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ANALYSIS OF THE GROSS AND THE SUBTLE
All the living beings in the world are combinations of various elements. There is no living being which is not a compound. Neither can consciousness be manifest except through the body, nor can the body be created except by consciousness. All the living beings in the world combine in themselves a body and consciousness. Nothing like pure consciousness is available anywhere. It is an ideal to be achieved in the future. Body and consciousness have been together since time immemorial. The question as to how long and why they have been together has remained unanswered. The simplest answer is that their association is beginningless. It seems that the jīva and the body have entered into an agreement to the effect that they will never quit each other and will continue to live and work together without interfering with the substance of each other. The body cannot pollute the essence of the soul and the latter does not withdraw from the area of the former.
To know is one thing and to tell others what you know is quite another. Language is a medium of expression and communication. What we express or communicate is determined by the limitation of language. The scope of knowledge is infinite but that of language is limited. Whatever is expressed in language is, therefore, of a limited scope. Language by its very nature cannot express the infinite. The infinite cannot be compressed into the finite. Leave alone the infinite, language cannot express even the experiences we gain in day to day meditations. Therefore, whatever we say about these experiences remains incompletely expressed. That is why we are forced to give expression to these experiences only symbolically and metaphorically. We cannot
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