________________
OCCULT POWERS
manner
that its
becomes more apparent. We say in the same that the soul is an emanation from the devine, nature is divinity; only on account of its worldly life of desire, which is selfish and injurious to other people, the whole compound organic being is impure, and in that sense we may say that the soul is in a fallen state, but not in the sense that it was pure at some time but has departed from its former state and is depraved. It is inherently pure, but has never lived in a perfectly pure state; it has always lived in some body. The spiritual condition is the opposite condition, and therefore, compared with this the material condition is impure and fallen. This being the idea of the nature of the soul, nothing comes to the soul; it is inherently omniscient. It only expels and drives away some of the impure particles at certain times, and when it has dispelled all these is seen actually by European travellers in India. A Frenchman who travelled in India in the eighteenth century has written of seeing there Buddhist monks living in the forest, and sleeping oftentimes in the shade of trees without any protection, and that the wild beasts did not harm them at all. Other
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travellers also passed through the Same part of the country, these would take special care to protect themselves from the attacks of the wild animals, but these same wild beasts licked the feet of the sleeping monks and made no attempt to injure them, and mixed with them without any fear or reserve. There Was no magic in it, no hypnotism, except as there may be found a
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