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Today's talk was edited and adapted from

Vedanta Philosophy by Shami Vivicunondo, published in 1899.

What question has been asked a greater number of times? What idea has sent people more to search the universe for an answer?

What question is near and dear to the human heart?

What question is more inseparably connected with our existence than this one, the immortality

of the human soul?

It has been the theme of poets and of sages, of priests and of prophets.

Kings on the throne have discussed it.

Beggers in the street have dreamt of it.

The best of humankind have approached it,

and the worst of humankind have always hoped for it.

The interest in the theme has not died yet, nor will it die, so long as human nature exists.

Various answers have been presented to the world by various minds.

Thousands again in every period of history have given up the discussion, and yet the question remains fresh as ever. Many times in the turmoils and struggles

of our lives we seem to forget the question. Then all of a sudden, someone dies, one perhaps

whom we loved, one near and dear to our hearts is snatched away from us. The struggle, the din

and turmoil of the world around us, then ceases for a moment, becomes silent,

and the soul asks the old question.

What after this? What becomes of the soul?

All human knowledge proceeds out of experience. We cannot know anything except by experience.

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