Raja-Yoga

DHYANA AND SAMADHI. 8 1
were not unique; they were just the same as you
or I.
They were great Yogis. They had gained this superconsciousness,
and you and I can get the same. They
were not peculiar people. The very fact that one man
ever reached that state will prove that it is possible for
every man to do so. Not only
is it possible, but every
man must, eventually, get to that state, and that is
religion. Experience is the only teacher we have. We
may talk and reason all our lives, without ever under
standing a word of truth, until we experience
it our
selves. You cannot hope to make a man a surgeon by
simply giving him a few books. You cannot satisfy
my curiosity to see a country by showing me a map; I
must have actual experience. Maps can only create a
little curiosity in us to get more perfect knowledge.
Beyond that, they have no value whatever. All cling
ing to books only degenerates the human mind. Was
there ever a more horrible blasphemy than to say that
all the knowledge of God is confined in this or that
book ? How dare men call God infinite, and yet try to
compress Him into the covers of a little book ! Mil
lions of people have been killed because they did not
believe what the books say, because they would not
see all the knowledge of God within the covers of a
book. Of course this killing and murdering has gone
by, but the world is still tremendously bound up in a
belief in books.
In order to reach the super-conscious state in a scien
tific manner we have to pass through these various steps
that I have been teaching you in Rdja Yoga. After
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