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RE-INCARNATION.
805
When we look at the unimaginable infinity of the jivas now ensouled in the bodies of beasts, birds and insects, to say nothing of plants, and other lower forms of life, each of which is possessed of the potentiality of Godhood, we are irresistibly led to the conclusion that to deny re-incarnation is to foredoom them all to eternal damnation and misery; for none of them is possessed of that type of intellect, which can discriminate between the Self and the not-Self, so as to be able to evolve out into perfection in their present incarnations. Moksha being dependent on self-exertion, and not on the favour of another, by far the vast majority of mankind, too, will find themselves unable to attain it in the course of one earth-life. What, we ask, will be their plight, on the hypothesis of one earth-life per soul? Which is preferable of the two states, an eternal and unending life of damnation, torture and torment, in hell, or a course of 'evolution' which furnishes opportunity to each and every soul of developing its potential perfection that already exists in the seed '?
The case with those whose souls have felt the thrill of inspiration arising from a consciousness of their divine goal is still more striking; for if we ponder over the problem, we shall observe that the consciousness of the Ideal in a Self-conscious soul must itself lead it to perfection willy-nilly, in due course of time since it is the nature of the Ideal to be active. How powerful must be the force of this living Ideal, can be seen at a glance by comparing it with the false ones which men pursue in the world. Money, for instance, though unmoving in itself, is the cause of all the wild bustle and 'life in
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