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other ideals fail to secure the full measure of happiness, and are, for that reason, unworthy of the soul.
The aim of religion, it will be pointed out as we progress with our subject, is none other than to raise mankind to the supreme status of Godhood. It owes its origin to the quest of happiness which thinking beings have ever found necessary to pursue. When one is taken ill in the flesh one goes to physicians and surgeons to be cured of one's ailment; but since the members of the medical faculty know not of any ininerals or herbs or other medicaments with which to allay the mental suffering, the soul in its agony seeks out the sages of the day and pours forth its troubles before them. The means suggested by the sages have at all times consisted of such practices as are calculated to establish the soul in the state of Sat-Chit-Anandaship, i.e., Godhood; hence, religion, from re, back, and ligo, to bind, becomes the recognized code of means which bind the soul to God, in other words, which lead it to realize the state of Godhood for itself.
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
When people talk of a high or a low religion they generally fail to understand the significance of the adjectives they employ. A high religion is one which brings the highest form of happiness to its votaries. Hence, the system which does not aspire to raise mankind to the supreme status of Godhood has no right to lay claim to be the high or the highest religion, and, not being the best, must perish, in due course of time, when intelligent men come to look into its merit.
But whence did the sages learn the truth about religion? There were neither books nor tables nor
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