________________
RECONCILIATION.
1065
militant god, delighting in bloodshed and strife, ever ready to get angry on the slightest provocation, and equally willing to be appeased by sacrificial blood-a god who constantly formed resolutions and then repented of them (Genesis, VI. 6; Exodus, XXXII. 14).
Another form of the effect of prejudice is to be found in the fact that when religious clairvoyants find their vision penetrating beyond the physical plane they invariably see things according to their beliefs, e.g., the Mahomedans find the heavens and hells as depicted in the Qur'an, the Christians, as they are described in the Bible, and others, according to their individual beliefs. It cannot be that the same scene changes for different individuals or from time to time, but it may well be that the differences lie in the spectacles which the 'seers' put on, before starting on their clairvoyant expeditions.
The explanation of these and similar errors is to be found in the undisciplined lives led by many of the so-called prophets. When people eat animal flesh and drink intoxicating liquors, they cannot but absorb their impurities, and if they happen to enter the yogic trance at a time when their minds are loaded with the filthy emanations from the animal carcasses and alcoholic fumes, they unconsciously impart the colour of their own desires, thoughts and prejudices to the subjective phenomena their subtler vision perceives. As Annie Besant holds,
"If you want to see it justified, turn back to the records of Mystics and Saints, whose religions did not impose on them a strict discipline of Life. You will find much of unbalanced thought and judgment, much of hysterical emotion, mingled with a splendid insight into the worlds called invisible, and a marvellous response
98
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
