BOOK III

THE WORLD-ILLUSION AND THE REAL SELF
CHAPTER I

The Nature of the f)rshya(1)

Vasishtha said : ''Thou shalt hereafter see fully from what
I said to thee, 0 Prince !, that Shama(3) before the g'ain of the
Knowledge is the Shama of brotherhood in suffering" and
sadness ; of tender love and pity for all things having1 lifey,
whose common lot is pain ; of sym-pathy, which is the §elfs
instinctive feeling" of its Oneness with all other selves ; or,
in another view, it is tnat utter emptiness of heart from which
all eager interest in thing's, all vehement urge and craving" for
deed of either good or ill, have vanished. The Shama after the
gain of Knowledge is the Shama of Unity in joy and peace ;

of Love for all cognised and realised as one with Self; of
Sympathy, no more instinctive only, but perforce necessitated
by Perfected Reason ; it is the utter Fullness^ wherein all being
included, there is left, again, no eag"er overpowering motive
for deed of either good or ill, for all is seen as Pastime..

"So too, Right Conduct, Sad-achara, before Knowledge,
is the inability to add more suffering, by one's own, selfishness,
to the suffering- of others, because of that instinctive sym-
pathy. After Knowledge, it is the inability to cause pain to
the Self now known as one with all selves ; because also of
utter absence of all motive for exercise of one's own will, as

(1) The Been, the Object-world, as contra-diBtingmehed from the
prashta, the Seer. the Subject.

(a) Calm of mind. -