Functions of the Gods. 



Greeks . They do not pay them reverence and homage 

 day by day, or look on them as helpers, as intelligen- 

 ces superior to themselves, always willing to render 

 assistance. Practically the angels have passed out 

 of their lives, so far as any conscious realisation of 

 their presence is concerned; and I cannot help 

 thinking that the loss is a very serious loss when you 

 are dealing with spiritual evolution ; the whole idea 

 of the Supreme tends to become degraded and 

 anthropomorphised when the intermediate agents 

 are forgotten, and when every petty concern of 

 human life is, as it were, thrown directly under 

 the immediate superintendence of the Supreme. 

 We must not, of course, in recognising the work- 

 ing of the Gods, or the Devas, as I shall call 

 them for the rest of the lecture, lose sight of the 

 unity of the Supreme Deity. We do not, in 

 Hinduism, deny or ignore the existence of Ish- 

 vara because we recognise the hosts of the Devas ; 

 we do not cloud our belief in the One because 

 we recognise the innumerable hosts of the minis- 

 ters of His will; there is nothing more against 

 the unity of God in the recognition of the hosts 

 of the Devas, than there is in recognising the 

 diversity of men, yet it is not pretended that 

 we are clouding the unity of the Divine Existence 

 when we recognise the hosts of individuals who 



D 



