Yoga Philosophy

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi, Bhagu F Karbhari
Publisher: Agamoday Samiti

Page 74

PRACTICAL RULES FOR SOUL-CULTURE
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of liberated souls, and also the knowledge of human beings who are just on the point of being liberated, or have passed through the course of discipline, mental, moral and spiritual and have nearly exhausted past forces, at the same time, generating spiritual forces, and on account of discipline and spiritual evolution have become receptive. The soul sees everything when this state is arrived at; it knows everything, is fully conscious, and consciousness means first of all that it knows itself, and to know one's self means that it is someting, some reality, and there can be do reality unless it can distinguish itself from other realities. Only the one universal thing could not know itself, because knowledge implies comparing one with another and if that is not done there is no individuality. We say therefore that the soul in its bighest existence knows that it is perfectly separate from other things so far as experience and knowledge are concerned; so long as there is a sense of separateness there is no occasion or opportunity for the soul to rise higher because, when soul thinks that it is living a different existence for its own sake, it is considering its own self to be differ. ent from another person's, and thinks that this is its own and a part of its nature, its own being, and therefore anything done in regard to these surroundings will benefit or injure its own tature. It even thinks that its very life consists in doing good and in looking after other souls and taking active measures for carrying into effect the very plant of that soul. Then it comes