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"Without hand or foot, he runs rapidly, and grasps firmly; without eyes, he sees all; without ears, he hears all. He knows whatever can be known; but there is none who knows him. The wise call him the Great, Supreme, Pervading Spirit."

"From him emanates the firmament, illustrated by the sun and moon; the moon accumulates clouds in the sky; the clouds descend in rain, which brings forth vegetables from the earth; the essence derived from the nourishment of these vegetables, man imparts to woman; through these progressive physical causes, numerous offspring proceed from the omnipresent Supreme Soul."

"He who considers all beings as existing in the Supreme Spirit, and the Supreme Spirit as pervading all beings, cannot view with contempt any creature whatsoever."

"God has created the senses to be directed toward external objects. They can perceive only these objects, and not the Eternal Spirit. The sage, who desires an immortal life, withdraws his senses from their natural course, and perceives the Supreme Being everywhere present."

"This body formed of bones, skin, and nerves, filled with fat and flesh, is a great evil, and without reality. It ought to perish. Of what use then is it for the soul to seek corporeal pleasures?"

"The inhabitants of this body are cupidity, anger, desire for wealth, error, anxiety, envy, sadness, discord, disappointment, affliction, hunger, thirst, disease, old age, death. Of what use is it then to seek the pleasures of this body?"

"Through strict veracity, uniform control of mind and senses, abstinence from sexual indulgence, and ideas derived from spiritual teachers, man should approach God, who, full of glory and perfection, works in the heart, and to whom only votaries freed from passion and desire can approximate."

"Material objects have no duration. As the fruits of the trees grow and perish, so do these objects. What is there in them worthy to be acquired? Great things and small, commanders of powerful armies, kings who govern

the earth, have relinquished their riches and passed into the other world. Nothing could save them. They were men, and they could not escape death. The Gandharvas, the Sooras, the stars themselves, do not endure forever. The seas will one day be dried up, the high mountains will fall, even the polar star will change its place, the earth will be swallowed in the waves. Such is the world! Of what avail is it to seek its pleasures? One may perform meritorious works, from self-interested motives, during his whole life, he may enjoy all pleasures, still he must come back into the world. He can only continue passing from one world to another. There is nothing desirable, except the science of God. Out of this, there is no tranquillity and no freedom. To be attached to material things is to be chained; to be without attachment is to be free."

"May this soul of mine, which is a ray of perfect wisdom, pure intellect, and permanent existence, which is the unextinguishable light fixed within created bodies, without which no good act is performed, be united by devout meditation with the Spirit supremely blest and supremely intelligent."

"O thou, who givest sustenance to the world, unveil that face of the true sun, which is now hidden by a veil of golden light! so that we may see the truth, and know our whole duty."

"He who inwardly rules the sun is the same immortal Spirit who inwardly rules thee."

"That All-pervading Spirit, which gives light to the visible sun, even the same in kind am I, though infinitely distant in degree. Let my soul return to the immortal Spirit of God, and then let my body return to dust."

"I am in this world like a frog in a dry well. Thou only, O Lord, art my refuge; Thou only art my refuge."

"By one Supreme Ruler is this universe pervaded; even every world in the whole circle of Nature. Enjoy pure delight, O man, by abandoning all thoughts of this perishable world; and covet not the wealth of any creature existing."

"God, who is perfect wisdom and perfect happiness, is the final refuge of the man who has liberally bestowed his wealth, who has been firm in virtue, and who knows and adores the Great One."

"To those regions where Evil Spirits dwell, and which utter darkness involves, surely go after death all such men as destroy the purity of their own souls."

"Preserve thyself from self-sufficiency, and do not covet property belonging to another."

"The way to eternal beatitude is open to him who without omission speaketh truth."

"If any one assumes the garb of the religious, without doing their works, he is not of the religious. Whatever garments he wears, if his works are pure, he belongs to the order of pure men. If he wears the dress of a penitent, and does not lead the life of a penitent, he belongs to the men of the world; but if he is in the world, and practises penitential works, he ought to be regarded as a penitent."

"Those who observe religious rites, but attend only to the worship of the sacred fire, or offerings to saints, or sacrifices to the souls of departed ancestors, or to men and other creatures, without attending to the worship of the celestial gods, enter into the region of shadows. But those who habitually adore the celestial gods only, neglecting the worship of the sacred fire, offerings to the saints, to the souls of ancestors, to men and other creatures, enter into regions of still deeper shadow."

"Hold the breath, remain without movement, repeat inwardly A. U. M. twelve times, thinking that the soul is one with God; draw in a full supply of breath, and hold it while inwardly repeating A. U. M. twenty-four times; afterward, hold the breath while inwardly repeating the same as many times as possible, thinking meanwhile of God as perfect Being, which can be revealed only by its own light. Continue this exercise three months, without fear and without idleness. In the fourth month, good Spirits will appear to you; in the fifth, you will acquire the qualities of good Spirits; in the sixth, you will become God."

"He who offers sacrifices, at the prescribed times, is by them transported to the Paradise of Indra. His offerings make entrance for him into this heaven, and say to him: It is the summit of the heavens; there is the fruit of thy good works."

"All works ought to be regarded merely as means of purifying the intelligence, as means to guide the traveller to his home."

"No man can acquire knowledge of the soul without abstaining from evil acts, and having control over the senses and the mind. Nor can he gain it, though with a firm mind, if he is actuated by desire for reward. But man may obtain knowledge of the soul by contemplation of God."

"The science of God, leading to absorption in him, is one thing; rites, which procure enjoyments, are another. Divine science, and rewards belonging to the observance of rites, both present themselves to the choice of man. He who prefers faith, and despises reward, is endowed with wisdom. Little wisdom has he who devotes himself to rites for the sake of reward, and thus excludes himself from the enjoyment of eternal beatitude. The wisest comprehend that the science of God and the practice of works are altogether opposite to each other."

"The ignorant suppose that the digging of wells, and other good works recommended in the Vedas, and the sacrifices therein prescribed, are the most meritorious. They have no idea of the science of God, which is the only source of true happiness. By excessive desire for reward, they are deprived of this knowledge. They will assuredly obtain the objects they seek by the practice of works and ceremonies; but when the period of their recompense in Paradise has expired, they must descend to the world again, subjecting themselves to new transmigrations, into the forms of men, or animals, or plants; liable to birth, sorrow, disease, and death. These foolish ones, plunged in ignorance, believing themselves wise, resemble the blind leading the blind. But men who have maturely considered VOL. I.-4*

the perishable nature of all advantages that works can procure, hermits who live in the forest upon alms, fathers of families, endowed with wisdom, worshipping Brahma, practising austerities, subduing the senses, these are delivered from all sin, and ascend to the highest heaven, where reigns the immortal Brahma, as ancient as the world."

“Though man finds pleasure in that which he sees, hears, smells, tastes, and touches, he derives no benefit from the pleasure, because the soul, in attaching itself to external objects, forgets its high origin, which is The Universal Soul."

"It is the nature of the soul to identify itself with the object of its tendency. If it tend toward the world, it becomes the world. If it tend toward God, it becomes God."

"Men endowed with penetrating insight, with a spirit full of wisdom, having withdrawn their senses inward, annihilate them. They annihilate the interior senses, by subjecting them to the control of intelligence; they annihilate intelligence, by submitting it to the soul; they annihilate the soul in the collection of souls; and the collection of souls in the One Universal Soul."

"Saints wise and firm, exempt from passion, assured of the soul's divine origin, satisfied solely with the science of God, have seen God everywhere present with them, and after death have been absorbed in him; even as the air within a jar, by the destruction of the jar, returns to universal space."

"The science of God is not acquired by study of the Vedas, nor through retentive memory, nor yet by constant hearing of spiritual instruction; but he who seeks to obtain it, finds it. The soul renders itself manifest to him."

"When man has withdrawn heart, soul, and senses, from external things, and keeps himself without impulse toward them, it is the great degree of union. Then man will not fall into error by mistake or negligence. He watches incessantly to preserve himself from it. If all do not see the soul, it is because their soul turns the senses

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