it,
no water moisten it, no wind will dry it up.

"It is not to be hurt, not to be burnt, not to be moistened,
not to be dried up. It is imperishable, unchanging,
immovable, without beginning.

"It is said to be immaterial, passing all understanding, and
unchangeable. If you know the Self of man to be all this,
grieve not.

"There is nothing higher than the attainment of the knowledge
of the Self.[125]

"All living creatures are the dwelling of the Self who lies
enveloped in matter, who is immortal, and spotless. Those who
worship the Self, the immovable, living in a movable
dwelling, become immortal.

"Despising everything else, a wise man should strive after
the knowledge of the Self."

We shall have to return to this subject again, for this knowledge of
the Self is really the _Vedanta_, that is, the end, the highest goal
of the Veda. The highest wisdom of Greece was "to know ourselves;" the
highest wisdom of India is "to know our Self."

If I were asked to indicate by one word the distinguishing feature of
the Indian character, as I have here tried to sketch it, I should say
it was _transcendent_, using that word, not in its strict technical
sense, as fixed by Kant, but in its more general acceptation, as
denoting a mind bent on transcending the limits of empirical
knowledge. There are minds perfectly satisfied with empirical
knowledge, a knowledge of facts, well ascertained, well classified,
and well labelled. Such knowledge may assume very vast proportions,
and, if knowledge is power, it may impart great power, real
intellectual power to the man who can wield and utilize it. Our own
age is proud of that kind of knowledge, and to be content with it, and
never to attempt to look beyond it, is, I believe, one of the happiest
states of mind to be in.[126]

But, for all that, there is a Beyond, and he who has once caught a
glance of it, is like a man who has gazed at the sun--wherever he
looks, everywhere he sees the image of the sun. Speak to him of finite
things, and he will tell you that the Finite is impossible and
meaningless without the Infinite. Speak to him of death, and he will
call it birth; speak to him of time, and he will call it the mere
shadow of eternity. To us the senses seem to be the organs, the tools,
the most powerful engines of knowledge; to him they are, if not
actually deceivers, at all events heavy fetters, checking the fli