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APPENDIX.
205
of sacrificial animals, came to be recognised as emblems* of certain negative tendencies whose eradication is necessary for spiritual evolution and the attainment of mộksha. The device had the desired effect; for, while it left the authority of the Vedas as a revealed scripture untouched, on the one hand, it put a stop to the harmful and inhuman system of sacrifice, and turned men's thoughts in the right direction, on the other.
But the seed of evil which had been sown proved to be endowed with greater explosive vigour than could be nipped by the spiritualising of the sacrificial cult. For the whole of the mystic world, which seems to have always taken its cue in the sacred lore, principally from the fountain-head of mysticism (see The Fountain-bead of Religion' by Ganga Prasad, M.A.) in Bharatvarsha (India) whatever might have been its boundaries at the time— had imbibed the new doctrine of getting into heaven through the agency of sacrificial blood, and could not be persuaded to discontinue a practice which almost directly sanctioned their favourite food, the animal flesh. It is not always possible, at this remote period of time, to follow the waves of action and re-action set up by the changing attitude of Hindu thought in the outside world ; but we are not altogether without a strong actual parallel. This is furnished by the teaching of Judaism which seems to have passed through the same kinds of mental changes toward the sacrificial cult as those of Hinduism. The text (1 Sam. XV. 22)
" Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, * See The Key of Knowledge, chapter VIII.
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