| But what is independent? Not our body, for it | | | | it is not subjection to groans when under |
| depends upon outward conditions; nor our | | | | oppression, but expansion and manifestation. |
| mind, because the thoughts of which it is | | | | |
| composed are caused. It is our soul. The | | | | Every religion has it that man's present and |
| Vedas say the whole world is a mixture of | | | | future are modified by the past,and that the |
| independence and dependence, of freedom and | | | | present is but the effect of the past. How is |
| slavery, but through it all shines the soul | | | | it,then,that every child is born with an |
| independent, immortal, pure, perfect, holy. | | | | experience that cannot be accounted for by |
| For if it is independent, it cannot perish, | | | | hereditary transmission? How is it that one |
| as death is but a change, and depends upon | | | | is born of good parents, receives a good |
| conditions; if independent, it must be | | | | education and becomes a good man, while |
| perfect,for imperfection is again but a | | | | another comes from besotted parents and ends |
| condition, and therefore dependent. And this | | | | on the gallows? How do you explain this |
| immortal and perfect soul must be the same in | | | | inequality without implicating God? Why |
| the highest God as well as in the humblest | | | | should a merciful Father set His child in |
| man, the difference between them being only | | | | such conditions which must bring forth |
| in the degree in which this soul manifests | | | | misery? It is no explanation to say God will |
| itself. | | | | make amends later on -- god has no blood - |
| | | | money. Then,too, what becomes of my liberty, |
| But why should the soul take to itself a | | | | if this be my first birth? Coming into this |
| body? For the same reason that I take a | | | | world without the experience of a former |
| looking - glass -- to see myself. Thus,in the | | | | life, my independence would be gone,for my |
| body,the soul is reflected. The soul is God, | | | | path would be marked out by the experience of |
| and every human being has a perfect divinity | | | | others. If I cannot be the maker of my own |
| within himself,and each one must show his | | | | fortune,then I am not free. I take upon |
| divinity sooner or later. If I am in a dark | | | | myself the blame for the misery of this |
| room, no amount of protestation will make it | | | | existence,and say I will unmake the evil I |
| any brighter -- i must light a match. Just | | | | have done in another existence. This,then, is |
| so,no amount of grumbling and wailing will | | | | our philosophy of the migration of the soul. |
| make our imperfect body more perfect. But the | | | | We come into this life with the experience of |
| Vedanta teaches --call forth your soul, show | | | | another,and the fortune or misfortune of this |
| your divinity. Teach your children that they | | | | existence is the result of our acts in a |
| are divine, that religion is a positive | | | | former existence, always becoming better, |
| something and not a negative nonsense; that | | | | till at last perfection is reached. |