A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"""294 REALIZATION.Now Yama answers the question What becomes ofa man when the "body dies ?" This Wise One never dies,is never born and it arises from nothing, nothing arisesfrom it.Unborn, Eternal, Everlasting, this Ancient t)necan never be destroyed with the destruction of the body.If the killer thinks he can kill, or if the killed thinks hsis slain, they both do not know the truth, for the Selfneither kills nor is killed." A most tremendous ^position.The one adjective in the first line is wise One.you go on you will find that the ideal of Vedanta is, thatall the wisdom, and all the purity are in the soulalready dimly expressed, or better expressed that is allthe difference. The difference between man and man, andall things in the whole creation i c not in kind but only indegree. The background, the reality of everyoneis thatsame eternal, ever blessed, ever pure, and ever perfect one.That is the Atman, the soul, in the sinner or the sinless,in the happy or the unhappy, in the beautiful or theugly, in man or animals, it isthroughout the same. Heis the Shining One. The difference is caused by the powerof expression. To some it is expressed more, in othersless, but this difference of expression has no effect uponHim, the Atman. If in his clothing one shows more ofhis body, and another less, it would not make any difference in the bodies. The difference is in the clothes thatcover or do not cover the body. According to the covering,the body and the man, its powers, its purity begin to shine.Therefore we had better remember here also, that throughout the Vedanta philosophy, there is no such thing asgood and bad ; they are not two different things ;the samething is good or bad and the difference is only in degree,and that we see to be an actual fact. The very thing Icall pleasurable to-day,Asto-morrow under better circum-