Jnana-Yoga :2-9.





CHAPTER -2. THE REAL NATURE OF MAN : 9.

(Delivered in London)


The different philosophies seem to agree that this Atman, whatever it be, has neither form nor shape, and that which has neither form nor shape must be omnipresent.

Time begins with mind, space also is in the mind.

Causation cannot stand without time.

Without the idea of succession there cannot be any idea of causation.

Time, space and causation, therefore, are in the mind, and as this Atman is beyond the mind and formless, it must be beyond time, beyond space, and beyond causation.

Now, if it is beyond time, space, and causation, it must be infinite.

Then comes the highest speculation in our philosophy.

The infinite cannot be two. If the soul be infinite, there can be only one Soul, and all ideas of various souls — you having one soul, and I having another, and so forth — are not real.


The Real Man, therefore, is one and infinite, the omnipresent Spirit.

And the apparent man is only a limitation of that Real Man.

In that sense the mythologies are true that the apparent man, however great he may be, is only a dim reflection of the Real Man who is beyond.

The Real Man, the Spirit, being beyond cause and effect, not bound by time and space, must, therefore, be free. He was never bound, and could not be bound.
The apparent man, the reflection, is limited by time, space, and causation, and is, therefore,

Or in the language of some of our philosophers, he appears to be bound, but really is not.

This is the reality in our souls, this omnipresence, this spiritual nature, this infinity.

Every soul is infinite, therefore there is no question of birth and death.


Some children were being examined.

The examiner put them rather hard questions, and among them was this one :-

"Why does not the earth fall?"

He wanted to evoke answers about gravitation.

Most of the children could not answer at all; a few answered that it was gravitation or something.


One bright little girl answered it by putting another question :-

"Where should it fall?" The question is nonsense.

Where should the earth fall?

There is no falling or rising for the earth.

In infinite space there is no up or down; that is only in the relative.

Where is the going or coming for the infinite?

Whence should it come and whither should it go?

Swami Vivekananda
To be continued  ...


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