A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

284 REALIZATION.solution commits this mistake ;it insists that the whole, ofphenomena is only in touch,taste, sight, etc., and this ideaof heaven where we ought to live with very bright bodies,with the majority did not give full satisfaction. Yet Nathiketasasks as the second boon for some sacrifice throughwhich people might attain to this heaven. There was anidea in the Vedas that these sacrifices pleased the godsand took human beings to heaven, and so forth. Now, instudying all religions you will find it is an undoubted factthat whatever is old becomes holy. For instance, ourforefathers in India used to write on birch bark, but intime they learnt how to make paper. Yet the birch barkis still looked upon as very holy."When the utensils inwhich they used to cook in the most ancient times wereimproved upon, the old became holy, and nowhere has thisidea been more kept up than in India, Old methods whichmust be nine or ten thousand years old, of rubbing twosticks together to make fire, are still kept up. At the timeof sacrifice no other method will do. So with the otherbranch of the Asiatic Aryans. Their modern descendantsstill like to preserve fire that comes from lightning, showing that they- used to get fire in this way, afterwardslearning to obtain it by rubbing two pieces of wood, andwhen they learnt other customs they kept up the oldcustoms, which then became holy.So with the Hebrews. Theyparchment. They now write on paper,used to write onand the othermethod isvery holy. So with all nations, every rite whichyou now consider holy was simply an old custom, and thesesacrifices were of this nature. In course of time, as theyfound better methods of life, their ideas were much improved, still, these old forms remained, and from time totime they were practised and received a holy significance.