Page:The Science of Religion (1925).djvu/83



We have seen in the last chapter that the identification of the Spiritual self with body and mind is the fundamental cause of our pain, suffering, and limitations, and that because of this identification we feel such excitations as pain and pleasure, and are almost blind to the state of Bliss, or God-consciousness. We have also seen that religion essentially consists in the permanent avoidance of such pain and in the attainment of pure Bliss, or God.

As the sun’s true image cannot be perceived in the surface of moving water, so the true blissful nature of the Spiritual self—the reflection of the Universal Spirit—cannot be understood owing to the waves of disquietude that arise from identification of the self with the changing states of the body and mind.