A thorough, well-referenced study of Vedanta philosophy's view of the individual, from the physical through the mental and other subtler sheaths to the inmost Divine Self. Reincarnation and the law of karma are explained in detail. Concludes with a discussion of the Vedantic perspective on life?s aims, both secular and spiritual. Many comparisons with Western thought are provided.
The animal has its happiness in the senses, the human beings in their intellect, and the gods in spiritual contemplation. It is only to the soul that has attained to this contemplative state that the world really becomes beautiful.
-Swami Vivekananda