Vivekananda Mailing List-12/16/02

[Guest guest]

If we remember this always, we shall never be attached to nature; we

shall know that nature is a book in which we are to read, and that when

we have gained the required knowledge, the book is of no more value to

us. Instead of that, however, we are identifying ourselves with nature;

we are thinking that the soul is for nature, that the spirit is for the

flesh, and, as the common saying has it, we think that man " lives to

eat " and not " eats to live " . We are continually making this mistake; we

are regarding nature as ourselves and are becoming attached to it; and

as soon as this attachment comes, there is the deep impression on the

soul, which binds us down and makes us work not from freedom but like

slaves.