in Western countries, the ideas are so queer about mind and matter. It is hard to take these impressions out of our brains. I myself had a tremendous difficulty, being educated in Western philosophy in my childhood. These are all cosmic things. Think of this universal extension of matter, unbroken, one substance, undifferentiated, which is the first state of everything, and which begins to change just as milk becomes curd, and it is changed into another substance called _Mahat_, which in one state manifests as intelligence and in another state as egoism. It is the same substance, and it changes into the grosser matter called egoism; thus is the whole universe itself built, as it were, layer after layer; first undifferentiated Nature (_Avyaktam_), and that changes into universal intelligence (_Mahat_), and that again is changed into universal egoism (_Ahamkâra_), and that changes into universal sensible matter. That matter changes into universal sense-organs, again changes into universal fine particles, and these in turn combine and become this gross universe. This is the cosmic plan, according to the _Sânkhyas_, and what is in the cosmos or macrocosm, must be in the individual or microcosm. Take an individual man. He has first a part of undifferentiated nature in him, and that material nature in him becomes changed into _mahat_, a small particle of the universal intelligence, and that small particle of the universal intelligence in him becomes changed into egoism--a particle of the universal egoism. This egoism in turn becomes changed into the sense-organs, and out of these sense-organs come the _tanmâtras_, and out of them he combines and manufactures his world, as a body. I want this to be clear, because it is the first stepping stone to Vedânta, and it is absolutely necessary for you to know, because this is the philosophy of the whole world. There is no philosophy in the world that is not indebted to Kapila, the founder of this _Sânkhya_ system. Pythagoras came to India and studied his philosophy and carried some of these ideas to the Greeks. Later it formed the Alexandrian school, and still later formed the basis of Gnostic philosophy. It became divided into two parts; one went to Europe and Alexandria, and the other remained in India, and became the basis of all Hindu philosophy, for out of it the system of Vyâsa was developed. This was the first rational system that the world saw, this system of Kapila. Every metaphysician in the world must pay homage to him. I want to impress on your mind that as the great father of philosophy, we are bound to listen to him, and respect what he said. This wonderful man, most ancient of philosophers, is mentioned even in the Vedas. How wonderful his perceptions were! If there is any proof required of the power of the Yogis to perceive things beyond the range of the ordinary senses, such men are the proofs. How could they perceive them? They had no microscopes, or telescopes. How fine their