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A PEEP BEHIND THE VEIL OF KARMA
115 each idea of want or desire is replaced by one of fulness, or success, it rises triumphant and exultant in its real inherent glory and leaps for pure joy. Desires owe their origin to ignorance. Led by ignorance, the soul seeks joy in the things of the world, whereas the emotion of bliss is its birthright and svabhāva (nature), which is realizable and realized only when the darkness of ignorance is dispelled.
Our analysis has thus led us, step by step, to a self which is allblissful and joyous. Grief and pain are, therefore, not the nature of the self, but only temporary states of being. That this is so is further obvious from the fact that they are not lasting, and also, because they vanish when the mind is engaged in something more absorbing than the causes which gave them rise. It is for this reason tha they both disappear in deep sleep.
We are now prepared to answer the question with which we started our investigation, namely, why should one be religious ? Religion, as has been said before, is the science which enables the individual to bind himself to a Self which is all freedom, all bliss and all joy. Hence, he who would like to enjoy eternal, unabating, undying, happiness cannot afford to reject religion, but must follow it, till he can remove all the fetters from his soul which are keeping it down like a captive balloon.
But who is this Self, whose nature is bliss and blessedness, and where is it to be found ? Let us once more study ourselves, though not from the point of view of sensual pleasure this time. The question is : what am I ? Outwardly the eye falls on the physical matter of the body, which is jara or ajiva, that is unthinking, unmoving and unfeeling. I know this because I know that a dead body has all these characteristics. But I also know that the living body is not jara or ajiva. Hence arises the important question: What is this thinking, active, feeling principle which enables my body to perform all the functions characteristic of a living human being ?
The materialist says that consciousness is the outcome of a particular kind of molecular grouping of matter, that the brain secretes the mind as the liver secretes bile. Can this be true? If the materialist is right, then I am only a machine although a thinking one. But I am forced to reject this idea, because I know that no machine is capable
hailoon
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