A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"210 THE HEAL AND TBE APPARENT MAN.temples, on whom we were looking as the mysteryof allmysteries shrouded behind the clouds, Hs is nearest of thenear, my own Self, the reality of my own life, my body andmy soul I am Thee and Thou art me. That is your ownnature. Assert it,manifest it. Not to become pure, youare pure already. You are not to be perfect, you are thatalready.This whole of nature is like that screen which ishiding the reality beyond. Every good thought that youthink or act upon is simply tearing the veil, as it were,andthe purity, the Infinity, the God behind, manifests itself.This is the whole history of man.Finer and finer becomesthe veil, more and more of the light behind shines by itsown nature, for it is its nature to shine. It cannot beknown ;in vain we try to know it. Were it knowable,it would not be what it is, for it is thfe eternal subject:knowledge is a limitation. Knowledge is objectifying. Heis the eternal subject of everything, the eternal witness inthis universe, your own Self. Knowledge is, as it were,a lower step, a degeneration. We are It already how to;know It ?Every man is It and is struggling to express It invarious ways else; why are there so many ethical codes ?One idea stands outWhere is the explanation of all ethics ?as the centre in all ethics, expressed in various forms ; doinggood to others. The guiding motive of mankind is charity towards men, charity towards all animals. But these are allvarious expressions of that eternal truth that I am theuniverse ;this universe is one." Else where is the reason ?Why should I do good to my fellowmen Why ?should I dogood to others ? What compels me ? It is this feeling, thissympathy, of the sameness everywhere. The hardest heartsfeel sympathy to other beings sometimes. Even the manwho gets frightened if he is told that this assumed individualityis a delusion really, that it is ignoble to try to cling