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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE. and the lesser ;' of these, the highest is the science of the Supreme Spirit, and the lesser, the science whose object is to show the cause of virtue and vice and their consequences (Shankara )
It would be now obvious that the Bible does not condemn the intellect itself, but only its exclusive employment for the gratification of sensual lust. The third and fourth chapters of the book of Genesis, taken together, cover the entire field of the Puranic legend given above, and point to the power of intellect itself, when rightly employed, to raise up the fallen humanity.
The lesson to be learnt from the doctrine of the "fall” is that those who aspire to attain to the status of God, to enjoy ever-lasting bliss, must make up their minds to control the fiery serpent of their desiring manas. They must also see that they do not make their intellect spend all its energy in pandering to the vanities, passions and tastes of the physical body, the seat of false personality, but should apply it to study the requirements of the soul, the real, i.e., immortal man.
Man alone, of all beings, in this world, is endowed with the capacity, and enjoys the opportunity, to think on his destiny. He alone has the power of shaping his future, for weal or woe, as he pleases. But this capacity is so hopelessly crippled by his wrong desires, the worst of which is the desire for the sensual knowledge of good and evil of the phenomenal world, that unless he can crush the head of the hydra of his desiring manas, he has no right to hope for salvation.
Man's physical concerns may, and, indeed, do come to an end with the physical death ; but the continuity
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