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 956

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF GODS.
935
yogas, that is mind and speech, but, being in full agreement with nature and in no way subversive of the natural functioning of substances, actually tend to expedite the realisation of the wished for end. There is nothing in common between these scientific and natural forms of self-contemplation and the methods of mystics and others who spend their whole lives fruitlessly in a vain endeavour to make their minds blank, by forcing upon them all sorts of fanciful suggestions about sleep, somnolence and the like. The difficulty with the unscientific methods of others lies in the fact that no means or device can ever succeed indefiance of nature. Hence, where a given suggestion is opposed to the real nature of a substance, it will never take effect except in so far as to distort the vision of the individual to make him perceive that which has no foundation in truth. It is, therefore, actually fraught with great harm to put such ideals before one's soul as the Inconceivable, the Absolute and the like, or to lead it to imagine that salvation can be had by such suggestions as tend to produce mental blankness and fog.
It only remains to complete our comparative study of the different methods of self-realization before closing this chapter. Most of these methods have already been examined by us in our chapter on Yoga; but two deserve special mention here, on account of their mystic tendency which has a great charm for the untrained imagination. The first of these methods aspires to obtain the highest good by separating the soul from certain specified envelopes or sheaths. The idea underlying the supposition is that the soul is wrapped in five successive koshas (envelopes or sheaths) and therefore unable to