"
But love, like everything which _is_, means much or little, according as
the soul is advanced in knowledge, or is undeveloped.
Perfect and complete love is not selfish; it desires not possession, but
union. There is a world of difference between the two words.
"The soul enchained is man, and free from chain is God," said Sri
Ramakrishna.
And the soul is enchained by illusion--by mistaking the effect for the
cause, and by regarding the effect as the real, instead of realizing the
incompleteness; the limitedness; the unsatisfying character of the
changing--the external.
Not that the pursuit of the external is sinful, but it is unsatisfying,
while the soul that has caught a glimpse of that wonderful ecstasy of
Illumination, has found that which satisfies.
Upon this point of attainment of complete satisfaction, and certainty, all
who have experienced the consciousness we are considering seem to agree,
according to the testimony here submitted.
CHAPTER V
INSTANCES OF ILLUMINATION AND ITS EFFECTS
The term Illumination seems a fitting description of the state of
consciousness which is frequently alluded to as cosmic consciousness.
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