The search after man's diviner "self," so
often and so erroneously interpreted as individual communion with a
personal God, was the object of every mystic; and belief in its
possibility seems to have been coeval with the genesis of humanity, each
people giving it another name. Thus Plato and Plotinus call "Noetic
work" that which the Yogi and the Shrotriya term Vidya. "By reflection,
self-knowledge and intellectual discipline, the soul can be raised to
the vision of eternal truth, goodness, and beauty--that is, to the
Vision of God. This is the epopteia," said the Greeks. "To unite one's
soul to the Universal Soul," says Porphyry, "requires but a perfectly
pure mind. Through self contemplation, perfect chastity, and purity of
body, we may approach nearer to It, and receive, in that state, true
knowledge and wonderful insight." And Swami Dayanund Saraswati, who has
read neither Porphyry nor other Greek authors, but who is a thorough
Vedic scholar, says in his "Veda Bhashya" (opasna prakaru ank. 9)--"To
obtain Diksha (highest initiation) and Yog, one has to practise
according to the rules.
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