SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

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330 THE NATURE OF THE J1VA.
glass before or a picture framed in glass would positively deny
that any glass-plate was there. But with all his denial born
of his own direct perception (Svanubhuti), we know he is
wrong. Why is it so ? Because the glass once brought into
conjunction with the many-coloured picture has lost its form,
has lost itself so to speak; lost its individuality but not its
substance. Remove the picture, you can see it by itself.
But bring
it into strong sun-light ;
even then, you cannot
see the glass but a strong blaze of light will dazzle your
eyes.* So, the nature of a crystal or a mirror is, it
becorqes
one with the form of whatever comes in contact with it, losing
its own form. When covered with colour or dirt, it is indistin
guishable from either the colour or the dirt. When flooded by
light, it is indistinguishable from the light. Take the crystal by
itself. It is pure and in a sense luminous, but its purity and
luminosity do not prevent its being covered by dirt and becom
ing dark in darkness. This is its defect. And this purity and
luminosity have to be distinguished from the purity and
luminosity of the blazing sun and its light. Take a very
large-sized pure diamond, the so-called brilliant, t Is this
brilliance its own ? If so, you must find it
shining
in utter
darkness. But you will not be able to find it in darkness ;
it
will be utterly lost. This brilliance is not its own, and it is
derived from the sun-light or the lamp-light.
This is the differ
ence between man and God. We are the crystals and He is the
light reflected in the crystal. How well is this brought out by
St. Appar in his phrase ll Q<3uemu<sffliEiS<^r Q-LLujslgp G^n-^GWCSW",
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thou light imbedded in the white crystal
! How well does
Tennyson grasp the situation when he says are but broken
"we
lights of thee! Nay, not exactly so.
are only shining
* As you drive about in the road between n and 12 forenoon, if
you
look at one of the Municipal lanterns, you will realize this.
f The facets of the cut-diamond act as a prism and so refract the
Crystal water has the same power and
different colours of the sun s rays.
1. have seen the water refracting the difierent colours in the famous spring
at the Mahanatmi (Nandiyal, in Kurnool District,),