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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
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the sea is but a collection of drops, so that the additional drop only goes to increase the number of those already there.
Some say that it is the vision of Ishvara which they seek. These are also mystics, who have taken the metaphorical expression of their predecessors in a literal sense. For the vision or contact of another cannot possibly afford anything more than a passing sensation which is as different from true happiness as chalk from cheese. As a matter of fact, true joy is an attribute of the soul, and becomes an actuality of experience the moment one gives up the idea of extracting it from things outside his own self. Therefore, so long as we try to extract it from objects external to our own self, so long as we expect to obtain it from an Ishvara or an Ishvara's vision, it cannot come into manifestation. And what are we to think of a being who promises to grant boons to his worshippers in lieu of their worship? Can he be full and perfect in himself ? No, certainly not, else why desire to be worshipped ? He cannot even be a true friend to his devotees, for all the favours that any outside agency can confer on the soul must fall under the class of epithumetic or sensual pleasure that is to say the pleasure that is enjoyable or enjoyed through the senses) which is the forbidden fruit.
I think here also it is evident that the entire confusion has resulted from a misinterpretation of the language of our scriptures. I shall now proceed to
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