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