________________
PRACTICE OF KARMA YOGA
and more and recedes still further from the path of evolution. He should therefore think only such thoughts and do only such actions as may widen his mind and raise him up in evolution. The mind has to expand and expand until the limiting mindcovering, becoming very thin, is torn asunder when, the limitations of the thinker ceasing to exist any longer, his inner Self shines in his infinitude of existence, consciousness and bliss, for it was only he, the only one and the real Self that was appearing till then as enclosed in a covering made of mind-stuff.
2. DOCTRINE OF REINCARNATION
The doctrine of reincarnation is accepted by the majority of mankind of the present day. It has been held as true by the mightiest Eastern nations The ancient civilization of Egypt was built upon this doctrine, and it was handed over to Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato, Virgil and Ovid who scattered it through Greece and Italy. It is the keynote of Plato's philosophy when he says that all knowledge is reminiscence. It was wholly adopted by the NeoPlatonists like Plotinus and Proclas The hundi eds of millions of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains have made this doctrine the foundation of their philosophy, religion, government and social institutions. It was a cardinal point in the religion of the Persian Unagi. The doctrine of metempsychosis was an essential prin
198
