Vednta Philosophy

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ... Divine Principle in Man. The study of human nature is the most interesting and the most beneficial of all studies. The more we study ourselves, the better we can understand the universe, its laws, and the Truth that underlies its phenomena. It is said, man is the epitome of the universe; whatever exists in the world is to be found in the body of man. As, on the one hand, we find in man all those tendencies and propensities which characterize the lower animals, so on the other, we see him manifesting through the actions of his life all those noble qualities that adorn the character of one whom we honor, respect and worship as the Divine Being. Human nature seems to be a most wonderful blending of that which is animal with that which is called divine. It is like the twilight before daybreak, through which the darkness of the night of the animal nature passes into the glorious sunshine of the supreme wisdom. Human nature may be called the state of transition from the animal into the divine. The animal nature includes the love of self or the attachment of one's self to one's body and to everything related to the body and the senses, desire for sense pleasures and sense enjoyments, the clinging to earthly life, fear of death and the struggle for existence. Each of these qualities or tendencies is to be found in the lower animals as well as in human beings, the difference being only in degree and not in kind. The savage man who lives like a wild beast in a cave or under trees and does not know how to build a house or cultivate the ground, but who sustains life by depending entirely upon fruits, roots, wild berries, or upon the birds and beasts that he can trap, expresses in all the actions of his life nothing more than what we have described as...