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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
sophers are not quite agreed as to the nature and functions of the several components of mind, and as precise knowledge of these mental faculties is an absolute necessity for the elucidation of religious traditions and myths, we shall endeavour to ascertain the truth for ourselves.
To clear up the confusion, it is first of all necessary to understand the nature of will which is the subject of a keen controversy between different writers. According to some, that which really and truly exists is will, while according to others, will is but a product of the original Essence in the third or fourth degree of its descent into matter. Notably amongst the latter class of persons stands Vivekananda, who expresses himself thus :
"I will here remark that there is one difference between Schopenhauer and Vedanta. Schopenhauer says the desire, or Will, is the cause of everything. It is the will to exist that makes us manifest, but the Adwaitists deny this. They say it is the intelligence. There cannot be a single particle of Will which is not a reaction. So many things are beyond Will. It is only a manufactured something out of the ego, and the ego is the product of something still higher, the intelligence, and that is a modification of 'indiscrete' Nature, or prakriti."-(Jnana Yoga, Vol. II, pp. 53 and 54).
But it seems to us that the whole confusion is due to an indiscriminate use of the word 'will' which has more than one significance. It would appear that the German philosopher mostly used this word in the sense of what has come to be known as the thing in itself in modern European philosophy, but not in the limited sense of the human will." However, the word 'will’itself
*A couple of extracts from The World as Will and Idea' will make this perfectly clear. It is said at page 142 of the 1st volume :
“Phenomenal existence is idea and nothing more. All idea, of
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