The majority of humanity do not understand themselves any more than they understand the laws of nature. They have been given instruction, but they have gained little knowledge of the third division of consciousness, known as self-realization.
Man, conscious of himself, does not understand the process by which he can acquire knowledge of the real self that dwells in his “Kingdom of Heaven within.”
The wish of every sincere student of Yoga is to extend his range of consciousness to an understanding of his real self, but his objective mind knows little of the real mind hidden behind the screen of his objective brain. He does not realize that he lives, moves, and has his real being1 on other planes of consciousness, and in other worlds than those which his five objective senses register. He is sometimes conscious, by means of dreams and by the use of his imagination, that something is going on behind the screen which separates him from a knowledge of himself, but these flashes do not come through any one of the five human sense channels.
When we are deep in discussion, the only information we possess is that gained from worldly experience, and from books and newspapers, but the real knowledge of Truth can only be obtained through sincere aspiration and meditation. What the student earnestly seeks, he will find, if he will only persist in his seeking, and, in order to unlock the door through which he must pass in his search, he must first acquire knowledge of himself, and of his place and position in the universe.
Directly he seeks union with the Reality (Truth) within him, the process by which he can knock upon the doors of knowledge will be made known. By devotion to Truth he will slowly discover himself enlarging his powers of perception and that which formerly passed unnoticed becomes known to him. Bliss and intelligence is about him, but he has not yet awakened into their consciousness. When seeking to obtain this through Yoga, we discover within ourselves all the instruction needed to regain our lost place and position in nature’s environment.
Since man has ceased to conform to nature’s will he has, during his evolution, fallen deep into matter and exalted his personal will. Therefore he does not rely for right action and government upon nature’s guidance, although occasionally he has flashes of what he terms intuition.
At one period of his evolution man lived and moved and had his being in nature’s consciousness, and in that Golden Age he obeyed the laws of nature, and was a man of nature. It is the aim and end of all the higher Yoga teachings to return man to the consciousness of nature, that he may follow again the dictates of nature’s will—in other words, the aim of Yoga is unification of the soul with its source—God Realization.
A time comes in the student’s training when he is taught to minister to those souls in darkness, whose whole atmosphere is one of torment and suffering. The average man little realizes that through his evil actions he burdens himself with the sufferings which he causes to others, and that he has to carry this burden until he has paid off his karmic debt.
Often after meeting his teacher, the student undertakes to clear himself in his present life of all his karmic debts. This brings him suffering and slavery under the dominion of his employer, but if he is sincere and will take the plunge, he can usually accomplish this in about twenty years of service.
On first seeing the student, the teacher measures the karmic debt that he has incurred in this life, through giving way to his passions and desires, and the student is often told that when he has worked off his karmic debts in this life, the teacher will take him on again for further instruction. This is the dark age for the student, but he must willingly accept his sentence. Often, in his ignorance the student does not realize that he has powers, both within him and without, which plead for his forgiveness and often shorten his sentence.
When at last he is free, and his shackles fall off, there is “joy in Heaven,” for then he is able to take up his greater work and go forward in the process of becoming. During his term of bondage and service to others, he gains a great range of experience, and this gives him the power to aid others undergoing similar experiences. When the pupil is ready, the master will be at hand, and then there will be a joyous reunion, for the door is opened, and he perceives the light of realization and the plan and purpose of his incarnation.
As soon as the sincere student has paid his karmic debt, greater freedom of experience and greater knowledge than he has ever previously enjoyed come to him. It is not the rich who have the monopoly of the Light, it is more often found among the poor (those seekers of the light striving to end their karmic penalties). It is more often the tired and hungry heart whose soul becomes flooded with light.
Positiveness from the Yoga standpoint is an ever growing aspiration and desire for knowledge, in order to bring about our union with Truth. It is like a man who, after a long journey, sees his friend, and turns to meet him with enthusiasm and joy. This attitude of constantly seeking union with man’s own God within, brings into his objective vehicle that sense of union which the objective man desires.
This gives him positiveness and power of subtle radiation, which will not allow the diseased atmospheres of men to penetrate his atmospheric screen of protection, and it is this pressure which evil minds recognize and hate. Men of a certain type cannot stand in the presence of a great soul, and we have recorded in another book an instance of such a man, who rushed from such presence saying, “I am unclean.”
Sooner or later, we shall all stand in the Presence, and then for the first time we shall realize our uncleanliness. An adept will sometimes evoke the knower consciousness into a room. This vibration has its phenomena, for it is the higher counterpart of what we call physical fire. The adept beckons the candidate to come nearer to his presence and suddenly the student realizes all the good and evil of his nature. If the good predominates, he can enter into its vibration untouched, but if a great fear enters his heart he is unable to do this, and he will then seek to purify himself in mind and body in order to make the attempt again later on.2
In this vibration we can only speak the Truth, and when we develop our intuition (nature’s will) and make our own personal will subservient to it, then we can attain to the knower consciousness, when we shall know things without thought, and feel the presence of the Reality within and around us.
It is this power which the masters use when putting the “fear of God” into the heart of the man who intends injuring an innocent in order to gratify his passions and desires. This is the real magician’s wand, and it is by the use of this will of God that miracles are performed.
