DISCOURSES Volume II - Avatar Meher Baba Trust

DISCOURSES Volume II Sixth Edition (1967) Fifth Printing (December 1973) by Meher Baba An Avatar Meher Baba Trust eBook June 2011 Copyright © 1967 by Adi K. Irani Copyright © 2007 Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India Short publication history: Readers interested in the publication history of the Sixth Edition of the Discourses should refer to Web editors' supplementary material at: http://ambppct.org/meherbaba/Discourses.php

eBooksat the Avatar Meher Baba Trust Web SiteThe Avatar Meher Baba Trust’s eBooks aspire to be textually exact though non-facsimilereproductions of published books, journals and articles. With the consent of the copyrightholders, these online editions are being made available through the Avatar Meher BabaTrust’s web site, for the research needs of Meher Baba’s lovers and the general publicaround the world.Again, the eBooks reproduce the text, though not the exact visual likeness, of the originalpublications. They have been created through a process of scanning the original pages,running these scans through optical character recognition (OCR) software, reflowing thenew text, and proofreading it. Except in rare cases where we specify otherwise, the textsthat you will find here correspond, page for page, with those of the original publications: inother words, page citations reliably correspond to those of the source books. But in otherrespects—such as lineation and font—the page designs differ. Our purpose is to providedigital texts that are more readily downloadable and searchable than photo facsimileimages of the originals would have been. Moreover, they are often much more readable,especially in the case of older books, whose discoloration and deteriorated condition oftenmakes them partly illegible. Since all this work of scanning and reflowing andproofreading has been accomplished by a team of volunteers, it is always possible thaterrors have crept into these online editions. If you find any of these, please let us know, byemailing us at frank@ambppct.org.The aim of the Trust’s online library is to reproduce the original texts faithfully. In certaincases, however—and this applies especially to some of the older books that were neverrepublished in updated versions—we have corrected certain small errors of a typographicorder. When this has been done, all of these corrections are listed in the “Register ofEditorial Alterations” that appears at the end of the digital book. If you want the originaltext in its exact original form, warts and all, you can reconstruct this with the aid of the“register.”The Trust’s Online Library remains very much a work in progress. With your help and input, it will increase in scope and improve in elegance and accuracy as the years go by. In the meantime, we hope it will serve the needs of those seeking to deepen and broaden their own familiarity with Avatar Meher Baba’s life and message and to disseminate this good news throughout the world.

“I have come not to teach but to awaken.”

DISCOURSESByMeher BabaVol. II

Discourses by Meher Baba6th EditionAll rights reserved under Internationaland Pan American Copyright ConventionsCopyright ©1967 by Adi K. Irani, King's Rd., Ahmednagar,Maharashtra, IndiaAll rights reservedNo part of this book may be reproduced in any form withoutpermission in writing from Adi K. Irani, Sole Licensee, orfrom the publisher, Sufism Reoriented Inc., 1290 Sutter St.,San Francisco, Calif. 94109, U.S.A.Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 67-21136First printing; October 1967Second printing; September 1968Third printing; September 1970Fourth printing; October 1971Fifth printing; December 1973Printed in U.S.A. by Kingsport Press

The present three-volume edition of Meher Baba's original fivevolumework is being published by Sufism Reoriented by expresspermission of Meher Baba, and under licence of his secretary, AdiK. Irani. Meher Baba wished this earlier edition revised in order tomake certain corrections supplied by him. The editorial revisionsand arrangement of chapters was also approved.The Editors

IntroductionMerwan Sheriar Irani was born in Poona, India, onFebruary 25, 1894. His parents were of Persian extraction. Hisfather, Sheriar Irani, was a persistent seeker of God.Merwan was a lively and happy boy who excelled in bothstudies and sports. In 1913 while in his first year at Poona's DeccanCollege he met the aged Muslim saint Hazrat Babajan, one of thefive Perfect Masters of the time. Being attracted to her, he visitedher from time to time and one day she kissed him on the forehead,revealing to him his state of God-realization.At first Merwan was dazed but gradually the focus of hisconsciousness returned sufficiently to his surroundings to lead himto the Qutub-i-Irshad, Sai Baba, who in turn sent him to anotherPerfect Master, the Hindu, Upasni Maharaj of Sakori. For sevenyears Upasni Maharaj integrated Merwan's God-consciousnesswith consciousness of the mundane world, preparing him for hisrole as the Avatar of the Age. This avataric mission started in 1921with the gathering together of his first disciples, who gave him thename "Meher Baba" or "Compassionate Father."After years of intensive work with these disciples, andtravel in India and Persia (Iran), Meher Baba established quartersat an old military camp near

INTRODUCTION 3Ahmednagar. This became known as Meherabad. Here heinstituted a number of pilot plant projects such as a free hospitaland dispensary, shelters for the poor and a free school wherespiritual training was stressed. In the school no caste lines wereobserved, as the high and the low mingled in common fellowshipforged by love of the Master. To all Baba offered regularinstruction in moral discipline, love for God, spiritualunderstanding and selfless service.All these activities moved at high speed despite Baba'ssilence, which he announced with little advance warning andcommenced on July 10, 1925. At first he communicated bypointing to letters on an alphabet board, but in 1954 he gave upeven this device. He now converses through his own uniqueshorthand system of representative gestures. Both Discourses andGod Speaks, however, were dictated on the alphabet board.During the early 1930's Baba's travels began to reach intoEurope and then on to America. Contacting literally thousands onboth continents, his name rapidly became known to those deeplyand sincerely interested in the spiritual disciplines. Some of thesehe selected into small groups, arranging for them to come later toIndia. Their visits ranged generally from weeks to years, but beforeand during World War II all but a small handful were sent back totheir homes.After the war his own travels resumed, but visits ofWesterners to India were now normally individual and brief. Anexception was the great East-West gathering of November 1962.Thousands of his devotees from all over the world converged onPoona by ship, plane and special trains. For almost a week Babagave unstintingly of himself in mass darshans, group meetings andpersonal interviews. The fare was as varied as the assemblage:brief discourses, give and take with old

4 DISCOURSESfriends, song in praise of God, prayers, embracing the close ones, aday of mass darshan and crowds storming the gates at sunset. Theworld's literature contains many references to the need fortransfusion between East and West. Here was a rich human stew ofcontrasting elements in which mutual respect, affection and unityin praise of the Loved One bridged vast differences in tradition.A persistent theme throughout the five decades of MeherBaba's ministration has been his seeking out of the God-intoxicatedand his homage to those lamed by disease and want. He hasdescribed most clearly through Dr. William Donkin in TheWayfarers the difference between those who have lost touch withcreation through insanity and those who have merely turned thefocus of their hearts to their vision of God. These latter he termsmasts. Especially in the 1940's, Meher Baba contacted hundreds ofthese God-intoxicated souls throughout India, often tendingpersonally to their most intimate needs, giving each what only hemight know to be required, and returning them finally to theirnatural surroundings.Those stricken by leprosy have been a constant concern ofBaba. With infinite care and love he washes their feet, bows hisforehead to the often twisted stumps on which they hobble, andsends them on their way with renewed hope and peace. "They arelike beautiful birds caught in an ugly cage," he once said on suchan occasion. "Of all the tasks I have to perform, this touches memost deeply."While Baba has travelled widely and contacted millions ofpeople, he emphasizes that he has come not to teach, but toawaken. He states that Truth has been given by the greatMessengers of the past, and that the present task of humanity is torealize the teaching

INTRODUCTION 5embodied in each of the great Ways. Baba's mission is to awakenman to that realization through the age-old message of love.Baba also provides the ready example when one is faced bya puzzling decision. In essence, however, one does not know howBaba achieves the results he so clearly elicits from the humaninstrument. All that the individual senses is a powerful forcesweeping through the snarls of life, simplifying and freeing theinner being in a manner that he instinctively trusts.One of the great wonders of contact with Baba isacceptance. "He invites people to look at themselves, to accepttheir egotistic selves not as good or bad, clever or stupid,successful or unsuccessful, but as illusions of their true selves, andto cease to identify themselves with the illusion."The history of man's search for his soul has produced fewworks dealing with the technique for the soul's discovery. MeherBaba's Discourses are a major contribution to that small body ofliterature. In this work, given to his close disciples in the period1938-1943, he describes the means for incorporating daily life intoone's spiritual ongoing. He also outlines the structure of Creation,but only to clarify the relationship of the aspirant to the Master. Inhis classic later work, God Speaks, ∗ Meher Baba describes in detailthe vertical system of God, His will to know Himself consciously,and the purpose of Creation in that will-to-consciousness. TheDiscourses on the other hand are the practical guide for theaspirant as he slowly finds his way back to Oneness, after havingdeveloped consciousness through the deeps of evolution.While the Discourses provide detailed descriptions of thePath and its disciplines, the reader will discover∗ Dodd, Mead and Co., New York, N. Y. 1955; 2nd Revised Ed., 1973.

6 DISCOURSESthat they are in no way a do-it-yourself manual for spiritualevolution. Rather, they are a constant, firm reminder of the needfor a Master on this Path of apparent return to Oneness. TheMaster is the knowing guide who has already traversed the Path,who provides with infinite patience the security and steady pacethat can lead to the goal. While Baba admits the possibility ofachieving progress without such a guide, he makes it clear that it isfraught with almost insurmountable problems.To one who de bates allying himself with a teacher of theinner processes, the Discourses provide invaluable insight. To onewho senses that life is to be lived for its positive contribution to thediscovery of the inner being, Baba provides the unarguabledescription of one who knows."These discourses cover a wide field, but they begin andend with the reader himself. This is therefore a dangerous book.Baba is dangerous, as all who have been near him know . . . . Babainvites those who listen to him to do the impossible because onlythe impossible has divine meaning."Meher Baba lives quietly in the midst of the greatestactivity, often raising an almost impenetrable barrier to guard theseclusion in which he performs his universal work, nearAhmednagar. On occasion he allows individuals and small groupsto penetrate the barrier to receive the spark of love, more rarely heopens the gates wide and loosens a broad river of warmth on thosewho are lucky enough to know that the Avatar is in the world.Ivy Oneita DuceDon E. StevensEditors

MEHER BABAMeher Baba dropped his body on January 31, 1969. The final yearsof his physical presence were spent in close seclusion marked bypainfully intense and exhausting preoccupation with his universalwork. In 1968 he announced this had been completed to his 100percent satisfaction. The same period also witnessed the prairiefiregrowth in numbers of those who looked to him for the key tomeaning in life. Thousands of these passed before the well-lovedform as it lay for seven days in the tomb at Meherabad nearAhmednagar, India. More thousands from all over the worldattended the April-to-June darshan he had arranged months before.The impact of these occasions on the inner man, and of the monthsthat have now gone by, bear witness to the force of love set inmotion by the one we have known and accepted to be the Avatar ofour time.

VOLUME IICONTENTS1. THE SEARCH FOR GOD. …112. THE STAGES OF THE PATH. …183. ARRIVING AT SELF-KNOWLEDGE. …274. GOD-REALIZATION. …355. TRUE DISCIPLESHIP. …426. THE WAYS OF THE MASTERS. …507. THE NATURE OF THE EGOAND ITS TERMINATION:Part I-The Ego as the Center ofConflict. …59Part II-The Value of OccultExperiences. …67Part III-The Forms of the Ego andTheir Dissolution. …758. THE PLACE OF OCCULTISM IN SPIRITUALLIFE:Part I-The Value of OccultExperiences. …84Part II-The Occult Basis of…92Spiritual Life.Part III-Occultism and…101Spirituality.9. THE TYPES OF MEDITATION:PartI-The Nature of Meditationand its Conditions. …111

Part II-The Chief Types ofMeditation and theirRelative Value. …119Part III-General Classificationof the Forms ofMeditation. …127Part IV-Assimilation of theDivine Truths. …134Part V-Specialized Meditationswhich are Personal. …146Part VI-Specialized Meditationswhich are Impersonal. …153Part VII-Sahaj Samadhi. …161Part VIII-The Ascent to SahajSamadhi and its Nature. …16810. THE DYNAMICS OF SPIRITUALADVANCEMENT. …17611. THE DEEPER ASPECTS OF SADHANA. …184

The Search for GodMOST persons do not even suspect the existence ofGod and naturally they are not very keen aboutGod. There are others who, through the influence of tradition,Grades of beliefsin Godbelong to some faith or another and catch thebelief in the existence of God from theirsurroundings. Their faith is just strong enoughto keep them bound to certain rituals, ceremonies or beliefs andrarely possesses that vitality which is necessary to bring about aradical change in one's entire attitude towards life. There are stillothers who are philosophically minded and have an inclination tobelieve in the existence of God either because of their ownspeculations or because of the assertions of others. For them, Godis at best an hypothesis or an intellectual idea. Such lukewarmbelief in itself can never be sufficient incentive for launching upona serious search for God. Such persons do not know of God frompersonal knowledge, and for them God is not an object of intensedesire or endeavour.A true aspirant is not content with knowledge of spiritualrealities based on hearsay, nor is he satisfied with pure inferentialknowledge. For him the spiritual realities are not the object of idlethinking, and the acceptance or rejection of these realities isfraught with

12 DISCOURSESTrue aspirant seeksdirect knowledge ofspiritual realitiesmomentous implications for his inner life.Hence he naturally insists upon directknowledge about them. This may beillustrated from the life of a great sage. Oneday he was discussing spiritual topics with a friend who was quiteadvanced upon the Path. While they were engaged in thisdiscussion their attention was diverted to a dead body which wasbeing carried past them. "This is the end of the body but not of thesoul," the friend remarked. "Have you seen the soul?" asked thesage. "No," the friend answered. The sage remained sceptical aboutthe soul, for he insisted upon personal knowledge.Although the aspirant cannot be content with secondhandknowledge or mere guesses, he does not close his mind to thepossibility that there could be spiritual realities which had notAspirant has anopen mindcome with in his experience. In other words, heis conscious of the limitations of his ownindividual experience and refrains from makingit the measure of all possibilities. He has an open mind towards allthings which are beyond the scope of his experience. While hedoes not accept them on hearsay, he also does not rush to denythem. The limitation of experience often tends to restrict the scopeof imagination, and thus a person comes to believe that there areno realities other than those which may have come within the kenof his past experience; but usually some incidents or happenings inhis own life will cause him to break out of his dogmatic enclosureand become really open-minded.This stage of transition may also be illustrated by a storyfrom the life of the same sage, who happened to be a prince. Somedays after the incident mentioned above, as he was riding on horsebackhe came upon

An illustrative storyTHE SEARCH FOR GOD 13a pedestrian advancing towards him. Sincethe way of the horse was blocked by thepresence of the pedestrian, the sage arrogantly ordered the man outof the way. The pedestrian refused, so the sage dismounted and thefollowing conversation was held: "Who are you?" asked thepedestrian. "I am the Prince," answered the sage. "But I do notknow you to be the Prince," said the pedestrian and continued, "Ishall accept you as a Prince only when I know you to be a Princeand not otherwise." This encounter awakened the sage to the factthat God may exist even though he did not know Him frompersonal experience, just as he was actually a Prince although thepedestrian did not know it from his own personal experience. Nowthat his mind was open to the possible existence of God, he sethimself to the task of deciding that question in earnest.God either exists or does not exist. If He exists, search forHim is amply justified. And if He does not exist, there is nothing tolose by seeking Him. But man does not usually turn to a real searchOrdinary man indifferentto existenceof Godfor God as a matter of voluntary and joyousenterprise. He has to be driven to thissearch by disillusionment with thoseworldly things which allure him and fromwhich he cannot deflect his mind. Ordinary man is completelyengrossed in his activities in the gross world. He lives through itsmanifold experiences of joys and sorrows without even suspectingthe existence of a deeper Reality. He tries as best he can to havepleasures of the senses and to avoid different kinds of suffering."Eat, drink and be merry" is his philosophy, but in spite ofhis unceasing search for pleasure he cannot altogether avoidsuffering, and even when he

14 DISCOURSESOccasions whichprovoke thoughtsucceeds in having pleasures of the senses he isoften satiated by them. While he thus goesthrough the daily round of varied experiences,there often arises some occasion when he begins to ask himself,"What is the end of all this?" Such a thought may arise from someuntoward happening for which the person is not mentally prepared.It may be the frustration of some confident expectation, or it maybe an important change in his situation demanding radicalreadjustment and the giving up of established ways of thought andconduct. Usually such an occasion arises from the frustration ofsome deep craving. If a deep craving happens to meet an impasseso that there is not the slightest chance of its ever being fulfilled,the psyche receives such a shock that it can no longer accept thetype of life which may have been accepted hitherto withoutquestion.Under such circumstances a person may be driven to utterdesperation, and if the tremendous power which is generated bythe psychic disturbance remains uncontrolled and undirected, itUnharnessed desperatenessis destructive;divine desperatenessis creativemay even lead to serious mentalderangement or attempts to commitsuicide. Such a catastrophe overcomesthose in whom desperateness is alliedwith thoughtlessness, for they allowimpulse to have free and full sway. The unharnessed power ofdesperateness can only work destruction. The desperateness of athoughtful person under similar circumstances is altogether differentin results because the energy which it releases is intelligentlyharnessed and directed towards a purpose. In the moment of suchdivine desperateness a man makes the important decision todiscover and realise the aim

THE SEARCH FOR GOD 15of life. There thus comes into existence a true search for lastingvalues. Henceforth the burning query which refuses to be silencedis, "What does it all lead to?"When the psychic energy of a man is thus centred upondiscovering the goal of life, he uses the power of desperatenesscreatively. He can no longer be content with the fleeting things ofDivine desperatenessis the beginning ofspiritual awakeningthis life and he is thoroughly scepticalabout the ordinary values which he had sofar accepted without doubt. His only desireis to find the Truth at any cost and he doesnot rest satisfied with anything short of the Truth. Divinedesperateness is the beginning of spiritual awakening because itgives rise to aspiration for God-realisation. In the moment ofdivine desperateness, when everything seems to give way, mandecides to take any risk to ascertain what of significance to his lifelies behind the veil.All the usual solaces have failed him, but at the same timehis inner voice refuses to reconcile itself completely with theposition that life is devoid of all meaning. If he does not posit someGod or nothinghidden reality which he has not hithertoknown, then there is nothing at all worthliving for. For him there are only two alternatives: either there is ahidden spiritual reality which prophets have described as God, oreverything is meaningless. The second alternative is utterlyunacceptable to the whole of man's personality, so he must try thefirst alternative. Thus man turns to God when he is at bay inworldly affairs.Now since there is no direct access to this hidden realitywhich he posits, he inspects his usual experiences for possibleavenues leading to a significant beyond. Thus he goes back to hisusual experiences with the purpose of gathering some light on thePath. This involves

16 DISCOURSESRevaluation of experiencein light of positedDivinitylooking at everything from a new angle ofvision and entails a reinterpretation ofeach experience. He now not only hasexperience but tries to fathom its spiritualsignificance. He is not merely concerned with what it is but withwhat it means in the march towards this hidden goal of existence.All this careful revaluation of experience results in his gaining aninsight which could not come to him before he begins his newsearch.Revaluation of an experience amounts to a new bit ofwisdom, and each addition to spiritual wisdom necessarily bringsabout a modification of one's general attitude towards life. So theNew insight meansexperimenting withperceived valuespurely intellectual search for God or thehidden spiritual reality, has its reverberationsin the practical life of a man. His life nowbecomes a real experiment with perceivedspiritual values.The more he carries on this intelligent and purposiveexperimentation with his own life the deeper becomes hiscomprehension of the true meaning of life, until finally he dis-Finding God is comingto one’s Selfcovers that as he is undergoing a completetransformation of his psychic being he isarriving at a true perception of the realsignificance of life as it is. With a clear and tranquil vision of thereal nature and worth of life he realises that God Whom he hasbeen so desperately seeking is no stranger nor hidden and foreignentity. He is Reality itself and not a hypothesis. He is Reality seenwith undimmed vision—that very Reality of which he is a part andin which he has had his entire being and with which he is in factidentical. So, though he begins by seeking something utterly new,he really arrives at a new understanding of an ancient

THE SEARCH FOR GOD 17thing. The spiritual journey does not consist in arriving at a newdestination where a person gains what he did not have, or becomeswhat he was not. It consists in the dissipation of his ignoranceconcerning himself and life and the gradual growth of thatunderstanding which begins with spiritual awakening. The findingof God is a coming to one's own Self.

The Stages of the PathALL persons have to pass through the state of bondage but thisperiod of bondage is not to be looked upon as a meaninglessepisode in the evolution of life. One has to experience being cagedBondage adds to valueof freedomif one is to appreciate freedom. If in theentire span of its life the fish has notcome out of the water even once, it has nochance of appreciating the value of water. From its birth till itsdeath it has lived only in water, and it is not in a position tounderstand what water really means to its being. But if it is takenout of water even for a moment, it longs for water and becomesqualified by that experience to appreciate the importance of water.In the same way, if life had been constantly free and manifested nobondage man would have missed the real significance of freedom.To experience spiritual bondage and know intense desire to be freefrom it are both a preparation for the full enjoyment of the freedomwhich is to come.As the fish which is taken out of water longs to goback in the water, the aspirant who has perceived the goallongs to be united with God. In fact, the longing to go back toPath begins with longingfor deeper realitythe source is present in each beingfrom the very time that it is separated

THE STAGES OF THE PATH 19from the source by the veil of ignorance, but the being isunconscious of the longing till the aspirant enters the Path. One canin a sense become accustomed to ignorance, just as a person in atrain may get accustomed to the darkness of a tunnel when the trainhas been passing through it for some time. Even then there is adefinite discomfort and a vague and undefinable sense ofrestlessness owing to the feeling that something is missing. Thissomething is apprehended from the very beginning as being oftremendous significance. In the stages of dense ignorance, thissomething is often inadvertently identified with the variegatedthings of this mundane world. When one's experience of this worldis sufficiently mature, however, the repeated disillusionments inlife set the man on the right track to discover what is missing.From that moment he seeks a reality which is deeper thanchanging forms. This moment might aptly be described as the firstinitiation of the aspirant. From the moment of initiation into thePath, the longing to unite with the source from which he has beenseparated becomes articulate and intense. Just as the person in thetunnel longs for light all the more intensely after he sees a streak oflight coming from the other end, so the person who has had aglimpse of the goal longs to hasten towards it with all the speed hecan command.On the spiritual Path there are six stations, the seventhstation being the terminus or the goal. Each intermediate station is,in its own way, a kind of imaginative anticipation of the goal. TheWearing out of manifoldveil of ignoranceveil which separates man from Godconsists of false imagination, and this veilhas many folds. Before entering the Paththe man is shrouded in this veil of manifold imagination with theresult that he cannot

20 DISCOURSESeven entertain the thought of being other than a separate, enclosed,finite individual. The ego-consciousness has crystallised out of theworking of the manifold false imagination, and the consciouslonging for union with God is the first shaking of the entirestructure of the ego which has been built during the period of thefalse working of imagination. Traversing the spiritual Pathconsists in undoing the results of false working of imagination ordropping several folds of the veil which has created a sense ofunassailable separateness and irredeemable isolation. So far, theman had clung firmly to the idea of his separate existence andsecured it behind the formidable walls of thick ignorance, but fromnow on he enters into some kind of communication with the largerReality. The more he communes with Reality the thinner becomesthe veil of ignorance. With the gradual wearing out of separatenessand egoism he gains an increasing sense of merging in the largerReality.The building up of a sense of aloofness is a result of flightsof imagination. Therefore the breaking through of the self-createdsense of aloofness and being united with Reality is secured throughGradual reversing offalse working ofimaginationreversing the false working of imagination.The act of getting rid of imaginationaltogether may be compared with the act ofawakening from deep sleep. The differentstages in the process of getting rid of false imagination might becompared with the dreams which often serve as a bridge betweendeep sleep and full wakefulness. The process of getting rid of themanifold working of false imagination is gradual and has sevenstages. The shedding of one fold of the veil of imagination isdecidedly an advance towards Light and Truth, but it

THE STAGES OF THE PATH 21does not amount to becoming one with Reality. It merely meansrenouncing the more false imagination in favour of the less falseimagination. There are different degrees of falseness of imaginationcorresponding to the degrees of the sense of aloofnessconstituted by ego-consciousness. Each stage in the process ofgetting rid of false imagination is a definite wearing out of the ego.But all intermediate stages on the Path, until final realisation of thegoal, consist in leaving one flight of imagination for another. Theydo not amount to cessation of imagination.These flights of imagination do not bring about any realchange in the true being of the Self as it is. What changes is not theSelf but its idea of what it is. Suppose in a day-dream or phantasyIntermediate stageson the Path are allforms of imaginationyou imagine yourself to be in China whileyour body is actually in India. When thephantasy comes to an end you realise thatyour body is actually not in China but inIndia. From the subjective point of view, this is like returning fromChina to India. In the same way, gradual non-identification withthe body and progressive identification with the Oversoul iscomparable with the actual traversing of the Path, though in factthe different intermediate stages on the Path are all equallycreations of the play of imagination.The six stages of ascending are thus all within the domainof imagination, but at each stage, breaking down the sense ofaloofness, and discovering a merging in the larger Reality, arePseudo-sense ofrealisationboth so strong and clear that the person oftenhas a pseudo-sense of realisation. Just as whena person who wants to climb a mountain comesupon a deep valley and is so fascinated by the sight of it that heforgets the real goal and believes for the time

22 DISCOURSESbeing that he has arrived at his goal, so the aspirant also mistakesthe intermediate stages for the goal itself. But a person who isreally in earnest about climbing the mountain realises after awhilethat the valley has to be crossed, and the aspirant also realisessooner or later that the intermediate stage has to be transcended.The pseudo-sense of realisation which comes at the intermediatestages is like a man's dreaming that he has awakened from sleepalthough he is actually still asleep. After becoming awake herealises that his first feeling of awakening was really a dream.Each definite stage of advancement represents a state ofconsciousness, and advancement from one state of consciousnessto another proceeds side by side with crossing the inner planes.Planes and statesThus six intermediate planes and states ofconsciousness have to be experienced beforereaching the seventh plane which is the end of the journey andwhere there is final realisation of the God-state. A plane iscomparable to a railway station where a train halts for some time,and the state of consciousness is comparable to the movements ofthe passenger after getting down at the station.After entering a new plane of consciousness a personusually takes some time before he can freely function on thatplane. As there is a radical change in the total conditions of mentalNature of Samadhilife, the person experiences a sort of paralysisof mental activity known as Samadhi (Istighraq).When the pilgrim enters a new plane he merges into thatplane before he can experience the state which is characteristic ofthat plane. Just as a pilgrim who is tired by the strain of the journeysometimes goes to sleep, consciousness which has made the effortof ascending to a new plane goes through a period of lowered

THE STAGES OF THE PATH 23mental activity comparable to sleep. However, Samadhi isfundamentally different from sleep, in that a person is totallyunconscious in sleep whereas in Samadhi he is conscious of blissor light or power, although he is unconscious of his body andsurroundings. After a period of comparative stillness the mindbegins to function on the new plane and experiences a state ofconsciousness which is utterly different from the state which it hasleft behind.When the aspirant enters a new plane he is merged into itand along with the lowering down of mental activity he experiencesa substantial diminution in the ego-life. This curtailment ofEach stage on path isa curtailment ofego-lifeThe ego-life is different from the finalannihilation of ego, which takes place atthe seventh plane. But like the finalannihilation at the seventh plane, thedifferent stages of the curtailment of the ego at the intermediate sixplanes deserve special mention owing to their relative importance.In the Sufi spiritual tradition, the final annihilation of the ego isdescribed as "Fana-Fillah," and the earlier Samadhi of the sixplanes of duality have also been recognised as kinds of Fana, sincethey also involve a partial annihilation of the ego.Through all these Fanas of ascending order there is continuityof progression towards the final Fana-Fillah, and each hassome special characteristic. When the pilgrim arrives at the firstFirst three Fanasplane he experiences his first Fana or minorannihilation of the ego. The pilgrim istemporarily lost to his limited individuality and experiences bliss.Many pilgrims thus merged think they have realised God andhence get stuck in the first plane. If the pilgrim keeps himself freefrom self-delusion or comes to realise that his attainment is really atransitional phase in his journey, he advances further on thespiritual Path and arrives

24 DISCOURSESat the second plane. The merging into the second plane is called"Fana-e-Batili" or the annihilation of the false. The pilgrim is nowabsorbed in bliss and infinite light. Some think that they haveattained the goal and get stranded in the second plane, but otherswho keep themselves free from self-delusion march onwards andenter the third plane. The merging into the third plane is called"Fana-e-Zaheri" or the annihilation of the apparent. Here thepilgrim loses all consciousness of the body or the world for daysand experiences infinite power. Since he has no consciousness ofthe world he has no occasion for the expression of this power. Thisis Videha Samadhi or the state of divine coma. Consciousness isnow completely withdrawn from the entire world.If the pilgrim advances still further he arrives at the fourthplane. The merging into the fourth plane is called "Fana-e-Malakuti" or the annihilation leading towards freedom. TheDangers of fourthpilgrim experiences a peculiar state ofplaneconsciousness at the fourth plane since he nownot only feels infinite power but also hasplenty of occasion for the expression of that power. Further, he notonly has occasion for the use of his powers but has a definiteinclination to express them. If he falls a prey to this temptation hegoes on expressing these powers and gets caught up in the alluringpossibilities of the fourth plane. For this reason the fourth plane isone of the most difficult and dangerous to cross. The pilgrim isnever spiritually safe and his reversion is always possible until hehas successfully crossed the fourth plane and arrived at the fifth.The merging into the fifth plane is called "Fana-e-Jabaruti" or the annihilation of all desires. Here the incessantactivity of the lower intellect comes to a stand-still. The pilgrimdoes not "think" in the ordinary

Fanas of fifth andsixth planeTHE STAGES OF THE PATH 25way, and yet he is indirectly a source of manyinspiring thoughts. He sees, but not with thephysical eyes. Mind speaks with mind andthere is neither worry nor doubt. He is now spiritually safe andbeyond the possibility of a downfall; and yet many a pilgrim onthis exalted plane finds it difficult to resist the delusion that he hasattained Godhood. In his self-delusion he thinks and says, "I amGod," and believes himself to have arrived at the end of thespiritual Path. But if he moves on, he perceives his mistake andadvances to the sixth plane. The merging into the sixth plane iscalled "Fana-e-Mahabubi" or the annihilation of the self in theBeloved. Now the pilgrim sees God directly and clearly as anordinary person sees the different things of this world. Thiscontinual perception and enjoyment of God does not suffer a breakeven for an instant. Yet the wayfarer does not become one withGod the Infinite.If the pilgrim ascends to the seventh plane he experiencesthe last merging which is called "Fana-Fillah" or the finalannihilation of the self in God. Through this merging the pilgrimFana-Fillah or NirvikalpaSamadhi a stateof conscious Godhoodloses his separate existence and becomespermanently united with God. He is nowone with God and experiences himself asbeing none other than God. This seventhplane Fana-Fillah is the terminus of the spiritual Path, the goal ofall search and endeavour. It is the Sahaj Samadhi or the NirvikalpaSamadhi which is characteristic of conscious Godhood. It is theonly real awakening. The pilgrim has now reached the oppositeshore of the vast ocean of imagination, and realises that this lastTruth is the only Truth and that all the other stages on the Path areentirely illusory. He has

26 DISCOURSESarrived at his final destination.

Arriving at Self-KnowledgeWHEN the time is ripe the advancement of a person towards selfknowledgecomes about as naturally as the physical body of thechild grows into full-fledged form. The growth of the physicalProgress towardsSelf-knowledge gradualand imperceptiblebody is worked out by the operation ofnatural laws, and the progress of theaspirant towards self-knowledge isworked out by the operation of spirituallaws pertaining to the transformation and emancipation ofconsciousness. The physical body of the child grows verygradually and almost imperceptibly, and the same is true of thespiritual progress of the person who has once entered the Path. Thechild does not know how its physical body grows; in the same waythe aspirant also is often oblivious of the law by which he makesheadway towards the destination, of his spiritual progress. Theaspirant is generally conscious of the manner in which he has beenresponding to the diverse situations in life, and rarely conscious ofthe manner in which he makes progress towards self-knowledge.Without consciously knowing it, the aspirant is gradually arrivingat self-knowledge by traversing the Inner Path through his joysand sorrows, his happiness and suffering, his successes andfailures, his efforts and rest, and through his moments of clearperception and harmonised will as

28 DISCOURSESwell as through the moments of confusion and conflict. These arethe manifestations of the diverse sanskaras which he has broughtfrom the past, and the aspirant forges his way towards selfknowledgethrough the tangles of these sanskaras like the travellerthreading his way through a wild and thick forest.Human consciousness might be compared to the flash-lightwhich reveals the existence and the nature of things. The provinceilluminated by this flashlight is defined by the medium throughScope of consciousnessand its workingwhich it works, just as a person who isconfined to a boat can wander anywhere onthe surface of water but can have no accessto the remote places on land or in the air. The actual working of theflashlight is determined by the accumulated sanskaras, just as thecourse of the rivulets flowing from a mountain is given by thechannels created by the natural contours of the mountain.In the case of an average man, the sphere of life and thestage of action are restricted to the gross world because in him theflashlight of consciousness falls on the physical body and worksAverage man onlyconscious of grossworldthrough it. Being restricted to the medium ofthe gross body he can be conscious ofanything within the gross world but is unableto establish conscious contact with subtle ormental realities. The gross sphere thus constitutes the arena of theaverage man, and all his activities and thoughts have a tendency tobe directed towards the gross objects which are accessible to him.But all the time he remains unconscious of the subtle and themental spheres of existence since the flashlight of hisconsciousness cannot be focussed through the medium of thesubtle or the mental body.

ARRIVING AT SELF-KNOWLEDGE 29At this stage the soul is conscious of the gross world, but iscompletely ignorant of its own true nature. It identifies itself withthe gross body on which the flashlight of consciousness falls andIdentification withphysical bodythis naturally becomes the base for all theactivities which are within its range. The souldoes not directly know itself through itself butby means of the physical body; and since all the knowledge whichit can gather through the physical body points to the physical bodyitself as the centre of activities, it knows itself as being the physicalbody which in fact is only its instrument. The soul thereforeimagines itself to be man or woman, young or old, and takes uponitself the changes and limitations of the body.After several rounds of lives in the setting given by thegross world, the impressions connected with the gross worldbecome weak through the long duration of the experience ofIdentification withsubtle bodyopposites, like great happiness and intensesuffering. The weakening of the impressionsis the beginning of the spiritual awakeningwhich consists in the gradual withdrawal of the flashlight ofconsciousness from the allurements of the gross world. When thishappens the gross impressions become subtle, facilitating andinducing the soul's transference of the base of consciousfunctioning from the gross body to the subtle body. Now theflashlight of consciousness falls on the subtle body and worksthrough it as its medium, no longer working through the grossbody. Therefore the whole gross world drops from theconsciousness of the soul and it becomes conscious only of thesubtle world. The subtle sphere of existence now constitutes thecontext of its life and the soul now considers itself to be the subtlebody which becomes and is seen to be the centre of all itsactivities. Even when the

30 DISCOURSESsoul has thus become subtle-conscious it remains ignorant of itsown true nature since it cannot know itself directly through itselfbut only by means of the subtle body. However, the change of thestage of action from the gross to the subtle sphere of existence is ofconsiderable significance, insofar as in the subtle sphere theconventional standards of the gross world are replaced by newstandards which are nearer the Truth, and a new mode of life isrendered possible by the dawning of new powers and a release ofspiritual energy. Life in the subtle world is only a passing phase inthe spiritual journey and is far from being the goal; but out ofmillions of gross-conscious souls a rare one is capable of becomingsubtle-conscious.Impressions connected with the subtle world get worn outin turn through some forms of penance or yoga. This facilitatesand brings about a further withdrawal of consciousness inwardlyIdentification withmental bodywhereby the flashlight of consciousnesscomes to be thrown on the mental body andbegins to function through it. The severanceof conscious connection with the subtle and gross bodies meansthat the gross and subtle spheres of existence become completelyexcluded from the scope of consciousness. The soul is nowconscious of the mental world which affords deeper possibilitiesfor spiritual understanding and clearer perception of the ultimateTruth. In this new setting of the mental sphere, the soul enjoyscontinuous inspiration, deep insight and unfailing intuition, and itis in direct contact with spiritual Reality. Although it is in directcontact with God, it does not see itself as God, since it cannotknow itself directly through itself but only through the medium ofthe individual mind. It knows itself by means of the individualmind and considers itself to be the individual mind since it sees theindividual mind as being the base and the centre of all

ARRIVING AT SELF-KNOWLEDGE 31its activities. Although the soul is now much closer to God than inthe gross or subtle spheres, it is still enclosed in the world ofshadow and it continues to feel separate from God owing to theveil created by the impressions connected with the mental sphere.The flashlight of consciousness is functioning through thelimitation of the individual mind and does not therefore yield theknowledge of the soul as it is in itself. Though the soul has not yetrealised itself as being God, its life in the mental sphere ofexistence constitutes a tremendous advance beyond the stage of thesubtle sphere. Out of millions of subtle-conscious souls a rare onecan establish conscious contact with the mental sphere of existence.It is possible for an aspirant to rise up to the mental sphereof existence through his own unaided efforts, but dropping themental body amounts to the surrenderance of individual existence:Need for a MasterThis last and all-important step cannot betaken except through the help of a PerfectMaster who is himself God-realised. Out of millions of souls whoare conscious of the mental sphere, a rare one can withdraw theflashlight of consciousness from the individual mind. Such withdrawalimplies the complete vanishing of the last traces of theimpressions connected with the mental life of the soul. When theflashlight of consciousness is no longer centred upon any of thethree bodies, it serves the purpose of reflecting the true nature ofthe soul.The soul now has direct knowledge of itself without beingdependent upon any medium, seeing itself not as some finite bodybut as infinite God, and knowing itself to be the only Reality. ThisDirect Self-knowledgemajor crisis in the life of the soul isconditioned by the complete severance ofconnection with all three bodies. Since consciousness of the differentspheres of existence is

32 DISCOURSESdirectly dependent upon corresponding bodies, the soul is nowentirely oblivious of the whole universe. The flashlight ofconsciousness is no longer focussed upon anything foreign orexternal but is turned upon the soul itself. The soul is now trulySelf-conscious and has arrived at Self-knowledge.The process of arriving at Self-knowledge throughout thethree spheres of existence is attended by the acquisition of falseself-knowledge consisting in identification with the gross or theFalse self-knowledgea temporary substitutefor true selfknowledgesubtle or the mental body, according to thea stage of the process. This is due to theinitial purpose of creation which is to makethe soul Self-conscious. The soul cannothave true Self-knowledge except at the endof the spiritual progress, and all the intermediate forms of falseself-knowledge are, as it were, temporary substitutes for true Selfknowledge.They are mistakes necessary to the attempt to arrive attrue Self-knowledge. Since the flashlight of consciousness isturned throughout the journey towards the objects of theenvironment and not upon the soul itself, the soul has a tendency tobecome so engrossed in these objects that it is almost completelyoblivious of its own existence and nature. This danger of utter andunrelieved self-forgetfulness is counterbalanced by the selfaffirmationof the soul by means of the body, which happens to beused as the focal point of the flashlight of consciousness. Thus thesoul knows itself as its own body and knows other souls as theirbodies, thereby sustaining a world of dually where there is sex,competition, aggression, jealousy, mutual fear and self-centredexclusive ambition. Self-knowledge of the soul by means of a signis a source of untold confusion, complication and entanglement.This form of ignorance may be illustrated by

ARRIVING AT SELF-KNOWLEDGE 33means of the famous pumpkin story referred to by the poet Jami inone of his couplets. Once upon a time there was an absent-mindedStory of the pumpkinman who had no equal in forgettingthings. He had an intelligent and trustedfriend who wanted to help him to remember himself. This friendattached a pumpkin to his neck and said, "Now listen, old man, oneday you might completely lose yourself and not know who you are.Therefore, as a sign I tie this pumpkin around your neck, so thatevery morning when you wake up you will see the pumpkin andknow that you are there." Every day the absent-minded man sawthe pumpkin after waking up in the morning and said to himself, "Iam not lost." After some time, when the absent-minded man hadbecome used to self-identification through the pumpkin, the friendasked a stranger to remain with the absentminded man, take awaythe pumpkin from his neck during his sleep and tie it around hisown neck. The stranger did this, and when the absent-minded manwoke up in the morning, he did not see the pumpkin around hisneck. So he said to himself, "I am lost." He saw the pumpkin onthe other man's neck and said to him, "You are me. But then whoam I?"This pumpkin story offers an analogy to the different formsof false self-knowledge growing from identification with the body.To know oneself as the body is like knowing oneself by means ofthe pumpkin. The disturbance caused byAnalogy made explicitnon-identification with the gross, subtleor mental body is comparable to the confusion of theabsent-minded man when he could no longer see the pumpkinaround his own neck. The beginnings of a dissolution of thesense of duality are equivalent to the absent-minded man's identificationof himself as

34 DISCOURSESthe stranger who wore his pumpkin. Further, if the absent-mindedman in the story were to learn to know himself through himselfindependently of any external sign, his self-knowledge would becomparable to the true Self-knowledge of the soul which, afterceasing to identify with the three bodies, knows itself to be noneother than infinite God. Arriving at such Self-knowledge is thevery goal of creation.

God-RealisationTO arrive at true self-knowledge is to arrive at God-realisation.God-realisation is a unique state of consciousness. It is differentfrom all the other states of consciousness because all the otherTo realize the Self isto realize Godstates of consciousness are experiencedthrough the medium of the individual mind;whereas the state of God-consciousness isin no way dependent upon the individual mind or any othermedium. A medium is necessary for knowing something other thanone's own self. For knowing one's own self no medium isnecessary. In fact, the association of consciousness with the mindis definitely a hindrance rather than a help for the attainment ofrealisation. The individual mind is the seat of the ego or theconsciousness of being isolated. It creates the limited individuality,which at once feeds on and is fed by the illusion of duality, timeand change. So, in order to know the Self as it is, consciousnesshas to be completely freed from the limitation of the individualmind. In other words, the individual mind has to disappear butconsciousness has to be retained.Throughout the past life-history of the soul, itsconsciousness has grown with the individual mind and all theworkings of consciousness have proceeded against the backgroundof the individual mind.

36 DISCOURSESConsciousness intertwinedwith the mindConsciousness has therefore come to befirmly embedded in the individual mindand cannot be extricated from this settinginto which it has been woven. The result is that if the mind issuborned, consciousness also disappears. The intertwining of theindividual mind and consciousness is amply illustrated by thetendency to become unconscious when there is any effort to stopmental activity through meditation.The everyday phenomenon of going to sleep is notessentially different from the lull experienced during meditation,but it is slightly different in its origin. Since the individual mind isExplanation of sleepcontinuously confronted by the world ofduality it is involved in ceaseless conflict;and when it is wearied by its unrelieved struggle, it wants to loseits identity as a separate entity and go back to the Infinite. It thenrecedes from the world of its own creation and experiences a lull,and this lull is also invariably accompanied by the cessation ofconsciousness.The quiescence of mental activity in sleep entails thecomplete submerging of consciousness; but this cessation ofmental life and conscious functioning is only temporary, becauseResuming wakefulnessthe impressions which are stored in the mindgoad it to renewed activity. After awhile thepsychic stimuli of impressions result instirring the mind and reviving the conscious functioning which isperformed through its medium. So the period of sleep is followedby a period of wakefulness and the period of wakefulness isfollowed by a period of sleep, according to the law of alternatingactivity and rest. As long as the latent impressions in the mind arenot completely undone, however, there is no final annihilation ofthe individual mind or

GOD-REALISATION 37emancipation of consciousness. In sleep the mind temporarilyforgets its identity but it does not finally lose its individualexistence. When the person awakens he finds himself subject to hisold limitations. There is a resurrection of consciousness, but it isstill mind-ridden.The limited mind is the soil in which the ego is securelyrooted, and this ego perpetuates ignorance through the manyillusions in which it is caught. The ego prevents manifestation ofObstacle of the egoinfinite knowledge which is already latent inthe soul; it is the most formidable obstacle tothe attainment of God. A Persian poem says truly, "It is extremelydifficult to pierce through the veil of ignorance; for there is a rockon the fire." Just as a flame cannot rise very high if a rock is placedupon it, a desire to know one's own true nature cannot lead to theTruth as long as the burden of the ego is placed on consciousness.Success in finding oneself is rendered impossible by thecontinuation of the ego which persists throughout the journey ofthe soul. In old age, an aching tooth can give untold troublebecause it is not easily uprooted, although moving within itssocket. In the same way the ego which might become feeblethrough love or penance, is yet difficult to eradicate. It persists tillthe very end. Though it becomes looser as the soul advances on thePath, it remains till the last stage which is the seventh plane.Ego is the centre of all human activity. The attempts of theego to secure its own extinction might be compared to the attemptof a man to stand on his own shoulders. Just as the eye cannot seeDifficulty of overcomingthe egoexistence. It flourishes on theitself, so the ego is unable to end its own existence.All that it does to bring about selfannihilationonly goes to add to its own

38 DISCOURSESvery efforts directed against itself. Thus it is unable to vanishaltogether through its own desperate activity, although it succeedsin transforming its own nature. The disappearance of the ego isconditioned by the melting away of the limited mind which is itsseat.The problem of God-realisation is the problem ofemancipating consciousness from the limitations of the mind.When the individual mind is dissolved, the whole universe whichParallel between sleepand God-realisationis relative to the mind vanishes into nothingness,and consciousness is no longertied to anything. Consciousness is nowunlimited and unclouded by anything and serves the purpose ofillumining the state of the Infinite Reality. While immersed in thebliss of realisation the soul is completely oblivious of sights orsounds or objects in the universe. In this respect it is like soundsleep, but there are many important points of difference whichdistinguish God-realisation from sound sleep. During sleep theillusion of the universe vanishes, since all consciousness is inabeyance, but there is no conscious experience of God, since thisrequires the complete dissolution of the ego and the turning of fullconsciousness towards the Ultimate Reality. Occasionally, whenthe continuity of deep sleep is interrupted by brief intervals, thesoul may have the experience of retaining consciousness withoutbeing conscious of anything in particular. There is consciousness;but this consciousness is not of the universe. It is consciousness ofnothing. Such experiences anticipate God-realisation in whichconsciousness is completely freed from the illusion of the universeand manifests the infinite knowledge which was hitherto hidden bythe ego.In sleep, the individual mind continues to exist,

GOD-REALISATION 39although it has forgotten everything including itself; and the latentimpressions in the mind create a veil between the submerged con-Difference betweensleep and Godrealisationsciousness and the Infinite Reality. Thus,during sleep, consciousness is submerged inthe shell of the individual mind, but it has notyet been able to escape from that shell. So,though the soul has forgotten its separateness from God and hasactually attained unity with Him, it is unconscious of this unity. InGod-realisation, however, the mind does not merely forget itselfbut has (with all its impressions) actually lost its identity. Theconsciousness which was hitherto associated with the individualmind is now freed and untrammeled and brought into direct contactand unity with the Ultimate Reality. Since there is now no veilbetween consciousness and the Ultimate Reality, consciousness isfused with the Absolute and eternally abides in It as an inseparableaspect promoting an unending state of infinite knowledge andunlimited bliss.The manifestation of infinite knowledge and unlimited blissin consciousness is, however, strictly confined to the soul whichhas attained God-realisation.God-realisation ispersonalThe infinite Reality in the Godrealisedsoul has explicit knowledge of itsown infinity; but such explicit knowledge isnot had by the unrealized soul, which is stillsubject to the illusion of the universe. Thus if God-realisation werenot a personal attainment of the soul, the entire universe wouldcome to an end as soon as any one soul achieved God-realisation.This does not happen, because God-realisation is a personal stateof consciousness belonging to the soul which has transcended thedomain of the mind. Other souls continue to remain in bondage andthough they also are bound to

40 DISCOURSESreceive God-realisation one day they can only attain it by freeingtheir consciousness from the burden of the ego and the limitationsof the individual mind. Hence the attainment of God-realisationhas a direct significance only for the soul which has emerged outof the time-process.After the attainment of God-realisation, the soul discoversthat it has always been the Infinite Reality which it now knowsitself to be, and that its regarding itself as finite during the periodWhat was latent inthe Infinite becomesmanifestof evolution and spiritual advancement wasin fact an illusion. The soul also finds outthat the infinite knowledge and bliss whichit now enjoys have also been latent in theInfinite Reality from the very beginning of time and that theymerely became manifest at the moment of realisation. Thus theGod-realised person does not actually become something differentfrom what he was before realisation. He remains what he was, andthe only difference which realisation makes in him is thatpreviously he did not consciously know his own true nature, andnow he knows it. He knows that he has never been anything otherthan what he now knows himself to be and that what he has beenthrough was but a process of finding himself.The whole process of attaining God-realisation is just agame in which the beginning and the end are identical. Theattainment of realisation is nevertheless a distinct gain for the soul.Two types of advantagesThere are two types of advantages: oneconsists in getting what one did notpreviously possess, the other in realisingfully what one really is. God-realisation is of the second type.However, this creates an infinite difference between the soul whichhas God-realisation and the soul which does not have

GOD-REALISATION 41God-realisation. Though the God-realised soul does not possessanything new, its explicit knowledge of all that it really is, hasbeen and will ever be, makes God-realisation all-important. Thesoul which is not God-realised experiences itself as being finiteand is constantly troubled by the opposites of fleeting joys andsorrows; but the soul which has realisation is lifted out of them andexperiences the infinite knowledge and the unlimited bliss of beingGod-conscious.In God-realisation the soul drops its separate consciousnessand transcends duality in the abiding knowledge of its identity withthe Infinite Reality. The shackles of limited individuality areValue of God-realisationbroken; the world of shadows is at an end;the curtain of illusion is forever drawn.The feverishness and the agonising distressof the pursuits of limited consciousness are replaced by thetranquility and bliss of Truth-consciousness. The restlessness andfury of temporal existence are swallowed up in the peace andstillness of Eternity.

True DiscipleshipWHEN an aspirant becomes voluntarily affiliated with a Master,he is said to have become a disciple. But if this affiliation ismerely formal, it does not constitute true discipleship. The rela-Discipleship is vitalrelationtionship between disciple and Master isutterly different from the legal relationswhich create rights and liabilities throughverbal transactions or formal agreements. Discipleship is one ofthe fundamental features which characterise the life of theadvanced aspirant, and it does not come into existence through anyartificial procedure. It arises out of the basic laws of spiritual life.It is therefore much more significant than the mundane relationswhich arise within the context of ordinary social life as a result ofincidental associations or temporary contracts. Many of thesemundane relations do not enter into the spiritual fabric of the life ofthe aspirant but remain superficially attached to his being. Thus itis not of any great consequence whether you purchase a thing fromone shop-keeper or another as long as you pay the price for it; andit is immaterial whether you travel by one ship or another so longas you arrive at your destination. Even such transactions are nodoubt inwardly determined by sanskaric ties and karmic laws, andtherefore are not entirely devoid of spiritual significance. But

TRUE DISCIPLESHIP 43these relations are in their very nature provisional and superficial,and are in no way comparable to the vital bond of discipleshipwhich gives substance and direction to the life of the aspirant.The relation between Master and disciple is an inevitableoutcome of intrinsic conditions in the life of the aspirant. It isprimarily a relation between the lover and his Divine Beloved.Love implied indiscipleship is uniqueFrom the spiritual point of view it is themost important relationship into which aperson can enter. The love whichconstitutes the core of discipleship stands by itself among thedifferent types of love which prevail in ordinary social relations.Mundane love is an interplay between two centres of Godunconscious;but the love implied in discipleship is the love ofGod-unconscious for God-conscious. Everyone is God, but someare unconscious of their divinity, some are partly conscious of theirdivinity and a few are fully God-conscious. Those who areunconscious of their divinity can have no idea of the God-state;they are only conscious of the body-state. In order that they shouldinherit the God-state they have to love, worship and be guided bythe Master who is constantly dwelling in the God-state.The love which the aspirant has for the Master is really theresponse evoked by the greater love which the Master has for theaspirant. It is to be placed above all other loves. Love for theSupremacy of claimof the MasterMaster naturally becomes a central power inthe life of the aspirant because he knows theMaster to be an embodiment andrepresentation of Infinite God. All his thoughts and aspirations,therefore, come to be woven around the personality of the Master.The Master thus has unquestioned supremacy among the claimsrecognised by the

44 DISCOURSESaspirant, and it is through this supremacy that the Master becomesthe focal point for the radiation of spiritual forces which dispel alldarkness, pluck out the sins of the heart and initiate the aspirantinto a life of freedom and Truth-consciousness.The fundamental requisite for the candidate who would bea true disciple is an unquestioning love for the Master. All theother streams of love ultimately join this great river of love for theAll love leads to theMasterMaster and disappear in it. Majnu lovedLaila. He loved her so intensely that everymoment of his life he was filled withthoughts about her. He could not eat, drink or sleep withoutthinking of her; and all he wanted was the happiness of Laila. Hewould gladly have seen her married to some other person if he feltit to be in her interest, and he would even have died for herhusband if he had thought she would thereby be happy. The utterself-denial and sincerity of his love ultimately led him to theMaster. Every second of his life he thought not of himself but ofthe beloved, and this lifted his love from the physical orintellectual level and made it spiritual. The spiritualisation of hislove led him to the Divine Beloved.The Master is the Divine Beloved, and when the disciplemeets his Master, all that he has to do is to love him; for if thedisciple loves the Master out of the fullness of his heart, his finalPurification throughlove and self-surrenderunion with him is assured. He need notworry about the quality of his love. Heshould love in spite of his weaknessesand not tarry till he can purify his own heart. The Master is thevery source of purity, and to set one's heart on the Master is thebeginning of self-purification. When the disciple has whole-hearteddevotion for the Master, he opens

TRUE DISCIPLESHIP 45himself to the reception of the divine love which the Master poursupon him. All his weaknesses are consumed in this fire of divinelove of which he thus becomes the recipient. If the disciple is to befree from all weaknesses and attain incorruptible and infinitepurity, he has to dedicate his life to the Master without anyreservations or provisions. He must offer his weaknesses as wellas his vices, his merits as well as his sins. There should be no"if 's" and "but's" about his offering. His self-surrender must be socomplete as to allow no room in his mind for even a shadow of anysecret self desire.Complete self-surrender and unquestioning love becomepossible when the disciple achieves unswerving faith in the Master.Faith in the Master is an indispensable part of true discipleship.Value of faithOnce God is realised there is no question of faithat all, just as there is no question of faith when aman knows himself to be a man. But till this state of realisation isattained, the faith which the disciple places in the Master is hismost reliable guiding light and is comparable to the steering wheelof the ship. It is not correct to describe faith as being blind, for it ismore like sight than like unrelieved ignorance, but it has to beshort of direct experience until the aspirant realises God forhimself. It is not for nothing that all the religions are referred to as"faiths." One of the essentials of the aspirant's life is that he shouldhave faith. Faith may express itself through diverse forms, butfrom the psychological point of view they are one and the samething and cannot be diversely labelled. The only differences infaith are differences of degree. Faith may be strong and vital, orweak and lukewarm. A weak and lukewarm faith does not carry aman further than adherence to rituals and ceremonies, but a strongand vital faith is bound to take the aspirant beyond the external

46 DISCOURSESforms of religion and help him to eschew the husk and get at thekernel of true spiritual life. Faith reaches its natural climax andgoal when it comes to rest in one's own Master.The faith of the disciple must always be securely groundedin his experience of the divinity of the Master. He must not be likea straw carried anywhere by the slightest breeze. He should be likeStory of Kalyana rock which remains unmoved in the severestof storms. The story of Kalyan brings out themeaning of a really sound faith in the Master. Kalyan was adisciple of Swami Ramdas who was a Perfect Master at the time ofShivaji.The Master loves all disciples alike, but some might beparticularly dear to him, just as a man loves all parts of his body,but the eyes may be more dear to him than his fingers.Swami Ramdas had many disciples, but his favourite wasKalyan. Other disciples did not quite understand why Kalyanshould be dearer to the Master than the others. Once SwamiRamdas tested the devotion of his disciples. He asked all hisdisciples to come to him and pretended to be so sick as to be on thepoint of death. He had placed a mango on the joint of his knee andbound it up by means of a bandage so that it looked like a hugeswelling. Swami Ramdas pointed to this swelling and told thedisciples that it was a malignant tumour and that there was nochance of his living unless someone sucked the poison from thejoint of his knee. At the same time he made it clear to all thatwhoever sucked out the poison would die instantaneously. Then heasked whether any disciple was prepared to suck out the poisonfrom the swelling at the cost of life. All the disciples hesitatedexcept Kalyan who arose immediately and began to suck from the

TRUE DISCIPLESHIP 47swelling. To his surprise Kalyan found sweet mango juice and notpoison and Swami Ramdas praised his unswerving faith and selfdenyinglove. To be willing to die for the happiness of the Belovedis true love. Such implicit faith, unfaltering love and undividedloyalty as that of Kalyan can come to the disciple only through thegrace of the Master.Undivided loyalty to the Master does not introduce anynarrowness in the sphere of the disciple's life. To serve the Masteris to serve your own self in every other self. The Master dwells inThe Master realisedthrough serviceuniversal consciousness and wills universalspiritual well-being. To serve the Master istherefore to participate in his cause, whichis to serve all life. While sharing in the work of the Master, thedisciple may be required to be in touch with the world; but, thoughmoving in the world in accordance with the work which is in storefor him, he is in inward contact with the Master as Infinite Being.Therefore, by sharing in the work of the Master the disciple comescloser to him and becomes an integral part of his consciousness.Serving the Master is the quickest means of realising him.The service which the disciple can offer the Master is notonly linked with the universal cause of humanity but is one of themost potent means of bringing the disciple nearer his spiritual goal.Sharing work of theMasterWhen the disciple's service is spontaneous,whole-hearted, selfless and unconditional itbrings him more spiritual benefit than canever come by any other means. Serving the Master is a joy for thedisciple even when it means an ordeal that tries his body or mind.Service offered under conditions of discomfort or inconvenience isa test of the disciple's devotion. The more trying such

48 DISCOURSESservice becomes, the more welcome it is for the disciple, and as hevoluntarily accepts physical and mental suffering in his devotedservice to the Master, he experiences the bliss of spiritualfulfillment.The sense of undivided and absolute loyalty to the Masteris made possible by the right understanding of what the Master isand what he really stands for. If the disciple has an imperfect graspCases of conflictof the true status and function of the Master, heis likely to set up a false antithesis between hisown higher Self and the Master. As a consequence of thisantithesis he might create in his mind an artifical and imaginaryconflict between the claims of the Master and other claims whichseem legitimate. A disciple should realise from the very beginningthe Master only requires that the disciple should realise his ownhigher Self. In fact, the Master symbolises this higher Self of thedisciple and is none other than this higher Self which is the sameone reality in all. So, allegiance to the Master is only another formof allegiance to one's higher Self. This does not mean, however,that merely formal allegiance to the higher Self is in any way anadequate substitute for allegiance to the Master. The disciplecannot have a clear perception of his own higher self until he isGod-realised and often that which comes to him as his duty isreally a prompting of some sanskaras interpolating themselvesbetween the higher Self and his field of consciousness. The Masteron the contrary is one with the higher Self and can make nomistake about right valuation.The disciple therefore must always test his own promptingsby means of the standards or orders given by the Master, and in theCases of conflictevent of any conflict between the two, heshould thoroughly re-examine his own ideas to

TRUE DISCIPLESHIP 49discover the points wherein they might be short of perfection.Almost always a little reflection is sufficient to complete his ownthinking and to perceive the basic harmony between the truedictates of his own higher Self and the requirements of the Master.If, however, on some rare occasion the disciple is unable toreconcile the two, he may be sure that he has either not properlyunderstood the dictates of his own higher Self or that he has notproperly grasped the import of his Master. In such cases the Masterhimself requires that the disciple should follow his own conscienceat any cost. The Master may sometimes give instructions with theintent of preparing his disciple for a higher mode of life, and it isunder such circumstances that the disciple finds himself confrontedby an apparent and temporary variance between his owninclinations and the Master's instructions. But usually the Masterdoes not give any instructions for which the disciple has not hadinward anticipatory preparation.The Master is supremely impersonal and always his onlyconcern is to remove the veils between the consciousness of thedisciple and his higher Self. Therefore there can never be any realReal meaning ofdiscipleshipconflict between the allegiance of the discipleto his Master and his allegiance to his ownhigher Self. Indeed, at the end of his search, thedisciple discovers that the Master is none other than his ownHigher Self in another form. The Master in his utter impersonalityand unhampered divinity is so complete that he has no desire. Inrelation to the disciple all that he requires is that the disciple shouldreconstitute himself in the light of the highest Truth. To become adisciple is to begin to tread the Path leading towards the spiritualgoal. This is the meaning of true discipleship.

The Ways of the MastersMASTERS are absolutely impersonal and universal in theirconsciousness, but for spiritual purposes they can limit thescope of their work and also allow their manifested person-Masters ever readyality to become the centre of the aspirationsto helpof their disciples. They use personalrelationships as well-defined channels topass on their help to those aspirants who become connected withthem. The Masters are always on the lookout for those who needand deserve their help and the faintest gleams of spiritual yearningsare not overlooked by them. They foster and promote theadvancement of all aspirants in multifarious ways which areunfailingly effective, although they might not necessarily becompletely intelligible to others.The help of the Master consists in making the spiritualjourney of the aspirant sure and safe as well as in shortening thetime which he might otherwise take for arriving at the goal. TheNature of their helpaspirant may go a long way throughindependent search, but he in unable tocross the sixth plane without the help of a Master. Even on theintermediate planes the help of the Master is extremely valuable,because he prevents the aspirant from getting stuck on the way andprotects him from the pitfalls

THE WAYS OF THE MASTERS 51and dangers with which the spiritual Path is beset. Kabir hascompared the three stages of the Path to the three phases of fire.Just as first there is only smoke and no fire, then there is fireenveloped in smoke, and lastly there is only fire without smoke,the beginnings of the Path are enveloped in thick ignorance,midway there is confused perception of the goal, and finally thereis realisation of Truth without the slightest alloy of illusion. Sincethe Path lies through illusions of many kinds, the aspirant is neversafe without the guidance of the Master who knows all the stagesof the Path and can take him through them.Before the opening of the inner eye the mind conceives ofthe goal as the Infinite, and this conception is based upon somesymbolic image of Infinity such as the sky or the ocean, whichAbode of delusionsuggests the idea of vastness. Although such aconcept of the Infinite is clean-cut and welldefined, it has to be superseded by direct perception of the Infinite.The aspirant sees the Self directly when his inner eye of the spiritis opened. When this happens, the mind is dazed by what it seesand is no longer as clear as it was before the opening of this innereye. Being dazed by the perception of the Self, the mind loses itscapacity to think clearly and mistakes the seeing of the Self with itsbeing actually realised. Hence comes the illusion of being at theend of the Path when one is still traversing it. In Sufi terms thisparticular part of the Path is known as Mukam-e-afasan or theAbode of Delusion. It is in such difficult phases of the Path that theMaster can, through his skillful intervention, give a push to theaspirant so that he keeps on going instead of getting caught up onthe way.In fact, there is danger of the aspirant being detained oneach one of the inner planes, because

52 DISCOURSESeach in its own way is very alluring and serves as a trap for theContribution of theaspirant. The Master either takes the aspirantMasterpast these planes or through them withoutunnecessary delay. The aspirant has to walkhis own way, but the contribution of the Master consists inconfirming and consolidating the previously acquired intuitionsand perceptions of the aspirant, and in precipitating hisconsciousness into the next stage which, though unavoidable, is byits nature impossible for him to anticipate.The Master uses Maya to take the disciple out of Maya, andas he is himself beyond good and evil he may often require thingswhich are unacceptable and even shocking to the ordinary goodUnquestioning faithof disciplessense of his disciples. The best thing for thedisciple to do is to follow the instructions ofthe Master with implicit faith, withoutbringing them to the bar of his limited capacity of judgment. Thefollowing famous instances illustrate this point.There is the Koranic story of Abraham being called upon tosacrifice his beloved son Ismael to the Lord. When Abraham, firmin his resolve and faith, was about to slaughter his son andAbraham's knife was already pointing at his throat, Ismael wasmiraculously saved by being replaced by a goat.Shams-e-Tabriz ordered Maulana Rumi, his disciple, tofetch wine for him from a pub, which he unflinchingly compliedwith in order to please and win the grace of his Master. At the timeMaulana commanded a large following of Muslim divines onaccount of his reputation as a great theologian of the Islamic world,and wine is religiously prohibited (Haram) to the Muslims. Henceit was a crucial test for Maulana to carry a jar of wine on hisshoulders through the

THE WAYS OF THE MASTERS 53streets, but he did it.Ghousali Shah was asked by one of his Masters, who livedin a hut by the side of the river Ganges, to get a vessel full of wateronly from mid-stream, for drinking. It was about midnight and theriver Ganges was in heavy flood because of the monsoon. The disciplehesitated at first but finally gathered courage to attempt theimpossible, believing in the omniscience of the Master. No soonerhad he stepped into the angry waters of the Ganges than hewitnessed a wonderful transformation of the scene. Instead of thesurging waves and the floods, the river had turned into a thinstream and the vessel to be filled almost touched the river bed. Thedisciple nearly crossed the river to the opposite bank in search ofthe mid-stream. While thus occupied, the Master appeared on thescene and asked him the reason for his delay. When Ghousaliexplained that the mid-current could not be located, the Masterallowed him to fill the vessel by handfuls and himself helped in theprocess. The Master then left the disciple on some pretext, askinghim to follow immediately after filling the vessel. When GhousaliShah returned to the hut with the vessel full of water, he was bewilderedto learn from other disciples that the Master had neverleft the hut for a minute during his absence, but was talking tothem all the while about him.These stories show how the Master may use his occultpowers on rare occasions to break down the ego of his disciples orhelp them further on the Path. As a rule the Masters are very spar-Masters usuallyprefer ordinary tooccult methodsmundane ways. While doing so they noting in the use of their divine powers, and theynever use them unless it is absolutelynecessary for spiritual purposes. Ordinarilythey secure their purposes through normal

54 DISCOURSESonly exhibit great understanding, keen sense of humour, unendingpatience and consummate tact, but they also take great trouble tohelp their disciples, and adjust themselves in numberless ways towhatever might be entailed by the needs of the situation.Some of these points are effectively brought out by thestory of the great mystic Bahlul. Bahlul wanted to contact certainnotables of Persia for reasons of his own. The only way to do thisStory of Bahlulwas to go to the Prince's party which wasattended by these notables. Unfortunately Bahlulwas bald-headed, and in those days no one without hair wasallowed to attend a party given by the Prince. The Prince had lostall his hair, and to see others without hair reminded him of it andprevented him from enjoying the party. Since the Prince was verysensitive on this point, no bald person was allowed to come to theparty, so when Bahlul, who was bald, went to the party in hisshabby clothes, he was thrown out. The party lasted for three days,however, and on the second day Bahlul borrowed some fineclothes and a wig, disguised himself and again went to the party.During the party no one recognised Bahlul, and in his fineclothes he made a great impression upon all the notables. He madehimself so agreeable that even the Prince offered him a warmwelcome and invited him to sit near him. No sooner was Bahlulseated than he winked at the Prince. The Prince did not understandthe meaning of his winking but vaguely felt that such a gesturefrom an illustrious man like him must mean something important.Thinking that it immediately required a suitable response, he alsowinked. Those who were nearby saw this exchange of winking andfelt impelled to imitate them. They also winked at each other, andsoon the winking spread throughout

THE WAYS OF THE MASTERS 55the crowd so that for five minutes the party saw nothing butwinking. Then Bahlul cried, "Stop! O you wise men. Why do youwink?" And the notables replied, "We are winking because yougreat men were winking. We only imitate you." Then immediatelyBahlul took off his wig and said, "We two are both bald. Imitateus." The notables then went away and on the third day they allcame with shaved heads. Then Bahlul turned to the Prince andsaid, "We two are permanently bald; these men will have to shavetheir heads daily in order to remain bald." Thus through his tactfulhandling and sense of humor he secured access to those whom hewanted to help.The Master takes infinite pains to contact and win over thedisciple for spiritual life. Since the progress of the disciple issecured only if his love for the Master is not allowed to dwindle,Dealing with failingsof discipleshe takes every care to remove all obstacleswhich might be standing in the way of thewhole-hearted devotion of the disciple. Ifsometimes he is seen to humour the individual nature of thedisciple it is only to keep those obstacles from creating a seriousimpediment in his way. Sometimes he might even seem to feed theego of the disciple, but all this is just giving a long rope to theignorance of the disciple. It is only a preparation for the finalextinguishing of his ego, just as animals to be offered in sacrificeare carefully nurtured before their annihilation. The Master ishimself beyond good or evil and is not perturbed by the failings ofthe disciple. He tolerates them with unfailing patience and infinitecapacity to wait, knowing full well that once the disciple getsestablished on the Path these failings will be swiftly washed away.Once the Master is satisfied that the disciple is

56 DISCOURSESfirmly established in the Path, he is keen to cleanse the mind of thedisciple of all blemishes. Often he achieves this task even at therisk of appearing ruthless, just as when a surgeon, completelydisregarding the protests of the patient, is active with his knife.Ultimately the disciple cannot fail to see that all such measures arereally in his interest. Therefore he is never weaned away from hisMaster but is drawn closer to him in the very process of cleansingwhich might have appeared irksome or painful.The usual method of the Master, however, is as sweet andagreeable for the disciple as it is effective. The Master is verypleased when the disciple shows any real progress in the spiritualHelp through praiseline. By conferring well-merited praise onthe disciple he confirms in him the spiritualqualities which he is in process of realising and arouses in him theconfidence which will enable him to cope with any situation. Theglow of noble emotion, a gesture of self-denial, a heroic sacrificeor an incident revealing extraordinary patience or love or faith—any one of these is sufficient to make the Master happy and evokehis approbation. The usual method of the Master to encourage thegood qualities in the disciple is plain and unconcealed appreciationof his attainments. The disciple soon begins to value the Master'sapproval and delights in it more than in anything else. He is readyto resist the greatest of temptations and undergo the most tryingordeals, which would otherwise have seemed impossible to him, ifonly he knows that this will make the Master happy.Since the Master is, for the aspirant, a symbol of thesupreme Self in all, the problem of true adjustment to theSolution of all problemsMaster appears to him to be the sameas realizing his own inner divinity andarriving

THE WAYS OF THE MASTERS 57at true adjustment with all other forms of the Supreme Self.Through his allegiance to the Master the aspirant gives effect to hisconscious appreciation of the fundamental unity of all theseproblems. From the psychological point of view he is in a positionto tackle them not as separate problems but as aspects of oneproblem. Thus he can arrive at true integration, which is differentfrom a temporary compromise between conflicting claims. In orderto help the disciple to achieve this difficult task the Master has tobecome the nucleus of all the spiritual idealism of the aspirant,because intensive concentration of psychic energy is necessary ifthe aspirant is to break through the many barriers which liebetween him and his goal.The supremacy of claim which the Master has cannot bechallenged or limited even by the spontaneous reverence which thedisciple is bound to feel for Masters other than the one whoImperative claimof the Masterhas accepted him. All Perfect Masters are onein their consciousness and it is absurd toimagine any grades between them. Though oneMaster is not greater than another, the disciple must, for his ownpurposes, place the claim of his own Master over and above theclaims of other Masters until he transcends the domain of dualityand realises the unity of all life. Psychic energy would bedissipated unless there arose a supremely imperative claim amongthe many conflicting claims of life. Exclusive concentration uponone Master is therefore usually indispensable for the gathering upof the dispersed psychic energy of the disciple. In very rare cases,owing to special circumstances, the Masters themselves mightdecide to share the spiritual work in relation to a particulardisciple. There are, therefore, exceptional cases of disciples whohave had to affiliate themselves to two or more Masters. This is anexception rather than the

58 DISCOURSESrule, and where there are more Masters than one, they arrange thedistribution of their work so carefully that they do not set up anyconflict of claims.

The Nature of the Egoand its TerminationPART ITHE EGO AS THE CENTRE OF CONFLICTIN the .pre-human stage consciousness has experiences, but theseexperiences are not explicitly brought into relation with a central"I." The dog is angry, but he does not continue to feel, "I amOrigin of the egoangry." Even in his case we find that he learnsthrough some experiences and thus bases theaction of one experience on another, but this action is a result of asemi-mechanical tension of connected imprints or sanskaras. It isdifferent from the intelligent synthesis of experiences which thedevelopment of I-consciousness makes possible. The first step insubmitting the working of isolated impressions to intelligentregulation consists in bringing them all into relation with thecentre of consciousness which appears as the explicit limited ego.The consolidation of the ego-consciousness is most clear anddefined from the beginning of human consciousness.Human consciousness would have been nothing morethan a repository for the accumulated imprints of varied exper-Process of egoformationiences, if it had not also contained the principleof ego-centred integration,

60 DISCOURSESwhich expresses itself in the attempt to organise and understandexperience. The process of understanding experience impliescapacity to hold different bits of experiences together as parts of aunity and the capacity to evaluate them by being brought intomutual relation. The integration of the opposites of experience is acondition of emancipating consciousness from the thraldom ofdiverse compulsions and repulsions which tend to dominateconsciousness irrespective of valuation. The early attempts tosecure such integration are made through the formation of the egoas its base and centre.The ego emerges as an explicit and unfailing accompanimentto all the happenings of mental life in order to fulfilla certain need. The part played by the ego in human life may beEgo arises tofulfill a needcompared to the function of ballast in a ship. Theballast in a ship keeps it from oscillating too much.Without it the ship is likely to be too light andunsteady and is in danger of being overturned by the lawlesswinds. The psychic energy would be caught up endlessly in themultitudinous mazes of dual experience and would all be fritteredaway and dissipated if there were no provisional nucleus to takestock of all acquired experience and bind together the activetendencies born of the relatively independent and loose instinctsinherited from animal-consciousness. The formation of the egoserves the purpose of giving a certain amount of stability toconscious processes and also secures a working equilibrium whichmakes for a planned and organised life.It would be a mistake therefore to imagine that thearising of the ego is without any purpose. Though it arisesNecessary evilonly to vanish in the end, it does temporarilyfulfill a need which could not have beenignored in the long

THE NATURE OF THE EGO AND ITS TERMINATION: I 61journey of the soul. The ego is not meant to be a permanenthandicap, since it can be transcended and outgrown throughspiritual endeavour; but the phase of ego-formation mustnevertheless be looked upon as a necessary evil, which has to comeinto existence for the time being.The ego thus marks and fulfills a certain necessity in thefurther progress of consciousness. But since the ego takes shelterin the false idea of being the body, it is a source of much illusionEgo-centred integrationbased on illusionwhich vitiates experience. It is of theessence of the ego that it should feelseparate from the rest of life by contrastingitself with other forms of life. Thus, though inwardly trying tocomplete and integrate individual experience, the ego also createsan artificial division between external and internal life in the veryattempt to feel and secure its own existence. This division in thetotality of life cannot but have its reverberations in the innerindividual life over which the ego presides as a guiding genius.While always striving to establish unity and integrationin experience, the ego can never realise this objective.Though it establishes a certain kind of balance, this balanceEgo becomes a seatof conflictsis only provisional and temporary. Theincompleteness of its attainments is evidentfrom the internal conflict which is neverabsent as long as experience is being faced from the point of viewof the ego. From moment to moment the mind of man is passingthrough a series of conflicts. The minds of great and distinguishedpersons as well as the minds of common people are seen to beharassed by conflicting desires and tendencies. Sometimes theconflict with which the mind is faced is so acute that the personconcerned yields to the psychic pressure and there is

62 DISCOURSESeither a partial or total derangement of mind. There is really novital difference between the normal man and the so-calledabnormal man. Both have to face the same problems, but the onecan more or less successfully solve his problems and the othercannot solve them.The ego attempts to solve its inner conflicts through falsevaluation and wrong choice. It is characteristic of the ego that ittakes all that is unimportant as important and all that is importantEgo attempts to solveconflicts through falsevaluationas unimportant. Thus power, fame,wealth, ability and other worldlyattainments and accomplishments arereally unimportant, but the ego takesdelight in these possessions and clings to them as "mine." On theother hand, true spirituality is all-important for the soul, but theego looks upon it as unimportant. For example, if a personexperiences some bodily or mental discomfort while doing a workof spiritual importance, the ego steps in to secure the unimportantbodily or mental comfort even at the cost of giving up the reallyimportant spiritual work. Bodily and mental comfort, as well asother worldly attainments and accomplishments, are oftennecessary, but they are not therefore important. There is a world ofdifference between necessity and importance. Many things come tothe ego as being necessary, but they are not in themselvesimportant. Spirituality, which comes to the ego as beingunnecessary, is really important for the soul. The ego thusrepresents a deep and fundamental principle of ignorance which isexhibited in always preferring the unimportant to the important.The mind rarely functions harmoniously because it ismostly guided and governed by forces in the subconscious, andfew persons take the trouble to attain mastery over these hiddenforces which direct the

THE NATURE OF THE EGO AND ITS TERMINATION : I 63Conflict can be solvedthrough true valuationcourse of mental life. The eliminationof conflict is possible only through consciouscontrol over the psychic forces inthe sub-conscious; and this control can bepermanently attained only through the repeated exercise of truevaluation in all the cases of conflict which are presented to themind.If the mind is to be freed from conflict it must always makethe right choice and must unfailingly prefer the truly important tothe unimportant. The choice has to be both intelligent and firm inall cases of conflict—important as well as unimportant. It has toNeed for intelligentchoicebe intelligent, because only through the pursuitof true and permanent values is itpossible to attain a poise which is notdetrimental to the dynamic and creative flow of mental life. Anunintelligent choice, if it is stern, may temporarily overcomeconflict, but it is bound in the long run to curtail the scope of life orto hamper the fulfillment of the whole personality. Moreover, theconflict will surely reappear in some other form if it has not beenintelligently solved. An intelligent solution, on the other hand,requires an insight into true values, which have to be disentangledfrom false values. The problem of the conflict of desires thus turnsout to be the problem of conflicting values, and the solution ofmental conflict therefore requires a deep search for the realmeaning of life. It is only through wisdom that the mind can befreed from conflict.Having once known what the right choice is, thenext step is to stick to it firmly. Although the competingtendencies in the mind may be quieted by choosing oneFidelity to right choiceobstacles in making theparticular course in preference to otheralternatives, they still continue to act as

64 DISCOURSESchoice fully effective and operative. At times there is a danger of adecision being subverted through the intensification of thosecompeting psychic forces. To avoid defeat the mind must sticktenaciously to the right value which it has seen. Thus the solutionof mental conflict requires not only perception of right values butalso an unswerving fidelity to them.The intelligent and firm choice, however, has to berepeatedly exercised in all matters—small or great—for theordinary "worries" of life are not in any way less important thanTrue valuation mustgovern all mattersthe serious "problems" with which the mindis confronted in times of crisis. The rootsof mental conflict cannot completelydisappear as long as there is only intermittent exercise ofintelligent and firm choice. The life of true values can bespontaneous only when the mind has developed the unbroken habitof choosing the right value. Three-quarters of our life is made upof ordinary things, and though conflict concerning ordinary thingsmay not cause mental agony, it still leaves in the mind a sense ofuneasiness that something is wrong. The conflicts which turn uponordinary things are rarely even brought to the surface ofconsciousness. Instead they cast a shadow on one's general feelingabout life as if from behind a screen. Such conflicts have to bebrought to the surface of consciousness and frankly faced beforethey can be adequately solved.The process of bringing conflict to the surface ofconsciousness should not degenerate however into a process ofimagining conflict where there is none. The sure sign of a realHidden conflictshidden conflict is the sense that the whole ofone's heart is not in the thought or action whichhappens to be dominant at the moment. There is a vague feeling ofa narrowing down or a radical restriction of life. On such

THE NATURE OF THE EGO AND ITS TERMINATION: I 65occasion an attempt should be made to analyse the mental statethrough deep introspection, for such analysis brings to light thehidden conflicts concerning the matter.When the conflicts are thus brought to light it is possible toresolve them through intelligent and firm choice. The mostimportant requirement for the satisfactory resolution of conflictThe ideal as motivepoweris motive power or inspiration, which canonly come from a burning longing for somecomprehensive ideal. Analysis in itself mayaid choice, but choice will remain a barren and ineffectiveintellectual preference unless it is vitalised by zeal for some idealappealing to the deepest and most significant strata of humanpersonality. Modern psychology has done much to reveal thesources of conflict, but it has yet to discover methods of awakeninginspiration or supplying the mind with something which makes lifeworth living. This indeed is the creative task facing the saviours ofhumanity.The establishment of the true ideal is a beginning of rightvaluation. Right valuation in turn is the undoing of theconstructions of the ego, which thrives on false valuation. AnyDisintegration of egocentrethrough rightvaluationaction which expresses the true values oflife contributes towards the disintegrationof the ego, which is a product of agesof ignorant action. Life cannot bepermanently imprisoned within the cage of the ego. It must at sometime strive towards the Truth. In the ripeness of evolution comesthe momentous discovery that life cannot be understood and livedfully as long as it is made to move round the pivot of the ego. Manis then driven by the logic of his own experience to find the truecentre of experience and reorganise his life in the Truth. Thisentails the wearing out

66 DISCOURSESof the ego and its replacement by Truth-consciousness. Thedisintegration of the ego culminates in realising the Truth. Thefalse nucleus of consolidated sanskaras must disappear if there isto be a true integration and fulfillment of life.

The Nature of the Egoand its TerminationPART IITHE EGO AS AN AFFIRMATION OFSEPARATENESSTHE ego is an affirmation of separateness. It takes many forms. Itmay take the form of a continued self-conscious memoryexpressing itself in recollections like, "I did this and I did that;I felt this and I felt that; I thought this and I thought that." It alsoEgo is an affirmationof separatenesstakes the form of ego-centred hopes for thefuture expressing themselves through planslike, "I shall do this and I shall do that; Ishall feel this and I shall feel that; I shall think this and I shall thinkthat." Or again in the present, the ego manifests itself in a strongfeeling of being someone in particular and asserts its distinctnessand separateness from all the other centres of consciousness. Whileprovisionally serving a useful purpose as a centre of consciousness,the ego, as an affirmation of separateness, constitutes the chiefhindrance to spiritual emancipation and enlightenment ofconsciousness.The ego affirms its separateness through craving, hate,anger, fear or jealousy. When a person craves for the company ofothers he is keenly conscious of being separate from them and thusfeels his own separate

68 DISCOURSESEgo feeds uponexclusive feelingsexistence intensely. The feeling of separationfrom others is most acute where there is greatand unrelieved craving. In hate and anger alsothe other person is, so to speak, thrown out of one's own being andregarded not only as a foreigner but as definitely hostile to thethriving of the ego. Fear also is a subtle form of affirmingseparateness and exists where the consciousness of duality isunabated. Fear acts as a thick curtain between the "I" and the "you"and it not only nourishes deep distrust of the other, but inevitablybrings about a shrinking and withdrawal of consciousness so as toexclude the being of another from the context of one's own life.Therefore, not only other souls but God should be loved and notfeared. To fear God or His manifestations is to strengthen duality;to love them is to weaken it.The feeling of separateness finds most poignant expressionin jealousy. There is a deep and imperative need in the human soulto love and identify itself with other souls. This is not fulfilled inComplications ofjealousy strengthenegoany instance where there is craving or hate,anger or fear. In jealousy, in addition to thenon-fulfillment of this deep and imperativeneed for identification with other persons,there is a belief that some other soul has successfully identifieditself with the person whom one sought. This creates a standingand irreconcilable protest against both individuals for developing arelationship which one really wished to reserve for oneself. Allexclusive feelings like craving, hate, fear or jealousy bring about anarrowing down of life and contribute to the limitation andrestriction of consciousness. They become directly instrumental inthe affirmation of separateness and the ego.

THE NATURE OF THE EGO AND ITS TERMINATION : II 69Every thought, feeling or action which springs fromthe idea of exclusive or separate existence binds. Allexperiences small or great—and all aspirations—good or badSlimming down ofego through lovecreate a load of impressions and nourishthe sense of the "I." The only experiencewhich makes for the slimming down of theego is the experience of love, and the only aspiration which makesfor the alleviation of separateness is the longing to become onewith the Beloved. Craving, hatred, anger, fear and jealousy are allexclusive attitudes which create a gulf between oneself and therest of life. Love alone is an inclusive attitude which helps bridgethis artificial and self-created gulf, and tends to break through theseparative barrier of false imagination. The lover too longs, buthe longs for union with the Beloved. In seeking or experiencingunion with the Beloved the sense of the "I" becomes feeble. In lovethe "I" does not think of self-preservation, just as the moth is not atall afraid of getting burnt in the fire. The ego is the affirmation ofbeing separate from the other, while love is the affirmation ofbeing one with the other. Hence the ego can be dissolved onlythrough real love.The ego is implemented by desires of varied types. Failureto fulfill desires is a failure of the ego. Success in attaining desiredobjects is a success of the ego. Through the fulfilled desires asEgo made of desireswell as through the unfulfilled ones the egois accentuated. The ego can even feed uponthe comparative lull in the surging desires and assert its separativetendency through feeling that it is desireless. When there is realcessation of all desires, however, there is cessation of the desireto assert separativeness in any form. Therefore real freedom fromall desires brings about the end of the ego. The bundle of theego is made of faggots of multi-coloured desires, and the breakingof these faggots

70 DISCOURSESamounts to the destruction of the ego.The problem of erasing the ego from consciousness isvery complicated, however, because the roots of the ego are all inthe subconscious mind in the form of latent tendencies; and theseRoots of ego in subconsciousmindlatent tendencies are not always accessibleto explicit consciousness. The limited ego ofexplicit consciousness is only a smallfragment of the total ego. The ego is like an iceberg floating in thesea. About one-seventh of the iceberg remains above the surfaceof the water and is visible to the onlooker, and the major portionremains submerged and invisible to the onlooker. In the same way,only a small portion of the real ego becomes manifest inconsciousness in the form of an explicit "I," and the major portionof the real ego remains submerged in the dark and inarticulatesanctuaries of the subconscious mind.The explicit ego which finds its manifestation inconsciousness is by no means a harmonious whole; it can anddoes become an arena for multitudinous conflicts between op-Ego heterogeneousin constitutionposing tendencies. It has a limited capacityhowever for allowing simultaneous emergenceof conflicting tendencies. Two personshave to be at least on speaking terms if they are to enter intoarticulate wrangling. If they are not on speaking terms theycannot bring themselves to quarrel on common ground. In thesame manner, two tendencies which can enter into consciousconflict must have some common ground. If they are toodisparate they cannot find admittance into the arena of consciousness,even as conflicting tendencies, but have to remainsubmerged in the subconscious mind until they are bothmodified through the tension exerted by the diverseactivities connected with the conscious

THE NATURE OF THE EGO AND ITS TERMINATION: II 71mind.Although the entire ego is essentially heterogeneous in itsconstitution, the explicit ego of consciousness is lessheterogeneous than the implicit ego of the subconscious mind. ItExplicit ego andimplicit egooperates as a formidable whole compared withthe isolated subconscious tendencies which seekto emerge in consciousness. The organised egoof explicit consciousness thus becomes a repressive barrier whichindefinitely prevents several constituents of the implicit ego fromaccess to consciousness. All the problems of the ego can be tackledonly through intelligent and conscious action, and thereforecomplete annihilation of the ego is possible only when all theconstituents of the ego pass through the fire of intelligentconsciousness.The action of intelligent consciousness on the componentsof the explicit ego is important, but in itself it is not sufficient forthe desired results. The components of the implicit ego of the sub-Intensified conflict acondition of attainingunassailable harmonyconscious mind have to be brought to thesurface of consciousness somehow andbecome parts of the explicit ego, and thenbe submitted to the action of intelligentconsciousness. If this is to be achieved, there has to be aweakening of the explicit ego in such manner as to allow theemergence into consciousness of those desires and tendencieswhich could not hitherto find admittance into the arena ofconsciousness. This release of inhibited tendencies naturally bringsabout additional confusion and conflict in the explicit ego.Therefore the disappearance of the ego is often accompanied byintensified conflicts in the arena of the conscious mind rather thanby any comfortable easing of them. However, at the end of theuncompromising and acute struggle lies the state of true poise

72 DISCOURSESand unassailable harmony which comes after the melting away ofthe entire iceberg of the ego.The digging out of the buried roots of the ego from thedeeper layers of the subconscious and bringing them to the light ofconsciousness is one important part of the process of wiping outEgo lives throughopposites ofexperiencethe ego. The other important part consists inthe intelligent handling of desires after theygain entrance to the arena of consciousness.The process of dealing with the components ofexplicit consciousness is by no means clear and simple, for theexplicit ego has a tendency to live through any one of the oppositesof experience. If it is ousted from one opposite by the intensiveoperation of intelligent consciousness, it has a tendency to move tothe other extreme and live through it. Through repeated alternationbetween the opposites of experience the ego eludes the attack ofintelligent consciousness and seeks to perpetuate itself.The ego is hydra-headed and expresses itself in numberlessways. It lives upon any type of ignorance. Pride is the specificfeeling through which egoism manifests. A person can be proud ofEgo is hydra-headedmost unimportant and silly things.Instances are known of persons developingtheir nails to an abnormal length and preserving them, despitemuch inconvenience to themselves, for no other reason than toassert separateness from others. The ego must magnify itsattainments in a grotesque manner if it is to live in them. Directassertion of the ego through self-display in society is verycommon, but if such direct assertion is prohibited by the rules ofdecency, the ego has a tendency to seek the same result through theslander of others. To portray others as evil is to glorify oneself bysuggesting a comparison, which

THE NATURE OF THE EGO AND ITS TERMINATION: II 73the ego would fain develop, but abstains from it for other reasons.The ego is activated by the principle of self-perpetuationand has a tendency to live and grow by any and all means notclosed to it. If the ego faces curtailment in one direction it seeksTricks of the egocompensating expansion in another. If it isoverpowered by a flood of spiritual notions andactions, it even tends to fasten upon this very force which isoriginally brought into play for the ousting of the ego. If a personattempts to cultivate humility in order to relieve himself of themonstrous weight of the ego and succeeds in doing so, the ego can,with surprising alacrity, transfer itself to this attribute of humility.It feeds itself through repeated assertions like "I am spiritual," justas in primary stages it achieved the same task by assertions like "Iam not interested in spirituality." Thus arises what we might call aspiritual ego, or the ego which feels its separateness through theattainment of things which are considered to be good and highlyspiritual. From the truly spiritual point of view, this type ofspiritual ego is as binding as the primary and crude ego whichmakes no such pretensions.In fact, in the more advanced stages of the Path, the egodoes not seek to maintain itself through open methods but takesshelter in those very things which are pursued for the slimmingGuerilla warfaredown of the ego. These tactics of the ego arevery much like guerilla warfare and are themost difficult to counteract. The ousting of the ego fromconsciousness is necessarily an intricate process, and cannot beachieved by exercising a constantly uniform approach. Since thenature of the ego is very complicated, an equally complicatedtreatment is needed to get rid of it. Since the ego has almostinfinite

74 DISCOURSESpossibilities for making its existence secure and creating selfdelusion,the aspirant finds it impossible to cope with the endlessupcropping of fresh forms of the ego. He can hope to dealsuccessfully with the deceptive tricks of the ego only through thehelp and grace of a Perfect Master.In most cases it is only when the aspirant is driven torealise the futility of all his efforts that he approaches the Master.By himself he can make no headway towards the goal which heMaster is the lastresortdimly sights and seeks. The stubbornpersistence of the ego exasperates him, and inthis clear perception of helplessness he surrendersto the Master as his last and only resort. The selfsurrenderamounts to an open admission that the aspirant now hasgiven up all hope of tackling the problems of the ego by himselfand that he relies solely upon the Master. It is like saying, "I amunable to end the wretched existence of this ego. I therefore look toyou to intervene and slay it." This step, however, turns out to bemore fruitful than all other measures which might have been triedfor the slimming down and subsequent annihilation of the ego.When, through the grace of the Master, the ignorance whichconstitutes the ego is dispelled, there is the dawn of Truth which isthe goal of all creation.

The Nature of the Egoand its TerminationPART IIITHE FORMS OF THE EGO ANDTHEIR DISSOLUTIONTHE ego subsists upon mundane possessions like power, fame,wealth, ability, attainments and accomplishments. It creates andrecognises the "thine" in order to feel what is distinctively "mine."Ego lives throughidea of “mine”However, in spite of all the worldly thingswhich it claims as "mine," it constantly feelsempty and incomplete. To make up for thisdeep restlessness in its own being, it seeks to fortify itself throughfurther acquisitions. It brings the array of its entire variedpossessions into relief by comparison with others who might beinferior in any one of the items stamped as "mine" and often usesthese possessions for wanton and uncalled for self-display even tothe disadvantage of others. The ego is dissatisfied in spite of itsmundane possessions, but instead of cultivating detachment fromthem it seeks to derive satisfaction from a more intense sense ofpossession in contradistinction to others. The ego as an affirmationof separateness lives through the idea of "mine."The ego wants to feel separate and unique and it

76 DISCOURSESseeks self-expression either in the role of someone who isdecidedly better than others or in the role of someone who isForms of the egodecidedly inferior. As long as there is ego,there is an implicit background of duality; andas long as there is the background of duality, the mental operationsof comparison and contrast cannot be effectively stilled forever.Therefore even when a person seems to feel a sense of equalitywith another, this feeling is not securely established. It marks apoint of transition between the two attitudes of the ego rather thanpermanent freedom from the distinction between the "I" and the"you."This pseudo-sense of equality, where it exists, may bestated in the formula, "I am not in any way inferior or superior tothe other." This will at once be seen to be a negative assertion ofIdea of equalitythe ego. The balance between the "I" and the"you" is constantly disturbed by the predominanceof a superiority or inferiority complex. The idea ofequality arises to restore this lost balance. The negative assertionof the ego in the form of equality is, however, utterly different fromthe sense of unity which is characteristic of the life of spiritualfreedom. Although the sense of equality is made the basis of manysocial and political ideals, the real conditions of rich co-operativelife are fulfilled only when the bare idea of equality is replaced bythe realisation of the unity of all life.The feelings of superiority and inferiority are reactions toeach other, and the artificially induced feeling of equality mightbe regarded as a reaction to both. In all these three modes theTwo complexesego succeeds in asserting its separateness. Thesuperiority complex and the inferiority complexfor the most part remain disconnected from each other.

THE NATURE OF THE EGO AND ITS TERMINATION: III 77They both seek separate and alternate expression through suitableobjects, as when a person dominates those whom he regards as hisinferiors and submits to those whom he looks upon as hissuperiors. But such alternative expression through contrastingbehaviour only accentuates these opposite complexes instead ofleading to their dissolution.The superiority complex is stirred when a person meets onewho is in some way remarkably inferior to him in mundanepossessions. In spite of its many possessions the ego is constantlySuperiority complexconfronted with the spectacle of its intrinsicemptiness. Therefore it clings to thecomforting delusion of its worthwhileness by demonstrating thegreatness of its possesssions. This contrast is not confined totheoretical comparison, but often exhibits itself in an actual clashwith others. Thus aggressiveness is a natural outcome of the needto compensate for the poverty of the ego-life.The inferiority complex is stirred when a person meetssome one who is in some way remarkably superior to him inrespect of mundane possessions. But his submissiveness to theInferiority complexother is rooted either in fear or selfishness. Itcan never be whole-hearted or spontaneous,because there is a lurking jealousy and even hatred for the other forpossessing something which he would rather have for himself. Allforced and outward submission is purely the effect of an inferioritycomplex, and can only enhance the ego in one of its worst forms.The ego attributes its sense of emptiness to the apparently inferiorpossessions which it can claim as "mine," rather than to theradical viciousness of seeking fulfillment through possessions.Awareness of its inferiority in possessions becomes only a furtherstimulus for making desperate efforts to

78 DISCOURSESadd to its possessions through such means as are available to it.Thus, while perpetuating the inward poverty of the soul, theinferiority complex, like the superiority complex, constitutes anagent for selfishness and social chaos, and the accumulation ofthat type of ignorance which characterises the ego.When a person comes into contact with the Master andrecognises him as having the state of egoless perfection, hevoluntarily surrenders himself to the Master, because he perceivesSurrender utterlydifferent frominferiority complexthe ego to be a source of perpetualignorance, restlessness and conflict and alsorecognises his own inability to terminate it.But this self-surrender should be carefullydistinguished from the inferiority complex, because it isaccompanied by awareness that the Master is his ideal and as suchhas a basic unity with the disciple. Such self-surrender is in no wayan expression of loss of confidence. On the contrary it is anexpression of confidence in the final overcoming of all obstaclesthrough the help of the Master. The appreciation of the divinity ofthe Master is the manner in which the higher Self of the disciple isexpressing its sense of dignity.In order to bring about a rapid dissolution of these twochief forms of the ego, the Master may deliberately stir both ofthese complexes in alternation. If the disciple is on the point ofIntervention by theMasterlosing heart and giving up the search hemight arouse in him deep self-confidence. Ifhe is on the point of becoming egotistic hemight break through this new barrier by creating situations inwhich the disciple has to accept and recognise his own incapacityor futility. Thus the Master wields his influence over the disciple toexpedite the stages through which the melting ego passes before

THE NATURE OF THE EGO AND ITS TERMINATION: III 79its final disappearance.The superiority and inferiority complexes have to bebrought into intelligent relation with each other if they are tocounteract each other. This requires a psychic situation in which,Adjustment to theMaster involves dissolutionof complexesthrough mutualtensionfor the time being, both will be allowed tohave their play at one and the same time,without requiring the repression of the onein order to secure the expression of theother. When the soul enters into a dynamicand vital relation with the Master, thecomplexes concerned with the senses of inferiority and superiorityare both brought into play and they are so intelligentlyaccommodated that they counteract each other. The disciple feelsthat he is nothing in himself, but in and through the Master he isenlivened by the prospect of being everything. Thus at one strokethe two complexes are brought into mutual tension, and tend toannihilate each other in the attempt which the disciple makes toadjust himself to the Master. With the dissolution of these oppositecomplexes there comes a breaking down of the separative barriersof the ego in all its forms. With the breaking down of the barriers -of separation there arises divine love. With the arising of divinelove the separate feeling of the "I," as distinguished from "you," isswallowed up in the sense of their unity.For a car to move towards its destination a driver isnecessary. But this driver may be susceptible to strong attachmentsfor things that he encounters on the way, and he might not onlyAnalogy of driverhalt at intervening places for an indefinitetime, but also get lost in the wayside in pursuitof things that have only temporary charm. In that case he mightkeep the car moving all the time

80 DISCOURSESbut without coming nearer the goal, and he might even get furtheraway from it. Something like this happens when the ego assumescontrol of human consciousness. The ego may be compared to adriver who has a certain amount of control over a car and a certaincapacity to drive it, but who is in complete darkness about itsultimate destination.For a car to reach its ultimate destination, it is not enoughmerely to have a driver who can work and manage the engine. It isequally necessary that this driver should be able to direct the cartowards the destination. As long as the movement of consciousnessis under the full and exclusive domination of the ego, the spiritualadvancement of the person is jeopardised by the natural tendencyof the ego to strengthen the separative barriers of falseimagination. So, in spite of ego-centred activities, consciousnessremains enclosed by the walls of its own creation and moveswithin the limits of this mayavic prison. If consciousness is to beemancipated from its limitations and rendered adequate to servethe original purpose for which it came into existence, it must drawits directive momentum not from the ego but from some otherprinciple. In other words, the driver who is ignorant of the ultimatedestination must be exchanged for another driver who is free fromall the allure of accidental things encountered on the way, and whocentres his attention not on the rest stations or side-attractions buton the ultimate goal of non-duality. The shifting of the centre ofinterest from unimportant things to truly important values iscomparable to the transference of power from the ignorant driverto the driver who knows the destination. Concurrent with thisgradual shifting of the centre of interest there is progressivedissolution of the ego and motion towards the Truth.If the ego had been nothing but a medium for the

THE NATURE OF THE EGO AND ITS TERMINATION: III 81integration of human experience it would have been possible forone to get established in the final Truth merely by carrying furtherEgo attempts integrationaround false ideathe activity of the ego. But while playing aspecific part in the progress ofconsciousness, the ego also represents anactive principle of ignorance which prevents further spiritualdevelopment. The ego attempts the integration of experience, but itdoes so around the false idea of separateness. Having taken anillusion as a foundation for the construction of its edifice, it neversucceeds in anything but the building of illusions one uponanother. Arriving at the Truth is actually hindered rather thanhelped by the function of the ego. The process of arriving at theTruth can be fruitful only if the integration presided over by theego is carried further without bringing in the basic ignorance ofseparateness.As long as human experience lies within the limitation ofduality, integration of experience is an inevitable condition for arational and significant life. But the ego as a nucleus for integrationMaster becomes newnucleus of integrationhas to be renounced because of itsinevitable alliance with the forces ofignorance. There arises then an imperativeneed for a new centre of integration which will steer clear of thebasic ignorance of separateness, and which will allow free scopefor the incorporation of all values which were inaccessible to theego-centre. Such a new centre is provided by the Master whoexpresses all that has real value, and who represents the absoluteTruth. The shifting of interest from unimportant things toimportant values is facilitated by allegiance and self-surrender tothe Master who becomes the new nucleus for integration.The Master, when truly understood, is a standing affirmationof the unity of all life. Allegiance to the Master, therefore

82 DISCOURSESbrings about a gradual dissociation from the ego-nucleus whichUnion with Masteraffirms separateness. After this importantis the realization of crisis in the life of man, all mental activityTruthhas a new frame of reference, and itssignificance is to be gathered in the light ofits relation to the Master as the manifestation of infinite Truth, notin the light of any relation to the ego-centre as a limited "I." Theperson henceforth finds that all acts which flow from him are nolonger initiated from the limited "I," but are all inspired by theTruth working through the Master. He is also no longer interestedin the well-being of the limited self, but is interested in the Masteras representing universal and undivided life. He offers all hisexperiences and desires to the Master, reserving neither the goodnor the evil for the limited "I," stripping the ego of all content. Thisadvancing bankruptcy of the ego does not interfere with theprocess of integration, because the function is now performedaround the new centre of the Master as representing the Truth.When the ego-nucleus is completely bankrupt and devoid of anypower or being, the Master as Truth is firmly established inconsciousness as its guiding genius and animating principle. Thisconstitutes both the attainment of union with the Master and therealisation of the infinite Truth.When the ego gradually adjusts itself to the spiritualrequirements of life through the cultivation of humanity,selflessness and love, whole-hearted surrender and offering oneselfReview of evolutionto the Master as truth, it suffers a drasticcurtailment. It not only offers less and lessresistance to spiritual unfoldment, but also undergoes a radicaltransformation. This eventually turns out to be so great that in theend the ego, as an affirmation

THE NATURE OF THE EGO AND ITS TERMINATION: III 83of separateness, completely disappears and is substituted by theTruth which knows no separateness. The intermediate steps ofslimming down the ego and softening its nature are comparable tothe trimming and pruning of the branches of a wild and mightytree, while the final step of annihilation of the ego amounts to thecomplete uprooting of this tree. When the ego disappears entirelythere arises knowledge of the true Self. Thus the long journey ofthe soul consists in developing from animal consciousness theexplicit self-consciousness as a limited "I," then in transcendingthe state of the limited "I" through the medium of the Master. Atthis stage the soul is initiated into the consciousness of thesupreme and Real Self as an everlasting and infinite "I am" inwhich there is no separateness, and which includes all existence.

The Place of Occultism inSpiritual LifePART ITHE VALUE OF OCCULT EXPERIENCESSPIRITUAL emancipation of consciousness brings with it anunfoldment of many psychic capacities which are latent in thehuman soul. This unfoldment increases the scope and range ofPsychic capacitieshelp or hinder emancipationhuman consciousness. New elements oftenplay an important part in helping orhindering the spiritual emancipation ofconsciousness. Therefore, the aspirant notonly has to understand the value of such occult experiences asunusual and significant dreams, visions, glimpses of the subtleworld and astral journeys, but also has to learn to distinguish suchoccult realities from hallucinations and delusions.Although it is customary to exaggerate the importanceof occult experiences, it is not uncommon todoubt their validity and to treat them with a con-Contempt for occulttempt which is usually accorded toexperiences born of all forms of mental aberrations andignoranceabnormalities. The attitude of unqualifiedcontempt for occult experience is ofcourse most pronounced in those who

THE PLACE OF OCCULTISM IN SPIRITUAL LIFE: I 85are not even abecedarians in direct knowledge of occult realities.It hurts the ego to admit and feel that there might be vastunexplored fields of the universe which are accessible just to alimited number of persons, and from which one happens to beexcluded. The undeserved contempt which occultism at timesreceives is almost always the outcome of profound ignorance aboutits real meaning. This attitude of contempt is of course differentfrom a cautious and critical attitude. Those who have a cautiousand critical approach are endowed with humility and openness ofmind, and are ever ready to recognise and admit occult realitieswhen they occur.The Master usually helps the aspirant through ordinarymeans and prefers to take him under the veil, but when there is aspecial indication he may also use an occult medium to help him.Some dreams spirittuallyimportantSpecial types of dreams are among thecommon media which are used for touchingthe deeper life of the aspirant. Masters havenot infrequently first contacted aspirants by appearing in theirdreams. Such dreams, however, have to be carefully distinguishedfrom ordinary dreams. In ordinary dreams the subtle body is activein exercising its functions of seeing, tasting, smelling, touching andhearing, but the soul is not using the subtle body with fullconsciousness. As these experiences of ordinary dreams arereceived subconsciously, they are in most cases purely subjective,relating to physical activities and concerning gross living, and arethe creations of nascent sanskaras stored in the mind. In somecases, however, a dream which is indistinguishable from ordinarydreams may be the reflection in the subconscious of someobjective experience of the subtle body, and not merely a productof fancy.

86 DISCOURSESMost dreams are purely subjective and subconsciousexperiences of the subtle body and they have no special spiritualsignificance, except that they can be occasions for forging newRare types of dreamssanskaras or spending up old ones and thatoccasionally they shed light upon thehidden complexes and unfaced problems of personality. Suchdreams can never include something which is not in some way apart of the past experience of the person. They allow scope fornovelty only in respect of new combinations of items which havealready appeared in past experience. The rare types of dreams arethose about persons and things unknown in this life but known insome past life or lives. Still more rare are the dreams of personsand things which have never appeared in this life or former livesbut are going to appear in this life in the future. Ordinary dreamsare thus utterly different from dreams which have occultsignificance.Very often, when the aspirant is having psychic unfoldmenthe has occasional experience of the subtle world in the form ofsignificant visions, lights, colours, sounds, smells or contacts. AtBeginnings of occultexperiencefirst these experiences are fitful and theaspirant is likely to treat them ashallucinations. But even when he treatsthem as hallucinations, he finds it impossible to resist theirdirective influence because of their intrinsic potency. The spiritualjourney, however, becomes more smooth if the aspirant learns tocultivate the right attitude, towards occult experiences, whichconsists in taking them for what they are worth. This balancedattitude is just the thing which the aspirant in the initial stages findsit difficult to maintain.The beginner is apt to exaggerate the importance of hisglimpses into the inner worlds and develop an ungovernable

THE PLACE OF OCCULTISM IN SPIRITUAL LIFE: I 87craving for repetition of these experiences, or he tries to treat themBalanced attitude toas abnormal phenomena and underratesoccult experience very their significance. Of these tworarealternatives, the attitude of exaggeratingthe importance of occult experiences isthe most common, because the novelty and rarity of occultexperiences are the factors which contribute to charging them withoverwhelming importance.In fact, the ego of the aspirant tends to becomeattached to this new field revealed to him, and gives him thesense of being a rare person admitted to an exclusive privilege. TheCraving for occultexperiencemore experiences a person has the greaterscope he desires. He also develops the habitof depending upon occult goading for eachstep on the Path, just as those who take drugs get addicted to themand require stimulation even for doing things which they couldformerly do without such stimulation. In order to avoid this pitfallfor the aspirant, the Master takes good care not to cater to his newcraving for occultism. Occult experiences are vouchsafed to theaspirant if and when they are absolutely necessary for spiritualpurposes and not when he wants or asks for them.If the aspirant is found to attach undue importanceto occult experiences or to develop an ungovernable craving forthem, the Master might deal with this obstacle in his own way byDealing with cravingfor occult experienceactually weakening or annulling the occultexperiences which have become the basisfor false search. This is like giving immediaterelief to a patient by surgical removal of the root cause ofa physical disorder. It serves the purpose of protecting the aspirantfrom

88 DISCOURSESforging fresh chains for self-limitation. The aspirant must not beallowed under any circumstances to get caught up in false valuesand wrong search. These can only lead to side-tracking and causeunnecessary delay in achieving the real goal, which is to getinitiated into the truly spiritual life. The introduction of the aspirantinto occult realities is necessarily a very gradual and prolongedprocess. The Master is never anxious to expedite it, as few personsare really qualified to stand the expansion of their experience inthis new dimension.In the initial stages the appearance of occult realities is veryfitful and the aspirant sometimes doubts their claims to validity,treating them with caution in order to rule out the possibility of hisValidity of occultexperiencebeing deluded. But occult experiences oftenbear unmistakable credentials for their ownclaim to validity, and even when any suchcredentials are not evident they compel due respect and attentionbecause of the unusual significance, bliss, peace and directivevalue with which they are surcharged. Mainly because of thesecharacteristics, the aspirant is able to distinguish real occultexperiences from hallucinations and delusions.Hallucinations are erroneous perceptions and consist inactually seeing or hearing things which do not really exist. Thoughthey are clearly different in this respect from merely imaginingOccult experiencemust be distinguishedfrom hallucinationand delusionthings, they remain objects of doubt inspite of their similarity to normalperceptions. Delusions are even moredeceptive because they consist not only inactually seeing things which really do notexist, but also in having complete conviction of their existence. Butordinary hallucinations and delusions do not bring extraordinary

THE PLACE OF OCCULTISM IN SPIRITUAL LIFE: 1 89bliss or peace to the person who experiences them. The bliss andpeace which are attendant upon real occult experiences are afairly reliable criterion by which to distinguish them as genuine.Hallucinations are like the nightmare of wakeful consciousness.Even when occult experience can be clearly differentiatedfrom illusion, it is deficient in power and efficacy and subject topoignant doubt. This happens when the person who has had theBeneficiary of occulthelp must developself-confidenceexperience discusses the matter with otherswho, because of their incapacity tounderstand such things, throw out contrarythoughts and shake his conviction. For thisreason, in ancient times, the Master usually required a disciple tomaintain strict secrecy about his occult experiences. Even a deepexperience is likely to become weak through the contradiction andscepticism of others, unless the aspirant has learned to follow hisown inner experience irrespective of what others might think orsay. If the aspirant is to make quick progress and to profit mostthrough occult help, he must develop immense and unshakableconfidence in himself and the Master. He must not look to othersfor guidance, because those who will understand his problems orhis experiences are very few. The aspirant must, indeed, beprepared to face the possibility of not being thoroughly understoodby all his friends or relations, for they might be in thedark about the grounds for his ideology and course of action.If at the time of its occurrence an occult experiencehas served the purpose ofEffect of doubt onpotency of occultexperiencegiving new momentum tospiritual endeavour, it often does not matterif the aspirant considers it in retrospectiveanalysis and thought as being

90 DISCOURSESa form of delusion. However, there are some occult experienceswhich are deliberately vouchsafed to the aspirant in order thatthey should be a standing source of inspiration and guidance. Withregard to these special experiences, it becomes necessary that theaspirant should cease to doubt their validity and importance. Butthe general attitude to seek endless corroborations of occult experiencesis definitely unhealthy, and the Master givescorroborative confirmation only when he considers it necessary.Further, he takes the initiative in the way he judges best in thesituation. Whatever he does arises from his unfettered discretionand is in no way related to or dependent upon any expectationdeveloped by the aspirant. But when it is spiritually necessary theMaster does increase the efficacy of occult experience by confirmingits validity and authority through some direct or indirectcorroboration from the aspirant's normal range of experience.In the advancing stages to the beginning of the Path, theaspirant becomes spiritually prepared for being entrusted with freeuse of the forces of the inner world of the astral bodies. He mayAstral journeysthen get used to undertaking astral journeys inhis astral body, after leaving the physical bodyin sleep or wakefulness. The astral journeys which are undertakenunconsciously are much less important than those undertaken withfull consciousness and as a result of deliberate volition. Thisimplies conscious use of the astral body. Conscious separation ofthe astral body from the outer vehicle of the gross body has its ownvalue in making the soul feel its distinction from the gross bodyand in arriving at a fuller control of the gross body. One can, atwill, put on and put off the external gross body, as if it were acloak, and use the astral body for experiencing the

THE PLACE OF OCCULTISM IN SPIRITUAL LIFE: I 91inner world of the astral and undertaking journeys through it, if andwhen necessary.The sights, smells, tastes, contacts and sounds which areexperienced through conscious use of the astral body are clear anddefinite, like the experiences gained through conscious use of theEnlarged scope for advancementgross body. They are not vague orsubjective, as in ordinary dreams, but areas objective and effective as otherexperiences of wakeful consciousness. The ability to undertakeastral journeys therefore involves considerable expansion of one'sscope for experience. It brings opportunities for promoting one'sown spiritual advancement, which begins with the involution ofconsciousness.The harnessing of occult forces is not to be regarded in anyway as a substitute for the inner effort which the aspirant mustmake to advance further. When occult experiences are gifts fromOccult experience anaid to intuition, notits substitutethe Masters or spiritually advanced souls,they serve the purpose of unveiling much ofthe hitherto obscured intuition, removingsome of the difficulties on the Path andfilling the aspirant with the great confidence and enthusiasm whichare necessary to cope with the new requirements of each stage ofthe Path. But the aspirant makes real progress by putting intopractice the best intuitions of his heart, not by being the merelypassive recipient of occult experiences.

The Place of Occultism inSpiritual LifePART IITHE OCCULT BASIS OF SPIRITUAL LIFETHOSE who have even a preliminary acquaintance with thestructure and laws of the inner spheres of existence know thatcomplete isolation of human beings is a figment of imagina-People constantlyinteracting on innerplanestion. Whether they desire it or not, allpersons are constantly acting and interactingupon each other by their very existence,even when they do not establish any contacton the physical plane. There are no limits to the spreading of theinfluence of man. The magnetic influence of the subtle spheresknows no barriers of national frontiers or any other conventionallimitations. Good thoughts as well as evil thoughts, cheerful moodsas well as gloomy moods, noble and expansive feelings as well aspetty and narrow emotions, unselfish aspiration as well as selfishambition—all these have a tendency to spread out and influenceothers, even when they are not expressed in words or deeds. Theworld of mental life is as much a unified system as the world ofgross matter. The gross world as a vehicle of spiritual life has itsown indubitable importance, but the links and connections existing

THE PLACE OF OCCULTISM IN SPIRITUAL LIFE: 11 93between different persons can by no means be fully estimated if wemerely consider the tangible transactions which take place in thegross world.For an aspirant to see saints and masters does not yield itsfull significance except in the context of all the correspondinghappiness of the inner planes. The ancient Rishis have attachedValue of darshanaand sahavasagreat importance to having the darshana ofsaints and masters, because they are thesource of the constant flow of love and lightwhich emanates from them and makes an irresistible appeal to theinner feeling of the aspirant even when he receives no verbalinstruction from them. The effect of darshana is dependent uponthe receptivity and response of the aspirant, whose reaction isdetermined by his own sanskaras and past connections. Often theaspirant is completely satisfied with the darshana of the Masterand he desires nothing further from him. To derive bliss andcontentment from the mere darshana of the Master is a great thingbecause it indicates that the aspirant has desirelessness and love,which are the two essentials of spiritual life. Having had thedarshana of the supreme Beloved, the aspirant naturally desiresnothing except to have more of his darshana, and is thus impelledby his inner spiritual urge to seek the sahavasa (company) of theMaster as often as possible. Further sahavasa of the Master implementsand strengthens the purifying effect of darshana and alsoresults in drawing the aspirant closer and closer to the Master onthe inner planes of life.Like darshana, falling at the feet of the Master also has aspecial value of its own. The feet, which are physically the lowestpart of the body, are the highest from the spiritual point of view.Physically the feet

94 DISCOURSESFeet of the Mastergo through everything—good and bad,beautiful and ugly, clean and dirty, yet theyremain above everything. Spiritually the feet of the Master areabove everything in the universe, which is like dust to them. Whenpeople come to a Perfect Master and touch his feet with theirhands, they lay the burden of their sanskaras on him. He collectsthe sanskaras from all over the universe, just as an ordinaryperson, in walking, collects dust on his feet. There is a hoarycustom that after the aspirant has the darshana of the Master andfalls at his feet, he washes the Master's feet with milk and honeyand places a coconut near them as his offering. Honey representsred sanskaras, milk represents white sanskaras and the coconutrepresents the mind. Thus this convention which has becomeestablished in some areas in connection with greeting the Masters,really symbolises throwing the burden of all sanskaras on theMaster and surrendering the mind to him. Adoption of this innerattitude constitutes the most critical and important step which theaspirant must take in order to get initiated on the Path.Once the aspirant has the bliss of the darshana of a Master,that sight gets carved on his mind, and even when he is unable toestablish frequent personal contact, his mind turns to the MasterMental contactagain and again in an effort to understand Hissignificance. This process of establishing mentalcontact with the Master is essentially different from merelyimaginative revival of past incidents. In the ordinary play ofimagination, the recall of past incidents is not necessarily animatedby a definite purpose, whereas in establishing mental contact thereis a definite purpose. Owing to the directive power of purpose,imagination ceases to be a

THE PLACE OF OCCULTISM IN SPIRITUAL LIFE: II 95mere revolving of ideas and reaches out to the Master through theinner planes and establishes contact with him. Such mental contactwith the Master is often as fruitful and effective as his physicaldarshana. The inward repetition of such mental contacts is likeconstructing a channel between Master and aspirant, who becomesthereby the recipient of the grace, love and light which areconstantly flowing from the Master in spite of the apparentdistance between them. Thus, the help of the Master goes out notonly to those who happen to be in his physical presence but also toothers who establish mental contact with him.The Master devotes careful attention to the individual needsof the disciple and the first thing he does is to protect the disciplefrom influences that will divert his attention from the Path or inter-Special precautionsindicated by certainoccult conditionsfere with his progress. Often the Master requiresthe disciple to accept some kind oftemporary isolation so that his mind isguarded against impacts which mightimpede his spiritual progress. The ancient yogis, under instructionsfrom their Masters, prepared their own food and did not allowanyone to remain present at the time of eating it. The reason was toavoid impressions of evil from the glance of bad persons. Adisciple is also likely to catch the impressions of another's lust justas a clean cloth may be readily soiled by dirt. In the earlier stagesthe aspirant must guard against any complications which mightarise through association with others who are not on the Path. Butthe Master gives special instructions for the severance oravoidance of certain connections and contacts only when they arespecially indicated for the special case. In most cases, however, allthat is necessary is secured merely by the constant

96 DISCOURSEScompany of the Master, and no need arises to submit the disciple toactual isolation. Although the disciple may be outwardly in touchwith the world, he remains mentally detached from it because ofhis inward connection with the Master.Just as the Master may isolate a close disciple fromundesirable contacts and connections, he may also actuallyencourage and bring about new and fresh contacts which he deemsHelpful contactsand associationsto be in the spiritual interest of the disciple. Hehas a consummate understanding of thesanskaras and karmic ties and theircomplications, and he can consciously help people to enter intosuch associations as will allow and call forth important responsesand activities, and help the progress of all concerned along the lineof least resistance or by the shortest possible route. He uses hisknowledge of the past lives, sanskaras and connections of peopleto help them economise their spiritual energy and use it with bestresults.The unity and solidarity of the inner plane makes it possiblefor the Master to use his disciple as a medium for his work evenwhen the disciple is unconscious of serving this larger purpose ofThe disciple as amediumthe Master. This is possible because thedisciple, through his love and understanding ofthe Master as well as his obedience andsurrender, establishes a rapport with the Master and comes intotune with him. Those who come into direct contact with the Masterreceive his direct help, and those who are closely connected withhis disciple receive the Master's indirect help.Sharing of spiritual work is by no means one-sided; eventhe disciples who merely think of the Master or meditate upon himhave the privilege of sharing the spiritual and universal work inwhich the Master might

THE PLACE OF OCCULTISM IN SPIRITUAL LIFE: II 97The Master as arelaying stationbe engaged at that moment. As he is one witheternity, the Master is beyond time and alllimitations of time; as he is also interested in thespiritual upliftment of humanity, he assumes many of thelimitations of time and his work can be helped by the voluntary cooperationof his disciples. The Master feeds upon the love of hisdisciples and utilises the spiritual forces released by them for hisuniversal work. In this way the Master is like the relaying stationwhich receives a song only in order to broadcast it to the world atlarge. To love the Master is to love all, not merely symbolically butactually; for what the Master receives on the subtle planes hespiritualises and distributes. Thus he not only strengthens thepersonal links which the disciples may have with him but alsogives them the privilege of sharing his divine work.By infinite ways, the Master tries to draw the aspirant intohis own being so that he may get disentangled from the mazes ofthe universe and come to desire God. This longing for God isThe internal eyepresent in the aspirant from the very beginning,but the Master makes this primary longing moreintense and articulate by opening the internal eye of the aspirant.When the internal eye is opened God, who is the object of searchand longing, is actually sighted. As the gaze of the soul is turnedinward and fixed upon the supreme reality, the desire to establishunion with it becomes much more ardent than when the soul isgroping for God through mere speculation or imagination. Whenthe time is ripe the Master can open this internal eye in less than asecond.Ultimately the aspirant has to realise that God is the onlyReality and that he is really one with God.

98 DISCOURSESThis implies that he should not be overpowered by the spectacle ofOm-pointthe multi-form universe. In fact, the wholeuniverse is in the Self and springs intoexistence from the tiny point in the Self which is referred to as"Om". But the self has become habituated to gathering experiencethrough one medium or another, and therefore it comes toexperience the universe as a formidable rival other than itself.Those who have realized God constantly see the universe asspringing from this "Om-point" which is in everyone.The process of perception runs parallel to the process ofcreation, and the reversing of the process of perception withoutobliterating consciousness amounts to realising the nothingness ofReversing processof perceptionthe universe as a separate entity. The Self seesfirst through the mind, then through the subtleeye and lastly through the physical eye; and itis vaster than all that it can perceive. The big ocean and the vastspaces of the sky are tiny as compared with the Self. In fact, allthat the Self can perceive is finite, but the Self itself is infinite.When the Self retains full consciousness and yet sees nothing, ithas crossed the universe of its own creation and has taken the firststep to know itself as everything.The entire process of withdrawing consciousness fromthe universe and becoming conscious of the Self is accompaniedby an increasing control of all the vehicles of consciousness.SiddhisSuch control is made possible by the vivificationand activation of unused centres ofcontrol; and the functioning of new centres brings in its train anumber of occult powers. These new powers are commonly knownas siddhis, and they can come

THE PLACE OF OCCULTISM IN SPIRITUAL LIFE: II 99before the aspirant has become spiritually perfect. In fact, egoismcan flourish through the acquisition of such occult powers. Theaspirant may not only take delight in possessing them, but mightactually use them for mundane purposes from which he has notnecessarily freed himself. Siddhis are therefore rightly regarded asobstacles to the attainment of realisation. However, after God isrealised all these occult powers dwindle in their importance. Thesiddhis have their field in the nothingness which is the universe,and the person who realises God is permanently and immovablyestablished in the Supreme Reality. Although the whole universe islike a zero to the God-realised person, he may voluntarily assumeresponsibility toward those souls who are enmeshed in the tanglesof the universe. In that case he can freely and legitimately makeuse of his occult powers for the spiritual good of others.There is nothing which does not admit of direct or indirectcontrol by the Masters of wisdom. Large social phenomena such aswars, revolutions and epidemics, as well as cosmic phenomenaFurtherance of thedivine plansuch as earthquakes, floods and otherchanges, are equally amenable to theircontrol and direction through the releaseof the forces of the exalted planes on which the Masters areconsciously stationed. The Masters can also use the occultforces and possibilities for securing co-operative and coordinatedspiritual work. They frequently hold meetings andconferences on the higher planes for securing the advancementof humanity. The Over-soul in all is only One and It alwaysfunctions as a unity. Those who have become conscious of thisunity become fit to undertake unlimited responsibility, becausethey have shed the lower limitations of the human mind andhave become so impersonal and universal in their interest that

100 DISCOURSESthey are effective vehicles for the execution and furtherance of theDivine Plan on earth.

The Place of Occultism inSpiritual LifePART IIIOCCULTISM AND SPIRITUALITYOCCULTISM is a branch of knowledge concerned with the studyof the universe and human personality. In this respect there isno difference of principle between occultism and other sciencesOccultism as ascienceconcerned with the study of these subjects.The difference between occultism and othersciences arises because other sciences areconcerned with aspects and forces directly or indirectly accessibleto ordinary observation and manipulation, whereas occultism isconcerned with those hidden aspects and forces which areessentially inaccessible to ordinary observation and manipulation.The development of occult knowledge is conditioned by theunfoldment of the latent powers of the human spirit.Many of the psychical research societies of moderntimes approach occult knowledge with the same attitudewhich characterises other forms of knowledge, becauseLimitations on spreadof occultism as ascienceknowledge. We findin principle there seems to be noreason why it should be regardedas either less valuable or more valuablethan other forms of theoretical

102 DISCOURSESthese societies trying to pursue occult knowledge in an organisedand co-operative form. The Masters have also deemed it desirableat times to reveal to the generality of mankind some theoreticalknowledge about certain important features of the occult worldsuch as immortality and reincarnation, the existence of differentbodies and planes and the laws concerning evolution and theoperation of Karma. Such knowledge gives the right sort ofbackground for spiritual aspiration and effort, and brings theperspective of the average man as near to the truth as is possibleunder the circumstances. With the exception of such generalknowledge about fundamentals, however, the Masters haveconsistently preferred to attach minimum importance to the spreadof detailed knowledge about occult realities, and have evenscrupulously withheld information concerning those points likelyto have vital bearing upon occultism as an art.In occultism, more than in any other science, there is asharp and significant division between those who know and thosewho do not know. In other sciences, to a certain extent indirectThose who know andthose who do notknowknowledge can take the place of directknowledge. In occultism, indirectknowledge can in no way approximatedirect knowledge in import andsignificance. Therefore, though occultism is an important science,the spread of purely theoretical information about occult realitiescan have little importance. For those who have no first-handexperience of occult realities, purely theoretical acquaintance withsome occult facts can have no special value. These occult realitiesare bound to remain for them more or less in the same category asdescriptions of unseen lands or works of imagination.Occultism as a science may be said to be more or less on

THE PLACE OF OCCULTISM IN SPIRITUAL LIFE: III 103the same footing as other sciences, but occultism as an art standsOccultism as an artby itself. However, even the spread of purelytheoretical information about occult facts isaccompanied at times with mischief, since it is likely to arouse idlecuriosity and stimulate craving for acquiring control over unknownforces with a view to using them for selfish ends. There is nothingparticularly spiritual about occult power as such. Like any othermundane power or scientific invention, it is capable of being usedfor good ends or bad. It gives immense scope for co-operativework on the higher planes, but this necessarily implies a spiritualpreparedness to shoulder a special responsibility.The novice may seek some occult powers and, withincertain limits, even succeed in having them, but this newattainment will prove to be a curse rather than a blessing ifMisuse of occultpowerhe is not spiritually prepared for the adequatefulfillment of the new responsibility implied inthe acquisition of the new powers. Even theslightest misuse of occult power has a severe reaction and creates abinding for the soul. Sometimes it may retard the progress of theaspirant and may even lead to a considerable set-back. Apart fromthe spiritual ruin which the novice may invite upon himself throughindiscreet use of occult power, he is bound to be a source ofincalculable harm to others over whom he has succeeded inwielding a formidable advantage.In the hands of the Masters of spiritual wisdom, occultpower is not only safe but has immense capacity that can beharnessed in the service of humanity, but even they are verysparing and economical in its use. By its very nature, occultismas an art has its own natural limitations. It cannot be widelyused for helping the

104 DISCOURSESOccultism as an artto be restricted tofurtherance of spiritualpurposesmaterial needs of humanity or helping it inits mundane purposes. The introduction ofan uncertain and incalculable factor, whichthe free exercise of occult power wouldinvolve, is bound to create much confusionand disturbance in the ordinary pursuits of men, who must be leftto their own limitations, resources and possibilities for the equaland uninterrupted working out of the law of Karma. The use ofoccult power, therefore, has to be strictly restricted to thefurtherance of spiritual purposes.Sometimes the saints do fulfill some of the mundanedesires of their devotees, but this is not done because they areinterested in mundane affairs, but because they are interested inMaterial bait forspiritual interestweaning their devotees away from theirmaterial cravings. When children are veryyoung they cannot be induced to attend toletters written on a slate. In order to induce their attention to lettersthe elders present them sometimes with letters speciallyconstructed out of sweets. Then they attend to these letters, notbecause they are interested in the letters as such, but because theyare interested in the sweets. But this often proves to be the beginningof their interest in the letters themselves, and the sweets cansoon be discarded after they have cultivated this interest. Worldlypeople are like such young children. Just as the father mayoccasionally give a piece of chocolate to the baby in order toencourage it to be good, the saints might give to their worldlyminded devotees certain harmless objects they desire so that theymay eventually be willing to part with them and get interested intrue spirituality.Worldly people are so much immersed in material cravingsthat nothing interests them unless it has some

THE PLACE OF OCCULTISM IN SPIRITUAL LIFE: III 105direct bearing upon the fulfillment of these cravings. Yet they maySaints not to become to saints and serve or respect them in theapproached with expectation of being helped in their materialmaterial motives problems. When a person approaches a saintwith respect, it becomes the duty of the saint tohelp him spiritually even when he has come with some othermotive. The saint, with his larger understanding of the humanmind, may therefore decide to help the person materially in orderto win him over to true spirituality. Such offering of a material baitfor spiritual purposes is an exception rather than a rule. Mostly thesaints discourage people from approaching them for any materialadvantage. From the spiritual point of view it is infinitely better fora person to love saints simply because they are lovable, than tolove them for some selfish ends. People should go to saints becausethey are genuinely interested in true spirituality and for noother reason. It is only then that they derive the greatest benefitfrom their contact with the saints.Occultism as an art derives its justification solely from itscapacity to subserve spiritual purposes; any diversion of occultpower from this end may be looked upon as misuse. It must not beOccult powers usedto promote purificationof humanitysummoned merely for worldly purposes. Itstrue function is not to secure the fulfillmentof human cravings, but to secure thepurification of the human heart. Occultismas an art is among the most effective and potent factors which cancontribute to the purging of humanity by helping it to give up baserdesires.Occultism as an art becomes particularly relevant andnecessary in the cases of those who, because of their evolution, areabout to unfold their latent psychic powers, or those who alreadyhave considerably

106 DISCOURSESSpecial sphere foruse of occult powersdeveloped psychic powers, but sometimesare not fully alive to the gross world owingto the withdrawal of their consciousness tothe higher planes. They have to be spoken to in a language whichthey can understand. Many advanced aspirants develop a numberof occult powers, but they are often as much in need of spiritualhelp as the ordinary run of humanity. As they are in possession ofmany occult powers they can be readily and effectively helped byPerfect Masters irrespective of distance. When the Master's helpcan be consciously received on the higher planes, it becomes muchmore fruitful than the help which he can give merely through thegross medium.Apart from the difficulties existing in forward movementon the Path, one of the characteristics of advanced aspirants is toget so deeply established in the happiness of their station that theyComing downare reluctant to come down for work in the grosssphere. This coming down of advanced aspirantsmust not be confused with the return to normal consciousness afterthe 7th plane experience which is the state of God-realisation ofPerfect Ones. The Perfect Master's return journey and consequentposition in different planes after Realisation, is actuated byaltruistic motives and is the result of Prarabdha, which the PerfectOnes utilise for the spiritual uplift of humanity in accordance withthe authority with which they are vested. For instance, it is saidMohammed stationed himself after God-realisation in the 7thplane, Buddha in the 5th and Moenuddin Chisti of Ajmer in the5th, though they are conscious of all the planes simultaneously.The coming down of advanced aspirants is induced inorder to help accelerate their forward movement on

THE PLACE OF OCCULTISM IN SPIRITUAL LIFE: III 107the Path when they find themselves hung up anywhere betwixt theplanes. For example, when an aspirant gets hung up somewherebetween the 3rd and 4th planes, a Master usually brings him downto the 3rd plane prior to pushing him up to the 4th plane. Suchcoming clown from their high station is also often necessary in theinterest of those who are still in the wilderness of the world andhave not even entered the Path. The Master may sometimes decideto get some spiritual work done through an advanced aspirant andmay require him to postpone his efforts for individual advancementfor the sake of others. Such coming down eventually turns out tobe a spiritual preparation for traversing the next stage of the Pathsmoothly and quickly; but even so, the aspirant finds it difficult torenounce the advantages of his attainment for the purpose ofhelping others. Coming down is particularly difficult for a personintensely experiencing a state of enchantment. In Sufism, thisenchantment is known as Hairat. In this state the aspirant finds itextremely difficult to keep away from different kinds ofenchantment. But sometimes, it is necessary that he should resistgetting lost in enchantment and come down for the sake of othersin the world. The Master has his own way of dealing with anadvanced aspirant and he can bring him round to any unpalatablemove.This is very well illustrated in the story of a famous Valinamed Ganjay Shakkar (Baba Fariduddin). Much before he couldget illumination this Vali could not close his eyes, which wereStory of GanjayShakkaralways open, dazed and glassy; and he could noteat as he was in Hairat and completelyenchanted in that state. His Master, the Khwajaof Ajmer, wanted him to keep away from this state of enchantmentand come down,

108 DISCOURSESbut he found it difficult to obey his Master. Then the Masterturned the key and brought him round in the following manner. Heinwardly inspired five thieves to come near the place of thisVali. They sat within five paces from this Vali and began toshare the plunder which they had stolen. Soon they beganquarrelling with each other and two of them killed the otherthree. These two, who were successful in the quarrel, dividedthe loot between them and ran away. But while running awaythey passed by the place where the Vali was sitting. As soonas they came near the Vali he regained normal consciousness.The proximity of these criminals was sufficient crudestimulus to bring him down to consciousness. The first thingthat he saw was some sparrows and his first impulse was totry his nascent powers on them. He said, "O sparrows, die,"and the sparrows fell down dead. Then he said, "Sparrows,rise up," and they rose. The two thieves who saw this wereamazed and they requested the Vali to raise the three thieveswhom they had killed in a moment of anger. On this the Valiaddressed himself to the three dead thieves and said, "Rise up,"but they did not rise. He was aghast at the thought that he hadlost his powers, and repenting for the frivolous use of hispowers, he went crying to his Master. When he came near theMaster he saw that those three thieves were massaging the feetof his Master. The Vali then went back to his original place,indifferent to food or drink. He became lean and remainedstationed in the same spot for ten years until white ants beganto eat up his body. People used to come to the Vali and place nearhis body large quantities of sugar which the ants ate. Since hisbody was always surrounded by heaps of sugar he came to beknown as Ganjay Shakkar, or the treasury of sugar. His storyshows how even the most advanced aspirants

THE PLACE OF OCCULTISM IN SPIRITUAL LIFE: III 109need the help of the Master if they are to proceed further on theway to realisation.Ganjay Shakkar's story illustrates the sort of occasionwhich calls forth the use of occult methods and occult powers, butit must be carefully noted that no occult phenomenon, regardless ofOccult phenomenahave no intrinsicvaluegrade, can have any intrinsic value in itself.The value which seems to belong tophenomena—occult or non-occult—is eitherpurely illusory or entirely relative. Illusoryvalues arise when anything acquires false importance, because itstimulates or promises to fulfill the passing cravings and thelimited purposes born of ignorance. If the thing is taken out of thecontext of these passing cravings and limited purposes, it isimmediately deprived of the entire meaning with which it seemedto be surcharged. Relative values arise when a thing acquiresimportance through serving the realisation or expression of theTruth. The importance of such things is derived from their beingthe essential conditions for the game of divine life; and therefore,though it is relative, such value is real and not illusory.Most persons consciously or unconsciously attach undueimportance to occult phenomena and mistake them for spirituality.For them, miracles and spirit-phenomena are the real topics ofOccultism to bedistinguished fromspiritualityabsorbing interest, and this is presumed toindicate an interest in the true life of thespirit. There is a very clear and definitedistinction, however, between occultism andmysticism, spiritualism and spirituality; and any failure to graspthe full import of this difference can only lead to confusion.All miracles belong to the phenomenal world,

110 DISCOURSESwhich is the world of shadows. As phenomena, they aresubject to change, and nothing that changes can have lastingThe only thing thatmattersvalue. Realisation of the eternal Truth is aninitiation into the unchangeable Being,which is the supreme Reality; and noacquaintance with the occult world or capacity to manipulate itsforces can really amount to realisation of the Truth. Occultphenomena are as much within the domain of false imagination asare ordinary phenomena of the gross world. From the spiritualpoint of view the only important thing is to realise the Divine Lifeand help others to realise it by manifesting it in every-dayhappenings. To penetrate into the essence of all being andsignificance and to release the fragrance of that inner attainmentfor the guidance and benefit of others, by expressing, in the worldof forms, truth, love, purity and beauty—this is the sole gamewhich has intrinsic and absolute worth. All other happenings,incidents and attainments in themselves can have no lastingimportance.

The Types of MeditationPART ITHE NATURE OF MEDITATIONAND ITS CONDITIONSMEDITATION may be described as the path whichthe individual cuts for himself while trying to getbeyond the limitations of the mind. If a man caught up in theMeditation is thepath forged by theindividual whilecontrolling mindtangles of a thick forest tries to get out intothe open, his efforts to break throughthe encircling impediments will leave behindhim the marks of his journey. By the study ofthese marks an observer will be able todescribe the paths which he traversed in his attempt to come outinto the open. The movements of the man who comes out of theforest are different in principle from those of the railway enginewhich moves along rails already laid on the course it is to take. Theman is not following a ready-made path; the path becomesimprinted after he has traversed it. In the same way, the manwho finds himself drawn into deep meditation is really grapplingwith the spiritual problems that he faces. He is not merely tryingto adhere to a rigid line of movement that already exists inhis mental make-up.

112 DISCOURSESThe development of meditation can nevertheless beanticipated in outline by those who have direct insight into thepeculiar contours of the mind of the individual, in the same wayGeneral lines ofmeditation can beanticipatedthat a person who has thorough acquaintancewith the details of the constitution of thesolidified crust of the earth may, in general,expect the outburst of a volcano in one regionrather than another. When the surging powers in the bowels of theearth are trying to burst out, they are bound to take the line of leastresistance, and their actual passage will be dependent largely uponthe nature of the surroundings with which they are confronted. Thedifference between volcanic forces and the spiritual urge is that theformer are unconscious, while the latter is a consciousphenomenon. Intelligence plays an important part in the course ofmeditation, and it is this intelligence which is kindled by theMaster by giving to the aspirant a few simple suggestions aboutwhat kinds of things he has to do or expect in his meditations.Meditation has often been misunderstood as a mechanicalprocess of forcing the mind upon some idea or object. Most peoplenaturally have an aversion to meditation because they experienceIntelligent meditationsustained byinterestgreat difficulty in attempting to coerce themind in a particular direction, or to pin itdown to one particular thing. Any purelymechanical handling of the mind is not onlyirksome but is bound ultimately to be unsuccessful.The first principle which aspirants have to remember is thatthe mind can be controlled and directed in meditation onlyaccording to laws inherent in the make-up of the mind itself, andnot by means of the application of any mechanical or semimechanicalforce.

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: I 113Many persons who do not technically "meditate" areoftentimes found to be deeply and intensely engrossed insystematic and clear thinking about some practical problem ortheoretical subject. Their mental process is, in a sense, very muchlike meditation, inasmuch as the mind is engrossed in intensethinking about a particular subject-matter to the exclusion of allother irrelevant things. Meditation is often easy and spontaneous insuch mental processes because the mind is dwelling upon an objectin which it is interested and which it increasingly understands. Thespiritual tragedy about ordinary trains of thoughts is that they arenot directed towards things that really matter. On the other hand,the object of meditation has always to be carefully selected andmust be spiritually important; it has to be some divine person orobject, or some spiritually significant theme or truth. In order toattain success in meditation the mind must not only get interestedin the divine subjects or truths, but must also begin by trying tounderstand and appreciate them. Such intelligent meditation is anatural process of the mind; and since it avoids the monotonousrigidity and regularity of mechanical meditation, it becomes notonly spontaneous and inspiring, but easy and successful.Meditation should be distinguished from concentration.Meditation is the first stage of a process which gradually developsinto concentration. In concentration the mind seeks to uniteMeditation andconcentrationwith its object by the process of fixing itselfupon that object, whereas meditation consists inthorough thinking about a particular object tothe exclusion of every other thing. In concentration there ispractically no movement of the mind, but in meditation the mindmoves from one relevant idea to another. In concentration the mindmerely dwells upon some form

114 DISCOURSESor a pithy and terse formula, without amplifying it through asuccession of ideas. In meditation the mind tries to understand andassimilate the object by dwelling upon diverse attributes of theform or various implications of the formula. In concentration aswell as in meditation, there is a peaceful intermingling of love andlonging for the divine object or principle on which the minddwells, and both these psychic activities are very different from themerely mechanical processes which have rigid regularity andunrelieved monotony.Persons with no capacity for intense concentration have tobegin with meditation, whereas for those who have the capacity forconcentration, meditation is unnecessary. It is sufficient if theyconcentrate on the mere form of a God-man or Man-God or onsome simple formula like, "I am neither the gross body nor thesubtle body 1 nor the mental body 2 ; I am Atman (Soul)."Meditation is essentially an individual matter in thesense that it is not for self-display in society, but for one'sown spiritual advancement. Utter isolation of the individualSilence and seclusionhelpful for meditationfrom social surroundings is almost alwaysconducive to unhampered prosecution ofmeditation. The ancient yogis took tomountains and caves in search of completeseclusion. Great quiet and undisturbed silence are essential forattaining success. However, it is not necessary for persons to go tomountains and caves in search of these conditions. Even in townsa little care and trouble can secure for the aspirant the quiet, silenceand seclusion necessary to facilitate and promote progress in thedifferent forms of meditation.Darkness or closing one’s eyes is not absolutely12The subtle body is the seat of desires and vital forces.The mental body is the seat of the mind.

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: I 115necessary for meditation. If the aspirant is face to face with theobject of meditation he may have a successful meditation evenValue of darknesswhen his eyes are open. But in most cases,getting away from all gross sight and sound isconducive to intensive meditation. To secure complete externalsilence involves careful selection of the spot for meditation, butone has only to close one's eyes in order to protect the mind fromthe disturbance of sights. Sometimes, when there is light, closingthe eyes is not sufficient to ward off all visual stimulation. Then itis advisable to start meditation in complete darkness. Darknessnormally promotes progress in meditation.With regard to posture, there are no fixed rules. Anyposture which is comfortable and hygienically unobjectionablemay be adopted, so long as it contributes to the alertness of thePosture for meditationmind and does not induce sleep. Theposture should not involve any physicaltension or pain, because it then deflects the attention to the bodyitself. The body should, therefore, be completely relaxed as whengoing to sleep, but the usual position which is taken in sleep shouldbe avoided because of its tendency to induce sleep. When the bodyhas assumed a convenient and suitable posture, it is helpful to thinkof the head as the centre of the body. When the head is regarded asthe centre it is easier to forget the body and to fix one's attention onthe object of meditation.It is desirable that the aspirant should maintain thesame posture for each meditation. The previous associationswhich the posture has with his meditations endow it with aImportance of fixingspot, posture and hourspecial capacity to induce and facilitatesimilar meditations. When

116 DISCOURSESthe body has assumed the chosen posture it is, as it were,constantly under the subconscious suggestion that it must not anymore obtrude upon consciousness and that it has to serve thepurpose of meditation. Choosing the same spot and a fixed houralso has a salutary effect. Hence the aspirant must be serious aboutresorting to an identical place, posture and hour. Choice of the spotalso involves consideration of occult associations and possibilitiesof the spot. Special importance is attached to meditating in holyplaces where the Masters themselves have lived or meditated.The place, posture and hour of meditation all have theirrelative importance, which varies according to the peculiarities andhistory of the individual. The Master, therefore, often givesdifferent instructions to each disciple to suit his individual case.However, where meditation has become habitual through constantpractice, adherence to a fixed place, posture or time can bedispensed with and the aspirant can carry on his meditation at anytime under any conditions. Even when he is walking he may beinwardly absorbed in meditation.Meditation should not be resorted to with a heavy heart,as if one were taking castor oil. One has to be serious aboutmeditation, but not grave or melancholy. Humour and cheerful-Meditation shouldbe a joyous enterpriseness not only do not interfere with theprogress of meditation but actuallycontribute to it. Meditation should notbe turned into a distasteful and tiresome thing. The aspirant shouldfreely allow himself the natural joy which is attendant uponsuccessful meditation without getting addicted to it. Meditationshould be something like a picnic on the higher planes. Likeexcursions into new and beautiful natural surroundings, meditationbrings with it a sense

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: I 117of enthusiasm, adventure, peace and exhilaration. All thoughts ofdepression, fear or worry have to be cut out completely if there isto be a really successful meditation.Though meditation is essentially an individual matter,collective meditation has its own advantages. If different aspirantswho are in harmony with each other take to the same line ofCollective meditationmeditation together, their thoughts have atendency to augment and strengthen eachother. This is particularly noticeable when disciples of the sameMaster are collectively engaged in meditating upon their Master. Ifa collective meditation of this type is to yield its full advantage,each aspirant who participates must be concerned with the courseof his own meditation and not with what others of the group aredoing. Though he starts his meditation in the company of others,he has to lose himself in the object of his meditation. He has to beentirely oblivious of the whole world, including his body, and hehas to be exclusively cognisant of the object agreed upon beforethe beginning of the meditation. When intelligently handled,collective meditation can be of immense help to beginners,although advanced aspirants can carry on by themselves.In ordinary thinking the uninterrupted flow of relevanttrains of ideas is common, but when the mind sets itself tosystematic meditation, there is inevitably a reactionary tendencyArising of disturbingthoughtsfor irrelevant and contrary thoughts toemerge and create disturbances. This is thelaw of the mind and the aspirant should notbe upset by the appearance in consciousness of many contrary andunwholesome thoughts which had hitherto never made theirappearance. Meditation involves bringing the subconsciouscontents of the mind to the forefront of

118 DISCOURSESconsciousness. Like the conjurer who summons into existencemany strange and unexpected things, the process of meditationinvites many absurd and unwanted thoughts. The aspirant mustexpect and be prepared for all these disturbing thoughts and shouldexercise inexhaustible patience with unshakable confidence thatultimately all these disturbances will be overcome.The last but not least important condition for attainingsuccess in meditation is adoption of the right technique forhandling disturbing thoughts and mental influences. It is uselessTechnique of dealingwith disturbingthoughtsto waste psychic energy by tryingdirectly to combat and repress disturbingthoughts. Any such attempt involvesgiving further attention to them and theyfeed upon the very attention given for the purpose of repressingthem, thereby being further strengthened and confirmed inconsciousness. It is best to ignore them and turn to the object ofmeditation as early as possible without attaching any undue importanceto the disturbing factors. By recognising the irrelevance andworthlessness of disturbing thoughts, and the relative value andimportance of the object of meditation, it becomes possible to letthe disturbing thoughts die through sheer neglect, thus making themind permanently steady in the object of meditation.

The Types of MeditationPART IITHE CHIEF TYPES OF MEDITATIONAND THEIR RELATIVE VALUEMEDITATION is of different types which can be convenientlydistinguished from each other on the basis of three distinctprinciples. They can be classified either on the basis of the functionTypes of meditationclassified by threeprinciplesmeditation performs in spiritual advancement,or the part of personality that ispredominantly brought into play during theprocess of meditation, or the items ofexperience it tries to understand. Of these three principles, any onecan be adopted for the classification of the different types ofmeditation. The last principle will be used later while giving adetailed account of the different forms of meditation, as it is mostsuitable for enumerative purposes. This part will make use of thefirst two principles, as they are helpful in different ways inexplaining the relative value of the various forms of meditation.With reference to the first principle, meditation has to servethe purpose of associating consciousness with the eternal Truth,and of dissociating consciousness from the false and unimportantthings of the phenomenal

120 DISCOURSESAssociative meditationand dissociativemeditationworld. There thus arise two types ofmeditation. Associative meditation predominantlyinvolves the synthetic activityof the mind (Anwaya), and dissociativemeditation predominantly involves the analytic activity of themind (Vyatireka). Associative meditation may be illustrated by theformula, "I am Infinite," and dissociative meditation may beillustrated by the formula, "I am not my desires."Through associative meditation the aspirant tries to unitewith the spiritual ideal as mentally constructed by him. Throughdissociative meditation the aspirant tries to separate himself fromRespective functionsof associative anddissociative meditationthe conditions which come to him as antispiritual.Associative meditation is aprocess of assimilation of the essentials ofspiritual life; dissociative meditation is aprocess of elimination of those factorswhich prevent the life of the spirit.Associative meditation is concerned with objects which are,so to say, selected from the land of light, and dissociativemeditation is concerned with objects which are parts of the land ofDissociative meditationpaves way forassociative meditationshadows. The world of illusions, like theworld of shadows, has a bewilderingcharm of its own. If a person is to succeedin getting out of the world of illusions andarrive at the Truth, he must develop resistance to the enticement ofthe world of illusions by repeated recognition of its real worthlessness,just as a person must develop discontent with the world ofshadows if he is to come into the light. Therefore dissociativemeditation is a preliminary to associative meditation. It comes firstand has its own value,

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: II 121but it is meant merely to pave the way for associative meditation.Associative meditation and dissociative meditation are bothnecessary in a way, but eventually associative meditation turns outto be far more fruitful and important than dissociative medita-Associative meditationmore fruitfulthan dissociativemeditationtion. If a person is surrounded by shadows, itdoes not help very much to be continuouslyupset about them. If he has no interestexcept that of being cross with the shadows,there will be no end to his worries. But if,instead of fretting and fuming about the engulfing shadows, he setshimself to the more important task of bringing himself under thefull blaze of the sun, he will discover that all the shadows havedisappeared. What really matters is not aimless discontent withexisting limitations but directive effort towards the establishedideal. As long as the person is turned towards the sun and he istrying to walk into the light, the shadows which encircle himcannot be a serious handicap to his emancipation. In the same waythe aspirant need not worry too much about his failings, as long ashis heart is firmly set upon uniting with his spiritual ideal. Hisfailings will all have vanished into nothingness when hispilgrimage ends.Associative meditation is to the spirit what the assimilationof food is to the body. The body can make up for its deficienciesby assimilating the right sort of food. Similarly the mind canAnalogy of foodsecure its health by the assimilation of spiritualtruths through meditation. It is necessary tostrike a balance between the different forms of associativemeditation even though in their own way they are all good, just asit is necessary to attend to balancing the diet even when one hassatisfied oneself

122 DISCOURSESas to the nutritive value of the different componentsof the diet. Disproportionate development of mentallife hampers advancement because of the internalfracturing which accompanies it, and happy combinationsof the different forms of meditation facilitate rapid progressbecause they secure a harmonised and balanced mind. Theright combinations are those which promote an advancingequilibrium by emphasising just those aspects of thetruth which are relevant to removing the special obstacles,with which the aspirant is faced at the moment.The analogy of diet can be extended even to the second typeof meditation, which consists in avoiding and eliminating thingswhich are anti-spiritual. As faulty diet can upset physical health, soExtension of theanalogyfaulty types of meditation can throw the mindinto disorder. As the wrong type of food canruin health instead of nourishing it, soinstinctive meditation on the objects of craving creates furtherfetters for the mind instead of breaking those which already exist.Therefore it is as important to avoid the wrong type of meditationas it is to avoid the wrong type of food. Further, just as good healthrequires constant elimination of waste products and poisonoussubstances, spiritual health requires the expulsion of undesirablethoughts and emotions.So far our explanations have differentiated the two types ofmeditation which may be observed from the standpoint of thefunction which meditation performs in spiritual advancement. It isSecond principlecovers three types ofmeditationequally illuminating to understand thedifferent types of meditation into which theprocess of meditation is differentiated byconsidering the nature of the part of thepersonality which is predominantly brought into play during theprocess of meditation.

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: II 123Through the application of this second principle we have threedistinct types of meditation.In the first type of meditation the intellect is predominantlybrought into play; it might be called "discriminative meditation."In the second type the heart is predominantly brought into play; itDiscriminative meditation,meditation ofthe heart and meditationof actionmight be called the "meditation of theheart." In the third type the active natureof man is predominantly brought into play;it might be called "the meditation ofaction." Discriminative meditation isrepresented by intellectual assertion of a formula like "I am not mybody, but the Infinite." The meditation of the heart is representedby a steady and unhampered flow of love from the aspirant to theDivine Beloved. The meditation of action is represented by anunreserved dedication of one's life to the selfless service of theMaster or humanity. Of these three types, meditation of the heart isthe highest and most important, but the other two types also havetheir own value and cannot be neglected without serious detrimentto the spiritual progress of the aspirant.The different types of meditation must not be looked uponas being entirely exclusive of each other. They can proceed in allsorts of combinations. Sometimes one type of meditation inevi-Different types ofmeditation usuallysupplement each othertably leads to another type, and progressin one type of meditation is often held upuntil there is corresponding progress inthe other types. All the different types ofmeditation are valuable for securing the spiritual advancement ofthe aspirant. They almost always make up for mutual deficienciesand supplement each other.One type of meditation may also interfere seriously

124 DISCOURSESwith the progress of another type if it is resorted to at aninopportune moment. The different types of genuine meditation allOne type of meditationmay interferewith anotherdwell upon aspects of life which are equallytrue; but depending upon the psychic state ofthe individual, the assimilation of a certaintruth of life is often more urgently necessarythan the assimilation of some other truths of life. Therefore theMasters never prescribe the same form of meditation to all, butgive specific instructions according to the individual needs of theaspirant.The type of meditation necessary in a particular situationoften cannot be correctly ascertained by the aspirant forhimself. The aspirant can get addicted to one type of medi-Need for specificinstructions from theMastertation so exclusively that he finds itdifficult to get out of the groove which hasbeen cut into his mind by the type ofmeditation he has been practising. Hefails to see the importance of any other type of meditation and isnot drawn by it. Of course the aspirant himself may come to feelhis own deficiency along a particular line, but just as manymedicines are disagreeable to the patient, so the types ofmeditation that are really indicated in a specific situation oftenseem distasteful to the aspirant, and he is disinclined to take tothem. The help and advice of the Master are indispensable on thispoint. The insight which the Master has into the deeper and realspiritual needs of the aspirant is infinitely greater than the insightwhich the aspirant can hope to have into himself. Specificinstructions from the Master supply the necessary corrective forthe neglected aspects of personality.Although the aspirant may start with an initial aversion tothe type of meditation he needs, he becomes interested in it whenhe sees its real value and purpose.

True value of meditationperceived onlyin its practiceTHE TYPES OF MEDITATION : II 125He can come to appreciate the real valueand purpose of a particular type ofmeditation only when he has tried it. It isnot possible to discover the value andpossibilities of any type of meditation by purely theoreticalspeculation about that mode of meditation. Such purely theoreticalguesswork may have some superficial results but it fails to fathomthe real utility of meditation. Like many other things of spiritualimportance, meditation yields its full significance after the personhas gotten into it and not when he is trying to understand it byenvisaging it from outside.In order to have real success in any mode of meditation, theaspirant must launch upon it with the determination to explore allits possiblities. He must not start with any limiting reservations,Determination necessaryfor success inmeditationbut should be prepared to encounterunexpected states of consciousness; and heshould be willing to go where that line ofmeditation leads him without making anyrigid demands based on preformed expectations. The very essenceof meditation is one-pointedness and the exclusion of all otherconsiderations, even when these considerations happen to beenticing.However, if the aspirant takes to any type of meditation onhis own initiative and without having the benefit of the guidanceand supervision of the Master, he may get into it so far that heSupervision of Masteris indispensableloses his perspective and is unable torecover himself. It may be impossible forhim to change over to some othercomplementary mode of meditation, even when it is absolutelynecessary. This risk is avoided if the aspirant has taken to a line ofmeditation on the orders of his Master. When he is under theguidance and supervision

126 DISCOURSESof the Master, the Master not only can ask the aspirant to halt at theright time, but he can actually help him also to get out of thegrooves cut by his previous meditation.In this connection there is an illustrative story of a manwho was highly intelligent and who wanted to know from personalexperience what it feels like for a man to be suffocated by beingAn illustrative storyhung. He was not content merely withimagining what it would be like, but wantedto experience it himself. So he asked a friend to help him performthe experiment. He said that he would be hanged by a rope andwould signal to his friend when the feeling of suffocation reachedthe danger limit. He further asked his friend not to relieve himfrom the gallows before he received the intended signal. His friendagreed to all this, and the man was hung by tying a rope round hisown neck. But when he got suffocated he became unconscious, andtherefore he could not give his friend the promised signal. Thefriend, however, was wise, and finding that the suffocation of theman had really reached the dangerous point, he went beyond thelimits of his agreement and relieved the man just in time to savehis life. The man could be saved not through his ownthoughtfulness and precautions, but through the wise discretion ofhis friend. In the same way, it is safer for the aspirant to rely uponthe Master than upon any provisions of his own making.

The Types of MeditationPART IIIGENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF THEFORMS OF MEDITATIONTHE process of meditation aims at understanding and transcendingthe wide and varied range of experience. Whenmeditation is interpreted in this manner, it is at once seen to besomething which is not peculiar to a fewaspirants. It turns out to be a process inwhich every living creature is engagedin some way.The tiger intent upon devouring a lamb that it has spied,Meditation an attemptto understandexperience"meditates" upon the lamb. The lamb in its turn having sighted thetiger, "meditates" upon the tiger. The man who waits on the plat-Meditation isuniversalform for the train is "meditating" upon the train,and the driver of the train, who expects to berelieved at the next station, is "meditating" uponthe station. The scientist who works upon an unsolved problem"meditates" upon that problem. The patient who is waiting withtense anxiety for a doctor is "meditating" upon the doctor; and thedoctor who is awaiting payment of his bill is "meditating" upon theaccount. When the

128 DISCOURSESpoliceman tries to catch a thief, they both "meditate" upon eachother. The person who "falls in love" is "meditating" upon thebeloved; the man who is jealously watchful of his rival is"meditating" upon his rival; the man struck with grief at thebereavement of a friend is "meditating" upon the friend; and theperson who seeks revenge upon his enemy "meditates" upon hisenemy. The man lost in making himself presentable by suitableclothing is "meditating" upon himself as the body; and the personwho boasts of his intellectual or psychic attainments is"meditating" upon himself as the mind.All these are, in a way, forms of "meditation," but inspiritual discourses the term meditation is usually restricted tothose forms of meditation which tackle the problem of under-Spiritually importantmeditation is consciousof its aimstanding experience intensively andsystematically. In the above examples,meditation is a result of natural applicationof the mind to the objects with which it ispresented. In this application of the mind the subject is almostunconscious of the ultimate purpose of the process of meditation.In the spiritual field, however, meditation in the initial stages atleast is deliberate. During such meditation the subject is morespecifically conscious of the ultimate objective. Nevertheless, theforms of meditation characteristic of the spiritual field arecontinuous with those found throughout the world ofconsciousness, the spiritual forms of meditation springing intoexistence only when the other more general forms of meditationhave brought the person to a certain crisis or "blind alley." Thenhe is forced to choose his object of meditation in the light of somespiritual ideal and must also revise the manner of meditation towhich he may have become accustomed.

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION : III 129The spiritually important forms of meditation are of twokinds: (1) General meditation, which consists in the assimilationof the Divine Truths, and (2) Specialised meditation, in whichGeneral meditationand specialisedmeditationthe mind selects some definite item ofexperience and is exclusively concerned withit. General meditation is only a carryingfurther of the ordinary thought-processessystematically and intensively. It is different from the many prespiritualmeditations of the non-sadhaka (worldly) only in so far as(i) the thought processes now come to be directed towards realitieswhich have spiritual importance, and (ii) the mind makesintelligent use of the expositions of the Divine Truths given bythose who know, without renouncing its critical powers andinherent zest for the Truth.The specialised forms of meditation, on the other hand,imply and require something more than a purely intellectualapproach to the Truth. In the specialised forms of meditation, asSpecialised meditationaims at morethan intellectualunderstandingin general meditation, the mind has anopportunity to have an intellectualunderstanding of the object of meditation,but in addition they also help to cultivatemental discipline, develop capacitieshitherto dormant, and unfold latent possibilities of personality.The problem in specialised forms of meditation is nottheoretical but practical. Specialised forms of meditation arehelpful for overcoming specific obstacles in the way of enlightenmentand realisation ; they aim atProblem forspecialized meditationis practicalcontrolling the mind and going beyondit. Specialised forms of meditation aremore

130 DISCOURSESlike the desperate attempts of a man to break through the walls ofhis prison, than like the idle speculative activity that is involved informing "opinions" about the strength of the different parts of theprison-walls, or about what may be visible after breaking into theopen.In spiritual life, even a sincere mistake taken seriously mayhave more value than half-hearted allegiance to theoretical orformal truth. The practical purpose in the specialized forms ofPractical purposemay over-rideformal truthmeditation must sometimes prevail even at thecost of formal and theoretical truth. Thus,while concentrating on a particular formula orform, no other formula or form can be allowedaccess to the mind although, intrinsically, this other formula orform may have the same or even greater spiritual importance. If anaspirant has been meditating upon one Master, he has to excludefrom his mind all ideas of any other Masters, though these Mastersmay be as perfect as the Master on whom he is meditating. In thesame way, intensive thinking might be as helpful in achieving thegoal as the process of making the mind blank.As a rule, mixing up of the specialised forms of meditationis not desirable, though theoretically they may equally be directedtowards different aspects of the Truth. The task of bring-Function of generalmeditationing together the different facets of the Truthand building up a whole and complete viewof life is attempted by general meditation, inwhich thought is free, comprehensive and receptive to all aspectsof the Truth. Such general meditation has its own value andjustification. General meditation is helpful before specialisedforms of meditation as well as after trying them, but it cannot takethe place of specialised forms of meditation because these have adifferent purpose and

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: III 131function.The different forms of specialised meditation arecomparable to different forms of bodily exercise, which may havesome specific purpose. Exercise of the muscles is meant only toSpecialised meditationlike specificexercisestrengthen the muscles, but this does notmean that the muscles are the only importantpart of the body. All types of exercise areimportant for securing the general health ofthe body, although it may not be possible to take all of them at thesame time.The functions of the different specialised forms of exercisehave, however, to be correlated and governed in the light of ourknowledge of true health or proportionate development of theGeneral meditationand specializedmeditation notinterchangeablebody. In the same way, the functions of thespecialized forms of meditation have to becorrelated with and governed by the wholeand complete ideal of life. This the aspirantconstructs through the process of generalmeditation or unrestrained thought, which knows no law exceptthat of finding the Truth in all its aspects. Just as specialisedforms of meditation cannot be replaced by general meditation,so general meditation also cannot be replaced by specialisedforms of meditation. Both are necessary and have their ownvalue.For enumerative purposes, the different specialised formsof meditation can be conveniently classified on the basis of thoseitems of experience which the mind tries to understand. HumanDifferent specializedmeditationsexperience, in all its variety, is throughoutcharacterised by the dual aspect of subjectand object. Some forms of meditation areconcerned with the objects of experience; some are

132 DISCOURSESconcerned with the subject of experience; and some forms ofmeditation are concerned with the mental operations which areinvolved in the interaction of the subject and the object. Thus wedefine three kinds of meditation.All the forms of meditation which the aspirant (sadhak)might adopt ultimately culminate in the goal of all meditation,which is to get established in Sahaj.Table of General Classification of the Types of MeditationATHE VARIED FORMS OF MEDITATION BEFORE A PERSONBECOMES AN ASPIRANT (Sadhaka)1 Philosophical thinkingBFORMS OFTHEMEDITATIONOF THEASPIRANTiiiGeneralMeditationor the assimilationof the DivineTruthSpecialisedMeditation whichselects somedefinite items ofexperience2312Hearing a discourse fromthe MastersReading the writtenexpositions of theMastersMeditation concernedwith the objects ofexperienceMeditation concernedwith the subject ofexperience3Meditation concernedwith mental operationsCSAHAJ SAMADHI OR THE MEDI-TATION OF THOSE WHO ARESPIRITUALLY PERFECT (Siddha) 21 Nirvana or AbsorptionNirvakalpa State orDivinity in Expression

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: III 133Two forms of SahajSamadhiSamadhi or spontaneous meditation of thespiritually perfected soul. Sahaj Samadhihas two forms: (i) Nirvana or Absorptionand (ii) Nirvikalpa State or Divinity in Expression.The general classification of the types of meditation hasbeen given in the above table, which serves to summarise theresults of this chapter. Among the different kinds of meditationTable of generalclassificationwhich are mentioned in this Table of GeneralClassification, the varied forms of meditationwhich are resorted to before the stage of theSadhaka (A), have already been illustrated in the beginning of thisarticle. The different forms of General Meditation (B–i) will bedealt with in Part IV. The different forms of SpecialisedMeditation (B–ii), along with their sub-divisions, will each be explainedindividually in Parts V and VI. Sahaj Samadhi (C) and itsforms will be explained in Parts VII and VIII.

The Types of MeditationPART IVASSIMILATION OF THE DIVINE TRUTHSSECTION AModes of General MeditationTHE beginnings of spiritual life are marked and helped by generalmeditation, which is not concerned exclusively with selectedspecific items of experience, but which, in its comprehensiveLimits of freephilosophicalmeditationscope, seeks to understand and assimilate theDivine Truths of life and the universe. When theaspirant is interested in the wider problems of theultimate nature of life and the universe and beginsto think about them, he may be said to have launched himself uponsuch meditation. Much of what is included under philosophy is aresult of trying to develop an intellectual grasp of the ultimatenature of life and the universe. The purely intellectual grasp ofDivine Truths remains feeble, incomplete and indecisive owing tothe limitations of the experience which may be available as thefoundation of the structures of speculation. The philosophicalmeditation of free and unaided thought does not lead to conclusiveresults. It often leads to diverse conflicting systems or views, butphilosophical meditation

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: IV 135is not without value. Besides leading the aspirant to a certain extentin the realm of knowledge, it gives him an intellectual disciplinewhich enables him to receive and grasp Divine Truths when hehappens to come upon them through those who know.The more fruitful mode of general meditation consists instudying the revealed Truths concerning life and the universe. Thismode of understanding and assimilating the Divine Truths can startStudy ofrevealed truthsfrom hearing or reading expositions of theDivine Truth which have their source in theMasters of Wisdom. The discourses of livingPerfect Masters or the writings of the Perfect Masters of the pastare a suitable object for this mode of general meditation, becausethe assimilation of Divine Truths, revealed through them, enablesthe aspirant to bring his life into line with God's purpose in theuniverse.The Divine Truths are most easily grasped and assimilatedwhen they are passed on directly to the aspirant by a living Master.Such personal communications of the Master have a power andValue of hearingefficacy which can never belong to informationreceived by the aspirant through other sources.The word becomes alive and potent because of the life andpersonality of the Master. Hence many scriptures emphasise theneed for hearing the Divine Truths directly through the spokenword of the Master (Gurumukh). The mode of general meditationwhich depends upon hearing expositions of the Divine Truths isundoubtedly the best, when the aspirant has an opportunity tocontact a living Master and listen to him.It is not always possible, however, for the aspirant tocontact and listen to a living Master. In such case meditationthrough reading has some advantages of its

136 DISCOURSESAdvantage of meditationthrough readingown. For the generality of aspirants,meditation through reading has hardly anysuitable substitute, because it starts fromwritten expositions which are available at any convenient time.Meditation which starts from reading about revealed Truths hasthis special advantage of being easily accessible to most aspirants.Meditation through reading is explained in Section B and isprovided for in Section C.SECTION BReading as MeditationMeditation through reading has its handicaps, because mostwritten expositions of the Divine Truths are meant for intellectualstudy rather than for assimilation through meditation. The diffi-Usual handicaps inmeditation throughreadingculties which aspirants experience in thisconnection are due either (i) to the fact thatthe method of meditation is not adapted tothe subject-matter, or (ii) to some flaw in themethod which makes it mechanical and uninspiring, or (iii) to theunwieldiness or vagueness of the subject-matter of meditation.All these causes, which vitiate meditation and make itunsuccessful, have been avoided in the specific meditation whichis recommended in this part. It is intended not only to explain theDifficulties removedby specific meditationthrough readingmanner of carrying on meditation throughreading, but also to provide an expositionof Divine Truth in order to fulfill therequirements of this form of meditation.The usual difficulties existing in meditation through readinghave been removed in this specific meditation by (i) ensuringthat the process of meditation as well as the subject-matterare adapted to each

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: IV 137other and to the conditions of intelligent meditation, (ii) byelaborately explaining the different phases of the meditation whichstarts from reading, and (iii) by providing a specially preparedbrief exposition of the Divine Truths, which would become suitableand valuable subject matter for meditation through reading.The form of meditation which starts from reading about theDivine Truths has three stages:(1) In the first stage the aspirant will have to read the expo-Three stages of themeditation throughreadingsition daily, and simultaneously think aboutit thoroughly.(2) In the second stage actual readingbecomes unnecessary, but the subject-matterof the exposition is mentally revived and thought over constantly.(3) In the third stage it is quite unnecessary for the mind torevive the words in the exposition separately and consecutively,and all discursive thinking about the subject-matter comes to anend. At this stage of meditation the mind is no longer occupiedwith any train of thought, but has a clear, spontaneous and intuitiveperception of the sublime Truth, expressed in the exposition.Since intelligent meditation consists in thorough thinkingabout a particular subject, it follows that the best help formeditation would be a brief and clear exposition of the subject ofSubject matter formeditation throughreadingmeditation. The following conciseexposition of the Divine Truths (given inSection C) comprises the whole story ofcreation, as well as a complete account ofthe Path and the Goal of self-realisation. The aspirant canintelligently read the exposition and assimilate the sublime truths itembodies.

138 DISCOURSESThis special form of meditation is extremely easy and useful,because reading the subject-matter and thinking about it have to bedone simultaneously. Further, by making the exposition of theAdvantages ofspecific form ofmeditation throughreadingsubject-matter clear and concise, theprobability of any disturbance arising outof irrelevant thoughts is eliminated. It isextremely difficult to avoid the disturbanceof irrelevant thoughts while meditating uponsome lengthy article or book, even if it is committed to memory.Spontaneous meditation about it therefore becomes impracticable.The appearance of irrelevant thoughts becomes very probable inlengthy meditation on abstract thoughts, or on some concreteobject of experience. But irrelevant thoughts are extremelyimprobable if the subject-matter of meditation consists of a briefexposition of the Super-sensible Truth. If the aspirant meditatesupon the following exposition of the Divine Truths in the mannerwhich has been elaborately indicated above, meditation willbecome not only spontaneous and easy, delightful and inspiring,but also helpful and successful. He will thus be taking a veryimportant step towards the realisation of the goal of life.SECTION CThe Divine Truths(for meditation through reading)THE JOURNEY OF THE SOUL TO THE OVERSOULAtman or the soul is in reality Identical with Paramatmanor the Oversoul, which is One, Infinite and Eternal.The soul is, in fact, beyond the gross, subtle andThe soul and itsillusionmental worlds, but experiences itself asbeing limited owing to its identification

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: IV 139with the Sharira or gross body, Prana or the subtle body (which isthe vehicle of desires and vital forces), and Manas or the mentalbody (which is the seat of the mind). The soul in its transcendentalstate is One—Formless, Eternal and Infinite—and yet identifiesitself with the phenomenal world of forms, which are many andfinite and destructible. This is Maya or the cosmic illusion.The phenomenal world of finite objects is utterly illusoryand false. It has three states: (1) the gross, (2) the subtle and (3) themental. Although all these three states of the world are false, theyStates of thephenomenal worldrepresent different degrees of falseness. Thusthe gross world is farthest from Truth (God),the subtle world is nearer Truth, and themental world is nearest to Truth. All three states of the world owetheir existence to cosmic illusion which the soul has to transcendbefore it realises the Truth.The sole purpose of creation is that the soul should be ableto enjoy the infinite state of the Oversoul consciously. Althoughthe soul eternally exists in and with the Oversoul in an invio-Purpose of creationlable unity, it cannot be conscious of thisunity independently of the creation, which iswithin the limitations of time. It must therefore evolveconsciousness before it can realise its true status and nature asbeing identical with the Infinite Oversoul, which is One without asecond. The evolution of consciousness required the duality ofsubject and object—the centre of consciousness and theenvironment (i. e., the world of forms).How does the soul get caught up in the illusion? How didthe Formless, Infinite and Eternal Soul come to experience itselfas having form, and as being finite and destructible? How didPurusha or the Supreme

140 DISCOURSESGenesis of cosmicillusionSpirit come to think of itself as Prakriti orthe world of nature? In other words, whatis the cause of the cosmic illusion inwhich the soul finds itself?To realise the true status of the Oversoul which is One,Indivisible, Real and Infinite, the soul needed consciousness. Thesoul did get consciousness, but this consciousness was not of Godbut of the universe; not of the Oversoul but of its shadow; not ofthe One but of many; not of the Infinite but of the finite; not of theEternal but of the transitory. Thus the soul, instead of realising theOversoul, gets involved in the cosmic illusion, and hence, thoughreally infinite, it comes to experience itself as finite. In otherwords, when the soul develops consciousness it does not becomeconscious of its own true nature but of the phenomenal world,which is its own shadow.In order to become conscious of the phenomenal world thesoul must assume some form (as its medium) for experiencing theworld, and the degree and kind of consciousness are determined byOrganic evolution anddegrees of consciousnessthe nature of the form which is used as amedium. The soul first becomes consciousof the gross world by assuming agross body. The consciousness of thegross world which it has in the beginning is of the most partial andrudimentary type. Correspondingly the soul assumes the mostundeveloped form (e. g., that of stone), with which evolutionbegins. The driving force of evolution is constituted by themomentum which consciousness receives owing to theconservation of the impressions (sanskaras) left by diverse desiresor conditions. Thus the sanskaras cultivated in a particular formhave to be worked out and fulfilled through the medium

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: IV 141of a higher form and a correspondingly more developedconsciousness of the gross world. The soul, therefore, has toassume higher and higher forms (like metal, vegetable, worm, fish,bird and animal) until at last it assumes a human form, in which ithas developed full consciousness (in all the aspects of knowing,feeling and willing) of the gross world.The manner in which sanskaras result in the evolution ofconsciousness and the corresponding form has a useful analogue inordinary experience. If a man has the desire to act the part of aDriving force ofevolutionking on the stage he can only experience it byactually putting on the garb of a king and goingto the stage. This is true of aspirations anddesires, which can only be worked out and fulfilled by bringingabout an actual change in the entire situation, as well as themedium, through which the situation may be adequately experienced.The parallel is very suggestive in understanding thedriving force of evolution, which is not mechanical but purposive.The sanskaras are not only responsible for the evolution ofthe form (body) and the kind of consciousness connected withit, but they are also responsible for the riveting of conscious-Identification withformness to the phenomenal world. They makeemancipation of consciousness (i. e., thewithdrawal of consciousness from the phenomenalworld to the soul itself) impossible at the subhuman stageand difficult at the human level. Since consciousness clings to theprevious sanskaras, and experience of the phenomenal world isconditioned by the use of an adequate form (body) as a medium,the soul at every stage of evolution comes to identify itself with theform (e. g., stone, metal, vegetable, animal, etc.).

142 DISCOURSESThus the soul, which in reality is infinite and formless, experiencesitself as finite and thinks of itself as being a stone, metal,vegetable, worm, fish, bird or animal, according to the degree ofthe development of consciousness. Finally, while experiencing thegross world through the human form, the soul thinks that it is ahuman being.The soul has developed full consciousness in the humanform, and therefore there is no need for any further evolution of thegross form (body). The evolution of forms, therefore, comes to anReincarnation andthe law of karmaend with the attainment of the human form;and to experience the sanskaras cultivatedin the human form, the soul has toreincarnate again and again in human forms. The innumerablehuman forms, through which the soul has to pass, are determinedby the law of karma, or the nature of its previous sanskaras (i. e.,whether of virtue or vice, happiness or misery). During these livesthe soul, which is eternal, identifies itself with the gross body,which is destructible.While developing full consciousness of the gross world inthe human form, the soul simultaneously develops the subtle andmental bodies; but as long as its consciousness is confined to theSubtle and mentalbodiesgross world alone, it cannot use these bodiesconsciously in wakefulness. It becomesconscious of these bodies and thecorresponding worlds only when its full consciousness turnsinwards, i. e., towards itself. When the soul is conscious of thesubtle world through the subtle body, it identifies itself with thesubtle body, and when it is conscious of the mental world throughthe mental body, it identifies itself with the mental body, just as itidentifies itself with the gross body when it is conscious of thegross world through the gross body.

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: IV 143The homeward journey of the soul consists in freeing itselffrom the illusion of being identical with its bodies—gross, subtleand mental. When the attention of the soul turns towards self-The Pathknowledge and self-realisation, there is agradual loosening and disappearance of thesanskaras which keep consciousness turned towards thephenomenal world. Disappearance of the sanskaras proceeds sideby side with piercing through the veil of cosmic illusion, and thesoul not only begins to transcend the different states of thephenomenal world, but also to know itself as different from itsbodies. The Path begins when the soul tries to find itself and turnsits full consciousness towards Truth (God).At the first stage the soul becomes totally unconscious ofits gross body and of the gross world, and experiences the subtleworld through the medium of its subtle body, with which itidentifies itself. In the second stage the soul is totally unconsciousof its gross and subtle bodies, and also of the gross and subtleworlds, and experiences the mental world through the medium ofits mental body with which it now identifies itself. At this stage thesoul may be said to be face to face with God or the Oversoul,which it recognises as Infinite. But though it recognises the Infinityof the Oversoul, which it objectifies, it looks upon itself as beingfinite because of its identification with the mind or mental body.Thus we have the paradox that the soul, which in reality isinfinite, sees its infinite state but still continues to regard itself asfinite, because while seeing its infinite state, it looks upon itself asthe mind. It imagines itself to be the mind and looks upon theobject of the mind as the Oversoul. Further, it not only longs to beone with the objectified Oversoul but also tries hard to fulfill that

144 DISCOURSESlonging.In the third stage the full consciousness of the soul is drawnstill further inwards (i. e., towards itself) and it ceases to identifyitself even with the mental body. Thus in the third and last stageThe Goal(which is the goal), the soul ceases toidentify itself with any of the three bodieswhich it had to develop for evolving full consciousness. Now it notonly knows itself to be formless and beyond all the bodies andworlds, but also realises with full consciousness its own unity withthe Oversoul, which is One, Indivisible, Real and Infinite. In thisrealisation of the Truth it enjoys infinite bliss, peace, power andknowledge, which are characteristics of the Oversoul.In the beginning, because it had not evolved consciousness,the soul was unconscious of its identity with the Oversoul, andhence, though part and parcel of the Oversoul, it could not realiseSummaryits own identity with it or experienceinfinite peace, bliss, power and knowledge.Even after the evolution of consciousness it could not realise thestate of the Oversoul (although it is all the time in and with theOversoul) because its consciousness is confined to the phenomenalworld owing to the sanskaras connected with the evolution ofconsciousness. Even on the Path, the soul is not conscious of itself,but is conscious only of the gross, subtle and mental worlds whichare its own illusory shadows. At the end of the Path, however, thesoul frees itself from all sanskaras and desires connected with thegross, subtle and mental worlds; and it becomes possible for it tofree itself the illusion of being finite, which came into existenceowing to its identification with the gross, subtle and mental bodies.At this stage the soul completely transcends the phenomenal worldand becomes Self-conscious and Self-realised. For attaining

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: IV 145this goal, the soul must retain its full consciousness and at the sametime know itself to be different from the Sharira (gross body),Prana (subtle body, which is the vehicle of desires and vitalforces) and Manas (mental body, which is the seat of the mind),and also as being beyond the gross, subtle and mental worlds.The soul has to emancipate itself gradually from theillusion of being finite by (1) liberating itself from the bondage ofsanskaras, and (2) knowing itself to be different from its bodies—gross, subtle and mental. It thus annihilates the false ego (i. e., theillusion that "I am the gross body, I am the subtle body or I am themental body"). While the soul thus frees itself from its illusion, itstill retains full consciousness, which now results in Selfknowledgeand realisation of the Truth. Escaping through thecosmic illusion and realising with full consciousness its identitywith the Infinite Oversoul, is the goal of the long journey of thesoul.

The Types of MeditationPART VSPECIALISED MEDITATIONSWHICH ARE PERSONALIT was seen in Part III that specialised meditation is of three kinds:(i) meditation concerned with the objects of experience, (ii)meditation concerned with the subject of experience, and (iii) med-Kinds of specializedmeditationitation concerned with mental operations.These three kinds of meditation are mostlyintertwined with each other, because thesubject of experience, the objects of experience and the differentmental operations which arise as a result of their interaction, are allinextricably interwoven with each other. So these three kinds ofmeditation are not sharply defined or exclusive, but often overlapeach other. Thus, meditation concerned with the objects ofexperience may often refer to the subject of experience, and also tothe diverse mental operations involved in it. Meditation concernedwith the subject of experience may often involve reference to thediverse mental operations and the objects to which these mentaloperations are directed. And meditation concerned with thediverse mental operations may often involve reference to both thesubject and

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: V 147the objects of experience. Yet each kind of meditation, in a way,remains distinct because of some predominating factor. Thus thefirst kind of meditation remains predominantly concerned with theobjects of experience, the second kind with the subject ofexperience and the thirdTable of Enumerative Classification of the Forms ofSpecialised MeditationAMeditation concernedwith the objects ofexperience12Meditation on the divinequalities of the MasterConcentration on the form ofthe Master3 The Meditation of the heart4 The Meditation of action5Meditation regarding thenumerous forms ofmanifested lifeFORMS OFPERSONALMEDITATION6Meditation regarding one’sown bodiesBMeditation concernedwith the subject ofexperience 97Meditation on the formlessand infinite aspect of God8 Quest for the agent of actionConsidering oneself as thewitnessFORMS OFIMPERSONALMEDITATIONCMeditation concernedwith mental operations10 Writing down thoughts11 Watching mental operations12 Making the mind blank

148 DISCOURSESkind with the diverse mental operations.These three kinds of meditation can each be furthersubdivided into numerous specific forms of meditation accordingto the content of the meditation and the manner in which it isTable of enumerativeclassificationconducted. Out of these numerous formsof specialised meditation only those whichare representative or important needparticular mention. Thus twelve forms of specialised meditation aregiven on page 147.It should be noted that of these twelve forms of specialisedmeditation, mentioned in the Table of Enumerative Classification,the first four are forms of Personal Meditation and the remainingPersonal meditationand impersonalmeditationeight are forms of Impersonal Meditation.Meditation is personal when it is concernedwith a person, and meditation is impersonalwhen it is concerned with (a) aspects ofhuman personality or (b) something which falls outside the rangeof human personality as it is usually understood. The forms ofspecialised meditation which are personal will be explainedindividually within this Part, and the forms of specialisedmeditation which are impersonal will be explained individually inPart VI.Personal meditation has some clear advantages overimpersonal meditation. For beginners, personal meditation is easyand attended with joy, while impersonal meditation is often foundSpecial advantagesof personal meditationdry and difficult unless one has a specialaptitude for it. Moreover, forms ofimpersonal meditation are mostly disciplinesfor the mind or the intellect, but theforms of personal meditation are not only disciplines for the mindor the intellect but also

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION : V 149draw out the heart. In spiritual perfection the mind and theheart have to be fully developed and balanced. Therefore personalmeditation, which helps the development and balancing ofthe mind and the heart, has special importance. Impersonalmeditation is really fruitful and effective when the aspirant hasbeen duly prepared through forms of personal meditation.Personal meditation is directed towards persons whoare spiritually perfect. Just as a man who admires thecharacter of Napoleon and constantly thinks about him has aPersonal meditationdirected towardsspiritually perfectpersonstendency to become like him, so an aspirantwho admires some spiritually perfect personand constantly thinks about him has atendency to become spiritually perfect. Asuitable object for personal meditation is aliving Master or Avatar or Masters and Avatars of the past. It isimportant that the object of meditation be spiritually perfect. If theperson selected for meditation happens to be spiritually imperfect,there is every chance of his frailties percolating into the mind ofthe aspirant who meditates upon him. If the person selected formeditation is spiritually perfect, however, the aspirant has taken toa safe and sure path.Personal meditation often begins with the admiration whichan aspirant feels spontaneously for some divine quality which hesees in the Master. By allowing the mind to dwell upon the divineMeditation on divinequalities of Masterqualities expressed in the life of the Master,the aspirant imbibes them into his ownbeing 1 . Ultimately, the Master, on his part,is beyond all qualities—good and bad. He is not bound by them.The qualities which he exhibits, while interacting with life around,are all different aspects of1 Meditation No. 1, Table of Enumerative Classification.

150 DISCOURSESdivinity in action; and the expression of divinity, through qualities,becomes a medium for helping those who are appreciativelyresponsive to them. Appreciation of the divinity perceived in theMaster gives rise to forms of meditation in which the aspirantconstantly and strenuously thinks of the Master as being anembodiment of qualities like universal love or completedetachment, egolessness or steadfastness, infinite knowledge orselfless action. Sometimes the mind may dwell upon such separatequalities or may dwell upon combined qualities which reveal theirinter-relatedness. This form of meditation is very valuable when itis spontaneous. It then leads to a greater understanding of theMaster and gradually remoulds the aspirant into a likeness of theMaster, thus contributing towards his self-preparation for therealisation of the Truth.Dwelling upon the qualities of the Master often facilitatesconcentration on the form of the Master 2 . In this form ofmeditation, the aspirant is aware of the spiritual perfection of theMaster and spontaneously fixes his attention upon the form ofConcentration onform of Masterthe Master without analysing his spiritualperfection into any of its component qualities.However, though these qualities are notseparately revived in the mind, all that the aspirant may haveunderstood of them (through the preparatory meditation concernedwith the diverse qualities of the Master) constitutes the implicitbackground of such one-pointed concentration, and contributestowards its efficacy and value. This form of meditation involvescomplete identification of the Master with the spiritual ideal.Complete identification of the Master with the spiritualideal is responsible for removing such barriers2Meditation No. 2, Table of Enumerative Classification.

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: V 151as might exist between the aspirant and the Master. This gives riseMeditation of theto the release of unrestrained love for theheartMaster and leads to the meditation of theheart 3 , which consists in constant thinkingabout the Master with uninterrupted flow of limitless love. Suchlove annihilates the illusion of separateness, which seems to dividethe aspirant from the Master, and it has in it a spontaneity which isvirtually without parallel in other forms of meditation. In its finalstages, meditation of the heart is accompanied by unbounded joyand utter forgetfulness of self.Love for the Master leads to increasing identification withthe Master, so that the aspirant desires to live in and for the Masterand not for his own narrow self. This leads to the meditation ofModes of meditationof actionaction 4 . The initial modes of the meditationof action usually take the following forms :(a) The aspirant mentally offers the Masterall that is in him, thus renouncing all that is good or evil in him.This frees him from the good as well as the bad ingredients of theego and helps him not only in transcending these opposites, butalso in finding a lasting and true integration with the Master. (b)The aspirant volunteers himself in the service of the Master or hiscause. Doing work for the Master in the spirit of selfless service isas good as meditation. (c) The aspirant does not allow the ego tofeed upon any of his actions—small or great, good or bad. He doesnot think "I do this," but on the contrary, systematically developsthe thought that through him the Master is really doing all that hedoes. For example, when he looks, he thinks, "The Master islooking;" when he eats, he thinks,3 Meditation No. 3, Table of Enumerative Classification.4 Meditation No. 4, Table of Enumerative Classification.

152 DISCOURSES"The Master is eating;" when he sleeps, he thinks, "The Master issleeping;" when he drives a car, he thinks, "The Master is drivingthe car;" even when he may happen to do something wrong, hethinks, "The Master is doing this." Thus he completely relinquishesall agency for his action, and all that is done by him is brought intodirect reference to the Master. This automatically and necessarilyinvolves and entails determination of each action in the light of thespiritual ideal as seen in the Master.The four forms of personal meditation on the Masterrepresent the four main ascending stages: (i) perceiving thespiritual ideal in the Master, (ii) concentrating upon the Master asFour forms of personalmeditation representfour ascendingstagesan embodiment of the spiritual ideal, (iii)loving the Master as a manifestation of thespiritual ideal, and (iv) expressing thespiritual ideal, perceived in the Master, inone's own life. Personal meditation on theMaster, in its different forms, ultimately contributes towards therelease of creative life of spiritual fulfillment. Meditation on theMaster is a meditation on the living ideal and not on the bareconception of perfection. Therefore it generates that dynamicpower which eventually enables the aspirant to bridge over the gulfbetween theory and practice, and unify the spiritual ideal witheveryday activity in his own life. To live a life inspired andillumined by the spiritual ideal, as embodied in the Master, is theculmination of all the forms of personal meditation.

The Types of MeditationPART VISPECIALISED MEDITATIONS WHICH AREIMPERSONALPART V was devoted to explanatory comments on thosespecialised meditations which are personal. This part will bedevoted to those specialized meditations which are impersonal.Distinction betweenpersonal and impersonalmeditationIt might be recalled that meditation ispersonal when it is concerned with aperson, and impersonal when it isconcerned with (a) aspects of personality or(b) something which falls outside the range of human personality,as it is commonly understood. In the Table of EnumerativeClassification given in Part V, the first four forms of meditationare personal and the remaining eight forms are impersonal. Likethe forms of personal meditation, the forms of impersonalmeditation also individually deserve separate explanatorycomments.Man's attention has a tendency to be riveted on his ownbodies or on other forms independent of the spirit which theymanifest. This leads to illusions, entanglements and othercomplications. Hence arises the need for a type of meditationwhich will enable

154 DISCOURSESMeditation regardingnumerous forms ofmanifested lifethe aspirant to develop proper perspectiveconcerning the real status and meaning ofthe numerous forms, and to cultivate aright attitude to them 1 . In this type ofmeditation the aspirant acquires the constant habit of regarding allforms as equally the manifestations of the same one all-pervadinglife and as nothing in themselves separately. This type of meditationaids disentanglement from the world of creation, andfurthers cultivation of the highest type of universal love, whichregards the whole of humanity and all living creatures as membersof an indivisible whole.But the type of meditation which is concerned with thenumerous forms of manifested life remains incomplete unless it issupplemented by another type of meditation which is concernedMeditation regardingone’s bodieswith one's own body 2 . One's own body—gross, subtle or mental—is, like the bodiesof others, a form of the one all-pervadinglife; but consciousness is fixed on one's own bodies by anattachment so deep that it identifies itself with them. Continuedthoughts of detachment concerning one's own body helpemancipation of consciousness and the dawn of true selfknowledge.Meditation of this type is very fruitful for the aspirant.The gross, subtle and mental bodies are all then regarded as cloakswhich one can put on or off.The type of meditation concerned with the numerous formsof manifested life and the type of meditation concerned with one'sown bodies, are both preparations for the form of impersonalmeditation 3 in which (a) an effort is made to withdrawconsciousness1Meditation No. 5, Table of Enumerative Classification (Part V).2 Meditation No. 6, Table of Enumerative Classification (Part V).3 Meditation No. 7, Table of Enumerative Classification (Part V).

Meditation onformless and infiniteaspect of GodTHE TYPES OF MEDITATION: VI 155from all the numerous forms of manifestedlife as well as from one's own bodies, and(b) to centre consciousness on the formlessand infinite aspect of God. In the initialphases, this form of impersonal meditation has to avail itself ofsome symbols of infinity. It is actually more helpful to start withsome image which suggests and signifies infinity than the abstractidea of infinity. The mind may be made steady on the image ofsky, ocean or vast emptiness, but when once a particular image ischosen, the aspirant should stick to it throughout the period ofmeditation, and not allow it to be replaced by another image. Outof these symbols of infinity, complete and unlimited emptiness isdifficult to imagine, but it turns out to be the best symbol if onecan successfully bring it before one's mind. Even when unlimitedemptiness is used to signify infinity, in this form of meditation theaspirant is not supposed to arrive at complete blankness of mind.Such blankness involves the cessation of all mental activity andhaving absolutely no thoughts or ideas; but in this form ofmeditation the mind tries to understand and realise the formlessand. infinite aspect of God by means of a significant symbol.There is an important variety of this impersonal form ofmeditation. In it the infinity which one imagines is not mentallyexternalised as if it were an unlimited stretch of something outsidePicturing the infiniteas being withinthe aspirant. It is more helpful to picturethe infinite as within the aspirant. Afterpicturing infinity within, the aspirantshould give himself the strong suggestion of his identity with theinfinite by mentally repeating, "I am as infinite as the sky within,"or "I am as infinite as the ocean within," or "I am as infinite as theemptiness

156 DISCOURSESwithin." It may be even more useful to use the bare formula, "I amthe Infinite within" and, while mentally repeating this formula, tograsp and realise the significance of infinity through the imagewhich has been chosen. It is not necessary to repeat the formula inso many words; it is enough to cling to the thought expressed inthe formula.The "I am infinite" meditation may lead to the merging ofthe aspirant into the formless and infinite aspect of God. Someaspirants merge so completely that even if swarms of mosquitoespass by them they do not hear them. Some aspirants might becomerestless or easily disturbed. They should not keep worrying aboutlack of success in meditation but should tenaciously persistwhether they experience merging or not. A relaxed position ishelpful for merging, but a final merging is impossible exceptthrough the help of the Master.The forms of meditation thus far explained arepredominantly concerned with the impersonal objects ofexperience, but some impersonal forms of meditation are con-Quest for agent ofactioncerned with the subject of experience. Onesuch important form of meditation consists inceaselessly pressing the query, "Who is it thatdoes all these things?" 4 The aspirant finds himself thinkingthoughts like, "I sleep," "I walk," "I eat," "I talk," "I see, hear,touch, taste and smell," "I think, feel and desire," etc. Now thesearching question with which this form of meditation isconcerned, is "WHO is THIS 'I'?" The soul does not experienceany of these things. The soul does not sleep, walk, eat or talk, see,hear, touch, taste or smell, think, feel or desire. Who then is theiragent? The source of all these activities has to be4 Meditation No. 8, Table of Enumerative Classification (Part V).

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: VI 157discovered and the mystery of all life has to be explained.There is a power that does all these things, and one mustknow oneself to be different from the power and be able to use itwith detachment. The aspirant thinks that he walks; it is really hisbody that walks. The aspirant thinks that he sees, hears, thinks,feels or desires; it is really his mind which does all these thingsthrough some convenient medium. As soul, the aspirant is everywhereand really does nothing. But it is not enough to think that assoul he is everywhere and really does nothing. He must know this.Knowledge of the soul may also be aimed at through aform of meditation in which the aspirant tries to realise himselfas merely a witness of all physical and mental happenings. 5 AfterConsidering oneselfas the witnessa person wakes from a dream, he realizesthat he was not a real agent of the actions inthe dream, but that he was merely a witnessof them. If the aspirant persistently practises considering himself awitness of all physical and mental happenings which heexperiences in wakefulness as well as in dreams, he soon developsutter detachment, which brings freedom from all worries andsufferings connected with worldly events. This form of meditationis intended to lift the aspirant out of the bonds of time, and tosecure for him immediate relief from the fret and fever connectedwith the diverse expressions of limited energy. As a witness, thesoul remains aloof from all events in time, and the results ofactions do not bind it. All this has to be experienced and notmerely thought of.The forms of meditation concerned with the subject ofexperience, however, suffer from the handicap that the true subjectof experience can never be the object of5 Meditation No. 9, Table of Enumerative Classification (Part V).

158 DISCOURSESImportance of makingthe mind stillthought or meditation in the ordinarysense. These forms of meditation,therefore, can at best take the aspirantvery close to self-knowledge which can only dawn in its full glorywhen the domain of the mind is completely traversed. Someimpersonal forms of specialised meditation are therefore concernedwith mental operations, and they ultimately aim at stilling themind.To acquire control over thoughts is to become fullyconscious of what they are. They have to be attended to beforethey are controlled. In ordinary introspection it is seldom possibleWriting downthoughtsfor the beginner to devote adequate attention to allthe shadowy thoughts which pass through hismind. It is helpful, therefore, for the aspirantoccasionally to write down all his thoughts 6 as they come and thento inspect them carefully at leisure. This process is different fromwriting planned articles. Thoughts are allowed to arise without anydirection or restraint so that even repressed elements from thesubconscious mind have access to the conscious mind.In a more advanced stage, an intensive awareness of mentalprocesses can take place while thoughts appear in consciousness,and writing them down becomes unnecessary. Observation ofWatching mentaloperationsmental operations 7 should be accompanied bycritical evaluation of thoughts. Thoughtscannot be controlled except through anappreciation of their value or lack of value. When the diversethoughts which assail the mind are critically evaluated, and theinternal6 Meditation No. 10, Table of Enumerative Classification (Part V).7 Meditation No. 11, Table of Enumerative Classification (Part V).

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION : VI 159stirrings of sanskaras are faced, understood and taken for whatthey are worth, the mind is freed from all obsessions andcompulsions in relation to them.A way is thus prepared for the meditation which attemptsto make the mind blank 8 , which is one of the most difficultthings to achieve. The mind is without any ideas during sleep, butMaking the mindblankconsciousness is then in abeyance. If duringwakefulness the mind has the idea ofbecoming blank, it is thinking about that ideaand is far from being blank. But this difficult trick of making themind blank becomes possible by an alternation between twoincompatible forms of meditation so that the mind is caughtbetween concentration and distraction.Thus the aspirant can concentrate on the Master for fiveminutes and then, as the mind is getting settled on the form of theMaster, he can steady his mind for the next five minutes in the im-Alternation betweenconcentration anddistractionpersonal meditation in which the thought is"I am Infinite." The disparity between thetwo forms of meditation can be emphasisedby keeping the eyes open during meditationon the form of the Master, and closing the eyes during impersonalmeditation. Such alternation helps towards making the mind blank,but to be successful, both forms of meditation have to be seriouslypursued. Though after five minutes there is to be a change-over toanother type of meditation, there should be no thought of it whilethe first type is going on. There is no distraction unless there isconcentration. But when a change-over is effected, there shouldbe no thought of the first type of meditation. The distraction hasto be as complete as the previous concentration. When thereis a quick alternation8 Meditation No. 12, Table of Enumerative Classification (Part V).

160 DISCOURSESbetween concentration and distraction, mental operations are, as itwere, cut through by a saw which goes backwards and forwards.The disappearance of mental operations of all types contributestowards making the mind absolutely still without allowingconsciousness to fall into abeyance.All thoughts which appear in the mind of the aspirant areforms of perturbation, and have their origin in the momentum ofstored sanskaras. The agitation of the mind can disappear onlyTruth reflected inthe mind whichbecomes tranquilwhen the aspirant can so control his mindthat all thoughts can be ruled out at will.Only in complete internal silence is Truthfound. When the surface of the lake is still,it reflects the stars. When the mind is tranquil, it reflects the natureof the soul as it is.

The Types of MeditationPART VIISAHAJ SAMADHITHE different forms of meditation practiced before consciouslyentering the Path, as well as the different forms of general andspecial meditation adopted after becoming an aspirant, are pre-Sahaj Samadhistands by itselfparatory to the attainment of the highest state ofSahaj Samadhi or spontaneous meditation, inwhich the aspirant becomes permanentlyestablished when he realises the ultimate goal of life. The SahajSamadhi of the Siddha or God-realised person is continuous withall the prior forms of meditation and is a culmination of them, butdifferent in kind, and belongs to an entirely different order.The spontaneity or effortlessness of Sahaj Samadhi must becarefully distinguished from the pseudo-sense of spontaneitywhich is present in the usual meditations of the worldly man whoPre-spiritualmeditations ofworldly manhas not yet entered the Path. The mind of theworldly man is engrossed in the object of sense,and he experiences no sense of effort in meditatingon these objects. His mind dwells upon them

162 DISCOURSESbecause of its natural interest in them and not because of anydeliberate effort on his part. The sense of effort does not arise fromallowing the mind to dwell upon these diverse worldly objects, butfrom trying to dissuade it from them. So the pre-spiritual forms ofmeditation seem to have some similarity with the culminatingSahaj Samadhi of the Siddha, in having a sense of spontaneity. Butthis resemblance between the initial phase of meditation and itsfinal phase is only superficial, since Sahaj Samadhi and prespiritualmeditations are divided from each other by vitaldifferences of great spiritual importance.The sense of spontaneity experienced in pre-spiritualmeditations concerned with worldly objects and pursuits, is due tothe interests created by sanskaras. Pre-spiritual meditations areIllusory spontaneityof pre-spiritualmeditations derivedfrom sanskaricintereststhe working out of the momentum ofaccumulated sanskaras of the past; andthey are not only far from being theexpression of true freedom, but are actuallysymptoms of spiritual bondage. At the prespirituallevel, man is engulfed inunrelieved ignorance concerning the goal of infinite freedom; andthough he is far from being happy and contented, he identifies sodeeply with sanskaric interests that he experiences gratification intheir furtherance. But the pleasure of his pursuits is conditional andtransitory, and the spontaneity which he experiences in them isillusory because, through all his pursuits, his mind is workingunder limitations.The mind is capable of genuine freedom and spontaneity ofaction only when it is completely free from sanskaric ties andinterests, and this is possible only when it is merged in the state ofSahaj Samadhi of the Siddha. It is therefore important to note that

True freedom andspontaneity existonly in Sahaj SamadhiTHE TYPES OF MEDITATION: VII 163though there may seem to be a superficialresemblance between the Sahaj Samadhiof the Siddha and the pre-spiritualmeditations of the worldly man, thisresemblance really hides the important difference between illusoryspontaneity and true spontaneity, bondage and freedom, fleetingpleasure and abiding happiness. In the pre-spiritual meditations themovement of the mind is under unconscious compulsion, and inSahaj Samadhi mental activity is released under conscious andunfettered initiative.The different forms of meditation which characterise thelife of the spiritual aspirant, stand midway between the pre-spiritualmeditations of the worldly man and the final Sahaj Samadhi of theMeditation a part ofaspirant’s struggletowards emancipationSiddha. They also constitute the linkbetween them. When man's primaryacquiescence in sanskaric interests isprofoundly disturbed by setback, defeat andsuffering, or is shaken by a spark ofspiritual understanding, he becomes conscious of his bondage andthe falseness of his perceptions. All the different forms ofmeditation which are then resorted to by the aspirant arise asparts of his struggle towards emancipation from the bondage of thedeceptive desires of the worldly man. The forms of meditationwhich are spiritually important begin when a person has become anaspirant or Sadhaka.The meditation of the aspirant in all its forms is deliberate,in the sense that it is experienced as counteracting instinctive orother tendencies inherent in the mind. The aspirant adopts differentMeditation involveseffortforms of meditation as a means to an end,i.e., because he looks upon them as avenuesto the Truth.

164 DISCOURSESThey are not a working out of some given impulse, but are parts ofan intelligent and deliberate effort. But, though these forms ofmeditation may be deliberate to start with, the mind graduallybecomes habituated to them. The mind is also interested in thevarious aspects of Truth, which the different forms of meditationtry to seize upon, and this increases spontaneity. In none of themeditations of a sadhaka is the element of spontaneity morepronounced than in those forms of personal meditation which givescope for and require the expression of love. But utter spontaneityand true freedom remain unattained until the goal of meditation isachieved. Till then there is usually a mixture of a sense ofdeliberateness and a sense of spontaneity. The reaching outtowards spiritual freedom is accompanied throughout by a sense ofeffort, which persists in some degree until all obstacles of falseperceptions are overcome. Though effort may vary in its intensity,it never disappears entirely until it is swallowed up in thetranquillity of final attainment.In Sahaj Samadhi there is no effort because there are noobstacles to overcome or objectives to achieve. There is the infinitespontaneity of unfettered freedom and the unbroken peace andProgression towardsSahaj Samadhibliss of Truth-Realisation. Progressiontowards Sahaj Samadhi consists in atransition from a state of unquestionedacquiescence in the momentum of sanskaras to a state of desperatestruggle with sanskaric limitations and finally to a state ofcomplete freedom, when consciousness is no longer determined bythe deposits of the past, but is active in the undimmed perception ofthe eternal Truth.The Sahaj Samadhi of the Siddha is different from themeditation of the aspirant, not only with respect to freedom andspontaneity of consciousness, but also

Only in Sahaj Samadhiis individualmind mergedTHE TYPES OF MEDITATION: VII 165with respect to many other importantpoints. All the different forms of meditationin which the aspirant might be engaged,directly or indirectly, aim at securing acomplete merging of the mind in the infinite Truth, but they onlypartially succeed in merging and fall short of the annihilation ofthe individual mind. They represent varying degrees ofapproximation to the spiritual goal, but not its realisation. On theother hand, in Sahaj Samadhi there is realisation of the spiritualgoal, since the limited mind is completely annihilated and hasarrived at a total merging in the infinite Truth.The aspirant's meditation, in its higher flights, often bringsto him a sense of expansion and freedom, as well as the joy andillumination of the higher planes, but none of these are abid-Temporary exaltationin meditationing because in most cases when the aspirantcomes down from his exalted state ofmeditation he is again what he was, viz., anordinary person who is held up in the unyielding shackles ofsanskaric limitations.The incompleteness of the different samadhis of theaspirant may be illustrated by the story of a Yogi from Gwalior.This Yogi was very greedy, but through yoga he had mastered theStory of a Yogiart of going into Samadhi. One day he satopposite the palace of the Raja and, beforegoing into Samadhi, thought "I must have a thousand rupees fromthe Raja." Then he went into samadhi and remained in that statefor seven full days. During this period he took no food or drink,but only sat in one place, completely wrapped up in trancemeditation.People took him to be a saint, and when the Raja came

166 DISCOURSESto know about him he also went to have his darshan. The Rajawent near the Yogi and happened to touch him on his back. Thatlight touch was sufficient to bring the Yogi down from hissamadhi, and as soon as he woke up from his trance-meditation heasked the Raja for a thousand rupees.Just as a prisoner, who looks out of the window of hisprison and gazes at the vast expanse of the sky, may get lostin the vision of unlimited space, the aspirant who enters intoAnalysis of trancemeditationtrance-meditation may temporarily forget allhis limitations while immersed in its lightand bliss. But though the prisoner may haveforgotten the prison, he has not escaped from it. In the same waythe aspirant who is absorbed in trance-meditation has lost sight ofthe chains which bind him to the world of Illusion, but he has notreally broken through them. Just as the prisoner again becomesconscious of his bondage as soon as he gazes at his immediate surroundings,so the aspirant becomes conscious of all his failings assoon as he regains normal consciousness. The ascending forms oftrance-meditation may bring to the aspirant increasing occultpowers, but not that unending state of knowledge and bliss whichis continuously accessible in Sahaj Samadhi to the Siddha, whohas attained final emancipation by breaking through the chains ofMaya.Another important difference is that in trance-meditationthe aspirant is usually sustained by some phenomenal objectcapable of exercising irresistible attraction. The lights, colours,Trance-meditationsustained byphenomenal objectsmells and sounds of the subtle sphere play apart in alluring the mind from worldly thingsto which it may have been attached. Thustrance-meditation

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: VII 167is not self-sustained but is dependent upon the object to which themind directs itself.The Sahaj Samadhi of the Siddha is self-sustained and is inno way dependent upon any object of the mind. Trance-meditationis more like the stupor of intoxicating drugs. The intoxication ofSahaj Samadhi selfsustainedthe drug lasts only as long as the effect ofthe drug lasts. So the trance continues toexist as long as the mind is under the swayof the object by which it is sustained. Sahaj Samadhi which is freefrom the domination of the object is a state of full wakefulness inwhich there is no ebb and flow, waxing or waning, but only thesteadiness of true perception.The different forms of general and specialised meditationresorted to by the aspirant are useful and valuable within their ownlimits. They must not be regarded as having the same value for allThose in Sahaj Samadhiare proper objectsfor meditationor as being equally necessary to all. Theyare among the ways which lead the aspiranttowards his divine destination. Forthe few who are in an advanced spiritualstate, most of the ordinary forms of meditation are unnecessary.For those who are in direct contact with a God-realised Master,many of the special forms of meditation are often unnecessary. It isenough for them to be under the guidance of the Master and to lovehim. And those rare beings who have attained Self-realisation andare always in the state of Sahaj Samadhi, not only do not need anyforms of meditation, but they themselves become objects ofmeditation for the aspirants; for they are then able to give their besthelp to those who meditate upon them.

The Types of MeditationPART VIIITHE ASCENT TO SAHAJ SAMADHIAND ITS NATUREWHEN the mind is rightly tuned to the object of meditation, itmerges in the Truth and experiences Sahaj Samadhi or stateof spontaneous enjoyment of uninterrupted Self-knowledge inSahaj Samadhiculmination ofearlier forms ofmeditationwhich the aspirant loses his limited individualityto discover that he is identical withGod, Who is in everything. Sahaj Samadhi isa culmination of the earlier forms of personaland impersonal meditation and not theirproduct.All forms of meditation followed by the aspirant, as well ashis other spiritual efforts, in spite of their differences, have onlyone aim., viz., to speed up the fruition of his longing to be unitedSahaj Samadhiexperienced afterunion with the Infinitewith the Infinite. When this union iseffected, the Sadhaka (aspirant) becomesSiddha (one who has attained the goal).The union with the Infinite which theSiddha achieves is referred to by the Sufis as "Vasl." It is this stateof union with God

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: VIII 169which is described by Christ in the words, "I and my Father areone." Many have written about this highest state of consciousness,but it remains essentially indescribable. It cannot be expressed inwords, and therefore it cannot be adequately explained. But thoughit can never be explained by one person to another, it can beexperienced by everyone for himself. This highest state of theSiddha is called Sahaj Samadhi.To dwell in Sahaj Samadhi is to experience the God-statein which the soul knows itself to be God, because it has shed allthe limiting factors which had hitherto contributed towards falseLife of the bodyself-knowledge. The God-state of theSiddha stands out in clear contrast withthe body-state of the worldly man. The worldly man takes himselfto be the body, and dwells in a state which is dominated by thebody and its wants. His consciousness centres on the body. He isconcerned with eating, drinking, sleeping and the satisfaction ofother bodily desires. It is for the body that he lives and seeksfulfillment. His consciousness cannot extend beyond the body; hethinks in terms of the body and cannot think of anything which hasno body or form. The entire sphere of his existence is conprised offorms, and the theatre in which he lives and moves and has hisbeing consists of space.The first step towards the God-state of Sahaj Samadhi istaken when the body-state is transcended. Shedding the body-statemeans entering the sphere of existence which is comprised ofLife of energyenergy. The soul then dwells in a statewhich is no longer dominated by forms orbodies. It is lifted up to the domain of energy. Body or form is asolidification of energy, and to rise from the world of forms to thesphere of energy amounts to an advance towards a more primaryand purer state of being. The energy-state is free from

170 DISCOURSESmany of the limitations which obtain in the world of forms. In thisstate, consciousness is linked up with energy and continuouslyvibrates in and through energy. In the energy-state, the eating anddrinking of the body-state are paralleled by the absorption and assimilationof energy. At this level the soul acquires full controlover energy and seeks fulfillment through its use. But its actionsare still within the domain of spiritual limitation. It can see, hearand smell many things which are inaccessible in the body-state,and can perform many things (e. g., producing light in the dark, orliving for thousands of years only on the drinking of energy),which seem to be miracles for those who are in the body-state. Butthe entire sphere of its existence is comprised of energy, and isdominated by energy. All that it can think of or do is in terms ofenergy and is achieved by means of energy. The energy-state is thestate of spiritually advanced souls, but it is far from being the stateof Perfection, which expresses itself through the Sahaj Samadhi ofthe Siddha.The second important step towards Sahaj Samadhi is takenwhen the soul transcends the domain of energy and enters thedomain of mind. All energy is ultimately an expression of mind,therefore the transition from the energy-state to the mind-stateLife of the mindconstitutes a still further advance towardsthe God-state of Sahaj Samadhi. In themind-state, consciousness is directly linked up with the mind, andis in no way fettered by the domination of the body or energy, butis mind-ridden. Saints who are in the mind-state can read andinfluence the minds of others. However, the mind-ridden state isstill within the domain of duality and illusion, and it has to betranscended before attainment of union with the Infinite.

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: VIII 171The entire advance, from the very beginning, consists ingradually curtailing and transcending the working of the individualmind. The mind is functioning even in the body-state and in theMind veils the Truthenergy-state, but in the body-state the mindthinks in terms of the body, in the energystateit thinks in terms of energy, while in the mind-state it thinks inits own terms. However, even when the mind thinks in its ownterms, it does not attain knowledge and realisation of the Infinite,because it becomes its own veil between thought and the Truth.Though the mind may be unencumbered by the life of the body orthe life of energy, it is still limited by separative consciousness. Itmight be compared to a mirror which is covered with dust. Themind has, therefore, to be completely merged and dissolved in theInfinite before it is possible to experience the God-state of SahajSamadhi. Form is solidified energy; energy is an expression ofmind; mind is the covered mirror of Eternity; and Eternity is Truthwhich has thrown off the mask of mind.To discard the limiting mind is no easy thing. The chiefdifficulty is that the mind has to be annihilated through the minditself. Intense longing for union with the Infinite Reality as well asCrossing of mindrequires longing andpatienceinfinite patience are indispensable in theprocess of crossing the mind. One Mastertold his disciple that in order to attain thehighest state he had to be thrown, boundhand and foot to a plank, into a river, where he must keep hisgarments dry. The disciple could not understand the inner meaningof this injunction. He wandered until he encountered another saintand asked him the meaning of the injunction given by the Master.The saint explained that in order to attain God, he had to long

172 DISCOURSESintensely for union with Him, as if he could not live anothermoment without it, and yet to have the inexhaustible patiencewhich could wait for billions of years. If there is lack of intenselonging for uniting with God, the mind lapses into its usualsanskaric working, and if there is lack of infinite patience, the verylonging which the mind entertains sustains the working of thelimited mind. It is only when there is a balance between infinitelonging and infinite patience that the aspirant can ever hope topierce through the veil of the limited mind, and this combination ofextremes can only come through the grace of the Master.To dwell in Sahaj Samadhi is to dwell in Truthconsciousness.This state cannot be grasped by anyone whosemindis working. The God-state is beyond the mind, for itdawns when the limited mind disappears infinal union with the Infinite. The soul nowknows itself through itself and not throughthe mind. The worldly man knows that he isa human being and not a dog. In the sameSelf-knowledge ofSahaj Samadhisustained by effortlessintuitionway, in Sahaj Samadhi, the soul just knows that it is God and not afinite thing. The worldly man does not have to keep repeating tohimself that he is not a dog but a human being; he just knowswithout having to make any special effort that he is a human being.In the same way the soul, in Sahaj Samadhi, does not need anyartificial inducing of God-consciousness through repeated autosuggestions.It just knows itself to be God through effortlessintuition.He who has Sahaj Samadhi is established in the knowledgeof the soul. Knowledge does not come and go, it is permanent. Inthe state of ignorance the aspirant looks upon himself as a man orwoman, as the

Life in eternityTHE TYPES OF MEDITATION: VIII 173agent of limited actions and the receiver ofjoys and pains. In the state of knowledgehe knows himself as the soul, which is not in any way limited bythese things and which is untouched by them. Once he knows hisown true nature, he knows it for good and never again becomesinvolved in ignorance. This state of God-consciousness is infinite,and is characterised by unlimited understanding, purity, love andhappiness. To be initiated in Sahaj Samadhi is to arrive at theendlessness of life in eternity.Sahaj Samadhi has two forms: (1) Nirvana or absorption indivinity, and (2) Nirvikalpa state or divinity in expression. Whenconsciousness is withdrawn entirely from all the bodies and theTwo forms of SahajSamadhiworld of creation, it leads to Nirvana or thebeyond state, but when consciousness isagain made to function through the bodieswithout attachment or identification, it leads to Sahaj Samadhi ofthe Nirvikalpa state or the Sadguru-state. Here, thoughconsciousness is attached to the bodies as instruments, it isdetached from them inwardly by non-identification. The piercingof the mind amounts to the complete withdrawal of consciousnessfrom the universe and its total absorption in God. This is the statewhere the universe becomes a zero; this is Nirvana. Most personswho attain Nirvana never come back again to consciousness of theuniverse. Those few who descend to consciousness of the universe,experience it as nothing but God, and remain constantly in theSahaj Samadhi of the Nirvikalpa state. Nirvikalpa state means alife where the mental activity of false imagination has come to anend, and where the oscillations of the limited mind are all stilled inthe realisation of the unchangeable Truth.The Sahaj Samadhi of the Nirvikalpa state comes

174 DISCOURSESto souls who descend from the seventh plane. It belongs tothe Sadgurus and the Avatars. The poise and harmony ofState of Sadgurusthis state remain undisturbed even while givandAvatars ing energetic response to the changingcircumstances of life. He who has this statesees God everywhere and in everything, and he sees nothing butGod. His God-state is, therefore, in no way toned down whiledealing with the things of this world. While drawing the bow orusing the sword in the battlefield, while flying in an aeroplane ortalking to people, or while engaged in other activities whichrequire the closest attention, he is continuously in the consciousenjoyment of the immutable Truth.The state of Nirvana and the Nirvikalpa state are similar tothe state of Mukti or Moksha, representing the merging of theindividual soul in God and yielding the eternal bliss and infiniteMoksha, Nirvana andNirvikalpa stateknowledge of superconsciousness. ButMukti or Moksha is experienced after thesoul has dropped its body, while the statesof Nirvana and Nirvikalpa can both be experienced before givingup the bodies. However, though the states of Nirvana andNirvikalpa are similar as to retaining bodies, and though they arealso fundamentally the same in essence, there is a slight differencebetween the two.When the soul comes out of the ego shell and entersinto the infinite life of God, its limited individuality isreplaced by unlimited individuality. The soul knows that itDifference betweenNirvana andthe Nirvikalpa stateform.is God conscious and thus preserves itsindividuality. The important point is thatindividuality is not entirely extinguished,but it is retained in the spiritualised

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: VIII 175However, though the unlimited individuality of the soul is, in away, retained in the union with the Infinite, it may remain eternallyquiescent in the experience of self-contained divinity. None comesback to world-consciousness from this state of Nirvana orabsorption. In a very few cases, however, the soul which has justentered the infinite life of God establishes its unlimitedindividuality through the release of dynamic divinity. This is theSahaj Samadhi of the Nirvikalpa state.

The Dynamics of SpiritualAdvancementSPIRITUAL advancement begins when there is a radical change inthe outlook of the worldly man. The worldly man lives mostly forthe body, and even in those pursuits which do not seem to have aSubjugation of bodyfor higher lifedirect reference to the body, in the lastanalysis the ultimate motive power is to befound in the desires connected with thebody. For example, he lives to eat; he does not eat to live. He hasnot yet discovered any purpose clearly transcending the body, sothe body and its comforts become the centre of all his pursuits. Butwhen he discovers a value in which the soul is predominant, thebody is at once relegated to the background. The maintenance ofthe body now becomes for him merely instrumental for therealisation of a higher purpose. His body, which had formerly beena hindrance to true spiritual life, becomes an instrument for therelease of higher life. At this stage man attends to his bodily needswith no special feeling of self-identification, but like the driver of arailway engine who fills it with coal and water so that it may bekept going.The very beginning of spiritual advancement is conditionedby quest for that goal for which man lives—the goal for which heunconsciously loves and hates, and for

THE DYNAMICS OF SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 177Quest for the goalwhich he goes through variegated joys andsufferings. Though he may be stirred by thepull of this incomprehensible and irresistible divine destiny, it maytake a long time before he arrives at the mountain top of Truthrealisation,and the path is constantly strewn with pitfalls andslippery precipices. Those who attempt to reach this mountain tophave to climb higher and higher, and even if a person hassucceeded in scaling great heights, the slightest mistake on his partmight cast him down to the very beginning again. Therefore theaspirant is never safe unless he has the advantage of the help andguidance of a Perfect Master who knows the ins and outs of thepath, and who can not only safeguard the aspirant from a possiblefall, but lead him to the goal of realisation without unnecessaryrelapses.The aspirant who has decided to reach the goal carries withhim all the sanskaras which he has accumulated in the past, but inthe intensity of his spiritual longing they remain suspended andBlocking ofadvancementineffective for the time being. Time andagain, however, when there is a slackening ofspiritual effort, the sanskaras hitherto suspendedfrom action gather fresh strength and, arraying themselvesin a new formation, constitute formidable obstacles in the spiritualadvancement of the aspirant.This might be illustrated by the analogy of a river. Thepowerful current of the river carries with it great quantities of siltfrom the source and the banks. As long as these quantities areAnalogy of the riversuspended in water they do not hinder theflow of the river, though they may slow itdown. When the current becomes slower in the plains, andparticularly towards the mouth, this bulk tends

178 DISCOURSESto deposit in the river bed and to form huge islands or deltas, whichnot only obstruct the current but often divert it or even split it intosmaller currents and, on the whole, weaken the force of the mightyriver. Or again, when the river is in flood, it sweeps away allobstacles of trees, bushes and rubbish in its path, but when theseaccumulate to a certain degree, they can constitute a serioushindrance to the flow of the river. In the same way the path ofspiritual advancement is often blocked by the obstacles of its owncreation, and these can be removed only through the help of theMaster.The help of the Master is most effective when the aspirantsurrenders his ego-life in favour of the unlimited life whichthe Master represents. Complete self-surrender is most difficultEgoism must disappearto achieve, and yet the most essentialcondition of spiritual advancement is thedecreasing of egoism to its minimum. Theobjective of spiritual advancement is not so much "works," butquality of life free from ego-consciousness. If the aspirant hasmany great things to his credit which he has claimed as his, his egofastens itself upon achievements and this constitutes a formidablehindrance to life unlimited. Hence comes the futility of rituals andceremonies, acts of charity and good works, external renunciationand penances when rooted in ego-consciousness.It is, therefore, most necessary for the aspirant to keep freefrom the idea, "I do this, and I do that." This does not mean that theaspirant is to keep clear of all activity through fear of developingThe dilemmathis form of the ego. He may have to take tothe life of action to wear out the ego he hasalready developed. Thus he is caught up in the dilemma that if hestays inactive he does nothing to break

THE DYNAMICS OF SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 179through the prison of his ego-life, and if he takes to a life of actionhe is faced with the possibility of his ego being transferred to thesenew acts.For spiritual advancement the aspirant has to avoid thesetwo extremes and yet carry on a life of creative action. Treadingthe spiritual path is not like riding a saddled horse, but like walkingTreading the pathlike walking on edgeof a swordon the sharp edge of a sword. Once a rideris on horseback he is practically at rest,sitting with more or less ease and requiringvery little effort or attention to proceed.Treading the spiritual path, however, requires utmost attention andcarefulness since the path affords no halting places or room forexpansion of the ego-life. He who enters the path can neitherremain where he is nor can he afford to lose his balance. He is likeone who attempts to walk on the sharp edge of a sword.To avoid inaction on the one hand and pride of action onthe other, it is necessary for the aspirant to construct in thefollowing manner a provisional and working ego which will be en-Constructing new egosubservient to Mastertirely subservient to the Master. Beforebeginning anything, the aspirant thinksthat it is not he who is doing it, but theMaster who is getting it done through him. After doing it he doesnot tarry to claim the results of action or enjoy them, but becomesfree of them by offering them to the Master. By training his mindin this spirit he succeeds in creating a new ego which, thoughprovisional and working, is amply able to become a source of thatconfidence, feeling, enthusiasm and "go" which true action mustexpress. This new ego is spiritually harmless since it derives its lifeand being from the Master who represents Infinity, and

180 DISCOURSESsince, when the time comes, it can be thrown away like a garment.There are thus two types of ego—one which can only add to thelimitations of the soul, and the other which helps towardsemancipation. The passage through the limiting ego of the worldlyman to the egolessness of the infinite life lies through theconstruction of the provisional ego generated throughwholehearted allegiance to the Master. The construction of a newego which is entirely subservient to the Master is indispensable tothe dynamics of spiritual advancement.The aspirant has been accustomed to derive zest in lifefrom his limited ego, and an immediate transition from the life ofegoistic action to that of egoless action is impossible and un-Sudden transition toegoless life impossibleinspiring. If the aspirant were to beimmediately required to avoid all forms ofego-consciousness he would have to revertto a state of negative passivity, without anyjoy of expression. Or, he would have to seek expression throughactivity which is merely automatic, like that of a lifeless machine,so that he could not derive any sense of fulfillment. The realproblem is that the aspirant has to abandon his life of the limitedego and enter into the limitlessness of the egoless life withoutlapsing into a coma, where there would be an ebbing of all life.Such a coma might give temporary relief from the limitation of theego-life, but it cannot initiate the aspirant into the infinity ofegoless activity.This is the reason why, in most cases, spiritual advancementhas to be very gradual and often takes several lives.Where a person seems to have taken long strides in his spir-Spirital advancementis gradualitual advancement he has merely recapitulatedthe advancement already secured in previouslives, or there has been special

THE DYNAMICS OF SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 181intervention by the Master. In normal cases the advancement of theaspirant has to be gradual. The distance between the limited life ofthe ego and the limitlessness of the ego-life has to be covered bygradual stages of ego-transformation, so that egoism is replacedby humility, surging desires are replaced by steadily growingcontentment, and selfishness is replaced by selfless love.When the ego is entirely subservient to the Master it is notonly indispensable and spiritually harmless, but is directlycontributory to the spiritual advancement of the aspirant because itEgo subservient toMaster ensures hishelpbrings him closer and closer to the Masterthrough the life of selfless service and love.Constant inward contact with the Master,which it secures, makes him particularlyamenable to the special help which the Master alone can give. Theaspirant who renounces the life of an uncurbed and separative egoin favour of a life of self-surrender to the Master is, through thisnew subservient ego, operating as an instrument in the hands of theMaster. In reality the Master is working through him. Just as aninstrument has a tendency to go wrong while being put to use, sothe aspirant is also likely to get out of order during his working inthe world. From time to time the instrument has to be cleansed,overhauled, repaired and set right. In the same way the aspirant,who during his work has developed new perversities, entanglementsand shelters for the personal ego, has to be put into workingorder so that he can go ahead.The aspirant who enlists in the service of the Mastermay be compared to the broom with which the MasterNeed for recurringcontact with Mastercleanses the world of its impurities. Thebroom is bound to accumulate the

182 DISCOURSESdirt of the world, and unless cleansed again and again and given anew tone it becomes less efficient in the course of time. Each timethe aspirant goes to the Master it is with fresh spiritual problems.He might have got caught in new entanglements connected with acraving for honour, riches or other worldly things that allure man.If he pursues these he might get them, but he might be far from thegoal of experiencing God on Whom he had set his heart. Onlythrough the active intervention of the Master can such spiritualdisorders be cured. This task of curing spiritual diseases iscomparable to the performance of an operation by a surgeon whopromptly removes the very cause which may have been sappingthe vital energies of a man. If a person develops physical ailmentsand complaints he must go to the doctor or the surgeon, and if hedevelops spiritual troubles he must go to the Master. Recurringcontact with the Master is most necessary throughout the processof spiritual advancement.The Master helps the aspirant in his own invincible ways,which have no parallel in the ways of the world. If the aspirant isto be the recipient of this help he must make a real effort toEach resurrection ofego needs fresh surrenderancesurrender himself to the divine will of theMaster. The personal ego which theaspirant renounced in his first surrenderanceto the Master may reappear in anew aspect, even within the artificial ego meant to be completelysubservient to the Master, and create disorder in its smoothworking. Hence this new resurrection of the limited personal egoof the aspirant needs to be counteracted through fresh surrenderanceto the Master. The series of successive resurrections ofthe personal ego have to be accompanied by a series of fresh actsof surrenderance to the

THE DYNAMICS OF SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 183Master.Progress from one surrender to greater surrender is aprogression from a minor conquest to a major one. The morecomplete forms of surrenderance represent the higher states ofLast surrenderanceis that of separatenessconsciousness since they secure greaterharmony between the aspirant and theMaster. Thus the infinite life of the Mastercan flow through the aspirant in more abundant measure. Spiritualadvancement is a succession of one surrender after another untilthe goal of the final surrenderance of the separate ego-life iscompletely achieved. The last surrender is the only completesurrenderance. It is the reverse side of the final union in which theaspirant becomes one with the Master. Therefore, in a sense, themost complete surrenderance to the Master is equivalent to theattainment of the Truth, which is the ultimate goal of all spiritualadvancement.

The Deeper Aspects of SadhanaFOR most persons, spiritual Sadhana (the path of attainment)consists in the external observance of rituals and ceremoniesprescribed by their own religion. In the initial stages such obser-Transition fromrituals to deeperaspects of Sadhanavance has its own value as a factorcontributing towards self-purification andmental discipline; but ultimately the aspiranthas to transcend the phase of externalconformity and become initiated into the deeper aspects of spiritualSadhana. When this happens the external aspect of religion fallsinto the background and the aspirant gets interested in theessentials revealed in all the great religions. True Sadhana consistsin a life which is based upon spiritual understanding, and it comesto a person who is really keen about spiritual realities.Sadhana must never be regarded as consisting in theapplication of rigid laws. In life there cannot be and need not bestrict and unrelieved uniformity. In the spiritual field there is ampleroom for diversity of Sadhanas. The Sadhana which is usefulDiversity of Sadhanasfor a particular aspirant is bound to berelated to his sanskaras and temperamentand so, although the spiritual goal for all is the same, the Sadhanaof a given aspirant may be

THE DEEPER ASPECTS OF SADHANA 185peculiar to himself. However, since the goal is the same for all, thedifferences with regard to Sadhana are not of vital importance, andthe deeper aspects of Sadhana have importance for all aspirants inspite of their differences.Sadhana in the spiritual field is bound to be essentiallydifferent from Sadhana in the material field, because the end isintrinsically different. The end sought in the material field is aSadhana in spiritualfield differentfrom Sadhana inmaterial fieldproduct which has its beginning and end intime. The end sought in the spiritual field iscompleteness which transcends the limitationsof time. Therefore in the material fieldSadhana is directed towards the achievementof something which is yet to be, but in the spiritual field Sadhanais directed towards the realisation of that which always has been,will ever be and now IS.The spiritual goal of life is to be sought in life itself and notoutside life, so Sadhana in the spiritual field has to be such that itbrings one's life closer to the spiritual ideal. Sadhana in the spiri-Goal of spiritualSadhanatual field does not aim at the achievement of alimited objective which may have its day andthen ingloriously disappear forever. It aims atbringing about a radical change in the quality of life so that itpermanently becomes an expression of the Truth in the eternalNOW. Sadhana is spiritually fruitful if it succeeds in bringing thelife of the individual in tune with the divine purpose, which is toenable everyone to enjoy consciously the God-state. Sadhana hasto be completely adapted to this end.In the spiritual field every part of Sadhana must aim at therealisation of the spiritual goal of securing godliness in all phasesof life; therefore the different aspects of spiritual Sadhana will,from one point of view,

186 DISCOURSESSadhana merges intoits goalrepresent different gradations towardsspiritual perfection. Sadhana is perfect tothe extent to which it expresses the spiritualideal, i. e., the degree to which it resembles the perfect life. Thusthe greater the disparity that exists between the Sadhana and theideal at which it aims, the less perfect it is; the less disparity thatexists between Sadhana and the ideal at which it aims, the moreperfect it is. When Sadhana is Perfect or complete it merges intothe goal—a spiritually perfect life—so that the division of meansand end is swallowed up in an inviolable integrity of indivisiblebeing.The relation between spiritual Sadhana and the end soughtthrough it may be contrasted with the relation which existsbetween them in the material field. In the material field the endSadhana as partialparticipation in itsgoalusually falls more or less entirely outside theSadhana through which it is secured, andthere is a clear disparity of nature betweenSadhana and the end achieved through it.Thus pulling the trigger of a gun may become a means of killing aman, but killing a man is essentially different in kind from thepulling of the trigger. In the spiritual field, however, the Sadhanaand the end sought through it cannot be completely external toeach other, and there is no clear disparity of nature between them.In the spiritual field it is not possible to maintain an unbridgeablegulf between Sadhana and the end sought through it. This givesrise to the fundamental paradox that, in the spiritual field, thepractising of a Sadhana in itself amounts to a partial participationin the goal. Thus it becomes intelligible why many of the spiritualSadhanas have to be taken seriously as if they were, in themselves,the goal.

THE DEEPER ASPECTS OF SADHANA 187In its deeper aspects, spiritual Sadhana consists in treading(i) The Path of Knowledge (Dnyana Marga), (ii) the Path ofAction (Karma Marga), and (iii) the Path of Love or DevotionSadhana throughknowledge, actionand love(Bhakti Marga). The Sadhana ofknowledge finds its expression through(a) the exercise of detachment which isborn of true understanding, (b) the differentforms of meditation and (c) the constant use of discrimination andintuition. Each of these modes through which spiritual knowledgeis sought or expressed requires explanatory comments.The individual soul is entangled in the world of forms anddoes not know itself as part and parcel of the being of God.This ignorance constitutes the bondage of the soul, and spiritualDetachmentSadhana must aim at securingemancipation from this bondage. Externalrenunciation of the things of this world is therefore often countedamong the Sadhanas which lead to liberation. Though suchexternal renunciation may have its own value, it is not absolutelynecessary. What is needed is internal renunciation of craving forthe things of this world. When craving is given up it matters littlewhether the soul has or has not externally renounced the things ofthis world, because the soul has internally disentangled itself fromthe illusory world of forms and has prepared itself for the state ofMukti. Detachment is an important part of the Sadhana of Knowledge.Meditation is another means through which spiritualknowledge is sought. Meditation should not be regardedas some queer pursuit peculiar to dwellers in caves.MeditationEvery person finds himself meditatingon something or another. The differencebetween such natural

188 DISCOURSESmeditation and the meditation of the aspirant is that the latter issystematic and organised thinking about things that have spiritualimportance. Meditation, as Sadhana, may be personal orimpersonal.Meditation is personal when it is concerned with somespiritually perfect soul. A suitable object for personal meditationmay be taken (according to the inclination of the aspirant) fromamong the Avatars or the Masters of the past or from living PerfectMasters. Through such personal meditation the aspirant imbibes allthe divine qualities or the spiritual knowledge of the Master. Sinceit involves love and self-surrender, personal meditation invites thegrace of the Master which alone can give final realisation. So theSadhana of personal meditation not only makes the aspirantsimilar to the Master on whom he meditates, but also prepares hisway to be united with the Master in the Truth.Impersonal meditation is concerned with the formless andinfinite aspect of God. This may lead a person towards therealisation of the impersonal aspect of God, but on the whole thismeditation becomes barren unless the aspirant has been dulyprepared by the pursuit of personal meditation and the life ofvirtue. In the ultimate realisation of infinity there is neither thelimitation of personality nor the distinction of the opposites ofgood and evil. In order to have that realisation one has to pass fromthe personal to the impersonal and from goodness to God, Who isbeyond the opposites of good and evil. Another condition ofattaining Truth through impersonal meditation is that the aspirantshould be able to make his mind absolutely still. This becomespossible only when all the diverse sanskaras (impressions) in themind have vanished. As the final wiping out of the sanskaras ispossible only through the grace of a Master, the Master isindispensable for

THE DEEPER ASPECTS OF SADHANA 189success even along the path of impersonal meditation.The Sadhana of Knowledge remains incomplete unless theaspirant exercises constant discrimination and unveils his highestintuitions. Realisation of God comes to the aspirant who uses dis-Use of discriminationand intuitioncrimination as well as his intuitions abouttrue and lasting values. Infinite knowledgeis latent in everyone but it has to beunveiled. The way to increase knowledge is to put into practicethat bit of spiritual wisdom which a person may happen to have.The teachings which have come to humanity through the Mastersof wisdom, and the inborn sense of values which the aspirantbrings with himself, shed sufficient light upon the next step whichthe aspirant has to take. The difficult thing is to act upon theknowledge which he has. One of the best methods of adding toone's own spiritual wisdom is to make use of the knowledge whichone already has. If Sadhana of knowledge is to be fruitful it mustbe implemented at every step by due emphasis on action. Everydaylife must be guided by discrimination and inspired by the highestintuitions.Karma Yoga or the Path of Action consists in acting up tothe best intuitions of the heart without fear or hesitation. InSadhana what counts is practice and not mere theory. SoundImportance of actionpractice is far more important than soundtheory. Practice which is based upon rightknowledge will of course be more fruitful, but even a mistake in apractical direction may have its own valuable lessons to bring.Mere theoretical speculation, however, remains spiritually barren,even when it is flawless. Thus a person who is not very learned butwho sincerely takes the name of God and does his humble dutieswholeheartedly, may actually be much nearer to God than one whoknows

190 DISCOURSESall the metaphysics of the world but who does not allow any of histheories to modify his everyday life.The difference between the comparative importance oftheory and practice in the field of Sadhana may be brought out bymeans of a well-known story of an ass. An ass, who was ploddingStory of an assalong a path for a long time and was veryhungry, happened to see two heaps ofgrass—one at some distance on the right side of the path and theother at some distance on the left side of the path. Now the assthought that it was of utmost importance to be absolutely certainwhich of the two heaps was clearly the better before he couldintelligently decide to go to one heap rather than the other. If hedecided without thorough thinking and without having sufficientgrounds for his preference, that would be impulsive action and notintelligent action. So he first considered the distance at which thetwo heaps were respectively placed from the path which he wastreading. Unfortunately for him, after elaborate consideration, heconcluded that the heaps were equally distant from the path. So hewondered if there were some other consideration which mightenable him to make a "right" choice and speculated upon the respectivesizes of the heaps. Even with this second attempt to betheoretically sure before acting his efforts were not crowned withsuccess, because he concluded that both heaps were of equal size.Then, with the tenacity and patience of an ass, he considered otherthings such as the quality of the grass, but as fate would have it, inall the points of comparison which he could think of the two heapsturned out to be equally desirable.Ultimately it happened that since the ass could not discoverany deciding factor which would make his preference appeartheoretically sound, he did not go to

THE DEEPER ASPECTS OF SADHANA 191either of the two heaps of grass but went straight ahead, hungryand tired as before and not a whit better off for having come upontwo heaps of grass. If the ass had gone to one heap, withoutinsisting upon the theoretical certainty of having chosen wisely, hemight perhaps have gone to the heap which was not as good as theother; and despite any mistakes in his intellectual judgment hemight have been infinitely better off from a practical point of view.In the spiritual life it is not necessary to have a complete map ofthe Path in order to begin travelling. On the contrary, insistenceupon having such complete knowledge may actually hinder ratherthan help the onward march. The deeper secrets of spiritual life areunravelled to those who take risks and who make bold experimentswith it. They are not meant for the idler who seeks guaranties forevery step. He who speculates from the shore about the ocean shallknow only its surface, but he who would know the depths of theocean must be willing to plunge into it.Fulfillment of the Sadhana of Karma Yoga requires thataction should spring from perception of the Truth. Enlightenedaction does not bind because it is not rooted in the ego and isselfless. Selfishness represents ignorance, while selflessness is aSelfless servicereflection of the Truth. The real justificationfor a life of selfless service is to be found inthis intrinsic worth of such life and not in any ulterior result orconsequence. The paradox of selfless action is that it actuallybrings to the aspirant much more than could ever come within thepurview of ignorant selfishness. Selfishness leads to a narrow lifewhich moves round the false idea of a limited and separateindividual, but selfless action contributes towards the dissipation ofthe illusion of separateness and turns out to be the gateway to theunlimited life where there is realisation of All-

192 DISCOURSESself-ness. What a person has may be lost and what he desires tohave may never come to him, but if he parts with something in thespirit of an offering to God, it has already come back to him. Suchis the Sadhana of Karma Yoga.Even more important than the Sadhanas of Knowledge orAction is Bhakti or Love. Love is its own excuse for being. Itis complete in itself and does not need to be supplemented byLoveanything. The greatest saints have beencontent with their love for God, desiringnothing else. Love is no love if it is based upon any expectation. Inthe intensity of divine love the lover becomes one with the DivineBeloved. There is no Sadhana greater than love, there is no lawhigher than love, and there is no goal which is beyond love, forlove in its divine state becomes infinite. God and love are identical,and one who has divine love already has God.Love may be regarded as being equally a part of Sadhanaand a part of the goal; but the intrinsic worth of love is so obviousthat it is often considered a mistake to look upon it as a SadhanaThrough effort toeffortlessnessfor some other thing. In no Sadhana is themerging in God so easy and complete as inlove. When love is the presiding genius thepath to Truth is effortless and joyous As a rule Sadhana involveseffort and sometimes even desperate effort, as in the case of anaspirant who may strive for detachment in the face of temptations.In love, though, there is no sense of effort because it isspontaneous. Spontaneity is of the essence of true spirituality. Thehighest state of consciousness, in which the mind is completelymerged in the Truth, is know as Sahajawastha, the state ofunlimited spontaneity in which there is uninterrupted Selfknowledge.One of the

THE DEEPER ASPECTS OF SADHANA 193paradoxes connected with spiritual Sadhana is that all effort ofthe aspirant is intended for arriving at a state of effortlessness.There is a beautiful story of a Kasturi-mriga ∗ whichbrings out the nature of all spiritual Sadhana. Once,while roaming about and frolicking among hills and dales, theStory of KasturimrigaKasturi-mriga was suddenly aware of anexquisitely beautiful scent, the like of which ithad never known. The scent stirred the innerdepths of its soul so profoundly that it determined to find itssource. So keen was its longing that notwithstanding the severityof cold or the intensity of scorching heat, by day as well as bynight, it carried on its desperate search for the source of the sweetscent. It knew no fear or hesitation but undaunted went on itselusive search until, at last, happening to lose its foothold on acliff, it had a precipitous fall resulting in a fatal injury. Whilebreathing its last the deer found that the scent which had ravishedits heart and inspired all these efforts came from its own navel.This last moment of the deer's life was its happiest, and there wason its face inexpressible peace.All spiritual Sadhana of the aspirant is like the efforts ofthe Kasturi-mriga. The final fructification of Sadhana involves thetermination of the ego-life of the aspirant. At that moment there isGoal of Sadhana isSelf-knowledgethe realisation that he himself has, in asense, been the object of all his search andendeavour, that all that he suffered andenjoyed—all his risks and adventures, all his sacrifices anddesperate strivings—were intended for having true Self-knowledgein which he loses his limited individuality, only to discover that heis really identical with God Who is in everything.∗ The deer whose navel yields musk.

LIST OF BOOKS BY THE AUTHORGOD SPEAKSLISTEN HUMANITYLIFE AT ITS BESTBEAMS ON THE SPIRITUAL PANORAMATHE EVERYTHING AND THE NOTHINGDISCOURSESThere are many books about Meher Baba and various phases of hisunique work.For books in foreign languages, especially those of India, pleasewrite to Adi K. Irani, King's Rd., Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India.