5O Evolution of Life and Form. 



make up the whole of humanity. It is mere 

 prejudice or ignorance that makes any one think 

 that because the Hindu recognises the action of 

 the Devas, therefore he has lost his belief in the 

 One Existence beyond even Ishvara Himself, in the 

 fundamental unity that underlies diversity. What 

 he does is, that instead of regarding the world as 

 superintended by an extra-kosmic God, separated 

 as it were from His universe, with a mighty gulf 

 existing between Him and it, he sees in Ishvara 

 the manifestation of the one L,ife that pervades 

 and sustains all, he sees in Ishvara the one Root 

 out of which all separated existences spring; 

 and he sees, stretching between himself and that 

 Supreme, innumerable hosts of Intelligences, step 

 after step, rank after rank, and he looks to climbing 

 up that celestial ladder until he also stands at its 

 very top ; for he knows that he also is divine, al- 

 though as yet in an early stage of evolution, and 

 he recognises the more highly evolved divinity 

 above him, as he recognises the divinity in the stone 

 beneath his feet, in everything that exists in this 

 universe of God. 



With that beginning, so that our study may not 

 lead to a misconception, let us pass on to ask 

 what are the functions of these Devas, of these 

 Intelligences, who work in the world. You will 



