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FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT
23–MATERIAL PARALLELISM
Spirit and matter exist together in the body. By itself spirit will be unable to function in the way of the sense-activity, though it will then have full unlimited knowledge, and enjoy it, not potentially but actually. Matter is unconscious and cannot by itself know anything. The association with matter is very very harmful for the soul, and prevents it from the realization of its actual divinity as an Immortal, Allknowing and naturally happy Being.
Material parallelism is throughout necessary for the different functions, both physical and mental, which are performed by a sensory-motor organism. Without matter nerves of sensation and motion and their diverse ramifications and associations will be impossible. Nor will there be attention then, and succession of thought will be replaced by the appearance of the entirety of the innate knowledge, simultaneously and at once.
Without matter the Central Organ of the Mind cannot exist; and the differences of impulses and character will also disappear in the absence of matter. All would be then left exactly alike. Impulses themselves would then be transformed into the general ideas which they embody.
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