Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 2 - Illumination (1925) - 2.7.5: "Verily, also of God. My God has nothing to barter, but thy God must first go to the market. Perhaps on the way He may meet a robber who will help Him to return to this tree." AUM (1936) - 112: 112. It is rightly understood that so-called sacred animals were not deities, but were a natural consequence arising from local conditions. Even now people often speak about some sacred obligation meaning thereby, not a religious rite, but a useful moral action. The conditions of antiquity often required a special attention to certain animals, or trees and plants. Sacredness signified inviolability. Thus was preserved something rare and necessary. The very same protection contemporary people call "preserves." Thus, one should refer very carefully to concepts that are not clear. So much has been added to the province of religion that, because of its antiquity, superficial observers are completely unable to distinguish the fundamental from the stratifications around it. The temple even now is a gathering place where, along with ceremony, barter and sale take place, and local matters are discussed. The same piling up of confusion is still taking place. Therefore let us not be excessively harsh toward the term sacred animals and other long-forgotten archaic symbols.
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