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REDEMPTION.
211.
are the saving energy, then you are the Saviour of the whole world. ......Be no longer children. Realize yourself to be saved, and saved you are...... In you, oh man, there is something which is pure, which is not contaminated by faults, sins and weaknesses of the body ; in this world of sinfulness and sloth it remains pure...... Within you is the purest of the pure, within you is the sinless One, the Atman, which makes its existence felt, which cannot be destroyed, which cannot be dispensed with, which cannot be done away with. It is there, however faulty, however sinful the body may be ; the real Self, the sinlessness of the real Self must be there; it must make itself felt ; it is there, it cannot be destroyed...... In you is present the divine God, and in you is present the worthless body; but you have misplaced the things...... You have done things upside down; in a topsy turvy way have you put them. You have put the cart before the horse ; and that is how you make this world a hell for you.... The only ... way to really stamp out all misery from the world, -long faces and gloomy, sad tempers will not mend matters,—the only way to escape from all sins, the only way to stand above all temptations is to realize the true Self."'In the Woods of God-Realization,' Vol. I.
The idea of redemption, thus, from whichever point of view one might study it, is that of fulness and perfection, which are not the characteristics of the bodily man, but the essence of the true Self. The same is the case with happiness; for it is simply impossible for any outside agency to confer true bliss on the soul, since that can only arise from within. Immortality also falls under the category of things which cannot be had from outside, since every soul is immortal by nature.
It is, therefore, clear that our begging for Life and Joy-and all our prayers only refer to one or the other of them, in some form or other—from 'the Heavenly Father' is a process not only devoid of sense, but also degrading and harmful to the soul. Hence, he who promises to reward us with a residence in heaven, with the com
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