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<font face="Times New Roman"><i>The Creative Soul</i> </font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">THE difference between living organism and dead matter is
that while the former is endowed, with creative activity the
latter has only passive receptivity. Life adds, synthetises, new-
creates—gives more than what it receives; matter only sums up,
gathers, reflects, gives just what it receives. Life is living, glad
and green through its creative genius. Creation in some form or
other must be the core of everything that seeks vitality and
growth, vigour and delight. Not only so, but a thing in order to
be real must possess a creative function. We consider a shadow
or an echo unreal precisely because they do not create but
merely image or repeat, they do not bring out anything new
but simply reflect what is given. The whole of existence is real
because it is eternally creative.&nbsp; </font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So the problem that concerns man, the riddle that humanity
has to solve is how to find out and follow the path of creativity.
If we are not to be dead matter nor mere shadowy illusions we
must be creative. A misconception that has vitiated our outlook
in general and has been the most potent cause of a sterilising
atavism in the moral evolution of humanity is that creativity is
an aristocratic virtue, that it belongs only to the chosen few.
A great poet or a mighty man of action creates indeed, but
such a creator does not appear very frequently. A Shakespeare
or a Napoleon is a rare phenomenon; they are, in reality, an
exception to the general run of mankind. It is enough if we
others can understand and follow them—<i>Mahajano yena gatah—
</i>let the great souls initiate and create, the common souls have
only to repeat and imitate. </font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; But this is not as it should be, nor is it the truth of the matter.
Every individual soul, however placed it may be, is by nature creative; every individual being lives to discover and to create. </font>

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Page 77<hr>

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<font face="Times New Roman">The inmost reality of man is not a passive receptacle, a mere
responsive medium but it is a dynamo—a power-station
generating and throwing out energy that produces and
creates.&nbsp; </font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Now the centre of this energy, the matrix of creativity is the
soul itself, one's own soul. If you want to create—live, grow and
be real—find yourself, be yourself. The simple old wisdom still
remains the eternal wisdom. It is because we fall off from our
soul that we wander into side-paths, paths that do not belong<br>
to our real nature and hence that lead to imitation and repetition, decay and death. This is what happens to what we call
common souls. The force of circumstances, the pressure of environment or simply 
the momentum of custom or habit compel them to choose the easiest and the readiest way that may lie
before them. They do not consult the demand of the inner being
but the requirement of the moment. Our bodily needs, our
vital hungers and our mental prejudices obsess and obscure the
impulsions that thrill the hidden spirit. We hasten to gratify
the immediate and forget the eternal, we clutch at the shadow
and let go the substance. We are carried away in the flux and
tumult of life. It is a mixed and collective whirl—a <i>Weltgeist
</i>that moves and governs us. We are helpless straws drifting in
the current. But manhood demands that we stop and pause, pull
ourselves out of the Maelstrom and be what we are. We must
shape things as we want and not allow things to shape us as
they want. </font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Let each take cognisance of the godhead that is within him—for self is God—and in the strength of the soul-divinity create
his universe. It does not matter what sort of universe he creates,
so long as he creates it. The world created by a Buddha is not
the same as that created by a Napoleon, nor should they be the<br>
same. It does not prove anything that I cannot become a
Kalidasa; for that matter Kalidasa cannot become what I am.
If you have not the genius of a Shankara it does not mean that
you have no genius at all. Be and become yourself—<i>ma gridhah
kasyachit dhanam,</i> says the Upanishad. The fountain-head of
creative genius lies there, in the free choice and the particular
delight—the self-determination of the spirit within you and
not in the desire for your neighbour's riches. The world has
become dull and uniform and mechanical, since everybody </font>
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<font face="Times New Roman">Page 78</font><hr>

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<font face="Times New Roman">endeavours to become not himself, but always somebody else.
Imitation is servitude and servitude brings in grief. </font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In one's own soul lies the very height and profundity of a god-head. Each soul by bringing out the note that is his, makes for
the most wondrous symphony. Once a man knows what he is
. and holds fast to it, refusing to be drawn away by any necessity
or temptation, he begins to uncover himself, to do what his
inmost nature demands and takes joy in, that is to say, begins to
create. Indeed there may be much difference in the forms that
different souls take. But because each is itself, therefore each is
grounded upon the fundamental equality of things. All our
valuations are in reference to some standard or other set up
with a particular end in view, but that is a question of the
practical world which in no way takes away from the intrinsic
value of the greatness of the soul. So long as the thing is there,<br>
the how of it does not matter. Infinite are the ways of manifestation and all of them the very highest and the most sublime,
provided they are a manifestation of the soul itself, provided
they rise and flow from the same level. Whether it is Agni or
Indra, Varuna, Mitra or the Aswins, it is the same supreme
and divine inflatus. </font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The cosmic soul is true. But that truth is borne out, effectuated only by the truth of the individual soul. When the
individual soul becomes itself fully and integrally, by that very
fact it becomes also the cosmic soul. The individuals are the
channels through which flows the Universal and the Infinite
in its multiple emphasis. Each is a particular figure, aspect— <i>Bhava,</i> a particular angle of vision of All. The vision is entire
and the figure perfect if it is not refracted by the lower and
denser parts of our being. And for that the individual must first
come to itself and shine in its opal clarity and translucency. </font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Not to do what others do, but what your soul impels you to
do. Not to be others but your own self. Not to be anything but
the very cosmic and infinite divinity of your soul. Therein lies
your highest freedom and perfect delight. And there you are
supremely creative. Each soul has a consort—<i>Prakriti,</i> Nature
—which it creates out of its own rib. And in this field of infinite
creativity the soul lives, moves and has its being. </font>
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