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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
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Religion : with reference to the nature of the essence of being, the jivåtman (ordinary soul) is the same as the Paramâtman (God).
Amongst the Muslim names of God also we find AlHaiy (The Living), Al Qaiyum (The Subsisting), AsSamad (The Eternal), Al-Awwal(The First) and Al-Akhir (The Last). The last two of these names are the same as are given in the Book of Revelation in the Bible (chap. 1.8), where it is said : " I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,
gaith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."
The same is recorded in the Book of Isaiah :
"I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no
God” (chap. xliv. 6). This is repeated in several places (see Isaiah, xlviii. 12 in particular). Iu Sura Zariyat it is said :
"I am in your individuality, but you do not see."
What else is there which is in our individuality and divine except Life itself?
The true interpretation of the text of John viii. 58, which must be quite clear by this time, is that the soul is immortal and has existed from all eternity in the past. Hence it existed also in the day of Abraham. Jesus might as well have used the language of the Bhagavad Gita in answering the Jews :
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