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RELIGION AND COMPARATIVE RELIGION
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theories which are conceived and formulated with a great deal of labour and trouble, and her very raison d'etre is the well-being of her lord (Will).
(c) The curse on Adam is also typical of the nature of the
impure ego :
(i) "cursed is the ground for thy sake;
(iii)
(ii) "in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
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(iv) "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till
thou return into the ground for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return " (Genesis iii. 17-19).
The significance of these terms is that corruption enters the soul-substance in consequence of the yielding to desire on the part of the ego, so that it is no longer capable of yielding aught but thistles and thorns; and that it is not in the province of a soul-less materialism to impart the true strength that only comes from Religion. As for the earthly nature of the ego, there are three kinds of personalities:
(i) the bihiratman (the bodily self), (ii) the antar itman (the soul), and (iii) the paramitman (God).
The foolish man only looks upon himself as the bodily self that is a pure compound of matter, perishable and mortal. The enlightened man knows himself as a soul that is immortal and to be perfected, when he shall become paramatman (God). It is the first kind of conception of the self, the bahiratman, of the fallen ego, that is described in the Biblical curse.
(14) After the fall Abel and Cain are born to Adam, of whom Abel is the keeper of sheep, and Cain, the tiller of soil. They both take the offerings of their respective occupations before God, but Abel's offering is approved and not Cain's. Cain thereupon murders Abel, for which he is cursed by God. Seth (the appointed) was the next
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