Chapter XIV - 80 | Home | Index | Previous | Next |
What is the key to this paradox? Note this: What is it that does not welcome death? What is it that meets with death? What is it that leaves and what is it that remains? The answer: it is the body that dies; it is the body that falls. What does not die is the Atma. Only you delude yourselves into thinking that it is the Atma or "you" that dies. The Atma has nothing to do with death or birth. The body experiences death; the Atma which is Nithya, Sathya, and Nirmala - Eternal true and pure - does not die. You are the Atma that does not like to die. That is to say, you are Sath; your nature is Sath. The Atma is the "child of immortality," not the Deha or the body. The Atma is the Sath, not the body. You are the Sath; the Atma; the entity that has no death. It is this Atma that is in every casement and so, every being feels the force of that Sath in the form of eternal unchanging existence. This is clear and unmistakable. Now take the second: Chith - the force that urges you to know everything. Every person is eager to know about anything that is apparent to his consciousness; he asks the questions: "What is this? How does this happen?" The number which actually succeeds in knowing may be only a few. Others may have the eagerness only and not the steady intelligence needed to persist and win. That makes no difference. The essential fact is the thirst, the urge. Take a little boy with you when you go to the market or the bazaar or an exhibition. You will note that the boy does not simply move along seeing the various things on both sides. He will be continuously asking the person who is leading him by the hand what this is and what that is. It maybe something he does need or something that is beyond his power of understanding; but yet, the stream of questions will not get dry. Just consider the inner significance of this hunger for knowledge. It is the Chith-sakthi that expresses itself. It is not its nature to leave things alone. It cannot rest until knowledge is gained; so the hunger emerges as a stream of questions. The Chith-sakthi is self-luminous; so it has the power of illumining even inert things. That is why these qualities shine in man and make other things clearer to him. This is enough to make it plain that man has in him the principle of intelligence or Chithsakthi. Now for the third: Anandam. Even beasts and birds crave for joy without any prompting or persuasion from others. They make every effort to win it. Not one of them craves for grief or pain; they make every effort to escape from pain and grief and put an end to them, when they become unavoidable. |