Meditation and Soul of Man - Swamiji

Meditation has been laid stress upon by all religions. The meditative
state of mind is declared by the Yogis to be the highest state in
which the mind exists. When the mind is studying the external object,
it gets identified with it, loses itself. To use the simile of the old
Indian philosopher: the soul of man is like a piece of crystal, but it
takes the colour of whatever is near it. Whatever the soul touches ...
it has to take its colour. That is the difficulty. That constitutes
the bondage. The colour is so strong, the crystal forgets itself and
identifies itself with the colour. Suppose a red flower is near the
crystal and the crystal takes the colour and forgets itself, thinks it
is red. We have taken the colour of the body and have forgotten what
we are. All the difficulties that follow come from that one dead body.
All our fears, all worries, anxieties, troubles, mistakes, weakness,
evil, are front that one great blunder — that we are bodies. This is
the ordinary person. It is the person taking the colour of the flower
near to it. We are no more bodies than the crystal is the red flower.

The practice of meditation is pursued. The crystal knows what it is,
takes its own colour.