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RE-INCARNATION.
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is sure to succeed. Strive earnestly, persevere strenuously, let no lethargy and irritability and scepticism prevent you from reaching the goal. Ring ont the old, ring in the new, avoid evil, store in good. Fight valiantly against sin and lust and selfishness."
It must be distinctly understood that the practising of what may be called purely 'negative' virtue will not enable the soul to defy death.
Negative virtue merely amounts to not doing unto others what we should not like them to do unto üs, but it takes no account of the first commandment, Thou shalt love thy God with all thy might,' which, in plain language, means: "Thou shalt cling to thy Self with all the force of will thou art capable of exerting. Moreover, since the Self is characterised by pure love, it follows that he alone who actively practises love, in all his thoughts and deeds, can be said to practise virtue actively. He, then, not only tolerates, but actually and actively loves all those who are involved in transmigration like himself. As the capacity for love increases in his breast, the power to defy death becomes more and more his possession. It follows from this that no one who is not prepared to renounce himsa (injuring others), in all its three forms, can ever hope for salvation or immortality. These three forms are, (1) the actual commission of the harmful act oneself, (2) its abetment when done by another, and (3) the encouraging of those who have already committed it independently of oneself. As we punish the man who abets a burglary, the thief who actually commits it, and the receiver of the property stolen at the burglary, so does Will detest the accessory after the fact as inuch as the abettor and the thief.' Hence, they who slaughter
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