The Seven Jewels of Wisdom in the world religions
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- Published: Friday, 14 December 2018 13:19
By the editors of Lucifer – the Netherlands
[This is a reprint from Lucifer – the Messenger of Light, an original publication of I.S.I.S. Foundation, i.e. International Study-centre for Independent Search for truth. The editor is grateful for the permission given to make this important paper available for all readers of Theosophy Forward.]
Two paths (Amrita Yâna and Pratyeka Yâna)
The first five Jewels answer the question about the meaning of life. You have to get the most out of it. You need to develop all the aspects that have been involuted, in order that you return as a self-conscious man to the purity of the spiritual-divine world. Those first five Jewels are however inconclusive about the
motive. Why would you do this? Well, there are two possibilities. You’re either doing it to experience the bliss of the retreat into the spirit, or you are doing it to encourage others to progress on this Path.
In other words, you’re performing it for yourself or for all that lives. This is the background of the difficult verses from the final, the eighteenth, chapter of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ.
There a distinction is made between Sannyâsa and Tyâga. It is very difficult to translate this Sanskrit-words. Sannyasa you could translate as ‘renunciation’, in the sense that someone detaches himself from all worldly chains. Such a person just focuses himself on his spiritual nature. Tyaga means self-denial or renunciation. That might seem at first sight the same as Sannyasa, but there is a subtle distinction.
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