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OCTOBER, 1967
sed, will yield, that is to say, call up again, the appropriate corresponding impression. This is dhāranā.
As regards the nature and form of omniscience, the soul being an individual, i.e., an indivisible unit of consciousness, the idea of knowledge with reference to it is that of a state of conciousness which is neither the whole, nor a separated part of the substance of its being, but of an infinity of interpenetrating and iseparable phases or aspects, each of which is pervaded by the all-pervading consciousness of the self. In different words, every soul is, by nature, an individual Idea which is itself the summation of an infinity of different, but inseparable and interpenetrating ideas, or states of consciousness. But since all these ideas or states are not simultaneously present in the consciousness of each and every soul, some of them must necessarily exist in a sub-conscious or dormant condition, whence they emerge above the level whenever conditions are favourable for their manifestation. Thus, knowledge is never acquired from without, but only actualised from within. This is so even when we perceive a new object or are impressed with a new idea for the first time ; for the soul can never know anything except through the states of its own consciousness. Hence, unless the soul be endowed with the capacity to assume a state corresponding to the stimulus from without, it will never have the consciousness of the outside object. It will be now evident that an impression in or on consciousness differs from a statue in marble, in so far as it does not signify the chiselling off or removal of any part of its bulk but resembles it, inasmuch as it is brought into manifestation from within the soul's being itself. Thus, while all impressions may be said to lie dormant in the soul, in the same manner as all kinds of statues remain unmanifested in a slab of stone, they cannot be described as being created in the same way. There is no question of carving out anything in the case of an impression on the soul-substance, but only of a 'waking up of a state or a setting free of that which was previously held in bonds.
Hence, all kinds of impressions, or states of consciousness lie latent in the soul, and only need the removal of the causes which prevent their coming into manifestation to emerge from the subconscious state. For the foregoing reasons, sense-perception implies no more than the uncovering of a pre-existing state or thought, the resonance of an already existing impress, or idea-rhythm, set free to vibrate in response to the incoming stimulus. It is this responsive reasonance of its own rhythm, hence, a state of its own consciousness, which is felt by the soul at the moment of cognition. It should be stated that the soul has no other means of knowing its own states than feeling them ; though the word
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