A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

220 THE ABSOLUTE AND MANIFESTATION.else, and that the Absolute also is bound by somethingelse. That is to say, that in so using tLe word Absolutewe drag the Absolute down to the level of the Universe.For, above that line there is neither time, space norcausation, because it is One, beyond mind. That whichexists by itself alone, the One, cannot have any cause.That which is free cannot have any cause else it would;not be free, but bound. That which has relativitycannot be free. So the very question, you see, why theInfinite became the finite, is a mistake, it is selfcontradiction.Coming from subtleties to the logic of ourcommon plane, to common-sense, we can see this fromanother side, when we want to know how the Absolutehas became the relative. Supposing we know the answer,would the Absolute remain the Absolute ? It would havebecome the relative. What is meant by knowledge in ourcommon-sense idea ? Anything that becomes limited byour mind, that we know, and when it isbeyond our mindwe do not know it. Now, if the Absolute becomes limitedby the mind, it is no more Absolute it has become finite.;Everything limited by the mind becomes finite. Therefore,to know the Absolute is again a condradiction in terms.This iswhy this question has never been answered, becauseif it were answered, it would no more be Absolute ;a Godknown is no more God ;He has become finite like one ofus, like the chair. He cannot be known, He is always theUnknowable One. But what Advaita says is that it is morethan knowable. This is one fact to learn. You must notgo home with the idea that God is unknowable in the sensein which Agnostics putit. For instance, here is a chairAnd my knowledge of it is expressed by the Englishword it is known to me. On the contrary, what isbeyondether, or whether some people exist there or not,possibly