Resurrection—what is its meaning? It is life! To rise again! To rise to life! To rise—what and how? We must understand that resurrection means to live again. Every thing is undergoing a process of change. Then changes are either detrimental to the object which changes or are beneficial to it. For example, if I take this glass and strike it on the floor it would be changed, would it not? It would not be a beneficial change; it would be harmful to this object. But if I polish it up and make it shine, and clean it from bacteria, then that change is beneficial. Resurrection means any beneficial change that happens to an object or to a human being.

Now we are talking about human beings. You can resurrect your old furniture in the carpenter shop. You can resurrect your house through architects. We are talking of resurrecting the human body, and resurrection means any uplifting change. You cannot sit still because you must either go backward or forward. Isn’t that a great thing—a marvelous truth that in this life you cannot remain stationary? Either you must accept changes which are harmful to yourself or which are beneficial to yourself.

We say that every human being is an expression of the great vast Spirit. Isn’t it marvelous when we see how we human beings, without any motors, without any wires, without any visible electricity, run smoothly? The human machine wakes up in the morning, eats breakfast, goes to work, goes to lunch and eats again; goes back to the office, has dinner, then it goes to the movies, then goes to sleep, then it wakes up again and does the same thing all over again day in and day out.

We are controlled by something like radio-active and vito-active energy let loose by God! Just as ships are radio-operated, so we are controlled by the Infinite Spirit which is present everywhere. But the thing is this—just as the sunlight falling on the water in a glass which I keep moving becomes divided into a million suns, so the Spirit reflected in each human body and mind has been reflected as individualized Spirits or souls. Now though this soul reflects spirit, still, being identified with the body, it is trying very hard through processes of evolution to resurrect itself from the cage of the body, from the thralldom of the body and mind. The soul wants to return to the Spirit. If I had a cup filled with water and I held it under the lamp and moved the water, I have only a distorted reflection of the light in it. That is not the real light, but it may delude you into thinking that the light is real. Resurrecting the reflected image signifies taking it away from the moving cup of restless consciousness and reuniting it with the original all-pervading light.

Soul is reflected from the Spirit in the body and it is caged by the body, so it has all the limitations of the body and the mind. We must resurrect the soul from the thralldom of the body and the mind and unite it with the Spirit. It is easier said than done, isn’t it?

There is a story that Bernard Shaw met God in Heaven and said to Him, "Don’t you remember me? I introduced You to crowds in big halls and sent them up to heaven by the carloads." Than God said, "You sent them all right, but none arrived here." The thing is, sometimes we pray theoretically. We have resurrected ourselves from our blemishes according to our imagination, but facts are different. Resurrect yourself! It must be not only theoretically but practically. Even theoretical prayer is better than nothing at all, but sometimes it is a detriment to practical understanding.

Let us study first about mental resurrection. In the beginning of our life the soul begins to play with the body and gradually becomes the slave of the body. We must learn to live the life above the physical. Mental development is the by-product of physical development. We find according to natural evolution that the soul resurrects itself to the plane of intellect or plane of prosperity, and then rises to the plane of spiritual realization which gives a meaning to all prosperous development and intellectual attainment. Intellectual attainments are undoubtedly helpful—all good things help. Gradually we understand the way how to resurrect the body into the Spirit.

Resurrection means to resurrect the soul from the cage of ignorance; to lift it, to release the soul from the bondage of human life. Human life may be very beautiful, but it is just like a bird of paradise in a cage. You open the bird’s cage but due to love it may stay in—it does not want to fly away; but is that not a pity not to want to go out into the open from whence it came? It is afraid—and we, in meditation, say, "I am slipping—will I slip into the Infinite and never come back?" We are afraid of the skies. We have lived too long identified with the body. That is why we are afraid of our own infinite omnipresence—afraid to resurrect our omnipotence—afraid to resurrect our omniscience.

To resurrect our wisdom from the bondage of body is spiritual resurrection. I will talk of body resurrection now. The next thing I have to say is about living dead people walking on the streets. So many think they are free because their hands and feet are free and they walk on the streets of a city free. They think they are free, but they are not free. They are in bondage—in chains—like men walking in sleep. If you have not been able to resurrect yourself form the bondage of sickness you are still imprisoned behind the bars of matter. To resurrect yourself from disease by right living is extremely necessary. By deep study, after many years, I have found out in a nutshell how to express health—by contacting Cosmic Energy.

We must also understand about food values. Carrots contain valuable vitamins. Wash them but do not do anything else to them. I ordered some raw carrots at a place I was visiting and when they were brought in they didn’t have any heads or feet. The tops and bottoms contain the vitamins. Meat is not worse than a cooked vegetable dinner of killed vitamins. Resurrect your mind from the bad habits of wrong eating. Start with the carrots. Don’t forget them. They are hard and nice—you have not to chew bones to get strength. When you chew carrots they give power to the teeth. The vitamins are in the top. Vitamins are sparks which set the gunpowder of chemicals in motion. Vitamins are absolutely necessary to the system for the harmonious development of physical strength. Vitamins are the brains of the food. Vitamins are rearranged in the system to give vitality to the body.

A lemon a day; an apple a day; an orange a day; half a glass of orange juice with two tablespoonsful of ground nuts; eight leaves of raw spinach. My mind said I must eat it but my palate rebelled against it. I am a believer in facts, so I chopped the spinach leaves very fine and added orange juice, and it makes a wonderful dish. Then you will know you are eating spinach. When you cook it the vitamins are all gone. I have never felt better in my life. I have very strong muscles now and of course Yogoda and not only food helps that. Grapefruit is very good. Then a little piece of banana—about one-fourth. Then unsulphured figs and raisins. Eat these things every day.

I recently met a man called Uncle Billy Ries—79 years old. He has grown a head of hair on a perfectly bald head. He said that he had been for years carrying a bay-window in front and was given up to die at 25 years of age. He resurrected himself—he began to think if there is a God ...He has no business in making me sick—then to think it ....must be his own fault. You see, he was resurrecting himself form the disease which had been constantly coming to him ....through his own fault. He found that sixteen elements are necessary to the body. You have a whole meal often but a starvation diet; whole meals of white bread and sugar and pies might satisfy but would kill in a few months. When you have to eat why not eat rightly? So he dieted and got back his health completely. He kicks way up high in the air and he successfully wrestled with me. We are great friends. Much valuable health information I owe to him.

The ordinary figs and raisins are mummies. They are so fixed that they do not decay, but have no life. These figs and raisins you can write in your will and leave to future generations as heirlooms. sun-dried figs only live three months. In the mummy kind the sulfur fumes are passed through them and kill all the vitamins. Isn’t it too bad to preserve things and kill the good part? Four unsulphured figs and prunes and a few raisins a day are good. Then you need a half or a fourth glass of milk or a boiled egg. It is good to boil eggs hard because there may be germs through the hen’s being sick. One-half glass of orange juice with ground nuts. Then one-fourth glass of buttermilk, a little piece of cheese, a piece of whole-wheat bread with butter or nut margarine. Nut margarine is very good. I do not mean that you shall live only on this, but you may eat more or less. But if you remember these rules you will not be making any transgression on nature. This has been only after years of experiment I have found all this out. I shall broadcast this information. Nature will not listen to excuses of your years of transgression against her health rules. If you eat sensibly, then if you are in the habit of breaking some laws occasionally, it will not so much hurt you.

So resurrect yourself from the bad habit of eating wrongly. A rattlesnake gives you warning—but gravy and white flour don’t tell you. The gravy and white flour look very nice. Everything white is not always good—sometimes brown things are very nice. We used to have unprocessed cereals until the mills came and we began to refine things, and now by a round-about way the best is taken out of the grains. Colonic poisoning comes with white bread. You cannot afford to have constipation. Stomach exercise of Yogoda is marvelously efficient.

Another thing, every week you must fast one day on orange juice to rest the organs. You won’t die—you will LIVE! Each month fast two or three days consecutively, living only on orange juice. There is so much bondage to matter—of fear to miss a meal. It is so evident we are not living by the Spirit of God. Jesus Christ talks about living by the Spirit of God. Resurrect yourself from this bad mental habit of overeating and palate slavery. When you fast on orange juice it scrubs every cell. At least every month you should give a thorough house-

cleaning to your body by fasting. Do not let poison accumulate in your system. When you are suddenly sick you begin to pray to God. Don’t let yourself get sick. The greatest way of health and the simplest is, every week fast one day on orange juice and two or three days consecutively a month.

Resurrect your soul from the hypnosis of bad habits in eating. You must do lots of resurrecting in order to get to God. Not only right eating but moderation in all things and sunlight and exercise are just as important. Then comes the question of resurrecting yourself from the consciousness of disease. That is more important than even meditating or trying to seek a remedy when you are sick. According to experiments of German scientists, many people are better because they do not analyze themselves or suffer from mental discouragement. There is a close relation between the mind and the body, and destroying the consciousness of disease is important. Many times diseases have left us and our consciousness of disease brings them back again.

In a village a saint lived. He was meditating in the night, when he saw a ghost of smallpox entering the village. He said, "Stop, Mr. Ghost, go away. You cannot molest a town in which I worship God." But the ghost said, "I will take only three people according to my cosmic karmic duty." The saint unwillingly had to nod assent. The next day three died, but the day after more died, and so on, more and more, until hundreds had died. The savant, thinking of the deception played on him, meditated, and the ghost came. The saint said, "Mr. Ghost, you deceived me and did not speak the truth." But the ghost said, "By the Great Spirit, I did speak the truth to you." Then the saint said, "You promised to take only three and your have taken hundreds." The ghost said, "I took only three, but the rest killed themselves with fear."

You must resurrect your mind from the consciousness of disease—from the thought of disease. You are reflecting invulnerable spirit. The body rules the mind but the mind must rule the body and then the body will not accept suggestions of environment and suggestions of heredity. Wrong ways of physical living have been handed down to posterity. Diseases exist only when you stimulate the thought of the forefathers and thereby reinforce their ignorance. You must always remember that if the Spirit takes away the radio-active energy then you would drop just like that. So if God takes away the energy, with all your dinners and all your society and money, you cannot live; so remember that you are living by the power of God. You must give the whole credit to God that you are directly living by His power. You do not care about difficulties—you are not afraid. Resurrect yourself for the consciousness of diseases that have been handed down by your forefathers. God never created disease. These are the truths which have been preached in India ages ago. Truth that shall make you free!

Then comes resurrection from our own mental habits. You know that the silk worm weaves threads around itself into a cocoon. Before it slips out of the cocoon into a butterfly, the silk man gets hold of him and the silk worm finds its death in the prison created by itself. We do just like that. Before the wings of spirituality grow, we foolishly weave the threads of fear, worry and ignorance around ourselves until disease and death come and destroy us. We find ourselves in the bondage created by ourselves. What is most destructive? Our own thoughts, our own wrong ways of living, thinking first and then doing. We must resurrect ourselves from the thought of anger, from the thought of selfishness, from the clamor of inharmonious living.

Many people think they are awake, but they are not. Mostly they are walking deads. Have you ever heard of people walking in sleep, crying fire or lecturing? Most people are like that. I don’t mean Yogoda students or those who are living the life of truth. Jesus said, "Let the dead bury their dead." Because one was to be buried beneath the soil and one was already buried beneath the soil of ignorance. So the thing is this—resurrect those who have buried themselves under their wrong living. You must be able to smile in order to do that. Not like this: "I am DEElighted to meet you," not that kind of smile. When you smile—when God smiles through the heart, through the soul, when the soul smiles through the heart and the heart smiles through the eyes, then the prince of smiles is enthroned beneath the canopy of your celestial brow. Let no rebel hypocrisy ever destroy it. Smile when the storms of suffering shock themselves around you. Say, "I have launched my boat on a dark sea, I have heard Thy call, Thou knowest that I am coming." He knows that you are on the sea of trials; He knows that you are moving your bark. He knows that you must battle these storms that are around. You are clouded through self-ignorance because you don’t see the Spirit around everything. That is why you must resurrect yourselves, your souls, from the trials around you. You must always say, "I have launched my boat on the sea of sunshine. I, through my mental radio, am sending the vibration that I am coming." You must battle even when the hands seem to break, you must battle, you must not give up. Then, when the clouds will finish and the life of happiness and prosperity will be back again, you will forget your trials.

Trials are not sent to you to destroy you but come that you may appreciate God better. God does not send those trials; they are of our own making. All we have to do is to resurrect our consciousness form the environment of ignorance. Environmental troubles, which we consciously or unconsciously have been creating in the past somewhere, some time, we must blame ourselves for. There must not be an inferiority complex. You must say, "I know You are coming! I will see Thy silver lining. In this tumultuous sea of trial Thou art the pole star of my shipwrecked thoughts." What are you afraid of? You are not a man. You are not what you think you are; you are the immortal. Not immortality identified with human habits—habits are your deadliest enemies. In crucifixion Jesus could keep His love and say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." So forgive your trials and say, "My soul is resurrected; my power is greater than all my trials, because I am the child of God." All those who receive God develop their mental powers by serious application. Your mental powers will expand, your cup of realization will be big enough to hold the ocean of knowledge. Then you have resurrected yourself.

Resurrection was celebrated last Easter. Jesus gave a great example. People that you do good to turn around and slap you. Expectation is meanness, is littleness. Give and forget. If your neighbor slaps you, just say he does not know any better, but don’t say it loudly. Resurrect yourself from the littleness of life, little things that disturb you. Do you think you are completely unbalanced, ruffled, shattered, whipped, lacking power? No. You have power; you don’t use it. You have all the power you want. There is nothing greater than the power of the mind. Resurrect your mind from the little habits that all the time keep you worldly. Smile that perpetual smile—smile of God. Smile that strong smile of balanced restfulness—that billion-dollar smile that no one can take from you.

I was on my way to Los Angeles once and met a man for whom I felt sorry. I thought, "What is the matter with this man? I must resurrect him. He has buried himself beneath this artificial habit of gloom." I said, looking at him, "Are you happy?" He tried to kill me with a gaze. I looked straight at him. What have I to fear? Nothing. He said, "Is that your business?" I thought, he had killed me in his mind and he could not kill me more. He said, "Yes, I am happy." I said, "No, I can tell what is in the mind." I call a spade a spade. He said, "Why shouldn’t’ I be happy? I put fifty to sixty thousand dollars a month in the bank." I thought, "Poor soul!" I said, "Tomorrow you may not be here to carry a cent. Have you opened your bank book with God?" Later he invited me to lunch, but he was inwardly antagonistic to me. Then we talked and he loosened up. I said, "Don’t rely on riches. You may die and not have even a chance to make a will. These material riches are not yours. Open your bank book with God." He said, "Meet me in Boston." I said, "Meet me in Los Angeles." but he did not have time. Then in Boston I was at the hotel where he stopped and the hotel manager said, "Don’t you know what happened to him? He was coming from a hockey match and was struck down by a truck and never regained consciousness." I felt very badly. See, he waked up a little bit but not enough.

If you have assurance with the Infinite, you will know, whether or not nature shatters your body, you are still on the lap of immortality, still on the lap of that Infinite assurance. Resurrect yourself from the consciousness of human habits and the human thoughts thereof. Every second live in that consciousness—it is the last thing, that which alone will live forever. This is not to frighten you but to quicken your understanding, quicken your efforts—that you do not keep your soul buried under false satisfaction.

Open your bank book with Him—it shall never be lost. You can use it through all your travels in eternity, whether in an airplane or an astral plane. You should say to yourself: "From star to star I will fly, whether on this side of eternity or the other side of eternity, or surging thru the waves of life, from atom to atom—flying with the lights—whirling with the stars or dancing with human lives! I am the immortal! I have resurrected myself from the consciousness of death."

Resurrect yourself from anger, from melancholy, from failures. You must succeed to know that you are God’s child. Success is not limited to spiritual matters. Success must come in everything. Resurrect yourself from the consciousness of disease, from mental habits and weakness. Have a strong smile which shall never be shattered by the trials of your circumstances. Then comes spiritual resurrection. Resurrection means relaxation—to relax yourself from your body. As you relax yourself from your mental body in meditation, so you must relax yourself from the internal organs, and body consciousness. Then you become free; your soul knows that you can live without the body though living in the body; it can say it is separate. Resurrection does not mean a change only after this mortal change. You must resurrect yourself while in this body. You resurrect yourself every night in sleep. Sleep is unconscious resurrection. You must do that consciously in meditation—meditation is conscious resurrection. Some of our saints in India have been buried and brought back alive after several days under the ground. They have proved that resurrection is possible. To do without food and still live, that is conscious resurrection. Resurrection of Jesus Christ is different. It is still higher. Resurrection means you understand creation—how to free the soul from the bondage of ignorance.

We have no existence but in the universal. The body you see is nothing but materialized electricity. How could electricity be sick? It is a delusion. But simply saying it is delusion is not enough. If in a dream you see a wall and you see your body strike the wall, you will have a broken skull in dream. Yogoda says it is only by coming in contact with God that one sees that God is the universe and that the body is nothing but condensed electricity. Science has said that electricity is nothing but energy or frozen cosmic consciousness. We must not call it mind. Mind is different. To say everything is mind is wrong. It is cosmic consciousness which makes us feel different things; consciousness of matter and consciousness of spirit. I have written plainly in joy "Scientific Healing Affirmations" why it is we do not see Spirit in matter. Jesus Christ had the power to see it. Resurrection means not only to resurrect body and soul to another sphere of existence, but to change the atoms of the body as well as spiritualize them and release them along with the mind. Everything—skin, hair, eyes—is nothing but frozen energy and frozen consciousness of God. Peter took off the ear of the centurion and Jesus healed him. Why? Because he knew that the atoms were controlled by the Consciousness of God and atoms obey Him. They do not obey you—why? Because you are not controlling that cosmic consciousness which is holding this flower together as a flower. You have the illusion of solids. By meditation you will first be able to separate the soul from the body. The cosmic golden cord that binds the atoms is the tender Spirit. It is His cord with which He binds the atoms and they become the flower, or the human body. He takes lots of electrons like a child modeling in clay models, and He throws them into eternity and they are stars or universes. We are very little to Him—I think nothing more than bacteria. We are very small but we are very big!

A little story—about bigness. It is that though we think our things are marvelous they are not big to God at all. I saw a big pile of snow and a very little ant crawling along. I thought it must be thinking of scaling the Himalayas. It was Himalayas to the ant but not to me. A million of our years may be a couple of years in the mind of God. We must think everything in terms of bigness—eternity—space.

Last of all, resurrect your mind from formal faith—faith which may have given you a little satisfaction but which you have outgrown; religions which you lived with under the conviction that you know—while you don’t know. The greatest crucifixion of the soul is the crucifixion of self-sufficiency—when we are thinking of how wonderfully big we are. Your soul must be relaxed from the bondage, the littleness of the body and the sufferings that the body is subject to. When you think of these diseases you think of the injustice of God, but KNOW you are immortal—not to be crushed by the mortal lessons but to learn and show your immortality and SMILE. Say: "I am immortal, sent to an immortal school. I am challenged by all the fires of the earth—I cannot be destroyed. Fire cannot burn me; water cannot wet me; breezes cannot blow me; atoms cannot shatter me; I am the immortal dreaming the lessons of immortality—not to be crushed but to be entertained." In the dreamland, sickness and health are the same—prosperity and failure are the same. A dream of prosperity is better than a dream of failure. Why not dream prosperity if you have to have dreams? You must have good dreams in this life. If you have too many bad dreams you will be very busy crying and not have time to know that it is all a dream. The dreams of health and prosperity and wisdom are better.

Resurrect your soul from the dreams of frailties. Resurrect your soul in eternal wisdom. What is the method? Relaxation! Self-control; right diet; right fortitude; undaunted attitude of the mind. Refuse to be defeated. Don’t acknowledge defeat. To acknowledge defeat is greater defeat. You have unlimited power—you must cultivate that power, that is all. Meditation is the greatest way of resurrecting your soul from the bondage of body and all your trials. Meditation! Meditate at the feet of the Infinite. Learn to saturate yourself with Him. Your trials may be heavy, may be great, but the greatest enemy of yourself is yourself! You are immortal, your trials are mortal; they are changeable, you are unchangeable. You can unleash the eternal powers and shatter your trials.

Two frogs—one a big one and the other a small one, feel into a pail of milk. The sides of the pail were shiny and smooth. The frogs were battling—every time they lifted their mouths to catch a little oxygen, down they went. They kept on battling. After a while the big frog gave up and was dying but the little frog said, "Well, life is too sweet. I don’t like to die. I will keep battling no matter if my little feet fall off". So it was battling for hours, when suddenly it found something solid under its feet—the milk was churned to butter! Out jumped the little frog! That is just how life is! After battling insufficiently like the big frog, you deserve dying; but if you keep on battling with determination, your difficulty will burn up—some answer from the Infinite will come and you will hop out of your difficulties. Be like the little frog. By all means keep battling. Determination! Resurrect yourself form weakness, disease, ignorance, consciousness of disease, and above all from frailties of habits that beset your life.

I:—Bird! Brother Bird! Why so swiftly

Must you speed on wings of wind?

BIRD:—Some one calls me lovingly,

—Waits for me yearningly.

I:—Who?

BIRD:—Yon blushing flower.

I:—What is he to you that you speed to him Leaving me, brother Bird!

BIRD:—Yon flower is a child of my song.

I:—Why blushes yon flower?

BIRD:Because his heart has memory of me.

I:—He has no brain for memory.

BIRD:—Your "Brain" forgets;

’Tis the Heart remembers.

I—What does your heart remember,

Brother bird?

BIRD:—One only wisdom,—Love.

I:—Why do you sing the whole day long?

BIRD:—In Remembrance of Love.

I:—Why won’t you do some work?

BIRD:—What nobler work than this, to weave Songs of Love?

I asked the Sea:—

"Where is He?"

And the Sea answered:—

"I, too, am in quest;

Hence my deep unrest!"

I asked the Wind

Rushing past the plain:—

"O thou that sighest!

Tell me where is He?"

"I, too, wander after Him;" she said.

I asked the Rain

In pearl-drops descending;

And the Rain answered me:—

"For the Fairest One

I weep these showers of tears."

I asked the Flame;

"I flicker in His quest," she said;

I asked the Dawn.

She blushed and answered me:—

"Pale am I in quest of Him."

I asked the Nightingale

Singing his plaintive notes

In Rose Garden of the King;

And the Nightingale said:—

"I sigh out my song for Love."

What abides?

The offering of Sacrifice.

What goes?

The things we hoard.

What hunger is the best?

The hunger for the Beautiful.

What business is the best?

Spending love to buy joy-beams for the poor.

What friends are the best?

Nature’s simple things,

—Flowers and the light of stars.

What worship is the best?

Silence at Love’s feet.

Why fades and falls the Rose?

A sacrifice to Spring.

Why sings the song-bird in the tree?

In witness of the Truth that is Love.

Why gravitate these petals to the ground?

They listen to the Flute and fall at His Feet.

Why plays Krishna upon the Flute?

It hath renounced itself and is pierced with holes.

____________

Creeping inward, creeping upward

Diving deep within, we find

Treasures lasting and uplifting;

Best of all, that Peace sublime.

Many lives we’ve spent in serving

Senses, passion and mind’s whim,

And have missed our own true Being,

Oneness with the God within.

Let us therefore give this one life

To the fight for higher gain,

With the hope, when life stops ebbing

That the task was not in vain.

O! Great God above in Heaven

Hear our cry we pray tonight,

Keep us steadfast in Thy wisdom

Keep us always in Thy light.

___________

"By religion or spiritual conviction,

I do not mean blind faith in a ceremony

Or a cross or a creed. I mean apprehension

Of the fact that I shall always live

As truly as I live now,

And that I can better my condition."

William the Conqueror, King of England and a great warrior and leader of men, was once a visitor at the famous health resort of Salerno in Italy. The health principles of this medical center, which was established in the 10th century, were rhymed in Latin for William’s benefit. The following English translation of part of the Salerno credo deals with the importance of right diet.

"The Salerno Schoole doth by these lines impart

All health to England’s king, and doth advise

From care his head to keepe,

From wrath his heart,

Drink not much wine, sup light, and soone arise,

When meate is gone; long sitting breedeth smart;

And after-noone still waking keepe your eyes.

When moved you find your selfe

To Nature’s Needs,

Forbeare them not, for that much danger breeds,

Use three Physicians still; first Doctor Quiet,

Next Doctor Merry-man, and Doctor Dyet."

* * *

"To keepe good dyet, you should never feed

Until you finde your stomacke cleane and void

Of former eaten meate, for they do breed

Repletion, and will cause you soone be cloyed,

None other rule but appetite should need. . . ."

* * *

"Good dyet is a perfect way of curing;

And worthy much regard and health assuring.

A king that can not rule him in his dyet

Will hardly rule his Realme in peace and quiet."

____________

It was not death to me,

Nor aught the least like falling into sleep.

It was nothing to joy upon

Nor yet to weep.

It was an infinitely perfect peace

Wherein the world entranced

Stood quite still

Outside of time and space;

And like a changeless, ever-changing face

Looked kindly on me

As I lay

And waited on his will.

It was not night

Nor day—

But bright with rainbow colours

Of an everlasting dawn

Down from the golden glory light

That shone in His great eyes.

The mysteries of earth

Lay open like a book,

And I could read

But slowly, as a small child reads

With an often upward look

That pleads

For help—still doubtful of the truth

Until he sees it mirrored

In the answering eyes of Love.

So I looked up to God

And while I held my breath,

I saw Him slowly nod,

And knew—as I had never known aught else,

With certainty sublime and passionate,

Shot through and through

With sheer unutterable bliss.

I knew

There was no death but this

God’s kiss.

And then the waking to an everlasting Love.

—The Morning Post, London.

____________

This body is my house—it is not I:

Herein I sojourn till, in some far sky,

I lease a fairer dwelling, built to last

Till all the carpentry of time is past.

When from my high place viewing this lone star,

What shall I care where these poor timbers are?

What, though the crumbling walls

Turn dust and loam—

I shall have left them for a larger home.

What, though the rafters break,

The stanchions rot,

When earth has dwindled to a glimmering spot!

When Thou, clay cottage, fallest, I’ll immerse

My long-crampt spirit in the universe.

Through uncomputed silences of space

I shall yearn upward to the leaning Face.

The ancient heavens will roll aside for me,

As Moses monarch’d the dividing sea.

This body is my house—it is not I.

Triumphant in this faith I live, and die.

"He (King Sikhidwaja) had cultivated mental and bodily restraint and other powers of will, and especially delighted in doing good to others. The partner of his marriage was Chudalai. . . . These two lived together in perfect happiness with their two minds interblended, performing all actions without the least difference of opinion, having mastered all the departments of knowledge. Delightfully indeed they passed their youth, as if but one breath of life pervaded in common their bodies. As the years glided sweetly by, their ephemeral youth passed away like water form a broken pot, and middle age fell upon them like flakes of snow on lotuses in the waters of a rivulet. Like water trickling from the palm of the hand, so their leaves sped away, day by day. Then the desires, which had in youth expanded themselves more and more like a gourd plant that grows in the rainy season, ever winding itself round and round, began to lessen like waters in the time of autumn. All the pleasures that once arose in the body now darted out of it like arrows from a bow. Just as a plantain tree grows useless after is has put forth its fruit-bunches, so they became indifferent to worldly actions after tasting of their fruit. In unison of heart, they both began to contemplate. . . .

"Coming thus to the conclusion that rebirth cannot be avoided except through Atma-Jnana (knowledge of the Eternal Self) alone, both betook themselves to such a life with their minds absorbed in it and with true meditation. And for the attainment of their wish they ever associated with the wise and learned. Thus did they live long together, exulting over their store of accumulated knowledge and leading a practical life of spirituality in accordance with that knowledge. Then the Lady Chudalai, of true discrimination, having heard and clearly understood the real signification of the Sastras taught by the wise for the attainment of the different stages leading to the realms of the higher spirituality, thus began to commune with herself. . . .

"And thus it happened that through her divine introvision the queen enjoyed daily the consciousness of the reality of Atma (the Eternal Self) and remained steadfast in that condition. Also, through the strict performance of her daily actions without the least longing after their fruits, all her desires and the tendency of her mind towards objects entirely ceased, nor was she troubled by the ‘pairs of opposites,’ or love and hate. Thus in the performance of actions without attachment to result, her mind ripened and became the receptacle of bliss. . . . She shone with a radiant spiritual light and became like a soft tendril bearing flowers."

The king, noticing the spiritual splendor that shone round her, questioned her. But when she explained her perception of the eternal verities beyond this phenomenal world, his pride overcame him and he rebuked her, refusing to believe that she had attained to the changeless state of blissful realization that he had not been able to reach.

"Yet this couple continued to live together harmoniously and happily as before. Preserving as she did a perfect equilibrium of mind, the wife had complete mastery over her desires. But there arose in her, through her own volition, a desire to be a ‘walker of the skies’ (in order to convince her husband of her real powers, and so lead him into the spiritual path.) For this purpose, she freed herself from all pains arising from enjoyment and seated herself in a solitary spot, in a pleasant posture, in order to obtain enlightenment. . . .

"Being with Atma-Jnana, the King began to reel under illusion and gave way to grief, regarding the enormous wealth he had so easily acquired as destructive as a great forest-fire. He therefore gave various rare gifts, underwent many religious observances and bathed in the holy water; but yet he was not free from the load of grief in his mind. Sorely afflicted in heart, he drew to him his wife Chudalai, and poured forth his heart to her thus: ‘I have now

abandoned all love of sovereignty and wealth, and I desire to enter the forest life. . . . Let me no longer associate with the delusions of this earth. . . . Thou shalt reign over the earth unfailingly in my stead. When a husband goes from home, it is the wife’s duty to protect those around him and not to languish at his absence.". . . "Then, bidding adieu to his great but enslaving possessions, he entered into the forest, crossing, in the course of twelve days, many rivers and hills. At last he reached the inaccessible forest on the slopes of the Mandara Hills, and took up his abode there, in a spot surrounded by tanks replete with lotuses and other delicious flowers. There he erected a Parnasala (hut of leaves) and furnished himself with a bamboo-rod, a rosary for the recitation of Mantras (sacred chants), a cloth, vessels to hold fruit, etc., and deer skins. Then, in order to perform Tapas (austerities) in the first Yama (three hours), he performed the Sandhyavandana rites; in the second, he gathered flowers; in the third he performed worship to Devas; and in the fourth, he fed upon fruits fit for food. All night through he was engaged in the chanting of Mantras. Thus did the king perform Tapas.

"Chudalai resolved to find out the whereabouts of her husband, for the husband is the wife’s only goal. She sprang forth (in her double), and passing through the window, went up into the sky, journeying through the air with so bright a face that the Siddhas (semi-divine beings) in the skies exclaimed, ‘Lo, another moon has arisen here!’ Then, seeing her husband traveling in the forest with a bright scimitar in his hand, she meditated as to what course she should pursue in regard to him. Having done so, this sweet-tongued one came to the following conclusion: ‘It is but right that I should see him only after his love and hate have ceased.’ With that, she returned to her palace.

"This divine lady gave out to her subjects that her husband had gone to a certain place on matters of a private nature. So she wielded the sceptre alone for eighteen years with true regal justice and an equal eye to all, thus passing her time in her palatial mansion; while at the same time, the king eked out his life of suffering in the forest.

"Finding that the time was ripe for her to se her husband, she went forth one night and walked the skies. Having mounted on the shoulders of Vayu (air), invisible to all, she alighted on the Mandara Hills and saw there a decrepit and melancholy body, which, at first, she did not know for her husband; but having by her great powers of Yoga, discovered it to be none other than his, she yielded to her grief and gave vent to these words: ‘Lo! dire is Ajnana (ignorance)! Through it, the king is groaning in pain. I have undoubtedly the power to confer Atma-Jnana (divine knowledge) on him at this instant; yet, lest he should spurn me if I, his young wife, should appear in my present form, I will assume another form suitable to accomplish my end. Moreover, the king is now in a state of mind which permits of his Ajnana (ignorance) being dissipated. At a single word from me, Jnana (knowledge) will reflect itself in his now ripened mind.’

"Therefore, availing herself of this most opportune hour, she changed her bodily form by her incomparable Dhyana (powers) and descended from the Akasa (ether) before her husband under the form of the son of a great Brahman (highest casteman). The king at once arose, and paid him all due respect. This young Brahman had a beauteous form, and, upon his breast, was a garland of pearls; he wore a white cloth and a sacred thread; and stood in the air at some distance from the ground."

The newly-arrived Brahman, telling the king his name is Kumbha-Muni, proceeds to instruct him in divine lore. The king’s mind receives great enlightenment and with great joy, he accepts the young sage as his Guru (spiritual teacher). The king explains his presence in the forest thus:

"Being afraid of the worries of existence, I sought in this forest freedom from actions. . . having relinquished my regal duties. My mind stands aghast at this ever-recurring cycle of rebirths. Though I made Tapas (sacrifices) here after obtaining all things necessary for that purpose, I have but enhanced beyond description my pains in the endeavor to do away with them."

Then Kumbha-Muni, addressing the king, replied, "There will be true bliss only when the Jnana (knowledge) instilled into a disciple by the Acharya (Guru) truly fructifies in him. Are not all acts of Tapas (sacrifices and austerities) simply diversions to while away the time?. . . I can enlighten you only if you will concentrate your mind, which now runs quickly from one object to another, with singleness of purpose. Otherwise, the Guru’s words, taken lightly and not conceived and meditated upon, would be of no avail even though heard . . . I have to demand as a first condition that you, O valiant king, will hear my words without interruption, and in the full belief that they will conduce to your welfare, as in the attitude of an ignorant child that hears the words of its father who is solicitous of its well-being."

The Muni then told the king the following story of a man who sought the Chintamani ( a gem supposed to yield anything thought of). "Through the performance of rare Tapas (sacrifices), he came into possession of it after a good deal of trouble; for what cannot a man attain to, if he takes the necessary trouble? Now, when the gem appeared to him, shining with the lustre of the moon, he, without bringing it under his grasp, thus soliloquized: ‘I fear this is not Chintamani, but only some paltry stone. . . . I am but a man; my Tapas (sacrifice) is very insignificant, and my powers small. . . Therefore, can it be possible for poor me to behold the rare Chintamani before me? I will proceed to make a further search for it.’. . . After he had wandered for some days in a perturbed state, some Siddhas (persons possessed of psychic powers), intending to fool him, screened themselves from his view, and let drop in his path a broken piece of earthen bracelet, which he no sooner saw than he picked up. Then, this deluded man, mistaking it for the true Chintamani, began to exult in its discovery and to marvel over it. . . .

"What I intended by the story of Chintamani is this: In order to attain true renunciation devoid of all pain and hypocrisy, you (the king) have forsaken your regal office, your wife, and other relatives, wherein there was the true Chintamani, and have betaken yourself to this forest. While the true renunciation was developing itself little by little in you though in the world, your mind was led astray by undue zeal to a wrong conception of renunciation, and was enveloped by that delusion as by a dark cloud which obscures the sky. This renunciation of yours is not the true one, generating real happiness, which you lost track of, because you thought that this (renunciation in the forest), if persisted in sufficiently long, would, at length, give rise to the true one. Having lost the Chintamani gem of true renunciation, which is the proper path of life, you have been misled by the false idea of the burnt stone of Tapas (the false Chintamani—the earthen bracelet) through your faulty vision, and have, therefore, been greatly afflicted. The wise say that those who reject the happiness accessible to them in their daily lives and allow their minds to search after imaginary and strange things without limit, are only self-destructive and of corrupt thought. Through the (false) idea of Tapas (sacrifices in the forest) as the means of bliss, your mind in no wise acquired that peace it desired, even when the gracious and priceless Chintamani was before you (in the person of his divinely-enlightened wife Chudalai, who could have instructed him in the proper method to reach emancipation if he had remained in the world with her, attending to his proper duties)., . .

"True renunciation, O king, lies in the abnegation of the mind. It is this which leads to Brahmic bliss. All other renunciations cause us sufferings. If, after true renunciation, you are illumined in mind, with perfect quiescence and without hatred, then will the identification of yourself with the Self of Brahman take place, and you will shine with resplendent glory. . . They are the true vanquishers of the mind in the karmas which fall to them, controlling all thoughts and desires in regard to such. . . Therefore, if, through virtuous actions, you destroy the idea of ‘I’ at the root of the tree (mind), then it will not again spring up . . ."

"Then Kumbha-Muni, able to confer Atma (Self) upon the king, caused him to cognize it, and said: ‘The true discrimination of space, time, the spacious quarters, mental actions and the rest, is only to understand the universe in its differentiated aspects. Though these distinctions have been existing in you from a remote past, yet they will perish (in you) in a short time. The quiescent and indestructible Brahman (God) will alone be, (as you will presently cognize).’

Instantaneously the king attained Jnana (knowledge) and shone with it. Thus was he released from the fold of dire Maya. Then, through the grace of the Muni (sage), who was pleased to dispel the delusion (of the phenomenal creation) from his mind, he was absorbed into the Brahmic state. Being freed from the actions of his mind, sight and speech, he, in one moment, became the Plenum in Brahmic state. After he had been for two ghatikas (48 minutes) in that state of Nididhyasana (meditation), he awakened and the Supreme Muni said: ‘Have you enjoyed to the full, free from all pains, the Elysian bliss of Brahmic seat, which is the ever-beneficent, the stainless, the pure, the soft, the seat of all Nirvikalpas (non-fancies, i.e. reality) and the fullness of all wealth? Have you been illumined with Atma -Jnana? Have you been freed from all delusions? Have you known that fit to be known? Have you seen that fit to be seen?’

"To these questions the king made reply: ‘O Lord, through your grace I have been able to cognize that seat of Brahman, which remains after all else is over, which confers the divine wealth of bliss, and which is the grandest and the most transcendental of all. Oh, I have been able to acquire the otherwise unattainable heavenly nectar of great bliss, and move in the company of those great souls of powerful Brahmajnana (knowledge of God) through the blessing of association with your grace. How was it not possible for me, your humble servant, to attain this immeasurable supreme nectar before?’

"Kumbha-Muni said: ‘It is only when there is quiescence in the mind and an indifference in it toward all enjoyments, and when the powerful Indryas (organs) are turned inward and the Ajnana (ignorance) of the mind is destroyed, that all the noble words of the wise Guru will infiltrate and spread in the mind of the disciple, like the scarlet water of the forest impinging on a perfectly white cloth. Otherwise such words will drop down, like the impurities of the body or the fruits of a tree. The mere doubt arising in one’s mind of the existence of duality or non-duality in this world betrays Ajnana; the removal constitutes Jnana (knowledge). It (Jnana) alone is our highest goal. Through illumination, you have attained Moksha (emancipation). You have levelled down your mind. . .

"Like the waters of an ocean, all the Universes are nothing but the non-dual Chinmatra (Absolute Consciousness). When this Chinmatra draws unto itself intelligence, then there is a fluctuation caused, like the wide waters moved by great waves. But the ignorant without true Nishta (meditation) regard the Supreme Principle. . . as the universe itself. A slight motion in this Chitta (Consciousness) generates this universe. If this visible universe of objects is truly cognized as the Jnana bliss, then it will die. But when its real nature is not powerfully grasped, then the visibles are seen as real, as the (misconception of a) snake in a rope. Should the pure mind concentrate itself for some time (steady and pure as the moon) through (a

study of) the visible Jnana Sastras (religious scriptures), the association with the wise, and an uninterrupted practice (of meditation), then in such persons developing Jnana (knowledge), a divine vision will arise, in which there will be a direct cognition (of the One Reality). Thus have I described to you the truths relating to the origin and destruction of the Universe. Having with true bliss brought these into practice and meditated upon them, may you, without fail and according to your free will, attune all your actions of daily life to the attainment of the Brahmic seat. I now shall go to Svargaloka, the gem of all Lokas (worlds). . . .’

"And with the words ‘I go away’, the Muni disappeared on the instant. Thereafter, the king thus thought within himself: ‘Marvelously strange it is that this incomparable state was in myself unobserved by me—a state like unto the crystal waters of a fountain, cool, pure and quiescent. It has enabled me to attain quiescence in the Absolute Sat (Consciousness).’ Then the king entered the Samadhi (super-conscious) state without any pains or fluctuation, without any mobility, with a true mouna (silence) and Nirvikalpa (divine vision)—immovable as a stone, tree or forest, without any desires.

"Meanwhile Kumbha-Muni resumed the soft tendril-like form of (the queen) Chudalai, and journeying through Akasa (ether), reached her chamber in the palace. There she began to rule over her subjects and protect them as she was wont to do. Thus she passed three years. After which, she went again in the guise of Kumbha-Muni to the forest where her husband was, and beheld him as immovable as a pillar in Nirvikalpa Samadhi (divine vision). Then, in order to acquaint him with her arrival, she made a leonine roar, which even did not wake him up from his trance. Though she tossed him up and down, no impression was made on him in the least, in spite of his body falling down. Then she thought thus: ‘It is certain the king has merged into the seat of Brahman (God). O this is really wondrous. If, after concentrating my mind on his (subtle) body, I should find any residue of Satwa (one of the three principles of nature) typifying the seed of intelligence in his heart, I shall join my husband and live with him happily. Otherwise, I shall have to renounce this my present female form and attain the Supreme Seat of Brahman, so that I may not render myself again liable to rebirths.’ Having come to this sure determination, she concentrated her mind and cognized through her (spiritual) touch and eye a residue of unsoiled Satwa in the king’s heart, denoting the intelligence yet animating that body . . . .

"Like flowers and fruits latent in a seed, a residue of Satwa, the cause of intelligence, rests always in the heart (in order to keep life in a living form) . . . This most divine lady Chudalai gave up the Kunbha-Muni form and entering (in a subtle form) into the stainless consciousness (or mind) or the king, devoid of beginning, middle or end, caused that part of it to vibrate which she found had the residue of pure Satwa in it. Then she returned to her stainless body, like a bird returning to its prison of a cage. Afterward, as Kumbha-Muni, sitting in a certain posture on the earth, she chanted the Sama-Veda songs, as if playing on the Vina (as these methods alone could arouse the king to a consciousness of the physical world). Thereupon, the Satwic intelligence, which now began to manifest itself in the log-like body of the king, heard the Sama-Veda songs and blossomed little by little, like a lotus flower blooming at the sight of the rays of the sun. Then the king’s mind became steady (as regards external objects), and he saw Kumbha-Muni before him. With an enraptured heart, and with the idea that his Lord Guru, who had previously come to him in order to bless him with happiness, had come again of his own accord, he showered on him the choicest flowers and eulogized him . . . The king burst out, saying: ‘O transcendental and holy god, I have attained bliss through thy favour, I have liberated myself from all pains through the Samadhi of true bliss . . . Having attained that incomparable bliss, I shall roam freely in Devaloka (land of the

gods) and Bhurloka (earth).’ Kumbha-Muni then asked, ‘Have you been enjoying the rare Brahmic bliss devoid of all pains? Have you annihilated all the pains which are of the nature (or spring from the idea) of heterogeneity? Are you able to maintain an equal vision over all, after destroying entirely all the pleasure flowing from San-kalpa (various functions of the different branches of the mind)? Have you been able to transact all the present duties of life, without in the least being ruffled by objects, being liberated from love or hate toward them?"

The kind replied that he had overcome all delusion.

"Thus did these, whose love for one another knew no bounds, cognize their Higher Self through the beautiful enquiry of Atma-tatwa (nature of the Real) and through most instructive discourses thereupon; remaining happy in one another’s company, without the least difference of mind, and roaming in the forests, and over the hills, they were matchless in real Jnana (knowledge) and in true loving actions . . .

Then Kumbha-Muni thought: "This king of puissant arms has at last attained the end of Jnana (knowledge). Let me (therefore) no longer pass under false colours. Let me cast aside the body (of Kumbha-Muni) and, assuming that of Chudalai, appear before him. With this thought in her mind, she transformed herself into Chudalai, and presented herself in that true character before him, when the quiescent king eyed her and remarked in wonder thus: ‘Is it true that I see before me Chudalai with her entire form, speech, modesty of mien and her other inestimable good qualities? O lady, who are you? To which she replied that she was his lawfully wedded wife and continued: ‘O dearest one, it was I that initiated you into the mysterious mysteries of Atma-Jnana (knowledge of the divine), assuming the body of Kumbha-Muni. Through such a course, I sounded the depth of your Jnana by the power of Maya (illusion). Now go into Nirvikalpa Samadhi (state of divine vision) and you will understand all things truly.’

"Accordingly, the king made his mind merge into the Universal Consciousness, and in that Samadhi surveyed all the events that had happened from the date of his quitting his magnificent country, down to the present period of the appearance of Chudalai (in her real form). After Samadhi (trance), the just king became quite enraptured with joy and having embraced Chudalai, who stood shining before him as the personation of true love and grace, was struck dumb for a long time and completely submerged in bliss for a while. Then, having recovered himself, he seated her on his lap and said to her thus: ‘Thou hast, through thy vast intelligence, lifted me out of the unfathomable cave of thick darkness which I was entangled in. Who is there to compare to thee in all this wide world? How can I, O tendril-like lady, requite thee for all thy kindness? Oh thou who has reached the other side of the ocean of Samsara (mundane existence), O thou the personation of Justice without any desires, how can I aid thee in any way?’. . ."

The king said: "All doubts have now vanished out of my mind . . . I am free from mental joy or dire pains. I am like the pure light of the resplendent sun’s sphere, which though coming into contact with any medium, such as a wall, et cetera, is subject to no increase or diminution. I am like the Akasa (ether) which permeates all objects, and is yet undefiled. I am of the nature of Absolute Consciousness. I can now cognize my Reality to be no other than That. Therefore, thou are my well-favored Guru. I worship thy lotus feet!. . . I am free from all love and hate. From this day forward, I shall daily perform my duties strictly according to your dictates, like a crystal tinged with the five colours."

"Then Chudalai said thus: ‘If thou art willing to act up to what I say, it behooves thee then to now give up all thy ignorance and resume the regal duties once relinquished by thee. Let us both wield the sceptre of our kingdom for some time as Jivanmuktas and then attain

Videhamukti after the body is thrown aside.’ In this, the king acquiesced. Then Chudalai rose up and, through dint of her concentrated San-kalpa (thoughts), acted as follows: She then and there first anointed him by bathing him in jeweled vessels full of the waters of the seven oceans and then, having installed him on an effulgent throne bedecked with rubies, blessed him with a long life. Then the king and his wife Chudalai, who were both of one mind, mounted upon a decorated elephant and went back to their town with a four-fold army amidst great rejoicing. As soon as they reached the outskirts of their town, the four-fold army in their town came in advance to meet them. Thus both joined together and went gaily along. There the king reigned with true love along with his wife (for a long period) and then attained a disembodied emancipation."

We hear much these days in regard to a greater harmony being desired among the apparently diversified sacred teachings of mankind.

There is already a unity of thought and aspiration common to all sacred teachings, which of course is expressed, explained and elucidated differently.

Ceremonies differ but they were designed to carry a meaning, and are aids to spiritual satisfaction so long as their meaning endures, otherwise they become idolatrous.

The following quotations have been selected from many similar statements, in the volumes of the Sacred Law, or the Bibles, of our brethren of many faiths.

Thou O Lord ...art our Father, our Redeemer,

Thy name is from everlasting.

—Isaiah 63:16.

There is but one Brahma (God)

Which is Truth’s Self.

It is from ignorance of that One,

That Godheads

Have been conceived to be diverse.

—The Mahabharata

Was that

Which was produced before Heaven and Earth

A thing?

That which made all things

And gave to each its character ...was not a thing.

—The Chinese Text of Taoism.

Confess and believe in God (Is’ana). Asoka Buddhist-Rock Inscriptions.

God is One; and He who is One

Needs not a name. For He (as the One)

Is the Beyond All-Names

—Hermes Trismegistus—Egypt.

He is the Living One. No God is there but He. Call then upon Him and offer him pure worship. Praise be to God the Lord of the Worlds.

—The Mohammedan Koran.

Oh Ahura Mazda (Lord Mindful)!

Who art the Fashioner of Creation,

And of the waters, and the plants,

Grant me immortality, vitality

And good disposition.

—The Parsi Hymns of Zarathustra, 51:7.

Hearken all ye Kannushi (Shinto-priests)

And Mono-imi (avoiders of impure things)

To this celestial, this great norito (prayer)

Which I humbly pronounce in the name

Of the Heaven-Shining Great Diety.

—From Shinto (the Way to the Gods) teachings.

For it is the Mind of Mind

Who is the architect of this manifested world.

—Chaldean Oracles.

To such there is but one God, the Father,

Of Whom we are all things, and we in Him.

—Corinthians 8:6.

It has been said truly that Religion is One,

Men call it by many names.

____________

See ye Me, and ye shall live.—Amos 5:4.

And I will walk at liberty,

For I seek Thy precepts.—Psalms 119:45.

Vast masses of people do not know the nature of the world in which they live, move, and have their being. They are hardly acquainted with the spiritual story of life. Born with illusions, they die in disillusionment. Before life’s breath goes out, they become disillusioned of many a golden illusion that mind weaves with the warp and woof of imagination. They surround life with dreams and moonlight and not infrequently gather ashes and darkness instead.

Once a fairy went out into the garden of the gods to gather smiles. While returning, she discovered that instead of smiles her basket was filled with tears. Such is the disillusionment in the history of many a life. Why are these illusions? Are there no golden means by which fleeting illusions can be converted into enduring joys?

Illusion is deception, either visual or perceptional. It is like the mirage seen by the aviators in the Junker Plane, "Bremen," along the coast of Labrador. Illusion is the picture of things which really do not exist.

There is a school of philosophy which claims that the world is an illusion or Maya. According to it, God alone is Reality; mind, life, and body are illusions; nature, force, or energy, is merely an illusion. One that exists alone and forever is Brahman or the Absolute; the rest is illusion. Verily to Brahman or the Absolute the world is an illusion, because It contains the world in Itself. For man, however, who has not yet achieved perfection, there is the Absolute Brahman as well as relative nature. Both are realities for him; to think otherwise is illusion. Through relative nature alone can he ascend to Brahman. There is no other way of escape or salvation.

God and nature exist together for man, but not to see God behind nature is illusion. both one and many exist, but not to realize oneness in many is illusion, because God pervades nature, and one is the basis of many. God is absolute, and nature is His emanation manifested in forces, so not to perceive God behind all forces—physical, vital, mental, or spiritual—is illusion.

Unity is reality; hence a concept of separateness is illusion. All our familiar illusions take their birth from the great illusion of separateness or divided existence, from which are projected the illusions of egotism, pride, vanity, exaggeration, attachment and so forth.

Now what is illusion, and what is not illusion? Love is not illusion, because it moves in Infinity and Unity, but love that plans on traveling through space and time, carefree and void of responsibility, is illusion, because thereby it denies nature, through which alone it can pass to Infinity. If man does not rid himself of such illusion, life will. Life does not tolerate any foolishness.

To be wedded in a bond of love, duty, and freedom is true marriage. When it lacks one of these, the marriage tie becomes illusion. Divorces prove the illusion of such wedlock.

A young artist once asked, "If I love my body and enhance its beauty, is that illusion?"

Not if you do so for the love of art, health, hygiene or decency. "When, then, is it illusion?" When body becomes god, and you deprive your mind and soul of their legitimate care, then beauty becomes an illusion, because it limits itself to the sphere of the body alone, forgetting its unbounded realm of mind and soul faculties.

Eating for health is a duty and a pleasure; eating for mere greed and sense gratification is illusion. Sickness unmistakably shows the illusion of wrong ideas on this matter.

To go through life, with its pleasures, pains, sorrows, and smiles, and not to know how to use the mind, build the body, and realize the soul is an illusion. Failures in life again bring disillusionment to deluded minds who do not first recognize this truth.

To live in a society of human family and not to know what actions create happiness for the whole of mankind is an illusion. To encourage actions that benefit but a section of humanity to the detriment of some other section or the whole is an illusion. Social catastrophes and war-cries are the means for disillusionment on this score.

Illusions are very fragile; with the slightest gust of wind they shatter. They are sweet in the beginning but bitter in the end. Things which are bitter in the beginning but sweet in the end are mostly the things that create happiness for one and many, but we run after illusion and evade Reality.

To enjoy life or the modest pleasures of life is not illusion. Moderation is not illusion; it is the normal expressing of self. Intemperance is illusion, because ultimately it brings about its own destruction. So says the Yoga philosophy.

Try to rise above the world of illusions; only thus can you abide in Truth. Find oneness in many and thus transcend the world of phenomena. To those who live in the Absolute, the phenomenal world is an illusion, but in human history such souls are rare. To such souls the Absolute is the only Reality, and the relative is an illusion. One and the whole is an actuality to them, and many, an illusion. They live for all, move for all, die for all. They include all and exclude none. In their consciousness, mine and thine are illusions. All-one is the only reality. Only to such persons is the world Maya or illusion. Therefore, move in the Infinite; think in the Infinite; act in the Infinite; and melt all your relative distinctions into the Infinite Oneness. Through the illusion of many, strive to rise to the reality of One.

I believe in a life stream incommensurable,

Unguessed by the instinct of termites,

Ungrasped by the mind of man,

Removed from electron and matter,

Remote from our personality;

Maker of heaven and earth;

Yea, Father of man, the Wonder Worker.

I believe in man. Man, destined lord of creation,

Composite man of the eons,

Stumbling and rising, but headlong

Unfolding in progress eternal,

Synthesizing new complexities

Like a kaleidoscope.

Projecting his own vibrations,

Always more grandiose yet more infinitesimal.

Employing symbols only for old experiences;

Ever girding his loins for a new millennium.

I believe in man, indestructible,

Surmounting in the end

The twilight of the constellations;

Yea, paradox to be revealed,

Commensurable at infinity,

Meeting at last the Life-Stream,

Re-entering the womb of God.

I believe in human intelligence,

In the congregation of idolaters,

In the syndicate of iconoclasts,

In mysticism and science.

I believe in love the all-solvent,

Shadow of the almighty Life-stream.

As it was in the beginning,

Is now and ever’ shall be,

Mind without end. Hallelujah and Amen!"

If thou wouldst worship Love,—thy King,

Lay low thy head at the Temple of Sacrifice

If thou wouldst know, bid adieu to thoughts

Sundering self from Self.

If thou wouldst be,

Be mingled with the Sea.

* * *

If thou wouldst see the Light, be blind!

If thou wouldst hear the Voice, be deaf!

If thou wouldst Advance, retreat!

* * *

If thou wouldst seek,

Enter first the Darkest Night.

If thou wouldst live, desire not life but Death.

If thou wouldst grow, crush thyself.

* * *

If thou wouldst possess the All, renounce all.

If thou wouldst Happy be

Shun pleasure, be passionless;

If thou wouldst enter Peace, pray for Pain.

* * *

If thou wouldst be

A student in the School of Wisdom,

Accept the Earth and Air, Water and Fire

As thy Teachers.

And receive from the Ages,

The Revelations of Truth.

The greatest treasures of Indian literature are in verse. Moradali and the grandfather who learned his geography out of the Meghaduta, would say that that was right. They would say that nothing, really, is said in prose; that when a thing is sung, then at last it is expressed. I should not go quite so far, but far enough. If a thing can possibly be said in verse, let it be. A man’s best book on the character of India would be poetry. Just as the Thunder melody, according to Moradali, has been lost—for how many thousand years is it?— so the power to read poetry has been lost. If a thing is said in poetry, that is, in words melodious, and deeply metaphorical, it is invulnerable. If it is said in prose, there is always a loophole through which men may slip. When Milton says:

It was that fatal and perfidious Bark,

Built in th’ eclipse, and rigg’d with curses dark,

That sunk so low that sacred head of thine,

There are no questions you can ask.

When Arnold says that poetry is a criticism of life, there are many questions for a wise man to ask, and the obvious one—what is a criticism of life?—for even fools to ask. When Arnold writes a paper on DeGuerin, full of good things as an egg is full of meat, men ask who De Guerin was, that a man of Arnold’s calibre should spend time over him, and so do not read the essay, and Arnold’s labour is all lost. (Perhaps you will read it soon? It is worth it.) If Arnold had written what he had to say of De Guerin, or even a village sloven, in verse, it would have been read, and, if a great enough poem, again and again. So it is not a small thing that I can say that India has known how to write all that she held greatly important in verse. She did so.

The poetry that I am going to speak of is modern poetry, not the ancient poetry of India. You might say that the ancient Sanskrit poetry could be held to prove nothing as to the character of India to-day, and I should not really know if it would be right to contradict that. I will tell you, then, of modern poetry only. Not of Tagore’s, because it is already known in England, and because I do not know it myself as well as I know other Indian poetry. There is something to be learned of the character of India in every line of the poems that follow; but you must read carefully, and it should be remembered that no poetry was ever really and deeply appreciated by any man until he had read it so many times, that he knew it almost by heart.

Know, too, as important, that Dr. Edward Thompson and Mr. Arthur Spencer, men who have spent long years among up-country Bengalis, and have translated much of the poetry, assure us that the poems that follow are all of them well known through Bengal, that village people may be heard singing them out-of-doors. I may wake in the middle of the night, and listen until I fall asleep again to a policeman on guard, singing such poetry as follows. He is doing what a Hebrew policemen would be doing, if he sang some of the Psalms or Solomon’s Song. That is not an unimportant point. It goes with the observed character of India. But a man must have been in India, and not insensitive, as too many are, to know what the observed India really is. You must do your best, remembering the courtesy required of you.

This is a very famous song. There is much in it, note, to recall the Psalms. The common people sing it. Ramprasad wrote it. He wrote, by the way, all the others that I am to give here.

No longer I call you Mother, who have sent

Me countless ills, and countless others send.

Dear ones I had, a home to me, a friend.

But you have made of me a mendicant.

What worse can you,

O Long-Tressed Goddess, do?

I must, a beggar, go from door to door

But should the mother die,

Live not the child? I cry

Mother, and again I cry,

But deaf and blind are you.

The mother lives, yet the child suffers so—

What is his mother’s use to him? I say:

‘Is this a mother’s way—

To be her own child’s foe?

I muse both night and day

What I should do, I, when

You make me to endure

The pangs of birth again and yet again.’

This is another very famous one, one the common people know and sing. Note the quietly beautiful close. The nim (a tree) is noted for bitterness.

’Tis but the hope of hope this coming

Into the world, and ends in coming.

The black bees’ error, when they fall

On lotus limmed. The nim you call

Sugar, with nim-leaves you to feed

This one, deceiving! In my greed,

Mother, for sweets my day have I

With embittered lips and wry

Spent. Your saying: ‘Let us play,’

Has brought me, Mother, this earth-way;

But in the game played me around

My hope has no fulfillment found.

‘What was to be, in the world-play,

Has been,’ suffer Prasad to say.

‘Drawing your child now to your side,

Go you home at eventide.’

That is the same cry as the cry of the tired and disillusioned man, who would fain be where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.’

The next poem is a famous one, too. Read it very slowly; its powers come out better so.

Wherefor so anxious, Mind?

Let Kali’s name be said.

In meditation sit you too.

From all this pomp of worship pride is bred;

Worship in secret, you.

What is your gain

From metal shapen, earth, or stone?

Her image make—no art—

Of stuff or mind; on your heart’s lotus-throne

Set it for aye apart.

Parched rice and plantains

—To offer them how weak

To satisfy your mind!

Feed her with nectar of devotion.

Wherefor seek With lamp, you blind,

And lantern, candle, to illumine her?

Oh, light Mind’s jewelled lamp;

Let it its lustre flash both day and night.

Wherefor this earthly tramp

Of sheep, goats, buffaloes brought for sacrifice?

These words repeat,

‘Victory to Kali’: offer the sixfold vice.

Why tomtoms, drums to beat?

Clap hands; sing Victory;

and lay mind at her Feet.

That is a poem on the foolishness and uselessness of sacrifices and ritual. Certain psalmists asked what was the good of slaughtering bulls and goats, which maketh not man’s heart clean. Here is one of the Brown Race asking the same. ‘If you yourself are blind,’ he asks, ‘what is the profit in lighting of lantern, lamp, or candle on altar or elsewhere?’ Not a question that can be answered. Seeing how difficult it is for the human mind to hold steadily in it the thought that in Him we live and move and have our being’; seeing that, and seeing how difficult it is for a man to live every act of his life in the light of that knowledge, for him to begin to be interested in altar cloths and cups and consecrated bread and wine is for him to withdraw his tired mind into such play as he seeks relaxation in at his theatre; and if he denies it, arguing that cloths, cups, and bread and wine are important, he is a liar, and he lies. That is not worship; that is man-child play. To deny it is to lie.

The next poem sets forth the manner of the soul’s sleep of death. Change the wording here and there, and the poem will set forth your own soul’s sleep of death.

Drowsy with longing, you wake not;

Excellent you have found

Time’s bed. From this night of bliss, think you, Will be no dawn?

Desire sits in your lap, like to a harlot crowned.

You will not turn from her.

The sheet of hope is drawn

Over your body; face muffled,

To uncover you refuse;

Winter and summer alike

An unwashed cloth you use.

You are held down

By the stupor of the wine that you have drunk—

The wine of worldly possession—

And you utter not Kali’s name;

Not even absent-mindedly.

O foolish Prasad, so sunk in hunger for sleep, That sleep does not appease the same,

In this you sleep that great sleep,

The last that comes to all,

Will come, and you will wake not,

Although we call and call.

There is no asking any questions of that. It is great poetry; melodious and deeply metaphorical.

Of the next poem a word of explanation must first be said. In Kali’s unbound tresses Ramprasad sees a symbol of strength in freedom. The forfeiture spoken of is of life. ‘The water of love’ is Bhakti, that is, passionate, ecstatic devotion.

Knowest not, Mind, to farm? In the untilled field

Would golden harvest wave, so thou hadst sown.

Make of her name a fence, that so the yield

Be not destroyed. Not Death himself, O Mind,

Dare come nigh Kali of the tresses free.

When forfeiture will come is all unknown—

To-day, or after many a century.

Lo, to thy hand the present time, O Mind

Haste thou, and harvest. What they gave to thee,

The seed thy teachers gave, scatter it now;

With water of love it sprinkle. If alone,

O Mind, thou canst not this accomplish, thou

Alone, take Ramprasad to be with thee.

Dr. Thompson has said of the next poem: ‘This song is recalled by Rabindranath Tagore in a well-known song in Gitimalya (see Fruit Gathering, 51); but his translation is only a brief precis of the Bengali, omitting the opening lines "I know this day will pass".’ The cowrie that Ramprasad, the wretched one, must find, is for the ferry-man, of course. There are no questions to be asked of this poem either. It is invulnerable. (Not that I mean that my paraphrase is.)

This day will pass, this day

Will pass, and rumour stay

Mother, ‘gainst Tara’s name

Endless will be the blame.

By the world’s bathing-ghat

To sell my wares I sat;

To the world’s mart I came.

The sun our Lord in flame

Is set; the ferryman

Came, and so many ran,

They fill the boat; behind

Is left one poor and weak.

This wretched one— how find

The cowrie that they seek?

Prasad says: ‘Stony-hearted

Girl, look back. Give me

A place. Singing to thee,

Mother, will I, not parted,

Plunge in the world’s great sea.’

____________

"From time immemorial India was known not only throughout practically all Asia, but in Eastern Europe and in parts of Africa. At the time of Alexander the Great she was so famous in Greece that it became the supreme ambition of that great conqueror to lead his armies to India, and add to his empire that most renowned country of Asia. And he did push his conquests to India, where he found a civilization which he recognized as little if any inferior to that of Greece, and great kingdoms with armies so strong that after fighting a great battle he decided that wisdom required him to retreat.

"Two or three centuries before Christ the Buddhist religion, which had its rise in India, was carried by its missionaries all over Asia, to the very borders of Europe, if it did not even penetrate that continent; and a little later it spread over nearly all eastern Asia, carrying Indian thought and influence wherever it went.

"There was much knowledge of India among the Romans, and considerable overland commerce, bringing to Rome the valuable products of India—jewelry, precious stones, fine silks and so on. Later, the wealth of Venice, Genoa and other Mediterranean cities was built up largely by their extensive and profitable commerce with India. For more than two thousand years, up to very recent times, numerous great caravans were all the while moving between the Mediterranean countries and India.

"It was to discover a sea route to India, so as to give Europe easier access to Indian products and Indian wealth that Columbus sailed over the Atlantic; and when he found America he thought it was India,—hence the incorrect name, ‘Indians,’ given to the natives of the American continent.

"The glory that came to Vasco da Gama from his discovery of a passage around the south of Africa came mainly from the fact that it gave the European nations, what they had so long desired, an all-ocean way to India."

"Let a man believe in God,

And not in names, and places, and persons."

—Emerson.

The recent psychological announcement that man has a superconscious as well as a subconscious personality is a vindication of the efforts which religion always has made to have men strive to express the best in themselves, according to Rabbi Israel Herbert Levinthal in his sermon at the Brooklyn Jewish Center recently.

"For the past twenty years," he said, "students of psychology, influenced by Freud and his disciples, gave all their time to searching the subconscious realms in man. It is true that the subconscious reveals much of the mystery that can explain human actions, but not all of our actions. It can explain the abnormal, but not deeds that are above the normal.

"And so the latest psychology, sponsored by the French schools, has discovered a new region in man, which it terms the superconscious. In contrast to the subconscious which

represents the submerged currents of our nature, it reveals the heights to which our nature can reach. In other words, man represents a triple, not a double, personality; our conscious and subconscious being is crowned by a superconsciousness.

"Many years ago the English psychologist, F. W. H. Myers, suggested that ‘hidden in the deep of our being is a rubbish heap as well as a treasure house.’ In contrast to the psychology that centres all its researches in the subconscious in man’s nature, this new psychology of the superconscious focuses its attention upon the treasure house region in man, the region that alone can explain the great, unselfish, heroic deeds of men.

"And that is the very function of religion. Religion is not content to play merely the role of censor to the promptings of our subconscious selves, but is the force that urges us to develop the superconsciousness within us, the power that urges us to climb higher and higher on the ladder of progress that reaches to God Himself.—N. Y. Times.

Dr. Walter Seth Kipnes, writing in Nature’s Path recently on the similarities to be found in the sciences of Naturopathy and Aryurveda (ancient medical science of the Hindus), says, in part:

"Last but not least is the similarity to be noticed in the views of both schools on the subject of diet. Charaka states that ‘The number of reproductive cells may be increased by a suitable diet.’ Megasthenes, writing of the ancient Indians, 300 B.C., states that "Their treatment is mainly by diet, not medicines.’ Nearchus states that ‘. . . their health is also attributed to the simplicity of their diet and their abstinence from wine.’ It was through his diet that the ancient Hindoo attained the average longevity of 130 years. It was through his diet and the use of herb combinations known as Rasayanas that the ancient Hindoo managed to retain his youth and vigor, to produce buildings of wondrous beauty, to have sewage systems and water mains, to discover the atomic theory ages before our rediscovery, understand the dynamization of drugs, to perform cesarian sections, to operate on the brain, to excise portions of the anatomy, to develop a philosophical religion, to produce one of the best codes of law, the code of Manu."

"The so-called super-natural is but the heart of the natural. If it were some miraculous, mysterious process, out of reach of ordinary men, this being ‘born from above’, Jesus would not have stated that it was possible to very man if he lived the same pure, unselfish life that He lived on earth. ‘If ye believe in me and the works that I do, ye can do these things and even greater, for I go unto my Father.’ Witness also the saying of the Master to Nicodemus: ‘Verily, verily I say to thee, except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven,’ and later: ‘If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?’ ‘If a man will keep my saying he shall never see death,’ and ‘To him that over-cometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.’

"The Good Book states that death entered into the world by sin (Romans 5-12), so

only the perfect Man may have eternal Life. The Master Jesus showed by His Life, and also plainly stated that death is the last enemy to be destroyed. His life shows above all things that death must be overcome while one is yet alive, and in the physical body. The Master said: ‘He is not the God of the dead but the God of the living; ye therefore do greatly err’ (Mark 12-27). (Matthew 22:24-32)."

Though essentially the perfect soul, yet man, in his human existence, is an imperfect being; though the universal God, yet a particular character; though the complete end, yet a potential process. The inner impulse of the finite soul, aided by the law of involution and evolution, has placed the human being, alone of our creation, on that throne of consciousness from which he declares himself as the image of God.

Stagnation has no place within the domain of creation. Creation demands development; development harmonizes creation. Unfoldment from within being the genuine suggestions of the word "development’, "addition" would be the most misleading interpretation of it, because "addition" carries along with it the sense of combination from without.

The development of a piece of stone into a plant, and that of the plant to the state of a rational being, passing through the gate of animal consciousness, is the unfolding of the same soul from within, assisted by the suggestions from the world without to realize its true nature of greatness or oneness with God, the Cosmic Consciousness.

Therefore, suppression, or even the concealment of man’s inner nature is against the law of creation, hence suicidal. In fact, nothing can hide its own innateness. The temporarily overpowering, inharmonious influence of the circumstantial environment might vainly attempt to suppress the nature of an object (whether inanimate or animate, irrational or rational) but the object, being constantly goaded by its inner impulse, must reveal itself sooner or later. The object struggles; it fights hard with the enemy, defeats the opponent, conquers the rival and makes itself happy by regaining its freedom of expression.

The gorgeous sun, for a certain period, might be encircled by the thick clouds of nature. Finally he regains his supremacy, piercing the clouds by the swords of his radiant light. It may be that the lion obeys every command you make by the movements of your finger, but know it for certain that his soul, dissatisfied in the cage, will never lose the first opportunity to satisfy itself by roaring in that deep boundless forest where he enjoys his freedom—his nature.

Man is no exception to the law of creation. Nothing can suppress the development of the human soul. True, the clay of evil propensities covers the soul diamond, but certain it is that at last the soul not only regains it glorious state by overcoming the degrading influence of evil propensities, but that it also transforms their nature by spiritualizing them into divine qualities. Soul divinity magnetizes the sense impurity.

Whenever and wherever there has been the wicked motive of suppressing the development of the human soul, then and there the world has been startled to hear the rattling swords and the rumbling, booming cannons, and to see the corpses of millions of its children.

The memories of the Tower of London, the establishment of the French Republic, the liberation of the American slaves, and the dethronement of mighty kings in the late war, are sufficient testimonies to prove the validity of this statement.

It is clear that the human soul is not a paralyzed mass, but an ever-unfolding reality, developing itself by breaking the bars of ignorance. The soul unfolds from within, aided by suggestions from the world without.

Common sense realizes that the effects of the external world being stamped upon the internal mind enables the soul to develop itself. For instance, according to one theory, the study of geometry originates within us the idea of space; the knowledge of arithmetic supplies us with the notion of time. But the futility of such an argument is obvious form the fact that the very origin of geometry and arithmetic depends upon the preceding existence of the ideas of space and time respectively in the rational mind.

Under no circumstances would any object, for example, an orange, be able to contribute anything to the development of our soul by increasing our knowledge, if the category of substance had not been already in the human mind. In fact, the different objects and successive events of the external world, by their suggestions from without, help the revelation of the idea of eternal space and time hidden within the finite rational soul, or man. Similarly, the whole external world, by its suggestions from outside, helps the unfolding of the soul’s internal universe. Herein lies the importance of the external world in making a finite creature an infinite creator; a limited object the unlimited reality; a man—God!

This internal unfolding of the finite soul by external suggestions is technically known as meditation.

A human soul is a finite universe containing all the attributes of God, but only in their limited forms. Man is the limited container of the unlimited Being. What is manifested in God is potential in man; what is the beginning with God is the end of man.

What then is God? God is the concrete perfection of the abstract imperfect qualities that make the finite soul. God, or the Infinite Soul, is the balanced condensation of the three perfect attributes—Knowledge, Existence and Bliss—or—Truth, Goodness and Beauty; whereas man, or the finite soul, is the combination of the three imperfect qualities—thought, volition and emotion—or—thinking, willing and feeling, corresponding to the three perfect attributes of God.

The perfection of a human soul lies in the harmonious unfolding of all its qualities by developing them up to the attributes of God. Here it is explicit that the unfolding of the finite soul means the harmonious development of its three qualities, thinking, willing and feeling. The harmonious development of these qualities—whether in an individual or a family, a society or a nation—insure peace and happiness; with the contrary, unpleasant consequences are inevitable. A man dominated by emotion makes practically a shipwreck of his life. The inharmonious development of the volitional side in the West resulted in the last great war. Similarly, the excessive thought culture in India has made her materially poor.

For the unfolding of the qualities of the finite soul, external suggestions are absolutely necessary. A baby, completely isolated from any influence whatsoever, of man or of nature, might continue its existence, but would certainly remain almost stationary in its state of

imperfection or ignorance. Education or training, mental activities or manual labors, are all external suggestions thrown upon the human soul for the harmonious manifestation of its potential qualities. Therefore, perfect the suggestion, complete is the development of its potential qualities; imperfect the suggestion, partial is the development.

The fundamental cause of the increasing number of unbalanced characters in the present human society is the incompletion, or partiality, of ninety-nine per cent of the suggestions received by the finite soul from the modern civilized world. Mechanical suggestions, helping the unfolding of the volitional side of the human soul, lack in their emotional influences, if not in rational ones; intellectual suggestions, aiding the development of the thought side of man, produce fanatics lacking in the other two qualities of the soul. Demoralizing artistic productions are the deplorable consequence of imperfect emotional suggestions.

A stimulus that evokes the harmonious development of all the qualities of the finite soul should be accepted as a complete or perfect suggestion. A stimulus saturated with that vibration for the awakening for which it is applied is called a suggestion. Repeated application of the same stimulus for awakening the same vibration makes it saturated with that vibration. A saturated stimulus being highly powerful in its nature has the capacity to produce an almost instantaneous desired result. The moment such a stimulus is caused, the effect is produced. For instance, take the military band. The repeated use of this particular kind of music to instigate the martial spirit in man has saturated it with the vibration of aggressiveness. That is why the moment it is played the military spirit is excited in man. To express this idea in another way it can be said that to excite the war vibration in man the military band is one of the necessary stimuli.

Similarly, for the development of the human soul such suggestions or saturated stimuli are necessary as can effect the harmonious unfolding of the three qualities, thought, volition and emotion, of the finite mind; others will ruin the blessed human life. Such suggestions furnish the technique used as stimuli for the unfolding of the potential qualities of their souls by the savants and sages who have attained the highest state of perfection, remaining in the very world where we are groaning under calamities, physical or mental, social or political, material or spiritual. Such technique, as a result of its repeated application for ages and ages, being saturated with that vibration for the awakening of which it was applied, has become a perfect suggestion to be used as stimulus by any imperfect soul for its perfection. Among other similar all-round suggestions, the technique Hong-Saw or scientific meditation, (as taught in the fourth Lesson of the Yogoda Course) may be mentioned. The vibration produced by this pair of code words of the Hindus, brought to America from India, the land of applied spirituality, is very great. Similarly, the symbol AUM, when rightly understood, is another suggestion awakening the universal nature of the human soul.

The man from Missouri might demand what guarantee this meditation technique of India’s sages has for the development of the imperfect human soul. The very fact that similar results have been produced in every case in which this technique has been applied is the surest guarantee of its uniform behavior in the future, that is, of its universal character.

Then, again, this technique is scientifically based on the physical and the metaphysical laws that govern humanity, laws discovered ages ago by the unremitting zeal and patience of India’s metaphysical scientists.

True, indeed, the effect of these technical but scientific suggestions might be slow, medium or quick according to the variation of the characters of the different people on which they are applied, but their ultimate result must be homogeneous and never heterogeneous.

To conclude—the qualities—thought, volition and emotion—forming the human soul, are nothing but the imperfect representation of the perfect attributes—knowledge, existence and bliss, collectively termed as God. The perfection of a human soul means the perfection of its qualities which consists in their harmonious unfolding, developing them to the attributes of God. A perfect human soul is the absolute God permanently conscious in the fathomless ocean of eternal bliss. Deny it not! The imperfect suggestions of the modern civilized world might produce immoral Byrons and inhuman Neros, but will certainly fail to bring Buddha, Shankara, Jesus or Chaitanya on the earth. Those inspiring and perfect suggestions left by the immortal and ever adorable savants and sages of the world should be looked for and meditated upon.

He was illiterate but surprised me with philosophic questions; and he sustained the talk pretty well.

Here are a few jottings of that talk:—

BARBER:—What is my "quality?" Is it "barber?" They call me so!

I:—"Being barber" is not your "quality." Else in sleep, also, you would invariably regard yourself a "barber." But you don’t. You