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MYTHOLOGY
good and to destroy what is bad. If you will now pause for a moment to ponder over the nature of good and evil you will find that they are not concrete things, nor even constants in nature, but mere terms of comparison, In the already noticed instance, the birth of an heir is hailed with joy by the childless millionaire, but it is the actual source of despair and gloom to the expectant' reversioner. The child is bimself but an event ; it is auspicious, lucky and therefore good to its parents ; but the source of life-long despair and misery to those whom its presence debars from stepping into the jewelled shoes of the millionaire. In the breast of the one it excites love and affection (attachment), in that of the other batred and anger (aversion). Thus, attachment and aversion are the fruits
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil', (8) Attachment and aversion (råga and dvesha)
are two general forms of desire which is the cause of bondage, as demonstrated in an earlier lecture. Hence, the injunction against the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of Good
and Evil, (9) The soul is immortal by nature, being a
simple substance, but birth and death are imposed on it on account of its embodied condition. Hence, the statement: "In the day
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