CHAPTER III The Eternal and the Individual He and I. Isha Upanishad.1 It is an eternal portion of Me that has become the living being in a world of living beings.... The eye of knowledge sees the Lord abiding in the body and enjoying and going forth from it. Gita 2 Two birds beautiful of wing, friends and comrades, cling to a common tree, and one eats the sweet fruit, the other regards him and eats not.... Where winged souls cry the discoveries of know- ledge over their portion of immortality, there the Lord of all, the Guardian of the World took possession of me, he the Wise, me the ignorant. Rig Veda.3 T

CHAPTER XXIII The Double Soul in Man The Purusha, the inner Self, no larger than the size of a man'sthumb. Katha Upanishad.¹ Swetaswatara Upanishad.² He who knows this Self who is the eater of the honey of existenceand the lord of what is and shall be, has thenceforward noshrinking. Katha Upanishad.³ Whence shall he have grief, how shall he be deluded who seeseverywhere the Oneness? Isha Upanishad.4 He who has found the bliss of the Eternal has no fear from any quarter. Taittiriya Upanishad.5 The first status of Life we found to be characterised by a dumb inconscient drive or urge, a force of some involved will in

CHAPTER XXII The Problem of Life This it is that is called the universal Life. Taittiriya Upanishad.¹ The Lord is seated in the heart of all beings turning all beings mounted upon a machine by his Maya. Gita.² He who knows the Truth, the Knowledge, the Infinity that is Brahman shall enjoy with the all-wise Brahman all objects of desire. Taittiriya Upanishad.³ LIFE is, we have seen, the putting forth, under certain cosmic circumstances, of a Conscious-Force which is in its own nature infinite, absolute, untrammelled, inalienably possessed of its own unity and bliss, the Conscious-Force of Sachchidananda. The centra

CHAPTER X Conscious Force They beheld the self-force of the Divine Being deep hidden by its own conscious modes of working. Swetaswatara Upanishad.¹ This is he that is awake in those who sleep. Katha Upanishad. ² ALL phenomenal existence resolves itself into Force, into a movement of energy that assumes more or less material, more or less gross or subtle forms for self-presentation to its own experience. In the ancient images by which human thought attempted to make this origin and law of being intelligible and real to itself, this infinite existence of Force was figured as a sea, initially at rest and therefore free from forms, but the

CHAPTER XXI The Ascent of Life Let the path of the Word lead to the godheads, towards the Waters by the working of the Mind....¹ O Flame, thou goest to the ocean of Heaven, towards the gods; thou makest to meet together the godheads of the planes, the waters that are in the realm of light above the sun and the waters that abide below.² The Lord of Delight conquers the third status; he maintains and governs according to the Soul of universality; like a hawk, a kite he settles on the vessel and uplifts it, a finder of the Light he manifests the fourth status and cleaves to the ocean that is the billowing of those waters.³

CHAPTER II The Two Negations I. THE MATERIALIST DENIAL He energised conscious-force (in the austerity of thought) and came to the knowledge that Matter is the Brahman. For from Matter all existences are born; born, by Matter they increase and enter into Matter in their passing hence. Then he went to Varuna, his father, and said, “Lord, teach me of the Brahman.” But he said to him: “Energise (again) the conscious-energy in thee; for the Energy is Brahman.” Taittiriya Upanishad.¹ THE affirmation of a divine life upon earth and an immortal sense in mortal existence can have no base unless we recognise not only eternal Spiri

Chapter VI Reality and the Cosmic Illusion The Eternal is true; the world is a lie. Vivekachudamani. 1 The Master of Maya creates this world by his Maya and within it is confined another; one should know his Maya as Nature and the Master of Maya as the great Lord of all. Swetaswatara Upanishad. 2 The Purusha is all this that is, what has been and what is yet to be; he is the master of Immortality and he is whatever grows by food. Rig Veda. 3 Swetaswatara Upanishad 4 All is the Divine Being. Gita. 5 BUT so far we have only cleared a part of the foreground of the field of inquiry; in the background the problem remains unso

CHAPTER XIII The Divine Maya By the Names of the Lord and hers they shaped and measured the force of the Mother of Light; wearing might after might of that Force as a robe the lords ofMaya shaped out Form in this Being. The Masters of Maya shaped all by His Maya; the Fathers who have divine vision set Him within as a child that is to be born. Rig Veda.¹ EXISTENCE that acts and creates by the power and from the pure delight of its conscious being is the reality that we are, the self of all our modes and moods, the cause, object and goal of all our doing, becoming and creating. As the poet, artist or musician when he creates does really no

Chapter VII The Knowledge and the Ignorance Let the Knower distinguish the Knowledge and the Ignorance. Rig Veda.1 Two are there, hidden in the secrecy of the Infinite, the Knowledge and the Ignorance; but perishable is the Ignorance, immortal is the Knowledge; another than they is He who rules over both the Knowledge and the Ignorance. Swetaswatara Upanishad.2 Two Unborn, the Knower and one who knows not, the Lord and one who has not mastery: one Unborn and in her are the object of enjoyment and the enjoyer. Swetaswatara Upanishad.3 Two are joined together, powers of Truth, powers of Maya,—they have built the Chil

CHAPTER XX Death, Desire and Incapacity In the beginning all was covered by Hunger that is Death; that made for itself Mind so that it might attain to possession of self. rihadaranyaka Upanishad.¹ This is the Power discovered by the mortal that has the multitude of its desires so that it may sustain all things; it takes the taste of all foods and builds a house for the being. Rig Veda.² In our last chapter we have considered Life from the point of view of the material existence and the appearance and working of the vital principle in Matter and we have reasoned from the data which this evolutionary terrest