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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
IOI
the soul as well as of the causes that interfere with the functioning of those properties, and of the means to be employed for the destruction of the forces of obstruction. I need not tell you that all this study must be made with the utmost scientific rigour, for nothing but science or scientific thought can be relied upon to produce immediate, certain and unvarying results. Religion thus may be defined as the Science of Bliss which knows nothing of dogma or unreasoning faith. It proceeds on the principle of cause and effect and furnishes a complete explanatio of the whole misery and suffering of being, prescribing, at the same time, a certain unfailing remedy for every conceivable form of human woe.
The field of enquiry is comprised in seven tattvas (heads or ultimates of knowledge) which must be clearly understood. These tattvas are the outcome of a logical treatment of the subject, and can be understood with ease. The deliverance of the soul from the power and forces of darkness and evil being the end in view, the first thing to know is the nature of that which is to be freed-whether it is or is not capable of being liberated ? The very first point or subject for study, therefore, is the nature of the soul. Hence, soul (jiva) is our first tattun. The next thing to know is the nature of the material of which the forces that are inimical to the well-being of the jiva, that is, the soul, are composed. This gives us our second tattva, namely, ajiva (nonliving substance). How does the ajiva approach the
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