Divinity of Man"So, from our method of inquiry, Vedanta says man’s ultimate nature is not the body, not the mind, but the spirit. So here you have the idea of the divinity of man. Spirit is man’s essential nature — not in his manifestation, where there are defects — but in his essential nature. It’s like putting an Indian dress on an American girl. She wears it today; tomorrow it won’t be there. She will change it. A loving mother dresses her child. Today she puts a Japanese dress on her child; tomorrow an African dress; then a Chinese dress. But the child is the same. Similarly the soul is the same, the spirit is the same. The garments — the mind and the body — are all changing. "So you have the idea of the divinity of the soul. We call the divinity of existence Brahman. Brahman is the word for the unity of existence. Atman is the word we use for the divinity of the soul, the essential nature of man. "The third important idea of Vedanta is the unity, the oneness, of God. Now, how do I define God? As previously explained, God is the highest reading of the Absolute — as the Absolute appears to the limited mind. |
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