宗教的诞生
本译文由人工智能辅助工具生成，可能存在不准确之处。如需查阅权威文本，请参考英文原文。
AI-translated. May contain errors. For accurate text, refer to the original English.
中文
森林中美丽的花朵，以其五彩缤纷的花瓣，摇着头，跳跃着，嬉戏着，随着每一缕微风舞动；美丽的鸟儿，以其绚丽的羽毛，甜美的歌声回荡在每一片林间空地——它们昨天还在那里，是我的慰藉，我的伙伴，而今天它们已经消失——去了哪里？我的玩伴，与我同甘共苦、共享欢乐时光的伙伴——他们也走了——去了哪里？那些在我幼年时抚育我的人，毕生只有一个念头——为我做一切——他们也走了。每一个人，每一件事都消失了，正在消失，将会消失。他们去了哪里？这就是在原始人心中迫切需要回答的问题。"为什么会这样？"你也许会问，"他难道没有看到万物在他面前分解、化为尘土吗？他为什么要为它们去了哪里而费心呢？"
对于原始人来说，首先万物都是有生命的，而对他而言，死亡——在湮灭的意义上——根本没有任何含义。人们来到他身边，又离开，然后再来。有时他们离开了就再也没有回来。因此，在世界上最古老的语言中，死亡总是用某种离去来表达。这就是宗教的起源。于是，原始人到处寻找他困惑的答案——他们都去了哪里？
那里有朝阳，辉煌灿烂，为沉睡的世界带来光明、温暖和欢乐。他缓缓行进，然而，唉，他也消失了，沉沉地落下去了！
但第二天他又出现了——辉煌的，美丽的！还有那莲花——尼罗河、印度河和底格里斯河——那些文明诞生之地——上的奇妙花朵，在清晨当太阳的光芒照射到它紧闭的花瓣时便盛开，随着夕阳西沉又重新合拢。曾经有人来了又去了，又从坟墓中复活了。这就是最初的答案。因此，太阳和莲花是最古老宗教中的主要象征。为什么是这些象征？因为抽象的思想，无论其为何物，一旦被表达，就必然要穿上可见的、可触的、粗质的外衣。这就是法则。那种消逝并非走出存在而是走入存在的观念，只能被表达为一种变化、一种短暂的转换；而反过来，那个触及感官并震动传入心灵、唤起新观念的对象，必然会被当作新观念借以传播表达的支撑和核心。因此太阳和莲花成了最初的象征。
到处都有深邃的洞穴——那么黑暗，那么阴森；下面一片黑暗和恐怖；在水下我们无法看见，即使睁开双眼也不行；上方是光明，一片光明，即使在夜晚也有美丽的群星散发着光芒。那么，我所爱的人去了哪里？当然不是去了下面那个黑暗、黑暗的地方，而是上升了，到了永恒光明的国度。这需要一个新的象征。这里有火，有其炽热奇妙的火舌——能在短时间内吞噬一片森林，烹煮食物，给予温暖，驱赶野兽——这赋予生命、拯救生命的火焰；而那些火焰——它们总是向上升腾，从不向下。于是这里又有了另一个象征——这火将他们向上带到光明之处——连接我们和那些已经去往光明之域的人们的纽带。"汝，火神，"人类最古老的记载这样开始，"我们通往光明者的使者。"于是他们把食物、饮品以及一切他们认为会使这些"光明者"欢喜的东西投入火中。这就是祭祀的起源。
至此，第一个问题得到了解答，至少足以满足这些原始人的需要。接着又来了另一个问题：这一切从何而来？为什么这个问题没有最先出现？因为我们更容易记住突然的变化。幸福、欢乐、增添、享受不会在我们心中留下像不幸、悲伤和失去那样深刻的印象。我们的本性是欢乐、享受、快乐和幸福。任何对此的剧烈破坏都会留下比自然进程更深的印象。因此，作为巨大的扰乱者，死亡的问题最先得到解答。然后随着更多的进步，又出现了另一个问题：他们从何而来？一切有生命的东西都在运动：我们运动；我们的意志驱动我们的肢体；我们的肢体在意志的控制下制造形态。因此，对于远古时代的人类幼童来说，正如对于当今时代的幼稚之人一样，一切运动的东西都有一个作为推动力的意志。风有意志；云有意志；整个自然界充满了各自独立的意志、心灵和灵魂。它们正在创造这一切，就像我们制造许多东西一样；它们——"天神"（Devas），"埃洛希姆"（Elohims）——就是这一切的创造者。
在此期间，社会在成长。社会中有国王——那么在光明者、埃洛希姆中间为什么没有呢？因此有了一位至高的"天神"，一位埃洛希姆-耶和华（Elohim-Jahveh），众神之神——那位以其单一意志创造了这一切的唯一之神——甚至创造了"光明者"。但正如他指定了不同的星辰和行星，他也指定了不同的"天神"或天使来主管自然的不同功能——有些管辖死亡，有些管辖出生，等等。一位至高存在者，因其力量无限地超越其余者而至高无上——这是一切宗教的两大源头——雅利安人和闪族人——的共同观念。但在这里，雅利安人走上了一条新路，一次宏大的分歧。
他们的神不仅是一位至高存在者，而且是天父（Dyaus Pitar），天上的父亲。这就是爱的起源。闪族的神只是一个雷霆之主，只是那可畏者，万军之大能主。在所有这些之上，雅利安人增添了一个新观念——父亲的观念。而这种分歧在此后的进一步发展中变得越来越明显，而闪族人类分支的进步实际上在此停滞了。闪族的神是不可见的——不，看见他就意味着死亡；雅利安人的神不仅可以被看见，而且他就是存在的目标；生命的唯一目的就是见到他。闪族人出于对惩罚的恐惧而服从其万王之王，遵守他的诫命。雅利安人爱他的父亲；而且他进一步增添了母亲和朋友的观念。俗话说"爱屋及乌"。因此，他的每一个造物都应被爱，因为它们是他的。对闪族人来说，此生是一个前哨站，我们在此被安置以考验忠诚；对雅利安人来说，此生是通往目标的途中。对闪族人来说，如果我们尽好本分，就会在天堂有一个永远欢乐的家园。对雅利安人来说，那个家园就是神本身。对闪族人来说，侍奉神是达到目的的手段，即报酬——欢乐和享受。对雅利安人来说，享受、苦难——一切——都是手段，而目的就是神。闪族人崇拜神是为了去天堂。雅利安人拒绝天堂是为了走向神。简而言之，这就是主要的区别。雅利安人生命的目标和终点就是见到神，见到至爱的面容，因为没有他就无法生存。"没有你的存在，太阳、月亮和星辰都失去了光芒。"
## 参考文献
English
The beautiful flowers of the forest with their many - coloured petals, nodding their heads, jumping, leaping, playing with every breeze; the beautiful birds with their gorgeous plumage, their sweet songs echoing through every forest glade -- they were there yesterday, my solace, my companions, and today they are gone -- where? My playmates, the companions of my joys and sorrows, my pleasures and pastime -- they also are gone -- where? Those that nursed me when I was a child, who all through their lives had but one thought for me -- that of doing everything for me -- they also are gone. Everyone, everything is gone, is going, and will go. Where do they go? This was the question that pressed for an answer in the mind of the primitive man. "Why so?" you may ask, "Did he not see everything decomposed, reduced to dust before him? Why should he have troubled his head at all about where they went?"
To the primitive man everything is living in the first place, and to him death in the sense of annihilation has no meaning at all. People come to him, go away, and come again. Sometimes they go away and do not come. Therefore in the most ancient language of the world death is always expressed by some sort of going. This is the beginning of religion. Thus the primitive man was searching everywhere for a solution of his difficulty -- where do they all go?
There is the morning sun radiant in his glory, bringing light and warmth and joy to a sleeping world. Slowly he travels and, alas, he also disappears, down, down below!
But the next day he appears again -- glorious, beautiful! And there is the lotus -- that wonderful flower in the Nile, the Indus, and the Tigris, the birth - places of civilisation -- opening in the morning as the solar rays strike its closed petals and with the waning sun shutting up again. Some were there then who came and went and got up from their graves revivified. This was the first solution. The sun and the lotus are, therefore, the chief symbols in the most ancient religions. Why these symbols? because abstract thought, whatever that be, when expressed, is bound to come clad in visible, tangible, gross garments. This is the law. The idea of the passing out as not out of existence but in it, had to be expressed only as a change, a momentary transformation; and reflexively, that object which strikes the senses and goes vibrating to the mind and calls up a new idea is bound to be taken up as the support, the nucleus round which the new idea spreads itself for an expression. And so the sun and the lotus were the first symbols.
There are deep holes everywhere -- so dark and so dismal; down is all dark and frightful; under water we cannot see, open our eyes though we may; up is light, all light, even at night the beautiful starry hosts shedding their light. Where do they go then, those I love? Not certainly down in the dark, dark place, but up, above in the realm of Everlasting Light. That required a new symbol. Here is fire with its glowing wonderful tongues of flame -- eating up a forest in a short time, cooking the food, giving warmth, and driving wild animals away -- this life - giving, life - saving fire; and then the flames -- they all go upwards, never downwards. Here then was another -- this fire that carries them upwards to the places of light -- the connecting link between us and those that have passed over to the regions of light. "Thou Ignis", begins the oldest human record, "our messenger to the bright ones." So they put food and drink and whatever they thought would be pleasing to these "bright ones" into the fire. This was the beginning of sacrifice.
So far the first question was solved, at least as far as to satisfy the needs of these primitive men. Then came the other question: Whence has all this come? Why did it not come first? Because we remember a sudden change more. Happiness, joy, addition, enjoyment make not such a deep impression on our mind as unhappiness, sorrow, and subtraction. Our nature is joy, enjoyment, pleasure, and happiness. Anything that violently breaks it makes a deeper impression than the natural course. So the problem of death was the first to be solved as the great disturber. Then with more advancement came the other question: Whence they came? Everything that lives moves: we move; our will moves our limbs; our limbs manufacture forms under the control of our will. Everything then that moved had a will in it as the motor, to the man - child of ancient times as it is to the child - man of the present day. The wind has a will; the cloud, the whole of nature, is full of separate wills, minds, and souls. They are creating all this just as we manufacture many things; they -- the "Devas", the "Elohims" are the creators of all this.
Now in the meanwhile society was growing up. In society there was the king -- why not among the bright ones, the Elohims? Therefore there was a supreme "Deva", an Elohim - jahveh, God of gods -- the one God who by His single will has created all this -- even the "bright ones". But as He has appointed different stars and planets, so He has appointed different "Devas" or angels to preside over different functions of nature -- some over death, some over birth, etc. One supreme being, supreme by being infinitely more powerful than the rest, is the common conception in the two great sources of all religions, the Aryan and Semitic races. But here the Aryans take a new start, a grand deviation.
Their God was not only a supreme being, but He was the Dyaus Pitar, the Father in heaven. This is the beginning of Love. The Semitic God is only a thunderer, only the terrible one, the mighty Lord of hosts. To all these the Aryan added a new idea, that of a Father . And the divergence becomes more and more obvious all through further progress, which in fact stopped at this place in the Semitic branch of the human race. The God of the Semitic is not to be seen -- nay, it is death to see Him; the God of the Aryan cannot only be seen, but He is the goal of being; the one aim of life is to see Him. The Semitic obeys his King of kings for fear of punishment and keeps His commandments. The Aryan loves his father; and further on he adds mother, his friend. And "Love me, love my dog", they say. So each one of His creatures should be loved, because they are His. To the Semitic, this life is an outpost where we are posted to test our fidelity; to the Aryan this life is on the way to our goal. To the Semitic, if we do our duty well, we shall have an ever - joyful home in heaven. To the Aryan, that home is God Himself. To the Semitic, serving God is a means to an end, namely, the pay, which is joy and enjoyment. To the Aryan, enjoyment, misery -- everything -- is a means, and the end is God. The Semitic worships God to go to heaven. The Aryan rejects heaven to go to God. In short, this is the main difference. The aim and end of the Aryan life is to see God, to see the face of the Beloved, because without Him he cannot live. "Without Thy presence, the sun, the moon, and the stars lose their light."
## References
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。