A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

THE REAL AND THE APPARENT MAN. 209same one undivided unit for ever, and this is the individual man, the ^eal man. The apparent man is merely astruggle to express, to manifest this individuality, whichis beyond, and that evolution is not in the spirit. Thesechanges which are going on, the wicked becoming good,the animal becoming man, take it whatever way you like,Evolution of nature and manifestaare not in the spirit.tion of spirit. Suppose here is a screen hiding you fromme, and there is a small hole in the screen, and throughthat I can just see some of the faces before me, just a fewfaces. Now suppose this hole begins to grow larger andlarger. As the hole goes on becoming larger and larger,more and more of the scene before me reveals itself, andwhen the hole has become identified with the screen, Istand face to face with you. You did not change at allin this case, you were where you always were. It was thehole that was evolving and you were manifesting yourself.So it is with the spirit.You are already free and perfect.No perfection isgoing to be attained. You are that already free and perfect.What are all these ideas of religion and God and searching for the hereafter ? Why doesman go to look for a God ? Why in every nation, in everystate of society did man want a perfect ideal somewhere,either in man, in God, or anywhere else? Because that ideais in you. It is your own heart beating and you did notknow, you were mistaking it for something external.the God within your own self that is propelling you to seekIt isfor it, to realise it,and after long search here and there,in temples and in churches, in earths, in heavens, and inall various ways, at last we come back, complete thecirclefrom where we started, back, to our own soul and find thatHe for whom we have been seeking all over the world, forwhom we have been weeping and praying in churches and14