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72
THE SYSTEMS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
East, the western like the Indus to the West. They go from sea to sea, i.e., the clouds lift up the water from the sea to the sky and send it back as rain to the sea. They become indeed sea. And as those rivers, when they are in the sea, do not know, I am this or that river, in the same manner, my son, all these creatures when they have come back from the true know not that they have come back from the true. Whatever these creatures are here, whether a lion or a wolf, or a boar or a worm, or a midge or a gnat or a mosquito, that they become again and again. That which is that subtle essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the true. It is the self, and thou, O Shwetaketu, art it."
“Please, Sir, inform me still more," said the son. “Be it so, my child," the father replied. “If some one were to strike at the root of this large tree here, it would bleed but live. If he were to strike at its stem, it would bleed but live. If he were to strike at its top, it would bleed but live. Pervaded by the living self that tree stands firm, drinking in its nourishment and rejoicing. But if life (the living self) leaves one of its branches, that branch withers, if it leaves the whole tree, the whole tree withers. In exactly the same manner, my son, know this. This body indeed withers and dies when the living self has left it; the living self never dies. That which is that subtle essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the true. It is the self, and thou, O Shwetaketu, art it."
“Please, Sir, inform me still more," the son said. “ Be it so, my child," the father said. Place this salt in water and then wait on me in the morning." The son did as was commanded. The father said to him, “* Bring me the salt which you placed in the water last night." The son having looked for it found it not, for of course it was melted. The father said, “Taste it
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