Karma-Yoga : Ch-5. Part-3.

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Chapter-5.


WE HELP OURSELVES, NOT THE WORLD :


Part-3.


At one time it was thought that the Buddhists carried it all over the world with them, but it has been found out that ages before Buddhism it was used among nations.

In Old Babylon and in Egypt it was to be found.

What does this show?

All these symbols could not have been purely conventional.

There must be some reason for them; some natural association between them and the human mind.

Language is not the result of convention; it is not that people ever agreed to represent certain ideas by certain words; there never was an idea without a corresponding word or a word without a corresponding idea; ideas and words are in their nature inseparable.



The symbols to represent ideas may be sound symbols or colour symbols.

Deaf and dumb people have to think with other than sound symbols.

Every thought in the mind has a form as its counterpart.

This is called in Sanskrit philosophy Nama-Rupa — name and form.

It is as impossible to create by convention a system of symbols as it is to create a language.

In the world's ritualistic symbols we have an expression of the religious thought of humanity.

It is easy to say that there is no use of rituals and temples and all such paraphernalia; every baby says that in modern times.


Swami Vivekananda

To be continued  ....



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