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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
pleasure which one can possibly derive by becoming Force, or Power, or even Existence or Mind, in a generic sense. It is not the Knower or Enjoyer, in any sense of the word. To become God, surely, does not mean to become the Absolute of Philosophy, but the Knower as distinguished from thinker, the Enjoyer, as distinguished from the seeker, in a word, the Paramâtman,-not the republic of be-ness and becoming, but its Omniscient President. Surely, when one joins the Inns of Court to study Law, one does not aspire to become Law, but a Lawyer. To become Law is neither a possibility nor the ideal in view..
Buddha's ideal is also too obscure to afford satisfaction. Moksha is Nirvana, we are told; but what is Nirvana? There is nothing definite said as to this, and we are left to draw our own conclusions from a number of stray observations of the 'Enlightened One,' as Buddha was called by his followers. The source of pain is life, and the source of life is will (desire, ichchha), therefore, destruction of desire, i.e., will, is Nirvana.' This is true in so far as it goes, if taken in a qualified sense, but it does not go far enough to enable us to form a clear concept of Nirvana. "What is the nature of life in Nirvana?'-is a question which the early Buddhists declined to answer. Some have imagined Nirvana to be tantamount to extinction on account of Buddha's silence; and the confusion of thought seems to have been augmented by the wrong use of the word ichchha, which is used in two different senses. Firstly, it indicates will, and, secondly, desire. Now, the destruction of desire does not mean the destruction
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