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mysterious phenomena occurring at the closing moments of life in certain cases, when the soul of the dying man is known and observed to have conveyed an intimation of its impending death to those dear and near to it at a distance of thousands of miles. These phenomena have baffled the modern investigator who is mostly ignorant of the soul's special attributes and powers; but the ancients knew that the ego had the power to annihilate distance and could expand out even without leaving its physical body to reach the remotest part of the universe. A soul expanding outwards without leaving its physical body is said to perform samudghâta.
Every soul is an individual by itself. The supposition that there is only one soul in existence is contradicted by facts of observation. Knowledge and experience demonstrate this to a certainty ; for if there be only one soul in common between a teacher and his pupil, how account for their relationship ? As for experience, suppose there are a hundred men present at a feast of whom ten are attending upon the rest who are partaking of different kinds of delicacies. It is obvious that each and every one of these only relishes the morsel that he eats himself, and has no idea of the taste of what the others eat. And, so far as those who are serving are concerned, they have certainly no
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