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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE
made to lie on the surface, but lay hidden beneath, he would aot be long in finding it out for himself. What has been said about this particular Biblical legend applies not only to all other seemingly historical accounts in the Bible, but also to the Puranas and Scriptures of almost all other creeds excepting Jainism.
The story of the emancipation of Israel, the chosen nation, is a beautiful illustration of the emancipation of the Self from the clutches of the self. Through ignorance, the real Self of man is in the bondage of his false, 'illusory,' bodily self, and iss uffering in captivity. This little bodily self of man is the tyrant Pharaoh. Israel represents the real, effulgent Self, who is to be rescued and taken out from the land of captivity to that of bliss, where streams of milk and honey flow, and a vision of which was seen by the early patriarchs by the power of communion with the Self. The stubbornness of Pharaoh illustrates the resistance which the lower self offers to the novice, in the early stages of spiritual unfoldment. The pith of the story now becomes clear, and may be described in a few words. When the disciple is firm in his determination for spiritual emancipation, he is opposed by his personal self, which throws all sorts of obstacles in his way. The early part of discipleship is, indeed, a hard struggle between the higher and the lower natures, and Maya (delusion) helds out all sorts of temptations and threats to the aspirant. But no emancipation is possible till the power of Maya is not totally destroyed once for all and for ever. The little, illusory self of Maya, therefore, is represented as having hardened his heart over and over
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