The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c11.s2.36

v1.c11.s2.36

In addition to the material presented by other religions of peoples of kindred speech and origin to the Indo-European element in the Indian people, there is available for consideration in dealing with the phenomena of Indian religion the vast mass of information as to religions of the different peoples, civilized and uncivilized, of the earth which has been brought to light by modern research. The use of this material, however, presents great difficulties, and opens the way to serious misunderstanding, unless it is remembered that the mere similarity of practice may often be due to very different causes, and that an explanation which may be perfectly reasonable, when viewed with regard to the other phenomena of a religion as a whole, may be wholly out of place when applied to a different religious system. It follows, therefore, that any explanation of a religious rite which is out of harmony with the general aspect of Vedic religion is *ipso facto* open to grave doubt, and that an explanation in itself less plausible may deserve preference, simply because it is consonant with the general tendency of Vedic religious thought. Moreover, it is precisely in the deepest beliefs of the people and in their original conceptions of religion that uniformity must be least expected: in the minor mythology there is much in all probability in common in every religion, but on the fundamental question of the nature of the great deities, their relations to their worshippers, and the form of sacrifice, there are clearly great distances between peoples, which should be recognized, not removed by efforts to trace to a common source things which are in essence different. It is undoubtedly the greatest defect of modern theories of religion that they seek a greater unity than it is possible to find and ignore fundamental discrepancies of mental organization.