Raja-Yoga

"
THE FIRST STEPS. 23
Self; did you mean that " "
?
thou art That; find out for yourself."
The god
No," replied the sage,
went back, and, at last, found that he was the Self,
beyond all thought; One, without birth or death,
whom the sword cannot pierce, or the fire burn, whom
the air cannot dry, or the water melt, the beginningless
and birthless, the immovable, the intangible, the
omniscient, the omnipotent Being, and that it was
neither the body nor the mind, but beyond them all.
So he was satisfied, but the poor demon did not get
the truth, owing to his fondness for the body.
This world has a good many of these demoniac
natures, but there are some gods too. If one propose
to teach any science to increase the power of sense
enjoyment, he finds multitudes ready for it. If one
undertake to show mankind the supreme goal, they
care nothing for that. Very few have the power to grasp
the highest, fewer still the patience to attain to it,
but
a few also know that if the body be kept for a thousand
years the result will be the same in the end. When
the forces that hold it together go away the body must
fall. No man was ever born who could stop his body
one moment from changing. Body
is the name of a
series of changes.
"As in a river the masses of water
are changing before you every moment, and new masses
are coming, yet taking similar form, so is it with this
Yet the
body." body must be kept strong and healthy;
it is the best instrument we have.
This human body
is the greatest body in the universe,
and a human being the greatest being. Man is higher