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.
Those who die, merely suffering the woes of life like cats and dogs, are they human beings? The worthy are those who, even when agitated by the sharp interaction of pleasure and pain, are discriminating and, knowing them to be of an evanescent nature, become passionately devoted to the Atman. This is all the difference between human beings and animals.
-Swami Vivekananda