THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES YOGA LESSONS FOR DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS BY SWAMIE A. P. MUKERJI ASSOCIATE EDITOR, KALPAKA MAGAZINE OF INDIA PUBLISHED BY YOGI PUBLICATION SOCIETY MASONIC TEMPLE, CHICAGO, ILL. REPRESENTATIVES L. N. FOWLER & COMPANY IMPERIAL ARCADE, LONDON, ENGLAND. THE LATENT LIGHT CULTURE TINNEVELLY, SOUTH INDIA. L N. FOWLER & CO., LTD., PUBLISHERS — BOOKSELLERS 15 New Bridge St., London, E.C.4 Copyright 191 1 YOGI PUBLICATION SOCIETY Entered at Stationer' 1 Hall All rights reserved. ■p 15 3Z /■/ DEDICATION I dedicate this isork. with deep re- spect and love to D. P. Mul^erji whose holy blessings I invoke for the spiritual well-being of my readers' intelligence. May this Great Soul inspire, Aum. A, P. Mukerji. 1773006 CONTENTS YOGA LESSONS FOR DEVELOPING SPIEITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS CHAPTER PAGE \ I — The Yogi Conception of Life 9 II — The Ideal and the Practical 15 III— Eead and Reflect 20 IV — Man : Animal and Divine 25 V — ^Double Consciousness 30 VI— Spiritual Unf oldment 34 \^VII— Cause and Effect 42 VIII— Man— The Master 50 \^IX— Self-Development 56 \;X — Developing the Spiritual Consciousness 61 XI— Who Can Be a Yogi? 75 XII — Constructive Idealism 88 XIII — Higher Reason and Judgment 101 XIV— Conquest of Fear 112 XV— The Role of Prayer 117 XVI — Thought : Creative and Exhaustive 130 XVII— Meditation Exercises 142 XVIII— Self -De-Hypnotisation 152 XIX— Self -De-Hypnotisation 156 XX— Character-Building .176 INTRODUCTION Verily, in whom unwisdom is destroyed by the wisdom of the Self, in them. Wisdom, shining as the Sun, reveals the Supreme. — Bhagavad Gita. Yoga is a subject which has enthralled the attention of the world from time out of mind. No one has hith- erto done justice to such a gi-and system though there have been, now and then, innumerable attempts. The present author, my esteemed friend, Swami Mukerji, a Yogi who comes out of a successive genera- tion of Yogis, is a fit and proper instrument to handle the subject. He, in these lessons prepares the layman for an understanding of the Yoga and, through a series of wise and masterful sayings, impresses on tlie mind of the reader the necessity for rising above material- ism, nay, solves the very problem "What am I ?" Every line is pregnant with mature thoughts and rivets one's attention, and makes him think, think, think. This is not a work for which an introduction, briefly setting forth the contents, could be written. I can but ask you to read, digest and improve. Dr. T. R. Sanjivi, Ph.D., President, The Latent Light Cdltube. x^Tinnevelly, India. CHAPTER I. THE YOGI CONCEPTION OF LIFE. IF we study the action of mind upon mind, of mind over matter, of mind over the human body, we may realize how "each man is a power in himself" — to use Mr. Eandall's phrase in his beautiful book on psychology. Life is demonstrative : it speaks with a million, mil- lion tongues. Life stands for Light and Love. Con- templation of Death, which is really a change, will not lead to Happiness. All-stagnation is death. Humanity is a moving mass, and this is true of it as regards single units as well as of the collective whole. Stop we cannot. We must go forwards, which is "God-wards" or there is the backward line of progress —which is IGNORANCE. Spasms of activity catch hold of us and push us on- ward and, similarly, fear, weakness and worry, the triple weapons of our Old Friend, the Devil, catch us in their deadly grip and "crib, cabin and confine" us. We all are preparing to live, day in and day out. Is it not so ? The body ages ; the soul is ever on the alert. 9 10 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS We all are trj'ing to grasp life in its proper perspective, to get a clear view of the goal ahead. Some say "I am for enjoying life ;" some say, "It is a bad mixture of heaven and hell, for the most part, hell;" others stand on neutral ground and say, "Let us make the best of a bad bargain. Since we are here, it is no use grumbling. This world is for our educa- tion." Eight. Move we must. It may be progress forward or progress backwards. Life is a series of awakenings. Ideas dawn upon the mind from time to time, are caught up by brain and body and find physical expression as acts. Our out- ward life with its environment is fitted to our inward development. Wealth, position, fame, power, — all these are the simple expressions of individual char- acter. This is not a platitude. Look and see for yourself. It is quite necessary that we should pass through certain experiences, that we rise from ideal to ideal. We create our own fate. Our sufEerings, our joys, are so many projections from ourselves. We alone are re- sponsible for them. Like the silkworm we build a cocoon around the soul and then feeling "Cramped," we set to loosening the bonds. Enjoyment is not, ought not to be the goal of life. Sense-en jo}TTients end in satiety and exhaustion. Power and self, riches and all that riches mean, may tie THE YOGI CONCEPTION OF LIFE 11 us down to a narrow sphere. But in the long run we do come to know that happiness is not in them. This is a tremendous truth, yet God mercifully screens it from us till we are prepared to receive it. ^Vhat remains then? Man wants happiness. He rushes from one thing to another to grasp it, only to find everything slipping through his fingers. Let none deny it. "The aim of philosophy is to put an end to pain." All pain is caused by IGNORANCE. Apply the saving remedy of KNOWLEDGE, and PAIN van- ishes at once. This is a great fact and all young men ought to stamp it well upon their minds. While we are upon this phase of our subject, it may be worth while to go farther into these important facts of life — PLEASURE and PAIN. Our thoughts and actions are the forces we send out of ourselves. All life is expression. The soul of man is trying to see itself in everything. How did the dif- ferent organs of the body come into exi':tence? IIow did man get his eyes, his ears, his nose and so forth? How does the growth of things proceed on the sub- conscious plane of existence? The soul willed to see and it saw, willed to hear and it heard, willed to smell and it smelt. That is the right explanation. Take a subject, throw him into a hypnotic trance, lead him into the deepest state possible, give him vig- orous suggestions that a steady increase is taking place as to his physique, repeat the suggestions twice every day for a few months and you will liave put pounds of 12 DEVBLOPINO SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS flesh on his form. If you know an3'thing of these things at all, you will be hardly astonished. A striking case once occurred : Some frivolous students of Aber- deen held a hypnotic seance. A friend of theirs was hypnotised and made to go through certain illusions. Then a wet towel was put upon his neck and it was suggested to him that a sharp knife had been drawn right across his neck to cut his throat and that he was dead. It was such fun ! The students danced for joy. But what was their surprise when they found the man was stone dead. It taught the eternal truth — what man thinks that he is, that he shall be. Now, man is trying to express himself on the differ- ent planes of his being by appropriating to himself dif- ferent vehicles of expression. "When he meets with oppo- sition, an obstacle, he chafes like a caged lion. Load the limbs of a man with fetters of iron and see the re- sult. It is really this — when we can push forward without opposition, it causes pleasure, a sense of hap- piness; when we are held back it causes pain. Place good food before a healthy man. See how he likes it. It is because he knows that he is making an addition to himself. It brings on a sense of "MORE-NESS" and pleasure follows. Of course there are higher grades of this sense of "MORE-NESS." Some ancient doctors defined passion as an accession of strength due to the surcharge of arterial blood in the veins. All pleasure is from STRENGTH, all pain from WEAK- NESS. There can be no question as to this fact. THE YOGI CONCEPTION OF LIFE 18 There is a fire burning. Heap coals. The more coals, the brighter and steadier the flame. All obsta- cles are really "coal" feeding the "flame" of the spirit. They spur a man on. The vibrations of pain are often blessings in disguise. They drive the lesson home. The effect is not different from the cause. Both are the obverse and reverse of the same coin. Painful results grow out of deeds that clash with the interests of the DIVINITY WITHIN"— which is for FREEDOM. 'Tiord, I want nothing — neither healtli, nor beauty nor power. Give me FREEDOM and I am content." This is Jivan muMi. This is the highest ideal of life. Thinking of the little pleasures of tlie senses has brought us to this : to dance, to laugh, to weep, and before the tears are gone, to begin over again. Look at my con- dition. Slave of the flesh, slave of the mind, wanting to have this, that and what not. DARKNESS BE- HIND—DARKNESS AHEAD. Such is the wail of IGNORANCE. Get rid of it, ! My Friend. It is your greatest, direst enemy. Let the LIGHT of KNO^\"LEDGE dissipate this DARKNESS of IGNORANCE. The Lord above is our refuge. He alone is STRENGTH. "In Him we live and have our being." Wliere seek you for your ideals. Here it is. FREEDOM — You are rushing to it, and so am I. "Welcome everything that helps you, yea, compels you, to strike one more blow in the noble cause of EMANCIPATION. "Can a mar- ble figure brook the blow that an iron mass can bear." 14 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS "Know, slave is slave, caressed or whipped. . . . Fetters, though of gold are not less strong to bind." Thus, let us work it out. Let us cut short this show of five minutes with death and decay as its sequel. We shall go beyond this to the ONE SOURCE, GOD; and there is PEACE. CHAPTER II. THE IDEAL AND THE PRACTICAL. HERE are two words— IMAGINATION and FAN- CY. What is the distinction between the two? Well, the one is closely related to the positive and the conscious side of our character; the other can claim kin- ship with the negative and the receptive side onl)\ Take a youth starting in life. He has not been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He is poor and has ab- solutely none to look to for help of any sort whatsoever. Now, suppose he has spirit, and instead of sitting down and bewailing his lot, he forms a definite plan of conduct, throws his mind forward into the future, and decides to reach a certain state of development. He pictures to himself that state in its perfection, plans out the methods whereby he is to achieve it, takes in the difficulties to be met with and conquered, and by an effort of common sense reasoning sees the actual amount of good accruing to humanit}- and to all of God's crea- tures in general. He has had to think hard in order to construct the whole picture. He has had to breathe life upon it by repeating the images in connection with the whole picture. He has had to acquire knowledge, seek the advice of men more experienced than himself, 15 16 DEVELOPINO SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS and all the while he has had to keep up a brave and hopeful attitude of mind. And, mark you, he scorns to think of failure. It is for him to try his level best. It is for nature, which is a hard though a just pay- mistress, to bring him his reward in its due season. The above is a fair example of the exercise of Imagination. Fancy plays us tricks. It is not the man who pulls the strings this time. He simply yields himself to the influence of all sorts of impossible day-dreams. His mind is a sieve for thoughts to pass in and out. It is an aimless, idle, wandering, and brings ready victims for the "pitch-and-toss" game of men whose principle is to "do" others before the latter can have a turn at them. A man is what his ideals are. If one man with an ideal makes fifty mistakes in a day, the man without an ideal is sure to commit many more. This is a sim- ple truth, yet it will bear repetition here. All mus- cular actions, whether mental or physical, are simply fragnaents from the ideal. "The life of the ideal is in the practical; it is the ideal that has penetrated the whole of our life, whether we philosophise or perform the hard, everyday duties of life. . . . It is the ideal that has made us what we are and will make us what we are to be. . . . The principle is seldom expressed in the practical, yet the ideal is never lost sight of" — ("Pavhari Baba" by Vivekananda). TEE IDEAL A.YZ) TUB PRACTICAL 17 The very fact of the ideal heing present in your mind foreshadows its fulfilment. Our thoughts set up a magnetic centre within us. Like attracts like. Good thoughts draw to themselves corresponding thoughts. This fact is very emphatic. Each tree brings forth fruits of its kind. If we think well, we cannot act ill. The greatness of a man must find its measure in the greatness of his thoughts, and not in the amount of money in his pocket or the bluster on his tongue. Our ideal is the hinge upon which our future turns. We create our own fate. The first essential is to pitch our aims high. Let us look upward and upward alone. Let us pray to God for strength by all means, but let us be prepared to deserve His grace by walking a straight path. If we weave our thoughts around a grand purpose in life the ideal so formed may take material form any day. Its impulsion may stir up concretions of gross physical matter into activity and may clap spurs to the feet of even a lazy hack. So much for the ideal. If the ideal is to be cherished, it must also be nour- ished. If you simply sit down and desire to get a thing, you will never get it and it is good for you tliat you should not. For the practical side of things must never be neglected. "Practice makes perfect." Hav- ing set currents of holy desire in motion, we must set to deepen them in intensity and volume. "Great actions are only transformed great concen- 18 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL COXSCIOUSXESS Irations." Desire expands the will; action clinches it into strength. Each act in the right direction goes to establish us in our ideal. Action gives us training. Education is for self-discipline. Force of character is what we want; money, fame, praise and blame may well take care of themselves. What matters it what the world thinks of me so long as I can think well of myself? Have I a clear conscience? Is my body under my control? Is my mind pure? Do I love maoi? Do I dare to look others straight in the eye? Do I fear anything? The answer to such questions will go to make up the sum of our happiness or misery. A strong will; a steady pulse; a pure mind; these are what we want. But nought comes from nought — Ex nihilo nihil fit. Nothing will drop from the skies. See here, my brother, do you want a thing? Is it a good thing? Then taJce it. Let us deserve what we desire. That is the energetic way of setting about things. Action, right action, unselli^h action; — these alone can give us strength. To think is to act. To act is to live. To live is to love. '*Love, Love; that is the sole resource." Therefore, Thou Soul !, pray to thy primal source, God, for the power to make others happy. Disease may come; limb after limb may be lopped off; sorrow may strike thee to the core; yet cease not to desire nobly, and to bear thyself m action yet more nobly. THE IDEAL AM) THE PRACTICAL 19 The privacy of your own room, aye, of your own mind is the place M^here you must play the man. We have long lived under the influence of fear — the firstborn of Ignorance. Let knowledge come and with it its power — Courage. This is the supreme lesson we have to learn — Fear leads us from death to death; courage opens the gate into Life, Serenity, and Joy. CHAPTEE III. READ AND REFLECT. WHATEVER is worth doing is worth doing well;" — an age-worn saying but one which cannot be rung too often on human ears. We are mostly selfish — and all blame to us ! — and this because the Light of the Lord within us is so bedimmed by the darkness of the lower nature. Our deeds are accomplished best when we put heart in them; when we see some gain accruing to us. Xeed 1 prove this? What is the Central pivot we turn upon? Attrac- tion; — and its opposite, Repulsion. We take an inter- est in certain things. The former gives us a touch of pleasure, the latter causes pain. Both act diametri- cally; and the will, unable to assert itself, is unable to draw to itself the happiness-giving objects. Pain racks the soul. The aim of philosophy is to put on end to pain. It does not bring down upon us the gloom of despair, but the sunshine of Cheerfulness. Applying this to our actions wc see how philosophy, in the positive sense, is a true helper. It hands us a tveapon which cuts through difficulties. The weapon is Wisdom. 20 BEAD A^'D REFLECT 21 By Wisdom I mesn a light which is self-luminous. Man has an infinite field of Consciousness. This sphere, as it widens out, realises for us all that we want rightly. Our actions become linked together sym- metrically and at the end of the chain of wise activity is the desired object. It is hence wise to acquire wisdom. How to do it? By unfolding the consciousness. How to unfold? W^ell, there are many methods, most difficult; but I am going to give you a very easy one, applying which, suc- cess is as sure as that morning follows night. In the ordinary course of things we walk at a snail's pace, and progress is woefully slow. But we can quicken the pace and climb swiftly by taking ourselves in hand, by training the mind. The mind is a queer storehouse. The school-boy bakes his brain on a dry course of lessons daily. Why? To train the mind. That is education: Controlling the well-nigh uncontrollable : the ever-moving, ever-vi- brating mind. We read a good deal and all to no purpose. Dry learning never brings peace of mind. It never gives control over the mind. It never develops the will, nor does it unfold the consciousness. It simply leads to brain-fag; mental cramp. Dijfusion of thoughts leads to confusion of results. Now suppose the brain to be a road filled with mud. A carriage rolls down the road. The wheels have left a deep, straight tracJc right along the road. Another 22 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL COySClOUSNESS carriage passes on and deepens the track. It is exactly so with the brain. One thought passes through it and a track is made through the gi'ey matter. The inten- sity of the thought will determine the depth of the track. As we think, nerve-tracks are created and the repe- tition of the same thought deepens that nerve-track. New sets of atoms start into activity. Brain-cells are multiplied, and fresh layers of matter cover up these tracks. A similar thought gives them a blow and they are shaken np, as it were, into new life. Reading conveys suggestions to the brain and in- duces certain trains of thought. The human will, if it presses a thought with vigor, increases in force and mental electricity is thus generated. This is "thought- force" in a nutshell. Now far greater pressure is exerted if we think by ourselves. The fine nerves of the brain put themselves in a state of tension, more life flows into them, and, as this goes on, the inner powers of consciousness, of which the brain is only an instniment, are called forth from their potential into an active, vigorous condition. We should read only those books which yield us fresh strong thoughts, tn a line with our own aims and aspi- rations in life. People take up a book and start reading page after page with the speed of an express train. The mind is in a state of utter confusion and but faint im- pressions are being made. This is most foolish. Haste makes waste, remember ! READ AXD REFLECT 23 Books contain thoughts. If these thoughts are clean, pure, upUfting, stimulating, and instructive in nature, we should pause upon them and such all the life out of them. Let a student sit down to read. Let him read a sentence slowly; then let him try to gi'asp the thought, and think it over intently. One thought suggests other thoughts. Thus let him think; stretch his imagination in connection with that thought as far as possible, and drop it onh' when he has found a clear-cut, distinct con- clusion. Let him thus continue for fifteen minutes. He will possibl}^ feel quite tired at the end. But as he continues the practice of deliberate thinking, he will feel a new assurance of power awakening in his mind. "Read for five minutes ; think for ten" — there you have the whole secret. The above practice is very easy, yet most valuable. It will expand your brain and unfold your Higher Consciousness. The fact is there is too little manhood in men. Earnestness of the right sort is conspicuous by its ab- sence. Such things as spiritual Unfoldment — the con- quest of self, are striven after by but few men. Hence when they resolve upon achieving these, the initial difficulties quench their ardour. First of all we must idealise these Higher Teachings, if we have not done so in the past. We must love them as the only things worthy of achievement. It is not the passion of selfish growth that should grip us, but the 24 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS flear, cheerful atmosphere of purity that should be our guide. Then when the thoughts of mind are strung up to action we should iind nothing difficult of achievement. Come day, go day, we must stick to our resolve like grim death. Nothing can crush the spirit, when it has learned to recognise itself. Hence let us cherish, nourish, and embellish our Higher Xature by taking upon our shoulder a little of the heavy Karma of the world. Let us do all that we can for our growth, but let us remember that selfishness when it develops is "like a serpent that warms to life by the heat of our hands." Do not then nurse this viper iu your bosom. Be as helpful as you can. CHAPTEE IV. man: animal and divine. BY the side of the Ganges, close to the Dashashu- medh Ghat, there sits a man of nearly seventy. He is stark naked. Clad in nature's own garb, the Paramahamsa remains seated in one place, morning, noon and night. Look at his face. He is of fair complexion. His forehead rises dome-like above his eyes which are clear, serene, and brilliant with soul-fire. His lips have a firm set. In short, his calm and thoughtful eyes, noble forehead, and general features indicate unruffled calm- ness, great self-control, and immense will-power. For more than eight years he has been there. In the burning mid-day sun of June, when the very gi'ound seems all a-fire, in the biting, bitter cold of December, he sits there. People flock to him in hundreds daily, bring food enough to fill at least thirty stomachs, bow to him, and tell him their many griefs. All his reply is a nod of his head and a look from his eyes. He eats a few fruits and drinks a little milk, and the rest of the food he scatters among people ever ready to pick it up. He never talks, never laughs or even smiles. His face is always solemn, calm and rapt. If you go 26 2fi DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS near him as I did, you feel his presence at once. It is at once a magnetic, powerful, and an all-round spiritual personality. Now just turn from this Yogi, — for he is nothing else — and follow me to the fish-market. I have been there only once, but I will tell you something about it. It was eight o'clock in the morning. No less than five hundred men, women and boys were there. My first feeling was one of extreme nausea. (There was a strong, dirty, abominable smell about the place.) The fisher-men had brought in fine, living, leaping fish in their nets. They started by taking these out and beating each living fish dead against the hard, brick floor of the market. Squabbling, haggling, abusing, spitting were in full swing. The evil stink was noth- ing to them. It was the smell of the rose-flower, as it were. I went out; rather, ran out. I ?aw many men and women coming out, their hands full of the dirty stuff. Young men, within their teens, were there. Their eyes were pale and hollow, their skins hung loose upon their bones; their faces denoted greed and lust. I saw not one person who had a healthy, steady, self-reliant look; they seemed like a pack of beggars who had stumbled into a little money which they must spend upon fish. Indeed, how can it be otherwise? Now comparing one of these back-boneless men with the Saint, what conclusion do you draw? The one is the ANIMAL-MAN, the etl^er, the DIVINE-MAN. MAX: AMMAL AND DIVINE 27 In the one Fear, Greed, Lust, Superstition have made their home. The horrors of the slaughter-house do not shock him at all. His fleshy coating reflects the inner man out and out. His senses are gross and coarse- fibred. In the other, God is manifesting Himself. He is proof against tlie extreme heat and cold, lust and pas- sion. If a thunder-bolt were to fall upon him, he would not lose his calmness even for the fraction of a moment. Is not that real happiness? To realise that you are not the body; that you can never die; that nothing can touch you; that fire cannot burn you; the sword cannot pierce you, tlie water cannot drown you; to realise your independence of and mastery over the flesh. This is the true mission of religion. Religion is being and becoming. It is not talk. It is not intel- lectualism. It is not worldism. It is Life and Love. "God is Love." Love is unselfish. It burns for everyone. It does not come easihj. Only when we have suffered much, thought much, — then and then alone gleams of this Universal Love shine upon us. Tt is the dawn of divinity — Spiritual Awakening. A time comes when we feel this truth, and sympathy for the sufferings of others is the first sign. To serve others is a high privilege. God grants us this oppor- tunity for cleansing ourselves; no higher step can be taken unless we have learnt to be selfless in service. 28 DEVELOPIXG IS PI RITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS Happiness is not the goal of life, nor is enjoyment. Those that hunt for it never get it. God is the goal of life. Eealising Him we realise happiness. "Such is the power of good that even the least done brings the gi'eatest results." Obey God, serve men. Before you have gone far in tins vast path, peace will fold its wings around you. Fear will drop away. Worry will be known no more. Therefore train yourself to serve others, if only one soul. If you have a father, a mother, or some one else depending upon you, serve them with whole-hearted zeal. Care not for gratitude, friend; — that is their business. If you are in earnest — and the mere fact of your reading Yoga proves that you are on the Higher Path — you will force yourself to be unselfish. In a short time your Higher Nature will assert itself and it will become your second Nature. Let us learn to forget our troubles as soon as possi- ble, for these are not permanent. "Shattered be Self, Life and Hope. I will try my humble best to help others witli body, brain, and soul ;" let that be your brave cry. I am with you in this and so are thousands of others. Each man is a channel for the expression of God's truths. As we evolve from within outwards we con- form ourselves to the reception of certain gifts. Each man is a power in himself. We have to rise to our bes+ each time we call truths out. They exist in us po- tentially and are ever seeking an outlet for right expression. MAN: ANIMAL AND DIVINE 39 It rests with us entirely what and how far we will unfold. Fate follows us only so long as we fly from it. Contact with a stronger mind, a purer heart, is de- cidedly to our advantage. It acts as a push upwards. You may be poor in riches, but you may be rich in God's greatest gift — purity in word, deed and thought. You are as great as any one, mark you. Daily you have to light the Lamp of Light Eternal in the secret chamber of your heart. Right knowledge with its right exercise will wipe out your misery, which is igno- rance — the greatest enemy of man. Eemember, knowl- edge is within you and never outside. Let me advise you to read sacred things and then reflect upon them. Study the feelings and thoughts that arise within you. Lea^•e the faults of others alone. Look upwards but never look down upon your inferiors. If you study and meditate, if you analyse yourself honestly, you sliall surely bury all your weakness in the Light of knowledge. You will rise to the highest level of godliness in time. LIVE UP TO IT. If you fail, rise again, and again and yet again. Assert yourself; and strength will surely come. Sincere in your wish, strong in your resolve, nothing can stand in your path. Once again I say Look ever upwards and onwards. CHAPTER V. DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. rr^HE ancients had a most significant concept as to ■*■ the intellectual make-up of Man, and before we proceed with our personal remarks on this topic, we shall try to give our readers just a passing glimpse of their view point. Says Aristotle: "There are in the fact of our knowledge two elements analogous to mat- ter and form i. e., a passive principle and an active principle; in other words, there are two kinds of Intel- lect, the one material or passive and the other formal or active, the one capable of becoming all things by thinking on them, the other making things intelligible. That which acts is necessarily superior to that which suffers; consequently that active intellect is superior to the potential one. The active intellect is separate, im- passable and imperishable; the passive intellect on the contrary is perishable and cannot do without the active intellect. Therefore the veritable intellect is the Separate Intellect and this intellect alone is eternal and immortal." Dr. Nishikanta commenting on this passage, says: "The function of this passive intellect is to receive all the data of sensation and that of the Active Intellect is to collect and compare, and by anal- 80 DOUBLE COXSCIOVSNESS 81 3'sis and synthesis to raise those sensuous or sensorious data to ideas and conceptions." Now, I suppose, I miglit explain it in the light of modern psychology somewhat in this way : The senses, namel}', touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing, together with the nervous systems, form the various lines of communication between the Ego and the non-ego, be- tween the Self and the not-self, between purusha — to use the technicality of our Sankaya Philosophy — and Prakiriti. The plastic mind of the child, like the pho- tographer's sensitized plate is exposed to stimuli from the external world. Impressions from outside — the environmental conditions, i. e., the times, circumstances, and various other surrounding influences — impinge upon the mind and various combinations of brain-cells are formed. Eegistrations are enforced by further and further combinations, and the continued influx of im- pressions tend to the definite shaping of these brain-cells, according as one set of impressions corresponds with another and so on, till, in time, varying sets of group- cells are formed resulting in habits. The sum total of these impressions establishes itself in the mind of the child as tastes, likes and dislikes, inclinations and pred- ilections. Their relative merits or demerits must be traced to the moulding influence of the early impres- sions. The child with the widening of its knowledge distinguishes between pleasurable and painful im- pressions. The child with the painful impressions, connects past with present, rejects painful ini])re>sion,-. 82 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS accepts pleasurable ones and thus learning to identify impressions by repetition, develops memory. Thus sensation produced thought; for, "Mind, as we know it, is resolvable into states of consciousness, of varying duration, intensity, complexity, etc., all, in the ulti- mate, resting on Sensation" (Secret Doctrine). The repetition of vibrations, by attraction and repulsion to pleasurable and painful sensations developed memory. The contemplation of the images mirrored in the mind produced knowledge, discrimination and reason; the desire to change from one state to another led to the manifestation of Will or energy, the inter-play of tliought and desire gave birth to emotion. Thus, however crudely put, we may for the nonce take it that the concrete mind with the physical brain as its organic base of operation is the passive intellect transmitting sensations to the thinker, who reasons upon same in his own sphere and who hence forms the centre of the Active Intellect. The passive mind is so much matter appropriated from the not-self, for cer- tain purposes. It is alive or seems so because the ego works in and through it. Averros, the great commen- tator on Aristotle has made it all very clear: "The Passive Intellect aspires to unite with the Active In- tellect as the potential calls for the Actual, as the mat- ter calls for the form, or as the flame rushes for the combustible body. But the effect is not confined to the first degree of possession only, called the acquired in- tellect. The Soul can arrive at a much more intimate DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS 33 uDion with the universal intellect at a sort of identifica- tion, with Primordial Reason. The acquired intellect has served to lead man up to the sanctuary but it disappears as that object has been gained, very nearly as sensation prepares the way for imagination and disappears as soon as the act of Imagination is too intense. In this way, the active intelligence exercises on the soul two distinct influences, of which the one has for its object, to elevate the material or passive intellect to a percep- tion of Intelligibles, while that of the other is to draw it further up to a union with the Intelligibles them- selves. Arrived at this state man understands all things by the Eeason he appropriated to himself. Having become similar to God, he is in a certain sense all the beings that exist and knows them as they really are; because the being and their causes are nothing beyond the knowledge that he possesses of them. There is in every being a tendency to receive as much of this final- ity as suits his nature. Even the animal shares it and bears in itself the potentiality of arriving at this Be- ing." The Higher Mind or the Active Intellect in each individual is a ray from the Universal Mind and since that is the common source, all minds are resolvable into One Mind: — the varying types of mentality between man and man being really due to changing cycles of race- evolution in varying environments. CHAPTER VI. SPIRITUAL DXFOLDMENT. THE heart of man pants for many things. Desire moves man more than aught else. Passions may lash np the lake of his mind into a thousand pulsations ; grief may burn the iron of despair right into his brain, and make him feel as one stranded; all his emotions and feelings may play upon him ; the world outside may fasten its grip upon him, toss him up from pillar to post and beat him flat ; — yet the impress left by these is sooner or later wiped out and man rises to his feet once more. But not so the iron grip of desire. It holds on to him like grim death. It drags out the soul minute after minute of our existence, electrifies the unwilling hand to exertion and stimulates the brain to accom- plish its ends. From the hoary, venerable sage, standing triumphant upon the heights of spirituality, down to the most ani- malized, coarsened man — the Bushman, the Central African savage — this phenomenon makes itself clearly visible to the observant eye. iSTow, there come moments in our lives, when even the greatest money-spinners ; the most persistent pleasure- hunters, turn aside from their usual occupations to listen 34 SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT 36 to a voice within them which is constantly asking, "Man, where art thou from? Where art thou drifting along? To what end is all this? — Money, wife, chil- dren, and all that you hold next to your heart. "What has a man gained, if he has gained the whole world and lost his soid?" These and similar other questions beat upon our brains in spite of all our contrary partialities, our thor- ough worldism. All this unrest and discomfort is quite in the nature of things. Man cannot always be building mud-pies and swallowing ''goldpills.'"' Something more abiding, more permanent, is wanted. This yearning after the Eternal makes us call a halt upon the pursuit of blind passions, the hunt after pleasure, — which is the van- ishing point between satiety and reaction. The son wants to be united to the Father, his primal source. God becomes an indispensable necessity. AVithout Him, life seems to be a dance after fleeting sliadows. Each word of advice, of guidance and of spiritual help comes as a cup of cold water to the tliirsting soul. Life is simplicity itself. It is governed everywhere hy One Life, One Law, One Word, — such is the grand teaching of the Ancients. And as we, by knowledge, experience and observation, get a clearer grasp of this doctrine of Unity, we approach Truth. As our vision of God grows moi'e and more distinct, Life with it= million, niillion tongues, seems all music. 88 DEVELOPINO SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS Fear is sloughed off like a dead skin. Peace, poise and power are all attracted to us by the subtle magnetism of pure thoughts. Man eyes man with Love, Compas- sion and Pity. The fibres of the mind have grown too finely strung to stand the shock of evil thoughts and desires, and these latter fly ofE from the keenly vibrant mind. Listen to Yogi Eamacharaka: "From this point you will gradually develop into that consciousness which assures you that when you say "I" you do not speak of the individual entity with all its power and strength but know that the "I" has be- hind it the power and strength of the spirit and is connected with an inexhaustible supply of force, which may be drawn upon when needed. Such an one can never experience Fear — for he has risen far above it. Fear is the manifestation of weakness and, so long as we hug it to us and make a bosom friend of it, we will be open to the influence of others. But by casting aside Fear me taJce several steps upwards in the scale. . . . When man learns that nothing can really harm him. Fear seems a folly. And when man awakens to a realisation of his real nature and destiny, he knows that nothing can harm him and consequently Fear is discarded. "It has been well said, "There is nothing to fear but fear." . . . The abolition of Fear places in the hands of man a weapon of defence and power which ren- ders him almost invincible. Why do you not take this gift which is so freely offered you? Let your watch- words be "I am ;" "I am fearless and free." SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT 87 The italics are mine. It is a lengthy quotation but each word will repay perusal. Thus we see that "Spiritual Unfoldment" means a gradual stripping off of the dense and subtle sheaths in which man is clothed for the manifestation of the spirit. WTiat is the Spirit? I can give you but a very poor idea. The spirit is the highest principle, the most sublime attribute of Man. According to the teachings of advanced occultists and the great sages of India. Man is a sevenfold creature; is also in seven sheaths; manifests on seven planes of being. These are according to Yogi Iiamacharaka's classifi- cation: 7 Spirit; 6 Spiritual mind; 5 Intellect; 4 Instinctive Mind ; 3 Prana, Vital Force ; 2 Astral Body ; 1 physical body. Few, almost none of the present race, have achieved the seventh principle. The spirit in man is a spark from the Divine Flame. It establishes a psychic con- nection, if I may so put it, between Man and the Ab- solute. The noblest of men, the most wonderful geni- uses, the most brilliant master-minds, were the for- tunate recipients of a few flashes of the spirit, which is the Invincible Controlling Power in Man. In mo- ments of deep abstraction, tlie human consciousness, if concentrated upon high ends, finds messages from the Spirit flash downwards, like a streak of lightning; and the world is startled by the revelation. As I have remarked before, Man is not a finished 38 DEVELOPINO SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS product of nature. He is a developing creature. He has to master all these sheaths and realise the spirit within — Himself. It is a long and serious task. Those that take it up consciously, undertake the most tr}dng task of life. Yet we are all going that way. Here are three words : — Instinct, Reason, Intuition. These are the three phases of mind, from the lowest up to the highest. They develop into each other. In- stinct dovetails into Reason, and Eeason into Intuition. Let us consider them categorically. The instinct is a subconscious intelligence. There is a self-preserving imnciple of the mind. The animal world illustrates this. One animal fights another, kills another, to maintain its life. The duckling rushes to the water as its natural element ; the newly-fledged bird wants to be on the wing; the child seeks the mother's breast as its source of nourishment ; our feet run away with us in moments of peril in spite of ourselves; — it is all Instinct. The various work of the body, di- gestion, assimilation, tissue change, etc., are all carried on along this subconscious line of mentation. Passion is said to be hlind, because it is a part of the Instinct. This lowest phase of the mind is most developed in man. It has no reason, no volition. As man grows, he begins to think, to compare himself with others, to analyse things, to classify, to judge, and so on. This is Reason. It is the Intellect, with the conscious entity, "I" as its monarch. The baby ego, SPIRITUAL rXFOLDMENT 39 the hitherto sleeping ?oiil, begins to wake up at its magic toiiL-h. The irUl becomes rationalized. It shows itself by assertions, demands and commands. Througli the intellect man learns to recognize his developing manhood. His self-consciousness, the "/ am" consciousness, expands and learns to regard him- self as a distinct, living, reasoning being. The intellect controls the Instinctive mind. It checks it from picking up suggestions dropped by others. Th.e will as it develops swings brain and body, the ''lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life" round to its own mandates. The half developed intellect is a source of misery. It sends fear thoughts, adverse suggestions, into the Instinctive Mind, which, slave-like, carries out orders blindly. Into the Intellect, when it has touched its zenith shades the Spiritual ]\Iind, Intuition. Intuition passes beyond, transcends the intellect. It is the "Super-con- scious Mind.'' All that is considered noble and lofty in the mind comes from the spiritual mind. The "brotherhood" of man and the "fatherhood" of God: "True religious feelings, kindness, humanity, justice, unselfish love, mercy, sympathy, etc., come to us through slowly unfolding spiritual mind." Intuition is tlie highest phase of the human mind. It sees truth by direct perception. It is the seat of prophesy, inspiration and spiritual insight. As the mind becomes calm and controlled, rays of light pene- trate it from the realms of the spirit. Prophesy, the 40 DEVELOPIlsG SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS intuitive perception of some future event, often shows itself. It is a faculty which belongs to the spiritual side of consciousness. It is superior to our physical, astral and mental selves. It transcends the human and shades into the Divine. Such, in brief, is a crude conception of Spiritual Un- foldment. It does scant justice to this subject, yet it may go to throw some light on some dark problems. Man is not a sack of flesh, blood and bones. "We are all of us traveling God-wards. We have not been born to dance to the orders of others; nor is enjoyment the aim of life. Some people, who have developed a little intellect, regard themselves as the creme de la creme of the uni- verse. "We are in a higher sphere." Such is the blindness of conceit. Those that cultivate such ideas will find the ground cut from under their feet. Let us pick out our line of action carefully. Let us not go into society an Ishmael with our hand raised against every one. Selfish, grasping men are the most unhappy of the whole lot of us. Harm watch, harm catch. None of us are spotless. If there is any one who repels us, let us not hate him. There is nothing to hate hut hatred. Wisdom and an understanding of our place in the vast cosmic Evolution alone can rob Death of its terrors. The warm, living impulses of the heart, if carried SPIRITUAL UyPOLDMENT 41 out, will surely work for our upliftment. Religion is life. Its mission is to take the animal-man out of the divine-man and set us free from this cage of flesh. CHAPTER VII. CAUSE AND EFFECT. "D Y your great enemy I mean yourself. If you have the power to face your Own Soul in the darkness and silence, you will have conquered the physical or Animal-Self that dwells in sensation only." — "Light on the Path." The above sentence embodies in a nutshell the very cream of the Yoga Philosophy. It is the quintessence of Occultism. 'The lips of wisdom are closed except to the ears of understanding.' You who read this will profit thereby only if you are bent upon spiritualising yourself. The One Thing that I want of you is Ear- nestness : not the earnestness of a-small-pot-soon-hot style, but one deep, abiding and constant impulsion that shall compel your being right through life. There is a widespread impression amongst those of the West that the Yogi is fit only for the lunatic asylum. But before you so clap them into Bedlam, please read, mark, and inwardly digest this lesson and judge it on its merits alone. "N"ever utter these words 'I do not know this thing, therefore it is not true.' One must study to know, know to understand, and understand to judge." The man whose thoughts are matter-bound, 42 CAUSE AND EFFECT 43 is treading upon beds of quicksand. He is sitting upon a mine that may explode any moment. The onh- safe course is the Life of the Spirit. Tliose that lead this life seem to live and breathe in quite a different spliere. They are the true Yogis; — tlie iirst fruits of humanity. In matters of Self-discipline they neither spare them- selves nor others that woidd learn at their feet. To those moles that are still burrowing into the mud their methods, ever drastic, appear far-fetched. But tliis is emphatically not so. Tlie Yogi is tlioroughly rational. He has a profound intellect. He is the picture of health. He is full of kindness and pity. He is ever self-sacrificing, ever strong and as to chastity, he is the very emhodinient of it; — lie simply radiates purity. Wherever the Yogi goes he seems to cleanse the very atmosphere of the place by his meie presence. He is calm, serene, and even-minded. He has almost super- hum^an self-control. In the moment of action, he is the man of cool ner\f-, of level head, and great pene- trating concentration. One mental scientist in America puts health upon the heights. Wliy? Simply because there are fifty millions there who are disease-ridden and many a suf- fering one is a MorituriLS i. e., at the point of death. This is the result of nifiterialism. The gods have put their ban upon it. "Seek ye the kingdom of heaven and all else shall be added unto thee." This is the tre- mendous advice of the Supreme Master. The higher life is the only life that is worth living. 44 DE\ ELOi'IXG SPIRITUAL CO^'SC'WUSXESS All else is mere touch-and-go. Now one great secret of success was enunciated by a perfect Yogi. It is the greatest I know. I am fully convinced of its potent force. Let me give it to you : Join the means to the end, and you have the sum- total; the objective; the goal that you are striving for and aiming at. The result is in direct ratio to the in- tensity of the effort. The greater the effort, the greater the result. There is an ever-continuing, never-slack- ening tension of this spiritual law of cause and effect, of sowing and reaping. We only get what we deserve; — not an iota more or less. The gods hold the scales evenly and Nature deals in even-handed justice. No honest seeking ever goes unrewarded. We have to per- fect the means. We have to adjust efforts to obstacles. If the action is incoordinate, so shall be the result. Give and it shall be given unto you. Everything is in a circle. What tve do, that we have. In taking all possible care of the means, you are simply starting cur- rents of force into activity. These must complete the circuit and come back to you, the centre, in time. Therefore what we have to do is to work, work, and work. The results cannot but come. Your body is so constituted that it renews itself after each exertion : with each fresh effort, there is a corresponding inrush of force. He who works his hardest, has the most en- ergy. Energy is ever withdrawn from those that would spend same with a niggardly hand. The supply is exactly in proportion to the exhaust. It is the pres- CAUSE AND EFFECT 46 sure at which we live that counts most. Life is unnec- essarily long; — only, so much time we spend in vege- tating rather than living. For only the spiritual man can appreciate the fine art of living. As a great thinker said : We ask for long life, but 'tis deep life, or grand moments, that signify. Life culminates and concentrates. Homer said "The gods ever give to mor- tals their appointed share of reason only on one day." "Just to fill the hour — ^that is happiness. Fill my hour ye gods, so that I shall not say, Whilst I have done this, Behold, also an hour of my life is gone,' but rather, *I have lived an hour.' " "In stripping time of its illusions, in seeking to find what is the heart of the day, we come to the quality of the moment and drop the duration altogether. It is the depth at which we live and not at all the surface extension, that imports. We pierce to the eternity of which time is the fitting surface; and really the least acceleration of thought and the least increase of power of thought, make life to seem and to be of vast dura- tion. We call it time, hiit when that acceleration and that deepening effect talce place, it acquires another higher name; — Eternity." "God works in moments." "The measure of life, Socrates, is luith the wise; — the speaJcing and hearing such discourses as yours." "There is no real happiness in this life hut in inie^,- lect and virtue." "It is the deep today that all men scorn, the rich 4« DEVELOPINO SPIRITUAL C0N8CI0USNE88 puverty which men hate; the poimlous, all-loving soli- tude which men quit for the tattle of towns. He lurks, he hides; — he who is Success, Reality, Joy and Power. One of the illusions is that the present hour is not the critical hour, the decisive moment. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly until he knows that every day is Doomsday. 'Tis the oldest secret of the gods that they come in low disguises." "Nature shows herself lest in leasts." The above are just a few thoughts to convince you that each stroke, each swing of tlie Will, each moment of utter devotion to the means, each hour of day, uncon- genial labor, each spell of painful, patient concentra- tion shall count in the Eternal Summation. Hence pay homage to and worship the means. Hon- our the present moment. Set up the strong Present Tense against all else. The present moment is the crystalisation of the Past. Build into the structure of the Fast the richest and finest materials, vitalize it with the rich, red, life-hlood of youth, and surely, most sure- ly, the spirit shall shine out in all its columnar majesty. Your Past is laden with the cumidative force of thoughts, desires and actions. Everything turns upon how you. have lived in the past. How cramped, how down-trodden, how sorrow-laden, how miserable, how low, mean, and hard-hearted and cruel we men and women are I It all seems to have been ground in witli our life- CAUSE AXD EFFECT 47 force. Stop right now, now, and examine yourself in the clear light of tlie intellect. Ten to one, you shudder at your hideous weaknesses, that darken and defile your Nature. "What I would that I do not; what I would not, that I do." "IF/ten / would do good, evil is present loith me." This is the tale of the age. It is a staggering blow to one's optimism. It dampens one's spirits. It plunges one into the bottomless pit of despair. Stand- ing by men steeped to their lips in weaknesses, one turns inwards and doubtingly says "Am I really Strong?" "/ failed." Why? "Because, sir, you neglected the MEANS and simply killed your time in spinning aii'y tvehs. You did not throw in your heart and soul. Here is the cause and cure of failure. In our struggles to cheat Nature, we simply cheat ourselves. In trying to drown the voice of conscience, we simply sink our- selves. In trying to follow tlie eat-drink-and-be-merry policy we simply retard our own inner unfoldment. Please remember therefore: — All Yogis are tremen- dous causationists. There is method in their madness. They believe in methodical and persistent work. They say with me in effect: — "Marshal your forces properly and powerfully and access is sure." I3 it not meet that we turn to something permanent, something that will live through the ages, some- 48 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS thing that will be a powerful lever to uplift, inspire, and ennoble others? "It is! It is!" that's what you say. To be able to appreciate greatness at its full value, we must ourselves have the germs of greatness stirring within us. The power of the spirit is struggling to un- coil itself. Your being vibrates to the thrills of spirit- ual forces. Your complex though confused ideas re- garding your mission, your Divine Heritage, your birth- right, are shooting into order. The pressure of your chains is telling upon your nerves. Your sufferings, your little independent twists and angles and blind gropings are the promises of your future. Intensify yourself then along these channels. Carry these thoughts constantly with you. Make them the part, nay, the whole, of your lives. They shall fit in everywhere. Ever they ring true. I hear this com- plaint from many men. "I am deeply impressed when I read these things or when you talk of them to us. I am full of noble resolves. I feel quite different from hum-drum humanity. But alas ! tlie impression wears off as soon as the world demands my attention." That shows positively that the latter compels your nature. The superficial glamour of worldism claims you for its own as Mephistopheles claimed Faust. Your carnal and sex-sensational tendencies occupy the "prin- cipal seats" in your nature. Your talk of the Higher Life is vapory in the extreme; you are like Clarence .Glyndon in Lytton's "Zanoni:" — "TJnsustained Aspira- CAUSE ASD EFFECT 49 tion" would follow instinct, hut is deterred by con- ventionalism — 15 overawed by idealism, yet attracted and transieyitly inspired; but has not steadiness for the initiatory contemplation of the Actual. He conjoins its snatched privileges with a besetting sensualism and suffers at once from the horror of the one and the dis- gust, involving the Innocent (others) in the fatal con- flict of his spirit:" (Mirror of young manhood.) CHAPTER VIII. MAN — THE MASTER. MEN are going up an ascending scale of exist- ence. Some have their feet still planted upon the lowest rungs of the ladder. Others have climbed higher and higher. At the start, the functions of life are all performed upon a semiconscious plane. The law of life is for progress, struggle, achievement and realization. The force of this law swings the physical and mental mech- anism of Man to its own beneficent purpose and pro- pels them to action. Progress at this stage is on the sub-conscious plane of mentation. The soul is in a comatose condition. Impacts from the physical world, the driving power of the law of Progress — Evolution, — and the inherent powers of the soul, all combine to push us on. Man's central Being is infinite bliss. I am Happi- ness itself. I am unhappy because my eyes have grown blind. Yes, Man has forgotten his real, divine Xature. Cy- cle after cycle of activity thus goes on. Man is being worked upon by a Divine Law whose stem mandate is "AwaTce, Arise, and Stop not till the goal is reached." 50 MAX— THE MAtiTEli 51 Not all of us hear it thus. The pious Christian de- voutly believes, "Oh, There is an Evil Force, Satan, whose arm strikes me down. Good Lord, Thou alone art my refuge." In praying thus he believes in the Infinite power of the absolute; and since nothing is lost in the economy of Nature, he delivers a concentrated suggestion to his soul, which alone is Infinite. He believes that his prayer will bear fruit, and it does. In believing he de- livers the right blow and his belief is fulfilled. It is a very good thing to pray ; to believe that Provi- dence is always playing with your destiny, to believe that a mighty Mephistopheles is laying traps for you, to believe that the body dying, the soul does not die, to believe that God alone can save you. The good side of it lies in your repulsion of Evil. Fear and at times love of the Infinite make you cleave to good. But do not stop there. Your attitude is out and out a negative one. You cannot always stand by your none- too-well-grounded convictions. Facts go to prove this. In this world you often see a man born in poverty, squalor and sin. He has not a single chance in life. Then take a man born to the purple. There is nothing to vex him. Plenty stalks majestically in the land. He has but to wish and lo ! it is fulfilled. "Everything that God commands is for the best," you say. "Perhaps his father is to blame," some one would sav. 52 DEVELOPIXG f^PIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS First, why should I be punished for the sins of my father, secondly why should I not be created as my friend is ? Why should every one laugh at my Physical, Mental and Spiritual endowments; how do I deserve this ? "God's ways are inexplicable," you say. Very fine, indeed ! Friend, God does not love mystery mongering. He can never give us pain without rhyme or reason. My experience tells a different tale. God is Love. He acts in open daylight. We go to Church and say long prayers for sins committed. We shall commit that same sin again and again ; and we shall cease only when repeated blows rub the lesson home. "You must cease from this. It has back of it the most painful results." Man is punished not for his sins so much as by them. Nature with her pitiless ways cannot claim mercy for herself. Her laws are hard. Be it a sin of commission or of omission, your escape is impossible. This penalty bears a mission peculiar to itself. It/ is a blessing in disguise. It is the merciful knife of the surgeon. If there is loss, pain, suffering, disappointment at one pole, it is all counterpoised by the ripening of experi- ence, wisdom, knowledge at the other. Hence meas- ured on the scale of Compensation, all pain, come it how it may, must be faced with patience. Pain comes in jangled vibrations, seems to asphyxiate the whole man, strikes us down for the needed lesson. In suf- fering we pay our debts. The burden is lightened. Sin MAN— THE MASTER 53 and suffering are twins and separation is impossible. How we wish we had been let off scot-free; how like miserable shirkers we wish our bed had no crumpled rose leaves. Yet would you who weep and lament be mi- nus the experience and wisdom you have stored up through efforts to brush pain aside? No right have we then to rule off pain as a visitation of a wrathful Deity. Eather, we shall see Cause and Effect, not somewhere and sometimes but everywhere and always. That is the position of Strength. Every sweet has its sour. We shall confront fate with fate, fire with fire, and, stand- ing aside, see the one eat the other. The end of all philosophy is the destruction of pain. Not milksops and lunatics, but men of iron courage are philosophers. Philosophy is thought passed and purified through the fire of the Living Spirit. It is deathless, birthless truth established in the constitution of man. Clay and clay differ, they say, so thought and thought vary in power, tenacity and texture. Man is a living magnet. He at- tracts. He repels. He draws in his own ; he throws out what is not related to him. As Emerson, the west- em child of eastern thought sings: — 'And all that Nature made thy own, Floating in air or pent in stone Will rive the hills and swim the sea. And, like thy shadow, follow thee.' Just that comes to us wliicli is ours by right of thought; just that flies off from us which is not ours. 5-i DEVELOPIXG SPIRITIAL COySClOUSNESS What we seek we shall find; what we flee from, will flee from us; as Goethe said, "What we wish for in youth comes to us in heaps in old age." Everything on the zone of our mental vibration will be ours. Eemem- ber you who read ! Thought is a mighty force. It is your friend. It is your enemy. As your ideal in life, along that line will Everything flow. You are a Spark from the Eternal Fire and as is proved in Higher Mathematics the parts of Infinity are an Infinity; you too are Infinite. God re-Exists in each mortal form. His light shines full upon your Consciousness. You wish, you command, you demand, you assent, and you get — what you want; though you go to sleep, your thought if sufficiently vitalized by concentration will come to pass. Determine the breadth, the solidity, the soundness of the plank of life you stand upon. You are your master. Knowing and realizing this, you shall step up to the highest and best in life and with firm hands pluck the fruit you would taste. The sweet, the bitter, or the bitter-sweet taste is according as you choose. Where and what is Fear then? It is all cause and effect. Laugh at Astrology, at Palmistry; know their secrets ; know they are emanations from you ; and stand fearless and strike straight from the shoulders, once, twice, thrice, times innumerable till your strokes tell, till your strokes lay low the monsters that have broken their teeth upon your unyielding shoulders; till you have wliat you should liave. This, friend, i'^ a passing glimpse of Life's Conscions Stage. Here Life is self- MAX— THE MASTER determined. Here no hand but yours builds. No brains but yours thinks. No strength but yours avails. No soul but yours bids, bargains and at last bears aivay the palm. CHAPTER IX. SELF-DEVELOPMENT. The Objective Mood. MAN should ever strive to develop intrinsic worth. Life becomes a song of harmony, Peace and Power, when once you have developed and expanded the Will-power. The education of the Will should be the aim of your life. The pleasure-seeker is an ass. He is ever complaining of his hard lot, of disappoint- ment, of ill-health ; he is as a bird bereft of wings, quivering its shattered pinions in its vain attempt to soar up in the sky. He is a leaning willow whose whole structure indicates weakness and dependence. The gods have put their ban upon this twentieth century fever for pleasure. Go into any large assembly of educated men and if you are a true judge of character you will hardly pick out five men out of five hundred with the fine, refined impressive features of Stoic, a heroic soul in an obedient body. The reason is not far to seek. Their chief object is to titillate the nerves of sensation. They never learned the great and important law of Self denial. They are being dragged along by a force far mightier than their feeble selves. They have never said 56 SELF-DEVELOPMENT 57 a firm No, to their impulses. They are mere masks and not men. They are automatic machines. They may have picked up a little odd knowledge; they may have a law cunning, but they lack the Affirmative Force of Character, the vim and pith of a Positive Personal- ity, the calm poise of controlled energy. They have never realized the intense joy of a soul that lives only to aspire after what is high and noble. But then Exist- ence is not all a bed of roses. Shocks will come and, when they do, these weaklings are bowled over like so many nine-pins. Then they just sit up and talk of their aching hearts, their bleeding wounds, their sorrow laden, miserable lives. Their good wishes are as so many soap-bubbles. Their resolutions are mere effervescence of a dying vitality. Their promises the mere ebulli- tions of emotion minus the stamina to accomplish them. They are the blind worms of fate. They are the victims of wicked-minded men. They are so many will- less, nerve-less weaklings. They are slaves. Whyf Because, they are in the clutches of Ignorance. Ig- norance consists in seeking enjoATnent of the senses. To burst the chains that hold you captive, give up, once for ever, the desire To ENJOY, and DETEEMIXE to positivize the Will-Force for the free and smooth-work- ing of the wheels of Progress, upon which weakness is a clog and must be removed in order to ensure easy ac- tion. Pi man, nearly ten years my senior in age and 58 DEVELOPIAG SPIRITUAL COXSCIOVSXESS the father of three children was suffering from dys- pepsia. It had become chronic. His was a purely ner- vous trouble. He was sorely afraid that his stomach had lost all power to digest food. For months he had been ailing. The doctors could give no aid. His fear was always realized. At last after quite three months of painful suffering he one evening came to me. "Can you do anything for me?'' "Not knowing the trouble 1 cannot prescribe the cure;" I replied. "But what am I to do? I shall be a wreck in a short time." "Look here, you are thoroughly mistaken. You fear, and your fear is realized. Fear is a suggestion for adverse conditions. Don't be afraid and everything will be all right. Trust nature; she will do her work." "But how can I master this fear ? It paralyzes me and my mind." "Very good," I replied energetically. "Will you obey me?" "Yes," — he said. "Don't touch any food for seven days." He promised. He had never gone with- out food for seven days. He fasted for just two days. On the third day he felt famishing for food. He must eat. He did eat. The food was digested. It is six months since he had this trouble and from that time till now he eats freely and digests freely. "When the fear comes over me, I just determine to stop eating and that drives away my fear," he said. The psychological explanation is simple. His determination to stop eating was an antidote to his fear; the former was a Positive Denial of the power of the latter to overcome this man and it scattered the force of Fear. SELF-DEVELOPMENT 59 By evident analogy you can conclude that the mere determination to kill out the desire for en]0}Tnent will bring about a tremendous change of thought-habit and crush your weakness. "If thy right eye otJend thee, pluck it out." However keen your suffering you must determinedly pluck out of your nature everything that weakens you. Best assured, this step, desperate as it is, shall ever strengthen you and, although for the moment you may suffer the torments of Hell, your path shall open out freely. Do not yield. Do not care for life. Die, if need be, but die a strong man that refused utterly to yield to illness. Your flesh may not be able to stand the strain of such action ; but your spirit shall live and grow stronger. However, except in extremely desperate cases, the flesh ever helps the spirit when the latter is strong and the body and the life forces at once become the best possible co-operators with their master. Hence determine to stand guard by your High Xature. Draw the line be- tween your animal and your Divine Nature. Cleave to the latter, happen what may. Remember, my readers, Doing alone teaches Doing. Therefore determine to perform your duties according to the dictates of your inner Xature. your conscience, your intuitive Nature. This is the Objective ]\Iood. Doing and not Dreaming. You shall be at the top of your condition if you ever obey the suggestions of your soul, for your heart shall never tell a lie although your tongue may. Determine to be master of yonr mind and work at this Concentra- tion exercise dailv with oarnoct ;ind lioppfnl steadfast- 60 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ness; sit up at night in perfect silence. Hold yourself steady bodily and mentally. Then begin to tense your Will. Feel and say "I am this very moment mastering my mind. Now. This moment. Now. Insist on im- mediate mastery. Do not say "tomorrow," but say "This moment." Set up the strong Present Tense against all else. Do not give up till you are quite exhausted men- tally. Do it with perseverance. It will set up strong vibrations that will destroy the weak atoms of your brain and thoroughly establish a vigorous tone of thought-activity. Practice will bring light. Inspira- tion comes on the ^dbratory wires of strong thought and strong action. Action, muscular exertion, will tune your mind to a responsive condition, will clinch your intentions into strength and motive power to your en- tire Nature. Learn to tense your Will. Learn to be positive to evil suggestions, either from your own Nature or from that of others. Have a Spirit of your own. Determine to do a thing and do not desist while there is even a breath left in the body. Greatness could never be a prize for cowards. Only the brave, the pure, the strong, the determined, can reach the goal. None else, none else. CHAPTER X. DEVELOPING THE SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS. 'The mind which follows the rambling senses, makes the Soul as helpless as the boat which the wind leads astray upon the waters." Bagavad — Gita. MAN is man by virtue of willing, not by virtue of knowing and understanding. As he is, so he sees. His hopes and aspirations are in exact proportion to the depth and power of his will : for, says Emerson, "The height of the pinnacle is measured by the breadth of the base." He is the microcosm of the macrocosm : the little world of the big world. The universe exists for the self: — such is the dictum of the sages. Man has appropriated this fomi, this coat of skin, for the exercise and unfoldment of his Divine Nature. He is ahove Nature, his body is of Nature. Man, Know Thyself, was mandate of the Delph Ora- cle. All your efforts, your joys and sorrows, your ups and downs, are to this end. You now grasp this thing, soon you drop it; then you grasp that thing; soon you drop it; — Not this, Not that, you say. This is the speech of Negation : neti, neti : Not this, Not this. You who are Infinite in essence drank deep of the 61 62 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS waters of Lethe and falling under the magic spell of Maya, forgot yourself. You have ever since then been identifying yourself with Nature, with your form, the Xot-self. You do not see that this body, this brittle casket of clay, is for disintegration, for dissolution. You love it to infatuation. You draw the cruel, merci- less knife across the neck of poor, defenseless animals to gratify your lower Nature. This body must live, though I eat burnt flesh, rotten flesh, to keep it alive. Man would eat man, if his digestion did not get upset, thereby. Do not say 'No,' you animalized ignorant soul ! You swallow camels and yei you strain at gnats. Thus through extreme attachment to your form, have you contracted your soul, hypnotized yourself into a finite being. You alone can strip off your limitations and stand in your Native splendour once again. To realize this is to realize divinity — is to transcend Na- ture! As you learn to control Nature within you, so will you control things outside of yourself, so shall your great, all-potent will shine out to the universe. Man's icill is God's will. AVhat is of God is God. The Infinite exists, in full stature, in each living, breathing form. Hence to l-now yourself is to Tcnow God. You are Bliss Eternal. You, the Infinite, be- came confined in sheaths of matter. Your real, im- mortal self shines aloft, but what little was caught up by the physical mechanism of Consciousness, fell sense- less under the hypnotic suggestions of Maya. Yet an DEVELOPIXG ^PIRniAL CONSCIOUSNESS 68 impulsion from within is pushing you on. This is the Desire to achieve happiness which is a distorted reflec- tion on the physical plane of your own blissful self that is on the spiritual. It is the natural magnetism of your real self that is drawing you up. Ends ascend as Nature descends, said Swedenbourg, the Mystic. All things are in a scale; and begin ivhere we will, ascend and ascend. All things are symbolical; and what we call results are beginnings: Emerson, on Plato, the philosopher. So long as you are flung about under the influence of passions your progress will be clogged. The soul is under the thrall of matter, just as a muscular pair of wrists may be loaded with fetters. It is trying to burst the shackles that chain it down. It is passing through a transition stage. Its continued effort to free itself thoroughly and entirely is the promise of the future. Conquest comes. Yes ! Conquest comes. I have not read these two words. I do not repeat them to you like a parrot. It has been given to me to feel the fact. Do not say "I cannot. It is beyond me;" say "I can. It is in me." So will you conquer. This ascension of the soul is the development of the Spiritual Consciousness. It is not intellectualism : nor spiritualism : nor su- pernaturalism: nor any other ism. It is the quickening of your evolution on the spirit- ual plane by the up-keep of a systematized line of thought activity plus the self-determined exercise of volition. 64 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS It is the polarization of the human life force up to a high pitch of concentrated exercise of the will-power in Man. The task is not easy of accomplishment. You can achieve it only by dedicating a whole life time to it. It is worth your while. Aim at thoroughness. Take up the suggestions I pass on. Dream them out. Think them out. Act them out. Your aim is the subjugation of the animal soul. Have no other aim. "When one becomes freed from the bond- age of the senses, he transcends all material relations and realizing the inward light regains his knowledge of Himself — this a realization of the truth. It dwells beyond Mortality and Fear." One thing at a time and that with your entire heart and soul. The ideal you have set up for yourself must absorb the best and the richest forces in you. Introduce the thin end of the wedge. Each stroke shall drive it deeper. Do not scatter your energy. Do not bum your candle at both ends. The secret of success is Concen- tration. A man may be an omnivorous reader. He is a walking Encyclopaedia. His brain is a Bodlian Li- brary. Yet he has no worth, no intrinsic qualities, that can give him that breadth and depth of dignity that go out of a man possessing inner force of character. Remember, You are deathless, birthless. You live in the Eternal. One life-span can be but a short one at best. Therefore arrange your forces so that they shall flow in one even continuous stream along one line. The DEVELOPIXG SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 65 man who has thus lived upon five ideas in one life, will command more than your Jack-of-all-trades-but-master- of-none man ever can. You must stand body and soul, for your ideas, taking up each and quietly working them out in life. This will avoid much friction and ever in- sure a clear and steady brain. Education, said Vivekananda, is a man-making , life- huilding assimilation of ideas. You must then by patient thinking build up an ideal for yourself. This done, give up all dreaming, all castle- building, and start in for the work. Then three things are necessary for effectual work. The first is earnest, ardent Desire. Your heart is knitted to things of the earth, earthy, by a myriad of tiny threads. To break up the links, a strong, all-iniT pelling force is needed. Desire ardently, longingly, for perfect establishment of chastity in your Consciousness. This keen desire is a sine-a-qua-non. \Yithout it you cannot go through the difficulties that bar your way. Clothe yourself in this panoply of power and the shafts of adverse fortune, shall glance off from your strong armour. If you haven't this gift, it shows that your sense of manhood is small. You lack force. The greater the sinner, the greater the saint. A man must have this force or his good intentions will die a natural death. lie can neither be a saint nor a sinner. He is taviasic; is of a dull, lazy, ease-loving, insipid nature. But do not lose heart, if you belong to this class of men. You can cultivate this force. There is always a 66 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS way out. Your imagination is your creative power. : Now there is a close association between thought and imagination. Imagination is thought in its full free- dom. Therefore to train the desire-nature you must bring thought to bear upon it. Desire cannot train de- sire. You are helpless within the narrow limits of the desire aspect of the Self. You desire a thing or you do not; that's all. No. Thought alone can help you here. Says Emer- son: — There is no thought in any mind but it quickly tends to convert itself into a power, and organizes a huge instrumentality of means. One thought repeated for days, months and years will become very strongly vitalized. Tremendous will be its telling force. It will go to make or mar your destiny. As the famous axiom goes, "Allow the thought, and it may lead to a choice, 'carry out the choice, and it will he the act,' repeat the act and it forms the habit ; allow the habit and it shapes the character; continue the character, and it fixes the destiny." Thought, then, is the fine cause. Stamp it well upon your mind. It is a tremendous fact. Learn it well, now : now, while you read it. Picture to yourself, then, the benefits derivable from control of the lower nature. See how the man, who is chaste in word, deed and thought, is above the din and strife of conflicting pas- sions. He is calm, serene, and self-poised. Having in- ner control, the control of the outer is an easy affair DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 67 with him. He does not go about — anxious for recogni- tion. He is master of himself, and therefore of others. His mere presence brings peace to the troubled souls of others. His speech is as a dash of cold water. It makes you sit up and listen. It stimulates you; it up- lifts you; it expands you. Nothing is impossible to you. You seem or feel as if you w^re another being. The chaste man has communicated himself to you in all his fulness and breadth of nature. He has stirred up forces in you of which perhaps you were never be- fore conscious. See how the chaste man seems to purify the very air he breathes. See how dauntless is the courage that bub- bles up from within him. See how he is idolized by humanity. The mere sight of him puts new life and vigor in otliers. His power of doing good seems to have an inexhaustible reservoir behind it. Thus go on picturing to yourself the all-inclusive uses of chastity. This is the positive process of Visualization ; Mental photography. Xow if your case is desperate, one of long standing, take up the negative process. Picture to yourself the disappointment, the loss of spiritual force, the gloom and the melancholy, that cloy all passion; the swinish, grovelling, aspect of the sensual soul : the consequent exhaustion : the jeer and ridicule of the world : the breaking-down of all vour fona 68 DEVELOPIXG SPIRITUAL COXSCIOUSXESS hopes: the pitiable poverty-stricken condition of those- dependent on 3"ou; the disgraceful passage through death into an even more hideous condition of life: the utter degeneration: the shameful existence: the haunt- ing thoughts beyond. This method is the negative one. It is like the sur- geon's knife used to cut out a cancer that threatens life. Desperate diseases require desperate remedies. This process is not advisable, except in otherwise hopeless cases. Eather use the positive method. As you sit up visualizing your ideal day after day, its attraction to you will be truly magnetic. Your heart shall go out to it in all its force. You shall want to embrace the ideal every moment of your life. Energy will come to you. Indeed your complaint then shall be : I have more en- ergy than I can control, more thoughts than I can marshal up for serene action. Your thoughts have been energized by constant rep- etition. Now you must learn to dominate them: to command them to stillness : to relax the tension in which your mind is constantly putting itself: to save your brain from giving way under this surcharge of unmarshalled energy; to absolutely vanquish the waves of force that bubble up each time you think of your ideal; for it is intoxication — the irresistible spell of a "iked idea." Says Swami Vivekananda : The organs are the horses, the mind is the reins, the intellect is the char- ioteer, the soul is the rider, and this body is the chariot. DEVELOPIXO SPIRITUAL COXSCIOUSNESS 69 If the horses are very strong and do not obey the reins, if the charioteer, the intellect, does not know how to control the horses, then this chariot ivill come to grief. But if the horses, i.e., the organs, are well-controlled, if the reins, i.e., the mind, arc well held in the hands of the charioteer, i.e., the intellect, the chariot reaches the goal. This then is the line of action. Developing the will- force, the second of the three requisites I spoke of. What is the principle of development? Exercise. How did Earn Murti develop his splendid physique, that to- day is the wonder of the world? Exercise. How did Vivekananda develop that terrific magnetism that in- undated the entire Parliament of Eeligions at Chicago? Exercise. How did Sheridan who once stuttered in his speech, deliver an oration at the famous Impeachment of AYarren Hastings that made the Speaker order an adjournment that the House might recover from the effect of the volcanic play of words. Exercise. Be con- vinced, then. My reader ! Exercise is the first, last, and the only condition of growth. The human will is the grandest culmination of all the complex workings in the realm of Consciousness. Schopenhauer the philos- opher puts will a-top of all else in Natjure. It is a grand thing, this human will. Its influence over man is one of compelling, forcing, driving, impell- ing, overpowering, commanding, demanding. This force is essentially Masculine. I told you something about the desire-force : drawing, 70 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS pulling, attracting, channing. This is the Feminine phase of Mental energy. When you combine the two, the positive and the neg- ative electrodes in the human brain, your suggestions whether turned in upon your sub-conscious self or pro- jected outward, command an irresistible position; in fact, they influence the imagination, reason, or will of another man in an uncontrolled man: this is what comes through the practice of Concentration. We should learn to make use of both; whether we are sug- gesting auto-ally or outwardly. What is concentration? Holding the mind to a point. There are two phases of concentration : a lower and a higher. We shall take up the first only. You are not prepared for the second. Only those whose soul-un- foldment is an actualized fact can practice it and they will not need these teachings. They are their own teachers. Eesolve upon the performance of a certain mental work with concentration, say for half an hour at the beginning. Then cari'v it out. Do it every day^ each time prolonging the duration of the exercise. Suppose you cannot find a mental task. Here is one : First of all "relax" mentally and physically, yet re- main alert and steady. Now: Take this virtue: Chas- tity. Eead literature on this subject. That will pro- vide you with the requisite information and supply many missing links. Study it fi'om the phvsical, mental, and spiritual viewpoints. Then sit up and calmly think DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 71 out the bearings of the virtue: What it is? How to practice it ; its resulting benefit to humanity ; its ap- preciation; its lifting influence; the sense of courage which it gives; its absolute importance in the quick- ening of your Evolution and so on and on. Then steady the mind upon this complete shaping of the virtue. Meditate upon it. Dwell upon it. Will determinedly that it shall become established in you: that from the moment you are sitting in this attiude of Concentrated willing, all your forces are being trans- mitted to Chastity: that the protoplasm of your very physique are becoming sensitive to the fascination of this virtue: that there is a tremendous force being gen- erated right in the centre of your head that shall pre- sent an irresistible front to all evil thoughts and ten- dencies : that your entire nature vibrates to this thought : — I am Chaste: that you recoil instinctively from all that may coarsen your finely-strung spiritual fibres: that evil falls off, flies off, from your intensely poised mind : that your Higher consciousness is unfolding : that your intelligence is expanding : that your will is becom- ing strong, very strong : that your body obeys you : that you have power, force, within you : and that it all is de- veloping. Now. Say "Now" — "this moment" and insist upon immediate mastery. Do this regularly and at the same time every day. Thus you can will yourself into any state of mind you like. Not in one day or in one week will you obtain control. It will require a hundred sittings or even •i2 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS more. But from the very first sitting a sense of as- surance, the consciousness of an internally developing force, shall come to you: — and this if you have been thoroughly earnest over your task. Perseverance and patience you must have. Indeed ! to have these is to have everything. There shall come about a step for- ward in your evolution at each sitting. This is the art of willing. You get it cheap. Do not treat it with in- difference. Practice for a fortnight will prove to you conclusively the verity of my remarks. You have been neck-deep in carnalities : it is high time you thought of a change. Be earnest. Be a determined man. Focus upon an idea and stick to it with the bull-dog's tenacit}', till you have seen it through to the end. Do not talk of it to others. Xever tell others that you are in train ing. Sufficient gratification of your vanity shall you have when you have acquired the wished-for object. The praise of the world is not at all necessary to your happiness. The approval of your own soul is quite sufficient. Each man sets his own measure. If you be- lieve that you are uniquely fitted to be a virtuous pure- hearted man, so will the world also. Stick to your own. Do not be a busy body, for then you shall be nobody. Be an earnest thoughtful man. Stand rigidly by your ideal. Do not force it upon others. But do not be forced out of it. Simply be earnest. "To your own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, Thou ean'st not then be false to any man." DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 73 The third requisite is a keen and broad intelligence. . You must not go and buy a pig in a poke. You must not drive a nail where it won't go. By steady and much thinking, you shall be able to expand this fac- ulty. Learn to study in the manner taught in Chapter III— "EEAD AND EEFLECT." There you have in- structions that you may well utilize. You will be am- ply repaid for the trouble of re-reading it. Books supply missing-links and give you the loose-end of suggestions which you can work out at leisure. Read little, thinh much. Your intelligence will be nurtured by contact with a pure soul, for purity charges your body with subtle, ra- diant and powerful forces. "Socrates declares that if some have grown wise by associating with him, no thanks are due to him, but simply whilst they were with him they grew wise and not because of him." This is the secret. The vibrations of a stronger mind impinge upon your receptive consciousness, shake up some of its grossness, and implant seeds that, fructifying in the long run, work for your spiritual upliftment. Associate with good men. Let their thought-magnetism encircle you and exercise its subtle, mysteriously spiritualizing in- fluence upon you. The mere contact will act as a Liv- ing Force and awaken your latent powers. It will shed benediction by its mere touch. Spirituality is not in- tellectual gymnastics. It is the life; and life alone can convey life. His words shall wring in your ears even when you are far away from him. His glances shall remain with you, 74 DEVELOPISG SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS etirring, prompting and stimulating you. This is why India's spiritual teachers command the respect of their pupils. Thus friend ! when you have gone through this sim- ple training, your inner spirit shall transmute all things that approach you to the nature of your ideals. Ob- structions will be brushed aside. Many of the vexa- tions and tribulations that you may be suffering now shall be smoothed out of your path. As you speak, as you look, as you move about, your inner nature shall flash out of you. It will enter your hands and feet and compel your entire being. Thus by educating yourself shall you set others a good example. Life will be v;orth living : Death will lose its horrible aspect : love, power, and peace shall flow out of you, and chasten others. Guard it well. "Wield it for good purposes alone. Yoa are now for the divine side of things. Your will is law. Let it be strong and guided by Love. That will develop in your nature Satfvic or ryhthmic qualities. Then shall you find harmony and peace. CHAPTEE XI. WHO CAX BE A YOGI? TRUTH knows no death; no birth. It is Eternal; has always been, will always be. Time cannot ex- haust its force, for it carries its power within itself. Deep in the heart of Truth is hidden an object we all are groping for. It is power. It is power from the Divine side of things. It is this you seek: the power to be good; the power to bring relief and joy to suf- fering humanity ; the power to shake yourself free from the bondage of your lower nature. Man always seeks to act out his good wishes, his good intentions. He is here. He clings to this, to that, to all. The cup of desire was presented to our lips. We drank it deep. Its subtle force became embedded in tlie matrix of our being. It runs in our blood. We just watch its constant play, and watching, say: 'Ah I the cup was mixed too strongly.' Are you then satiated ? Are you tired of being tossed about? of being manipulated for the accomplishment of impermanent ends? of being in the grip of Death, Despot, and Devil? of being ridden over roughshod by the forces of Evil ? of being a slave to fear, a subject to wear and tear? of being the blindworm of Fate, the 75 76 DEVELOriSG S/'IL'/TTAL COXSCIOI SXES,"^ puppet of adverse conditions; conditions that cut up your opportunities in life into tiny bits and scatter same to the winds of lieaven ? of being hungry for the fleshpots of gold and greed ? of being in the thrall of Fear, of Worry, of animalism, of worldism the most shallow and painful? In fine, have you had your fill of slavery? WOULD YOU BE WHAT YOU WILL TO BE ? Then learn to say with dauntless courage "I am Master, not somewhere and sometimes, hut every- where and always. I ivill put my shoulders to the ivheel and hew out my own path. My courage is indomitable. My spirit hnows no flagging, no defeat, no despair. I am Fearless and Free" — tliis you must learn to say with assurance based upon a clear knowledge of the condi- tions of your existence; existence not outer, but inner; your inner existence, mark you. That knowledge is self knowledge. No idle boast of the tongue it is to say with utter conviction "I am Mas- ter." Your tremendous assertion must be the outcome of knowledge of the Supreme, of austerities, of purity, of love. It must be grounded upon experience; and here are a few suggestions just to put you upon the right path. Man's nature, like all else in Nature, is bi-polar: it is centrifugal and centripetal ; positive and negative : inte- rior and exterior. He is a living, breathing, powerful magnet. There is a magnet lying in the midst of splin- ters of steel. What is the action going on? It attracts, it repels. So also with man. He draws things to him- self; he drives things awav from himself. WHO CAN BE A YOGI 77 x^gain, Man acts upon three planet^; physical, mental, spiritual. Some are active upon the first only. They are the lowest type of humanity. They are in the thrall of matter. They are in the things of the earth, earthy. They are tied down to the attractions of tlie world and the flesh. They have their thouglits bound to tlie phy- sical and carnal side of life. They do not live to eat but eat to live. Their souls say 'eat,' but they cry aloud 'No, you fool, I will feast.' Their souls say 'Man and woman shall be one in the spirit.' But they say, 'ISTo, man and woman shall be one in the flesh.' One functioning only on a physical plane corsets his body; he kills harmless animals simply to please his pal- ate; his own senses must be constantly gi-atified by means fair or foul : he it is who says 'Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die :' 'Ye Gods I I have dined today, tomorrow ! do thy worst :' The physical man is the lowest man, the blindworm of fate, the slave of his desire-nature. He is the domestic tyrant; the cruel Shjdock insisting upon his pound of flesh; the oppres- sive ruler; the coarse-fibred, beef-and-beer-bred eater of burnt flesh. The physical man cares little for God ex- cept when the wolf is growling at the door. But wlien pain batters his brow; when his child, whom alone he perhaps loves, is writhing in pain, he thinks of God, goes to church, and prays for the pardon of sins he will commit again, and again and again. How woeful is this state of mind ! Yet it is not necessary. We have all been through this experience. So if we come across 78 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS one such, we must not shun him, but rather we should try our best to give him a lilt. He is the object of our compassion and not of hatred. Remember always: Those who hate others for being evil are themselves evil. The face of another man is the mirror in which I dress my own. If I am evil, I shall see others as such. To the jaundiced eye everything apears yellow. My eyes aj-e blinded by my own evil tendencies. Perhaps I am beginning to fight evil in myself. Hence when I see another worse than myself, I see evil in a nragnified form. I therefore feel my indignation rise up against it and I hate the evil man, for is he not the embodiment of what he appears to be? This repulsion is in me be- cause I myself am struggling with evil. The man who is subject to fits of rigliteous indignation is really him- self very imperfect. He instinctively clings to stern rejection of an evil as the only way to escape it. But when your conquest has risen lo a height of assurance, you do not hate; you pity; you help. Now man not being by any means a finished product of Nature, but only a developing creature, full of im- mense potentialities, cannot, even if he would, remain a permanent fixture in the narrow sphere of tlie phys- ical senses. Impacts from without, the slings and ar- rows of adversity, the ups and downs of life, are dashing up against his sleeping consciousness; they are so many blows to open up his mental horizon. It is sufferings that drive lessons home and propel the lo<*mant con- sciousness along the endless track of spiritual evolution. WHO CAX BE A YOGI 79 Extremes meet. What is the state of the Zoophite or of the stone. Complete absence of thought. Perhaps a faint, imperceptible vibration. Now, tell me what is the state of the highest man — the adept — in the supercon- scious stage, in Xii^vana; — complete suspension of thought, complete quietude of the otherwise intensely active life-forces. Then is the adept in Samadhi the same as the Zoophite ? No ! No ! No ! The difference is wide as the ocean. The first is one of intense bliss, the last is one of total inertia. From this view-point, we can continue the parallel. Man's physical equipment is played upon by three special forces: Satliva, Rajas, and Tamas; rhythm: mobility: inertia. Taking the last first we see that tanms is in- ertia. The tamasic man is lazy, dull, inactive, weighed down by his own sensual thoughts. He has no control over himself. He is lifeless. Digestion and sex absorb his vital forces. His formulae of life are Eating, Drink- ing and Breeding. Having no strength, no inner force of character, resistance of evil is an utter impossibility to him. He plays today to the rich for the loaves and fishes of office. He higgles. He cringes. He weeps. He whines. He goes about trying to please everybody and thus he pleases nobody. The smile of the rich is his sunshine. The empty praise of fools is his crowning victory. Allien evil presses him down, he cries aloud: ^'What can I do ? T am so weak, such a sinner !" He is thus condemning himself. Unable to resist evil, — for he does not resist but simply sits down and wrings 80 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS his hands and beats his breast — he hates himself. It is all kismet, is his wail ! Ah ! this superstition ! How vice-like is its grip on the tamasic man ! Once upon a time there lived a Persian king who commanded the angelic as well as the human worlds. Peris, and houries of transcendent charm, slaves, dzins, gods, animals, all obeyed him. This powerful monarch had a very wise physician at his court. This physician was master of all occult knowledge. Vast was his learn- ing — deep his erudition. The finer forces of this tre- mendous universe had no secrets for him. The king in one of his odd moments sent for him. '"Great Master of the Mysterious in Xature, solve me the riddle of birth and death. Solve me the riddle of fate," — thus spoke the monarch. "Gracious king," replied the phy- sician, "Fate wears an inscrutable face. It sways all, all." "Prove it," challenged the king. The physician then had a jar brought up to him. He prepared cer- tain combinations of herbs, known only to the ancient Kabalists and put them into the jar. He then had the jar hermetically sealed; and handed it to the king: "King! I have gratified your whim. My life's span covers twenty-four hours more. Six months after you shall open this jar in the presence of all your courtiers. Out of the jar shall emerge a bird of royal plumage. Let the bravest man be ready to ride after this bird. Let his steed be of the fleetest and the best in your stud. This bird shall fly over 600 miles. The horseman must WHO CAX BE A YOGI 81 follow it alone. It will at last perch itself on a tree of great height. It will then begin to pluck its splen- did feathers one by one and eat them up. It will next begin to tear up its legs and eat them up. It will then plunge its beak into its own stomach, and drawing forth the entrails, eat them up, too. Let the horseman stand beneath the tree and watch the bird closely. As soon as the bird has eaten up its whole body except the neck and the head, let him ask it 3 questions and the answers shall be quite correct." Twenty-four hours later this great occultist breathed his last. The king had every- thing arranged and the physician's son, a young war- rior of great prowess, consented to follow the bird. Six months after the jar was opened before the whole court. Up flew a bird of wondrous beauty. Light flashed from its body. With an ear-piercing cry, the bird winged its way through space, the youth riding after him. At last the bird alighted on a tall, stately palm tree and began to eat itself up voraciously. "N"ow the moment approaches," said the brave youth exultingly. But hardly had he uttered these words than a terrible, acute, unbearable, pain shot through his brain. It was tooth- ache, ^^^lilst the youth was thus writhing in exquisite suffering the bird spoke, "Brave warrior ! Be quick. My head and neck remain. Quick ! Put the questions or I eat up my neck also." But the youth was crawling in pain. His senses had fled. Yet making an effoi't he asked, "What is the remedy for toothache?" "Zam- 82 DBVELOPINO SPIRITUAL COysClOUSXESS bur" (the instrument for extracting teetli) — came the ringing reply. "What is the remedy for toothache?" '•Zambur/' cried the bird again. "AMiat is the remedy for toothache?'' "Zambur," sang out the bird for the tliird time and vanished from sight. The king when ]ie heard it felt deeply chagrined. But what could he say to the youth. "I would have done the same thing !" exclaimed the just monarch sadly, "Who can triumpli over fate?" Therefore conquer the flesh before you question the mysteries of Life. It would be the turning-point in the life of the tamasic man if he could say "I will resist evil." His non-resistance is due to weakness and weak- ness alone. Then comes the Rajasic man: full of ac- tivity : his brain toned up to a tremendous pitch of en- ergy. "Nothing shall stand in my way," is his deter- mined cry. "I will resist." He does not sit down and bemoan his lot. He does not talk of destiny, his evil star, his guardian angel, his fate. He measures his strength by his resistance of all that would bar his progress. He strikes. He resists evil and thereby does the right thing. He passes through much storm and stress, toil and turmoil, but his spirit burns with a steady blaze. Nothing can crush him. At last this severe and continued fighting so toughens and tones his fibres that he has but to lift a finger in order to bring others to his feet. Then comes calmness. He is a lamp burning steadily despite the winds and waves playing around him. At last, he is conscious of tremendous force. H^ WHO r.i.v nr: i yogi 83 knows he can smite a fellow down easily. Then pos- sessed of this superhuman strength the saint forbears. He has the power, but wields it for good purposes alone. This is the Sathvic man. This is then the supreme stage: Non-resistance of evil. To resume the thread of our discourse : The physical man would gladly remain in the quagmire, but things go against his wishes. His consciousness is trying to individualize itself, to centre itself; and the result of his effort is that he is being flung about mentally. The mind wanders. It is being tossed about. It is the bul- ter-fly mind. The first stage of consciousness. It is called the kshipta state. The next stage is brought about by the breaking of the emotions, the passions, the lust of the flesh, the lust of life, the pride of the eye. \Yhen these assert them- selves, confusion, utter and most desolate follows. A still small voice is constantly telling, "It is bad to lose your temper," but you never try to keep it till you have lost it. The same with other foibles. You wish to control but you cannot just when you ought to. There comes a feeling of utter ignorance, despair and desola- tion. Life seems insipid. Pleasures have lost their piquant flavour. You are sad-eyed, silent, yet patiently suffering. The crucifixion nails are being driven in. The pain is acute. This is the mudha state. In this transition stage, the individualized consciousness is suf- fering its birth-pangs. It has yet to cut its wisdom- teeth. The gold is being put into a furnace of fire that 84 nETELonya .'