More on 'The Soul'

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>From our previous post...

 

“Thus it happens that many a believer harbours a greater dislike for those that

differ from him even slightly, than even for non-believers, or for believers in

a totally different religion"

 

[To continue...}

 

"This is pointed out by the Sage in the following: “He that has not attained the

state of perfect identity with the Reality — which is his Natural State, since

that Reality is ever shining in the hearts of all creatures as the real Self —

by seeking and becoming aware of It, engages in controversies, asserting ‘There

is something real,’ ‘No,’ ‘that something has form,’ ‘No,’ ‘It is one,’ ‘It is

twofold,’ ‘It is neither.’” *

"From this we understand that the Sage has no creed of his own; and the reason

is that he is egoless. The ego is itself the believer or unbeliever as the case

may be. The ego-ridden ones are divided into two broad divisions, those that

deny and those that assert the existence of a Reality underlying the changing

phases of the world, including therein the threefold appearance, namely the

soul, the sense-objects and God. The assertors again fall into numerous

sub-divisions, because they differ as to the nature of that Reality. "The main

differences are mentioned here.

" In the first place there is conflict of beliefs about the reality of form:

there are those who assert that the First Cause has form; naturally this is

denied by some. Then there is the controversy about the unity or diversity of

that Cause. Some assert that the First Cause is one, and that the universe is

an appearance in it, so that It is both the material and the efficient cause.

"Others deny this and assert that First Cause is God, who is eternally distinct

from the souls. There are still others who maintain that God and the souls are

neither identical, nor distinct. Among these the believers in unity are also

mentioned, because that teaching, though true enough, is not intended to be

cherished as a mere dogma, but as an incentive to the attainment of actual

Experience of the Reality; those that are averse to the Quest, by which the

Experience is to be won, are therefore no better than the others; all are

equally subject to the ego, and content to remain so. In truth, only Experience

of the Self is real, not beliefs about Him, which imply that He can become an

object of thought. Mere theoretical knowledge of the Self — even that derived

from the sacred lore — is ignorance, just like the dogmas of the devotees. "

....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/

* This is Verse 34 of Ulladu Narpadu, the Forty Verses on Reality. The full

dual-language version, with meanings and brief notes can be read on:

The_Deep_Forty/message/235

 

anbudan

 

John