Page:The Science of Religion (1925).djvu/44

20 same through all its past and present existence. The Bible says, “Know ye not that ye are Gods and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in thee?” All of us as individuals are so many reflected spiritual selves of the universal Blissful Spirit—God. Just as there appear many images of the one sun, when reflected in a number of vessels full of water, so are we apparently divided into many souls, occupying this bodily and mental vehicle, and thus outwardly separated from the One Universal Spirit. In reality, God and man are one, and this separation is only apparent.

Now, being blessed and reflected Spiritual selves, why is it that we are utterly unmindful of our Blissful state and are instead subject to physical and mental pain and suffering? The answer is, that the Spiritual self has brought on itself this present state (by whatever process it may be) by identifying itself with a transitory bodily vehicle and a restless mind. The Spiritual self being thus identified,