| In trying to
explain the mental relation of body, soul and Supreme Spirit, different methods of
exposition are employed by the teachers of Vedanta. The Paramaatman, the third in the
above series, offers itself to a variety of ex positions which sometimes are mistaken for
differences of creed. Just as the soul gives to the body its quality as a living body, it
is the Supreme Being that endows the individual soul with its quality as a divine spark. The soul upholds the life in the body; the Supreme Soul upholds the
divine nature of the soul. Just as in this mortal life, body and soul in happy combination
become one visible and living person, so also the individual souls when they attain moksha
combine in a happy merger, shedding all imperfection, ignorance and distraction.
Purity of life and self-control qualify the individual soul
for this merger which is bliss. The individual soul is only the shadow of the
Supreme Universal Soul. Ignorance is the cause of the shadow and of the impression that
the shadow is different from the light that produces it. |
