Perspectives-Ch.1 |
to that Sage of the Orient at whose behest these pages were
written: to one incredibly wise and ceaselessly beneficent. And,
further, I have wrapped this book in the bright orange-chrome
coloured cloth even as you have wrapped your body in cloth of
the same colour - the Sannyasi's colour - the mark of one
who has renounced the world as you have. And if the dealings
of the cards of destiny bid me wear cloth of another hue, command
me to mix and mingle with the world and help carry on
its work, be assured that somewhere in the deep places of my
heart, I have gathered all my desired into a little heap and offered
them all unto the Nameless Higher Power.
The way to use a philosophic book is not to expect to understand
all of it at the first trial, and consequently not to get disheartened
when failure to understand is frequent. Using this cautionary
approach, he should carefully note each phrase or paragraph that
brings an intuitive response in his heart's deep feeling (not to be
confused with an intellectul acquiescence in the head's logical working).
As soon as, and every time, this happens, he should stop his
reading, put the book momentarily aside, and surrender himself, to
the activating words alone. Let them work upon him in their own
way. He is merely to be quiet and be receptive. For it is out of such a
response that he may eventually find that a door opens to his inner
being and a light shines where there was none before. When he
passes through that doorway and steps into that light, the rest of the
book will be easy to understand.
If you feel that the principles touched on in these pages are
true, then remember that the greatest homage you can pay to Truth
is to use it. Spiritual peace is given as a prize to those who wisely
aspire, and who will work untiringly for the realization of their
aspiration.
1
The Quest of the Overself is none other than the final stage of
mankind's long pursuit of happiness.
2
When a man feels imperatively the need of respecting himself,
he has heard a faint whisper from his Overself. Henceforth he
begins to seek out ways and means for earning that respect. This
begins his Quest.
3
The central point of this quest is the inner opening of the
ego's heart to the Overself.
4
It is not for those who feel the want of a social meeting every
Sunday morning, where they can display their good clothes and
listen to good words. It is for those who feel the want of
something great in life to which they can give themselves, who
cannot rest satisfied with the business of earning their bread
and butter alone or spending their time in pleasures. What
cause, what mission can be greater than fulfilling the higher
purpose of life on earth?
5
We are here on earth in pursuit of a sacred mission. We have
to find what theologians call the soul, what philosophers call
the Overself. It is something which is at one and the same time
both near at hand and yet far off. For it is the secret source
of our life-current, our selfhood, and our consciousness. But
because our life-energy is continuously streaming outwards
through the senses, because our selfhood is continuously
identified with the body, and because our consciousness never
contemplates itself, the Overself necessarily eludes us utterly.
6
There are four goals which philosophy sets before the mind of
man: (1) to know itself; (2) to know its Overself; (3) to know
the Universe; (4) to know its relation to the universe. The
search for these goals constitutes the quest.
7
It is this Ideal that gives a secret importance to every phase
of our life-experience. It is this goal that invests unknown and
unnoticed men and women with Olympic grandeur. It is this
Thought that redeems, exalts, and glorifies human existence.
8
A humble life dedicated to a great purpose, becomes great.
9
This is not merely a matter for a small elite interested in
spiritual self-help. It is a serious truth important to every
man everywhere.
10
There is a great tendency on the part of students of
mysticism, practitioners of Yoga, and seekers after spiritual
truth to regard their Quest as something quite apart from life
itself, just as the stamp collector and the amateur gardener
regard their special hobby as something which can be added to
their routine of living. This is a fundamental error. The
Quest is neither a serious hobby nor a pleasant diversion from
the dullness of prosaic everyday living. It is actually living
itself. Those who do not understand this fall as a result into
eccentricities, self centerednesses, superiority complexes,
sectarianism, futile proselytizing of the unready or
antagonistic, and attempting to impose upon others what is not
suited to them.
Those who separate the Quest from their day-to-day existence shut out the most important field of their further growth. They tend to become dreamers and lose their grip on practicalities. Yet, when any of these faults is mentioned to a seeker, he rarely realizes that it applies to him personally but usually believes that it applies only to other seekers. This is because he regards himself as being more advanced than he really is.
11
The work starts with you--with some impulse arising in you, or
with some feeling, thought, idea, or some object seen, or with a
person, teacher, or with a book or with a lecture or with Nature
or with an artistic creation. But whether it be outside or
inside you it has to be accepted by you. But if you ask why
it happens just then, the answer can only be the Source of all
things willed it.
12
The intuition which brought you to the gates of this
quest is, like all authentic intuitions, a spark which you may
contract by doubt, hesitation, and accepting negative suggestion
from outside sources or which you may expand by faith, obedience,
and accepting positive suggestion from those who have already
followed and finished this quest.
13
His journey starts from the place in consciousness where he
finds himself. He may repeat the history of some other
travellers who seek here and there in this cult and that one for
the food that will allay their inner hunger. Years may be spent
in such search but whether it ends inside one of these cults or
outside all of them, one day something happens to him. His mind
is suddenly lit up with understanding and his heart filled with
peace. The experience soon passes but the memory of it lasts
long. It made him so happy that he yearns to repeat it. But
alas! This is one thing that he seems unable to do at will. If
it happens again, he will take up the Quest where it really
belongs--inside himself. He will cease looking here and there
and set to work in real earnestness on himself. He will have to
purify his character, practise meditation regularly, and study
inspired works.
14
When this vague yearning for something that worldly life cannot
satisfy becomes unendurable, it may be a sign that they are ready
for this Quest.
15
We may first take to this quest to find a way of escape from
our sufferings, whether mental or physical; but gradually we
become aware that this negative attitude is not enough, that we
must also realize positively the mysterious purpose of human
existence.
16
He may arrive at a true appraisal of life after he has
experienced all that is worth experiencing. This is the longest
and most painful way. Or he may arrive at it by listening to,
and believing in, the teachings of spiritual seers. This is the
shortest and easiest way. The attraction of the first way is so
great, however, that it is generally the only way followed by
humanity. Even when individuals take to the second way, they
have mostly tried the other one in former births and have left it
only because the pain proved too much for them.(1-2.213)
17
Man's main business is to become aware of his true purpose in
life; all other business is secondary to this primary concern.
18
After the work done to gain livelihood or fulfil ambition,
there is usually a surplus of time and strength, a part of which
could and should be devoted to satisfying higher needs. There is
hardly a man whose life is so intense that it does not leave him
a little time for spiritual recall from this worldly existence.
Yet the common attitude everywhere is to look no farther than,
and be content with, work and pleasure, family, friends, and
possessions. It feels no urge to seek the spiritual and, as it
erroneously thinks, the intangible side of life. It makes no
effort to organize its day so as to find the time and energy for
serious thought, study, prayer, and meditation. It feels no need
of searching for truth or getting an instructor.(1-2.365)
19
Is the inner life irreconcilable with the world's life?
Religio-mystical disciplines and practices are usually based on
such a fundamental irreconcilability. Traditional teaching
usually asserts it too. Yet if that be true, "Then," as Ramana
Maharshi once sceptically said to me, "there is no hope for
humanity."(1.1-63)
20
Anyone who is willing to make an earnest endeavour may arrive
by his own intelligence, helped if he wishes by the writings of
those who have more leisure and more capacity for it, at a
worthwhile understanding of these abstract subjects. The
intermittent study of these writings, the regular reading of
these books will help him to keep his thinking close to true
principles. He will get inspiration from their pages, comfort
from their phrases, and peace from their ideas. These statements
spark the kinetic mental energy of a responsive few and inspire
them to make something worthwhile of their lives. What it writes
in their minds is eventually written into their activities.
21
The highly strung nervous, mental, and artistic temperaments
that largely throng these spiritual paths are of all others
predisposed to go astray. They become fascinated by the wondrous
worlds of study and experiment which open out for them. They are
apt to ignore the vital potency of living out these teachings, as
opposed to talking about them. For the opposition of having to
work in heavy matter brings out the real power of the soul. Its
resistance makes accomplishment more difficult but more
enduring.
22
Procrastination may be perilous. Later may be too late.
Beware of being drawn into that vast cemetery wherein men bury
their half-born aspirations and paralysed hopes.
23
The quest is not an enterprise of fits and starts, not
something to be started today and left off tomorrow, but is the
most durable undertaking in a man's life. This is to be his most
sacred life-purpose, the most honoured ground of his very
existence, and everything else is to be made to subserve it.
24
We do not approach God through our knees, or through the whole
body prostrate on the ground, but deep in our hearts. We do not
feel God with our emotions any more than we know him with our
thoughts. No! --we feel the divine presence in that profound
unearthly stillness where neither the sounds of emotional clamour
nor those of intellectual grinding can enter.(1-2.46)
25
In that sacred silence he will dedicate his life to the Quest.
And although no one except himself will hear or know that
dedication, it will be as binding and obligatory as any solemn
pledge made in full assembled lodge.
26
Its chief enemy is indecision. The world is packed with people
who suffer from this fault. So our greatest dramatist took this
as his theme for his wonderful play, Hamlet. A little more
decision on the part of the Prince of Denmark, and the series of
tragedies which close the play would have been averted. But in
that case the play would not have carried the lesson Shakespeare
wanted it to give--how Hamlet was tortured by his own
indecisiveness. Wise Faith wins. The fool of today is the wise
man of tomorrow--if he lets his mistakes teach him. Not what he
can do, but what he does do, matters. The bird of victory
finally perches on the shoulders of the man who dares.
27
No one who feels that his inner weakness or outer circumstances
prevent him from applying this teaching should therefore refrain
from studying it. That would not only be a mistake but also a
loss on his part. For as the Bhagavad Gita truly says, "A
little of this knowledge saves from much danger." Even a few
years study of philosophy will bring definite benefit into the
life of a student. It will help him in all sorts of ways,
unconsciously, here on earth and it will help him very definitely
after death during his life in the next world of being.
28
Those who decline to search for ultimate truth because they
believe it to be unattainable, because they despair of ever
finding it, betray it.
29
The higher truth can properly be given only to those who are
eligible for it, whose minds are ripe enough to receive it
without bewilderment, and whose judgement is developed enough to
see its worth.
30
There must be a certain ethical maturity before a man will even
be willing to listen to such a teaching, and there must be a
certain intellectual maturity before he will be able to learn it.
There must be the will to analyse, the capacity to take an
impartial attitude, the strength to renounce the vulgar view of
things, and the desire to travel the road of truth inexorably to
its last and logical conclusion. The fount of seeking must not
be consciously or unconsciously muddied by selfish motive. It is
not suggested that these preliminary qualifications must be
present in their perfection and fullness--such will be the final
result and not the first attempts on the quest--but that they
should be present to a sufficient degree to make a marked
disciplinary contribution to one's inner life.
31
It is not only a path to be followed but one to be
followed with good humour and graciousness.
32
Those whose emotions are strongly held by personal
psychological problems would be better prepared for the quest if
they first got their lives straightened out or first underwent
personal re-adjustment. Where their attitudes are neurotic,
hysteric, or psychopathic, it is rash impertinence to dare to
consider themselves as candidates for probing the divine
mysteries.
33
The sacrifice demanded of the aspirant is nothing less than his
very self. If he would reach the higher grades of the path, he
must give up the ego's thinking and desiring, must overcome its
emotional reactions to events and persons and things. Every time
he stills the restless thoughts in silent meditation he is giving
up the ego; every time he puts the desires aside in a crucial
decision he is giving up the ego; every time he disciplines the
body, the passions, the activities, he is giving up the ego. It
demands the utmost from him before it will give the utmost to
him; it forces him to begin by self-humbling and, what is worse,
to end by self-crucifixion. Every aspirant has to pass through
these ordeals--there is no escape from them. They are what
Light on the Path refers to as "the feet being bathed in the
blood of the heart." Thus, the Quest is not for weaklings.
34
There is only one Duty for men: it is to realize the divinity
within. Slavish adherence to any personal, social, or racial
duties, set us from outside, must bend and go whenever it comes
into conflict with this higher Duty. At the call of this
compelling inner voice, the Prince Gautama Buddha trampled down
the gilded "duties" of his royal position and walked out into the
wilderness a homeless wanderer.
35
Entering upon this Quest is neither a pleasant nor an easy
affair. The aspirant has to begin with the belief that he is a
very imperfect person, that before he can penetrate into the
spiritual realms he must first prepare himself for such an
entrance by working hard to separate himself from these
imperfections. Before he entered on the Quest, he liked himself
most--now he discovers that he hates himself most. Before he
entered on the Quest, he had different enemies here and
there--now he has only one enemy, and that is himself. Hitherto
he supported the ego by identifying himself with it--henceforth
he must deny the ego, and try to affirm the higher self.
36
He will not be the first aspirant, nor the last, who continues
to worship the ego under the delusion that he has begun to
worship the Overself.
37
This wrong self-identification is not only a metaphysical error
but also a mental habit. We may correct the error intellectually
but we shall still have to deal with the habit. So deeply
ingrained is it that only a total effort can successfully alter
it. That effort is called the Quest.
38
When a man becomes tired of hearing someone else tell him that
he has a soul, and sets out to gain firsthand experience of it
for himself, he becomes a mystic. But, unfortunately, few men
ever come to this point.(1-2.187)
39
You may be familiar with the contents of a hundred books on
mysticism and yet not be familiar with mysticism itself. For it
concerns the intuition, not the intellect.
40
My Webster defines a mystic as "one who relies chiefly upon
meditation in acquiring truth." This is a good dictionary
definition, but it is not good enough because it does not go far
enough. For every true mystic relies also on prayer, on
purificatory self-denial, and on a master. (18-1.16)
41
That the soul exists, that it is something other than his
ordinary self, and that it abides within himself, are
affirmations which remain basic and common to authentic mystical
experience of every school and religion.
42
It must be clearly understood that it is only the philosophical
quest, the path of the Bodhisattva, which we advocate here, which
is threefold. The mystical quest is not. It is simpler. It
requires only a single qualification--meditation practice. But
it gives only a single fruit--inner peace--whereas the threefold
quest yields a threefold fruit: (1) peace, (2) the intellectual
ability to instruct others, (3) service. If therefore philosophy
calls for a greater effort than mysticism, it compensates by its
greater result. And whereas the mystical result is primarily an
individual benefit, the philosophical result is both an
individual and social one.
43
If this benevolent ideal has been set up from the start, then
he will not swerve from it at the end. He will draw back from
the very verge of the eternal Silence and resume his human garb,
that he may compassionately guide those who still seek, grope,
blunder, and fall.
45
Some have the illusion that the Path is heavily trodden. It is
not. "Many are called but few are chosen." The traveller must
learn to walk resignedly in partial loneliness. The struggle for
certain truth and the quest of the divine soul are carried on by
every man and must be carried on in an austere isolation when he
reaches the philosophic level. No crowd progress and no mass
salvation are possible here.
There is and could be no such thing as a sect in philosophy. Each of its disciples has to learn that there is only one unique path for him, dependent on his past history and present characteristics which constitute his own individuality. To attempt to forego that unique individuality, to impose the spiritual duty of other persons upon himself is, as the Gita points out, a dangerous error. Philosophy tries to bring a man to realize his own divinity for himself. Hence it tries to bring him to independent thinking, personal effort, and intuitive development. This is not the popular way nor the easy one; it offers no gregarious comfort or herd support. But it is the only way for the seeker after absolute truth. Though the solitary student may suffer from certain disadvantages, he also enjoys certain definite advantages.
In any case, man never really escapes from his essential loneliness. He may push his social efforts at avoidance to extremes and indulge his personal ones to the point of creating illusions, but life comes down on him in some way or other and one day forces him back on himself. Even where he fancies himself to have achieved happiness with or through others, even in the regions of love and friendship, some physical disharmony, some mental change, some emotional vacillation may eventually arise and break the spell, driving him back into isolation once more.
46
Does this mean that the aspirant should seek no guide, should
take no friendly hand in his own at all? No! It simply means
that if he realizes that his choice of a teacher might well
change his whole life for better or for worse, and if he seeks
well-qualified guidance, he must be discriminating, which means
that he must not rush into acceptance of the first guide he
meets. He should take his time over the matter and give it the
fullest thought. It is quite proper and sound practice for him
to be prudent before signing away his life to a teacher or his
mind to a creed. It is not the first teacher he meets or the
first doctrine he hears that he should accept. Rather should he
follow Confucius' practical advice to shoppers: "Before you buy,
try three places." Nay, he might have to try thirty places
before he finds a really competent teacher or a completely true
doctrine. Such a search calls for patience and self-restraint,
but the longer it continues the likelier will its goal be
reached.
47
It is true that the higher self can guide and even teach the
aspirant from within and that in the end it is the only real
guide and teacher. But it is also true that a premature
assumption of self-sufficiency may lead him dangerously astray.
Indeed, the higher self will direct him to some other human agent
for help when he is sufficiently ready. Self-reliance and
independence are valuable qualities but they may be pushed too
far and thus turned into failings. The student who remains
self-guided and self-inspired without making missteps or wasting
years, is fortunate.
48
There is no contradiction between advising aspirants at one
time to seek a master and follow the path of discipleship, and
advising them to seek within and follow the path of self-reliance
at another time. The two counsels can be easily reconciled. For
if the aspirant accepts the first one, the master will gradually
lead him to become increasingly self-reliant. If he accepts the
second one, his higher self will lead him to a master.
49
That there are perils on this path of self-guidance, is
obvious. It is easy to fall into conceit, to breed arrogance,
even to imagine an inner voice. Here the saving virtue of
balance must be ardently sought, and the protective quality of
humbleness must be gently fostered.
50
The truth is that nearly all aspirants need the help of expert
human guides and printed books when they are actively seeking the
Spirit, and of printed books at least when they are merely beginning to
seek.
51
Is it really necessary to travel to some holy land, some sacred
place, some distant guru? The true answer is that none of these
things is necessary. What you seek is precisely where you now
are. Holiness and teaching can meet you there. Is it too hard
for you to believe this?
52
But one can only have the right to exercise such self-reliance
if one pays for it in the coin of self-discipline.
53
No seeker should be so foolish as to reject the proffered hand
of a worthy master. Indeed, such is his weakness and ignorance
that he needs all the help he can get from all the strong and
wise men of his own times and, through their writings, of past
times. But the basis of his relation to such a master should not
therefore be one of complete servitude and intellectual
paralysis, nor one of totalitarian prohibition from studying with
other masters or in other schools. He should keep his freedom to
grow and his independence to choose if he is to keep his
self-respect.
54
This injunction to be oneself is to be followed
discriminatingly, not blindly. Why should I not follow the
procession of another man's thoughts if they be good and true and
beautiful?
55
A small group of sincere students meeting together may be of
great help to each participant provided there is a basic
spiritual affinity among them. If this is lacking even in one of
the group, such a meeting may well lead to more confusion than
enlightenment or may cause some or all to forget that on the
quest each walks alone.
56
A school should exist not only to teach but also to
investigate, not to formulate prematurely a finalized system but
to remain creative, to go on testing theories by applying them
and validating ideas by experience.
57
True spirituality means applying the knowledge got from
learning and heeding the laws of the inner life in the differing
degree that each individually can do so. It does not mean
joining a group or a society and chattering fruitlessly about it
or gossiping inquisitively about spiritual leaders.
58
The moral re-education required by philosophy is not a mere
Sunday-school pious hope. It is a practical necessity because of
the psychological changes and nervous sensitivity developed by
the meditation practices. Without it these exercises may prove
dangerous to mind, character, and health. The virtues especially
required are: harmlessness in feeling and deed, truthfulness in
thought and word, honesty with oneself and with others, sexual
restraint, humility.
59
No amount of travel will arrive at truth, or bring one into
contact with an Adept, if the other conditions are lacking.
60
It is a grave misconception to regard the mystical progress as
passing mostly through ecstasies and raptures. On the contrary,
it passes just as much through broken hearts and bruised
emotions, through painful sacrifices and melancholy
renunciations.
61
That same light which reveals his spiritual importance reveals
also his personal insignificance.
62
When the sublime light of the Ideal shines down upon him and he
has the courage to look at his own image by it, he will doubtless
make some humiliating discoveries about himself. He will find
that he is worse than he believed and not so wise as he thought
himself to be. But such discoveries are all to the good. For
only then can he know what he is called upon to do and set to
work following their pointers in self-improvement.
63
You will not be able to understand the world better than you
understand yourself. The lamp which can illumine the world for
you must be lighted within yourself.
64
He begins by an unthinking and immature religious attitude,
proceeds to the meditational experiments and personal experience
of mysticism or the rational abstractions of metaphysics, and
ends in the integral all-embracing all-transcending life of
philosophy.
65
The practice of yoga as a psychological discipline and the
study of philosophy as a mental re-education are two essentials
in the equipment of the man who would explore the highest. None
may be left out without leaving the seeker like a one-legged man
trying to ascend a difficult mountain. The ultimate goal cannot
be found by the yogi because he is concerned only with himself
and not the entire universe. It cannot be found by the
philosopher because he is concerned only with the
theoretical knowledge of its meaning of all existence. It
can be found by him alone who has mastered both yoga and
philosophy, and who is then willing to take the next step and
sacrifice his ego on the altar of ultimate attainment. For the
final stage of this climb demands that the insight gained by
philosophic knowledge into the ego's true nature be applied to
the entire life of thought, feeling, and conduct--not by some
sudden dramatic gesture but by working incessantly during
every moment of every day. Such a perpetual vigil is really a
form of continuous concentration, that is, of yoga, and it is
impossible for those who have not successfully trained their
minds in the yogic discipline. These are the reasons why we must
view yoga and philosophy as the two legs needed to support a man
who would then enter into the ever-renewed practice to attain
realization. This is the final climb to the summit.
66
He must purify his heart of egoism, his bodily instincts of
animalism, and then a favourable atmosphere will be available
for the truth to make itself known to him. This statement
presupposes that it is already present and only waiting to reveal
itself. Such is philosophy's contention, and such is the
philosopher's own experience. It first comes to him as "The
Interior Word," the Logos within, and later as "the second
birth."
67
There are two paths laid out for the attainment, according to
the teaching of Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. The first
path is union with the Higher Self--not, as some believe, with
the Logos. But because the Higher Self is a ray from the Logos,
it is as near as a human being can get to it anyway. The second
path has its ultimate goal in the Absolute, or as I have named it
in my last book, the Great Void. But neither path contradicts
the other, for the way to the second path lies through the first
one. Therefore, there is no cleavage in the practices. Both
goals are equally desirable because both bring man into touch
with Reality. It would be quite proper for anyone to stop with
the first one if he wishes; but for those who appreciate the
philosophic point of view, the second goal, because it includes
the first, is more desirable.
68
The stages of the quest are fairly well defined. First, the
aspiration toward spiritual growth manifests itself in a man's
heart. Second, the feeling of repentance for past error and sin
saddens it. Third, the submission to an ascetic or self-denying
discipline follows as a reaction. Fourth, the practice of
regular exercises in meditation is carried on.
69
He will know what both the fullness and the fulfilment of life
mean only when the consciousness that the Spirit is his own very
self comes to life within him.
70
The path requires an all-round effort. It calls for the
discipline of emotions as well as the purification of character
from egoism, the practice of the art of meditation as well as
religious devotion and prayer, constant reflection about the
experiences of life to learn the lessons behind them, and
constant discrimination between the values of earthly and
spiritual things. This self-development crowned by altruistic
activity will in time call forth the grace of the Overself and
will bring blissful glimpses occasionally to encourage his
endeavours. As pointed out in my Wisdom of the Overself, not
only one but all the functions of one's being must unite in the
effort to reach the spiritual goal.
71
If the quest is to be an integral one, as it must be to be a
true one, it should continue through all four spheres of a man's
being: the emotional, the intellectual, the volitional, and the
intuitional. Such a fourfold character makes it a more
complicated affair than many mystics believe it to be.
72
Anyone who can find a direct teacher in the Overself needs no
other. But because the ego easily inserts itself even into his
spiritual explorations and its influence into his spiritual
revelations, he may still need an outer teacher to warn him
against these pitfalls in his way.
73
The need of a spiritual guide is nearly as great as ever
today and remains but little changed, but the character of the
relation between the disciple and the guide has to change.
The old following in blind faith must give place to a new
following in intelligent faith.
74
It is not the human thoughts which the teacher sends out, so
much as the spiritual power within the disciple which is aroused
by those thoughts, that matters. (25-5.241)
75
Do not pretend to be other than you are. If you are one of the
multitude, do not put upon yourself the proud robes of the
Teacher and pretend to be able to imitate him; unless you stick
to the Truth, you can never find it. To put yourself upon the
pedestal of spiritual prestige before the Master or God has first
put you there, is to make the first move towards a humiliating
and painful fall. (25-5.33)
76
Few aspirants are sufficiently developed to justify receiving
the personal attention and tuition of a master. All aspirants
may, however, seek for his blessing. He will not withhold it.
But such is its potency that it may at times work out in a way
contrary to their desire. It may bring the ego suffering in the
removal of inner weakness as a prelude to bringing it inner
light. They should therefore pause and consider before they ask
for his blessing. Only a deep earnestness about the quest should
motivate such an approach.
77
It is next to impossible to ascertain the Truth without the
guidance of a Teacher. This is the ancient tradition of the East
and it will have to become the modern tradition of the West.
There is no escape. The explanation of this statement lies in
the subtle nature of the Truth. Thus, in the West, men of such
acute intelligence and such high character as Spinoza, Kant,
Hegel, and Thoreau came close to the verge of Truth. They could
not fully enter because they lacked a Guide. Even in India, the
greatest mind that land of Thinkers ever produced, the
illustrious Shankara, publicly acknowledged the debt he owed to
his own Teacher, Govindapada.
78
If an opportunity seems to occur to become the disciple of a
master, be sure first to test whether he is fit to hold such a
position. Do not test his supposed possession of occult powers
or healing gifts; check rather whether he is master over himself
before he plays the role over the lives of others. Is he free
from the lust of sex, the greed of money, the itch for fame, the
passion of wrath, and the desire for power? If not, he may be
remarkable, unusual, clever, fluent, psychic, friendly, or
anything else, but be sure that he is not competent to guide
disciples to the kingdom of heaven.
79
Six are the duties of such a teacher: (1) to instruct the
student in new knowledge, (2) to correct the errors of his
existing knowledge, (3) to develop his mentality in a balanced
way, (4) to restrain him from committing evil, (5) to encourage
him compassionately, and (6) to open the mystical path to him by
active help in meditation.
80
Three qualifications at least are required in a spiritual
teacher: thorough competence, moral purity, and compassionate
altruism. Only he who has triumphed over the evil in himself can
help others do the same for themselves. Only he who has
discovered the divine spirit in himself can guide others to make
their own discovery of it. Teaching that does not stem forth
from personal experience can never have the effectiveness of
teaching that does.
81
It is essential that a spiritual preceptor live up
to the lofty precepts he hands out; if he is unable to do this,
he ought to come down from his high seat and take his place among
the pupils--preferably in the back row. The Western student of
divine mysteries is very eager and very apt to rush out and
attempt to teach his fellows before he has completed his course
of studies, and before he has quite realized their truth by
experience. The obvious reasons are many: a love of the
limelight and a sense of superiority are but two of them. How
different, this, from that lowly humility of Lao Tzu, whose
followers increased from a single person in his lifetime to many
millions after his death. "The Sage wears a coarse garment, but
carries a jewel in his bosom" is his beautiful announcement.
"To know, but to be as though not knowing, is the height of
wisdom" is another of his spirit-realized utterances.
82
Truth cannot be got without a master. That the Buddha did get
it without such help does not disprove the truth of this
principle. For the arisal of a Buddha is a rare phenomenon on
this earth. Mortals who are struggling in mental darkness
compose the mass of mankind, not Buddhas sent to enlighten them
and therefore destined to be self-enlightened.
83
That man is most likely to become and is best fitted to become
your teacher to whom you are drawn not so much by his experience
and wisdom, his goodness and power, as by some intuitional
attraction. For this is a sign of an earlier relationship in
other lives on earth. The personal trust and intellectual
dependence which it generates are themselves signs that you have
been teacher and disciple in former reincarnations. It is best
to accept the leading of this attraction, for the man under whom
you have continuously worked before is the man whom destiny will
allot you to pick up the same work again. You may postpone the
opening up of such a relationship again but in the end you cannot
avoid it. Destiny will have the last word in such a matter.
84
Either at acceptance or later, the disciple experiences an
ecstatic reverie of communion with the teacher's soul. There is
a sensation of space filled with light, of self liberated from
bondage, of peace being the law of life. The disciple will
understand that this is the real initiation from the hands of the
teacher rather than the formal one. The disciple will probably
be so carried away by the experience as to wish it to happen
every day. But this cannot be. It can happen only at long
intervals. It is rather to be taken as a sign of the wonderful
relation which has sprung up between them and as a token of
eventual attainment. (25-5.213)
85
When a man has at last found himself, when he has no longer any
need of an outside human Symbol but passes directly to his own
inner reality, he may stand shoulder to shoulder with the teacher
in the oldest, the longest, and the greatest of struggles. (25-5.241)
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