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PHILOSOPHY OF SOUL
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prima facie contention. One day when he was walking along the road, an intoxicated elephant was found marching towards him. The driver warned him aloud to move to sides lest he might be trampled
This logician was not prepared to accept the words of the driver n their face value. As usual, he started reasoning: "Would this elephant touch and kill, or would kill without the touch ? If he would touch and kill then why does he not kill you? If he kills without a touch then your warning is absurd as the elephant would be able to kill me from any distance". Thus he did not budge an inch from the spot, the elephant came and crushed him under his feet in no time.
If this logician confided in the words of the driver, the more experienced, he would not have faced tragic death. Therefore one should confide in the words of the wise and the experienced ones, and should not unnecessarily try to reason and argue.
Those out of pride or ego of knowledge, try to ridicule the preachings of the great, and try to falsify them shall multiply the wanderings in this universe, and shall fall a prey to various kinds of ailments and tortures in these worldly existences. Therefore even out of negligence or mistake one should not contact such persons and should not confide in their words.
Let us understand what can be called real spiritual knowledge which is three-fold. They are: (1) Vishaya Pratibhāsā, (2) Ātmaparinatimat and (3) Tatva Samvedana.
When an object is apprehended only, distinguished with its epithet, without the knowledge of its acceptable or non-acceptable nature, then the knowledge named Vishwa Pratibhasa arises. As for example, a child can identify a thorn, poison or a jewel but it does not know the reason of non-acceptability of thorn and poison and the reason of acceptability of a jewel. To consider one more example, a parrot utters: "Rāma, Rāma", without any knowledge about Rāma. Such knowledge is popularly known as "crammed up" or "parrot like" knowledge. Such knowledge does not carry any value. Similarly people who prattle about soul but do not know the real nature of soul or its whereabouts or its distinction from body, or about the various powers of soul are
