are no individual things, no individual souls (^ivas) ; they only seem to exist so long as Nescience prevails over Atman or Brahman*
Ekam advitlyam. One without a Second.
If you ask, what then is real in all things and in every individual soul ? the answer is, Brahman, the One without a Second, the One besides whom there is nothing ; but this answer can be understood by those only who know Avidy, and by knowing it have destroyed it. Others believe that the world is this or that, and that they themselves are this and that. Man thinks that he is an Ego dwelling in the body, seeing and hearing, comprehending and reasoning, reasoning and acting, while with the strict VedSntist the true Self lies deep below the Ego, or the Aham, which belongs to the world of illusion. As an Ego, man has become already an actor and enjoyer, instead of remaining a distant witness of the world. He is then carried along into the Sa^s^ra, the concourse of the world; he becomes the creature or the slave of his accumulated acts (karman), and goes on from change to change, till in the end he discovers the true Brahman which alone really exists, and which as being himself is called Atman or Self, and at the same time Param^tman, or the Highest, Atman and Brahman, both being one and the same thing. Good works may be help- ful in producing a proper state of mind for receiving this knowledge, but it is by knowledge alone that men can be saved and obtain Mukti, freedom, and not by good works. This salvation or freedom finds expression in the celebrated
