Key of Knowledge

SR No.: 006702
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 1204
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 72

CREATION.
51
eloquence beyond that point. This great man has fallen into the error of confounding reason with consciousness itself, whereas, in very truth, reason is but a manifestation of consciousness when working through a finite body of a particular type. The true self is pure consciousness though ensouled in a 'body of matter; and just as electricity, as a power, is manifested in various forms, now appearing as light, again as heat, and yet again as power moving heavy bodies, and so forth, though it is only its manifold manifestations which are visible but never the power, i.e., electricity itself, so is the soul observable by us only in its manifestations. What is electricity in itself we do not know, though we do know that it is capable of being transformed into light by the employment of suitable means. Similarly, consciousness, when it works through the human brain, appears in the form of reason, though, obviously, it must transcend reason itself. Now, since the nature of the apparatus, or vehicle, determines the form of manifestation, the faculty of reason, which depends for its unfoldment on the development of the brain, must necessarily pass through a process of evolution such as that observed by Preyer. But just as electric light cannot be said to be a secretion of the lamp, the globe or its fittings, so cannot reason be described as a secretion of the physical brain. Hence, the soul, if it be taken to mean consciousness, cannot possibly be said to be the outcome of the human brain, but if supposed to be merely a bundle of ideas, extracted from the physical surroundings and labelled 'personality,' in any particular incarnation, must depend on reason, and, therefore, on