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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. Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 1 (1938) - 203:
People are not pigs, deprived of the ability to raise their heads toward Heaven. One does not survive by earthly rubbish, but by the higher emanations. And yet for thousands of years there have been many who have stubbornly promoted the importance of a purely earthly existence. Not only the atheists, but also the theists have denied the Subtle and Higher Realms. It is hard to understand how such opposing mentalities could agree on the denial of the fundamentals of life. Prompted by fear and ignorance, they do not dare face the most beautiful. Even the gaining of knowledge does not help them to approach the psycho-physical realm, and the theists do not allow their deities to lead them to approach the higher realms.
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