灵魂的本性与目标
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中文
灵魂的本质及其目标
最早的观念是，人死后并非化为虚无。有某种东西继续活着，即使人已死去仍然存在。也许最好将三个最古老的民族——埃及人、巴比伦人和古代印度人——加以比较，从他们所有人那里获取这个观念。在埃及人和巴比伦人那里，我们发现一种灵魂的观念——一种"复体"的观念。根据他们的看法，在这个身体内部还有另一个身体，它在这里活动和工作；当外在的身体死去时，这个复体便出来并继续存活一段时间；但复体的寿命取决于外在身体的保存。如果复体所离开的身体的任何部位受到损伤，复体在那个部位也必然受到损伤。这就是为什么我们发现古埃及人如此殷切地通过防腐处理、建造金字塔等方式来保存死者的遗体。我们在巴比伦人和古埃及人中都发现，这个复体不能永生；它至多只能存活一定的时间，即外在身体所能被保存的时间。
下一个特点是，这种复体与恐惧有关。它总是不幸和悲惨的；其存在状态是极度痛苦的。它一次又一次地回到活着的人那里，索要它再也无法享有的食物、饮水和享受。它想要饮用尼罗河的水——那它再也无法饮用的清水。它想要找回它在生前曾享用的那些食物；当它发现再也得不到时，复体就变得凶猛，有时会以死亡和灾难来威胁活人，如果不供给它食物的话。
转向雅利安人的思想，我们立刻发现了一个巨大的分歧。那里仍然有复体的观念，但它已经变成了一种精神体；而一个重大的区别是，这种精神体——灵魂，或者你愿意怎么称呼它——的寿命并不受限于它所离开的身体。相反，它从这个身体中获得了自由；因此雅利安人有焚烧死者的独特习俗。他们想要处理掉死者所留下的身体，而埃及人则想要通过埋葬、防腐和建造金字塔来保存它。除了最原始的处理死者的方式之外，在文明发展到一定程度的民族中，处理死者遗体的方法是他们灵魂观念的一个重要标志。凡是认为亡者灵魂与死者身体密切相关的地方，我们总是发现保存身体的倾向，也总是发现某种形式的土葬。另一方面，在那些已经发展出灵魂是独立于身体的实体、即使身体被毁灭灵魂也不会受到伤害这一观念的人那里，火化始终是所采用的方式。因此我们在所有古代雅利安民族中发现了火化死者的习俗，尽管拜火教徒将其改为将遗体暴露在塔上。但那座塔的名称（达克马）本身就意味着焚烧之地，表明在古时他们也用火焚烧遗体。另一个特点是，在雅利安人中，这些复体没有任何恐惧的成分。它们不会下来索要食物或帮助；当被拒绝帮助时，也不会变得凶猛或试图毁灭活着的人。它们反而是欢喜的，是因获得自由而高兴的。葬礼火堆的火焰是分解的象征。人们祈请这个象征温柔地将亡者的灵魂托举起来，送往祖先们居住的地方——那里没有悲伤，只有永恒的欢乐，如此等等。
从这两种观念中我们立刻看到它们是同类性质的，一种是乐观的，另一种是悲观的——后者是初级的。前者是后者的进化。雅利安人自身完全有可能在非常古老的时代也有过与埃及人完全相同的观念。在研究他们最古老的记载时，我们发现了这种观念的可能性。但这是一种相当光明的东西，一种明亮的东西。当一个人死去时，灵魂去与祖先们同住，在那里享受他们的幸福。祖先们以极大的慈爱接纳它；这是印度关于灵魂的最古老的观念。后来，这个观念变得越来越高。然后人们发现，他们之前所称的灵魂并非真正的灵魂。这个光明体、精微体，无论多么精微，终究还是一个身体；而一切身体都必须由物质构成，无论是粗重的还是精微的。凡是有形有相的都必然是有限的，不可能是永恒的。变化是一切形相所固有的。那可变的怎能是永恒的？于是，在这个光明体的背后，他们找到了人的灵魂。它被称为真我（Atman），即自性。这个自性的观念由此开始。它也不得不经历种种变化。有些人认为这个自性是永恒的，它极其微小，几乎如原子般微小；它住在身体的某一部分，当人死去时，他的自性便离开，带着光明体一起走。还有一些人在同样的理由上否定了灵魂的原子性——正如他们否定了光明体是灵魂一样。
从所有这些不同的观点中产生了数论（Sankhya）哲学，我们在其中立刻发现了巨大的差异。那里的观念是，人首先有这个粗重的身体；在粗重身体的背后是精微体，它仿佛是心灵的载体；而在那背后则是自性，数论学派称之为观者，它是遍在的。也就是说，你的灵魂、我的灵魂、每个人的灵魂同时遍布一切处所。如果它是无形的，怎能说它占据空间？一切占据空间的东西都有形相。无形的只能是无限的。因此每一个灵魂无处不在。提出的第二个理论更加令人震惊。他们在古时都看到人类是不断进步的——至少许多人如此。人们在纯洁、力量和知识方面不断增长；于是问题被提出来了：人所显现的这种知识、纯洁和力量从何而来？这里有一个婴儿，毫无知识。这个婴儿成长为一个强壮有力、充满智慧的人。那个婴儿从哪里获得其丰富的知识和力量？回答是：它在灵魂之中；那个婴儿的灵魂从一开始就拥有这种知识和力量。这种力量、这种纯洁、这种力量存在于那个灵魂之中，只是未曾显现；它们现在已经显现出来了。这种显现或未显现意味着什么？意味着每一个灵魂都是纯净和圆满的，如数论所说，都是全能和全知的；但它只能根据它所拥有的心灵来向外显现自身。心灵仿佛是灵魂的反射镜。我的心灵在某种程度上反射出我灵魂的力量；你的灵魂亦然，每个人的灵魂亦然。哪面镜子更清澈，就能更好地反射灵魂。因此，显现的程度因每个人所拥有的心灵而异；但灵魂本身都是纯净和圆满的。
还有另一个学派认为这不可能。虽然灵魂按其本性是纯净和圆满的，但这种纯净和圆满有时会——如他们所说——收缩，有时又扩展。有某些行为和思想仿佛使灵魂的本性收缩；同时也有另一些思想和行为使其本性展现出来、显现出来。这又得到了进一步的解释。一切使灵魂的力量和纯净收缩的思想和行为都是恶的行为、恶的思想；而一切使灵魂显现自身——使其力量展现出来——的思想和行为都是善的、道德的行为。这两种理论之间的差异非常微小；多少只是对扩展和收缩这两个词的文字游戏。认为变化仅取决于灵魂所拥有的心灵的那种理论无疑是更好的解释，但收缩和扩展的理论想要躲在这两个词后面；应当质问他们：灵魂的收缩或扩展是什么意思？灵魂是精神。你可以就物质——无论是我们称为物质的粗重物质还是精微的心灵——来质问收缩或扩展的含义；但超越了这些，如果它不是物质，那不受空间和时间约束的东西，如何解释对它的收缩和扩展？因此，那种认为灵魂始终是纯净和圆满的、只是其本性在某些心灵中比在其他心灵中反射得更多的理论似乎更好。随着心灵的改变，其品性仿佛变得越来越清澈，对灵魂给出越来越好的反射。如此继续下去，直到心灵净化到完全反射出灵魂的品质；那时灵魂便获得解脱（Moksha）。
这就是灵魂的本质。目标是什么？在印度的各个不同教派中，灵魂的目标似乎是相同的。所有教派都有一个共同的理念，那就是解脱。人是无限的；他现在所处的这种有限状态并非他的本性。但通过这些限制，他在不断向上、向前奋斗，直到他到达无限、无限制的境界——他的与生俱来之权利，他的本性。我们周围看到的所有这些组合和重新组合、这些显现，都不是目的或目标，而只是途中的、过渡性的。这些组合——地球和太阳、月亮和星辰、对和错、善和恶、我们的欢笑和泪水、我们的喜悦和悲伤——都是为了使我们获得经验，通过这些经验，灵魂显现其圆满的本性，并摆脱限制。那时，它不再受内在或外在自然的任何法则所束缚。它超越了一切法则，超越了一切限制，超越了一切自然。自然已经处于灵魂的控制之下，而不是灵魂处于自然的控制之下——尽管灵魂现在认为自己是如此。这就是灵魂所拥有的唯一目标；而灵魂通过其所有显现的连续阶段、通过其所经历的连续体验以达到那个目标——自由——的过程，被表述为它的多次出生。灵魂仿佛是取了一个较低级的身体，试图通过它来表达自身。它发现那个身体不够用，便将其抛弃，取了一个较高级的。通过那个身体它继续奋斗以表达自身。那个也被发现不够用，被舍弃，又来了一个更高级的；如此层层递进，直到找到一个身体，灵魂能够通过它显现其最高的志向。那时灵魂便获得了自由。
现在问题是：如果灵魂是无限的，并且如它作为精神所必然的那样无处不在，那么它取得身体、一个接一个地经历身体是什么意思？这个观念是：灵魂既不来也不去，既不生也不死。遍在者怎能出生？说灵魂住在身体里是毫无意义的废话。无限者怎能住在有限的空间里？但正如一个人手拿一本书，读了一页翻过去，到下一页，读了再翻过去，如此继续——然而被翻动的是书，旋转的是书页，而不是他——他始终在他所在之处——灵魂也是如此。整个自然就是灵魂正在阅读的那本书。每一世仿佛是那本书的一页；那一页读完了，便翻过去，如此继续，直到整本书读完，那个灵魂便达到了圆满，获得了自然的一切经验。然而与此同时，它从未移动过，从未来过，也从未去过；它只是在积累经验。但在我们看来，仿佛我们在移动。地球在运动，然而我们以为是太阳在移动而非地球，而我们知道那是一种错误、一种感官的幻觉。我们出生和死亡、我们来或我们去的观念也是如此——那同样是一种幻觉。我们既不来也不去，也未曾出生。因为灵魂能去哪里？没有地方可让它去。哪里没有它的存在？
于是，关于自然的演化和灵魂的显现的理论由此而来。演化的过程——越来越高的组合——不是在灵魂中；灵魂已经是其所是的样子。这些过程是在自然中。但随着自然向前演化为越来越高的组合，灵魂的庄严便越来越多地显现出来。假设这里有一面屏幕，屏幕后面是绝美的风景。屏幕上有一个小孔，通过它我们只能看到后面风景的一小部分。假设那个孔的尺寸增大了。随着孔的增大，后面越来越多的风景进入了视野；当整个屏幕消失后，你和风景之间便没有了任何阻隔，你看到了它的全部。这个屏幕就是人的心灵。在它后面是灵魂的庄严、纯净和无限力量，而随着心灵变得越来越清澈、越来越纯净，灵魂的庄严便越来越多地显现出来。并非灵魂在改变，而是屏幕在改变。灵魂是那不变的太一、不朽的、纯净的、永远至福的太一。
因此，到最后，理论归结为此：从最高到最低、最邪恶的人，在最伟大的人类和我们脚下最低微的爬虫之中，都有灵魂——纯净而圆满的、无限而永远至福的。在虫子中，灵魂仅显现其力量和纯净的极微小部分；在最伟大的人中，它显现得最多。差异在于显现的程度，而非本质。同一个纯净而圆满的灵魂存在于一切众生之中。
还有天堂和其他处所的观念，但这些被认为是次等的。天堂的观念被认为是低级的。它源于对一个享乐之地的渴望。我们愚蠢地想要用我们当前的经验来限制整个宇宙。孩子们以为整个宇宙都充满了孩子。疯子以为整个宇宙是一座疯人院，如此等等。因此那些对其而言这个世界不过是感官享乐的人，其整个生活都在吃喝宴饮中度过，与畜生几乎没有多大区别——这样的人自然会想象出更多享乐的地方，因为此生是短暂的。他们对享乐的渴望是无限的，因此他们必然会想到那些能够无障碍地享受感官之乐的地方；而我们看到，随着我们继续前行，那些想要去这样的地方的人将不得不去；他们会做梦，当这个梦结束时，他们将进入另一个梦，那里有充足的感官享受；而当那个梦也破碎时，他们又得想别的什么。就这样，他们将在一个梦又一个梦之间漂泊不定。
然后是最后一个理论，关于灵魂的又一个观念。如果灵魂在本质和本性上是纯净和圆满的，如果每一个灵魂都是无限的和遍在的，那么怎么会有多个灵魂呢？不可能有多个无限。甚至两个都不可能有，更不用说多个了。如果有两个无限，一个就会限制另一个，两者都会变成有限。无限只能是一个，而最终的结论便被大胆地提出——它只是一个，而非两个。
两只鸟栖于同一棵树上，一只在树顶，另一只在下方，两只都有着最美丽的羽毛。下面那只在吃果实，而上面那只安然而庄严地端坐着，专注于自身的光辉。下面那只鸟在吃各种果实——善的和恶的，追逐感官享受；当它偶尔吃到一枚苦果时，它便抬头仰望，看到上面那只鸟安然而庄严地端坐着，既不在意甜果也不在意苦果，自足于己身，不在自身之外寻求任何享受。它本身就是喜乐；何需在自身之外寻求？下面那只鸟看着上面那只鸟，想要靠近。它升高了一些；但旧有的印记仍在它身上，它依旧继续吃着同样的果实。又一枚格外苦的果子来了；它受到了震动，抬头仰望。上面同样是那安然而庄严的太一！它靠近了一些，但又被过去的行为拖了回去，继续吃着甜的和苦的果实。又一枚格外苦的果子来了，鸟抬头仰望，更加靠近；当它开始越来越近时，上面那只鸟羽毛的光辉映照在它身上。它自己的羽毛在消融，当它足够靠近时，整个景象改变了。下面那只鸟从来就不存在，它一直就是上面那只鸟，而它以为的下面那只鸟不过是一点小小的倒影。
灵魂的本质就是如此。这个人类灵魂追逐感官享受、世间虚荣；如同动物一样仅活在感官之中，仅活在神经短暂的刺激之中。当一记打击来临时，头脑一时昏眩，一切开始消散，它发现世界并非它所以为的样子，人生并非那样一帆风顺。它向上仰望，刹那间看到了无限的主，瞥见了庄严的太一，靠近了一些，但又被过去的行为拖了回去。又一记打击来临，将它再次推回。它又瞥见了无限的存在，再靠近一些，随着它越来越靠近，它开始发现它的个体性——那低劣的、粗俗的、极端自私的个体性——正在消融；那想要牺牲整个世界来使那个渺小的自我快乐的欲望正在消融；随着它逐渐越来越靠近，自然开始消融。当它足够靠近时，整个景象改变了，它发现自己就是那另一只鸟——这个它曾从远处观望的无限就是它自己的自性——它所瞥见的那光荣和庄严就是它自己的自性——而它确实就是那个实在。灵魂于是发现了万物中的真实。那存在于每一个原子中、无处不在、万物之精髓、这个宇宙之神的——知道你就是祂，知道你就是自由的。
English
THE NATURE OF THE SOUL AND ITS GOAL
The earliest idea is that a man, when he dies, is not annihilated. Something lives and goes on living even after the man is dead. Perhaps it would be better to compare the three most ancient nations—the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the ancient Hindus—and take this idea from all of them. With the Egyptians and the Babylonians, we find a sort of soul idea—that of a double. Inside this body, according to them, there is another body which is moving and working here; and when the outer body dies, the double gets out and lives on for a certain length of time; but the life of the double is limited by the preservation of the outer body. If the body which the double has left is injured in any part, the double is sure to be injured in that part. That is why we find among the ancient Egyptians such solicitude to preserve the dead body of a person by embalming, building pyramids, etc. We find both with the Babylonians and the ancient Egyptians that this double cannot live on through eternity; it can, at best, live on for a certain time only, that is, just so long as the body it has left can be preserved.
The next peculiarity is that there is an element of fear connected with this double. It is always unhappy and miserable; its state of existence is one of extreme pain. It is again and again coming back to those that are living, asking for food and drink and enjoyments that it can no more have. It is wanting to drink of the waters of the Nile, the fresh waters which it can no more drink. It wants to get back those foods it used to enjoy while in this life; and when it finds it cannot get them, the double becomes fierce, sometimes threatening the living with death and disaster if it is not supplied with such food.
Coming to Aryan thought, we at once find a very wide departure. There is still the double idea there, but it has become a sort of spiritual body; and one great difference is that the life of this spiritual body, the soul, or whatever you may call it, is not limited by the body it has left. On the contrary, it has obtained freedom from this body, and hence the peculiar Aryan custom of burning the dead. They want to get rid of the body which the person has left, while the Egyptian wants to preserve it by burying, embalming, and building pyramids. Apart from the most primitive system of doing away with the dead, amongst nations advanced to a certain extent, the method of doing away with the bodies of the dead is a great indication of their idea of the soul. Wherever we find the idea of a departed soul closely connected with the idea of the dead body, we always find the tendency to preserve the body, and we also find burying in some form or other. On the other hand, with those in whom the idea has developed that the soul is a separate entity from the body and will not be hurt if the dead body is even destroyed, burning is always the process resorted to. Thus we find among all ancient Aryan races burning of the dead, although the Parsees changed it to exposing the body on a tower. But the very name of the tower (Dakhma) means a burning-place, showing that in ancient times they also used to burn their bodies. The other peculiarity is that among the Aryans there was no element of fear with these doubles. They are not coming down to ask for food or help; and when denied that help, they do not become ferocious or try to destroy those that are living. They rather are joyful, are glad at getting free. The fire of the funeral pyre is the symbol of disintegration. The symbol is asked to take the departed soul gently up and to carry it to the place where the fathers live, where there is no sorrow, where there is joy for ever, and so on.
Of these two ideas we see at once that they are of a similar nature, the one optimistic, and the other pessimistic—being the elementary. The one is the evolution of the other. It is quite possible that the Aryans themselves had, or may have had, in very ancient times exactly the same idea as the Egyptians. In studying their most ancient records, we find the possibility of this very idea. But it is quite a bright thing, something bright. When a man dies, this soul goes to live with the fathers and lives there enjoying their happiness. These fathers receive it with great kindness; this is the most ancient idea in India of a soul. Later on, this idea becomes higher and higher. Then it was found out that what they called the soul before was not really the soul. This bright body, fine body, however fine it might be, was a body after all; and all bodies must be made up of materials, either gross or fine. Whatever had form or shape must be limited, and could not be eternal. Change is inherent in every form. How could that which is changeful be eternal? So, behind this bright body, as it were, they found something which was the soul of man. It was called the Âtman, the Self. This Self idea then began. It had also to undergo various changes. By some it was thought that this Self was eternal; that it was very minute, almost as minute as an atom; that it lived in a certain part of the body, and when a man died, his Self went away, taking along with it the bright body. There were other people who denied the atomic nature of the soul on the same ground on which they had denied that this bright body was the soul.
Out of all these various opinions rose Sânkhya philosophy, where at once we find immense differences. The idea there is that man has first this gross body; behind the gross body is the fine body, which is the vehicle of the mind, as it were; and behind even that is the Self, the Perceiver, as the Sânkhyas call it, of the mind; and this is omnipresent. That is, your soul, my soul, everyone's soul is everywhere at the same time. If it is formless, how can it be said to occupy space? Everything that occupies space has form. The formless can only be infinite. So each soul is everywhere. The second theory put forward is still more startling. They all saw in ancient times that human beings are progressive, at least many of them. They grew in purity and power and knowledge; and the question was asked: Whence was this knowledge, this purity, this strength which men manifested? Here is a baby without any knowledge. This baby grows and becomes a strong, powerful, and wise man. Whence did that baby get its wealth of knowledge and power? The answer was that it was in the soul; the soul of the baby had this knowledge and power from the very beginning. This power, this purity, this strength were in that soul, but they were unmanifested; they have become manifested. What is meant by this manifestation or unmanifestation? That each soul is pure and perfect, omnipotent and omniscient, as they say in the Sankhya; but it can manifest itself externally only according to the mind it has got. The mind is, as it were, the reflecting mirror of the soul. My mind reflects to a certain extent the powers of my soul; so your soul, and so everyone's. That mirror which is clearer reflects the soul better. So the manifestation varies according to the mind one possesses; but the souls in themselves are pure and perfect.
There was another school who thought that this could not be. Though souls are pure and perfect by their nature, this purity and perfection become, as they say, contracted at times, and expanded at other times. There are certain actions and certain thoughts which, as it were, contract the nature of the soul; and then also other thoughts and acts, which bring its nature out, manifest it. This again is explained. All thoughts and actions that make the power and purity of the soul get contracted are evil actions, evil thoughts; and all those thoughts and actions which make the soul manifest itself—make the powers come out, as it were—are good and moral actions. The difference between the two theories is very slight; it is more of less a play on the words expansion and contraction. The one that holds that the variation only depends on the mind the soul has got is the better explanation, no doubt, but the contracting and expanding theory wants to take refuge behind the two words; and they should be asked what is meant by contraction of soul, or expansion. Soul is a spirit. You can question what is meant by contraction or expansion with regard to material, whether gross which we call matter, or fine, the mind; but beyond that, if it is not matter, that which is not bound by space or by time, how to explain the words contraction and expansion with regard to that? So it seems that this theory which holds that the soul is pure and perfect all the time, only its nature is more reflected in some minds than in others, is the better. As the mind changes, its character grows, as it were, more and more clear and gives a better reflection of the soul. Thus it goes on, until the mind has become so purified that it reflects fully the quality of the soul; then the soul becomes liberated.
This is the nature of the soul. What is the goal? The goal of the soul among all the different sects in India seems to be the same. There is one idea with all, and that is liberation. Man is infinite; and this limitation in which he exists now is not his nature. But through these limitations he is struggling upward and forward until he reaches the infinite, the unlimited, his birthright, his nature. All these combinations and recombinations and manifestations that we see round us are not the aim or the goal, but merely by the way and in passing. These combinations as earths and suns, and moons and stars, right and wrong, good and bad, our laughter and our tears, our joys and sorrows, are to enable us to gain experience through which the soul manifests its perfect nature and throws off limitation. No more, then, is it bound by laws either of internal or external nature. It has gone beyond all law, beyond all limitation, beyond all nature. Nature has come under the control of the soul, not the soul under the control of nature, as it thinks it is now. That is the one goal that the soul has; and all the succeeding steps through which it is manifesting, all the successive experiences through which it is passing in order to attain to that goal—freedom—are represented as its births. The soul is, as it were, taking up a lower body and trying to express itself through that. It finds that to be insufficient, throws it aside, and a higher one is taken up. Through that it struggles to express itself. That also is found to be insufficient, is rejected, and a higher one comes; so on and on until a body is found through which the soul manifests its highest aspirations. Then the soul becomes free.
Now the question is: If the soul is infinite and exists everywhere, as it must do, if it is a spirit, what is meant by its taking up bodies and passing through body after body? The idea is that the soul neither comes nor goes, neither is born nor dies. How can the omnipresent be born? It is meaningless nonsense to say that the soul lives in a body. How can the unlimited live in a limited space? But as a man having a book in his hands reads one page and turns it over, goes to the next page, reads that, turns it over, and so on, yet it is the book that is being turned over, the pages that are revolving, and not he—he is where he is always—even so with regard to the soul. The whole of nature is that book which the soul is reading. Each life, as it were, is one page of that book; and that read, it is turned over, and so on and on, until the whole of the book is finished, and that soul becomes perfect, having got all the experiences of nature. Yet at the same time it never moved, nor came, nor went; it was only gathering experiences. But it appears to us that we are moving. The earth is moving, yet we think that the sun is moving instead of the earth, which we know to be a mistake, a delusion of the senses. So is also this, delusion that we are born and that we die, that we come or that we go. We neither come nor go, nor have we been born. For where is the soul to go? There is no place for it to go. Where is it not already?
Thus the theory comes of the evolution of nature and the manifestation of the soul. The processes of evolution, higher and higher combinations, are not in the soul; it is already what it is. They are in nature. But as nature is evolving forward into higher and higher combinations, more and more of the majesty of the soul is manifesting itself. Suppose here is a screen, and behind the screen is wonderful scenery. There is one small hole in the screen through which we can catch only a little bit of that scenery behind. Suppose that hole becomes increased in size. As the hole increases in size, more and more of the scenery behind comes within the range of vision; and when the whole screen has disappeared, there is nothing between the scenery and you; you see the whole of it. This screen is the mind of man. Behind it is the majesty, the purity, the infinite power of the soul, and as the mind becomes clearer and clearer, purer and purer, more of the majesty of the soul manifests itself. Not that the soul is changing, but the change is in the screen. The soul is the unchangeable One, the immortal, the pure, the ever-blessed One.
So, at last, the theory comes to this. From the highest to the lowest and most wicked man, in the greatest of; human beings and the lowest of crawling worms under our feet, is the soul, pure and perfect, infinite and ever-blessed. In the worm that soul is manifesting only an infinitesimal part of its power and purity, and in the greatest man it is manifesting most of it. The difference consists in the degree of manifestation, but not in the essence. Through all beings exists the same pure and perfect soul.
There are also the ideas of heavens and other places, but these are thought to be second-rate. The idea of heaven is thought to be a low idea. It arises from the desire for a place of enjoyment. We foolishly want to limit the whole universe with our present experience. Children think that the whole universe is full of children. Madmen think the whole universe a lunatic asylum, and so on. So those to whom this world is but sense-enjoyment, whose whole life is in eating and feasting, with very little difference between them and brute beasts—such are naturally found to conceive of places where they will have more enjoyments, because this life is short. Their desire for enjoyment is infinite, so they are bound to think of places where they will have unobstructed enjoyment of the senses; and we see, as we go on, that those who want to go to such places will have to go; they will dream, and when this dream is over, they will be in another dream where there is plenty of sense-enjoyment; and when that dream breaks, they will have to think of something else. Thus they will be driving about from dream to dream.
Then comes the last theory, one more idea about the soul. If the soul is pure and perfect in its essence and nature, and if every soul is infinite and omnipresent, how is it that there can be many souls? There cannot be many infinites. There cannot be two even, not to speak of many. If there were two infinites, one would limit the other, and both become finite. The infinite can only be one, and boldly the last conclusion is approached— that it is but one and not two.
Two birds are sitting on the same tree, one on the top, the other below, both of most beautiful plumage. The one eats the fruits, while the other remains, calm and majestic, concentrated in its own glory. The lower bird is eating fruits, good and evil, going after sense-enjoyments; and when it eats occasionally a bitter fruit, it gets higher and looks up and sees the other bird sitting there calm and majestic, neither caring for good fruit nor for bad, sufficient unto itself, seeking no enjoyment beyond itself. It itself is enjoyment; what to seek beyond itself? The lower bird looks at the upper bird and wants to get near. It goes a little higher; but its old impressions are upon it, and still it goes about eating the same fruit. Again an exceptionally bitter fruit comes; it gets a shock, looks up. There the same calm and majestic one! It comes near but again is dragged down by past actions, and continues to eat the sweet and bitter fruits. Again the exceptionally bitter fruit comes, the bird looks up, gets nearer; and as it begins to get nearer and nearer, the light from the plumage of the other bird is reflected upon it. Its own plumage is melting away, and when it has come sufficiently near, the whole vision changes. The lower bird never existed, it was always the upper bird, and what it took for the lower bird was only a little bit of a reflection.
Such is the nature of the soul. This human soul goes after sense-enjoyments, vanities of the world; like animals it lives only in the senses, lives only in momentary titillations of the nerves. When there comes a blow, for a moment the head reels, and everything begins to vanish, and it finds that the world was not what it thought it to be, that life was not so smooth. It looks upward and sees the infinite Lord a moment, catches a glimpse of the majestic One, comes a little nearer, but is dragged away by its past actions. Another blow comes, and sends it back again. It catches another glimpse of the infinite Presence, comes nearer, and as it approaches nearer and nearer, it begins to find out that its individuality—its low, vulgar, intensely selfish individuality—is melting away; the desire to sacrifice the whole world to make that little thing happy is melting away; and as it gets gradually nearer and nearer, nature begins to melt away. When it has come sufficiently near, the whole vision changes, and it finds that it was the other bird, that this infinity which it had viewed as from a distance was its own Self, this wonderful glimpse that it had got of the glory and majesty was its own Self, and it indeed was that reality. The soul then finds That which is true in everything. That which is in every atom, everywhere present, the essence of all things, the God of this universe— know that thou art He, know that thou art free.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。