A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

;VEDANTA.371the other end. Where is that unity which we call theatfrian ?The idea was this, that, in spite of this continuouschange in the body, and in spite of this continuous changein the mind, our ideas are unchangeable, our ideas ofthings are unchangeable therefore, as rays of ; light coming from different quarters, if they fall upon a screen, or/a wall, or upon something that is not changeable, thenand then alpne it is possible for them to form a unity, thenand then alone it is possible for them to form one complete whole.Where is this unity in the human organs, falling upon which, as it were, the various ideas will come tounity and become one complete whole ? This certainlycannot be the mind ; seeing that it also changes. Thereforethere must be something which is neither the body northe mind, that which changes isot, the unchangeable,uponwhich all our ideas, our sensations fall to form a unity,and a complete whole, and this is the real soul, the atmanof man. And seeing that everything material, eitheryou call it fine matter, or mind, must be changeful ;seeingthat what you call gross matter, the external world, mustalso be changeful in comparison to that ; this unchangeable something can no more be of material substance ;therefore it is spiritual ;that is to say, it is not matter,indestructible, unchangeable.Next will come the question apart from those oldarguments which only rise in * the external world, thearguments from Design who created this external world,who created <fec.matter, ? The idea here is to know truthonly from the inner nature of man, and the question arisesjust in the same way as it arose about the soul ;taking forgranted that there is a soul, unchangeable, in each man,which is neither the mind, nor the body, there is still aunity of idea among the souls, a unity of feeling, of sym-