Functions of the Gods. 79 



births. In that man there is some germ of evil still 

 remaining that has not been brought out yet into 

 manifestation by the working of karma. He is 

 going to be liberated, but he cannot be liberated 

 while that germ remains. What shall be done with 

 him ? That germ of evil must be hastened to its 

 ripening. It must be made to grow more quickly 

 than otherwise it would grow. It must be gotten 

 rid of, at any cost of pain, of anguish, and of 

 temporary degradation, and the God will take such 

 action as will ripen that germ and bring it to fruit- 

 age ; so that, the man acting as he would act when 

 that germ had been ripened by evolution, may 

 suffer the results which would follow from the error, 

 and by such suffering may get rid of that evil in 

 his nature, which would otherwise have prevented 

 him from attaining liberation. 



Let me give you a story for each of these to make 

 the action clear. You see that a man is strong ; 

 well and good ; but that strength must be tested to 

 see if there be a flaw anywhere ; if there is a rope 

 on which the life of a man is going to depend, he 

 holding it and descending a precipice, that rope 

 must be pulled and tested to see if there be any 

 weak point in it which might break when the 

 man's body is hanging upon it, so that he would 

 fall. There may be a flaw in the rope, and not till 



