| Though the
in-dwelling aatman is one and the same, each soul lives a life of separate individuality
without a sense of identity with others. Herein is the illusion referred to as maaya, to
overcome which is the aim of the Vedantin. It is easy enough to accept the doctrine
of oneness and believe that with that acceptance by the intellect, enlightenment has come.
But the feelings, the desires and the fear and the
pain, these do not obey such easily reached superficial enlightenment. Enlightenment is an
overcoming of the maaya and is a state akin to waking as against dreaming. The way to it
is yoga. Self-control, faith, discipline, ordered life, and vigilance go to make up yoga
which brings about real enlightenment.
In the learned and the illiterate, in the valiant soldier
and the coward, in the strong and the weak, in the mighty and the lowly, in all the
multitudes of living beings, it is the Supreme Spirit that, abiding in every one of them,
makesthem what they are. |
