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CHAPTER 3
Karma Yoga or the Method of Work
Traditional forms charged with historical associations are the vehicles of unspoken convictions, though they may not be well understood The quality of mind and not the object determines whether the source is religious or not. It is true that every one should reach the highest level but this can be attained generally by slow steps and not by sudden jumps. Besides, our views of religion are not chosen by us. They are determined by our ancestry, upbringing and general environment. We should not speak contemptuously of them. We must approach the followers of simple faiths with reverence and not heedlessly disturb them, for the simple faiths have practical value and spiritual appeal. Modem anthropologists advise us that we should not, in our anxiety to "uplift" the aborigines, deprive them of their innocent joys, their songs and dances, their feasts and festivals. Whatever we should like to do for them, we should do with love and reverence. We must use their restricted apprehensions as steps to the larger vision. Adopting the view that we should not throw out dirty water ;Intel we get in fresh, the Hindu pantheon has accommodated divinities worshiped by the different groups, those of the sky and the sea, the stream and the given, the legend y figures of the distant past and the tutelary gods and goddesses of villages. In its anxiety to lose nothing in the march of ages, to harmonize every sincere conviction without renouncing any, it has become an immense synthesis combining within itself varied elements and motives. It is not surprising that the religion is full of superstitions, dark and primitive.
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