A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

140 THE FREEDOM OF THE SOUL.was nature. But, on the other side, here is this propositionthat we are free, and this idea of bondage is^but a delusion.Of these two which will you take ? Either make the first adelusion, or make the second a delusion. Certainly I willmake the second a delusion. It is more consonant with allmy feelings and realizations. I am perfectly aware that Iam free by nature, not that this bondage was true and myfreedom a delusion.This discussion you see going on in all philosophies,taken in the crude form. Even in the most modern philosophies, you find the same discussion entering. Here arethe two parties. One party says that there is no soul, soulis a delusion. That delusion isbeing produced by therepeated transit of particles of matter, this combinationwhich you call the body or the brain, and so on*; its vibrations and motions and continuous transit of particles hereand there, leaving that impression of freedom.There wereBuddhistic sects who said, ifyou take a torch, and whirlit round you rapidly, there will be a circle of light. Thatdoes not exist, because the torch ischanging place everymoment. We are but bundles of little particles, which inthe rapid whirling produce this delusion. On the otherhand, there is the statement, that this body is true, and thesoul does not exist. The other explanation is, that in therapid interchange of thought matter occurs as a delusion,but matter does not really exist. These remain to thepresent day, one side claiming that this spiritis a delusionand the other that matter is a delusion. Which side willyou take ? Of course, we will take the spiritside and denythe matter. The arguments are the same for both sides,only on the spirit side the argument is a little stronger.For nobody has ever seen what matter is. We can onlyfeel ourselves. I never saw a man who could feel matter