A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"THE COSMOS: THE MICROCOSM. 271friends, wealth and power. They came and they went.How many times were you on the topmost crest of the waveand how many times were you down at the bottom ofdespair. When memory will bring that to you, then alonewill you stand as a hero, and smile when the world frownsupon you. Then alone will you stand up and say I carenot for thee, even though thou be death what terrors;hastthou f3r me ?" Then only will you conquer death, whenyou know that death has no power over you. This willcome to all.Are there any arguments, any rational proofs for thisreincarnation of the soul ? So far we have been giving thenegative side, showing that opposite arguments,to disprove, are invalid. Are there any positive arguments ?There are; and, most valid too. Knowledge will be impossible without reincarnation. Suppose I go into thestreet and see a dog ? How do I know it is a dog ? I referit to my mind, and in my mind are groups of allmy pastexperiences, arranged, pigeon-holed, as it were. As soonas a new impression comes, I take itup and refer it tosome of the old pigeon-holes, and as soon as I find othergroups of the same impression already existing, I group itwith them, and am satisfied. I know it is a dog, becauseit coincides with impressions already there. When I do notfind the cognate of this new experience inside, I become disWhen, not finding the cognates of an impression,satisfied.we become dissatisfied, this state of the mind is called*ignorance";but, when, finding the cognates of an impression already existing, we become satisfied, this is calledWhen one apple fell, men became dissatisfied.What was the"knowledge."Then gradually they found out the group.group they found ? That all apples fell, so they called it41gravitation."Now we see that without a fund of already