Hymns to the Mystic Fire - 3
….. contd from Hymns to the Mystic Fire -2 The change from the nature of Gods from being the Nature Gods to having them assigned a psychological attributes at later period was occasioned due to a cultural development in these early civilizations. They become progressively more mentalised and less engrossed in the physical life as they advanced in civilization. They then needed to rend into their religion and their deities more and more finer and subtler aspects. Such a phenomenon would then support their more highly mentalised concepts and interests. It would find for them a true spiritual being or some celestial figure as their support and sanction. However the largest part in determining and deepening this inward turn must be attributed to the Mystics.
The Mystics had an enormous influence on these early civilizations. There was indeed almost everywhere an age of the Mysteries. In this age men of a deeper knowledge and self-knowledge established their practices, significant rites, symbols and secret lore. This was done within or on the border of the more primitive exterior religions. This took different form in different countries. For example, in Greece there was the Orphic and Eleusinian Mysteries. Whereas in Egypt and Chaldea the priests had their occult lore and magic. In Persia it was the Magi. In India it was Rishis.
The preoccupation of the Mystics was with self-knowledge and a profounder world-knowledge. They found out that in man there was a deeper self and inner being behind the surface of the outward physical man. It was his highest business to discover and to know. “Know thyself” was their great precept. Similarly in India the great spiritual need or the highest thing for the human being was to know the Self, the Atman. They found also a Truth, a Reality behind the outward aspects of the universe. To discover, to follow, realize this Truth was their great aspiration. They discovered secrets and powers of Nature which were not those of the physical world. They could bring occult mastery over the physical world and physical things.
And to systematize this occult knowledge and power was also one of their strong preoccupations. But all this could only be safely done by a difficult and careful training, discipline, purification of the nature. It could not be done by the ordinary man. If men entered into these things without a severe test and training, it would then be dangerous to themselves and others. In their hands this knowledge, these powers could be misused, misinterpreted, turned from truth to falsehood, from good to evil. A strict secrecy was therefore maintained. The knowledge was handed down behind a veil from master to disciple. A veil of symbols was created. Behind these symbols the mysteries could shelter. Formulas of speech were devised which could be understood by the initiated but were either not known by others or were taken by them in an outward sense. This scheme carefully covered their true meaning and secret. This was the substance of Mysticism everywhere.
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… based on Hymns to the Mystic Fire, Foreword, Pg 3 - 4 by Sri Aurobindo
