The Unknown God
H.P. Blavatsky
In the strange mythology of the Brahmanas - which at first glance is
still more legendary than Greek mythology - and, generally,
in their still stranger conception of the world, a profound
philosophy is concealed, nonetheless. The outer form of
idolatry is but a curtain which hides the truth like the veil
of Isis. But this truth is not given to all. For some the
curtain hides not the countenance of Isis, but only empty
space disappearing into the impenetrable, for them, darkness;
for others light pours forth from there. For those not endowed
by nature with that innate, inner sense possessed by
some, which the Hindus so rightly call "the third eye" or "the
eye of Shiva," it is by far better to be content with the
fantastic patterns on the curtain: for such there is no
penetrating into the depth of the impenetrable darkness, no
filling of empty space. But he who has the "third eye" or,
speaking more clearly, who is capable of transferring his
vision from the grossly objective on to the purely inner
ground, that one shall see light within the darkness, and
in the seeming emptiness discern the Universe....
Inner self-awareness will show him infallibly that the presence of God is perceived here, but cannot be communicated, and that wishing to express this in concrete form finds its excuse in the very ardency of the desire to convey this experience to the masses. And thus, though still censuring in his soul the form of worship, he will no longer laugh openly at idols and at the belief in them of that one who, unable to penetrate beyond the curtain, is satisfied with the exterior only because it is difficult for him, if not completely impossible, to receive any kind of suitable presentation about the "Unknown God."
From the Jewel of the Lotus quotes that Theosophy Library used to send out. Edited by Raghavan N. Iyer, The Jewel in the Lotus, Santa Barbara; Concord Grove Press: 1983 (reprinted in 1987)
Quote from 'From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan', in the version of the Blavatsky Collected Writings on p. 541, 542.