time in the long forgotten past, the Lingua Franca of all creeds excepting Jainism, which has always adhered to the simple matter-of-fact expression of scientific thought. When the true interpretation of the myths and legends was lost sight of by the efflux of time and the vicissitudes of human destiny, the mystically inclined mind had nothing left but the outer husk to cling to. Then arose the differences which have given rise to bitter feuds and wholesale butchery of men.
Mythology seems to have found its staunchest ally in the yoga of devotion which professes to lead the soul to the goal by the shortest and cheapest route. For this reason people were delighted with it and flocked to it in large numbers. But they failed to see the far-reaching consequences which were sure to flow from concentration
* See The Practical Path, Appendix, pagos 216-217, footnote.
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