Self becomes will, the deepest part of all, the longing for happiness,
for bliss; the resolve to obtain it is what we call will. And so in the
limited, the power to know, and the power to act, and the power to
will, these are the reflections in the particular Self of the essential
qualities of the universal Self. Otherwise put: that which was
universal awareness becomes now cognition in the separated Self; that
which in the universal Self was awareness of itself becomes in the
limited Self awareness of others; the awareness of the whole becomes
the cognition of the individual. So with the existence of the Self: the
Self-existence of the universal Self becomes, in the limited Self,
activity, preservation of existence. So does the bliss of the universal
Self, in the limited expression of the individual Self, become the will
that seeks for happiness, the Self-determination of the Self, the
seeking for Self-realisation, that deepest essence of human life.
The difference comes with limitation, with the narrowing of the
universal qualities into the specific qualities of the limited Self;
both are the same in essence, though seeming different in
manifestation. We have the power to know, the power to will, and the
power to act. These are the three great powers of the Self that show
themselves in the separated Self in every diversity of forms, from the
minutest moneron to the loftiest Logos.
Then just as in the Samkhya, if the Purusha, the particular Self,
should identify himself with the matter in which he is reflected, then
there is delusion and bondage, so in the Vedanta, if the Self,
eternally free, imagines himself to be bound by matter, identifying
himself with his limitations, he is deluded, he is under the domain of
Maya; for Maya is the self-identification of the Self with his
limitations. The eternally free can never be bound by matter; the
eternally pure can never be tainted by matter; the eternally knowing
can never be deluded by matter; the eternally Self-determined can never
be ruled by matter, save by his own ignorance. His own foolish fancy
limits his inherent powers; he is bound, because he imagines himself
bound; he is impure, because he imagines himself impure; he is
ignorant, because he imagines himself ignorant. With the vanishing of
delusion he finds that he is eternally pure, eternally wise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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