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people congregating there. The difficulty with mankind is
that they forget the original meaning, and put the cart before
the horse. It was men who made these places holy, and then
the effect became the cause and made men holy. If the
wicked only were to go there it would become as bad as any
other place. It is not the building, but the people, that make
a church, and that is what we always forget. That is why
sages and holy persons, who have so much of this Sattva
quality, are emanating so much of it around them, and
exerting a tremendous influence day and night on their
surroundings. A man may become so pure that his purity
will become tangible, as it were. The body has become pure,
and in an intensely physical sense, no figurative idea, no
poetical language, it emanates that purity wherever it goes.
Whosoever comes in contact with that man becomes pure.
Next  the indicated only means the Buddhi, the intellect.
 The indicated only is the first manifestation of nature;
from it all other manifestations proceed. The last is  the
signless. Here there seems to be a great fight between
modern science and all religion. Every religion has this idea
that this universe comes out of intelligence. Only some
religions were more philosophical, and used scientific
language. The very theory of God, taking it in its
psychological significance, and apart from all ideas of
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personal God, is that intelligence is first in the order of
creation, and that out of intelligence comes what we call
gross matter. Modern philosophers say that intelligence is
the last to come. They say that unintelligent things slowly
evolve into animals, and from animals slowly evolve into
men. They claim that instead of everything coming out of
intelligence, intelligence is itself the last to come. Both the
religious and the scientific statement, though seemingly
directly opposed to each other, are true. Take an infinite
series A B A B A B, etc. The question is which is
first, A or B. If you take the series as A , you will say that
A is first, but if you take it as B A you will say that B is
first. It depends on the way you are looking at it.
Intelligence evolves, and becomes the gross material, and
this again evolves as intelligence, and again evolves as
matter once more. The Sankhyas, and all religionists, put
intelligence first, and the series becomes intelligence then
matter, intelligence then matter. The scientific man puts his
finger on matter, and say matter then intelligence, matter
then intelligence. But they are both indicating the same
chain. Indian philosophy, however, goes beyond both
intelligence and matter, and finds a Purusa, or Self, which is
beyond all intelligence, and of which intelligence is but the
borrowed light.
20. The seer is intelligence only, and though
pure, seen through the colouring of the
intellect.
This is again Sankhya philosophy. We have seen from this
philosophy that from the lowest form up to intelligence all is
nature, but beyond nature are Purusas (souls), and these
have no qualities. Then how does the soul appear to be
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happy or unhappy? By reflection. Just as if be piece of pure
crystal be put on a table and a red flower be put near it, the
crystal appears to be red, so all these appearances of
happiness or unhappiness are but reflections; the soul itself
has no sort of colouring. The soul is separate from nature;
nature is one thing, soul another, eternally separate. The
Sankhyas say that intelligence is a compounds, that it grows
and wanes, that it changes, just as the body changes, and that
its nature is nearly the same as that of the body. As a finger-
nail is to the body, so is body to intelligence. The nail is a
part of the body, but it can be pared off hundreds of times,
and the body will still last. Similarly, the intelligence lasts
æons, while this body can be pared off, thrown off. Yet
intelligence cannot be immortal, because is changes
growing and waning. Anything that changes cannot be
immortal. Certainly intelligence is manufactured, and that
very fact shows us that there must be something beyond that,
because it cannot be free. Everything connected with matter
is in nature, and therefore bound for ever. Who is free?
That free one must certainly be beyond cause and effect. If
you say that the idea of freedom is a delusion, I will say that
the idea of bondage is also a delusion. Two facts come into
our consciousness, and stand or fall by each other. One is
that we are bound. If we want to go through a wall, and our
head bumps against that wall, we are limited by that wall.
At the same time we find will, and think we can direct our
will everywhere. At every step these contradictory ideas are
coming to us. We have to believe that we are free, yet at
every moment we find we are not free. If one idea is a
delusion, the other is also a delusion, because both stand
upon the same basis consciousness. The Yogi says both
are true; that we are bound so far as intelligence goes, that
we are free as far as the soul is concerned. It is the real
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nature of man, the Soul, the Purusa, which is beyond all law
of causation. Its freedom is percolating through layers and
layers of matter, in various forms of intelligence, and mind,
and all these things. It is its light which is shining through
all. Intelligence has no light of its own. Each organ has a
particular centre in the brain; it is not that all the organs have
one centre; each organ is separate. Why do all these
perceptions harmonise, and where do they get their unity? If
it were in the brain there would be one centre only for the
eyes, the nose, the ears, while we know for certain that there
are different centres for each. But a man can see and hear at
the same time, so a unity must be back of intelligence.
Intelligence is eternally connected with the brain, but behind
even intelligence stands the Purusa, the unit, where all these
different sensations and perceptions join and become one.
Soul itself is the centre where all the different organs
converge and become unified, and that Soul is free, and it is
its freedom that tells you every moment that you are free.
But you mistake, and mingle that freedom every moment
with intelligence and mind. You try to attribute that freedom
to the intelligence, and immediately find that intelligence is
not free; you attribute that freedom to the body, and
immediately nature tells you that you are again mistaken.
That is why there is this mingled sense of freedom and
bondage at the same time. The Yogi analyses both what is
free and what is bound, and his ignorance vanishes. He finds
that the Purusa is free, is the essence of that knowledge
which, coming through the Buddhi, becomes intelligence,
and, as such, is bound.
21. The nature of the experience is for him.
Nature has no light of its own. As long as the Purusa is
present in it, it appears light, but the light is borrowed; just
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