More on 'The Soul'

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From our previous post...

 

“...Questions are framed, assuming the immortality of this non-existent soul and

its survival in Deliverance. These will not arise if the teaching be

understood."

 

[To continue...}

 

"One such question arises thus. There is the Vedantic teaching, ‘Thou art That’.

 

"Formerly this teaching was kept secret and imparted only to well-tested

disciples; thus the serious mischiefs arising from a misunderstanding of the

teaching were prevented. But nowadays the sacred lore is accessible to all, and

the consequences are far from desirable.

"For, the higher the teaching, the greater are the evils due to its

misapplication. Incompetent persons read the books, and assume that the ego

itself, with all its vices, is infinite, all-powerful, and above the law of

right and wrong. And they cannot be set right. Even the better sort of inquirer

is puzzled by the teaching, because he has not yet clearly understood the truth

that there is no individuality.

"He takes the sacred text as meaning that the individual soul is God, or

whatever else there is that is infinitely great. But he doubts the teaching,

because, in the sense in which he understands it, it is not only absurd, but

blasphemous. And he is right in this; he is certainly far more in the right

than those who accept the teaching, but in the wrong sense. The better sort of

student has an instinctive sense that something is wrong. He is assailed by

doubts and he puts questions to get them cleared...."

....from Chapter Six, called "The Soul" in the book Maha Yoga: the entire book

can be downloaded free-of-charge from the website of Sri

Ramanasramam.http://www.ramana-maharshi.org/anbudan

 

John