Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 1
KEYNOTE

There is an inevitability in living the life of the Spirit which is at once its horror and its joy. I
mean just that, my brothers. The symbol or first expression of this (for all in the three worlds is
but the symbol of an inner reality) is the driving urge to betterment which is but the outstanding
characteristic of the human animal. From discontent to discontent he passes, driven by an inner
something which constantly reveals to him an enticing vision of that which is more desirable
than his present state and experience. At first this is interpreted by him in terms of material
welfare; then this divine discontent drives him into a phase of the struggle which is emotional in
nature; he craves emotional satisfaction and later intellectual pursuits. All this time the struggle
to attain something ever on ahead creates the instruments of attainment, gradually perfecting
them until the threefold personality is ready for a vision of the soul. From that point of tension,
the urge and the struggle become more acute until Rule One for Applicants is understood by him
and he steps upon the Path.

— Rules for Applicants, by the Tibetan —

Dear Fellow Student,

This is the first lesson on the Bhagavad Gita. We are certain that you will enjoy it deeply and
that, through your study and meditation, you will increase your knowledge, wisdom, and self-
determination. Every month such a set will come to you for study and meditation.

The Bhagavad Gita is the philosophy of daily life. You can use it everywhere, on any level, and
in any situation. It has always been a light for your path — a vision to touch your heart and
encourage you to overcome the burdens and the obstacles found upon the path of your spiritual
growth.

You can use the philosophy of the Gita for any event and thus pull yourself out of any
attachment or identification and stand within your own free will.

Followers of the Teaching of the Bhagavad Gita have observed the development in themselves
of tremendous willpower and mastery upon their nature and, as a result, their progress on the
path is secured.

In the past man used body force, desire, and the power of his lower mind for his evolution. In the
new age, man will use the energy of his will, which is the radiation of his inner core, his inner
essence.

It is this energy of will that starts to flow into the personality and the life expression of the
student when he faithfully and regularly meditates upon the gems of wisdom in the Bhagavad
Gita. Many things which are not possible through our physical force, emotional desire, and
mental activities become possible through the energy of the will. In the coming years we will
hear more about willpower, goodwill and about the will-to-good. The interesting part is that the
Bhagavad Gita not only releases the energy of the will within us, but it also evokes abundant
wisdom in order that the will energy be used for constructive ends and for the upliftment of
humanity.

With this vision and goal in mind, we welcome you into the Wisdom Teaching of the Bhagavad
Gita.

During the term of this course you will receive additional instructions on meditation and related
subjects along with your regular lesson sets. Please prepare your study reports and send them to
us regularly. If some problem arises and you are unable to do so, drop a note to us and keep your
communication.

We are certain that you will find not only joy and bliss in the study of the Gita, but also practical
lights for your own manifold problems and for meeting the world with a special kind of
endurance and power that makes you victorious over the events and conditions in which you find
yourself.

The message of the Bhagavad Gita is ever new; it is even ahead of us by thousands of years.
That is why it is not only a revelation, a present-day teaching, but it is also a great vision for the
years to come.

It sheds light on our past, it meets our present-day problems, and it satisfies the most elevated
aspiration for our future vision.

Lord Krishna says:

Not any sin can influence a man who meditates on the Gita; even if that sin is a dark one, he is
like a leaf of the lotus, unaffected by the water.

And also:

Wherever the Gita is read, there the divine help precipitates; wherever the Gita is studied,
chanted, thought, or listened to, O my Brothers, there I manifest Myself undoubtedly.

Quotations used in this Course are from the translation of the Bhagavad Gita by Torkom
Saraydarian.

With best wishes,

The Torkom Saraydarian University

(PLEASE NOTE: These sets are for your private use. Please do not share them. If any of your
friends show interest, give them our address and we will determine their readiness for this
course.)

WORK TO BE DONE

1. Please read the Preface, the Introduction, and Chapter One from your text book, the
Bhagavad Gita, translated by Torkom Saraydarian.
2. Do your daily meditation. Instructions on page 20.
3. Study this paper carefully, at least half an hour daily, for one month. For this month we
suggest that you do some reflective reading on the first lesson for half an hour daily.

Reflective reading is very easy, but fruitful progress will be made. To begin, find a beautiful
place to sit. Then open your lesson and read a paragraph. Close your eyes and think about that
paragraph; try to understand and digest its meaning. Pass on to the next paragraph, and to the
next in the same way until your half hour is over. This is called reflective meditation, and it is a
very beautiful way to achieve greater inspiration and energy.

4. Write a paper on the last verse of the first chapter and send it in at the end of the month.
5. Fill out your report every month. In your report, write any question you have in mind
about the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita.

NOTE: Your next lesson will be about the first chapter of the Gita and its deeper significance.
Also, there will be further instruction on meditation.

THE BHAGAVAD GITA

Commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita have been written by the hundreds in the various languages
of the world, each writer bringing his own individual interpretation, emphasis and preference in
the choice of passages deemed by him to be of particular importance. We hope that you will read
any available commentaries and profit by the viewpoints given, but it will be through your own
reflective study of the Gita itself that light will come. You will find that no matter at what stage
of the Path of Return you may be, the Teachings of the Gita will be applicable to the problems
encountered. Down the ages the Gita has been the intimate companion and guide of aspirants
seeking to tread the Path, and we, too, will find this companionship and guidance as we re-enact,
in our own individual lives and also in our group life, the trials of Arjuna.

The epic story of Arjuna’s struggle and problems might be staged at any of the several crisis
points of man’s growth toward complete spiritual maturity, but we shall consider it at the point
which will be most useful to us because it is a point where most of us are now standing. This is
the stage of the aspirant or of the incarnated human soul when it has awakened or is awakening
to its relationship to the Inner Dweller, while at the same time it is still held by the ties of long
association and of habits forged by the lower self. The Prodigal Son’s resolve, “I will arise and
go to my Father,” is the start of the self-same journey upon which Arjuna is embarked and which
leads him to the battleground of his nature.

The Gita is usually regarded as a complete unit of Teaching on Yoga or the Science of the Self,
and is one of the best known of the Scriptures of the East. It is found in the great epic poem of
the Mahabharata.

The divinely born Arjuna belonged to the family of the Pandavas, but he and his brothers were
brought up in the court of their cousins, the family of the Kauravas. Dhritarashtra, the blind king
of the Kauravas, had seized the throne of the entire kingdom, including the share of the
Pandavas. King Dhritarashtra, although willing to share the kingdom, was totally unable to
persuade his “evil-minded son, Duryodhana,” to restore to the Pandavas their rightful portion. As
a result, and in spite of attempts at reconciliation by Sanjaya (charioteer of King Dhritarashtra),
of Bhishma (his wise counselor), and even of Krishna himself, war could not be averted.

In this story of the related but opposed families of the Pandavas (Arjuna and his brothers) and the
Kauravas (their cousins), we find symbolized the whole story of man’s spiritual progress. The
opposing families are said to represent the two great movements or tendencies in creation —
those of the “bright” (or Daivi) and the “dark” (or Asurik). They are also referred to as the
“Pavritti” and the “Nivritti” — those forces which respectively enmesh the soul deeper in matter
and those which raise and aid the soul on its return journey.

The conflict of the bright and dark forces, at first latent and not clearly differentiated in the
Mahabharata, increases as the story unfolds. Attempts at partition and complete separation of
their respective spheres of influence have failed, as indeed they must fail, since all is unity and
part of the One Life wherein action and reaction must necessarily take place. In the preceding
passages of the Mahabharata, we also find Arjuna depicted as leaving behind his divine ancestry,
becoming attached to associates of a lesser kind, and necessarily living among the conflicting
forces of the world.

Arjuna and his brothers and associates are deceived by the Asurik or downward tending forces
and are condemned to long wanderings in the wilderness. This is symbolic of the age-long cycle
of repeated incarnations, during which the soul in its unawakened condition and driven by
necessity performs actions and reaps their fruits as it passes from birth to death and again to
birth. Although reduced to virtual impotence, nevertheless it is developing adaptability, gathering
knowledge as a result of its manifold experiences, and laying the foundation of wisdom. It is
exposed to countless hardships and perils; it is saved from utter disaster by the power of its
unseen and unrecognized Lord, the Divine Soul. It is during this period that Arjuna gains his
“magical weapons” or develops the soul qualities that are to be of such immense value to him in
his awakened state. Meanwhile, the dark forces, the Asuras, rule the world unchecked until at
last “the thirteenth year” arrives in which the very existence of the Soul has been forgotten.
(Incidentally, the number thirteen was considered a sacred number, coming after 12, which
indicated the completion of a major cycle; 13 was the beginning of a new major cycle.)
It is the darkest hour before dawn. The unawakened human soul imprisoned in the threefold
world of incarnated existence is reduced to performing the tasks of a menial servant with no
recollection of its true nature and character. The forces of materialism seem completely
triumphant and the very existence of the soul becomes a matter of doubt, even of denial. But not
forever can the soul be thus buried in darkness. The allotted period draws to its close and the soul
in incarnation (Arjuna) awakens, emerges from obscurity, and arises with all its flashing powers.
Significantly, the first event after its emergence is a battle in defense of the right. The
Mahabharata tells of the battle fought on behalf of King Virata, in which the soul, though still
disguised or deeply veiled by the personality sheaths, displays its prowess and puts to flight the
powers of the Dark. So decisive is the soul’s intervention, its expression of divine qualities, that
none can stand against it. All are aware of the rising sun and all foresee the terrible conflict
which must now ensue.

The now awakened soul (Arjuna) is seeking no autocratic powers for himself. It is for his
brothers, the dispossessed Bright Powers (Daivi Sarga) that he is prepared to fight, and even for
these he claims no undivided sway. Knowing as he does that the Dark (Asurik) forces are as
much a part of the cosmic play as are the Bright (Daivi) ones, he proposes only a just division of
the kingdom, but this the Powers of the Dark will not grant. Bhishma and Drona, the aged
counselors, symbols of blind faith and of established law, order, and ancient tradition, foreseeing
the disastrous conflict, plead for peace and reconciliation. Sanjaya, the Conscience and the
Intuition., does likewise. Dhritarashtra, the old blind king, has no controlling power; his
headstrong son, Duryodhana (literally, “he who is hard to overcome” — i.e., the desire nature)
refuses to listen. War is inevitable. The conflict between the Daivi and the Asurik can no longer
be averted, and the rival forces face each other on the field.

It is at this moment that the Gita commences. The opposing hosts are drawn up in battle array
and the long expected conflict is about to commence.

Dhritarashtra said, “O Sanjaya, tell me what my people and the Pandavas did in the land of Kuru
and on the field of Dharmakshetra?” (1:1)

Due to the importance of the Teachings contained in the Gita itself, this earlier part of the story
of the characters is often overlooked, but it is undoubtedly one of the most perfect descriptions of
the progress of mankind and of individual man as he approaches the beginnings of the Path. The
form of the Gita as a series of questions presupposes a need on the part of the questioner for
answers to his problems and doubts, and this earlier history of the character brings forcibly to
attention the fact that the Gita is the book to turn to when a man reaches the point of crisis at
which Arjuna found himself. The deep insight into human nature revealed in the Gita has caused
it to be revered down the ages, and we can see the reasons for Mahatma Gandhi’s calling the
Bhagavad Gita his “Mother who never failed him in his hour of need.”

CHAPTER ONE — THE DESPONDENCY OF ARJUNA

Too often is the first chapter of the Gita passed over hurriedly, as merely introductory and
containing none of the spiritual teaching. It is true that it is introductory and that the Lord
Krishna, the Divine Soul, does not begin his actual Teaching until the second chapter. But here
in this description we find the basic Teachings of the ancient wisdom — that not until man turns
to his Higher Self can the Higher Self bring him to the wisdom for which he yearns. Also, in this
first chapter are taken up the immediate details of the crisis which Arjuna — as all aspirants and
disciples — must eventually face.

Not until the second chapter does Lord Krishna, symbolizing the Divine Self, begin his
Teaching, for not until the disciple has discovered that the satisfaction of the senses leads only to
satiety and disillusion, and that the knowledge conveyed by the senses and the concrete mind can
in no way answer the problems of life, is he ready to listen to his Higher Self.

Thus, the first chapter is a description of the state of mind which man must reach to enable him
to respond to the call of the Christ: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest.”

Even though the disciple has already achieved some degree of contact with his Higher Self and
has recognized it as his mentor — as when Arjuna took Krishna as his companion in his chariot
— it is not until the disciple finally says, “I am unable to stand. My mind seems to whirl,” that he
finally turns to the Soul in truly wholehearted appeal, in the way Arjuna turned to Krishna.

The Teaching is most skillfully carried forward by means of the Sanskrit titles used in naming
the characters — including Arjuna and Krishna. For instance, Sanjaya describes Krishna in verse
20 as “Hrishikesha”, which means “Lord of the Senses” or he to whom the senses are subject:
while in verse 21, Arjuna addresses Krishna as “Achyuta”, which means the “Changeless,
Immovable One”.

Sanjaya also describes Krishna as the one who can aid in winning the fight against the dictation
of the senses and the control of the personality; while Arjuna, with no intention as yet of
surrendering his personality control, is appealing to Krishna as the all powerful God and not as
the loving companion and helper. Later, when Arjuna turns to Krishna as a loving friend, He
responds “as if smilin.g”

As the scene opens, we see the leader of Arjuna’s opponents, Duryodhana, symbolizing the
desire nature and therefore called “He who is hard to overcome”, referring to the strength and
prowess of the army of Arjuna which is aligned against the opposing forces. He then names the
mighty warriors in his own battle who are, as he says, “ready to sacrifice their lives for me”. This
is bolstered up by the still louder noise from Bhishma in verse 12:

In order to encourage Duryodhana, the most powerful and oldest of the Kurus, Bhishma, the
Grandsire, blew his conch shell as the roar of a lion. (2:12)

Immediately the powers of Arjuna, which are as yet those of the personality, answer with equal
noise and defiance. But the first glimmers of doubt — the doubt of the concrete mind of the
aspirant who is seeking to reach the truth by mental process alone — assail Arjuna and he orders
his chariot to be driven between the two armies:
That I may be able to view those who are ready to fight against us and to know, on this eve of
battle, with whom I have to fight. (1:21-22)

Krishna, the Divine Self, grants the request and gives the personality-conscious Arjuna a closer
and more detailed view of the problem he is facing. At this stage comes the “despondency” and
the full impact of the apparently insoluble crisis that demands action. Arjuna is “distressed with
grief”, unable to acquiesce in “slaying kinsmen in battle,” “killing our kindred from greed of the
pleasures of kingship.” He feels the inevitable revulsion to yield up long established habits and
beliefs which, until then, had seemed rightful ones, and he utters his despairing refusal to go
forward:

Verily, it would be better if the sons of Dhritarashtra slay me with their weapons, attacking me,
finding no resistance, and finding me unarmed. (1:46)

This is a refusal to carry out the dharma or duty of his warrior caste, and it is even a desire to get
his opponents to perform an un-warrior-like act by slaying him unarmed and unresisting.

In that symbolically described condition of the personality, face to face with an insoluble crisis,
the Divine Self (Krishna) comes to his aid. He addresses him with what is really a scathing
picture of his present behavior and a clarion call to action. Thus, although the Teaching begins in
chapter two, it is in this first chapter that we find the clearly drawn picture of a man struggling
toward the Path, but not yet on it, setting the background for Teaching that has guided millions
of people through the ages.

COMMENTS UPON THE STORY OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND

THE FIRST CHAPTER

The first chapter may be clear in our minds if we remember that:

1. The battlefield is a condition, is a state, is a level or a plane upon which decisions are taken,
tests are carried out, and victory is won through experience and sacrifice.

2. The battlefield is the place upon which our consciousness is focused. It may be on physical,
emotional, or mental planes. It may be on personal, group, national or planetary levels. It can be
on one or many fields of human endeavor.

It is thought that the word dharma is derived from the root dhar, which means to uphold, sustain,
support. That is the exact meaning of duty and responsibility, things with which we uphold the
will of the Inner Guide; we sustain it throughout our life and support it with each act.

We have duties to our Inner Dweller, our Solar Angel, and duties toward our fellow man. This
means we must live in a way that does not become an impediment on the road to perfection of
our fellow beings, but on the contrary we must become a great help to them to make them reach
their destination or goal. This is the field where the human soul is born, or “made”, through
severe discipline.
Upon all these fields a battle is going on. The time when a man starts to carry the battle
consciously is the time when he starts to live according to his dharma.

The Sanskrit word dharma is a very mysterious word, and we will refer to it again and again
throughout the pages of this course, but for our present need we will say that it means duty and
responsibility.

The true esoteric meaning of responsibility is the ability to respond to the silent Will of the Inner
Dweller and the readiness to dare and to risk to carry out that Will. Duty is the process of
conscious expression of that response, on any field where the need is confronted.

Dharma — responsibility and duty — is the agent of the Law of Perfection, or the Law of Being.

In the Gita, the battlefield is referred to as the field of duty, responsibility and righteousness, and
as the field of Kuru.

Kurukshetra — This is a vast field near modern Delhi, which the ancients called Hastinapura.
Kuru was a king and the grandfather who lived on this field. The field was named after him.

Kshetra — literally means field, or the sphere of action, or a sacred place. A tradition says that
this field is referred to as topah-kshetra. Topah means discipline, austerities, sincere effort and
striving to get rid of impurities, inertia, and the sense of separativeness.

Krishna often addresses Arjuna as Kurunandana, which means the son of Kuru; or as
Kurusothama, the best of Kurus; or as Kuru-pravira, a hero among the Kurus.

The Pandavas and Kauravas, mentioned in the Gita as armies standing against each other, are
offspring of the King, Kuru, ready to fight upon the field of Kuru.

SEVEN STEPS OF MEDITATION

by Torkom Saraydarian

In the marketplace there are many types of meditation which appeal to different types of people.
Vendors will advertise their type of meditation as the best and as the only way to meditate, but
we are not talking about marketplace meditation. We are talking about true, scientific meditation.

Scientific meditation is based on deep thinking, analytical thinking, right thinking. It is a creative
force which spreads energy into your system and charges your life with the vision of a beautiful
future for a united humanity.

With scientific meditation, your mind is active and learning to function as a coordinated unit.
Some marketplace meditations put your mind in a passive state. This leads to mediumship and
hypnotism. When you let yourself go, unknown forces can enter into you and take control of
your life. This cannot happen with scientific meditation because you are in control.
Passive meditation puts you to sleep, but scientific meditation awakens you to your true Self.
Gradually you open to your essential reality and realize your true potential as a human being.

Scientific thinking results in the knowledge of how to control your urges and drives. Right
thinking shows you how to conquer the demands of your sex drive, your food drive, your
negative emotions and vices. Eventually you master yourself and develop into a calm but
dynamic person.

You realize that you are in control of your own destiny. You walk your own path and create your
own future. When you negate all your ugliness, your karma is clear and the psychic gifts are
opened to you. God brings you these gifts when karma sees that you are really beautiful and that
you are performing good acts for humanity and for the planet.

You cannot get these things easily. They are too dangerous for average people who would
misuse them for wrong and selfish ends. If you force your nature to be clairvoyant, in the next
three lives you will be blind. You cannot force nature. When you are ready, these gifts will be
given to you. Christ said that all gifts are given from the heights, but you must be ready for them
by the grace of your good merit.

When half of humanity elevates itself, this Earth will be a paradise. We will stop killing our
Mother Earth with base emotions and selfish greed. We will make her a beautiful expression of
the Most High so that she reflects our love for the universal order. When we do right meditation
we will live in Beauty, Goodness, and Truth. The blessings of the Great One will be a daily
wonder in our lives. This is the result of pure, scientific thinking — right meditation.

Right meditation has seven steps. Daily practice of them for 10-15 minutes will lead to a more
creative and harmonious life.

1. Physical Relaxation

To prepare the mind for meditation, it is necessary to relax. When I was in Asia, many temples
that I visited used the following technique. It takes only four to five minutes.

a) Lie flat on your back.

b) Tense your whole body and try to push it as far into the earth as possible. Pretend that you are
trying to enter into the earth.

c) Now, starting with the bottom of your feet, relax. Feel the tenseness lift away. Gradually from
the bottom of your feet to the top of your head, feel the whole body relax.

d) Repeat steps b and c. This time relax your internal body. Feel all your organs and glands relax.
For example, relax your kidneys, your heart, lungs, tongue, brain. Move up your body and relax
your entire internal cavity.
This is an excellent method to use at the end of a hard day. You release the tension and high
blood pressure you have accumulated and rejuvenate your entire system. The exercise reconnects
the nerve centers with the etheric body and re-energizes your physical system.

When I was a boy in the monastery, we would use this method to refresh ourselves. For instance,
when we had been walking for ten miles, our teacher would stop us and tell us to relax. We
would lie down on the grass and push ourselves into the earth. Five minutes later we could walk
another ten miles.

There is another very relaxing exercise. It especially rejuvenates your brain and the glands in
your brain, as well as your heart.

a) You may sit in the lotus position (crosslegged) or in a chair. It is important not to slouch. Keep
the spine erect and the chin a little down.

b) Impose serenity and calmness on your body by using willpower.

Let me explain both parts of this exercise. First, the spine needs to be erect because there are
nerve centers which correspond to the etheric centers residing along the spinal channel. Contact
between these centers is interrupted when you are lying on your back, straining your muscles, or
giving abnormal shapes to your spine. So keep your spine erect but without any tenseness.

Sometimes, when sitting in the lotus position for ten to fifteen minutes, you feel little pains here
and there. Eventually your muscles learn how to hold your spine, and you begin to like the
position.

I do not yet know the scientific reason, but this position strengthens the heart. When people in
Asia have heart problems, they sit for as many as three hours with crossed legs, spine erect, and
chin a little down. This strengthens the muscles of the heart and makes the heart function
beautifully.

For example, there was an eighty-one year old man who developed some heart problems. To
cure the weakness they told him to sit four or five hours daily in the lotus position. Eventually
his heart became so strong that he could run four to five miles daily.

The next part of this exercise deals with relaxation through willpower. With practice you can
immediately impose calmness and serenity on your body with the power of your mind. You can
relax any response or any part of your body by the force of your concentrated will. Some people
have amazed the medical profession by stopping their heartbeat and relaxing their heart. Another
system takes over and they do not die.

As we become more conscious of ourselves, we realize that just as our mind can consciously
control our relaxation, it unconsciously controls the tension which we exert on our bodies. The
mind forms certain patterns and habits which the body forms along prearranged lines of force.
When you find these patterns, you can relax and remove them from your body.
For example, imagination is related to different parts of your body. When you start to imagine
things, various organs and glands are stimulated. These function at an unconscious, automatic
level so that patterns are established without your conscious knowledge. When you consciously
relax these patterns, the tension is removed from your body. You begin to take the cause away
from your mental body so that the patterns of tension will be removed.

Have you ever noticed how completely and easily animals relax? Animals do not built the
patterns of tension to the degree that humans do. Hold the paw of a relaxed dog and notice how
freely it falls when you let it go. There is no resistance in the dog. He has not formed a
previously arranged pattern of tension which constricts his movements.

But people, by the unconscious power of their minds, hold the body in tension. Through thought
energy, the etheric body holds the muscles in tenseness. So, even when you are not aware of it,
etheric energy is holding your body in tension.

For example, watch a musician eating. He will use the same finger movements on his food and
utensils that he does on his musical instrument. His nervous system is conditioned along certain
lines. His response remains the same even though the stimulus changes.

Our aim is to release ourselves from these unconscious patterns. We want to be really free. We
want to cease adopting patterned behaviors so that we are totally ourselves.

It is interesting to note how people develop patterns of tension without even noticing. Watch
children after they have seen a fantastic movie. The patterns of the actors have penetrated into
their minds, and soon they are walking and talking differently. Sometimes even their attitudes
about life and their behavior are deeply affected so that years later they have established a pattern
of behavior stimulated by an afternoon’s entertainment.

These patterns are like thieves controlling our mechanism. Eighty percent of humanity is
controlled by these thieves which are rarely questioned. Traditions, religions, political parties,
gurus, and business-stimulated fads all form patterns which we blindly follow.

The best teacher is the one who frees you from these forced bodily habits. You want to be really
free and stand on your own feet. You want to think your own thoughts and make your own
decisions. Make a plan and test it. Don’t follow what others have done. This way you will make
a new life for yourself.

So, pay attention to your actions. Ask if you are being really yourself or if you are imitating
others. If you are imitating, you are not using your brain and you have nothing of your own.

Look upon yourself as a very exceptional seed. Not everyone is a rose, so do not try to imitate
the rose. You may be a lily or a carnation or a chrysanthemum. Flourish and express your own
individual beauty. Be the uniqueness that you are.

Just as you should stand on your own feet, do not encourage others to imitate you. A dictator
says, “This is the truth. There is no other way. Follow me.” This is imprisoning people’s minds.
It is criminal to stop people from finding their own way of expression. Let them be free to bloom
and radiate their own fragrance. When you impose yourself on others, you create tenseness in
them. Relaxation stops this tenseness from forming.

2. Calming the Emotions

It is very important to calm and purify your emotions. Modern medicine says that most illness is
caused by wrong thinking. If you can relax and purify your emotional nature, your health will
improve and you will make great strides forward in terms of your evolution. A great Sage says
that those who calm their emotions create rapport with supernatural worlds because They only
approach calm and silent ones.

There are many methods to calm the emotions, but for us the best way is through imagination.
Imagination creates tremendous calmness in the astral body. For example, imagine that you are
sitting crosslegged in a vast desert or in a beautiful forest under a pine tree or near the bank of a
mountain river. You will feel the irritation and tension disappear from your body and you will
feel really serene. Imagine that you hear little birds singing or that a magnificent symphony is
playing while you smell a rose. Feel the calmness creep into your body, releasing the tight
darkness which cuts the flow of the life force.

Another advanced technique to help calm your emotional body is to flood your system with love
and compassion. Much tenseness is caused by negative emotions which are non-essential. Small
dislikes and hatreds, such as “I don’t like him” or “I don’t like that color” or “I can’t stand her
hair”, create tension in your etheric and emotional bodies. This tenseness eventually presses
down on the organ which corresponds to the image. According to esoteric science this
establishes a continuous inflow of energy into that organ. It absorbs this steady stream and
overflows, just as a carburetor does when it becomes flooded. Soon it cannot function properly,
and it ceases to work.

To stop this negative energy flow, imagine compassion and love going to your adversaries.
Christ emphasized to love your enemies. This helps evaporate the emotional tension which
paralyzes you.

How can you love your enemies when you want to kill them? First you must realize what
problems this hate creates for your heart, your general health, and your spiritual growth. It is like
trying to swim in a pool of tar.

Replace this darkness with the light of love and compassion. You will be surprised at how much
better you will feel. For example, if you are going to spend ten million dollars for ammunition to
kill your enemies, just spend one million for educational materials. Soon your enemy will be
your friend.

One day I was visiting a young family. The twenty-two year old bride was very nervous. She
was washing the dishes in a very irritated manner. Her hands were shaking, and I thought she
was going to break a plate.
I asked her what was the matter. She said her mother-in-law was giving her many troubles and
that she really hated her. So I asked her if she wanted to be sick and look old before her time.
She said no, but she didn’t know what she was going to do about this awful woman. Then I told
her that she was bankrupting her whole nervous system and in a year she would be no good.

She asked how she could change this. Just one minute of forgiveness, I told her, but she was
frustrated since she did not know how to begin when she hated so much. So, I told her to do
something special for her mother-in-law. Buy her a pretty present and make it a special gift.
Soon, when she could see the specialness, she would start loving her mother-in-law.

It worked. Now they are best of friends, and the young bride has good digestion. Her emotional
body is calm and serene. The whole house seems lovelier and happier now.

Christ said this, also. He told us to make peace with our enemies before we offer prayers to God.
How can you communicate with the Great One if you have obstacles in your heart? Your prayers
cannot be accepted when they come from a dark heart. Take out these obstacles and calm your
emotions before your meditation because in meditation you are trying to contact the highest
within you and within the universe.

Love and compassion are very hard for crystallized people who are imprisoned by their own
hate. They do not realize that their hate goes beyond this life into ten future lives. This tension
lasts and lasts. . . . .until you learn how to forgive and forget. You must learn how to release the
thieves that creep into your system and steal your youth, beauty and beingness. Let them go.
Give the person you dislike a hug, a smile, a kind word. Soon he will be happy to see you, and,
really, you will be a much better person.

I told this to three psychiatrists and they were thrilled. They said that it was the best method to
cure people and that they were going to start using it immediately.

I told them that the best method to cure people was to make them live in beauty. Every morning
people must think, “How can I express beauty today? How can I make my life and the lives of
others more beautiful?”

The first way to beautify your life is with love and compassion. Soon you will see progress. Even
your senses will be more healthy. Your senses are related to your emotions. Think about that,
and think about how you can be more loving and compassionate.

3. Mental Silencing

You can silence your mind by withdrawing to a higher level of consciousness and detaching
yourself from your thoughtforms and mental activities.

People are so identified with their beliefs and ideas that they think they are one and the same
with them. When their thoughts are proved wrong, they feel really sick. A famous case of this
happened to a friend of Socrates. This friend went to Socrates with his ideas, which were
crystallized thoughtforms. They discussed them and finally Socrates proved that the ideas were
wrong. Upon realizing that he had been in error all this time, the friend had a heart attack and
died. He was so stuck with his ideas that, when they were gone, he was gone.

Now you know that you are not your ideas. You know that they are nothing but furniture and that
you can replace them. So, do not worry about your thoughts. Calm yourself and withdraw into a
higher realm of consciousness. See that you are beyond your thoughtforms.

In Sanskrit there is an expression: Tat Twam Asi. It means, “You are the Eternal One.” You are
the Brahman; you are a part of Almighty God. So do not be stuck with your mind. Raise your
level to the Eternal, Infinite One.

The second method of mental silencing is visualization. Imagination is used with the emotional
body, and visualization is for the mental body.

Visualization is visual imagination. If you imagine a flower, you do not see it. When you
visualize the flower, you see it. Visualization is more difficult than imagination, and that is why
it is more difficult to silence the mind than it is to calm the emotions.

Actually, there are many methods that could be mentioned here, but they only suppress the mind.
Repetition of mantrams is calming, but in reality it is just a suppression. Thinking about
something else is calming, but another part of your mental body is working. Instead, if you
visualize an unfolding flower or a beautiful dance, your mental body is focused on one rhythmic
activity. Mundane thoughts cease to distract you, and your mind becomes harmonious.

There is a very advanced method of silencing the mind which you can do. You can listen to the
OM in the universe. This is the “Word” that was in the Beginning. This is the Word of God.
Listen to it. Just pretend that you are hearing it and that it is going throughout the whole
universe.

4. Seed Thoughts

Now that you have calmed your physical, emotional and mental bodies, your uplifted
consciousness is ready to concentrate upon a seed thought. Take, for example, a saying from the
Bible or a quote from an advanced writer. Whatever it is, just make certain that it is really
beautiful.

Let us imagine that you have selected, “God is beauty” for your seed thought. With a pure mind,
examine the phrase. Visualize the words written on a piece of paper. See the letters in a golden
color. Really see them.

Now think about what “God is beauty” really means. Think, “When I meet beauty, I meet God.
A presence of God is in every beauty that I meet.” Just think about beauty and what it is saying
about God. Let your thoughts be really clear and concentrated.

5. Visualization
The next step takes only fifteen seconds or so, but try to make it as clear as possible. Visualize
the light of your Innermost Core projecting upon the words of your seed thought.

6. Four Viewpoints

a) Form. What is the form of the seed thought? What is the form of beauty? Is there beauty in
harmony? In co-measurement? In combinations of colors and sounds? What is beauty? Think
only about the form.

What is the form of God? Does God have a form, or is He reflected in the form? Just think about
the form of God.

Do this for only three minutes.

b) Quality. What is the quality of beauty? Use the three qualities, which are called gunas in
Sanskrit. These are inertia (tamas), motion (rajas), and rhythm (sattva).

Now think, “Is beauty inertia, motion, or the harmony of a symphony?” Think about the quality
of beauty for three minutes.

c) Purpose. Think about the purpose of beauty. What does it do? What does beauty do for you?
How does beauty impress you? What is the purpose of beauty for you, for others, for the
universe? Is the purpose of beauty to release and reveal the secret of the Creator?

Think about the purpose of beauty for three minutes.

d) Cause. Next, think about the cause of beauty. What is the cause of beauty? Why does God
manifest in beauty?

Think about the cause of beauty for three minutes.

This part of the meditation will take twelve minutes all together. You do not need more than that.
After five years of this exercise, you can do more if you want.

This type of meditation is an excellent exercise for your mind. At first it does not seem like you
are getting anywhere, but your concentration builds. It is like a weak teenager who buys a set of
heavy weights. At first he can hardly lift the bar, but after weeks and months of daily practice, he
can lift one hundred pounds. He builds his muscles. It is the same with meditation. It is an
important exercise on the mental level.

With each aspect of the four viewpoints, you activate and stimulate a different part of your mind.
For example, the form is exercising the fingers; the quality builds the wrists; the purpose
concentrates on the forearms; and the cause develops the biceps. Eventually the mind is really
strong and can function as one strong unit at will. You can solve any problem because your
mechanism is aligned and coordinated.
It is interesting to note that when you start seeing things from these four viewpoints, something
very beautiful starts to happen in your life. Your fanaticism disappears because you can see and
understand things from more than one viewpoint. You become a thinker who can see things as a
whole, as well as from its parts. You can see the inside, outside, right, left, front, back, bottom,
and top. You really know the whole picture.

This is really scientific thinking. You view events, people and places from an expanded
consciousness and not from just one limited view. If a person argues that a viewpoint should be
ignored, he is not a scientist. Advanced science tries to know everything about an object so that it
can understand it.

You now have many ideas and thoughts about your seed thought. So the last step in your
meditation is to make them a practical reality in your daily life. Ask, “How can I use these ideas
for creative work in my daily relations? Where may I be of greatest service? How can I use these
ideas to improve my life, the lives of others, of all humanity, of the planet? How can I give this
light to all of nature? How can I purify the life so that this is a planet of joy and trust and love?”

Ask, “How much can I do?” Be practical with your physical plane limitations, but understand
that you are limitless on the mental plane. On the mental plane you are a king when you
broadcast your love and beauty to the whole universe. When you broadcast your ideas to the
universe, you become a true server.

Actually, meditation means to broadcast beautiful ideas into Space as if you were planting
flowers in a garden. When Master Morya speaks of His garden, He is actually referring to the
Space around Him.

What is your garden planted with? Are there weeds of hate, gossip, greed, and self-pity? Or, are
there beautiful rose bushes of Goodness, Beauty and Truth? What do you fill the air with?

7. Concluding Your Meditation

End your meditation with The Great Invocation, and three OMs.

MEDITATION FOR LESSON 1

Using the above steps of meditation, the following is an overview for such a meditation:

1. Physical Relaxation.

2. Calming the Emotions.

3. Mental Silencing.

4. Meditation on the seedthought. Take a verse from the first or second chapter of the
Bhagavad Gita and meditate on it for ten minutes as you are instructed in the Seven
Steps of Meditation. Change your verse every week.
 5. Visualization.

6. Four Viewpoints.

7. Great Invocation. Three OMs.

The Great Invocation

From the point of Light within the Mind of God

Let light stream forth into the minds of men.

Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God

Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.

May Christ return to Earth.

From the center where the Will of God is known

Let purpose guide the little wills of men —

The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the center which we call the race of men

Let the Plan of Love and Light work out

And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.

This meditation can be done at any time, but preferably not earlier than 4:00 a.m., nor later than
10:00 p.m.

We suggest that you do not do any other meditation. Mixing meditations is not healthy, and you
can create brain congestion. We suggest that, with this course, you do only the meditation given.
(Full moon meditations can be done, using the book Symphony of the Zodiac.)

We are sure that you will soon have greater confidence in yourself and greater dedication to the
spiritual life and service.

Torkom Saraydarian
 MORE INFORMATION ABOUT MEDITATION

Meditation is a process of thinking in the light of the Soul for the good of all humanity.

Meditation refines your mental atmosphere, charges it with great visions and inspiration, and
creates greater harmony between nature and man.

Meditation is a method of healing. It harmonizes your mental, emotional, and physical nature.

In the future, advanced instructions for meditation will be given in your lessons. Also, advanced
methods of meditation will be presented to you.

© 1979 Torkom Saraydarian

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 2
WORK TO BE DONE

1. Please read Chapter 1 in the Bhagavad Gita.

2. Read Lesson 2 and try to penetrate into the esoteric meaning behind the names and
events.

3. Study and reflect on this lesson at least half an hour daily for one month.

4. Do your daily meditation, which is given in the section on Meditation on page 17 of

this lesson.

5. Write a paper with your impressions from the first chapter of the Gita — one or two
pages.

6. Prepare your monthly report and send it in with your paper on the first chapter.
Include in your report any questions you have on Chapter 1.

THE TEACHING IN THE FIRST CHAPTER

This Teaching is given to Arjuna against the background of a terrible war. Like a great orchestra,
this background enriches and amplifies the divine solo of a flute played by Krishna for the
redemption of humanity.

The time is that moment in the evolution of the human soul when all the desires of its nature are
toward higher things. Yet, the lower things, accustomed and habitual, are still found attractive
and are loved.
In the first chapter, the most important point that must be remembered, through intuitive flashes
and visions, is that all these characters and armies are personifications of our inner urges, drives,
dreams, positive and negative emotions, low or high.

The battlefield is within us — the urge of evolution and the force of involution facing each other
in man — and Arjuna, in the light of his Soul, Krishna, must choose his own path upon the field.

The relatives and friends are all those forms — habit forms, emotional tendencies, thought
patterns such as social standings, relationships, etc. — which have been for so long beloved, and
which the man in the world has clung to for so many lives. All these endeavor to hold him back
from the life of the Spirit. At this point, Arjuna asks Krishna, as his Charioteer, to take him
between the two armies.

This is an indication of the level which Arjuna has reached. He is separated from the lower self,
but not yet identified with the Higher Self, and in his consciousness he is now a trinity: two
armies and the point between them where his consciousness is focused.

The son of Dhritarashtra, who is called Duryodhana, heads the opposing army. He is the
embodiment of pride, jealousy and injustice. He is the first one at the battle who goes to his
teacher, Drona, and says,

Behold, my Teacher, this mighty army of the sons of Pandu, led by Thy wise pupil, Drupada’s
son. (1:3)

and he continues his description of the Pandu brothers.

It is clear here that he is identified with his army; he is not between two armies, and he sees the
other army as his enemy — they are there to kill him, his teacher, and other members of his
army. This is a lower stage on the Path than the stage where Arjuna stands.

Arjuna’s intention is not to fight because he wants to find a point of understanding between the
higher and lower selves, between the evolutionary and involutionary forces.

But Krishna’s point is that you cannot find any agreement between lower and higher until the
lower is sublimated, transformed and transfigured.

So, the lower self first must be conquered and brought under the will of the Higher Self. Krishna
is trying to show Arjuna the process of soul-infusion. After soul-infusion, He tries to teach him
the way to Monadic Awareness, beyond the two armies, beyond the pairs of opposites.

Duryodhana also emphasizes the power of the opposing army. Primarily, he is impressed by the
Lords of the great chariots, those who are able to fight against ten thousand bowmen.

Esoterically, chariots stand for our own vehicles. They are great when they are full of power,
love, light and wisdom. This means he sees the value and the might of the opposing army, and he
sees also that their victory is his defeat. He sees the might of goodwill, sincerity, courage, love,
and wisdom, but he does not want to arrive at an agreement with that army because the nature of
his army is characterized by ill-will, hypocrisy, separation, fear, hatred, greed and ignorance. He
starts here to describe to his teacher the well-known warriors of his army, in flattering terms
which are indicative of his fear. He says,

[In our army] We have great victors, like yourself, Bhishma, Karna, and Keipa, and the sons of
Somadatta, Ashvottama, and Vikarna. (1:8)

These names are symbolic, and only seven names are mentioned here as the seven deadly
weapons of the lower self.

The interesting thing is that Duryodhana is not indecisive or faltering, but is certain of his actions
to overcome the opposing army. He has no other choice.

Arjuna’s situation is different. Instead of hatred, he has love, and now he is facing one of the
greatest crises on the Path — He can fight, he can escape into solitude, or he can surrender.

His life depends on his decision. This is what happens on the path of discipleship to everyone
who really aspires to the higher life. His aspirations accumulate and, in a critical time (when the
pull of the lower self is the highest), they descend into his consciousness and force him to
choose. If he chooses the right way, he passes from aspiration to realization. But, if he chooses
the involutionary path, he loses his aspirations, visions and insight. He becomes a machine and
the inner warrior enters into sleep.

Another difference between these two warriors is that Duryodhana has no one who can advise
him about right action. Arjuna has his Inner Lord who indicates the true path of liberation.

The powerhouse of Duryodhana is the totality of his glamors and illusions. They control him. In
contrast, the source of power of Arjuna is his Inner Lord with whom he is in contact and of
whom he can ask questions and receive answers for his guidance.

But, the answers of the Inner Lord are so unexpected, so advanced and stirring, that under their
impact he loses his power of action for a short period and partially falls onto the seat of the
chariot with the lower self. This is a natural consequence of a new inflow of energy; its impact
needs time to be assimilated and actualized.

The lower self must continuously be nurtured so that its substance is refined more and more, and
thus it is made ready to vibrate in unison with the note of the Inner Dweller, Who is often called
the Solar Angel.

The man who is now sitting in the chariot must stand up and fight. In other words, he must be
“born again” through a new revelation, and he must really change!

This striving toward a new spiritual life is only relative to a human soul. The army of the lower
self is not interested in regeneration, in sublimation. Instead, it is involved in the destruction of
spiritual principles by presenting the symbols of tradition, dogma and doctrine.
That is why Duryodhana speaks to the army, saying,

Now, standing in your proper places in each division, O my warriors, you all protect Bhishma,
and support him. (1:11)

And Bhishma, the embodiment of tradition and the crystallized teaching of lower intellects,
exiting with the words of Duryodhana,

. . . to encourage him. . . blew his conch shell as the roar of a lion. (1:12)

This happened because the first objection and roar that arises against an opportunity for spiritual
regeneration comes from the crystallized mind, which finds many excuses and reasons why the
new light and new striving toward the Higher Self must be stopped.

As soon as the signal to fight is given by a crystallized mind, the illusions, which are the children
or relatives of such a mind, make their noises. Then glamors jump out and you have that
“tremendous noise", the signal of aggression, against the army of light.

This is the stage where a man is well integrated in his physical, emotional and lower mental
realms and stands as a personality to fight against the Higher Self.

Immediately when this stage is reached, the Higher Self tries to contact the lower self and invite
it to the spiritual feast in the upper room of Higher Awareness.

Krishna blows his five-fold Conch. This means that He is a Solar Lord, or a Solar Angel, abiding
on the higher levels of the fifth, or mental, plane.

Arjuna’s Conch has been given to him by the God Indra, who, traditionally, was his divine
Father. We read in the Mahabharata that his mother was conceived by Indra, the God, as well.

So Arjuna blows his divine Conch, or makes his divinity known to his lower self, after the note
of his divine Teacher has been released.

Following after him, the other great warriors in Arjuna’s army blow their conches, and we are
told that this divine release of energy and readiness to fight “. . . shook the hearts of
Dhritarashtra’s party.” The lower self, with all its glamors, illusions and maya, feels the new
light, love and power radiating from the Higher Self, and with it the possibility of their defeat.

It is at this moment that Arjuna asks Krishna to drive his chariot between the two armies:

. . . to know who are those who desire to fight, to please the evil-minded Dhritarashtra’s son.
(1:23)

and:
. . . Arjuna saw, in the ranks of the Kurus, fathers, fathers-in-law, uncles, teachers, brothers,
cousins; his own and their sons and grandsons and friends. . . and, filled with deep pity and
great sorrow.. . . (1:26-27)

He feels now that all these people who are arrayed against him are his relatives, his kinsmen. It is
he himself who created them. They represent his deeds, desires, emotions, imaginations,
thoughts, and their corresponding glamors, illusions and maya. His ideas, his dreams, his
knowledge, his emotions are all very close to him, and they have been sources of joy and
pleasure for him. They have been the ones who made his life bearable in the valley of illusions
with his blind urges and drives. To all of these relatives he is connected with insoluble ties. How
to destroy them? And why? Haven’t they contributed to his growth? Didn’t they provide all the
pleasures and happiness of his life? What will he do without these sources of pleasure, sensory
satisfactions, urges and drives? Can he exist without them? Will life have any meaning when he
loses all his glamors, illusions and habits upon which all his past has been built? How can he slay
all his worldly dreams, expectations and many kinds of attachments without entering into
oblivion?

Why then is life as it is? Is there any reality in my abstract aspirations? Am I not deluded by the
voice which comes from within and invites me to slay everything that keeps me as a slave and
delays my liberation? Is there any reality beyond what we know with our five senses? Aren’t we
prisoners of our abstract dreams? Why renounce all these senses that are given to us? Can’t I
have both? The world and the beyond? Why not?

Neither do I see any good in killing my own kinsmen in battle. I do not desire any victory. I do
not desire empire, nor its pleasures, O Krishna. (1:31)

Verily, it would be better if the sons of Dhritarashtra slay me. . . . (1:46)

And, saying this, Arjuna:

. . . casting away his bow and arrow, sank down on the seat of his chariot, his mind deeply
distressed with grief. (1:47)

This is what happens to a disciple when he suddenly becomes aware of the inner call versus
outer attractions. One of them must be sacrificed. This is the moment of decision, the crisis in
which his destiny will be conditioned. He has a great task to perform. He must unlearn whatever
he has learned through his five senses. He must clear away all that he has created through his
deeds, desires, dreams, speech and thoughts. He must recognize those forces which are
controlling him, those past suggestions responsible for dominating his life — and uproot all of
them. How can he do this?

The answer is. . . only with clear thinking and by the power of the will. And here Arjuna fails
because, as we read in the text, “he cast away his bow and arrow", which means he put aside his
power of thinking and the power of using his will. All that Krishna has to do is to make him use
his mental and spiritual perceptions and use his divine will.
In this discourse we see a double line running under all conversations. One is individual to
Arjuna, and to all disciples, and the other is for the actions of all humanity.

As the individual must emerge from all his limitations and act for spiritual freedom, so all
nations, too, must free themselves from traditional thoughtforms that prevent them from seeing
the incoming new light, and the incoming need of all humanity.

For example, in Verse 42 Arjuna speaks about the Sraddha ceremonies of the Hindus in which
they used to offer rice-balls and water to their ancestors. This is a ritual, but behind it stands an
act of thought by which a living one communicates with his ancestors.

Vyasa here shows how a man or a nation is identified with the form side of rituals, ceremonies
and traditions and cannot see the urgent need to fight for freedom from them.

Arjuna worries not only about the active or living negative forms within himself, but also about
the subjective effect of these forms upon his consciousness after they are eliminated or
conquered.

NAMES OF KRISHNA AND ARJUNA

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna and Arjuna are called by many names which have deep
significance to the reader.

In The East, people often call each other by different names for psychological reasons, at
appropriate times, to arouse courage, kindness, nobility, manliness, daring, etc.

For example, when a man is identified with a present situation and cannot overcome it, the
speaker can use such language as: “You Courageous One, I know you will overcome. . . . ” In
doing this he awakens the inner resources of the failing one, concentrating his mind on courage
and, through association with courageous acts, uplifts him from his inertia or depression.

Krishna chooses such names, or titles, for Arjuna at proper times and in the right situations, and
tries to uplift him to a higher dimension.

Arjuna uses many names for Krishna, mostly out of admiration, recognition and approval of his
goodness. Also, this has a psychological effect on Arjuna as he dwells on spiritual qualities of his
Teacher and receives inspiration from them.

Krishna

• The Unfailing One

• The Slayer of Matter

• The Supreme One

• The Descendant of Vishnu

 • The Changeless One

• The Lord of the Senses

Arjuna

• The Scorcher of EnemiesT

• he Best of Warriors

• The Conqueror of Wealth

• The Sinless One

• The Conqueror of Sleep

• The Mighty Armed

We see how the titles of Krishna are the result of worship and admiration, and the titles of
Arjuna are points of encouragement. By meditating on these titles, a man can develop his
consciousness and eventually cultivate similar beauties within himself.

Bhishma

He is the teacher of religion and philosophy and stands for tradition.

Drona

As the teacher of the art of war, he stands for social patterns, for the ways and means to sustain
and perpetuate our separate self at the expense of others. It is very interesting to note that though
these teachers have been the teachers of Arjuna, or the Pandavas, they have sided with the
Kauravas against Arjuna’s army.

THE DISCIPLE AND GLAMOR

It must be born in mind that when a man is nearing the stage of consciousness when both the
astral body and the mental body are active and functioning, he himself becomes a manufacturer
of glamour. He struggles with the forces within himself and within the world in which he lives,
and the increasing potency of the inflowing soul energy (which comes in conflict with
personality forces) gradually produces around him a field of glamour and an environment of
illusion that brings this third category of glamour into full play.

These glamors are dependent upon the expression of the different forces which constitute man’s
lower nature, of which he is becoming increasingly aware, and which pass through the stages of
conflict until the struggling soul sits down — as did Arjuna — in the midst, between the two
opposing forces (personality force and soul energy) and asks himself:

1. Which is right, this or that?

 2. How can I distinguish where my duty or responsibility lies?

3. How can I find my way out of this bewildering situation?

4. How can I bring in the control of the Warrior so that the two groups of forces which I
love may be resolved into a unity?

5. How can I find my way out of this impasse?

6. Why must I hurt that which I love, and through which I have expressed myself for
ages?

7. How can I become aware of that mental illumination which will reveal the “middle
way” between the pairs of opposites?

8. How can I see God, or else the form of God?

Many such questions arise in the mind of the aspirant. They indicate dilemma, bewilderment, a
realization of surrounding glamour, a stage of illusion and a condition of impotence. Against the
disciple are fighting all the forces of his own nature, as well as those of humanity as a whole, and
of the planetary state. He feels helpless. He cannot even see the way out. Only one clear fact
remains, and that is the fact of the Soul, of the immortal Identity, the Warrior behind the scenes,
the Charioteer, Krishna, the Christ within.

The Bhagavad Gita can be read entirely from the standpoint of the disciple’s combat with
glamour and students would be well advised to so study it.

The individual glamors of which the disciple becomes aware are consequently of five types of
force. These, when brought into activity simultaneously, produce those glamors which are
strictly initiated and produced by the man himself. They are:

1. The forces of his dense physical nature and of the vital body which latter, functioning
through the dense physical nature, produce a condition of maya or of uncontrolled
energy.

2. The forces of the astral nature, based upon desire and upon sentiency. These, at this
stage, fall into two groups which we call the pairs of opposites. Their potency is
accentuating at this period of individual history, for the disciple is polarized, in the
majority of cases, in his astral body and is, therefore, subject to the glamors
produced by the interplay of the opposites, plus the condition of maya referred to
above.

3. The forces of the lower nature, of the chitta or mind-stuff of which the mental body
is composed. This is colored by past activities, as is the substance composing all the
vehicles. This adds to maya and glamour the state of illusion.
 4. The personality ray then emerges and intensifies all these aspects of force
expression, producing eventually their synthetic work. Then we have the emerging of
what has been called the threefold glamorous condition into one major glamour.

5. The soul ray or energy is all this time steadily increasing its rhythmic potency, and
seeking to impose its purpose and will upon the personality. It is the united relation
and the interplay between these two — which when a point of balance has been
achieved — sweeps man on to the probationary path, on to the Path of Discipleship,
and right up to the Gate of Initiation. There, standing before the Gate, he recognizes
the final duality which awaits resolution — the Dweller on the Threshold and the
Angel of the Presence.

THREE POINTS IN LESSON ONE

The teaching in the first chapter of the Gita of practical import for the aspirant might be
summarized under three main points.

1. The most dramatic moment in the life of the earthly human being is that in which he is seized
upon by the spirit, knows that the aeons down which he has tried to escape are at an end, and
puts himself finally under the guidance of his Higher Self. It is this moment which has been
chosen for the opening of the Gita, and the chief protagonist, Arjuna, is revealing it in an
experience which has been chosen over and over again, in both sacred and secular writing, as the
end of one great drama and the opening of one still greater. In this sense the Gita, like every
other such book, might be titled, Quest; it might be titled, too, The Pilgrim’s Progress, for the
Gita begins with the instant when the Pilgrim put his fingers in his ears and ran from the city
crying, “Eternal Life,” and then had his first glimpse of the interminable, lonely road which
stretched before him. It is the immemorial drama, the beginning of the new life, the instant when
the hound of heaven is seen not as the pursuer but as the receiver. The word used of old was the
“Awakening". What describes better the realism of the book is this: that it is not all ecstasy. It
bears a factor of abysmal despair. Can he follow? He knows what he should do; there is no
difficulty about his knowledge. He knows. But a thousand doubts assail him. All those who are
dear to him, his friends, kinfolk; all those old and beloved habits of laxity, of pleasant tolerance,
of ease; all the physical, the emotional, the mental forms which are so dear and habitual, shall he,
indeed, separate himself from these? Not only must he, but — and here is the insidiousness of
the temptation — is it right that he should do this? Is it right to fight off those dearly beloved
which have served him so well? He would, of course, gladly choose the right if he could see it,
but what if his own judgment is narrow? What if the judgment of those who are enlightened has
been warped? What if he, himself, has a broader outlook; what if he alone sees that it is not
necessary to make such a sacrifice? Really, this opening discourse of the Gita sums up the
quandary of so many people today, that terrible malaise of “Is it worthwhile?” . . . "How do I
know it is worthwhile? Suppose it is all a delusion?” . . . "What is the use?” But deep within the
cynicism is the vitality of challenge, and of half-glimpsed truths and partially sensed answers. It
is this service which the patient Charioteer essays to perform — the Charioteer, the Higher Self,
the Solar Angel, the Ego, the Logos — answering the questioning man.
2. The second great moment is that in which he is led by his Mentor out into the open fields,
midway between his vices and virtues. The vices are, by his intent and his earnest desire,
definitely left behind; he knows that it is not these that he wishes to choose. But his virtues!
Neither must he be owned by them. And he is owned by them if he feels a sense of pride, or even
of complacency, in having attained them. He must be so sensitized that, if he returns good for
evil, he must not be pleasantly aware of it. Far beyond the crudity of returning evil for evil, or of
returning nothing for evil, he must, in returning good for evil, merely perform a routine action,
no more an occasion for pride than might be the washing of his hands. No refinement of conduct
must be, to him, a matter of conscious satisfaction. His “virtues” are in this sense something to
be put down, to be mounted upon, to be absorbed as part of himself, like air or water. Leaving
behind all his objectivities, slowly progressing to subjectivity, he must free himself from all
claims of kinsfolk — both good and bad. Only so shall he win liberation indeed. Here is inherent
the teaching which the Christ gave more than once in His admonition to forsake father and
mother, meaning this, of course, in its profoundly esoteric sense; as again in His “What have I to
do with thee?” It is this with which Arjuna is now faced; it is the second of his great moments.
And still echoing now is that strong, clear note sounded by Krishna, “I am THAT,” which is the
motif of the first movement, so to say, of the Gita.

3. Now thirdly, he is faced by his most difficult necessity: the need to get rid of the sense of
separation. It is easy for him to make the resolve to turn from his lower self, though it has been
bitterly hard to keep up the resolution and the action. It is hard to turn from the temptation to be
“consciously” noble. But now, the hardest of all for Arjuna is to free himself from the terrible
objectivity of being a separate existence. It is hardest for him to understand the meaning of to
“lose oneself — to find Oneself.”

Faced with this need to abandon not only that, which he has decided to escape from, not only that
which he has attained, but also, the very identification with the “not-self,” it is no wonder that
Arjuna sinks down in despair and gives himself up to dejection, his “mind distressed with grief.”

A FEW NOTES ON THE ALLEGORICAL NATURE OF NAMES

Dhritarashtra
This is the blind king, the father of Kauravas and the brother of Pandu. Dhritarashtra is the elder,
but being blind from birth, according to the law of Aryans, he could not rise to kingship. That is
the reason why his brother Pandu became the king.

Dhritarashtra is married to a princess, Gaudhari, who has borne him many sons. Allegorically, he
represents the lower mind, which is interested in possession, in worldly affairs only. He cannot
see the causal world, but is separative and competitive.

Pandu
He is the brother of Dhritarashtra, the king, who lives a very short life. He has two wives and
five sons. From the first wife, Kunti, he has had first Yudhistra. The second son is Bhima, and
the third is Arjuna. From the second wife, Madri, have come Nakula and Sahadeva.
Pandu stands for personality which is formed by five parts – physical, etheric, astral, mental and
the unfolding human Soul, the Jiva.

When all these parts are aligned and integrated to a high degree, a man becomes a personality, a
king in the objective kingdom.

We may say that Nakula and Sahadeva represent the physical, etheric, and astral bodies. Bhima
is the mental body; Yudhistra is the Soul-infused personality; and Arjuna represents the
unfolding human soul.

It is interesting to know, also, that all these five sons are married to one wife, Draupadi, a king’s
daughter.

In the Mahabarata, we read that eventually after the war has been won by the Pandu brothers,
Yudhistra becomes the king. This symbolizes the battle to conquer the personality and fuse it
with the light of the indwelling Soul. Actually, these five brothers represent the five stages of the
developing human Soul, the fallen Spark, The Arjuna. First, the Spark is identified with the
physical, etheric, and astral bodies, then it starts to awaken on the mental plane, and eventually
becomes a personality. The next step is then taken, which is the stage of Soul infusion, or
transfiguration of the personality.

Krishna
Krishna is born into the clan of Vrishnis. His father’s name is Vasudeva, and his mother’s name
is Devaki.

He grows among the beauties of nature, near the rivers, mountains and forests. One of his
favorite games is to climb high trees and play His magic flute.

When He grows up, He becomes the companion of Sages and Rishis, and dwells in palaces of
kings and princes. He is the fountain of wisdom, and the advisor in matters of diplomacy, war
and statecraft.

He has royal blood in his veins, but He never desires a throne. We are told that:

He would create of conquer kingdoms, but then would give them over to others. Everybody
notices how, though intensely busy with the affairs of the world, He never identified Himself
with any action. He was always a detached witness of events. He showed utter impassivity in the
midst of a whirlwind of activity. On the highways of the world He moved, taking interest in
every event, great or small, yet was never stained by worldliness.

Krishna symbolizes the divine Soul, the Solar Angel, whose duty is to lead Arjuna, the
developing human soul towards the realization of Infinity, and towards the realization of the
imperishable Self within.

The chariot is the vehicle in which the human soul dwells. Krishna is also in the chariot, to help
Arjuna at the most critical moment of his life.
Krishna symbolizes the Ancient of Days, or Sanat Kumara, the planetary Logos.

Krishna was a great Avatar, a reappearing One, Who came age by age to teach Beauty,
Goodness, and Truth.

Krishna and Arjuna

Historically, Krishna and Arjuna were two great, mighty Rishis who lived in Badari, and the
greatest part of their time was dedicated to meditation and contemplation. They are called
Narajana and Nara.

Arjuna is the unfolding human soul, the Jiva, the fallen Spark, traveling back home to his Father.

Arjuna stands for an aspirant, a disciple, and represents all those who become able to establish
the first conscious contact with their own Inner Lord, the higher Self, or the Angel of the
Presence, on the field of their daily labor, daily duties and responsibilities, and put themselves
under the guidance of their higher Selves.

Sanjaya
This literally means “One who has conquered well.” It refers to the intuitive awareness of the
developing man.

Dhritarashtra, the blind king, is the lower mind, and the communication between the intuitional
level and lower mind becomes possible because of the help given to him by Vyasa.

Vyasa
He symbolizes the Rainbow Bridge, the Antahkarana, or the communication line between lower
and higher minds and the spiritual nature of man.

Rishi Vyasa is known as the author of the Vedas, and we are told that it is he who compiled the
Mahabharata. Thus the great beauties, found in the innermost layer of the human being, bloomed
forth and precipitated to the mental plane, through the instrumentality of the Golden Line of
communication between lower and higher selves. This beauty was embodied in the Mahabharata,
in which the Bhagavad Gita is the most precious jewel.

INFORMATION ABOUT MEDITATION

1. Meditation produces a server of the race.

a. Through meditation the mind and its physical counterpart, the brain, are brought
under the control of the Inner Man. Thus meditation creates harmony and
communication in the three vehicles of man. They act as one unit under the
command of the inner inspiration.

b. The server touches the Plan and sees his little part in the Plan. Also, he admits that
others have parts in the Plan, and he cooperates in the utmost humility and freedom.
 c. He becomes enlightened, touching the Inner Dweller. In other words, the man in the
personality has a Soul contact. This Soul contact expands his consciousness and
unveils the nature of the personality and its motives.

d. He gradually becomes a sensitive instrument which picks up new, creative ideas

projected from advanced Souls or Centers.

e. He becomes daring yet cautious. He uses time wisely in relation to the Plan and the
need.

f. He uses energy with great care and refrains from criticism.

g. Due to the radiation of the Inner Thinker, the thoughtforms in the mental realms of
an illusionary nature swiftly fade away, and the life current circulates through the
tiny lives of the mental body and flows down to the etheric body, creating there a
protective wall of fire around the body.

h. Meditation reveals the synthesis which lies behind the apparent incoherence of the
form. Once this is revealed, man becomes a healer on all levels of the personality.
He radiates healing energy, love, wisdom, and life. This synthesis is revealed when
the clouds and mists of his glamors and illusions have disappeared, and true
communication is established between the vehicles and the source of synthesis. Such
a communication is the secret of all cures.

i. Through meditation man contacts great ideas, great energies, and great plans
existing beyond the realms of mind. Great prototypes gradually are seen,
communicated with, and brought down to the mental plane. There they are
appropriated and formulated to be used to meet the need of the time.

j. Thus the bridging of the subjective and the objective worlds takes place, and man
consciously enters into the treasure-house of the inner realms and brings back the
richness of light, love, and power to the world of men to nourish, to guide, and to
uplift them to a higher dimension of understanding and living.

2. Meditation purifies space.

Space is full of floating thoughtforms ranging between light and darkness, love and hate, beauty
and ugliness.

In our atmosphere we have not only mist, fog, dust, smog and clouds of various kinds, but also
we have obscuring accumulations projected by aberrant brains which poison the atmosphere and
condition the minds of the people and their relationships. These thoughtforms, like an epidemic,
spread their influence at any time, in any place, if they meet proper conditions and proper
mechanisms of expression. These thoughtforms are mostly built of low-level mental substance
and are the source of many illusions. They control the behavior of mobs, and once they find
access they grow into a flood and cause destruction and social upheaval.

True meditation sheds light into these thought accumulations and causes disintegration within
them. If the meditation is continuous and of a high frequency, it dissipates them and cleanses the
atmosphere, thus rendering a stupendous service to humanity.

This is done in two ways: by invoking higher energies from abstract realms and directing them
toward these accumulated, poisonous thoughtforms, or by focusing the individual or, preferably,
the group light of pure reason upon these illusions and glamors.

Many empires and nations are destroyed by these dark accumulations of thought energies. There
is a clever story in the Bible which allegorically points out this fact. It says that there were two
cities, called Sodom and Gomorrah, the inhabitants of which were very corrupt; hence the Lord
decided to clean the infected place with fire. The will of the Lord was made known to Abraham
who pleaded with the Lord to save the city if fifty righteous men were found there. The Lord
agreed, and Abraham pleaded again and again until it was decided that the two cities would not
be destroyed if they found ten righteous men in them.

But there was only one family — Lot, his wife, and two daughters — which was allowed to
escape the fire.

This story clearly shows that the Ancients knew about the power of thought and emotions, and
that it was possible that people could destroy themselves by wrong thinking. Negative and
destructive energy causes disturbances in the electromagnetic field in which the earth rotates,
causing earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, aberrations, insanity, and many kinds of
physical ills within mankind.

You have seen kitchens, bedrooms, or living rooms where one may lose his mind due to
disorganized conditions and polluted air. Often such conditions exist within our mental body,
and their effects are most of our psychosomatic illnesses and social maladjust-ments. Bring
beauty and order into the mind and you will have beauty, health, and better communication in
your vehicles, in your environment, as well as better

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 3
WORK TO BE DONE

1. Read chapter II of the Gita at least five times and memorize some verses that you
like most.
 2. Use the following form for your meditation, choosing your seed thoughts from
chapter II:

a. Relax your body, calm your emotions, and feel deep joy in your heart.

b. Sound three OMs.

c. Say the following mantram:

May the power of the One Life

pour through the group of
all true servers.

May the love of the One Self

characterize the lives of all
who seek to aid the Great Ones.

May I fulfill my part

in the one work,
through self-forgetfulness,
harmlessness,
and right speech.

d. Meditate on any verse from the second chapter for twelve minutes only.

e. Record your ideas or experiences in your diary for five minutes.

f. Say The Great Invocation.

g. Sound three OMs.

3. At the end of the month, send in your meditation report, and a paper about
detachment in your own words of one to two typewritten pages.

Dear Gita Student,

The war mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita is the reflection of the war going on upon the
subjective strata of Existence between devas and asuras, or between angelic forces and forces of
darkness.

The angelic forces stand for ever-advancing unfoldment and progress, justice and responsibility.
The forces of darkness stand for degeneration and crime, for selfishness and separatism, for
hatred and revenge.

The outer war is the effect of the war going on in the subtle planes.
Those who are in tune with angelic forces assemble themselves in the army of Light. Those who
are keyed-in with the forces of evil and crime assemble themselves in the army of darkness.

The war narrated in the Mahabharata is not the story of an event, but it is the story of an ever
ongoing war on the subtle and physical planes. It is through this war that initiations are taken by
the heroes of Light. It is in this war that people prove their nature of Divinity and through the
stress and trials of the war they unfold the powers of their soul and contact with the One Self.

On the other hand, it is through this war that the forces of darkness find opportunity to come in
contact with the true nature of Light and either transform their lives and pass into the armies of
Light or degenerate further and hit the bottom of the path of self-destruction.

The key point of the story of the Gita is condensed in the following question: “With what forces
do you key yourself into?”

It is your choice that will decide the path — either toward life or toward everlasting destruction.

We are told that the war depicted in the Mahabharata is the model of all wars — past, present
and future.

We are told that at the end of the Mahabharata war, from 18 divisions of armies, counting
thousands and thousands of people only ten people survived. Seven of them were from the army
of Arjuna: five Pandavas, Krishna and Arjuna. From the opposing army lived only three
warriors.

Sanjaya, after the war was over, reported:

Only we see women, the Earth is empty, desolate, and forsaken.

One is tempted to ask, “What will remain after a war for which nations are preparing
themselves?

We have three kinds of war:

1. We have the subjective plane war which takes place between the forces of light and
the forces of darkness, or between the constructive, creative thoughts and the
destructive thoughts.

2. We have war between nations, and between human groups.

3. We have psychological war going on within an aspirant or a disciple.

If we take the war depicted in the Gita as a war within our being and successfully bring the war
to an end, we open a new cycle on the path of our evolution and lead ourselves to higher
achievement.
It is very interesting to see the esoteric significance of the numbers 5 + 1 + 1 — seven, and the
number 3.

From the inner battle of the army of Arjuna produced a seven-fold being. Perfection was
achieved through the war. Man became a five- and seven-pointed star. The human soul graduated
into the Monadic Plane through the guidance of the Divine Presence.

Through the war a new transformation came into being in the opposing army. This was the
integrated personality.

Combined together the three-fold personality — the warriors, and the seven from Arjuna's army
— we have the number 10, which is completion, or perfection.

If you did not start a battle within yourself you will lose many spiritual opportunities. If you are
already in battle within yourself listen carefully to the voice of wisdom coming out of your Soul,
to achieve victory.

If you ended your inner war, start a new war on a higher spiral.

Yours,

Torkom Saraydarian

OVERVIEW OF THE FIRST SIX CHAPTERS

The Bhagavad Gita has eighteen chapters. They are divided into three main sections, each
containing six chapters (books).

The first section (the first six books) of the Gita is about Thou. The second section deals with the
nature of That. That refers to the One Self in man and in the Universe. The third section deals
with the relationship of Thou and That, and the Science of Reunion.

That Thou art is the translation from Sanskrit literature of Tat Twam Asi. The first six books are
called:

1. The Despondency of Arjuna

2. The Yoga of Ultimate Reality

3. The True Way of Action and Service

4. The Renunciation of Action in Knowledge of Self or Sacrifice

5. The Yoga by the Renunciation of Action

6. The Yoga of Meditation

The Sage D. K. says, “Study with care the first three books of the Bhagavad Gita. The problem
of Arjuna is the problem of all disciples, and the solution is eternally the same.”

The first book presents the psychological atmosphere in whose tension the most sublime
Teaching of the ages is given to humanity. Humanity is represented by Arjuna, who temporarily
loses his courage and daring when he realizes the nature of the battle which he must carry on for
the quest of his Cosmic destiny.

The battlefield in its true sense is the entire phenomenon of Creation, the interplay of energy and
matter and of spirit and form. Arjuna must work for his own salvation, toward the root of energy
and matter, or spirit and form, and re-enter the Source from which he proceeded. He must return
to his Source by his individual merit and striving.

In the second book, Lord Krishna refers to the faculty of buddhi, through which reality is found.
Buddhi is pure reason, wisdom, or discrimination of the real and the unreal. It is a higher sense
of vision which sees things as they are in their true value and proportion. In one sense, it is the
state of enlightenment and illumination. Lord Gautama was called Buddha after His
enlightenment.

Enlightenment leads to karma yoga, which means yoga of action. It is a yoga which has nothing
to do with the fruits of action. Karma yoga is dealt with in the third book.

Once an enlightened person learns to work without being attached to the fruits of his action, his
life turns into a process of sacrifice. Sacrifice means the making or performing of all action as
sacred, hence not selfish. Sacrifice is the theme of the fourth book.

The fifth book, which is called Yoga by Renunciation of Action, teaches the total dismissal of
any control by the personality and of any objection by the lower nature to the actions we may be
called upon to perform by the dictates of our highest wisdom.

The sixth book is called The Yoga of Meditation. It is through this means that the Self is
contacted.

Arjuna is the unfolding human soul. He must integrate his personality vehicles and align them
with the Soul, or with the Krishna aspect, and eventually reach Soul-infusion. This is a great
achievement in which the unfolding human soul has purified his three-fold vehicle in such a
degree that the indwelling Presence shines forth without any obstruction.

COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND CHAPTER, VS. 1-10

The second chapter is called the Yoga of Ultimate Reality. Krishna tries to lead Arjuna to his
own Inner Essence, to his true Self, through a process of detachment from the not-self. His goal
is to make Arjuna master his lower vehicles and control their mechanical reactions to the stimuli
coming from the world of illusion.

In the first verse of this chapter we read:

Krishna, seeing that Arjuna was overwhelmed with pity and grief and had eyes full of tears,
turned to him and said, “In such a critical time, how could such a faint-heartedness come upon
you, the best of warriors? Faint-heartedness is un-Aryan, disgraceful, and does not lead you to
win either the heaven or the earth, O Arjuna. (2:1-2)

Self-pity, grief and tears indicate that Arjuna is identified with transient objects, or objects that
belong to the world of unreality. In esoteric literature, the physical, emotional, and mental worlds
are called the world of illusion. Whoever is identified with these worlds develops self-pity and
grief, and sheds tears — because this world is unreal. Every time a person is in the process of
losing a part of that world or an object from that world, he suffers. The great lesson on the path
of evolution is to learn how to detach ourselves from this transient, unreal world.

It would be a great help to the student if he would daily exercise the discipline of detachment. It
is important to note that detachment is not separation. You do not need to separate yourself from
your emotional vehicle in order to be detached from your emotions or glamors. Detachment is a
process of mastery in which your vehicle and the objects of your vehicle gradually lose their
control upon you, and you use them to further your service and evolution.

The same is true with the mental world. There we have objects of mind, thoughts, thoughtforms,
and illusions. For most of us, it is almost impossible to detach ourselves from our mind and take
it as an instrument to be used by us. Often we are closely identified with our ideas, opinions,
thoughts, and thoughtforms, and any time we see an attack upon the objects of our mind, we
react and protect our possessions as though they were parts of our Essence.

Krishna is called the Slayer of Madhu, or the slayer of the demon of darkness, ignorance,
identification with matter, and evil. This title denotes that the Inner Guide, the Inner Krishna, has
won Its liberation by slaying the ignorance about his true, divine Self. According to the Gita, true
knowledge is knowledge of the real Self.

Ignorance creates attachment; attachment creates fear; and fear creates hatred, grief, and self-
pity. Any time we see the possibility of losing our possessions on any level, we fall into a state of
fear, self-pity, and grief. It is just at such a moment that Krishna, the Inner Guide, speaks and
says:

In such a critical time, how could such a faint-heartedness come upon you, the best of warriors?
(2:2)

Krishna often calls Arjuna by different names. For example, in verses two and three He calls
Arjuna, “the best of warriors” and “the scorcher of enemies.” When we call people by names of
great importance, or by the names of their high origin, we direct their attention toward the
outstanding quality that these names suggest, and thus make them be inspired by a greater image
than the one they have of themselves.

For example, you can say to a person who is full of depression, “Remember, you are a disciple.
Remember you are not the bodies, but the Self. You are a Son of Light; you are a warrior of
justice and joy. You are a Spark of the Great Sun....” In this way, you help him to see things in
their right perspective and relative value, thus causing some disidentification from the world of
the unreal and leading him closer to the world of Reality.

Actually, this is a very subtle psychological technique. Unless you raise the consciousness of a
person through an image of hope, future, and victory, you cannot disperse his depression or crack
his identification. As soon as we are reminded of our Divine origin, a beam of light penetrates
into our temporary darkness. It cheers us, uplifts us, and gives us new courage to face our
obligations, duties, and responsibilities in the best way we can.

In this section, we also have the very important words, “critical time.” Here Krishna is referring
to a condition which is called “being between two armies.” Arjuna finds himself in this situation,
and he has to make a decision. All great expansions of consciousness are the outcome of such a
situation — when the right decision is made and the right steps are taken. For a long time, man
enjoys the lower army, the army of vices, pleasures, desires, selfishness, crime, etc.; but
eventually he hears the voice of his higher nature which gradually becomes stronger and
stronger, until the moment when the two armies stand against each other and challenge him to
make his decision. This is sometimes called the midnight point, which may either lead the person
to a new dawn or make him the slave of his vices.

No one can have such a crisis until he sincerely confronts the hindrances and obstacles found in
his nature. Any point of crisis may turn into an opportunity if he identifies himself with the
Krishna consciousness within and detaches himself from his lower self.

Such an action throws a great light into the dark corners of his being and cleanses him from
agelong illusions, glamors, and inertia. But always, the soft and glamored voice of the lower self
creates confusion, instability, and doubt, and says, “I have great veneration for Bhishma and
Drona. How can I slay them?”

These two Teachers represent the religious traditions in which a person is crystallized and the
political conditioning by which his social responses are set. The aspirant needs to get rid of these
things.

As long as our minds run in traditional religious, political, or educational grooves, we cannot
break out of our shells and find newer approaches to life as a whole. Religion should be a
process of scientific communication with the world of reality. Education should be the labor to
bring out and let shine the real Self of man.

Krishna is challenging Arjuna to break the shell built by traditions and outworn education and
stand in the light of his spiritual freedom. He is leading Arjuna to his real Self.

Any learning, opinion or knowledge within the sphere of your mind that you have accumulated
throughout years eventually turns into prison walls, if you do not continuously refresh it with
new experiences and new knowledge. This is what we call a crystallized state of mind, in which
new unfoldments are not possible, and within which free thinking is enslaved and new beams of
light are mechanically rejected.
"How can I kill my Teachers.... How can I unlearn things that I learned and accumulated with
pain and labor?” This is the challenge. Man must surpass his former state of mind if he wants to
expand himself toward a greater light.

Let us remember that arrows represent thoughts; swords represent ideas; and the battlefield as a
whole represents our life on the three levels. All our emotional and mental possessions are like
furniture. We must remain separate from them and face the future.

Krishna represents the future. Those who face the future must be ready to make room within
their nature for the visions and ideas of the future. One who is too full of mental or physical
possessions is a bucket full of sand, which can't be filled further. A Sage said, “You are so full
with the past that there is no room in you to receive a part of the future.”

Krishna stands for the future, and he challenges Arjuna to conquer his lower self, which belongs
to the past. Such a challenge evokes tremendous striving from the true aspirant on the path,
which creates a very difficult and disheartening situation in his social life. As his striving
increases, the opposing forces organize themselves and try to make his life miserable. He is
slowly pushed away even from his family, friends, and relatives, from his social and religious
circles. He does not fit anywhere any more; he cannot relate with his old friends; he tastes
rejection, loneliness, and often bitter attacks.

In view of all these things, Arjuna turns to Krishna and says, “I will not fight.”

The destiny of the battle depends upon the war going on within him. No outward obstacles can
be overcome if the corresponding obstacles have not been annihilated within our inner field of
battle. All great battles are won within that inner field on which the true Self masters the
glamors, illusions, and inertia of the personality and stands free.

It is a fact that the Guardian Light within us does not give up, and occasionally reminds us of our
true heritage. Thus Krishna, as if smiling, answers Arjuna,

You grieve for those who should not be grieved for, and yet you speak like those who are
learned. The wise man grieves for neither the dead, nor the living.” (2:11)

Detachment must be complete. A superior person is one who is not identified with his virtues —
which are living qualities — or with his vices, which must be “killed” and left behind.

It is very interesting to note that the opposing army of vices is formed by all of Arjuna's relatives
and friends. They also form the army which represents his virtues. Krishna brought him to the
middle point between these two armies. With his virtues, he has to eliminate the obstacles on the
path; but he must not be identified even with those virtues because then they may turn into vices.

Is it not true that any time a person boasts about his virtues, we dislike him? We feel that there is
something wrong with that person — because he is identified with his virtues. Identification
leads to self-assertion, pride, a superiority complex, and eventually to self-destruction or
dictatorship.
A person who is identified with his virtues and carries them as he carries his coat or his jewels, to
show-off, creates deep rejection, jealousy, forced desires, artificial limitations, and eventually
hatred and separation — which are vices.

Arjuna questions, “I cannot tell whether our victory or their victory over us would be better.”
(2:6) How often within ourselves have we wanted to “be like those,” not knowing which was
better for us. How often we had difficulty discriminating between the two armies and the virtues
appeared to us as vices and vices as virtues. It is here that in deepest confusion, we ask the
guidance of our Inner Lord, “I... ask Thee, my Lord, what my dharma is?...What would be best
for me.?... I am Thy disciple. I have taken refuge in Thee; please , instruct me.” (2:7)

Dharma is a Sanskrit word for duty. Here Arjuna wants to know what is right for him to do, so
that his action does not create obstacles on the path of his evolution. He wants to know what is
expected from him at that time, on the level where he stands and with the equipment he has.

One of the most thrilling moments of our life is the moment when we feel the futility of all our
endeavors, feelings, and knowledge and surrender ourselves to our Inner Guide, saying to It:
“Here I am, wounded, tired, rejected, confused, lost. Please lead me from darkness to light, from
the unreal to the real, from death to immortality; because all that I did, I have, and I know cannot
make me to know the right step to take.”

It is after such a humiliation that the Inner Light starts to shine and pour its treasures upon the
person. Here in the Gita, the Teacher reveals to Arjuna his noblest duty, which is realization of
the true Self through the mastery of the lower self.

To be able to reach the Self, Arjuna not only must strive toward an inner penetration and
realization, but he must also follow a process of actualization of these inner realizations. This
opens for him a new field of duty, which can be formulated as a duty to transform life and live it
as one who is enlightened by the light of the Self. In short, his duty is to express that inner
achievement through practical actualization.

Thus, the two faces of dharma become one when the spiritual understanding of the Plan and the
Purpose of the true Self find ways and means to express themselves through the activities carried
on upon the three levels of human endeavor.

On the path of such a life, we each have different duties in the working out of the Plan. We are
like builders. Some of us will build the foundation; others, the walls; still others build the doors,
windows, roof, and inner systems of water and electricity. The duties are different because of our
different degrees of unfoldment, rays, background, and conditions. The duty of each one is his
path of least resistance, in which he can render the best possible service according to his own
limit, time, and unfoldment.

Thus, dharma is also a process in which we carry on our perfection on a given line of labor,
service, and sacrifice, relative to our inner achievement or level. The Inner Guide holds our
dharma as a vision in our inner awareness, so that we cultivate certain parts of our nature at a
given time, according to our individual dharma and in coordination with the great Plan. We are
also advised by Krishna to know our duty and to do it the best that we can, never interfering with
the dharma of others. We are to help others do their own duties to the best of our ability, never
becoming involved with their dharma. Often such involvements are forced by our vanities, pride,
self-interest, and showing off.

Arjuna cannot yet see his duty. The reason is that he is not yet Soul-infused. He is not yet aware
of his destiny, and he is tied with the physical, emotional, and mental objects. All these things
bring him to a conclusion which is summarized in the following short sentence, “I will not
fight.”

In esoteric literature, to fight means striving or a steady move toward the destiny of the Inner
Self. To fight is the steady process of detachment from the not-self and the realization of the true
Self.

After listening to Arjuna's statement, Krishna smiles. There is a deep meaning of this word. He
smiles because He knows that it is natural for a person to stand back at the time of such a crisis
when he is going to face the challenge of his Soul and take a greater step toward self-realization.
He smiles because He knows that Arjuna is going to make it. He smiles because He knows that
the same thing happened to many Sons of God as they faced times of great decision, but then
moved forward on the path. He smiles so that Arjuna will know that He understands Him, He
knows him, and He realizes the situation in its totality.

This Teaching is given only to those who are disillusioned by the world, by what the world gave
to them; disillusioned by fruits of action, even by their own actions, feelings, and thoughts. This
is why man is driven by his Inner Guide to stand between two worlds and make his decision to
choose one of the two ways: either the way toward the greater gate, which leads to death, or the
way toward the narrower door, which leads to life.

NOTES ON DETACHMENT

We may think that to detach ourselves means to hate, to ignore, to divide, to separate, to stand
aloof or to be cold and rough toward a given object. These are not signs of true detachment. True
detachment is a Soul attitude, a function carried out on the Soul plane rather than on the physical,
emotional or lower mental planes. Actually, you are not detaching your Self from anyone or
anything. You are detaching your real Self from the inertia of the body, from the glamors of your
emotional world and from the illusions of your mental realm. You are also detaching your real
Self from the objects with which you were identified only through inertia, glamors and illusions.

With detachment you are dis-identifying yourself, but not separating. You are releasing yourself
from the control of identification. When you have achieved detachment, you are no longer
conditioned and controlled by the inertia, glamor and illusion of objects. You are free.
Detachment means freedom. It means a truly self-determined attitude.

In true detachment your spiritual identification deepens and widens on the spiritual side of an
object. At the same time you identify less with phenomena, until eventually you are able to see
the object as it is, free from your personal, mechanical reactions and free from your imposing,
forcing will of the lower self, expressed in many ways. According to your degree of success in
detaching from any object, your soul love increases, your light becomes brighter, your will
stronger and your joy deeper. Attachment makes you smaller; detachment makes you greater.

When you are truly detached, the personality factor of the object does not disturb or control you.
The inner reality, the core of his being, becomes an important factor to you, and you help to
release that beauty by detaching yourself from personality reactions, inertia, glamors and
illusions. In detachment you are not ignoring the Real Man, you are ignoring the illusion, the
appearance, and you can see more clearly than before because you are not caught in the net of
personality reactions. Detachment changes the nature of your relations with the object. Since
your relationship is no longer based on your personality reactions nor on the other's personality
reactions, you are not mechanical in your behavior toward him; you are awake and conscious and
your approach is a soul approach.

Detachment eliminates personality conflicts and friction between objects. You recognize and can
accept the freedom, the existence of the object. In detachment you cease to use others for your
own selfish interests. You recognize each existence as important to the great Plan. In the process
of detachment you become aware of the Law of Karma and you see clearly the way in which the
Law works. You seek the highest good for the object; you learn not to interfere with the karma of
others. In so doing you help them to increase their inner light and you give them courage to live
the best life possible for them.

Detachment leads you to Soul infusion. Eventually you find the path leading to your true Self,
and you become one with that Self. Actually the process of detachment is the process of
becoming oneself. Gradually you detach yourself from all that is not the Self. When you reach
the stage of becoming your true Self, you are one with creation itself, but without the limitations
of its inertia, glamor, and illusion. Thus, detachment is the process of at-one-ment. In detachment
man leads himself from the transient to the unchangeable, from the unreal to the Real.

When you have learned the process of detachment, you become magnetic. Truly magnetic people
are those who are really detached persons. They have not become personality magnetic, but Soul
magnetic. A truly detached person has achieved the ability to do the right thing at the right time
and in the right proportion.

The existence in which you live is a part of you. All is one. The process of detachment is the
process of realization of this unity. Only on such a high level of awareness can you free yourself
from:

1. Separation

2. The concept of property

3. The illusion of “mine” and “yours”

4. Your anxieties and worries

Thus your sense of responsibility grows deeper and higher. Detachment helps you to understand
the purpose of the Great Being In Whom we live and move and have our being.”

Impersonality is another term for being detached. A detached man is an impersonal man.
Impersonality is a state of consciousness which is above the physical, emotional and lower
mental levels, and which functions upon the Soul levels. A detached man is a man who is in the
process of becoming himself. Detachment is not a level, but a continuous negation of
imprisonment and an urge toward spiritualization or liberation.

WHO IS THE THINKER?

The Ancient Wisdom teaches that there is a Presence in man that thinks. This Presence is a light
which is placed in the higher mental atmosphere. It tries to reach the atoms of the mental,
emotional, and physical substance; to flood them with Its own light; to co-ordinate, fuse and
create an instrument through which its light can radiate as enlightening, healing, and uplifting
energy.

In the average man this light is a flickering light and cannot penetrate into all the strata of the
mind to touch the brain. Only at rare, critical times the light may reach down and give man a
brief, unusual guidance and inspiration. In an advanced man this light slowly penetrates into the
whole substance of the mind, and as it penetrates, the consciousness of the man expands.

The consciousness of man is the lightened area in the mind where the light or the intellect of this
Presence hits. If it hits an area one inch in diameter, that is the size of his real consciousness. If
this lighted area expands, his consciousness expands.

Your consciousness expands as the mind, in part or as a whole, gradually is able to assimilate
and reflect the light and change into light. The atoms of your mind have a dim light originally,
but as they become sensitive to the light of the Presence, they become radioactive atoms in the
mental atmosphere. This enlightening process is carried on through our endeavors in right
thinking, concentration, meditation, and living a life in harmony with the rhythm of the inner
Presence, until the light or the intellect of the human soul is awakened and released into its full
capacity to fuse with the intellect of the Soul, then to replace it.

The Presence in us is the Solar Angel. This is the Thinker within us. The Tibetan Master, giving
the rules for magic, says:

The Solar Angel collects himself, scatters not his force but, in meditation deep, communicates
with his reflection.

When the shadow hath responded, in meditation deep the work proceedeth. The lower light is
thrown upward; the greater light illuminates the three and the work of the fourth proceedeth.

Meditation is one of the means used to strengthen the influence of the Presence over the
personality and make it sensitive to the wisdom radiating from that Presence.
The reflection is the shadow of the Monad; it appears as a diffused light in the lower vehicles, on
physical, emotional and mental planes. We call the reflection, or the shadow, the evolving human
soul, the source of which is the Monad, the Spark. Man in his essence is the Monad, is the Spark,
but the Spark has “fallen” and is going to school through the elemental, mineral, vegetable,
animal, and human kingdoms. It is only in the human kingdom that, through the help of the
incoming Lord, the diffused light of the Spark starts to be awakened and to form a consciousness
of identity, “I-ness,” “self-ness,” or a center in itself, an individuality.

It is very interesting to note that we consciously create our “children,” or thoughtforms, and they
really become independent living entities or decaying forms within our aura or in space. If they
are of high quality they let the life energy flow into our etheric and physical bodies, and if they
are decaying ones they poison our system and cause various diseases. That is why it is very
important to know how to meditate, how to create pure and divine thoughtforms, and increase
the vitality and health of humanity and nature. Thinking means to create, to be.

Any created work of art, in any field or level, lives according to the roots it extends into time and
space. For example, let us take a book. If that book is written only for the physical plane, through
physical level observations, it lives a relatively short life. It lives longer if it has a world of
emotion within itself. The life of that book becomes still longer if the world of mind is present.
The life of the book increases tremendously if there is the fire of spirit in it. And it becomes
immortal when there is a portion of the divine and absolute in it.

In the same way creation has a short life span if it is personal only. If it is a group creation, or
relates to the group, it has a longer life. If it is related to the national life it lives a little longer. If
it is related to the life of humanity its life is considerably longer. But if it is related to the Cosmos
it lives a Cosmic life.

If we want a creation to live and serve upon all the mentioned levels, it must have a proportional
amount of substance from each of them.

True thinking is a co-operative effort with the Cosmos, reflecting its beauty on all planes, thus
conditioning the development of each tiny life to further the fulfillment of the Purpose of the
Great Life.

THE NATURE OF SELF

There are three main opinions about the Self.

The first says there is no Self. This is the teaching of Buddhism, exoterically taken.

The second says there is the Self, but it is like a bubble, and it disappears when you pass away.
This is the teaching of materialism.

The third one says that there is the Self and it unfolds forever on higher and higher dimensions.
This is the teaching of the Ancient Wisdom.
After we study the literature about the Self written by these different parties, we see that actually
they do not contradict each other; they complete each other.

Let us take Buddhism. It says that “There is no Self. Self is delusion. Self is but a heap of
composite qualities, and its world is empty like a fantasy. Self is an error, an illusion.”
(Christmas Humphreys, Buddhism.)

Another passage from the same source reads, “Therefore, O Ananda, take the Self as a lamp;
take the Self as a refuge. Betake yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast as a refuge to the
truth. Look not for refuge to anyone besides yourselves. Work out your own salvation with
diligence.” (Ibid, p. 93) “Self is the Lord of self and the goal of self. What other Lord can there
be; Nirvana is the extinction of not-self in the completion of Self.” (Ibid, p. 88)

After reading the foregoing passages and being familiar with Buddhist literature, we may say
that in Buddhism there are various meanings for the Self, and if a man does not know the
different usages of the term, he gets lost.

1. One of the meanings of the Self is that we think each one of us is a separate being,
and consequently our aim is to work for our separated self.

2. Self means selfishness, egotism.

3. Self means moods.

4. Self means complexes, engrams, commands in us, each of which presents itself as a
self, or as an I. If we observe ourselves we see that most of these selves or “I's” are
transient shadows, but strong enough to control our life, and even to perform lasting
deeds, good or bad.

But there is a true Self, too, which in the Ancient Wisdom is called the Jewel, the Father, the
One-and-Whole. This is the Monad. And we are told that this divine presence in the human form
is “unconscious on our plane.” Through centuries the Monad is there, but man is not the Self.
You are the Self when you become the Self consciously, when you reach the divinity in the form
called man.

When Buddha says, “Take refuge in Self,” he refers to this Monad, to the highest in you, which
is the source of life, love, and light. “Take” means, direct all your attention and activity to the
divinity in you, to the One in you Who is everywhere as unity. Raise all your consciousness and
awareness to His level and to Him.

Actually, man gradually is going toward Himself. He is becoming Himself, which means that the
shadow of the Monad, which is acting in a separate body, was glamored, illusioned, and had
fallen asleep but now is awakening and becoming Himself.

Imagine an ocean, which is shining as a mirror. In one part of that ocean a bubble comes up and
bursts, forming a very small concentric wave. Imagine it as a human being, who thinks that he is
a separate entity; actually, he is separate in his consciousness because of the limitations of his
responses. Then gradually he gets bigger and bigger, which means he unfolds his consciousness
and responses, and includes more and more. A “day” comes when this wave involves the ocean,
becomes the ocean, and he realizes that He is the ocean.

Every step of expansion is a step of Self realization. On every step he is a separate individuality
due to his past, present and future experiences and visions. But, at every expansion, or
unfoldment, he is a bigger and bigger self, but not the Real Self. He will be the Real Self when
He is the ocean itself. The only existence is the SELF.

Now every time a Son of God achieves that stage, He increases God, or He adds something to
the Ocean: his personal, individual experiences, collected throughout innumerable ages and ages
on the path of outgoing and incoming.

During all this time the Real Self never loses Its individuality; It is not a separate being but an
all-embracing awareness. This awareness shines all through the Path of the pilgrim as love,
compassion, sense of unity, service, sacrifice, conscience, etc. and guides the shadow to the
Reality within.

When the awareness, or beingness of the man reaches to the “shoreless shore,” it, as a Monad,
does not lose its identity, because It becomes the Ocean-Monad: a “separate” note in the one
symphony, one with the whole of the symphony, as it has within itself all the experiences which
were gained through the seven planes of Its Father-Home, Himself.

The Monad, as a real Spark within, used hundreds and thousands of personalities, vehicles or
forms of its own, as its garments of expression. It collected experiences and learned how to
master plane upon plane, and in the meantime caused radiation, radioactivity and liberation in the
substance through which it worked. It learned to create, to destroy, to transmute and to use every
bit of its experience for the fulfillment of the PLAN and the purpose of the Supreme Self.

On the way back home it gradually will take higher and higher offices; it will be a servant, a
master, or savior, a member of the Hierarchy, an intermediary between the Hierarchy and
Shamballa, a Planetary Logos, a Solar Logos, and so on, to carry on the Plan of all creation,
toward its real SELF.

The true meaning of Nirvana is liberation, the destruction of the limitations which keep the
shadow from becoming its Real Self. It is true that a process of annihilation occurs in the
nirvanic state, but this is the annihilation of the separative thoughts, intentions, motives,
limitations. Those who have entered into Nirvana are called Nirvanis, and some of them reappear
again without losing consciousness of all the changes or experiences they had throughout the
centuries. This means that they have the memory, and if there is memory, there is an
individuality. But this does not mean that on this plane of existence memory limits them in any
way; on the contrary, their memory becomes a tool in their hand to unlock more space, on any
plane, at any time.
We may say that God, to Whom we are going, is an evolving Entity. He Himself is aspiring
toward a greater One.

This is very beautifully put in the Secret Doctrine where it says,

The feeling of responsibility is inspired by the presence of the light of the Higher Ego. As the Ego
in its cycle of rebirth becomes more and more individualized, it learns more and more by
suffering to recognize its own responsibility, by which it finally gains Self-consciousness, the
consciousness of all the Egos in the whole Universe. Absolute Being, to have the idea of
sensation of all this, must pass through all experiences individually, not universally, so that when
it returns it should be of the same omniscience as the Universal Mind plus the memory of all that
it has passed through.

At the Day “Be with Us” every Ego has to remember all the cycles of its past reincarnations for
Manvantaras.... It sees the stream of its past reincarnations by a certain divine light. It sees all
humanity at once, but still there is ever, as it were, a stream which is always the “I".

To conclude this part, we can say that we have a self that must pass away. And we have another
kind of Self which is the true Self, and this Self is the Everlasting One.

The Tibetan Master summarizes all the foregoing in the following beautiful passage:

All that remains is a point of light. This point is conscious, immutable and aware of the two
extremes of divine expression — the sense of individual identity and the sense of universality.
These are fused and blended in the One. Of this One the divine Hermaphrodite is the concrete
symbol, the union in one of the pairs of opposites, negative and positive, male and female.

In the state of being which we call the monadic, no difference is recognized between these two
because it is realized that there is no identity apart from universality and no appreciation from the
universal, apart from the individual realization, and this realization of identification with both the
part and the whole finds its point of tension in the will-to-be, which is qualified by the will-to-
good and developed by the will-to-know.

A TEMPLE DRAMA

The relation of the Monad to the Soul and the state of the Monad in the arc of creation and
evolution was very beautifully expressed in a temple dance which I saw in Asia.

There was a huge cave and in it was a great stage where a king was sitting on his throne. He had
long hair, and a beautiful ornamented coat. Light was focussed on him but the other corners of
the big stage were dark.

As he was sitting he decided to go into the darkness, so after removing his crown and stepping
down from his throne, he started to walk. The beam of light still shone on the empty chair where
the crown lay.
As he went down, he met a woman who gave him a cup of drink. He drank it, and his steps
became confused. Then he met another woman and bowed to her, and touched his head to the
earth. He went to another one — and as he went he entered into more darkness, and finally
disappeared. There were seven women who gradually took him into darkness, till he lost his light
and kingship. (In oriental tradition woman is the tempter.)

As he was in darkness and lying on the earth, a piercing voice tore the silence, calling him:

Where are you,

My Self
the source of beauty,
truth and goodness?

And he started to move and to show signs of living again, walking as a blind man or as a drunken
man.

In the meantime, the seven women tried to prevent him from walking and finding his way to the
throne. As he was struggling to walk and find himself, he cried out:

Where am I?
Who am I?
Where are you — Me?

The women were confusing him, answering his call:

Here you are. Come and find yourself

in the wheel of the Seven Rivers of pleasure.
Here is body.
Here is glamor.
Here is illusion.
Here is pride, possession.
Here is hate.
Here is power, you!

He yielded himself often, but sometimes he endeavored to reject one of them or even two.

As the conflict continued and while he was falling and getting up again, a radiant angel appeared
in a golden robe, and approached him. The angel touched him with his sword, giving him a
shock. He turned to the angel with an expression of fear and adoration, but the next moment he
turned toward the seven women. The angel gave him another shock. This time the adoration and
attention were longer, but again he turned back.

This drama continued for a while until he jumped toward the angel and embraced him, saying:

My Self. Me!
After this moment, the Solar Angel, holding the man's hand, started to do rhythmic movements
and dancing, forcing the man to do the same. As he became able to follow more and more the
rhythm of the angel, the light increased till suddenly the man saw his throne. He made a cry
which was both extremely sad and extremely joyful.

He went five steps toward the throne, and as he came closer, the angel disappeared in the light.

Eventually he reached his throne, and sat there as a victor.

Seven virgins appeared and put a crown on his head, which had a five-pointed star on the front.
They knelt in front of him, and with one voice they said:

King!
Your glory is seven times more now.
You have overcome matter, the sea and the red fire.
You have become a Soul... and now you are the SELF.

In the future a great musician will write splendid music for this temple drama, and some
spiritually developed artists will perform the drama, to awaken the glory hidden in man. This
will

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 4

Work to be Done
1. Study again the second chapter in the light of the information and interpretation
given in this set.

2. Meditation Format

a. Relax your body. Calm your emotions. Discard thoughts of all kinds from the
sphere of your mind. This preparation should take only a moment.

b. Sound three OMs.

c. Say the following mantram:

May the power of the One Life

pour through the group of
all true servers.
May the love of the One Self
characterize the lives of all
who seek to aid the Great Ones.
May I fulfill my part
in the one work,
 through self-forgetfulness,
harmlessness,
and right speech.

d. Think upon the following verses given in Chapter 2. Take one verse each
week and meditate for not more than ten to fifteen minutes each day.
Verse 12 Verily, there was never a time when I was not, nor you, nor these
rulers of men; nor shall come a time when we shall all cease to be.
Verse 13 The Dweller in the body experiences, in this life, childhood, youth
and old age, and then acquires another body....
Verse 14 ...pleasure and pain... all these have a beginning and an end....
Verse 15 ...the Dweller in the body can attain immortality when It is
indifferent toward pain and pleasure, and It is not affected by them.

e. Record your ideas or experiences in your diary for five minutes.

f. Say The Great Invocation.

g. Sound three OMs.

4. At the end of the month, please report to us about your meditation on the enclosed
report form. Write a paper about one of your meditation seed thoughts (not over 2
typewritten pages) and send it to us.

Study with care the first three books of the Bhagavad Gita. The problem of Arjuna is the problem
of all disciples, and the solution is eternally the same.

A.A. Bailey, Initiation, Human and Solar, p. 75

Commentary on Chapter 2

Not for a single moment does the evolving human soul cease to strive. Nature forces the soul to
strive and move forward on the path of evolution even if man is unaware of it. We call this
natural evolution. This is a very slow process; and once man awakens to the laws of nature, he
realizes that natural evolution is the path of pain and suffering, and to overcome the life of pain
and suffering, he must submit himself to the path of conscious evolution.

Arjuna expresses his decision not to fight (2:9). Esoterically, to fight means to make an effort to
remove those obstacles and hindrances on our path which prevent us from overcoming ourselves,
from mastering our physical, emotional and mental natures.

Krishna stands for the fight because fighting brings us closer to our vision and helps us to detach
ourselves from the objects and pleasures with which we were identified. After listening carefully
to the arguments and decisions of Arjuna Krishna smiles and gives him the most profound
teaching of the ages.

Before we pass to the Teaching, for a moment let us think about the psychology of the smile.
Why does Krishna smile? Because He knows the decision of Arjuna is based upon his ignorance.
He knows that the decision not to fight is not the decision of the real Arjuna. It is the decision of
not only his ignorance, but of his fears, his sorrows, and his attachments. Krishna knows that
intuitively, the real Arjuna is aware of this, and that is the reason why Arjuna asks for His help.

All that Krishna does is encourage the real Arjuna to stand up, to awaken, and to see the situation
as it is, to see clearly that his decision is the decision of his glamors, illusions, and fears, and that
his real essence has nothing to do with his conclusions.

Krishna knows that, sooner or later, Arjuna is going to see the reality of his situation, so, with a
smile on His lips, He reveals to him the mysteries of life and death.

He said,

Verily, there was never a time when I was not, nor you, nor these rulers of men; nor shall come a
time when we shall all cease to be. (2:12)

According to the Ageless Wisdom, a human spark is like a ray of the sun. He passes through
many layers and many forms, each time identifying himself with the layers and with the form,
but all these forms through which he passes, eventually dissolve and vanish, and he stands above
all these changes as the ultimate reality, one with his source, the Spiritual Sun.

In the following verses, Krishna explains the nature of the Self, the real inner man:

The Dweller in the body experiences, in this life, childhood, youth, and old age, and then
acquires another body. In this, a wise man finds no reason to grieve, nor to be confused. (2:13)

The unfolding human soul, the true Self, like an actor, plays his part in one life drama, then goes
inside and prepares himself for another play. Each time the characters are different, but the actor
is the same individuality. Life after life, he gathers wisdom, and eventually awakens to his true
nature and consciously lives as a Soul. Once he reaches such a state, we are told that he no
longer enters into play on the physical plane, but continues his evolution on higher spheres of
greater existence.

The physical plane is the plane of pleasure and pain, and these are the two most important factors
that condition all the decisions of man when he is not yet able to function as a Soul. This is the
reason why Krishna points out to Arjuna that

...the Dweller in the body can attain immortality when It is indifferent toward pain and pleasure,
and It is not affected by them.(2:15)
Immortality is the conscious realization that a man is not his body, and the pleasures or pains of
the body are not the pleasures or pains of the Soul, the real man.

Krishna is trying to pass to Arjuna the royal secrets of such a victory, to endure the pleasures and
pain, and to stand detached from the body.

Reality is the man, the true Self. Man cannot find reality when all his measures are the measure
of his pains and pleasures, or all his conclusions are based upon his body consciousness. Reality
is found when the body is mastered, or when the Dweller in the body is able to detach himself
from the body and stand as He is in reality. That is why Krishna emphasizes that:

Real existence (the Soul nature — the real man) has no unreality: unreality has no existence in
It. This fact is perceived by Seers of Truth. (2:16)

The Seers of Truth are those human beings whose vision is not clouded with physical, emotional,
and mental considerations, and who are able to raise their consciousness into the light of the
intuition and to see things as they are.

Human consciousness works purely through the physical brain, which then imposes a very heavy
veil on the seeing eye. It may function on the emotional plane, clouded with all the glamors of
that sphere. It may work on the mental plane, disturbed by various illusions present in that sphere
of activity, or his consciousness can shift between these planes, and serve them collectively or
individually. To the extent that the consciousness of man is the slave of these three worlds, he
cannot see things as they are, he cannot touch reality. Reality begins to appear to man as he tries
to see life beyond the conclusions and conditioning factors of his three bodies, and enters into his
intuitional awareness.

It is interesting to note that most of our activities on these spheres are conditioned by the pain or
pleasures experienced in these spheres. Pleasure invites us to work for more pleasure, pain
causes us to run away from the objects that generate pain, and for long ages we are caught
between these two poles of pain and pleasure.

As we advance in our evolution, we begin to see that our pains often bring pleasure, and
sometimes our pleasure brings pain. Here the faculty of discrimination, called buddhi in the
Bhagavad Gita, starts to function. Buddhi is the sense of knowing right from wrong, the power
to discriminate the Real and the unreal.

Know that the Real is indestructible and all-pervading, and nothing can destroy the Imperishable
One. (2:17)

The Imperishable One is the Self beyond the lower three worlds of pleasure and pain. It is the
thread of changelessness within the world of changes. Once we sense it, once we touch it, all our
values and our viewpoints undergo a tremendous and awesome change. That is why Krishna
emphasizes again and again:
All these bodies are perishable and transitory. In them dwells the Imperishable, the Indefinable,
the Eternal One. Therefore, O Arjuna, stand and fight. (2:18)

The Master beautifully gives the description of Reality in this verse: The imperishable, the
Indefinable and the Eternal One. Arjuna will not stand up and fight for his own liberation, for his
own salvation, until he senses Reality. No change occurs in our life unless we contact that
Reality. It is possible to read and study about it. It is possible to desire It, or even to help others,
in many ways, search for It and find It, but no change, no real change, will occur in our nature
unless we touch Reality, contact the Reality within us, Once we contact It, we are in the process
of transmutation and change. The Changeless One causes a tremendous change in our nature and
environment when It is contacted, because all our activities, which have been based upon
unreality, shatter and eventually disappear, often causing pain and distress — even in the hearts
of our beloved ones.

In the next verse, there is again a strong emphasis upon the changelessness of the Self.... It does
not slay, nor can It be slain. (2:19) When our physical life is in danger, we are in great fear of
losing it, or we may even think that everything can be lost with the loss of the physical body.

This fear may begin when our hair turns gray, our faces wrinkle and we feel that the days of
youth are departing from our bodies. With these feelings we lose many of our interests, our joy,
and develop a life based on fear and grief. The cure for this kind of psychological illness is the
knowledge that nothing is going to be lost.

The Indweller of the body is never born, nor does It die. It is not true that, having no existence, It
comes into being; nor having been in existence, It again ceases to be. It is the unborn, the
eternal, the changeless, the Self. It cannot be killed, even if the body is slain. (2:20)

It is electrifying to discover that the Self ...is never born, nor does it die.... It exists forever
whether in the body or out of the body.

What joy exists in such a realization. In the light of this understanding, all our anxieties, fears,
grief, and depressions evaporate; and we continue to serve, to learn, and to evolve, even if our
physical conditions show signs of deterioration.

As a man casts off his worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, so the Indweller casts off Its worn-
out bodies, and enters into new ones. (2:22)

Tat Twam Asi

This is a Sanskrit phrase, which means, in the literal translation, That Thou Art. Tat refers to the
essence in man and in Cosmos. In man it is the Monad; in the Solar System it is the Solar Logos
or the Self of our system; in Cosmos it is unmanifested Space.

We will see that the first six Chapters of the Gita explain the nature of Tat, That, in man.

The next six Chapters explain the Twam, Thou and the nature of devotion.
The last six Chapters explain the ways and means through which the Thou reach the That.

A clarifying idea to hold in mind is the detailed order in which Krishna advances the teaching,
step by step. In the second Book we find what is sometimes called the Yoga of Sankya or
knowledge; at other times it is called the Yoga of Discriminative Wisdom (Buddhi). The al-
ternative titles arise because the first part deals with manas or knowledge, and the latter part
with buddhi or wisdom.

In Book Three we are concerned with the Yoga of Action, wherein the will-to-act is used; but the
desire nature is controlled or overcome, is not seeking the fruits of action.

This is followed, in Book Four, by the Yoga of Sacrifice, or action with full care for the good of
all men, rather than for the one who is acting. It should, however, be noted that the word
sacrifice is used here in its true original meaning. The performance of all actions is sacred;
therefore, not selfish.

The fifth Book teaches and urges the total dismissal of any control by the personality, and
dismissal of all objections by the lower nature, to the actions we may be called upon to perform
by the dictates of our highest wisdom. This is always called by the title Yoga of Renunciation.

The sixth Book, the final one of this section of the teaching, is called the Yoga of Self-subdual.
This is a rather misleading title, as it means surrender of the entire control of the lower nature to
the Higher Self, hence, it is often referred to as the Yoga of Knowledge of the Undying Atman.

“Friends,

Truth is within ourselves: it takes no rise

From outward things, whate'er you may believe.
There is an inmost center in us all,
Where truth abides in fullness; and around,
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,
This perfect, clear perception — which is truth.
A baffling and perverted carnal mesh
Binds it and makes all error: and, to Know
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without....”

From Paracelsus by Robert Browning

Infinity
Man is infinity. When we know man we will know the Cosmos. Man is not only a replica of
Cosmos, but a living mirror of all that transpires in Cosmos. In the future man will be able to use
a living human form to forecast coming events on the planet and in Cosmos. Man is the most
sensitive instrument ever created in the Universe — though his mind only records a small part of
all impressions that come from Cosmic events and reflect themselves in the mirror of his etheric,
astral and mental form. The cells, the atoms, the organs, the glands, the etheric centers, the blood
and nervous systems all reflect different events taking place in the Cosmos. All these
impressions can be observed in the electromagnetic sphere of a man as in a mirror. Fires and
fiery lines can be seen traveling in manifold configurations.

When man achieves initiate consciousness he will be able to translate the language of these fiery
manifestations, and thus communicate with the Cosmos, making it possible for the Cosmos to
fulfill Itself in man. A man advances in his ability to record impressions coming from Cosmos as
he unfolds his consciousness toward Infinity and purifies his nature with the fire of striving.

On the path of cosmic evolution a moment comes when the Cosmos shines through the man to a
great degree and the man says, “I am one with the Cosmos and my heart is the heart of Cosmos.”

Man's aura is the screen on which we see the result of the activities of sensitive “electron
tubes”.... Every organ, every system, every gland, every center in man is composed of a set of
“tubes”, having different functions in the registering and reflecting of events on the planet, and in
Cosmos. Man usually is not conscious of this fact, due to the focus of his consciousness. The
consciousness of man is usually out of focus, or focused upon his “toys,” but the beauty of the
human being is that he stands as the reflector of the Cosmos, regardless of the lack of his
registering consciousness. We wonder that the ancients worshipped the mystery of man in the
human form!

Many conditions in human life may be the result of Cosmic turbulence over which man has no
control. In the future it will be possible to forecast planetary disturbances, fire, famine, weather
and epidemics simply by watching the electromagnetic spheres of man on which will be reflected
Cosmic turbulence, recorded by the heart, the brain, the glands and centers, and projected on the
screen of the aura. Thus, man is a reflector of Cosmic events and so far is not able to control the
consequences of the pressure waves coming from Cosmos.

In the future, when man learns more about the subtle mechanisms he possesses, and when he
consciously registers and interprets impressions coming from him, he will be able to transmute
and transform these impressions and use them to expand his consciousness; to improve his health
and social conditions; to penetrate into the deeper layers of his awareness, enabling him to
manipulate the laws and energies of the Cosmos to further the purpose of Creation. A huge wave
in the ocean is a great catastrophe for certain men, but it is a delight for an expert surfer.

It is the time now to record daily all of our unusual sensations. By recording them we will
sharpen our impressionability, and will eventually be able to translate the meaning of these
sensations and forecast our future actions. Thus we will be closer to Cosmos, and Cosmos will
more clearly register Itself in us and lead us on the path to Infinity.

Man is Infinity, and the Cosmos is a great, Great Heavenly Man. Cosmos is affected by the
conditions of man, and man shares on his own level all that happens in Cosmos. An explosion in
Cosmos may express itself as an epidemic, or bring waves of emotional and mental disturbance
and their physical correspondences. On the other hand, the formation of a system in Space brings
joy, creativity and a spirit of cooperation to the hearts of those who stand for the betterment of
total Life.

In the core of each man there is a seed, the seed of the Cosmic Man, a holy refuge. This book is
an endeavor to unveil the mystery in that seed; to present the miracle of the flowering seed; to
help man witness the glory hidden within and to invite him to take the needed steps toward a life
of daring, joy, courage, and self-mastery — upon the waves of a stormy sea.

H. (Torkom) Saraydarian, Cosmos in Man, pp. 15-16

Fear

...fear... is the product of ignorance, and in its initial stages it is not the product of wrong
thinking. It is basically instinctual and is found dominating in the non-mental animal kingdom as
well as in the human kingdom. But in the human, its power is increased potently through the
powers of the mind, and through memory of past pain and grievance and through anticipation of
those we foresee, the power of fear is enormously aggravated by the thoughtform we ourselves
have built of our own individual fears and phobias. This thought form grows in power as we pay
attention to it, for “energy follows thought,” till we become dominated by it.

Alice A. Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, p. 238-239

Every human being knows fear and the range of the fear vibrations extends from the instinctual
fears of the savage man based on his ignorance of the laws and forces of nature, and on his terror
of the dark and the unknown, to the fears so prevalent today of loss of friends and loved ones, of
health, of money, of popularity and on to the final fears of the aspirant — the fear of failure, the
fear which has its roots in doubt, the fear of ultimate negation or of annihilation, the fear of death
(which he shares equally with all humanity) the fear of the great illusion of the astral plane, of
the phantasmagoria of life itself, and also fear of loneliness on the Path, even to the very fear of
Fear itself. This list could be largely extended but suffices to indicate the prevalence of fears of
all kinds. They dominate most situations and darken many happy moments. They reduce man to
a timid and frightened atom of sentient life, standing afraid before the stupendousness of the
problems of existence, aware of his insufficiency as a man to cope with all situations and unable
to leave his fears and questionings behind and step into his heritage of freedom and of life. Often
he is so ridden by fear that he becomes afraid of his very reason. The picture cannot be too
blackly colored, for fear is the dominant astral energy at this time and sensitive humanity
succumbs all too easily to it.

Ibid., pp. 297-298

1. The Fear of Death is based upon:

a. A terror of the final rending processes in the act of death itself.

b. Horror of the unknown and the indefinable.

 c. Doubt as to final immortality.

d. Unhappiness at leaving loved ones behind or of being left behind.

e. Ancient reactions to past violent deaths, lying deep in the subconsciousness.

f. Clinging to form life, because primarily identified with it in consciousness.

g. Old erroneous teaching as to Heaven and Hell, both equally unpleasant in

prospect to certain types.

Ibid., p. 300

The Real and the Unreal

The discrimination between the Real and the Unreal being the keynote of the Second Chapter of
the Gita, let us now proceed to understand how, in terms of our ordinary consciousness, this
distinction is gradually realized. The sense of the I, the Ego in man, is due to the reflected image
in him of the Center in the Cosmos, the Center which is everywhere and has its circumference
nowhere; in other words, the Logos. With its inner divine powers undeveloped, the I or Ego can
know itself only through the medium of the reflected images of itself; and the very attachment to
the reflected life in and through the forms seems to develop the I-notion and make it more stable.
Later on by the disharmony between the vehicles and the reflecting center, between the Eternal
Man and his images, the Ego is thrown back upon itself and dimly senses the phenomenal nature
of the vehicles and the broken images cast thereon as compared to the Ego itself. The constant
unchanging sense of the I as the one unvarying factor in the midst of changing forms and
evanescent powers, the dim and unconscious realization of the one substratum of all actions,
feelings, and thoughts, the one playground of conflicting forces, is the sign of the development of
the powers of discrimination.

This stable I-notion is, as we can see by calm analysis, very difficult of attainment, being the
result of long lives of evolution in the past. Thus in the earlier stages the stability of the physical
body, nay its very rigidity, coupled with the association of ideas as regards physical heredity,
family, caste, etc., helps by reaction to bring out and develop a stable I-notion. Hence the larger
the number of things in which the incipient I-notion can reflect and the more changing the
surroundings, the quicker the development. The laws of Association, of Contiguity, of
Difference, all tend to develop the I-notion with the help of relatively permanent vehicles.

Unable to know itself as the I, the Ego learns at first to know itself as such immediately, through
the kindly intervention of its vehicles or sheaths, like a baby knowing itself through the help of a
mirror. Hence the persistence of the vehicle through pleasure and pain, through sunshine and
shower, tends to draw out and manifest the sense of its own permanence in the Ego. It helps in
developing its self-consciousness in terms of the matter of the plane in which the body is. This is
why a checkered life on the physical plane, with its heights of joy and despair, helps more to
generate a sense of reality of the inner factor, as against the passing forces, than a life of smooth
sailing under halcyon skies.
The Ego goes deeper within these forms of pleasure and pain, and finds in these and through
these hitherto final facts of consciousness a finer substratum of Being, which is constant amidst
the flux and efflux of emotions and thoughts, and which therefore synchronizes these apparently
conflicting forms of vibration into a harmony of a higher nature.

The very first stage in this important direction is, as the Gita says, the dim knowledge born of
repeated vivification of the bodies due to pleasure, and the forced indrawal caused by pain.
Hitherto the Ego regarded these pleasures and pains as final facts, as things per se reflecting its
life. The very pursuit of pleasures, even at the cost of health and the general discomfort of the
body so often observable in society life shows that the body is coming to be regarded as the
phenomenal instrument of the Inner Man.

A dim and hazy conception of this I, the Eternal Man, makes people seek to immortalize
themselves in deeds and monuments, on tablets and urns. This notion of the one undying center
in us makes us crave for continuity of existence through the family, through the records of
history. The vehicles being impure and unorganized cannot reflect this all-consuming Flame of
Light; they cannot express in their limited and finite nature this Infinite Life. Yet its effects are
often seen in lower things. The very attachment of the world of forms, to the bodies, the
tendency to see ourselves reflected in these, the mistake of taking the broken images for the
reality, all are significant of the presence of the Eternal Man in us. It is this Reality within which
clothes all phenomenal things with a sense of reality and permanence. The clarified intellect,
keen and penetrating, can in some measure pierce through the veils of maya and abstract the I-
notion from the accidents, the fungus growth of forms, and by a supreme effort of constructive
imagination can dimly sense the one Ego, the eternal Human Monad pervading the world of
forms. The purified heart serving as a vehicle to the divine influence becomes the faithful ally of
the intellect as a touchstone to test the validity of the pronouncements of the intellect, and finally
to transmute the light of the intellect which sees, into the life which is and manifests.

From The Yoga of Discrimination in the Studies in the Bhagavad Gita

by The Dreamer.

Note The Ego here refers to the unfolding, developing human Soul, the Spark going back to Its
home. T.S.

The unreality, in esoteric literature, is called the Great Illusion. Our physical bodies and all that
exists as forms on all three lower planes is called the Great Illusion.

The Tibetan Master, speaking about the Great Illusion, says:

If there is one factor aspirants recognize it is the need of freeing themselves from the Great
Illusion. Arjuna knew this, yet succumbed to despair. Yet in his hour of need, Krishna failed him
not, but laid down in the Gita the simple rules whereby depression and doubt can be overcome.
They may briefly be summarized as follows:

a. Know thyself to be the undying One.

 b. Control thy mind, for through that mind the undying One can be known.

c. Learn that the form is but the veil which hides the splendor of Divinity.

d. Realize that the One Life pervades all forms so that there is no death, no distress, no
separation.

e. Detach thyself therefore from the form side and come to Me, so dwelling in the place
where Light and Life are found. Thus illusion ends.

Bailey, Alice A., A Treatise on White Magic, p. 308

Meditation

Meditation is a noble tool. It helps us to think, act, speak, and write more creatively and in
accordance with the highest good for all humanity.1

We are all on the path to self-discovery. On this path each of us is trying to find himself, to meet
himself and to become a radiating Self. To advance on the path of conscious evolution, the most
important tool needed is meditation.

Meditation is a journey toward Oneself, toward the Inner Light, toward the Source of love and
power within. Without meditation it is impossible to progress upon the path, because the path
itself is a process of sublimation and transformation. For example, you may buy beautiful, new
furniture for your home, expecting that it will change your mood, your social relationships, and
your attitude toward life. It may help at first, but later you will find that you still have the same
physical, emotional and mental problems as before. We often collect and store in our minds
much “furniture” through reading, listening to the opinions of others, gathering knowledge from
many sources, but such accumulations are only “extra furniture.” It is only through meditation
that we find solutions to our problems.

Meditation is assimilation. We may eat good food, but if we do not assimilate it, it cannot
provide nourishment to help us grow. Reading, listening, and learning are all helpful; they may
serve as “food;” but if we do not meditate we cannot digest and assimilate them.

If we should decorate a large piece of charcoal with precious jewels and shining gold, it would
still remain a lump of charcoal; it would not change. Without change there can be no progress on
the path. The path is progress toward good; the path is sublimation; the path is transformation. If
we strike a match and light the charcoal, it will begin to burn. When completely aflame, it
becomes transformed; it has passed through a process of transmutation.

Meditation may be compared to this process of change, of transmutation. Meditation increases

your light, your love and your power, which are energies. Slowly, you come to realize that your
body, your emotional world and your mental nature are changing.
There are hundreds of varieties of wood. Some are soft and pliable; others are brittle; others are
hard and strong. Their use depends upon their quality. There is a wood so hard that it can be used
to make needles for record players. The physical bodies of various people are also different.
According to esoteric science, our physical body can exist on any one of seven different levels.
Our flesh manifests itself on its level. If our body is coarse and of low quality, we say that it is
composed of sixth, fifth or fourth degree material. If sublimation is taking place within our
physical body, the material of the body is changing. All the atoms, the tiny lives, the cells change
to a higher substance.

This is also true of our emotional body and our emotional world. Some believe that we are our
emotions, that we are our feelings, and that our emotional bodies are like waves of energy.
Although it is true that our emotional body has waves of energy, it has a perfect structure similar
to the physical body. Our emotional body is composed of billions and billions of little lives.
When we speak of our emotions, we are speaking of a mechanism that is like our physical body
but of a more subtle nature. Through meditation all those tiny lives of lower order become
sublimated, transformed and transmuted, allowing the Inner Light to shine through them more as
they become clearer and purer.

The same principle may be applied to the mental world. The mind is not a shadow; it is
composed of seven grades of substance. If your consciousness is working on the lower level of
the mental plane, your horizon is very limited, but if your consciousness is steadily focusing on
higher and higher levels, sublimating all energies in the process, your horizon is expanding
because you are coming closer to the real nucleus of life.

Meditation builds bridges within us. Sooner or later we discover that there are gaps between our
physical, emotional, and mental worlds. Meditation builds etheric bridges, enabling you to
become an instrument more sensitive to your environment; you become receptive to the
impressions of the physical, emotional, and mental worlds and register them in your nervous
system. Until this sensitivity is achieved, you are only half a person because you are not
integrated or aligned; you are not yet a personality.

Meditation performs another important function: it integrates and aligns the three lower bodies.
When they are integrated and aligned to a high degree, they become the personality. Meditation
puts the personality in communication with the Soul, and that Inner Light begins to flow into the
physical, emotional, and mental bodies, molding them into a pattern which exists in the eye of
the Thinker.

In meditation there are practical rules to follow. The following points will be of help to you in
your meditation.

1. Relaxation

Before starting your meditation it is essential that your body, emotions, and mind become
relaxed. Lie on your back and press your whole body firmly to the floor, tensing every muscle.
Do this for two or three minutes; then relax the body. Now check all parts of the body, starting
with the feet and moving upward from the toes until you reach the crown of the head. Wherever
you find tenseness, concentrate on relaxing that part of the body. When you are completely
relaxed, imagine a black velvet curtain before your eyes. At the conclusion of this exercise,
which takes about five minutes, you will discover that your physical body and your etheric or
electromagnetic body are in closer communication with each other. Your etheric body is drawing
more energy or prana from Space and you are refreshed by the increased energy flowing to the
bodies and glands.

2. Awakeness

To meditate you must be wide-awake; your brain and mind must be alert. Sometimes people start
to meditate when they are tired; their minds are drowsy or unfocussed. They may fall asleep, or
their minds may wander idly from one thought to another. To become alert, you may use a
simple technique. Kneel down, take a deep breath, and as you exhale, bow down and touch your
forehead to the floor. Hold the breath out without exhaling, remaining in this position for ten or
fifteen seconds. As you inhale, slowly move back into the kneeling position sitting on your heels
and exhale. Repeat this exercise three to five times. You will find that it refreshes and charges
the brain with new energy. You will now feel wide-awake.

3. Alignment

The third step in meditation is alignment. Suppose you have three musical instruments: a violin,
a guitar, and a mandolin. Unless these instruments are in tune with each other, they cannot
produce harmony. Let us assume that my physical body is the violin. If the strings of my violin
are not tuned, I cannot play music. To play a selection, my violin must be in tune. To bring my
physical body into harmony with the other two instruments or bodies, it must be aligned. Am I
sitting in a comfortable position? Am I relaxed? Is my spine erect? The principles of alignment
which belong to the physical body also apply to the emotional and mental bodies.

When we have tuned the three “instruments,” the physical body is completely relaxed, the
emotional body is calm and peaceful, and the mind is detached from daily worries, work and
occupations. When peace prevails in all three bodies, we must test to see that they are in tune
with the fourth instrument, the piano.

Let us assume that the piano is the Inner Thinker, the Inner Light. To tune his three instruments
with the piano, his three bodies with the Inner Light, the beginner will start by being calm,
peaceful and detached. He will then imagine a great light shining down upon him; he will feel an
intense desire to fuse with that light; he will visualize the light penetrating into his mind, his
emotional nature and his physical body; and he will imagine that all three bodies are completely
awake and in tune.

4. Orientation

The next step is to orient all these energies to a great vision. Let us remember that our physical,
emotional, and mental bodies are units of energy and all these must be oriented to a high vision.
It is possible to bring into focus our high vision through sounding the Great Invocation, the
Gayatri, or Lead Us, O Lord:
 The Great Invocation

From the point of Light within the Mind of God

Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God

Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.

From the center where the Will of God is known

Let purpose guide the little wills of men
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the center which we call the race of men

Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.

The Gayatri

OM.
All you who are on earth, mid-Heaven and Heaven,
Let us meditate
upon the light adorable
of the divine Sun of Life
which may enlighten our Souls.

Lead Us, O Lord

Lead us, O Lord,

From darkness to Light,
From the unreal to the Real,
From death to Immortality,
From chaos to Beauty.

By repeating one of these invocations with deep concentration on the meaning, you are lifting
yourself up to higher dimensions, like an airplane which is leaving the runway and propelling
itself upward into the sky.

5. Sounding the OM

The next step in your meditation is the sounding of the OM, which is a very important mantram
with far-reaching effects. When you sound the first OM its vibrations touch an inner center
called the mental permanent atom. This center, which controls the mental body, becomes
charged by the vibrations of the first OM. The vibrations of the second OM touch the emotional
permanent atom, charging it. The third OM charges the physical permanent atom. Through these
OMs a purification process takes place within these vehicles, and they synchronize themselves
with the Inner Light.

The mental body becomes calm and oriented to the Inner Light; it becomes more sensitive to
higher impressions.

The sounding of the OM also increases the sensitivity of the emotional body, washing away its
fog, mist and “smog” which are technically called glamors, and purifying the emotional body,
making it ready to serve as a mirror for reflecting intuitional ideas. It is written: “There shall be
no more sea.” The sea represents the emotional body of man, of humanity, and of the planet. The
sea has become a mirror reflecting intuitional beauty which comes during meditation and
permeates the emotional and mental bodies.

Without preparation for meditation, the ideas are lost because they cannot be registered nor
impressed upon the bodies. The science of meditation brings us in tune, enabling these great
impressions to come and be registered and translated as clearly as possible. If the physical,
emotional, and mental bodies are not clean and prepared, the impressions come; but instead of
bringing light, they increase confusion; instead of uplifting, they stimulate lower energies and
lead us into destructive activities.

It is man's mechanism that determines the expression of energy. For example, electricity is an
energy. When this power expresses itself through a light bulb, it illuminates; when it expresses
itself through a refrigerator, it produces cold; when it expresses itself through an iron, it emits
heat. In each case the electrical energy is the same, but the expression of that energy varies
according to the vehicle of expression. If you are not ready, if you do not prepare yourself for
meditation, the results are reversed. Instead of expanding your consciousness you focus it on
your glamor, your illusions, your urges and drives, and you are led into confusion. But if you
make the needed preparation, your path is clear and open, and slowly you will come to bloom —
as do the lotuses and the lilies — in great beauty.

6. Meditation

After sounding the OM, it is time to begin your meditation. Choose a single object or word, for
example a pine tree. Examine it from the four viewpoints which the great Sage, Patanjali, taught
ten thousand years ago when he was dealing with the science of meditation. Patanjali taught:
“The consciousness of an object is attained by concentration on its fourfold nature; the form,
through examination; the quality through discrimination; the purpose through inspiration; and
the cause or the soul through identification.”

The history of the development of the human consciousness and the deepening of its
understanding is the history of the four viewpoints from which we look at an object. A small boy
has a one-dimensional viewpoint; he is interested in the outer form. As he grows, he progresses
to another viewpoint. He tries to find the quality of the object to use it for his ends. When he
becomes a man, he tries to find the purpose of the object; and when he reaches mental maturity,
he tries to find the cause of the object.

The Form. Let us take as an illustration the pine tree. Visualize its form and try to hear it. Lie
down under it and listen to its music. Visualize its particular shade of green; notice its shape. As
you do this you will discover many interesting things about the pine tree; you will begin to know
it. A father once said to a great Italian artist, “I want my son to become an artist.”

The artist replied, “Very well. Bring him to me.”

On the boy's arrival, the wise man gave him a small glass bowl with a fish in it. He said, “Look
at the fish until I return.”

An hour later he returned and asked, “How many fins does the fish have?”

“One,” the lad replied.

“Ah!” said the artist, “I shall leave again, but this time pay more attention to the fish.”

The boy began to examine the fish more closely, but after a short time he thought, “I do not want
to look at this fish any more.”

When the artist returned he asked, “Does the fish have eyelids?” The boy admitted that he had
not observed.

“Ah,” said the man. “How are you going to become an artist if you do not have concentration,
observation, a seeing eye?”

This principle applies to the person who wishes to meditate. Preparing himself for meditation, he
must examine his subject carefully and be able to answer any question concerning the object
upon which he has been meditating. We are using the pine tree by way of illustration, but we
must understand that there are forms which are beyond our five senses. Our thoughts have forms;
they are sometimes very beautiful, sometimes very ugly. Our emotions also have their special
forms. Everything that vibrates, radiates, or projects has a form; nothing exists in the universe
without a form. Some forms last only a few minutes; some last for centuries. Forms which are in
accord with the laws of Cosmos last a long time. To these forms belong high, lofty ideas, and
positive emotions and feelings which are permeated with love and compassion. To know an
object we must consider the form of that object. This is the first step of the scientific approach.
Meditation is the maintaining of focused attention upon the object under consideration.

The Quality. The second step deals with quality. The quality of an object is that which
differentiates it from another object. An apple is different from an orange. The gamma radiation
is different from the beta radiation. Each man's character differs from the character of his
neighbor.
Esoterically, the word “quality” does not carry its contemporary meaning. In the Ancient
Wisdom we are taught that everyone and everything — even ideas — have one of three qualities.
In Sanskrit these qualities are called tamas, rajas and sattva. Tamas refers to inertia; rajas means
the quality of motion; sattva is the quality of rhythm. Tamas or inertia means inaction — very
low, earthbound, dark. Rajas means motion alternating between light and darkness. Sattva is
rhythmic motion, radioactivity. Through discrimination we find an object's quality which
differentiates that object from other objects.

The purpose. The purpose of an object is its destiny, the plan which it is preordained to fulfill.
Every object, be it an atom, a man, a tree, a plant or whatever, has a purpose. The purpose of a
form can be compared to a mosaic piece in the vast picture which the Great Architect is creating.
The purpose of a form may be likened to a sound in the orchestra which is a part of the
symphony of Cosmos. We may say that a certain man has talent or is a genius. The talented
person is one in whom the inner purpose is partially expressing itself; the genius is the man who
is fulfilling that purpose completely.

The purpose is the inner direction of the object; it is the fulfillment of the object. When we
examine the purpose of the form, we discover the plan of the architect and the dynamic principle
which is called the cause of the form.

Before we start to meditate, we may think we know the purpose of an object; but as we meditate,
we find that we did not really know its purpose, or we may discover much, much more about it.

The Cause. Investigation leads to the cause of a form, whether it is a man or the universe, or
even an emotion, an attitude, a mental state. If you find that you have come up against a wall
which you cannot penetrate, do not be discouraged; persist, because this is your opportunity.
M.M. tells us, “Bless the obstacles, through them we grow.”

To know an object, a person must have a synthesizing mind which simultaneously carries on its
study of “objects” scientifically, psychologically, philosophically and spiritually. A person who
meditates in this manner eventually reaches the higher states of consciousness and steps onto the
path of initiation leading him toward the mystery of a Greater Life.

The four viewpoints not only integrate the whole mental sphere, but also build bridges between
the active consciousness and the storehouse of memories hidden in a corner of your inner
departments.

How does this happen?

The objects that you are deeply meditating upon through the four viewpoints will draw out from
the inner storehouse those memories or impressions which are somewhat associated with the
subject of your meditation. Thus many forgotten events slowly will reappear on the surface of
your consciousness, releasing tensions or enriching your mind with past experiences. As you
continue your meditation through four viewpoints, you will see that your ability to lecture, to
solve problems, and to bring needed experiences from the past into your conversation will
increase greatly. Many people prepare their talks in writing, but cannot deliver them; they forget.
Anyone who does meditation for a long time will not need to memorize his talks because all that
he thought and all that happened to him is available to him at any moment when he uses the right
key of association.

You may notice how some speakers remember one event after another; they recall many stories
or parables connected with the main line of their speech, as if they had a big bag in their head
ready with everything they need.

Meditation can also be an adjusting, cleansing and highly therapeutic process, as many
suppressed or locked impressions release themselves and in the light and fire of meditation burn
away or dissolve; and greater urges and drives of service find a way to be active and gradually
express themselves in the life of the meditator, thus releasing him from a great tension and
giving a deep sense of fulfillment and self-merit.

Besides these four viewpoints, which are very useful steps in raising our consciousness from
level to level on the mental plane, we have another technique, which can be used especially by
First Ray people, or people who are interested in politics and rulership. The following form of
meditation, with its eight steps, tremendously expands our consciousness if it is carried on
systematically, day after day and year after year.

Steps:

1. Take as a seed thought any national or world event, such as a war, a revolution, a
political, economic or natural catastrophe, a great event of peace agreements, a
great work of goodwill or right human relations, an international event of scientific,
cultural, economic or religious cooperation, a conference, a great act of philanthropy,
and so on.

2. Meditate upon your chosen seed thought, and try to find the cause of such an event.
How did it originate? What factors helped bring it into existence? Where are its roots
extended?

3. Then think how to find the effects of such an event, upon you as a person, upon your
family, group or nation, and upon all humanity. Try to find material, emotional,
mental, and spiritual effects.

4. Meditate about how such an event could be prevented or repeated.

5. Meditate to find out what relation that event has with the Hierarchical Plan or with
the highest good of humanity. Is it an attack by some dark, materialistic, or
destructive forces upon any leader, group, nation or humanity, or is it a step forward
toward progress?

6. How can the effect of such an event be obliterated, counteracted, or perpetuated?

 7. Ask yourself, do I have any prevision that a similar event may again take place in
the future? What makes me think so?

8. What are the next immediate steps to be taken to create events that will help the
growth and expansion of the consciousness of humanity?

Thinking or meditating upon these eight steps will stimulate our interest in the affairs of the
world and create a greater sense of responsibility in our hearts, which will urge us to do our
utmost to change those conditions of our life which work against freedom, health, prosperity,
peace and joy.

The destructive or criminal events repeat themselves year after year because we do not think
about their cause and about the means to annihilate them. Such a meditation leads us toward
knowledge and especially into action with its eight steps.

This meditation can be used very effectively in group discussion or meditation.

During meditation we gradually raise our vibration. This gives us greater vision and greater
communication, enabling us to progressively annihilate the barriers in our minds and enter into
higher dimensions.

Meditation leads us to self-mastery, and all mechanical and automatic functions of the mind,
such as dreaming, come to an end. Dreaming slowly disappears as man goes deeper into the
science and practice of meditation.

Most of our dreams are the symbolic interpretation of our wishes, desires, aspirations, fears,
expectations, and visions, or they are the symbolic interpretation of some event which is taking
place in the subjective nature or on a higher plane. When our consciousness expands and
involves the higher plane through meditation, we put aside the source of our dreams that are
originating from that plane. When we are consciously aware of our urges, drives, fears and
aspirations, etc., we are able to meet them on a conscious level. They do not need to appear on
our mental or astral planes through symbolic forms in dreams.

There are also dreams which are the result of some warnings or some imparted teachings. When
we are aware of danger, we do not need warnings. When we reach the source of teaching and
receive it directly from the source itself, our dreams change into actual experiences.

When we are asleep on the emotional and mental planes, the impressions that reach us come
from different sources, which cause our dreams. As soon as we are awake on these levels, there
is no need for an interpretation, hence no need for dreams. As a result of meditation, we
minimize our dreams. Meditation causes a continuous bridging process in our whole nature.

First the vehicles are aligned and integrated within themselves. Then the individual vehicles link
themselves with the higher ones until Soul-infusion is achieved. Then the Soul-infused
personality integrates itself with the spiritual realm, and then with the Spark in man.
A similar bridging process takes place, due to meditation, between the individual and the group,
between the individual and his Master, the Hierarchy, the “Center where the Will of God is
known.” Gradually this bridging process extends toward the solar system and Cosmos.

As man passes from one level to a higher one, the need for symbolic interpretation decreases,
and even the Soul, Who is a great Interpreter in man between the Spark and the personality,
eventually vanishes, and man walks in the “clear light of the day.”

Thus meditation puts and end to all dreams, and man faces reality as he awakens on higher levels
and eventually masters the whole field of manifestation. In esoteric writings we are told,
“Initiation is essentially penetration into areas of the divine consciousness which are not within
the normal field of consciousness of a human being. This initiatory penetration is achieved by
disciples through reflective meditation, the development of an interpretive spiritual
understanding, plus the use of the trained discriminative mind.”

Meditation is not supposed to be a “happy” time. It is labor, a battle, a struggle, and a striving to
remove obstacles and penetrate into the core of the seed thought.

After meditating for some time upon tangible objects, you can choose a sentence or a word of
wisdom or truth and dwell on it for a week, a month, or even a year. The important achievement
is not necessarily what you discover in the seed thought; it is the fact that you are strengthening
the “muscles” of your mind and tempering your will. Out of such endeavors will develop two of
the greatest characteristics of a disciple: steadfastness and endurance. The purpose of meditation
is not only the knowledge gained, but rather the organization and transfiguration of the mind and
the expansion of consciousness. This expansion comes first through learning and meditation, and
then through contact with the Transpersonal Self.

When you discover that your mind is slowing down in the process of penetration, approach your
seed thought from another angle; from the viewpoint of a bee, a butterfly, a Christ, a Buddha, a
man, a woman or a baby. You will find that your seed thought will then open many doors, whose
existence you were unaware of.

Another approach is to meditate on your seed thought as if you were a blind, deaf or clairvoyant
person, or a bodiless entity. Perhaps you may assume that you are a tree, a flower or a chair.
View the seed thought from as many different angles as possible. This will enable you to rouse
your mind from its inertia and challenge it with a fresh outlook.

Most of us meditate through words. We are mentally speaking while meditating. This is a natural
stage, but we must try to think without words, through symbols; then later, we must try to view
the seed thought using neither symbols nor words. As you so use and expand your
consciousness, words lose their meaning and are replaced by symbols; as you progress in your
meditation work, the symbols will disappear and you will enter into the world of true meaning,
and then into the world of significance and energy. It is because of such achievement that some
great minds, after long years of teaching, suddenly open their horizons to such an extent that all
their teachings seem to them like toys or baubles, and they enter the Inner Silence to absorb and
assimilate the unlimited vistas spreading before them in their visions.
Sometimes we become so preoccupied with the overcastting clouds that we forget the sun, which
is. The time will come when we will pass over the clouds of knowledge and will look into
Infinity. This is the meaning of our fourth viewpoint. We try to find the source of our seed
thought. As we strive to achieve such expansion, our greatest task is breaking up crystallizations
of thought. Crystallized thoughts are the results of a way of thinking from which you are unable
to divert your mind. You reject any idea or way of thinking which is opposed to your own ideas
or way of thinking. You refuse to view the object or subject from different angles, but stubbornly
cling to your own ideas which are limited because of this very refusal. You hold to your thought
and say, “This is reality.” Another person, viewing it from a different angle, may say, “No, this is
reality.” You may both be right, but you are rejecting the thoughts of each other because of
crystallizations.

In one of the Brotherhoods which I visited in the Middle East, an interesting and effective
method of dissolving crystallizations was used. The teacher collected eight students from
different religious backgrounds and told them to prepare an extensive research report about their
own religion. Two Buddhist students were to prepare their research on Buddhism, two other
students on Christianity, and two others on Islam and Hinduism. When the papers were ready
they all had a debate, strongly defending their own religions and trying to minimize the value of
the others.

After the debate was over, the leader of the Brotherhood called these eight students and gave
them another task. This time each team was going to do extensive research on the religion it had
attacked the most. The Christian group took Buddhism. The Hindus took Islam, etc. After six
months the papers were read and the debate began. This continued until each group had a chance
to defend and speak about all these four religions. At the end, the whole group and the whole
Brotherhood were able to find great similarities and beauties in all the religions and accepted all
of them as their religion.

The agelong conflicts and wars behind religions are based wholly on the existence of
crystallizations. It was because of crystallizations that man missed the common denominator of
all religions which unites humanity upon the common grounds of light, love, beauty, right human
relations, goodwill, and contact with the Almighty One within man and Cosmos.

Meditation is a labor, a striving. It is not choosing a subject such as the word “forest” and saying,
“How beautiful is the forest! I like the forest.” It is not imagining yourself sitting under a tree in
the forest, creating happy and beautiful dreams. Meditation is thinking and finding what the
forest is to you, to a snake, to a lion, to a bear, to a bug, to a butterfly, to a manufacturer, to
humanity, and to the planet itself. Meditation is a process of winding your mind to enable it to
handle its daily labors more efficiently.

Many people aspire to an easy life, but a real disciple chooses a life of labor, a life of striving. He
even likes to face difficulties. Difficulties are either mechanically or consciously created. If you
want to improve yourself, consciously create difficulties and overcome them. For example,
decide not to speak for a whole day and then follow through. Decide to send love to someone
whom you dislike intensely or someone you are indifferent to. Tell yourself not to eat certain
foods of which you are very fond. By so doing, you are consciously putting obstacles on your
path, creating conscious difficulties. Through these difficulties you are “winding” yourself,
creating more energy and alertness and releasing it in greater usefulness, greater freedom and
joy.

Your opportunity to progress commences at the point where you meet your obstacles. Progress is
achieved by the steps you take to overcome these obstacles. If you experience no obstacles,
difficulties or problems, you are not growing. The great Sage, D.K., suggests, “If you do not
have crises, create them.” It is through crises and tensions you grow, not through an easy life.

Those who want to meditate must realize first of all that it is like climbing a mountain. You must
climb slowly with great difficulty, risk, and danger; but eventually you will reach the mountain
top; you will find and experience more light, more communication, and more expansion.

One day Socrates was invited to a wedding. Accompanied by his servant he started for the
village some five miles away. As they were passing under some beautiful trees, Socrates paused
and said, “You go on now to the wedding and I will follow later.” He sat down upon a rock and
closed his eyes. The servant walked on, looking back several times, only to see his master still
sitting on the rock, apparently in deep thought. The servant enjoyed himself at the wedding
celebration and in the early morning hours returned to the place where he had left his master. He
saw that Socrates was still in deep thought, so he seated himself at his master's feet and waited.
When dawn came, Socrates arose and gave an invocation to the Sun, expressing gratitude for the
light that had illuminated his heart. Then he said, “Let us return home.”

This is true meditation. Socrates had some troublesome problem on his mind which he wanted to
solve. He disciplined his physical, emotional and mental bodies to such a degree that they
obeyed him all through the night. We do not know how successful he was in solving the
problem, but he must have accomplished a great deal during this long meditation period.
Twenty-five hundred years have passed since his death, but his ideas are still part of our culture.

Recording the results of our meditation will help to prevent daydreaming. You should have a
paper and pencil at your side, and when you finish meditating, write down the ideas that came to
you. How many ideas were there? Suppose you decided to think about the words of M.M.,
“Bless the obstacles, through them we grow.” Think about this sentence every day for a week.
Each day record the results of your meditation, your thinking. How many pages can you write
about it?

Usually, on the first day, you will write many thoughts; the second day perhaps a half page; the
third day, a sentence or two; on the fourth day you will probably repeat what you have written
before or you may tell yourself that you have written everything there is to be written about the
subject, that you know everything about it, that there is nothing more to write. This shows how
lazy the mind can be; it plays tricks on you. But if you challenge it, if you say, “I want to
meditate, to analyze and penetrate, to go deeper into the subject and achieve some results,” the
mind will obey.
There is a technique you can use to make your meditation more effective. As you meditate, close
your eyes and visualize a group of very intelligent, inquisitive students before you, asking
questions. Using your imagination and visualization, try to give the best possible answers.

Have you ever stopped to think what our questions are and where they originate? Our questions
are created by the answers which we have in our deeper mind. If you have a question, the answer
is found in the deeper layers of your Soul; It is prodding you to find it. There is an answer to
every question because the question is the result of the answer found in your mind. If you ask a
question, your Soul will forward to you the answer.

We all have had the experience of carrying problems around in our minds to which we have
found no solution. For the first couple of days we meet with no success, but perhaps on the third
or fourth day, while performing some mundane task, the answer suddenly appears. Where does it
come from? It comes from within. The solution to a problem is always there within your reach.
When you succeed in “tuning-in” to the highest impressions and ideas, they descend into your
mind; you become a source of inspiration and creativity because through meditation you can
open the Chalice.

A beautiful story is told of Michelangelo. He and his friends were passing by a huge rock on
their way to some festive occasion. Suddenly Michelangelo stopped in front of the rock and
stood gazing up at the great, rough stone.

“Why are you stopping? Come, we are late,” called one of his companions.

“Go on without me,” said Michelangelo. “Leave me here for a while. I am seeing in this great
rock a beautiful angel.” Realizing that some inspiration had come to their friend, they left him
alone by the rock. He began to meditate upon how the rock could be changed into an angel, into
a harmonious form which would inspire people. Some time later his friends again passed by the
rock and saw that it had, indeed, become a thing of great beauty; in had been changed into a
beautiful angel for all who passed by to behold and enjoy.

Through meditation, the “rock” or dark charcoal of the personality slowly becomes radioactive
fire. Meditation changes the personality, charges it with energy, opens greater vision, and
gradually transforms the physical, emotional and mental vehicles. It helps man direct his own
life.

If you observe yourself objectively, you will find that you are not the master of your physical
body. Perhaps eighty percent of the earth's population is under the control of the physical body.
Some people are controlled by their emotional body and others by an automatic, mechanical
thinking which is simply reaction.

Very often we are controlled by thoughts. For example, suppose you have a great fear in your
mind. You try, but you are unable to cast it out. It is affecting you in many ways. You are
controlled by it. Can you tell yourself that thoughts are not the real “you” and put them out of
your mind? If you can do this, you are controlling your mind, your mental nature.
The night before his death, Socrates knew that he was to drink the poison the following morning.
On his last evening he gathered his disciples around him and spoke of immortality until dawn.
His disciples offered to help him escape, but he declined. The idea of dying, the idea of death
never entered his mind because he would not allow it to do so. He had control of his mental
nature.

Pause for a half-hour and observe your mind. You will find that thousands of thoughts are
coming and going, crisscrossing and mingling with each other. These thoughts are not
originating in your mind; they are coming from the outside and putting your mind into action.
Some of these thoughts you welcome, and when you identify with them you think that they are
your own thoughts. Meditation helps you to stop being a mechanical person; it enables you,
instead, to become self-actualized, self-controlled. You become your own master. Your physical,
emotional and mental vehicles do not control you; you control them.

To begin meditation it is necessary to coordinate the mental plane, which is a very mysterious
realm. It is a sphere of light, and in this sphere are billions of tiny atoms darting about. These
tiny atoms are of seven hues of yellow color, each representing one level of the mental plane, but
the atoms with their different colors are intermingled.

Imagine that these atoms are gradually forming geometric patterns, creating a symphony of color
on the mental plane. At the highest point is the magnificent form of a Lotus, acting as the
inspiration point of this great symphony of color and radiation. Meditation organizes the mental
sphere into this symphony of living color in which each hue is sensitive to impressions.
Meditation then unfolds the bud of the Chalice, making it a radioactive, fiery Lotus which
transmits light, love and power from the Solar Angel to the personality.

In meditation our purpose is not to calm the mind or put it to sleep. On the contrary, we refine
this instrument to such a degree that it will be able to translate ideas and formulate them, making
them useful in our daily life. This is meditation. We do not want to be mystics who go into the
mountains and sit and dream for thirty years. In our present-day world we need greater mental
instruments, greater “machines” illumined with the light, and minds that are capable of
formulating all those truths, those sciences which will serve to uplift our entire civilization and
solve our many problems.

In the past, meditation has been grossly misunderstood by most people. They thought that it was
a dream process carried on by lazy people or dreamers. Actually, meditation is very hard mental
work. After the mental body is completely sublimated, you will not stop there; you will then
endeavor to penetrate the intuitional level. It is impossible, however, to function upon the
Intuitional Plane without building and totally purifying your mental atoms. If you should pass for
a short time to the Intuitional plane without building the mental plane, the ideas that come to
your mental level will be mistranslated; and they will cause much trouble, sadness, depression,
illness, and many complications in your life.

Meditation is extremely dangerous if it is not handled as a scientific course of study because you
are literally playing with fire, with power, with energy.
If you are unable to align your physical, emotional and mental bodies and put them under the
light of your Inner Guide, the Soul, you can run into danger. For example, if you do not align
your emotional vehicle or mental vehicle, entities may possess one of them and split your
personality; or the ideas and thoughts that are coming from higher levels can be so distorted that
they become a big source of confusion in your life and channel undesired force to your various
centers.

To avoid such danger, you must learn the art of alignment and have a private place to be used
only by you for your meditation. A candle and incense will help to purify the atmosphere, and a
loose-fitting robe, worn only for your meditation, is desirable. By always doing your meditation,
your thinking, here in this special place, you slowly create a magnetic atmosphere; you build a
beautiful “temple” with your elevated thoughts, with your inspiration, with your prayers and
invocations.

If at times you are distressed or feeling depressed, enter your own meditation place and sit for a
few minutes. You will immediately feel the change. The energy there will uplift you and charge
you.

We must try to organize our lives in such a way that we will be able to meditate at five o'clock
every morning. The next best hour is nine A.M.; or it may be done at sunset. Whatever time you
choose for your convenience, try to keep the same hour each day. In so doing you will discipline
your physical, emotional and mental natures and create a rhythm and harmony between you and
the higher spheres with which you are trying to fuse.

The duration of meditation must be limited to fifteen minutes for the first three years. It can be
very dangerous if the time factor is not considered. The wrong kind of meditation carried on for
twenty or thirty minutes can destroy your nervous system or your mind, or cause mental illness;
but a ten to fifteen-minute meditation performed with knowledge of the art becomes a means of
transfiguration for you. The brain cells and the head glands should not receive undue pressure
through meditation; they must gradually become accustomed to the pressure and heat that it
creates. Pressure-producing meditation eventually brings on fatigue, nervousness, indigestion,
and pains in the head, eyes or ears.

To avoid all these problems, use caution. Move slowly but safely, because the success of
meditation is not dependent upon the time involved. If you touch Reality for one second, you
have accomplished much. In the higher mind, things are not measured by time. There is no time;
there is only eternity, and in one moment you can be inspired with a tremendous vision, lofty
ideas, and insight. People who have been meditating for ten years or more may safely lengthen
their meditation time, but the beginner must proceed with caution.2

Another factor to be considered concerning meditation is breathing. Before you start your
meditation, check your breathing and make it calm, deep and rhythmical. Breathing exercises
should not be practiced unless they are given and supervised by a Master. Such exercises can
bring on many physical problems if done without proper knowledge. They can open a channel
between the etheric, physical and astral bodies, and if you are not equipped with strong health,
good mechanisms and the correct technique of meditation, you may become the victim of evil
forces. Before meditation, simply sit quietly and gently regulate your inhalation and exhalation,
making it deep and serene.

Sleep is also an important consideration in regard to meditation. We must have at least six hours
of sleep before we meditate. Sleep regenerates our etheric body and nervous system and gives us
an opportunity to have some communication with the Teachers of the Inner World.

After we leave our bodies in sleep, we are attracted to those spheres where the subject of our
interest is taught by those men and women who are able to function consciously in their mental
bodies and teach those who are ready for such instruction. Although we seldom remember them,
the impressions remain with us, and in our daily life we try to live by what we have learned.

After we have succeeded in building the Rainbow Bridge, we will have achieved continuity of
consciousness, which will enable us to remember all that happens to us during sleep on higher
planes.

Another important point is our food. Food has a cleansing influence on our feeling and thinking.
It is suggested that we eat mostly vegetables, fruits and nuts. There are three kinds of food:

1. That which causes inertia in your system.

2. That which causes motion and excitement in your system.

3. That which gives rhythm, health, joy and strength.

Discover from your own experience which foods will give your system rhythm, health and joy.

We must also consider sex. Those who want to advance on the spiritual path should not waste
their energies, but should use them for creative purposes. We should not meditate immediately
after having sexual relations. It is essential that we have at least six hours of sleep after the act
before meditating. If we do not observe this rule, we can eventually create very bad effects in our
physical bodies.

The Masters of the Wisdom strongly emphasize that drugs, tobacco, and alcohol are enemies of
our spiritual progress and of the health of our whole system. Their use will create obsessions,
cause cracks in our auras, damage our brains, and render us unable to receive great and true
inspirations from the core of our essence. When the brain is loaded with poison, it cannot clearly
transmit messages coming from the mind and from higher sources.

Before we can engage in successful meditation, we must learn how to concentrate. We must be
able to focus the ray of our minds so firmly upon an object that we cannot be distracted by any
other object or idea. We should be able to look at an object for ten or fifteen minutes with
observing and penetrating eyes. Many exercises to improve our power of concentration are given
in detail in The Science of Meditation, pages 71-78.

Concentration is followed by meditation, and meditation is followed by contemplation,

illumination, and inspiration.
Contemplation takes place when the developing human soul gradually tunes himself in with the
light of the Inner Guide and begins to see the great depth, beauty and joy that lie beyond his daily
reach. Here he learns great wisdom, experiences great revelations, and achieves great insight. He
is in touch with the plans and visions of the Inner Thinker. Greater horizons of Cosmos come
before his eyes, and he sees at-one-ment with the Soul, Who is “an Initiate of all degrees.” This
is not a dream state. On the contrary, it is a state of awakening to realities beyond human
conception. All these realities are reflected upon the higher mind and passed to the lower mind
for necessary formulation and use. Through contemplation, rare beauties are brought into
expression. If the mind is not developed and purified by true meditation, the expression of these
beauties will be distorted. However, if the mind has the necessary purification, discipline, and a
clear line of communication with the higher mind, these beauties will express themselves in their
full glory. We are told that contemplation leads to illumination.

Illumination is the moment of seeing yourself as you really are in relation to eternity. You
become aware of the role you are going to play in the Plan of the Hierarchy. Illumination is like a
great magnet, a whirlpool of energy, which holds you in a sphere of great sacrifice and labor; all
difficulties on your path increase your courage, your fire and your glory. You are no longer the
slave of your glamors, illusions and vanities. You know yourself, you know the Path, you know
the goal, and you are ready to labor as you walk toward that goal.

Inspiration is the direction that you receive from your Inner Guide. Inspiration produces energy
and drive within an enlightened person. You are caught in a whirlpool of mighty energy which
tries to find expression through you. The success of such expression will depend on the level
upon which you stand as an unfolding individual. For an inspired person, there exist no obstacles
or hindrances which cannot be annihilated. Inspiration makes you act, speak and think in
harmony with the great Plan and the Purpose behind the Plan. It also comes from your Inner
Core, the Monad, the Spark, Who encourages you to live a life of great beauty and sacrifice.
After you have achieved these stages, you may be consciously inspired by a Great Being for
greater service to humanity.

The man who travels his own road of evolution will eventually work on these five steps of
concentration, meditation, contemplation, illumination, and inspiration to achieve self-mastery.

Aspiration is different from inspiration; it is a process of orientation toward a goal. When you are
caught in a magnetic field of great beauty and try to reach it, we say that you are aspiring.
Aspiration can be a lower response to a higher inspiration. Aspiration is a form of invocation,
and inspiration is a form of evocation.

There are many people who are members of many organizations, who study many kinds of
teaching, but in the end find themselves totally confused. It is wiser to remain in one study group
than to be continually changing from one to another. Those who synthesize the Teaching can
really help us to see the unity behind diversity. The direction you take must originate from within
you, from your experience and intuition, and these are developed through meditation and service.
M.M., speaking of the teaching says,
“So many distortions, so many inaccuracies have been admitted to the Teachings. Verily, each
purification is great Service. Each striving to renew the Truth, as it has been given to humanity,
is fiery Service.”3

Those who wander from one teacher to another have not yet acquired the inner compass and are
not directed toward the true Teaching. They will experience much suffering before they reach the
right direction and the true Teaching. Meditation helps such people to build within themselves a
sense of direction and clear thinking. Clear thinking produces the faculty of insight. Those who
meditate through the four viewpoints eventually reach the state of clear thinking, which leads
them in the right direction on any level.

Meditation is an active thinking process. Deep in our hearts we know the truth, the beauty, the
goodness. Meditation is the labor we perform to touch these treasures, to intelligently bring them
into our daily life and thus make our life an expression of Beauty, Goodness, and Truth. This is
creative thinking; this is true meditation.

What are some of the signs of successful meditation?

Some of the signs are a growing common sense, a balanced way of living, an increasing sense of
unity, a thirst to know and to be, and a deepening sense of responsibility.

With all these you will have a sense of transiency. This will help you to develop conscious and
healthy detachment from many kinds of objects, people, and ideas. Things will appear to you in
their inner values, and the things that you were adoring and cherishing deeply will often
disappear from the field of your love.

One of the greatest signs of successful meditation is an increasing urge to serve and radiate joy
and courage and to stand on your own feet and be a self-actualized person.

Meditation is the process of touching or contacting the powerhouse or treasure house within you.
As you touch that center of power and glory, your physical, emotional and mental vehicles are
charged with power and joy. Our physical and mental vehicles function through the energy that
is coming from our Soul or from the Inner Guide, and this energy is called psychic energy.

Psychic energy is the true electrical energy for the whole man. Even prana or other energies are
not assimilated into our threefold personality if we lack psychic energy. Psychic energy increases
and circulates more systematically through our three systems when proper meditation is done
and proper service is rendered as a result of right meditation. It is this psychic energy which
heals the body, purifies the emotional system, and organizes and transmutes the whole mental
vehicle. As a result of this, you have greater control upon your physical body, greater control
upon your emotional reactions, and greater control upon your mental mechanism.

In most people thoughtforms, thought-waves, or mental impressions from other minds control
their minds, and they call this kind of mental activity, “thinking.” Through right meditation this
can be overcome and man can use his mind according to his needs and plans without being the
slave of the thought-waves that run wild in the fields of his mind.
Another great sign of successful meditation is an urge toward more simplification. When a
person does right meditation for many years, you see a greater simplicity in all his expressions;
even the most complicated matters are presented by him in the most simple stories, symbols or
words.

We must not imagine that all these gifts will be ours in a very short time. There are other things
that may happen. For example, lots of cleansing must take place in our vehicles before we see a
steady rise of beauties in our nature. Sometimes these cleansing problems are painful,
discouraging, and tiresome; but through all clouds of such cleansing process, the Sun is sensed
and its love and light are felt.

Meditation relates you directly to God. Meditation is a process of transforming yourself into
God. You are becoming a conscious part of Him because in meditation you are thinking about
the laws of Cosmos. You are freeing your consciousness from the slavery of your physical,
emotional, and mental environment. You are cooperating with the Creator, transforming the
substance of the mind, emotions, and Space. You are coming to the Light, and in that Light you
are seeing the Great Consciousness Who is controlling all of Cosmos; you are approaching Him.
You are changing; you are becoming Yourself. And if you are becoming Yourself, you are
becoming Him, for He is One in all of us. You are a tiny Spark of Him, and when you touch your
real Essence, you are touching Him.

From The Hidden Glory of the Inner Man, by Torkom Saraydarian,

Chapter 14 (2nd revised edition).

1
See The Fiery Carriage and Drugs, by Torkom Saraydarian, p. 75
2
Read The Science of Meditation, by Torkom Saraydarian, Ch. 26
3
Agni Yoga Society, Fiery World, volume III, para. 125

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 5
Work to be done

1. Read verses 12-44, Chapter 2, a few more times in reflective meditation before you read the
Commentary in this set.
2. Meditation

This month your meditation will be as follows:

Step One:

Relax your body.

Calm your emotions.
For a moment, keep mental silence.

Step Two:

Choose a verse from the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2, and meditate upon it for 10 to 15 minutes
each day for a week. At the end of the week, choose another verse for the coming week and
continue in this manner for each following week until the end of the month.

Step Three:

Say The Great Invocation and bless the world in the spirit of peace.

Note: You may read Chapter VII-X in The Science of Meditation by Torkom Saraydarian for
further information.

3. At the end of the month, send us your meditation report and a paper on a topic of your
meditation, not exceding one typewritten page.
 Lesson V

All beings were in a state of unmanifestation at their beginning. At the mid-course, they came
into manifestation. At the end, they will again enter into the unmanifested state... (2:28)

According to esoteric tradition, when one manifests, he is not for the first time coming into
existence. He was, he is, and he will be. To manifest means to use those vehicles through which
the Dweller within the vehicles can contact life as it is expressed on the plane upon which he
manifests himself.

Man’s manifestation began from the mental plane. He then passed through the astral and etheric
planes and on the physical plane he manifested himself, building an appropriate vehicle.

For those who are living on the physical plane, the birth of a baby is manifestation. This is the
mid-course through which the baby will grow, and get old, and “at the end,” he will again
disappear from manifestation.

Of course, he is still in manifestation on the astral plane or in the mental plane; but to those who
are living below the plane where the departed one lives, it seems that he is now unmanifested.

Manifestation as a whole, started when the Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless, and Immutable
Principle, on which all speculation is impossible... wanted to multiply through the arc of
involution, and eventually a “fragment” of that “Immutable Principle” reached physical plane
density. But then the physical plane was the primordial homogeneous matter.[1]

Evolution started when the Sparks of the “Immutable Principle,” which is also called Space,
began to awaken and build proper forms out of matter, and throughout endless eons, to improve
their bodies, vehicles, and eventually reach to a self-conscious state of awareness. This is what
we call manifestation. When these sparks go back to Space all will turn into unmanifestation
again.

In esoteric circles, there is the erroneous idea that first the globes, suns, and all lower kingdoms
were manifested, and then the human kingdom came into being. This is partially true for our
Solar System, but it is not correct when we consider the journey of the Spark out of matter into
Space.

First was the Spark; it was the Spark that built a proper form. It was the Spark that reached the
degree of development in which it created a Solar System and a Galaxy. Again it was the Spark
that formed all kingdoms living on the globes, chains, schemes, etc.

Creative forces within the Spark, beginning to move on the path of return, created the whole
manifested universe out of the “primordial substance” from which it was germinated.

When a Spark graduates from one kingdom, it creates another kingdom, and thus on and on, until
It reaches the Threshold of the Great Unknown. For us, the Great Unknown is found beyond the
mental plane. For planetary Initiates, It is beyond the Cosmic Astral Plane. For Solar Initiates, It
is beyond the Cosmic Mental plane.

As Sparks pass from one plane to another, they pass out of manifestation for those who are on a
lower plane, and they assume manifestation for those who are on higher planes.

Notes:

The Bhagavad Gita is the quintessence of philosophy and religion, of ethics and morality, social
and religious, temporal and spiritual. It is a guide as much to the man of the world as to the
ascetic who has renounced the world.[2]

Spirit is the first differentiation of space, and matter the first differentiation of spirit. THAT,
which is neither spirit nor matter — that is IT — the Causeless Cause of spirit and matter, which
are the causes of Kosmos and THAT we call the One Life....[3]

Pralaya

Manvantara

Cosmogony should evoke thoughts which exalt. While the god of an unawakened people is
conceived as sitting on the rim of an insignificant ball, the superior spirit peers into the Infinite,
vesting himself in the joy of unbounded knowledge. Do not demean the Infinite! [4]

M.M.

When I was studying and meditating about the path upon which we as personalities, Souls, or
Monads, are treading toward the Absolute, I thought it important that we have a glimpse of the
great expanse of time in “one hundred years of Brahma” with its Nights and Days.

In esoteric literature these Nights are called Pralaya. Pralaya is a Sanskrit word formed of two
words: pra and laya. Pra means away; laya, from the root li, means to dissolve. The Days are
called manvantara; manu and antara. Antara means between (two manus).

Esoteric books tell us that there are forty-nine Manus; seven Manus for each globe and seven
globes to a chain. They are the “patrons or guardians of the race cycles in a manvantara, or a Day
of Brahma,” the lapse of time between one manu and the next.

In The Secret Doctrine we read that the sun, moon, and planets all have their growth, changes,
development and gradual evolution in their life period. They are born as infants, become
children, adolescents and adults; they grow and finally die. Thus the pralaya and manvantara, or
the Nights and Days of the existing forms, are subjective and objective states of all that manifests
in the Cosmos.

We have different manvantaras and pralayas. For example, a human being enters into pralaya or
rest when the life energy is withdrawn from the physical permanent atom found in the causal
body and the physical body disintegrates. The man then enters into rest, but there is a higher
pralaya into which he enters when he passes into the Fifth Initiation.

In the case of the Planetary Logos, the life energy is withdrawn from His physical permanent
atom, found on the second plane of the Monadic plane, and the physical planet disappears,
entering into pralaya. This is planetary pralaya.

In regard to the Solar Logos, the life energy is withdrawn from His physical permanent atom,
which is found in the plane called Adi, the first Cosmic ether, or on the divine plane, and the
Solar System starts to disintegrate, producing Solar pralaya.

When the life energy is withdrawn from the permanent atom, the form disintegrates, but the life
continues on higher planes. The Tibetan Master says, “...pralaya is simply subjectivity, and is not
‘that which is not,’ but simply that which is esoteric. It is the obscuration of form, the extinction
of form, but not extinction of the “prototypes.”

In considering the planetary Nights and Days, we are taught that there is a global pralaya
between each globe and the next one to follow. There is a greater pralaya between each chain,
and mahapralaya between two Solar Systems. Furthermore, we are taught that the time between
two globes is one Day of Brahma (Night has equal duration) or 4,320,000,000 mortal years. The
time between two chains is one Year of Brahma or 3,110,040,000,000 mortal years.

In esoteric writings, the dissolution of a planetary chain is called planetary nirvana. The
dissolution of a solar system is called paranirvana, which is a great cycle, or maha-kalpa.

After these great Nights, the Day starts with all its creations. This is the period of activity which
in Sanskrit is called Manvantara — the period, or the cycle of manifestation, of expression, or
the Day of Brahma, the outbreathing of Brahma.

We have individual manvantara, planetary and solar manvantara. As the Day follows Night,
manvantara follows pralaya. At the dawn of a manvantara the Solar Logos incarnates and the
Solar System comes into being. The same thing happens within shorter cycles for a Planetary
Logos when He resumes labour after a great rest.

Maha-manvantara, meaning great manvantara, refers to the active period of seven successive
chains, called a scheme of evolution. The period of activity or manifestation of a single chain is
simply called manvantara — the Day of Creation. We may speak of a man’s cycle of activity on
the physical plane, as a human manvantara.

The appearance and disappearance of the Universe are pictured as an outbreathing and
inbreathing of the “Great Breath,” which is eternal and which, being Motion, is one of the three
symbols of the Absolute — Abstract Space and Duration being the other two. When the Great
Breath is projected, it is called the Divine Breath, and is regarded as the breathing of the
Unknowable Diety — the One Existence — which breathes out a thought, as it were, which
becomes the Kosmos. So also is it that when the Divine Breath is inspired the Universe
disappears into the bosom of the Great Mother, who then sleeps, “wrapped in her Ever-Invisible
Robes.”[5]

Torkom Saraydarian, Cosmos in Man, pp. 71-72

The Four Castes

Besides, knowing that you are of the caste of warriors, you should not waver in your own
dharma. For there is nothing greater for a warrior than a righteous war. (2:31)

In ancient India there was a caste system and this caste system was named as follows:

1. Sudra

2. Vaisya

3. Kshattriya

4. Brahmana

1. The first one, Sudra, refers to laborers, workmen. Those of this clan are there to learn to
overcome inertia, to learn patience, endurance, and forbearance. Through the course of this kind
of life, the physical body may be organized, disciplined, and strengthened.

2. Vaisayas are the businessmen, the merchants, those who buy and sell. The great lesson they
are to learn is non-attachment. Their victory is on the emotional plane, and they must work hard
to eliminate lies and techniques that are used to influence others unrighteously.

3. Kshattriyas are the warriors. They must eliminate their illusions on the mental plane and
dedicate themselves to the supreme duty of serving the whole instead of themselves. The goal of
a warrior is to overcome self-centerdness and enter into the all-embracing life of the Intuitional
Plane.

4. The Brahamana works in the areas of religion and philosophy. His duty is to contact the
Supreme Self through the science of invocation and evocation, and be “a way by which men may
achieve.”

Arjuna is in the caste of warriors, and Krishna gives this Teaching to initiate him into the higher
spheres of souls. But the Sphinx guards the entrance into the Triadal awareness. This is an
expression to say that all that he was and he is, now presents an obstacle on the path, and if he
does not liberate his Self from himself, he cannot penetrate into the sphere of purest light, purest
love, and purest power which is called the spiritual triangle, or Triad.

This liberation will be possible only when he realizes that

The Dweller in the body of each of us is ever invulnerable and indestructible....(2:30)

How will he learn this lesson? Only through becoming more spirit and less matter; only by
mastering his lower self; and only by withdrawing his consciousness into the light of his true
Self. For a warrior, life is the battlefield, and it is only upon this battlefield that he will learn his
lessons about liberation.

In the Agni Yoga literature we have very profound verses, some of which are quoted here:

An inexperienced warrior of spirit sometimes wonders, “How can the battle be so strong if my
hands and feet are still whole? As though the intensity of the battle lay only in broken bones! But
often the ordinary participants of the earthly battle do not feel its tension; only the leader
realizes what occurs.[6]

My warriors, walk valiantly.

The growth of spirit needs its impetus.
Each can attain.
The spirit, once called, will not turn back again.[7]

You battle ably — victory is yours.

Be not in haste — even iron takes time for forging.

Iron is tempered in cold water that it may flash in flame.[8]

The next point to consider in verse 31 is the word dharma which, esoterically understood, can
be translated as duty.

A writer, called Dreamer, wrote the following ideas about duty:

The duties are always the expression of the inner life of the Self, which is harmonious with the
working of the law and, as such, depends to a large extent upon the vehicles. They are the
expressions of the line of Life along which growth is harmonious. Now action, though it may
result from the qualities of the sheaths, has also a direct effect upon them. The interaction
between duty and the vehicles of man are reciprocal actions; and even thoughts, as we know,
help to draw around our bodies the matter best suited to their expression outward. They create
and develop lines of activity.

Duties are the external symbols of the stage of evolution of the individual in the planes of action.
They are the expressions of the Samskaras [tendencies developed by repeated actions] of
previous births, the expression of the resultant improvements in the building up and development
of the bodies effected in previous births, which indicate the lines along which the man must act in
order that his evolution may go on without much loss of energy.

These duties thus express the powers of correlations and adaptation evolved in the form, powers
which go to draw out the qualities and powers of the Self. Thus the duties are as a sort of womb
whereby the Self is supplied with the materials of growth best suited to its stage of evolution, to
the powers of the self evolved in it, as well as to the nature of the materials and the color of the
causal body in which he lives.
They further protect the nascent self from hostile vibrations in the external world till the self is
strong enough to dispense with such motherly limitations and thus to adjust itself to any and
every vibration.

This being the case, the duties furnish the self with proper and suitable vehicles, in which it can
function with advantage and through which it draws from the external universe the food for the
growth of self-consciousness in any plane, the food which, assimilated, strengthens the growing
center and enables it to know itself as separate from the plane in which the duties exist; for it is
only through assimilation of materials in the bodies that the power of self-consciousness can
evolve. The duties thus form the external basis of the expression of the life of the soul just as the
color or Varna signifies the inner powers evolved, and we can easily understand why there
should be harmony between these two.

...The reincarnating ego was drawn, according to its stage of evolution, with those groves of
social and national life where it could profit best, where its weaknesses were not exposed too
much to the dangers outside, but protection was affected by the properly built bodies with their
physical, astral, and mental associations, and yet where it could grow with the materials most
suited to it.

Like a fetus, the unfolding human soul can evolve if the vehicles are consonant to its stage of
evolution.[9]

It is only by facing and performing our own duties, obligations, and responsibilities that we can
avoid the great enemy on the path of our unfoldment: self-pity.

Krishna tries to enlighten Arjuna’s mind by reminding him of the divine origin of his true Self in
the following words:

Weapons cannot hurt the Self, nor fire burn It. Water cannot drench It, nor can wind make It dry.
It cannot be divided. It is eternal and all-pervading. (2:23-24)

Self-pity comes into existence when a man is attached to his phenomenal self, with a fear that he
may lose it. Selfishness plus fear produce self-pity.

Self-pity forms in us a false center upon which, gradually, are focused all our physical,
emotional, and mental forces. As we concentrate our forces on this false center, this false self, we
get further away from our true Self, we diminish the flow of joy, the psychic energy and the
instructions that come from our Central Self.

Self-pity wastes our energies, and our nature turns into a hot-bed of many glamors, illusions,
negative emotions, and thoughts. To overcome self-pity, Krishna brings to the attention of
Arjuna, even emphasizes, the fact of the Real Self, the free Self, and adds:

Treating alike pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, get ready to fight....(2:38)
With such detachment, how can a man fight? Does not the ultimate achievement of the Self
depend upon the attitude I must give up?

When our motive in striving for greater achievement is rooted in seeking pleasure, gain, and
victory, and if this striving is given up when, instead of these, we encounter pain, loss, and
defeat, we will never achieve our destination. Krishna in this verse gives the great psychological
key to success.

Striving must be propelled by the increasing tension of the unfolding human soul who, being
ready to break his shell, will burst out in radiation. Once a man comes to this realization,
pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat will no longer condition the speed of his
unfoldment, his dedication, and sacrifice, because his initial goal is not pleasure and victory, but
it is beyond these... the realization of Self. On the path of realization, pain, loss and defeat will
serve only to kindle his inner fire of striving.

Those who strive for or fight for only victory turn into slaves of their victory. Those who are
afraid of pain will never continue on the path of striving, and will never become aware that pain
is the experience we gain when we crack one of our shells and are enabled to see a greater
possibility. On the path of striving we must build certain bridges with both victory and defeat,
but the bridges are not our goal; they are a means by which to pass beyond, farther along on the
path.

An aspirant so often thinks, “All my efforts, my good deeds, and striving have not made me
reach the summit. I am not liberated yet.”

But Krishna, speaking to Arjuna, gives us another insight:

...no effort is lost...(2:40)

If suddenly we realize that all our efforts for liberation, our good deeds, are collected, penny by
penny, in the great treasure house of nature, what a great release we will have, knowing that we
can reach the treasury and use our capital and gain greater courage, greater energy to continue
our self-unfoldment and our world service.

Man does not lose by making greater efforts. His love increases in loving more, his light
increases in radiating more light, his energy increases in serving more. But then Krishna gives a
greater hint:

...Even a little practice of duty protects man from the great fear of birth and death. (2:40)

The fear of birth and death are overcome when man realizes that through birth and death he is
unfolding, blooming, and fulfilling his cosmic destiny. And what is the greatest duty of a man
but to unfold his innermost Self, to be awakened to his Real Essence and be that Essence in full
awareness.
All our small duties must be performed in the light of the supreme duty; that will be our goal,
and we must fit to it all we do. This is what Master Morya calls goal-fitness.

As the true Self unfolds, our duties are performed better; and as we perform our duties better, we
come closer to our real Self, in the light of which the fear of birth and death slowly fades away.

It is very interesting to note that people not only have fear of death, but also due to their painful
experiences, fear of living life again. Of course, this fear is eliminated at the new birth, because
the incarnating Soul sees his coming life from beginning to end and decides to live again to put
things in better order.

On this path, O Arjuna, there is but a single, one-pointed determination....(2:41)

The whole secret of achievement is the one-pointed determination which is influenced by neither
pleasure nor pain, neither victory nor defeat, and neither gain nor loss.

What is this determination? Determination is the response to the call of our Soul, to the call of
our Master, to the Call of the Cosmic Magnet. Once this call is heard and answered, the
conscious blooming of the human soul starts, and whatever the man does, he does it as if it were
his duty.

Determination is the result of an inner contact with the future, with the vision of our unfolding
state of being, with the vision of our part in the great service.

Determination is the decision of the human soul to go ahead in spite of all conditions.

After giving the preceding hints to Arjuna, the great Master adds:

...The goals of those who have no determination are many and endlessly diverse. (2:41)

There is no goal-fitness in their actions or activities. They are aimless; the pleasures and pains
condition their paths, and they are victims of conditions and circumstances. One can see how an
average man wastes his precious time in the pleasures of his physical body, running here and
there to satisfy his lower self; how he works hard to make money for the sake of money, and
entertains the lower selves of his friends and family, and eventually arrives at the door of death
with great regrets.

Most human beings lack determination, the inner direction towards their spiritual goal, and this
causes wasted lives. Once I saw a drama that can further explain this point:

There were three people on stage, symbolizing the three natures of man: physical, emotional, and
mental. They had the urge to build a room. The first one carried and collected the bricks; the
second one put them upon each other; the third one took them away. The interesting point was
that they always changed their roles, and this drama went on without words, but with mechanical
music. In one hour, or in one life, nothing was constructed. They were tired, sleepy, and the
night was upon them.
This is the situation in which most of us live, because we have many diverse goals which are not
the goals of our supreme determination.

Krishna further explains in verse 42-44 that:

...those who are attached to pleasure and power, they cannot have firm determination...

because attachment causes identification, and identification diminishes our awareness of Self to
such a degree that pleasure and power become the supreme goal for which we sacrifice our
virtues and spiritual destiny.

In esoteric literature pleasure and power are called the great traps in which man may be caught
for centuries on the path of his everlasting journey.

Notes on Vedas

The Veda is the most ancient scripture of the Aryan Race. There are four Vedas:

1. Rig Veda

2. Soma Veda

3. Yojur Veda

4. Atharva Veda

These Vedas contain hymns, chants, and magical charms. The hymns were brought to their
present form between 1500-1000 B.C. Some sages in India claim that the Veda was taught for
many thousands and thousands of years, and then was compiled by a sage called Veda Vyasa, or
by another sage, Panini, in Tibet near a lake called Mamaso-Sarovora.

The word Veda comes from a Sanskrit root, “Vid,” which means: to know. The Rig Veda is the
knowledge of the hymns. It is the oldest Veda, and it has about 10,600 stanzas. All the hymns are
directed to various powers in nature, to the sun, and nature itself. Through the knowledge of
these hymns, the ancestors of the Hindus tried to communicate with the sun, earth, and nature.

Soma Veda — the knowledge of the songs. It contains 1800 verses. Some particular ones are
recited at a ceremony which is called Soma Sacrifice in which is offered the sap of the Soma
plant, mixed with barley and milk.

Yojur Veda is the knowledge of prayers used on various occasions by the priests or laymen.

Atharva Veda is the book of incantations or mantrams, a very powerful book, the mantrams of
which give great power into the hands of priests who know how to use incantations.

...The ignorant ones think that by performing the ceremonies indicated in the Vedas, they reach
the goal of liberation, and they think, also, that there is nothing else to do. They are full of desire
for heaven; heaven is their highest goal, and they argue that there is nothing beyond heaven.
They perform various ceremonies to attain pleasure and prosperity, which result in continuous
rebirth. Such people cannot be firm in Samadhi. (2:42-44)

Lord Krishna makes it clear that there is something more than the attainment of heaven. In
esoteric literature, heaven is the mental plane where a man enters after he passes the middle
world, the astral plane.

Beyond heaven, we have the world of “clear cold light,” the sphere of Love-Wisdom, which is
the door of emancipation from the three worlds. Those who go to heaven will return by the pull
of their past actions, to pay their debts, or to fulfill their duties. But those who pass beyond
heaven and enter into the world of clear cold light and compassion need not return again to
physical incarnation and tread the path of pain and suffering.

They may come to the world by their own choice, to teach humanity greater lessons and lead
them into the world of reality which is found beyond heaven, beyond the mental plane.

Various ceremonies in all nations and in all religions, eventually turn into a meaningless
showing-off. Often those who perform the ceremonies and those who participate in them cannot
see beyond the ceremonies, and do not use them as a technique with which to bring in more
energies to use in mastering the lower self and enter into the sphere of absolute light.

Many of our prayers and ceremonies have personality directed motives and separative motives
behind them. They are performed to secure pleasure and prosperity. The Master says that such an
act leads to continuous birth and death.

There is a great technique which is used to pass beyond the three worlds, and that is Samadhi.
Samadhi is directed communication with the world of light and of compassion, and holding
oneself in the awareness of the Self.

It is true that we can have short periods of such an experience through our religious ceremonies
and prayers, but what Krishna is after is the achievement of such determination through which
man stands, unmoving, in the light, compassion, and will of the Self, even while performing all
his daily duties and obligations. Such a man is well rooted in the Self and nothing can distract
him.

He can say:

In the center of the Will of God I stand.

Naught shall deflect my will from His.

To attain Samadhi, we need to do our daily meditation; build greater communication lines
between us and our inner Guide; awaken ourselves from the sleep which is going on in the music
and orchestra of our attachments and activities. Then we can direct our lives at the level of the
Soul, and eventually at the level of the Spiritual Triad.
Meditation, loving understanding, discrimination between right and wrong, daily service
rendered to our fellow human beings and to other kingdoms as a whole, all of these bring us
closer to the sphere where Samadhi can be performed.

Samadhi is actually a state of contemplation and identification in which the unfolding human
soul enters into the light of the Inner Dweller and becomes one with that great Presence. In a
short time his consciousness expands toward Soul consciousness, and the light and love and
power of the Soul shine throughout his being. Actually this is not an abstraction from the plane
of mind, for the yogi is completely aware and registers all his impressions upon the mental
plane, due to the existence of the Rainbow Bridge.[10] Such ascensions naturally expand our
consciousness and give us a sense of proportion, deeper understanding of life and greater
compassion toward all living beings. A man who can occasionally have such a lofty experience
becomes a creative person, a man who dedicates all his life for the upliftment of humanity.[11]

Krishna urges Arjuna to reach such a state of consciousness, not only for a short moment, but
throughout his life.

Through such a communication, Arjuna will have first-hand knowledge and experience of the
reality of the Self, and his whole life will be a radioactive expression of that Self.

[1]
Blavatsky, H.P., The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 14.
[2]
Kaji.
[3]
Blavatsy, H.P., The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, p. 258
[4]
Agni Yoga Society, Agni Yoga, par. 88
[5]
Blavatsky, H.P., The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 74.
[6]
Agni Yoga Society, Heart, par. 53
[7]
Agni Yoga Society, Leaves of Morya's Garden, Vol. I, p. 56
[8]
Agni Yoga Society, Ibid., par. 57
[9]
Studies in the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga of Discrimination, Dreamer, English Edition, London,
1902, The Theosophical Publishing House, pp. 28-29.
[10]
For more information, please read The Science of Becoming Oneself Ch. XVIII by H.
(Torkom) Saraydarian.
[11]
Saraydarian, H. (Torkom), The Science of Meditation, p. 261.

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 6
Work to be Done

1. Read Chapter 2 again in reflective meditation before you read the Commentary in this set.

2. Meditation

This month your meditation will be as follows:

Step One:

Relax your body.

Calm your emotions.
For a moment, keep mental silence.

Step Two:

For 10-15 minutes daily, meditate upon verse 56 in Chapter 2. Try to define what the Self is for
you and what illumination or enlightenment means.

Step Three:

Say The Great Invocation and bless the world in the spirit of peace.

3. At the end of the month, fill in your monthly meditation report and write one typewritten page
about verse 56.
 The Three Qualities
The Three Gunas

The Vedas speak about three qualities which belong to the material side of creation, to substance
and matter.... (2:45)

These three qualities, called gunas, are as follows:

tamas
inertia
stability
rajas
activity
motion
sattva
rhythm
light
radioactivity

All these qualities belong to the not-self. An Initiate must surpass these qualities and enter into
Reality, into a state in which he can use these qualities according to his goal.

Man, as a spark, can be in any of his vehicles, which can have any quality relative to other
qualities, but he must realize that his true Self is not inertia, motion, or rhythm. All Krishna
wants to say is that man must, through progressive detachment, learn to stand in his own true
Self, which is the only reality perceived after a man enters into his Buddhic plane existence.

In the next verse, Krishna discloses that those who have knowledge of Self do not need the
Vedas. They do not need to go to the well when their land is flooded with water.

Similarly when men have the realization of Self, they are higher than the gunas. Because gunas
are the qualities of the vehicles, men already know that they are other than the vehicles.

To the extent that man is identified with his personality vehicles, he is the victim of the pairs of
opposites: pain and pleasure, victory and defeat, success and failure, like and dislike. The three
qualities of the personality vehicles produce the pairs of opposites, pain and pleasure; victory and
defeat, success and failure, like and dislike. The three qualities of the personality vehicles
produce the pairs of opposites. How does this happen? When you are in the state of inertia you
reject motion; when you are in the state of motion, you reject rhythm. When you are in the state
of rhythm you reject inertia or motion. Always, your present state of existence opposes another
state of existence, and enforced change creates upheaval and shocks in your nature.

Everything associated with inertia is not acceptable to the state of motion; everything associated
with motion is rejected by inertia. But once a man passes beyond these qualities he is “free from
the pairs of opposites” because they do not control his responses, nor his judgment as he stands
in his own reality.
You must concern yourself only with the performance of your duty, standing detached from the
fruits of your action. You must not even seek refuge in inaction, but must carry on your sacred
duty. (2:47)

The highest duty is the removal of all obstacles, the pairs of opposites from the path, and to reach
the realization of the Supreme Self, not in thought or wishes, but in actuality, with total
awareness of it.

To keep oneself firm in Yoga means not to lose the state of self-awareness once it is achieved,
not to move from that central Self, and to stand above all change.

Such a state of equilibrium is called Yoga. (2:48)

Equilibrium is a state of awareness, which is not distorted or agitated by any change in the
environment, or by any change in your vehicles. It is a state of serenity, which man reaches when
he becomes stable in Samadhi, in the light of the Self.

Equilibrium is a state of being in which there is a total sense of unity, and oneness. And how can
we achieve that?

...perform your duties, keeping yourself firm in yoga, [the awareness of Self] with detachment
and indifference to success or failure.... (2:48)

A work that is performed in intuitive understanding and free from the thoughts of results, is far
superior to a work which is performed by a mind which is attached to the results of the work. O
Dhananjaya! Seek refuge in pure reason. Pitiable are they who work merely for results. (2:49)

There are two ways of performing our work. One is that we work for the result, and the result
can be good or bad. In either case, whether it is good or bad is not significant for your inner
growth and unfoldment. According to the Ageless Wisdom, works are done only to help the
release of inner beauty, and meet the true Self.

The other way is to do the work through intuitive understanding. Let us not forget that the work
referred to here is the work of self-actualization, striving for perfection and self- mastery.

To do such work man must develop a pure sense of intuitive understanding. This is not mental
logic. This is not translating through our traditional information or knowing things through our
memory and accumulated knowledge.

Intuitive understanding is straight-knowledge of the steps we must take for our spiritual
development. Many aspirants use methods, techniques, disciplines which promise certain results
for them. They are promised that they can develop their clairvoyance, clairaudience, their third
eye; they can raise their kundalini or can project their astral body; they can see their past lives, or
have communication with the dead. All these phenomena are for those people who are looking
for results. The disciple has nothing to do with all these; he has only one life-intention: to be his
true Self and shine out. That is what Christ said, “First look for the kingdom of God within you,
and all else will be given to you.” All spiritual powers are latent within the Self; as the Self
unfolds, all these qualities slowly, safely appear as the demand of service increases from the
environment of the disciple.

This means that the disciple does not work for the bodies, for psychic powers, but only with his
true Self, expressing himself through the phenomenon called man.

Pure reason is pure discrimination. It is one of the qualities of the Self and can be defined as the
power to contact and relate to the Dweller of the bodies.

Intuitional awareness

Very often people cannot differentiate between intuition and many emotional and mental
impressions. Intuition, says the Tibetan Sage, is synthetic understanding; a comprehensive grip
of the principle of universality, and loss of the sense of separativeness. It embodies Universal
Love, and an identification with all beings. Intuition is light itself and enables one to contact the
light center in all forms. Realization follows intuition. True self-actualization starts with
intuition, because it is only through intuition that reality is seen and realized within oneself.

Intuition then reveals three great qualities: illumination, understanding, and love; a love that
“negates all that builds barriers, makes criticism and produces separation.” “The Intuition
concerns unity and is the capacity of the Self to contact other selves, and is not a faculty whereby
the not-self is contacted.” “An Intuition is an idea clothed in etheric substance, and the moment a
man becomes responsive to those ideas, he can begin to master the technique of etheric control.”
“...It is the sense of synthesis, the ability to think in wholes, and to touch the world of causes.”
The destiny of the human soul is not only to master his physical, emotional and mental
instruments, but also to penetrate into another kind of substance, the intuitional substance, to
create a new mechanism of communication with the Cosmos and with the higher stations of the
Cosmos.

After the human soul transcends his mental instrument, the great horizon of the Spiritual Triad
opens before him. This means that the abstract mind, the world of Intuition and the world of Will
are within his reach, within the range of his attainment. He has transcended the personal and is
entering now into the universal and Cosmic.[1] This kind of meditation has been tested by the
author with high school and college students with striking results. Their behavior, their attitude
toward life, their ability to learn and to master were radically improved. Such teaching gives
meaning to their lives, organizes their energies and opens the path for them to touch their
transpersonal selves from which pours all joy and beauty.

Torkom Saraydarian, Cosmos in Man, p. 101-104

Dhananjaya Commentary
Chapter 2, verse 49

Dhananjaya literally means: The conqueror of wealth.

 1. Although detached from it, the disciple should have wealth, to use anytime the need
of the group or if a higher cause demands it.

2. A disciple is not attached to wealth, and does not accumulate it at the expense of his
spiritual evolution. Wealth in itself is not his goal. It is the response of the gratitude
of the world for his services. Even if wealthy, he does not own things, but he is a
distributor of wealth to the right need, in the right amount, at the right time to the
right person.

3. Wealth does not mean only material wealth, but also mental, and spiritual wealth. He
is a wealthy man, but wealth does not own him, (as was the case of the rich man in
the New Testament). He has wealth under his control and uses it for the upliftment
and evolution of humanity.

4. It is said that great wealth possesses many men in the world, who act as the slaves
of their wealth, immersed in the selfish, and sensual pleasure of their pitiful selves.

Arjuna is one who has conquered wealth, and he has not used it for his separate self, and for its
pleasures. This is one of the reasons why he has become ready to be privately instructed by the
Master. Until the ties of identification with the material world are broken, man cannot stand face
to face with his inner Instructor and with his Master.

The conqueror of wealth is a man who has everything he needs plus a tremendous power: the
ability to renounce all that he has. Lord Krishna, in calling Arjuna Dhananjaya, is giving him a
significant clue which may be interpreted as:

“You have great wealth, you have proven your ability to use it in the right way, without
attachment. At this time of crisis, do not think about what you have, what you are, but perform
your duty as if you were a conqueror; you are also going to renounce attachment to your small
self, and the separate interests of that self.”

Commentary on verses 50-56 of chapter 2

In verse 50 we can see that Arjuna has been working only within the boundaries of the human
mind, or mental body. Krishna’s intention is to lead him into another level, to the next step,
where freedom is. This is the plane of buddhi. We are told that those who enter into buddhi will
see the disappearance of all their glamors, illusions, and vanities. They will see the evaporation
of their emotional miseries, mental problems, and egotistic viewpoints.

Buddhi is pure love, pure reason, and Arjuna will solve his problem when he steps into the
awareness of buddhi. A man living in a valley can be told about the ocean. He can form some
idea about it, but the best way to make him know the ocean better is to take him to the ocean.

In this verse 50, Lord Krishna gives a profound definition of Yoga. He says,
Action without attachment is Yoga.

Attachment is identification with an object on any plane. When man is identified with the object,
he is in constant fear of losing the object, or losing himself. He thinks he cannot exist without the
object of his identification. His habits, his emotional ways of expression, his thoughts are him.
Take them from him and he suffers terribly because it seems that you are taking his life, or him.
That is why an identified man reacts violently to any attack on his physical possessions,
emotional objects, and ideas, opinions, or thoughts. These reactions turn into great fear when he
realizes that they can be taken from him. This is a man of attachment, a man who has lost
himself within his own possessions; and he is scattered into pieces in all the objects with which
he is identified.

A Yogi is a man who is him Self. He is centered within his true Self and acts not as a body, as an
emotion, or as a thought, but as the Self using his body, his emotions and his mind as tools. Once
he acts in such a state of consciousness, he is all unity within himself and not the multiplicity of
the objects of his identifications. To be his true Self means to be a true Yogi. The unattached
action of such a Yogi is Yoga, union. There is no difference between him and his expression.

Lord Krishna here tells Arjuna that, when you penetrate into the intuitional sphere, you will have
an awareness of synthesis, and you will see that you can act as the Self instead of a body,
emotions, and mind.

This leads to the renunciation of the fruits of action.

A disciple is a man who does his duty, as a candle gives its light, as the sun gives its life. This
does not mean that there is no result. There is a result, but the Yogi, while not working for the
result, nevertheless is doing his duty as well as possible. As he detaches Himself from the
expectations from his actions, he performs better service, expresses his true Self in service, and
eventually meets his Lord, his higher Self on the field of duty and responsibility.

In the next verse there are two concepts which must be considered: one is the wise man; the other
is supreme bliss.

“Wisdom is the synthetic knowledge of the Soul,” says Alice A. Bailey. A wise man is one who
can draw this wisdom from his Soul and meet his needs. A wise man stands in the light of his
Soul.

In practical language, this means that his knowledge, accumulated through the senses, is used in
such a way that no harm is done to anyone. The evolution of related people is enhanced, their
future well-being is secured, the Plan of their Souls is fulfilled, the greater vision is seen and the
man enters into greater harmony with the Laws of the Spiritual World.

Knowledge without wisdom is a tool in the hands of a blind man. A wise man is one who acts in
consultation with his Soul and into all his action he puts:
Intelligence
Love
Courage
Harmlessness
Selfless Motive
Skill
Beauty

The next concept is very important, too: Supreme Bliss.

In the Teachings of the Great Ones, when a man penetrates into the awareness of the Buddhic or
Intuitional plane, he enters into bliss. But let us remember that bliss is a substantial energy, and it
can be transmitted to objects and living forms. It invigorates the whole system, and radiates out
as healing, comforting, and peace-giving energy.[2]

The plane where bliss is found can be entered when man develops intuition, renounces the fruits
of his actions, and liberates himself from the chains of birth:

A wise man, who has attained intuitive understanding, buddhi, renouncing the fruit of his actions
and freeing himself from the chains of birth, enters into the state of supreme bliss. (2:51)

The chains of birth are the desires for material existence, and the karma created by actions
motivated by such desires.

When, through intuitive understanding, you are able to cross the network of illusion, then you
will be indifferent to both dogma and tradition. (2:52)

Dogma, according to the dictionary, is a “fixed teaching which must be accepted without
reasoning.”

Tradition is “the passing on of history or custom from father to son, an old custom; a story
passed on.”

The disciple will go beyond dogma and tradition because now he knows the pure facts. Dogmas
do not interest him because they are the formulations of certain teachings and not necessary
correct, up-to-date, or beneficial. Even if they seem beautiful, a disciple wants to apply his
intellect and pure reason to them. He does not accept any dogma or tradition that cannot be felt
intuitionally as true. A tradition changes into a curse when it prevents the search of the mind and
its free choice, and imposes intolerance and separativeness.

All that we are told must pass through the fire of our pure reason, intuition. Great Lord Buddha
once said,

We must not believe in a thing said, merely because it is said; not tradition because they have
been handed down from antiquity; nor rumors, as such; nor writings by sages, because sages
wrote them; nor fancies that we may suspect to have been inspired in us by an Angel; nor from
inferences drawn from some haphazard assumption we may have made; nor because of what
seems an analogical necessity; nor on the mere authority of our Teachers or Master. But we are
to believe when the writing, doctrine or saying is corroborated by our own reason and
consciousness. “For this,” says He in concluding, “thought you not to believe merely because
you have heard, but when you believed in your consciousness, then to act accordingly and
abundantly.

The Secret Doctrine, Vol. III, p.40

Lord Krishna challenges Arjuna to surpass dogmas and traditions, and find his freedom in his
own intuitive understanding. But how can a man do this?

When your heart is confused by hearing conflicting statements, enter into Samadhi, and remain
steadfast and firm there. Thus only will you reach the Supreme Self. (2:53)

Confusion is what we see around us almost every day. People are confused, going from one
teaching to another, and eventually they lose their interest in all Teachings.

The constructive suggestion is to advise them to do meditation in the right way, eventually
penetrating deeper and deeper into the pure light. Once man approaches the purer light through
meditation, he naturally develops the great power of discrimination, and eventually reaches
Samadhi, where he sees the True Teaching and resigns from all those teachings that do not agree
with the pure Teaching. This is like using the tuning fork, by which the true note is found and the
false note is ruled out.

In verse 55 of the second chapter, Lord Krishna refers to a sage who has attained the awareness
of the Atmic plane, and he is called the Knower of the Self.

But he refers to an even higher state of awareness in verse 56. One who dwells on the Monadic
plane is called Enlightened by the Self.

With these two, Atmic and Monadic, He often mentions the plane of Buddhi. These are the three
higher planes, within which the great Initiates function, and in which the center called the
Hierarchy and the center called Shamballa function.

Krishna, upon the request of Arjuna, reveals the signs by which to recognize who has Self-
knowledge and rests in Samadhi (2:56-57):

1. One who casts away all desires of the mind.

2. One who finds satisfaction in the Self.

3. One who is not disturbed by pain.

4. One in whom cravings for pleasure have disappeared.

5. One who is free from passion, fear, and anger.

 6. One who remains unattached under any condition.

7. Good and evil cannot disturb him.

8. He neither praises nor condemns.

9. He withdraws his senses from all objects.

These are the nine signs of a man who... focuses himself within the Self. (2:58)

How can we attain such a level of beingness in this age of materialism, competition, greed, and
fear?

How can a man maintain his existence, having only his satisfaction in the Self?

Shall we resign from all our belongings, from our occupations and relationships and go and sit in
a cave and meditate?

That is what Krishna is against. He is not teaching the way to escape, but the way to fight and
conquer problems on the field of all our duties and obligations.

But how does a man work without having a desire?

How can he act if he is always focused in the Self?

Desire is identification. We do not need to identify with any fruit of the action to perform that
action, and when we are focused within the Self, we have optimum clarity of mind, observation,
and skill in action.

In the contemporary world man works only for the result, for the fruit, in passion, in fear, in
greed, and in anger. That is why we have so many laws to prevent ourselves from committing
various crimes. We want to protect ourselves from our own actions which are motivated by the
result, by the fruit of the action.

But if we are completely detached from the fruit of our action, and deeply satisfied in the Self,
what will the majority do to us? Won’t we lose our jobs, and won’t people exploit us by every
means?

Of course, the majority of people will not understand us, but the power of detachment will
release from us such great beauty and radiation that people will be drawn to us for advice and
leadership. It will cause our minds to be in such a clear state that we will be, in our creativity and
invention, far superior to those who work only for results.

The focused state within the Self will make us almost invulnerable, and will shield us with the
powerful psychic energy of the Self. These are qualities which can conquer ignorance,
wickedness, war, and many crimes.
Of course, people will try to exploit us, but we will know that in the righteousness of the
Almighty One, Karmic Law keeps the account, and nobody will exploit us if we are not indebted
to him from the past.

This is not meant to be encouragement to exploiters, nor advice to disciples to resign from their
own rights.

Disciples know that there is only one supreme Self, and those who have this realization will
teach people by their examples and pure principles, and thus will lead humanity into the light.

That is why Krishna says... stand and fight.(2:18) Fight not only against the enemies within your
own Self, but the enemies of righteousness, everywhere, by supreme example, by fearless
detachment, meditation, and service.

The Senses

In verse 58, Lord Krishna refers to the supreme achievement of a Yogi who is able to withdraw
his consciousness and awareness into the Self — to such a degree that the organs no longer carry
impressions through the senses, to the awareness center, the human soul.

This process in Sanskrit is called pratyahara.

A lesser degree of this mastery can be achieved in intense concentration of the mind upon a
subject, and this inhibits other sensations.

The process of withdrawal starts with intense concentration, and then the awareness unit slowly
withdraws the consciousness thread from the head center and focuses in the Spiritual Triad.

According to Hindu wisdom, man has eleven (11) senses. Five of them are called senses of
action:

tongue
hands
feet
generative organs
excretory organs

Then there are the five centers of perception:

hearing
touching
seeing
tasting
smelling

and the eleventh sense is mind.

In Sanskrit literature the word Indriyas (senses) does not convey the same meaning as the
English word senses. The senses are not parts of the body. That is why the human soul carries
them with him when he leaves the body.

The body and the senses work, but it is the unit of awareness that gathers experiences through
them. Limiting ourselves within the five senses of perception, we can say that the senses are on
all planes of human existence, or we can say that senses extend from the inner core of man to all
vehicles, like beams of light. The lowest vehicle they hit is the physical body, resulting in the
physical senses.

When the beam of senses is withdrawn from the physical level, the impressions coming from the
physical world cannot be translated by the physical senses. Thus the human soul can withdraw
his senses from plane to plane and concentrate or focus on the higher planes. Because Lord
Krishna could do this, He was called also the Lord of the Senses.

On each higher plane, the same sense has a different depth and task to be performed. As you go
to the higher planes, the function of the senses becomes clearer, greater in scope, and more
direct, until all the five lower, plus the two higher senses lose themselves in the Monad, Who is
the Master of the Senses.

For further information, we present to you one of the most interesting instructions of Master
Djwhal Khul:

from A Treatise on Cosmic Fire

What are the senses? How many are there? And what is their connection with the indwelling
Man, the Thinker, the Divine Manasaputra? These are questions of vital moment, and in their
due comprehension comes the ability wisely to follow the path of knowledge.

The senses might be defined as those organs whereby man becomes aware of his surroundings.
We should perhaps express them not so much as organs (for after all, an organ is a material form,
existent for a purpose) but as media whereby the Thinker comes in contact with his environment.
They are the means whereby he makes investigation on the plane of the gross physical, for
instance; the means whereby he buys his experience, whereby he discovers that which he
requires to know, whereby he becomes aware, and whereby he expands his consciousness. We
are dealing here with the five senses as used by the human being. In the animal these five senses
exist but, as the thinking correlating faculty is lacking, as the “relation between” the Self and the
not-self is but little developed, we will not concern ourselves with them at this juncture. The
senses in the animal kingdom are group faculty and demonstrate as racial instinct. The senses in
man are his individual asset, and demonstrate:

a. As the separate realization of self-consciousness.

b. As ability to assert that individualism.

c. As a valuable means to self-conscious evolution.

 d. As a source of knowledge.

e. As the transmuting faculty towards the close of life in the three worlds.

As we know, the senses are five in number and in order of development are as follows:

a. Hearing.

b. Touch.

c. Sight.

d. Taste.

e. Smell.

Each of these five senses has a definite connection with one or other plane, and has also a
correspondence on all planes.

Let us first take up each of these senses, point out some interesting facts in connection with
them, and suggest their subplane correspondence.

Plane Sense
Physical Hearing
Astral Touch or feeling
Mental Sight
Buddhic Taste
Atmic Smell

In the two lower planes in the three worlds — the astral and the physical — the five subplanes of
human endeavor are the five highest. The two lowest subplanes, the sixth and seventh, are what
we might express as “below the threshold,” and concern forms of life beneath the human
altogether. We have a corroborating analogy in the fact that the two earliest root-races in this
round are not definitely human, and that it is the third root-race which is really human for the
first time. Counting, therefore, from the bottom upwards it is only the third subplane on the
physical and the astral planes which mark the commencement of human effort, leaving five
subplanes to be subdued. On the mental plane the five lower subplanes have to be subjugated
during purely human evolution. When the consciousness is centered on the fifth subplane
(counting from below upwards) then the planes of abstraction — from the standpoint of man in
the three worlds — supervene the two subplanes of synthesis, demonstrating through the
synthesis of the five senses. In the evolution of the Heavenly Man we have exactly the same
thing: the five planes of endeavor, the five lower planes of the solar system, and the two higher
planes of abstraction, the spiritual or monadic and the divine, or logoic.

Microcosmic Sensory Evolution

Plane
Physical

1. Hearing 5th Gaseous

2. Touch, feeling 4th First etheric

3. Sight 3rd Super-etheric

4. Taste 2nd Sub-atomic

5. Smell 1st Atomic

Plane

Astral

1. Clairaudience 5th

2. Psychometry 4th

3. Clairvoyance 3rd

4. Imagination 2nd

5. Emotional idealism 1st

Plane

Mental

1. Higher clairaudience 7th Form

2. Planetary psychometry 6th Form

3. Higher clairvoyance 5th Form

4. Discrimination 4th Form

5. Spiritual discernment 3rd Formless

Response to group
2nd Formless
vibration

Spiritual Telepathy 1st Formless

Plane

Buddhic
1. Comprehension

2. Healing 6th

3. Divine vision 5th

4. Intuition 4th

5. Idealism 3rd

Plane

Atmic

1. Beatitude 7th

2. Active service 6th

3. Realization 5th

4. Perfection 4th

5. All knowledge 3rd

It can be noted that we have not summed up the two planes of abstraction on the atmic and the
buddhic planes, the reason being that they mark a degree of realization which is the property of
initiates of higher degree than that of the adept, and which is beyond the concept of the evolving
human unit, for whom this treatise is written.

We might here, for the sake of clarity, tabulate the five different aspects of the five senses on the
five planes, so that their correspondences may be readily visualized, using the above table as the
basis:

a. The First Sense...................Hearing.

1. Physical hearing.

2. Clairaudience.

3. Higher clairaudience.

4. Comprehension (of four sounds)

5. Beatitude.

b. The Second Sense..............Touch or feeling.

1. Physical touch.
 2. Psychometry.

3. Planetary psychometry.

4. Healing.

5. Active service.

c. The Third Sense................Sight.

1. Physical sight.

2. Clairvoyance.

3. Higher clairvoyance.

4. Divine vision.

5. Realization.

d. The Fourth Sense.............Taste.

1. Physical taste.

2. Imagination.

3. Discrimination.

4. Intuition.

5. Perfection.

e. The Fifth Sense................Smell

1. Physical smell.

2. Emotional idealism.

3. Spiritual discernment.

4. Idealism.

5. All knowledge.

Let us now proceed to take up each of these senses in detail:

a. Hearing. This, very appropriately, is the first sense to be manifested; the first aspect of
manifestation is that of sound, and necessarily therefore we would expect sound to be the first
thing noticed by man on the physical plane, the plane of densest manifestation, and of the most
marked effects of sound, regarding it as a creating factor. Preeminently the physical plane is the
plane of hearing and hence the sense ascribed to the lowest plane of evolution, and of each of the
five planes. On this seventh or lowest plane man has to come to full cognizance of the effect of
the Sacred Word as it is in process of sounding forth. As it reverberates throughout the system, it
drives matter into its appointed place, and on the physical plane finds its point of deepest
materiality and of most concrete demonstration. The key for man to discover and turn, concerns
itself with the revealing of the mystery of:

a. His own sound.

b. His brother’s sound.

c. His group sound.

d. The sound of that one of the Heavenly Men with whom he is connected.

e. The sound of the Logos, or the sound of nature; of the solar system, of the Grand
Man of the Heavens.

Therefore, we note that on the physical plane a man has to find his own note, finding it in spite of
the density of the form.

a. On the physical plane he finds his own note.

b. On the astral plane he finds his brother’s note; through identity of emotion he comes
to the recognition of his brother’s identity.

c. On the mental plane he begins to find his group note.

d. On the buddhic plane, or the plane of wisdom, he begins to find the note of his
planetary Logos.

e. On the atmic or spiritual, plane the note logoic begins to sound within his
consciousness.

I am differentiating thus for the sake of clarity. In evolution itself, due to the parallelism of
nature, the distinctions are not so sharply made, and a man’s ray, point of development, the work
earlier accomplished, his temporary limitations, and other causes create a seeming confusion, but
in the great scheme as seen from above downwards, the work proceeds as described.

Hearing on the astral plane is commonly called clairaudience, and means the ability to hear the
sounds of the astral plane. It is a faculty that demonstrates throughout the entire astral body, and
a man hears all over his vehicle and not only through the specialized organs, the ears, the product
of physical plane action and reaction. This would necessarily be so, owing to the fluidic nature of
the astral body. Man on the physical plane hears at the same time a certain range of sounds, and
only a small and particular gamut of vibrations impinges upon his ears. There are many of the
lesser sounds of nature which entirely escape him, while the major group sounds are not
differentiated at all. As evolution proceeds and the inner sense of hearing becomes acute, these
other physical plane sounds will likewise swing into his ken, and he will be acutely conscious of
all sounds of the astral, and the physical plane — a thing, which if possible now, would result in
the shattering of the body. If the note of nature, for instance, were to strike but once upon the ear
of a man (a note made up of the totality of vibrations produced by all dense material forms) his
physical body would be completely disrupted. He is not ready yet for such a happening; the inner
ear is not duly prepared. Only when the threefold hearing is consummated will completed
hearing on the physical plane be likewise permitted.

Hearing on the mental plane is simply an extension of the faculty of differentiating sound. The
hearing dealt with on all these planes is the hearing that has to do with the form, that concerns
the vibration of matter, and that is occupied with the not-self. It has not to do with the psyche, or
the telepathic communication that proceeds from mind to mind, but with the sound of the form or
that power whereby one separated unit of consciousness is aware of another unit who is not
himself. Bear this carefully in mind. When the extension of hearing becomes such that it
concerns the psyche, then we call it telepathy or that wordless communication that is the
synthesis of hearing on all the three lower planes and which is known by the Ego in the causal
body on the formless levels of the mental plane.

On the buddhic plane, hearing (now of the synthetic quality called telepathy) demonstrates as
complete comprehension, for it has involved two things:

1. A knowledge and recognition of individual sound,

2. A similar knowledge of group sound,

and their complete unification. This causes the most perfect comprehension, and is the secret of
the Master’s power.

On the atmic plane this perfected hearing is seen as beatitude. Sound, the basis of existence;
sound, the method of being; sound, the final unifier; sound therefore realized as the raison d’être,
as the method of evolution, and therefore as beatitude.[3]

b. Touch. In taking up the subject of the second sense, that of touch, we must note that this sense
is preeminently the sense of very great importance in this, the second, solar system — a system
of astral-buddhic consciousness.[4] Each of these senses, after having reached a certain point,
begins to synthesize with the others in such a way that it is almost impossible to know where one
begins and the other ends. Touch is that innate recognition of contact through the exercise of
manas or mind in a threefold manner:

As recognition,
As memory.
As anticipation.

Each of these five senses, when coupled with manas, develops within the subject a concept
embodying the past, the present and the future. Therefore when a man is very highly evolved,
has transcended time (as known in the three worlds), and can therefore look at the three lower
planes from the standpoint of the Eternal Now, he has superseded the senses by full active
consciousness. He knows, and needs not the senses to guide him any longer to knowledge. But in
time, and in the three worlds, each sense on each plane is employed to convey to the Thinker
some aspect of the not-self, and by the aid of mind, the Thinker can then adjust his relationship
thereto.

Hearing gives him an idea of relative direction, and enables a man to fix his place in the scheme,
and to locate himself.

Touch gives him an idea of relative quantity and enables him to fix his relative value as regards
other bodies, extraneous to himself.

Sight gives him an idea of proportion, and enables him to adjust his movements to the
movements of others.

Taste gives him an idea of value, and enables him to fix upon that which to him appears best.

Smell gives him an idea of innate quality, and enables him to find that which appeals to him as of
the same quality or essence as himself.

In all these definitions it is necessary to bear in mind that the whole object of the senses is to
reveal the not-self, and to enable the Self therefore to differentiate between the real and the
unreal.[5]

In the evolution of the senses, hearing is the first vague something which calls the attention of
the apparently blind self

a. To another vibration.

b. To something originating outside of itself.

c. To the concept of externality. When sound is first contacted the consciousness for
the first time becomes aware of that which is without.

But all that is grasped by the dormant consciousness (by means of this one sense of hearing) is
the fact of something extraneous to itself, and of the direction in which that something lies. This
apprehension, in course of time, calls into being another sense, that of touch. The Law of
Attraction works, the consciousness moves slowly outwards towards that which is heard; and
when contact is made with the not-self it is called touch. This touch conveys other ideas to the
groping consciousness, ideas of size, of external texture, and of surface differences; the concept
of the Thinker is thus slowly enlarged. He can hear and feel, but as yet knows not enough to
correlate nor name. When he succeeds in naming, he has made a big stride forward. We might
note here, therefore, that the earliest cosmic symbols are applicable to the senses as well as
elsewhere:
The point in the centre — consciousness and the not-self at a stage where sound alone is
descriptive.

The divided circle — consciousness aware of the not-self, through a dual recognition.

Sight follows on this, the third sense, and the one definitely marking the correlation of ideas, or
the relation between; it parallels the coming of Mind, both in time and function. We have
hearing, touch or feeling, and then sight. In connection with the correspondence it is to be noted
that sight came in with the third rootrace in this round, and that the third race saw also the
coming in of Mind. The Self and the not-self were immediately correlated, and coordinated.
Their close partnership became an accomplished fact, and evolution hastened forward with
renewed impetus.

These three major senses (if I might so describe them) are very definitely allied, each with one of
the three Logoi:

Hearing — The recognition of the fourfold word, the activity of matter, the third Logos.

Touch — The recognition of the sevenfold Form Builder, the gathering together of forms, their
approximation and interrelation, the second Logos. The Law of Attraction between the Self and
the not-self begins to work.

Sight — the recognition of totality, the synthesis of all, the realization of the One in Many, the
first Logos. The Law of Synthesis, operating between all forms which the self occupies, and the
recognition of the essential unity of all manifestation by the means of sight.

As regards taste and smell, we might call them minor senses, for they are closely allied to the
important sense of touch. They are practically subsidiary to that sense. This second sense, and its
connection with this second solar system, should be carefully pondered over. It is predominantly
the sense most closely connected with the second Logos. This conveys a hint of much value if
duly considered. It is of value to study the extensions of physical plane touch on other planes and
to see whither we are led. It is the faculty which enables us to arrive at the essence by due
recognition of the veiling sheath. It enables the Thinker who fully utilizes it to put himself en
rapport with the essence of all selves at all stages, and thereby to aid in the due evolution of the
sheath and actively to serve. A Lord of Compassion is one who (by means of touch) feels with,
fully comprehends, and realizes the manner in which to heal and correct the inadequacies of the
not-self and thus actively to serve the plan of evolution. We should study likewise in this
connection the value of touch as demonstrated by the healers of the race (those on the
Bodhisattva line)[6] and the effect of the Law of Attraction and Repulsion as thus manipulated by
them. Students of etymology will have noted that the origin of the word touch is somewhat
obscure, but probably means to “draw with quick motion.” Herein lies the whole secret of this
objective solar system, and herein will be demonstrated the quickening of vibration by means of
touch. Inertia, mobility, rhythm, are the qualities manifested by the not-self. Rhythm, balance,
and stable vibration are achieved by means of this very faculty of touch or feeling. Let me
illustrate briefly so as to make the problem somewhat clearer. What results in meditation? By
dint of strenuous effort and due attention to rules laid down, the aspirant succeeds in touching
matter of a quality rarer than is his usual custom. He contacts his causal body, in time he contacts
the matter of the buddhic plane. By means of this touch his own vibration is temporarily and
briefly quickened. Fundamentally we are brought back to the subject that we deal with in this
treatise. The latent fire of matter attracts to itself that fire, latent in other forms. They touch, and
recognition and awareness ensues. The fire of manas burns continuously and is fed by that which
is attracted and repulsed. When the two blend, the stimulation is greatly increased and the ability
to touch intensified. The Law of Attraction persists in its work until another fire is attracted and
touched, and the threefold merging is completed. Forget not in this connection the mystery of the
Rod of Initiation.[7] Later when we consider the subject of the centers and Initiation it must be
remembered that we are definitely studying one aspect of this mysterious faculty of touch, the
faculty of the second Logos, wielding the law of Attraction.

Let us now finish what may be imparted on the remaining three senses — sight, taste, smell —
and then briefly sum up their relationship to the centers, and their mutual action and interaction.
That will then leave two more points to be dealt with in this first division of the Treatise on
Cosmic Fire, and a summing up. We shall then be in a position to take up that portion of the
treatise that deals with the fire of manas and with the development of the manasaputras,[8] both in
their totality and likewise individually. This topic is of the most imperative importance as it deals
entirely with man, the Ego, the thinker, and shows the cosmic blending of the fires of matter and
of mind, and their utilization by the indwelling Flame.

c. Sight. This sense, as said before, is the paramount correlating sense of the solar system.

Under the Law of Economy man hears. Sound permeates matter and is the basis of its subsequent
heterogeneity.

Under the Law of Attraction, man touches and makes contact which is brought to his attention
through sound waves of activity. This leads to a condition of mutual repulsion and attraction
between the one who apprehends and that which is apprehended.

Having apprehended and then contacted his eyes are opened and he recognizes his place in the
whole order under the Law of Synthesis.

Hearing Unity
Touch Duality
Sight Triplicity

In these three senses the present is summed up for us. The work of evolution is to recognize,
utilize, coordinate, and dominate the whole till the Self, by means of these three, becomes
actively aware of every form, of every vibration, and of every pulsation of the not-self; then,
through the arranging power of mind, the objective of the self will be to find the truth, or that
center in the circle of manifestation which is, for the Self, the center of equilibrium, and the one
point where the coordination is perfected; then the Self can dissociate itself from every veil, very
contact, and every sense. This leads in every manifestation to three types of separation:
Involution. The separation of matter, or the one becoming the many. The senses are developed,
and the apparatus is perfected by the Self for the utilization of matter. This is under the Law of
Economy.

Evolution up to the time of the Probationary Path. The merging of Spirit and matter, and the
utilization of the senses in a progressing identification of the Self with all forms from the lowest
to those relatively refined. This is under the Law of Attraction.

Evolution on the Path. Again the separation of spirit from matter, its identification with the One,
and the ultimate rejection of form. The senses then are synthesized into acquired faculty, and the
Self has no further use for the not-self. It blends with the All-Self. This is under the Law of
Synthesis.

If this is borne in mind it leads to a realization that the separation of the Spirit from the material
vehicle involves two aspects of the One great All; herein is seen the work of the Creator, the
Preserver and the Destroyer.

In the final perfection of this third sense of sight, the term used is the wholly inadequate one of
realization. Let the student study carefully the lowest and the highest demonstration of the senses
as laid down in the tabulation earlier imparted, and note the occult significance of the
expressions used in the summation.

Hearing Beatitude This is realized through the not-self

Touch Service The summation of the work of the Self
and the not-self
Sight Realization Recognition of the triplicity needed in
manifestation, or the reflex action of the
Self and the not-self
Taste Perfection Evolution completed through the
utilization of the not-self and its realized
adequacy
Smell Perfected The principle of manas in its
Knowledge discriminating activity, perfecting the
inter-relation between the Self and the
not-self

This all concerns the perfected, realized Personality.

In all these perfections is seen the awareness of the Self, and the graded process of identification,
utilization, manipulation and final rejection of the not-self by that Self who is now consciously
aware. He hears the note of nature and that of his monad; he recognizes their identity, utilizes
their vibration, and passes rapidly through the three stages of Creator, Preserver and Destroyer.

He touches or feels the vibration of the form or not-self in all its various grades, recognizes his
identity in time and space, and for purposes of existence or being and by means of the three
Laws of Economy, Attraction and Synthesis utilizes, blends and eventually dissociates himself.
He sees the threefold evolutionary process and by means of the development of the inner vision,
sees within the heart of the system macrocosmic and microcosmic, the one SELF in many forms,
and finally identifies himself with that one Self by the conscious rejection of the not-self after its
complete subjugation and utilization.

d. Tasting. He tastes then finally and discriminates, for taste is the great sense that begins to hold
sway during the discriminating process that takes place when the illusory nature of matter is in
process of realization. Discrimination is the educatory process to which the Self subjects itself in
the process of developing intuition — that faculty whereby the Self recognizes its own essence in
and under all forms. Discrimination concerns the duality of nature, the Self and the not-self, and
is the means of their differentiation in the process of abstraction; the intuition concerns unity and
is the capacity of the Self to contact other selves, and is not a faculty whereby the not-self is
contacted. Hence its rarity these days owing to the intense individualization of the Ego, and its
identification with the form — a necessary identification at this particular time. As the sense of
taste on the higher planes is developed, it leads one to ever finer distinctions till one is finally led
through the form, right to the heart of one’s nature.

e. Smelling is the faculty of keen perception that eventually brings a man back to the source from
whence he came, the archetypal plane, the plane where his true home is to be found. A
perception of difference has been cultivated that has caused a divine discontent within the heart
of the Pilgrim in the far country; the prodigal son draws comparisons; he has developed the other
four senses, and he utilizes them. Now comes in the faculty of vibratory recognition of the home
vibration, if it might be so expressed. It is the spiritual counterpart of that sense which in the
animal, the pigeon and other birds, leads them back unerringly to the familiar spot whence they
originally came. It is the apprehension of the vibration of the Self, and a swift return by means of
that instinct to the originating source.

Alice A. Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 186-202

Verse 70 of Chapter 2

As the rivers flowing into the ocean do not disturb the ocean, similarly, a Silent One enjoys life,
but his enjoyment does not disturb his equilibrium. Such is not the case of one who is the victim
of his own desires. (2:70)

The Silent One is a man who does not react to the noises of his and other’s desires, thoughts,
and actions. He is one who is well established within his own Self.

But how can such a man enjoy life? Joy for such a man is performance of his duties,
responsibilities, working out of his karma, and performing the will of the Supreme Self in the
universe. He sees Him everywhere, in everything, and He enjoys Him, being a part of Him.

The business and the life of the world are based on fanning the desires. All our advertisements
create attachment and greed for material objects. We have more than we need, and we want more
than we can use. This is how we pollute the waters, the air, and the planet, and create greater
obstacles on the path of our evolution. One can wonder if accumulated wealth were counted what
a big figure would emerge! Why is this so if a man is not going to use it properly?

The solution to this problem is desirelessness. The Great Ones in all ages demonstrated great
simplicity, desirelessness and detachment, and gave us their supreme example to follow. They
did not force the multitudes, but tried to educate them; and those who responded to their
Teaching eventually arrived at that state of awareness in which man stands in the supreme Self,
in “separated unity.”

That man who is free from desires and lives a detached life, devoid of the senses of I and mine,
enters into Peace. (2:71)

True peace is found only on the Atmic plane where nirvana is entered. It is not an inactive state,
but a state of harmony with the Soul of the universe, in a progressive unfoldment toward Infinity.
Peace can be achieved when a man contacts the Cosmic Principle within his own Self. After such
a contact one is a man of peace, a man of overflowing joy, beauty, and power, in which all sense
of I and mine disappears.

...Having reached the Supreme, man is no longer deluded, and at the time of his departure he
enters into Nirvana. (2:72)

Nirvana is a state of awareness on the Atmic plane. A man who has reached the Supreme within
himself and has contacted the Cosmic Principle, no longer wanders in the astral or mental planes,
where one is deluded, but enters into the Atmic plane after being totally enlightened in the
Buddhic plane. Nirvana is absolute bliss and peace, in which all fires of greed, anger, illusion,
glamor, and passion are extinguished. When these are overcome, the sense of separateness is
gone.

We are told that it is possible to achieve Nirvana even within the physical body, but Nirvana is
only known by those who were able to enter the Atmic plane. Buddha said,

The extinction of self is salvation; the annihilation of self is the condition of enlightenment. The
blotting out of self is Nirvana. Happy is he who has ceased to live for pleasure and rests in the
truth. Verily his composure and tranquility of mind are the heights of bliss.[9]

The self referred to here is the aggregate of the physical, emotional, and mental natures with all
their attachments, identifications, and desires. It is called the false self, or lower self.

[1]
Read The Science of Becoming Oneself by H. (Torkom) Saraydarian, pp. 138-141.
[2]
Please read about bliss in Joy and Healing, by Torkom Saraydarian.
[3]
..."the chief agency by which Nature's wheel is moved in a phenomenal direction is sound.
Sound is the first aspect of the manifested pentagon since it is a property of ether called Akas and
as I already said Vedic recitation is the highest Yagnam containing in itself all minor Yagnams
and tending to preserve the manifested pentagon in the proper order. In the opinion of our old
philosophers sound or speech is next to thought the highest karmic agent used by man.

Of the various karmic agencies wielded by man in the way of molding himself and surroundings,
sound or speech is the most important, for, to speak is to work in ether which of course rules the
lower quaternary of elements, air, fire, water and earth. Human sound or language contains
therefore all the elements required to move the different classes of Devas and those elements are
of course the vowels and the consonants. The details of the philosophy of sound in its relation to
the devas who preside over the subtle world, belong to the domain of true Mantra Sastra which
of course is in the hands of the knowers." — Some thoughts on the Gita, p. 72
[4]
Astral-buddhic consciousness is the term applied to the basic consciousness in our solar
system. It is characterized by emotion, by feeling, sensation, which have eventually to be
transmuted into intuition, spiritual perception and unity.
[5]
Sensations aroused by sense objects are experienced by means of the outer instruments of the
Lord of the Body or senses (Indriya) which are the pathways through which the Jiva receives
worldly experience. These are ten in number, and are of two classes:

a. The five organs of sensation.................................Jnanendriya

1. The Ear........................... Hearing.

2. Skin................................ Feeling by touch.

3. Eye................................. Sight.

4. Tongue............................ Taste.

5. Nose................................ Smell.

b. The five organs of action..............................................Karmendriya

1. Mouth...................................... Speaking.

2. Hands....................................... Grasping.

3. Legs......................................... Walking.

4. Anus........................................ Excretion

5. Genitals................................... Procreation

The organs of sensation are the active response which the Self makes to sensation. The organs of
action are those through which effects is given to the Jiva's desires.
"The Indriya or sense is not the physical organ, but the faculty of mind operating through that
organ as its instrument. The outward sense organs are the usual means whereby on the physical
plane the functions of hearing and so forth are accomplished. But, as they are mere instruments
and their power is derived from the mind, a Yogi may accomplish by the mind only all that may
be done by means of these physical organs without the use of the latter....

"The three functions of attention, selection and synthesising the discreet manifold of the senses,
are those belonging to that aspect of the mental body, the eternal agent, called Manas. Just as
manas is necessary to the senses, the latter are necessary for manas.... Manas is thus the leading
indriya, of which the senses are powers." — Serpent Power, by Arthur Avalon.
[6]
The line of the Bodhisattva is that of Love-Wisdom, and of the detailed science of the soul; it
is the teaching line and the path upon which all must eventually pass.
[7]
The Initiations spoken of in this Treatise are the major Initiations which bring about those
expansions of consciousness which lead to liberation; these are taken in the causal body and
from thence reflected into the physical; the Initiate never proclaims his initiation.
[8]
Manasaputras: these are the Sons of Mind, the individual principle in man, the Ego, the solar
Angel, in his own body on the abstract levels of the mental plane.
[9]
Carus, Paul, The Gospel of Buddha, p. 4

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 7
Work to be done

1. Read Chapter 3 a few times in reflective meditation before you read the Commentary in this
set.

2. Meditation

This month your meditation will be as follows:

Step One:

Relax your body.

Calm your emotions.
For a moment, keep mental silence.

Step Two:
Choose a verse from the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3, and meditate upon it for 10 to 15 minutes
each day for a week. At the end of the week choose another verse for the coming week, and
continue in this manner for each following week until the end of the month.

Step Three:

Say The Great Invocation and bless the world in the spirit of peace.

Note: You may read pages 79-105 in The Science of Meditation by Torkom Saraydarian for
further information.

3. At the end of the month, fill in your monthly meditation report and write one typewritten page
about any verses you meditated about.

Keynote

The path of the disciple is a thorny one; briars beset his every step, and difficulties meet him at
every turn. Yet in the treading of the path, in the overcoming of the difficulties, and in a single-
hearted adherence to the good of the group, with a proportionate attention to the individuals and
their evolutionary development, comes at length fruition, and the attainment of the goal. A
SERVER of the race stands forth. He is a server because he has no ends of his own to serve, and
from his lower sheaths goes out no vibration which can beguile him from his chosen path. He
serves, because he knows what is in man, and because for many lives he has worked with
individuals and with groups, gradually expanding the range of his endeavor until he has
gathered around him those units of consciousness whom he can energize, and use, and through
whom he can work out the plans of his superiors. Such is the goal, but the intermediate stages
are fraught with difficulty for all who stand on the verge of self-discovery, and of becoming the
Path itself.

Alice A. Bailey, Initiation, Human and Solar, p. 75

Man is bound by the fetters of Karma if he does not perform his actions as a sacrifice. Therefore,
O Arjuna, perform your duty without attachment.

Bhagavad Gita, Book 3, Verse 9

 Commentary on Chapter 3

The True Way of Action or Service

Arjuna said:

...if knowledge of Self is superior to action, why then are You urging me to this dreadful action?
(3:1)

With Your seemingly conflicting words, You are confusing my mind. Tell me, definitely, the way
by which I may obtain the highest. (3:2)

1. The Two-fold Path (3:1-2)

a. The Yoga of Action (3:4,5)

b. The Yoga of Self-Knowledge (3:3)

2. How to perform the Yoga of Action

a. Without any attachment (3:7,19)

b. To set an example (3:21)

c. For the welfare of the worlds (3:20)

d. In the sense of duty (3:35)

e. Without distress, expectation or egotism (3:30)

The word Karma means action, and Karma Yoga means action which leads to unity, to
Oneself.

Every time a man expresses love, light and goodwill, he gets closer to his own true Self.

Karma means also service. Action changes into service when the light of the unfolding Self
starts to radiate through all that we do on three levels of personality.

Book Three (Chapter Three)

In this book we are concerned with the Yoga of Action, or, as it is called, Karma Yoga, wherein
the will-to-act is used, but the desire nature is controlled or rather superseded. Thus the Yogi is
given opportunity to go closer to his own core, the nature of which is sacrificial radiation.

When the Bhagavad Gita teaches about non-attachment, it refers to non-identification with the
results. Once a man identifies with the results he becomes stuck and crystallizes and does not
continue to progress towards his true Self.
Krishna is not saying that we will not have results good or bad. He does not say that actions do
not create actions or effects. But the main point of discussion is that man must work, serve, and
act because it is right to work, serve and act. In the process of our actions the main thought
which must dominate our mind is how we can make our action as an expression of our highest
love and highest knowledge. Thus the action turns into a self-giving, sacrificing process which
uplifts our consciousness and leads us to the unity with higher states of beingness within us.

Our action which is done for the result eventually turns into greed, craving and exploitation. A
surgeon who performs an operation for the sake of money and not for the sake of performing his
duty toward the patient eventually becomes a monster and misuses his knowledge and skill to
exploit his victims.

Karma Yoga teaches that the motive of the usage of our talents should be performance of our
duty toward others. As we increase in our self-actualization and knowledge, our duty and
responsibility increase toward others, and we feel a greater urge from our inner world to meet
their needs.

Once we learn to act for the sake of performing our duties, we will release ourselves from greed,
fear and related vices, which take away the beauty and simplicity of the life, and change it into a
complicated labyrinth. The Gita says:

You must concern yourself only with the performance of your duty, standing detached from the
fruit of your actions. You must not even seek refuge in inaction, but must carry on your sacred
duty. (2:47)

I know a man who died because the doctor refused to operate until he would pay three hundred
dollars. A Karma Yogi would do this duty toward this man and save his life. People are very
anxious to receive money or any kind of compensation after they do work or service for others.
Every man must receive according to his labor. But even if he did not receive money for a
certain labor or service, he must not reject to serve or labor in such cases, because man's reward
is the performance of his duty. Not a single action remains without reaction.

I know a friend who worked hard for a family and rejected money, realizing that that family
needed money more than he. As he was going back home with a friend who was driving, they
had an accident. The driver was killed but nothing happened to him. A little act of goodwill may
protect you from many evils and dangers.

No man can act as a Karma Yogi except when he is informed about the secret of the Self and the
ultimate goal of life. Once he knows these two great mysteries, he will love and sacrifice. He will
live not for himself but for others. This is Karma Yoga.

The man who lives for results, his interests control his life, his actions, his outlooks, his thoughts
and feelings. He turns into a puppet tied by the strings of his expected results. Such a man cannot
enter the path of unfoldment, sacrifice and service, because when a man acts for the results, he
loses the spirit of striving which is the process of controlling the lower self by the inner true Self.
When a man has no striving, he has no goal and he is a lost man in the jungle of the glamors and
illusions of the world. Striving cannot be achieved as long as a man is working for the results,
because results lead him towards pleasures and matter.

Krishna goes a little deeper and says that the disciple even must not work and labor to achieve
heaven and its pleasures and peace. The destiny of a true server is greater than that. It is not
heaven, which is an intermediary state of consciousness, but self-realization, God-fusion and
fulfillment of the purpose of God.

When one is trapped in success and failure, in pleasure and pain, he creates causes which lead
him into ceaseless incarnations in this world of pain and suffering. Attachment creates causes to
be solved in future lives.

Once a man is able to use these three powers, his actions are controlled by the Self, and this is
what we call service.

The science of correct action, Karma Yoga, teaches that unless a disciple is fully Soul-infused
and is receiving the triple energies which flow down through the Soul, he cannot go forward on
the path. As it is told, “Thou cannot travel on the path before thou hast become the path itself.”

Since man is a functioning part of the greater whole he must by necessity either push forward
with the Plan or hold back by personal action and thereby deliberately hold back the Plan. Thus
action and non-action are both action as far as the whole is concerned. The non-doing or
incorrect doing, which must by the laws of the Cosmos affect the Plan, makes Karma for the
individual, the group and the race. Karma is the corrector.

It is interesting to note that Lord Krishna is not only emphasizing knowledge, but also intuition,
the vehicle of love-wisdom. And eventually He brings another quality, which is the will-energy,
into action.

Only a refined and well-informed mind, pure intuition and divine will help man to grow in his
service and stay detached. Here detachment means that he does not let his personality, egotistic
nature interfere with the Supreme Service.

Thus the mind must be developed but not crystallized as the Tibetan Master says:

When mind becomes unduly developed and ceases to unite the higher and the lower, it forms a
sphere of its own. This is the greatest disaster that can overtake the human unit.[1]

The Yoga of Action

In this chapter Lord Krishna explains how we must work and serve, in a way that the true Self is
contacted, and expressed in its total beauty.

Some human beings have a tendency to escape from their duties and responsibilities, which
demand action on various levels and try to get in touch with them in solitude, in prayer and
meditation, but in the meantime dwell in their minds upon the objects of the senses.
The Gita says that such persons are ...in illusion and are false ascetics. (3:6) The spiritual
unfoldment and development must be carried on in the midst of our daily responsibilities, duties,
problems and service. The true Teaching does not encourage any kind of escape. It teaches that a
disciple or an Initiate gets his maturity and discipline in his family, group, social, national and
international fields of obligation.

Of course, a disciple can go into periodic retreats to recharge himself and purify his vision, but
he returns to the field where the daily battle of life is going on.

It is in the field of action that he learns the lesson of detachment, and when he retreats he does
not carry with him the luggage of his worries, desires and decisions but he goes into retreat with
his own pure Self, to meet himself, and to set aright his future course of action.

...he who, controlling the senses by the mind and without any attachment performs Karma Yoga
through the organs of action, he is a far superior man. (3:7)

An advanced Yogi must be able to control his senses on all planes. For example, if he does not
want to hear, he will not hear; if he does not want to see, he does not see; if he does not want to
feel; he does not feel, and so on. He can extend his control upon the astral plane and also higher
planes. He can withdraw his attention from any sense, and the object of the sense ceases to create
attachment.

Because of this control he can hear or reject any sound he wants from the astral plane or mental
plane. He develops total control upon his subtle senses and thus masters his mechanism and
communicates with greater fields, or withdraws into his true Self.

All our attachments are the result of our lack of control upon the senses. Whether we like it or
not, the objects of the senses control our senses, and force us to attach to them. Thus, a man who
has no control upon his astral hearing constantly picks up astral sounds and eventually loses his
sanity. Or a sensationalist eventually becomes the victim of his pleasures and loses his life. One
who has control upon the senses is the one who can really perform Karma Yoga, or action which
leads to unity.

How does this happen? Control upon the senses creates detachment. When a man continuously
detaches from the objects of the senses, he eventually becomes Himself, just like a man who
takes his mask away and appears as his true Self.

When detachment is ruling, all action that man performs are processes of self-actualization. It is
not an action forced by the objects of the senses, but by the purpose of the innermost Self.

When actions are performed without attachment, the vehicles of man function as a unit. Many,
many actions that we perform do not have the total approval of our physical, emotional, mental
and spiritual natures, because of various attachments on various vehicles or manifold
occupations of each vehicle. A detached man is still using his sense organs, but without being
controlled by them. When I was learning how to ride a horse, it took me wherever it wanted
without paying the slightest attention to my directions. This is what happens when your sense
organs control you. The place they take you is not he place where you unfold spiritually. When
the sense organs are controlled, you act as a unit. So we can say that Karma Yoga is the result of
our inner unity, and integration with the vehicles of manifestation.

The two paths about which Krishna talks are actually one. See Chapter 5, verse 4.

The Path of Self-Knowledge is the realization of one's own self, the path of action is the
expression of such a unity. Some people think that after they achieve a certain degree of self-
realization they must enjoy it in solitude and in inaction. The point Lord Krishna emphasizes is
that such an achievement is a trap. Once your awareness touches your true Self, you become
radioactive, a “light that cannot be hidden under a bushel.” This radioactivity is Karma Yoga
which causes unification, alignment and integration in a man's own vehicles, and the vehicles of
all those with whom he comes in contact.

Actually a great Master is one who is active twenty-four hours and progressively upon as many
planes as possible.

Arjuna psychologically fell into such a trap of inaction when he confronted the needed efforts for
further evolution. That is why Lord Krishna says:

Therefore perform your ordained action, for action is superior than inaction. With inaction you
cannot even maintain your own body. (3:8)

After saying this, He gives a deeper teaching to Arjuna. A teaching which contains all the keys to
our liberation. He says:

Man is bound by the fetters of Karma if he does not perform his actions as a sacrifice. (3:9)

Fetters of Karma are the effects or results of action. There is a law in the Universe which is
called the Law of Cause and Effect, the Law of Action and Inaction. This is a law which
functions not only on the physical plane but also on all subtle planes in the Universe. A thought
is an action on the mental plane, and it produces a reaction, a result and effect which flow into
space as cause and effect, cause and effect, cause and effect — continuously, until the cause and
effect slowly fade away into other causes and effects.

This means that for every action there is a reaction. If this reaction is creating such a condition in
which I am trapped (through my own action) then I am working against my own liberation. How
can I escape such a trap? Krishna answers:

...perform [your] actions as a sacrifice. (3-9)

Sacrifice

The closest definition of sacrifice is radioactivity. Spiritual radioactivity is a state of being, in

which the innermost core of your essence pours out in all directions as the rays of the sun. In
such a state your vehicles of manifestation turn into pure channels of the rays of the inner
spiritual Sun, and they cease to be active on their own, but transmit the light of the core.

When all your vehicles become active to channel the spirit, and are inactive for their own ends,
their action does not create fetters, and the karma can be overcome on at least three planes (the
physical, emotional and mental) and the man liberates himself from the wheel of suffering, from
the wheel of birth and death.

We die, and are born again because of the fetters created by our own actions on the three lower
planes of our existence.

In the beginning the Giver of Life, creating mankind through sacrifice, said, “by sacrifice you
will multiply, and in sacrifice you will find the fulfillment of all your aspirations.” (3:10)

According to the Ageless Wisdom the whole creation is an act of sacrifice. To sacrifice means to
express and radiate a part of the real you and sustain the continuity of its existence by your own
life.

This is what happened in the creation of this Solar System. The Solar Life, Who was holding in
His own Being millions of tiny lives, radiated them out and sustained their life, and created
conditions in which they can develop and unfold and reach the state where He is found now, and
beyond.

By sacrifice you will multiply. The loser in this life eventually is the one who receives but does
not give; holds, but not releases; inhales, but does not exhale.

The winner in this life is the one who shines and radiates out and as he radiates he increases his
own radiation. Each act of radiation releases more light, love and power within him.

The fulfillment of aspiration is nothing else but self-realization. And the self-realization can be
achieved only by releasing all that you were holding, or by purifying your vehicles in such a
degree that the divine glory can pass through and meet the needs of man, without hitting an
obstacle in you.

Through your sacrifice, you nourish the Shining Ones, the Devas, and they in their turn, nourish
you. (3:11)

You nourish the Shining Ones, the Heavenly Beings, angels or devas though your thoughts,
aspirations and radiations which are originating from your true Self for the good of all.

You become as the earth which heals and nourishes animals and human kingdoms with its
vegetables, flowers and fruits. Your best radiations are your fruits. That is why the great Lord
Christ said, By their fruits you will know them.

Your aspirations, ideas, thoughts and visions are the sublimation of substance, higher
transformation of substance, as a flower is as transformation of many chemicals from the earth.
As you nourish them, they will nourish you, because when you give them the food of your
highest beauties, they will establish a communication with you and through this communication
they will impart healing powers. They will inspire your mind with greater ideas, greater insight,
greater creativity.

We do not realize how much pollution we send into space through our negative emotions and
criminal thoughts. Devas cannot approach such an atmosphere. But if instead we send the
symphony of our positive emotions and humanitarian, benevolent thoughts, they will be
nourished by these thoughts as we get great nourishment from music, from any real art, from
color, motion or from beautiful words and literature.

...the selfish men, who cook only for themselves, eat only sin. (3:13)

This is a remarkable phrase. Man's greatest sin is to live for himself, putting himself separate
from others. This is the greatest sin because many other sins are the children of such a sin. Of
course, he is referring to a man who thinks only of his own welfare, even at the expense of
others.

To cook here does not mean to cook a meal or food but it means to think, to speak, to act; all
these things produce food for devas if they are of high quality; but if they are centered on the self
and for its pleasures, they produce sin and separation.

In Hindu literature we have five forms of sacrifice:

1. Sacrifice to God. This is your early morning meditation and striving towards
perfection.

2. Sacrifice to your Teacher, or to the Enlightened One. This is done by reading Their
books, or scriptures, and pondering on them.

3. Sacrifice for the parents, members and group members, and for those who have
passed away. The second part is done by sending them loving thoughts.

4. Sacrifice for mankind. A man who places the public interest above his personal
interest and acts accordingly is performing sacrifice for mankind.

5. Sacrifice for all beings, in all kingdoms. This is done in helping life as a whole to
evolve in all created forms.

All these are called sacrifice because through such a process a person is getting away from his
selfish interests and gradually is living for others, for the whole.

Sacrifice is the result of action. (3:14)

Action is a process of giving oneself away. When the clouds give themselves away you have
rain; when the rain gives itself away, food is produced. And when food gives itself away, people
are nourished. (See verse 14.)

...action springs from the Eternal One, and the Eternal One comes forth from the Imperishable
One. Therefore, the all-pervading Eternal One always is present in sacrifice. (3:15)

This is so beautiful. The source of everything is the Imperishable One, the Infinite Space, from
which comes forth the Eternal One, the Spirit, the energy which, going down the involutionary
arc, becomes matter. It is the relation of energy and matter that produces all manifested forms in
the Cosmos.

The Eternal One in man is the Spark, or the unfolding human soul. All true acts of sacrifice are
the radiation of that pure Self, the Spark, which expressed itself on the higher planes.

Each act that is motivated or springs out from the center carries the charge of that center with it
and passes it to whatever it touches. For example, a sacrificial action evokes from our hearts at
least a great striving or great drive to do similar actions.

In the next verse, (3:16), Lord Krishna says that ...the wheel was set in motion. This wheel refers
to the acts of creation as a whole. There is incessant motion in Cosmos, from the atom to the
galaxies. Man must consciously take part in this motion in his harmonious actions. Any moment
a man stops and gets satisfied, he lives in sin and lives in vain.(3:16)

Satisfaction is cessation of striving, cessation of the urge to drive forward toward perfection and
mastery.

...lives in sin means a life against the cosmic harmony. ...and lives in vain means that he does not
proceed on the path of self-fulfillment, self-actualization, and dharma, and his life is a waste of
time, for which he will pay by suffering and rebirth.

In verse 17, Lord Krishna refers to a man who is living within the bliss of the Self. Such an
achievement is gained through great sacrificial service for many, many lives. When a man does
his duty in the three worlds, and enters into the bliss of his true Self, there is nothing on the
external world that urges him to act, but he acts for the welfare of others. See verse 22.

In verse 20, Janaka is mentioned. Janaka was a philosophic king. He was the embodiment of
endless sacrificial service and a man of great self-realization. When people came and informed
him that “..his capital city was on fire,” he, with divine indifference said, "If the capital is on fire
nothing that is mine is on fire."

A great initiate writing about him says, “Janaka obtained the position of a preceptor in selfless
action, a position never before won by anyone else.”

If I do not perform action, these worlds would dissolve; I should be the cause of chaos in this
world, and thus all creatures would go to destruction. (3:24)
This is a very interesting verse, and there is a mystery in it that must be explained. When an
initiate reaches a certain degree of spiritual attainment, he at will can contact the innermost
Center within himself and touch the planetary Soul. Immediately when He touches that great
Soul of the planet, He becomes His representative in the world, and expresses His intention
through His words.

Many, many times Jesus said that It is the Father Who speaks through me. Here Lord Krishna, in
a supreme state of at-one-ment, expresses the Law in His own words, talking as if He were the
great soul of the planet, or the greater Soul of the Solar System. In such a sacred moment the
monadic essence of an Initiate opens to the greater reality, and the greater reality expresses
Himself through the Initiate. This is a supreme moment of contact, in which the Plan and the
Purpose of the life is revealed in its highest beauty.

These contacts are gradual. First man contacts his Soul, and experiences a great expansion of
consciousness. Then he contacts his Master and experiences a sense of inexplicable unity. Then
he contacts his own inner Core, which gives him a sense of great synthesis in the solar sense.
Then he contacts the planetary Soul — Solar Soul — progressively penetrating further into
greater reality.

Our Hindu brothers proclaim that Krishna is the Logos Himself, He is God, Himself. We hear
the same thing from the Christians that Christ is the Son of God and that He is God.

In the New Age we don't need such glorifications and aggrandizements to arouse our interest in
Their Teachings. On the contrary, Lord Krishna is great because He is human in His birth, in His
strivings, and in His achievements. Similarly Christ is great because He is “the Son of man.”
This does not mean to deny Their divine origin. Is there anything in the world, any living Spark
which did not proceed from HIM?

In verse 27, we have another deep Teaching.

All actions are done by the gunas of the primordial substance. Man, who is deluded by egoism,
thinks “I am the doer.” (3:27)

What are the gunas? Gunas are the qualities of the primordial matter by which all vehicles of all
entities at least in this Solar System are built. The Monad has Its vehicle which is called Monadic
Auric Egg, or the dwelling place in the Father's Home, the first condensation of primordial
matter or the first temporary vehicle. The quality of this body is sattva or rhythm, or pure
radiance.

Then we have the quality of the vehicle of the Soul, which is Rajas or motion between
personality and spirit.

The vehicle of the Soul is called:

• Causal Body

• Karana Sarira
 • Egoic Body

• The Temple of Solomon

• The Lotus

• The Chalice

• The Second Temporary Vehicle

Next comes the quality of the personality vehicles which is Tamas or inertia in comparison to
these higher vehicles. These are the mental, emotional and etheric bodies and are more
condensed than the previous ones, and are almost as tangible as the physical body which is the
shadow of the etheric body. The conflict between these two gunas causes the unfolding human
soul to progress on the path of evolution.

The human soul first experiences inertia as he is identified with the physical etheric body, then
tastes the quality of motion in his emotional experiences, then he enters into the mental body and
experiences there the quality of rhythm, or radiation.

Once he reaches there, he becomes aware that in comparison to the Soul quality, all the qualities
of his three vehicles can be called inertia. As for example you drive your car 5, 20, 40 miles per
hour and as you increase the speed to feel that you are really going fast, but when another vehicle
passes you at 150 miles per hour, you speed seems to you as having no motion.

The same thing happens when you step into the speed level of the Soul and observe the speed of
the Monad.

Another example can be seen when you have a bright light on the street, but after the sun rises,
you do not notice the street light.

The whole nature of man and the universe is the playground of these three gunas. They are the
qualities that keep the universe in progress. Their interaction gives a chance to the spark to learn
how to use them, to further the Purpose of the manifestation, and eventually learn how to surpass
them and enter into the Unmanifested One.

In the 14th Chapter we read:

Sattva, Rajas, Tamas, these three gunas are from Substance, and they bind the embodied one to
the bodies. (14:5)

In the same chapter, verse 20 reads:

The indwelling one, when he transcends these three gunas by which the bodies are built, he
becomes liberated from birth, death, decay, sorrow, and attains immortality. (14:20)

See also Chapter 2, verse 45.

In The Secret Doctrine we read:

It has already been stated that, to become self-conscious, Spirit must pass through every cycle of
being, culminating in its highest point on earth in man.

Spirit per se is an unconscious negative abstraction. Its purity is inherent, not acquired by merit;
hence, ... to become the highest Dhyan Chohan, it is necessary for each ego[2] to attain to full
self-consciousness as a human, i.e. conscious being, which is synthesized for us in man.[3]

A question here arises. If the gunas do all the action why must a man be responsible for what he
does or does not. The answer is that there are two kinds of action. The action of gunas which are
the qualities of the primordial matter, or substance, by which all our vehicles are built. A man
who is identified with any of his vehicles is not a doer, because the nature does and he witnesses.
But once he contacts his true Self which is beyond the control of the gunas, he can act upon the
gunas and use them for his own ends. A man who is identified with his vehicles and is under
total control of the gunas, is a deluded person, and he is the one who thinks I am the doer.

Lord Krishna, being above the three gunas, acts and what is his action? He creates those causes
which eventually will lead man out of matter and out of the gunas, to their true Selves.

The action that Lord Krishna is suggesting to Arjuna is the same action. Stand and fight. Against
what? Against all that keeps you captive in the material universe, all that controls you, and find
the way to your innermost self.

How can this be achieved? By detachment, and detachment is done through striving and mastery.

Man is always responsible for his actions, because the principle of intelligence in him knows
right action from wrong action. We can even say that he pays the price of this wrong action,
whether it is performed knowingly or unknowingly. If a boy plays with a pistol and shoots
himself, the pistol has no way to stop that action and the boy suffers. He suffers because he is
under the control of gunas.

Man, creating right causes, eventually climbs up from the ladder of inertia and motion, and
enters into rhythm. Here he enjoys greater beauties and eventually he goes beyond them.

Greater and longer suffering awaits those who live in inertia. They shorten the length of their
suffering and its intensity when they enter into motion. They enter into personal joy but suffer
for all living beings when they are in rhythm. All suffering ceases when they go beyond it.

Men of deeper knowledge should not mislead those who, having little knowledge, are attached to
the functions of the gunas, and make them give up their natural duties. (3:29)

That is exactly what happened throughout history, men of deeper knowledge taught that the best
way for salvation is to retreat, or to go to seclusion forgetting all about life. They thought that all
is done by matter for matter, and if you want to save your soul, go to solitude. This is how
monasteries and convents were created, and caves were inhabited by those who yet had
responsibility in the world.

Lord Krishna says,

You must not even seek refuge in inaction, but must carry on your sacred duty. (2:47)

In the 30th verse of Chapter 3, Lord Krishna tries to uplift Arjuna to the level of self-
determination and says:

...with your thoughts focussed on the supreme Self, fight , without distress, expectation or
egoism....(3:30)

To be distressed in fight, to have personal expectation, and function in egotism, means to be

attached to the gunas, and act under their commands.

Verse 33 is again a very interesting one:

Even a man of spiritual knowledge acts in conformity with his own Nature. All beings follow
Nature. (2:33)

What is Nature? Nature is the created universe, its laws and gunas, its cycles and function. In
man nature is all of these plus the awakening spirit, the Self. The nature of man is a mixture of
these, too. We may say that man has two natures, the higher and the lower, and the possibility to
step beyond these natures.

A man of spiritual knowledge is not a liberated man yet. He knows, but he is not. Even such a
man acts as he is, which means he acts in conformity with his own nature. Having such a dual
nature man has affection affection for and aversion to the objects of the senses. (3:34)

How can he get rid of these attractions and repulsions? By knowing that they are our adversaries.
This knowledge may lead us to a state of consciousness which is called “divine indifference.”
Once we touch our essence and become our true Self then all that happens to us does not affect
our divine serenity because:

a. We know that they are the result of karma.

b. They are influencing only our vehicles.

c. They will stop when we transcend the three gunas.

In verse 26 Lord Krishna gives a very subtle Teaching. He says that man must perform his own
dharma, his own duty and responsibility, whatever it is, because so doing, he will further his
evolution and thus become a benevolent force in nature.
But if he leaves his dharma undone and steps into the dharma of another man, in his act he is
depriving the man to learn his lesson and to perform his duty and responsibility.

Interference with the dharma of others is the result of personal vanities, glamors and illusions,
and it denotes detachment to the lower nature, and “such a man is dangerous.” He is dangerous
in a way that he hinders the chance of growth of others and complicates his own karma. That is
why in the West we say mind your own business.

The discourse between Arjuna and Lord Krishna is enlightening on each step, and after listening
to the supreme Teaching, Arjuna presents another subtle question. If the gunas are doing all
action, and if the Self is pure and divine, then

...by what is the Self impelled to commit sin, even unwillingly, as if pushed by a force? (3:36)

The answer is so beautiful. It is not the self that sins, but the desire, the anger, born from the
guna of motion. The self is identified with the body, emotional and mental vehicles and is lost in
them, feeling that he is the body, the emotions and the mind. The identification with the bodies is
agitated by the desire, born from the guna of motion.

What is the guna of motion? The guna of motion is the communication line between inertia and
rhythm, between darkness and light, between good and evil. It is this relation that creates a desire
in the heart of the self who is now living as a body in inertia and he stretches himself to reach
something that will help him to move out of his inertia. This creates uneasiness in the identified
self and he “thinks” that his problem is solved in accumulation, in friction, in doing. Thus he
runs after the objects of his physical, emotional and mental nature.

Desire is the attractive power of his vehicles and senses which want to accumulate. Rhythm pulls
higher atoms to the rhythmic sphere. Inertia pulls atoms of inertia to itself. This is done by the
quality of motion existent in each atom, and the law behind it is the Law of Attraction and
repulsion. Man, being the middle point, is like a pendulum swinging with his desires, right to
left, left to right, and this meaningless motion will continue until he liberates himself from these
two poles by the power of his true Self.

Verses 39 and 43 beautifully and clearly explain this point.

Note: The substance of desire is the emotional substance which is dominated by the guna of
motion, in the personality vehicles. Our emotional vehicles are polluted by our glamors which
are built by our strong desires for various objects with which we are identified. Once the man is
identified with an object of desire, his senses, and even his mind and intelligence work to bring
him satisfaction. And because nothing can satisfy the blindfolded self, man continuously changes
the objects of his desire, hoping that he will eventually will find the object of his satisfaction.
This is the game of gunas for a blinded man.

Lord Krishna warns that it is not by running after the objects of the desire that man will find his
path of liberation, but by renouncing desire, and traveling the path of becoming his true Self.
 Interrelations of the Personality Life
From Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II

In dealing now with the esoteric aspect of the appropriation of the vehicles through which a
manifesting Son of God can express himself, it is impossible to avoid the use of some form of
symbolic rendering of words. So long, however, as the student remembers that they are
symbolic, there is no real danger of a basic misunderstanding. The analytical, intelligent mind
uses forms of speech in order to limit the concept intuited within terms which can be
comprehended, and abstract ideas are thereby brought down to the level of the understanding.

We have seen that our major consideration must be that of the soul as the center of
consciousness and of the bodies as a center of experience, and with this postulate we lay the
foundation for our future psychological investigations. We are not here dealing with the question
of why this is so, or of how it may have come about. We accept the statement as basic and
fundamental, and take our stand upon the premise that the nature of life in the world is
experience-gaining, because we see this happening around us on every side and can note it
occurring in our own lives.

We can divide people into three groups:

1. Those who are consciously gaining experience, but are at the same time so
engrossed with the processes of the results of experiencing, that they remain
unaware of the deeper objectives.

2. Those who are dimly awakening to the fact that adaptation to the ways of living to
which they are subjected, and from which there seems no escape, means for them
the learning of some lesson which

a. Enriches their lives, usually in the practical and material sense.

b. Intensifies their sensitive perception.

c. Permits of the development of quality and the steady acquiring of

characteristics, facilities and capacities.

3. Those who are awakened to the purpose of experience, and who are consequently
bringing to every event an intelligent power to extract from the happenings to which
they are subjected some gain to the life of the soul. They have learnt to regard the
environment in which they find themselves as the place of purification and the field
of their planned service.

This is a rough and broad generalization, but it accounts for human experience and consequent
attitudes in the three major groupings.
It is of interest to bear in mind that the process of the appropriation of the bodies, presents
similar stages with respect to the evolution of the form and to the evolution of the indwelling life.
In the history of the material aspect of manifestation, there have been (as the occult books teach)
the following stages:

1. The stage of involution, or of appropriation, and of construction of the vehicles of

expression upon the downward arc, where the emphasis is upon the building, growth
and appropriation of the bodies, and not so much upon the indwelling, conscious
entity.

2. The stage of evolution, or of refinement and the development of quality, leading to

liberation upon the upward arc.

It is the same in the psychological history of the human being. There too we find a somewhat
similar process, divided into two stages, marking the involution and the evolution of
consciousness.

Hitherto in the occult books (as I earlier pointed out) the emphasis has been upon the
development of the form side of life, and upon the nature and quality of that form as it responds,
upon different levels of the planetary life, to the impact of the environment in the early stages
and to the impress of the soul at the latter stages. In this Treatise with which we are now
engaged, our primary aim is to point out the effect upon the soul of the experiences undergone in
the bodies, and the process whereby the consciousness aspect of divinity is expanded,
culminating as it does in what is technically called an initiation. Each of the two major divisions
of this process — involution and evolution — could be divided into six definite expansions of
consciousness. Those upon the upward arc differ from those upon the downward arc in objective
and motive and in scope, and are essentially sublimations of the lower aspects of the unfoldment
of consciousness. These six stages might be called:

1. The stage of Appropriation.

2. The stage of aspiration.

3. The stage of Approach.

4. The stage of Appearance.

5. The stage of Activity.

6. The stage of Ambition.

Each stage, when at its height of expression, involves a period of crisis. This crisis precedes the
unfoldment of the next stage in the conscious awakening of man. We here are viewing Man as a
conscious thinker, and not man as a member of the fourth kingdom in nature. Ponder upon this
distinction, for it marks the points of emphasis and the focus of the identification.
In the first stage of appropriation, we have the soul or the conscious thinker (the divine son of
God, or manasaputra) doing three things:

1. Consciously registering the desire to incarnate. This is the will to exist or the will-to-
be upon the physical plane.

2. Consciously focusing attention on the processes involved in the decision to “make an

appearance”.

3. Consciously taking the necessary steps to appropriate the needed substance through
which to appear and thereby satisfy the demand for existence.

With these processes, formulated as theories, we are familiar. The speculations and
pronouncements of teachers everywhere, and down the ages, have familiarized us with the many
symbolic ways of dealing with these matters. Upon them there is no need to enlarge. The whole
series of events involved in the decision are to be considered here only from the angle of
consciousness and of a defined involutionary procedure.

The second stage of aspiration concerns the aspiration or the desire of the soul to appear, and
brings the consciousness down on to what we call the astral plane. The inclination of the soul is
towards that which is material. We must not forget this fact. We have been apt to regard
aspiration as the consummation or the transmutation of desire. However, in the last analysis, it
might be said that aspiration is the basis or root of all desire and that we have only used the word
“desire” to signify aspiration which has a natural object in the consciousness of man, confining
the word “aspiration” to that transmuted desire which makes the soul the fixed objective in the
life of the man in incarnation. But all phases of desire are essentially forms of aspiration and, on
the involutionary arc, aspiration shows itself as the desire of the soul to experience in
consciousness those processes which will make it conscious and dynamic in the world of human
affairs.

When this conscious realization is established and the soul has appropriated a form upon the
mental plane through the will to exist, and one also upon the astral plane through aspiration, then
the third stage of approach takes place upon etheric levels. The consciousness becomes focused
there, preparatory to the intense crisis of “appearing”, and there takes place what might be
regarded as a ranging or a gathering of all the forces of the consciousness in order to force the
issue and thus emerge into manifestation. This is a vital moment in consciousness; it is a period
of vital preparation for a great spiritual event — the coming into incarnation of a son of God.
This involves the taking of a dense physical body which will act either as a complete prison for
the soul or as a “form for revelation”, as it has been called, in the cases of those advanced men
whom we regard as the revealed sons of God.

The crisis of approach is one of the most important and one of the least understood of the various
stages. Students should find it of interest to make a comparative study of the approaches which
have previously been mentioned in connection with such episodes in human history as those
occurring at the time of the Wesak Full Moon. There is a close underlying relationship between
the approaches upon the path of involution and those upon the path of evolution, and also
between those taken by an individual and those by a group.

Then, when the gathering of forces during the stage of approach is consummated, the fourth
stage takes place, that of appearance, and the man emerges into the light of day and runs his
little cycle upon the physical plane, developing increased sensitivity in consciousness, through
the medium of experience gained through the processes of life in a physical body. After
appearing in form he becomes (with each new appearance) increasingly active and alive and
awake, and the stage of activity grows in intensity until the consciousness of the man is swept by
ambition.

The two final stages of activity and of ambition are those covered by the ordinary man and dealt
with by the ordinary psychologist. This is itself of interest, because it shows how very little of
the life of the real man, of the conscious thinking Being is touched by the orthodox, exoteric
psychologist. The four stages of man's development which lie behind his active appearance upon
the physical plane and are not considered at all. The intensity of the process of approach which
preceded that appearance is not dealt with, yet it is basically a determining factor. But this
activity upon the physical plane and the nature of his desire life (which is only translated into
terms of ambition later on in his life experience are the dominant factors to be considered. It is,
of course, exceedingly difficult for there to be a true understanding of man until the theory of
rebirth is admitted and man is accounted for in terms of a long preceding history. In this age of
intensest separative thinking and attitudes, it is the individual life of the individual man, separate
in time and space from all that has gone before, and from all that surrounds him in the present,
which is considered as of importance and as constituting a man. Man, as an expression of a soul
process, is not dealt with in any way.

Thus we have the stages succeeding each other from the initial appropriation upon the mental
plane until the man, in consciousness, has worked his way down through the planes and back
again to the mental plane, which brings him to the stage of the coordination of the personality,
and the emergence into full expression of what we call the personality ray. Life after life takes
place. Again and again, the soul incarnates and, in consciousness, passes through the stages
outlined above. But gradually a higher sense of values supervenes; there comes a period when
desire for material experience and for ambitious personality satisfactions begins to fade out;
newer and better values and higher standards of thought and desire begin slowly to appear.

The consciousness aspect then passes through all the stages upon which we have touched but in
reverse order, and this time upon the upward arc, corresponding to the evolutionary stage in the
great cycle of natural processes, concerned with the form life. It expands slowly from the
consciousness of ambition through activity and the succeeding unfoldments, to the stage of
approach to the divine reality upon the mental plane and that of final appropriation, wherein the
consciousness of man, becomes merged in that of the soul upon its own level, and finally
appropriates in full awareness (if one can use so paradoxical a phrase) the One.

When the consciousness of the soul, incarnate in a human form, arrives at a realization of the
futility of material ambition, it marks a high stage of personality integration and precedes a
period of change or of a shift in activity. During this second stage upon the Path of Return, the
shift of the consciousness is away from the physical body altogether, into the etheric or vital
body, and from thence into the astral body. There duality is sensed and the battle of the pairs of
opposites takes place. The disciple makes his appearance as Arjuna. Only after the battle and
only when Arjuna has made his fateful decisions, is it possible for him to make his approach
upon the mental plane to the soul. This he does by

1. Realizing himself as a soul and not as the form. This involves a process of what is
called “divine reflection”, which works out in two ways. The soul now begins
definitely to reject the form, and the man, through whom the soul is experiencing
and expressing itself, is himself rejected by the world in which he lives.

2. Discovering the group to which he belongs, blocking his way of approach until he
discovers the way of approach by service.

3. Identifying himself with his group upon his own ray and so earning the right to make
his approach, because he has learned the lesson that “he travels not alone.”

Then comes that peculiar stage of transcendent aspiration, wherein desire for individual
experience is lost and only the longing to function as a conscious part of the greater Whole
remains. Then and only then can the conscious soul appropriate the “body of light and of
splendor, the expression of the glory of the One” which, when once assumed, makes all future
incarnations in the three worlds impossible, except as an act of the spiritual will. The
significance of the above may be found difficult of comprehension for it is one of the mysteries
of a higher initiation.

Therefore, it will be seen that we begin and we end with an expansion of consciousness. The first
one led to the inclusion of the material world, and the second one includes or appropriates,
consciously and intelligently, the spiritual world.

Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, pp. 325-333

[1]
Bailey, Alice A., A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 261
[2]
Developing human soul.
[3]
Blavatsky, H.P., The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 215

The Bhagavad Gita

 Lesson 8
Work to be done

1. Read Chapter 4 at least five times and memorize three verses that you really like. Write them
down in your report to us.

2. Meditation

Step One:

Relax your body.

Calm your emotions.
For a moment, keep mental silence.

Step Two:

For 10-15 minutes daily, meditate upon a verse in Chapter 4. Change your seed thought every
week.

Step Three:

Say The Great Invocation and bless the world in the spirit of peace.

3. Write one typewritten page about verse 34 of Ch. 4.

4. At the end of the month, fill in your monthly meditation report and send your paper about
verse 34.

BOOK 4 - the RENUNCIATION FROM ACTION IN SELF-KNOWLEDGE

Commentary Part One

The fourth book is called Renunciation from action in Self-Knowledge. In this book we find a
very important point: the information that the Teaching was given to some advanced people age
after age, as it seemed necessary to do so.

In esoteric teaching we are told that he source of all mysteries and esoteric knowledge is the
great Center which we call Shamballa. Shamballa, which is called also the White Island, and “...
exists to the present hour; now as an oasis surrounded by the dreadful wilderness of the great
desert, the Gobi— whose sands no foot had crossed in the memory of men.”[1]

“It is there from time immemorial that has lain concealed the final hope and light of the world,
the salvation of mankind. Many are the names of that school and land.... It is from this
mysterious land, that the Hindu expects the Kalki Avatar, the Buddhist his Maitreya... and the
Christian expects his Christ.”[2]
This great school of light is also called the Center where the will of God is known. According to
the Master Djwhal Khul, this Center now exists in the etheric place, probably above the land of
Shamballa, where a long time ago great Ones formed the first mystery school for humanity.

In this fourth book we learn that the Teaching was delivered in royal order. Krishna was from a
royal family, and in contact with this great Center of Shamballa. He gave the Teaching to
Vivasvan, who came from a very high royal family, whose members were symbolically called
the Sun-Gods. They were enlightened by great wisdom. Krishna passed it to Vivasvan. He in
turn gave it to his son, Manu, who gave the great Laws, which are called the Laws of Manu.
Manu imparted the esoteric teaching contained in the Gita to Skshvaku, his son, who became the
father of the “Solar Dynasty” that ruled over Ayodhya for many ages.

The Teaching was first given to the ruling or military class, as the carriers of Shamballa energy,
which is the energy that rules according to the divine plan. Some in the Brahmin cast received
only the exoteric version of the Teaching to be taught for the masses.

It is very interesting to see that the great sage who received the Teaching gave it to his son. The
word “son” in esoteric literature does not necessarily refer to the son by blood, but to the one
who is spiritually in tune with the father, the Teacher, spiritually faithful “to father” and ready to
live the spiritual life imparted by him.

The closest relatives of a Teacher are those who are born from the spiritual labor of their
Teacher. Those who were directly in contact with the Stronghold, or with the One School,
eventually formed the Hierarchy of enlightened minds, and formulated a plan for the liberation
of humanity. The Teaching of the Masters of the Wisdom, or the Hierarchy of Enlightened
Minds, formed the world religions, which are the exoteric representation of inner laws and
principles taught though the inner schools.

In this fourth book we have another important point which is the teaching of the Avatars. An
Avatar is a divine incarnation or One Who descends from the divine source. Krishna, Buddha,
Zoroaster, Christ and many others were Avatars.

We have Avatars not only on the religious line, but in the seven-fold field of human endeavor,
namely, political, educational, philosophical, and in the fields of art, science, religion and
economics. These are the fields that occupied Their attention, and age after age, They came to
teach humanity the right principles and left humanity free to practice and use them for its own
evolution.

We are told that there are Cosmic Avatars, Solar Avatars, Interplanetary Avatars and human
Avatars, all working in harmony with the will of the Cosmic Being.

Arjuna said,

Vivasvan was born earlier; Your birth was later. How, then could You teach it, in the beginning,
to him? (4:4)
A very similar event happened in the life of Christ, when one day He said to the Jews, “Your
father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, he saw it and was glad.”

Then said the Jews to Him, “Thou art not fifty years old, and hast Thou seen Abraham?”

Jesus said to them, “Verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.”

Here Krishna and Christ were referring to the fact that before the named Sages, They were at
work in Their Father's business.

Arjuna, many are the births that have passed by you and Me. I remember them all, and you don't.
(4:5)

In this verse Krishna first of all re-emphasizes His human origin. He was a man under the law of
cyclic appearance, and eventually mastered life, and entered the path of conscious immortality.
He can remember all of His births because He is in contact with the house of records and can
trace His past step by step. He can do this because He has achieved continuity of consciousness,
or built the communication line between the brain and the subtle worlds.[3]

One is more divine and more adorable if he was human but through his strivings became
superhuman and divine, than one who was divine and was playing human. Ridiculous are those
who continuously emphasize that Krishna and Christ were Gods and incarnated as human beings.
We assume that man has a divine origin, and each man is an incarnated spark of God, but great
ones are those Who worked hard and sacrificed the whole to teach us the science of liberation.

Avatars are God-conscious individualities. They are human and divine. They understand both
states of consciousness and can speak either as a divine or human being.

In many instances Krishna speaks on both levels; sometimes as a human being, sometimes as a
divine being. He speaks as the Lord-Krishna, and often He turns Himself into a channel through
which the Greater One makes contact with human beings. This is the case in verse 6, in the
fourth chapter where the Great Principle speaks,

Though being unborn, the imperishable Self of beings and the Lord of the Universe, I came into
being through the magical power of My own Maya. (4:6)

Here Lord Krishna is making a prelude which will prepare the readers to understand the next few
verses. He says that the great Lord of the Universe even incarnated in the form of a planet, or a
Solar System and came into being through the magical power of His own maya.

What is maya? Maya has many meanings:

a. Illusion

b. Unreality

c. Urges and drives that control expression

 d. “Form-building activity of the Planetary Logos Himself.”[4]

We can say that maya is the great urge to manifest and this urge is active behind the physical,
emotional and mental planes. In a sense this force to manifest is the desire of all lives living in
the three worlds. In the case of a man, he is not identified with this manifestation. In the case if
the Planetary Logos, He is not identified with the manifestation, though the manifestation takes
place according to the laws and forces in nature put in action.

The main field of this force is the etheric body, whether it is a man or a planet. It is through the
etheric body that the manifestation of nature takes place, and because this manifestation is the
limited expression of the reality behind, it is also called maya.

In the case of an individual, maya works through the sacral center and sex organs. The same
thing is true for the greater life.

It is the sex in Cosmos and in man that is responsible for manifestation, and it is the same force
of maya that functions through the sacral centers. This force can be called the urge to manifest.

When the human soul or the soul of the universe identifies with this force, he is in maya because
he believes he is the form.

In verse 6, Lord Krishna is referring to the planetary life. In the next two verses He is referring to
Himself, saying:

Whenever men become indifferent toward their duties and responsibilities, and whenever
unrighteousness and disorder increase, then, indeed, I manifest Myself age after age. (4:7)

To protect the virtuous, to destroy the wicked, and to re-establish the sense of duty and
responsibility, thus I manifest Myself age after age. (4:8)

In these two verses we have the doctrine of Avatars, the divine incarnations Who appear age
after age to lead humanity

...from darkness to light

from the unreal to the real

from death to immortality

from chaos to beauty.

The Tibetan Master, speaking about Lord Krishna, says that He was one of the incarnations of
the Lord Christ, Who is again in preparation to manifest Himself to humanity, to teach the Plan
of the Hierarchy and reorient humanity toward its cosmic purpose.
 Contemporary Work of The Christ

Not long ago one of the Masters of the Wisdom dictated twenty-four volumes of esoteric
Teaching which are paving the way for one humanity; for joy, health and bliss; and especially for
the externalization of the Hierarchy and for the reappearance of the Christ. In the following three
chapters, I will mostly quote the fiery words of the Master referring to the contemporary work of
Christ, His immediate task, and His future responsibilities.

The Master of Wisdom referred to is the Tibetan, or the Master Djwhal Khul. He has made
profound statements about Christ and about His reappearance. He says that Christ; is His
Teacher and He calls Him

. . . the Master of all Masters, and the Teacher alike of angels and men.

He continues,

I am one who looks to the Christ as the supreme expression of divinity upon Earth....

He further says that

He is the World Healer and Savior...the embodied soul of all Reality.[5]

Speaking of Buddha and Christ He says,

Buddha...revealed the process, but the Christ embodied in Himself both goal and process....

Christ inaugurated

...the era wherein it became possible for the kingdom of God to appear on Earth.[6]

The Buddha summed up in Himself all the light of the past as far as humanity was concerned. He
was the culminating Messenger, and demonstrated the innate possibilities of mankind, radiating
the light of wisdom in relation to the light of substance and producing that dual blaze or flaming
light which had been fanned and fostered (though not fully expressed) by humanity up to that
time. He came forth as the flower or fruition of the past and as the guarantee of man’s innate
capacity. Christ, whilst able also to say “I am the light of the world,” went further in His
manifestation and gave a vision of the next step, demonstrating the light of the soul and pointing
to the future, thus presenting that which could be because He had released on Earth the cosmic
principle of love. Love is an aspect of the will, which is a point very little realized by the mass of
men. It is the will to draw into itself or the will to attract into itself, and this will, when exerted
toward that which is not material, we, in reaction to the differentiating mind, call Love. But
humanity has to see that which must be loved before that power of the will is sufficiently evoked.
Then the vision can become a manifestation and a fact in expression. ...Christ...makes it very
clear that this love which He demonstrated was an aspect of the will, functioning through the
medium of the second ray; this powerful love released into the world the cosmic principle of
love.[7]
Further we are told that

...Christ put His disciples in touch with the “man, bearing a pitcher of water,” Aquarius, and in
the upper room introduced them to union and unity under the symbolism of the communion feast.
For that feast, humanity is today preparing....[8]

It was the Buddha who clarified for man the nature of desire and its results, with the unhappy
effects which desire produces when persistent and unenlightened. It was the Christ Who taught
the transmutation of desire into aspiration which...was the effort of the human will (hitherto
animated by, or expressed through, desire) to conform itself to the will of God — this without
understanding but conformity, in perfect trust and with the inner assurance that the will of God
must be all that is good, both in the individual and in the whole.[9]

Master Djwhal Khul says,

It might be of interest here to note that Christ was the first of our earth humanity to achieve the
goal, whereas the Buddha was the last of the moon chain humanity to do so. As far as the
development of these two sons of God was concerned, so rapid was the development of the Christ
that in Atlantean days He found Himself upon the Path of Probation as did also the Buddha. He,
coming into incarnation from the moon chain (having been held in...“pralaya” till that time),
entered upon the probationary Path a very short time ahead of His Brother, the Christ. From the
angle of evolution the rapid unfoldment of the evolution of Christ was, and has been, totally
unparalleled. It has never been duplicated....[10]

...Christ,...for the first time in planetary history, transmitted the cosmic energy of love directly to
the physical plane of our planet, and also in a peculiar manner to the fourth kingdom in nature,
the human. This should indicate to you that though the love energy is the second aspect of
divinity, the Christ embodied and transmitted four qualities of this aspect of humanity, and
consequently to the other kingdoms in nature — the only four which humanity could absorb.
Only one of these four is as yet beginning to express itself — the quality of goodwill. The other
three will later be revealed, and one is related in a peculiar sense to the healing quality of
love.[11]

He, for the first time, presented the idea of the sacrifice of the unit, consciously and deliberately
offered for the service of the whole.[12]

Speaking about Christ’s physical perfection the Tibetan Sage says,

All the seven centers in the etheric vehicle of the Christ were rightly adjusted, correctly aligned,
truly awakened and functioning, and properly receptive of all the seven streams of energy
coming from the seven planetary centers; these put Him en rapport, therefore, and in full
realized contact, with the One in Whom He lived and moved and had His being...a perfect
endocrine system. All His glands (both major and minor) were functioning correctly; this
produced a “perfect man” — physically perfect, emotionally stable and mentally controlled...an
expression of divine perfection to the entire world.[13]
Further, the Tibetan Master gives very interesting information about the activities of Christ in the
contemporary period. He says,

...The Lord Maitreya with His workers is approaching nearer all the time to the physical plane.
The focus of His attention in the year 1936 was, for the first time, predominantly on the first
subplane of the astral plane. Hence the sensitizes’ correct and immediate response to His energy
there expressed. He is coming nearer in His thought and activity. Should the peoples of the world
respond to the presented opportunity, His forces and attention could penetrate more deeply and
be predominantly on etheric levels with all that is implied in such a situation.

This, many sense subjectively and know; and great, therefore, is their opportunity and yours to
constitute increasingly a channel for this force.

Remember that the work for which He comes and to which the attendant Hierarchy is pledged is
to help Him in the “healing of the nations” as it is expressed in the Bible....This healing will be
brought about if men of goodwill everywhere measure up to their opportunity; if the work of the
Christ and of His helpers is brought more definitely to the attention of the general public....[14]

Giving some astrological information the Master says,

In Scorpio — Hercules became the triumphant disciple.

In Taurus — The Buddha achieved victory over desire and arrived at illumination.

In Pisces — The Christ overcame death and became the world Savior.[15]

We are told that in 1936 Christ gave us the first stanza of the Great Invocation.; In 1940 He gave
us the second stanza. And in 1945, at the June full moon, He gave the third stanza of the Great
Invocation, which in very short time became a world prayer translated into more than one
hundred and twenty languages. Here are the three stanzas, and we are told that He will give us
the fourth one.

The Great Invocation

Stanza One (1935)

Let the Forces of Light bring illumination

to mankind.
Let the Spirit of Peace be spread abroad.
May men of goodwill everywhere meet in
a spirit of cooperation.
May forgiveness on the part of all men be
the keynote at this time.
Let power attend the efforts of the Great Ones.
So let it be, and help us to do our part.
 Stanza Two (1940)

Let the Lords of Liberation issue forth.

Let Them bring succour to the sons of men.
Let the Rider from the Secret Place come forth,
And coming, save.
Come forth, O Mighty One.

Let the souls of men awaken to the Light,

And may they stand with massed intent.
Let the fiat of the Lord go forth:
The end of woe has come!
The hour of service of the
Saving Force has now arrived.
Let it be spread abroad, O Mighty One.

Let Light and Love and Power and Death

Fulfill the purpose of the Coming One.
The WILL to save is here.
The LOVE to carry forth the work is
widely spread abroad.
The ACTIVE AID of all who know the truth
is also here.
Come forth, O Mighty One and blend these three.
Construct a great defending wall.
The rule of evil now must end.

Stanza Three (1945)

From the point of Light within the Mind of God

Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God

Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.

From the center where the Will of God is known

Let purpose guide the little wills of men —
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the center which we call the race of men

Let the Plan of Love and Light work out.
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
 Let Light and Love and Power
restore the Plan on Earth.[16]

Writing to His disciples in December, 1941, the Tibetan Sage said,

The determination and the inner purpose of humanity will be so definite during the period when
the Sun will begin to move northward — from December 25th until June 22nd, 1942 — that the
future of humanity for many hundreds of years will be decided. From that decision will date the
coming New Age; on that decision, the Hierarchy will be able to make prediction and determine
action....[17]

We are told that in 1942 the tide was shifted to the forces of Light, and from the full moon of
May 30th to June 15th, 1942, the forces of Shamballa were released; and a terrific onslaught was
carried on, especially against the powers of evil. The student of history will find profound hints
in this information. In 1944; Christ and Buddha, joining Their powers, shifted the Shamballa
force back to the center of Love, to the Hierarchy.

In His full moon message of June, 1944, the Tibetan Master wrote,

At the time of the June Full Moon, each year, the love of God, the spiritual essence of solar fire,
reaches its highest point of expression....The Full Moon of June 1943 saw this outpouring of
divine love reach its highest expression for all time....

The love of God, focused in the Christ, seeks to express itself in some act of peculiarly useful
service to humanity.[18]

Today the Hierarchy is facing a climaxing activity. From the Full Moon of May, 1944, until the
Full Moon of May, 1945, the Members of the Hierarchy will unitedly be putting forth Their
maximum effort to close the door upon the Forces of Evil....[19] (Written in May, 1944.)

This was how the war; came to an end!

In June of 1945 Christ promised the Hierarchy to remain with humanity another great cycle;
2500 years, and to reappear in His physical appearance.

At the time of the Full Moon of April 1945, during the Easter season of that year and covering
approximately a period of five weeks, the Forces of Restoration began their work, emerging first
upon the subtler planes of human experience. This type of energy is peculiarly creative in nature
and carries the “life which produces the birth of forms.”...

...At the time of the Full Moon of the Buddha in May 1945, the forces of enlightenment became
active, and light began to stream into the minds of men. These are, in reality, the energies which
initiate the new world education....

In June 1945, Christ set in motion the forces of reconstruction which are related to the Will
aspect of divinity....The main object of the Hierarchy is so to distribute these constructive,
synthesising energies that the theory of unity may slowly be turned into practice, and the word
“United” may come to have a true significance and meaning.[20]

On August 9, 1945, the Tibetan Master issued an instruction about the release of atomic energy
in which He said,

This world war started in 1914, but its last and most important phase began in 1939. Up till then
it was a world war. After that date, and because the forces of evil took advantage of the state of
war and belligerency existing on the planet, the real war began, involving the entire three worlds
of human evolution and a consequent activity of the Hierarchy.[21]

...The evil forces were closer to success than any of you have ever dreamed. They were so close
to success in 1942 that there were four months when the members of the spiritual Hierarchy had
made every possible arrangement to withdraw from human contact for an indefinite and
unforeseen period of time; the plans for a closer contact with the evolutionary process in the
three worlds and the effort to blend and fuse the two divine centers, the Hierarchy and Humanity,
into one working, collaborating whole seemed doomed to destruction.

...The Lords of Liberation took certain unexpected steps. This They were led to do owing to the
invocative powers of humanity, used consciously by all those upon the side of the will-to-good
and unconsciously by all men of goodwill. Owing to these steps, the efforts of those fighting in
the realm of science for the establishing of true knowledge and right human relations were aided.
The trend of the power to know and to discover...was deflected away from the demanding
evocative minds of those seeking to destroy the world of men, leading to a form of mental
paralysis. Those seeking to emphasize the right values and to save humanity were simultaneously
stimulated to the point of success.

...When the Sun moved northward that year (1942), the Great White Lodge knew that the battle
had been won.[22]

Speaking about the .return of Christ;, the Tibetan Master says,

...The “point of decision,” as it is called in all hierarchical circles, was reached during the period
between the Full Moon of June, 1936, and the Full Moon of June, 1945. The point of decision
covered, therefore, nine years...; it resulted in the decision arrived at by the Christ to reappear or
return to visible Presence on Earth as soon as possible, and considerably earlier than had been
planned.

This decision was necessarily made in consultation with the Lord of the World, the “Ancient of
Days.”...[23]

Speaking of some Cosmic Beings Who came to help Christ with His great responsibility, the
Tibetan Sage says,

Whilst this energy has been accumulating or mounting in potency ever since the Full Moon of
June 1945, three events of great moment in the living experience of Christ...have taken place....
1. The Spirit of Peace descended upon Christ....

2. The evolutionary force...focused itself in the person of the Christ in a manner hitherto un-
known....

3. ...As a result of Christ’s decision and His “spiritual fusion” with the Will of God, the Avatar
of Synthesis [a great Cosmic Entity] has become, for the time being, His close Associate....His
relationship and planned help date from the time of the pronouncing of the great Invocation and
its use by men everywhere. Owing to the stupendous task confronting Christ, the Avatar of
Synthesis will fortify Him, and He will be buttressed by this “Silent Avatar” Who (to speak
symbolically) will “keep His eye upon Him, His hand beneath Him and His heart in unison with
His.”[24]

In June, 1945, at the time of the full moon . . ., He definitely and consciously took over His duties
and responsibilities as the Teacher and Leader during the Aquarian solar cycle. He is the first of
the great world Teachers to cover two zodiacal cycles — the Piscean and the Aquarian....His
outpouring love and spiritual vitality (augmented by the energies of the Spirit of Peace, the
Avatar of Synthesis and the Buddha) were refocused and channeled into a great stream, pulled
through into expression...by the words of the Invocation, “Let love stream forth into the hearts of
men....Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.”

In those three words — light, love and power — the energies of His three Associates (the great
Triangle of Force which stands in power behind Him) are described: the energy of the Buddha:
Light, for the light ever comes from the East; the energy of the Spirit of Peace: Love,
establishing right human relations; the energy of the Avatar of Synthesis: Power, implementing
both light and love. At the center of this Triangle the Christ took His stand; from that point His
Aquarian work began, and it will continue for two thousand five hundred years. Thus He
inaugurated the new era and, upon the inner spiritual planes, the new world religion began to
take form.[25]

Torkom Saraydarian, Christ, the Avatar of Sacrificial Love, Chapter XX

The Doctrine of the Coming One

Western Teaching

The Doctrine of Avatars

Eastern Teaching

Right down the ages, in many world cycles and in many countries (and today in all) great points
of tension have occurred which have been characterized by a hopeful sense of expectancy. Some
one is expected and His coming is anticipated. Always in the past, it has been the religious
teachers of the period who have fostered and proclaimed this expectancy and the time has always
been one of chaos and difficulty, of a climaxing point at the close of a civilization or culture and
when the resources of the old religions have seemed inadequate to meet men’s difficulties or to
solve their problems. The coming of the Avatar, the advent of a Coming One and, in terms of
today, the reappearance of the Christ are the keynotes of the prevalent expectancy. When the
times are ripe, the invocation of the masses is strident enough and the faith of those who know is
keen enough, then always He has come and today will be no exception to this ancient rule or to
this universal law. For decades, the reappearance of the Christ, the Avatar, has been anticipated
by the faithful in both hemispheres — not only by the Christian faithful, but by those who look
for Maitreya and for the Bodhisattva as well as those who expect the Imam Mahdi.

When men feel that they have exhausted all their own resources and have come to an end of all
their own innate possibilities and that the problems and conditions confronting them are beyond
their solving and handling, they are apt to look for a divine Intermediary and for the Mediator
Who will plead their cause with God and bring about a rescue. They look for a Savior. This
doctrine of Mediators, of Messiahs, of Christs and of Avatars can be found running like a golden
thread through all the world faiths and Scriptures and, relating these world Scriptures to some
central source of emanation, they are found in rich abundance everywhere. Even the human soul
is regarded as an intermediary between man and God; Christ is believed by countless millions to
act as the divine mediator between humanity and divinity.

The whole system of spiritual revelation is based (and has always been based) on this doctrine of
interdependence, of a planned and arranged conscious linking and of the transmission of energy
from one aspect of divine manifestation to another - from God in the “secret Place of the Most
High” to the humblest human being, living and struggling and sorrowing on earth. Everywhere
this transmission is to be found; “I am come that they may have life” says the Christ, and the
Scriptures of the world are full of the intervention of some Being, originating from some source
higher than the strictly human. Always the appropriate mechanism is found through which
divinity can reach and communicate with humanity, and it is with this communication and these
Instruments of divine energy that the doctrine of Avatars or of divine “Coming Ones” has to do.

An Avatar is one Who has a peculiar capacity (besides a self-initiated task and a preordained
destiny) to transmit energy or divine power. This is necessarily a deep mystery and was
demonstrated in a peculiar manner and in relation to cosmic energy by the Christ Who — for the
first time in planetary history, as far as we know — transmitted the divine energy of love directly
to our planet and in a most definite sense to humanity. Always too these Avatars or divine
Messengers are linked with the concept of some subjective spiritual Order or Hierarchy of
spiritual Lives, Who are concerned with the developing welfare of humanity. All we really know
is that, down the ages, great and divine Representatives of God embody divine purpose, and
affect the entire world in such a manner that Their names and Their influence are known and felt
thousands of years after They no longer walked among men. Again and again, They have come
and have left a changed world and some new world religion behind Them; we know also that
prophecy and faith have ever held out to mankind the promises of Their coming again amongst
us in an hour of need. These statements are statements of fact, historically proven. Beyond this
we know relatively few details.

The word “Avatar” is a Sanskrit word, meaning literally “coming down from far away.” Ava (as
prefix to verbs and verbal nouns) expresses the idea of “off, away, down.” Avataram
(comparative) farther away. The root AV seems at all times to denote the idea of protection from
above, and is used in compound , in words referring to protections by kings and rulers; in regard
to the gods, it means accepted favorably when a sacrifice is offered. With the result that the root
word can be said to mean “Coming down with the approval of the higher source from which it
came and with the benefit to the place at which it arrives.” (From Monier-Williams’ Sanskrit
Dictionary.)

All the world Avatars or Saviors, however, express two basic incentives: the need of God to
contact humanity and to have relationship with men and the need of humanity for divine contact,
help and understanding. Subject to those incentives, all true Avatars are therefore divine
Intermediaries. They can act in this fashion because They have completely divorced Themselves
from every limitation, from all sense of selfhood and separativeness and are no longer — by
ordinary human standards — the dramatic center of Their lives, as are most of us. When They
have reached that stage of spiritual decentralization, They Themselves can then become events in
the life of our planet; toward Them every eye can look and all men can be affected. Therefore, an
Avatar or a Christ comes forth for two reasons: one, the inscrutable and unknown Cause prompts
Him so to do, and the other is the demand or the invocation of humanity itself. An Avatar is
consequently a spiritual event; coming to us to bring about great changes or major restorations,
to inaugurate a new civilization or to restore the “ancient landmarks” and lead man nearer to the
divine. They have been defined as “extraordinary men Who from time to time appear to change
the face of the world and inaugurate a new era in the destinies of humanity.” They come in times
of crisis; They frequently create crises in order to bring to an end the old and the undesirable and
make way for new and more suitable forms for the evolving life of God Immanent in Nature.
They come when evil is rampant. For this reason, if for no other, an Avatar may be looked for
today. The necessary stage is set for the reappearance of the Christ.

Avatars are of all degrees and kinds; some of them are of great planetary importance because
They express whole cycles of future development within Themselves and strike the note and give
the teaching which will bring in a new age and a new civilization; They embody great truths
towards which the masses of men must work and which still constitute an objective to the
greatest minds of the age, even though as yet unrealized. Certain Avatars also express in
Themselves the sumtotal of human achievement and of racial perfection, and thus become the
“ideal men” of the ages. Others, greater still, are permitted to be the custodians of some divine
principle or some divine quality which needs fresh presentation and expression upon Earth; this
They can be because They have achieved perfection and have attained to the highest possible
initiations. They have the gift of being these embodied spiritual qualities, and because They have
in fullness expressed such a specific principle or quality They can act as channels for its
transmission from the center of all spiritual Life. This is the basis for the doctrine of Avatars or
Divine Messengers.

Such an one was the Christ; He was twice an Avatar because He not only struck the keynote of
the new age (over two thousand years ago) but He also, in some mysterious and
incomprehensible manner, embodied in Himself the principle of Love, He was the first to reveal
to men the true nature of God. The invocative cry of humanity (the second of the incentives
producing a divine Emergence) is potent in effect because the souls of men, particularly in
concerted action, have in them something which is akin to the divine nature of the Avatar. We
are all Gods, all the children of the One Father, as the latest of the Avatars, the Christ, has told
us. It is that divine center in every human heart which, when awakened into activity, can call
forth response from the high Place where the Coming One awaits His hour of appearance. It is
only the united demand of humanity, its “massed intent,” which can precipitate the descent (as it
is called) of an Avatar.

To sum up, therefore: the doctrine of Avatars is paralleled by the doctrine of the continuity of
revelation. Ever down the ages, and at every great human crisis, always in the hours of necessity,
at the founding of a new race, or in the awakening of a prepared humanity to a new and wider
vision, the Heart of God — impelled by the Law of Compassion — sends forth a Teacher, a
world Savior, an Illuminator, an Avatar, a transmitting Intermediary, a Christ. He gives the
message which will heal, which will indicate the next step to be taken by the race of men, which
will illumine a dark world problem and give to man an expression of some hitherto unrealized
aspect of divinity. Upon this fact of the continuity of revelation and upon the sequence of this
progressive manifestation of the divine Nature, is based the doctrine of Avatars, divine
Messengers, divine Appearances and Saviors. To Them all, history unmistakably testifies. It is
upon the fact of this continuity, this sequence of Messengers and Avatars, and upon the dire and
dreadful need if humanity at this time, that the worldwide expectancy of the reappearance of the
Christ is based. It is the innate recognition of all these facts that has led to the steadily mounting
invocative cry of humanity in every land for some form of divine relief or divine intervention; it
is the recognition of these facts which also prompts the order which has gone forth from “the
center where the will of God is known” that the Avatar should come again; it is the knowledge of
both these demands which has led the Christ to let His disciples in every land know that He will
reappear when they have done the needed preparatory work.

The Avatars most easily known and recognized are the Buddha in the East and the Christ in the
West. Their messages are familiar to all, and the fruits of Their lives and words have conditioned
the thinking and civilizations in both hemispheres. Because They are human-divine Avatars,
They represent what humanity can easily understand; because They are of like nature to us,
“flesh of our flesh and spirit of our spirit,” we know and trust Them and They mean more to us
than other divine Emergences. They are known, trusted and loved by countless millions. The
nucleus of spiritual energy which each of Them set up is beyond our measuring; the establishing
of a nucleus of persistent energy, spiritually positive, is the constant task of an Avatar; He
focuses or anchors a dynamic truth, a potent thoughtform or a vortex of magnetic energy in the
world of human living. This focal point acts increasingly as a transmitter of spiritual energy; it
enables humanity to express some divine idea and this in time produces a civilization with its
accompanying culture, religions, policies, governments and educational processes. Thus is
history made. History is after all only the record of humanity’s cyclic reaction to some inflowing
divine energy, to some inspired leader, or to some Avatar.

Taken from The Reappearance of the Christ, pp. 5-11 by Alice A. Bailey

Book 4
Commentary Part Two

Freed from attachment, fear and anger, mentally absorbed in Me, take refuge in Me. Purified by
the fire of striving and austerity, many enter into Me. (4:10)
This verse refers to a man, who not only mastered his negative emotions, but also the fluctuation
of the mind, and now he is absorbed mentally in Him. Such a man is purified by the fire of
striving and austerity.

...mentally absorbed in Me....

A disciple has to master certain stages on the path to reach such a lofty state of consciousness.
We are told that there are six stages of Discipleship:

1. Little chela (chela means disciple).

2. Chela in the light.

3. Accepted disciple.

4. The chela on the thread.

5. The chela within the aura.

6. The chela within the Master’s heart.

Stage after stage is passed by the disciple by the fire of striving and austerity. Striving is the use
of the will energy to conquer the obstacles on the path of our life, and get in tune with the
purpose of the Almighty One.

Austerity is to reverse the involutionary tendency of the lives forming our three lower bodies,
and expressing through them the radiation of the Inner Guide.

Austerity is not fanaticism or forceful action. It is a gradual discipline of the lower vehicles to
enable them to stand in the light and serve the plan without creating hindrances on the path.

Austerity is rejection of any vanity, rejection of any flattery for the lower self. Austerity is
standing in the cold light of the true Self and rejecting all invitations toward separative ends.

Austerity is steadfastness on the path of purity, compassion and beauty. Austerity is the
continuous victory over hypocrisy. An austere person is like a rock standing still against all
waves of transient interests. He is the one of great renunciation and detachment. He is a man of
fiery will.

...many enter into Me....

This is a metaphoric expression to say that the disciple has now tuned in with the vibration of the
Master, and has the closest communication with Him. This happens when the antahkarana is
built, when the needed standard of purity of karma is achieved and many lives of sacrificial
service are rendered to humanity.

In the next verse we see one of the greatest qualities of pure Teaching.
In whatever way men approach Me, in the same way, I reward them. In all their ways of worship,
men follow My path. (4:11)

There are many ways to approach reality, to come in contact with the supreme. There is no best
or better way. The best way or the better way is the way through which a man is able to approach
Him, or his true Self. Such a tolerance and magnanimity cannot be found on any page of
religious literature. Religions usually emphasize “the only way to fly” and reject other ways and
even fight against them. The truth is that the Almighty One is within us, we need only to be open
to Him. Man can achieve enlightenment by millions of methods as long as his goal is “to
approach Him.” And because all approaches are approaches to our innermost Self, the Self
welcomes us in any way we approach Him, as the Self, and Krishna and I are one, and the
process of approach is a process of self-transmutation.

In any religion man can achieve. There are great ones in Buddhism, in Hinduism, in Islam and in
other religions. But these great ones have no limitation in their minds. For them, there is one
religion, the self-transmutation, the process of becoming oneself, and approaching the
transcendental reality — beyond.

...I reward them....

Man’s reward is the degree of self-actualization, achieved through sincere striving toward reality.

There is always cause and effect. A man works for worldly things, he enjoys them, another one
has other interests, the law of cause and effect fulfills their interests. Similarly, those who search
will find; to those who knock, it will be opened; those who ask, it will be given to them.

The important thing is to know what to search for, at which door to knock and what to ask. Often
we ask for things that later we regret, but the law is faithful, it brings it to us. This does not mean
that man can do anything and still be welcomed by Him. There are pathways which take us away
from our true Selves, and delay us on the path of return. Those are the paths that lead us to
darkness, failure, distress and suffering.

The path He is referring to is the path of transformation, transmutation, and transfiguration. And
this can be done through the real Teaching, which is offered to humanity through many religions,
yogas, philosophies, sciences, and arts.

In verse 13, Krishna is referring to the Law of Cause and Effect. He is talking as the Law of
Cause and Effect, personifying it to help Arjuna to understand it.

Colors or castes were the effect of causes that people put in action. The great Soul of the Solar
System created this Law of Cause and Effect. As an IBM machine, the result you get out of it is
what you put into it. The engineer is not responsible to your answers. That is why He says, “I am
beyond action and change,” because these are the qualities of matter or effect.

In verse 14, Krishna says:

Since I have no craving for the fruits of action, actions do not limit Me. Whoever is not bound by
his actions can know Me. (4:14)

Our actions limit us when we crave for their fruits. We limit ourselves in what we ask. The fruits
are the limits of our expansion. Craving interferes also in the Law of Cause and Effect and the
free interplay of the karma of those involved in our action.

Our action must be an extension of the natural laws. We take the right action if the natural laws
and principles are expressed through them.

There is a very interesting sentence in verse 14:

...Whoever is not bound by his actions can know Me.

This simply means that when a man is free of his negative or bad karma he can have a chance to
know his Master, the One Initiator, and participate in spiritual events.

Those who produced karma that binds them to the ordinary life, karma that creates complicated
situations, karma that affects the physical, emotional and mental well-being, karma that does not
leave the subject time to study, meditate and contemplate, are caught. A man caught in such a
karma will not be able to work on himself and enter the path until he frees himself from the
result of his wrong actions.

Knowing this, a man must act, and his action will not create limiting, enslaving karma, but
releasing and liberating karma. Such an action is called service.

In verse 17, Lord Krishna speaks about three kinds of action:

1. action;

2. wrong action;

3. inaction.

In verse 18, He says:

He who sees inaction in action, and action in nonaction, he is an enlightened one among men....
(4:18)

Action is performed by our vehicles. The spirit is non-active. When a man acts without
identifying with his vehicles or the action of the vehicles, he is an enlightened man because he is
free from the identification of his vehicle in action.

Wrong action occurs when the spirit is under the dominance of the vehicles, and the vehicles use
the spirit for their involutionary or separative ends.

Right action is when the organs of action are controlled by the spirit.
Inaction is realized when man detaches himself from all his vehicles and organs of action. This is
nirvana in some sense.

The vehicles of such a man still radiate light, love and energy being charged with the spirit. Such
a radiation is a great service to all.

He who acts, without desire and selfish purpose, and whose actions are purified by the fire of
wisdom, he is an enlightened man. (4:19)

In these two verses we find a clear description of an enlightened man.

1. He sees the difference between action and inaction.

2. He acts without desire.

3. He acts without selfish purpose.

4. His actions are purified by the fire of wisdom.

The last one needs a little explanation. What is wisdom?

Wisdom is intelligence and distilled knowledge of past experiences used by pure love. So in
wisdom we have:

1. Clear intelligence, light.

2. Experience and knowledge of ages.

3. Pure love.

What is the fire of wisdom? It is the purifying, simplifying and revealing effect of wisdom.

In the 20th verse Lord Krishna gives the signs of a man who sees inaction in action, and action
in non-action:

He who is totally detached from the fruit of his action, and from the action itself, he, being ever
content, depends on nothing. Such a man, though engaged in action, truly he is without action.
(4:20)

First, such a man is detached from the fruits of his action. He performs actions (any kind,
anywhere, on any plane) because it is his duty to do so. He does it without expectation.
Expectations can be objective or psychological, such as praises or flattery, and so on.

The action of a man who is not influenced or controlled by his expectations or fruits will be a
powerful and pure help for humanity. The quality of our actions is defeated by the attachment to
their results. Attachments to the fruits of actions make a man the slave of the results and he turns
into an effect and ceases to be a cause. To become an effect means to become mechanical. To
become a cause means to be a self-actualized individuality.

But, we have a higher step yet: he must be detached not only from the fruits of his actions but
from the action itself. This will happen when the unfolding human soul graduates into the spirit
aspect of his nature, and realizes that all actions are under the control of the three gunas and the
Self is non-active.

a. A detached man is ever confident because the law will bring to him whatsoever he
needs and will take away whatsoever he does not need.

b. Being an enlightened soul, he has no demands because on his level everything

belongs to him. The joy of a great artist, of a mother and child are his. The success
of others are his, the riches of the world are his. He can enjoy everything through
everybody.

c. A detached man depends on nothing (4:20) because he depends on his true Self, or
he is his true Self.

Dependencies produce expectations and expectations are based on conditions that you have no
control over. When you depend on exterior things you lose your control on your self.
Dependency creates slaves.

Liberation is a process of freeing yourself from things and persons on which and upon whom you
are depending. It is only an independent man who cooperates with the highest good of all people
and nations because dependency does not limit his vision and efficiency to work on spiritual
levels with the plan of unity and synthesis. Dependency on others blocks the inflow of energy of
the innermost center in man.

Such a man, though engaged in action, truly he is without action. (4:20)

Because he is not identified with his bodies and their activities, he causes them to function but he
does not function, though others think that he is in action. His true Self is the divine Observer, or
the silent Watcher.

Remember what Lord Krishna said in the 13th verse of this chapter: ...I am beyond action and
change though being engaged in action.

I was looking at an axle around which the wheel was turning and I thought that was a good
example of being engaged in action without action. In verses 21, 22, 23, you can read about the
effect of such an achievement.

We come now to a very beautiful verse in this chapter. It is a prayer that the Indians use before
they eat their daily bread. In Sanskrit, it reads:
Brahma arpanan Brahma havih

Brahmagnau Brahmana hutam

Brahmai’ va tena gantaiyam

Brahmakarmasamadhina.

Brahma is the Eternal One

Arpanan the oblation

Havih the pure butter

Brahmagnau in the fire of the Eternal One

Hutam is offered,

Eva only

Tena by him

Gantaiyam shall be reached.

Brahmakarmasamadhina - by the man who is absorbed in action which is Brahman

In Vedic literature we have the famous saying, “Atma is Brahman.” The Self is the Eternal One,
or the waves are the ocean. But this Self materialized Himself and manifested as the universe.

We have a similar saying in the Gospel of St. John:

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. All things
were made by Him.

In the light of these two verses, we learn that all the created universe is God in manifestation. All
separation is the great illusion, the result of ignorance and attachment. As we enter into greater
light of the causeless cause, we will be aware of being the cause itself. Enlightenment is the
realization of this absolute unity.

...the whole creation exists within your Self, and within Me. (4:35)

In olden days, sacrifice was done in burning something and offering it to the Eternal One. In that
act of sacrifice we had:

1. The Eternal One.

2. The fire into which the offering was poured or thrown.

 3. The offering.

4. The one who performed the ceremony of sacrifice.

Lord Krishna says that the Eternal One, the fire, the offering and the officiate are one.

As the holy Koran says, “From Whom we came, to Whom we return.”

Being so, the act of sacrifice is nothing else but manifestation of the Eternal One Himself. The
sun scattered itself into Sparks, and now each Spark is destined to be a Sun, through realizing
this identity of the Sun and the Sparks.

The Spark is limited in its consciousness and it is this limitation that creates identification with
the form side of life, creates attachment and blindness; because forms lead him into separation,
detachment from form leads to unity or expansion and transformation.

The whole drama, at least in our Solar System, exists to train the Sparks to reach their ever
increasing glory.

It seems to me that the Brahma, or the Eternal One referred to is our Solar Logos, the Word.

But we must remember also that our Solar Logos is not the only One. There are millions like
Him on the path of higher or cosmic evolution. Where does this evolution start and where does it
end? Is there anyone who knows this among human beings?

Verse 24 ends as

...Man, seeing the Eternal One in action, reaches to only the Eternal One. (4:24)

When man realizes that all this activity in the creation is the action of the Eternal One, he finds
his path leading to Him because he sees the cause behind the manifestation, and strives to find
and to be that cause, realizing that there is no other way to salvation.

But if the Eternal One acts, why then does Lord Krishna say that

...I am beyond action and change. (4:13)

In the Ageless Wisdom we read that there is the causeless cause — space — living space, and
the manifested universe.

All great Beings, Cosmic Lives, Logoi, Avatars, Masters belong to the line of manifestation
beyond this manifested universe. There is the Changeless One - Space.

When Lord Krishna says I am the Changeless One, He is referring to space, to the Causeless
Cause. Each of us in our innermost essence is a ray from space. Those who are ahead of us are
those who unfolded more in themselves the awareness of this absolute space.
Below this space all is in eternal motion, in continuous change, and in continuous action. All this
action is an act of returning back to the Source!

But how can a man be in non-action, and be on the path of this cosmic evolution? This is what
the Masters came to teach us. Continuous detachment and continuous absorption into the Self
will lead us into a relative state of changelessness because we will identify ourselves with space,
not with manifestation. We will gradually reach a stage of development in which we will be
more observers than actors and eventually will realize that this stage can be reached through
right action, which is action purified by the fire of wisdom, or an action that is detached from the
fruit of the action.

Thus we have wrong action, right action, and inaction, or nonaction. In all these actions the
Supreme Self in us, or the transcendental Self is the Silent Watcher.

Some Yogis perform rites of sacrifice to devas, while others offer their selves as a sacrifice by the
Self, in the fire of the Eternal One. (4:25)

Rites of sacrifice were quite popular in the world. People sacrificed their fruits, cattle, even their
children or beloved one to a “spirit” or to an angel, or to some god.

But the greater sacrifice is to sacrifice the lower self with its maya, glamor, illusions and
ignorance by the true Self, in the fire of the Eternal One.

This means that realizing your true Self as the Eternal One, your lower self fades away with all
its pollution. This is a greater sacrifice and the act of sacrificing a portion of your possessions.

In the following verses 26, 27, 28 and 29 Lord Krishna enumerates the various forms of
sacrifices and emphasizes the fact that man is one with the Eternal One, and being such he is
capable to reach Him.

There are some very interesting expressions in the remaining verses. For example, in verse 30 it
is said,

Others ... sacrifice one form of life-energy in another. (4:30)

Lord Krishna refers to the process of sublimation as a transformation of energy from lower
etheric centers to their higher correspondences. For example, one can sacrifice sex energy and
use the creative energy of the throat center and so on.

In verse 33, we have Sacrifice of knowledge. This refers to one who sacrifices the mental plane
for the Intuitional Plane, where knowledge is straight knowledge or intuition. The river of sin is
the result of wrong actions, and ignorance and separation. Read verse 36.

In verse 38, the perfection of Yoga means attainment of the highest unity with the true Self. Here
the knowledge of Self is our experience.
How can one reach Self-knowledge?

1. Through fearlessness.

2. Through devotion.

3. Through mastering his senses.

These lead him to supreme peace, to divine contact. See verse 39.

The man whose actions are expressions of Yoga...He is a man poised in the Self, and no action
binds him. (4:41)

Actions which originate from the sense of unity and oneness create no karma that binds them. On
the contrary, such actions lead him toward greater freedom.

[1]Blavatsky, H.P., The Secret Doctrine, Vol. II, p. 220

[2]Blavatsky, H.P., The Secret Doctrine, Vol. III, p. 417

[3]For further information, read Chapter XVIII in The Science of Becoming Oneself, by H.
(Torkom) Saraydarian.

[4]Bailey, Alice A., Glamour, a World Problem, pp. 241-242

[5] Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Healing, p. 360.

[6] Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Astrology, pp. 624-625.

[7] Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Astrology, pp. 623-624.

[8] Ibid., pp. 167-168.

[9] Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Astrology, p. 371.

[10] Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, p. 210.

[11] Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Healing, p. 616.

[12] Ibid., p. 260.

[13] Ibid., p. 621.

[14] Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Healing, pp. 361-362.

[15] Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Astrology, p. 204.

[16] Bailey, Alice A., The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, p. v.

[17] Ibid., p. 337.

[18] Bailey, Alice A., The Rays and the Initiations, pp. 88-89.

[19] Bailey, Alice A., The Externalization of the Hierarchy, p. 437.

[20] Bailey, Alice A., The Reappearance of the Christ, pp. 90-93.

[21] Bailey, Alice A., The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, pp. 491-492.

[22] Bailey, Alice A., The Externalisation of The Hierarchy, pp. 493-494.

[23] Bailey, Alice A., The Reappearance of the Christ, p. 69.

[24] Bailey, Alice A., The Reappearance of the Christ, pp. 73-77.

[25] Bailey, Alice A., The Reappearance of the Christ, pp. 82-83.

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 9
Work to be Done

1. Learn three verses of Chapter 5 by heart.

2. Meditation

Step One:

Relax your body.

Calm your emotions.

For a moment, keep mental silence.

Step Two:
For 10-15 minutes daily, meditate upon a verse in Chapter 5. Change your seed thought every
week.

Step Three:

Say The Great Invocation and bless the world in the spirit of peace.

3. Please write one typewritten page on your understanding of sacrifice, comparing the generally
accepted interpretation with the inner spiritual meaning.

4. At the end of the month, fill in your monthly meditation report and send in your paper on
sacrifice.
 Commentary on Chapter 5

In the previous chapter Lord Krishna heavily emphasized the meaning of non-action, giving
Arjuna the impression that non-action or renunciation from action is better than action. In this
point, Arjuna saw a door of escape and asked,

O Krishna, You recommend the renunciation of action and the performance of action. Of these
two, which one is the better? Tell me clearly. (5:1)

The answer disappointed Arjuna.

...Of these two, performance of action is better than the renunciation of action. (5:2)

For the stage of evolution of Arjuna and the situation in which he was found, that was the right
answer. But in principle there is no difference between renunciation of action and performance
of action because

...he who is truly established in one obtains the fruit of both. (5:4)

See also verses 5 and 6.

A man becomes a steady Sanyasin when he neither hates nor desires. Being free from the pairs of
opposites, he is set free from bondage. (5:3)

In verse 3, we have the word Sanyasin which is often used in esoteric literature. A Sanyasin is a
person who is totally detached from the pairs of opposites. He is detached from his vanities,
glamors and illusions. He is detached from any kind of possession but he is in tune with the Plan
of the Hierarchy, and the Purpose of creation. He is a man of true renunciation. A renounced man
is a man who works for the spirit, and for the Plan of the Hierarchy, not for his lower self.

The deeper meaning of Sanyasin is a man who is no longer identified with his lower self though
he lives in the world, but is not of the world. We cannot imagine perhaps a man who neither
hates nor desires, yet can live in such a contemporary world. If we observe our friends and our
life we will see that on the path of our spiritual evolution our love is increased, and our desires
are more under control. We know people who are less attached to the life of egotism, hatred and
greed. We know that we, ourselves, left behind many teddy bears belonging to our intellectual
and spiritual childhood, and are trying to renounce more.

Renunciation and detachment are indications that the unfoldment of the inner man is going in the
right direction if the man is living a life of service and sacrifice. Without proving your
detachment and renunciation in service and sacrificial living, your detachment and renunciation
turn into a way of escape. You will work within the riches, but riches will not attract you. You
will work in places where there is greed, hatred and fear, but you will work as though these
things do not exist, carrying your responsibilities and duties the best you can to help and serve
people’s spiritual growth.
In this verse, bondage refers to the wheel of life and death or any karmic attachment. He does
not do things that will create a prison for him from which he cannot escape until he pays his
debts.

It is only the ignorant who think that there is a difference between the process of Self-Knowledge
and the process of unity through action. The wise man knows that he who is truly established in
one obtains the fruit of both. (5:4)

In this next verse Lord Krishna makes a profound statement that self-knowledge and unity
through action lead to the same goal. The process of self-knowledge is a continuous detachment
from that which is not self, and being that which is the Self.

The process of unity through action leads to the same goal. Through right action or service the
highest in you manifests and as IT manifests, you see that you are that, and eventually you
become a really Self-actualized person.

True action or service is the process of manifestation of the innermost Self.

In verse 6, Lord Krishna says that the best way to attain renunciation is the way of union
through action. But He adds,

...The man of meditation, purified with dedicated activity or service, in no long time attains the
Eternal. (5:6)

In these statements Lord Krishna links the mind, the emotional nature and the physical nature.

A true service must be rendered through dedication (but not in attachment), and in right thinking.
These two elements, thinking and dedication, make your service right, and through such a
service you release your deepest core, and come in contact with the Eternal One. Our true Self is
a door leading into the Eternal One.

Often the clear thinkers, or those who really meditate, are called the silent ones, those who speak
only when it is necessary to do so, because they develop pure discrimination, and do not waste
energy and time, saying the things that are not necessary or speaking the wrong things, to the
wrong people. A man of meditation thinks before he speaks and checks his speech after he
speaks.

In verse 7, Lord Krishna gives the means for purification of the mind,

...the mind is purified through dedicated action (or service).... (5:7)

When your service is rendered whole-heartedly, with all your devotion to the common good, the
separative function of the mind slowly disappears and it provides a pure channel for the thinker
to think through.
Separativeness is the mother of all illusions on the mental plane. A purified mind has no
separative thoughts. It has only thoughts of unity and synthesis.

Dedication is a process of renunciation of egotism or selfishness and recognition of the whole.

Purification of the mind allows the light of intuition to pass through. This is how enlightenment
is achieved and the path to the Eternal is found.

In verses 8 and 9, we have a fundamental teaching of the Ageless Wisdom.

The Sage, who is centered in the Self, thinks, “I do nothing at all.”

Nai’va kimeit karomi ti yuktah manyeta tattvavit...

Not even anything I do, thus Yogi, the knower of truth, thinks.

This seems very strange but all that is done is a mechanical reaction of the three gunas. Like
millions of beams reflecting from millions of mirrors, or millions of voices echoing and re-
echoing again under the Law of Cause and Effect. As far as the man is caught in this mechanical
action and reaction, he, his true Self, is not doing anything at all. He is watching silently, or He is
in deep sleep. Such a man is a machine.

In another way as the man is becoming himself, he is radiating more energy, more light, more
love and a great magnetism. All these are causing great activities, but the Self is not acting at all
because he is withdrawn into his center and the laws and substance of the vehicles and the three
gunas are carrying activity for him.

This is the state of a supreme control over nature. As a king, the Atman sits on the throne and
causes all the departments of the government to go into action, but he does not act, he is the
cause of action. Aristotle in one of his writings makes a strange comment which fits here. He
says, “Immovable mover, a mover that can not be moved - this is the Self. He is immovable but
sets in motion the lives surrounding him, as the sun causes all actions in the Solar System
radiating upon them, as an immovable mover.”

This state is reached through an extreme control over matter and vehicles and through a supreme
detachment.

The real man in the early stages of his evolution is mixed with the bodies, with the senses, with
the objects, and when he does something he really does it, because he is his arm, he is his feet, he
is one with any organ, or sense.

As his evolution proceeds, the diffused self within the material universe and within the vehicles
slowly focuses himself into Himself. As he does so, he no longer acts but his tools act according
to their necessity and he watches them, until one day all these mechanical actions and reactions
(karma) are consumed and he stands free from all these activities of the vehicles.
But before he reaches this stage he passes through an intermediate stage of not approving the
functions of his lower self.

For example, he often hates what he speaks, does, or feels, but he speaks anyhow, he acts, he
feels the way he used to. This starts when he does not approve what he thought, spoke, felt, or
did. As his evolution continues, he not only dislikes the way he acted on any level, but he hates it
the moment he is in process of thinking, speaking, feeling, and acting.

The next phase will be relative control and eventually total detachment from the vehicles. As he
detaches from the vehicles, they still act for a while the way they were acting, but eventually
they re-orient and re-polarize themselves to the level of the Indweller and thus sublimation and
transmutation of the vehicles start.

A yogi is a man who became his True Self. Being the True Self, he is one with the Mighty Self
in all forms of life.

In the third chapter we read,

But the man who is within the bliss of the Self, and is filled by and contented within the Self,
nothing forces him to act. (3:17)

Such a man has no object to gain by what he does in this world, nor anything to lose by what he
leaves undone. Nor has he need of depending on any person for any object. (3:18)

The reason for this is that he has achieved the supreme bliss of being the Self, which is one with
the All-Self.

But it is very interesting to see that Lord Krishna gives a very subtle hint, saying,

...in this world....(3:18)

This is the whole key of labor and non-action. One can be active on the same level, non-active on
another level. As for example, your labor for this planet can be over, but your labor for the Solar
System starts, your labor for the Solar System ends and you are non-active from the viewpoint of
the Solar System, but you just started your Cosmic labor until ... who knows?

In verse 10 we read,

...offering all his deeds to the Eternal One. (5-10)

This is the stage upon which all advanced disciples stand. All that they do is for Him. They put
all their efforts and ingenuity to think, to speak, to write and to labor the best way possible,
because all that they do is for Him. It does not matter with whom they are related. They
consider every human being, every living form as parts of the Eternal. They communicate with
the Eternal in each of them. A moment comes in which the disciple feels that he is one with the
Eternal One. Here starts the pure joy that no obstacle in life can eliminate. All that is done to
him, or for him, is from the Eternal One to the Eternal One. Here starts the pure joy that no
obstacle in life can eliminate. All that is done to him, or for him, is from the Eternal One to the
Eternal One, and he, as a separate individual, does not exist any more. It is on this level that he as
a separate being is non-active and ...is not smeared by sin. (5:10)

Sin is separation. Sin is attachment, is action for the results. It is egotism. All that which creates
bad karma and suffering is sin.

A disciple who offers all his deeds to the Eternal One is not affected by sin, ...as the lotus leaf is
not affected by the water. (5:10)

The supreme Self is not responsible for anyone’s vices or virtues. Knowledge is veiled by
ignorance; that is why beings are deluded. (5:15)

Knowledge veiled by ignorance — what is knowledge and what is ignorance? The knowledge
referred to here is the knowledge of oneself, the knowledge of Self. The ignorance is the matter,
is separation, is identification with his form. This is the cause of delusion. As a man lives in his
delusion he subjects himself to vices. A vice is an action which makes a man identify himself
with the form. Delusion is the inability to see the one Self within all beings. It is the inability to
see the reality behind and beyond the form. It is an attachment to the reports of the five senses,
and refusal of all that exists beyond the five senses.

When the light of knowledge of Self shines out like a sun, the veil of ignorance is destroyed, and
the supreme in man is revealed. (5:16)

After this revelation, man must try (see 5:17):

1. to concentrate his intelligence upon the Supreme;

2. to be absorbed by the Supreme;

3. to be unified with the Supreme.

It is after such a realization that he

...reaches a state from which there is no return; as the knowledge of the Self destroys all
attachment. (5:17)

In verse 19, Lord Krishna says,

The world is overcome by those whose minds rest in unity. (5:19)

This is a very interesting statement. All those individuals, groups or nations who work only for
themselves prepare their own destruction, and lose all that they gathered at the expense of others.
But those whose minds rest in unity are the ones who eventually “overcome the world.”
Remember what Lord Christ said, “Be courageous, I overcame the world.”
This is especially important at the present when through all our inventions we can annihilate
each other. It is very necessary that such a supreme teaching must be presented to the masses and
emphasize that

The Eternal One is essentially the same in all. (5:19)

Those who intuitively can see the reality of such a statement no longer can hate, exploit, separate
and be the victims of their greed, jealousy and ignorance. On the contrary, they think more about
the welfare of others than the welfare of themselves. They get greater joy in helping others, in
allowing them to be more successful and in higher positions, because all success is their success,
all positions are their positions, all victories are their victories. What beauty and magnetism will
surround a man who really feels and knows that ...the Eternal One is essentially the same in all.
The difference is only in unfoldment, in awakening and in expression. For such a man things are
not pleasant or unpleasant but they exist as a result of action and reaction, and eventually will
disappear as he establishes himself in the one Self.

This can be understood when we remember how we were delighted when our Father brought us a
teddy bear, and when we lost it how we grieved. Years later, when we reached maturity and held
responsible positions in life, we did not care any more for our teddy bears. In the same
proportion we will reach such a state of development in which the memory of our present
pleasures or griefs will create in us only a laugh or a smile. Isn’t it possible that we can reach
such a state of mind and face the pleasant and the unpleasant with the same indifference.

In verse 21 we have another key statement:

...Such a man is devoted to meditation upon the Eternal and enjoys endless bliss. (5:21)

Such a meditation is nothing else but continuous fusion with the Self, in full consciousness and
realization. Each step forward is greater enjoyment of bliss, because through meditation the
causes of suffering are perceived and eliminated. The inertia, the glamors and illusions have
vanished and the man is in the process of unfolding as a chalice and enjoying the Eternal Sun
shining in him.

The next verse is a very serious statement.

The pleasures that are the result of contacts are really sources of sorrow. These pleasures have a
beginning and an end. An enlightened man delights not in them. (5:22)

The word contact here refers to the contact of the bodies, from which emanate pleasure. This is
not the contact of the Self. The first one has a beginning and an end. The second one has a
beginning but no end. An enlightened man delights not in the contacts of the bodies. He does not
consider such a contact eternal because he knows it will end and ending will cause sorrow and
grief. So he does not delight in it.

To delight, esoterically, means to assume that the pleasure is eternal. It is a state of losing his
true Self in passing pleasures.
It is interesting to observe that pleasures and pains lose their intensity a great deal once we
realize that they have an end. As we realize this, we no longer lose our heads at least in pleasure,
and also in pain, but keep our balance and do our best.

In average literature we hear lots about Yogis. But the true definition of a Yogi can be found in
the Gita. For example, in verse 23 Lord Krishna says,

He who.... can withstand the impulse originating from lust and anger, he is a Yogi... (5:23)

In another verse He says,

...he is a man of right action, and he is a Yogi (4:18)

A true Yogi, a man who has reached unity with the Self... (5:12)

He who is happy within, he who is joyful within, and enlightened within, he is a Yogi, and he
attains eternal bliss. (5:24)

The rest of the chapter is an exceptional beauty, written in such a simplicity and joy that every
one of us must make a special effort to analyze and enjoy it. Please read very carefully.

There are two points only which need some explanation.

1. Nirvana in verse 25.

2. ...they equalize the inhalation and exhalation moving through the nostrils.. (5:27)

1. Nirvana. We spoke about it in a previous lesson. Let’s go a little further. Helena Roerich, in
her book Foundations of Buddhism, says,

...we may define nirvana as a state of perfection of all the elements and energies in an individual,
brought to the limit of intensity attainable in the present cosmic cycle. (p. 38)

She also says that ...the state of nirvana may be attained by man in his earthly life. (p. 101)

2. They equalize the inhalation and exhalation moving through the nostrils.

Lord Krishna here is referring to the austere ones, those who through spiritual discipline and
striving conquered their lower selves and are able to shut out all their external contacts through
intense concentration in fixing their gaze between the two brows. Then, they inhale and exhale in
the same duration. This is done as a result of intense withdrawal from personality glamor,
illusions and external contacts.

The breath exhaled is called in Sanskrit prana, and that which is inhaled, apana. The process of
harmony of these two actions is called pranayama.
The breath is affected by our emotions and thoughts and also physical condition. Once the
physical body is related, the emotional nature is in peace and the mind is in deep joy and
serenity, the breath is automatically balanced and the Thinker finds greater opportunity to
express his radiation through the vehicles.

In verse 28, Lord Krishna gives the key for liberation and freedom. He says,

The Sage who has controlled the senses, the mind and the heart, who is solely pursuing
liberation as his supreme goal, delivered from desire, fear, and anger, he is verily free forever.
(5:28)

Let us analyze the following words: desire, fear, and anger.

1. Desire. An uncontrolled urge to have and to be. If this urge is high, you unfold and develop
toward the object of your desires. But if the urge is only for physical, emotional and lower
mental pleasures and satisfactions, you waste your energy and cause lots of trouble to the organs
involved in this action.

Master Morya says the following:

...Can one remain without desires, when even the spirit is incarnated according to desire?
Desires are as sparks of motion. Then what does it mean that a Yogi is freed of desires? Let us
take the precise meaning of the words: A Yogi is freed, not from the possibility of desires but
from their burden. He feels himself free because he is not a slave to desire. On the path of goal-
fitness, a Yogi discriminately abandons desires in the name of the most essential. This facility for
change creates the liberation of the Yogi. Nothing hinders his progress.

It is precisely the inert, still-born desires that become the chains of bondage for humanity. No
being save man alone chains himself with inseverable bonds. Either incaution or an alien karma
brings on the contagion of desires; and a man, instead of progressing, loses all flexibility.

Mark those standing beside the wailing wall. What arrested their way? What forces diverted
them from the contemplation and understanding of the world? The most minute, almost
indistinguishable, desire burdened them and closed their eyes. How monotonous became their
world! Desire, as a parasite, depleted their energy. Desire is a worm and chains. Desire is
sparks and wings. The liberated one soars to realization. The one enslaved wails in despair.

Agni yoga, par. 259

Desire works from and through the material form upwards; will works downwards into form,
bending form consciously to divine purpose. The one is invocative and the other is evocative.
Desire, when massed and focussed, can invoke will; will, when evoked, ends desire and becomes
an immanent, propulsive, driving force, establishing, clarifying and — among other things —
finally destroying.

Esoteric Astrology, p. 383, by Alice A. Bailey

2. Fear. Again quoting Master Morya:

...those who follow Hierarchy must be rid of fear, because the heart which contains the greatness
of the Plan is invincible; and under the fiery Shield of the powerful Hierarchy the great future is
being built. Hence amidst all cosmic perturbances and vital changes there is but one anchor —
Hierarchy. In it is verily salvation!

Hierarchy, par. 220

Fear is the result of identification with the transient objects and vehicles. Fear is the awareness of
loss, whether present or future, of all those with whom you were identified, plus yourself.

A Yogi has no fear, or progressively less fear, because the process of Yogism is the process of
dis-identification from the not-self, and at-one-ment with the invulnerable, indestructible One.

3. Anger is a discharge of violent mental energy through a disturbed emotional body. Such a
combination suddenly creates a short-circuit in the etheric webs of the centers and glands, and
deprives them from psychic energy. This causes various psychological problems; swellings in
the endings of the nerves, weakening of the senses; loss of energy, and imbalance within the
whole system. Continuous anger is an act of suicide.

A true Yogi is free from all these. Unless a man is delivered from desire, fear and anger, he can
not be a free man, because these are the three great chains which imprison the man, and make
him a subject of slavery of the objects of desire, fear, and anger.

Average man is controlled by his desires, and by those who create desires in him. He is
controlled by anger, and by those who can make him angry.

A Master says that there was a game in which whoever got angry first became the loser.

A true Yogi is healthy and spiritually lives in light, love, bliss and energy, because he does not
waste his precious energies in exaggerated desires, he does not block the channels of energy
within his system by fear, and does not burn the psychological fuses in his system.

From: The Light of the Soul

7. The activities of the liberated soul are free from the pairs of opposites. Those of other
people are of three kinds.

This sutra expresses the teaching in connection with the law of karma in such a strictly oriental
manner as to confuse the western student considerably. An analysis of the significance of these
words and a study of the commentary of the great teacher Vyasa may serve to elucidate the
meaning. It should also be borne in mind that in the fourth book we are dealing with the exalted
stages of consciousness reached by those who have followed the eight means of yoga and have
experienced the effects of meditation, detailed in Book III. The yogi is now a liberated man,
freed from form conditions and focused in his consciousness outside the bounds of the three
worlds of human endeavor. He has reached the realm of pure thought and can hold his
consciousness untrammeled and free from desire. Therefore, though he formulates ideas and
though he can carry on powerful meditations and though he can direct and control the
“modifications of the thinking principle,” he creates no conditions which can serve to draw him
back into the vortex of lower plane existence. He is freed from karma and originates nothing and
no effects can serve to attach him to the wheel of rebirth.

Vyasa in his commentary points out that karma (or action) is of four kinds which are expressed
for us as follows:

1. That type of activity which is evil, wicked and depraved. This is called black. This class of
action is the product of the deepest ignorance, of the densest materiality, or of deliberate choice.
Where it is the result of ignorance, the development of knowledge will gradually bring about a
state of consciousness where this type of karma is no longer known. Where dense materiality
produces what we call wrong action, the gradual development of the spiritual consciousness will
change darkness to light and karma again is obviated. Where, however, it is the result of
deliberate choice, or of preference for wrong action, in spite of knowledge and in defiance of the
voice of the spiritual nature, then this type of karma leads to what the oriental occultist called
“avitchi” or the eighth sphere, — a term synonymous with the Christian idea of the condition of
being a lost soul. These cases are, however, exceedingly rare, and have relation to the left hand
path, and the practice of black magic. Though this condition involves the severing of the highest
principle (that of pure spirit from its two expressions, the soul and the body, or from the six
lower principles), yet the life itself remains, and after the destruction of the soul in avitchi, a
fresh cycle of becoming will again be offered.

2. That type of activity which is neither all good nor all bad, which is spoken of as the black-
white. It concerns the karmic activity of the average man, who is governed by the pairs of
opposites, and whose life experience is characterized by a swinging back and forth between that
which is kindly, harmless, and the result of love, and that which is harsh, harmful, and the result
of hate. Vyasa says:

The black-white is brought about by external means, as in this, the vehicle of actions grows by
means of causing pain to, or acting kindly towards others.

It becomes apparent therefore that the growth of the human unit and his record are dependent
upon his attitude towards others and the effect he has upon them. Thus is the return to group
consciousness brought about and thus is karma generated or offset. Thus, also, is the swing of the
pendulum between these pairs of opposites gradually adjusted until the point of equilibrium is
reached, and man acts rightly because the law of love or of the soul, directs from above, and not
because either good or bad desire attract him on either hand.

3. That type of activity which is called white. This is the type of living thought, and work,
practiced by the aspirant and the disciple. It characterizes the stage of the path prior to liberation.
Vyasa explains it thus:
The white is of those who resort to the means of improvement, of study and meditation. This is
dependent upon the mind alone. It does not depend upon external means, it is not, therefore,
brought about by injuring others.

It will be apparent now that these three types of karma have direct reference to:

a. The plane of materiality the physical plane.

b. The plane of the pairs of opposites the astral plane.

c. The plane of one-pointed thought the mental plane.

Those whose karma is white are those who, having made progress in balancing the pairs of
opposites, are now engaged in the process of conscious intelligent emancipation of themselves
from the three worlds. This they do through:

a. Study, or mental development, through an appreciation of the law of evolution and

an understanding of the nature of consciousness and its relation to matter on the
one hand and to spirit on the other.

b. Meditation, or mind control and thus the creation of that mechanism which renders
to the soul the control of the lower vehicles, and makes possible the revelation of the
soul realm.

c. Non-injury. No word, thought or deed brings harm to any form through which the life
of God is expressing itself.

4. The final type of karma is described as neither black nor white. No karma of any kind is
engendered; no effects are set up through causes initiated by the yogi that can serve to hold him
to the form side of manifestation. Acting as he does from the standpoint of non-attachment,
desiring nothing for himself, his karma is nil, and his acts produce no effects upon himself.

The Light of the Soul, pp. 389-393 by Alice A. Bailey

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 10
WORK TO BE DONE
1. Read this lesson at least five times and try to penetrate into the deeper meanings of Chapter 6.

2. Meditation
Step One:

Relax your body.

Calm your emotions.

For a moment, keep mental silence.

Step Two:

For 10-15 minutes daily, meditate upon a verse in Chapter 6. Change your seed thought every
week.

Step Three:

Say The Great Invocation and bless the world in the spirit of peace.

3. Please write a paper of one typewritten page about verse 6 in Chapter 6 and tell us how you
can testify to it through your personal experience.

4. At the end of the month, fill in your monthly meditation report and send in your paper on
verse 6.
 Keynote
In his hour of need Krishna failed him not, but laid down in the Gita the simple rules whereby
depression and doubt can be overcome. They may be briefly summarized as follows:

a. Know thyself to be the undying One.

b. Control thy mind, for through that mind the undying One can be known.

c. Learn that the form is but the veil which hides the splendor of Divinity.

d. Realize that the One Life pervades all forms, so that there is no death, no distress, no
separation.

e. Detach thyself therefore from the form side and come to Me, so dwelling in the place where
Light and Life are found. Thus illusion ends.[1]
 Meditation and Liberation in the Gita
It is through the practice of meditation that the consciousness, now centered in the lower self, can
bridge the gulf separating it from the Higher Self. It is this sustained practice which brings the
self into harmony with the Self. When the personal self ceases to exert its personal will, its
impulses under control, it is able to offer itself as an instrument through which the Self can work.
Then the Soul, through which are reflected the qualities of the Triad, is its friend, a source of
inspiration and guidance, the Inner Teacher of Whom mention is made. But if the self is allowed
to sink down in inert depression, if it pursues its own aims and stands proudly upon its individual
separateness, then indeed the Soul is felt as something hostile.

The passages on the ritualistic form of the meditation posture are alleged by some to be a later
interpolation into the Gita; but in any event they might be said to be of the “form” and not of the
essence of the yoga of self-denial. The “senses subdued ... with unseeing gaze ... the mind
controlled, thinking on Me” shows the complete dismissal of all bodily conditions The closing
statement, “thinking on Me”, is the really effective action and holds the key to the earlier
passages. As the Maitri Upanishad says in VI, 34, “thought is verily the world, and therefore
should be purified with care. As one’s thought is, so one becomes; this is the eternal mystery.”
Again, the basic law of all occult learning is, “energy follows thought.”

The quotation in the keynote for this lesson closes with the words, “Thus illusion ends.” Here is
stated both the goal of meditation and the goal toward which the Path leads, that constantly
recurring word in the Gita teaching, “Moksha”. It is often translated as “liberation”; but
liberation from what? It is liberation from the demands of the lower self, from ignorance about
the true nature of man, from the false information of the senses tainted with loves and hates,
pleasures and pains. H.P.B. in the Theosophical Glossary translates the word as “Nirvana” and
calls it a state of heavenconsciousness. Patanjali refers to Nirvana as the highest state in
meditation. But, by whatever name it is called, it is union with the Higher Self and is the fitting
close to the teachings of Krishna as to the duties, capacities, possibilities, and goal of man’s
progress.

Possibly the most noteworthy idea in this sixth chapter is the stress on control and regulation of
action, contrary to restraint and subduing of the body instincts.

Commentary on Chapter 6
In Verse I there is reference to “the sacred fire”. The sacred fire is the symbol of the chalice, the
twelve petalled lotus, at the center of which we have the Spark of Infinity, the Monadic fire, and
the flames are the petals.[2]

In most men this fire is asleep. It starts to glow and sparkle as the man develops his mental,
heart, and sacrificial labor. This was symbolized in olden days in a ceremony which was called
“Agni hotza ya jnas” (fire sacrifice).
Here, Lord Krishna wants to emphasize that unless a man has the fire within his heart, and
expresses that fire through all he does, physically, emotionally and mentally, he cannot be a
Yogi, a Sanyasin.

A Sanyasin does all his action for the Eternal One, without any expectation; as the sun radiates
its light, so does the Sanyasin radiate the inner flame of sacrificial fire of his innermost Self.

In Verse 2, it says that

Renunciation is Yoga, O son of Pandu, and no one can be a Yogi unless he renounces the selfish
motives behind all his plans and actions.

We are told that in this New Age, as the externalization of the Hierarchy is in process, the Great
Ones are choosing disciples from those only who have right motives and a harvest of sacrificial
deeds.

Selfish motives create a terrible imbalance in the psychic atmosphere of a man. This imbalance
eventually expresses itself in his mental, emotional and physical nature in the form of various
complications.

Right motive inflames the etheric centers and establishes sanity, peace and health within the
personality.

A man of renunciation does not cease acting. He is a normal man; he does all necessary action
“without striving for reward”.

Why should renunciation be Yoga? The answer is that as man detaches from the fruits of action,
and from the vehicles that perpetually do crave for the fruits of action, he in the same proportion
becomes his true Self.

Renunciation is a process of going back Home, a continuous labor of leaving behind all that is
not the Supreme Self. Again, this does not mean that the disciple or the Sanyasin is going to run
away from his duties, responsibilities, daily relations and labor, and retreat to mountains and
caves. On the contrary, the disciple is going to be the front line of the battle of life, and he fulfills
all his obligations as a sacrificial act to the Eternal One. This will slowly expand his
consciousness to such a degree that suddenly he will act as an organ of the Eternal One.

The third verse speaks about “the man of silence”. Such a man is called a Muni.

There are men and women who decide to keep silent and think. They exercise a great discipline
on their mental and emotional natures, and in silence try to find the Eternal One within their
souls.

This is really a hard labor, a difficult discipline, which needs action on physical, emotional, and
mental levels. It is this action that enables them eventually to reach the silent core of their Soul.
Once they reach the unity of the Self, they no longer need to use the physical, emotional and
mental planes; they use serenity as a means to achieve further synthesis, further unions on
planetary, solar and cosmic levels.

The path of union is the path of Yoga, and in the personal sense we have three great fields upon
which at-one-ment, or unity with the Self, is attained.

The first field is the personality field, where personality integration is achieved and the three
lower bodies act in unison. The second field is where the climbing human soul eventually fuses
himself with the age-long Guide within himself and the “marriage in heaven” takes place. The
Transpersonal Self, the Solar Angel, becomes one with the human soul.

The third union takes place after the Fourth Initiation, when the unfolding human soul gets his
freedom from the Inner Guide and climbs toward his inner core, toward the Monad, and becomes
one with his true Self. The reflection is lost in the Reality.

Serenity is not inaction. It is action on intuitional levels where there is no conflict, no friction,
but all-communication. The Sanskrit word is Shamah, quiescence. Those who reach self-fusion
in the third field, instead of acting within the waves of life, act above the waves of life in
serenity.

Serenity is the atmosphere of the Spiritual Triad. Whoever acts from that field of energy is not
affected by any change occurring on the lower planes of personality. Still, such a man can have a
body or a personality, but his focus of awareness is in the Spiritual Triad and it is from that
center that he radiates himself out in serenity.

A man of serenity communicates not with personalities or objects, but with the spiritual
counterparts of personalities and objects. This is again action which does not necessarily involve
the physical, emotional or mental planes, but the sphere of serenity, where one teaches without
words, moves mountains without physical action, and penetrates deep into the secrets of nature
without using the mind.

The fifth verse is of extreme beauty.

Let a man lift himself by his own Self. Let him not degrade himself. For the Self alone is the
friend of self, and the self alone is his own enemy.

This is so profound that I wanted to give the Sanskrit equivalent here. It is a beautiful mantram
and can be learned by heart.

uddhared atmana tmanan

(let him lift) by the Self) (the self)

na atmanam avasadayet

(not the self) (let degrade)

atman va hy atmano bandhur

(the Self) (only) (verily) (the self) (friend)

atmai va ripur atmana

(the self) (only) (enemy) (self)

In this verse reference is made to the true Self and the transient self. The true Self is the man
himself in his core, the Self as if reflected in the threefold vehicles of the personality.

The human soul on his path of evolution identifies himself with the physical, emotional and
mental planes, and with their corresponding objects, and he calls each of his identifications his
“self”.

Actually there is only one Self, but there are two states of the one Self. One is Himself, awake
and aware of what He is; the other is lost in the objects or vehicles with which He is identified.

This can be explained by a parable. A man who is awake, sane, creative, and beautiful
corresponds to the Self. Then the same man dopes himself heavily and loses his sanity,
awakeness, creativity, and beauty. Let us say that this is the lower self. Such a self is the enemy
of his real, true Self because it degrades his true image in society. It causes obstacles on the Path
of his true Self’s evolution and causes harm to other people. But the real man, the true Self, is the
friend of his physical, emotional and mental nature, his personality, because through His light,
love and wisdom He causes his vehicles to go on the path of health, happiness, and creativity and
to express this beauty of the true Self.

This happens when the real Self conquers the lower self, which means He sublimates His
physical, emotional, and mental nature, His personality, and uses it as a mechanism of service for
humanity.

But, when the lower self really works against his own future, creating karmic complications in
his life, his inner, true Self does not approve and appears as if He were an enemy of the lower
self.

Again, to explain this parable, let us say that a student, instead of doing his homework, wastes
his energies, time, and money for his pleasures, and, when one day he sees the damage he did to
his life, he condemns himself, hates himself and falls often into depression. Such a state is
referred to as:

.... the self alone is his own enemy.

Lord Buddha once said,

By oneself evil is done;

by oneself one suffers;

by oneself evil is left undone;

by oneself one is purified;

purity and impurity belong to oneself.

In the next verse we have an addition:

The Self is the friend of the self for him who has conquered himself by the Self. (6:6)

How can we conquer our lower self by the true Self? In each one there is the innermost light
flickering as our conscience, as our common sense, as the little inner voice which on many
occasions warns us to choose the right path. This warning comes from within us, from us, but we
do not obey because of the entanglement with the transient objects. On most occasions we know
we are doing wrong, but we do it anyhow. So often we have visions for our greater Self. We feel
the need to change, and we make decisions, but then our lower self lures us and we, once more,
fail in our striving.

There are two royal roads that take us to our innermost Self. One is meditation; the other is
service. These words are Western translations of self-knowledge and Karma Yoga or unity
through action. Meditation leads us to the knowledge of the Self, into unity with the Self.

Service releases the inner goodness, beauty and truth, which in their totality are the radiance of
the true Self. As we serve we become ourselves. This is the way “to lift himself by His own
Self.” (Verse 5.)

This verse is so powerful that we may use it occasionally to strengthen our efforts toward Self-
victory.

The Sanskrit reads,

Bandur Atma

(Friend) (The Self)

Tmanas Tasya

(of the self) (his)

Yena ’Tmai

(By whom) (the self)

’Va ’tmana Jitah

(even by the Self) (is conquered)

Anat manas tu Sutrutve

(of unconquered self) (but) (in the place of an enemy)

Varteta ’Tmai ’va Satruvat

(Would remain) (the Self) (only) (like an enemy)

In Verse 9 we see the definition of the superior man:

The one who has equal regard for friends, companions, enemies, neutral ones, arbiters, the
hateful, relatives, saints and sinners, he stands as a superior man.

He sees the essence of these people, who have their origin in the Supreme Self of Cosmos. He
sees their future, though it may be a distant future, in which all will be transformed into their
divine nature.

He sees also the possibility of a friend becoming an enemy, and an enemy a friend. He sees the
possibility of a sinner becoming a saint, and a saint a sinner.... So, he has equal regard and favors
none.

A superior man is neither tempted by his virtues nor impaired by his mistakes or failures because
he knows that the Self is more radiant than the sun... and he is that Self.

He is a

...steadfast Yogi for whom a lump of earth, a stone, and a piece of gold are the same... as an
anvil, remains unmoved by any blow.

What a comparison — an anvil on which the blacksmith shapes the iron with a big hammer; but
in spite of heat and blows, the anvil remains unmoved.

Such blows come to our life when we lose a wife, a husband, a child, or a beloved one, things
that we love, things that we need. But the superior man stands as an anvil, his spirit tempering in
fire, in blows and in cold.

In Verse 10 Lord Krishna gives very practical advice when he says,

Let the Yogi constantly centralize the Self, resting in solitude, with the mind and body controlled,
free from all expectations and possessions.

This is what is lacking in most cases in our civilized world. People are scattered all over their
senses and sense objects. They are constantly turned outward, for the gratification of the lower
self, or they are trapped in such activities which do not let them be one hour free from worries
and expectations. The result of such a life can be seen in our contemporary world, when millions
are under nervous strain, mental disorders, trapped in many kinds of psychological and physical
ills.

“Centralize the Self” is a very beautiful expression. It means to call back the scattered self,
identified with various objects, and release the etheric, nervous, glandular and muscular tensions
caused by the pressure of the Self. Relax the body, let the emotions fade out, let the
modifications of the mind cease and let the self centralize itself within the inner temple and open
its petals to the Supreme Self to renew Its Beauty, Its Truth, Its Goodness, to see more clearly the
purpose of Its existence and, recharged with such splendor, shine Its beauty once again toward
the lower self.

This is a supreme exercise which can be done once a day, or once a month, to renew our vision
of infinity and keep our balance and equilibrium while we are occupied with our daily duties and
responsibilities.

Our daily regular meditation eventually teaches us how to centralize the Self. Actually, every
time we go into a spiritual retreat, or even anytime we seriously contemplate the future, great
beauties or infinity, we withdraw ourselves from many objects with which we were identified
and form a focus of energy, a focus of supreme light deep in our being, which eventually turns
into a path leading to transcendental values and spheres of higher beauty.

Renewed by such a centralization of the Self, the man releases a new energy into his
psychological system which creates clear thinking, positive emotions, better health and right
human relations.

In Verses 11, 12, 13 and 14, Lord Krishna explains how to start to centralize our Self and reach
Nirvana.

Let us think about a few words in these verses.

1. A clean place is very important. We are told that bad smells, decaying materials, blood, and
clothes full of secretions from our glands prevent the higher forces from coming in contact with
us as we enter into meditation.

2. Kusha grass is a kind of grass which absorbs the dampness of the earth and keeps the seat
warm.

3. Deer skin keeps the perspiration of the body away from the kusha grass, and the cloth keeps
the skin clean by absorbing any perspiration. This cloth usually is washed often.

4. A one-pointed mind is the process of concentration, which can be achieved by controlling the
modifications of the mind and the actions of the senses.

Concentration is an intense withdrawal of attention from outside objects, from feelings and
emotions, and from thoughts. The consciousness of the Yogi is focused only at the center of the
head. Through this intense withdrawal the mind slowly calms down, and the action of the senses
ends. Intense concentration shuts off the senses, which are communication lines between the
Indweller of the body and the outside world. This communication stops and allows man to go
deeper into his concentration. After such a preparation, he practices Yoga “for the purification of
himself”.

The Yoga referred to here is meditation.

Actually, Lord Krishna refers in this chapter to three fundamental steps of meditation.

1. Concentration

2. Meditation

3. Samadhi, or contemplation

It is through meditation that a man purifies himself. Concentration leads to meditation and
meditation leads to contemplation. Meditation is an effort to release oneself from the threefold
personality, and especially from the modifications of the mind, thus entering into the light of
higher spheres. This is done through intense thinking and expanding the consciousness to such a
degree that the identified self within the mental substance gets released, transcends his
limitations and enters into the domain of intuitional awareness. When meditation is successful,
then the Yogi enters into samadhi, or contemplation.

In meditation we try to climb up toward the greater light through four viewpoints. First we
meditate on the form aspect of an object. Then we think about its gunas (quality). Then we try to
find the purpose of the object, and finally we think about the cause of the object.

Patanjali, the great Sage, says that the consciousness of an object is attained by concentration on
its fourfold nature:

The form through examination.

The quality (gunas) through discriminative participation.

The purpose through inspiration (or bliss).

The soul (the essence or the cause) through identification.[3]

Thus, step by step, the consciousness is expanded and the human soul is released from the mental
plane.

Thinking about the form makes a man withdraw himself from the physical and emotional planes
and gather his consciousness on the lower mental plane. Thinking about the quality makes his
consciousness focus on the higher levels of the mental plane. Thinking about the purpose of an
object makes his consciousness function on the lower levels of the higher mind, where the
consciousness is inspired by greater ideas. Thinking about the cause of the object helps his
consciousness function on the highest mental plane, where the door leading to the Spiritual Triad
is found.

From that point begins the labor of contemplation.

Serene and fearless, firm in his vow of continence, with controlled mind and thinking of Me, let
him sit, having Me as his supreme goal. (6:14)

When the Yogi thus constantly centralizes the Self, with a well-controlled mind, he attains peace,
reaches Nirvana, and abides in Me. (6:15)

As a lamp in a windless place flickers not, even so is a Yogi who, having controlled his mind, is
engaged in the Yoga of the Self. (6:19)

The Yoga of Self is contemplation.[4] Thus a man “... enters into silence through the practice of
Yoga (meditation) and, beholding the Self (contemplation), rejoices in the Self; when he
experiences supreme bliss, not with his senses, but by the power of his intuition (by straight
knowledge) only; when in this state he never waivers from the truth, then he is in a state of
union, detached from all sorrow and pain. Such Yoga can be practiced only with firm resolve
(determination) and with an undisturbed mind.” (Verses 20-23)

In Verse 25 it says,

... fix his mind on the Self, and think of nothing else.

This is contemplation. The thinking is stopped but not the awareness; the search is over on the
mental field because the object is found on the intuitional plane.

Here, in this stage of achievement, “NOT thinking” means freedom from the obscuring
agitations and forms of the mental plane and an achievement of a state of direct knowledge. Man
no longer is the slave of an interpreter, but now he can see face to face. He can touch the reality
without a media, and he can experience the supreme bliss of freedom from glamor, illusion and
maya.

But how will the mind be fixed on the Self? It is just like the rider who ties his horse to a pole
and enters into the palace of the king. The most important thing here is to notice that the man is
not the mind.

It is often probable that while you are fixing your mind on the self , you become so satisfied with
the impressions you receive through the mind that you get stuck with the mind watching the self.
But this is not direct knowledge of the Self. Direct knowledge of the Self starts after a man
transcends the mechanism of the mind.

Beholding or observing the Self is not a visual experience, but an inner realization. In beholding
you are not seeing anything, but you are changing into the Self. You are becoming your Own
Self. You are awakening into the reality that in essence you are “within all beings, and all beings
are within the Self.

You are beholding the reality behind existence itself, and realizing that this reality is in
everything and beyond everything. This is itself a process of tuning in with that reality.

His Self being harmonized through Yoga (meditation and contemplation), he realizes that he is
within all beings, and all beings are within his Self. (6:29)

But, he is not a suspended or spaced out visionary who is lost in his own dreams and trips; he is
in touch with the world, with human beings.

O Arjuna, a supreme Yogi is one who feels the pains and joys of all beings, as if they were his
joys and pains. (6:32)

He overcomes his pain and joy, but he is not indifferent to the pains and joys of others. This is
the moment that the sense of responsibility takes strong action, and from that moment on he
decides to liberate humanity from all suffering, as did the Lord Buddha.

Arjuna, listening to the instructions of Lord Krishna, expresses his confusion as follows:

I do not see ... how this Yoga, which is based on equanimity, can endure forever, since the mind
has a restless nature. The mind is restless, turbulent, forceful and unyielding. To control it is as
hard as to control the wind.(6:33-34)

In Verse 26, Lord Krishna had already told him that,

If, in any way, the mind wavers, let him curb it and bring it under the control of the Self.

But now He gives more information about his subject.

No doubt, mighty Arjuna (mighty to fight against enemies, but hesitant to control the mind!), the
mind is restless and hard to control, but by practice and by detachment, it can possibly be
controlled. (6:35)

The key words here are practice and detachment. Practice is constant effort to overcome any
limitation or obstacle. Detachment is withdrawal into the higher spheres, or into your real Self.
Through practice the little lives of your mental plane learn to polarize themselves to the greater
will of the Inner Dweller. Through detachment the attention of the consciousness is turned to the
higher spheres, and the unfolding human soul has a greater chance to “behold the Self” and not
be disturbed by an uncontrolled mind.[5]

In the next verse the great Teacher adds another two key words: self-control and right striving.
“Self-control” is the control of the actions, expressions and moods of your personality vehicles
by the innermost Self. Like a conductor, by the action of the will, the Self puts all His vehicles
and their expressions in harmony with His purpose. They no longer pursue their own mode of
living, but are harmonized by the will of the innermost Self and polarized toward the fulfillment
of His goal.

Then there is right striving. Striving is a continuous effort on all levels to surpass oneself, to
expand one’s own field of consciousness and awareness, the field of service and sacrifice.
Striving is the effort of the innermost Self to express Itself and to actualize Itself in Its full
beauty.

Right striving is based on wisdom, experience and a sense of responsibility. Without taking these
points as foundations of our striving, our striving turns into a forceful action with its destructive
consequences.

Verses 10 to 36 are the major instructions in this chapter. Before we pass to the next part of the
chapter, let us say a few words that can shed additional light upon the subject of these verses.

Lord Krishna uses various meanings for the word Yoga. In Verse 12 He says,

He must practice Yoga for the purification of himself.

Here Yoga refers to the process of unification through purity. This purity is achieved, as the
verse shows, by making the mind one-pointed, controlling the modifications of the mind and the
actions of the senses. This is the Yoga He is referring to. He is referring to the art of alignment,
integration and fusion with the Self. He is not referring at all to asanas or Hatha Yoga. Hatha
Yoga in its totality is rejected by the great Teachers.

The purification referred to here is purification of emotions and purification of mind. These
purifications are achieved through steady concentration, meditation, and contemplation.

When, through such actions, the maya, glamors and illusions are wiped away, the physical body
itself will reflect the inner purification with its health and dynamism.

In Verse 16 we again have reference to Yoga.

He who eats too much, he who fasts too much, or sleeps too little cannot perform Yoga.

In the next verse He adds,

He who is moderate ... for him Yoga becomes the destroyer of pain and sorrow. (6:17)

First, the Teacher emphasizes the importance of moderation of food, sleep and recreation. Then
He refers to Yoga, which is again the process of unification with the Self through the mind. This
is called Dhyana Yoga, Yoga of meditation or contemplation.

How does Yoga destroy pain and sorrow? First, through purification of the etheric, astral and
mental vehicles. Second, through moderation. Third, through unification with the Supreme Self.
Fourth, through the art of detachment and withdrawal into the Self. The result will be the release
of healing power on all levels because health is harmony with the Supreme Self.

In Verse 19 the meaning of Yoga is further clarified.

As a lamp in a windless place flickers not, even so is a Yogi who, having controlled his mind, is
engaged in the Yoga of the Self. (6:19)

A Yogi is one who has controlled his mind. The process he uses is the Yoga of meditation.

The Yoga of Self is the process of union , the science of union with the Self.

In this section of instructions on meditation we have another interesting point. In Verse 13 Lord
Krishna says,

Gazing at the tip of the nose, without looking around. (6:13)

This must be done after closing our eyes for one second and then forgetting all about it. When
we gaze at the tip of the nose, we hold our neck in line with the spine. Once our gaze is directed
above our heads, our heads turn back and our spine and head are not in a straight line, which is
very important to have due to the activities of the spinal energies.

“Without looking around” means meditation in full concentration and attention, observing only
one object or seed thought in meditation.

With Verse 37 a new approach is presented to the reader.

If a man cannot control himself (if he cannot concentrate, meditate or contemplate and
experience the Self-unity) but has faith, and his mind is not focused on Yoga (meditation), what
will be the end of such a man?... (6:37)

Lord Krishna, knowing that many are not ready for concentration, meditation and contemplation,
says,

Such a man does not perish ... for whoever does good, he never ends in grief.” (6:40)[6]

In Verse 43 He states that the Yoga of Meditation, which includes Raja Yoga, Janana Yoga and
Agni Yoga, is greater than Bhakti Yoga. Because Bhakti Yoga is the Yoga of faith, worship,
rituals, ceremonies and devotion, it eventually leads to Yoga through the mind and through the
intuition.

Therefore, O Arjuna, be a Yogi

A Yogi is one who

merges his Self in Me, and fearlessly devotes himself to Me. (6:47) [7]
[1]
Bailey, Alice A., A Treatise on White Magic, p. 308.
[2]
Read The Science of Becoming Oneself, Ch. XII by T. Saraydarian.
[3]
Bailey, Alice A., The Light of the Soul, p. 33.
[4]
For further information about the four viewpoints, read The Science of Meditation, pp. 120-
144. For contemplation, read Ch. XXII.
[5]
Read The Science of Becoming Oneself, Chap. X, by T. Saraydarian.
[6]
Read, also, Verses 41-42.
[7]
For further information about the Yogas, read The Science of Becoming Oneself, Ch. XXVII by
T. Saraydarian and Cosmos in Man, Ch. XIV, by T. Saraydarian.

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 11
Work to be Done
1. Read this lesson at least five times and try to penetrate into the deeper meanings of Chapter 6.

2. Meditation

Step One:

Relax your body.

Calm your emotions.

For a moment, keep mental silence.

Step Two:

For 10-15 minutes daily, meditate upon the following questions. Change your seed thought every
six days.
 a. What you understand by the words Know Thyself?

b. When spirit takes form, consciousness is born. With the theme of consciousness in
mind, will you please explain in your own words how a man can enter into the light
and power of the spiritual nature.

c. Can you define knowledge, wisdom, and understanding?

d. What does illumination mean to you?

e. What is a glamor? Can you find one in you?

Step Three:

Say The Great Invocation and bless the world in the spirit of peace.

3. Please write a paper of one typewritten page about one of the above seed thoughts.

4. At the end of the month, fill in your monthly meditation report and send in your paper.
 Commentary on Chapter 7
The seventh book opens up the teaching on the way of illumination, often called the Yoga of
Knowledge, the Yoga of Discriminative Knowledge, and the Yoga of Knowledge with
Realization. These refer to that glorious knowledge which eventually dawns on the disciple's
inner eye, to which Lord Krishna refers to when He says:

...this knowledge, achieved through realization, knowing which, nothing more remains to be
known here. (7:2)

It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that this knowledge is described in the verses that
follow or that it is capable of description; and none should fancy that an intellectual grasp of
statements set forth is the same thing as illumination itself.

The vast majority of men know nothing of its existence, though a few, by strenuous effort, have
succeeded in establishing themselves upon the path that leads to it. The reason is given in the
words attributed to the Master K.H.:

An adept is the rare efflorescence of a generation of inquirers; and to become one, he must obey
the inward impulse of his soul irrespective of the prudential consideration of worldly science and
sagacity.

What is this wondrous knowledge that is now to be described? It is the knowledge of Lord
Krishna, the undying ATMAN, the Stainless Eternal Being that lies behind all changes.

Again we must emphasize that Lord Krishna here is speaking as the Eternal One, or as a channel
through Whom the Eternal One is speaking.

In similar instances Jesus said, “It is not me, but the Father speaking through Me.”

Those who worship Him as God are right, because He presents the closest concept of what God
is, for them. Those who see in Him an evolving Man on the path of evolution are also right, as
God is a full bloomed Spark, and the Spark is a seed-God. Those who are far ahead on the path
have the right to talk in the name of the Eternal, (as far as their realization and understanding
permit.)

Once a man penetrates into the Spiritual Triad his consciousness can be defined as Christ-
consciousness or Krishna consciousness.

The wisdom of India lays great stress on purified understanding, as supplementing the right
attitude of heart, and again effort is made to kindle that side of the human soul which
understands, as well as that side which aspires and loves.

We are told that the Supreme is the highest Self of all beings, the God Transcendent, as well as
God Immanent. One can with pure devotion and selflessness worship and serve the Supreme as
God Transcendent, but to fully understand the significance of Lord Krishna's teaching, we must
also recognize and pay homage to God Immanent, to the Highest Self of all beings, to the spirit
of man, to the Real Self of man. Thus, those who serve to their fellow man serve to God.

Let us now take the first verse of Chapter 7.

As you are taking refuge in Me, and your heart is attached to Me in spiritual union, now I can
show you the path through which you can know Me beyond any doubt. (7:1)

Two prerequisites are given here for a true disciple:

a. Taking refuge in Me.

b. Spiritual union through heart or intuition.

Refuge has a deep, esoteric meaning. After trying many paths, many sources, and having great
disappointments, you eventually go and hand yourself to your Teacher and say,

As my nature is affected by indecision, I ask Thee, my Lord, what my dharma is? I am confused
and bewildered. What would be best for me? Please, tell me clearly what would be best for me. I
am Thy disciple. I have taken refuge in Thee; please, instruct me. (2:7)

It is a state in which you feel total insecurity and inability and you surrender yourself to your
Teacher. This is a stage which a disciple must pass through to wipe out his vanities and prides.
As long as he holds sacred his vanities and prides, the Teaching can not be understood or
contacted.

In The Light of the Soul we read, “The self-righteous man makes for himself a bed of mire.”

Can we take refuge in Lord Krishna, Christ or Buddha or in the Eternal Youth?... Can we attain
to a spiritual union with Him in tuning our being to the frequency of the Lord, and feel His
energy in us, and in all that we think, speak, feel and do?

In the second verse Lord Krishna says,

I shall unveil to you, in full, this knowledge, achieved through realization.... (7:2)

This is a very interesting verse and the key to all of our achievements. We can know nothing in
reality without realization. Realization is the result of experiment, experience, expression and
beingness. You cannot know until you are. You cannot know what the intuition is until you are
intuitive or working on the plane of intuition. You do not know what immortality is until you see
yourself as an immortal being. You do not know what love is until you love. You do not know
what light is until you see the light.

The things that are told to us make sense. They help us to grow and to unfold, but until they
become real to us, we do not know them. So true knowledge is gained through realization,
transformation and transfiguration of our nature. Knowledge and beingness lead us to realization.
In verse 3, Lord Krishna speaks about striving. We have wonderful sayings by the Rajput Prince,
M.M., which are quoted here:

...as the striving grows, the manifestation of broadening consciousness leads the spirit to the
understanding of the Principles.[1]

Only by the tension of all strength shall you conquer.[2]

...our victory is always brought into life by the law of striving and firmness of the spirit.[3]

Among thousands of men, hardly one strives for perfection, and of these successful strivers, only
one really knows Me. (7:3)

The successful strivers are very rare. Rarer yet are those who know Him, because successful
striving is the usage of the highest energy of the will within us, which gradually burns up all
obstacles in the path and transforms the whole personality in such a degree that the light of the
Self shines out, and the evolving human soul reaches his degree of perfection planned for this
planetary evolution.

...only one really knows Me. To know means to achieve a level on which a soul can be like Him.
As once a great one said,

When you see Him, you will be like Him.

With verse 4, Lord Krishna starts His occult Teaching about the nature of the Solar Life. In the
Ageless Wisdom, the Life that ensouls the Solar System is called the Solar Logos. The Solar
Logos has three aspects: will, love, and light. His vehicle is the Sun, which is a fountain of light
for the Solar System. His heart is within the Sun, from which pours His love to all kingdoms in
the Solar System.

The true essence of the Solar Logos is called The Central Spiritual Sun, the great energy and
field of power from which emanates the life principle, the energies of the system, and, as a
cosmic magnet, He withdraws all sparks of life in all kingdoms back to Home, to Himself.

The great Life has His manifested aspect in space, and this manifested aspect is the Comic
physical planes which in the Ageless Wisdom are called:

First Cosmic Ether or the plane of divine life.

Second Cosmic Ether or the plane of monadic life.

Third Cosmic Ether or the plane of spirit.

Fourth Cosmic Ether or the plane of intuition.

Plane of fire or the mental plane.

Plane of desire or the emotional plane.

Plane of matter or the physical plane.

The physical plane itself is divided into seven sub-planes which are called:

1. 1st ether

2. 2nd ether

3. 3rd ether

4. 4th ether

5. gaseous plane

6. liquid plane

7. dense plane

These are the solar and individual natures, which is the mechanism of expression of the “I-ness”.
“I-ness” is the translation of the word ahamkara which means the Self fused with nature, and
the illusion that nature and the Self are one.

In all forms there is the sense of “I-ness” which manifests itself as the mind in matter, as the
mind and love in living organism, and as the mind, love, and will in human beings.

That is My lower nature. ...My higher nature... is the manifested spark of life by which the
universe is sustained. (7:5)

The real nature is the Self, the Self that is aware of himself as an individualized pure Self, other
than the manifested nature. But in the Real Self, the higher nature, the Spark of life, is aware of
himself as different from the not-self. This is the monadic awareness in human beings, and the
Logoic awareness in the Solar Life.

In Chapter 10, verse 42, Lord Krishna says,

...having pervaded this whole universe with a fragment of Myself, I remain. (10:42)

The fragment is the spiritual existence in nature identified with it. But beyond the nature the Real
Self - IS.

Know that these two natures are the one source from which all beings spring. I am the origin
and the consummation of the entire universe. (7:6)

This is one of the most profound statements of Lord Krishna. The two natures referred to are
matter and spirit which originated from SPACE.
In The Secret Doctrine we read:

What is that which was, is, and will be: whether there is a universe or not; whether there be gods
or none asks the esoteric Senzar catechism. And the answer made is — space -[4]

Another place explaining the relation behind matter and spirit says,

Spirit is matter on the highest plane (of cosmic physical plane). The matter is spirit at its lowest
point, and both are maya.[5]

My lower nature referred to in the Gita is this cosmic physical plane. The higher nature is space,
and

There is nothing greater than Me (Space).... All manifested worlds are strung on Me, as rows of
gems on a silver thread. (7:7)

To simplify the preceding verse, we are quoting a chapter from The Hidden Glory of the Inner
Man, and from The Science of Becoming Oneself, by Torkom Saraydarian.

The Mystery of Space

What is that which was, is and will be: whether there is a Universe or not; whether there be gods
or none? asks the esoteric Senzar catechism. And the answer made is — Space.[6]

In the beginning was Space, ever-present and self-existent, the Shoreless Ocean of pure Life-
Electricity. Space was Life. This Space-Life willed to transcend Itself, to surpass Itself, to live, to
be; thus It created a limit in Itself. In the Dawn of Existence, a part of Space descended and
condensed through seven steps, and substance, the root of matter, emerged. It is a divine, hidden
law that, to transcend or to surpass itself, a deity, a man, or an atom must limit itself and then
release itself. Limitation creates relativity, and relativity urges us to move and progress.

Innumerable ages passed, and between the condensed, materialized Space and the Real Space-
life a certain relationship or activity sprang up. This relationship brought about a third factor
which was neither total Space nor total substance, but a mixture of both. This mixture,
throughout ages, developed in itself an awareness of relationship. It looked up to Space, looked
at itself, and a sense of otherness was awakened in it.

There was now Space-Life, also Root-Substance, and the “Relation Between” which was a
conscious entity. This “Relation between” was an Existence, the highest pole of which was spirit
and the lowest pole matter. The spirit aspect was the first differentiation of Space. This
relationship was the Cosmic Bridge between substance and Space — Absolute Space, “the
Unknown Causeless Cause.” The bridge was like a Rainbow Bridge. It was Cosmic
Consciousness with seven stages or main grades. The first color was called spirit and the last
color matter. Spirit was 99% space and 1% substance, and matter was 1% space and 99%
substance. Thus we can say that Spirit, the highest plane of Existence, was the representative of
Primordial Substance.
Space is in everything, everywhere. It can never be divided. In everything, the Space aspect of
Nature is the controlling factor. All forms and existences disappear like bubbles; only space
remains. We feel the existence of Space when there is form. But form is only a concentration of
Space. When it disintegrates, only Space remains.

Many more ages passed, and through the relationship of these seven planes of Existence emerged
subtle forms which composed the prototype of all future forms. “Occultism teaches us that no
form can be given to anything, either by nature or by man, whose ideal type does not already
exist on the subjective plane.”[7] These prototypes or ideal types are called in their totality, the
Great Plan, and the parts of this plan, philosophically, are called “ideas”.

Plato intuitively grasped some of these facts and imparted them to his disciples. Later. Plutarch
said: “An idea is a being incorporeal which has no subsistence by itself, but gives figure and
form unto shapeless matter and becomes the cause of manifestation.”

Let us not forget that every plane has its own ideas, the totality of which is the PLAN. The
higher the plane is, the higher are the ideas, until at the highest point of Existence, the PLAN
merges to the purpose of the Absolute Space-Life. “As above, so below.”

A soul is an idea as are Solar Angels, Spirits, Lives, and Gods. Seen from below, they are
purposes. All existence is essentially an IDEA.

Upon the lower planes, adaptation and the survival of the fittest are processes of expressing
ideas, or the adaptation of forms to their prototypes or their mother-ideas.

In The Secret Doctrine we read:

The whole order of nature evinces a progressive march towards a higher life. There is design in
the action of the seemingly blindest forces. The whole process of evolution with its endless
adaptations is a proof of this. The immutable laws that weed out the weak and feeble species, to
make room for the strong, and which insure the “survival of the fittest”, though so cruel in their
immediate action — all are working toward the grand end. The very fact that adaptations do
occur, that the fittest do survive in the struggle for existence, shows that what is called
“unconscious Nature” is in reality an aggregate of forces manipulated by semi-intelligent beings
(Elementals) guided by High Planetary Spirits (Dhyan-Chohans), whose collective aggregate
forms the manifested Verbum of the unmanifested LOGOS, and constitutes at one and the same
time the MIND of the Universe and its immutable LAW.[8]

These ideas are like music played by Space upon the seven strings of Substance, the highest note
of which is Pure-Spirit and the lowest matter. These ideas came into being when Space-Life and
Substance met and Substance was impressed by the purpose of Space.

The mother of all prototypes of ideas or ideal forms was called by the ancients the Son, the Soul
of the Universe, the Way, or the Medium between Spirit and Matter — between Space and
Substance. This was the Cosmic Christ crucified upon the Cross of Space between Spirit and
Matter. Existence in its totality forms a universal unity charged with the purpose of Spirit and
endowed with the qualities of Substance through which it can express the purpose of Spirit, the
purpose of Space.

Throughout religious literature we read that the foundation of the universe was an act of
sacrifice. Thus a part of Life or Space sacrifices by extinguishing itself, then descends into
matter to express itself and to transcend itself.

Long, long ages ago, there came a time when the Universal Soul as a huge and unmeasurable
Cloud “precipitated.” This was the greatest victory of Creation, when the spiritualized substance
or materialized spirit divided into particles to carry on the Act of Creativity and growth.
Throughout the ages these particles or “drops”, passing through numberless forms accumulating
experience, reached the stages of self-consciousness... and became “the sons of God” who saw
the mystery of God in the mirror of matter and to some degree identified themselves with that
great mystery, their real essence. When some of these “sons of God” reached a certain high
degree of development they were called “Souls,” sons of mind, or Solar Angels. They put the
mental spark in the evolving man and then incarnated in him to lead him into the heights of
Divine understanding and creativity because at that time the man-form was no more than an
animal in consciousness.

Incorporated in the form of man is the Spirit aspect and the matter aspect. The Solar Angel is the
bridge which leads the Spirit aspect of man toward Life-Space and uses the matter aspect to carry
out the purpose of Space. Gradually, with the help of the Solar Angel, the Spirit-aspect in man
gains total control over the various grades of matter, and the man develops a new consciousness
of his own and “remembers” his Father's House. When this is accomplished, he becomes a Soul.

As with the human form, every form has its own “soul”. A cell, a grain, a tree, an animal, a
planet, a solar system, a constellation — each has its own soul, its own bridge, which transmutes
spirit into matter, matter into spirit, and furthers the Divine Plan. When this bridge, the soul,
acquires self-consciousness and achieves a high degree of self-determination, it becomes a Solar
Angel; “a superman, the lightning out of the dark cloud — man.”[9]

From esoteric literature, we learn that there are nine initiations which the shadow in the
personality must undergo before it becomes one with its Source or prototype. A “Soul” in this
process of initiation is one who has passed the Fifth Initiation. He has become a Master of
Wisdom and has gained victory over death. Thus, the One who lives in and around us as our
Guardian Angel, our Soul, is One who passed through human experiences in this or another
planet and under the Law of Sacrifice “descended” into man to carry on the process of
spiritualization both in man and in Itself.

We are not yet Souls. We will become Souls when, through our Solar Angel, we will establish a
certain relationship with our Inner God — with our essence — or with the highest principle in us
— and bring our body and life under the rule of that Divine Reality.

In The Secret Doctrine we read the following beautiful words: “Matter is the vehicle for the
manifestations of soul in this plane of existence, and soul is the vehicle in a higher plane for the
manifestation of spirit, and these three are a trinity synthesized by Life which pervades them
all.”[10] Here another question comes to our minds. Are not our Divine Sparks and Souls the same
thing? The answer is: The Soul on the plane of Its achievement separately carried on Its own
development, Its own spiritualization. It aspires toward Its own Spark, toward Its Essence,
toward Its spiritual principle, while at the same time It serves as a bridge between our Spirit and
Its reflection — the man.

We live as personalities or as reflections “as in a mirror”, by the life and consciousness which we
draw from our Souls. We aspire toward the Soul, toward Soul-consciousness and the Soul aspires
toward the Spirit. This process continues from incarnation to incarnation, until man comes in
contact with the spiritual principle and gains victory over the matter aspect of his nature. Having
achieved this, the Soul stands aside and proceeds on to Its more advanced duties.

The Solar Angel feels a deep joy when the time for Its release approaches. This is also the time
of release for a man who now enters into the “kingdom of Souls”. This is the law: no one can
make real progress until he prepares someone to take his place. Such is the way to become
Divine.

In the Egyptian Book of the Dead there is a wonderful hymn referring to the above facts, in
which the Deity says to man:

I have given thee thy spirit.

I have given thee thy soul.

I have given thee thy force. (personality)

I have made my soul come and speak with his Father.

Through all ages, this trinity in man and in God forms the foundation of all religions and esoteric
sciences.

To sum up this chapter, we can say that there is “an Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless, and
Immutable Principle... beyond the range and reach of thought.” This is Space, which is
“uninfluenced by the presence or absence... of the objective universe.” It is the one life, the
unmanifested Deity. To quote the Bhagavad Gita (10:42): having permeated this whole Universe
with a fragment of myself, I remain.” The last word refers to Space or to the Unmanifested
Deity. The “fragment or portion” is Substance which emerged from Space. The relationship
between Substance and Space brought out a third factor which we call the principle of
Consciousness or the Universal Soul, the positive pole of which is Spirit and the negative pole,
matter.

This Universal or Cosmic Soul precipitated and became manifold. As these drops of Soul or the
mixture of substance and Space-Life grew, they gradually developed a consciousness of their
own. There came a time when some of the individualized drops succeeded in being more spirit
and less matter. They started to influence their environment and became the Lords of their
circles, the great Lives of the planes, and the Rulers of planets and constellations. Let us
remember that planets or constellations are the bodies of Great Entities Who, on Cosmic levels,
“reached the appropriate equilibrium between Matter and Spirit.” They have not yet become true
Spirits. When they become absolutely pure, they enter the Unmanifested aspect of the absolute
Existence — Space. All Cosmic and universal laws have their origin in these Lords, Rulers and
Existences because laws are “the imposition (upon the lesser and more important) of the will and
purpose of that which is superlatively great.” Our Solar Angels are the representatives in us of
Divine laws.

All atoms, cells and forms have inherited the qualities of the Universal Soul. Every atom, every
cell is self-governed, has laws, has its own consciousness, sensitivity and discriminative power.
We are told also that:

Every form on earth, and every speck (atom) in Space strives in its efforts towards self-
formation, to follow the model placed for it in the 'heavenly man'... Its (the atom’s) involution
and evolution, its external and internal growth and development, have all one and the same
object — man.[11]

All in Nature tends to become Man.[12]

From The Science of Becoming Oneself

On this path of ascent, men build bridges between the Self and the not-self. The bridge is the
consciousness between the two. The not-self is the previous self, left behind, to be used as an
instrument of expression and contact on its plane. If man's consciousness is identified with one
sub-plane, he is not able to observe that plane or its activities, because his self is that subplane.
His unfoldment is a process of detachment from his identified level and the establishing of
identification with the next higher-sub plane.

Our earth consciousness starts with the not-self. We see the existing universe, but we have no
ability to detach ourselves from that universe. We completely identify with the universe; our
universe is that portion of the existence with which we come in contact.

At 10° (see Diagram I) we are slightly awakened and we begin to sense that the universe has its
own individual existence. We start to sail away from the shore of our mother, as a new born
baby.

The following diagram will offer further clarification:

 Diagram I
At 25°, we begin to doubt that our physical body is our Self. In this way, the universe becomes
the not-self, the body becomes the not-self, but the rest still persists as Self.

At 50°, we separate ourselves from the emotional world, its responses and reactions, so that
eventually the emotional world also ceases to be a part of our Self and becomes a part of the not-
self.

At 75°, our mental body detaches and becomes a part of the not-self with all its modifications. At
85°, we pass into the intuitional world.

At 90°, the atmic body separates; at 95° we enter the monadic plane and at 100° we become our
true Self, one with the “Father.” At this stage we realize that we are one with the Self in the
universe.

This is an approximate picture of the bridge building process, by which the Real Man reaches out
to his Home — the Blue Peak. To explain this process further, spirit and matter crossing each
other produce the selves in us, or the centers of consciousness, the “I's” in us. This is illustrated
in Diagram II.

The point where spirit and matter meet forms the “I” of the man, or the controlling center. If the
proportion is equal, let us say 15 and 15, we have a balanced man on low levels.
A Soul-infused personality has a 50/50 balance, when man radiates the glory of the spirit through
the lower man as much as possible. After the fiftieth degree, the spirit gains momentum and the
man becomes spiritually radioactive. He undertakes great services on higher levels, in larger
areas.

Diagram II
Actually these two poles are one pole — “The Pole of Spirit.” They are shown as two poles to
indicate the percentage of spirit and matter in any given condition of achievement.

To make the picture even clearer, the following diagrams are given:

Diagram III
Diagram III indicates the two poles of the one existence. The vertical line is the spirit aspect; the
horizontal line is the matter aspect.
 Diagram IV
Diagram IV indicates the proportions of spirit and matter. At its lowest degree, the number 1,
spirit striking matter, or at the lowest crystallization of spirit, is created an atom. This is the
mineral kingdom. Number 2 is the vegetable kingdom; number 3, the animal kingdom; number
4, the human kingdom — the average man; number 5 represents the aspirant; number 6, the
disciple; number 7, the Master; the 8th is the Christ; and the 9th symbolizes Divinity. In all of
these diagrams the following points are emphasized:

• Matter in its highest form is spirit.

• Spirit in its lowest aspect is matter, as is taught in The Secret Doctrine.

• Going toward spirit, matter (or limitation) decreases, and a time comes when matter
is spiritualized.

• The spiritualization of matter produces the unfoldment of consciousness, and the

blooming of hidden treasures of the spirit.

• At the point where spirit and matter cross each other, consciousness begins to
unfold. As the crossing point rises, you are acquiring more consciousness; with more
consciousness, you live a more abundant life.

To increase your consciousness means to build bridges until you are fully awake on all levels and
in all states of being. On the scale of spirit and matter we find explanation of all love and hatred,
bliss and misery, power and weakness, light and darkness, creativity and inertia, health and
sickness. As spirit dominates, virtues increase; the inner man proportionally gains more control
over his mechanism, or the not-self. Because of his newly built bridges and extensions, the Real
Man begins to control his home.

From The Science of Becoming Oneself, p. 128-132

 Commentary on Chapter 7, Part 2
In the following few verses Krishna poetically emphasizes the unity of life, the origin of all that
exists. He points out also that those forms of life which are on the path of evolution and initiation
express spiritual qualities. For example:

...I am in the intuition, the pure reason, and the heroism of all heroes. (7:10)

In the 12th verse He says,

All manifestations of inertia, motion and rhythm proceed from Me. I am in them, though I am not
bound in them. (7:12)

This is deeply philosophical. All the inertia, motion and rhythm are the result of contact between
spirit and matter, which originate from the Supreme Source and though within each form (spirit
plus matter) the supreme power exists, but is not limited by it, and those who are not awakened
yet to reality, they are,

...deluded by these three gunas, and do not recognize Me as the Eternal and Imperishable One.
(7:13)

The whole of existence is the result of the interaction of these three gunas:

inertia, motion, rhythm

matter, consciousness, spirit

negative, positive-negative, positive.

All these form the “illusive nature.”

For My illusive nature, made up of the three gunas, is hard to pierce. But only those who take
refuge in Me alone can cross this sea of illusion, of maya. (7:14)

Hard to pierce means hard to break the lure of illusion and enter into the higher nature, the
nature of reality into the Supreme Self, symbolized by Krishna. This is the story of age-long
striving of great Souls to detach themselves from the not-self and enter into the true Self.

How many ages we, as divine sparks, struggled to raise ourselves from the identification with the
mineral, vegetable and animal forms and eventually entered into the human form? How many
ages yet we will strive to pierce this illusion of body, emotions and mind and enter into a higher
state of awareness or reality?

In verse 18, Lord Krishna says,

...the searcher for wisdom is of My very Self. For with steadfast mind, he is focused in Me as his
supreme goal (7:18)

To simplify this expression of the Gita we can say that those who search for wisdom eventually
reach that state of awareness where He stands. Also, one can not search wisdom unless the soul
consciousness dawns in him.

Krishna is the symbol of the inner Teacher, the embodiment of light, love, and power within us.
He is “the way, the truth, and the life,” as Christ said.

The searcher of wisdom eventually will be like Him, because He is focused in Him, as his
supreme goal. To be focused in Him means that the disciple, with all his personality, with all his
might and spirit strives toward his future, as an acorn strives to be an oak tree. Is there a greater
reward than to become one's true Self?

At the end of many births, the searcher for wisdom takes refuge in Me, realizing that I am the
innermost Self. (7:19)

An excerpt from my poem The Christ reads,

He is bridging Himself

with all that are apart —

This is His great labor.

He is the joy of the labor of

achievement.

He is the wine in the chalice.

The joy which is tasted by

everyone

who comes in contact with his

true Self — Christ.

But they, whose wisdom has been rent away by desires, worship other gods, guided by their
nature. (7:20)

It is possible that sometimes we rent away our wisdom by our desires. Desire is an urge to
identify with an object, with a position, fame, ambition, with a thoughtform, or a vision or even
with a virtue. Such an identification fades the light of our wisdom, and eventually rends it away,
because wisdom is an ever growing awareness of non-identification and a process of rejecting
the not-self in whatever form it is found.

Whatever holds your attention, and makes you a worshiper, is the other god. Any possession,
any object for which you crave turns into another god for you, identified with the force of desire.

The next verse is very interesting, and one that puzzles many commentators,

Whatever form of god a devotee desires to worship in faith, I make his faith unwavering. (7:21)

Here and in the next verse Krishna presents Himself as the laws of nature and simply says that,
whatsoever you sow, you will reap. Once you are caught by the result of such a labor, you will
continue for a long time to do the same thing because the result will encourage you. Thus, the
laws of nature are impersonal to whatever you direct your effort to get results. If you are
specializing in killing, you will have success and will do more. If you are specializing in good
works, you will have results.

But the fruits acquired by these men of little intelligence are limited. The worshipers of devas, or
super-human beings, go to devas. My devotees come to Me. (7:23)

The fruits ... are limited because, sooner or later, the law of cause and effect will warn you with
pain and suffering, or your Inner Guide gives you a greater vision of reality, or the pressure of
the common good restrains your wrong activities.

Devas and super-human beings are gods of many religions, or high Initiates working with a race,
a nation or a family, inspiring them to go forward on the path of perfection. Or they may be the
gods of our imagination, or the embodiments of the forces or laws of nature. All these belong to
the lower nature referred to by Krishna.

According to their faith, labor and devotion, people may receive fruits in worshipping such
entities or forces, and Lord Krishna says that it is He Who grants their desires. It is Him because
He stands for the whole creation. As Christ said, “Not even a leaf falls down without the will of
the Father.” These are Oriental ways of saying that the Law of Cause and Effect controls
everything, and beyond all causes there is the Causeless Cause, symbolized as the Father, as the
absolute or as “Me” or “That.”

Foolish men think that I, the Unmanifested One, have a manifested form, not knowing that I am
the Immutable and the Transcendental One. (7:24)

Here Lord Krishna is speaking in behalf of the Unmanifested One, or in referring to the
Unmanifested One, He says, do not confuse Me with the Unmanifested One. As you see Me,
speak with Me, you are in contact with a manifested one, but the Supreme Self, which is the
essence of My and your Innermost Self, is the Unmanifested One, and with our manifested form
it is impossible to know IT as IT is, except by gradually changing into IT. In the next verse He
emphasizes the same fact.
... I know the beings of the past, the present and the future. But no one knows Me. (7:26)

All great Beings, Angels, Masters, Initiates and Teachers had Their existence. They appeared,
disappeared, and appeared again, but in spite of all Their Teachings and presence, ... no one
knows Me. (7:26) No one knows the Causeless Cause, the Unmanifested One, the Space.

Here Lord Krishna is dramatizing and presenting Himself as the spokesman of that Causeless
Cause. For example, we read in fairy tales, “I am the wind, I am the flowers of the stars, I am the
Sun....” This was a method that great Initiates were using to teach infant humanity. Nothing
could be spoken at that level reached by humanity unless they had a tangible presence who could
serve as a window looking toward Infinity.

We have profound statements in verse 27 in which illusion and delusion are discussed. On the
path of discipleship we have four main obstacles.

Four Obstacles on the Path

One of the greatest services a man can do is to start dispelling or dissipating his own glamors and
illusions, and to be, in his environment and in the world, a center of more abundant life, one who
stands for reality on all levels, and thus paves the way to enlightenment for the whole of
humanity.

In this chapter we will try to learn about feeling, desire, emotion; then about the four main
obstacles on the Path, namely glamor, illusion, maya and about a great obstacle classically called
the Dweller on the Threshold.

Feeling is the response of the astral body to the outer and inner impressions. Not only does the
objective world impress the astral body , but also the subjective worlds, the worlds of mind and
intuition, the world of energies do, and thereby create feelings.

Most of us are controlled by our feelings, and our feelings are conditioned by the development of
our astral body. If our astral nature is more refined, the registration will be finer and more
accurate.

Desire is created when the feeling is checked by the Thinker and is found to make man more free
and expanding. This creates also the sensation of pleasure or happiness. Desire is the urge to
continue this expanding and pleasure-giving experience.

It also happens that the feeling may register pain, which means limitation. Then the subject
develops the desire to escape the pain. Actually, desire is the first expression of will power
within the man; it is the beam of light leading back home, tough in its early expressions it is
clouded and twisted, but eventually it turns into aspiration, determination and willpower, the
Path.

Emotion is the amplification and the coloring of the feeling by the reaction of the human mind.
When any event or impression is registered by the astral and mental bodies simultaneously, you
have two impressions which act and react upon each other. This interaction produces the
emotion. Negative emotions are created through the mechanical activity of the mind, due to the
glamorous content of the astral body. Positive emotions are created when the feeling is handled
by the Thinker. Positive emotions are mostly compassion and true love.

The simultaneous registration by these two bodies creates two different reactions in them. For
example, the astral body registers like a photographic plate, but the mental body registers the
same event plus it mixes it with the registration of many past impressions, which fall in the same
category.

In a sense, the registration of the astral body is more accurate than the registration of the mental
body because the mental body rationalizes as it registers; it is active but the astral body is passive
at the time of registration.

The registration of the astral body becomes complex and mixed when the emotions and glamors
interfere, after the registration.

Emotion is feeling plus mental reaction, or mental interference upon the feeling. The substance
of emotion is astral and mental force. When the new feeling has more astral associations than
mental reactions to impressions, feeling controls the mechanism or the “man.”. If the mental
reaction is stronger, then the mind controls the play through the emotions.

Feeling, as we said, is purer in its registration but, as a photographic plate, the astral body does
not have the discrimination of the intelligence, so any phenomenon can be registered and
counted as real and goal-fitting. This is how glamors are created: by correct registration of
illusive phenomena, which is taken or accepted as a part of reality by the unfolding human soul,
identified with the astral and physical body.

A glamor is not only an astral form, but it is also an astral life. The life energy is a desire of any
kind on the astral plane which ensouls the glamor and makes it a forceful, dominating factor in
the life of the aspirant, blinding and misleading him in all his expressions and relationships in
order to secure its satisfaction and survival.

Sometimes, dark forces attack working disciples through many kinds of imposed glamors. Such
an attack happens when the disciple is most sensitive and at the verge of advanced progress. For
example, they create a glamor of failure, a glamor of not being loved, a glamor of sickness, and
so on.

The glamor, as a cloud, comes and settles itself around or within the aura of the disciple and
gradually sinks into his mind, and he starts (for example) to feel sick. A little later — according
to the content of the glamor — he imagines that he is very sick; he imagines what will happen if
his sickness continues, and how people will be affected, what will happen to the work that he
started, and the whole dramatization takes place with strong emotional coloring. Once this phase
starts, the glamor penetrates deeper from the astral to the etheric body and affects the organs that
are involved in the glamor; then the disciple actually feels sick. As he continues to feel sick, his
dramatization gets stronger and more painful, and the glamor possesses him more, until it
becomes like a knife stuck in his body from which he suffers, but cannot release himself.

This glamor does not limit itself to the disciple. The source of the glamor fabricates other
glamors, and sends them to the associates of the disciple to make them reinforce the original
glamor upon the disciple. For example, they start to think that he is getting weaker, and probably
he is going to die. These thoughts in their minds stimulate many little glamors and vanities, and
they start to think of being the future successor of the disciple, or they develop a discouragement
and leave the disciple to his fate, keeping busy with their own personal activities. Also, the
glamor spreads seeds into the minds of the disciple's associates, and these seeds express
themselves as dreams and visions which make them believe that they are coming from higher
sources. Once these vanities and feelings of failure or discouragement settle in the hearts of the
associates of the disciple, his glamor gets bigger and stronger, and can have an even greater
effect upon his health.

Illusions work in the same way, only they are more mental than astral; yet they can be reinforced
by glamors and the ill-thought of his enemies.

What can be done in such situations? The disciple must:

1. Find out and recognize the existence of the glamor.

2. Attack it with the arrows of spiritual courage, faith, and confidence in the source of
life and fire within him.

3. Create opposing images of health, success, victory and joy.

4. Invoke the help of his Master, or the Christ.

5. Spread words of optimism, success, and images of future prosperity.

6. Note and then shut out any negative expressions from his associates and himself.

7. See the developing vanities in his associates and with clear sincerity smash them.

8. Know that his destiny is in the hands of his Solar Angel and of his Master, and
nothing can interfere with Their decision.

9. Have a special time to stand daily in the light of Christ.

The disciple can inform his immediate faithful ones about the situation and mobilize them into
action to destroy the glamor. One of the best methods that his friends can use is holding the
disciple in the light of their Soul and in the light of Christ, and thinking in terms of victory,
success and health in relation to him. This is just an example, and the student of Ageless Wisdom
can find many other ways to destroy the black glamor, prepared and sent by dark forces to hinder
the usefulness of the work the disciple does on behalf of the Ageless Wisdom and the Plan.
Glamors and illusions are very contagious. One of the ways of protection is the technique of
detachment, by which the unfolding human soul, through the light of his intelligence, insulates
himself from the glamors and illusions of the people and stands as an observer.[13] Suppression is
not detachment. We often think that we are using detachment, but actually we are suppressing an
emotion or a reaction to a glamor or an illusion.

Glamors and illusions are actually force centers, designs, or structures within the astral and
mental atmosphere. They cause the forces to flow in certain patterns, in certain ways and in
certain frequencies, controlling the expression of man on the three levels of human endeavor.

In detachment we consciously raise our radiation to such a high degree that the influence of the
glamor and illusion is immediately rejected, thus making impossible any reaction from within us.
In suppression we are receiving the impressions, the influences, and the infection of the glamors
and illusions, but are trying to keep our actions and expressions free from their control.
Suppression eventually affects our vehicles. Any suppressed wave becomes first a pressure, then
a decaying substance in any given body which eventually deteriorates, affecting the health of the
entire man.

This is why ancient sages, when they were tempted by any glamor or illusion, directed their
hearts and consciousness toward the great Masters, toward Cosmos and Infinity. By raising their
consciousness they were building a shield around themselves and making impossible the
penetration of glamors and illusions in their aura. This was a subtle method of true detachment
which was used by the holy ones. They watched the ugliness, but saw the beauty. They were
surrounded by darkness, but were in communion with the inner light. The waves of unrest were
knocking on their shores, but they were founded on the rock of Reality. For this reason,
meditation is important, for it is a technique of continuous expansion and of raising the vibration
of our entire being.

It is good to know also that these attacks are of short duration as far as the long spiritual path of
the disciple is concerned. They only hinder his usefulness for a few years or for one or two lives,
but eventually the Lords of Karma pay him back, with interest, all the losses, suffering and pain
that he went through, and bring him up into the light of pure awareness, as the seeds of his true
aspirations and cosmic visions start to spread and flourish in his soul.

The Great Ones watch the attacks of the dark brothers upon their disciples, and see whether or
not they will be able to overcome them by their own means. Each attack thus is a test of the
unfoldment and of the spiritual power of the disciple. And when he overcomes them, the Masters
open greater fields of usefulness to him, and pay greater attention to his work.

In the Book of Revelation there is a beautiful verse which says,

Those that overcometh I will make them as pillars in my temple, and they will no more go out.

Illusion is mental in nature and comes into being when the registration of the mental body is
interfered with by the glamors of the astral body, and reality is distorted. The registration of the
mental body can take place from above or below. The impressions can reach it from the egoic or
intuitional planes, or from the avenue of the five senses. Illusion is formed when the light of
intelligence is caught in a picture of a distorted reality and projected to the screen of the lower
mental plane, becoming crystallized there.

There are many distorted thoughtforms in our mental plane due to the admittance of glamor by
mental approval or by mentalization. An illusion is a false reality. Illusions are formed when
great ideas hit an unprepared mind, a narrow mind, and lose their planetary, solar or cosmic
significances and are directed or used for selfish personal ends. Illusions are living thoughtforms,
constantly fed by personal, group or national attention and communication. These thoughtforms
are very contagious and, once they penetrate into a man's mind, they get new coloring, new
potency, and their dispersal becomes more difficult.

Great waves of ideas come and impress the minds of man, cyclically and with the rhythm of the
Plan for our system, but these ideas and impressions are passing through instruments that are
under the control of illusions and glamors. They turn into great illusions and cause suffering in
the form of political or religious dogmas, then gradually disintegrate and melt away into the new
stream of ideas and thoughts.

In the thinking process we turn our minds in two directions:

a) Toward the world of Soul, which is the world of ideas, prototypes and Plan.

b) Toward the world of need upon the three lower levels.

To think means to hold the need, the question, within the light of the Soul, and to invoke an
answer from the Soul. The evocation of the Soul is the process of thinking. All the answers to
our intelligent questions are found in the world of these ideas, prototypes and Plan.

Meditation is the science of thinking. It leads us to recognize and then to burn our glamors and
illusions, thus helping the survival of humanity and every form of life on earth.

Real thought is the agent of love, of unfoldment, of resurrection, of sacrifice, of order, rhythm,
beauty, light, power, joy, and we know that joy is a state of awareness which does not recognize
pain or any other limitation. Thoughts are extensions of the Soul's light. Thoughtforms are the
result of the light of the Soul utilizing the emotions and mental stuff, under the direction of a
given desire or aspiration, and building a form to manipulate energy and time to meet a need.

These thoughtforms are closely connected with emotions, and if a certain emotion continues, it
keeps alive the created thoughtform, and vice versa, until a new thought current changes it to
create new forms.

We are told that “energy follows thought.” This is a great revelation. We can change this
sentence and say that “force follows astral and etheric formations.”

Glamors and illusions do not stay on their own planes but eventually impress the etheric body as
the aspirant develops, and there build in the etheric body certain forms, mixtures of glamors and
illusions. Once these forms are active in the etheric body, a great manipulation of force starts.
These forms cause the etheric force to flows through certain patterns, through certain centers and
organs, and bring deceptive satisfaction for the physical, emotional and mental bodies; these are
sometimes called blind urges and drives. The Tibetan Master calls them maya.

We are told that maya, which is a combination of illusion and glamor on etheric planes, first
uses the force latent in physical matter, then uses the forces of the lower etheric centers, and later
misuses the energies of the higher centers. Thus the man is caught in a whirlpool of forces, and
“does things that he doesn't want to do....” Maya mostly uses forces through the sacral center.
This means that most of the forces and energies are used for sexual ends and wasted, causing
many complications in the various glands and organs, from which force and energy are drawn to
the sacral center.

H.P. Blavatsky, speaking of maya, says:

“Maya is the tempter and deceitful serpent on our plane”[14] because it is blind urge and forcing
power, which stimulates and creates both demand and craving in the lower self, and the lower
self must choose and discriminate.

Along with the maya, glamors and illusions we have another hindrance which is called “The
Dweller on the Threshold.” This is nothing else but the combination of these three forces lifted
up to the higher mental plane, as an image of an integrated and rich personality who waits before
the door of initiation, there to pass the greatest test.

In the Egyptian mysteries the Sphinx represented the Dweller on the Threshold who was sitting
on the path leading to the pyramid, as a mighty guard to protect the disciple and the pyramid, and
reject him if he was not worthy of entrance.

The Sphinx posed three questions pertaining to the three obstacles. If these questions were not
answered and solved properly it loomed there to prevent entrance, and the disciple was rejected.
If they were answered or solved, then the Dweller on the Threshold changed into a door and a
path, leading the disciple into the awareness of the Spiritual Triad, there to be transfigured.

The Sphinx was a protection for those who were not ready, who were not yet cleansed of their
glamors, illusions and maya; for such people entrance into the Spiritual Triad would bring the
greatest disaster to their vehicles and their environment.

The Sphinx was also a mighty obstacle because unless the disciple was able to overcome and
remove these obstacles, he could not penetrate into the true spiritual awareness.

The Sphinx is “yourself” — the totality of your glamors, illusions and maya, your personality.
You see yourself so contented, happy and successful that you do not want to pass beyond it, and
strive. You become your own limitation as a kind of sound barrier, which must be overcome and
surpassed if you want to penetrate into deeper mysteries of being.
In the New Testament this episode was given in the example of the rich man, who came to Christ
and asked how he could enter into the next stage of awareness. “Go and sell whatever you have
and give to the poor....” But he was unable to do it, because of his wealth. In esoteric literature to
sell means to get rid of the objects that are hindrances on the Path; things that you have must be
given up to make you to be.

So all his illusions, glamors, and maya stood there as a great hindrance and did not let him pass
through the door of initiation, toward the light of the Soul in which he should stay “poor in
spirit” — “poor” of illusions, glamors, maya and their totality, the Dweller on the Threshold.

In a sense, the Dweller on the Threshold is the unfolding human soul so dressed in the heavy
“wealth” of his maya, glamors and illusions that he is not yet able to make his own decision to
reject or thrust them away, so as to enter into the light of the Solar Angel and fuse with It. This
stage may be called conscious identification with the wealth of the lower vehicles.

When we are talking about glamors, illusions, and maya, and even about the Dweller on the
Threshold, we are referring to substantial forms, crystallized waves of force, cancerous
phenomena on the etheric, astral and mental bodies. All of these four obstacles will yield to
higher energies for purification, for dispersal, for cure and for restoration of the harmony in the
human nature.

Some patches of glamor and illusion disappear under the higher light, love and power, as a patch
of clouds under the influence of the sun or as a piece of ice under the influence of heat. All is
energy or force acting and reacting upon each other.

The power of all these crystallizations can be eliminated if we do not identify ourselves with
these four obstacles, and press forward toward the pure being — the Self.

The Tibetan Master states that “the Lord Buddha undertook to focus in Himself the illumination
which would eventually make possible the dissipation of glamor.... The Lord Christ undertook to
dispel illusion by drawing to Himself the hearts of men....”[15]

It is necessary to note here that most of our physical and psychosomatic sicknesses have their
origin in our glamors, illusions and maya. They create leakage in our bodies, burn energy or
produce whirlpools of forces, and hinder the flow of the energies from spiritual levels.

As the conscious evolution of the human race progresses, the glamors, illusions and maya will
gradually reach their minimum potency and thus we will have most of the causes of our diseases
eliminated. Note that all Great Ones are called the healers of men.

People speak of synthesis, of creating a synthesis in the human being, in humanity, or global
synthesis. And they think that such a kind of synthesis is the result of harmony, co-operation and
bridging. This is not a fact. The fact is that synthesis substands all phenomena, in man and the
planet. The thing that must be done is to clear away the glamors, illusions and maya; once these
are cleared away we will remove also the Dweller on the Threshold; then synthesis will stand
revealed before our eyes. We cannot create synthesis in man, or create global consciousness or
synthesis; we must only remove the obstacles that hide it from our vision and realization. And
that is what correct meditation does: it unveils the synthesis that substands all phenomena.

As you enter into the awareness of synthesis, all your actions on all levels work toward
understanding, co-operation and unity, and the result is health, joy, and radiation.

Any time a man starts to criticize, you may be sure that he is building onto and reacting to a
glamor. Pride, showing off, a sense of superiority and irritability are other signs that must be
watched. Once you recognize your glamors it will be easier to work on them and to dispel them.

Glamors can be dispelled by “analysis, discrimination and clear thinking,” that is by holding our
mind steady in the light of the Soul, and then focusing that light through the mind into our
glamors, located in the astral plane. This means that glamors are dissipated by a Soul-illumined
mind. The energy used here by the Soul is the atomic substance or the highest substance of the
mental plane. It is a fiery energy which, when focused properly, dries out the dark patches of
clouds, the glamors, and annihilates them.

Our illusions can be dispelled by the Soul, when It focuses the energy of intuition on them.
Illusions are thoughtforms, and they are fiery in nature. The energy of the intuition is used to
dispel them.

Maya is devitalized or re-directed by the power of inspiration, which is a form of will energy
accumulated in the Soul. This energy is let loose down the etheric centers, like a burning and
healing ray. Through this energy, the Soul puts the centers in harmony with the rhythm of the
great pulsating light of the spark, All centers express psychic energy, and maya is cleansed
because all centers are used not by blind urges but by a conscious plan, in man and in the
universe.

The Dweller on the Threshold is removed by the focused will-to-achieve of the human soul and
by the reply of the Solar Angel, this time using the will energy of the Spiritual Triad upon the
Dweller on the Threshold, thus removing the shell in which the unfolding human soul is present,
and bringing it under the light of the Spiritual Triad. The man is now a third degree initiate in full
transfiguration.

Some of us have the wrong idea that our glamors and illusions are washed away when we leave
our physical body. On the contrary, they continue to affect our lives on astral and mental planes
in an even greater capacity. Most of the messages that are coming from mediums and from so-
called channels are not the messages of Masters or Great Beings, but the messages of returning
souls, or disembodied ones, who are full of glamors, illusions and vanities influencing them to
teach, to guide, to prophesy and to lead. Some of them are glamored ministers, devotees, priests,
rabbis, swamis, politicians and even humanitarians who enact dramas, dressing in the astral and
mental forms of the Masters and expressing themselves through the mediums and channels, as
masters, as gurus, as great ones, thus really building a great obstacle and hindrance between the
listeners and the true Ageless Wisdom, the Teachings of true Masters.
It is very pitiful that even some educated minds, driven by their fiery aspiration and devotion, do
not use their pure logic and straight-knowledge to see the mediocrity and even the river of lies
that flow through so-called messages.

A disciple makes a fantastic contribution to the great service in the subjective world, if he can
burn most of his glamors and illusions before he passes to the other side of the one life.

Right meditation and a life of pure service and dedication will gradually clear away our main
obstacles and enable us to bridge the “river” of the subtle world and enter into the fiery world.

Energies released during meditation and service will gradually remove the four obstacles and
make us the owners of our vehicles, the masters of our threefold personalities, here and in the
subtle worlds. But, as we enter into the sphere of the New Age energies, dark forces will use
every means to prevent our self-mastery. Among others, the black science of hypnotism again
will be used in many ways to control the lives of many people, preventing their Souls for a while
to use Their power to master the mechanism, to lead the man according to his karmic obligations
and dharmic rights and to remove the four major obstacles.

Occult meditation, done with pure motives, will form a shield of fire around us, and make us
awakened ones who walk the path of self-mastery and self-determination, unchained by the four
major obstacles.

The Science of Meditation, Chapter xxix, Four Obstacles on the Path, by Torkom Saraydarian

Commentary on Chapter 7
- CONTINUED -

Man is subject to illusion at his birth due to the following reasons:

1. His mental vehicle is the continuation of the former one. It has the same limitations as he had
before he passed away. Incarnation is continuation of the states of consciousness of his former
life.

2. Because of the delusion in which all creatures are caught, delusion is the massive illusion of
beings, among whom the baby will be born. Their illusions, glamors, vanities, lies and deceits
collectively affect the new-born baby, and condition him toward illusion. No matter how
advanced is a soul, he is still limited by his surrounding delusions which is mainly the result of
the pairs of opposites. This phrase must be understood clearly. When a man's awareness, or let us
say consciousness, is still in a universe which is the playground of spirit and matter, he will be
subject to illusion. It is possible to get rid of personal illusion, and be caught in a group or
national illusion. It is easy to run away from the illusion of the planet, and be caught in the
illusion of the Solar System, or even in the illusion of manifestation. That is why we have the
expression all manifestation is maya which means an illusive cover hiding a reality.
Illusion ands when our consciousness through initiations contacts Space, the light of which
disperses all unreality, all illusion.

In verse 28 Lord Krishna refers to those people who are on the path of freedom from illusion:

They are men of virtuous deeds.

Their sins are cleared away. They don't have karma to be paid.

They are free from the pairs of opposites

They are steadfast in their devotion.

Those who know Me as the whole of Nature, and the Eternal, and the Sacrifice, even at the time
of their death their hearts become one with Me, and they perceive Me. (7:30)

Nature is matter in process of expressing the purpose of God.

Eternal is the Spirit, activating the matter.

Sacrifice is the space, changed into manifestation.

It is easy to read these words, but it is not easy to know the One Who is beyond nature and
remains above it, but it is possible to tune in with the Infinite Presence, through one-pointed
focus of being.

[1]
Hierarchy, par. 55
[2]
Ibid., par. 136
[3]
Ibid., par. 289
[4]
Blavatsky, H.P., The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 9
[5]
Ibid. p. 693
[6]
Ibid, p. 9
[7]
Ibid., p. 282
[8]
Ibid., p. 277-278
[9]
Nietzsche, Friedrich, Thus Spake Zarathustra
[10]
Blavatsky, H.P., The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 49
[11]
Ibid., p. 183
[12]
Ibid., p. 170
[13]
See Saraydarian, H. (Torkom) The Science of Becoming Oneself, pp. 50-52
[14]
Blavatsky, H.P., The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 103
[15]
Bailey, Alice A., The Reappearance of the Christ, pp. 132-133

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 12
Work to be Done
1. Read Chapter 8 three to five times before you study this set.

At the time of your reading, reflect upon the verses and try to analyze them and read the
interpretation given here, which may add to your interpretation.

2. Please write a paper of not more than one typewritten page on verse 7 in your own words and
explanation.

3. Meditate each week on one of the following verses:

First week: verse 5

Second week: verse 6

Third week: verse 7

Fourth week: verse 14

Let your meditation last only 10-15 minutes.

4. At the end of the month, fill in your monthly meditation report and send in your paper.
 Involution and Evolution
Evolution is the gradual emerging into objective activity of qualities and faculties which have
been previously involved to perfection in matter of the lower planes.

If the Monad begins its cycle of incarnation through the three objective kingdoms on the
descending curved line, it has necessarily to enter on the reascending curved line of the Sphere as
a man also. On the descending arc it is the spiritual which gradually transforms into the material.
On the middle line of the base, Spirit and Matter are equilibrized in Man. On the ascending arc,
Spirit is slowly reasserting itself at the expense of the physical, or Matter, so that, at the close of
the Seventh Race of the Seventh Round, the Monad will find itself free from Matter and all its
qualities as it was in the beginning; having gained in addition the experience and wisdom, the
fruitage of all its personal lives, without the evil and temptations.

From The Secret Doctrine, Vol. III, by H.P. Blavatsky, p. 186 (4th Edition)

The doctrine of creation by development or evolution is a true doctrine, and is in no way

inconsistent with the idea of a divine operation; but the development is not the original
substance. Being infinite and eternal, that is perfect always. Development is the manifestation of
the qualities of the substance in the individual. Development is intelligible only by the
recognition of the inherent consciousness of the substance of existence. Of the qualities of the
substance manifested in the individual, Form is the expression. And it is because development is
directed by conscious, experienced and continually experiencing intelligence, which is ever
seeking to eliminate the rudimentary and imperfect, that progression occurs in respect to Form.
The highest product, man, is the result of Spirit working intelligently within. But man attains his
highest, and becomes perfect, only through his own voluntary cooperation with Spirit. There is
no mode of Matter in which the potentiality of personality, and therein of man, does not subsist,
for every molecule is a mode of the universal consciousness. Without consciousness is no being.
For Consciousness is being.

From The Perfect Way, by Kingsford and Maitland

You cannot have evolution without something to evolve; evolution does not create anything, it
only reveals it. What we are today, therefore, is the partial unfolding of some immeasurable
greater Fact that can probably ever be fully expressed under material conditions.

From Persistence of Jesus, by R.J. Campbell

 Commentary on The Eighth Discourse
(Chapter 8)

Part 2

In the eighth discourse, Arjuna asks:

What is the Eternal One?

What is the indwelling spirit?

What is action?

What is the objective phenomenon of existence; what is the objective phenomenon of existence, O
Krishna? (8:1)

And Krishna answers:

The imperishable is the Eternal One, the Supreme. He is the One that dwells in the body and
becomes the indwelling Self. The creative process by which all beings spring forth into
manifestation is called action. (8:3)

The objective phenomenon of existence is My perishable nature, and the Indweller is the
subjective phenomenon of existence. (8:4)

The Eternal One is the One Existence, the One Reality, the source of all being. It is the source of
the dual root of manifestation; ideation, the root from which the plan emerges and the matrix is
established, and mulaprakriti, the root of all existence. It is the aspect of Deity which precedes all
manifestation, and it is the Essence of all existence. It is the Supreme Being, the Unchangeable,
the Indestructible, the All in All. We often call it Space.

In manifestation, it is the one SELF, whose consciousness permeates every form whether it be
the form of an atom or the form of a Solar Logos. It is the life in the form, the 'raison d'etre' of
the form. In man, it is the Monad, the Spirit, the Highest Self; it is the highest state of awareness
in his constitution; it is Atman, the seventh principle. Knowledge of this Self comes only with
the attainment of the awareness of the Self and this is accomplished through Action, which is
fundamentally the third aspect of Deity.

It is this aspect that produces manifestation... which starts the Spirit on its downward course into
matter, and back again on the upward arc toward final liberation. It is the cause of repeated
incarnations for the purpose of perfecting the form, to the end that the unfolding human soul may
find greater facility in its control.

The form consists of the “elements” of the physical substance, and the body of man is the
combination of these elements into the complex and intricate form which includes not only the
dense form, with its marvelous organization of organs, glands, nerve and circulatory systems, but
the vital body, with its centers, through which the human soul governs the outer form, the desire
or emotional body and the mental body. These bodies form the quaternary, and “concern the
perishable nature” of the Self. They serve as a means of gaining knowledge and experience all
along the path of evolution.

In the sub-human kingdoms the goal of evolution is the attainment of the human stage where the
physical form reaches ultimate perfection. Only with this attainment is the human soul equipped
with an instrument that can be used to perform its will and through which it can eventually gain
liberation and “knowledge of the Shining Ones.”

And who are the Shining Ones? They are called devas. They are beings in which the spiritual
light shines through their form, or “they are the first emanation of Deity....”

Let us go to the very source of manifestation and the beginning of the evolutionary process. In
the Gita, Chapter 14 Krishna says:

My womb is Substance (the negative aspect of the divine duad — the mulaprakriti or root of
substance) In it I place the germ. From it all beings come to birth, O Arjuna. (14:3)

And in the Secret Doctrine, Stanza 3,

Behold,... the Radiant Child of the Two, the unparalleled Refulgent Glory — Bright Space Son of
Dark Space, Who emerges from the depths of the Dark Waters (from the unmanifested to the
manifested.) From the One emerge the Two, and through their union is produced the Son.

He shines forth as the sun, He is the blazing divine dragon of wisdom.

The Shining Ones then are the first emanation of Deity or manifested divine consciousness. They
are the “mind-born Sons”; collectively, the SELF. They are the Builders. Since all nature is
septenary, they are spoken of as:

The seven Spirits before the Throne,

The seven Breaths of the Dragon of Wisdom,

The seven Creative Rishis,

The seven Rays, etc.

These sevens or groups represent the highest state of consciousness that can be attained, and as
They are the first emanation of the unmanifested ONE, so shall They be the last stage of the
evolving human soul, when It enters that state of Bliss, which is union with the Eternal.

This stage is reached via the two-fold path of evolution, called in the Gita The Path of Darkness
and The Path of Light — the one representing the “Out-going” of Spirit into matter, or
manifestation, and the other representing the withdrawal, or return, of the Spirit from form to the
formless — its source. The manifested, or manvantaric state is called the Path of Light because it
is the only kind of light we can comprehend, and yet it is not the true LIGHT since all of
manifestation is ever changing and impermanent. The “darkness” of the Eternal is he true Light,
about which we can know nothing until that time when we shall stand in the presence of the
Eternal.

The Path of Darkness represents the path of involution or the path of Spirit on the downward arc
into the prison of the form while the Path of Light represents the upward arc, or the path of
liberation. On the one, the goal is the perfection of the form, on the other it is expansion of
consciousness. So in manifestation both paths converge and in their turn, each emerges from the
other. Krishna speaks of the one as being the path of return or of rebirth, since it is the one
dominated by the form nature which draws the ego ever back to the form side. This operates
through the desire nature. But on the “path of Light” — while the goal is the bliss of union with
the self, or we might say, the realization of the SELF, or Self-Knowledge, the return to earth life
must be repeated until the form is completely cleansed and spiritualized. Then one is Self-
controlled, that is, the Soul is in full control of the form which has been thoroughly freed from
sin and the results of sin, and needs “go no more out.”

The highest sacrifice is in the body because the self comes down from its high estate into form
where it endures its imprisonment throughout the long evolutionary period. Always It remains
the pure and perfect One, but the “work” of experiencing in the form and the building of
increasingly better forms keeps the Soul bound to the form until the task is finished when the
form has at last reached that state of perfection where liberation is possible.

It must always be remembered that “I”, the embodied Self, am one with the one self. On its own
plane, it is Self-consciousness, that is, It knows Itself to be Power and Wisdom, but in the form It
is conscious only to the extent that the form will allow, and in that sense it is extremely limited.
On the path of evolution, the personality has been built up, but on the path of liberation the
personality is transformed and transmuted and absorbed by the soul.

All forms are parts of the body of the ONE selF and so in truth “all men are one.” The sense of
separateness is caused by the limitation which the form entails. As the form grows in perfection,
and the consciousness expands, the soul at last stands forth in the full consciousness that “I am
That I am.”

Students of esoteric philosophy are taught to identify themselves with the Self instead of the
body for they are now treading the path that leads to liberation. Therefore at the time of death
(so-called) one knows that he is but casting off the form that has served its purpose and that in
due time he shall again have a new one wherein he shall be able to take up again his work in the
world. Therefore he goes forth with his thoughts centered on the Self, knowing that he is the
Self, and so has no fear. He has taken a stride nearer to the goal he is traveling when his journey
shall have ended and he shall be forever free – ONE WITH THE ETERNAL.

This theory (One with the Eternal) becomes for him a basic assumption, or hypothesis, upon
which to build his spiritual way of life. He knows that through ages of time and through the
process of evolution there has been a constant expansion of consciousness, until today the mind
of man is able to grasp the fact that the time has come when theory must be made factual, for
further expansion of consciousness depends upon that. He recognizes that there can be no
separation except in consciousness, and that each stage of expansion of consciousness depends
upon man's spiritual development — the place he holds upon the Path of Return. It is the
consciousness aspect which evolves and expands eventually to that of Deity — the Supreme and
Eternal One. Therefore the human consciousness first must be expanded to that of the Solar
Angel, Who is, in Its own plane, the Master, “our hope of glory” residing in the head and heart of
every man, and whose consciousness is all-inclusive, or that of the group, the whole. On this
assumption, the human soul can no longer wait upon the slow process of evolution but now
becomes a creative unit within the group with which he is affiliated. And that group is itself a
creative unit within a greater Group which is, in a manner of speaking, a liaison group between
humanity and the Hierarchy. We know of course that the human kingdom is the fourth Creative
Hierarchy, and thus one sees that the creative work of that fourth kingdom is already in process
on the physical plane. This naturally gives impetus to the expansion of consciousness which is
gradually closing the gap which has hitherto existed between the fourth and fifth kingdoms in
nature. And we have been told that this expansion of consciousness is going forward so rapidly
at this time that the Path of Initiation can no longer be open to individuals alone, but that groups
of disciples are now together, taking these great steps forward on the path of spiritual
unfoldment.

And because of this, the New Group of World Servers has come out into the world to implement
the work of service already begun, and to help men in their various departments of life, to speed
up the work that will carry forward the plan for the redemption of the race. For every individual
who “makes the grade” adds his quota to the upliftment of the whole, and so increases the
potency of the hierarchical work in the world.

And thus we come to know there is but one way that this whole project can be successful, and
that is the way of SERVICE — service to an individual; service to the group by all who comprise
the group; and service of all groups to the Hierarchical Plan which is itself a service to the Divine
Purpose expressed as the Will-to-Good. Thus is consciousness expanded; thus does redemption
of matter take place; thus do we become “partners with God,” and so open the way more widely
between the fourth and fifth kingdoms. Thus is the pattern set for God's kingdom to come on
earth. “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
 Commentary on The Eighth Discourse
(Chapter 8)

Part 2

As we saw, Chapter 8 of the Gita deals again with the manifestation of the Universe and explains
the spiritual structure of the Universe. In the form of question and answer a part of the mystery
Teaching is given to humanity.

Lord Krishna said,

The imperishable is the Eternal One, the Supreme. He is the One that dwells in the body and
becomes the indwelling Self. The creative process by which all beings spring forth into
manifestation is called action. (8:3)

Here we have again the unmanifested One. We read in The Secret Doctrine,

The Secret Doctrine establishes three fundamental propositions: An omnipresent, Eternal,

Boundless and Immutable PRINCIPLE on which all speculation is impossible, since it
transcends the power of human conception one can only be dwarfed by any human expression or
similitude. It is beyond the range and reach of thought.

But this principle is not only in nature, but in the form called man, as his essence, as his Self, as
the Monad. He is the One that dwells in the body and becomes the indwelling Self. (8:3)

The creative process, through which a part, a fragment of this unmanifested principle manifests
is called action. Esoterically, action is the process of fusion of the spirit with matter, and
production of all forms.

The perishable nature of this principle (symbolized by Lord Krishna) are the objective
phenomena, all that we witness with our senses. But within these objective phenomena
themselves are found the subjective phenomena of existence. That is the Space latent in all
manifestation, and the indwelling Self in each human being.

What a supreme teaching is this, in the light of which all hatred, separation and crime appear as
nightmares, the result of ignorance and blindness.

With the following five verses Lord Krishna gives a profound Teaching related to death.

When a man, at the time of his departure from the body, remembers Me, he proceeds onward to
My subjective nature. (8:5)

At the time of leaving the body, whatever object man has in his mind, he goes to that object, O
son of Kunti, being ever absorbed in the thought of that object. (8:6)
Therefore, at all times keep your mind on Me, and fight. Surely you will come to Me, if you keep
your mind and intellect focused on Me. (8:7)

The key words in these verse are keep your mind on Me. This simply means that when you are
still conscious, do not identify with your physical, emotional and mental nature, and focus your
mind on the Self, on your pure being symbolized by Krishna.

Those who identify themselves with the physical nature will have a difficult time to get rid of it
and the process of death. Those who focus their minds on objects of desire will be attached to
those objects on the astral plane. ...whatever object man has in his mind, he goes to that object.
(8:6)

Those who focus their minds on the immortal, Transcendental Self, they meet themselves first
“as in a mirror — later face to face.”[1]

He who meditates on the Supreme, the radiating Spark of life within, not wandering after any
object, ...he really reaches the highest One within.... (8:8)

That is why at the time of departure the room of a dying man must be quiet, silent, serene so that
he can focus his mind on the Supreme.

Even if the departing one does not show signs of consciousness, he knows and he is aware of his
surroundings. Emotions and negative thoughts may seriously disturb his ability to focus.

In verses 9 and 10 He talks about the Watcher, the Ancient and Ruler. In esoteric books He is
called Sanat Kumara, the Lord of the World, the One Initiator, the Mind — born Son of Brahma,
the King, the youth of Eternal Spring, the fountainhead of the Will, the Ancient of Days, the
Lord of Sacrifice, the Melchizedek. He is the spiritual Ruler of our planet, and the Hierarchy of
the Masters of the Wisdom is His Ashram, headed by Christ, the Krishna.

In verse 11 we have the words, the state of being... called the Imperishable. This is the state
where the function of the great Lords of Wisdom is. It is called the Buddhic plane, or the plane
of Intuition, into which enter all those who finish human evolution, and need not reincarnate into
“the womb of sorrow.”

In verses 12 and 13, the technique of the rules of entrance into this plane is very beautifully
given.

In these previous verses Lord Krishna gave a Teaching of death and rebirth. In the following
verse, He speaks about the nights and the days of Brahma, which means the incarnation, the
birth, and disappearance of the planets and solar systems. To make these verses (17,18, 19 and
20) a little more clear, the following excerpt is given here from the book Cosmos in Man, by
Torkom Saraydarian.

Pralaya - Manvantara
Cosmogony should evoke thoughts which exalt. While the god of an unawakened people is
conceived as sitting on the rim of an insignificant ball, the superior spirit peers into the Infinite,
vesting himself in the joy of unbounded knowledge. Do not demean the Infinite! [2]

M.M.

When I was studying and meditating about the path upon which we as personalities, Souls, or
Monads, are treading toward the Absolute, I thought it important that we have a glimpse of the
great expanse of time in “one hundred years of Brahma” with its Nights and Days.

In esoteric literature these Nights are called Pralaya. Pralaya is a Sanskrit word formed of two
words: pra and laya. Pra means away; laya, from the root li, means to dissolve. The Days are
called manvantara; manu and antara. Antara means between (two manus).

Esoteric books tell us that there are forty-nine Manus; seven Manus for each globe and seven
globes to a chain. They are the “patrons or guardians of the race cycles in a manvantara, or a Day
of Brahma,” the lapse of time between one manu and the next.

In The Secret Doctrine we read that the sun, moon, and planets all have their growth, changes,
development and gradual evolution in their life period. They are born as infants, become
children, adolescents and adults; they grow and finally die. Thus the pralaya and manvantara, or
the Nights and Days of the existing forms, are subjective and objective states of all that manifests
in the Cosmos.

We have different manvantaras and pralayas. For example, a human being enters into pralaya or
rest when the life energy is withdrawn from the physical permanent atom found in the causal
body, and the physical body disintegrates. The man then enters into rest, but there is a higher
pralaya into which he enters when he passes into the Fifth Initiation.

In the case of the Planetary Logos, the life energy is withdrawn from His physical permanent
atom, found on the second plane of the Monadic plane, and the physical planet disappears,
entering into pralaya. This is planetary pralaya.

In regard to the Solar Logos, the life energy is withdrawn from His physical permanent atom,
which is found in the plane called Adi, the first Cosmic ether, or on the divine plane, and the
Solar System starts to disintegrate, producing Solar pralaya.

When the life energy is withdrawn from the permanent atom, the form disintegrates, but the life
continues on higher planes. The Tibetan Master says, “...pralaya is simply subjectivity, and is not
'that which is not,' but simply that which is esoteric.” It is the obscuration of form, the extinction
of form, but not extinction of the “prototypes.”

In considering the planetary Nights and Days, we are taught that there is a global pralaya
between each globe and the next one to follow. There is a greater pralaya between each chain,
and mahapralaya between two Solar Systems. Furthermore, we are taught that the time between
two globes is one Day of Brahma (Night has equal duration) or 4,320,000,000 mortal years. The
time between two chains is one Year of Brahma or 3,110,040,000,000 mortal years.

In esoteric writings, the dissolution of a planetary chain is called planetary nirvana. The
dissolution of a solar system is called paranirvana, which is a great cycle, or maha-kalpa.

After these great Nights, the Day starts with all its creations. This is the period of activity which
in Sanskrit is called Manvantara — the period, or the cycle of manifestation, of expression, or
the Day of Brahma, the outbreathing of Brahma.

We have individual manvantara, planetary and solar manvantara. As the Day follows Night,
manvantara follows pralaya. At the dawn of a manvantara the Solar Logos incarnates and the
Solar System comes into being. The same thing happens within shorter cycles for a Planetary
Logos when He resumes labour after a great rest.

Maha-manvantara, meaning great manvantara, refers to the active period of seven successive
chains, called a scheme of evolution. The period of activity or manifestation of a single chain is
simply called manvantara — the Day of Creation. We may speak of a man's cycle of activity on
the physical plane, as a human manvantara.

The appearance and disappearance of the Universe are pictured as an outbreathing and
inbreathing of the “Great Breath,” which is eternal and which, being Motion, is one of the three
symbols of the Absolute — Abstract Space and Duration being the other two. When the Great
Breath is projected, it is called the Divine Breath, and is regarded as the breathing of the
Unknowable Deity — the One Existence — which breathes out a thought, as it were, which
becomes the Kosmos. So also is it that when the Divine Breath is inspired the Universe
disappears into the bosom of the Great Mother, who then sleeps, “wrapped in her Ever-Invisible
Robes.”[3]

Torkom Saraydarian, Cosmos in Man, p. 71-72

In verses 23, 24, 25 and 26, Lord Krishna gives a very mysterious Teaching, almost in code, the
literal translation of which leads many into great confusion. We have in these verses the
following expressions:

at the time of dawn}

morning} sun

before noon}

or at the time when the sun is moving northward for six months.

... at the time of dawn refers to a third degree Initiate, an enlightened one, whose personality, the
moon (the bright half) is transfigured.
... morning refers to the fourth degree Initiate, one who passes great renunciation.

... before noon is an adept close to noon (a fifth degree Initiate). Those who pass on such levels
go to the Eternal One, to the One Initiator, to Sanat Kumara, referred to in the preceding pages.

Then we have those who pass away at the times when the sun is moving northward for six
months. The sun is the Self, the Spark, Who is going northward (Home) to the Eternal.

... for six months is an adjective referring to the sun. He is referring only to a sun that is going
northward, not to a sun that is going south.

Those who depart at sunset are those who die during the decline of their Self into matter and
form.

... at night means in gross materialism, crime and attachment.

... at the dark half of the moon is when their personality is imbued with ignorance and heavy
karma.

... during the six months of the southern passage of the sun is when the path of the spiritual man
is toward lower values, darkness and the negative pole.

... they obtain the lunar light and return again. They experience on the astral and mental planes
and return again.

It is good to remember here that our physical, emotional and mental bodies are called lunar
bodies. The Sun is the Inner Dweller, the true Self.

There is the path of darkness. There is the path of Light. They are the eternal paths of the world.
By one, man goes and does not return; by the other, he goes, but returns. (8-26)

O Arjuna, knowing these two paths, no Yogi can be deluded. Therefore, be steadfast in the
process of union with the highest. (8:27)

Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding

It might be of benefit to us also if we studied first the difference or connection between
Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding. Though in ordinary parlance they are frequently
interchanged, as used technically they are dissimilar.

Knowledge is the product of the Hall of Learning. It might be termed the sumtotal of human
discovery and experience, that which can be recognised by the five senses, and be correlated,
diagnosed, and defined by the use of the human intellect. It is that about which we feel mental
certitude, or that which we can ascertain by the use of experiment. It is the compendium of the
arts and sciences. It concerns all that deals with the building and developing of the form side of
things. Therefore it concerns the material side of evolution, matter in the solar systems, in the
planet, in the three worlds of human evolution, and in the bodies of man.

Wisdom is the product of the Hall of Wisdom. It has to do with the development of life within
the form, with the progress of the spirit through those ever-changing vehicles, and with the
expansions of consciousness that succeed each other from life to life. It deals with the life side of
evolution. Since it deals with the essence of things and not with the things themselves, it is the
intuitive apprehension of truth apart from the reasoning faculty, and the innate perception that
can distinguish between the false and the true, between the real and the unreal. It is more than
that, for it is also the growing capacity of the Thinker to enter increasingly into the mind of the
Logos, to realize the true inwardness of the great pageant of the universe, to vision the objective,
and to harmonize more and more with the higher measure. For our present purpose (which is to
study somewhat the Path of Holiness and its various stages) it may be described as the realization
of the “Kingdom of God within,” and the apprehension of the “Kingdom of God without” in the
solar system. Perhaps it might be expressed as the gradual blending of the paths of the mystic
and the occultist, — the rearing of the temple of wisdom upon the foundation of knowledge.

Wisdom is the science of the spirit, just as knowledge is the science of matter. Knowledge is
separative and objective, whilst wisdom is synthetic and subjective. Knowledge divides; wisdom
unites. Knowledge differentiates whilst wisdom blends. What, then, is meant by the
understanding?

The understanding may be defined as the faculty of the Thinker in Time to appropriate
knowledge as the foundation for wisdom, that which enables him to adapt the things of form to
the life of the spirit, and to take the flashes of inspiration that come to him from the Hall of
Wisdom and link them to the facts of the Hall of Learning. Perhaps the whole idea might be
expressed in this way:

Wisdom concerns the one Self, knowledge deals with the not-self, whilst the understanding is the
point of view of the Ego, or Thinker, or his relation between them.

In the Hall of Ignorance the form controls, and the material side of things has the predominance.
Man is there polarized in the personality or lower self. In the Hall of Learning the higher self, or
Ego, strives to dominate that form until gradually a point of equilibrium is reached where the
man is controlled entirely by neither. Later the Ego controls more and more, until in the Hall of
Wisdom it dominates in the three lower worlds, and in increasing degree the inherent divinity
assumes the mastery.

From Initiation, Human and Solar, by Alice A. Bailey, pp. 10-12

[1]
Read about Death in Cosmos in Man, by H. (Torkom) Saraydarian
[2]
Agni Yoga Society, Agni Yoga, par. 88
[3]
Blavatsky, H.P., The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 74.

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 13
WORK TO BE DONE
1. What social, family, and global changes can you expect if people understand and live
according to verses 4, 5, and 6 of Chapter 9?

2. Please read Chapters 9 and 10 at least five times, each time with deeper reflection
on the verses. After you have read them five times, study your set.

3. For your daily meditation, use verses 4, 5 and 6 of Chapter 9 and verses 9, 20 and
42 of Chapter 10.

4. In the previous chapter we read that the whole world is in delusion. Can you write a
paper answering the following questions:

a. What is delusion?

b. In what way is the world — referring to humanity — in delusion?

c. Is there a way to release ourselves from such a delusion?

d. What are the steps we can take?

e. What can be the effect of these steps upon our vehicles and environment?

f. Are there any people who are free from delusion?

g. What are their characteristics?

 Commentary on Chapter 9 and 10
Books 9 and 10 are so closely allied that they might be considered as one step in the teaching.

This is the knowledge of the Eternal One, which has been growing in the heart of the disciple. It
is not enough to know the Transpersonal Self, the Solar Angel, or your Master. One must know
the Supreme, the Eternal One, Who is contacted when man steps in the Spiritual Triad.

In the books 9 and 10 we have important statements. For example:

...knowledge which, when assimilated in realization.... (9:1)

...having pervaded this whole universe with a fragment of Myself, I remain. (10:42)

The Teaching which is given between these two quotations really contains the entire “secret.”

It is interesting to observe that the two quotations which constitute the keynote of Lesson XIII
carry the identical meaning though they are totally different in the presentation of the ideas.

In the New Testament we read, All things were made by Him; and without Him was not made
anything that was made. In Him was Life, and the Life was the light of man. (John 1:3-4)

Thousands of years ago, Lord Krishna stated the following words:

I am the seed of all existing things. There is no being, whether moving or unmoving, that can
have existence without Me. (10:39)

The passage from the New Testament is a short summary of the history of the created worlds,
and is a kind of preface to the rest of the Fourth Gospel. It is in the form of a description as if
viewed from without.

The Gita passage, on the other hand, is spoken as if viewed from within, from living experience.

The word in the Gospel passage is said to be that from which everything was made and is also
said to have been from God as it was with God. It is also said that the word has in it Life and that
Life is the light of ma, and that Light which is in man shows forth as qualities or characteristics.
Later in the same Gospel it is stated that on a certain occasion the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among men.

These words, which are more familiar to the Western world than to the East, provide the opening
key to the ultimate goal of the Gita teaching. In this search, knowledge, realization, and
intuition must be used.

... the supreme of all purifying knowledge ... you will understand by direct intuition.... (9:2)
The real Teaching can not be understood by our minds. The reason is that within the mind itself
we have many preconceived ideas, opinions, thoughtforms, prejudices, superstitions, illusions.
All these present a strong barrier to the light of the new Teaching. Immediately when the
Teaching falls into the mental plane, it is distorted. That is why meditation is such an important
discipline to clean our minds to eventually reach intuitional awareness by which we will
understand the Teaching in its entire purity.

In verse 3, Lord Krishna strongly emphasizes courage and fearlessness.

Those persons who do not approach this teaching with courage and fearlessness will not be able
to attain Me. They will come back to the path of birth and death. (9:3)

Courage and fearlessness are Soul qualities. Without courage we can not surmount obstacles on
the path. Courage emerges in your nature when you have a contact with your Soul.

Fearlessness is freedom from attachment to form. Through Soul contact the mind receives light
and in that light you come to the awareness that form is not real, and the destiny of the Spirit is
victory over all hindrances, identifications, and changes. Only through courage and fearlessness
the difficulties of the journey on the path of incarnations or rebirths is overcome, and the path of
freedom from form life is achieved.

In verse 4 we see a direct philosophical point,

... All beings are in Me, but I am not limited in them. (9:4)

Being all in all, the one Life is within each form, each being, but the limitations of the forms, or
beings, do not hinder His freedom or His Omniscience and Omnipotence. He exists in the heart
of each atom, but also in whole Cosmos, and beyond. All forms are as bubbles on Him; they pass
but He exists.

Nor do all beings consciously live in Me. (9:5)

The greatest illusion in which human beings are caught is the illusion of separateness. The
majority of human beings thinks that they are separate from each other, and their main duty is to
sustain and continue their separate existence at the expense of others. Their illusion is the
foundation of all human miseries, wars, and exploitations.

Esoteric teaching reveals that all beings are as rays radiating out from a Central Spiritual Sun.
The Rays of this Sun cyclically radiate out, withdraw, and radiate again. In expression they are
many, living and experiencing throughout Cosmos in various magnitudes, but in essence they are
the same. Once this Teaching is grasped by a man, he enters the path of return to the Central Sun.
His life becomes a blessing for all that he contacts. The same Teaching was taught by Christ, I
and My Father are One.

As the wind goes everywhere but exists in space, the same is true of all beings; they go and
come, but exist in Me. (9:6)
In verses 7 and 8, Lord Krishna speaks about the cyclic radiation and withdrawal of all sparks or
beings. The cycle here is called Kalpa, which is 320,000,000 mortal years. No matter how long
this cycle is, the wheel turns on, and manifestation and dissolution, radiation and withdrawal
succeed one another.

The majority of people ignorant of this Teaching is

...deluded in [its] hopes, in actions, in knowledge, in discrimination, and they fall under the
control of cruel, greedy and ambitious entities. (9:12)

The hopes of a deluded man rest in his own vanities, and eventually he yields to total depression.
How can a man have real hope when he can not see the unity of all, and the existence of the
Spiritual Source, and his identity with that Source. The knowledge of such a man is in the nature
of a shadow; his discrimination is false, as he has no foundation or divine principle to base his
judgment upon. Such a man becomes the slave of crimes, cruelty, and greed, as cruelty and greed
grow in the illusion of egotism and separateness. In the following verse Lord Krishna very
beautifully emphasizes the same Teaching, that all is One though on the path of return there are
Great Ones Who are closer to Him in Their awareness, and because They understand this
mystery of Oneness, Their life shines more and more with creative beauty.

In Chapter 10, Lord Krishna wants us to know that, though there are great Sages and very
advanced Spiritual Beings, even Those do not

... know My origin, as I am in every respect, the source of the angels and also of the great sages.
(10:2)

This implies that all Teachings given by Great Ones are relative to their attainment, and the stage
of awareness of humanity. That is why, when they asked the Christ about the truth, He did not
give an answer. The same was true with Lord Buddha. This means that no Teaching is absolute,
but all teachings are as steps carrying us eventually to the Source.

Many religious people, blinded with their faith, fall into such a trap and declare that their religion
is the last word about the truth. What a miserable condition we would have if the scientists
thought that the discoveries of this age are the last word of knowledge. Such fanatics try to limit
their god within man-given dogmas and doctrines delivered to the race ages and ages ago as
steps toward greater awareness, and greater freedom.

We are told that once a great Holy Man coming back from His deep contemplation said,

Verily, verily
Beauty is Brahman.
Art is Brahman.
Science is Brahman.
Every glory
Every magnificence
Every greatness
is Brahman.

In Chapter 9, verse 13 we have very important statements:

The Great Souls.... (9:13)

These are those human beings Who, through mastering Their nature, climbed the ladder of
evolution and unfolded Their inner core. We call Them Masters, or The Victorious Ones, Who
are no longer slaves of the maya, glamors, and illusions of Their lower nature, but live and serve
in Their Spiritual Triad, using Their personality as a pure channel of love, light, and service.

... worship Me with an undivided mind. (9:13)

This is one of the great characteristics of the advanced Souls. They have such a disciplined mind
that is totally occupied with the goal. They have total concentration on the goal and the clearest
focus on it. They are undivided in Their worship, striving, and humility. They are the Ones Who
never turn back from the path, and the path becomes for Them an increasing joy and service.

Verse 16 is very poetic. Lord Krishna wants to inspire all who are engaged in doing ceremonies
and rituals by saying,

I am the ritual of sacrifice;

I am the worship;
I am the offering;
I am the herbs and plants; [used in the ritual]
I am the word of power, [OM]
I am the pure butter,
I am the fire, and
I am the oblation. (9:16)

In many religious organizations, the clergy, in repeating and repeating again and again the rituals
and ceremonies, eventually becomes mechanical in the performance, and the ritual and ceremony
slowly lose their power.

What a great inspiration will they receive, if they realize that the Lord is the ritual itself, the
worship, the offerings... the fire... the oblation. The whole ritual is His living manifestation, the
holy communion, and the mystery of unification.

In ancient India they had a ritual. In their ceremony of communion they used instead of wine the
juice of the soma plant, mixed with barley and milk, which the faithful had to drink after
sacrificial rites. This was the holy communion, a communion with their Innermost Essence, or
with their Master and Lord, or with the great presence in Nature.

It was such a communion with the divine essence that made the faithful feel expanded and free in
a sphere of bliss and radiation.
At the Vedic times, followers of the Teachers raised their consciousness into ecstasy, through
chanting the Vedic mantrams and performing the sacrificial rites.

In verse 17, Lord Krishna carries the idea of unity further into a greater mystery. He says,

...I am the goal of knowledge.... (9:17)

All knowledge is the process of revealing the reality behind all phenomena. All that we do, all
that we learn, eventually leads us to the one reality.

In verses 20 and 21 Lord Krishna emphasizes again that all our spiritual striving must be selfless.
People who do all the above mentioned ceremonies and rituals generally do them anticipating the
heavenly world, peace, and joy.

Such people live a pure life, but still they live for a result. This is how, by the law of karma, they
enjoy in heaven the spiritual joys of angels. (9:20) But

...when their merits are exhausted, they return to the mortal world. Thus, following the path of
the three Vedas, they desire the fruit of their action, and constantly come and go [or are born and
die]. (9:21)

Explaining further, Lord Krishna says,

Worshippers of the angels go to the angels. Worshippers of the manes [spirits of deceased
ancestors] go to the manes. Those who worship the spirits go to the spirits. But those who
worship Me reach Me. (9:25)

Lord Krishna wants us to go beyond heaven, which is the mental plane. Here, very clearly the
Lord emphasizes that we must worship only the highest, leaving aside all worship rendered to the
holy men, saints, heroes, masters, spirits and angels, because they themselves are on the path of
unfoldment, on the path of perfection. They are those who are ahead of us, and we can follow
their steps, but we must not make them our ultimate goal. When we worship such beings, it is
evident that we are worshipping the Supreme One within them, but without knowing this we are
limiting the Supreme One within their achievement, form, or power. This, of course, limits our
vision of perfection, and leads eventually back to earth.

In verse 26 we are told that

Whoever offers Me a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or a cup of water in pure devotion, I accept it as a
pious offering from a pure heart. (9:26)

Ages later, Christ said the same thing. Whoever gives a cup of water to a child in my name... it
will not be forgotten.
Verse 27 of this chapter repeats the same idea, that all acts are registered by the One Life, and
whatever we do on any level is registered and noticed by the One Absolute Presence, living in all
beings.

In the history of humanity there is no teaching paralleled to this one which contains the keys to
peace, prosperity, spiritual unfoldment, cooperation, creative actions, and bliss. Once we really
know that all our acts are directed only to the One Life, and we exist as the part of that One Life,
then we can release ourselves from the labyrinth of ages in which we are trapped age after age.

... Make your heart steady in the Yoga of Renunciation, and thus released from birth and death,
come to Me. (9:28)

Yoga of Renunciation is those thoughts and actions which help us to detach from multiplicity and
enter into the awareness of unity with the whole.

I am the same to all beings. I do not disfavor or favor any being. But those who worship Me with
devotion are in Me, and I am in them. (9:29)

What a sublime Teaching this is! The Almighty One is:

a) The same to all beings.

b) He does not disfavor or favor any being.

c) Those who worship Me with devotion, are in Me, and I am in them.

All is equal in His eyes. There are no chosen people. as Christians and other faiths proclaim.
How can it be otherwise if it is Him Who dwells within each of us as our true Selves? In the eyes
of the Infinite One there are no favored ones. There are no slaves and lords; there are no lucky
and unlucky ones. All are the same, and the same opportunity is given to each of us to be aware
of Him, as his own true Self.

Our differences in our lives, the events and circumstances that we draw to us, the physical
conditions within which we live, are all the results of our thoughts, emotional reactions and
physical actions and words.

The Supreme in the Bhagavad Gita has no discrimination.

In whatever way men approach Me, in the same way, I reward them. In all their ways of worship,
men follow My path. (4:11)

We cannot find an equal beauty in any religion. Many religions possess God as if He were only
their own God, busy with their own life affairs. Some even pray asking Him to kill their enemies,
and to bless their armies to destroy other armies.

In the Gita we read,

I am the origin of all. From Me all things proceed. (10:8)

Even those devotees who worship other beings, they also actually worship Me without being
aware of it. (9:23)

Even when the greatest sinner starts to worship Me with undivided devotion, he will be counted
as righteous, for he has chosen the way of right-action. (9:30)

He soon will become totally righteous and attain eternal peace. Know for certain that My
devotee is never rejected. (9:31)

Such a spiritual tolerance does not have its parallel in any religion of the world. That is why the
Teaching of the Lord Krishna comes to the attention of humanity once more, at this critical time
of history.

In Book 10 Lord Krishna begins to present the series of beings for whose appearance the
Supreme Being is responsible. Here again, Lord Krishna is acting as He is, the Supreme One, as
the All in All. And the All in All, All that exists, All that is going on in all departments of Life is
from the same source, within the same One Life. It is only through ignorance of this fact that
beings cause suffering to each other. All that one does he does for his greater Self which is the
Supreme. Any wrong done to any one is a wrong act toward the Supreme. That is why this is a
royal secret. Knowing this secret, man enlightens himself, and because of this enlightenment his
life turns into bliss. The secrecy of this Teaching is not in its presentation, but in its application
to life.

In verse 6, He mentions The seven great Beings, the four Lords and the Ancient Manus. It may
be that He is referring to the seven Ray Lords. In the book Initiation, Human and Solar, we are
told that each of Them is the embodiment of a Cosmic Being. It seems to us that Lord Krishna at
this time is speaking in terms of our Solar System. It may be that He is referring to the seven
Kumaras about which we read in Initiation, Human and Solar:

Kumaras. The highest seven conscious beings in the solar system. These seven Kumaras manifest
through the medium of a physical body. They are called by Hindus 'the mind-born sons of
Brahma' amongst other names. They are the sumtotal of intelligence and of wisdom. Within the
planetary scheme the reflection of the systemic order is also seen. At the head of our world
evolution stands the first Kumara, aided by six other Kumaras, three exoteric and three esoteric,
Who are the focal points for the distribution of force of the systemic Kumaras.[1]

In verse 9, He gives the characteristics of real disciples:

a. Their minds are fixed on Me.

b. Totally absorbed in Me.

c. Always converse about Me.

d. They enlighten one another.

 e. They are content and joyful.

Let us take each of the above points.

a. Their minds are fixed on Me. A real disciple fixes his mind on the Supreme in whatever
condition he is in, with whomever he deals. For him only the Supreme exists, and he lives, moves
and has his being in Him. Imagine through what a discipline and purification a man must pass to
reach such a state of being.

b. Totally absorbed in Me. This expression refers to a very close communication of the disciple
with his Soul, with his own true Self, and with the Supreme. He lives as the manifestation of the
Supreme One on earth.

c. Always converse about Me. This means that all the relations of the disciples have one
foundation, the Supreme. They pass to each other the beauty, the truth, the power of the Supreme
through all they do and express. All their acts witness that they are in contact with the Supreme.

d. They enlighten one another. This means that they share their experiences, their revelations,
their knowledge, and lead one another into a greater light, knowing that light increases in giving.

e. They are content and joyful. Once a disciple unifies himself with the Changeless One, with
the Source of everything and understands the Laws of Nature, he becomes content and joyful.
Joyfulness is the sign that a disciple is above the problems of the three worlds and is in contact
with the Changeless One within his Self.[2]

In verse 10 Lord Krishna says,

... I help them to achieve unity through Intuitive Contemplation. (10:10)

Intuitive contemplation is not meditation. Such great disciples passed that stage on which
meditation is the highest way of achievement. Now they have entered into the level where they
know and they act as they know, or in other words they serve. To serve means to radiate steadily
the light, the love, and the power of the Supreme. In this stage, to contemplate does not mean one
way activity, but two way activity. They see the supreme beauty clearly and directly, and they
manifest that beauty throughout their lives, and they achieve unity. Unity is not achieved unless
knowingness changes into beingness. This is called realization, or Sadhana in Hindu psychology.

The psychology of verses 12 to 18 is to receive information from the true source. Arjuna, as the
aspiring disciple, is not wandering here and there to accumulate information. That is what he did
in the past and he failed. Now he is heading toward the real source of information, the true Self
within, the Supreme within all.

Lord Krishna here once more goes to the foundation and states:

I am the Self, seated in the hearts of all beings. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all
beings. (10:20)
The beginning is the Source. The middle is the manifested state of beings who demonstrated
numberless vices and virtues due to their level of awakening and purity. The end is the Future of
all rays going back to the parent Sun. This explanation will make it easy for us to understand the
following verses with which we will leave you to struggle. Some information is given in the
footnotes of the book. We suggest that you read them carefully and try to analyze them as far as
you can. These verses are an endeavor made by Lord Krishna to expand our outlook and
understand life more tolerantly.

At the end of the chapter Lord Krishna again hits the great note of revelation, and concludes,

... Suffice it to say that having pervaded this whole universe with a fragment of Myself, I remain.
(10:42)

It is here the Teaching of the royal secret ends. There is no more to tell. Arjuna did not at once
grasp it and understand that the “details,” the observable form side, the manifested and
distinguished from “being”, really amounted to nothing. This is shown by his request at the very
beginning of the next chapter,

... I aspire to see Your divine form... (11:3)

He does not ask for further teaching. There could be no more, but he asks that he might have a
visible proof of the Teaching of the Eternal which can be comprehended by his groping mind. It
is the very humanity of Arjuna that makes the Gita such a practical and inspiring guide for the
aspirant and disciple. We can identify ourselves so readily with him in his doubts, his
questioning and his search for truth.

The Plane of Illusion

One of the most vital things every aspirant has to do is to learn to understand the astral plane, to
comprehend its nature and to learn both to stand free from it and then to work on it. ...for the
moment a man can “see” on the astral plane, and can achieve equilibrium and hold steady in the
midst of its vibrating forces, that moment he is ready for initiation.

... The appearance of the astral plane when first seen by the “opened eye” of the aspirant is one
of dense fog, confusion, changing forms, interpenetrating and intermingling colors, and is of
such a kaleidoscopic appearance that the hopelessness of the enterprise seems overwhelming. It
is not light, or starry or clear. It is apparently impenetrable disorder, for it is the meeting ground
of forces. Because the forces in the aspirant's own body are equally in disorder, he blends in with
the surrounding chaos to such an extent that it is at first almost impossible for the onlooking soul
to dissociate its own astral mechanism from the astral mechanism of humanity as a whole, and
from the astral mechanism of the world.

One of the first things then that the aspirant has to learn is to dissociate his own aura in the
emotional sense from that of his surroundings and much time is expended in learning to do this.
It is for this reason that one of the first qualifications of discipleship is discrimination, for it is
through the use of the mind, as analyzer and separator, that the astral body is brought under
control. Secondly, the astral plane is the plane of illusion, of glamour, and of a distorted
presentation of reality....Individual desire, national desire, racial desire, the desire of humanity as
a whole, plus the instinctual desire of all subhuman lives causes a constant changing and shifting
of the substance of the plane....Added to this there are many other conditions and activities on
this plane which produce a sum total of forces present which is stupendous.

...Through this illusory panorama, the aspirant has to make his way, finding the clue which will
lead him out of the maze, and holding fast to each tiny fragment of reality as it presents itself to
him, learning to distinguish truth from glamour, the permanent from the impermanent and the
certainty from the unreal.

No glamour, no illusion can long hold the man who has set himself the task of treading the razor-
edged Path which leads through the wilderness, through the deep waters of sorrow and distress,
through the valley of sacrifice and over the mountains of vision to the gate of Deliverance. He
may travel sometimes in the dark (and the illusion of darkness is very real): he may travel
sometimes in a light so dazzling and bewildering that he can scarcely see the way ahead; he may
know what it is to falter on the Path, and to drop under the fatigue of service and of strife; he
may be temporarily side-tracked and wander down the by-paths of ambition, of self-interest and
of material enchantment, but the lapse will be brief. Nothing in heaven or hell, on earth or
elsewhere can prevent the progress of the man who has awakened to the illusion, who has
glimpsed the reality beyond the glamor of the astral plane, and who has heard, even if only once,
the clarion call of his own soul.[3]

The Secret Doctrine teaches the progressive development of everything, worlds as well as atoms;
and this stupendous development has neither conceivable beginning nor imaginable end. Our
“Universe” is only one of an infinite number of Universes, all of them “Sons of Necessity”,
became links in the great cosmic chain of Universes, each one standing in the relation of an
effect as regards its predecessor, and of a cause as regards its successor.

The appearance and disappearance of the Universe are pictured as an outbreathing and
inbreathing of the “Great Breath”, which is eternal, and which being Motion, is one of the three
symbols of the Absolute - Abstract Space and Duration being the other two. When the Great
Breath is projected, it is called the Divine Breath, and is regarded as the breathing of the
Unknowable Deity - the One Existence - which breathes out a thought as it were, which becomes
the Kosmos. So also is it that when the Divine Breath is inhaled, the Universe disappears into the
bosom of the Great Mother, who then sleeps “wrapped in her Ever-Invisible Robes.”

As said in the Scriptures: “The Past Time is the Present Time, as also the Future, which though it
has not come into existence, still is.[4]

This whole solar system being conceived of as one vast mechanism, with an exquisite adjustment
of its parts in all major details, is only the physical expression of Vishnu, or the ethereal
substance, as we may understand the word for the present. All the harmonious observable in the
manifested cosmos are only the result of the harmoniously working energies that resolve ether
into the expression that we recognize. All planets, worlds, human beings etc., are only parts of
the body, each functioning in subordination to the law which governs the whole. The evolution,
preservation and destruction of the worlds is therefore one vast process called Yagna, which
takes place in the body of Yagna Purusha, or physical body of nature. (Yagna is sacrifice or
worship or “right action” which is the Yoga, or act of joining or “becoming” in the process
leading to synthesis. A.H.) Humanity taken collectively is the heart and brain of this Purusha and
therefore all the Karma generated by humanity, physical, mental, or spiritual, determines mainly
the character of this Yagnic process.

Sri Krishna therefore calls the process the Yagnic life that he has been giving out to Arjuna as
Yoga. In fact, Yoga and Yagna are very closely allied and even inseparable, though at the
present day people seem to disconnect the two. Yoga derived from the root Yug to join means an
act of joining. Now as the heart of the great center in man, likewise the Yogee of the heart keeps
his central position in the universe and hence his individuality. The individuality, or the Higher
Manas, being the pivot of the human constitution or the center on which two hemispheres of
higher and lower existence turn as I have already said, the Yogee of the heart has a heavenly
dome above and an earthly abyss below, and this yoga becomes two-fold as a consequence. He
joins himself to the thing above in dhyana (profound abstract religious contemplation, divine
intuition and discernment) and the thing below in action. The word yagna derived from the root
Yag - to serve, also means a two fold service, service done to the thing above through service
done unto its expression, the thing below.[5]

The astral plane is also the Kurukshetra, both of humanity as a whole and of the individual
human unit. It is the battleground whereon must be found the Waterloo of every aspirant. In
some one life there comes an emotional crisis in which decisive action is taken, and the disciple
proves his control of his emotional nature. This may take the form of some great and vital test of
brief duration calling forth every resource of wisdom and purity that he possesses, or it may be a
long and protracted emotional strain, carried over many years of living. But in the attainment of
success and in the achievement of clear vision and right discernment (through right
discrimination) the disciple testifies to this fitness for the second initiation.

...it is this test and crisis through which humanity is now passing, and which began in those
conditions which culminated in the world war and the present world strain....Should this crisis be
successfully passed, the second initiation of humanity will be the result....the world war and its
resulting effects constitute the Kurukshetra of the world Arjuna, and the outcome is still in the
balance....There is however, no cause for pessimism. The outcome of good is inevitable....Every
man who liberates himself, who sees clearly, and who releases himself from the glamor of
illusion aids in the Great Work [of liberating humanity from the world illusion]....

In relation to the human unit, the secret of liberation lies in the balancing of the forces and the
equilibrizing of the pairs of opposites. The Path is the narrow line between these pairs which the
aspirant finds and treads, turning neither to the right or to the left.

The astral plane is the plane whereon the man passes through three stages of consciousness.
a. He gains, through his sensory apparatus, consciousness in the world of forms, and develops
ability to re-act to those forms with wisdom and intelligence. This consciousness he shares with
the animal world though he goes far beyond them in some respects, owing to his possession of a
correlating and coordinating mind.

b. Sensitivity, or awareness of moods, emotions and feelings, desires and aspirations which have
their roots within him is the principle of self-consciousness....This he shares in common with his
fellow-men.

c. Spiritual awareness or sensitiveness to the spiritual world, and the feeling aspect of the higher
consciousness. This has its roots in the soul, presupposes the dominance of the mental nature,
and is that faculty which makes him a mystic. This awareness he shares in common with all
disciples and it is the reward of gained experience, or gained victories of his astral plane
experience.. ..

Students are begged to deal drastically and potently with their emotional natures, remembering
that victory descends from above and can not be worked up to from below. The soul must
govern, and its instrument in the warfare is the consecrated mind.. .

All however prepares the aspirant for right choice through right discrimination leading to right
action, made possible through practiced dispassion. In this sentence is summed up the technique
of the warrior upon the battlefield of the desire plane.

It should here be noted that in the steadily developing power of choice, and the loyally fought
battle of the astral plane, the consciousness of the man shifts stage by stage. First, it is the
battered earth-weary aspirant who has to struggle with desire, with glamour, with ambition and
with this sensitive emotional body....

Later, it is the experienced probationary disciple who wrestles in the vale of illusion, and deals
not alone with his own nature but with the forces of that vale also, recognizing its dual nature.
Then the disciple comes forth to battle and faces with courage (and often with clear vision) the
forces arrayed against him. They involve not only those in his own nature and in those aspects of
the astral plane to which he naturally re-acts, but also involve the forces of illusion arrayed
against the group of disciples to which he belongs. Let all disciples take note of this and have it
in mind in these difficult and strenuous days....

The phrase “the one who meditates” relates to the soul. Arjuna, the aspiring disciple, resigns the
struggle and hands the weapons and the reigns of government to Krishna, the Soul, and is
rewarded at last by understanding and by a vision of the divine form which veils the Son of God
Who is Himself.

When this battle has been fought and won the disciple steps into the ranks of the white magicians
of our planet and can wield forces, cooperate with the plan, and bring order out of chaos. He is
no longer immersed in the world of illusion but has risen above it. He can no longer be held
down by the chains of his own past habits and his karma. He has gained the vital power and
stands forth as an Elder Brother.
Such is the path ahead of each and all who dare to tread it. Such is the opportunity offered to all
students who have made their choice with dispassion and are prompted by love and the desire to
serve.[6]

...Just as long as a man identifies himself with his emotional body, just as long as he interprets
life in terms of his moods and feelings, just as long as he reacts to desire, just so long will he
have his moments of despair, of darkness, of doubt, of dire distress, and of depression. They are
due to delusion, to the glamour of the astral plane, which distorts, reverses and deceives....If
there is one factor aspirants recognize it is the need of freeing themselves from the Great
Illusion. Arjuna knew this, yet succumbed to despair. Yet in his hour of need, Krishna failed him
not, but laid down in the Gita the simple rules whereby depression and doubt can be overcome.
They are as follows:

a. Know thyself to be the undying one.

b. Control thy mind, for through that mind the undying One can be known.

c. Learn that the form is but the veil which hides the splendor of Divinity.

d. Realize that the One Life pervades all forms so that there is no death, no distress, no
separation.

e. Detach thyself therefore from the form side and come to Me, so dwelling in the place
where Light and Life are found.

Thus illusion ends.[7]

The Pervading Powers

“I am the SELF seated in the heart of all beings. I am the beginning, the middle and also the end
of all beings, nor is aught moving that does not exist in me.” Thus speaks Krishna to Arjuna.
And in the Bible we read, “God is all and in all: in Him we live and move and have our being.”
“Worship thou me,” says Krishna, and “no man cometh to the Father except through Me,” says
the Christ. It is the knowledge of this eternal Truth that has gradually taken hold in the heart and
mind of the disciple as the Teaching has continued. It is the knowledge of the Eternal One - of
God transcendent and of God immanent.

Thus it is not a person Who is speaking in the Gita but the great Brahman, or Supreme Being
“from Whom all things proceed and to Whom all things return” Christ or Krishna is the great
Son of God through whose lips the “Voiceless Voice” of the Supreme ONE finds utterance. No
one can know the hidden secrets of that Transcendent Being “about Whom naught be said.” All
we can know is that all separate qualities, the various states of mind - some positive, some
negative - exist in unity as moments of that blazing Darkness (darkness only because of the
supreme brilliance of the LIGHT which is beyond the vision, or comprehension of the human
mind) and from IT issues forth to shine in men as separate states of being, or “points of light
within that greater LIGHT.”

On all planes of cosmos is the One as immanent, pervading power, united with forms by mystic
yoga, and therefore it is said that he who knows in essence this pervading Power, and yoga of the
Supreme, unites with Him in firm unwavering yoga. (We remember that “yoga” is the science of
union and is the method by which synthesis becomes possible.) The Source and the End of all
being is synthesis. In manifestation there is “unity in diversity.” But the sense of duality, or
separateness, is but the Great Illusion which blinds the eyes of men by the false light as opposed
to the true Light which we call “darkness” since man in his blind state can have no
comprehension of the true LIGHT which is the Life in all that has existence.

“I am the Source of all,” says Krishna - “by Me all revolves.” As Mulaprakriti (original
Substance) - He is the Source of all forms, and, as the one transcendent SELF, it is His yoga (or
inscrutable purpose) that throws them into motion. The ordinary man sees nothing but the
passing forms; in them he puts his hopes, and in them is fixed his being. Forms come, and he is
happy - they go, and sorrow overwhelms him; yet forms can never be permanent for all that has a
beginning must inevitably have an end. But the disciple, seeing thus the source and life of all as
One, is rooted in that ONE and so is assured that though the forms pass, Life that gives existence
to all beings can never die, for Life is One - the Eternal. To such as can root themselves in Him,
serving Him in pure love, to them is given the wisdom of Buddhi, for loving service prepares a
channel for the intuition through which the wisdom of divine Truth is conveyed to the mind of
the server. “Out of pure compassion for them, dwelling within their Self, I destroy the ignorance-
born darkness by the shining lamp of Wisdom.”

This “compassion” is not given or withheld as by divine caprice. The sun's rays shine on all
alike; without them all would die. But he who would feel their warmth upon his skin must leave
his shut-in cave and seek the open air. Just so must He, who would experience the Divine
Compassion in his soul, leave the way of the self with all its hindrances and obstructions, and
seek the way of light which leads to that place where “shines the lamp of Wisdom.” He must
strive upwards, breaking all barriers, till the Homeward-flowing tides are felt, and sweep him off
his feet. These Homeward-flowing tides constitute the Divine Compassion which will bear the
soul up to the One Eternal, but before they can be felt, the disciple must strive desperately to
cling to Krishna (the soul), and by his own efforts break down the prison walls which the lower
self has constructed.

Thus clinging to Krishna, the mind becomes irradiated by the Light of the One Self shining
serenely from the soul. The effect of this irradiation is that the intellectual knowledge of the
mind is vivified and rendered certain by the direct intuition of Buddhi, or Wisdom. Thus we
read: 'Thou are the Eternal One, the Great Light, the pure and stainless One, divine eternal Man,
primal Divinity, Unborn and all-pervading.”

“Now Thou Thyself sayest to me” says Arjuna to Krishna. The thoughts that were but thoughts,
bare intellectual concepts, now awaken to harmonies that echo through the arches of what
seemed a void before. No longer are things seen as separate units, but as interlinked and a
shining web of a vast splendid pattern still but half-perceived. To change this half-perception
into the sunshine of true knowledge further advance is needed. It is by the Self that the Self can
be attained. Or as the Gita puts it: 'Thou thyself knowest Thyself, by Thyself, O highest Purusha
(Spirit) Sender forth of beings, Light of the Shining Ones, Ruler of the World.”

Even Buddhi shines not by its own light. Beyond it is the Light of the Cosmic Ideation in which
the Divine archetypes of past, present and future exist in one interpenetrable whole. Here is the
splendid pattern of the Cosmos radiant with Divine Light, a wondrous unity of spiritual Beings.
To reach this Divine world is now the task of the disciple, and therefore Arjuna asks, “How may
I know Thee by constant meditation? In what aspect art Thou to be thought of by me, O Glorious
One?”

The Divine Realities cannot be seen by the eyes of flesh. The eye by which they must be seen is
that of Buddhi - the eye of spiritual vision. But though the eye is now available for the disciple
he must learn to open it and to habituate himself to its use. Therefore the Teacher now sets forth
a method, a discipline by which the soul may use the spiritual eye, and to trust its vision more
than the familiar seeing of the mind.

The mind sees by analysis and separation, splitting the unity of life into separate aspects. The
Higher Mind sees the unity in all and therefore Krishna teaches Arjuna how the Divine
Pervading Powers are to be looked for in all things here below.

The disciple must cling to his intuitive perceptions and by constant meditation sharpen them to
clearness until the outer forms seem unreal things through whose translucent shells the wondrous
Powers shine in their gleaming splendors. As he proceeds, a change will overtake his vision. Not
only will he see the spiritual Power in each form, but since these Powers are a united whole, he
will begin to see, what before he could but think, the vast interconnectedness of all things. Thus
to the seeing eye all things are linked to all in a great Cosmic Harmony. Nothing is lost, for all
remains deep in the water of the eternal Mind.

It is said that in the lotus-seed exists in miniature a perfect lotus. So in that Mighty Being is the
seed of all that is, subtle beyond all images of sense. the shining spiritual Cosmos - Infinite seeds
and yet one wondrous SEED, beyond the reach of mind, yet to be seen by Mind. All that is
glorious, beautiful or mighty shines by reflection of a portion of that Being. Vainly we seek on
earth a symbol grand enough to adumbrate Its glories. But all the splendors of the cosmic depths,
their mind-annihilating magnitudes of time and space, symbol to all men of eternal law and
beauty, are but a moment of the Mighty ONE.

Vast beyond thought is this spiritual real, this flaming Cosmos of Divine Ideas, yet still beyond
lies THAT, the One Eternal, the Parabrahman, the Rootless Root of all. Beyond all Gods, beyond
all time and space, beyond all beings even, flames Its dark transcendent LIGHT. From that
Supreme Eternal ONE issue forth the Mighty Atman (the Logos) great beyond all thought, and
all the countless starry worlds that fill the wide immensities of space. Yet so vast is Its spaceless
timeless grandeur that all these wondrous worlds are as a drop taken from the ocean, leaving Its
shoreless being ever full. Therefore Krishna, speaking for that Eternal ONE says: “Having
established this entire universe with one fragment of MYSELF, I remain.”[8]
[1]
Initiation, Human and Solar, p. 219
[2]
Please read Joy and Healing by Torkom Saraydarian.
[3]
A Treatise on White Magic. pp. 221-223
[4]
Blavatsky, H.P., The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 74
[5]
Some Thoughts on the Gita, pp. 18, 134
[6]
A Treatise on White Magic. pp. 223-232
[7]
Ibid., pp. 307-308
[8]
Based on selections from The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita by Sri Krishna Prem.

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 14
WORK TO BE DONE
1. Read Chapter 11 and 12 three times and then study your paper, always referring to the book.

2. Read Chapter 12 at least five times and write a paper on verses 13-20, making a resume of the
characteristics of a disciple.

3. See how many verses you can memorize consciously, not mechanically.

4. Meditate this month on verses 13-14, analyzing them in detail.

5. Send in your paper or report to the Aquarian Educational Group Correspondence Committee.

6. Included in this set is a transcript of a lecture about the Solar Angel given by Torkom
Saraydarian. Please read it carefully as it prepares you for further expansion of consciousness.
 Commentary on Chapter 11
In Chapter 11, Arjuna takes another step on the path of his evolution. He heard the Teaching
about the Self but now he is granted to feel and to see the symbolic manifestation of the
Teaching. On the path of evolution first we hear, then we feel, and then we see.

As you saw in one of your previous papers, the physical plane corresponds to hearing, the astral
plane corresponds to touch or feeling, and the mental plane corresponds to sight or seeing.

Because of the Teaching given to him by Lord Krishna, the focus of Arjuna’s consciousness is
withdrawn from the physical and astral planes and fixed on the mental plane. We cannot say that
the mental plane can be trusted for seeing things as they stand because the mind translates the
incoming vibrations and impressions according to its contents. Let us remember that the lower
mind is especially a form-producing mechanism. It changes the ideas, the energies, and the
impressions into form and thus creates the world of illusion. The higher mind is relatively free
from such illusions. We are assuming that Arjuna is now using his higher mind to translate into
human terms the things that no one can readily explain.

Things that exist beyond the mental plane are things that no eye can see and no ear can hear.
These spiritual realities about which Lord Krishna was talking can be only imparted directly
through intuition.

Chapter 11 is the endeavor of Arjuna to translate his higher impression through the mental plane.
It is very interesting that in Verse 4, Arjuna is asking ...to see...Your infinite Self, but in Verse 5,
Lord Krishna says “Behold O Arjuna, My forms....,” again warning that he can see only mere
subtle forms, but not the Self.

Behold O Arjuna, My forms, by hundreds and thousands, manifold and divine, and of many
colors and shapes. (11:5)

Now behold, O Arjuna, whatever you desired to see: the whole universe, with its moving and
unmoving parts, as one in Me. (11:7)

But you cannot see Me with your own eyes. I give you a divine eye so that you are able to see the
supreme unity of Mine. (11:8)

What is happening here is that Arjuna is having a tremendous expansion of consciousness which
is enabling him to see the unity of all creation. What he is seeing is nothing else but his own
translation of impressions coming from the Intuitional Plane. This is a very interesting point. The
disciple functioning on the mental plane tries to understand impressions coming from Higher
Sources. One of the familiar ways to understand them is to translate them into his own language
of symbolism. All great arts are the result of impressions coming in contact with the highest level
of mind and being translated into sound, color, movement and symbols.

In esoteric literature, visualization is a process of translation of higher impressions. Arjuna

received esoteric teaching, proved to be a mighty warrior and now he is opening himself to
Cosmic impressions. These impressions are translated into symbols and words. Here he is
probably realizing that his words and symbols are inadequate before such a great mystery, the
vision of which is hitting his shores, wave after wave.

In Verse 15, Arjuna is probably sensing the One Life functioning in many forms.

In Verses 16 and 17, he is sensing the destroyer aspect of Life, which takes away the crystallized
forms and releases the Spirit within them to further Its evolution.

In Verses 21 and 22, Arjuna is probably sensing the pull of the Cosmic Magnet towards which
all creatures are attracted through striving and through many fields of worship.

In Verse 26, Arjuna is impressed with the idea that all forms are transient, and eventually they
will be melted in the great reservoir of substance and matter. This idea is very revelatory, and
man suddenly realizes that no form will remain as it is, twenty to fifty thousand years hence, or
five to ten million years from now. Of course, this vision is offering him a great sense of
detachment. It is very interesting to note that all his translation has two objectives: one is to
satisfy his mind with reality; the other is to meet his psychological needs. He wants to make
reality real for his mind, and through his translation meet the needs of his personality on the
battlefield.

In Verses 28 through 31, he is probably referring to the Law of Pralaya, or dissolution. In that
age, such a Teaching is very significant. Here he is psychologically meeting his own need in the
battle. He is invited to fight and not to be afraid of losing the form; but he is hesitant. Now he is
suddenly realizing that not only this form, which we call the body, will dissolve and disappear,
but also great heavenly bodies, stars, solar systems, galaxies... This picture of greater destruction
gives him courage to be detached from lesser forms, and daring to enter the path of spiritual
warriors.

I am mighty Time, which destroys the worlds. As you see, I am in the process of withdrawing the
worlds. Even without you, all warriors facing each other in the opposing armies, will cease to
live. (14:32)

Therefore arise and obtain glory.... (14:33)

In Verses 36 through 46, the heart of Arjuna is filled with adoration and worship, because the
mind is no longer able to visualize the infinite glory of Existence, the cause of Existence, and the
way it operates.

After such an adoration, he comes to his senses and feels his relative position on the path of
Existence. (See 14:44)

In Verses 45-50, his vision and the experience of Soul-infusion come to an end. Actually, all
these experiences were nothing else but the experience of contact with his Soul, and through Him
he touched the mysteries of Being hidden within his true Self.
In Verse 53, Lord Krishna very simply states that experiences cannot come to a man through the
dead letter of any scripture, but “by single-minded devotion.” (14:54)

He who does all for Me, he who makes Me highest, who is devoted to Me, he who is free from
attachment, who is without hatred for any being, he comes to Me, O Arjuna. (14:5)

Commentary on Chapter 12
Here in this chapter we find the same accurate arrangements of the schedule of chapters. It is the
last of the second group of six, and like the last of the first group of six it sums up the Teaching
and prepares for the next group.

According to the plan of the Gita, we have been given the first chapters on Thou, a wonderful
and psychologically-correct analysis of the disciple and his problems.

Then come the six chapters on That, wherein Lord Krishna reveals Himself and fully describes
Himself and His powers as the Infinite One.

The remaining six chapters must now take up the relation of man to his God.

It necessarily must consist of deeper philosophical arguments and ideas, which would have
interfered with the presentation had they been inserted in the earlier part of the text. Much of it is
an expansion of ideas which have been presented previously, but are now given in more detailed
analysis.

It is by right understanding and the mastery of the form nature that man himself becomes a
conscious creator. It is by consciously creating in line with the Divine Will that devotion finds its
fulfillment in this emerging Aquarian Age. The “right object of devotion” for the disciple is
summed up for us in the words of the Tibetan Master:

The inflowing force (of the Soul) will flood their lives with devotion to the Plan, to those whom
the Plan serves, and to those who serve the Plan. Note the sequence of these attitudes and govern
yourselves accordingly.[1]

ANALYSIS of Chapter 12
Those who worship Me with fixed mind, with faith and courage, and are steadfast on the path,
they are perfect Yogis. (12:2)

In Verses 2 through 5, Lord Krishna is referring to two kinds of Yogis. One type expresses
intense devotion, worships Him, and stands steadfast on the path of perfection. The other type of
Yogi is one who worships “the Imperishable, the Indefinable, the Unmanifested, the
Omnipresent, the Unthinkable ... One.”
In the first case, He is referring to the worship directed to the Great Ones Who have something
of form, Who are manifested as, for example, the Masters, Avatars, and the Solar, Planetary and
Cosmic Logoi. In the second case, He is referring to the worship directed to the “Unmanifested
One. Here again, He is referring to the “Fragment ... and I remain,” as the manifested and the
Absolute Space.

We may assume that Great Ones do not have a personified God. For example, the God of the Old
Testament did not even know where Adam was after he ate the fruit of the tree and hid himself.
We also have a “national God,” who inspires men with pride and revenge. There are also the
gods of Olympus, who have greater vices and virtues than humans.

In one of his books, Nicholas Roerich mentions a Lama who spoke thus:

We have heard that during your recent great war, the Christian priests on either side claimed
that Jssa (Jesus) and God were with them. If God is one, we must understand by that, that He
was in conflict with Himself.[2]

Lord Krishna is not referring to such man-made gods, but to One Who is immanent in all
creation, in all manifestation, and to the same One Who also remains transcendent.

The gradient development of a man starts with his worship toward his divine Teacher, his
Master:

Therefore, focus your mind on Me, and let your intellect be absorbed in Me, and without doubt
you will live in Me hereafter. (12:8)

We may paraphrase this verse as follows: Focus your mind on your Inner Dweller, your Solar
Angel, your inner Master, and let your mind be absorbed in Him, and without doubt, you will
reach the stage of Soul-infusion and eventually live as a living Soul. (Please refer to the attached
article on the Solar Angel.)

But if you are able to focus your thoughts steadily on Me, then by the discipline of constant
practice, try to reach Me. (12:9)

The discipline He is referring to is meditation, as in the next verse He makes clear:

Yet, even if you are unable to perform constant practice to discipline your thoughts, then perform
all your actions as if you were performing them for Me. Thus you will reach perfection. (12:10)

The discipline of thought is the way to proceed from the mental plane to the Atmic Plane. The
“actions as if performed for Me” refers to the Yoga of devotion, which eventually leads to the
Intuitional Plane and the Spiritual Triad, and higher spheres are found.

Perfection is a term in esoteric literature which does not mean the end of becoming. On the
contrary, in occult literature, perfection is a station on the path to the Absolute. If a disciple waits
too long in his given achievement, he loses his path and degenerates. Perfection is the ever-
progressing path toward Light, Love and Power, and a creative life motivated by these three.

Lord Krishna gives other alternatives. He says in Verse 11 that if you are unable to meditate,
worship or take action as if for Him, “...then take refuge in Me.” This refers to the faith of simple
people who live by faith. Lord Krishna, in these few verses, wants to say that it is possible to step
on the path via all these means, that people vary in their understanding and ability to walk the
Path. Again, we see here the great tolerance and understanding of the Lord.

In Verse 12, He gives another step, which is very interesting. He says, “Superior to meditation is
service.” The Tibetan Master literally said the same thing to the membership of His ashram in
1946.

Verses 13-14 and 20 can be engraved upon our hearts as the commandments of the New Age.
Please try to memorize them, repeat them aloud once a day, and ponder upon them. If you cannot
memorize for some reason, write them on a piece of paper and read them daily, in the morning or
at sunset.

The Solar Angel

What is the soul of man? Do we have a soul, or do we not have a soul? Is there something else
within us which does not essentially belong to our nature? What is the spark mentioned so often
in writings?

We read that man is a spark, and that he has a soul. We also hear that man has a Guardian Angel.
All of these concepts create real difficulties for the student on the Path. But there are some hints
in a very old book called the Stanzas of Dzyan. These are very old writings from a previous
civilization, the Atlantean civilization. They are printed on tablets that have the appearance of
silver, in a language called Senzar.

We are told that some of these tablets are kept in a cave in the Himalayas, and in Tibet. When
Helena Blavatsky was in Tibet, she saw them and translated them, with the help of her Master.
These translations came to be known as the Stanzas of Dzyan. They are verses for meditation.
The word “Dzyan” means meditation in Senzar, similar to the word “Dhyan,” which is a
combination of Sanskrit and Tibetan for the word “meditation.” Dhyan Chohans means those
Great Ones Who passed Their lives in meditation and contemplation. They are the Lords of
Meditation.

This translation, a very small booklet of fifteen to twenty-five pages, relates the story of creation.
What does the book say about creation? It says that man is a spark of Life, that this spark,
throughout ages and ages, had achieved some development and unfoldment, until the time came
that it created a physical body.

On previous globes, the spark entered the mineral kingdom and after long ages, passed from the
mineral kingdom to the vegetable kingdom. Then a great day came for the spark when it entered
the animal kingdom and built an animal body. Ages passed and the spark was able to build a
better animal body, and then a still better body. But it was not yet a human being.

Covering the evolutionary process on this planet, Darwin theorizes in his books that man evolved
to the ape stage and then changed into a human being. To discredit this theory, scientists have
found that the human skeleton is older than the skeleton of the apes. Blavatsky says that the
human being was the first to arrive on this planet, being preceded only by the mineral and
vegetable kingdoms. After human beings came the animal kingdom.

How did all of this happen? In occult books we are told that our planet, as shown on the
following diagram, has six companion globes which are on different levels of density.

Numbers 3 and 5 are on the etheric plane; numbers 2 and 6 are on the emotional plane; numbers
1 and 7 are on the mental plane. Only Earth, Number 4, condensed and became a solid plane.

In speaking of the mental plane, occultism teaches that there are different forms of substance,
such as gases and liquids, which are finer elements or energies. Both are energies or forces; they
are substances. They are material — refined material. For example, if someone wears perfume, I
cannot see it, but it is there; is refined substance. So it is with the planes. Different planes are
substances of different degrees of refinement, or density.

The same is true of planets. We have planets that are still in formation. They are still on the
energy level, slowly materializing. They are slowly descending to the physical level. This great
system, our planet Earth and its six companions, make a total of seven globes or planets, which is
called a chain.

Now let us return to the diagram and go a little deeper. This chain is the fourth chain. Before this
one, there were three previous chains. These first three chains started from higher levels,
beginning with the Atmic level, descending into the Buddhic level and then to the level of higher
mind. Our fourth chain starts with the lower mind and descends to the emotional level, etheric
level, and finally comes to the dense physical level.

To review this, we have seven globes which form a chain, as illustrated in the diagram. The
lowest one, the fourth globe, is our present Earth. It has six companions which exist in different
dimensions, in different states of matter and substance. Before this chain, there were three
previous chains which were on higher level substances. And there are going to be yet another
three chains after our current fourth chain, before the Great Life Who is developing through
these seven chains, has finished His One Day.

We are told in the Teaching that our planet Earth, Number 4, has six companion globes,
Numbers 1-3 and 5-7, that exist in higher levels of substance. To illustrate the point, say that I
have a sphere that is made of rubber, and another sphere that is a soap bubble, and another sphere
that is some kind of energy, and then two other spheres made of more subtle substances. This is
like our chain of seven globes, the most condensed sphere being the Earth. When they are
together and one of them is manifested, they make up one chain.

This can be compared to the human being. When we see someone and identify him by name,
what we are actually seeing is not the person, but his body. Because of his body, he has a name.
But he is not only the body; actually the body is the least of what he really is. He is more
emotion than body; he may be more mental than body. The real person is more spiritual than the
body. His body is only the clothing of the real man.

Question: Do all globes exist at the same time?

Answer: Yes. All seven exist together, but in different dimensions, on different levels. For
example, your mental body exists at the same time as your physical body.

Question: Does this mean that we have two globes on each of the higher levels at the same time?
If so, why?

Answer: One is the seed; the other is the development.

Question: There are, or will be, seven globes?

Answer: Seven globes exist, but globes 5-7 are in the process of forming on the subtle levels.
There were three previous globes and then this one, Number 4. One fades out; the next appears.
The seven globes make up one chain.

In the following diagram, we see seven chains. In occult literature, seven chains make up one
scheme of evolution.
In the Ageless Wisdom we are told that an energy field in Space gradually condenses,
materializes and becomes objective. This is what a nebula is. This nebula is in a chaotic state, but
gradually throughout ages it turns into a system of stars and planets, and forms a constellation or
a solar system in which kingdoms and races are developed and civilizations and cultures are
created. But things do not stay as they are. These highly organized systems slowly disintegrate
and eventually disappear again into our energy field, which either repeats the process or melts
into Space.

This symbol eight is an important one in the Ageless Wisdom. It starts from the invisible, and
goes down gradually, becoming visible. Then it becomes subtler and subtler, until it reaches the
stage where it becomes invisible again. To explain further, suppose you are going to build a
temple. You have a picture of the temple in your mind. When you start to build the temple, you
have the blueprint, the concrete image of your thoughtform. So it starts from your visualization,
imagination, and it comes down and becomes materialized. This materialized form eventually
will wear out, dissolve and enter the domain of the invisible.

Question: What is a round?

Answer: A round is the time duration within which seven root races develop on each globe. This
means that we have seven Rounds in each chain, and forty-nine rounds in one scheme.[3]

Question: What will happen on the next globe?

Answer: Let us look at this diagram:

Globe D is our Earth. Remember that it has six companion globes, which together form a chain;
there have been three chains before and there are three more in the process of formation. We are
living on the fourth glove and in the round of the fourth chain.

In the evolutionary process, we will rise from globe D where we have our physical bodies, and
move to globe E, where we have our etheric bodies. When we finally reach globe F, we will have
astral bodies, and at globe G, we will have bodies built of mental substance.

Question: Does “As above, so below” apply here? Does the earth go through these stages, or just
man?

Answer: Both man and earth pass through similar stages of involution and evolution. The
descending arc is involution; the ascending arc is evolution. We can picture it like this:

1=mental; 2=emotional/astral; 3=etheric; 4=physical

As the human embryo repeats the evolutionary process in the mother’s womb, so our Earth
repeats these stages. It first becomes mental, then emotional, etheric and physical. We will learn
later that all phases of the globe are repeated in lesser and smaller cycles.
In the foregoing diagram you can see the seven chains. The fourth globe of the fourth chain is
our Earth. See how much time and space have passed in reaching where we are!

The Ageless Wisdom tells us that there was a Sun which radiated Sparks. Some of these Sparks
came to the first globe of the first chain. Let us say that the Sparks from radiations of the
invisible Sun have just entered the first globe of the first chain. They start developing themselves
and continue to develop as they pass through each chain.

The Sparks become mineral in the first chain, vegetable in the second chain, animal in the third
chain, and prototypes of the human kingdom in the fourth chain. For example, we might say that
the Sparks identified with matter in the first chain — the mineral. When the mineral Sparks
graduated from the first chain, they entered the second chain as vegetables — but not vegetables
in the same sense that we think of them today. They were prototypes, blueprints of vegetables on
the intuitional-mental level.

If we should have the experience of entering the astral level and seeing a rose there, that rose
would be much more beautiful than the one we experience on the lower plane. In the mental
plane, it would have its corresponding aspects which would be even more beautiful than the rose
on either the astral or physical planes. For example, suppose we sit here and compose a beautiful
symphony. When we start writing down the notes, it loses some of its beauty. In our mind it is
more flexible, but when we bring it down to the physical level, we have difficulty keeping its
beauty.

Our forefathers in the first chain were mental beings; they became astral beings, etheric beings
and then physical beings. In the Bible we read that Adam and Eve discovered their nakedness.
What happened? They had no physical body; they were mental, emotional and then etheric. They
formed the body and became physical, and at this point found out that they had a body with an
outer covering. They felt their nudity. They put “skin” around their subtle bodies and became
visible. The Bible says that they put on “coats of skin.” This was the process of becoming flesh,
or physical.
It was on the fourth globe that we formed the physical body; the body we had in the mental,
emotional and etheric planes became condensed, materialized and objective, on the fourth globe,
which is our globe.

We are told that in each round, seven root races develop. We have root races and subraces.
Subraces branch out from the root races and form seven branch races. So we have one root race
followed by another until there are seven at the completion of one round. We say that the human
race started in the fourth chain, in the fourth round. We know that in each round, seven root races
develop. We are now in the fifth root race of the fourth round. On Earth at the present time, the
sixth subrace of the fifth root race is developing. We will list the root races of our globe,
remembering that each of these seven root races has seven subraces.

• First Race

• Second Race

• Lemurian Race

• Atlantean Race

• Aryan Race

• Aquarian Race

• 7th Race

The sixth sub-race is developing in the Aryan Race, and will be followed by the seventh subrace.
After that, we will enter the sixth root race, the Aquarian Race.

Question: How long does a sub-race last?

Answer: For a long period of time. We are now in the 5th root race, and entering the 6th subrace.

Question: By race do you mean black, white?

Answer: No. I am referring to the consciousness aspect of humanity. To make it clear, I will say
that the sacral center predominated humanity during Lemurian times, and man at that time was
largely astrally oriented. In the Aryan, or present civilization, humanity is making a shift from
the solar plexus to the throat center. The ajna center, too, is becoming active. When the ajna
center becomes active, it integrates the personality and makes it highly creative.

At present, the major portion of the human race is focused on the throat and ajna centers. That is
why it is called the Aryan Race. Each time the race as a whole starts to use a higher center, we
have a new race coming to the world. We are very close to the next root race, the sixth, which
will develop the heart center in man.

People of diversified religious or racial types belong to these races. A particular race depends
upon its individual development. So we can say that the Aryan Race is characterized by mental
activity and an integrated, creative personality.

Actually, there is no line that can be drawn to say that one is Atlantean while the other is Aryan.
They fuse. The Tibetan Master says that we still have Atlanteans and a few Lemurians among us,
and maybe even one or two from the First Race, but the majority is Aryan.

During Lemurian times, the third race, something very special happened to humanity.

This is our globe. It is divided into sections showing the first, second and third races, and
indicates the middle point of the third race, when the Solar Angels were invoked.

The president of a company checks every year to see how his business is progressing, to find out
if it is improving or if something is going wrong. If something is going wrong, the president
takes new action to improve the business. Suppose we have a company that is connected with six
other companies. If the seventh company is not doing well, it affects the business success of the
six other companies. If it is doing well, then morally, physically and spiritually, it helps to feed
the others. When one company is losing, the whole is losing; when one is gaining, the whole is
gaining.
The same is true on solar and Cosmic scales. Our Earth is part of the solar system. The diagram
above does not show the solar system; it shows only one globe. If in the solar system the other
globes or chains are not doing well, the central “president,” which is the Life behind the Sun,
considers the situation and says, “Let’s check on what is going on in the solar system, right or
wrong, so that the whole solar system progresses according to its design and Plan, and within its
time limit.”

Extending this out further, our globe is part of the solar system and each globe in our solar
system has its six companions. In the center of the chains is the Sun. In occult literature we are
told that the Sun is the body of a Great Life Who radiates life to the solar system. In some
brotherhoods it is described as a great EYE that watches. What does it watch? It watches the
forty-nine chains that form the solar system. When that great Heavenly Man sees something
going wrong in one of the globes or chains, He takes drastic action to hasten the development of
that planet, that globe. His purpose is to stimulate the seed, the Spark, the life within each form,
so that the Spark forms or builds better bodies to cooperate fully with Cosmic development.

Some big companies fail and go into bankruptcy. This can happen on a Cosmic scale. In The
Secret Doctrine, we are told that the moon was a failure. When the Great Ones saw that the
moon humanity was not developing according to the planned scale, they transferred many life-
forms and human beings to our planet and burned the moon. Being affected by the failure of the
moon, the progress of our planet was retarded, up to the time of the third root race, the Lemurian
race.

The Life of this planet, called the Planetary Logos, saw that humanity was not progressing
according to the timetable of the Cosmos. He consulted with the Greater Life of the solar system
and said, “Humanity is not improving.”

At that time humanity had passed through three and a half root races, but its members were still
animal-like, with no mental spark. The Planetary Life informed the Solar Logos of this, and They
invited advanced entities from previous chains to further the evolution of humanity. Our
Planetary Logos invited Sanat Kumara, Who came with other Kumaras to our planet, together
with sixty-thousand-million Great Beings.

These Great Beings were asked to guide humanity to enlightenment, building a bridge between
the Spark within the human being and his vehicle. The Great Beings came in three waves, like
oceanic waves. The first wave of Great Beings looked at humanity and said, “What can we do
with these human beings? They are animals. We cannot do anything for them,” so They left.

The second wave came after another million years had passed, to see that the human mental body
was just ready to take a spark. The Secret Doctrine says that They gave a spark to human beings,
and after receiving the spark, human beings began to think. This was the first time that they had
ever been able to do any thinking. This event is referred to in ancient literature, especially Greek
literature, when Prometheus brought fire to humanity.

In many other writings there are beautiful stories about this. We find reference in the Bible in the
symbolic story told by Christ, where a woman took three measures of flour and mixed them.
Then she took three measures of leaven to leaven the mixture.[4] The number three symbolizes
the physical, emotional and mental. The Great Beings placed the spark into the mind to make the
mind and the emotional body become integrated, fused and aligned. This was the first time that
human beings began to be coordinated physically, emotionally and mentally.

The third wave came and saw that the spark had done its work, so the Great Beings entered into
man and became his Guardian Angel. This is what the Solar Angel is. Solar Angels belong to the
Kingdom of God, the Fifth Kingdom. Each of us, according to this ancient Teaching, has a
Guardian Watcher within Who watches over us.

Those who are living a life of service, love and aspiration, will sooner or later find that there is a
Watcher within them. You feel this; you feel it in your darkest hours, in your most dangerous
moments, in your terrible sicknesses; you suddenly feel that Somebody is watching; something is
watching you — within you, through you.

To help people understand, Christ gave us the story of a very rich man who had a son. The son
said, “Father, give me my inheritance; I want to leave.” This symbolizes the Spark leaving the
“father,” coming from the Unknown Mystery into materialization. This is the prodigal son,
leaving Home and going into darkness, into matter. Eventually that little Spark found himself so
materialized that he was nearly on the same level as swine. The pig in Hebrew symbolism is the
lowest degree of materialization, the darkest materialism. The son asked his father to give him
his whole treasure. He took the Spark and all its possibilities, and wasted them until he become
the poorest person in the world.

The Spark lost its glory, became materialized and identified with its bodies to the point where it
became the densest matter — the pig. Here the Spark was lost. He became poor — a poor body
with dark drives and urges. He even began to eat the food of pigs. In this allegory, Christ says
that one day the son awakened and asked, “Why am I here?” This is what many of us do;
suddenly we awaken and ask, “What am I doing? My life is nothing.” Many people are
awakening to the fact of spiritual life.

One day a group of people realized that their lives were complete failures. They had no money,
no homes — nothing. They looked at themselves and said, “This is no good. Let’s change the life
we are living.” They started to live sensibly. They stopped using marijuana and drugs; they
stopped wasting their time and energy, and said, “We must be useful human beings for our
nation, for humanity.”

This is a great advancement. When a human being turns his face toward the light instead of
toward darkness, he is progressing. He learns the worth of his treasures, which are his time,
health, mind, physical body, his eyes, and so forth.

I once read in a medical magazine that there is a high percentage of syphilis, especially in
California. This means a loss of energy, loss of treasures, because it can mean the loss of your
hearing and sight, the loss of health and beauty, the loss of energy and the dynamism of youth.
This results in destruction of a person’s future.
When the prodigal son lost everything, he said, “I am miserable. I must return to my Father’s
home, because it was beautiful there.” Although you may go deep into materialism and darkness,
still the memory of that beauty palpitates in your heart. You feel that someone is calling you
back to light, happiness, joy and bliss. The son turned back toward home. When he reached the
midway point, his father welcomed him. Christ says that the father welcomed his son and they
kissed each other. They symbolizes that the lost Spark had found Himself and had become one
with Himself. He and his Father became One.

What is the Solar Angel doing? The Solar Angel is trying to remind us that greater Cosmic
beauties await us, that we are not merely our physical bodies, that greater joy and greater bliss
are waiting for us if we conquer our shortcomings, hang-ups, and the wasteful way in which we
live, that we can surpass ourselves and unfold the divinity living within each of us.

The Solar Angel is trying to awaken the lost Spark, your real Self, which is identified with the
body. The Spark takes another great step forward when it disidentifies itself from the body and
becomes identified with the emotions. If you look around, you will find that most people are
identified with their emotions, likes and dislikes. Part of humanity is released from the physical
and emotional prisons, and has entered the mental prison, which is just a little larger prison.
There are lots of activities and scenery in this prison, so that humanity does not realize that it is
still a prison. Only a very small portion of humanity is able to escape from these three prisons
and enter the Intuitional Plane.

These steps are thoroughly explained in The Science of Becoming Oneself, so when we speak of
levels, dimensions and planes, you will understand. Only a few of humanity have escaped from
the intuitional level and entered into another greater area of consciousness, development and
relationship with the Cosmos.

As the human Spark becomes able to detach itself form the physical body, communication and
response are becoming greater. As we descend into materialization, our communication with and
response from the Universe and Cosmos become limited and even reach zero. We become matter
itself. As we develop, unfold and become conscious in higher states of beingness, our
communication and response increase. When a great Master was speaking about the brotherhood
of humanity, He said, “You cannot create brotherhood within humanity by changing its
government or ideologies. You create brotherhood only by changing the man.”

How is man changed? Man is changed when he becomes the lord or master of his physical body.
His physical body can no longer control him. He gives commands to his physical body. He says,
“Sleep,” and he sleeps. He says, “Do not eat,” and he does not eat, “Do not smoke,” and he does
not smoke. Next he completely controls his emotional hang-ups, likes and dislikes, and so on.
Then he gains complete control of his mental body. He is no longer identified with his ideas, his
thoughts; he is beyond them. He sees them as tools and uses them, but knows that he is not them.

There is a classic example of a man who was identified with his thoughts, ideas and opinions.
One day Socrates was sitting by his door, when a philosopher came who wanted to debate.
Socrates was so subtle, strong and beautiful, that in twenty minutes he disproved the man’s ideas.
When the man suddenly saw all his ideas and crystallized thoughtforms evaporate, he took his
own life. This man was completely identified with his ideas. A man must also pass this stage and
enter into the direct knowledge which is called in occult literature, the intuitional level of
awareness. It is even beyond consciousness.

What happens to this Solar Angel within us? For centuries and centuries, He inspires but never
forces His will upon us. The Solar Angel meditates, and in meditation He tries to touch the Spark
and raise its vibration, to awaken it so that when the person eventually awakens, he sees
everything as it is. He becomes a living soul instead of being an imprisoned Spark.

This process takes many ages. When the human Spark starts to awaken, the first great expansion
of consciousness is called the first initiation. In the first initiation, the human soul, the
developing Spark, suddenly realizes that he is not the physical body. Then another great
expansion of consciousness comes to him, ages later or sooner, if he really strives.

The second expansion of consciousness, the second initiation, is marked and spoken of in all
literature, but in Christian literature it is called baptism. This means that a man is purified
emotionally. In Buddhism this is called, “passing the river.” It is related to water, because in
occult literature or teaching, water is the symbol of the emotional body.

What happens in this second stage? The second expansion of consciousness is purification of the
human heart, or purification of emotional responses. When humanity enters into that stage of
expansion, imagine what a beautiful relationship we will have with each other in purified and
transformed emotions and positive relations, instead of hatred, jealousy, negative emotions, likes
and dislikes, and so on.

The next great expansion, the Third Initiation, is described as a major expansion in occult books.
This comes when the human Spark enters the mental world and becomes illuminated and
enlightened. He suddenly sees that he is not the physical or emotional body, and that he is not the
mind. We may now say that the man is enlightened.

In occult literature, this initiation is mentioned when Moses went to the Mount and brought down
the Laws. He was shining and radiant after this experience. He had touched his own divinity
within himself, and when he touched that divinity, he was enlightened. The same thing happened
to Lord Buddha. He was sitting under a big Boddhi tree, meditating on the mystery of life and
seeking a way to serve humanity and to lessen the suffering of humanity. He was thinking of the
terrible suffering of humanity, and while thinking about all of these problems, He was uplifted in
His consciousness and enlightened. This enlightenment was called the third expansion of
consciousness.

In Sanskrit, the word Buddha means light, or one who has received light. We can also see this in
the experience of Jesus. When Jesus went to the Mount, the Bible says, “Suddenly He was
transfigured.” Two of His disciples could not look at Him because His light was so bright.

There is another stage, the fourth great expansion of consciousness, or Fourth Initiation. These
experiences have been recorded in all nations. The Fourth Initiation is called the crucifixion
because man resigns from the physical, emotional and mental bodies, and enters into unity with
the Great Existence within himself. In Buddhism this is called the Great Renunciation. When
man enters into the Great Renunciation, the Solar Angel leaves him, saying, “You are no longer
a baby; you can walk on your own feet and build your Temple with your own hands. Carry on
your development toward Infinity.” Man at this point becomes a Soul — a living Soul.

He was a darkened Spark; that Spark started to ascend. When he reaches the Fourth Initiation
and faces the Fifth, the Solar Angel Who watched over him for millions and millions of years, is
finally able to leave. What a great sacrifice the Angel made! He leaves the human being, and the
human being becomes a living Soul.

Call this an old story or some fantastic mythology if you wish, but it is so beautiful. Use it in
your daily life. For example, if you are speaking, eating, doing anything physically, emotionally
or mentally, just remember that someone is watching you. The Almighty Eye is watching you,
and whatever you are doing is being recorded. The Great One Who is within you is suffering for
you so that you will become divine and enter into the heritage of your spiritual glory. This whole
teaching emphasizes that we should not live as animals, but hold a great vision and move toward
it every day, striving, trying to make himself better and better, trying to enter into greater light,
greater sacrifice, greater unity with humanity, with the solar system and Cosmos. It was because
of such a vision that a very wise man once said, “If a nation does not have vision, it will perish.”

I read in the newspaper that thousands of young people in Paris gathered and began to shout to
the government officials, “We want a vision toward which to live. Why are we living?” Do you
see how The Secret Doctrine or the Ageless Wisdom gives a great vision in allegorical language,
mysticism and mythology, but at the same time contains real factual power to lead humanity
from darkness to light? I wish that all of us could have these experiences. From now on,
wherever we are and whatever we do, we must remember that a Watchful Eye is observing us.

There is another problem — the problem of learning how to win the friendship of this Great One,
how to communicate with our Solar Angel and secure the energy of this Great Life within us.
That Life is not limited by one’s own limitations. He watches the person, but in the meantime He
works toward Cosmic development and unfoldment.

Question: Aren’t there people who can get to these places without meditation? Can they
progress by living useful lives instead?

Answer: When we say “life,” we have a very vague notion of what we mean. Life happens. For
instance, I work here and you work there. I am going to have an accident; you are going to leave
here and go there. We think that all these occurrences take place by chance. On the contrary, Life
is a conscious Entity. Everything that happens to us is built or formed in a way that we meet our
maximum lesson, because Life is conscious.

When you are walking toward a wall, you say, “Oh, I must keep my eyes open so that I do not hit
my head against the wall.” Why do we do meditation? It shortens your suffering and gives you
scientific techniques to span the abyss, to bypass dangers, to find shortcuts to yourself instead of
passing through suffering which might not be necessary. For example, a boy came to me for
advice and I told him, “Be careful! Guard your steps!” He did not take the advice and contracted
a very bad case of venereal disease which he had given to as many as ten girls. He said, “I am a
mess!” Instead of passing through these experiences, he could have listened.

There is a sacred building in Asia which has the following words inscribed on the front: “If you
do not listen to wisdom, the stick will teach you.” If you do not listen to wisdom, pain will beat
you and you will learn through suffering. You want to smoke marijuana? Smoke it, and after
twenty years you will find yourself in the animal kingdom in relation to the human kingdom and
wonder what you did wrong. The whole of humanity will progress, and you will not. All of your
friends will go dancing, be beautiful and radioactive, and you will be left behind. It is then that
you say, “I wish I had listened to my father, my mother, my friend, my doctor.”

If you use your wisdom, you bypass your suffering. If you do not use your mind, suffering
results. Being a conscious Entity, Life organizes your life through Karmic Lords in such a way
that you cannot escape. The hand of Life always holds your tail. It pulls you and says, “Come
here!” Eventually you must free yourself from that hand. Your tail must be freed from the hand
of your own misdeeds.

If you want to bloom, take an inventory of your “capital.” You might say, “I have so much
capital: physical 25%, emotional 30%, mental 45%. What can I do with my capital? This year I
am going to increase my physical body from 25% to 50%. This means that I am going to take
better care of my physical body. I must stop doing different harmful things, eat less food,
economize energy, and so on. Emotionally I was 30%; I will make it 60%. Mentally I was 45%; I
will buy a book, study, prepare my lessons, debate, meditate and raise my mind to 90%. Then
next year my capital will be much more.”

We must have a vision. In the Bible there is a beautiful parable. Christ tells of a rich man who
was traveling to another country. He called three of his servants and said, “I am going to a far-off
country. I am going to give each of you some money. Do what you like with it.” He gave ten
dollars to one, twenty dollars to another, and fifty dollars to the third. He then left to go on his
journey.

When he returned he called the servants to him. Now notice the wisdom of this man. He asked
the third one, “What did you do with the fifty dollars that I gave to you?” “My lord,” said the
servant, “I built a big business and now I have fifty thousand dollars.” The rich man said, “You
are no longer my servant; you are promoted to being the general manager of my business.”

He asked the second servant what he had done with his money, and the servant replied, “My
lord, it is now ten thousand dollars.” “Good work,” he said. “Whoever is trustworthy in little
things will be promoted to greater things. I hereby promote you.” Note the wisdom and beauty.

When the final servant was asked what he did with the money he had been given, the servant
reported that he buried the money in the field and did not use it. He did not increase it or develop
it. The rich man said to him, “You did not increase your value; you did not develop the money.
You are discharged.”
Do you see what is happening? If a person does not cultivate his own garden which is found
within, he degenerates and the weeds of his garden increase. The way to reach our Inner Guide is
the way of conscious evolution. When we do our best, we will slowly feel the radiation of the
Inner Lord and eventually fuse with Its Light, Love and Power.

[1]
Bailey, Alice A., The Seven Rays, Vol. II, p. 137.
[2]
Roerich, Nicholas, Shamballa, p. 27.
[3]
Read Cosmos in Man, by H. Saraydarian, pp. 25-42.
[4]
Matt. 13:33

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 15
WORK TO BE DONE
1. Meditation

Please meditate upon the following verses, choosing one for each week until you receive the next
lesson.

The seed thoughts are:

a. Chapter 13, verse 1

b. Chapter 13, verse 7

c. Chapter 13, verse 8

d. Chapter 14, verse 24

e. Chapter 14, verse 25

For detailed instructions about meditation, see The Science of Meditation by H. (Torkom)
Saraydarian.
2. Please send in your report after you complete your meditation on the seed thoughts given
above.

3. Write a paper on one of the seed thought verses.

4. Memorize Verses 27, 28, 29 and 30 of Chapter 13, and Verses 24 and 25 of Chapter 14.

5. Read Chapters 13 and 14 with reflective thinking at least one hour daily.
 KEYNOTE
Know that the primordial substance and the Self both have no beginning. Also know that the
forms and their modifications are born of primordial substance. (13:19)

The primordial substance is the cause which produces the body and the senses. But it is the Self
that experiences the pleasure and pain. (13:20)

The Spark, seated in the substance, experiences the qualities born of substance. It is born into
evil or good wombs according to the quality to which It is attached. (13:21)

This supreme spark of Spirit, when in this body, can be called also the one who observes, the one
who advises, the one who holds together, the one who supports, the one who experiences. (13:22)

He who knows, in truth, what Substance is, what the divine Spark is, and what the three qualities
are, he will never be born again, no matter in what activity he was engaged. (13:23)

By meditation some contact the Greater Self, in the Self, by the Self. Others can contact It by the
Yoga of Knowledge, and others by the Yoga of Action or service. (13:24)

Matter is the vehicle for the manifestation of soul on this plane of existence, and soul is the
vehicle on a higher plane for the manifestation of Spirit, and these three are a trinity, synthesized
by Life which pervades them all.

Blavatsky, H.P., The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 80

Commentary on Books 13 and 14

The first six books of the Gita declare the nature of the individual Spirit. The six succeeding
books deal with the nature of the universal Spirit, while the final six declare the relation between
the two to be identical — Spirit and matter are one and indivisible.

In these last six books are contained detailed teachings of a philosophical nature. Many of them
have been outlined before, but to have set them forth in full in the earlier books would have
interrupted the flow of the exposition. Too much emphasis on systematic explanation during the
earlier stages of the path is apt to develop the intellectual grasp at the cost of intuitive perception.
The path is the path to mastery of the three worlds, and now that the disciple has a firm hold on
the heights of vision, it is necessary that the intellect, suffused by the spiritual light, should have
a clear grasp of the principles of the Cosmos in which he has to work.

Book 13 starts with a statement that there are two things to be known: the field and the knower
of the field, the Kshetra and the Kshetrajna. By the field Lord Krishna refers to all
manifestation, or to any form or plane in that manifestation. The knower is the human soul, the
Solar Angel, the Planetary Logos, or the Solar Logos.
H. P. Blavatsky, referring to the knower of the field, says that "Kshetrajna is the embodied spirit
(human soul), the conscious ego in its highest manifestations — the reincarnating principle —
the Lord in us. This is not the man, the actor (the personality), and the observer (the Solar
Angel), but that Spark of the universal consciousness in man which enables him to observe,
discriminate and act, and finally climb to the highest wisdom." (See the Theosophical Glossary.
)

The Spark, or the unfolding human soul, must gradually surpass his physical, emotional and
mental consciousness, and eventually enter into a sphere of light which, in the Ancient Wisdom
is called the Spiritual Triad. This is a sphere of pure light created by the radiation of the abstract
mind, intuition and will. This is such a sphere of electrical intensity that the field of knowledge
below the disciple's level is unveiled in all its detail.

Such a man is a knower, above glamors, illusions and deceptions of lower states of
consciousness, and he is described as "He who sitteth on the throne of Selfhood crowned with
glory and radiance, well clothed in the robes of purity (intuition), armed with the sword of
wisdom (abstract mind) is Thyself, the Knower, O disciple...."

...he who sees the Supreme Being equally abiding in all creatures as the Indestructible One
within the passing forms, such a man is a true seer (12:27)

It is amazing to realize that in such a high state, to see means to know. Thinking is a process of
knowing and seeing the things as they are.

We are presenting to you some chapters about this subject from The Science of Meditation
which will shed greater light on the subject.

What Meditation Does

Meditation builds bridges and lays communication lines between various points.

Through meditation you start to build a broadcasting and receiving station in your higher mind.
You take from above and give below. You may receive impressions from your Soul, from your
Master, from the Hierarchy, and even from "the center where the Will of God is known."

Then you broadcast great love, great harmony, great beauty and understanding to the world of
men. This brings alignment within your bodies and within your environment.

This can be like the conductor who was a little late in coming to the orchestra. Three hundred
and fifty musicians were gathered when a monkey jumped on the stage and tried to conduct the
orchestra. The musicians were so amused by the monkey that they started to play as the monkey
conducted them. Of course, he conducted in a very odd way and, instead of music, there was
much noise. After a while the conductor came and said, "Sit down here, you monkey!" The
conductor then led the orchestra. Immediately everything became harmonious and the great
symphony was released in its beauty.
This is what happens in meditation. One of the monkeys within us — a thought, an illusion, a
glamor, an urge — tried to run the show. Everything is in a mess, in disorder, but eventually the
true conductor arrives and becomes a point of agreement, a point of translation between a great
source and the human beings, aligning and harmonizing them with the inner beauty. This is
communication.

Meditation establishes lines of communication between planes, centers, and constructive and
progressive thoughtforms, conditioning the circulation of energy between these various points
and imposing a higher rhythm on them.

Meditation is a great help in building bodies of a higher order and of higher substances so
that they are able to contain and express the incoming fiery energies without burning, cracking or
being destroyed.

Meditation is the only means through which these high voltage energies are assimilated by the
bodies and appropriated and expressed in creative living.

It is the tool for transmutation, transformation and transfiguration.

Meditation makes it possible to touch universal or cosmic ideas and to formulate great laws
which may bring a new flood of energies to humanity for the upliftment and expansion of
consciousness.

The mind translates these ideas according to its development and constitution. An electronic
engineer translates these ideas "electronically". A political leader translates them as social and
military rules or laws, an artist as art work, and so on. It depends on your instrument. If you have
a primitive television set, the impressions will not be translated correctly on the screen. If you
have a better television set, you will have a better picture.

Meditation refines your mind, makes it rich, sensitive, pure, organized and ready to obey the call
of the Thinker.

Meditation enables you to come in contact first with your Inner Master, the Inner Lord,
and then to come in conscious contact with the Teachers of the subjective world. Thus you
enter into the life of discipleship and become a server of humanity.

In the process of meditation you learn how to formulate energies or impressions coming
from the higher realms and to use them as your thoughts, guides and rules. In doing this you
learn to mold your mental substance, as the potter gives shape to the clay. Consciously
formulated thoughtforms have a very magnetic and powerful influence when they are written or
spoken. You learn, also, the technique of how to project your thoughts and reach other minds to
guide, to protect and to inspire them.

Meditation leads to self-actualization and self-determination.

Gradually all mechanical activities of the mind cease and crystallized habits are melted away.
The bodies become obedient and sensitive tools of communication and creativity as they stop
responding mechanically to the stimuli coming from the outside world. The mind learns to select
from incoming thoughts and immediately reject the ones that are not in tune with the light of the
Soul.

Meditation enables you to confront your reactions to mass opinion and mass emotion. Mass
opinions and mass emotions built on glamors and illusions influence you and create reactions
from you if you are controlled by pushbuttons and are acting mechanically. As meditation puts
an end to your automation, and makes you your own Lord, you reject any impression, any
influence that does not agree with the divine Plan.

You also notice that you cannot be hypnotized by any form of advertisement, or pushed by any
force, as your mind penetrates through things and sees them clearly as they are.

Through meditation we refine the etheric body of the planet.

We are told that the etheric body of the planet is formed of etheric lines which form squares, but
that this is changing as more people start to meditate. The squares are rapidly changing into
triangles, and eventually they will change into circles. At that time our planet will be a sacred
planet and peace, health, joy and brotherhood will be facts.

Meditation generates energy.

Mostly we feel energy as it stimulates or charges our physical body. Actually, we are living in an
ocean of energy, but most of the time we are not in contact with this energy because of some
formations around our bodies which prevent unimpeded communication. These formations can
be called rejecting films which isolate certain parts of the body from the ocean of energy and
prevent the growth of that particular body or a part of it. These rejecting films are formed mostly
by our fears, illusions, desires and glamors. They stand within the aura and reject or distort the
incoming energies via the mind or etheric body.

Most of these formations are in the lower mental body, and they block the energies flowing from
the Soul, or Chalice. The body is deprived of energy. You feed it and give it vitamins, but you
don't have energy. This causes many complications in the body because, due to over-
nourishment, the equilibrium of the body's metabolism is disturbed and the etheric body is forced
to overact and overstimulate some parts of the body, creating growths or congestion there.

True energy in the human being is experienced when the released energy of our food, air and sun
is mixed with the incoming Soul energy and life energy. If these energies are flowing down into
the bodies without obstacles and rejecters, the man needs very little food.

Such cases are seen occasionally, and they present puzzles for the medical profession. Christ
referred to this fact when He said that "man does not live by bread alone, but by the words of
God." The words of God represent energies of ideas and of higher light, love and power coming
from the Soul to nourish and vitalize the physical body.
Meditation releases energy because it purifies the mental plane of all obstructive formations and
opens a channel to highly charged planes.

We know that all seven planes of the Cosmic Physical Plane are nothing but energy and force on
a gradient scale. Meditation refines and cleanses our mental body and makes it ready to touch, to
register, to absorb, and to pass on the higher energies which may appear as ideas, intuitive plans,
pure love, clear thinking, altruism, right human relations goodwill, and the radioactive energy of
joy and dynamism.

Our meditations are mostly a process of contact with ideas found on the intuitional level. Ideas
are highly charged waves of energy. Through meditation they descend into the mental
atmosphere and charge it, and then they radiate to the emotional, etheric and physical bodies.

Through meditation we not only charge our mechanism, but we radiate a great quantity of energy
toward the people with whom we communicate. All great meditators are powerhouses of energy,
and when they speak or write people are caught up by them, as if by a whirlwind.

Thus the great meditators are charged with energy, and enabled to see the vision and destroy the
chains binding them to the lower worlds. No obstacle can stop them. Thus were charged all
disciples of Great Ones, they became sources of so much progress and beauty in the world.

Sometimes people charge you with their glamors and illusions and lead you to strenuous
activities, but they do not last long as these formulations of forces have no true principle, seed or
kernel within them. Sooner or later they disintegrate and you experience painful disillusionment
and disappointment.

Meditation leads to service, and a life of service opens your etheric centers and makes you a
man of power, light and love.

There is a false technique or means which is used to open the etheric centers. It uses special
kinds of meditation, drugs, breathing exercises and mantrams which mechanically stimulate the
etheric centers. The man begins to have unusual experiences, hears voices, sees visions, feels
different sensations in his body, etc., but eventually he loses his health and sanity, and he falls
into a miserable way of life.

The best way to open the centers is a life of dedicated service, which is the result of meditation.
A man starts to serve when he comes in contact with his Soul. Meditation is the science through
which man eventually comes in contact with the Inner Lord and becomes radioactive. This
radioactivity is expressed as service. When the life of service continues and the qualities of the
Soul thus express themselves, the centers begin to open and unfold and flood the mechanism
with powerful energies.

Meditation prepares the bodies, removes the inertia of the physical body, the glamors of the
emotional body, the illusions of the mental body, and then the energy of the Inner Lord passes
through them without any friction. Your etheric centers bloom as a tree blooms, naturally and
spontaneously.
Those who teach techniques to release the Kundalini fire and to open the etheric centers are
doing great damage to their adherents, damage that cannot be repaired easily and which may
extend into many lives.

Meditation makes you magnetic, attractive, one who evokes love and dedication. People are
attracted to you for guidance, for light, for love and energy. People trust you, have faith in you.

Thus you attract people whom you can serve, and this is not only on the objective but also on the
subjective plane. Your aura becomes highly magnetic and radioactive. It attracts those who are
ready for help, and repels those who have nothing to do with the Plan. It also repels unwanted
thoughtforms and various other forces.

People try to create artificial magnetism with their makeup, hairdo, special clothes, special
manners, but when you approach them you are left unsatisfied because their Soul magnetism is
lacking. They don't have real magnetism. Real magnetism begins when the Soul energy
circulates in the etheric body.

Meditation opens the gates of Wisdom.

Wisdom is the ability to use your developed intellect and your pure love to meet the need of the
time, invoking creativity and unfoldment in your contacts, in accordance with the Divine Plan.

Through the process of meditation your intellect unfolds, your love deepens, and your skill
harmonizes with the rhythm of evolution, of the future.

You communicate with great clouds of knowledge, with ageless accumulations of experience,
and you use them for the service of others.

Meditation develops the eye that sees the reasons of the opposing viewpoints, of the
opposing groups, that sees the principle and the cause behind them and the way in which an
understanding may be established between them.

You see the cycles, the rays, the bodies, the laws controlling them, and the age of the soul
operating in them. You see when and where they can come into an agreement. Thus you save
energy, further permanent understanding, and aid in the work of conscious evolution.

Meditation keeps your intellect clear and sound until the last day of your life. You do not
lose your reasoning power, your creative abilities, as your aging continues.

As age advances people often lose their mental interests, but the mind trained in meditation
penetrates deeper and deeper in its interests, and becomes a station of light and experience for
others. Thus is guaranteed a joyous life for one's old age, when others have lost the sense of
reality and the joy of creativity.

Meditation awakens in you the sense of responsibility.

As your meditation proceeds and slowly your vehicles integrate and align with the higher planes,
your group consciousness increases and your sense of unity deepens. With these unfoldments
your sense of responsibility enters into a higher dimension. You realize that:

a. You are responsible to the Plan and to the Hierarchy.

b. That life is one.

c. That not by a single act do you want to be a barrier, an impediment to the progress
and unfoldment of your brothers and the Plan.

d. That you must understand the needs of others, and intelligently try to meet them.

A sense of responsibility, we are told, is the first indication that man has awakened into the
consciousness of his Soul.

Throughout centuries man has been enslaved in his physical, emotional, and mental worlds, and
has used them for his own personal enjoyment and pleasure. But when he starts to do occult
meditation, he enters into a new level of consciousness. It gradually dawns on him that he is a
part of everything, that the effect of his actions on three levels not only conditions his life but the
lives of others too, that every move to transcend himself helps the upliftment of others, and every
unintelligent move creates long chains of obstacles for him and for others. Later he finds out that
the greatest law is the Law of Synthesis. Once he realizes these facts, the sense of responsibility
awakens and unfolds in him. Actually the sense of responsibility comes into existence when the
unfolding human soul slowly enters into the consciousness of the Solar Angel and becomes
enlightened with the intellect, with the love, and with the will of that Inner Master. In that stage
he is no longer the slave of the centripetal forces of his nature, but he becomes radioactive and a
centrifugal, outgoing energy.

A sense of responsibility is the ability to feel one with the Inner Dweller, and the ability to
renounce the lower interests for that Reality in him.

The Soul within the man is the storehouse of ageless experiences and the storehouse of the light
garnered through these experiences. Any true experience is a revelation of a divine law.
Meditation leads toward this storehouse of wisdom within each individual and, through the light
of that wisdom, to unveil the path of synthesis.

Meditation opens in you a permanent fountain of joy.

As you continue to do your meditation in sincerity and in aspiration, the petals of the Inner Lotus
gradually unfold and radiate their fragrance, filling all your being and environment. This is pure
joy. Once this joy spreads itself into your vehicles, it purifies them of negative, destructive,
hindering vibrations, and as a consequence of these your personality becomes a radioactive fire
of joy.

Meditation is a way to cooperate in cosmic construction. It is not to produce inertia, happiness,

relaxation and satisfaction.
The whole cosmos (and our system is an atom in it) is in the process building, objectively and
subjectively. A great creative activity is going on toward a Cosmic goal. Meditation is a tool to
use in this great work of building, and it may create conflict, efforts, labor, need for self-exertion,
expansion of consciousness, discipline, and communication——through a great battle. The
source of joy is found in such a way of life. Thus, meditation is a process of becoming, in which
man gradually transforms himself into his essential being, and becomes his Real Self.

The Science of Meditation by H. (Torkom) Saraydarian, p.27-36

THE MENTAL BODY AND THOUGHTFORMS

According to the Ancient Wisdom, the mental body is composed of the following parts:

1. The subtle substance, electrical in nature, which is used to build thoughtforms.

2. The Solar Angel, the Thinker.

3. The various thoughtforms, as cloud patches floating in the atmosphere of the mind.

4. A center in the mind from which radiate nine petals of energy, if the man is near the
third great expansion of consciousness.

5. A shining pearl, the mental permanent atom.

The mental substance is divided in seven successive vibrations, each of which is called a plane.
Each plane has its own function. As the man progresses, he builds and then uses higher mental
levels, because the substance of the higher levels is more adequate to formulate lofty ideas with
greater clarity.

The Thinker within us is the Solar Angel. In occult works we are told that the Solar Angel is in
deep meditation. This means It thinks. Thinking is a process of communication with higher
spheres and a process of assimilation and translation of the Will or Purpose thus contacted.

We are of the opinion that every man thinks. This is not true for the majority of men. Thinkers
are those people who have raised their focus of consciousness to the level of the Solar Angel and
are able to pick up the expressions of the Solar Angel, absorb them and further formulate new
thoughtforms to meet their needs. Such men can gradually enter into the light of the Solar Angel,
communicate and share Its thinking, or ask questions and receive answers according to their
environment, to the conditions of their education, to the receptivity of their mental body and the
sensitivity of the brain. The majority of men reflect the thoughts of others, making a new form
out of them. They are consumers.

Thoughts are objects. They are substantial. They have their own form, color and duration of life.
They are magnetic, dynamic, or shallow and faint. Once an idea or an urge or a beam of light
coming from the higher levels of consciousness starts to take form, it becomes a substantial
object in or around the mental sphere. Some of these thoughtforms travel at great speeds. Some
of them keep their identity. Others become mixed with similar thoughtforms and disappear.
Others lose their existence in the attack of opposing thoughtforms and burst as a bubble.

Some of these thoughtforms have a destination; some just float in space and rush down if there is
a magnetic attraction from a mind. Some of them accumulate and form a great cloud of disaster,
or of peace and love. Each thought contributes to the good or the bad.

The atmosphere of our globe is populated with innumerable thoughtforms in different sizes,
densities and colors. They are charged with different kinds of energies and motives and are
tremendously active.

All these strata of thoughtforms in the atmosphere of the planet are like a global switchboard.
Answers, responses and direct communications are handled automatically, due to the demand of
a human mind or minds.

Most of the thoughtforms which have a similar essence are related to each other electrically.
They can form a storehouse of "ideas" for those people who are able to tune in to one of them
and gradually become dominated by it.

If a man is on higher levels of the mental plane, he touches the rare "clouds of knowable things"
and draws great beauty and wisdom from them. They become a great source of inspiration for
him. These clouds of thought waves are created by the visions, wisdom, and penetrative
reflections of advanced thinkers. A man can even contact telepathically such advanced thinkers
through thought waves and draw much inspiration from them.

On even higher levels, we have greater beauties created by divine contemplatives, and in rare
cases man touches them through advanced meditation and contemplation.

In the lower strata we have dark clouds of thoughtforms of hatred, jealousy and separativeness.
These are easily available to those who have similar tendencies.

A man who yields himself to such tendencies builds in his aura a receiving station for these
thoughtforms and eventually the dark strata of thoughtforms control and possess him, making
him a direct outpost for these criminal waves.

This gets worse if the receiver is a group or nation. In such cases, black forces utilize their
communication and add their poison to it, and the agent becomes the real victim of his negative
thoughtforms.

This danger does not apply to those who are yet mentally inactive. It is for those who train their
minds and make them mentally polarized.

As the human race progresses mentally, it is imperative that steps be taken to discipline our
minds and make them transmitters of light, sources of creative energy with which it will be
possible to build bridges between man and man, between nation and nation, and between our
planet and far-off worlds.
This is not an easy task. The mind is like quicksilver. You try to hold it with your fingers, but it
escapes and runs away in droplets. However, once you start to control it and focus it into the
greater light of the Solar Angel, you become a leader, a man, a source of beauty, health, joy,
peace and a golden bridge between man and infinity.

A great sage once said:

"It is a festival for Us each time a pure direction of thought is projected into the sphere of
invisible existence." [1]

Thinking about the Higher Worlds is the best proven antitoxin. Exalted thoughts not only
influence the nerve substance, but also purify the blood."[2]

Meditation is the process of right and clear thinking. This is the science of the mind. It is through
meditation that the flickering light of the human mind unfolds and becomes a radiant ray of great
glory.

On this path of eternal blooming, the unfolding human being passes through various stages of
difficulties and growth.

Some of the well known Teachers tell us that:

It is hard to keep a right balance between the soul and the personality when the spiritual
stimulant is relentlessly high. The rushing into the personal life of soul force is like sunshine in a
garden. Weeds as well as flowers emerge. [3]

There is a strange law in occultism...as soon as anyone pledges himself as a "probationer"

certain occult effects ensue. Of these the first is the throwing outward of everything latent in the
nature of man: his faults, habits, qualities or subdued desires, whether good, bad, or indifferent.
[4]

Blessed be the obstacles, through them we grow! [5]

Evolution is an eternal cycle of becoming. [6]

The pivotal doctrine of esoteric philosophy admits "no privileges or special gifts in man, save
those won by his own Ego through personal efforts and merit throughout a long series of
metempsychoses and reincarnations." [7]

There is a beautiful verse in the Bhagavad Gita:

Having pervaded this whole universe with a fragment of Myself, I remain. (10:42)

The fragment is the human soul, the fallen Spark within the bodies. It is the eternal pilgrim who
faces and experiences all the friction on the Path of return. It is the one who has identified
himself with his vehicles, through which he expands his consciousness and redeems the matter of
its vehicles.

The part that remains never identifies with the vehicles, but stays there in its high level of being,
as a Silent Watcher and as an Eternal Light. The fragment called the human soul is the reflection
of the inner glory, merged with the matter of the lower bodies forming the lower self.

Throughout the ages this fragment works within the physical body meeting the needs of that
body. Then it starts to be active in the emotional body and this activity demonstrates as violent
emotions, violent desires and urges. A closer link starts to build between the physical and
emotional bodies. Ages pass and the fragment aspires higher into the mental plane, and there
gradually fear, hatred, and discrimination start and affect the lower bodies tremendously. As the
mental development continues, a closer alignment is produced within the three bodies, and man
becomes a personality. This means that he has a body, an organized emotional world, and a
cultivated mind. However, this does not mean that the subject is free from glamors and illusion.
Probably for long, long ages the subject lives a very selfish life, a crude life, using all his
environment and circumstances for his separated self. But it does not stop there, because his
higher part, the Eternal Magnet, draws him back to his Home. So his aspiration increases and
when his mental life is quite active he builds a tiny bridge toward the intuitional level.

Throughout his journey back home the eternal pilgrim, the fragment, meets numerous problems
and obstacles which make him more awake and have deeper and higher aspirations.

First he has physical problems. As his body grows and reaches the pattern of the etheric body, it
passes many crises. For example, it meets teething problems, problems with the various glands,
blood circulation, etc. These and various other problems show up when the fragment starts to use
and organize the emotional body and to align it with the physical. At this time the physical body
enters into heavier pressure, and nervous and glandular problems appear.

The man is now facing two battlefields: one, the physical body and its life; and the other, the
emotional body and its life. He becomes sensitive to his emotional atmosphere or environment
and gradually develops glamors, desires, wishes, loves and hatreds, in pain and suffering. These
force him to invoke the higher world within him and a faint glow of mental light starts to appear
in the dense fog of his emotional body. This itself creates more problems in that world, as his
glamors start and his desires get more forceful. The mental light grows stronger and stronger as
the problems and difficulties of life increase, and the man starts to ask questions and tries to find
the answers. This develops his mind.

When the fragment becomes active on the emotional plane, the physical body represents the
most heavy obstacle, until it adjusts and aligns. The same thing happens in the emotional body
when the fragment passes to the next stage and becomes active on the mental level. This time the
emotional body is the obstacle and the source of the problems. This increases when the pilgrim
steps into higher mental levels. Here all hereditary, emotional, mental influences, glamors, and
illusions play their part to prevent the pilgrim's passage to the higher world. This fight sometimes
lasts centuries and the man becomes a victim, a prisoner in the hands of his glamors and
illusions.
At first the moving on of the pilgrim does not solve the problem. All past debts come and
demand a solution. All his wishes and desires hang as lead weights from his legs. All his past
illusions and negative, crystallized thoughtforms erect a wall on his path. His condition grows
more and more complicated as he expands his relations to his family, group, society, etc. Their
problems echo in his being, and his problems become mixed with the problems of others and
create a real jungle on his path.

The pilgrim often becomes depressed and hopeless. He often strays from the Path and goes back
to the warm, shallow fields and waters, and sometimes becomes the unconscious enemy of
beauty, goodness and truth. He may lose the vision for centuries. All this time he is developing a
strong personality called the Dweller on the Threshold——the threshold between the light and
darkness, between the real and the unreal, between immortality and death.

The Dweller on the Threshold is formed of all our selfish habits, glamors, illusions and maya, of
all our desires for material satisfactions, of all our tendencies that are based on separation and the
resultant karma, thus forming a great barrier between the Inner Dweller and the unfolding human
soul. But the fragment cannot be imprisoned forever in that condition. The Magnet or the Inner
Dweller cyclically evokes a response from the fragment, and the human soul radiates a deeper
aspiration toward more freedom. But before he passes to the sphere of higher freedom, he passes
through "dark nights", with all the agonies, fears and renunciations of these psychological nights.
Here, the opportunity for purification of all his mechanisms and the opportunity to unfold his
heroic qualities is presented to him.

Thus starts the great process of transfiguration. These are painful experiences, when slowly all
identifications must be broken and all man-made chains and prisons must be destroyed; the
ancient debts must be paid, and the free soul released to enter into a new dimension of
enlightenment.

Spiritual growth, of course, puts great pressure upon the three vehicles of man, and before the
man is released he passes a long time in the turmoil of physical, emotional and mental problems.

First the incoming energies stimulate his etheric centers, and man becomes the victim of
unexpected urges and forces. This opens up the doors to long-time imprisoned desires and urges,
and, as a volcanic crater, a mysterious door opens and the man gives out whatever is sleeping in
him, good and bad. Until that moment he was able to control them, but now he cannot. His inner
world bursts forth like an eruption of lava. That is why we see, sometimes, unexpected behavior
in those who were the objects of our admiration and our standard of beauty. Suddenly they
change; they reverse their life, causing us great disillusionment.

In olden temples and brotherhoods the strongest emphasis was put on the sublimation process,
and thus deeper knowledge was not imparted to them until their personalities were transmuted
and transformed to a high degree.

As aspirants travel higher on the Path they create more response and reaction from the energy
side of nature. A simple man can lie and has to pay, let us say, two dollars and then is free, but a
disciple pays for his faults one thousand times more, and his damage to others is one thousand
times more, so his problems are one thousand times more. A little fault in his character can be
used by dark forces to damage him and his followers and his planned work of service.

In olden days it was very important to teach the aspirant to be rather than to have; to eat, to get
little, but assimilate thoroughly. Teachers used to test them very carefully, test physically,
emotionally and mentally to find out the weak points and clear them away before the aspirant
entered into the portal of mysteries.

After a man becomes a personality, the first sign one notices is a strong expression of the will-to-
freedom, freedom on physical, emotional and mental levels, an attitude of independence. This
creates great tensions around him, in his home, social environment, in his group, and even in the
nation if he is in an important position. All this tension acts and reacts against him, increasing his
will-to-freedom in spite of great limitations that are created from reactions. Many, many times
limitations are put on him, through different means, but he always finds a way to declare his
independence though he cannot always justify himself.

Very often tyrants and dictators are victims of this process of unfoldment. They can be in any
field of human endeavor. As energy increases in them, mostly focusing itself in selfish and
negative emotions or thoughts, it pushes them to satisfy their growing desires and intentions.

We can see this fact even at home when, for example, the wife develops her personality to some
degree and starts to function independently. She starts with stubbornness, carelessness,
roughness and coolness in her words and acts. If this continues without her own and the family's
understanding, the home starts to disintegrate. If this happens to more members of the family,
then you have greater problems, because they see only their own ends and do not think in terms
of the family's well-being. But if there is understanding from all sides, the danger decreases
considerably and a short time later the will-to-freedom is used in group understanding and for the
group well-being, handled by wisdom and intelligence.

Here we have also the aid of the virtue of patience, tolerance and non-criticism, which help
tremendously on the Path.

If this happens to us we must immediately take action so as not to go deeper into self-worship,
dictatorship, or the will-to-dominate. The first step will be to observe our thoughts, words and
actions, and consciously change them if they are expressions of pride, will-to-dominate, or
tyranny; we must meditate upon the words humility, cooperation, understanding, tolerance, each
for one month, as deeply as possible.

The second step is to create a field of research work in religion, in psychology, in science, in
education, or in economics, etc. People around the affected one must not use any pressure upon
him, but give forth lots of love, understanding and tolerance while holding, in the meantime, a
mental analytical attitude.

At times of crisis, or when the friction between higher and lower is great, or when excess energy
is pouring down into the three-fold personality, there is great opportunity to grow or great danger
to degenerate. If the vehicles are not ready, energies will ruin them, or increase the dominance of
negative elements so much that they will immediately reject a later impact of spiritual energy or
the penetration of a new ray of light into the mind of the man.

Our vehicles have the habit of crystallization. The crystallization occurs in fatigue, in catching a
cold, in fear, in different shocks, in forming steady habits, in emphasizing the one side of a truth,
in doctrines, dogmas, illusions and glamors. These are all signs of crystallization in the mental
atmosphere.

Friction occurs between the life-energy and the three bodies when they reach a considerable
stage of crystallization in which they cut the free flow of life energy. At that time starts the fight
between the bodies, or a body, and the life energy, coming via the Soul. This creates a crisis.
Sometimes the crystallization is overcome and the development continues in a better way.
Sometimes friction continues and many kinds of irritation come forth with bad effects.
Sometimes overstimulation occurs with many physical and/or psychosomatic illness, or
sometimes the crystallization is so dense that the life energy cannot penetrate and the body, or a
part of it, becomes numb to higher effects and gradually disintegrates. At this point starts the
degeneration of any vehicle.

If it is on the mental level, the mental body becomes gradually more negative, more aggressive,
until this negativity cuts all communication with the life-energy and the mental body starts to
deteriorate. This happens to individuals, to groups, to churches, to nations. On the national level,
when crystallization is in an advanced stage, the incoming energies of evolution cause
revolutions and wars as they come in contact with the crystallized agents.

The growth, of course, is outer and inner. Outer growth is the result of those planetary and solar
energies, which in cycles stimulate and push forward the mechanism of man. The inner growth
also is cyclic and is the result of spiritual stimulations cyclically given by the Soul, by the
Spiritual Triad, by the Hierarchy and by Shamballa.

The leader of this "evolution" is the Spiritual Sun. It is a great wheel, like a clock; as it revolves
it brings about all the numerous changes in the kingdoms of nature pushing them forward and
upward. The greatest task of a man is to gear himself consciously to the wheel of this great
source of energy, or great consciousness, and harness the cyclic projections of light, love and
power through his meditations and through his acts of sacrificial service.

The Science of Meditation by H. (Torkom) Saraydarian, p. 37-46

WHO IS THE THINKER?

The Ancient Wisdom teaches that there is a Presence in man that thinks. This Presence is a light
which is placed in the higher mental atmosphere. It tries to reach the atoms of the mental,
emotional, and physical substance; to flood them with its own light; to coordinate, fuse and
create an instrument through which its light can radiate as enlightening, healing, and uplifting
energy.
In the average man this light is a flickering light and cannot penetrate into all the strata of the
mind to touch the brain. Only at rare, critical times the light may reach down and give man a
brief, unusual guidance and inspiration. In an advanced man this light slowly penetrates into the
whole substance of the mind, and as it penetrates, the consciousness of the man expands.

The consciousness of man is the lighted area in the mind where the light or the intellect of this
Presence hits. If it hits an area one inch in diameter, that is the size of his real consciousness. If
this lighted area expands, his consciousness expands.

Your consciousness expands as the mind, in part or as a whole, gradually is able to assimilate
and reflect the light and change into light. The atoms of your mind have a dim light originally,
but as they become sensitive to the light of the Presence, they become radioactive atoms in the
mental atmosphere. This enlightening process is carried on through our endeavors in right
thinking, concentration, meditation, and living a life in harmony with the rhythm of the inner
Presence, until the light or the intellect of the human soul is awakened and released into its full
capacity to fuse with the intellect of the Soul, then to replace it.

The Ageless Wisdom teaches that

Before our globe became egg-shaped, a long trail of Cosmic dust or fire-mist moved and writhed
like a serpent in SPACE. [8]

Countless millions of years...have rolled away since that dust aggregated and formed the globe
we live in....[9]

Every globe is a septenary chain of worlds of which only one member is visible. [10]

The Earth was in a comparatively etherial condition before it reached its last consolidated state.
[11]

We are told again that earth was ethereal, fiery, then became radiant, then watery, and then
materialized.

The same thing happened to man. Man essentially was ethereal and fiery, then became radiant,
then watery, and then developed his bones and physical body.

Our globe is now on the fourth cycle of its own great journey. Every globe must pass through
seven large cycles, which are called Rounds. Our globe is on the Fourth Round now.

Our solar system is the body of a Great Entity, Who has seven great centers in His body. These
seven centers are the great lives who ensoul seven sacred planets. Sacred planets are those
planets whose Souls have passed certain cosmic initiations or unfoldments.

On each global period seven main races are developed, and we are told that we are now in the
Fifth Race.
Our planet had the First Race, then the Second Race.[12] The Third Race was called the Lemurian
Race. The fourth one was called the Atlantean Race. And the fifth one, the present one, is called
the Aryan Race.

At the middle of the Third Race, the Lemurian, eighteen million years ago, a great event
happened. The Great Life[13] of our planet saw that humanity was not developing in proportion to
the development of the lives of the other planets, and in a way it was hindering their progress
within the solar system. He decided to reincarnate on the higher etheric levels and help
humanity. For this purpose He brought, from higher realms, some Beings Who were advanced
Souls in previous cycles. He also asked the help of six other Great Lives Who were karmically
close to Him.

A tradition is found in many religions, in the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bible, in the old
writings of China, Chaldea, Greece and of South America, that advanced Beings and hosts of
Angels visited this planet and walked among men.

We are told that millions of years ago these hosts of Angels approached humanity to spark their
minds or to dwell in them, but they saw that primitive man was not yet ready to be charged with
such a high voltage of energy, so they departed.

The second wave of Angels, centuries later, made another approach and they saw that the human
animal now was partly ready. So they put a fiery substance from their nature into the mental
cloud of some of the primitive men. This created first, a great disaster to the form, and millions
of forms of the primitive men were shattered and disintegrated. But on the other hand when these
human animals incarnated again, they had better equipped bodies, to hold the mental fire, and to
be ready to receive the Solar Angels.

This mental fire gave man the "I" quality, a feeling of identity, and the urge to search and to
question.

The third wave of Angels came even later and entered into those human animals which had
received the fiery substance. They located themselves on the mental plane, there where the
substance was put by the previous wave of Angels. This substance formed a proper atmosphere
in which they could function to build the bridge between the lower man and the "fallen spark", or
to awaken the Real Man, the Monad, help it control the lower mechanism and express itself fully
through that mechanism in order to gather experience. Here was the origin of yoga.

The coming of these Angels was not simultaneous. They arrived in successive periods. Those
who first received the spark of fire progressed rapidly, and those men who first received the
Angels became the teachers and the leaders of the rest of humanity. But those who, because of
retardation, were not able to receive even the spark "remained mindless".

The Book of Dzyan, one of the oldest records of wisdom, expresses these happenings in the
following words:
The sons of wisdom, the sons of night, ready for rebirth came down. They saw the vile form of the
first third. "We can choose," said the Lords. "We have vision." Some entered the shadows. Some
projected a spark. Some deferred till the fourth. From their own form they filled the Kaina. Those
who entered became arhats. Those who received but a spark, remained destitute of knowledge;
the spark burned low. The third remained mindless. Their lives were not ready. These were set
apart among the seven. They became narrow headed. The third were ready. "In these shall we
dwell," said the Lords of the flame and of the dark wisdom. [14]

NOTES

1."Sons of night" are those Souls who were taking expression after a pralaya, which is an
extensive cycle of rest after a long cycle of manifestation. In Sanskrit literature these cycles are
called the Nights and Days of Brahma. These Angels were progressed Souls from previous
cycles of manifestation, and after a great cycle of rest were coming to help infant humanity, "by
reason of karmic effects".

2."First third" refers to the first half of the Lemurian, or Third Race. "The fourth" is the Fourth
Race, or the Atlantean Race.

3.The "vile forms" were the human animals who did not have intellect and the spark. The Monad
was still inactive. They had no living Souls. In the previous three Rounds and "the first two and a
half races of the present one," these everchanging forms clothed the Monad, the Spark, the Real
Man.

4. These Angels came later to enter into man for two reasons: to give a great push to the progress
of the human race, creating a bridge between the Monad and the form, and also to carry on their
own evolution. The Secret Doctrine says that: "their manas had to pass through earthly human
experiences to become allwise and be able to start on the returning, ascending cycle."[15]

The coming in of these Angels tremendously accelerated the progress of the human race. Some
individuals even reached a state of consciousness which we call Soul-infusion, where the Angel
and the light of the Angel fuses with the light of the developing human soul. These advanced
ones became the leaders of human groups in different fields, according to their rays or types.

The Presence in us is the Solar Angel. This is the Thinker within us. The Tibetan Master, giving
the rules for magic, says:

The Solar Angel collects himself, scatters not his force but, in meditation deep, communicates
with his reflection. [16]

When the shadow has responded, in meditation deep the work proceedeth. The lower light is
thrown upward; the greater light illuminates the three and the work of the fourth proceedeth. [17]

Meditation is one of the means used to strengthen the influence of the Presence over the
personality and make it sensitive to the wisdom radiating from that Presence.
The reflection is the shadow of the Monad; it appears as a diffused light in the lower vehicles, on
physical, emotional and mental planes. We call the reflection, or the shadow, the evolving human
soul, the source of which is the Monad, the Spark. Man in his essence is the Monad, is the Spark,
but the Spark has "fallen" and is going to school through the elemental, mineral, vegetable,
animal and human kingdoms. It is only in the human kingdom that, through the help of the
incoming Lord, the diffused light of the Spark starts to be awakened and to form a consciousness
of identity, "I-ness", "self-ness", or a center in itself, an individuality.

This blooming or awakening takes ages. The unfolding human soul will pass through initiations
(expansions of consciousness) into the stage in which he will be able to see his own inner depth
and the vision of his own becoming. He will sense his kingship and consciously will walk toward
his throne to rule his kingdom as a conscious Lord, liberating the little lives with which he comes
in contact.

This is the stage where the Solar Angel leaves and the Real Man becomes a living Soul. In occult
books this stage of achievement is defined as the Fourth Initiation, when the causal body, or the
body of the Presence, is destroyed and the Indweller passes on to higher paths of evolution.

The causal body has the shape of a lotus. It is also called the Chalice containing the life-giving
Spark or the Jewel, which radiates light, love and power as the man proceeds in his meditation
and in his life of sacrificial service.

Man, the "fallen" Monad, the "fragment", or the seed, is on the way to building his own vehicles
of manifestation. He has his physical and etheric body, his emotional and mental body, and is in
the process of building his centers of force and energy in the etheric and in higher mental planes.

This is where an average man stands.

An Initiate of the third degree has an unfolded nine petaled Lotus, and has built the first part of
the Antahkarana, the Rainbow Bridge.

The Solar Angel is the vision and the model of the man. Man extends from below up to that
vision and to the model. The Solar Angel descends from above, as the higher counterpart of man.

Beyond the mental plane, the average man does not have any higher mechanism. The intuitional,
atmic, monadic and divine vehicles are in embryo in the kernel of the "Monad", but they are not
opened yet and have no active existence. The intuitional body, the atmic and monadic and divine
vehicles of the Solar Angel which form a part of man's nature, do not belong to him, but they are
the vehicles of the Solar Angel. Until the end of the Fourth Initiation man gradually builds his
intuitional, atmic and monad vehicles out of his essence, with the corresponding substance of the
Planetary Logos. His building is the semblance of the model of the vehicles of the Solar Angel.
After these bodies are in some degree built and utilized by the man himself, the Solar Angel
leaves him, with Its higher bodies, for higher realms.

In rare moments of exultation and ecstasy man tastes the beauty and the bliss of the higher
vehicles of the Solar Angel through illumination and inspiration, but then comes back to his
usual habitat, the vehicles of the personality. His communication with the higher planes becomes
much easier when he starts to act upon the higher mental planes through the Antahkarana.

As man builds the Rainbow Bridge from the mental unit to the mental permanent atom, in the
same way, eventually he will build the higher counterpart of the Rainbow Bridge, which passes
through the mental permanent atom to the Spiritual Triad. As he builds this bridge he weaves
from his own essence and from the substance of the Cosmic Physical Plane, the corresponding
vestures and vehicles, to be able to work and live on these higher planes. Each initiate has his
own vestures on the buddhic, atmic, monadic and divine planes, in various degrees of beauty and
unfoldment. Sometimes even great Initiates use each other's vehicles to meet special needs of the
cycles. For example, we are told that Christ is going to use the buddhic vehicle of the Lord
Buddha, when He reappears on the physical plane.

In the New Testament there is a hint about vestments. Jesus, in one of His parables, said that a
man came to a great feast, but because he had no proper dress for the feast he was ushered out.
The feast refers to an exalted state of awareness on the higher mental, buddhic, atmic or monadic
planes. He entered one of these planes, possibly the higher mental plane, without having the right
to do so, probably through breathing exercises, or excessive devotion and aspiration.

In The Magnet of Life a very ancient verse was given which tells of the mystery of man.

There is a sun.

Another sun arises over the horizon.

Between these two suns a form arises.

The second sun obliterates the first,

And then these two suns blend and merge...

A third is seen.

Here we have three Suns. First, "there was a sun." This was the Spark, the Monad, which, as the
prodigal son, went into materialization and identified itself completely with the mineral
kingdom. Ages and ages passed until it was able to initiate itself into the vegetable and animal
kingdoms. During the Fourth Globe these Monads were initiated as the first animal-humanity on
earth.

Here progress was very, very slow, so much so that the Ancient of Days and the Solar Angels
decided to hasten the progress of humanity through the process of individualization. Sanat
Kumara reincarnated on the higher etheric planes, and the Solar Angels entered into those bodies
which were ready to receive them.
Each Solar Angel was a "Sun". And each human being who was ready had a Solar Angel, a Sun,
Who was empowered to give life and light and love to each animal form called a human being,
in which the first sun was lost or asleep.

Immediately when this second Sun appeared in the higher mental realms of the human being, a
form became visible between these two Suns. This form was the bud of the Lotus or the Chalice.
This form is used by the Solar Angel to impart Its light, love and power to the first sun, and to
make it able to climb the ladder of evolution, to fulfill its destiny.

Eventually this first sun, who was identified with the physical, emotional and mental worlds,
gradually was absorbed into the light and the reality of the Solar Angel, and became one with It.
Thus as a separate sun it was obliterated, though not lost.

Ages passed. This obliterated sun slowly became born from the womb of the Solar Angel,
climbed the spiritual ladder and became itself. This is the third Sun that is "seen", the Monad in
all its glory.

The first and third Suns are one. The first one was lost in maya, glamor and illusion and became
a mere reflection of its true Self.

The second one liberated it, and led it first to Solar or Soul consciousness, where it was
obliterated (lost itself to find itself).Then It led it toward its true Self. Once the first sun became
its true Self "a third sun was seen"; the reflection was lost in its true Reality.

The Science of Meditation by H. (Torkom) Saraydarian, p. 47-55

THINKING
The agglomeration of propelled thoughts attracts from space the necessary layers of manifested
sendings. Caches of great discoveries float in space. Those who can identify their psychic energy
with the rhythm of cosmic energies will absorb treasures into their consciousness. The
broadening of consciousness will propel toward the chain which connects all creative forces of
Cosmos. [18]

Meditation is the art of thinking. In the process of thinking we have the following main factors:
the Solar Angel, the knowledge petals, the Antahkarana, the mental substance, the etheric brain,
the physical brain, and the unfolding human soul, who may act on various levels according to his
development.

During the process of thinking, the evolving human soul (who is the man himself) is presenting a
question, a need, in the light of the Solar Angel via the tiny bridge called the Antahkarana.

The Solar Angel is anchored in the Lotus, on the three higher mental planes, though it functions
mostly in the Spiritual Triad.
This question or need is an invoking force which, when it reaches the needed degree of high
frequency, evokes a direct answer from the Solar Angel. The answer of the Solar Angel is an
idea, as a wave of energy. These energies may even be released from the Spiritual Triad, if the
need is great.

An idea is a dynamic urge or drive charged with intuitional and will energy. It is like a sound,
like a note from a great symphony which is the PLAN.

Ideas are precipitated into our mental atmosphere by the Solar Angel, by our great Teachers, or
by us, if we are advanced enough to reach the intuitional plane.

Thoughts are those ideas which are caught in the mental plane, and translated into scintillating
colors by the petals of the Lotus. They present original blueprints upon which the structure of the
thoughtforms are built. Thoughtforms are mostly built to accommodate the thought to the need
of the personality. They may fully represent the thoughts, or may imitate or even use the thought-
energy to form a structure that is far from resembling the original thoughts. This is done when
the lower emotions, desires and selfish aims interfere and cause the original thoughts to
degenerate.

Meditation helps us to formulate our thoughts and build the structure of our thoughtforms with
finer substance, in greater harmony with the note of divine ideas, and to create a corresponding
life of beauty.

It is important also to sense, to see, or to experience the presence of many imported or self-made
thoughtforms within our mental sphere, and to be very discriminative when we are in the process
of vitalizing them without thoughts. In our individual and social spheres the harm of
thoughtforms is more lasting because "as a man thinks in his heart, so is he."

That is why a disciple is a man who can destroy those thoughtforms which act in his mental
world as hindrances and prevent the inflow of more light, or free action, free radiation of light,
love and power.

Occult meditation automatically carries on this destruction of unwanted thoughtforms, and paves
the way toward the Source of pure ideas, building the Rainbow Bridge, which serves as a
communication line between the intuitional plane, the Lotus, the higher mind, the four centers of
the mental plane, the head centers, the etheric brain, and the physical brain. It is through this line
of communication that ideas reach the brain in many forms, and the process of thinking is carried
on.[19]

If the unfolding human soul is working only on the physical, emotional and lower mental planes,
he will never have any conscious contact with the thoughts of the Solar Angel, but will have
instinctual urges and drives caused by It.

In this stage, most probably, the unfolding human soul will be the victim of thoughtforms which
float in the mental sphere, the source of which can be any individual living or discarnate. So the
registration of the message is conditioned by the states of the etheric, astral and mental bodies. If
they are less polluted with maya, glamor and illusion, the message of the Soul, or the message
coming from still higher Sources will be registered in a more accurate way. That is why often the
Inner Lord repeats the message to keep it registered on the brain as clearly as possible, using
various techniques at various times and moods.

In the practice of meditation the fact of alignment is so much emphasized, because alignment is
the key to better transmission, better communication and better registration.

The Antahkarana is this subtle line of communication between the bodies, the Soul, and the
Spiritual Triad. In a sense the Antahkarana is the evolving human soul, who slowly bridges from
one vehicle to another, and eventually reaches the Soul, and then the Monad.

We are told that a man must be the Path itself.

"I am the path, the truth and Life," said the Great One. The building process of this path is a
process of Self-creation. Man is trying to be a relation between, trying to emerge from the lower
vehicles and be an awakened, living soul.

All this labor is mostly carried on within the mental world, knocking at the door of the higher
realms.

As man advances on the mental plane he becomes able to see more clearly the incoming
answers. Often flashes of genuine answers, guidance and inspiration come to him, but when they
pass through the atmosphere of the lower mind they lose their beauty, their power, and mix with
low level thoughtforms and degenerate. This is why it is so important to have a well developed,
harmonized and controlled mind. Real thinking means the end of mechanically controlled living.
As the mind ceases to be mechanical, man becomes more self-determined, more self-actualized
and more tuned with the divine Will-to-Good.

In the process of learning how to think, first of all man tries to harmonize his life with the rays of
the beauty, goodness and truth which are found in the core of his being. Then he tries to
recognize the thoughts of the Inner Lord, and live according to It's thoughts and to express them
throughout his life, activities, feelings and mental modifications. A little later he detaches
himself from his former habits of mental expression, and tries to see things as his Soul sees them,
and think as his Soul thinks. When he approaches mental maturity he strives beyond the mental
plane and tries to enter into the intuitional plane, to bring universal ideas into his mental plane
and translate them in terms of human needs and aspirations.

The Solar Angel is in continuous meditation, which means that It is in a process of aligning,
harmonizing and attuning Itself with the Plan of the Hierarchy, and with the Purpose of the
Planetary and Solar Logoi. Thus It's meditation is a process of at-one-ment with the Divine Life,
a process of true thinking, real service and radiation of energy.

As the unfolding human soul develops, according to his level of beingness, he becomes able to
pick up the source of these energies, ideas and thought waves which are the divine harmonics,
and tries to use them to meet his needs on the three levels of personality, or make them means to
stretch himself toward more light.

Thinking, for the human soul, is a process of adaptation to and formulation of the "thoughts" of
the Solar Angel, or impressions received from outer sources. Thus, thinking for the human soul
means "research and discovery" of the things that already exist in the light of the Solar Angel.

It happens also that other powerful entities may possess the mental mechanism of man and
formulate through it, and man accepts these formulations as his own. These entities may be
evolutionary or involutionary, according to the polarity of the man.

In our mental atmosphere we have higher thoughtforms which are the result of thinking or
responding to the energies of the Soul and of higher Sources, and also we have lower
thoughtforms built mechanically by the lower mental substance through the impulses coming
from lower centers, such as the solar plexus or generative organs. All these thoughtforms are
attached to the creator by some kind of etheric thread. We are told that it is the conflict of these
two kinds of thoughtforms that are responsible for so many mental problems.

Our thoughts even affect nature. Do not be surprised if one day a true scientist proves that
earthquakes, plagues, famine, and other destructive phenomena of nature are the result of human
"separative and maleficent thoughts".

Thinking is the manipulation of a higher kind of electromagnetic energy in nature. Mental

substance has a very close affinity with the energies that control the equilibrium of the planet, the
climate, and the passage of the energies into our planetary life. This is why meditation is the true
science of survival.

It is imperative that the unfolding human soul tries to discriminate between thoughts coming
from his lower mental planes (which are reflected thoughtforms coming from various sources),
those coming from his Soul, from his Ashram, and from his Master.

After he is able to find out the true sources of these thought currents, he will use them, reject
them, or reshape them according to the need. All these activities often are called thinking, but
esoterically this is just the beginning, because the human soul is still not released from the
dominance of his three lower vehicles; still his duty (dharma) is to do the will of his Solar Angel.

The man reaches the highest stage of thinking at the Fourth Initiation. After that thinking is the
manipulation of atmic and buddhic energies through straight knowledge or intuitive perception in
order to create in line with the divine Purpose and formulate it into the Plan to further the goal of
evolution upon higher and higher planes. And this is what we learn to do in meditation.

Thinking is the cause of pure science and applied science. In pure science you will discover the
laws of your inner being: the laws of your emotions, feeling, thoughts, inspirations illuminations,
and various other responses. And with applied science you will use these laws to create a better
life on the planet.
One is the vertical thinking which goes deeper into the world of causes, and the other is the
horizontal thinking which tries to apply the discoveries to the evolution of men.

The Solar Angel is mostly responsible for the vertical thinking because It transmits to the
unfolding human soul the "mysteries", the laws of the inner world. The human soul applies them
to his individual, social and group life, as far as his equipment permits him to do so.

Later on when he reaches a greater degree of enlightenment, he will start to think vertically and
act horizontally, and the man will be a living cross. This is one of the important ends of real
meditation, because to think is the process of knowing and manipulating the laws of the inner
and outer nature to reveal the unknown and to use the revelation for the upliftment of humanity.

At the time of true meditation a fusing and harmonizing process with the Solar Angel is taking
place upon the higher mental planes. It may happen that man cannot find new thoughts on his
subject for a time. He must not be discouraged because it is a law that any question shot toward
the higher realms will positively evoke the answer, at the right time, in the right dosage, in the
right conditions. What is needed is persistence, adaptability, refinement and greater aspiration
toward the Light, with the right motive to serve humanity.

Thinking is the real source of joy. Thinking creates joy, releases joy, and the most joyful people
are those people who reveal a portion of the Unknown and use it for the upliftment of man.
Thinking is an approach to our inner reality, to our own Self. This means that it is a withdrawal
from the world of illusion, from the world of unreality and uncertainty, and an entrance into
greater harmony, greater light, into greater power and certainty.

Thus the unfolding human soul charges himself with the energies of the higher spheres, and then
radiates them into his environment, becoming a living beauty for his fellow men.

On Its own level the Solar Angel tries to see through the eyes of the Hierarchy and through "the
center where the will of God is known", and adapts Its visions to the needs of Its own evolution
and to Its own field of service.

In the thinking process, the relationship of the Solar Angel to the unfolding human soul
resembles a great engineer who prepares lumber to build a mansion. As he builds, he cuts lots of
lumber to be used in the proper places for the construction of the mansion.

A young fellow takes the leftover fragments of lumber and tries to build a little table or a little
chair for his studies.

The engineer is the Solar Angel and the young fellow is the evolving human soul. He, in his turn,
one day will be an engineer to build thoughts, or thoughtforms, from contacted energies and
visions and create his own mansions. The little ones will use the leftover lumber, or in advanced
degrees, through the agreement of the Engineer, will use some of His lumber, for greater
purposes.
Thinking is the process of adaptation between vision and need, and meeting the need through the
technique of recognition. The real need is the seed of vision awaiting release and blooming.

A real question is the seed of the answer, awaiting unfoldment and illumination. Thus thinking is
a process of bridging, of at-one-ment, and of revelation.

A real thought is the result of thinking. Thought is a link in the process of bridging. It is the
thought that the vision meets the question.

Real thinking is a process of alignment, from the smallest to the greatest. This is done by asking
questions and demanding answers, for each level and for each need.

All real thinking is a process of harmonization with the vision of "The Conductor", because
thinking is a process of unveiling, of becoming oneself, of becoming a true note in the Greater
Symphony of the Cosmic Self. That is why meditation is so important; it is the science of
thinking, and through thinking we create our own children, our own thoughtforms, which serve
to work out the Plan and the Purpose for our planet and Solar System, refining gradually our
brains and mental vehicles, strengthening the Bridge and bringing about a close relationship
between the Solar Angel and the unfolding human soul, the "Shadow".

It is very interesting to note that we continuously create our "children", or thoughtforms, and
they really become independent living entities or decaying forms within our aura or in space. If
they are of high quality they let the life energy flow into our etheric and physical bodies, and if
they are decaying ones they poison our system and cause various diseases. That is why it is very
important to know how to meditate, how to create pure and divine thoughts, and increase the
vitality and health of humanity and nature. Thinking means to create, to be.

Any created work of art, in any field or level, lives according to the roots it extends into time and
space. For example, let us take a book. If that book is written only for the physical plane, through
physical level observations, it lives a relatively short life. It lives longer if it has a world of
emotion within itself. The life of that book becomes still longer if the world of mind is present.
The life of that book increases tremendously if there is the fire of spirit in it. And it becomes
immortal when there is a portion of the divine and of the absolute in it.

In the same way a creation has a short life span if it is personal only. If it is a group creation, or
relates to the group, it has a longer life. If it is related to the national life, it lives a little longer. If
it is related to the life of humanity, its life is considerably longer. But if it is related to the
Cosmos, it lives a Cosmic life.

If we want a creation to live and serve upon all the mentioned levels, it must have a proportional
amount of substance from each of them.

True thinking is a cooperative effort with the Cosmos, reflecting its beauty on all planes, thus
conditioning the development of each tiny life to further the fulfillment of the Purpose of the
Great Life.
 The Science of Meditation by H. (Torkom) Saraydarian p. 56-63

The physical, emotional and mental planes

We are actually the "I"s, living within the bodies, like a sun at the center of the universe; we are
the inner Sparks. We become conscious of ourselves on the planes through which we try to
express ourselves. Like a beam of light, we feel ourselves to be on the object or in the substance
we strike or pass through. Whatever plane we strike, there our consciousness of being is. The
light of the Spark increases toward the center and decreases toward the periphery. Development
of consciousness means the enlargement of the field of light on the mental substance where the
beam of the light of intellect of the soul hits.

Our consciousness develops from the physical plane world, through the emotional and mental
worlds, passing to the plane of intuition, to the plane of peace, and on to the plane of freedom.
The intuitional plane is called the plane of bliss. In the Ageless Wisdom, the plane of peace is
known as the plane of Nirvana, the nirvanic or atmic plane. It is the plane of spirit, the plane of
peace. The plane of freedom is called the monadic plane. It is the plane where Self-cognition is a
fact.

• On the physical plane we cannot see ourselves except as bodies.

• On the emotional plane we see distorted pictures of ourselves.

• On the mental plane we catch glimpses of ourselves.

• On the intuitional level we see clearly, but we are not yet ourselves. There is still the
mirror.

• On the atmic plane, the plane of spirit or peace, we begin to be ourselves.

• On the monadic plane, the plane of freedom, we become Ourselves — a Spark, a

glorious Spark in the fiery space of existence.

This achievement of being Oneself is often called The Blue Peak amid the high mountains. In
ancient literature it is called "The Father" experience or the experience of talking with God.
Moses climbed the mountain and, passing the limit of human experience behind the clouds, came
in contact with the Divine, and brought back the Laws to the valley. The mountain He climbed
was the Path leading to his Real Self, and the Presence with which he spoke was his Real Self,
the Father. When asked about the Father, Christ answered,

The Father and I are one.

He was continuously Himself. The Path is also known as Jacob's Ladder, on which the
materialized spirit is climbing and raising himself toward spiritualization, toward his essence of
Fatherhood. It is interesting that the top of the ladder is "reaching into heaven", to the infinite, or
to the level of absolute freedom. On it the "angels of God" ascend and descend.[20] Following is
an illustration of the ladder of involution and evolution, the arc of descent and the arc of ascent.
The successive levels represent the rates of vibration, or the states of consciousness, the states of
being.

COSMIC PHYSICAL PLANE

1— I. Logoic Plane

2— Divine Consciousness

3— Silence

4— Will

5— First Cosmic Ether

6—

7—

1— II. Monadic Plane

2— Monadic Consciousness

3— Freedom

4— Will-Love

5— Second Cosmic Ether

6—

7—

1— III. Atmic Plane

2— Nirvanic Consciousness

3— Peace, Beatitude

4— Will-Intelligence

5— Third Cosmic Ether

6—

7—

1— IV. Buddhic Plane

2— Intuitional Consciousness

3— Bliss
 4— Pure Reason

5— Fourth Cosmic Ether

6—

7—

1— V. Mental or Manasic Plane

2— Soul Consciousness

3— The Soul, The Lotus, Joy

4— The Consciousness and Lower Mind

5—

6—

7—

1— VI. Astral Plane

2— Emotional Consciousness

3— Feeling

4— Happiness

5—

6—

7—

1— VII. Physical Plane

2— Etheric and Dense Physical

3—

4—

5—

6—

7—

"Jacob is sleeping here on the rock."

A few words of explanation:

A. On each plane the number 1 is the logoic or divine note of that plane; number 5 is the mental
substance, the mental note, and so on.

B. You will note that the physical plane mind does not have the same quality of light as the fifth
sub-plane of the intuitional plane, though they have the same key, and the same notes in different
octaves.

C. On the evolutionary arc, the Divine Spark first expresses Itself through the physical level.
This expression is physical level consciousness. Gradually It develops emotional level
consciousness and so on up the ladder.

D. When It reaches the level of monadic awareness, there It sees Itself as It is; beyond that line,
the Spark steps into Its divinity.

E. On Its journey the Inner Spark, the Monad, comes in contact with the Life, or with existence
through all of Its vehicles of expression. It recognizes the physical plane through Its body and
senses. It recognizes the subtle world (the astral or emotional world) through Its emotional or
subtle body. It recognizes the mental world through Its mental plane or mental mechanism. It
does the same with the higher planes. All planes are like bridges between the individual and the
universal. Thus It builds channels between the individualized one and the ocean of Divinity.

F. Each plane has four functions:

• Reception

• Assimilation

• Transmutation

• Expression

Reception means to take in "food", or the impressions, ideas, light and cosmic waves.

Assimilation means to make these impressions, ideas, and the light ready to serve the goal of the
unit of consciousness at a given level.

Transmutation is the elevation of this assimilated energy to a higher plane for use in building the
mechanism of contact upon that plane.

Expression means to live, to radiate out, to work according to the Plan upon the given level and
in the given cycle. Expression is service.

Here we must remember that this ladder of achievement is not yet complete. We have at this
stage of human development only the three lower planes, physical, emotional and mental. The
other planes or steps are not organized yet. Some people even are not really conscious on the
emotional and mental planes. They think they are. They call their feelings or emotions their
emotional world. They call their thoughts their own mental world, but these feelings, emotions
and thoughts are nothing but physical plane reactions and responses. To be active and awake in
the subtle world, as we are in the physical world, requires long range discipline and education.
The same is true for the mental world, because as life on the sea is different from life on land and
in the air, so life varies in the physical, emotional and mental worlds, as well as in higher worlds.
These higher worlds should be built by our own "hands and feet", by our true and sincere labor.
As we have a digestive system for the purpose of building our physical body, our higher bodies
have a similar system which builds the corresponding bodies. Our real food is of seven kinds.
We have physical, emotional, mental, buddhic, atmic, monadic and divine foods. We cannot
receive atmic food with our physical digestive system. To receive atmic food we must build the
corresponding digestive system and the needed mechanisms of transmutation and expression.

The Monad, in his descent to physical existence, envelopes Itself in the substance of each
successive plane, but this does not mean that these substances are fully developed mechanisms of
communication between the Monad and the vast sea of existence on the various planes. The
different substances which the Monad has around him, such as the atmic, buddhic, mental, and
emotional substances are like raw materials with which the unfolding consciousness will
gradually build the mechanism of communication. For example, an engineer builds a radio set
with the materials he has within his reach.

The process of building starts with the seventh sub-plane, of the seventh plane, the lowest.
Suppose we have a body built up to the fifth sub-plane, but gradually, through the right diet,
discipline and fresh air, we bring in a quantity of fourth sub-plane substance, then third sub-plane
substance. Eventually, we will have a body which is built of the highest sub-plane substance of
the physical plane. Whenever you strike a note on a sub-plane, the corresponding notes on the
higher sub-planes receive a mild touch. The next succeeding plane begins to come under the
control of a conscious man when the lower plane reaches its fourth sub-plane substance, as
shown in the following diagram:

V. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Mental

VI. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Emotional

VII. 1 2 3 4 5 (6 7) Physical
[21]

When the lowest plane (VII) is active with its fourth sub-plane substance, the Inner Lord begins
to control the seventh sub-plane of the next higher plane (VI). When the first sub-plane of the
lowest plane (VII) is reached, the Inner Lord begins to have conscious control over the fourth
sub-plane of the (VI), and over the seventh sub-plane of the (V), and so on. The key to the
initiations is hidden in this process. For example, at the third initiation, when man has developed
the highest substance of the astral plane, the buddhic plane starts to penetrate the astral plane
with its light; and then gradually buddhic light replaces the astral plane and becomes "the main
instrument of sentience."

When the mind has developed the substance of the first sub-plane, the Will of the Monad, which
is expressing itself through the atmic plane, begins to flood the mental plane with its power,
impressing the mind with cosmic laws of sacrifice and synthesis. Here, we have a twofold
process:

1. The lower opens to the higher.

2. The higher, becoming active, brings in more energy from the center of light, love and
power to the lowest planes. The resonance between the corresponding sub-planes
forms the future bridge, which in the Ancient Wisdom is called the Antahkarana, or
the Rainbow Bridge.

When your bodies are built with the first sub-plane substance of all seven planes, the Inner Lord
shines forth and expresses Itself as living light and fire, as a great beauty.

Above the fourth sub-plane, the person has more energy under his command, but he cannot use
this energy constructively unless he has developed a sense of responsibility, which is the result of
the energy of the Soul's love acting upon his mental plane. One who builds a wall between the
higher mind (sub-planes 1, 2, 3) and the lower mind (sub-planes 4, 5, 6, 7) gradually enters into
the left hand path, and cannot receive the love and light of higher planes. A brother of darkness
stops his progress on the ladder of evolution for a while and imprisons himself on the lower
mental planes, where he finds many kinds of illusions and delusions. It is good to know that
nature has its own safeguards, and a dark brother cannot directly bridge the gap between the
higher and lower minds.

The ancients speak of the gunas; guna means a quality or a characteristic. There are three gunas:

a. "The quality of purity, truth, goodness, or substantial reality is sattva."

b. "The quality of activity, passion or desire is rajas."

c. "The quality of quiescence, darkness, ignorance, inertia, or immobility is tamas."

When our bodies or planes are built with the seventh and sixth sub-plane substances, they are
considered tamasic, or slow and filled with inertia on their own plane and in regard to their range
of relationships. When bodies are built with the fifth and fourth sub-plane substances, they
become rajasic, full of activity, passion, desire, and so on. When bodies are built with third,
second and first sub-plane substances, they become sattvic; they are pure, rhythmic and
radioactive. Tamas means one thing on the physical plane and something quite different on the
atmic plane. Plane VII, the lowest, is rhythmic if it is built of third, second or first sub-plane
substances. The highest substance in that body is of the first sub-plane, but in relation to the
plane above, the first sub-plane substance corresponds to the fourth sub-plane substance. In its
relationship to the fifth (V) plane, it corresponds to the seventh sub-plane of plane V. Seen from
plane V, the seventh sub-plane of the fifth (V), the fourth sub-plane of the sixth (VI) plane and
the first sub-plane of the seventh (VII) are on the same line. Thus it is clear that the
consciousness extends from one plane to another, but when it passes to a higher plane, it comes
from sattva and enters into tamas; then it passes into the higher rajas, sattva, and so on to
succeeding levels.
The first sub-plane of each plane is the key of that plane; all vibrations of the sub-planes must be
tuned to that keynote. The note of the first sub-plane must dominate the rest; gradually one
distinct note will radiate out of the whole plane, and we will have seven clear notes on seven
planes. Again, at that time, plane VII and plane VI will be spiritually tamasic; planes V and IV
will be rajasic; planes III, II and I will be sattvic. In a similar way our consciousness will be
tamasic if only planes VII and VI are developed. It becomes rajasic if plane V is developed;
starting from IV and moving to planes III, II and I, it becomes sattvic, in harmony with the heart
of the universe.

Now what are the proper foods for the bodies or planes? To develop our physical body we need
etheric and physical food which are pure food, clean air and discipline. To develop and
transmute the emotional body or plane, we must try to assimilate beauty in music, in word, in
color, in motion, and we must express positive instead of negative emotions. To develop our
mental plane, we must try to assimilate knowledge, think clearly, face problems as they are, and
allow special times for reflection and meditation. The intuitional plane is developed through
being nourished by love and compassion and by thinking in unity and synthesis. Each time you
perform an act of love, you provide nourishment for the intuitional body. The intuitional plane
develops mainly through meditation on symbols, or in symbolic thinking.[22] The highest joy on
this plane can be experienced only through love. Only people on this plane can understand the
true meaning of brotherhood. The atmic, or nirvanic, plane is built with will energy and
nourished by true acts of will. We enter into the monadic plane through acts of freedom, through
acts of pure detachment and sacrifice. After the consciousness enters into this plane of freedom,
the horizon of the omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent ocean of reality dawns upon our
being and silence reigns.

Man is the microcosm and the Great Existence is the macrocosm. The Great Existence has
corresponding planes called cosmic planes; for example, cosmic physical plane, cosmic astral
plane, etc. Our forty-nine sub-planes are taken as a whole from the cosmic physical plane of the
seven Cosmic Planes. In developing our sub-planes, we touch, slightly, the corresponding
Cosmic Planes.

The Science of Becoming Oneself, by H. (Torkom) Saraydarian, p. 77-82

KNOWLEDGE
Correct and Incorrect

There exists a vast field of knowledge which the seer must cognize at some time or another. It is
generally conceded among occult psychologists, that there are three modes of apprehension:

1. Direct cognition through the avenue of the senses, each sense, when in use, putting the user
into contact with a distinct range of vibrations, demonstrating as form manifestations.

2. Deduction or inference, the use by the cognizer of the reasoning of the mind in relation to
that not directly perceived. This is, for the occult student, the use of the Law of Correspondences
or of Analogy.
3. The direct cognition for the yogi or seer, centered in the consciousness of the self, the ego
on its own plane. This is achieved through the right use of the mind as an organ of vision and
transmission. Patanjali says: "The seer is pure knowledge (gnosis). Though pure he looks upon
the presented idea through the medium of the mind." Book II - Sutra 20.

Deduction is not a sure method of ascertaining knowledge and the other modifications (activities,
or states of mind) refer primarily to the wrong use of the image making faculty (imagination), to
the self-induced passivity of the mind, a condition of semi-trance, and to the retention of
thoughtforms within the mental aura, through the use of the memory. Each of these are now dealt
with in a separate sutra by Patanjali.

The basis of correct knowledge is perception, correct deduction and correct witness (or
accurate evidence).

One of the most revolutionary realizations to which the occult student has to adjust himself is the
appreciation that the mind is a means whereby knowledge is to be gained. In the west the idea
has mostly been held that the mind is the part of the human mechanism which utilizes
knowledge. The "process of turning things over in the mind", of striving to solve problems by
hard mental labor has no part ultimately in the unfoldment of the soul. It is only a preliminary
stage and has to be superseded by a different method.

The student of Raja Yoga has to realize that the mind is intended to be an organ of perception;
only thus will he arrive at a right understanding of this science. The process to be followed in
relation to the mind might be described somewhat as follows:

1. 1. Right control of the modifications (or activities) of the thinking principle.

2. 2. Stabilization of the mind and its subsequent use by the soul as an organ of vision,
a sixth sense, and the synthesis of all the five other senses.

Result: Correct knowledge.

3. Right use of the perceiving faculty, so that the new field of knowledge which is now
contacted is seen as it is.

4. That which is perceived is rightly interpreted through the subsequent assent of the
intuition and the reason.

5. Right transmission to the physical brain of that which has been perceived; the
testimony of the sixth sense is correctly interpreted, and the evidence is transmitted
with occult accuracy.

Result: Correct reaction of the physical brain to the transmitted knowledge.

When the process is studied and followed, the man on the physical plane becomes increasingly
aware of the things of the soul, and the mysteries of the soul realm — or the "Kingdom of God".
All group concerns and the nature of group consciousness are revealed to him. It will be noted
that these rules are even now regarded somewhat as essential premises where all accurate
testimony is under consideration in world affairs. When these same rules are carried forward into
the world of psychic endeavor (both lower and higher), then we shall have a simplification of the
present confusion. In an old book written for disciples of a certain degree these words occur and
are of value to all probationary and accepted disciples. The translation gives the sense, and is not
literal:

Let the one who looks out take care that the window through which he gazes transmits the light
of the sun. If he use it in the early dawn (of his endeavor——A. A. B.) let him remember that the
orb is not yet risen. The clear cut outlines cannot be perceived, and wraiths and shadows,
gloomy spaces and areas full of darkness as yet confuse his vision.

At the close of this sentence is found a curious symbol, which conveys to the disciple's mind the
thought of Keep silent and reserve your opinion.

Incorrect Knowledge is based upon perception of the form and not upon the state of being.

This sutra is somewhat difficult to paraphrase Its significance consists in this: Knowledge,
deduction and a decision which is based upon externals, and upon the form through which any
life in any kingdom of nature is expressing itself, is (to the occultist) false and untrue knowledge.
At this stage in the evolutionary process no form of any kind measures up to, or is an adequate
expression of, the indwelling life. No true adept judges any expression of divinity through its
third aspect. Raja Yoga trains a man to function in his second aspect and through that second
aspect to put himself in rapport with the "true nature" latent in any form. It is the "being" that is
the essential reality, and all beings are struggling toward true expression. All knowledge
therefore which is acquired through the medium of the lower faculties and which is based upon
the form aspect is incorrect knowledge.

The soul alone perceives correctly; the soul alone has the power to contact the germ or the
principle of Buddhi (in the Christian phraseology, the Christ principle) to be found at the heart of
every atom, whether it is the atom of matter as studied in the laboratory of the scientist, whether
it is the human atom in the crucible of daily experience, whether it is the planetary atom, within
whose ring-pass-not all our kingdoms of nature are found, or the solar atom, God in
manifestation through the medium of a solar system. Christ "knew what was in man" and
therefore could be a Savior.

The Light of the Soul by Alice A. Bailey p. 15-19

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 13
You can see the great beauty of humility that the Lord expresses in saying,

... O Arjuna, we are told by the sages....(13:1)

Great Rishis sang about all these....(13:4)

And when He starts to enumerate the virtues of the disciples, He puts humility first. (13:7)

...the field, the nature of the field, the modifications of the field....(13:3)

The field is the whole manifestation within all cosmic planes.

The field for us, at the present, is the Cosmic Physical Plane, which is divided into seven levels,
as was stated in preceding pages.

The modifications of the field in our stage are sound, touch, color, taste, smell, desire, pleasure,
pain, physical body consciousness and firmness.

These are the expressions of the field. We recognize the field through such modifications.

On each level of the Cosmic Physical Plane, these modifications are expressed in their various
forms and relativity. We start to know about the field through such modification, which impress
our senses and create communication.

Lord Krishna speaks also about the five great elements which form a part of the field.

First, I-consciousness. This is evident in the animal kingdom, in the human kingdom and even to
a lesser degree in the vegetable and mineral kingdoms. I-consciousness is the feeling that you
are, and you can sustain yourself as you are or you have chosen to follow your inner directives.
Observe how a dog looks out for himself when you throw a bone to him and to his friends; how a
planet becomes itself and how an atom selects the elements with which it wants to join; how a
man cares for himself — all these are caused by the I-consciousness, on the path of development
into something higher.

Intellect comes next. In the Ageless Wisdom intellect is the light of the Solar Angel and the
innate light of matter. It is a part of the field.

Force is the result of interaction between elements that are charged with energy or spirit.

The ten organs, according to Hindu philosophy are the five organs of perception — ears, eyes,
nose, tongue and skin — and the five organs of action — hands, feet, vocal organ and the organs
of evacuation and generation.

The mind is an organ built by mental substance. All these are part of the field.

Then we have the knowledge of the field. According to Lord Krishna the knowledge of the field
is composed of (13:7-11):

• Humility

• modesty
 • sincerity

• harmlessness

• forgiveness

• straightforwardness

• service

• respect to the Teacher

• purity

• steadfastness

• self-control

• non-attachment

• selflessness

• power of reflection

• detachment

• non-identification

• constant balance of mind

• undivided devotion to Me

• love for solitary places

• non-interest in social gatherings

• resolute continuance in the study of the primordial Self.

It is very strange that all these form the "Knowledge". To explain this mystery, let us say that in
the esoteric philosophy it is not your mental knowledge that is assumed to be knowledge, but it is
your realization that is considered knowledge.

If you know about love, your knowledge will be validated and justified only when you can really
love. If you cannot love, you are ignorant because true knowledge of love must lead to constant
lovingness.

Take, for example, selflessness. It is possible that you may know all about selflessness — the
origin, the function and the goal — but unless you are really selfless, you will not know factually
what selflessness is. It is this realization that proves your knowledge and makes your knowledge
real.
Service. Service is the result of your radioactivity. When you reach such a stage of sacrificial
life, purity and awareness, your life turns into a natural flow of service. But if you think you are
an informed man, and you think you know lots about service, the Bhagavad Gita says that all is
ignorance unless you serve and are an embodiment of service.

Imagine through what changes all our schools and fields of leadership will go when the teachers
and leaders are chosen because of their realization rather than merely because of the academic
knowledge of their field.

It is very interesting to note that humility was mentioned first. Humility has a very subtle
meaning. Humility dawns in you when you have the realization of Infinity and the insight of
your progressive location on the path to Infinity. You see millions of light years into the future
and you see all those who need millions of years to attain your present point in evolution.

Such a humility is not the result of ignorance, fear, or various emotional changes, but the result
of a great expansion of consciousness and awareness. This is how humility is knowledge, is true
knowledge or Vidya.

A selfish man, a man of greed and hatred, even if he is an encyclopedia of knowledge, is

considered by Krishna a man of darkness and ignorance. All that he knows is used against the
Cosmic Laws and principles, so the user is in darkness. The secret of this is that such a man is
identified with the field and not with the Knower of the field, and this is the great darkness: when
your knowledge is limited to the field only, and it is not enlightened by the Plan, and the will of
the Knower Who manifested the whole existence with a special purpose. When the purpose is
not seen, a well-informed man can use his knowledge to build an atomic bomb, or invent
manifold destructive ways and means to set back the evolution of life, causing pollution, pain
and suffering. This is called ignorance.

In verses 12 through 16, Lord Krishna speaks about the One-Self, Who is the real Knower of the
field. The true knowledge is the knowledge of the Self. Self is within every heart, and in the
heart you can find the knowledge because you can find there your own true Self.

It is the Light of all lights. There is no darkness in It. It is knowledge. The object of the
knowledge can be gained only through knowledge, and It is seated in the hearts of all. (13:17)

Lord Krishna wants to impress in our minds that true knowledge is the knowledge of the
Supreme Self. The Supreme Self is the object of knowledge, and this is done only through
knowledge, which is gradual revelation and awakening to reality.

There may be a question here about the knowledge of the field. The knowledge of the field is
penetrated only through the knowledge of the Self. Without the knowledge of the Self, the
knowledge of the field leads us into ignorance.

The whole idea of this philosophy is that the knowledge and the Knower are the same, as the sun
and its rays. The aim of all knowledge is the Self, the Knower. Those who entered into the
realization of the Self, they know.
The Sanskrit verse is so beautiful that maybe some of you will want to memorize it.

jyotisam api taj jyotis

of lights even that light

tamasah param ueyate

from darkness beyond is said (to be)

jnanam jneyam jnana gamyam

knowledge that which to the goal of knowledge be known

hirdi sarvasya visthitam

in the heart of all seated (see 13:17)

Verses 19, 20 and 21 can be explained as follows: A fragment of space manifested. A part of that
fragment gradually materialized and became objective. The unmaterialized part of this fragment
is the spirit. The relationship between the two poles, spirit and matter, brought out all creation,
all forms on all levels. This is the cosmic field. But Self and substance have no beginning. They
are modifications or expressions of Space.

It is the substance and the matter which give the form and produce the senses. "But it is the Self
that experiences pleasure and pain" because of its identification with the modifications of the
field.

The Spark of the spirit is like a drop that has fallen into matter, identified with it, but not
materialized. As he awakens to his own reality, he becomes an observer, which means he can
discriminate now between himself and the field. Then he becomes an advisor, which means one
who knows and leads. Gradually he develops great magnetism and acts through a group or
groups and supports the plan and the purpose of creation, and thus experiences his divinity.

And once "He ... knows in truth what Substance is, what the divine Spark is, and what the three
qualities are, he will never be born again, no matter in what activity he was engaged." (13:23)

The reason for this is that he now knows the field; he learned his lesson on the lowest plane of
manifestation, and he must now go forward on subtle levels of existence, learning new lessons,
and having new experiences.

It is interesting to note that the field comes into existence immediately after the man detaches
himself from a level. That level now becomes a field for him. Thus, field after field is left behind
him. First the body was the self, and it turned into a field immediately when man detached
himself from it. Then his astral and mental bodies became fields when he withdrew himself from
them. Thus, plane after plane he proceeds, until the whole cosmic physical plane is a field in
which he sees the operation of the Supreme Self.

In verse 23 we also find the expression "...he will never be born again, no matter in what activity
he was engaged."

In the West we usually try to stay as long as possible in physical existence, and we sacrifice
everything to extend our lifespan. There are also those who contemplate better births in the years
to come to enjoy the physical life in greater health, in greater success, and in greater popularity.

The disciple of the Great Ones has a different attitude toward life. He wants to finish all of his
karma toward his vehicles and toward others and liberate himself from the necessity of
reincarnation because he has the knowledge of the higher planes, and his intention is to proceed
on the path of his higher evolution.

The other part of the sentence reads "...no matter in what activity he was engaged." The activities
in which we are engaged do not represent the level we are. It can be karmic obligation; it can be
a duty imposed upon us by necessity; it can be a service we chose because of a great need. All
these are done in detachment, and without being controlled by the gunas.

In verses 24 and 25, we see again the great tolerance of Lord Krishna opening the gate for all
seekers.

Verses 28, 29, 30 and 31 are a continuation of the Teaching of the Supreme Self.

In verse 32 we see a deeper teaching.

As the all-pervading Space cannot be contaminated because of its subtlety, so too the Self,
though seated in all kinds of forms, is not contaminated by the actions of the forms. (13:32)

The student of the Gita knows that all actions are the result of the interactivity of the gunas. The
Self is the Observer, but he bears the pains and joys of the right or wrong actions when he is
identified with the bodies through which the gunas function. This is the result of ignorance. But
once the Self detaches himself and no longer is the slave of identification, he is beyond pain and
pleasure, and he turns into a Silent Watcher. This is the state of bliss where nothing can disturb
you.

Despite all changes and pollution going on within the vehicles, the Self remains pure and
immaculate.

Here we must state also that the Self is higher than substance and matter. The Self is the Ray
from Space penetrated into substance, the higher pole of which is called spirit, and the lower
pole, matter. The Self, as a Ray, penetrates through all cosmic planes till it reaches the dense
physical. Then gradually plane after plane he withdraws himself up to the Central Cosmic
Magnet, adding to his primeval glory the richness of all experiences on all planes. That Ray is
the real man — you.
We assume that you will thoroughly understand Chapter 14 of the Gita due to the information
you have in your possession.

To give you an easy start we can say that having set forth the teaching of The Yoga of
Discrimination between the Field and the Knower of the Field, and in it hinted at the teaching
to be set forth later, the Lord Krishna takes up the details as to the Field in Book XIV. Called
The Yoga of Differentiation of the Three Gunas, it goes thoroughly into the effect of inertia
(tamas), mobility (rajas) and rhythm (sattva) as one or the other predominates in the thinking and
action of the aspirant. The word guna is translated as quality, but it should be borne in mind that
the gunas are inherent in primeval substance (Mula-Prakriti) and in this original substance the
gunas are in a state of equilibrium. For this reason some have preferred to speak of the three
strands (the true meaning of the word guna ), the totality of which make up the twisted rope of
manifested being.

In every form these three tendencies or qualities manifest themselves:

1. The form may reflect the light and be irradiated by it, itself becoming (like a
florescent substance) an apparent source of light. This is known as the Sattva guna
and it has the characteristic of radiance.

2. It may transmit the light, not reflecting it back toward the Source, but ever speeding
it onward and outward. This is known as the guna of Rajas, having as its
characteristic outward-turned motion or activity.

3. It may neither reflect not transmit, but absorb the light that falls on it. This is the
guna of Tamas, characterized by a stagnant inertia, a heedless indifference.

Under the outward rushing impetus of Rajas the soul or self, no longer sees the unity within. But
since, even unseen, that unity can never be denied, the self goes forth in passionate desire to
seize and grasp whatever lies outside, subordinating others to its will and even on the lowest
plane of all, devouring their material envelopes so itself it may grow. Thus all the horrors of the
world we know arise from ignorance, which turns the self to seek in vain without for what is
already there within.

As soon as plurality (or diversity) has been established the reactionary power of Tamas begins to
makes its power felt. Once the division between the self and the "other" has been made, the
veiling power of Tamas drains the "other" of all Light. It is no longer "I" instinct with life and
movement, but something dead, inert, passively hostile, a death-hand gripping with a cold inertia
the man that struggles to be free. Thus the outer world of objects is formed. The Self has drawn
them forth and given them "a habitation and name" and now they turn upon that Self, denying its
reality.

The aspirant and the disciple must keep constant watch upon his mind so that when Tamas
makes itself felt therein, he should endeavor to rise to Sattvic light or, failing that, at least be able
to overcome it with the outward turned activity of Rajas. In general it may be said that Sattvic
states will lead him upward to higher levels of being, for their transparent luminosity allows a
reflection of the next higher level to show itself, suffusing the lower with the light of higher
manas, or manas with buddhi.

Because of its power to reflect the steady poise of the eternal Light, Sattva alone is reliably
stable. Yet even Sattva has its binding power. Stainless and sorrowless, its light is still reflected
light and binds the soul to the happiness and knowledge that are its manifestation. At any time
the love of happiness or the sacred thirst for knowledge may, through the touch of Rajas,
degenerate into lust for pleasure and mere curiosity. Therefore the disciple strives to transcend
the gunas altogether to see that all their play is objective to himself. Thus he also learns to see the
Self in all other forms, and serves that Self, becoming in truth a "redeemer". He frees himself and
others from the binding powers of matter and materiality, moving "from darkness into Light,
from the unreal to the Real."

[1]
Agni Yoga Press, Heart, para. 3.
[2]
Agni Yoga Press, Aum, para. 306.
[3]
Bailey, Alice A., Discipleship in the New Age, Vol. II, p. xi.
[4]
Blavatsky, H. P., The Secret Doctrine, Vol. III, p. 435.
[5]
Agni Yoga Press, Leaves of Morya's Garden, Vol. II, p. 239.
[6]
Blavatsky, Op. Cit., Vol. II, p.179.
[7]
Blavatsky, Op. Cit., Vol. I, p. 45.
[8]
Blavatsky, H. P., The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 103.
[9]
Ibid., p. 667.
[10]
Ibid., p. 739.
[11]
Ibid., p. 261.
[12]
Polarian and Hyperborian Races.
[13]
Note: This Great Life is called by different names in different traditions. He is called the
Ancient of Days, Sanat Kumara, The Silent Watcher, The Youth of Eternal Springs,
Melchizedek, etc.
[14]
Blavatsky, H. P., Two Books of the Stanzas of Dzyan, pp. 192-194.
[15]
Blavatsky, H. P., The Secret Doctrine, Vol. II, p. 176.
[16]
Bailey, Alice A., A Treatise on White Magic, p. 51.
[17]
Ibid., p. 71.
[18]
Agni Yoga Press, Infinity, Vol, I, p. 31.
[19]
The four centers on the mental plane are: base of spine, generative organs, solar plexus, and
the spleen.
[20]
Genesis 28:12.
[21]
No human being uses these lower kinds of substances as his body.
[22]
Saraydarian, H. (Torkom), Cosmos in Man, pp. 101-104; 263-264; and The Science of
Meditation, pp. 173-182.

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 16
WORK TO BE DONE
1. Please read Chapter 14 at least five times before you start to read this set.

2. Meditation The verses upon which you are going to meditate sequentially are:
verses 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, and 15. If this lesson takes you one month, use only four
or five verses. If it takes longer, continue your meditation on the other verses. Write
a paper on one of your seed thoughts and send it to us.

3. Meditation Form

a. Relax your body. Calm your emotions and still your mind for a few seconds.

b. Sound three OMs.

c. Say the Great Invocation.

d. Visualize a golden rosebud behind your heart and six inches away from your
body.

e. Visualize this rosebud slowly opening its twelve golden petals.

 f. Visualize an electric blue light streaming out from the center of the rose and
purifying and energizing your whole system.

g. Meditate on your seed thought for 12-15 minutes.

h. After meditation, record all that is new in your thoughts and ideas for 3-4
minutes.

i. Close your eyes again and say:

More radiant than the Sun,

purer than the snow,

subtler than the ether

is the Self,

the Spirit within my heart.

I am that Self;

that Self am I.

j. Sound three OMs. Relax a few minutes.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 14
In this chapter Lord Krishna refers to the highest knowledge which helps a man:

1. Become one with the consciousness of Krishna,

2. Liberate himself from the wheel of birth and death, and

3. Free himself from the bondage of the gunas.

It is very interesting to note that the knowledge mentioned again in this chapter is very different
from the knowledge we have through science. For example, we learn in science what to do to
produce certain effects. First we learn (accumulate knowledge) and then we practice it.

In esoteric philosophy you first need to work and to be; then you will know. You cannot know
what courage is unless you are courageous. You cannot know what love is until you are love
itself. This knowledge is Vidya — knowing through beingness.

For example,
When the seer realizes that there is no agent other than the gunas, and knows the One higher
than the gunas, he reaches to the awareness (or knowledge) of My Being. (14:19)

This is the “highest knowledge”. But how is it achieved? It is achieved by self-mastery, by

working upon your own nature and changing it, and through realization achieving that highest
knowledge, which is not a means but is an end. Your achievement is not through knowledge, but
through achievement, through mastery and through realization.

What is the highest knowledge according to Chapter 14?

My womb is Substance. In it I place the germ. From it all beings come to birth, O Arjuna. (14:3)

Through all our learning, studies, research and experience, we will come to the conclusion that:

1. The womb is Substance.

2. I (the Spirit or space) place the germ in it.

3. From the womb, the Substance, all comes to birth.

Let us explain the first line. Substance is matter in higher planes. The whole Cosmic Physical
Plane is matter. Mind is substance. Intuition is substance — in comparison with tangible matter,
but they are all matter. Even will is substantial.

We can expand our concept and say that all cosmic planes are the field or the substance or the
womb into which space sends its ray or motion and creativity starts.

But here, Lord Krishna is referring to Himself as the Solar Logos, Who gathers around Himself
the needed substance to create a Solar System. This substance, which is the residue of the
previous Solar System, is His womb, into which he projects His ideas, His thoughts; and the
substance clothes them, and makes them manifested on the whole Cosmic Physical Plane, on all
globes, and on all planets in the system.

Sattva, Rajas, Tamas, these three gunas are from Substance, and they bind the embodied one to
the bodies. (14:5)

When a “life” or being enters into the substance because of his Karma, to manifest and to learn
his lessons, he clothes himself with the substance of the plane he is manifesting upon. He has a
vehicle now, or a body. This vehicle or body has the three gunas — sattva, rajas, tamas — and
they bind the indweller of the body to the body. Lord Krishna explains in the following verses
how this is done. The indweller is trapped in substance and matter. He can be found on any level
and still be trapped by the lure of the gunas. His aim is to transcend the gunas, or the Cosmic
Physical Plane, and enter into the consciousness of the Solar Being, Who is above the gunas. It is
this liberation which is the goal of every living being.

How do the gunas bind?

 1. Sattva —— because of its radiant nature.

2. Rajas —— because of its passion, longing and greed.

3. Tamas —— because of delusion.

These are the signs of the road, and upon them it is written:

Do not stop here; pass on....

We are told that many entities liberated from tamas are victims of rajas, and many others who
conquered rajas are victims of sattva. Those who progress on the field of substance are not
liberated until they enter into the path of higher evolution, which will take them away from their
three gunas on this field of the Cosmic Physical Plane.

Sattva causes one to attach to joy. Rajas causes one to attach to action. Tamas binds one to
heedlessness, veiling knowledge. (14:9)

This is why in the Ageless Wisdom we are told that the initiate must learn the secrets of
detachment, dispassion, isolation, and enter the stage of divine indifference.

The realization of true divine indifference is the crown of achievement. That is how the Silent
Watchers are created, and mastery over the gunas and substance is achieved.

Thus ignorance, love of action and attachment to joy must vanish. You hear many times, “I enjoy
it. I love it. I want it again and again. It is so enjoyable....” That is why the bonds of sattva
sometimes last longer than the bonds of rajas and tamas.

Is this the highest knowledge? Yes! To what are we led by the ordinary knowledge? We are led
to possessions, passion, greed, enjoyment, competition, money, sex, food, drink, and to an easy
life.

The highest knowledge is the knowledge that will take away from possessiveness, greed,
passion, glamor, illusions, and inertia.

Of course, sattva is better than rajas and rajas is better than tamas. But sattva is more dangerous
than rajas and rajas is more dangerous than tamas because sattva gives you the impression that
you have achieved the goal. You have found joy and what else remains to be acquired?

The lower gunas are sneaky. When a higher guna is overused, then the next guna sets in and
creates changes. This law is a blessing of nature. I call it sometimes the Law of Disturbance.
Many revolutions, rebellions and conflicts are the expression of this law.

It is through this law that the snared one, or the trapped one, reviews his situation and learns that
nothing is permanent within the created universe. Even joy or any position or possession is
temporary. It is this realization that pushes the soul inward and upward from the ring-pass-not of
the three traps. These steps must be taken gradually through discipline and meditation. The
qualities of our vehicles must change. The frequency of vibration must slowly become faster and
faster until it reaches one of the subtones of the Soul, Spiritual Triad and Monad. Once this is
done, the life will be free.

In Verse 10 we see the reason for the fluctuations of our moods. Even daily our way of response
and reaction changes from joy to depression and inertia, or from inertia to ecstasy. All these
changes are caused by the actions of the gunas, which are restimulated by many psychological
factors in which our memories and past experiences play a great role.

It will be very interesting to note these changes daily and record them to eventually find out their
causes. Sometimes we are like a musical instrument, and various impressions play on that
instrument, giving us a high or low pitch. If higher impressions are registered, we are in a sattvic
condition. If other incoming impressions restimulate painful memories in us, we go down to the
tamasic level and into apathy. That is why we must learn how to respond to higher impressions
and keep that level as long as possible in our daily life, or even try to step beyond it where we
will be free from the influence caused by our bodies in registering the impressions.

In Verses 11, 12 and 13 of Chapter 14, Lord Krishna gives further explanations about our levels
and gunas.

In Verse 14, Lord Krishna gives a very interesting teaching about the future of those who pass
away when one of the three gunas dominates their nature.

When a person dies during the predominance of Sattva, he enters verily into the pure worlds of
those who know the highest. (14:14)

This is the mental plane or Devachan as it is called in occult literature. The man thus escapes the
lower worlds and directly enters into the heavenly world, the higher mental planes, where he
finds those who have greater vision and greater wisdom.

When a person dies during the predominance of Rajas, he comes back among those who are
attached to the results of actions. And when a person dies during the predominance of Tamas, he
comes back through the wombs of those who are senseless. (14:15)

In Verse 18, Lord Krishna says that Those who are under the influence of Rajas remain in the
middle, in the human sphere. This is the astral plane into which most of humanity enters and
functions after death.

Those who are under the influence of Tamas degenerate. (14:18)

Most of those people stay very close to the earth. Being mostly earthbound souls, they cannot
progress on the path of their evolution for a long time. Generally they obsess or possess people
and retard their evolution. Such souls are found mostly in nightclubs, whorehouses and
slaughterhouses, or where crimes are planned. Our aim should be to transcend the three gunas
and break all their attachments.
The indwelling one, when he transcends these three gunas by which the bodies are built, he
becomes liberated from birth, death, decay, sorrow, and attains immortality. (14:20)

In the succeeding verses you will find the most beautiful answers given to Arjuna who asked,
“What are the signs of a man who has crossed over these gunas?” (14:21)

Read Verses 22-27 in Chapter 14 to find the signs.

SERVICE
The Science of Service is the science of how to fulfill one's own duty. A man's duty is to be
himself and to express his true Self through all his activities. This is the supreme duty of a
human being. When a man reaches his true Self, he becomes radioactive. All that he thinks,
speaks and does is charged with radioactivity, which eventually turns the man into a living
sacrifice. The innermost glory, serenity and beauty manifest in all his daily relationships. His
thoughts carry revelations; his emotions, joy and peace; and his works, skill and harmony. A true
server is a man who manifests all the greatest beauty in himself. The degree of his service is the
degree of his Self realization. The innermost Self of a human being is but a petal of the Lotus-
Self of the planet.

The world now is in such a condition that the Great Ones are looking for co-workers, or servers.
They work to actualize the World-Self upon the earth. To make that Self a reality in all
expressions of life, They need men and women who live and work for this great task: to manifest
the light, the love, the power, the glory of that World-Self in all their activities and relationships.
Symbolically this is the kingdom of God to be established on earth. When a man's motive is to
render such a service, his life turns into a living sacrifice because he no longer lives for himself,
but for the World-Self.

The world as a whole with all its parts must pass through a process of transfiguration so that the
inner glory, the inner beauty, of that Self may be manifested on the three planes of our existence.
The Great Ones are looking for New Age servers and co-workers who are able to surpass their
lower selves, touch their inner glory and radiate it to the world.

The Science of Service has two main parts:

1. The science of becoming Oneself.

2. The science of expression or radiation of the Self.

The first is achieved by letting go of the not-self in all its varied forms and manifestations.
This is done through observation, detachment, and meditation. As one gets closer to his true Self,
he starts to radiate out light, love, and power. When a man radiates light, love and power, we say
that he serves.
Man is active all the time, but his activity is not necessarily service. He acts to support his body,
his pleasures and interests in various fields. His emotions and thoughts are continuously and
mechanically active, but we do not call such activities service.

When a man is on the path of becoming his true Self, his activities slowly change into service. If
he is ten percent in touch with his true Self, he is ten percent a server, and the remaining ninety
percent of his activities are mechanical and aimless from the viewpoint of his supreme goal. As a
man becomes more his true Self, his activities become less mechanical and more Self-Conscious.
Self-Consciousness produces true service.

The second point is the service of expression or radiation of the true Self. This has three main
steps:

1. The discovery of the field of service.

2. The preparation of the equipment or the instrument of the service.

3. The source of energy or inspiration.

The discovery of the field of service is the discovery of the quality of the energy which is
controlling your expressions in your physical, emotional, mental, personality, and spiritual fields.
These energies are called Rays in the Ageless Wisdom, and they are defined as follows:

First Ray is the energy of power, the urge to control, to rule, to guide.

Second Ray is the energy of love, the energy to educate.

Third Ray is the energy of abstract thinking, philosophy.

Fourth Ray is the energy of harmony through conflict, or the energy that brings together
conflicting opposites and creates harmony and beauty through them.

Fifth Ray is the energy which leads to scientific research.

Sixth Ray is the energy which causes aspiration, devotion, and self-exertion.

Seventh Ray is the energy of organization, ritual, ceremony, and finance.

Five of these Rays qualify the human being: one Ray for the physical body, another for the
emotional body, one for the mental vehicle, a fourth for the personality and the fifth for the soul.
The field of service is found by the type of Ray which is most active in one of your natures. You
attract the field of service according to the Ray that is predominating in one part of your nature.

If you have a predominating First Ray energy in your nature, you will find a field of activity
where you will be urged to lead, to control, to guide, to rule, probably along political lines, with
great power and integrity. This field can be focused on any plane — physical, emotional or
mental. You can be a leader on the mental plane or on the physical plane according to your
evolution.

The Second Ray is the energy to love, to educate, to attract. It is most probable that you will be
an educator in some field of human endeavor, or an active humanitarian, a teacher in any school
of human interest.

If the Third Ray is predominant in your nature, you will be active in the field of philosophy,
which can extend itself to any plane of interest — political, social, economic or spiritual. You
will be mostly an abstract thinker, an idealist.

If the Fourth Ray is predominant in your nature, you will be inclined to bring conflicting ideas,
views, events together and create harmony between them through an inner common
denominator. Or you will be an artist using words, songs, colors or movements.

If the Fifth Ray is predominant in your nature, you will probably be a scientist, a teacher or an
analyst.

If the Sixth Ray is predominant, you will be a mystic, a worshipper. Devotion will be your main
expression; probably you will be in a monastery or in a religious order or church. You will be
forceful, aspirational, and dramatic.

If the Seventh Ray is predominant, you may work in the field of magic, ceremonies, rituals,
probably in a Masonic or ritualistic organization, or you will be a financier or an economist.

To find your dominant Ray, you must ask, “Which is the strongest urge in me? Which of these
seven energies is expressing itself in my life?” For example, if you are feeling a great urge to
teach, to educate people, probably you have a Second Ray personality. If you are feeling a strong
urge for scientific studies, probably you have a Fifth Ray mind. If your urge is for politics, then
you have strong First Ray in your equipment.

Here we must mention that your field of service does not necessarily indicate your predominant
Ray unless you really enjoy it, your heart is focussed there, and it is the way your love to serve.
These energies can be registered by any of your vehicles, absorbed, assimilated, and expressed
on any plane.

We have five vehicles of energies that are active on the seven fields of human endeavor. The five
vehicles of energy are: the physical, emotional and mental bodies, the personality, and the soul
nature.

Let us say that you have a First Ray physical body, and on your level of evolution your body is
dominating the other vehicles. In this case you probably will choose a field where you can
exercise control over objects, animal or men. You may work in the moving business, destroy
buildings, operate bulldozers, or be a shepherd or a cowboy, or choose other fields that will
require muscle force, even violence. The field of service is attracted to the energy which operates
through you.
Let us say that you have a First Ray mind. This energy will express itself as strong
determination, endurance in mental labor, and most probably you will be busy in creating laws,
rules, regulations, and disciplines which will control your own life. You will be a politician in
office.

What if your mental body is First Ray and your physical body has the same Ray? In this case,
probably your physical body will predominate and pull to it all the energy available in your
personality for use in physical plane activity. The mental body will be the main source of fuel.
Then when your mind slowly gets the upper hand through education and meditation, your
physical field of activity will slowly fade away and your mental activity will predominate.

If your mind has Fifth Ray and your physical body has First Ray, at a young age you will
probably choose violent muscular jobs that will satisfy your urge to rule, dominate, and control.
Then as your mental nature grows and the influence of the Fifth Ray increases, you will feel the
urge to use your mind in concrete science. Eventually you will use your First Ray body, through
Fifth Ray activity, to reach your goal.

We wonder sometimes whether we can choose our Rays. It is possible to make such a choice
after you are a disciple and well informed in the esoteric fields. You can choose your Ray by
thinking about it and acting as IF you had the Ray you want. If you are not a disciple, this leads
you from one failure and dissatisfaction to another, complicating your life greatly. But when you
have certain knowledge and control over your vehicles, such a choice is possible.

For example, let us say that you want to develop a First Ray personality to fit your plans in future
lives. The first step is to put your physical, emotional and mental bodies under great discipline
and then occupy yourself with politics, legislation and rulership. It is most probable that in the
next few incarnations you will be able to have the Ray you want for your personality.

If you are quite advanced on the path of Initiation, you can use any Ray you have in your
vehicles to carry out your purpose. For example, if you have a First Ray body, a Sixth Ray
emotional body, a Third Ray mental body, a Fourth Ray personality and a Second Ray soul, you
can use any Ray energy in your equipment to fulfill your intention in any field of service related
to any one of your Rays. We are told that a seventh degree Initiate has power on all Rays.

Sometimes, due to the unevolved condition of our bodies, we cannot utilize our Rays. In this
case, if we want a new field of service, we must develop and unfold our vehicle and through it
contact our Ray and use it. To do all this takes time, but eventually we can be a conscious
operator of our energy system and render a great service for the human race.

The next point is the preparation of the mechanism of service, or your equipment of service. Let
us say that you know the Ray of your personality, and you have a great urge and the right
conditions to serve in the field of your personality Ray. Through gradual steps you will equip
your personality in such a way that it can express its Ray without distortion and hindrances,
unfolding into full expression the qualities of the Ray.
For example, if your personality is First Ray and you are active in the political field, you will be
highly promotional and advanced if you wisely discipline and equip your three vehicles with the
needed knowledge, technique, and abilities. This means that you can improve your equipment,
draw greater energy from its Ray and render greater service for humanity.

A server must try to make his physical body healthy, energetic, and beautiful. There are seven
points that he must really care for if he wants to enter service for the human race.

Health for the physical body is the first point. If you become a Master one day, you will
choose as a co-worker a man who is healthy in all his vehicles. You will suggest to him that he
take care of his diet, know how to eat, what to eat, when to eat.

The second point is rest. A server must know the value of rest. He must occasionally give rest
to his body so that he assimilates the flow of energy from solar sources in a better way and ejects
the poisons that have accumulated in his system.

Exercise is the third point. A server must exercise his body by running, swimming, climbing
the mountains, hiking, playing tennis, volleyball, basketball, dancing and so on.

Exercise your eyes, your vision, your hearing, through form, color, and music. For example, put
on a record and listen very carefully to every note of it. Observe colors and shapes carefully. Try
to distinguish fragrances of flowers. Touch different objects and try to feel them. Eat slowly and
develop a more subtle sense of taste. Find out many ways to exercise your senses.

Suppose your Master needs a man whose senses are very sharp. Can your threefold personality
stand in the high pressure of work without sleep for a few days and even without food? Can you
meet the need when the call reaches you?

The fourth point is sleep. We often do not take care of our need for sleep. We waste energy and
time watching late shows or entertaining our friends. The time of sleep is a very precious time in
which not only your whole body is regenerated, but you are drawn to subjective groups and
ashrams where you learn many beautiful things for your life. You learn about the Plan,
immortality, right human relations, goodwill and so on. You do not remember all these yet, but
slowly your life is tuned with higher principles.

This requires right orientation before sleep. You can do that by performing your evening review
or reading some hierarchical Teaching and then, relaxing your whole nature, enter into sleep.
Most probably you will be drawn to high level groups where your aspirations will lead you, and
if you continue such a way of sleep, eventually you will be aware of your subjective contacts.

But if you are up late and your mind is polluted by criminal and destructive images from
television or from books, you will have tremendous difficulty in being drawn to the high level
groups. Instead, you will be attracted to those criminal minded people who spread their influence
in astral and lower mental planes. Eventually they will lead you to criminal actions. Of course,
this will not happen easily if you have resistance to such actions, but slowly and gradually your
resistances will be weakened and you will be the victim of your criminal books and movies.
Many well-intentioned people are led to such activities, even against their will, by the force of
hypnotic suggestions contained in such books and movies.

The next step is cleanliness, cleanliness of body. Your body must not smell. The secretions of
the body must be cleansed daily with water and clay or natural soap. For some people it is a
religious duty to clean themselves five times daily — their hands, ears, nose, mouth, feet, and
generative organs. The emanations of the body, especially in hot countries, prevent spiritual
impressions from reaching the man.

The sixth point is to change the quality of your body. If it is in inertia, slow, lazy, you must
make it rhythmic and energetic. This is done with right breathing. I am not referring to any kind
of breathing exercises but to deep, regular breathing in clean air at the sea shore, in mountains
and in forests. The physical body is built, also, by being careful with your diet and vitamins,
which must be intelligently prescribed by those who have real knowledge in that field.

The seventh point is sex, which must be handled very cautiously. In the sex act the whole
person is involved — the physical, etheric, astral, and mental. Often it is an act similar to mixing
the liquid content of two barrels; the effect depends on the content of the other barrel.

In esoteric literature we are told that the higher nature, the chalice, is affected by our sexual
relationships. Three things may happen in intercourse:

1. You charge the other person with high ideals, visions and energy.

2. You pollute him, physically, emotionally and mentally.

3. It can be mere physical pleasure, eventually leading to depletion and depression.

Parallel to this activity we must take care of our emotional nature. The emotional nature is the
water and gas in our car, and if they are not of good quality, we will have many troubles. Our
emotions must be positive, altruistic, balanced, and fiery.

Cultivate your emotional nature with great arts, with loving, inclusive feelings. Fill it with
compassion, courage, fearlessness. Try to develop a high degree of control in your emotional
expressions. Discipline it with great humanitarian visions, and it will be very helpful for the
service of humanity. When you purify your emotional body from identifications, attachments or
glamors, eventually the intuitional vehicle will replace it and your feeling nature will be a pure
recorder of high events and commands.

In some Oriental teachings there are exercises for the emotional nature. For example, they test
your balance of emotions by leading you into such conditions in which the average man will
react very negatively or violently.

Prepare your emotional nature for unexpected events or happenings. You may sit daily for
15 minutes and imagine some undesirable events happening, but you are not losing your
emotional balance. Later you can even imagine things that would excite you tremendously, but
you stay calm and unmoved. This is one of the best ways to achieve a certain degree of control of
your emotional nature.

Every few days you can change your subject and in a few month (or years) of time you will see
the change happening in your emotional vehicle. This is not suppression or hypnotism but a
psychological immunization.

To give an example: Imagine that you are dressed in a white suit or dress and someone drops
black ink on it at a time that you are ready to go to a party. Make it real and watch the event with
a smile and acceptance. Imagine other events in similar ways and react in loving understanding.
This way you will charge your nervous system with particles of blessings and shield yourself
against the poison of future irritations.

The Hierarchy needs those people who do not lose their heads in trying circumstances and
conditions, people who keep their serenity while they are transmuting the energy of the
Hierarchy. When a disciple is irritated or loses his head while working under the impression of
the Hierarchy, the energy passing through him turns into poison or into a consuming fire.

The third quality is a very interesting one which the would-be-server must develop highly. It is
called magnetic detachment. The secret of this quality is that you attract the spiritual nature of
people, but stay detached from their personality nature. You do not respond to their personalities,
but respond to their soul or spiritual nature. Such a man can cause tremendous changes in the
personality of others through their spiritual nature. You love such a man very strongly, but
cannot think to possess him or use him for your physical or emotional satisfactions.

A man of magnetic detachment remains detached from any personality involvement of others.
He makes others feel that he is with their best intentions, best decisions, but is not influenced by
their personality conditions.

The next one is purity from glamors. Glamors are those emotions which are identified with the
objects of desire. The servants of the Hierarchy are transmitters of sunshine. If there is pollution
or attachment in the nature of man, this energy of light will degenerate and stimulate the lower
centers of others and retard their spiritual progress.

The fifth quality is cheerfulness. A server must feel happy, at least when he is rendering a
service. Happiness is an emotional state created when the inner vision, the inspiration and the
call to service is so beautiful that, no matter in what condition man is found, he feels grateful and
cheerful.

A cheerful person can transmit healing energies from his higher centers through his service. A
cheerful person is one who is not affected by changes occurring in his environment and by
difficulties through which his personality is passing. He has a deep sense of humor and
cheerfulness for the happenings of life as a whole. Even a dish served or a letter written in
cheerfulness helps other people overcome their obstacles.
The next quality is called a “shock absorbing mood”. A server must be ready to face
unpleasant and pleasant surprises with indifference, or a smile. Such events must not disturb his
equilibrium, and he must continue to carry on his service in spite of unpleasant or pleasant
surprises or shocks.

It is known to disciples that shocks awaken us to a higher dimension of consciousness, if they are
faced with absorption and with controlled emotions and mind. Shock absorption is the quality of
our emotional body when it is positive, calm, clean, not mechanical, but controlled by the human
soul. Such an emotional body can absorb violent emotions with a look, touch or feeling and
exhaust them, releasing you from all heavy tension. In front of such people you cannot continue
to shout, curse or be badly disturbed, grieved or depressed. He serves as a refinery for your
emotional nature.

The seventh quality is to be harmonious in your emotional expressions, harmonious with your
inner aspirations, goals, and visions of service. Your emotional nature expresses itself through
your words, looks, manners, and thoughts. These expressions must be in harmony with each
other and with the need of the moment. Any distorted, inconsistent and violent changes in your
emotional vehicle distort the energy of service flowing through your nature. A melody cannot be
played on an instrument which is not in tune.

After these seven emotional qualities, let us observe the mental nature of a server. The mental
nature is like the electrical system in a car. Without a sound and expanding mind, there can be no
service.

The first point we must consider is education. The mind must be educated because it is the
content of the mind which can be used to formulate inspirations, impressions, and energies for
the needy world. An educated mind is not only an open, sensitive mind, but also a highly
informed and discriminative mind.

The second is a disciplined mind. A disciplined mind is able to concentrate, synthesize,

analyze, absorb, and digest higher impressions, and can express these through such beautiful
forms that people are uplifted and served. A disciplined mind can rest any moment it wants;
work as long as the need is there; reject any unwanted thoughts, currents or interfering entities
and carry on the job given from his Lord. A disciplined mental body is able to visualize,
concentrate, meditate, and hold itself in the light of the transpersonal Self.

The third point is the mental body itself, which must be rich. This is not education, or
discipline, but the abundance of higher substance pouring in from the chalice and intuitional
plane. Such a man is multi-talented. He is a musician, writer, sculptor, painter, mechanic,
carpenter, etc., because his mind is rich with higher contacts which express themselves as talents
in man. He is not only well-informed, but also a man who can speak on many subjects with equal
authority when he fuses his mind with higher planes or subjective sources of needed information.
Such a man can communicate with anyone, anywhere, and lead him into greater realizations and
greater awareness.
A rich mind is a mind that can adapt itself to the need of the moment. A rich mind is a mind
which can meet the need on any level and give greater insight and inspiration. Such a mind uses
the treasury of agelong experiences of many incarnations and the accumulated sources of
knowledge in space. He is the friend of the learned as well as the friend of a child.

The fourth point is sensitivity of mind. Sensitivity of mind depends on the percentage of
higher, rhythmic substances in the mental body, or the absence of illusions and negative
thoughts. The mental body then becomes a sensitive receiver, recorder, and transmitter of ideas,
revelations, impressions and inspirations coming from higher sources. The mind must be
sensitive to the hints, to the exact need of others, and to the psychological conditions. Sensitivity
of mind can be achieved through the effort of clear thinking, through occult meditation, and
through service with pure motives.

The fifth point is the ability to translate. This is a very rare quality and it appears when the
antahkarana, or the golden bridge, is built within the mental plane. This is the ability to translate
inner contacts, mostly contacts with higher mental, intuitional or atmic spheres or beings. These
contacts are translated on the mental plane as ideas, laws, thoughtforms, visions, and knowledge
which eventually will express themselves through a creative act.

Our minds can often contact higher impressions but cannot translate them in a way that some
reality is revealed. On such occasions we pass through different moods without understanding
their causes.

The sixth point is a fused state with the transpersonal Self. The mind opens itself to the
down-pouring light of the Inner Guide, becoming translucent, transparent, and the Inner Guide
uses it as Its lamp through which It shines out. This is done through occult meditation and
selfless service.

The seventh point is the ability to create. A server in the New Age is a creative individuality.
He expresses his inner contact and inner treasure through creative living, through creative arts.
True art is a path by which men may surpass their former level and step into a higher level of
awareness or realization. True art is not a reflection of nature, but the expression of deeper
meanings, ideas, visions, and divine impressions. The form of expression can be on any line of
art, but the main thing is that through the expression, the creative person builds a bridge between
the personality and the divine nature of those people who are coming in contact with his
creations.

Through these twenty-one points of the physical, emotional and mental natures we are preparing
the New Age server. Such a server will be so beautiful to look upon, so magnetic, so inspiring
that people will be drawn to him for guidelines and service. Such a person will inspire
confidence, joy, power. In his presence you will hear the voice of your conscience; you will be
charged with greater courage and fearlessness to be ready to hasten wherever you are needed for
greater service.
Faint heartedness is condemned on the path because it produces many complications in the lives
of other servers. The New Age server, we are told, must be beautiful, radiant, full of confidence,
courageous, free from vanities, illusions, glamors, and pride, full of joy, and highly magnetic.

Before he enters into the field of service the would-be-server will be trained and tested. His
realizations are far more important than his degrees and certificates. One of the greatest dangers
is the presence of vanities in the heart of the aspirant. Any vanity acts as a distortion of higher
impressions and energies.

A man may receive high voltage energy but use it for his selfish ends; this distorts the Plan and
delays the expression of the Purpose. Vanity creates a wall around you which repels people, or
attracts people who are full of vanity. One of the greatest tasks of a server is to purify himself
from his vanities because vanities are very contagious and easily multiply in others.

Upon all these qualities the would-be-server must add joyfulness, gratitude, and magnanimity.
Joyfulness is the sign of purity of motive and purity of the vehicles of manifestation. Joyfulness
brings great energy into the vehicles and radiates out and uplifts people, cleansing their auras.
Service must be rendered in joy. It is through joy that the soul nature pours through our words,
acts, and thoughts.

With joy we need gratitude. Gratitude fuses us with still higher sources of energy which open to
us new communication lines through which healing, uplifting, and expanding energies will pour
into our whole system.

Magnanimity is the result of your awareness of your sacred task and of your inner divinity. You
are naturally magnanimous if you are in contact with Great Ones, with your transpersonal Self
and with the task for which you are called. You stand for the Teaching, you stand for the Plan,
and you stand for the will of the Great One. You represent your Master, which you do
magnanimously because you know the glory of such contacts and the hour of labor for which
you are called.

We dealt with the field of service and with the equipment of service, and now let us discuss the
source of energy and inspiration. There are seven main sources from which an aspirant can draw
energy or inspiration:

1. The first is his Soul, the transpersonal Self, the inner center of light, love, and power. He
must be infused with this source before he attempts to serve the Teaching of the Hierarchy.

2. He must have an advanced disciple from whom to get inspiration, a disciple who has vision,
a great drive to serve, create, lift, and lead. This may be his spiritual Teacher; because of him the
aspirant feels secure, strong, daring, and inspired. Of course, if the disciple upon whom he is
looking for inspiration is a true one, he will never let the aspirant become attached to himself, but
will help him stand on his own feet and strive to greater achievements. The advanced disciple
stands as a source of inspiration.
3. Another source is his Master, if he has any contact with Him. It sometimes happens that
earnest and sincere servers do meet their Master in subjective levels, probably on the border of
the higher mental and intuitional planes, before they recall Him in their conscious mind. Such a
contact inspires them to right action until they develop continuity of consciousness.

4. Great beauties in any field inspire and give us energy. A server must be a lover of the
beauties of nature and the arts.

5. Great ideas such as freedom, brotherhood, the liberation of women, and so on are channels of
a source. A true server tunes in with such ideas and receives energy and inspiration from them.

6. Great needs on group, national, and international levels give us energy. Those who are real
servers receive tremendous charges from their spiritual realms in the presence of such needs, and
in great sacrifice they meet the needs.

7. Great love is a perpetual source. Love inspires and charges us to creative action — love for
humanity, love for the animal kingdom, love for all children of the world, love of the Christ, love
of God.

Your service is relative to the degree of your spiritual transformation. If you are five percent
your Self, you are serving only five percent through all your manifold activities. If you are fifty
percent your Self, your true Self, then you are serving fifty percent through your activities on
many levels. But if you have achieved the true Self-Realization, your true Self, your life in
totality is a living service, is a living sacrifice on the altar of humanity.

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 17
WORK TO BE DONE
1. Please read Chapters 15 and 16 of the Bhagavad Gita with reflective
meditation. This means that you are going to read these chapters
slowly, trying to penetrate into the depth of each word, of each verse.

Read them at least five times. Then read your set. This will tremendously
increase the sensitivity of your mind to the new ideas and new
inspiration.

2. Meditate on Verses 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and others that you would like to meditate

upon in either Chapter 15 or 16.
 3. Write a paper not more than two pages long about one of the verses, which
you used as your seed thought.
Commentary on Book 15 and 16

Book 15 is fundamentally concerned with two subjects.

1. The interplay of spirit and matter, life and form, or of the Knower and the field of knowledge.

2. The method of avoiding "the ways of the deluded one", or of those people who are immersed
in form-life and reject the life based on spiritual values.

Book 16 deals with the great dualities of good and evil, and with the play of opposites by which
the lower man brings about the expansion of consciousness he is seeking and by which the
disciple achieves mastery in the three worlds.

What are these dualities?

In Verses 1-3 of Chapter 16 the divine qualities are given. In Verses 4, 10, 12 and 16 are given
qualities against the divine nature. We read in Verse 5,

The divine endowments lead to freedom or liberation. The qualities against our divine nature
lead us into bondage....(16:5)

Let us now go back to the fifteenth chapter,

We are told about the inexhaustible asvattham (tree), the roots of which are above and the
branches below; its leaves are sacred knowledge. And whoever know this, he is a knower. (15:1)

This great symbol is mentioned in the Rig-Veda and in the Upanishads, and was known to all
the ancient peoples. H. P. Blavatsky defines it as the Bo, the Bodhi Tree, the tree of knowledge.
This indestructible tree, unlike the trees of other religions, has its roots reaching upward and its
branches downward. Its symbolism is more illuminating in that the "tree", while flowering in the
outer world of manifestation, derives its substance from "above" or from the spiritual source; for
the real man is the spiritual Self, while man in manifestation is like a branch on that tree.

In the Cosmic sense we can imagine the stars and galaxies originating from a tree-like energy
system, the visible part of which is all manifestation —— the leaves, the branches and the fruit.

While other symbolic trees seem to teach of a God separated from that which He has created, the
Tree Asvattham is truly in accord with the closing verse of Book 10:

...Having pervaded this whole universe with a fragment of Myself, I remain. (10:42)

In the seventh verse of Chapter 15 we read:

Indeed, a fragment of Myself, abiding in substance, becomes a living human soul in the world of
living beings, and draws to itself all senses, plus the mind, which is the sixth. (15:7)

While this is a statement referring to the individualized life, human soul or Jiva, it stresses the
thought that there is no separation between the Spark and the divine flame, the unfolding human
soul, since life is One, whether in or out of manifestation.

The branches of this tree are nourished by the gunas, and are spread upward and downward.
The buds on them are the objects of the senses. Below, in the world of man, the originating
actions of the roots are spread. (15:2)

The branches of the tree can be taken as the planes of manifestation, especially the Cosmic
Physical Plane, which is divided into the first, second, third and fourth etheric planes, and the
mental, emotional and physical planes. All these levels are nourished, or put in action, through
the three gunas. Some branches are upward, some downward. This refers to the involutionary
and evolutionary processes. Downward branches are those streams of substance which are on the
arc of materialization or condensation; the upward branches are those streams of substance or
forms which are on the path of evolution or spiritualization.

The buds are the more advanced parts of this mechanism, or tree, as things you can touch, hear,
see, smell, taste and know.

Below, in the world of man refers to the daily life humanity lives in this world.

The originating actions of the roots are those inspirations, impressions and energies which come
from causal levels, from spiritual levels, and produce or originate actions.

The Master Djwhal Khul says that "all basic and fundamental changes taking place upon the
physical plane are necessarily the result of inner subjective causes, emanating from some level of
divine consciousness, and therefore from some plane other than the physical."[1]

It is true also on the individual level. Our physical body and its activities and state of health are
conditioned by our thoughts, visions, aims, ideas, etc. which are originating actions of the root —
the manifesting Self.

Man cannot see the form of this tree. (15:3)

The tree is the original blueprint, the sum total of the prototypes or archetypes which, when in
manifestation, produces the flowers, the leaves and the fruits, all the forms of life.

This blueprint, the tree, is not visible to the physical eyes. This means that it is on the archetypal
levels. Its roots, being expanded into absolute space, cannot be determined by mortal beings.

...One should cut this firmly-rooted tree by the sword of Refusal. (15:3)
This is a very heavy suggestion, but one that everyone eventually will follow. This is the
suggestion to separate oneself from all planes of existence and enter into Non-Existence, para-
nirvana, into space.

The technique suggested is Refusal. A disciple will refuse, step by step, all that is imprisoning
the glory of the Self, all that is creating inertia, glamor, illusion and selfishness. To refuse means
to withdraw oneself into a greater level of reality.

It is very interesting that we have nine initiations and the ninth one is called Refusal. This is the
initiation through which man eventually liberates himself from the Cosmic Physical Plane. This
great achievement is the result of all refusals that man performed on the path of his long
evolution. After such a victory over matter:

...one will achieve that state of being from which he never turns back again; he will take refuge
in the world of pure spirit, from whom proceeds eternal motion. (15:4)

Here Lord Krishna is referring to the comic mental plane, which is the second above the cosmic
physical plane, from which originates eternal motion through the divine archetypes, or divine
thoughts.

The Home referred to in Verse 6 is the Cosmic Mental Plane in the Chalice of which is centered
the Spirit of our Solar Life.

Indeed, a fragment of Myself, abiding in substance, becomes a living human soul in the world of
living beings, and draws to itself all senses, plus the mind, which is the sixth. (15:7)

The living human soul is the traveler on the path of evolution. The path referred to is the man
himself, extending from Space, as a beam of light, and passing through various levels of density
and finally fusing himself with coarsest matter. This is the path of externalization or
materialization.

When the focused light in matter begins to turn himself toward Home, back to the Source, we
say that the evolution of the Spark began and He is on the path of Return.

On the path of Return the Spark creates the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the animal
kingdom and eventually forms the human kingdom. Here he recapitulates the former stages. First
he identifies with the physical body, then with the emotional and mental bodies, and then he
becomes a personality, integrating all these vehicles into one functioning whole. All these are
stations on the path.

Greater metamorphoses are waiting on his way of Return. After he reaches the personality level,
he initiates himself through the law of service and love into the Soul consciousness and
eventually becomes a Soul. This is a high station on the path. Here he starts to see the thread of
light extending toward the higher planes, and he feels the urge to be drawn into higher planes
through his own path of light.
Eventually he arrives at the station which is called the Spiritual Triad. There he feels greater
light, greater love, greater power, because as he proceeds on the path, he goes toward his true
Self, which is the Ray, the thread of Light.

After great sacrifices and realizations he enters another sphere of great beauty, goodness and
reality, which is also a further station on the path, and it is called Monadic awareness. This
station is the "revealer of the purpose of God, of the will of the planetary Logos and of the door
which opens on to leading to the Way of the Higher Evolution."[2]

On this station the individualized Ray of Light, the human Monad, travels in the supreme light of
the purpose and the will of the Planetary Logos, until one day he starts to perceive the glorious
sphere of beauty of the Solar Logos.

It is important to mention that the terms Planetary Logos and Solar Logos indicate stations on the
path of Return. They are stations or states of beingness on the path to Infinity.

Thus from station to station the individualized Spark travels, as he is drawn by the thread, the
one side of which is lost in Infinity, and the other side of which is a point of light within the
form.

Thus the Ray that was shot out from the Central Spiritual Sun becomes now a bridge of
achievement, a bridge of liberation, to all who are on the path of Return. Thus the outgoing Ray
from the Central Sun turns into an incoming Ray, with the cumulative wisdom of millions and
millions of ages of experience on all planes.

Through such a Ray, the Sun reaches any plane and releases the prisoners of matter and form. In
The Voice of the Silence we read: "Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become
the path itself." [3]

After acquiring a body, when the indweller wants to leave it, he takes his senses and goes away,
as the wind carries away the fragrance from flowers. (15:8)

Here the important point is the remark about the senses. Senses are not only physical organs, but
also have their etheric, astral, mental, intuitional, and even higher corresponding organs. On
every plane of existence the indweller has senses as contact points with the life of that plane and
for further experience and expansion of awareness. Read once more the instructions given about
the senses in Lesson 6.

There is a name in Chapter 15 which needs definition. This name is deluded one. This is a man
who is lost in matter through greed and identification. All things are evaluated through such an
attitude. The material, tangible universe only exists for him; thus his co-measurement or
measures are incorrect, deceptive and misleading. Such a man is a prisoner of his wrong thoughts
and illusions.

Chapter 16, as we indicated at the beginning of this lesson, deals with the great dualities.
For example, we have the divine qualities in Verses 1-3:

• fearlessness

• purity of heart

• serenity

• steadfastness in the teaching of Wisdom and Yoga

• indifference to slander

• compassion for all beings

• charity

• freedom from covetousness

• self-discipline

• gentleness

• sacrifice

• modesty

• study of the scriptures

• poise

• austerity

• vigor

• straight-forwardness

• forgiveness

• harmlessness

• fortitude

• truthfulness

• purity

• absence of anger

• absence of hatred

• renunciation

• absence of pride

The qualities of those dominated by evil are (16:4) :

 • deceit

• arrogance

• pride

• self-conceit

• hypocrisy

• anger

• holding evil thoughts

• harshness

• impure motives

• ignorance

• lust

• filled with insatiable desire

• anger

• full of self-glorification

• possessiveness

The divine endowments lead to freedom or liberation. The qualities against our divine nature
lead us into bondage....(16:5)

We will suggest that you give sufficient time to think about these positive and negative qualities.
You could even do some research to secure a deeper understanding about their nature and the
effect they have on the physical, emotional and mental nature and in the social or national field.

All instructions given in the Gita are intended to develop and unfold our divine virtues. Without
such a development our information and learning will work against our spiritual interest, as
undigested food does in our body, damaging or poisoning all our system. That is why Lord
Krishna always emphasizes Self-realization. The Teaching must be translated into living
expression in our daily relationships with others and in our vehicles.

This chapter is the light of guidance on the path of discipleship. Before he enters into the spheres
of high initiations, he must bloom and unfold his divine nature, and each unfoldment of his Self
expresses itself as a virtue to be used as a step on the ladder of his evolution and as a fountain of
spiritual energy with which he can liberate and save.

In Verse 18 Lord Krishna gives a beautiful description of unity. He says:

...these malicious people hate Me in their own bodies, and in the bodies of others. (16:18)
He is one in them; they are one in Him. This is the awareness which Lord Krishna wants them
to discover and unfold. This is the cause of all our virtues, and the key to all our problems. Those
who are unaware of this unity live a life of delusion and vice.

In Verse 19 Lord Krishna presents Himself as the Law of Cause and Effect, as the Law of
Karma.

...the gate that leads to hell or self-destruction is composed of lust, anger and greed....(16:21)

The man who is liberated from this threefold gate of darkness approaches the higher Self, and
enters into the highest path. (16:22)

Therefore, the Teaching must be your guide....(16:224)

FREEDOM
The monadic plane is the plane of freedom. Those who function in that plane are free souls, great
souls. In that plane self-cognition and self actualization are facts. This plane is the door through
which the initiate passes to cosmic evolution.

Each initiation is a great step toward freedom, a great step toward compassion and unity.
Freedom is the path of individual, planetary and cosmic evolution. And evolution is the process
of "becoming oneself". Step by step the Inner Spark becomes Itself.

Evolution is the process of the liberation of the spirit from the prison of form. By this struggle
for liberation the matter evolves and unfolds, producing more and more perfected mechanisms
for the expression of the inner life. The phenomenal man is one of the mechanisms created
through the process of liberation of the spirit.

Evolution proceeds on three roads, or in a triple way:

A. We have the outer evolution, which is the evolution of the atom and the form.

B. We have the evolution of the Solar Angel.

C. We have the evolution of the spirit through liberation and individualization.

These three resemble three wheels. They all turn, but not at the same speed. Sometimes evolution
A turns faster, sometimes B, sometimes C.

From the point of view of the cosmos there is always progress, but from the human angle, when
one or another slows down or speeds up, we think that evolution is zig-zagging. On the down
side, we call it degeneration; on the up side, we call it progress. But this observation is from a
narrow point of view of time and space. It is actually all progress.
Evolution A is the evolution of matter, also the evolution of astral and mental matter. All the tiny
lives in all these three planes are evolving; this is an "unfolding of a continuously increasing
power to respond".

Evolution B concerns the Thinker within us. It has Its own evolution. Also, It is an agent of
evolution, serving a center of communication between the higher and the lower.

It is our Solar Angel, or the Ego, Who aeons ago redeemed Itself from the chains of matter and
saw the glory of the Self within itself. Now It is working to unveil that greater beauty within
Itself through continuous meditation. In the meantime It is trying to shed light on the tiny lives in
the three bodies and cause them to unfold. Thus the human soul evolves.

Evolution C is the evolution of the human soul, who is the "fallen" Spark going back Home. Man
is in the process of becoming a soul, and then his Real Self, the Spark. The evolving human soul,
the unfolding Spark, senses its true picture in the Spark of Ego. For awhile that Spark is its
Home.

Afterward, when the human reaches the level of a soul, it will see its own jewel within itself.

Conscious evolution begins when the evolving human soul starts to respond to the light of the
Inner Thinker and obeys consciously the pure ideas projected by the great Beings.

Our planetary Life is a center in the greater Life of the sun. This greater Life expresses Itself
through seven planes. These planes are formed of tiny lives. Each life is progressing toward the
Central Spiritual Sun. Man is a cell in the "body" of that greater Being, that greater Life. That
greater Life is progressing; so are all the tiny lives and forms on the planet. This is unconscious
evolution. There is no freedom in unconscious evolution.

Freedom begins when you start to become yourself, a conscious cell in that greater Life. You
become a co-worker for the great Purpose toward which that greater Life is progressing. The
further you respond to the Purpose of that greater Life, the more freedom you obtain and the
greater services you render. Beauty becomes your life expression and goodness your light.

Conscious evolution is a process of awakening and an increasing response to the higher ideas, to
the Plan and to the Purpose of our Solar Logos. No freedom is possible in sleep, and no man
starts to awaken unless he starts to respond consciously to the light of the Thinker within him.

Actually, every step toward the Self is a step toward freedom.

Freedom is not a physical condition. Freedom is not an escape from our responsibilities and
duties. Freedom is an inner radioactivity from which beauty, goodness and truth shine out and
spread life everywhere, in spite of all physical, emotional and mental obstacles. In such a state of
freedom a prisoner can be the freest one and the ruling king can be the most miserable slave.
The energy of freedom is the propelling power behind all creation. It is the energy behind all
cultures and civilizations. It exists in each of us. It is the atmosphere in which the Real Self lives.
That is why we cannot enjoy or experience full freedom until we become our Real Self.

Once you experience the energy of freedom you become a living fire. When the ancients were
keeping the fire perpetual; when they were worshipping the light, the lightning, the sun; when
they were placing that fire upon their altars, they were actually worshipping the energy of
freedom, the source of freedom.

This state of freedom is the result of conscious evolution, the result of long ages of suffering,
detachment and observation. Nothing in nature can easily be achieved. The path to freedom is
hard work. On this path the petals of freedom slowly unfold and spread the fragrance of love,
sincerity, respect, gratitude, harmlessness, sense of responsibility, creativity, service, sacrifice.

Sometimes people think that a man who has a deep sense of responsibility and an intense will to
serve is a slave. This is not true. The sense of responsibility and the will to serve are the first
major signs that a man is now able to detach himself from the chains of his selfish interests; is
able to refuse hindrances coming from his physical, emotional and mental natures; is able to
reject any personality response to the surrounding conditions; and is now able to remain in the
peace of the Soul, trying to live intelligently for the welfare of humanity.

Man's slavery starts when he begins to live for himself and forgets his responsibilities. This leads
him into physical and psychological disorders or chains. You cannot free yourself and escape
from your debts except by paying them. Albert Einstein once said:

The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which
he has attained liberation for the self. [4]

We overcome our little self by living for others. And if we are doing this wisely, we call it sense
of responsibility. As our sense of responsibility gets clearer and deeper, our true value appears
because we release the hidden light within us, which is our True SELF.

We have three thick walls around us. The first wall is the inertia of the body, or the chaos of
blind urges and drives in our etheric body.

We have the thick wall of our glamors: for example, the glamor of selfish personal ambition, the
glamor of popularity, the glamor of being busy, the glamor of conflict with the objective of
imposing righteousness and peace, the glamor of materiality, the glamor of adherence to forms
and persons, the glamor of the mysterious and secret.[5]

We also have the chaos of illusion in our mental plane. Illusion is created when the developing
human soul starts to work on the mental plane, where many waves of ideas and thoughtforms are
found. Because of his inexperience and the lack of clarity of vision, he cannot see these ideas and
thoughtforms as they are. He tries to translate them, interpreting them incorrectly, and thus
creates illusions.
This creation of illusion continues until the evolving human soul expands his consciousness
toward the greater light within, the Solar Angel, and starts to see things as they are on the mental
plane. That is why a man becomes more dangerous when he starts to function on the mental
plane, and sometimes becomes more confused in his life.

Each illusion is a hindrance to freedom. Before a man steps to higher levels of the mental plane
or enters into the freedom of the intuitional plane, he must cleanse himself of all his illusions —
through meditation and acts of will.

The Tibetan Master refers to another great obstacle on the path toward freedom. He calls it "the
dweller on the threshold". This is a thick wall, a big thoughtform, built by the blind urges and
drives of the etheric body, by the glamors of the emotional nature and by the illusions of the
mental nature. A man who lives in the midst of these blind urges, glamors and illusions cannot
say that he is a free man. Such a man is a machine. He is in a state of dreaming and any outer
stimulus may create an unconscious response from the mechanism.

Freedom is a state of awareness. In that state your true Self is not conditioned by any formula,
doctrine, dogma, expression, or by any physical, emotional or mental form. You can penetrate
through them and see things as they are.

Freedom is obedience to cosmic principles. Only through such an obedience can you destroy
your limitations and hindrances. Obedience has an esoteric meaning. On the path to freedom
obedience becomes a ladder; upon each step the traveler rejects the lower and accepts the higher.

Conscious obedience is a process of recognition and assimilation of the greater ideas which are
projected toward the human world as guide lights on the path to freedom. They represent the true
authority, the true experience. Man cannot reject them and be free. On the contrary, his freedom
is achieved by the recognition of authority and experience, and by his identification with them.

The goal of the cell is to obey the direction of the central life. The goal of all the tiny lives of our
three worlds — and up — is to let the will of the Inner Spark radiate through them. This is the
meaning of obedience. When the cells or atoms resign their tiny wills and subject themselves
consciously to the higher will of the Inner Self, they have the possibility of being released from
their limiting walls, and of stepping into the freedom of a higher will.

Cosmic Intentions are sensed by and impressed upon the higher levels of the Spiritual Triad.
Great Souls only can enter there, bring them out and translate them for us. The teachings of great
Souls such as Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster and Christ were formulations of such Cosmic
Intentions. Beauty, goodness, truth, love, unity, purity and sacrifice — these are seven paths
which lead us into the source of cosmic principles. Each step toward that source is a step toward
freedom. Acts against these Cosmic Intentions are steps toward slavery. A slave is a man who
obeys his body, glamors and illusions, or he obeys the bodies, glamors and illusions of his
environment. He swims in the ocean of such slavery, and he calls it freedom.

A free man is a man who tries to dispel attachment to matter, to the body, to the blind urges. He
tries to dispel the glamors and illusions of the society. He tries to eliminate the chains which
were created through the attachment to matter, through glamor and separateness. Such a man is a
benefactor of the human race. He wants to find the causes of sickness, the causes of social
misery, wars, hatred, revolution, ignorance and slavery, and eliminate them.

Such a man who wants to be free and to free others from such social hindrances strongly
disciplines his body, cleanses his emotional world, and sharpens his mind. Only through such
techniques can he reach the land of freedom and lift others toward that freedom. An artist cannot
release the fire of his genius on an untuned violin. Great principles can only work out if the
vehicles of expression are in the highest order of discipline and purity. Only through discipline
and purity can one reach freedom. Actually the whole message of Christ is a message of
freedom. The whole message of Buddha, Krishna and Zoroaster are the messages of freedom.
And all those who sacrificed their lives for such freedoms are heroes of the New Age, the Age of
Freedom.

In the New Age the process of freedom is the process of appropriation, of fitting, of cooperation,
of sharing, of right human relations with the above and below. Actually, freedom is not isolation.
On the contrary, the highest freedom is total communication. Whenever you have a
communication gap, there is your obstacle to freedom.

A synthesizing process is progress toward freedom. A separative process is a path toward

slavery. Total freedom is freedom for the whole human race. No man can really achieve total
freedom as long as slaves exist in the world, slaves of the body, emotions and mind.

Those who once are charged with the energy of freedom become liberators on all levels. Thus
liberated they face the pressure of slavery, the hate and the destructive forces of the physical,
emotional and mental slaves.

In sacrificing our lives for others, we are building the great temple of freedom. In using others
for our little self, we are creating a prison for ourselves. In sharing we become more free; in
grabbing we limit ourselves. In hating we are isolating ourselves; in loving we are becoming
universal, even cosmic.

Freedom is the name of an energy which detaches us from limitations, pushes us into right
human relations, into more sharing, into more communication and synthesis. The highest
freedom is total sacrifice, and total sacrifice is absolute communication.

The Real Self is the fountain of the energy of freedom. That is why in the process of becoming
oneself man progressively enters into more freedom, until he is released into the total freedom of
his SELF.

Beauty, goodness and truth are synthesized in freedom. But man cannot experience freedom until
he expresses beauty, goodness and truth all his life. Any act against beauty, goodness, or truth
leads a man into slavery.
A free man is highly charged with energy. He is a man who releases you physically, emotionally,
mentally and spiritually because he creates in you harmony, integration, communication and
health.

Health is freedom. Sickness is slavery. Health is harmony. Sickness is chaos. Harmony is

freedom. Knowledge is freedom. Ignorance is slavery.

Increasing knowledge is increasing freedom. Slavery starts when the knower stops knowing
more, when the lover stops loving more, when the server stops serving more. Freedom is the
expansion of the essence; slavery is the expansion of the form instead of the essence.

Materialism is slavery. Totalitarianism is a big prison. A true disciple of wisdom rejects both
materialism and totalitarianism in all their expressions in any field. A true disciple stands for
freedom.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a great disciple. He formulated the four essential freedoms:

• Freedom of speech

• Freedom of Worship

• Freedom from want

• Freedom from fear

These were given to humanity on January 6, 1941. A few months later, on August 14, 1941,
another page of the gospel of freedom was given to humanity in the form of the Atlantic Charter.
And later, another page was given in the form of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The new world religion will have a major key. That key will be freedom, and the gospel of the
New Age will be the gospel of freedom, the gospel of beauty, goodness and truth.

The Science of Becoming Oneself, p.183-187.

[1]
Bailey, Alice A., The Rays and the Initiations, p. 12.
[2]
Bailey, Alice A., Discipleship in the New Age, Vol. II, p.291.
[3]
Blavatsky, Helena P., The Voice of the Silence, p. 14.
[4]
Einstein, Albert, Ideas and Opinions, p. 12.
[5]
See Bailey, Alice A., Glamour: A World Problem, pp. 120-123.

The Bhagavad Gita

Lesson 18
Work to be Done
1. Make a thorough compilation on the following subjects from the Bhagavad
Gita. We would like to see three examples of each keynote as your final
paper:

a. Self

b. Birth, incarnation, rebirth

c. Yogi and yoga

d. Sacrifice

e. Supreme Self

2. Meditate on any verse in this chapter, changing the verse every other week.

i. You may continue this to the end of your life or start another meditation course.

3. Read the whole Gita again and again, every day for fifteen to thirty minutes.

Complete the Questionnaire along with any report, compilation, or essay you wish to share
regarding your thoughts about this course. Reflect on the course of study that you have
undertaken for these lessons. How did this course impact your life?
 Keynote
Therefore, the Teaching must be your guide in deciding what ought not to be done. Knowing now
the Teaching given to you, you should act accordingly in the world. (16:24)

Thus, I have given to you the most profound knowledge. Ponder over it fully, and act in the way
you want. (18:63)

And whoever studies this sacred dialogue of ours, I will consider him as a man who offers to Me
sacrifices of wisdom. This is My resolve. (18:70)

Arjuna’s Problem
The Bhagavad Gita is the story of human life, and being such it is the story of conflict. Human
life being but the reflection of the Universal Life, it is therefore the story of universal life.

Conflict is the basic law of all life. From the very beginning with the separation of spirit and
matter it is shadowed forth. Every nucleus of cosmic matter “suddenly launched into being
begins life under the most hostile circumstances”; there is at once an encountering, a collision
producing heat and rotation, and a joyful war (for it is a joyful war if we could but see it as it is)
is on.

Thus, through the power vested in creation, conflict is the medium in which we live. As water is
to the fish and air to the bird, so is battle to the human spirit: it is the medium from which life
draws its sustenance.

As the ordered change which we call evolution proceeds, it brings with it a continuously
increasing power to respond, and each response predicates a new form of contest. As the “worm
aspiring to be man” mounts through all the spires of form, it carries with it in its spiral cyclic life
new powers which demand new activities, or in other words new contests.

The unfolding human soul recognizes conflict as its natural element, the purpose for which it has
descended into matter; but the personality repudiates it, shrinks from it, calls it “hell”.

The real Self within us, knowing that conflict is the soil from which it grows, is greedy for it, and
unseen, unrecognized, spurs us on so that the personality, not content with what life gives of
battle, goes out and seeks it. So that which it calls pleasure is largely a contest....

Conflict is an integral part of the Great Plan, and he who seeks to evade it does not even
postpone it. As the Gita puts it, “The arrows are already falling about Arjuna in his chariot.” His
position is between two armies, and he cannot escape. To Arjuna, as to all men, there remains
not the choice as to whether he will give battle or not, but only the choice of how he shall
conduct the fight.
Verily, the wise will recognize conflict as a principle of his own nature and go out to meet it as
the aggressor, not the defender.

The inevitableness of the conflict established, the tragedy lies in the utter distaste of the man for
the thing he is forced to do.

All life evolved through each form, and each plane retains its tendencies to war against the
growing consciousness of the next succeeding form. Not only on different planes, but on each
plane, each form remains to fight the one above it. The accumulative karma of these forms is
necessarily greater, the higher we rise in consciousness. Even in the same species, the more
highly evolved are subject to more and greater reaction than the less sensitized. In number and
ferocity the conflicts are greater with them. The thoroughbred horse, for instance, feels the sting
of the whip more keenly than does the common plow horse, is more easily alarmed, and at the
same time comes under control more readily, responds to the voice and touch of its master more
readily than does the less highly bred animal.

In the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna represents the highest type of man, the one who has recognized his
higher nature, and is listening to its voice and trying to conform his life to its direction.

He is pictured as a warrior, the type of the greatest possible activity and a successful warrior. He
is a repudiator of evil, beyond fear. As a source of danger to himself, he fears the battle not at all,
but revolts from it for more subtle and more fundamental reasons.

His life, which had begun as all human life does with a wail of protest against the change from
the safe, dark, warm obscurity of the mother's womb to the strange, vast, repelling, cold world
into which it is thrust, now utters a like but more agonized cry as it comes into the new, second
birth and enters an austere, strange, terrifying world.

Arjuna is being asked not only to repudiate but actually to slay those forces which have given
and sustained his life. All forms through which he has passed and which have aided his evolution
are now, like insistent and unfeeling creditors, at his door demanding pay in full for their
contributions to his life. “Verily a man's foes shall be those of his own household.”

There are first those forces of inertia on which the structure of his life rests, the predominant
quality with which life starts, the quality which gives stability quality. He has also an urge to kill
the desire, which goes way back to the vegetable world, and has been the angel ever rolling away
the stone from the sepulcher of his dead self. And, lastly, there is that which has raised him
above other objects of creation, his concrete thought. He must throw down this ladder by which
he has risen and stand in isolation in the cold, thin air of abstract thought, where all ideas of
either pain or pleasure are banished.

There are, too, all those conventions of race and family and community into which he has been
born and into which his life has been run like a motor. There are the chains, heavy as the weights
of sleep and death, which he has forged for himself in the activities of body feeling and thought,
which we name habit.
As the Gita tells the story of Arjuna, these forces, so much a part of his life, are truly and
dramatically pictured as friends, teachers, relatives, those to whom he owes all —— bone of his
bone, flesh of his flesh.

The question naturally arises: Is any possible gain worth the sacrifice? 'It is a very good world he
has made about himself. His life is certainly useful. His friends call it noble. Why not be content?
Why not let well enough alone? Why, in this dear homeland of his, not seek contentment and
voyage not to foreign shores where the language is a strange one? Supposing it were worthwhile,
there is another question: Can it be done?

The answer to the last is short and easy. The thing is impossible. His forces are inadequate. A
man can never successfully fight his own nature because the hosts of that nature are legion. The
fruits of a victory such as this mean nothing to him, any possible gains more than offset by the
inevitable losses. And last, to slay that which is himself, to destroy the mansion he has built is
nothing less than crime for it has been built through the Divine Will.

No despondency is complete until hope is removed entirely. Here it has been removed.
Whichever way he goes, the price seems too great to pay.

Arjuna hitherto has been a receiver; he must now be a giver. He must give himself that
something may live that has not hitherto had life, and he is rent with the pangs of birth.

He cannot see his way. He is stricken blind, as was Paul on the way to Damascus.

In fact, his suffering is in importance and keeping with the gravity of the decision he is to make.

There is a yearning within him for perfection. Above and beyond all his reasoning and his
questioning stands the everlasting “Yea” and “Nay” of the Higher Self. That Higher Self,
represented by Sri Krishna, knows that “for a warrior” there is nothing better than a righteous
battle. Above the roaring of the storm he hears his Lord. The Lord Himself in his Third Aspect,
the Everlasting Doer, is knocking at the door of his heart, asking to come in. And, once admitted,
he will be seen to be the Angel of the Annunciation announcing the New Birth.

On his determination to rise above his despondency lies the outcome of the battle. Courage, then,
is the first prerequisite. In the beginning of the life of man as man, called forth by the necessity
of self-preservation, was summoned courage. Being the first of the virtues, it has the vitality
which comes through priority. It has the very fibre of a man and grows by use as no other virtue
does. Once assumed, the Arjuna of life always finds that, though to the outer eye his forces are
outnumbered, those who are for him are greater than those who can possibly be against him, and
“Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.”

Commentary on Book 17
Chapter 17 of the Bhagavad Gita is a very practical chapter and it gives practical hints on how to
resurrect our spirit from the three qualities of matter and release it into the space of life.
According to the Teaching of the Ageless Wisdom there is space and substance. The substance
polarized or became the positive and negative poles. The positive pole is spirit and the negative
pole is matter. All manifestation is interactivity of spirit and matter. Spirit and matter compose
the whole substance of manifestation and have three qualities. The quality closest to the highest
level is sattva or rhythm. The middle one is rajas or activity and motion. The lowest quality is
tamas or inertia. This means that substance is qualified with three very distinctive vibrations and
associates (sound, color, power, etc.).

In the Ancient Wisdom these are called gunas — which does not mean exactly “qualities” — but
that which causes the qualities. These three qualities of the gunas are not only in existence in all
the substance of the seven cosmic planes but also in each plane and in each form.

Book 17 is a treasure house of wisdom. In this book the main topics are the true nature of:

1. Faith Verses 2, 3, 4.

2. Austerity Verses 5, 6.

3. Food Verses 7, 8, 9.

4. Sacrifice Verses 11, 13.

5. Austerity and Speech Verses 14, 19.

6. Offering Verses 20, 22.

7. Om Tat Sat Verses 23, 28.

Lord Krishna analyzes all these subjects from the viewpoint of the three gunas. How can faith be
tamasic? How can offering be sattvic or tamasic or rajasic? He gives such simple and beautiful
definitions that you immediately are able to know the quality of your activities, the qualities of
your sacrifice, food, austerity and so on.

He starts with the tamasic level, which is familiar to most human beings, and then gradually He
raises the level to rajas and then to sattva. But He does not stop there. He indicates that beyond
these three qualities man must unite with the Eternal One Who is SAT — reality, goodness,
beauty. (See verse 26.)

It is very interesting to know that our responses, reactions or expressions build according to their
gunas a corresponding vehicle or form within our aura.

If your responses, reactions or expressions are sattvic, they will create a sattvic vehicle in the
plane involved. This sattvic vehicle or form will attract to itself sattvic atoms on whatever level
they are contacted, and the quality of sattva will increase in the vehicle of man. That is why we
say that people are the result of their thoughts or their faith.
Thought is mental response, reaction or expression. Faith is emotional or intuitional response,
reaction or expression. Action is mostly physical response, reaction or expression, and these are
the three factors that build the three vehicles in man on one or all three planes.

Tamasic activities, faith or thought create tamasic vehicles and they attract tamasic atoms,
tamasic food, tamasic people and create heavy crystallizations.

Even our speech can be on tamasic, rajasic or sattvic levels. Tamasic speech, which is cursing,
blasphemy, lying, etc., is responsible for most of the ills of our physical body because it
increases not only inertia and apathy in our body, but also it creates walls between the energy
channels in our etheric body, thus causing congestions, or exhaustion of energy, with
corresponding effects on the physical organs.

Rajasic speech is mostly condemnation, criticism, judgment, gossip, etc., which creates very
chaotic conditions in the astral body and eventually disturbs the equilibrium of the nervous
system with its dire consequences.

The astral body must be a clear channel of love, or of intuitional substance. Rajasic activity in
the astral body prevents the penetration of the current of energy from the intuitional plane,
causing occasional depressions. That is why we feel exhausted or weakened after we condemn,
gossip, criticize, etc., and feel a lack of communication with our Guiding Center.

In the second verse the Lord Krishna says that the faith of man is threefold. It is sattvic, rajasic
and tamasic.

First, we have people who have faith in shining ones, devas. Second, we have people whose faith
is in wealth and power. Third, we have people whose faith is based on the spirits of death and the
powers of darkness.

The first faith, which is sattvic, is the knowledge or experience of the higher Self impressed
upon the lower mind. This is a kind of intuition or straight knowledge which dawns in our mind,
and we know without any mental logic or reasoning or proof. This is the faith that is stronger
than knowledge, since knowledge is mostly mental and is drawn from the five senses. This faith
is an inner experience reflected on the mental brain apparatus.

The second faith is an emotional attachment to wealth and power, in the hope that the wealth
and power will assist him in difficult hours. It is some kind of dependence and assurance that in
the time of need his wealth or power will help him. This is called rajasic faith because it is a
mixture of light and darkness, and it revolves around the axis of his ego.

The third kind of faith is tamasic. It is directed to the spirits of death and to the powers of
darkness. The black magicians, the spiritualists, the mediums, and all those who in various ways
try to come in contact with the spirits of death or the powers of darkness belong to the tamasic
faith.

...Man is verily of the nature of his faith. What his faith is, that really, he is. (17:3)
A man's faith is the direction toward which his subtle energies flow and build a new form around
the nucleus of the object of his faith. Let us assume that a man worships a devil. Eventually that
man will turn into a devil because all his energies are flowing out from him through the act of
devotion or worship and forming a new entity around the image of the devil. Thus, a low-level
man becomes that which he worships. Worship can be through physical, emotional or mental
activities. That is why nations are advanced by their heroes, or degenerated by their idols.

Worshippers of all true religions are on the right path toward great achievements if they raise the
object of their faith from the level of “help us” to the level of “let us cooperate”. Many religious
organizations emphasize the begging attitude of their followers, creating a strong dependency in
them to the deity they worship.

In the Bhagavad Gita this dependency is changed to

“I am one within every being, and let me help every being achieve joy and bliss.”

Faith, in Sanskrit, also means total fearlessness. Total fearlessness is the awareness of unity with
all beings. It is our separative thoughts that breed fear.

I remember once in the wilderness my teacher and I saw a big hyena. My teacher immediately
held my hand and said, “There is no danger. He will not attack us. He is one of us.,” and he
looked at the beast with a great smile. The beast looked down, to the right and to the left, and
then turned back and walked away. There, I realized that faith and fearlessness are not feelings
but dynamic, radioactive energies that command, control, protect, lead, liberate and release.
These are the greatest virtues which must be unfolded and developed highly on our everlasting
path.

In Verses 11-13, Lord Krishna speaks about the three kinds of sacrifice.

Sattvic sacrifices are those which are done without expectations, as enjoined by ordinances, with
the firm faith that sacrifice is a duty. (17:11)

The most important parts of this verse are sacrifice without expectation and sacrifice is a duty.

Through what a great change the world will pass if we understand that our duty is to sacrifice
for each other. Sacrifice, in its true meaning, is to radiate out and make available to others the
highest divine virtues within you. This is sattvic sacrifice. This is not the sacrifice of the
shedding of blood of animals, or the offering of gifts to the Almighty One. He only needs the
release of your true Self.

In Verse 14-19, Lord Krishna explains the qualities of austerity of body, speech and mind. For
example, austerity of the body is not what some devotees thought. It is not the mortification of
the body and its senses.

On the contrary, the true austerity of the body is extreme purity, righteousness, and
harmlessness. In other words, if the body is used only for righteous activities, if the body is not
used to harm or kill people, if the body is kept pure from many kinds of pollution, that body is in
austerity.

Speech that does not offend, which is truthful, pleasing, and beneficial, and also chanting the
sacred verses, are called the austerity of speech. (17:15)

What a discipline one must pass through to speak only the truth, to speak pleasantly, not to
offend with one's words, and to chant the sacred verses, like the verses of the Bhagavad Gita and
other invocations or prayers.

Serenity of mind, silence, self-control, purity of motive are called the austerity of mind. (17:16)

Austerity is the expression of will power. When a man refines his consciousness and step by step
conquers his nature, his not-self, he reaches a stage where his inner fire begins to radiate. This is
the will and man is essentially a nucleus of will energy.

Those who have great control upon their minds and thoughts are those people who are closer to
their essence. The mind cannot be controlled or quieted by mechanical exercises or by chanting
or repeating mantrams. The mind can be controlled in proportion to the release of will energy. It
is very interesting that esoteric meditation, or clear thinking in the light of the good of all,
immensely increases our will power. The right use of the mind increases will energy. The wrong
use of the mind exhausts will energy and man fall victim to his urges, drives and thoughts.

An austere mind is a mind enlightened by the light of the will. The light of the will reveals the
plan to the mind and charges the mind with the vision of the purpose. Once this is done, the mind
functions goal-fittingly; it is serene, pure and creative.

In Verse 23 we read about OM TAT SAT. “These three words refer to the nature of the Eternal
One.”

At the time of initiating any act, the word OM is used. This is the word of creative power. This is
like a declaration that the eternal creative power is the origin and source of all manifestation.
Through sounding the OM, this power is invoked and man, thus charged with energy and
inspiration, performs the act by sounding the word TAT.

TAT means That, the Indefinable One, the Absolute. Sounding TAT declares the renunciation of
all the fruits of action by the seeker for liberation who declares all to the Supreme.

The word SAT means reality declares that nothing is real or permanent but the Almighty, Eternal
One; all else is unreal and temporal.

By the use of these three words the seeker for liberation moves forward on the Path.

Whatever form of sacrifice that is performed, whatever form of austerity that is done, and
whatever kind of offering that is rendered without faith, that, O Son of Pritha, is contrary to SAT,
and has no value either here or hereafter. (17:28)
The central core of this verse is faith. Here, faith can be interpreted as the right motive in
dedication to TAT SAT, to the One Reality.

Many people on the path of evolution try to find out who they are and what they are. For
example, they try to follow the injunction of Delphi, “Know thyself.” But they start their search
in a difficult way. They want to find out who they are. This is very absurd and leads nowhere
since man is the Ray, and this Ray extends from the physical plane into infinite Space. Yet the
man of the moment is a station, or a substation, on the long path where this Ray is focused to
create an “I”.

Let us say that this focus is on the physical plane, and man thinks and feels that he is a physical
existence. Or, let us say that this focus is on the emotional plane and he thinks that he is an
emotional being. At such stages of development or levels, how can he dare ask

Who am I?

because whatever answer is given to him, he will translate it on his own level or he will gather
lots of opinions and information and believe that he is something that he thinks he is.

To find the right way without increasing our glamors, illusions and wishful thinking about
ourselves, instead of asking “who am I?” we can ask “who am I not or what am I not?” This
gives us a better realism and makes us see the level which is immediately below us.

Our continuous search, observation and striving leads us into gradual detachment from our
identification and makes us realize that we are not the levels or objects with which we were
identified. Here we have some kind of certainty that we are not this or that; we are not the body,
not the emotions, not the thoughts, not the objects we love or the objects with which we are
identified, and so on.

With this question we must also have a vision which can be formulated like this:

“What do I want to be?”

Please note that there is an immense difference between “Who am I?” and “What do I want to
be?” The answer to the first question is “You are what you are at this moment of your question.”
The answer to the second question is “You can be infinity itself in knowing what you are not at
the present and in withdrawing yourself to the next stage of your being.”

The first one is very confusing because no one can know who he is because, in essence, he is the
Space to be, the Infinity to be. This affirmation is not realization in him — until he is. Because
he is not in that stage yet, he does not know who he is, nor can he find it out.

You can use the affirmations of the Great Ones about the Self as a lantern in your hand in the
darkness of confusion, and say, for example,

“I am the radiant Self.”

This is an affirmation, but when you think deeply, you will see that you know only what you are
not; and you do not know what you, the Self, are.

Those mystics who made loud declarations about their illumination and the nature of their self
were greatly disappointed at times, finding out that they still did not know what they were. This
is a very strange fact. Self-actualization is not an achievement but a process to infinity.

Once I saw fireworks that taught me a lesson. There was a golden cable, maybe half a mile long,
and it started to burn and radiate beautiful formations. As the cable shortened in burning, the fire
increased, with greater radiation and beauty, until at the end it became a rare beauty of colors and
formations.

I thought that it tells us the story of the Self. The Ray is a spark going back to its Source through
a gradual increase of its glory. Each step of greater unfoldment and radiation is an entrance into a
greater unfoldment, and so on. The spark will be deluded if he identifies himself with any degree
of unfoldment and says, “That is exactly me.”

It is true that he is always the Ray, but he is aware only of what he is at the time he thinks about
his self, not about what he is in his ultimate achievement.

Purity — Internal and External

Internal and external purification produces aversion for form, both one's own and all forms.
(Book II, Sutra 40)

In considering this sutra it should be remembered that purity is a quality of spirit.

Purification is necessarily of various kinds and relates to the four vehicles (the physical body, the
etheric body, the emotional body and the mental body) through which man contacts the three
worlds of his endeavour. We might, therefore, distinguish between them as follows:

a. External purity physical vehicle dense body

b. Magnetic purity etheric vehicle internal purity

c. Psychic purity astral vehicle emotional purity

d. Mental purity mental vehicle purity of the concrete mind

It should be most carefully borne in mind that this purity concerns the substance out of which
each of these vehicles is composed. It is attained in three ways:

1. Elimination of impure substance, or of those atoms and molecules which limit the
free expression of spirit, and which confine it to the form so that it can have neither
free ingress nor egress;
 2. Assimilation of those atoms and molecules which will tend to provide a form through
which spirit can adequately function;

3. The protection of the purified form from contamination and deterioration.

On the Path of Purification or of Probation, this eliminative process is commenced; on the Path
of Discipleship, the rules for the constructive or assimilative process are learnt and on the Path of
Initiation (after the second initiation), the protective work is begun.

In the occident the rules of external purification, of sanitation and of hygiene are well known and
largely practiced. In the orient, the rules of magnetic purification are better known and when the
two systems are synthesized and mutually recognized, the physical sheath in its dual nature will
eventually be brought to a high degree of refinement.

In this cycle, however, the interest of the Hierarchy is being largely centered on the question of
psychic purity and this is the reason for the trend of the occult teaching at present developing. It
is away from what is commonly understood by psychic development, lays no emphasis on the
lower psychic power, and seeks to train the aspirant in the laws of the spiritual life. This
produces the realization of the nature of the psyche or soul, and a control of the lower psychic
nature. The great “push” of the hierarchical endeavor for this century, 1926-2026, will be along
these lines, combined with the dissemination of the laws of thought. Hence the necessity for the
teaching here given. The rules for mind control are given but the nature of the psychic powers
and the development of the psychic consciousness are also largely dealt with.

The teaching here given might be briefly stated to be the development of mind control with a
view to soul-contact and the consequent control of the lower psychic powers, their unfoldment
paralleling that of the higher powers. This should be emphasized. Aversion for form or
“desirelessness”, which is the generic term covering this condition of mind, is the great impulse
which eventually leads to complete liberation from form.

It is not that form or form-taking is in itself evil. Both forms and the process of incarnation are
right and proper in their place but for the man who has no further use for experience in the three
world, having learnt the needed lessons in the school of life, form and rebirth become evil and
must be relegated to a position outside the life of the ego. That the liberated may choose to limit
himself by a form for specific purposes of service is true, but this he does through an act of will
and self-abnegation; he is not impelled thereto by desire but by love of humanity and a longing
to stay with his brothers till the last of the sons of God has reached the portal of liberation.

Through purification comes also a quiet spirit, concentration, conquest of the organs, and ability
to see the Self. (Book II, Sutra 41)

It should be remembered that both the Commandments and the Rules (Yama and Nyama) have
to do with the lower fourfold self, functioning in the three worlds, and frequently called the
quaternary. We have seen that the purification required is fourfold and concerns four vehicles.
The results of this purity are also fourfold and have reference equally to the four sheaths. These
results are in the order of the vehicles:
 1. Conquest of the organs The physical body,

2. A quiet spirit The emotional vehicle,

3. Concentration The lower mind or the mental body,

4. Ability to see the Self The synthetic result of the triple condition of the above
sheaths.

The “conquest of the organs” has reference specially to the senses and is the result of magnetic
purity or the refinement of the etheric body. In this connection students should bear in mind that
the physical body is not a principle, but is built in exact conformity with the etheric body. This
etheric body is the magnetic vehicle on the physical plane and attracts (according to its own
nature and constituents) those atoms and particles of substance out of which the dense physical is
constructed. When the sense perceptions are refined and when the vibratory condition of the vital
body is justly attuned, the organs of the senses are entirely dominated and controlled by the real
man and put him in contact eventually with the two highest subplanes of the physical plane and
not with the lower astral as is now the case. The correct order of this control of the organs of
sense perception or of the five senses is as follows:

1. Correct intellectual perception of the ideal on the mental plane,

2. Pure desire, freed from love of form on the emotional or astral plane,

3. Correct use of and development of the five centers up the spine, each of which is
found in the etheric body and is allied with one or the other of the five senses,

4. Consequent correct reaction of the sense organs to the requirements of the true or
spiritual man.

In connection with the astral body, the result of purification is a quiet spirit, or the “gentle
stillness” of the vehicle so that it can adequately reflect the Christ principle, or the buddhic
nature. The relation of the astral or karmic principle (using the middle vehicle of the threefold
lower man) to the buddhic principle using the middle vehicle of the spiritual triad (or atma-
buddhi-manas), should be carefully considered. Quieted emotions, and the control of the desire
nature ever precede the reorientation of the lower.

Before the desire of a man can be towards things spiritual he has to cease to desire the things of
the world, and the flesh. This produces an interlude of great difficulty in the life of the neophyte,
and the process is symbolized for us in the use of the word “conversion” in orthodox Christian
circles; it involves “a turning round” [which is the meaning of the word repentance] with its
consequent temporary turmoil, but eventual quietness.

In the mental body, the effect of purification is the development of the capacity to concentrate or
be one-pointed. The mind no longer flits hither and thither but becomes controlled and quiescent
and receptive to the higher impress.
When these three results of purification are making themselves felt in the life of the aspirant, he
nears a certain climax which is a sudden perception of the nature of the soul. He gets a vision of
the reality which is himself, and finds out the truth of the words of the Christ that “the pure in
heart shall see God.” He beholds the soul and henceforth his desire is forever towards reality and
away from the unreal and the world of illusion.

Alice A. Bailey, The Light of the Soul, pp. 201-207.

From A Treatise on White Magic

The tendency to aspiration and to service is right and good and should be seen as forming part of
the coming universal consciousness and equipment of the race as a whole. It is steadily coming
to the surface owing to the growing strength of the Aquarian influence which has been gaining in
potency and is producing two effects: it is breaking down the crystallized old forms of the
Piscean age, and is stimulating the creative faculties, as they express themselves in group
concepts, and group plans. This is the cause of the present disturbed conditions, and these
conditions can be summed up in the words:

Impersonalisation wherein the state, group or groups are regarded as of more importance than
the individual and his rights;

Amalgamation, which is the tendency to fuse, blend and cohere and to produce that interrelation
which must eventually mark the intercourse of humanity and produce that “synthesis” which is
the goal of the evolutionary process and marks the conclusion of the journey of the divine
prodigal;

and sensitive Intercommunication between units, groups and combinations of groups, both on the
subjective and objective sides of manifestation.

In these three words — impersonalisation, amalgamation and intercommunication — you have

summed up for you the outstanding phenomena which are appearing among us at this time.
Students are urged to consider the plan as it is thus expressing itself, and to study these growing
tendencies in human affairs.

Alice A. Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, pp. 619-620.

Summation and Analysis of the Gita

1. The Book itself:

a. The Bhagavad Gita is a compendium of philosophy.

b. To the poet it appeals by its beauty of expression and its imagery.

c. To the historian it is a synthesis of philosophy; the merging of the best of

many schools of thought, and thus embracing racial evolution.
 d. To the metaphysician it is the high-water mark of human aspiration to unravel
the mysteries of being.

e. To the individual it is the fount of wisdom, guidance and consolation.

2. 2. Outline of the Book:

a. There are eighteen discourses in the Book.

b. There are eighteen army corps involved in the Great War in which Arjuna was
taking part.

c. The battle lasted eighteen days.

d. The name of the Book means eighteen.

e. Eighteen is said to represent Krishna (the Vishnu, or Christ aspect) of the

Logos.

Notes on the Gita by T. Subba Row

The Number Eighteen

The number eighteen has much significance.

a. Taking the digits 1 + 8, you have 9. This is the number of Initiation (also of
completion), which is the reward ahead of Arjuna.

b. In the Kabbalah eighteen is the number of equilibrium —— one of the main lessons
which Arjuna has to learn.

c. According to Eliphas Levi, eighteen is associated with glamor, or with the illusion of
matter. Arjuna is taught to differentiate between the real and the unreal, and thus
be saved from illusion.

d. According to the Christian Bible, the Angel in “Revelation” measures the wall and
finds it to be 144, which is 1 + 4 + 4, again making 9. Arjuna is taught to measure
the walls that imprison the Spirit, or Self, and to know the Self and not the not-self,
the true and not the false.

The Battle and the Battlefield:

a. The war was carried on about 5,000 years ago.

b. It was an outgrowth of selfishness, as are all wars. It is stated that “men had
become Rakshasas (or destroyers) on account of the decline of the doctrine of
dharma.” Forgetting their duty to the Self in all selves —— to the group —— they
become destructive.

The Hindus say: “Every cycle begins with a deva —— a builder of forms —— and ends with
rakshasas —— or destroyer of forms.” What is the procedure in every cycle?

a. The building of the form

b. The utilization of the form

c. The adequacy of the form

d. The gradual crystallization of the form

e. The consequent inadequacy of the form

f. The eventual destruction of the form

The battle described in the Gita may be interpreted in three ways.

 a. The cosmic battle between Lucifer, the Son of the morning —— the universal Spirit,
or Purusha —— and Satan, prakriti, or matter.

b. The battle on our planet.

“The globes of the Earth chain are said to exist on four planes.

One and seven exist on plane one.

Two and six exist on plane two.

Three and five exist on plane three.

Globe number four is the balance between one and seven and is therefore the battleground
between the divine and gross elements in man's constitution. These four planes represent the
principle of the lower quaternary —— the etheric, prana, karma and the turning point...that it is
there considered the battleground of the forces contained in the microcosm.”

Commentary on Book 18
The richness of Chapter 18 in some ways synthesizes the spirit of all the discourses. The most
important theme here is the theme of renunciation and abandonment. For the aspirant and
disciple this theme is all-important, and particularly the necessity to discover and apply the
positive meaning of a joyful and willing giving up of the lesser for the greater.

Down the ages the theme of sacrifice, renunciation and abandonment has been overlaid with a
cloth of implied suffering and loss; instead of gaining of a deeper, richer and more satisfying life
when outworn habits of thought, feeling and acquisitiveness are willingly relinquished.

O Mahabahu,[1] will You speak to me about the difference between the renunciation of actions
and the act of abandonment of the fruits of action? (18:1)

Lord Krishna answers,

Renunciation is performed when a man acts without the desire of fruits. Abandonment is
performed when all the fruits are given up. (18:2)

Actually these two paths are complimentary to each other. A disciple starts with renunciation,
and because of his selfless service and intelligence, things come to him; but he does not attach to
them and even does not desire them.

For example, he renders a service to someone who gives him great wealth. He is wealthy because
his right actions bring right results.
In the second stage he slowly liquidates all that he has and distributes it to others. He becomes
intentionally poor, not because he does not receive, but because he gives all that he receives.

What a blissful stage this is!

Some people become poor and they call it “spirituality”, but they do not realize that they have
become burdens on others; they depend on others, and thus they create difficulties and obstacles
on the path of others.

I met a boy who was, so-called, a new age spiritual young man. He wanted me to take him ten to
fifteen miles so he would be able to meet some friends.

I asked him, “Do you have a job?”

“No,” he answered, “I renounced the world and all possessions.”

“How do you eat?” I continued.

“My friends feed me,” he said.

“How do you travel?” I asked next.

“I hitchhike,” he replied. And when we came to our destination, he asked, “Do you have a few
dollars to buy lunch for me?” Others give him rides, clothing, food, shelter, and he feels happy in
the glamor of false renunciation.

The new age disciple will have without attachment and will distribute all that comes to him. The
greatest joy is to be able to give, but we cannot give until we receive continuously as a result of
our labor.

This does not apply to objective possessions only, but also to virtues, talents and knowledge. All
these must be handled with renunciation and with the spirit of abandonment.

Those people who show off their virtues are as bad as those who are attached to their
possessions. On the path a disciple must even renounce his virtues, his talents, his knowledge,
and give them away with discrimination and non-attachment.

In Verses 4-9, Lord Krishna explains the true meaning of abandonment. Nowhere in religious
literature can you see such beauty!

In Verse 10 there is a very interesting statement.

Such a man, imbued with Sattva, in steady understanding, and free from doubts, does not hate an
unpleasant action, nor is he attached to a pleasant action. (18:10)
This is one of the great marks of a server. He works for the service of humanity and for the
fulfillment of the Plan. Sometimes the labor is not pleasant, even dangerous and painful, but he
does not hate such labor because the bliss of the labor is not in the labor itself but in the goal, in
the purpose of the labor.

He is also not attached to pleasant labor and is ready to work anywhere, anytime, for anything as
long as he works for the Plan and serves humanity. Any attachment to any pleasant labor will
create possessiveness, fear, self-will, and these eventually will carry a man away from the
community of Great Souls. Those who work for themselves eventually lose the path leading to
the greater Self.

The whole goal of a human being is to climb the ladder of inertia, motion and rhythm, and pass
above the gunas — because the gunas are the forces that perpetuate manifestation. They work
under the three cosmic laws:

1. The Law of Synthesis

2. The Law of Attraction and Repulsion

3. The Law of Economy

These laws and the corresponding gunas have their many gradations in the Cosmic Physical
Plane. With these three laws we have the three aspects of divinity. The Solar Logoi are the three
divine counterparts of these three gunas. These aspects are: will, love-wisdom and active
intelligence. These three are also reflected in each guna.

For example: Will or bliss gives power of resistance, stability and quietude —— in matter these
are expressed as inertia or tamas. Action or activity gives rise to mobility in his whole nature —
— this is rajas. Wisdom gives rise to rhythm or harmony of vibration —— this is sattva.

Every time man frees himself from even the partial dominance of the three gunas with their
interaction, producing the pairs of opposites, man helps the Supreme One in His work of
redemption of this planet.

Again we can say that inertia can be mastered by the will. Motion can be surpassed by the
intelligence, and rhythm or sattva can be surpassed by wisdom. Once they are surpassed, man is
finally liberated from the dominance of the three gunas, and he is on the path of divine freedom.

In Verses 13 and 14 we have the very interesting teaching about “the five causes of all actions”.

1. the seat of action

2. the doer

3. the various senses

4. the separate urges or energies

 5. the celestial One within the man

Whatever action a man performs with his body, voice or mind, whether lawful or contrary, those
five are its cause. (18:15)

Let us see what these five causes are and why they are mentioned here.

1. The seat of action is the physical body, which has its reflected activities due to habits and
natural affinities with the elements of the earth. It has its own needs which create actions.

2. The doer is a very esoteric term. He is the “I”, the real man identified with any part of his
physical, emotional or mental vehicles and with any of their modifications. The doer is the real
man identified with any mood, with any condition. He thinks he does, but in reality it is the
gunas that do in his name.[2]

3. The senses are the organs of impression which act or react to the impressions coming from
various sources. These senses can be objective, subjective, planetary, solar or cosmic.

4. The different urges or energies are: glamors, illusions, post-hypnotic suggestions, inner
commands, or streams of light, love or power coming from various sources. These glamors,
illusions or inner commands can come from his own nature, from the world, and from various
objective or subjective groups. The energies can come from his own centers, from his own
essence, from planetary, solar or cosmic sources. All these invoke and evoke action.

5. The celestial One within man. This is the Solar Angel, the Transpersonal Self, the Guide
within the man, Who leads the man from the unreal to the real.[3]

Now this being the case, those who think that the Spark, or the Supreme Self within the man, is
the doer see not rightly, because of lack of intuitive discrimination. (18:16)

Lord Krishna wants to stress that all action is done by the three gunas acting within all
manifestation, and the Real Spark, which is one with the Supreme, is just the Silent Watcher of
all that transpires on all levels of manifestation. This is the most important fact that must be
realized by each man. It is through such a realization that man stands above the three gunas.

True poverty is true detachment from the three gunas and their interaction, from which arises the
sense of duality, or all the pairs of opposites. It is being unmoved in the midst of conditions
because of realizing, knowing oneself as THAT which is above the world of nature. It means
non-attachment to anything less than the Eternal. The final duality is spirit and matter. Therefore,
the path to the “Eternal”, to “Reality”, is a gradual and long series of right perceptions or
discriminations —— a gradual unveiling of the Center of all Life.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

The two conditions which create identification and blindness are “egoism” and lack of “intuitive
discrimination”. Egoism is a state of captivity, when the Spark becomes enslaved in the lower
mind, thinks he is a separated self, and cannot see that he is the One. Once he is separated he
tries to use everything to perpetuate his separated self. This is egoism, and such a man is the
slave of the gunas. To be above the gunas means to be free from egoism and to be enlightened by
the light of intuitive discrimination, or by the “seeing eye”.

From Verses 18-40, Lord Krishna speaks about knowledge, action, doer, intellect, firmness and
enjoyment —— from the viewpoint of sattva, rajas and tamas. Nowhere in the world can you
find another piece of such splendid literature which unveils the true values of human virtues. We
suggest to the students of the Gita to spend months, even years in pondering upon the sacred
verses because in a sense this whole chapter, and especially Verses 18-40, synthesize the
spiritual morality of the Gita.

Correction:
Here we want to bring to your attention an error in the book which escaped our eye. It is in Verse
39, the last word of which should be tamasic, not rajasic.

In Verses 41-45 Lord Krishna gives the seed thought of meditation for each cast. Please read
them carefully and try to think about yourself as being in one of these casts and see if you need
to develop the virtues He mentions in the appropriate verse.

In Verse 47, He makes a very serious statement which safeguards the traveler on the true path.

It is better for a man to perform his own dharma [his own duty and responsibility] imperfectly
than to perform another's imperfectly. He who does the dharma ordained by his own nature
incurs no sin. (18:47)

This means that you must work and serve within your own field of abilities. If you are a laborer,
do not assume the role of a priest or of a commander in the army or of a politician. If you are a
merchant, do not assume the role of a scientist, and so on. You may have opinions, information,
and even though with this information and knowledge of the other fields you can do something
perfect at the time, eventually you will be a misleading factor if you are not born to or prepared
for that field.

Doing your duty imperfectly in your own field teaches you a lesson, and eventually, when you
have graduated from your own field because of the performance of your own duty, greater and
higher fields will open to you. Imagine how many pseudo doctors, lawyers and politicians we
have on the streets who, having no true knowledge and preparation in medicine, law or politics,
mislead people and cause suffering. Many of us are mislead because we get our information from
secondhand people, or from people who imitate but do not really represent the field in the name
of which they appear to function.

Let no man withdraw from his natural obligations, even if he performs them imperfectly, for all
actions may be imperfect at their start, as a starting fire may be enveloped in smoke. (18:48)
One can imagine what could happen to the world if suddenly everyone becomes a priest,
politician, merchant, laborer, doctor and lawyer. It is the harmonious interaction of all these
fields that meets the needs of everyone. And, whether we like it or not, certain people are born to
lead and others to create, to educate, or to labor, etc.

Any organized group or body functions the same way. Each section has its own duty and
responsibility, which the section must perform intelligently to help others perform their own duty
and thus secure the success of the whole body. Even in the human body, when any organ starts to
do the work of another organ, this is a sign of deterioration. But, with all this, the Gita is not
limiting the unfoldment of any person or any cast. For example, we read,

A man who has fallen on the path of Yoga goes to the world of the righteous. He lives there many
years; then he reincarnates in a pure and prosperous home. (6:41)

Or he may be born into a family of Yogis who are rich in wisdom. Such a birth, naturally, is hard
to achieve in this world. (6:42)

Having reached Me, these great Souls have attained perfection. They are no more subject to
incarnation, which is temporary and the womb of sorrow. (8:15)

Those who are full of hate and cruelty are the lowest of human beings. I hurl them into the
wombs of evil ones through the cycles of birth and death. (16:19)

These verses mean that it is not your “cast” that limits you or releases you, but your life. If your
life is running in harmony with the Supreme Self, you are progressing on the path from glory to
glory, no matter in what cast you are. But, if you are living a life of darkness or hypocrisy, you
will go into darkness, no matter in what cast you are. The real cast is your level of being, and on
any level you have a chance to improve yourself and enter into the next, higher level of being.

Even a man who has taken refuge in Me, though performing all his activities, reaches to the
imperishable Abode through My Grace. (18:56)

With the following beautiful verses we end this course on the Supreme Teaching of the
Bhagavad Gita.

Sanjaya said: Thus I heard the wonderful dialogue between the All-pervading One and the great
soul, Arjuna, which caused my hair to stand on end.

It is through the favor of Vyasa that I heard this supreme and most secret teaching of Union
direct from the Lord of Yoga, Who was relating it to Arjuna.

And, O King, as I remember and remember this wonderful and sacred dialogue between Krishna
and Arjuna, I rejoice again and again.

And as I recall and recall the most astonishing form of Krishna, in detail, my amazement
deepens, O King, and I thrill will joy again and again.
Wherever the lord of Yoga, Krishna, is, and wherever Arjuna, the Archer, is, I am sure there will
be found prosperity, victory, and right conduct. (18:74-78)

All the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita is to lead man to his true Self, which is One with the
Supreme Self.

Conclusion
The student of the Bhagavad Gita sometimes builds in his mind the impression that he has
studied the Gita and is now done with it When such a thought comes to your mind, immediately
reject it and realize that you have just laid the groundwork for a great spiritual structure. From
now on your task will be to build that structure through the daily practice of the great wisdom
that you found in the Gita. From now on your labor on your Self-actualization should get the
greatest emphasis.

Please note that we cannot understand the Gita unless we live according to the wisdom imparted
to us. Understanding is the result of the transformation of our nature through living the wisdom
of the Gita.

How can you do this?

First, read the Gita at least half an hour daily in reflective meditation.

Second, try to live according to the wisdom imparted to you.

Third, speak about the Gita to your friends and eventually organize classes on the Gita.

Using the Gita as a foundation, you can teach all the wisdom of the occult lore.

May the blessings of the Lord Krishna be with you.

Yours,

Torkom Saraydarian

[1]
Mahabahu —— mighty armed one.
[2]
Please see The Science of Becoming Oneself, by H. (Torkom) Saraydarian, Chapters IX and
X.
[3]
Please read The Science of Meditation by H. (Torkom) Saraydarian, Chapter III.