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{{Style S-HPB SB. HPB note|F.T.S.|center}} | {{Style S-HPB SB. HPB note|F.T.S.|center}} | ||
... | There has been no end of creeds, no end of ethics. Metaphysics have been | ||
principally directed to the study of the mind, and except the Aryas and | |||
Greeks no other ancient nation has thrown light on the soul. The Aryas did | |||
not believe in vicarious salvation, but looked upon the soul as the | |||
connecting link between God and man. The Rishis thought of nothing but God | |||
and soul. Many of them were clairvoyants, possessed psychological powers, | |||
and could predict events. The Rájás made it a rule to retire and live in | |||
the jungle with their wives, after they were fifty years of age, for the | |||
purpose of attaining the spiritual state. The love of Socrates and Plato | |||
for the essence and spirit is admirable. Ours is a materialistic age. We | |||
prosecute the study of physical sciences; we think of what pays well, but | |||
not of what ''pays well eventually''. Talk of Spiritualism, and the remark | |||
instantly made is, that it is a delusion—all bosh. What becomes of us? | |||
"Let us not try to lift the veil which cannot be lifted." "We have all we | |||
require in the Bible." The general disposition not to go beyond the limited | |||
horizon of the mind is very great; prejudices, idols and dogmas are all | |||
against the prosecution of inquiry. This is characteristic of the age, but | |||
the pure light of God in the soul cannot be kept pent up; this is evidenced | |||
by the present spiritual movement, which must prosper in spite of the | |||
opposition of learned divines and physicists. | |||
To give some idea of the spiritual state as known to the Aryas, I subjoin | |||
extracts from certain works on Yoga and Bhágavat Gitá. I am anxious that the | |||
knowledge of this state should be widely known, that Spiritualism may be | |||
fully appreciated and valued. It is absolutely necessary for preparing us | |||
for the world of essence, where we cannot progress if we do not live here | |||
looking upon our spiritual existence and God from the light of our souls. | |||
All honor then to my most esteemed friend, Andrew Jackson Davis, and to all | |||
other Spiritualists. The reward for revealing the divine truth is in the | |||
soul itself. | |||
"No direction of sight, no bondage of the soul, no limit to time and space, | |||
no impediment from the organic life, no labor in the concentration of | |||
attention, no effort in contemplation, in possession of the endless horizon, | |||
not wakeful, nor in profound sleep, no consciousness of existence, nor of | |||
death, no twinkling in the eye, no desiring, no breathing, like a lamp | |||
undisturbed by wind. | |||
"The soul then shows full will, is free, and sees all the worlds. | |||
"The absorption in God comes on after extinction of the external knowledge, | |||
or knowledge through the mind and its sensuous organs. | |||
"Internal consciousness and external vision without the twinkling of the eye. | |||
"He is the Yogee who sees without effort, whose lower life ceases without his | |||
will, and whose inner life flows spontaneously. He is above all emotions, and | |||
above wakeful and dreaming states." | |||
"As long as the outer life exists, the soul is helpless." | |||
"The spiritual state is the constant thinking of the soul and of the | |||
souls of others. | |||
"It is ignorance that fetters the soul. Wisdom liberates it. The | |||
sentient soul lies in the outer life. The real is in the internal | |||
tranquil state. He who passes through varied states does not attain the | |||
spiritual condition, which consists in ''one unchangeable state'', seeing | |||
God everywhere. | |||
"The Yogee having forsaken the cares, lives in the essence. The Vedas | |||
are no Vedas—the real Veda is in fixing our mind on God. | |||
"The Yogee is impervious to vice and virtue, and becomes God-like." | |||
"Absorption in God means the same state in pain or pleasure, in ardent | |||
hope or disappointment. | |||
"He who has no ill feeling toward benefactors, friend, enemy, hermits, | |||
those who are deserving of censure, relatives, saints and sinners, or, | |||
in other words, looks upon them equally, is a Yogee. | |||
"He who, knowing his soul, looks upon all beings in the same light, and | |||
does not wish for any one's evil but happiness, is a Yogee. The Yoga | |||
state means the absorption of the mind in the soul, which, being | |||
developed, finds enjoyment only in itself." | |||
The spiritual state is for the world of essences and spirits with which | |||
it is ''en rapport''. Ecstasy and trance are mixed states of brain and | |||
soul. Somnambulism and clairvoyance are all included in the spiritual | |||
state, which has a perpetual clear vision of the past, present and | |||
future; and the more absorbed it is in God, the more elevated it is in | |||
the spirit-world. This is our accountability, this is our moral | |||
responsibility, this is our reward. May we all worship the Great Power | |||
"in truth and spirit," for his spiritual revelation to us. All other | |||
revelation based on mythic evidence, and partaking of sensuous | |||
conception, is the work of the mind, but not of the soul—the essence | |||
and mirror of God. | |||
''Calcutta, October'' 24''th'', 1877. | |||