gnani Yoga 
 
 By Yogi Ramacharaka 
 
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 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 FROM 
 
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The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022985422 
 
Cornell University Library 
 BF 1999.A87S4 
 
 A series of lessons in Gnani yoga (the 
 
 3 1924 022 985 422 
 
A SERIFS OF 
 
 Lessons in Gnani Yoga 
 
 (The Yoga of Wisdom.) 
 Bv YOGI RAMACHARAKA. 
 
 This Book Gives the Highest Yogi Teachings 
 
 Regarding the Absolute and its 
 
 Manifestations. 
 
 THE YOGI PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
 LONDON AGENTS: 
 L.'N. Fowler & Co., 7 Imperial Arcade, Ludgate Circus. 
 
Copyright 1906 by The Yogi Publication Society. 
 
 Copyright 1907 by The Yogi Publication Society, 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall. 
 
 All righti reserved. 
 
 Ai'kwscn, Wt\Wv^\Na\W a Wt£ 
 
 c'j 
 
PUBLISHERS' NOTICE. 
 
 The lessons which compose this volume, originally 
 appeared in the shape of monthly lessons, the first of 
 which was issued in October, 1906, and the twelfth in 
 September, 1907. These lessons met with a hearty 
 and generous response from the public, and the present 
 volume is issued in response to the demand for the 
 lessons in a permanent and durable form. There have 
 been no changes made in the text. 
 
 The publishers take the liberty to call the attention 
 of the reader to the great amount of information con- 
 densed within the space given to each lesson. Students 
 have told us that they have found it necessary to read 
 and study each lesson carefully, in order to absorb 
 the varied information contained within its pages. 
 They have also stated that they have found it advisable 
 to re-read the lessons several times, allowing an inter- 
 val between each reading, and that at each re-reading 
 they would discover information that had escaped them 
 during the course of the previous study. This has been 
 repeated to us so often that we feel justified in men- 
 tioning it, that other readers might avail themselves of 
 the same course and plan of study. 
 
 Following his usual custom, the writer of the les- 
 sons has declined to write a preface for this book, 
 claiming that the lessons speak for themselves, and 
 that those for whom they are intended will receive the 
 message contained within them, without any prefatory 
 talk. 
 
 THE YOGI PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 
 
 September 1, 1907. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Paee 
 
 Lesson I. The One i 
 
 Lesson II. Omnipresent Life 27 
 
 Lesson III. The Creative Will 51 
 
 Lesson IV. The Unity of Life 75 
 
 Lesson V. The One and the Many 101 
 
 Lesson VI. Within the Mind of the One 127 
 
 Lesson VII. Cosmic Evolution 153 
 
 Lesson VIII. The Ascent of Man 177 
 
 Lesson IX. Metempsychosis 203 
 
 Lesson X. Spiritual Evolution 229 
 
 Lesson XI. The Law of Karma 253 
 
 Lesson XII. Occult Miscellany 277 
 
THE FIRST LESSON 
 The One. 
 
 The Yogi Philosophy may be divided into several 
 great branches, or fields. What is known as "Hatha 
 Yoga" deals with the physical body and its control; 
 its welfare; its health; its preservation; its laws, etc. 
 What is known as "Raja Yoga" deals with the Mind ; 
 its control ; its development ; its unfoldment, etc. What 
 is known as "Bhakti Yoga" deals with the Love of the 
 Absolute — God. What is known as "Gnani Yoga" 
 deals with the scientific and intellectual knowing of 
 the great questions regarding Life and what lies back 
 of Life — the Riddle of the Universe. 
 
 Each branch of Yoga is but a path leading toward 
 the one end — unfoldment, development, and growth. 
 He who wishes first to develop, control and strengthen 
 his physical, body so as to render it a fit instrument of 
 the Higher Self, follows the path of "Hatha Yoga." 
 He who would develop his will-power and mental 
 faculties, unfolding the inner senses, and latent pow- 
 ers, follows the path of "Raja Yoga." He who wishes 
 to develop by "knowing" — by studying the funda- 
 mental principles, and the wonderful truths under- 
 lying Life, follows the path of "Gnani Yoga." And 
 he who wishes to grow into a union with the One 
 Life by the influence of Love, he follows the path of 
 "Bhakti Yoga." 
 
 But it must not be supposed that the student must 
 ally himself to only a single one of these paths to 
 power. In fact, very few do. The majority prefer 
 
 1 
 
z GNANI YOGA. 
 
 to gain a rounded knowledge, and acquaint them- 
 selves with the principles of the several branches, 
 learning something of each, giving preference of 
 course to those branches that appeal to them more 
 strongly, this attraction being the indication of need, 
 or requirement, and, therefore, being the hand point- 
 ing out the path. 
 
 It is well for every one to know something of 
 "Hatha Yoga," in order that the body may be puri- 
 fied, strengthened, and kept in health in order to be- 
 come a more fitting instrument of the Higher Self. 
 It is well that each one should know something of 
 "Raja Yoga," that he may understand the training 
 and control of the mind, and the use of the Will. It 
 is well that every one should learn the wisdom of 
 "Gnani Yoga," that he may realize the wonderful 
 truths underlying life — the science of Being. And, 
 most assuredly every one should know something of 
 Bhakti Yogi, that he may understand the great teach- 
 ings regarding the Love underlying all life. 
 
 We have written a work on "Hatha Yoga," and a 
 course on "Raja Yoga" which is now in book form. 
 We have told you something regarding "Gnani Yoga" 
 in our Fourteen Lessons, and also in our Advanced 
 Course. We have written something regarding 
 "Bhakti Yoga" in our Advanced Course, and, we 
 hope, have taught it also all through our other les- 
 sons, for we fail to see how one can teach or study 
 any of the branches of Yoga without being filled 
 with a sense of Love and Union with the Source of 
 
THE ONE. * 
 
 all Life. To know the Giver of Life, is to love him, 
 and the more we know of him, the more love will 
 we manifest. 
 
 In this course of lessons, of which this is the first, 
 we shall take up the subject of "Gnani Yoga" — the 
 'Yoga of Wisdom, and will endeavor to make plain 
 some of its most important and highest teachings, 
 And, we trust that in so doing, we shall be able to 
 awaken in you a still higher realization of your re- 
 lationship with the One, and a corresponding Love 
 for that in which you live, and move and have your 
 being. We ask for your loving sympathy and co- 
 operation in our task. 
 
 Let us begin by a consideration of what has been 
 called the "Questions of Questions" — the question: 
 "What is Reality?" To understand the question we 
 have but to take a look around us and view the vis- 
 ible world. We see great masses of something that 
 science has called "matter." We see in operation a 
 wonderful something called "force" or "energy" in 
 its countless forms of manifestations. We see things 
 that we call "forms of life," varying in manifestation 
 from the tiny speck of slime that we call the Moneron, 
 up to that form that we call Man. 
 
 But study this world of manifestations by means of 
 science and research — and such study is of greatest 
 value — still we must find ourselves brought to a point 
 where we cannot progress further. Matter melts into 
 mystery — Force resolves itself into something else — 
 the secret of living-forms subtly elude us — and mind 
 
4 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 is seen as but the manifestation of something even 
 finer. But in losing these things of appearance and 
 manifestation, we find ourselves brought up face to 
 face with a Something Else that we see must under- 
 lie all these varying forms, shapes and manifestations. 
 And that Something Else, we call Reality, because it 
 is Real, Permanent, Enduring. And although men 
 may differ, dispute, wrangle, and quarrel about this 
 Reality, still there is one point upon which they must 
 agree, and that is that Reality is One — that underlying 
 all forms and manifestations there must be a One 
 Reality from which all things flow. And this in-i 
 quiry into this One Reality is indeed the Question of 
 Questions of the Universe. 
 
 The highest reason of Man — as well as his deepest 
 intuition — has always recognized that this Reality 
 or Underlying Being must be but ONE, of which 
 all Nature is but varying degrees of manifestation, 
 emanation, or expression. All have recognized that 
 Life is a stream flowing from One great fount, the 
 nature and name of which is unknown — some have 
 said unknowable. Differ as men do about theories 
 regarding the nature of this one, they all agree that 
 it can be but One. It is only when men begin tol 
 name and analyze this One, that confusion results. \\ 
 
 Let us see what men have thought and said about 
 this One — it may help us to understand the nature 
 of the problem. 
 
 - \ The materialist claims that this one is a something 
 called Matter — self-existent — eternal — infinite — con- 
 
THE ONE. S 
 
 taming within itself the potentiality of Matter, En- 
 ergy and Mind. Another school, closely allied to the 
 materialists, claim that this One is a something called 
 
 \ Energy, of which Matter and Mind are but modes 
 of motion. The Idealists claim that the One is a 
 something called Mind, and that Matter and Force 
 are but ideas in that One Mind. Theologians claim that 
 this One is a something called a personal God, to 
 whom they attribute certain qualities, characteristics, 
 etc., the same varying with their creeds and dogmas. 
 The Naturistic school claims that this One is a some- 
 thing called Nature, which is constantly manifesting 
 itself in countless forms. The occultists, in their va- 
 rying schools, Oriental and Occidental, have taught 
 that the One was a Being whose Life constituted the 
 life of all living forms. 
 
 All philosophies, all science, all religions, inform 
 us that this world of shapes, forms and names is but 
 a phenomenal or shadow world — a show-world — back 
 of which rests Reality, called by some name of the 
 teacher. But remember this, all philosophy that 
 counts is based upon some form of monism — Oneness 
 — whether the concept be a known or unknown god; 
 an unknown or unknowable principle ; a substance ; an 
 Energy, or Spirit. There is but One — there can be 
 but One — such is the inevitable conclusion of the 
 highest human reason, intuition or faith. 
 
 And, likewise, the same reason informs us that 
 
 this One Life must permeate all apparent forms of life, 
 and that all apparent material forms, forces, energies, 
 
6 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 and principles must be emanations from that One, 
 ! and, consequently "of" it. It may be objected to, that 
 the creeds teaching a personal god do not so hold, for 
 they teach that their God is the creator of the Universe, 
 which he has set aside from himself as a workman sets 
 aside his workmanship. But this objection avails 
 naught, for where could such a creator obtain the ma- 
 terial for his universe, except from himself ; and where 
 the energy, except from the same source; and where 
 the Life, unless from his One Life. So in the end, 
 it is seen that there must be but One — not two, even 
 if we prefer the terms God and his Universe, for even 
 in this case the Universe must have proceeded from 
 God, and can only live, and move and act, and think, 
 by virtue of his Essence permeating it. 
 
 In passing by the conceptions of the various think- 
 ers, we are struck by the fact that the various schools 
 seem to manifest a one-sidedness in their theories, 
 seeing only that which fits in with their theories, and 
 ignoring the rest. The Materialist talks about In- 
 finite and Eternal Matter, although the latest scientific 
 investigations have shown us Matter fading into 
 Nothingness — the Eternal Atom being split into count- 
 less particles called Corpuscles or Electrons, which at 
 the last seem to be nothing but a unit of Electricity, 
 tied up in a "knot in the Ether" — although just what 
 the Ether is, Science does not dare to guess. And 
 Energy, also seems to be unthinkable except as operat- 
 ing through matter, and always seems to be acting 
 under the operation of Laws — and Laws without a 
 
THE ONE. 7 
 
 Law giver, and a Law giver without mind or some- 
 thing higher than Mind, is unthinkable. And Mind, 
 as we know it, seems to be bound up with matter and 
 energy in a wonderful combination, and is seen to be 
 subject to laws outside of itself, and to be varying, 
 inconstant, and changeable, which attributes cannot 
 be conceived of as belonging to the Absolute. Mind 
 as we know it, as well as Matter and Energy, is held 
 by the highest occult teachers to be but an appearance 
 and a relativity of something far more fundamental 
 and enduring, and we are compelled to fall back upon 
 that old term which wise men have used in order to 
 describe that Something Else that lies back of, and 
 under, Matter, Energy and Mind — and that word is 
 "Spirit." 
 
 We cannot tell just what is meant by the word 
 "Spirit," for we have nothing with which to describe 
 it. But we can think of it as meaning the "essence" 
 of Life and Being — the Reality underlying Universal 
 Life. 
 
 Of course no name can be given to this One, that 
 will fitly describe it. But we have used the term "The 
 Absolute" in our previous lessons, and consider it ad- 
 visable to continue its use, although the student may 
 substitute any other name that appeals to him more 
 strongly. We do not use the word God (except occa- 
 sionally in order to bring out a shade of meaning) not 
 because we object to it, but because by doing so we 
 would run the risk of identifying The Absolute with 
 some idea of a personal god with certain theological 
 
8 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 attributes. Nor does the word "Principle" appeal to 
 us, for it seems to imply a cold, unfeeling, abstract 
 thing, while we conceive the Absolute Spirit or Being 
 to be a warm, vital, living, acting, feeling Reality. 
 We do not use the word Nature, which many prefer, 
 because of its materialistic meaning to the minds of 
 many, although the word is very dear to us when re- 
 ferring to the outward manifestation of the Absolute 
 Life. 
 
 Of the real nature of The Absolute, of course, we 
 can know practically nothing, because it transcends all 
 human experience and Man has nothing with which 
 he can measure the Infinite. Spinoza was right when 
 he said that "to define God is to deny him," for any 
 attempt to define, is, of course an attempt to limit or 
 make finite the Infinite. To define a thing is to identify 
 it with something else — and where is the something else 
 with which to identify the Infinite^ The Absolute 
 cannot be described in terms of the Relative. It is 
 not Something, although it contains within itself the 
 reality underlying Everything. It cannot be said to 
 have the qualities of any of its apparently separated 
 parts, for it is the ALL. It is all that really IS. 
 — It is beyond Matter, Force, or Mind as we know it, 
 and yet these things emanate from it, and must be 
 within its nature. For what is in the manifested must 
 be in the manifestor — no stream can rise higher than 
 its source — the effect cannot be greater than the cause 
 — you cannot get something out of nothing. 
 
 But it is hard for the human mind to take hold of 
 
THE ONE. y 
 
 That which is beyond its experience — many philoso- 
 phers consider- it impossible — and so we must think of 
 the Absolute in the concepts and terms of its highest 
 manifestation. We find Mind higher in the scale than 
 Matter or Energy, and so we are justified in using 
 the terms of Mind in speaking of the Absolute, rather 
 than the terms of Matter or Energy — so let us try to 
 think of an Infinite Mind, whose powers and capaci- 
 ties are raised to an infinite degree — a Mind of which 
 Herbert Spencer said that it was "a mode of being as 
 much transcending intelligence and will, as these 
 transcend mere mechanical motion." 
 
 While it is true (as all occultists know) that the 
 best information regarding the Absolute come from 
 regions of the Self higher than Intellect, yet we are 
 in duty bound to examine the reports of the Intellect 
 concerning its information regarding the One. The 
 Intellect has been developed in us for use — for the pur- 
 pose of examining, considering, thinking — and it be- 
 hooves us to employ it. By turning it to this purpose, 
 we not only strengthen and unfold it, but we also get 
 certain information that can reach us by no other 
 channel. And moreover, by such use of the Intellect 
 we are able to discover many fallacies and errors that 
 have crept into our minds from the opinions and dog- 
 mas of others — as Kant said : "The chief, and perhaps 
 the only, use of a philosophy of pure reason is a nega- 
 tive one. It is not an organon for extending, but a 
 discipline for limiting! Instead of discovering truth, 
 
io GNANI YOGA. 
 
 its modest function is to guard against error." Let 
 us then listen to the report of the Intellect, as well as 
 of the higher fields of mentation. 
 
 One of the first reports of the Intellect, concerning 
 the Absolute, is that it must have existed forever, and 
 must continue to exist forever. There is no escape 
 from this conclusion, whether one view the matter 
 from the viewpoint of the materialist, philosopher, 
 occultist, or theologian. The Absolute could not have 
 sprung from Nothing, and there was no other cause 
 outside of itself from which it could have emanated 
 And there can be no cause outside of itself which can 
 terminate its being. And we cannot conceive of In- 
 finite Life, or Absolute Life, dying. So the Absolute 
 must be Eternal — such is the report of the Intellect. 
 
 This idea of the Eternal is practically unthinkable to 
 the human mind, although it is forced to believe that 
 it must be a quality of the Absolute. The trouble 
 arises from the fact that the Intellect is compelled to 
 see everything through the veil of Time, and Cause 
 and Effect. Now, Cause and Effect, and Time, are 
 merely phenomena or appearances of the relative 
 world, and have no place in the Absolute and Real. 
 Let us see if we can understand this. 
 
 Reflection will show you that the only reason that 
 you are unable to think of or picture a Causeless 
 Cause, is because everything that you have experi- 
 enced in this relative world of the senses has had a 
 cause — something from which it sprung. You have 
 seen Cause and Effect in full operation all about you, 
 
THE ONE. ii 
 
 and quite naturally your Intellect has taken it for 
 granted that there can be nothing uncaused — nothing 
 without a preceding cause. And the Intellect is per- 
 fectly right, so far as Things are concerned, for all 
 Things are relative and are therefore caused. But 
 back of the caused things must lie THAT which is 
 the Great Causer of Things, and which, not being a 
 Thing itself, cannot have been caused — cannot be the 
 effect of a cause. Your minds reel when you try to 
 form a mental image of That which has had no cause, 
 because you have had no experience in the sense world 
 of such a thing, and there fail to form the image. It is 
 out of your experience, and you cannot form the 
 mental picture. But yet your mind is compelled to 
 believe that there must have been an Original One, that 
 can have had no cause. This is a hard task for the In- 
 tellect, but in time it comes to see just where the 
 trouble lies, and ceases to interpose objections to the 
 voice of the higher regions of the self. 
 
 And, the Intellect experiences a similar difficulty 
 when it tries to think of an Eternal — a That which is 
 above and outside of Time. We see Time in operation 
 everywhere, and take it for granted that Time is a 
 reality— an actual thing. But this is a mistake of the 
 senses. There is no such thing as Time, in reality. 
 Time exists solely in our minds. It is merely a form 
 of perception by which we express our consciousness 
 of the Change in Things. 
 
 We cannot think of Time except in connection with 
 a succession of changes of things in our consciousness 
 
12 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 — either things of the outer world, or the passing of 
 thought-things through our mind. A day is merely 
 the consciousness of the passing of the sun — an hour 
 or minute merely the subdivision of the day, or else 
 the consciousness of the movement of the hands of the 
 clock — merely the consciousness of the movement of 
 Things — the symbols of changes in Things. In a 
 world without changes in Things, there would be no 
 such thing as Time. Time is but a mental invention. 
 Such is the report of the Intellect. 
 
 And, besides the conclusions of pure abstract reason- 
 ing about Time, we may see many instances of the 
 relativity of Time in our everyday experiences. We 
 all know that when we are interested Time seems to 
 pass rapidly, and when we are bored it drags along in 
 a shameful manner. We know that when we are 
 happy, Time develops the speed of a meteor, while 
 when we are unhappy it crawls like a tortoise. When 
 we are interested or happy our attention is largely 
 diverted from the changes occurring in things — be- 
 cause we do not notice the Things so closely. And 
 while we are miserable or bored, we notice the de- 
 tails in Things, and their changes, until the length 
 of time seems interminable. A tiny insect mite may, 
 and does, live a lifetime of birth, growth, marriage, 
 reproduction, old age, and death, in a few minutes, 
 and no doubt its life seems as full as does that of the 
 elephant with his hundred years. Why? Because so 
 many things have happened! When we are conscious 
 of many things happening, we get the impression and 
 
THE ONE. 13 
 
 sensation of the length of time. The greater the con- 
 sciousness of things, the greater the sensation of 
 Time. When we are so interested in talking to a 
 loved one that we forget all that is occurring about 
 us, then the hours fly by unheeded, while the same 
 hours seem like days to one in the same place who is 
 not interested or occupied with some task. 
 
 Men have nodded, and in the second before awak- 
 ening they have dreamed of events that seemed to 
 have required the passage of years. Many of you 
 have had experiences of this kind, and many such cases 
 have been recorded by science. On the other hand, 
 one may fall asleep and remain unconscious, but withh 
 out dreams, for hours, and upon awakening will insist 
 that he has merely nodded. Time belongs to the rela- 
 tive mind, and has no place in the Eternal or Abso- 
 lute. 
 
 Next, the Intellect informs us that it must think 
 of the Absolute as Infinite in Space — present every- 
 jwhere — Omnipresent. It cannot be limited, for there 
 is nothing outside of itself to limit it. There is no 
 such place as Nowhere. Every place is in the Every- 
 where. And Everywhere is filled with the All — the 
 Infinite Reality — the Absolute. 
 
 And, just as was the case with the idea of Time, 
 we find it most difficult — if not indeed impossible— to 
 form an jdeajDi^an^mnipresent-^of That w hich o c- 
 cupies Infinite Space. This because everything that 
 our minds have experienced has had dimensions and 
 limits. The secret lies in the fact that Sp ace, l ike 
 
14 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 Time, has no real existence outside of our per- 
 ception of consciousness of the relative position of 
 Things — material objects. We see this thing here, 
 and that thing there. Between them is Nothingness. 
 We take another object, say a yard-stick, and meas- 
 ure off this Nothingness between the two objects, and 
 we call this measure of Nothingness by the term 
 Distance. And yet we cannot have measured Noth- 
 ingness — that is impossible. What have we really 
 done? Simply this, determined how many lengths 
 of yard-stick could be laid between the other two 
 objects. 
 
 We call this process measuring Space, but Space 
 is Nothing, and we have merely determined the rela- 
 tive position of objects. To ^measure Space" we 
 must have three Things or objects, i. e., (i) The ob- 
 ject f rom which we start the measure ; (2) The ob- 
 ject with which we measure ; and (3) The object 
 with which we end our measurement. We are unable 
 to conceive of Infinite Space, because we lack the 
 third object in the measuring process — the ending 
 object We may use ourselves as a starting point, and 
 the mental yard-stick is always at hand, but where 
 is the object at the other side of Infinity of Space by 
 which the measurement may be ended? It is not 
 there, and we cannot think of the end without it. 
 
 Let us start with ourselves, and try to imagine a 
 million million miles, and then multiply them by an- 
 other million million miles, a million million times. 
 What have we done? Simply extended our mental 
 
THE ONE. IS 
 
 yard-stick a certain number of times to an imaginary 
 point in the Nothingness that we call Space. So far 
 so good, but the mind intuitively recognizes that be- 
 yond that imaginary point at the end of the last yard- 
 stick, there is a capacity for an infinite extension of 
 yard-sticks — an infinite capacity for such extension. 
 Extension of what ? Space ? No ! Yard-sticks ! Ob- 
 jects! Things! Without material objects Space is 
 unthinkable. It has no existence outside of our con- 
 sciousness of Things. There is no such thing as Real 
 Space. Space is merely an infinite capacity for ex- 
 tending objects. Space itself is merely a name for 
 Nothingness. If you can form an idea of an object 
 swept out of existence, and nothing to take its place, 
 that Nothing would be called Space, the term implying 
 the possibility of placing something there without dis- 
 placing anything else. 
 
 Size, of course, is but another form of speaking of 
 Distance. And in this connection let us not forget 
 that just as one may think of Space being infinite in 
 the direction of largeness, so may we think of it as 
 being infinite in the sense of smallness. No matter 
 how small may be an object thought of, we are still 
 able to think of it as being capable of subdivision, and 
 so on infinitely. There is no limit in this direction 
 either. As Jakob has said : "The conception of the 
 infinitely minute is as little capable of being grasped by 
 us, as is that of the infinitely great. Despite this, the 
 admission of the reality of the infinitude, both in the 
 direction of greatness and of minuteness, is inevitable." 
 
*$ GNANI YOGA. 
 
 And, as Radenhausen has said: "The idea of Space 
 is only an unavoidable illusion of our Consciousness, 
 or of our finite nature, and does not exist outside of 
 ourselves; the universe is infinitely small and in- 
 finitely great." 
 
 - The telescope has opened to us ideas of magnificent 
 vastness and greatness, and the perfected microscope 
 has opened to us a world of magnificent smallness 
 and minuteness. The latter has shown us that a drop 
 of water is a world of minute living forms who live, 
 eat, fight, reproduce, and die. The mind is capable 
 of imagining a universe occupying no more space 
 than one million-millionth of the tiniest speck visible 
 under the strongest microscope — and then imagining 
 such a universe containing millions of suns and worlds 
 similar to our own, and inhabited by living forms akin 
 to ours — living, thinking men and women, identical 
 in every respect to ourselves. Indeed, as some philoso- 
 phers have said, if our Universe were suddenly re- 
 duced to such a size — the relative proportions of 
 everything being preserved, of course — then we would 
 not be conscious of any change, and life would go on 
 the same, and we would be of the same importance 
 to ourselves and to the Absolute as we are this mo- 
 ment. And the same would be true were the Uni- 
 verse suddenly enlarged a million-million times. These 
 changes would make no difference in reality. Com- 
 pared with each other, the tiniest speck and the largest 
 sun are practically the same size when viewed from 
 the Absolute. 
 
THE ONE. 17 
 
 We have dwelt upon these things so that you would 
 be able to better realize the relativity of Space and 
 Time, and perceive that they are merely symbols of 
 Things used by the mind in dealing with finite ob- 
 jects, and have no place in reality. When this is 
 realized, then the idea of Infinity in Time and Space 
 is more readily grasped. 
 
 As Radenhausen says: "Beyond the range of 
 human reason there is neither Space nor Time; they 
 are arbitrary conceptions of man, at which he has 
 arrived by the comparison and arrangement of differ- 
 ent impressions which he has received from the out- 
 side world. The conception of Space arises from the 
 sequence of the various forms which fill Space, by 
 which the external world appears to the individual 
 man. The conception of Time arises from the se- 
 quence of the various forms which change in space 
 (motion), by which the external world acts on the 
 individual man, and so on. But externally to our- 
 selves, the distinction between repletion of Space and 
 mutation of Space does not exist, for~each7 is in con- 
 stant transmutation, whatever is is filling and chang- 
 ing at the same time — nothing is at a standstill," and 
 to quote Ruckert: "The world has neither begin- 
 ning nor end, in space nor in time. Everywhere is 
 center and turning-point, and in a moment is eternity." 
 
 Next, the Intellect informs us that we must think 
 of the Absolute as containing within Itself all the 
 Power there is, because there can be no other source 
 or reservoir of Power, and there can be no Power out- 
 
18 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 side of the All-Power. There can be no Power out- 
 side of the Absolute to limit, confine, or conflict with 
 It. Any laws of the Universe must have been im- 
 posed by It, for there is no other law-giver, and every 
 manifestation of Energy, Force, or Power, perceived 
 or evident in Nature must be a part of the Power of 
 the Absolute working along lines laid down by it. 
 In the Third Lesson, which will be entitled The Will- 
 to-Live, we shall see this Power manifesting along 
 the lines of Life as we know it. 
 
 Next, the Intellect informs us that it is compelled 
 to think of the Absolute as containing within Itself all 
 possible Knowledge or Wisdom, because there can be 
 no Knowledge or Wisdom outside of It, and therefore 
 all the Wisdom and Knowledge possible must be 
 within It. We see Mind, Wisdom, and Knowledge 
 manifested by relative forms of Life, and such must 
 emanate from the Absolute in accordance with cer- 
 tain laws laid down by It, for otherwise there would 
 be no such wisdom, etc., for there is nowhere outside 
 of the All from whence it could come. The effect 
 cannot be greater than the cause. If there is any- 
 thing unknown to the Absolute, then it will never be 
 known to finite minds. So, therefore, all knowl- 
 edge that Is, Has Been, or Can Be, must be now 
 vested in the One — the Absolute. 
 
 This does not mean that the Absolute thinks, in any 
 such sense~as does Man. The Absolute must Know, 
 without Thinking. It does not have to gather Knowl- 
 edge by the process of Thinking, as does Man — such 
 
THE ONE. 19 
 
 an Mea would be ridiculous, for from whence could 
 the Knowledge come outside of itself. When man 
 thinks he draws to himself Knowledge from the Uni- 
 versal source by the action of the Mind, but the 
 Absolute has only itself to draw on. So we cannot 
 imagine the Absolute compelled to Think as we do. 
 But, lest we be misunderstood regarding this phase 
 of the subject, we may say here that the highest 
 occult teachings inform us that the Absolute does 
 manifest a quality somewhat akin to what we would 
 call constructive thought, and that such "thoughts" 
 manifest into objectivity and manifestation, and be- 
 come Creation. Created Things, according to the 
 Occult teachings are "Thoughts of God." Do not let 
 this idea disturb you, and cause you to feel that you 
 are nothing, because you have been called into being 
 by a Thought of the Infinite One. Even a Thought 
 of that One would be intensely real in the relative 
 world — actually Real to all except the Absolute itself — 
 and even the Absolute knows that the Real part of 
 its Creations must be a part of itself manifested 
 through its thought, for the Thought of the Infinite 
 must be Real, and a part of Itself, for it cannot be 
 anything else, and to call it Nothing is merely to 
 juggle with words. The faintest Thought of the In- 
 finite One would be far more real than anything man 
 could create — as solid as the mountain — as hard as 
 steel — as durable as the diamond — for, verily, even 
 these are emanations of the Mind of the Infinite, and 
 are things of but a day, while the higher Thoughts — 
 
20 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 the soul of Man — contains within itself a spark from 
 the Divine Flame itself — the Spirit of the Infinite. 
 But these things will appear in their own place, as 
 we proceed with this series. We have merely given 
 you a little food for thought at this point, in connec- 
 tion with the Mind of the Absolute. 
 
 So you see, good friends and students, that the In- 
 tellect in its highest efforts, informs us that it finds 
 itself compelled to report that the One — the Abso- 
 lute — ¥hat which it is compelled to admit really 
 exists — must be a One possessed of a nature so far 
 transcending human experience that the human mind 
 finds itself without the proper concepts, symbols, and 
 words with which to think of It. But none the less, 
 the Intellect finds itself bound by its own laws to 
 postulate the existence of such an One. 
 
 It is the veriest folly to try to think of the One as 
 It is "in Itself" — for we have nothing but human 
 attributes with which to measure it, and It so far 
 transcends such measurements that the mental yard- 
 sticks run out into infinity and are lost sight of. The 
 highest minds of the race inform us that the most 
 exalted efforts of their reason compels them to report 
 that the One — in Itself — cannot be spoken of as pos- 
 sessing attributes or qualities capable of being ex- 
 pressed in human words employed to describe the 
 Things of the relative world — and all of our words 
 are such. All of our words originate from such 
 ideas, and all of our ideas arise from our experience, 
 directly or indirectly. So we are not equipped with 
 
THE ONE. 21 
 
 words with which to think of or speak of that which 
 transcends experience, although our Intellect informs 
 us that Reality lies back of our experience. 
 jt Philosophy finds itself unable to do anything better 
 than to bring us face to face with high paradoxes. 
 Science in its pursuit of Truth finds it cunningly 
 avoiding it, and ever escaping its net. And we be- 
 lieve that the Absolute purposely causes this to be, 
 that in the end Man may be compelled to look for the 
 Spirit within himself — the only place where he can 
 come in touch with it. This, we think, is the answer 
 to the Riddle of the Sphinx— "Look Within for that 
 which Thou needest." 
 
 But while the Spirit may be discerned only by look- 
 ing within ourselves, we find that once the mind 
 realizes that the Absolute Is, it will be able to see 
 countless evidences of its action and presence by 
 observing manifested Life without. All Life is filled 
 with the Life Power and Will of the Absolute. 
 
 To us Life is but One — the Universe is a living 
 Unity, throbbing, thrilling and pulsating with the 
 Will-to-Live of the Absolute. Back of all apparent 
 shapes, forms, names, forces, elements, principles and 
 substances, there is but One — One Life, present every- 
 where, and manifesting in an infinitude of shapes, 
 forms, and forces. All individual lives are but cen- 
 ters of consciousness in the One Life underlying, de- 
 pending upon it for degree of unfoldment, expression 
 and manifestation. 
 
 This may sound like Pantheism to some, but it 5s 
 
22 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 very different from the Pantheism of the schools and 
 cults. Pantheism is defined as "the doctrine that God 
 consists in the combined forces and laws manifested 
 in the existing Universe," or that "the Universe taken 
 or conceived as a whole is God." These definitions do 
 not fit the conception of the Absolute, of the Yogi 
 Philosophy — they seem to breathe but a refined ma- 
 terialism. The Absolute is not "the combined forces 
 and laws manifested in the universe," nor "the uni- 
 verse conceived as a whole." Instead, the Universe, 
 its forces and laws, even conceived as a whole, have 
 no existence in themselves, but are mere manifestations 
 of the Absolute. Surely this is different from Pan- 
 theism. 
 
 We teach that the Absolute is immanent in, and 
 abiding in all forms of Life in the Universe, as well as 
 in its forces and laws — all being but manifestations of 
 the Will of the One. And we teach that this One is 
 superior to all forms of manifestations, and that Its 
 existence and being does not depend upon the mani- 
 festations, which are but effects of the Cause. 
 
 The Pantheistic Universe — God is but a thing of 
 phenomenal appearance, but the Absolute is the very 
 Spirit of Life — a Living, Existing Reality, and would 
 be so even if every manifestation were withdrawn 
 from appearance and expression — drawn back into 
 the source from which it emanated. The Absolute is 
 more than Mountain or Ocean — Electricity or Gravi- 
 tation—Monad or Man— It is SPIRIT— LIFE— BE- 
 
THE ONE. 23 
 
 ING— REALITY— the ONE THAT IS. Omnipo- 
 tent, Omnipresent ; Omniscient ; Eternal ; Infinite ; Ab- 
 solute; these are Man's greatest words, and yet they 
 but feebly portray a shadow thrown by the One Itself. 
 
 The Absolute is not a far-away Being directing our 
 affairs at long range — not an absentee Deity — but an 
 Immanent Life in and about us all — manifesting in us 
 and creating us into individual centers of conscious- 
 ness, in pursuance with some great law of being. 
 
 And, more than this, the Absolute instead of being 
 an indiffrent and unmoved spectator to its own cre- 
 ation, is a thriving, longing, active, suffering, re- 
 joicing, feeling Spirit, partaking of the feelings of its 
 manifestations, rather than callously witnessing them. 
 It lives in us — with us — through us. Back of all the 
 pain in the world may be found a great feeling and 
 suffering love. The pain of the world is not punish- 
 ment or evidence of divine wrath, but the incidents 
 of the working out of some cosmic plan, in which the 
 Absolute is the Actor, through the forms of Its mani- 
 festations. 
 
 The message of the Absolute to some of the 
 Illumined has been, "All is being done in the best and 
 only possible way — I am doing the best I can — all is 
 well — and in the end will so appear." 
 
 The Absolute is no personal Deity — yet in itself it 
 contains all that goes to make up all personality and 
 all human relations. Father, Mother, Child, Friend, 
 Lover — all is in It. All forms of human love and 
 
24 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 craving for sympathy, understanding and companion- 
 ship may find refuge in loving the Absolute. 
 
 The Absolute is constantly in evidence in our lives, 
 and yet we have been seeking it here and there in the 
 outer world, asking it to show itself and prove Its ex- 
 istence. Well may it say to us: "Hast thou been 
 so long time with me, and hast thou not known me?" 
 This is the great tragedy of Life, that the Spirit 
 comes to us — Its own — and we know It not. We 
 fail to hear Its words: "Oh, ye who mourn, I suffer 
 with you and through you. Yea, it is I who grieve in 
 you. Your pain is mine — to the last pang. I suffer 
 all pain through you — and yet I rejoice beyond you, 
 for I know that through you, and with you, I shall 
 conquer." 
 
 And this is a faint idea of what we believe the 
 Absolute to be. In the following lessons we shall see 
 it in operation in all forms of life, and in ourselves. 
 We shall get close to the workings of Its mighty 
 Will — close to Its Heart of Love. 
 
 Carry with you the Central Thought of the Lesson : 
 CENTRAL THOUGHT. There is but One Life in 
 the Universe. And underlying that One Life — Its Real 
 Self — Its Essence — Its Spirit — is The Absolute, living, 
 feeling, suffering, rejoicing, longing, striving, in and 
 through us. The Absolute is all that really Is, and 
 all the visible Universe and forms of Life is Its ex- 
 pression, through Its Will. We lack words adequate 
 to describe the nature of the Absolute, but we will use 
 two words describing its inmost nature as best we 
 
THE ONE. 25 
 
 see it. These two words are LIFE and LOVE, the 
 one describing the outer, the other the inner nature. 
 Let us manifest both Life and Love as a token of our 
 origin and inner nature. Peace be with you. 
 
THE SECOND LESSON 
 
 Omnipresent Life. 
 
 In our First Lesson of this series, we brought out 
 the idea that the human mind was compelled to re- 
 port the fact that it could not think of The Absolute 
 except as possessing the quality of Omnipresence — 
 Present-Everywhere. And, likewise, the human mind 
 is compelled to think that all there IS must be The 
 Absolute, or of the Absolute. And if a thing is of 
 the Absolute, then the Absolute must be in it, in some 
 way — must be the essence of it. Granting this, we 
 must then think that everything must be filled with 
 the essence of Life, for Life must be one of the qual- 
 ities of the Absolute, or rather what we call Life must 
 be the outward expression of the essential Being of 
 the Absolute. And if this be so, then it would follow 
 that everything in the Universe must be Alive. The 
 mind cannot escape this conclusion. And if the facts 
 do not bear out this conclusion then we must be forced 
 to admit that the entire basic theory of the Absolute 
 and its emanations must fall, and be considered as an 
 error. No chain is stronger than its weakest link, and 
 if this link be too weak to bear the weight of the facts 
 of the universe, then must the chain be discarded as 
 imperfect and useless, and another substituted. This 
 fact is not generally mentioned by those speaking and 
 writing of All being One, or an emanation of the One, 
 but it must be considered and met. If there is a single 
 thing in the Universe that is "dead" — non-living — 
 lifeless — then the theory must fall. If a thing is non- 
 47 
 
28 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 living, then the essence of the Absolute cannot be in 
 it — it must be alien and foreign to the Absolute, and 
 in that case the Absolute cannot be Absolute for there 
 is something outside of itself. And so it becomes of 
 the greatest importance to examine into the evidences 
 of the presence of Life in all things, organic or in- 
 organic. The evidence is at hand — let us examine it. 
 
 The ancient occultists of all peoples always taught 
 that the Universe was Alive — that there was Life in 
 everything — that there was nothing dead in Nature — 
 that Death meant simply a change in form in the ma- 
 terial of the dead bodies. They taught that Life, in 
 varying degrees of manifestation and expression, was 
 present in everything and object, even down to the 
 hardest mineral form, and the atoms composing that 
 form. 
 
 Modern Science is now rapidly advancing to the 
 same position, and each months investigations and dis- 
 coveries serve only to emphasize the teachings. 
 
 Burbank, that wonderful moulder of plant life, has 
 well expressed this thought, when he says: "All my 
 investigations have led me away from the idea of a 
 dead material universe tossed about by various forces, 
 to that of a universe which is absolutely all force, life, 
 soul, thought, or whatever name we may choose to call 
 it. Every atom, molecule, plant, animal or planet, is 
 only an aggregation of organized unit forces, held in 
 place by stronger forces, thus holding them for a time 
 latent, though teeming with inconceivable power. All 
 life on our planet is, so to speak, just on the outer 
 
OMNIPRESENT LIFE. 29 
 
 fringe of this infinite ocean of force. The universe is 
 not half dead, but all alive." 
 
 Science today is gazing upon a living universe. She 
 has not yet realized the full significance of what she 
 has discovered, and her hands are raised as if to shade 
 her eyes from the unaccustomed glare that is bursting 
 upon her. From the dark cavern of universal dead 
 matter, she has stepped out into the glare of the noon- 
 day sun of a Universe All-Alive even to its smallest 
 and apparently most inert particle. 
 
 Beginning at Man, the highest form of Life known 
 to us, we may pass rapidly down the scale of animal 
 life, seeing life in full operation at each descending 
 step. Passing from the animal to the vegetable king- 
 dom, we still see Life in full operation, although in 
 lessened degrees of expression. We shall not stop 
 here to review the many manifestations of Life among 
 the forms of plant-life, for we shall have occasion to 
 mention them in our next lesson, but it must be ap- 
 parent to all that Life is constantly manifesting in the 
 sprouting of seeds; the putting forth of stalk, leaves, 
 blossoms, fruit, etc., and in the enormous manifesta- 
 tion of force and energy in such growth and develop- 
 ment. One may see the life force in the plant press- 
 ing forth for expression and manifestation, from the 
 first sprouting of the seed, until the last vital action on 
 the part of the mature plant or tree. 
 
 Besides the vital action observable in the growth 
 and development of plants, we know, of course, that 
 plants sicken and die, and manifest all other attributes 
 
3Q GNANI YOGA. 
 
 of living forms. There is no room for argument about 
 the presence of life in the plant kingdom. 
 
 But there are other forms of life far below the scale 
 of the plants. There is the world of the bacteria, mi- 
 crobes, infusoria — the groups of cells with a common 
 life — the single cell creatures, down to the Monera, 
 the creatures lower than the single cells — the Things 
 of the slime of the ocean bed. 
 
 These tiny Things — living Things — present to the 
 sight merely a tiny speck of jelly, without organs of 
 any kind. And yet they exercise all the functions of 
 life — movement, nutrition, reproduction, sensation, 
 and dissolution. Some of these elementary forms are 
 all stomach, that is they are all one organ capable of 
 performing all the functions necessary for the life of 
 the animal. The creature has no mouth, but when it 
 wishes to devour an object it simply envelopes it — 
 wraps itself around it like a bit of glue around a gnat, 
 and then absorbs the substance of its prey through its 
 whole body. 
 
 Scientists have turned some of these tiny creatures 
 inside out, and yet they have gone on with their life 
 functions undisturbed and untroubled. They have cut 
 them up into still tinier bits, and yet each bit lived on 
 as a separate animal, performing all of its functions 
 undisturbed. They are all the same all over, and all 
 the way through. They reproduce themselves by 
 growing to a certain size, and then separating into 
 two, and so on. The rapidity of the increase is most 
 remarkable. 
 
OMNIPRESENT LIFE. 31 
 
 Haekel says of the Monera: "The Monera are the 
 simplest permanent cytods. Their entire body con- 
 sists of merely soft, structureless plasm. However 
 thoroughly we may examine them with the help of the 
 most delicate reagents and the strongest optical in- 
 struments, we yet find that all the parts are completely 
 homogeneous. These Monera are therefore, in the 
 strictest sense of the word, 'organisms without or- 
 gans,' or even in a strict philosophical sense they 
 might not even be called organisms, since they pos- 
 sess no organs and since they are not composed of 
 various particles. They can only be called organ- 
 isms in so far as they are capable of exercising the 
 organic phenomena of life, of nutrition, reproduction, 
 sensation and movement." 
 
 Verworn records an interesting instance of life and 
 mind among the Rhizopods, a very low form of living 
 thing. He relates that the DiMugia ampula, a crea- 
 ture occupying a tiny shell formed of minute par- 
 ticles of sand, has a long projection of its substance, 
 like a feeler or tendril, with which it searches on the 
 bottom of the sea for sandy material with which to 
 build the shell or outer covering for its offspring, 
 which are born by division from the parent body. It 
 grasps the particle of sand by the feeler, and passes it 
 into its body by enclosing it. Verworn removed the 
 sand from the bottom of the tank, replacing it by 
 very minute particles of highly colored glass. Shortly 
 afterward he noticed a collection of these particles of 
 glass in the body of the creature, and a little later he 
 
32 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 saw a tiny speck of protoplasm emitted from the par- 
 ent by separation. At the same time he noticed that 
 the bits of glass collected by the mother creature were 
 passed out and placed around the body of the new 
 creature, and cemented together by a substance se- 
 creted by the body of the parent, thus forming a shell 
 and c'overing for the offspring. This proceeding 
 showed the presence of a mental something sufficient 
 to cause the creature to prepare a shell for the off- 
 spring previous to its birth — or rather to gather the 
 material for such shell, to be afterward used; to dis- 
 tinguish the proper material; to mould it into shape, 
 and cement it. The scientist reported that a crea- 
 ture always gathered just exactly enough sand for 
 its purpose — never too little, and never an excess. And 
 this in a creature that is little more than a tiny drop 
 of glue! 
 
 We may consider the life actions of the Moneron 
 a little further, for it is the lowest form of so-called 
 "living matter" — the point at which living forms pass 
 off into non-living forms (so-called). This tiny speck 
 of glue — an organism without organs — is endowed 
 with the faculty called sensation. It draws away from 
 that which is likely to injure it, and toward that which 
 it desires — all in response to an elementary sensation. 
 It has the instinct of self-preservation and self-pro- 
 tection. It seeks and finds its prey, and then eats, 
 digests and assimilates it. It is able to move about by 
 "false-feet," or bits of its body which it pushes forth 
 at will from any part of its substance. It reproduces 
 itself, as we have seen, by separation and self-division. 
 
OMNIPRESENT LIFE. 33 
 
 The life of the bacteria and germs — the yeasty forms 
 of life — are familiar to many of us. And yet there 
 are forms of life still below these. The line between 
 living forms and non-living forms is being set back 
 further and further by science. Living creatures are 
 now known that resemble the non-living so closely 
 that the line cannot be definitely drawn. 
 
 Living creatures are known that are capable of 
 being dried and laid away for several years, and then 
 may be revived by the application of moisture. They 
 resemble dust, but are full of life and function. Cer- 
 tain forms of bacilli are known to Science that have 
 been subjected to degrees of heat and cold that are 
 but terms to any but the scientific mind. 
 
 Low forms of life called Diatoms or "living crys- 
 tals" are known. They are tiny geometrical forms. 
 They are composed of a tiny drop of plasm, resembling 
 glue, covered by a thin shell of siliceous or sandy ma- 
 terial. They are visible only through the microscope, 
 and are so small that thousands of them might be 
 gathered together on the head of a pin. They are 
 so like chemical crystals that it requires a shrewd 
 and careful observer to distinguish them. And yet 
 they are alive, and perform all the functions of life. 
 
 Leaving these creatures, we enter the kingdom of 
 the crystals, in our search for life. Yes, the crystals 
 manifest life, as strange as this statement may appear 
 to those who have not followed the march of Science. 
 The crystals are born, grow, live, and may be killed 
 by chemicals or electricity. Science has added a new 
 
34 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 department called "Plasmology," the purpose of which 
 is the study of crystal life. Some investigators have 
 progressed so far as to claim that they have discov- 
 ered signs of rudimentary sex functioning among 
 crystals. At any rate, crystals are born and grow like 
 living things. As a recent scientific writer has said: 
 "Crystallization, as we are to learn now, is not a mere 
 mechanical grouping of dead atoms. It is a birth." 
 
 The crystal forms from the mother liquor, and its 
 body is built up systematically, regularly, and accord- 
 ing to a well defined plan or pattern, just as are the 
 body and bones of the animal form, and the wood and 
 bark of the tree. There is life at work in the growth 
 of the crystal. And not only does the crystal grow, 
 but it also reproduces itself by separation or splitting- 
 off, just as is the case with the lower forms of life, just 
 mentioned. 
 
 The principal point of difference between the growth 
 and development of the crystals and that of the lower 
 forms of life referred to is that the crystal takes its 
 nourishment from the outside, and builds up from its 
 outer surface, while the Monera absorbs its nourish- 
 ment from within, and grows outwardly from within. 
 If the crystal had a soft center, and took its nourish- 
 ment in that way, it would be almost identical with the 
 Diatom, or, if the Diatom grew from the outside, it 
 would be but a crystal. A very fine dividing line. 
 
 Crystals, like living forms, may be sterilized and 
 rendered incapable of reproduction by chemical pro- 
 cess, or electrical discharges. They may also be 
 
OMNIPRESENT LIFE. 35 
 
 "killed" and future growth prevented in this manner. 
 Surely this looks like "Life," does it not? 
 
 To realize the importance of this idea of life among 
 the crystals, we must remember that our hardest rocks 
 and metals are composed of crystals, and that the dirt 
 and earth upon which we grow and live are but 
 crumbled rock and miniature crystals. Therefore the 
 very dust under our feet is alive. There is nothing 
 dead. There is no transformation of "dead matter" 
 into live plant matter, and then into live animal mat- 
 ter. The chemicals are alive, and from chemical to 
 man's body there is but a continuous change of 
 shape and form of living matter. Any man's body, 
 decomposing, is again resolved into chemicals, and 
 the chain begins over again. Merely changes in living 
 forms — that's all, so far as the bodies are concerned. 
 
 Nature furnishes us with many examples of this 
 presence of life in the inorganic world. We have but 
 to look around to see the truth of the statement that 
 All is Alive. There is that which is known as the 
 "fatigue of elasticity" in metals. Razors get tired, 
 and require a rest. Tuning forks lose their powers of 
 vibration, to a degree, and have to be given a vaca- 
 tion. Machinery in mills and manufactories needs an 
 occasional day off. Metals are subject to disease and 
 infection, and have been poisoned and restored by anti- 
 dotes. Window glass, especially stained glass, is sub- 
 ject to a disease spreading from pane to pane. 
 
 Men accustomed to handling and using tools and 
 machinery naturally drop into the habit of speaking 
 
36 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 of these things as if they were alive. They seem to 
 recognize the presence of "feeling" in tools or ma- 
 chine, and to perceive in each a sort of "character" 
 or personality, which must be respected, humored, or 
 coaxed in order to get the best results. 
 
 Perhaps the most valuable testimony along these 
 lines, and which goes very far toward proving the 
 centuries-old theories of the Yogis regarding Omni- 
 present Life, comes from Prof. J. Chunder Bose, of 
 the Calcutta University, a Hindu educated in the Eng- 
 lish Universities, under the best teachers, and who is 
 now a leading scientific authority in the western world. 
 He has given to the world some very valuable scien- 
 tific information along these lines in his book entitled 
 "Response in the Living and Non-living" which has 
 caused the widest comment and created the greatest 
 interest among the highest scientific authorities. His 
 experiments along the lines of the gathering of evi- 
 dence of life in the inorganic forms have revolution- 
 ized the theories of modern science, and have done 
 much to further the idea that life is present every- 
 where, and that there is no such thing as dead matter. 
 
 He bases his work upon the theory that the best and 
 only true test for the presence of life in matter is the 
 response of matter to external stimulus. Proceeding 
 from this fundamental theory he has proven by in- 
 numerable experiments that so-called inorganic mat- 
 ter, minerals, metals, etc., give a response to such 
 stimulus, which response is similar, if not identical, 
 to the response of the matter composing the bodies of 
 plants, animals, men. 
 
OMNIPRESENT LIFE. 37 
 
 He devised delicate apparatus for the measurement 
 of the response to the outside stimulus, the degree, and 
 other evidence being recorded in traces on a revolving 
 cylinder. The tracings or curves obtained from tin 
 and other metals, when compared with those obtained 
 from living muscle, were found to be identical. He 
 used a galvanometer, a very delicate and accurate sci- 
 entific instrument, in his experiments. This instru- 
 ment is so finely adjusted that the faintest current will 
 cause a deflection of the registering needle, which is 
 delicately swung on a tiny pivot. If the galvanometer 
 be attached to a human nerve, and the end of the 
 nerve be irritated, the needle will register. 
 
 Prof. Bose found that when he attached the gal- 
 vanometer to bars of various metals they gave a simi- 
 lar response when struck or twisted. The greater the 
 irritation applied to the metal, the greater the response 
 registered by the instrument. The analogy between 
 the response of the metal and that of the living muscle 
 was startling. For instance, just as in the case of the 
 living animal muscle or nerve matter, the response be- 
 comes fatigued, so in the case of the metal the curve 
 registered by the needle became fainter and still 
 fainter, as the bar became more and more fatigued by 
 the continued irritation. And again, just after such 
 fatigue the muscle would become rested, and would 
 again respond actively, so would the metal when given 
 a chance to recuperate. 
 
 Tetanus due to shocks constantly repeated, was 
 caused and recovered. Metals recorded evidences of 
 
38 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 fatigue. Drugs caused identical effects on metals and 
 animals — some exciting; some depressing; some kill- 
 ing. Some poisonous chemicals killed pieces of metal, 
 rendering them immobile and therefore incapable of 
 registering records on the apparatus. In some cases 
 antidotes were promptly administered, and saved the 
 life of the metal. 
 
 Prof. Bose also conducted experiments on plants in 
 the same way. Pieces of vegetable matter were found to 
 be capable of stimulation, fatigue, excitement, depres- 
 sion, poison. Mrs. Annie Besant, who witnessed some of 
 these experiments in Calcutta, has written as follows 
 regarding the experiments on plant life: "There is 
 something rather pathetic in seeing the way in which 
 the tiny spot of light which records the pulses in the 
 plant, travels in ever weaker and weaker curves, when 
 the plant is under the influence of poison, then falls 
 into a final despairing straight line, and — stops. One 
 feels as though a murder has been committed — as in- 
 deed it has." 
 
 In one of Prof. Bose's public experiments he clearly 
 demonstrated that a bar of iron was fully as sensitive 
 as the human body, and that it could be irritated and 
 stimulated in the same way, and finally could be 
 poisoned and killed. "Among such phenomena," he 
 asks, "how can we draw the line of demarkation, and 
 say, 'Here the physical ends, and there the physiologi- 
 cal begins'? No such barrier exists." According to 
 his theory, which agrees with the oldest occult theories, 
 by the way, life is present in every object and form 
 
OMNIPRESENT LIFE. 39 
 
 of Nature, and all forms respond to external stimulus, 
 which response is a proof of the presence of life in the 
 form. 
 
 Prof. Bose's great book is full of the most startling 
 results of experiments. He proves that the metals 
 manifest something like sleep; can be killed; exhibit 
 torpor and sluggishness; get tired or lazy; wake up; 
 can be roused into activity; may be stimulated, 
 strengthened, weakened ; suffer from extreme cold and 
 heat; may be drugged or intoxicated, the different 
 metals manifesting a different response to certain 
 drugs, just as different men and animals manifest a 
 varying degree of similar resistance. The response of 
 a piece of steel subjected to the influence of a chemical 
 poison shows a gradual fluttering and weakening until 
 it finally dies away, just as animal matter does when 
 similarly poisoned. When revived in time by an anti- 
 dote, the recovery was similarly gradual in both metal 
 and muscle. A remarkable fact is noted by the sci- 
 entist when he tells us that the very poisons that kill 
 the metals are themselves alive and may be killed, 
 drugged, stimulated, etc., showing the same response 
 as in the case of the metals, proving the existence in 
 them of the same life that is in the metals and animal 
 matter that they influence. 
 
 Of course when these metals are "killed" there is 
 merely a killing of the metal as metal — the atoms and 
 principles of which the metal is composed remaining 
 fully alive and active, just as is the case with the 
 atom of the human body after the soul passes out— 
 
40 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 the body is as much alive after death as during the 
 life of the person, the activity of the parts being along 
 the lines of dissolution instead of construction in that 
 case. 
 
 We hear much of the claims of scientists who an- 
 nounce that they are on the eve of "creating life" from 
 non-living matter. This is all nonsense — life can come 
 only from life. Life from non-life is an absurdity. 
 And all Life comes from the One Life underlying All. 
 But it is true that Science has done, is doing, and will 
 do, something very much like "creating life," but of 
 course this is merely changing the form of Life into 
 other forms — the lesser form into the higher — just as 
 one produces a plant from a seed, or a fruit from a 
 plant. The Life is always there, and responds to the 
 proper stimulus and conditions. 
 
 A number of scientists are working on the problem 
 of generating living forms from inorganic matter. 
 The old idea of "spontaneous generation," for many 
 years relegated to the scrap-pile of Science, is again 
 coming to the front. Although the theory of Evolu- 
 tion compels its adherents to accept the idea that at 
 one time in the past living forms sprung from the 
 non-living (so-called), yet it has been generally be- 
 lieved that the conditions which brought about this 
 stage of evolution has forever passed. But the indi- 
 cations now all point to the other view that this stage 
 of evolution is, and always has been, in operation, and 
 that new forms of life are constantly evolving from 
 the inorganic forms. "Creation," so-called (although 
 
OMNIPRESENT LIFE. 41 
 
 the word is an absurdity from the Yogi point of view), 
 is constantly being performed. 
 
 Dr. Charlton Bastian, of London, Eng., has long 
 been a prominent advocate of this theory of contin- 
 uous spontaneous generation. Laughed down and 
 considered defeated by the leading scientific minds of 
 a generation ago, he still pluckily kept at work, and 
 his recent books were like bombshells in the orthodox 
 scientific camp. He has taken more than five thou- 
 sand photo-micrographs, all showing most startling 
 facts in connection with the origin of living forms 
 from the inorganic. He claims that the microscope 
 reveals the development in a previously clear liquid 
 of very minute black spots, which gradually enlarge 
 and transform into bacteria — living forms of a very 
 low order. Prof. Burke, of Cambridge, Eng., has 
 demonstrated that he may produce in sterilized boul- 
 lion, subjected to the action of sterilized radium 
 chloride, minute living bodies which manifest growth 
 and subdivision. Science is being gradually forced to 
 the conclusion that living forms are still arising in 
 the world by natural processes, which is not at all re- 
 markable when one remembers that natural law is 
 uniform and continuous. These recent discoveries go 
 to swell the already large list of modern scientific ideas 
 which correspond with the centuries-old Yogi teach- 
 ings. When the Occult explanation that there is Life 
 in everything, inorganic as well as organic, and that 
 evolution is constant, is heard, then may we see that 
 these experiments simply prove that the forms of life 
 
42 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 may be changed and developed — not that Life may be 
 "created." 
 
 The chemical and mineral world furnish us with 
 many instances of the growth and development of 
 forms closely resembling the forms of the vegetable 
 world. What is known as "metallic vegetation," as 
 shown in the "lead tree," gives us an interesting ex- 
 ample of this phenomenon. The experiment is per- 
 formed by placing in a wide-necked bottle a clear 
 acidulated solution of acetate of lead. The bottle is 
 corked, a piece of copper wire being fastened to the 
 cork, from which wire is suspended a piece of zinc, 
 the latter hanging as nearly as possible in the center 
 of the lead solution. When the bottle is corked the 
 copper wire immediately begins to surround itself 
 with a growth of metallic lead resembling fine moss. 
 From this moss spring branches and limbs, which in 
 turn manifest a growth similar to foliage, until at last 
 a miniature bush or tree is formed. Similar "metallic 
 vegetation" may be produced by other metallic solu- 
 tions. 
 
 All of you have noticed how crystals of frost form 
 on window panes in shapes of leaves, branches, foliage, 
 flowers, blossoms, etc. Saltpeter when subjected to 
 the effect of polarized light assumes forms closely re- 
 sembling the forms of the orchid. Nature is full of 
 these resemblances. 
 
 A German scientist recently performed a remark- 
 able experiment with certain metallic salts. He sub- 
 jected the salts to the action of a galvanic current, 
 
OMNIPRESENT LIFE. 4j 
 
 when to his surprise the particles of the salts grouped 
 themselves around the negative pole of the battery, 
 and then grew into a shape closely resembling a mini- 
 ature mushroom, with tiny stem and umbrella top. 
 These metallic mushrooms at first presented a trans- 
 parent appearance, but gradually developed color, the 
 top of the umbrella being a bright red, with a faint 
 rose shade on the under surface. The stems showed 
 a pale straw color. This was most interesting, but 
 the important fact of the experiment consists in the 
 discovery that these mushrooms have fine veins or 
 tubes running along the stems, through which the 
 nourishment, or additional material for growth, is 
 transported, so that the growth is actually from the 
 inside, just as is the case with fungus life. To all in- 
 tents and purposes, these inorganic metallic growths 
 were low forms of vegetable lite. 
 
 But the search for Life does not end with the forms 
 of the mineral world as we know them. Science has 
 separated the material forms into smaller forms, and 
 again still smaller. And if there is Life in the form 
 composed of countless particles, then must there be 
 Life in the particles themselves. For Life cannot 
 come from non-Life, and if there be not Life in th? 
 particles, the theory of Omnipresent Life must fan. 
 So we must look beyond the form and shape of the 
 mineral — mcst separate it into its constituent parts,, 
 and then examine the parts for indications of Life. 
 
 Science teaches us that all forms of matter are com- 
 prised of minute particles called molecules. A molecule 
 
44 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 is the smallest particle of matter that is possible, un- 
 less the chemical atoms composing the matter fly apart 
 and the matter be resolved into its original elements. 
 For instance, let us take the familiar instance of a 
 drop of water. Let us divide and subdivide the drop, 
 until at last we get to the smallest possible particle of 
 water. That smallest possible particle would be a 
 "molecule" of water. We cannot subdivide this mole- 
 cule without causing its atoms of hydrogen and oxygen 
 to fly apart — and then there would be no water at all. 
 Well, these molecules manifest a something called At- 
 traction for each other. They attract other molecules 
 of the same kind, and are likewise attracted. The 
 operation of this law of attraction results in the forma- 
 tion of masses of matter, whether those masses be 
 mountains of solid rock, or a drop of water, or a vol- 
 ume of gas. All masses of matter are composed of 
 aggregations of molecules, held together by the law 
 of attraction. This law of attraction is called Co- 
 hesion. This Cohesive Attraction is not a mere me- 
 chanical force, as many suppose, but is an exhibition 
 of Life action, manifesting in the presence of the 
 molecule of a "like" or "love" for the similar mole- 
 cule. And when the Life energies begin to manifest 
 on a certain plane, and proceed to mould the molecules 
 into crystals, so that we may see the actual process 
 under way, we begin to realize very clearly that there 
 is "something at work" in this building up. 
 
 But wonderful as this may seem to those unfamiliar 
 with the idea, the manifestation of Life among the 
 
OMNIPRESENT LIFE. 45 
 
 atoms is still more so. The atom, you will remember, 
 is the chemical unit which, uniting with other atoms, 
 makes up the molecule. For instance, if we take two 
 atoms of the gas called hydrogen and one atom of the 
 gas called oxygen, and place them near each other, 
 they will at once rush toward each other and form a 
 partnership, which is called a molecule of water. And 
 so it is with all atoms — they are continually forming 
 partnerships, or dissolving them. Marriage and di- 
 vorce is a part of the life of the atoms. These evi- 
 dences of attraction and repulsion among the atoms 
 are receiving much attention from careful thinkers, 
 and some of the most advanced minds of the age see 
 in this phenomena the corroboration of the old Yogi 
 idea that there is Life and vital action in the smallest 
 particles of matter. 
 
 The atoms manifest vital characteristics in their 
 attractions and repulsions. They move along the lines 
 of their attractions and form marriages, and thus com- 
 bining they form the substances with which we are 
 familiar. When they combine, remember, they do not 
 lose their individuality and melt into a permanent sub- 
 stance, but merely unite and yet remain distinct. If 
 the combination be destroyed by chemical action, elec- 
 trical discharge, etc., the atoms fly apart, and again live 
 their own separate lives, until they come in contact 
 with other atoms with which they have affinities, and 
 form a new union or partnership. In many chemical 
 changes the atoms divorce themselves, each forsaking 
 its mate or mates, and seeking some newer affinity in 
 
46 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 the shape of a more congenial atom. The atoms mani- 
 fest a fickleness and will always desert a lesser attrac- 
 tion for a greater one. This is no mere bit of imagery, 
 or scientific poetry. It is a scientific statement of the 
 action of atoms along the lines of vital manifestation. 
 
 The great German scientist, Haekel, has said: "I 
 cannot imagine the simplest chemical and physical 
 processes without attributing the movement of the 
 material particles to unconscious sensation. The idea 
 of Chemical Affinity consists in the fact that the vari- 
 ous chemical elements perceive differences in the 
 qualities of other elements, and experience pleasure or 
 revulsion at contact with them, and execute their 
 respective movements on this ground." He also says : 
 "We may ascribe the feeling of pleasure or pain (sat- 
 isfaction or dissatisfaction) to all atoms, and thereby 
 ascribe the elective affinities of chemistry to the at- 
 traction between living atoms and repulsion between 
 hating atoms." He also says that "the sensations in 
 animal and plant life are connected by a long series of 
 evolutionary stages with the simpler forms of sensa- 
 tion that we find in the inorganic elements, and that 
 reveal themselves in chemical affinity." Naegli says: 
 "If the molecules possess something that is related, 
 however distantly, to sensation, it must be comfortable 
 for them to be able to follow their attractions and re- 
 pulsions, and uncomfortable for them when they are 
 forced to do otherwise." 
 
 We might fill page after page with quotations from 
 eminent thinkers going to prove the correctness of 
 
OMNIPRESENT LIFE. 47 
 
 the old Yogi teachings that Life is Omnipresent. 
 Modern Science is rapidly advancing to this position, 
 leaving behind her the old idea of "dead matter." 
 Even the new theories of the electron — the little par- 
 ticles of electrical energy which are now believed to 
 constitute the base of the atom — does not change this 
 idea, for the electrons manifest attraction, and response 
 thereto, and form themselves into groups composing 
 the atom. And even if we pass beyond matter into 
 the mystical Ether which Science assumes to be the 
 material base of things, we must believe that there 
 is life there too, and that as Prof. Dolbear says : "The 
 Ether has besides the function of energy and motion, 
 other inherent properties, out of which could emerge, 
 under proper circumstances, other phenomena, such as 
 life, mind, or whatever may be in the substratum," 
 and, that as Prof. Cope has hinted, that the basis of 
 Life lies back of the atoms and may be found in the 
 Universal Ether. 
 
 Some scientists go even further, and assert that not 
 only is Life present in everything, but that Mind is 
 present where Life is. Verily, the dreams of the Yogi 
 fathers are coming true, and from the ranks of the 
 materialists are coming the material proofs of the 
 spiritual teachings. Listen to these words from Dr. 
 Saleeby, in his recent valuable scientific work, "Evo- 
 lution, the Master Key." He says : 
 
 "Life is potential in matter; life-energy is not a 
 thing unique and created at a particular time in the 
 past. If evolution be true, living matter has been 
 
48 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 evolved by natural processes from matter which is, 
 apparently, not alive. But if life is potential in mat- 
 ter, it is a thousand times more evident that Mind is 
 potential in Life. The evolutionist is impelled to be- 
 lieve that Mind is potential in matter. (I adopt that 
 form of words for the moment, but not without future 
 criticism.) The microscopic cell, a minute speck of 
 matter that is to become man, has in it the promise 
 and the germ of mind. May we not then draw the 
 inference that the elements of mind are present in 
 those chemical elements — carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, 
 nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, 
 chlorine — that are found in the cell. Not only must 
 we do so, but we must go further, since we know 
 that each of these elements, and every other, is built 
 up out of one invariable unit, the electron, and we 
 must therefore assert that Mind is potential in the 
 unit of Matter — the electron itself. * * * It is to 
 assert the sublime truth first perceived by Spinoza, 
 that Mind and Matter are the warp and woof of what 
 Goethe called 'the living garment of God.' Both are 
 complementary expressions of the Unknowable Re- 
 ality which underlies both." 
 
 There is no such thing as non-vital attraction or re- 
 pulsion. All inclinations for or against another ob- 
 ject, or thing, is an evidence of Life. Each thing has 
 sufficient life energy to enable it to carry on its work. 
 And as each form advances by evolution into a higher 
 form, it is able to have more of the Life energy mani- 
 fest through it. As its material machinery is built up, 
 
OMNIPRESENT LIFE. 49 
 
 it becomes able to manifest a greater and higher de- 
 gree of Life. It is not that one thing has a low life, 
 or another a high life — this cannot be, for there is but 
 One Life. It is like the current of electricity that is 
 able to run the most delicate machinery or manifest a 
 light in the incandescent lamp. Give it the organ or 
 machinery of manifestation, and it manifests — give it 
 a low form, and it will manifest a low degree — give it 
 a high form, and it will manifest a high degree. The 
 same steam power runs the clumsy engine, or the per- 
 fect apparatus which drives the most delicate mechan- 
 ism. And so it is with the One Life — its manifesta- 
 tions may seem low and clumsy, or high and perfect — 
 but it all depends upon the material or mental ma- 
 chinery through which it works. There is but One 
 Life, manifesting in countless forms and shapes, and 
 degrees. One Life underlying All — in All. 
 
 From the highest forms of Life down through the 
 animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms, we see Life 
 everywhere present — Death an illusion. Back of all 
 visible forms of material life there is still the begin- 
 nings of manifested life pressing forward for ex- 
 pression and manifestation. And underneath all is 
 the Spirit of Life — longing, striving, feeling, acting. 
 
 In the mountain and the ocean — the flower and the 
 tree — the sunset — the dawn — the suns — the stars — all 
 is Life — manifestations of the One Life. Everything 
 is Alive, quick with living force, power, action; 
 thrilling with vitality; throbbing with feeling; filled 
 with activity. All is from the One Life — and all that 
 
5Q GNANI YOGA. 
 
 is from the One Life is Alive. There is no dead sub- 
 stance in the Universe — there can be none — for Life 
 cannot Die. All is Alive. And Life is in All. 
 
 Carry with you this Central Thought of the Lesson : 
 CENTRAL THOUGHT: There is but One Life, 
 and its manifestations comprise all the forms anal 
 shapes of the Universe. From Life comes but Life — 
 and Life can come only from Life. Therefore we 
 have the right to expect that all manifestations of the 
 One Life should be Alive. And we are not mocked 
 in such belief. Not only do the highest Occult Teach- 
 ings inform us that Everything is Alive, but Modem 
 Science has proven to us that Life is present every- 
 where — even in that which was formerly considered 
 dead matter. It now sees that even the atom, and 
 what lies back of the atom, is charged with Life En- 
 ergy and Action. Forms and shapes may change, and 
 do change — but Life remains eternal and infinite. It 
 cannot Die — for it is LIFE. 
 Peace be with thee. 
 
THE THIRD LESSON 
 
 The Creative Will. 
 
 In our first lesson of this series, we stated that 
 among the other qualities and attributes that we were 
 compelled, by the laws of our reason, to think that 
 the Absolute possessed, was that of Omnipotence or 
 All-Power. In other words we are compelled to think 
 of the One as being the source and fount of all the 
 Power there is, ever has been, or ever can be in the 
 Universe. Not only, as is generally supposed, that the 
 Power of the One is greater than any other Power, — 
 but more than this, that there can be no other power, 
 and that, therefore, each and every, any and all mani- 
 festations or forms of Power, Force or Energy must 
 be a part of the great one Energy which emanates 
 from the One. 
 
 There is no escape from this conclusion, as startling 
 as it may appear to the mind unaccustomed to it. If 
 there is any power not from and of the One, from 
 whence comes such power, for there is nothing else 
 outside of the One? Who or what exists outside of 
 the One that can manifest even the faintest degree of 
 power of any kind? All power must come from the 
 Absolute, and must in its nature be but one. 
 
 Modern Science has recognized this truth, and one 
 of its fundamental principles is the Unity of Energy 
 — the theory that all forms of Energy are, at the last, 
 One. Science holds that all forms of Energy are in- 
 terchangeable, and from this idea comes the theory of 
 the Conservation of Energy or Corelation of Force. 
 
 S« 
 
52 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 Science teaches that every manifestation of energy, 
 power, or force, from the operation of the law of grav- 
 itation, up to the highest form of mental force is but 
 the operation of the One Energy of the Universe. 
 
 Just what this Energy is, in its inner nature, Science 
 does not know. It has many theories, but does not 
 advance any of them as a law. It speaks of the In- 
 finite and Eternal Energy from which all things pro- 
 ceed, but pronounces its nature to be unknowable. 
 But some of the latter-day scientists are veering around 
 to the teachings of the occultists, and are now hinting 
 that it is something more than a mere mechanical en- 
 ergy. They are speaking of it in terms of mind. 
 Wundt, the German scientist, whose school of thought 
 is called voluntarism, considers the motive-force of 
 Energy to be something that may be called Will. 
 Crusius, as far back as 1744 said: "Will is the dom- 
 inating force of the world." And Schopenhauer based 
 his fascinating but gloomy philosophy and metaphysics 
 upon the underlying principle of an active form of 
 energy which he called the Will-to-Live, which he 
 considered to be the Thing-in-Itself, or the Absolute. 
 Balzac, the novelist, considered a something akin to 
 Will, to be the moving force of the Universe. Bul- 
 wer advanced a similar theory, and made mention of 
 it in several of his novels. 
 
 This idea of an active, creative Will, at work in the 
 Universe, building up; tearing down; replacing; re- 
 pairing; changing — always at work — ever active — 
 has been entertained by numerous philosophers and 
 
THE CREATIVE WILL. 53 
 
 thinkers, under different names and styles. Some, 
 like Schopenhauer have thought of this Will as the 
 final thing — that which took the place of God — the 
 First Cause. But others have seen in this Will an 
 active living principle emanating from the Absolute or 
 God, and working in accordance with the laws im- 
 pressed by Him upon it. In various forms, this lat- 
 ter idea is seen all through the history of philosophical 
 thought. Cudsworth, the English philosopher, evolved 
 the idea of a something called the "Plastic Nature," 
 which so closely approaches the Yogi idea of the Cre- 
 ative Will, that we feel justified in quoting a passage 
 from his book. He says : 
 
 "It seems not so agreeable to reason that Nature, 
 as a distinct thing from the Deity, should be quite 
 superseded or made to signify nothing, God Himself 
 doing all things immediately and miraculously; from 
 whence it would follow also that they are all done 
 either forcibly and violently, or else artificially only, 
 and none of them by any inward principle of their 
 own. 
 
 "This opinion is further confuted by that slow and 
 gradual process that in the generation of things, 
 which would seem to be but a vain and idle pomp 
 or a trifling formality if the moving power were om- 
 nipotent; as also by those errors and bungles which 
 are committed where the matter is inept and contu- 
 macious; which argue that the moving power be not 
 irresistible, and that Nature is such a thing as is not 
 altogether incapable (as well as human art) of being 
 
54 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 sometimes, frustrated and disappointed by the indis- 
 position of matter. Whereas an omnipotent moving 
 power, as it could dispatch its work in a moment, so 
 would it always do it infallibly and irresistibly, no in- 
 eptitude and stubbornness of matter being ever able 
 to hinder such a one, or make him bungle or fumble in 
 anything. 
 
 "Wherefore, since neither all things are produced 
 fortuitously, or by the unguided mechanism of mat- 
 ter, nor God himself may be reasonably thought to 
 do all things immediately and miraculously, it may 
 well be concluded that there is a Plastic Nature under 
 him, which, as an inferior and subordinate instru- 
 ment, doth drudgingly execute that part of his provi- 
 dence which consists in the regular and orderly motion 
 of. matter; yet so as there is also besides this a higher 
 providence to be acknowledged, which, presiding over 
 it, doth often supply the defects of it, and sometimes 
 overrules it, forasmuch as the Plastic Nature cannot 
 act electively nor with discretion." 
 
 The Yogi Philosophy teaches of the existence of a 
 Universal Creative Will, emanating from the Abso- 
 lute — infilled with the power of the Absolute and 
 acting under established natural laws, which per- 
 forms the active work of creation in the world, similar 
 to that performed by "Cudsworth's Plastic Nature," 
 just mentioned. This Creative Will is not Schopen- 
 hauer's Will-to-Live. It is not a Thing-in-itself, but 
 a vehicle or instrument of the Absolute. It is an 
 emanation of the mind of the Absolute — a manifesta- 
 
THE CREATIVE WILL. 55 
 
 tion in action of its Will — a mental product rather 
 than a physical, and, of course, saturated with the 
 life-energy of its projector. 
 
 This Creative Will is not a mere blind, mechanical 
 energy or force — it is far more than this. We can ex- 
 plain it only by referring you to the manifestation of 
 the Will in yourself. You wish to move your arm, 
 and it moves. The immediate force may seem to be 
 a mechanical force, but what is back of that force — 
 what is the essence of the force ? The Will ! All man- 
 ifestations of energy — all the causes of motion — all 
 forces — are forms of the action of the Will of the One 
 — the Creative Will — acting under natural laws estab- 
 lished by the One, ever moving, acting, forcing, urg- 
 ing, driving, leading. We do not mean that every lit- 
 tle act is a thought of the moment on the part of the 
 Absolute, and a reaching out of the Will in obe- 
 dience to that thought. On the contrary, we mean 
 that the One set the Will into operation as a whole, 
 conceiving of laws and limitations in its action, the 
 Will constantly operating in obedience to that con- 
 ception, the results manifesting in what we call nat- 
 ural law; natural forces, etc. Besides this, the Abso- 
 lute is believed to manifest its Will specially upon oc- 
 casions; and moreover permits its Will to be applied 
 and used by the individual wills of individual Egos, 
 
 ♦ under the general Law and laws, and plan of the One. 
 
 — •"» But you must not suppose that the Will is mani- 
 fested only in the form of mechanical forces, cohe- 
 sion, chemical attraction, electricity, gravitation, etc. 
 
56 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 It does more than this. It is in full operation in all 
 forms of life, and living things. It is present every- 
 where. Back of all forms of movement and action, 
 we find a moving cause — usually a Pressure. This is 
 true of that which we have been calling mechanical 
 forces, and of all forms of that which we call Life 
 Energy. Now, note this, this great Pressure that you 
 will observe in all Life Action, is the Creative Will — 
 the Will Principle of the One — bending toward the 
 carrying out of the Great Plan of Life. 
 
 Look where we will, on living forms, and we may 
 begin to recognize the presence of a certain creative 
 energy at work — building up; moulding, directing; 
 tearing down ; replacing, etc. — always active in its ef- 
 forts to create, preserve and conserve life. This vis- 
 ible creative energy is what the Yogi Philosophy calls 
 "the Creative Will," and which forms the subject of 
 this lesson. The Creative Will is that striving, long- 
 ing, pressing forward, unfolding, progressing evolu- 
 tionary effort, that all thoughtful people see in op- 
 eration in all forms of life — throughout all Nature. 
 From the lowest to the highest forms of life, the Ef- 
 fort, Energy, Pressure, may be recognized in action, 
 creating, preserving, nourishing, and improving its 
 forms. It is that Something that we recognize when 
 we speak of "Nature's Forces" at work in plant 
 growth and animal functioning. If you will but keep 
 the word and idea— "NATURE"— before you, you 
 will be able to more clearly form the mental concept 
 of the Creative Will. The Creative Will is that 
 
THE CREATIVE WILL. 57 
 
 which you have been calling "Nature at Work" in the 
 growth of the plant; the sprouting of the seed; the 
 curling and reaching of the tendril ; the fertilization of 
 the blossoms, etc. You have seen this Will at work, 
 if you have watched growing things. 
 
 We call this energy "the Creative Will," because it 
 is the objective manifestation of the Creative Energy 
 of the Absolute — Its visible Will manifested in the 
 direction of physical life. It is as much Will in ac- 
 tion, as the Will that causes your arm to move in re- 
 sponse to its power. It is no mere chance thing, or 
 mechanical law — it is life action in operation. 
 
 This Creative Will not only causes movement in 
 completed life, but all movement and action in life in- 
 dependent of the personal will of its individual forms. 
 All the phenomena of the so-called Unconscious belong 
 to it. It causes the body to grow; attends to the de- 
 tails of nourishment, assimilation, digestion, elimina- 
 tion, and all of the rest. It builds up bodies, organs, 
 and parts, and keeps them in operation and function. 
 
 The Creative Will is directed to the outward ex- 
 pression of Life — to the objectification of Life. You 
 may call this energy the "Universal Life Energy" if 
 you wish, but, to those who know it, it is a Will — an 
 active, living Will, in full operation and power, press- 
 ing forward toward the manifestation of objective life. 
 
 The Creative Will seems to be filled with a strong 
 Desire to manifest. It longs to express itself, and to 
 give birth to forms of activity. Desire lies under and 
 in all forms of its manifestations. The ever present 
 
58 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 Desire of the Creative Will causes lower forms to 
 be succeeded by higher ferms — and is the moving 
 cause of evolution — it is the Evolutionary Urge it- 
 self, which ever cries to its manifestations, "Move on ; 
 move upward." 
 
 In the Hindu classic, the "Mahabarata," Brahma 
 created the most beautiful female being ever known, 
 and called her Tillotama. He presented her in turn 
 to all the gods, in order to witness their wonder and 
 admiration. Siva's desire to behold her was so great 
 that it developed in him four faces, in succession, as 
 she made the tour of the assembly; and Indra's long- 
 ing was so intense that his body became all eyes. In 
 this myth may be seen exemplified the effect of De- 
 sire and Will in the forms of life, function and shape 
 — all following Desire and Need, as in the case of 
 the long neck of the giraffe which enables him to 
 reach for the high branches of the trees in his native 
 land; and in the long neck and high legs of the fisher 
 birds, the crane, stork, ibis, etc. 
 
 The Creative Will finds within itself a desire to cre- 
 ate suns, and they are formed. It desired planets to 
 revolve around the suns, and they were thrown off 
 in obedience to the law. It desired plant life, and 
 plant life appeared, working from higher to lower 
 form. Then came animal life, from nomad to man. 
 Some of the animal forms yielded to the desire to fly, 
 and wings appeared gradually, and we called it bird- 
 life. Some felt a desire to burrow in the ground, and 
 lo ! came the moles, gophers, etc. It wanted a think- 
 
THE CREATIVE WILL. 59 
 
 ing creature, and Man with his wonderful brain was 
 evolved. Evolution is more than a mere survival of 
 the fittest; natural selection, etc. Although it uses 
 these laws as tools and Instruments, still back of them is 
 that insistent urge — that ever-impelling desire — that 
 ever-active Creative Will. Lamark was nearer right 
 than Darwin when he claimed that Desire was back« 
 of it all, and preceded function and form. Desire 
 wanted form and function, and produced them by the 
 activity of the Creative Will. 
 
 This Creative Will acts like a living force — and 
 so it is indeed — but it does not act as a reasoning, in- 
 tellectual Something, in one sense — instead it mani- 
 fests rather the "feeling," wanting, longing, instinc- 
 tive phase of mind, akin to those "feelings" and re- 
 sulting actions that we find within our natures. The 
 Will acts on the Instinctive Plane. 
 
 Evolution shows us Life constantly pressing for- 
 ward toward higher and still higher forms of ex- 
 pression. The urge is constantly upward and on- 
 ward. It is true that some species sink out of sight., 
 their work in the world having been done, but they 
 are succeeded by other species more in harmony with 
 their environment and the needs of their times. Some 
 races of men decay, but others build on their founda- 
 tions, and reach still greater heights. 
 
 The Creative Will is something different from Rea- 
 son or Intellect. But it underlies these. In the lower 
 forms of life, in which mind is in but small evidence, 
 the Will is in active operation, manifesting in Instinct 
 
60 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 and Automatic Life Action, so called. It does not 
 depend upon brains for manifestation — for these lowly 
 forms of life have no brains — but is in operation 
 through every part of the body of the living thing. 
 
 Evidences of the existence of the Creative Will act- 
 ing independently of the brains of animal and plant 
 life may be had in overwhelming quantity if we will 
 but examine the life action in the lower forms of life. 
 
 The testimony of the investigators along the lines 
 of the Evolutionary school of thought, show us that 
 the Life Principle was in active operation in lowly 
 animal and plant life millions of years before brains 
 capable of manifesting Thought were produced. Hae- 
 kel informs us that during more than half of the enor- 
 mous time that has elapsed since organic life first be- 
 came evident, no animal sufficiently advanced to have 
 a brain was in existence. Brains were evolved ac- 
 cording to the law of desire or necessity, in accord- 
 ance with the Great Plan, but they were not needed 
 for carrying on the wonderful work of the creation 
 and preservation of the living forms. And they are 
 not today. The tiny infant, and the senseless idiot 
 are not able to think intelligently, but still their life 
 functions go on regularly and according to law, in 
 spite of the absence of thinking brains. And the life 
 work of the plants, and of the lowly forms of animal 
 life, is carried on likewise. This wonderful thing 
 that we call Instinct is but another name for the man- 
 ifestation of the Creative Will which flows from the 
 One Life, or the Absolute. 
 
THE CREATIVE WILL. 61 
 
 Even as far down the scale of life as the Monera, 
 we may see the Creative Will in action. The Mo- 
 nera are but tiny bits of slimy, jelly-like substances — 
 mere specks of glue without organs of any kind, and 
 yet they exercise the organic phenomena of life, such 
 as nutrition, reproduction, sensation and movement, 
 all of which are usually associated with an organized 
 structure. These creatures are incapable of thought 
 in themselves, and the phenomenon is due to the action 
 of the Will through them. This Instinctive impulse 
 and action is seen everywhere, manifesting upon 
 higher and still higher lines, as higher forms of or- 
 ganisms are built up. 
 
 Scientists have used the term, "Appetency," defin- 
 ing it as, "the instinctive tendency of living organisms 
 to perform certain actions; the tendency of an un- 
 organized body to seek that which satisfies the wants 
 of its organism." Now what is this tendency? It 
 cannot be an effort of reason, for the low form of 
 life has nothing with which to reason. And it is im- 
 possible to think of "purposive tendency" without as- 
 suming the existence of mental power of some kind. 
 And where can such a power be located if not in the 
 form itself? When we consider that the Will is act- 
 ing in and through all forms of Life, from highest to 
 lowest — from Moneron to Man — we can at once rec- 
 ognize the source of the power and activity. It is the 
 Great Life Principle — the Creative Will, manifest- 
 ing itself. 
 
 We can perhaps better form an idea of the Creative 
 
62 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 Will, by reference to its outward and visible forms 
 of activity. We cannot see the Will itself — the 
 Pressure and the Urge — but we can see its action 
 through living forms. Just as we cannot see a man 
 behind a curtain, and yet may practically see him by 
 watching the movements of his form as he presses up 
 against the curtain, so may we see the Will by watch- 
 ing it as it presses up against the living curtain of the 
 forms of life. There was a play presented on the 
 American stage a few years ago, in which one of 
 the scenes pictured the place of departed spirits ac- 
 cording to the Japanese belief. The audience could 
 not see the actors representing the spirits, but they 
 could see their movements as they pressed up close 
 to a thin silky curtain stretched across the stage, and 
 their motions as they moved to and fro behind the 
 curtain were plainly recognized. The deception was 
 perfect, and the effect was startling. One almost 
 believed that he saw the forms of formless creatures. 
 And this is what we may do in viewing the opera- 
 tion of the Creative Will — we may take a look at the 
 moving form of the Will behind the curtain of the 
 forms of the manifestation of life. We may see it 
 pressing and urging here, and bending there — building 
 up here, and changing there — always acting, always 
 moving, striving, doing, in response to that insatiable 
 urge and craving, and longing of its inner desire. Let 
 us take a few peeps at the Will moving behind the 
 curtain ! 
 Commencing with the cases of the forming of the 
 
THE CREATIVE WILL. 63 
 
 crystals, as spoken of in our last lesson, we may pass 
 on to plant life. But before doing so, it may be well 
 for us to take a parting look at the Will manifesting 
 crystal forms. One of the latest scientific works makes 
 mention of the experiments of a scientist who has been 
 devoting much attention to the formation of crystals, 
 and reports that he has noticed that certain crystals of 
 organic compounds, instead of being built up sym- 
 metrically, as is usual with crystals, were "enantion- 
 morphic," that is, opposed to each other, in rights 
 and lefts, like hands or gloves, or shoes, etc. These 
 crystals are never found alone, but always form in 
 pairs. Can you not see the Will behind the curtain 
 here? 
 
 Let us look for the Will in plant-life. Passing 
 rapidly over the wonderful evidences in the cases of 
 the fertilization of plants by insects, the plant shaping 
 its blossom so as to admit the entrance of the par- 
 ticular insect that acts as the carrier of its pollen, 
 think for a moment how the distribution of the seed 
 is provided for. Fruit trees and plants surround the 
 seed with a sweet covering, that it may be eaten by 
 insect and animal, and the seed distributed. Others 
 have a hard covering to protect the seed or nut from 
 the winter frosts, but which covering rots with the 
 spring rains and allows the germ to sprout. Others 
 surround the seed with a fleecy substance, so that the 
 wind may carry it here and there and give it a chance 
 to find a home where it is not so crowded. Another 
 tree has a little pop-gun arrangement, by means of 
 which it pops its seed to a distance of several feet. 
 
64 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 Other plants have seeds that are covered with a 
 burr or "sticky" bristles, which enables them to attach 
 themselves to the wool of sheep and other animals, 
 and thus be carried about and finally dropped in some 
 spot far away from the parent plant, and thus the 
 scattering of the species be accomplished. Some 
 plants show the most wonderful plans and arrange- 
 ments for this scattering of the seed in new homes 
 where there is a better opportunity for growth and 
 development, the arrangements for this purpose dis- 
 playing something very much akin to what we would 
 call "ingenuity" if it were the work of a reasoning 
 mind. There are plants called cockle-burs whose seed- 
 pods are provided with stickers in every direction, so 
 that anything brushing against them is sure to pick 
 them up. At the end of each sticker is a very tiny 
 hook, and these hooks fasten themselves tightly into 
 anything that brushes against it, animal wool, hair, or 
 clothing, etc. Some of these seeds have been known 
 to have been carried to other quarters of the globe in 
 wool, etc., there to find new homes and a wider field. 
 
 Other plants, like the thistle, provide their seed 
 with downy wings, by which the wind carries them 
 afar to other fields. Other seeds have a faculty of 
 tumbling and rolling along the ground to great dis- 
 tances, owing to their peculiar shape and formation. 
 The maple provides its seed with a peculiar arrange- 
 ment something like a propeller screw, which when 
 the wind strikes the trees and looses the seed, whirls the 
 latter through the air to a distance of a hundred yards 
 
THE CREATIVE WILL. 65 
 
 or more. Other seeds are provided with floating ap- 
 paratus, which enables them to travel many miles by 
 stream or river, or rain washes. Some of these not 
 only float, but actually swim, having spider-like fila- 
 ments, which wriggle like legs, and actually propel 
 the tiny seed along to its new home. A recent writer 
 says of these seeds that "so curiously lifelike are their 
 movements that it is almost impossible to believe that 
 these tiny objects, making good progress through the 
 water, are really seeds, and not insects." 
 
 The leaves of the Venus' Fly-trap fold upon each 
 other and enclose the insect which is attracted by the 
 sweet juice on the leaf, three extremely sensitive 
 bristles or hairs giving the plant notice that the insect 
 is touching them. A recent writer gives the following 
 description of a peculiar plant. He says: "On the 
 shores of Lake Nicaragua is to be found an uncanny 
 product of the vegetable kingdom known among the 
 natives by the expressive name of 'the Devil's Noose.' 
 Dunstan, the naturalist, discovered it long ago while 
 wandering on the shores of the lake. Attracted by 
 the cries of pain and terror from his dog, he found 
 the animal held by black sticky bands which had chafed 
 the skin to bleeding point. These bands were branches 
 of a newly-discovered carnivorous plant which had been 
 aptly named the 'land octopus.' The branches are 
 flexible, black, polished and without leaves, and secrete 
 a viscid fluid." 
 
 You have seen flowers that closed when you touched 
 them. You remember the Golden Poppy that closes 
 
66 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 when the sun goes down. Another plant, a variety of 
 orchid, has a long, slender, flat stem, or tube, about 
 one-eighth of an inch thick, with an opening at the 
 extreme end, and a series of fine tubes where it joins 
 the plant. Ordinarily this tube remains coiled up into 
 a spiral, but when the plant needs water (it usually 
 grows upon the trunks of trees overhanging swampy 
 places) it slowly uncoils the little tube and bends it 
 over until it dips into the water, when it proceeds to 
 suck up the water until it is filled, when it slowly 
 coils around and discharges the water directly upon the 
 plant, or its roots. Then it repeats the process until the 
 plant is satisfied. When the water is absent from under 
 the plant the tube moves this way and that way until it 
 finds what it wants — just like the trunk of an elephant. 
 If one touches the tube or trunk of the plant while it is 
 extended for water, it shows a great sensitiveness and 
 rapidly coils itself up. Now what causes this life 
 action? The plant has no brains, and cannot have 
 reasoned out this process, nor even have acted upon 
 them by reasoning processes. It has nothing to think 
 with to such a high degree. It is the Will behind the 
 curtain, moving this way and that way, and doing 
 things. 
 
 There was once a French scientist named Duhamel. 
 He planted some beans in a cylinder — something like 
 a long tomato can lying on its side. He waited until 
 the beans began to sprout, and send forth roots 
 downward, and shoots upward, according to nature's 
 invariable rule. Then he moved the cylinder a little — 
 
THE CREATIVE WILL. 67 
 
 rolled it over an inch or two. The next day he rolled 
 it over a little more. And so on each day, rolling it 
 over a little each time. Well, after a time Duhamel 
 shook the dirt and growing beans out of the cylinder, 
 and what did he find? This, that the beans in their 
 endeavor to grow their roots downward had kept on 
 bending each day downward; and in their endeavor 
 to send shoots upward, had kept on bending upward 
 a little each day, until at last there had been formed 
 two complete spirals — the one spiral being the roots 
 ever turning downward, and the other the shoots ever 
 bending upward. How did the plant know direction? 
 What was the moving power. The Creative Will be- 
 hind the curtain again, you see! 
 
 Potatoes in dark cellars have sent out roots or 
 sprouts twenty and thirty feet to reach light. Plants 
 will send out roots many feet to reach water. They 
 know where the water and light are, and where to 
 reach them. The tendrils of a plant know where the 
 stake or cord is, and they reach out for it and twine 
 themselves around it. Unwind them, and the next 
 day they are found again twined around it. Move 
 the stake or cord, and the tendril moves after it. The 
 insect-eating plants are able to distinguish between 
 nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous food, accepting the 
 one and rejecting the other. They recognize that 
 cheese has the same nourishing properties as the in- 
 sect, and they accept it, although it is far different in 
 feeling, taste, appearance and every other character- 
 istic from their accustomed food. 
 
68 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 Case after case might be mentioned and cited to 
 show the operation of the Will in plant-life. But 
 wonderful as are many of these cases, the mere action 
 of the Will as shown in the growing of the plant is 
 just as wonderful. Just imagine a tiny seed, and see 
 it sprout and draw to itself the nourishment from 
 water, air, light and soil, then upward until it be- 
 comes a great tree with bark, limbs, branches, leaves, 
 blossoms, fruit and all. Think of this miracle, and 
 consider what must be the power and nature of that 
 Will that causes it. 
 
 The growing plant manifests sufficient strength to 
 crack great stones, and lift great slabs of pavement, 
 as may be noticed by examining the sidewalks of sub- 
 urban towns and parks. An English paper prints a 
 report of four enormous mushrooms having lifted a 
 huge slab of paving stone in a crowded street over- 
 night. Think of this exhibition of Energy and Power. 
 This wonderful faculty of exerting force and motion 
 and energy is fundamental in the Will, for indeed every 
 physical change and growth is the result of motion, 
 and motion arises only from force and pressure. 
 Whose force, energy, power and motion ? The Will's ! 
 
 On all sides of us we may see this constant and 
 steady urge and pressure behind living forces, and 
 inorganic forms as well — always a manifestation of 
 Energy and Power. And all this Power is in the 
 Will — and the Will is but the manifestation of the 
 All-Power — the Absolute. Remember this. 
 
 An4 this power manifests itself not only in the 
 
THE CREATIVE WILL. 69 
 
 matter of growth and ordinary movements, but also 
 in some other ways that seem quite mysterious to even 
 modern Science. How is it that certain birds are able 
 to fly directly against a strong wind, without visible 
 movement of their wings ? How do the buzzards float 
 in the air, and make speed without a motion of the 
 wing? What is the explanation of the movements 
 of certain microscopic creatures who lack organs of 
 movement? Listen to this instance related by the 
 scientist Benet. He states that the Polycystids have 
 a most peculiar manner of moving — a sort of sliding 
 motion, to the right or left, upward, backward, side- 
 ways, stopping and starting, fast or slow, as it wills. 
 It has no locomotive organs, and no movement can be 
 seen to take place in the body from within or with- 
 out. It simply slides. How? 
 
 Passing on to the higher animal life — how do eggs 
 grow into chickens? What is the power in the germ 
 of the egg? Can the germ think, and plan, and move, 
 and grow into a chicken? Or is the Will at work 
 there? And what is true in this case, is true of the 
 birth and growth of all animal life — all animal life 
 develops from a single germ cell. How, and Why? 
 
 There is a mental energy resident in the germ cell — 
 of this there can be no doubt. And that mental energy 
 is the Creative Will ever manifesting. Listen to these 
 words from Huxley, the eminent scientist. He says: 
 
 "The student of Nature wonders the more and is 
 astonished the less, the more conversant he becomes 
 with her operations; but of all the perennial miracles 
 
70 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 she offers to his inspection, perhaps the most worthy 
 of his admiration is the development of a plant or of 
 an animal from its embryo. Examine the recently 
 laid egg of some common animal, such as a sala- 
 mander or a newt. It is a minute spheroid in which 
 the best microscope will reveal nothing but a struc- 
 tureless sac, enclosing a glairy fluid, holding granules 
 in suspension. But strange possibilities lie dormant 
 in that semi-fluid globule. Let a moderate supply of 
 warmth reach its watery cradle, and the plastic matter 
 undergoes changes so rapid, and so purposelike in 
 their succession, that one can only compare them to 
 those operated by a skilled modeller upon a formless 
 lump of clay. As with an invisible trowel, the mass 
 is divided and subdivided into smaller and smaller 
 portions, until it is reduced to an aggregation of gran- 
 ules not too large to build withal the finest fabrics of 
 the nascent organism. And, then, it is as if a delicate 
 finger traced out the line to be occupied by the spinal 
 column, and moulded the contour of the body; pinch- 
 ing up the head at one end, the tail at the other, and 
 fashioning flank and limb into due salamanderine pro- 
 portions, in so artistic a way that, after watching the 
 process hour by hour, one is almost involuntarily pos- 
 sessed by the notion that some more subtle aid to 
 vision than the achromatic lens would show the hid- 
 den artist, with his plan before him, striving with 
 skilful manipulation to perfect his work. 
 
 "As life advances and the young amphibian ranges 
 the waters, the terror of his insect contemporaries, not 
 
THE CREATIVE WILL. 71 
 
 only are the nutritious particles supplied by its prey 
 (by the addition of which to its frame growth takes 
 place) laid down, each in its proper spot, and in due 
 proportion to the rest, as to reproduce the form, the 
 color, and the size, characteristic of the parental stock; 
 but even the wonderful powers of reproducing lost 
 parts possessed by these animals are controlled by the 
 same governing tendency. Cut off the legs, the tail, 
 the jaws, separately or all together, and as Spallanzani 
 showed long ago, these parts not only grow again, 
 but the new limb is formed on the same type as those 
 which were lost. The new jaw, or leg, is a newt's, and 
 never by any accident more like that of a frog's." 
 
 In this passage from Huxley one may see the actual 
 working of the Creative Will of the Universe, — moving 
 behind the curtain — and a very thin curtain at that. 
 And this wonderful work is going on all around us, 
 all the time. Miracles are being accomplished every 
 second — they are so common that we fail to regard 
 them. 
 
 And in our bodies is the Will at work? Most cer- 
 tainly. What built you up from single cell to ma- 
 turity? Did you do it with your intellect? Has not 
 every bit of it been done without your conscious knowl- 
 edge? It is only when things go wrong, owing to the 
 violation of some law, that you become aware of your 
 internal organs. And, yet, stomach and liver, and 
 heart and the rest have been performing their work 
 steadily — working away day and night, building up, 
 repairing, nourishing, growing you into a man or 
 
72 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 woman, and keeping you sound and strong. Are you 
 doing this with your reason or with your personal 
 will? No, it is the great Creative Will of the Uni- 
 verse, — the expression of the purpose and power of 
 the One, working in and through you. It is the One 
 Life manifesting in you through its Creative Will. 
 
 And not only is this all. The Creative Will is all 
 around us in every force, energy and principle. The 
 force that we call mental power is the principle of the 
 Will directed by our individual minds. In this state- 
 ment we have a hint of the great mystery of Mental 
 Force and Power, and the so-called Psychic Phe- 
 nomena. It also gives us a key to Mental Healing. 
 This is not the place to go into detail regarding these 
 phases — but think over it a bit. This Will Power 
 of the Universe, in all of its forms and phases, from 
 Electricity to Thought-power, is always at the dis- 
 posal of Man, within limits, and subject always to the 
 laws of the Creative Will of the Universe. Those 
 who acquire an understanding of the laws of any 
 force may use it. And any force may be used or 
 misused. 
 
 And the nearer in understanding and consciousness 
 that we get to the One Life and Power, the greater 
 will be our possible power, for we are thus getting 
 closer and closer to the source of All Power. In these 
 lessons we hope to be able to tell you how you may 
 come into closer touch with this One Life of which 
 you and all living things are but forms, shapes and 
 channels of expression, under the operation of the 
 Creative Will. 
 
THE CREATIVE WILL. 73 
 
 We trust that this lesson may have brought to your 
 minds the realization of the Oneness of All — the fact 
 that we are all parts of the one encircling unity, the 
 heart-throbs and pulsations of which are to be felt 
 even to the outer edge of the circle of life — in Man, 
 in Monad, in Crystal, in Atom. Try to feel that inner 
 essence of Creative Will that is within yourselves, and 
 endeavor to realize your complete inner unity in it, 
 with all other forms of life. Try to realize, as some 
 recent writer has expressed it, "that all the living world 
 is but mankind in the making, and that we are but 
 part of the All." And also remember that splendid 
 vistas of future unfoldment spread themselves out be- 
 fore the gaze of the awakened soul, until the mind fails 
 to grasp the wondrous sight. 
 
 We will now close this lesson by calling your at- 
 tention to its 
 
 CENTRAL THOUGHT. 
 
 There is but One Power in the Universe — One 
 Energy — One Force. And that Power, Energy and 
 Force is a manifestation of the One Life. There can 
 be no other Power, for there is none other than the 
 One from whom Power may come. And there can 
 be no manifestation of Power that is not the Power 
 of the One, for no other Power can be in existence. 
 The Power of the One is visible in its manifestations 
 to us in the natural laws and forces of Nature — which 
 we call the Creative Will. This Creative Will is the 
 inner moving power, urge and pressure behind all 
 forms and shapes of Life. In atom, and molecule ; in 
 
74 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 monad, in cell, in plant, in fish, in animal, in man, — 
 the Life Principle or Creative Will is constantly in 
 action, creating, preserving, and carrying on life in its 
 functions. We may call this Instinct or Nature, but 
 it is the Creative Will in action. This Will is back of 
 all Power, Energy, or Force — be it physical, mechani- 
 cal or mental force. And all Force that we use, con- 
 sciously or unconsciously, comes from the One Great 
 Source of Power. If we could but see clearly, we 
 would know that back of us is the Power of the 
 Universe, awaiting our intelligent uses, under the 
 control of the Will of the All. There is nothing to be 
 afraid of, for we are manifestations of the One Life, 
 from which all Power proceeds, and the Real Self is 
 above the effect, for it is part of the Cause. But over 
 and above — under and behind — all forms of Being, 
 Matter, Energy, Force and Power, is the ABSOLUTE 
 — ever Calm ; ever Peaceful ; ever Content. In know- 
 ing this it becomes us to manifest that spirit of abso- 
 lute Trust, Faith and Confidence in the Goodness and 
 Ultimate Justice of That which is the only Reality 
 there is. 
 Peace be with you. 
 
THE FOURTH LESSON 
 
 The Unity of Life. 
 
 In our First Lesson of this series we spoke of the 
 One Reality underlying all Life. This One Reality 
 was stated to be higher than mind or matter, the near- 
 est term that can be applied to it being "Spirit." We 
 told you that it was impossible to explain just what 
 "Spirit" is, for we have nothing else with which to 
 compare or describe it, and it can be expressed only in 
 its own terms, and not in the terms applicable to its 
 emanations or manifestations. But, as we said in our 
 First Lesson, we may think of "Spirit" as meaning the 
 "essence" of Life and Being — the Reality underlying 
 Universal Life, and from which the latter emanates. 
 
 In the Second Lesson we stated that this "Spirit," 
 which we called "The Absolute," expressed itself in 
 the Universal Life, which Universal Life manifested 
 itself in countless forms of life and activity. In the 
 same lesson we showed you that the Universe is alive 
 — that there is not a single dead thing in it — that there 
 can be no such thing as a dead object in the Universe, 
 else the theory and truth of the One underlying Life 
 must fall and be rejected. In that lesson we also 
 showed you that even in the world of inorganic things 
 there was ever manifest life — in every atom and par- 
 ticle of inorganic matter there is the universal life en- 
 ergy manifesting itself, and in constant activity. 
 
 In the Third Lesson, we went still further into this 
 phase of the general subject, and showed you that the 
 Creative Will — that active principle of the Universal 
 
 75 
 
76 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 Life — was ever at work, building up new forms, shapes 
 and combinations, and then tearing them down for the 
 purpose of rebuilding the material into new forms, 
 shapes, and combinations. The Creative Will is ever 
 at work in its threefold function of creating, preserv- 
 ing and destroying forms — the change, however, be- 
 ing merely in the shape and form or combination, the 
 real substance remaining unchanged in its inner aspect, 
 notwithstanding the countless apparent changes in its 
 objective forms. Like the great ocean the depths of 
 which remain calm and undisturbed, and the real na- 
 ture of which is unchanged in spite of the waves, and 
 billows of surface manifestation, so does the great 
 ocean of the Universal Life remain unchanged and un- 
 altered in spite of the constant play of the Creative 
 Will upon the surface. In the same lesson we gave 
 you many examples of the Will in action — of its won- 
 drous workings in the various forms of life and activ- 
 ity — all of which went to show you that the One Power 
 was at work everywhere and at all times. 
 
 In our next lesson — the Fifth Lesson — we shall en- 
 deavor to make plain to you the highest teachings of 
 the Yogi Philosophy regarding the One Reality and 
 the Many Manifestations — the One and the Many — 
 how the One apparently becomes Many — that great 
 question and problem which lies at the bottom of the 
 well of truth. In that lesson we shall present for your 
 consideration some fundamental and startling truths, 
 but before we reach that point in our teachings, we 
 must fasten upon your mind the basic truth that all the 
 
THE UNITY OF LIFE. 77 
 
 various manifestations of Life that we see on all hands 
 in the Universe are but forms of manifestation of One 
 Universal Life which is itself an emanation of the 
 Absolute. 
 
 Speaking generally, we would say to you that the 
 emanation of the Absolute is in the form of a grand 
 manifestation of One Universal Life, in which the va- 
 rious apparent separate forms of Life are but centers 
 of Energy or Consciousness, the separation being more 
 apparent than real, there being a bond of unity and 
 connection underlying all the apparently separated 
 forms. Unless the student gets this idea firmly fixed 
 in his mind and consciousness, he will find it difficult to 
 grasp the higher truths of the Yogi Philosophy. That 
 all Life is One, at the last, — that all forms of mani- 
 festation of Life are in harmonious Unity, underlying 
 — is one of the great basic truths of the Yogi Teach- 
 ing, and all the students of that philosophy must make 
 this basic truth their own before they may progress 
 further. This grasping of the truth is more than a 
 mere matter of intellectual conception, for the intellect 
 reports that all forms of Life are separate and dis- 
 tinct from each other, and that there can be no unity 
 amidst such diversity. But from the higher parts of 
 the mind comes the message of an underlying Unity, in 
 spite of all apparent diversity, and if one will meditate 
 upon this idea he will soon begin to realize the truth, 
 and will feel that he, himself, is but a center of con- 
 sciousness in a great ocean of Life — that he and all 
 other centers are connected by countless spiritual and 
 
78 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 mental filaments — and that all emerge from the One. 
 He will find that the illusion of separateness is but "a 
 working fiction of the Universe," as one writer has so 
 aptly described it — and that All is One, at the last, 
 and underlying all is One. 
 
 Some of our students may feel that we are taking 
 too long a path to lead up to the great basic truths 
 of our philosophy, but we who have traveled The Path, 
 and know its rocky places and its sharp turns, feel jus- 
 tified in insisting that the student be led to the truth 
 gradually and surely, instead of attempting to make 
 short cuts across dangerous ravines and canyons. We 
 must insist upon presenting our teachings in our own 
 way — for this way has been tested and found good. 
 We know that every student will come to realize that 
 our plan is a wise one, and that he will thank us for 
 giving him this gradual and easy approach to the won- 
 drous and awful truth which is before us. By this 
 gradual process, the mind becomes accustomed to the 
 line of thought and the underlying principles, and also 
 gradually discards wornout mental sheaths which have 
 served their purposes, and which must be discarded 
 because they begin to weigh heavily upon the mind as 
 it reaches the higher altitudes of The Path of Attain- 
 ment. Therefore, we must ask you to consider with 
 us, in this lesson, some further teachings regarding the 
 Unity of Life. 
 
 All the schools of the higher Oriental thought, as 
 well as many of the great philosophical minds of the 
 Western world, have agreed upon the conception of 
 
THE UNITY OF LIFE. 79 
 
 the Unity of Life — the Oneness of All Life. The West- 
 ern thinkers, and many of the Eastern philosophers 
 arrived at this conclusion by means of their Intellectual 
 powers, greatly heightened and stimulated by concen- 
 tration and meditation, which latter process liberated 
 the faculties of the Spiritual Mind so that it passed 
 down knowledge to the Intellect, which then seized 
 upon the higher knowledge which it found within it- 
 self, and amplified and theorized upon the same. But 
 among the Eastern Masters there are other sources of 
 information open, and from these sources come the 
 same report — the Oneness and Unity of Universal Life. 
 These higher sources of information to which we 
 have alluded, consist of the knowledge coming from 
 those Beings who have passed on to higher planes of 
 Life than ours, and whose awakened spiritual facul- 
 ties and senses enable them to see things quite plainly 
 which are quite dark to us. And from these sources, 
 also, comes the message of the Oneness of Life — of 
 the existence of a wonderful Universal Life includ- 
 ing all forms of life as we know it, and many forms 
 and phases unknown to us- -many centers in the great 
 Ocean of Life. No matter how high the source of 
 inquiry, the answer is the same — "All Life is One." 
 And this One Life includes Beings as much higher 
 than ourselves, as we afi higher than the creatures in 
 the slime of the ocea'a-bed. Included in it are be- 
 ings who would see<n as archangels or gods to us, 
 and they inform us that beyond them are still higher 
 and more radiant creatures, and so on to infinity of 
 
80 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 infinities. And yet all are but centers of Being in the 
 One Life — all but a part of the great Universal Life, 
 which itself is but an emanation of The Absolute. 
 
 The mind of man shrinks back appalled from the 
 contemplation of such wonders, and yet there are men 
 who dare to attempt to speak authoritatively of the 
 attributes and qualities of "God," as if He, the Abso- 
 lute, were but a magnified man. Verily, indeed, "fools 
 rush in where angels fear to tread," as the poet hath 
 said. 
 
 Those who will read our next lesson and thus gain 
 an idea of the sublime conception of the Absolute held 
 by the Yogi teachers may shudder at the presumption 
 of those mortals who dare to think of the Absolute 
 as possessing "attributes" and "qualities" like unto 
 the meanest of things in this his emanated Universe. 
 But even these spiritual infants are doing well — that 
 is, they are beginning to think, and when man begins 
 to think and question, he begins to progress. It is 
 not the fact of these people's immature ideas that has 
 caused these remarks on our part, but rather their 
 tendency to set up their puny conceptions as the ab- 
 solute truth, and then insisting upon forcing these 
 views upon the outer world of men, whom they con- 
 sider "poor ignorant heathen." Permit each man to 
 think acording to his light — and help him by offer- 
 ing to share with him the best that you possess — but 
 do not attempt to force upon him your own views as 
 absolute truth to be swallowed by him under threat 
 of damnation or eternal punishment. Who are you 
 
THE UNITY OF LIFE. 81 
 
 that dares to speak of punishment and damnation, 
 when the smell of the smoke of the hell of materialism 
 is still upon your robes. When you realize just what 
 spiritual infants you still are — the best of you — you 
 will blush at these things. Hold fast to the best that 
 you know — be generous to others who seem to wish 
 to share your knowledge — but give without blame or 
 feeling of superiority — for those whom you teach to- 
 day may be your teachers tomorrow — there are many 
 surprises of this kind along The Path. Be brave and 
 confident, but when you begin to feel puffed up by 
 your acquirement of some new bit of knowledge, let 
 your prayer — our prayer, for we too are infants — be, 
 "Lord, be merciful unto me, a fool !" 
 
 The above words are for us, the students of the 
 Yogi Philosophy — the teachers of the same — for hu- 
 man nature is the same in spite of names, and we 
 must avoid the "vanity of vanities" — Spiritual Pride 
 and Arrogance — that fault which has sent many a 
 soul tumbling headlong from a high position on The 
 Path, and compelled it to again begin the journey, 
 chastened and bruised. The fall of Lucifer has many 
 correspondences upon the occult plane, and is, indeed, 
 in itself an allegorical illustration of just this law. Re- 
 member, always, that you are but a Centre in the 
 Ocean of Life, and that all others are Centres in the 
 same ocean, and that underlying both and all of you 
 is the same calm bed of Life and Knowledge, the 
 property of all. The highest and the lowest are part 
 
82 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 of the same One Life — each of you has the same 
 life blood flowing through your veins — you are con- 
 nected with every other form of life, high or low, 
 with invisible bonds, and none is separate from an- 
 other. We are speaking, of course, to the personali- 
 ties of the various students who are reading these 
 words. The Real Self of each is above the need of 
 such advice and caution, and those who are able to 
 reach the Real Self in consciousness have no need for 
 these words, for they have outlived this stage of error. 
 To many, the consciousness of the One Life — the Uni- 
 versal Life — in which all are centres of consciousness 
 and being — has come gradually as a final step of a long 
 series of thought and reasoning, aided by flashes of 
 truth from the higher regions of the mind. To others 
 it has come as a great illumination, or flash of Truth, 
 in which all things are seen in their proper relations 
 and positions to each other, and all as phases of being 
 in the One. The term "Cosmic Consciousness," which 
 has been used in the previous series of these lessons, 
 and by other writers, means this sudden flash of 
 "knowing" in which all the illusionary dividing lines 
 between persons and things are broken down and the 
 Universal Life is seen to be actually existent as One 
 Life. To those who have reached this consciousness 
 by either route just mentioned — or by other routes — 
 there is no sense of loss of individuality or power or 
 strength. On the contrary there is always a new 
 sense of increased power and strength and knowing 
 — instead of losing Individuality, there is a sense of 
 
THE UNITY OF LIFE. 83 
 
 having found it. One feels that he has the whole 
 Universe at his back, or within him, rather than that 
 he has lost his identity in the great Ocean of Life. 
 
 While we are speaking of this phase of the sub- 
 ject, we should like to ask you if you have ever in- 
 vestigated and inquired into the real meaning of the 
 much-used word "Individuality?" Have you ever 
 looked up its origin and real meaning, as given by the 
 standard authorities? We are sure that many of you 
 have no real idea of the actual meaning of the term, 
 as strange as this statement may appear to you at first 
 glance. Stop now, and define the word to yourself, 
 as you have been accustomed to think of it. Ninety- 
 five people of a hundred will tell you that it means 
 something like "a strong personality." Let us see 
 about this. 
 
 Webster defines the word "Individual" as follows: 
 "Not divided, or not to be divided; existing as one 
 distinct being or object; single; one." The same 
 authority informs us that the word arises from the 
 Latin word individuus, meaning "indivisible; not di- 
 visible." Does not this help you to gain a clearer idea 
 of the Individuality that knows itself to be a Centre 
 of Consciousness in the One Life, rather than a sep- 
 arate, puny, insignificant thing apart from all other 
 centres or forms of Life, or the source of Life? We. 
 think it will help to clear your mind of some of the 
 fog that has not as yet lifted itself. 
 
 And while we are on the subject of definitions, let 
 us take a little look at the word "Personality," that 
 
84 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 is generally believed to be a synonym of "Individu- 
 ality," and is often so used. Webster tells us that the 
 word "Person" originated from the Latin word per- 
 sona, meaning "a mask used by actors," which word 
 in turn arose from two other words, per, meaning 
 "through," and sonare, meaning "to sound," the two 
 combined words meaning "to sound through." The 
 same authority informs us that the archaic meaning 
 of the word was "a character or part, as in a play; 
 an assumed character." If you will think of Person- 
 ality as "a mask used by an actor," or as "a part in 
 a play," or as something used to "sound through" or 
 to speak through, by the real Individual behind the 
 mask of Personality, then perhaps you will see a lit- 
 tle further into the Mystery of Personality and Indi- 
 viduality. 
 
 Oh, dear students, be not deceived by the mask of 
 Personality which you may happen to be wearing at 
 this moment, or by the masks which are worn by those 
 around you. Realize that back of your mask is the 
 great Individual — the Indivisible — the Universal Life, 
 in which you are a centre of consciousness and activity. 
 This does not wipe out your identity — instead it 
 gives you a greater and grander identity. Instead of 
 your sinking into a Nirvana of extinction of con- 
 sciousness, your consciousness so enlarges as you un- 
 fold, that you will in the end feel your identity to be 
 the identity of the Universe. Instead of your gaining 
 Nothingness, you gain Allness. All spiritual growth 
 and unfoldment gives you a constantly increasing 
 
THE UNITY OF LIFE. 85 
 
 sense of relationship with, and agreement with, the 
 All. You grow into Allness as you unfold. Be not 
 deceived by this chatter about Nothingness, and loss 
 of Individuality, in the Oriental thought, although 
 some of the presentations of its teachings may so 
 seem to mean at first reading. Remember always that 
 Personality is the mask, and Individuality the Real 
 One. 
 
 You have often heard persons, claiming to be ac- 
 quainted with the teachings of Theosophy and other 
 expositions of the Oriental Wisdom Religion (in- 
 cluding our own presentation), asserting that the 
 Oriental mind was ever bent upon attaining a final 
 stage of Nothingness or Extinction in Nirvana. In 
 addition to what we have said, and to what we shall 
 say on this subject, let us quote from the inspired 
 writer of the "Secret Doctrine" (a standard Theo- 
 sophical work) when she says, in that work on page 
 286, Vol. I : "Is this annihilation, as some think ? 
 . . . To see in Nirvana annihilation, amounts to 
 saying of a man plunged in a sound, dreamless sleep 
 — one that leaves no impression on the physical mem- 
 ory and brain, because the sleeper's Higher Self is in 
 its original state of absolute consciousness during 
 these hours — that he too is annihilated. The latter 
 simile answers only to one side of the question — the 
 most material; since reabsorption is by no means 
 such a dreamless sleep, but, on the contrary, absolute 
 existence, an unconditional unity, or a state, to de- 
 scribe which human language is absolutely and hope- 
 
86 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 lessly inadequate. . . . Nor is the individuality 
 — nor even the essence of the personality, if any be 
 left behind — lost because re-absorbed." As J. Wm. 
 Lloyd says, in connection with the above quotation, 
 "This seems conclusive proof that Theosophy does 
 not regard Nirvana as annihilation, but as an infinite 
 enlargement of consciousness." And we would add 
 that this is true not only as regards the Nirvana of 
 the Theosophist, but also of the consciousness of the 
 Unity of Life — the Universal Life. This too is not 
 annihilation of individual consciousness, but an "in- 
 finite enlargement of consciousness" as this Western 
 writer Lloyd has so well expressed it. 
 
 The very consciousness of Life that every man feels 
 within him, comes not from something belonging ex- 
 clusively to himself as a separate or personal thing. 
 On the contrary, it belongs to his Individuality, not 
 to his Personality, and is a phase of his consciousness 
 or "awareness" of his relation to the One Universal 
 Life which underlies his existence, and in which he is 
 a center of consciousness. Do you grasp this idea? 
 If not, meditate and concentrate upon it, for it is im- 
 portant. You must learn to feel the Life within you, 
 and to know that it is the Life of the great Ocean of 
 Universal Life upon the bosom of which you are 
 borne as a centre of consciousness and energy. In this 
 thought there is Power, Strength, Calm, Peace, and 
 Wisdom. Acquire it, if you are wise. It is indeed a 
 Gift from the Gods. 
 
 In this lesson we are not attempting to build up 
 
THE UNITY OF LIFE. 87 
 
 your idea of the Unity of Life by a series of argu- 
 ments taken from a world of phenomena in which 
 separateness and non-Unity is apparent. No such ar- 
 guments would suffice, for it would be like trying to 
 prove the existence and laws of color to a man born 
 blind, by arguments taken from his world of darkness. 
 On the contrary we are appealing to that region of 
 the mind in which is stored the capacity for intui- 
 tively apprehending truth. We are endeavoring to 
 speak in tones which will awaken a similar vibration 
 in that part of your mentality, and if these vibrations 
 be started into being, then will you be able to feel and 
 know the truth, and then will your Intellect eagerly 
 seize upon the new idea that it finds within itself, and 
 will proceed to apply the same to the various prob- 
 lems that have been bothering you in the past. 
 
 This consciousness of Unity must come from the 
 higher regions of the mind, for the Intellect alone 
 knows it not, — it is out of its field. Just as one may 
 not know that the earth is round by means of his 
 senses which report quite the contrary, but may and 
 does know this truth by abstract reasoning and higher 
 intellectual effort; so may one know the truth that All 
 Life is indeed One, at the last, and underlying, by the 
 higher faculties of the mind, although his senses and 
 ordinary intellectual processes fail to so inform him. 
 The senses cannot inform man that the earth is round, 
 because they cannot see it as a whole, but only in part 
 — while the higher reasoning faculties are able to vis- 
 ualize the earth as a whole, and know it must be 
 
88 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 round. And the Intellect, in its ordinary field can see 
 only separateness, and cannot report Oneness, but the 
 Higher Mind sees Life as a Whole, and knows it to 
 be One. And it is the Higher Mind that we are try- 
 ing to bring into the field of consciousness in the 
 appeal to you in this lesson. We trust that we may 
 be successful — in fact we know that we shall be so, in 
 many cases, for we know that the field is ready for 
 the sowing of the seed — and that the call has been 
 heard, and the message passed on to us to answer the 
 call — else these words would not have been written. 
 The consciousness of the Unity of Life is something 
 that must be experienced before the truth may be 
 realized. It is not necessary for one to wait until he 
 acquire full Cosmic Consciousness before he may real- 
 ize, at least partially, the Oneness of All Life, for he 
 may unfold gradually into the Cosmic Knowing, ex- 
 periencing at each stage a fuller conception of the 
 underlying Unity of Life, in which he is a centre of 
 consciousness and manifestation. But there must be 
 at least a partial unfoldment before one is able to 
 feel the sense of Unity. To those who have not un- 
 folded sufficiently to gain at least a glimmering of the 
 truth, everything appears separate from every other 
 thing, and there is no Unity of All. It is as if every 
 leaf on a mighty tree were to consider itself a being 
 separate and distinct from everything else in the 
 world, failing to perceive its connection with the 
 branch or limb, and tree, and its unity in being with 
 every other leaf on the tree. After a bit the unfold- 
 
THE UNITY OF LIFE. 89 
 
 ing consciousness of the leaf enables it to perceive 
 the stem that connects it with the twig. Then it 
 begins to realize certain relationships, and feels its 
 vital connection with the twig and the few other 
 leaves attached to the same twig. Later on, it un- 
 folds sufficiently to perceive that certain other leaf- 
 bearing twigs are connected with the same branch, 
 and it learns to feel its relationship with all twigs and 
 leaves springing from that branch. Then again, a 
 little later on, it begins to realize that other branches 
 spring from the same limb as its branch, and the 
 sense of relationship and dawning Unity begins to 
 widen still further. And so it goes on, until at last, 
 the tiny leaflet realizes that the life of the tree is the 
 life of all of its parts — limbs, branches, twigs, leaves, 
 blossoms, fruit, seed, etc., and that it, itself, is but a 
 centre of expression in the One Life of the tree. 
 Does the leaf feel less important and real from this 
 discovery? We should say assuredly not, for it must 
 feel that behind its tiny form and limited strength is 
 the strength and vitality of the entire organism of the 
 tree. It must know that the tree is ever at work ex- 
 tracting nourishment from the earth, air, and water, 
 and transmitting that nourishment to its every part, 
 including our little friend the leaflet. It knows that 
 the sap will rise in the Spring to renew the manifesta- 
 tions of life, and it knows that although its leafy form 
 may wither and die, still the essence of its life — its 
 real Life — does not die but remains ever active and 
 strong awaiting its chance for future expression and 
 
90 GNAN-I YOGA. 
 
 re-embodiment. Of course this figure of the leaf 
 and the tree fails us if we attempt to carry it very far, 
 but it will give us at least a partial idea of the rela- 
 tionship between the life of the person, and the One 
 Life. 
 
 Some of the Oriental teachers have illustrated this 
 idea to their students by various familiar examples 
 and figures of speech. Some bid the student hold 
 up his hand, and then point out to him that each finger 
 is apparently separate and distinct if one does not look 
 down to where it joins the hand. Each finger, if it 
 had consciousness, might well argue that it was a 
 separate individual, having no relationship with any 
 other finger. It might prove this to its own satis- 
 faction, and to that of its listeners, by showing that 
 it could move itself without stirring the other fingers. 
 And so long as its consciousness was confined to its 
 upper two joints it would remain under the illusion 
 of separateness. But when its consciousness at last 
 permeated the depths of its being, it would find that it 
 emerged from the same hand from which also sprung 
 the other fingers, and that its real life and power was 
 vested in the hand rather than in itself, and that al- 
 though apparently separate and independent, it was 
 really but a part of the hand. And when its con- 
 sciousness, through the consciousness of the hand, 
 broadened and widened, it would perceive its rela- 
 tionship with, and interdependence with, the whofe 
 body, and would also recognize the power of the brain, 
 and its mighty Will. 
 
THE UNITY OF LIFE. 91 
 
 Another favorite illustration of the Eastern teach- 
 ers is the stream of water flowing over a rocky bed. 
 They point to the stream before it comes to a rocky 
 place, and show the chela (student) that it is One. 
 Then they will move a little way down the stream and 
 show him how the rocks and stones divide the stream 
 into countless little streams, each of which might 
 imagine itself a separate and distinct stream, until 
 later on it again joins the main united stream, and 
 finds that it was but a form of expression of the One. 
 
 Another illustration that is frequently used by the 
 teachers, is that which bids the student consider him- 
 self as a minute cell, or "little-life" as the Hindus 
 call it, in a body. It may be a cell in the blood per- 
 forming the office of a carrier or messenger, or it may 
 be a working cell in one of the organs of the body ; or 
 it may be a thinking cell in the brain. At any rate, the 
 cell manifests capacity for thought, action and mem- 
 ory — and a number of secondary attributes quite won- 
 derful in the way. (See "Hatha Yoga," Chapter 
 XVIII.) Each cell might well consider itself as a 
 separate individual — in a certain sense it does. It has 
 a certain degree of something akin to consciousness, 
 enabling it to perform its work correctly and prop- 
 erly, and is called upon at times to manifest some- 
 thing like judgment. It may well be excused for 
 thinking of itself as a "person" having a separate life. 
 The analogy between its illusions and that of the man 
 when seen by a Master, is very close. But we know 
 that the life of the cell is merely a centre of expres- 
 
92 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 sion of the life of the body — that its consciousness is 
 merely a part of the consciousness of the mind ani- 
 mating the body. The cell will die and apparently 
 perish, but the essence of it will remain in the life of 
 the person whose body it occupied, and nothing really 
 dies or perishes. Would the cell feel any less real 
 if it knew that behind its Personality as a cell, there 
 was the Individuality of the Man — that its Real Self 
 was the Man, not the cell? Of course, even this fig- 
 ure of speech can be carried only so far, and then 
 must stop, for the personality of the man, when it is 
 dissolved, leaves behind it an essence which is called 
 Character, which becomes the property of the Ego 
 and which accompanies it into after life according to 
 the Law of Karma, of which we shall speak in future 
 lessons. But back even of these attributes of Per- 
 sonality, is the Ego which exists in spite of Person- 
 ality, and lives on and on throughout many Person- 
 alities, and yet learning the lessons of each, until at 
 last it rises above Personality and enters into higher 
 sphere of Knowing and Being. 
 
 Still another favorite illustration of the Hindu teach- 
 ers is that of the sun beating down upon the ocean 
 and causing a portion of the water to rise in the form 
 of vapor. This vapor forms clouds which spread all 
 over the earth, and which eventually condense in the 
 form of rain drops, dew, etc. This rain and dew form 
 streams, rivers, etc., and sooner or later every drop 
 finds its way back to Mother Ocean which is its Real 
 Self. Separate though the dewdrop be, yet it is a part 
 
THE UNITY OF LIFE. 93 
 
 of the Ocean, no matter how far distant it may be, 
 and the attraction of the Ocean will surely, and with- 
 out fail, draw it back to its bosom. And the dew- 
 drop, if it could know the truth, would be so much 
 happier and stronger, and braver if it could know that 
 it was superior to accident, time and space, and that 
 it could not escape its own good, and that nothing 
 could prevent its final triumph and victory when at 
 last "the dewdrop glides into the shining sea." How 
 cheerfully it could have met its many changes of form, 
 and the incidents of its journey, if it could have got- 
 ten rid of the illusion of separateness, and knew that 
 instead of being a tiny insignificant dewdrop it was 
 a part of the Mighty Ocean — in fact that its Real 
 Self was that Ocean itself — and that the Ocean was 
 continually drawing it toward it, and that the many 
 changes, up and down, were in response to that mighty 
 power of attraction which was slowly but irresistibly 
 drawing it back Home to Rest, Peace, and Power. 
 
 As valuable as are all these illustrations, examples, 
 and figures of speech, still all must of necessity fall 
 short of the truth in the case of the Soul of Man — 
 that wondrous something which has been built up by 
 the Absolute after aeons and aeons of time, and which 
 is destined to play an important part in the great 
 Cosmic Drama which it has pleased the Absolute to 
 think into existence. Drawing its Life from the Uni- 
 versal Life, it has the roots of its being still further 
 back in the Absolute itself, as we shall see in the next 
 lesson. Great and wonderful is it all, and our minds 
 
94 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 are but illy fitted to receive the truth, and must be 
 gradually accustomed to the glare of the Sun. But 
 it will come to all — none can escape his glorious des- 
 tiny. 
 
 The Oriental writings are full of allusions to the 
 underlying Oneness, in fact the entire Oriental philos- 
 ophies rest upon it. You may find it everywhere if 
 you will but look for it. The experience of Cosmic 
 Consciousness, which is naught but a sudden or grad- 
 ual "awareness" of the underlying Unity of Life, is 
 evidenced everywhere in the Upanishads, that won- 
 derful series of teachings in the Hindu classics. Every 
 writer in the collection gives his evidence regarding 
 this awareness of Unity and Oneness, and the experi- 
 ences and mental characteristics arising from the 
 same. The following quotations will give an idea 
 of the prevalence of this thought : 
 
 "He that beholds all beings in the Self, and the Self 
 in all things, he never turns away from it." 
 
 "When to a man who understands, the Self has be- 
 come all things, what sorrow, what trouble, can there 
 be to him who once beheld that unity." 
 
 The Hindu father explains to his son that the One 
 Life is in all forms and shapes, points out object after 
 object, saying to the boy: "Tat tvam asi, Thou art 
 that; That thou art." 
 
 And the Mystics have added their testimony to that 
 of others who have experienced this consciousness. 
 Plotinus said : "Knowledge has three degrees : opinion, 
 science, and illumination. The last is absolute knowl- 
 
THE UNITY OF LIFE. 95 
 
 edge founded upon the identity of the knowing mind 
 with the known object." 
 
 And Eckhardt, the German mystic, has told his pu- 
 pils that: "God is the soul of all things. He is the 
 light that shines in us when the veil is rent." 
 
 And Tennyson, in his wonderful verse describing 
 the temporary lifting of the veil for him, has de- 
 scribed a phase of Cosmic Consciousness in the fol- 
 lowing words: 
 
 "For knowledge is the swallow on the lake 
 That sees and stirs the surface-shadow there, 
 But never yet hath dippt into the abysm, 
 The Abysm of all Abysms, beneath, within 
 The blue of sky and sea, the green of earth, 
 And in the million-millionth of a grain 
 Which cleft and cleft again for evermore 
 And ever vanishing, never vanishes. . . 
 
 And more, my son, for more than once when I 
 Sat all alone, revolving in myself 
 That word which is the symbol of myself, 
 The mortal symbol of the Self was loosed, 
 And past into the Nameless, as a cloud 
 Melts into Heaven. I touched my limbs, the limbs 
 Were strange, not mine — and yet no shadow of doubt, 
 But utter clearness, and through loss of Self 
 The gain of such large life as matched with ours 
 Were Sun to spark, unshadowable in words, 
 Themselves but shadows of a shadow-world." 
 
96 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 And not only among the mystics and poets is this 
 universal truth experienced and expressed, but among 
 the great philosophers of all ages may we find this 
 teaching of the Unity of Life originally voiced in the 
 Upanishads. The Grecian thinkers have expressed the 
 thought; the Chinese philosophers have added their 
 testimony; the modern philosophers, Spinoza, Berke- 
 ley, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Hartman, Ferrier, 
 Royce, although differing widely in their theories, all 
 have expressed as a fundamental truth the Unity of 
 Life — a One Life underlying. The basic teachings 
 of the Vedas are receiving confirmation at the hands 
 of Modern Science, which while calling itself Ra- 
 tionalistic and inclining to a Materialistic conception 
 of the Universe, still finds itself compelled to say, "At 
 the last, All is One." 
 
 And in nearly every human soul there is a secret 
 chamber in which the text of this knowledge lies hid- 
 den, and in the rare moments in which the chamber 
 door is opened in response to poetry, music, art, deep 
 religious feeling, or those unaccountable waves of 
 uplift that come to all, the truth is recognized for the 
 moment and the soul feels at peace and is content in 
 the feeling that it is at harmony with the All. The 
 sense of Beauty, however expressed, when keenly ex- 
 perienced, has a tendency to lift us out of our con- 
 sciousness of separateness into another plane of mind 
 in which the keynote is Unity. The higher the human 
 feeling, the nearer is the conscious realization of the 
 underlying Unity. 
 
THE UNITY OF LIFE. 97 
 
 This realization of the Unity of Life — the Oneness 
 of Life — the Great Life — even when but faintly ex- 
 perienced, renders Life quite a different thing to the 
 person. He feels no longer that he is a mere "part" 
 of something that may be destroyed — or that he is a 
 tiny personal something, separate from and opposed 
 to all the rest of the Universe — but that he is, instead, 
 a Unit of Expression — a Centre of Consciousness — 
 in the Great One Life. He realizes that he has the 
 Power, and Strength, and Life, and Wisdom of the 
 Whole back of him, upon which he may learn to draw 
 as he unfolds. He realizes that he is at Home, and that 
 he cannot be thrust out, for there is no outside of the 
 All. He feels within himself the certainty of infinite 
 Life and being, for his Life is the all Life, and that 
 cannot die. The petty cares, and worries, and griefs, 
 and pains of everyday personal life are seen for what 
 they are, and they cease to threaten and dominate 
 him as of old. He sees the things of personality as 
 merely the costume and trappings of the part in the 
 play of life that he is acting out, and he knows that 
 when he discards them he will still be "I." 
 
 When one really feels the consciousness of the One 
 Life underlying, he acquires a confident trust and 
 faith, and a new sense of freedom and strength comes 
 to him, for is he not indeed delivered from the bond- 
 age of fear that has haunted him in his world of sep- 
 arateness. He feels within him the spiritual pulse of 
 the Universal Life, and at once he thrills with a sense 
 of new-found power and being. He becomes recon- 
 
98 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 ciled with Life in all its phases, for he knows these 
 things as but temporary phases in the working out of 
 some great Universal plan, instead of things perma- 
 nent and fixed and beyond remedy. He begins to 
 feel the assurance of Ultimate Justice and God, and 
 the old ideas of Injustice and Evil begin to fade from 
 him. He who enters into the consciousness of the 
 Universal Life, indeed enters into a present realiza- 
 tion of the Life Everlasting. All fear of being "lost" 
 or "eternally damned" fades away, and one in- 
 stinctively realizes that he is "saved" because he is of 
 the One Life and cannot be lost. All the fear of be- 
 ing lost arises from the sense of illusion of separate- 
 ness or apartness from the One Life. Once the con- 
 sciousness of Unity is gained, fear drops from the 
 soul like a wornout garment. 
 
 When the idea and consciousness of the Unity takes 
 possession of one, he feels a new sense of cheerfulness 
 and optimism entirely different from any other feeling 
 that he has ever experienced. He loses that distrust 
 and hardness which seems to cling to so many in this 
 age who have arrived at the Intellectual stage of de- 
 velopment, and have been unable to progress further. 
 A new sense of peace and harmony comes to one, and 
 illuminates his entire character and life. The bitter- 
 ness engendered by the illusion of separateness is neu- 
 tralized by the sweetness of the sense of Unity. When 
 one enters into this consciousness he finds that he has 
 the key to many a riddle of life that has heretofore 
 perplexed him. Many dark corners are illuminated 
 
THE UNITY OF LIFE. 99. 
 
 — many hard sayings are made clear. Paradoxes be- 
 come understandable truths, and the pairs of oppo- 
 sites that dwell in all advanced intellectual concep- 
 tions, seem to bend around their ends and form them- 
 selves into a circle. 
 
 1 To the one who understands the Unity, all Nature 
 seems akin and friendly. There is no sense of an- 
 tagonism or opposition — everything is seen to fit into 
 its place, and work out its appointed task in the Uni- 
 versal plan. All Nature is seen to be friendly, when 
 properly understood, and Man regains that sense of 
 harmonious environment and at-home-ness that he 
 lost when he entered the stage of self-consciousness. 
 The lower animal and the children feel this Unity, in 
 their poor imperfect way, but Man lost this 
 Paradise when he discovered Good and Evil. 
 But Paradise Lost becomes Paradise Regained 
 when Man enters into this new stage of con- 
 sciousness. But unlike the animal or child, 
 which instinctively feels the Unity, the awakened soul 
 of man possesses the Unity consciousness, coupled 
 with intelligent comprehension, and unfolding spirit- 
 ual power. He has found that which he lost, together 
 with the accumulated interest of the ages. This new 
 kingdom of Consciousness is before the race. All 
 must enter into it in time — all will enter into it — 
 many are entering into it now, by gradual stages. This 
 dawning sense of Unity is that which is causing the 
 spiritual unrest which is now agitating the world, and 
 which in time will bring the race to a realization of 
 
ioo GNANI YOGA. 
 
 the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, 
 and his kinship to Every Living Thing. We are 
 entering into this new cycle of human unfoldment, 
 and the greatest changes are before the race. Ye who 
 read these words are in the foremost ranks of the new 
 dispensation, else you would not be interested in this 
 subject. You are the leaven which is designed to 
 lighten the heavy mass of the world-mind. Play well 
 your parts. You are not alone. Mighty forces and 
 great Intelligences are behind you in the work. Be 
 worthy of them. Peace be with you. 
 
 Carry with you the Central Thought of this lesson : 
 CENTRAL THOUGHT. There is but One Life 
 — a Universal Life — in the world. This One Life is 
 an emanation from the Absolute. It infills all forms, 
 shapes and manifestations of Life, and is the Real 
 Life that each imagines to be his personal property. 
 There is but One — and you are centres of conscious- 
 ness and expression in that One. There is a Unity 
 and Harmony which becomes apparent to those ivho 
 enter into the consciousness of the One Life. There 
 is Peace and Calm in the thought. There is Strength 
 and Power in the knowledge. Enter ye into your King- 
 dom of Power — possess yourselves of your Birthright 
 of Knowledge. In the very center of your being you 
 will find a holy of holies in which dwells the Con- 
 sciousness of the One Life, underlying. Enter into 
 the Silence of the Shrine within. 
 
THE FIFTH LESSON 
 
 The One and the Many. 
 
 As we have stated in previous Lessons, all philoso- 
 phies which thinkers have considered worthy of re- 
 spect, find their final expression of Truth in the funda- 
 mental thought that there is but One Reality, under- 
 lying all the manifold manifestations of shape and 
 form. It is true that the philosophers have differed 
 widely in their conception of that One, but, neverthe- 
 less, they have all agreed upon the logical necessity of 
 the fundamental conception that there is, at least, but 
 One Reality, underlying All. 
 
 Even the Materialists have conceded this conclu- 
 sion, and they speak and think of a something called 
 "Matter," as the One — holding that, inherent in Mat- 
 ter, is the potentiality of all Life. The school of Ener- 
 gists, holding that Matter in itself is non-existent, and 
 that it is merely a mode of manifestation of a some- 
 thing called "Energy," asserts that this something 
 called Energy is One, fundamental, real, and self-suf- 
 ficient. 
 
 The various forms of Western religious thought, 
 which hold to the various conceptions of a Personal 
 Deity, also hold to a Oneness, inasmuch as they teach 
 that in the beginning there was God, only, and that all 
 the Universe has been created by Him. They do not 
 go into details regarding this creation, and, unlike the 
 Oriental teachers, they fail to distinguish between the 
 conception of the creation of shape and form, on the 
 one hand; and the creation of the substance of these 
 
 IOI 
 
102 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 shapes and forms, on the other hand. But, even ac- 
 cepting the premises of these people who hold to the 
 Personal Deity conception, it will be seen that the Rea- 
 son requires the acceptance of one or two ideas, viz., 
 (i) That the Deity created the substance of these 
 shapes and forms from Nothing; or else (2) that he 
 created them out of his own substance — out of Him- 
 self, in fact. Let us consider, briefly, these two con- 
 ceptions. 
 
 In the first conception, i. e., Creation from Nothing, 
 we are brought face to face with an impregnable ob- 
 stacle, inasmuch as the human reason positively re- 
 fuses to think of Anything coming from Nothing. 
 While it is perfectly true that the finite human mind 
 cannot undertake to limit the powers of the Infinite; 
 or to insist that the possibilities of the Divine Power 
 must be measured and limited by the finite power of 
 Man — still it must hearken to the report of its own 
 highest faculties, and say "I cannot Think it," or else 
 blindly accept the teachings of other finite minds which 
 are equally unable to "Think it," and which have no 
 superior sources of information. The Infinite Power 
 has endowed us with reasoning faculties, and evi- 
 dently expects us to use them to their full capacity — 
 else the gift were a mockery. And in the absence of 
 information from higher sources than the Reason, we 
 must use the Reason in thinking of this matter, or 
 else refuse to think of it at all. 
 
 In view of the above thought, let us then consider 
 the report of the Reason, regarding this matter. And 
 
THE ONE AND THE MANY. 103 
 
 then, after having done so, let us apply the test of this 
 report of the Reason, to the highest teaching of the 
 Yogi Philosophy, and see how the latter stands the 
 test. And, after having done this, we will apply the 
 test of the Higher Consciousness to the same teach- 
 ings. Remember this always, that while there is 
 knowledge that transcends Reason — that is knowledge 
 that comes from the Higher Regions of the Mind — 
 still even such information of the Spiritual Mind 
 does not run contrary to Reason, although it goes be- 
 yond it. There is harmony between the Spiritual 
 Mind and the Highest Reason. 
 
 Returning to the consideration of the matter of Crea- 
 tion of Substance from Nothing, we again assert that 
 the Reason is unable to think of the creation of Some- 
 thing from Nothing. It finds the statement unthink- 
 able, and contrary to all the laws of thought. It is 
 true that the Reason is compelled to accept as a final 
 truth, many things that it cannot understand by reason 
 of its finitude — but this is not one of them. There is 
 no logical necessity for the Reason to accept any such 
 conception as this — there is no warrant in the Reason 
 for any such theory, idea or conclusion. Let us stop 
 here, for a moment, and examine into this difference 
 — it may help us to think clearer, hereafter. 
 
 We find it impossible to understand the fact of the 
 Infinite Being having always existed — and Being with- 
 out Cause. We find it impossible to conceive of the 
 nature of an Eternal, Causeless, and Infinite Being — 
 to conceive the nature of, such a Being, remember. 
 
104 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 But, while this is so, still our Reason, by its own laws, 
 compels us to think that there must be such a Being, 
 so long as we think at all. For, if we think at all, we 
 must think of there being a Fundamental Reality — 
 and we must think of that Reality as being without 
 Cause (because there can be no Cause for the First 
 Cause) ; and we must think of that Reality as being 
 Eternal (because It could not have sprung into Being 
 from Nothing, and therefore must have always been) ; 
 and we must think of that Reality as Infinite (because 
 there is nothing outside of Itself to limit It). Think 
 over this statement for a moment — until you grasp it 
 fully. 
 
 But there is no such necessity, or compulsion, in the 
 case of the question of Creation from Nothingness. 
 On the contrary, the necessity and compulsion is all the 
 other way. Not only is the Reason unable to think of 
 Creation from Nothing — not only does all its laws for- 
 bid it to hold such a conception — but, more than this, 
 it finds within itself a conception, full-grown and po- 
 tent, which contradicts this idea. It finds within it- 
 self the strong certainty that Whatever Really Is has 
 Always Been, and that all transient and finite shapes, 
 forms, and manifestations, must proceed from that 
 which is Real, Infinite, Causeless, and Infinite — and 
 moreover must be composed of the substance of that 
 Reality, for there is nothing else Real from which they 
 could have been composed ; and their composition from 
 Nothing is unthinkable, for Nothing is Nothing, and 
 always will be Nothing. "Nothing" is merely a name 
 
THE ONE AND THE MANY. 105 
 
 of denial of existence — an absolute denial of substan- 
 tiality of any degree, kind or form — an absolute de- 
 nial of Reality. And from such could come only Noth- 
 ing — from Nothing, Nothing comes. 
 
 Therefore, finding within itself the positive report 
 that All, and Anything There Is, must be composed 
 of the Substance of the Reality, the Reason is com- 
 pelled to think that the Universe is composed of the 
 Substance of the One Reality — whether we call that. 
 One Reality, by the name of The Absolute ; or whether 
 we call it God. We must believe that from this Abso- 
 lute-God all things in the Universe have flown out, or 
 been emanated, rather than created — begotten, rather 
 than "made." 
 
 This does not mean the Pantheistic idea that the 
 Universe is God — but rather that God, while existing 
 separate and apart from His Universe, in his Essence, 
 and Being, is nevertheless in His Universe, and His 
 Universe in Him. And this, no matter what concep- 
 tion of God or Deity is had — or whether one thinks 
 of The Absolute as Principle. The Truth is the same 
 — Truth no matter by what names it is called, or by 
 what misconception it is surrounded. The Truth is 
 that One is 'in All, and All is in One — such is the re- 
 port of the highest Reason of Man — such is the report 
 of the Illumined — such is the Highest Teachings that 
 have come down to the race from the great souls that 
 have trodden The Path of Attainment. 
 
 And now let us submit the Yogi Philosophy to these 
 conceptions, and reports of the Reason. And let us 
 
106 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 discover just what more the Yogi Philosophy has to 
 say concerning the nature of the Substance of the Di- 
 vine, which infills all Life — and how it solves the Rid- 
 dle of the Sphinx, concerning the One in All; and All 
 in One. We hope to show you that the Riddle is ca- 
 pable of solution, and that the old Yogi teachers have 
 long ago grasped that for which the human mind has 
 ever sought. This phase of the Teachings is the high- 
 est, and it is usually hinted at, rather than expressed, 
 in the writings on the subject — owing to danger of 
 confusion and misconception. But in these Lessons 
 we shall speak the Truth plainly, and without fear — 
 for such is the Message which has been given us to 
 deliver to our students — and we will perform the 
 Right action, leaving the Result, or Fruits of the 
 Action, where it belongs, according to the higher teach- 
 ings found in the "Bhavagad Gita," and in the Higher 
 Teachings of the Yogi Philosophy. 
 
 The fundamental Truth embedded in the Wisdom- 
 Philosophies of the East — the Higher Yogi Teachings 
 — is the impregnable doctrine of the One Self in the 
 many selves — the many selves in the One Self. This 
 fundamental Truth underlies all the Oriental Philoso- 
 phies which are esoteric in their nature. 
 
 Notwithstanding the crude and often repulsive con- 
 ceptions and practices of the masses of the people 
 who represent the exoteric, or popular, phase of the 
 teachings (and these two phases are to be found in 
 all regions) still there is always this Inner Doctrine of 
 the One Self, to be found to those who look for it. 
 
THE ONE AND THE MANY. 107 
 
 Not only is this true among the Hindus; but even 
 among the Mahommedans, of all countries, there is an 
 Inner Circle of Mystics, known as the Sufis, holding 
 to this Truth. And the inner teachings of the philos- 
 ophies of all ages and races, have held likewise. And 
 the highest thought of the philosophers of the West- 
 ern races, has found refuge in this idea of the Over- 
 soul, or Universal Self. But, it is only among the 
 Yogis that we find an attempt made to explain the real 
 nature of the manifestation of the One in Many — the 
 holding of the Many forms in the One Self. 
 
 Before proceeding to the consideration of how the 
 One becomes as Many, as expounded by the Higher 
 Yogi Teachings, it becomes necessary to speak of a 
 matter upon which there has been much confusion 
 and misunderstanding, not only on the part of the 
 students of various Oriental Philosophies, but also 
 upon the part of some of the teachers themselves. We 
 allude to the connection between THE ONE — THE 
 ABSOLUTE— in Its ESSENCE— and that \vhich 
 has been called the One Life ; the Universal Life, etc. 
 
 Many writers have spoken of the Universal Life, 
 and The One, as being identical — but such is a griev- 
 ous error, finding no warrant in the Highest Yogi 
 Teachings. It is true that all living forms dwell in, 
 and are infilled with the Universal Life— that All Life 
 is One. We have taught this truth, and it is indeed 
 Truth, without qualification. But there is still a 
 Higher Truth— the Highest Truth, in fact— and that 
 is, that even this Universal Life is not the One, but, 
 
108 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 instead, is in itself a manifestation of, and emanation 
 from, THE ONE. There is a great difference here — 
 see that you perceive and understand it, before pro- 
 ceeding further. 
 
 THE ONE— THE ABSOLUTE— according to the 
 Highest Teachings, is Pure Spirit, and not Life, Mind, 
 or Being as we understand them in our finite and mor- 
 tal expressions. But, still all Life, Mind, and Being, 
 as we understand them, spring from, flow from, and 
 emanate from, the One — and more than this, may be 
 spoken of as reflections of the Life, Mind, and Being 
 of The One, if we may be permitted to apply the 
 names of finite manifestations to the Infinite Reality. 
 
 So, the Highest Teaching is that the Universal Life 
 infilling all living things, is not, in itself, the Being 
 and Life of THE ONE — but is rather a great funda- 
 mental emanation of The One, the manner and nature 
 of which will be spoken of as we proceed. Remem- 
 ber this, please. 
 
 Leading up to the Supreme Idea of the One in All 
 — All in One — let us examine into the report of the 
 Reason upon the nature of the Substance — the Divine 
 Substance — from which all living forms are shaped; 
 and from which all that we know as Finite Mind is 
 likewise composed. How can these imperfect and Un- 
 ite forms be composed of a Divine and Perfect Sub- 
 stance? This is the question that must occur to the 
 minds of those who are capable of deep thought on 
 the subject — and it is a question that must be an- 
 swered. And it can be answered — and is answered in 
 
THE ONE AND THE MANY. 109 
 
 the Higher Yogi Philosophy. Let us examine the re- 
 ports of the Reason, a little further — then shall we 
 be ready for the Teachings. 
 
 Of what can the Substance of the Infinite be com- 
 posed? Can it be Matter? Yes, if you are satisfied 
 with the reasoning of the Materialists, and cannot see 
 further into the Truth! These teach that Matter is 
 God, and that God is Matter. But if you be among 
 those who reject the Materialistic teachings, you will 
 not be satisfied with this answer. Even if you in- 
 cline toward a Non-mental Infinite, still if you are fa- 
 miliar with the results of modern scientific investiga- 
 tion, and know that Science has seen Matter resolve 
 itself into something like Electric Energy, you will 
 know that the Truth must lie behind and beyond 
 Matter. 
 
 Then is it Pure Energy? you may ask. Pure En- 
 ergy? what's that? Can you think of Energy apart 
 from material manifestation? Have you ever known 
 of such a thing? Do you not know that even the 
 Electron Theory, which is attracting the attention of 
 advanced Modern Science, and which holds that all 
 things are composed of minute particles of Electric 
 Energy, called Electrons, from which the Atoms are 
 built — do you not know that even this theory recog- 
 nizes the necessity of a "something like Matter, only 
 infinitely finer," which they call the Ether, to enfold 
 the Electric Energy as a unit — to give it a body, as it 
 were? And can you escape from the fact that the 
 most advanced scientific minds find confronting them 
 
no GNANI YOGA. 
 
 — the fact that in all Energy, and governing its actions, 
 there 'is manifested "something like Mind"? 
 
 And does not all this teach thinkers that just as 
 Energy creates from itself, that which is called Mat- 
 ter, and then uses it as a vehicle of expression and 
 action — so does this "Something like Mind" create 
 from itself that which we call Energy, and proceeds 
 to use it, with its accompanying phase of Matter, for 
 its expression? Does not all advanced research show 
 us that in all Matter and Energy there are evidences 
 of the operation of this "Something like Mind"? And 
 if this be so, are we not justified as regarding Matter 
 and Energy as mere Effects — and to look to this 
 "Something like Mind" as the more fundamental Sub- 
 stance? We think so — and Science is beginning to 
 think so, too. And soon will Science be regarding 
 with the most profound respect, the Metaphysical 
 axiom that "All is Mind." 
 
 You will see by reference to our "Advanced Course 
 in Yogi Philosophy, etc.," the general Yogi teachings 
 regarding the Emanation of the One, known respec- 
 tively as Mind, Energy, and Matter. You will see 
 that the Yogis teach that Mind, Energy, and Matter 
 comprise a threefold emanation of the Absolute. You 
 will also see that it is taught that Mind was the Par- 
 ent-Emanation — the Universal Mind; and that the 
 Universal Energy was the Second-Emanation (pro- 
 ceeding from Mind) ; and that the Universal Matter 
 was the Third Emanation (proceeding from Energy}. 
 In the same book you will find that the Teaching is 
 
THE ONE AND THE MANY. in 
 
 that above Matter, Energy, and Mind, is the Essence 
 of the Absolute, which is called Spirit — the nature of 
 which is non-understandable to the mind of Man, the 
 highest conception of which is the highest manifesta- 
 tion of itself — Mind. But as we cannot comprehend 
 spirit otherwise, we are justified in thinking of it as 
 Something like Infinite Mind — Something as much 
 higher than Finite Mind as that is higher than mere 
 energy. 
 
 Now, then — we have seen the folly of thinking of 
 the Divine Substance as Matter or Energy. And we 
 have come to know it as Spirit, something like Mind, 
 only infinitely higher, but which still may be thought 
 of in terms of Infinite Mind, for we can have no 
 higher terms in our thinking operations. So we may 
 then assume that this Divine Nature or substance is 
 SPIRIT, which we will think of as Infinite Mind, for 
 want of a better form of conception. 
 
 We have seen the folly of thinking of the Divine Es- 
 sential Substance as the Body of God. We have like- 
 wise seen the folly of thinking of it as the Vital En- 
 ergy of God. And we have found that we could not 
 escape thinking of it as the Spirit, or infinite Mind of 
 God. Beyond this we cannot think intelligently. 
 
 But do you not see that all this exercise of the 
 Reason has brought us to the point where we must 
 think that this Divine Substance, which the Absolute- 
 God uses in the manifestation of Universal Life; the 
 Universe; and all the forms, and shapes, and mani- 
 festations of life and things in the Universe — this Di- 
 
U2 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 vine Substance which must be in All Things — and in 
 which All Things must rest, even as the bubble rests 
 on the Ocean — that this can be nothing less than Spirit, 
 and that this Spirit can be thought of only as Infinite 
 Mind? 
 
 And, if this be so, then indeed must All be Mind, 
 and Mind be All — meaning, of course, the Infinite 
 Mind, not the finite manifestation that we call Mind. 
 
 Then, if this reasoning has been correct, then must 
 we think that All Life — all the Universe — Everything 
 except the Absolute itself — must be held in the Infinite 
 Mind of the Absolute! 
 
 And, so, by the exercise of our Reason — by listening 
 to, and examining its reports, we have been brought 
 face to face — eye to eye — heart to heart — with the 
 Teaching of the Illumined Ones, which has come 
 down to us as the Highest Teaching of the Yogi 
 Philosophy! For this, indeed, is the highest concep- 
 tion of Truth in the Yogi Teachings — this, that ALL 
 MANIFESTATIONS AND EMANATIONS OF 
 THE ABSOLUTE ARE MENTAL CREATIONS 
 OF THE ABSOLUTE — THOUGHT-FORMS 
 HELD IN THE INFINITE MIND— THE INFIN- 
 ITE SPIRIT IN THEM— AND THEY IN THE 
 INFINITE SPIRIT. And that the only Real Thing 
 about Man is THE SPIRIT involved in the Thought- 
 Form, the rest is mere Personality, which changes 
 and ceases to be. The Spirit in the Soul of Man, is 
 the SOUL OF THE SOUL, which is never born, 
 ntver changeth; never dieth — this is The Real Self of 
 
THE ONE AND THE MANY. 113 
 
 Man, in which, indeed, he is "One with the Father." 
 This is the point where the Reasoning Mind of Man 
 has come to a sense of Agreement with the Highest 
 Yogi Teachings. Let us now pass on to the Teach- 
 ings themselves — let us listen to The Message of 
 Truth. 
 
 In this consideration of the Highest Yogi Philoso- 
 phy, and its teaching, we would again say to our stu- 
 dents, that which we said to them in "The Advanced 
 Course" — that we do not attempt to teach the "why" 
 of the Manifestation of The Absolute, but rest con- 
 tent with delivering the Message of the Yogi Sages, 
 which deals with the "how." As we stated in the 
 lessons referred to, we incline to that school of the 
 Higher Teachings, which holds that the "Why" of the 
 Infinite Manifestation must, of necessity, rest with 
 the Infinite alone, and that the finite mind cannot hope 
 to answer the question. We hold that in all the Uni- 
 versal Mind, or in any of its Mind Manifestations, 
 there is to be found no answer to this question ! 
 Wrapped in the Essence of the Absolute Spirit, alone, 
 is this Final Answer! 
 
 The Sages, and Masters, from their high spiritual 
 points of observation, possess many truths regarding 
 the "how" side of the question that would appear al- 
 most like Infinite Wisdom itself, compared with our 
 puny knowledge. But even these great souls report 
 that they do not possess the answer to the Final 
 Question— the "Why" of the Infinite Manifestation. 
 And so we may be excused from attempting to an- 
 
H4 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 swer it — and without shame or sense of shortcoming 
 do we still say, to this question, "We do not know!" 
 
 In order that the Final Question may be fully un- 
 derstood let us consider it for a moment. We find 
 the Question arising from the following condition: 
 
 The human Reason is compelled to admit that there 
 is an Infinite, Eternal, Causeless REALITY underly- 
 ing all forms of manifestation in the phenomenal 
 world. It is likewise compelled to admit that this 
 REALITY must comprise All that Really Is— and 
 that there can be nothing Real outside of Itself. Aris- 
 ing from this is the Truth, that all forms of phenom- 
 enal manifestation, must emanate from the One Real- 
 ity, for there is nothing else Real from which they 
 could emanate. And the twin-Truth that these forms 
 of manifestation, must also be in the Being of the One 
 Reality, for there is nowhere outside of the All where- 
 in they might find a place. So this One Reality is seen 
 to be "That from which All Things flow" ; and "That 
 in which All Things live, and move and have their 
 being." 
 
 Therefore All Things emanate from, and are con- 
 tained in the One Reality. We shall consider "just 
 how" later on, but the question which confronts us, 
 and which has been called the "Final Question" — and 
 that which we pronounce unanswerable — is this: 
 "Why has the Infinite manifested and emanated Fin- 
 ite forms of being?" You will see the nature of the 
 question when you stop to consider: (i) The Infinite 
 cannot have Desire, for that is a Finite quality; (2) 
 
THE ONE AND THE MANY. 115 
 
 It cannot lack anything, for that would take away 
 from its Infinity; (3) and even if it did lack anything, 
 from whence could it expect to acquire it; for there 
 is nothing outside of itself — if It lacks anything, it 
 must continue to always lack it, for there is no out- 
 side source from which It could obtain anything which 
 it does not already possess. And Desire would be, 
 of course, a wanting for something which it lacked — 
 so It could not Desire unless it Lacked — and it would 
 know that Desire would be hopeless, even if indeed it 
 did Lack. 
 
 So you see that if we regard the Infinite Reality as 
 Perfect, we must drop all ideas of It Desiring or 
 Lacking — and of it Growing or Improving — or of it 
 obtaining more Power, or Knowledge. These ideas 
 are ridiculous, for an Absolute, Infinite Reality, must 
 possess All-Knowledge; All- Power; All-Presence, 
 else it is not Absolute and Infinite. And, if It does 
 not possess these attributes of Being, then It can 
 never hope to acquire them, for there is Nowhere from 
 whence they could be acquired — there is no Source 
 outside of the All-Source. A Finite Thing, may lack, 
 and desire, and improve and develop, for there is the 
 Universal Source from which it may draw. But the 
 Infinite has no Universal Source, for it is Its own 
 Source. Do you see the nature of the Final Ques- 
 tion ? If not we will again state it — it is this : 
 
 "Why should the Infinite Reality, which possesses 
 all that may be possessed ,and which in itself is the 
 only Source of Things — WHY should It Desire to 
 manifest a Universe from and within Itself?" 
 
n6 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 A little consideration will show you that there is no 
 intelligent answer to the "Why," either in your own 
 minds, or in the writings and teachings of the great- 
 est minds. The matter is important, to those who are 
 confronted every day with some of the many at- 
 tempts to answer this Final Question — it is well that 
 our students inform them regarding the futility of 
 such questioning. And with this end in view, we shall 
 herein give a few of the wise "guesses" at the answer, 
 and our reasons for considering them inadequate. We 
 ask the student to consider carefully these remarks, 
 for by so doing he will post himself, and will be saved 
 much tedious and perplexing wandering along the 
 dangerous places in the Swamp of Metaphysics, fol- 
 lowing the will-o'-the-wisp of Finite Mind masquer- 
 ading as the Infinite Wisdom! Beware of the False 
 Lights! They lead to the quagmire and quicksands 
 of thought! 
 
 Let us now consider some of these "guesses" at the 
 answer to the Final Question. Some thinkers have 
 held that the Absolute was bound by a Divine Neces- 
 sity to manifest itself as Many. The answer to this 
 is that the Absc could not be bound by anything, 
 inner or outer, else it would not be Absolute and In- 
 finite, but would be Relative and Finite. Another set 
 of thinkers have held that the Absolute found within 
 itself a Desire to Manifest as Many. From whence 
 could come such an action-causing Desire? The Ab- 
 solute could lack nothing, and there would be nothing 
 for it to desire to gain, other than that which It al- 
 
THE ONE AND THE MANY. 117 
 
 ready possessed. One does not desire things one al- 
 ready has, but only what he lacks. 
 
 Another school would tell us that the Infinite wished 
 to Express itself in the phenomenal world. Why? 
 Such a phenomenal world could only be reflection of 
 Its power, witnessed only by Itself, and could contain 
 nothing that was not already contained in the All. 
 To what end would such a wish tend? What would 
 be accomplished or gained? The Infinite All could 
 not become anything more than It already was — so 
 why the wish for expression? Some say that the 
 whole phenomenal world is but Maya, or Illusion, and 
 does not exist at all. Then who else than the Infinite 
 caused the Illusion, and why the necessity? This an- 
 swer only removes the question back one point, and 
 does not really answer it. Some would say that the 
 Universe is the "dream of the Infinite.'' Can we con- 
 ceive the Infinite Being as exercisng the finite faculty 
 of "dreaming" — is not this childish? 
 
 Others would have us believe that the Absolute is 
 indulging in a "game" or "play," when he makes Uni- 
 verses, and those inhabiting them. Can anyone really 
 believe this of The Absolute — playing like a child, 
 with men and women, worlds and suns, as Its blocks 
 and tin-soldiers? Why should the Infinite "play"? — 
 does It need amusement and "fun" like a child? Poor 
 Man, with his attempts to read the Riddle of the In- 
 finite ! 
 
 We know of teachers who gravely instruct their 
 pupils in the idea that the Absolute and Infinite One 
 
n8 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 manifests Universes and Universal Life, and all that 
 flows from them, because It wishes to "gain experi- 
 ence" through objective existence. This idea, in 
 many forms has been so frequently advanced that it 
 is worth while to consider its absurdity. In the first 
 place, what "experience" could be gained by the Ab- 
 solute and Infinite One? What could It expect to 
 gain and learn, that it did not already know and pos- 
 sess? One can gain experience only from others, 
 and outside things — not from oneself entirely sep- 
 arated from the outside world of things. And there 
 would be no "outside" for the Infinite. These people 
 would have us believe that The Absolute emanated a 
 Universe from Itself — which could contain nothing 
 except that which was obtained from Itself — and then 
 proceeded to gain experience from it. Having no 
 "outside" from which it could obtain experiences and 
 sentences and sensations, it proceeded to make (from 
 Itself) an imitation one — that is what this answer 
 amounts to. Can you accept it? 
 
 The whole trouble in all of these answers, or at- 
 tempted answers, is that the answerer first conceives 
 of the Absolute-Infinite Being, as a Relative-Finite 
 Man, and then proceeds to explain what this Big Man 
 would do. This is but an exaggerated form of an- 
 thropmorphism — the conception of God as a Man 
 raised to great proportions. It is but an extension of 
 the idea which gave birth to the savage conceptions 
 of Deity as a cruel chief or mighty warrior, with hu- 
 man passions, hates, and revenge; love, passions, and 
 desires. 
 
THE ONE AND THE MANY. 119 
 
 Arising from the same cause, and akin to the the- 
 ories advanced above are similar ones, which hold 
 that the Absolute cannot dwell alone, but must for- 
 ever bring forth souls from Itself — this was the idea 
 of Plotinus, the Greek philosopher. Others have 
 thought that the Infinite was possessed of such a con- 
 suming love, that It manifested objects upon which 
 it could bestow Its affections. Others have thought 
 that It was lonesome, and desired companionship. 
 Some have spoken of the Absolute as "sacrificing" it- 
 self, in becoming Many, instead of remaining One. 
 Others have taught that the Infinite somehow has be- 
 come entangled in Its Manifestations, and had lost 
 the knowledge of Its Oneness — hence their teachings 
 of "I Am God." Others, holding to a similar idea, 
 tell us that the Infinite is deliberately "masquerading" 
 as the Many, in order to fool and mystify Itself — a 
 show of Itself; by Itself, and for Itself! Is not this 
 Speculative Metaphysics run wild? Can one in calm 
 thought so regard the Infinite and Absolute Being — 
 All-Wise — Causeless — All-Powerful — All-Present — 
 All-Possessing — Lacking Nothing — Perfect One — as 
 acting and performing thus, and from these motives? 
 Is not this as childish as the childishness of the savage, 
 and barbarians, in their Mumbo- Jumbo conceptions? 
 Let us leave this phase of the subject. 
 
 The Higher Yogi Teachings hold to no such ideas 
 or theories. It holds that the Answer to the Secret is 
 vested in the Infinite alone, and that finite "guesses" 
 regarding the "Why" are futile and pitiful. It holds 
 
120 GNAN1 YOGA. 
 
 that while one should use the Reason to the full, still 
 there are phases of Being that can be considered only 
 in Love, Faith, and Confidence in THAT from which 
 All Things flow, and in which we live and move and 
 have our being. It recognizes that the things of the 
 Spirit, are known by the Mind. It explores the re- 
 gions of the Universal Mind to its utmost limits, fear- 
 lessly — but it pauses before the Closed Door of The 
 Spirit, reverently and lovingly. 
 
 But, remember this — that while the Higher Yogi 
 Teachings contain no "guess," or' speculative theory, 
 regarding the "Why" of the Divine Manifestation, 
 still they do not deny the existence of a "Why." In 
 fact, they expressly hold that the Absolute Manifesta- 
 tion of the Many is in pursuance of some wondrous 
 Divine Plan, and that the Unfoldment of the Plan pro- 
 ceeds along well-established and orderly lines, and 
 according to Law. They trust in the Wisdom and 
 Love of the Absolute Being, and manifest a perfect 
 Confidence, Trust and Peaceful Patience in the Ulti- 
 mate Justice, and Final Victory of the Divine Plan. 
 No doubt disturbs this idea — it pays no attention to the 
 apparent contradictions in the finite phenomenal world, , 
 but sees that all things are proceeding toward some 
 far-away goal, and that "All is Well with the Uni- 
 verse." 
 
 But they do not think for a moment, or teach in the 
 slightest degree, that all this Unfoldment, and Plan of 
 the Universe, has for its object any advantage, benefit 
 or gain to the Absolute — such a thought would be 
 
THE ONE AND THE MANY. 121 
 
 folly, for the Absolute is already Perfect, and Its Per- 
 fection cannot be added to, or taken away from. But 
 they do positively teach that there is a great beneficial 
 purpose in all the Plan, accruing in the end to the de- 
 veloped souls that have evolved through the workings 
 of the plan. These souls do not possess the qualities 
 of the Infinite — they are Finite, and thus are capable 
 of receiving benefits; of growing, developing, unfold- 
 ing, attaining. And, therefore, the Yogis teach that 
 this building up of Great Souls seems to be the idea 
 of the Infinite, so far as may be gained from an ob- 
 servation of the Workings of the Plan. The Absolute 
 cannot need these Great Souls for Its own pleasure, 
 and therefore their building-up must be for their own 
 advantage, happiness and benefit. 
 
 The Yogis teach, on this subject, that there can be 
 only ONE Real Perfect Being — Perfect without ex- 
 perience — Perfect from the Beginning — but only 
 ONE! In other words, they teach that there can be 
 no such thing as Absolute Perfection, outside of the 
 Absolute Itself — and that not even the Absolute Be- 
 ing can create another Absolute Being, for in that 
 case there would be no Absolute Being at all, but only 
 two Relative Beings. 
 
 Think over this for a moment, and you will see its 
 truth. The ABSOLUTE must always be "the One 
 without a Second," as the Yogis express it — there can- 
 not be two Perfect ones. And so, all Finite Beings, 
 being Finite, must work their way up toward the 
 plane of Perfection by The Path of Life, with all of 
 
122 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 its lessons, tasks, cares, pains, and strivings. This is 
 the only way open to thern — and even the Absolute 
 cannot have it otherwise, and still be the Absolute. 
 There is a fine point here — the Absolute is All-Pow- 
 erful, but even that All-Power is not sufficient to en- 
 able It to destroy Its Absolute Being. And so, you 
 who have wondered, perhaps you may now under- 
 stand our words in the First Lesson of this series, in 
 which we said that the message of the Absolute to 
 some of the Illumined has been : "All is being done in 
 the best and only possible way — I am doing the best 
 I can — all is well — and in the end will so appear." 
 
 And, as we also said in that First Lesson : "The Ab- 
 solute, instead of being an indifferent and unmoved 
 spectator to its own creation, is a striving, longing, 
 active, suffering, rejoicing, feeling Spirit, partaking 
 of the feelings of Its manifestations, rather than cal- 
 lously witnessing them. It lives in us — with us — 
 through us. Back of all the pain in the world, may be 
 found a great feeling and suffering love." And in this 
 thought there is comfort to the doubting soul — peace 
 to the troubled mind. 
 
 In the Sixth Lesson, we shall proceed to deliver to 
 you the further Message of Truth, concerning "how" 
 the One Absolute manifests Its Mental Images as Uni- 
 verse; Universal Life; and Forms and Shapes; and 
 Individualities, and Personalities. We had hoped to 
 include the whole Message in this Fifth Lesson, but 
 now find that we have merely laid the steps by which 
 the student may reach the Essential Truth. 
 
THE ONE AND THE MANY. 123 
 
 But, lest the student may be left in an uncertain 
 state of mind, awaiting the conclusion of the consid- 
 eration of the subject — and lest he may think that we 
 intend teaching him that the Universe, and all in it, 
 including himself are "Dreams," because we have 
 said that All Things are Thought-Forms in the Mind 
 of the Absolute — lest this misunderstanding may arise, 
 we wish to add a few parting words to what we have 
 said. 
 
 We wish to impress upon the mind of the student 
 that though all Things are but Thought-Forms in the 
 Mind of the Absolute Being, and that while it is true 
 that the entire Universe of Universes is simply a 
 Thought-Form held in the Mind of the Absolute — 
 still this fact does not mean that all Things are "illu- 
 sions" or "dreams." Remember this, now and for- 
 ever, O Student — that that which is held in the Ab- 
 solute Mind as a Thought-Form IS, and is all there 
 IS, outside of the Absolute Itself. When the Abso- 
 lute forms a Thought-Form, It forms it out of Its 
 own mental substance — when the Absolute "holds any- 
 thing in Its Mind," It holds it in Itself— for the Abso- 
 lute is ALL-MIND. 
 
 The Absolute is not a material Being, from which 
 Material Beings are created. It is a Spiritual Being 
 — a Being whose Substance is akin to that which we 
 call "Mind," only raised to Infinity and Absolute Per- 
 fection and Power. And this is the only way it can 
 "create" — by creating a Thought-Form in Its Mental, 
 or Spiritual Substance. The faintest "Thought" of 
 
124 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 the Absolute is more real and durable than anything 
 that man can create — in fact, man can "create" noth- 
 ing, for all the hard and real material he uses in his 
 "creations," such as steel, diamonds, granite, are but 
 some of the minor Forms, "thought" into being by 
 the Absolute. 
 
 And also remember this, that the Absolute cannot 
 "think" of anything, without putting Itself in that 
 thing, as its Essence. Just as a man's Mental Images 
 are not only in his mind, but his mind is in them, also. 
 
 Why, you doubting and timorous ones, does not 
 even the finite "thinking" of Man manifest itself in 
 physical and material changes of form and shape? — 
 does not a man's every thought actually "create" phys- 
 ical forms and shapes, in his brain-cells and physical 
 tissue ? You who are reading these words — yea, while 
 you are reading these words — are "creating" changes 
 of form and shape in your brain-cells, and physical 
 organism. Your mind is constantly at work, also, in 
 building up your physical body, along the lines of the 
 Instinctive Mind (see previous series of lessons) — 
 you are mentally creating in a miniature universe, 
 every moment of your life. And yet, the idea of the 
 Absolute "creating" a Universe by pure Thought, in 
 Its own Mind, and thereafter causing the work of the 
 Universe to proceed according to Law, by simply 
 "Willing" it so, causes you to wonder, and perhaps to 
 doubt. 
 
 O, ye of little faith, you would deny to the Abso- 
 lute even the power you possess yourself. You plan 
 
THE ONE AND THE MANY. 125 
 
 things in your mind every day, and then proceed to 
 cause them to appear in material manifestation, and 
 yet you doubt the ability of the Absolute to do like- 
 wise. Why even the poets, or writers of fiction, cre- 
 ate characters in their minds — and these seem so real, 
 that even you imagine them to be actual entities, and 
 you weep over their pains, and smile at their joys — 
 and yet all this is on the finite plane. Why, even the 
 "imaginations" of your petty finite, undeveloped minds, 
 have sufficient power to make your physical bodies 
 sick, or well, or even to cause you to "die," from some 
 imagined ailment. And yet you doubt the power of 
 the Absolute, to "think" things into being ! You tiny 
 students in the great Kindergarten of Life — you must 
 learn better lessons from your little blocks and games. 
 And you will — this is the Law. 
 
 And you who are filled with the sense of your small- 
 ness, and "unreality" — know you that so long as you 
 are "held in the Mind of God," then so long are you 
 "remembered" by Him. And so long as you are re- 
 membered by Him, no real harm can befall you, and 
 your Reality is second only to His own. Even though 
 you pass out of your mortal frame — doth he remem- 
 ber you in His Mind, and keeping you there, he holds 
 you safe and unharmed. The greatest satisfaction 
 that can come to one, is to be able to fully realize that 
 he, or she, is held firmly IN THE MIND OF THE 
 INFINITE BEING. To such comes the knowledge 
 that in THAT LIFE there can be NO DEATH. 
 
 Peace be with you in this Realization. May you 
 make it your own! 
 
THE SIXTH LESSON 
 
 Within the Mind of The One. 
 
 In our last lesson we gave you the Inner Teachings 
 of the Yogi Philosophy, relating to the real nature of 
 the Universe, and all that is therein contained. We 
 trust that you have pondered well and carefully the 
 statements contained in that lesson, for in them is to 
 be found the essence of the highest Yogi teachings. 
 While we have endeavored to present these high truths 
 to you in the simplest possible form, yet unless your 
 minds have been trained to grasp the thought, you may 
 have trouble in fully assimilating the essence of the 
 teachings. But, be not discouraged, for your mind will 
 gradually unfold like the flower, and the Sun of Truth 
 will reach into its inmost recesses. Do not be troubled 
 if your comprehension seems dull, or your progress 
 slow, for all things will come to you in time. You 
 cannot escape the Truth, nor can the Truth escape you. 
 And it will not come to you one moment sooner than 
 you are ready to receive it, nor will it be delayed one 
 moment in its coming, when you are ready for it. 
 Such is the Law, and none can escape it, nor alter it, 
 nor modify it. All is Well, and All is Under the Law 
 — nothing ever "happens." 
 
 To many, the thought that the Universe and all that 
 is therein contained, are simply "Thought Forms" in 
 the Infinite Mind — Mental Creations of the Absolute, 
 may seem startling, and a sense of unreality may per- 
 vade one. This is inevitable, but the reaction will 
 come. To some who have grasped this mighty truth 
 
 127 
 
128 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 there has come a feeling that "All is Nothing," which 
 idea is embodied in their teachings and writings. But 
 this is merely the Negative Phase of the Truth — there 
 is a Positive Phase which comes as one advances. 
 
 The Negative Phase shows us that all that we have 
 considered as real and permanent — the foundations of 
 the Universe itself — is but a mental image in the mind 
 of the Absolute, and therefore lacks the fundamental 
 reality that we had previously associated with it. And 
 realizing this, we are at first apt to feel that, indeed 
 "all is nothing," and to fall into a state of apathy, and 
 lack of desire to play our part in the world. But, then, 
 happily the reaction sets in, sooner or later, and we 
 begin to see the Positive Phase of the Truth. This 
 Positive Phase shows us that while all the forms, 
 shapes, and phenomena of the Universe are but parts 
 of a great show-world, still the essence of all must be 
 Reality, itself, else there would not be even the "ap- 
 pearance" of a Universe. Before a thing can be a 
 Mental Image, there must be a Mind to hold that 
 Mental Image, and a BEING to possess that Mind. 
 And, the very essence of that BEING must pervade 
 and be immanent in every Image in that Mind. Just 
 as You are really in your Mental Images, as well as 
 they in You, so must the Absolute be in Its Mental 
 Images, or Creations, or Thought Forms, as truly as 
 they are in the Mind of the Absolute. Do you see this 
 plainly? Think well over it — ponder it well — for in it 
 lies the Truth. 
 
 And so, this Positive Phase of the Truth, is far 
 
WITHIN THE MIND OF THE ONE. 129 
 
 from depressing — it is the most stimulating conception 
 that one can hold, if he but grasps it in its entirety and 
 fulness. Even if it be true that all these shapes, and 
 forms, and appearances, and phenomena, and person- 
 alities, be but illusion as compared to the inner Reality 
 — what of it? Are you not then assured that the 
 Spirit within Yourself is the Spirit of the Absolute — 
 that the Reality within You is the Reality of the Abso- 
 lute — that you ARE, because the Absolute IS, and 
 cannot be otherwise? Does not the Peace, and Calm, 
 and Security, and Bliss that comes to you with this 
 Realization, far more than counterbalance the petty 
 nothings that you have discarded? We think that 
 there can be but one answer to this, when you have 
 fully Realized the Truth. 
 
 What gives you the greatest Satisfaction and Con- 
 tent in Life ? Let us see. Well, there is the Satisfaction 
 of Immortality. The human mind instinctively craves 
 this. Well, what that even the highest finite concep- 
 tions of Future Life have given you, can compare with 
 the assurance of Actual Being, in and of the Absolute ? 
 What are your petty conceptions of "heavens," "para- 
 dises," "happy-hunting-grounds," "divine regions of 
 the blessed," and the other ideas of the various re- 
 ligious sects, when compared with the conceptions of 
 your Infinite and Eternal Existence in Spirit — your 
 relation with The One — that conception of Infinite 
 Wisdom, Being, and Bliss? When you grasp this 
 truth, you will see that you are "in Eternity right 
 Now," and are Immortal even this moment, as you 
 have always been. 
 
130 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 Now, what we have said above is not intended to 
 deny the "heaven-worlds," or planes. On the con- 
 trary, you will find much in the teachings regarding 
 these, which the Yogis enter into with much detail. 
 But, we mean that back of all the "heavens" and 
 "celestial planes," there is a still higher state of being 
 — the "Absolute Being." Even the "heavens," and 
 "heaven-worlds," and regions of the Devas, or Arch- 
 angels, are but relative states — there is a state higher 
 than even these exalted relative states, and that is the 
 State of the Conscious Unity and Identity with the 
 One. When one enters into that State, he becomes 
 more than Man — more than gods — he is then "in the 
 bosom of the Father." 
 
 And now, before proceeding to a consideration of 
 the phenomenal manifestation of the Absolute — the 
 evolving of the Universe in the Infinite Mind — we will 
 again call your attention to the fact that underlies all 
 the Universe of forms, shapes and appearances, and 
 that is, as we stated in our last lesson : 
 
 All Manifestations and Emanations of the Absolute 
 are Mental Creations of the Absolute — Thought-Forms 
 held in the Infinite Mind — the Infinite Spirit in them 
 — and they in the Infinite Spirit. And, the only Real 
 Thing about Man is the Spirit involved in the Thought- 
 Form — the rest is mere Personality, which changes 
 and ceases to be. The Spirit in the Soul of Man, is the 
 Soul of the Soul, which is never born; never changeth; 
 never dieth — this is The Real Self of Man, in which, 
 indeed, he is "One with the Father." 
 
WITHIN THE MIND OF THE ONE. 131 
 
 And, now let us consider the Yogi Teachings re- 
 garding the creation of the Universe, and the evolution 
 of the living forms thereon. We shall endeavor to 
 give you the story as plainly as may be, holding fast 
 to the main thought, and avoiding the side-paths of 
 details, etc., so far as is possible. 
 
 In the first place, we must imagine ourselves back 
 to the beginning of a "Day of Brahm," — the first dawn 
 of that Day, which is breaking from the darkness of a 
 "Night of Brahm." Before we proceed further, we 
 must tell you something about these "Days and Nights 
 of Brahm," of which you have seen much mention in 
 the Oriental writings. 
 
 The Yogi Teachings contain much regarding the 
 "Days and Nights of Brahm;" the "Inbreathing and 
 Outbreathing of the Creative Principle ;" the periods of 
 "Manvantara," and the periods of "Pralaya." This 
 thought runs through all the Oriental thought, although 
 in different forms, and with various interpretations. 
 The thought refers to the occult truth that there is in 
 Cosmic Nature alternate periods of Activity and In- 
 activity — Days and Nights — Inbreathings and Out- 
 breathings — Wakefulness and Sleep. This funda- 
 mental law manifests in all Nature, from Universes to 
 Atoms. Let us see it now in its application to Uni- 
 verses. 
 
 At this point we would call the attention of the 
 student that in many of the presentations of the Hindu 
 Teachings the writers speak as if the Absolute, Itself, 
 were subject to this law of Rhythm, and had Its 
 
132 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 Periods of Rest and Work, like Its manifestations. 
 This is incorrect. The highest teachings do not so 
 hold, although at first glance it would so appear. The 
 teaching really is that while the Creative Principle 
 manifests this rhythm, still even this principle, great 
 though it be, is a manifestation of the Absolute, and 
 not the Absolute itself. The highest Hindu teachings 
 are firm and unmistakable about this point. 
 
 And, another point, in which there is much mis- 
 taken teaching. In the periods of Creative Inactivity 
 in a Universe it must not be supposed that there is no 
 Activity anywhere. On the contrary, there is never a 
 cessation of Activity on the part of the Absolute. 
 While it is Creative Night in one Universe, or System 
 of Universes, there is intense activity of Mid-Day in 
 others. When we say "The Universe" we mean the 
 Universe of Solar Systems — millions of such systems 
 — that compose the particular universe of which we 
 have any knowledge. The highest teachings tell us 
 that this Universe is but one of a System of Universes, 
 millions in number — and that this System is but one, 
 in a higher System, and so on and on, to infinity. As 
 one Hindu Sage hath said: "Well do we know that 
 the Absolute is constantly creating Universes in Its 
 Infinite Mind — and constantly destroying them — and, 
 though millions upon millions of aeons intervene be- 
 tween creation and destruction, yet doth it seem less 
 than the twinkle of an eye to The Absolute One." 
 
 And so the "Day and Night of Brahm" means only 
 the. statement of the alternating periods of Activity 
 
WITHIN THE MIND OF THE ONE. 133 
 
 and Inactivity in some one particular Universe, amidst 
 the Infinite Universality. You will find a mention of 
 these periods of Activity and Inactivity in the "Bhaga- 
 vad Gita," the great Hindu epic. The following quo- 
 tations, and page references, relate to the edition pub- 
 lished by the Yogi Publication Society, which was com- 
 piled and adapted by the writer of these lessons. In 
 that edition of the "Bhagavad Gita," on page yy, you 
 will find these words attributed to Krishna, the Abso- 
 lute One in human incarnation : 
 
 "The worlds and universes — yea, even the world of 
 Brahm, a single day of which is like unto a thousand 
 Yugas (four billion years of the earth), and his night 
 as much — these worlds must come and go. * * * 
 The Days of Brahm are succeeded by the Nights of 
 Brahm. In these Brahmic Days all things emerge 
 from invisibility, and become visible. And, on the 
 coming of the Brahmic Night, all visible things again 
 melt into invisibility. The Universe having once ex- 
 isted, melteth away ; and lo ! is again re-created." 
 
 And, in the same edition, on page 80, we find these 
 words, attributed to the same speaker : 
 
 "At the end of a Kalpa — a Day of Brahm — a period 
 of Creative Activity — I withdraw into my nature, all 
 things and beings. And, at the beginning of another 
 Kalpa, I emanate all things and beings, and re-perform 
 my creative act." 
 
 We may say here, in passing, that Modern Science 
 now holds to the theory of periods of Rhythmic 
 Change ; of Rise and Fall ; of Evolution and Dissolu- 
 
134 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 tion. It holds that, beginning at some time in the past 
 aeons of time, there was the beginning of an upward 
 or evolutionary movement, which is now under way; 
 and that, according to the law of Nature, there must 
 come a time when the highest point will be reached, 
 and then will come the beginning of the downward 
 path, which in time must come to an end, being suc- 
 ceeded by a long period of inactivity, which will then 
 be followed by the beginning of a new period of Cre- 
 ative Activity and Evolution — "a Day of Brahm." 
 This thought of this law of Rhythm, in its Universal 
 form, has been entertained by the thinkers of all times 
 and races. Herbert Spencer expressly held to it in 
 his "First Principles," expressing it in many ways 
 akin to this : "Evolution must come to a close in com- 
 plete equilibrium or rest;" and again, "It is not infer- 
 able from the general progress towards equilibrium, 
 that a state of universal quiescence or death will be 
 reached; but that if a process of reasoning ends in 
 that conclusion, a further process of reasoning points 
 to renewals of activity and life ;" and again, "Rhythm 
 in the totality of changes — alternate eras of evolution 
 and dissolution." The Ancient Western Philosophers 
 also indulged in this idea. Heraclitus taught that the 
 universe manifested itself in cycles, and the Stoics 
 taught that "the world moves in an endless cycle, 
 through the same stages." The followers of Pythago* 
 ras went even further, and claimed that "the succeed- 
 ing worlds resemble each other, down to the minutest 
 detail," this latter idea, however — the idea of the 
 
WITHIN THE MIND OF THE ONE. 135 
 
 "Eternal Recurrence" — while held by a number of 
 thinkers, is not held by the Yogi teachers, who teach 
 infinite progression — an Evolution of Evolution, as it 
 were. The Yogi teachings, in this last mentioned par- 
 ticular, are resembled more by the line of Lotze's 
 thinking, as expressed in this sentence from his Micro- 
 cosmos: "The series of Cosmic Periods, * * * 
 each link of which is bound together with every other ; 
 * * * the successive order of these sections shall 
 compose the unity of an onward-advancing melody." 
 And, so through the pages of Heraclitus, the Stoics, 
 the Pythagoreans, Empedocles, Virgil, down to the 
 present time, in Nietzche, and his followers, we find 
 this thought of Universal Rhythm — that fundamental 
 conception of the ancient Yogi Philosophy. 
 
 And, now, returning to the main path of our thought 
 — let us stand here at the beginning of the dawn of a 
 Day of Brahm. It is verily a beginning, for there is 
 nothing to be seen — there is nothing but Space. No 
 trace of Matter, Force or Mind, as we know these 
 terms. In that portion of Infinite Space — that is, of 
 course, in that "portion" of the Infinite Mind of the 
 Absolute One, for even Space is a "conception" of 
 that Mind, there is "Nothing." This is "the darkest 
 moment, just before the dawn." 
 
 Then comes the breaking of the dawn of the 
 Brahmic Day. The Absolute begins the "creation" 
 of a Universe. And, how does It create? There can 
 be no creation of something out of nothing. And 
 except the Absolute Itself there is but Nothing. 
 
136 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 Therefore The Absolute must create the Universe 
 out of Its own "substance," if we can use the word 
 "substance" in this connection. "Substance" means, 
 literally, "that which stands under," being derived 
 from the two Latin words, sub, meaning "under," 
 and stare, meaning "to stand." The English word 
 "understand" means, literally, "to stand under" — the 
 two words really meaning the same. This is more 
 than a coincidence. 
 
 So the Absolute must create the Universe from its 
 own substance, we have seen. Well, what is this 
 "substance" of the Absolute? Is it Matter? No! for 
 Matter we know to be, in itself, merely a manifesta- 
 tion of Force, or Energy. Then, is it Force or En- 
 ergy? No! because Force and Energy, in itself, can- 
 not possess Mind, and we must think of the Absolute 
 as possessing Mind, for it manifests Mind, and what 
 is manifested must be in the Manifestor, or Mani- 
 festing Agent. Then this "substance" must be Mind? 
 Well, yes, in a way — and yet not Mind as we know it, 
 finite and imperfect. But something like Mind, only 
 Infinite in degree and nature — something sufficiently 
 greater than Mind as we know it, to admit of it being 
 the Cause of Mind. But, we are compelled to think 
 of it as "Infinite Mind," for our finite Minds can hold 
 no higher conception. So we are content to say that 
 this "substance" from which the Absolute must create 
 the Universe is a something that we will call Infinite 
 Mind. Fix this in your mind, please, as the first step 
 in our conception. 
 
WITHIN THE MIND OF THE ONE. 137 
 
 But, how can the Infinite Mind be used to create 
 finite minds, shapes, forms, and things, without it 
 being lessened in quantity — how can you take some- 
 thing from something, and still have the original 
 something left? An impossibility! And, we cannot 
 think of the Absolute as "dividing Itself up" into two 
 or more portions — for if such were the case, there 
 would be two or more Absolutes, or else None. There 
 cannot be two Absolutes, for if the Absolute were to 
 divide itself so there would be no Absolute, but only 
 two Relatives — two Finites instead of One Infinite. 
 Do you see the absurdity? 
 
 Then how can this work of Creation be accom- 
 plished, in view of these difficulties which are ap- 
 parent even to our finite minds? You may thresh 
 this question over and over again in your minds — 
 men have done so in all times — and you will not find 
 the answer except in the fundamental Idea of the Yogi 
 Teachings. And this Fundamental Idea is that the 
 creation is purely a Mental Creation, and the Universe 
 is the Mental Image, or Thought-Form, in the Mind 
 of the Absolute — in the Infinite Mind, itself. No other 
 "creation" is possible. And so this, say the Yogi 
 Masters, this is the Secret of Universal Creation. The 
 Universe is of, and in, the Infinite Mind, and this is 
 the only way it could be so. So, fix in your mind 
 this second step in our conception. 
 
 But then, you ask us, from whence comes Force. 
 Matter, and Finite Mind? Well asked, good stu- 
 dent — your answer shall be forthcoming. Here it is. 
 
138 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 Finite Mind ; Force or Energy ; and Matter ; in them- 
 selves have no existence. They are merely Mental 
 Images, or Thought-Forms in the Infinite Mind of 
 the Absolute. Their whole existence and appearance 
 depends upon their Mental Conception and Retention 
 in the Infinite Mind. In It they have their birth, 
 rise, growth, decline and death. 
 
 Then what is Real about ME, you may ask — surely 
 I have a vivid consciousness of Reality — is this merely 
 an illusion, or shadow? No, not so! that sense of 
 Reality which you possess and which every creature 
 or thing possesses — that sense of "I Am" — is the per- 
 ception by the Mental Image tif the Reality of its 
 Essence — and that Essence is the Spirit. And that 
 Spirit is the SUBSTANCE OF THE ABSOLUTE 
 embodied in Its conception, the Mental Image. It is 
 the perception by the Finite, of its Infinite Essence. 
 Or, the perception by the Relative of its Absolute 
 Essence. Or, the perception by You, or I, or any 
 other man or woman, of the Real Self, which under- 
 lies all the sham self or Personality. It is the reflec- 
 tion of the Sun, in the dew-drop, and thousands of 
 dew-drops — seemingly thousands of Suns, and yet but 
 One. And yet, that reflection of the Sun in the dew- 
 drop is more than a "reflection," for it is the substance 
 of the Sun itself — and yet the Sun shines on high, one 
 and undivided, yet manifesting in millions of dew- 
 drops. It is only by figures of speech that we can 
 speak of the Unspeakable Reality. 
 
 To make it perhaps plainer to some of you, let us 
 
WITHIN THE MIND OF THE ONE. 139 
 
 remind you that even in your finite Mental Images 
 there is evident many forms of life. You may think 
 of a moving army of thousands of men. And yet 
 the only "I" in these men is your own "I." These 
 characters in your mind move and live and have their 
 being, and yet there is nothing in them except "You !" 
 The characters of Shakespeare, Dickens, Thackeray, 
 Balzac, and the rest, were such strong Mental Images 
 that not only their creators were carried away by their 
 power, and apparent ability, but even you who read 
 of them, many years after, perhaps, feel the apparent 
 reality, and weep, or smile, or grow angry over their 
 actions. And, yet there was no Hamlet, outside of 
 Shakespeare's mind ; no Micawber outside of Dickens ; 
 no Pere Goriot outside of Balzac. 
 
 These illustrations are but finite examples of the 
 Infinite, but still they will give you an idea of the 
 truth that we are trying to unfold in your mind. But 
 you must not imagine that You and I, and all others, 
 and things, are but mere "imaginations," like our 
 created characters — that would be a most unhappy be- 
 lief. The mental creations held by You and I, and 
 other finite minds, are but finite creations of finite 
 minds, while WE, ourselves, are the finite creations 
 of an INFINITE MIND. While our, and Dickens', 
 and Balzac's, and Shakespeare's creations live and 
 move and have their being, they have no other "I" 
 than our Finite Minds, while we, the characters in the 
 Divine Drama, Story, or Epic, have for our "I" — our 
 Real Self— the ABSOLUTE REALITY. They have 
 
140 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 merely a background of our finite personalities, and 
 minds, before which they may desport themselves, 
 until, alas! the very background fades away to dust, 
 and both background and shadows disappear. But, we 
 have behind our personalities the Eternal Background 
 of Reality, which changeth not, neither doth it Disap- 
 pear. Shadows on a screen though our Personalities 
 may be, yet the Screen is Real and Eternal. Take 
 away the finite screen and the shadows disappear — but 
 our Screen remains forever. 
 
 We are Mental Images in the Infinite Mind — the 
 Infinite Mind holds us safe — we cannot be lost — we 
 cannot be hurt — we can never disappear, unless we be 
 absorbed in the Infinite Mind itself, and then we 
 STILL ARE! The Infinite Mind never forgets— it 
 never can overlook us — it is aware of our presence, 
 and being, always. We are safe — we are secure — we 
 ARE! Just as we could not be created from Noth- 
 ing — so we cannot be converted into Nothing. We 
 are in the All — and there is no outside. 
 
 At the dawn of the Brahmic Day, The Absolute 
 begins the creation of a new Universe, or the re- 
 creation of one, just as you may care to state it. The 
 highest Yogi Teachings inform us that the information 
 relating to this event (which is, of course, beyond the 
 personal knowledge of man as we know him) has 
 been passed down to the race from teachers, who have 
 received it from still higher teachers, and so on, and 
 on and on, higher and higher, until it is believed to 
 have originated with some of those wonderfully de- 
 
WITHIN THE MIND OF THE ONE. 141 
 
 veloped souls which have visited the earth from higher 
 planes of Being, of which there are many. In these 
 lessons we are making no claims of this sort, but pass 
 on the teachings to you, believing that their truth will 
 appeal to those who are ready for them, without any 
 attempt to attribute to them an authority such as just 
 mentioned. Our reference to this high source of the 
 teachings was made because of its general acceptance 
 in the Eastern countries, and by occultists generally. 
 
 The Yogi teachings inform us that, in the Begin- 
 ning, The Absolute formed a Mental Image, or 
 Thought-Form, of an Universal Mind — that is, of an 
 Universal Principle of Mind. And here the distinc- 
 tion is made between this Universal Mind Principle, 
 or Universal Mind-Stuff, as some have called it, and 
 the Infinite Mind itself. The Infinite Mind is some- 
 thing infinitely above this creation of the Universal 
 Mind Principle, the latter being as much an "emana- 
 tion" as is Matter. Let there be no mistake about 
 this. The Infinite Mind is Spirit — the Universal Mind 
 Principle is "Mind-Stuff" of which all Finite Mind 
 is a part. This Universal Mind Principle was the 
 first conception of The Absolute, in the process of the 
 creation of the Universe. It was the "Stuff" from 
 which all Finite Mind forms, and is formed. It is 
 the Universal Mental Energy. Know it as such — but 
 do not confound it with Spirit, which we have called 
 Infinite Mind, because we had no other term. There 
 is a subtle difference here, which is most important to 
 a careful understanding of the subject. 
 
142 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 The Yogi teachings inform us that from this Mental 
 Principle there was developed the Universal Principle 
 of Force or Energy. And that from this Universal 
 Force Principle there developed the Universal Prin- 
 ciple of Matter. The Sanscrit terms for these Three 
 Principles are as follows: Chitta, or the Universal 
 Mind Substance, or Principle ; Prana, or the Universal 
 Energy Principle; and Akasa, or the Universal Prin- 
 ciple of Matter. We have spoken of these Three 
 Principles, or Three Great Manifestations, in our 
 "Advanced Course" of lessons, which followed our 
 "Fourteen Lessons," several years ago, but it becomes 
 necessary for us to refer to them again at this place 
 in connection with the present presentation of the sub- 
 ject. As was stated in the lessons just mentioned, 
 these Three Manifestations, or Principles, are really 
 one, and shade into each other. This matter has been 
 fully touched upon in the concluding lessons of the 
 aforesaid "Advanced Course," to which we must refer 
 you for further details, in order to avoid repetition 
 here. You will find a wonderful correspondence be- 
 tween these centuries-old Yogi teachings, and the latest 
 conceptions of Modern Science. 
 
 Well, to return to the main path once more, the 
 Teachings inform us that The Absolute "thought" 
 into being — that is, held the Mental Image, or 
 Thought-Form, of — Chitta, or Universal Mind Prin- 
 ciple. This Chitta was finite, of course, and was bound 
 and governed by the Laws of Finite Mind, imposed 
 upon it by the Will of The Absolute. Everything that 
 
WITHIN THE MIND OF THE ONE. 143 
 
 is Finite is governed by Laws imposed by the great 
 LAW which we call The Absolute. Then began the 
 Great INVOLUTION which was necessary before 
 Evolution was possible. The word "Involve," you 
 know, means "to wrap up; to cover; to hide; etc.;" 
 and the word "Evolve" means "to unwrap ; to unfold ; 
 to un-roll; etc." Before a thing can be "evolved," or 
 "unfolded," it must first have been "involved" or 
 "folded-in, or wrapped up, etc." Everything must be 
 "involved" before it can be "evolved ;" remember this, 
 please — it is true on all planes, mental, physical, and 
 spiritual. A thing must be "put in" before it may be 
 "taken out." This truth, if remembered and applied 
 to metaphysical problems, will throw the clearest light 
 upon the darkest problems. Make it your own. 
 
 Therefore before the process of Evolution from the 
 gross forms of Matter up to the higher, and then on 
 to the Mental, from higher to higher, and then on the 
 Spiritual plane — that Evolution which we see being 
 performed before our sight today — before that Evolu- 
 tion became possible there was a necessary Involu- 
 tion, or "wrapping-up." The Spirit of the Absolute 
 first "involved" itself in its Mental Image; Thought- 
 Form, or Creation, of the Mind Principle, just as you 
 may "involve" yourself in an earnest thought in deep 
 meditation. Did you never "lose yourself" in thought, 
 or "forget yourself" in an idea? Have you not spoken 
 of yourself as having been "wrapped in thought?" 
 Well, then you can see something of what is here 
 meant, at least so far as the process of "involution? 
 
144 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 is concerned. You involve yourself in your medita- 
 tions — the Absolute involves Itself in Its Mental Cre- 
 ations — but, remember the one is Finite, and the other 
 Infinite, and the results are correspondingly weak or 
 strong. 
 
 Obeying the laws imposed upon it, the Mental Prin- 
 ciple then involved itself in the Energy Principle, or 
 Prana, and the Universal Energy sprang into exist- 
 ence. Then, in obedience to the same Laws, the Prana 
 involved itself in the Akasa, or Universal Matter 
 Principle. Of course each "involving" practically "cre- 
 ated" the "wrapper," "sheath" of the lower Principle. 
 Do you see this? Each, therefore, depends upon the 
 Principle higher than itself, which becomes its "Parent 
 Principle," as the Yogis express it. And in this 
 process of Involution the extreme form of Matter was 
 reached before the process of Evolution became pos- 
 sible. The extreme form of gross Matter is not known 
 to us today, on this planet, for we have passed beyond 
 it. But the teachings inform us that such forms were 
 as much grosser that the grossest Matter that we know 
 today, as the latter is gross in comparison with the 
 most ethereal vapors known to Modern Science. The 
 human mind cannot grasp this extreme of the scale, 
 any more than it can the extreme high degree of 
 manifestation. 
 
 At this point we must call your attention to certain 
 occult teachings, widely disseminated, which the 
 highest Yogi teachers discountenance, and contradict. 
 We allude to the teaching that in the process of Invo- 
 
WITHIN THE MIND OF THE ONE. 145 
 
 lution there was a "degeneration" or "devolution" 
 from higher to lower forms of life, until the gross 
 state of Matter was reached. Such a teaching is hor- 
 rible, when considered in detail. It would mean that 
 The Absolute deliberately created high forms of life, 
 arch-angels, and higher than these — gods in fact — 
 and then caused them to "devolve" until the lowest 
 state was reached. This would mean the exact oppo- 
 site of Evolution, and would mean a "going down" 
 in accordance with the Divine Will, just as Evolution 
 is a "going up" in accordance with the Divine Will. 
 
 This is contrary to man's best instincts, and the ad- 
 vanced Yogi teachings inform us that it is but an 
 illusion or error that men have created by endeavoring 
 to solve spiritual mysteries by purely intellectual 
 processes. The true teaching is that the process of 
 Involution was accomplished by a Principle involving 
 itself in the lower Principle created within itself, and 
 so on until the lowest plane was reached. Note the 
 difference — "Principles as Principles" did this, and 
 not as Individual Forms of Life or Being. There 
 was no more a "devolution" in this process than there 
 was in The Absolute involving itself in the Mental 
 Image of the Mind Principle. There was no "devolu- 
 tion" or "going down" — only an "involution" or 
 "wrapping up," of Principle, within Principle — the 
 Individual Life not having as yet appeared, and not 
 being possible of appearance until the Evolutionary 
 process began. 
 
 We trust that we have made this point clear to you, 
 
146 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 for it is an important matter. If the Absolute first 
 made higher beings, and then caused them to "devo- 
 lute" into lower and lower forms, then the whole 
 process would be a cruel, purposeless thing, worthy 
 only of some of the base conceptions of Deity conceived 
 of by men in their ignorance. No! the whole effort 
 of the Divine Will seems to be in the direction of 
 "raising up" Individual Egos to higher and still higher 
 forms. And in order to produce such Egos the process 
 of "Involution" of Principles seems to have been 
 caused, and the subsequent wonderful Evolutionary 
 process instituted. What that "Reason" is, is Un- 
 knowable, as we have said over and over again. We 
 cannot pry into the Infinite Mind of the Absolute, but 
 we may form certain conclusions by observing and 
 studying the Laws of the Universe, which seem to be 
 moving in certain directions. From the manifested 
 Will of the Divine One, we may at least hazard an 
 idea as to its purposes. And these purposes seem to 
 be always in an "upward" lifting and evolution. Even 
 the coming of the "Night of Brahm" is no exception 
 to this statement, as we shall see in future lessons. 
 
 From the starting of the process of Involution from 
 the Mental Principle, down to the extreme downward 
 point of the grossest Manifestation of Matter, there 
 were many stages. From the highest degree of the 
 Finite Mind, down to lower and still lower degrees; 
 then on to the plane of Force and Energy, from higher 
 to lower degrees of Principle within Principle; then 
 on to the plane of Matter, the Involutionary urge pro- 
 
WITHIN THE MIND OF THE ONE. 147 
 
 ceeded to work. When the plane of Matter was 
 reached, it, of course, showed its highest degree of 
 manifested Matter— the most subtle form of Ether, or 
 Akasa. Then down, down, down, went the degrees of 
 Matter, until the grossest possible form was reached, 
 and then there was a moment's pause, before the Evo- 
 lutionary process, or upward-movement, began. The 
 impulse of the Original Will, or Thought, had ex- 
 hausted its downward urge, and now began the up- 
 ward urge or tendency. But here was manifested a 
 new feature. 
 
 This new feature was "The Tendency toward Indi- 
 vidualization." During the downward trend the move- 
 ment was en masse, that is, by Principle as Principle, 
 without any "splitting up" into portions, or centers. 
 But with the first upward movement there was evi- 
 denced a tendency toward creating Centers of Energy, 
 or Units of activity, which then manifested itself, as 
 the evolutionary movement continued, from electrons 
 to atoms; from atoms to man. The gross matter was 
 used as material for the formation of finer and more 
 complex forms ; and these in turn combined, and 
 formed higher, and so on, and on. And the forms of 
 Energy operated in the same way. And the manifes- 
 tations of centers of Mind or consciousness in the same 
 way. But all in connection. Matter, Energy and 
 Mind formed a Trinity of Principles, and worked in 
 connection. And the work was always in the direction 
 of causing higher and higher "forms" to arise — higher 
 and higher Units — higher and higher Centers. But 
 
i 4 8 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 in every form, center or unit, there was manifested 
 the Three Principles, Mind, Energy, and Matter. And 
 within each was the ever present Spirit. For Spirit 
 must be in All — just as All must be in Spirit. 
 
 And, so this Evolutionary process has continued 
 ever since ,and must continue for aeons yet. The Ab- 
 solute is raising itself up into Itself higher and higher 
 Egos, and is providing them with higher and higher 
 sheaths in which to manifest. And, as we shall see in 
 these lessons, as we progress, this evolution is not only 
 along the physical lines, but also along the mental. 
 And it concerns itself not only with "bodies," but with 
 "souls," which also evolve, from time to time, and 
 bodies are given these souls in order that they may 
 work out their evolution. And the whole end and 
 aim of it all seems to be that Egos may reach the 
 stage where they are conscious of the Real Self — of 
 the Spirit within them, and its relation to the Spirit of 
 the Absolute, and then go on and on and on, to planes 
 of life and being, and activities of which even the most 
 advanced of the race may only dream. 
 
 As some of the Ancient Yogi Teachers have said: 
 "Men are evolving into super-men; and super-men 
 into gods; and gods into super-gods; and super-gods 
 into Something still higher; until from the lowest bit 
 of matter enclosing life, unto the highest being — yea, 
 even unto The Absolute — there is an Infinite Ladder 
 of Being — and yet the One Spirit pervades all; is in 
 all, as the all is in It." 
 
 The Creative Will, of which we have spoken in these 
 
WITHIN THE MIND OF THE ONE. 149 
 
 lessons, is in full operation all through Life. The 
 Natural Laws are laws of Life imposed by The Abso- 
 lute in his Mental Image. They are the Natural Laws 
 of this Universe, just as other Universes have other 
 Laws. But The Absolute Itself has no Laws affecting 
 It— It, in Itself is LAW. 
 
 And these Laws of Life, and Nature, along its 
 varying planes, Material, of Energy ; and Mental ; are 
 also, in the Divine Mind, else they would not be at all, 
 even in appearance. And when they are transcended, 
 or apparently defied by some man of advanced devel- 
 opment, it is only because such a man is able to rise 
 above the plane upon which such laws are operative. 
 But even this transcending is, in itself, in accordance 
 with some higher law. 
 
 And so, we see that All, high and low — good and 
 bad — simple or complex — all are contained Within the 
 Mind of the One. Gods, angels, adepts, sages, heavens, 
 planes, — all, everything — is within the Universe, and 
 the Universe is Within the Mind of the One. And all 
 is proceeding in accordance with Law. And all is 
 moving upward and onward, along the lines of Evolu- 
 tion. All is Well. We are held firmly in The Mind 
 of the One. 
 
 And, just as the tendency was from the general 
 Principle toward the particular Individual Soul, so 
 is there a Reconciliation later on, for the Individual 
 soul, as it develops and unfolds, loses its sense of 
 Separateness, and begins to feel its identity with the 
 One Spirit, and moves along the lines of unfoldment, 
 
150 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 until it becomes in Conscious Union with God. Spirit- 
 ual Evolution does not mean the "growth of the 
 Spirit," for the Spirit cannot grow — it is already Per- 
 fect. The term means the unfoldment of the Indi- 
 vidual Mind, until it can recognize the Spirit Within. 
 Let us close this lesson with the 
 
 CENTRAL THOUGHT. 
 
 There is but ONE. That ONE is Spirit. In the 
 Infinite Mind of that ONE SPIRIT there arose the 
 Mental Image or Thought-Form of this Universe. 
 Beginning with the Thought of the Principle in Mind ; 
 and passing on to the Principle of Energy; and then 
 on to the Principle of Matter; proceeded the Involu- 
 tionary Process of Creation. Then, upward began the 
 Evolutionary Process, and Individual Centers or Units 
 were formed. And the tendency, and evolutionary 
 urge is ever in the direction of "unfolding" within the 
 Ego of the Realization of the Indwelling Spirit. As 
 we throw off sheath after sheath, we approach nearer 
 and nearer to the SPIRIT within us, which is the One 
 Spirit pervading all things. This is the Meaning of 
 Life — the Secret of Evolution. All the Universe is 
 contained Within the Mind of The One. There is 
 Nothing outside of that Infinite Mind. There is no 
 Outside, for the One is All in All; Space, Time, and 
 Laws, being but Mental Images in that Mind, as are 
 likewise all shapes and forms, and phenomena. And 
 as the Ego unfolds into a realization of Itself — Its 
 
WITHIN THE MIND OF THE ONE. 151 
 
 Real Self — so does its Wisdom and Power expand. 
 It thus enters into a greater and greater degree of its 
 Inheritance. Within the Mind of the One, is All there 
 is. And I, and Thou, and All Things are HERE 
 within that Infinite Mind. We are always "held in 
 Mind" by The Absolute — are always safe here. There 
 is nothing to harm us, in Reality, for our Real Self is 
 the Real Self of the Infinite Mind. All is Within the 
 Mind of the One. Even the tiniest atom is under the 
 Law, and protected by the Law. And the LAW is All 
 there Is. And in that Law we may rest Content and 
 Unafraid. May this Realization be YOURS. 
 
 PEACE BE WITH YOU ALL. 
 
THE SEVENTH LESSON 
 
 Cosmic Evolution. 
 
 We have now reached a most interesting point iiv 
 this course of lessons, and a period of fascinating 
 study lies before us from now until the close of the 
 course. We have acquainted ourselves with the funda- 
 mental principles, and will now proceed to witness 
 these principles in active operation. We have studied 
 the Yogi Teachings concerning the Truth underlying 
 all things, and shall now pass on to a consideration 
 of the process of Cosmic Evolution ; the Cyclic Laws ; 
 the Law of Spiritual Evolution, or Reincarnation ; the 
 Law of Spiritual Cause and Effect, or Karma; etc. 
 In this lesson we begin the story of the upward prog- 
 ress of the Universe, and its forms, shapes, and forces, 
 from the point of the "moment's pause" following the 
 ceasing of the process of Involution — the point at 
 which Cosmic Evolution begins. Our progress is now 
 steadily upward, so far as the evolution of Individual 
 Centres is concerned. We shall see the principles re- 
 turning to the Principle — the centres returning to the 
 great Centre from which they emanated during the 
 process of Involution. We shall study the long, grad- 
 ual, but steady ascent of Man, in his journey toward 
 god-hood. We shall see the Building of an Universe, 
 and the Growth of the Soul. 
 
 In our last lesson we have seen that at the dawn of 
 a Brahmic Day, the Absolute begins the creation of a 
 new Universe. The Teachings inform us that vn the 
 beginning, the Absolute forms a Mental Image, or 
 
 155 
 
1 54 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 Thought-Form of an Universal Mind Principle, or 
 Universal Mind-Stuff, as some of the teachers express 
 it. Then this Universal Mind Principle creates with- 
 in itself the Universal Energy Principle. Then this 
 Universal Energy Principle creates within itself the 
 Universal Matter Principle. Thus, Energy is a prod- 
 uct of Mind; and Matter a product of Energy. 
 
 The Teachings then further inform us that from 
 the rare, tenuous, subtle form of Matter in which the 
 Universal Matter Principle first appeared, there was 
 produced forms of Matter less rare; and so by easy 
 stages, and degrees, there appeared grosser and still 
 grosser forms of matter, until finally there could be 
 no further involution into grosser forms, and the In- 
 volutional Process ceased. Then ensued the "mo- 
 ment's pause" of which the Yogi teachers tell us. At 
 that point Matter existed as much grosser that the 
 grossest form of Matter now known to us, as the lat- 
 ter is when compared to the most subtle vapors known 
 to science. It is impossible to describe these lower 
 forms of matter, for they have ages since disappeared 
 from view, and we would have no words with which 
 to describe them. We can understand the situation 
 only by comparisons similar to the above. 
 
 Succeeding the moment's pause, there began the 
 Evolutionary Process, or Cosmic Evolution, which 
 has gone on ever since, and which will go on for ages 
 to come. From the grossest forms of Matter there 
 evolved forms a little more refined, and so on and on. 
 From the simple elementary forms, evolved more com- 
 
COSMIC EVOLUTION. 155 
 
 plex and intricate forms. And from these forms com- 
 binations began to be formed. And the urge was ever 
 upward. 
 
 But remember this, that all of this Evolutionary 
 Process is but a Returning Home. It is the Ascent 
 after the Descent. It is not a Creation but an Un- 
 foldment. The Descent was made by principles as 
 principles — the Ascent is being made by Individual- 
 ized Centres evolved from the principles. Matter man- 
 ifests finer and finer forms, and exhibits a greater and 
 greater subservience to Energy or Force. And En- 
 ergy or Force shows a greater and greater degree of 
 "mind" in it. But, remember this, that there is Mind 
 in even the grossest form of Matter. This must be 
 so, for what springs from a thing must contain the 
 elements of its cause. 
 
 And the Cosmic Evolution continues, and must con- 
 tinue for aeons of time. Higher and higher forms of 
 Mind are being manifested, and still higher and higher 
 forms will appear in the scale, as the process con- 
 tinues. The evolution is not only along material lines, 
 but has passed on to the mental planes, and is now 
 operating along the spiritual lines as well. And the 
 end, and aim seems to be that each Ego, after the 
 experiences of many lives, may unfold and develop to 
 a point where it may become conscious of its Real 
 Self, and realize its identity with the One Life, and 
 the Spirit. 
 
 At this point we may be confronted with the objec- 
 tion of the student of material science, who will ask 
 
156 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 why we begin our consideration of Cosmic Evolution 
 at a point in which matter has reached the limit of its 
 lowest vibrations, manifesting in the grossest possible 
 form of matter. These students may point to the fact 
 that Science begins its consideration of evolution with 
 the nebulae, or faint cloudlike, vaporous matter, from 
 which the planets were formed. But there is only an 
 apparent contradiction here. The nebulae were part 
 of the Process of Involution, and Science is right when 
 it holds that the gross forms were produced from the 
 finer. But the process of change from finer to grosser 
 was Involution, not Evolution. Do you see the differ- 
 ence? Evolution begins at the point when the stage 
 of Unfoldment commenced. When the gross forms 
 begin to yield to the new upward urge, and unfold into 
 finer forms — then begins Evolution. 
 
 We shall pass over the period of Evolution in which 
 Matter was evolving into finer and still finer forms, 
 until at last it reached a degree of vibration capable of 
 supporting that which we call "life." Of course there 
 is "life" in all matter — even in the atom, as we have 
 shown in previous lessons. But when we speak of 
 "life," as we now do, we mean what are generally 
 called "living forms." The Yogi Teachings inform 
 us that the lowest forms of what we call "life" were 
 evolved from forms of high crystal life, which indeed 
 they very much resemble. We have spoken of this re- 
 semblance, in the previous lessons of this series. And, 
 so we shall begin at the point where "living forms" 
 began. 
 
COSMIC EVOLUTION. 157 
 
 Speaking now of our own planet, the Earth, we find 
 matter emerging from the molten state in which it 
 manifested for ages. Gradually cooling and stratify- 
 ing, the Earth contained none of those forms that we 
 call living forms. The temperature of the Earth in 
 that period is estimated at about 15,000 times hotter 
 than boiling water, which would, of course, render 
 impossible the existence of any of the present known 
 forms of life. But the Yogi Teachings inform us that 
 even in the molten mass there were elementary forms 
 that were to become the ancestral forms of the later 
 living forms. These elementary forms were composed 
 of a vaporous, peculiar form of matter, of minute size, 
 — little more than the atoms, in fact, and yet, just a lit- 
 tle more advanced. From these elementary forms, 
 there gradually evolved, as the Earth cooled and solid- 
 ified, other forms, and so on until at last the first "liv- 
 ing form" manifested. 
 
 As the globe cooled at the poles, there was gradually 
 created a tropical climate, in which the temperature 
 was sufficiently cool to support certain rudimentary 
 forms of life. In the rocks in the far northern lati- 
 tudes, there are found abundant traces of fossils, which 
 goes to prove the correctness of the Yogi Teachings 
 of the origin of life at the north pole, from which the 
 living forms gradually spread south toward the equa- 
 tor, as the Earth's surface cooled. 
 
 The elementary evolving life forms were of a very 
 simple structure, and were but a degree above the 
 crystals. They were composed of identically the same 
 
i S 8 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 substance as the crystals, the only difference being that 
 they displayed a greater degree of mind. For that 
 matter, even the highest physical form known to us 
 today is composed of simple chemical materials. And 
 these chemical materials are obtained, either directly 
 or indirectly, from the air, water, or earth. The prin- 
 cipal materials composing the physical bodies of plants, 
 animals, and man, are oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, 
 nitrogen, with a still smaller proportion of sulphur and 
 phosphorus, and traces of a few other elements. The 
 material part of all living things is alike — the differ- 
 ence lies in the degree of Mind controlling the matter 
 in which it is embodied. 
 
 Of these physical materials, carbon is the most im- 
 portant to the living forms. It seems to possess prop- 
 erties capable of drawing to it the other elements, and 
 forcing them into service. From carbon proceeds 
 what is called "protoplasm," the material of which the 
 cells of animal and vegetable life is composed. From 
 protoplasm the almost infinite varieties of living forms 
 have been built up by the process of Evolution, work- 
 ing gradually and by easy stages. Every living form 
 is made up, or composed, of a multitude of single cells, 
 and their combinations. And every form originates 
 in a single cell which rapidly multiplies and repro- 
 duces itself until the form of the amoeba; the plant; 
 the animal; the man, is completed. All living forms 
 are but a single cell multiplied. And every cell is 
 composed of protoplasm. Therefore we must look 
 for the beginning of life in the grade of matter called 
 
COSMIC EVOLUTION. 159 
 
 protoplasm. In this both modern Science and the 
 Yogi Teachings agree fully. 
 
 In investigating protoplasm we are made to realize 
 the wonderful qualities of its principal constituent — 
 Carbon. Carbon is the wonder worker of the ele- 
 ments. Manifesting in various forms, as the diamond, 
 graphite, coal, protoplasm — is it not entitled to respect ? 
 The Yogi Teachings inform us that in Carbon we 
 have that form of matter which was evolved as the 
 physical basis of life. If any of you doubt that inor- 
 ganic matter may be transformed into living forms, 
 let us refer you to the plant life, in which you may see 
 the plants building up cells every day from the inor- 
 ganic, chemical or mineral substances, in the earth, 
 air, and water. Nature performs every day the miracle 
 of transforming chemicals and minerals into living 
 plant cells. And when animal or man eats these plant 
 cells, so produced, they become transformed into ani- 
 mal cells of which the body is built up. What it took 
 Nature ages to do in the beginning, is now performed 
 in a few hours, or minutes. 
 
 The Yogi Teachings, again on all-fours with mod- 
 ern Science, inform us that living forms had their be- 
 ginning in water. In the slimy bed of the polar seas 
 the simple cell-forms appeared, having their origin in 
 the transitional stages before mentioned. The first 
 living forms were a lowly form of plant life, consist- 
 ing of a single cell. From these forms were evolved 
 forms composed of groups of cells, and so proceeded 
 the work of evolution, from the lower form to the 
 higher, ever in an upward path. 
 
160 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 As we have said, the single cell is the physical cen- 
 tre, or parent, of every living form. It contains what 
 is known as the nucleus, or kernel, which seems to be 
 more highly organized than the rest of the material of 
 the cell — it may be considered as the "brain" of the 
 cell, if you wish to use your imagination a little. The 
 single cell reproduces itself by growth and division, 
 or separation. Each cell manifests the functions of 
 life, whether it be a single-celled creature, or a cell 
 which with billions of others, goes to make up a higher 
 form. It feels, feeds, grows, and reproduces itself. 
 In the single-celled creature, the one cell performs all 
 of the functions, of course. But as the forms become 
 more complex, the many cells composing a form per- 
 form certain functions which are allotted to it, the 
 division of labor resulting in a higher manifestation. 
 This is true not only in the case of animal forms, but 
 also in the case of plant forms. The cells in the bone, 
 muscle, nerve-tissue and blood of the animal differ ac- 
 cording to their offices; and the same is true in the 
 cells in the sap, stem, root, leaf, seed and flower of 
 the plant. 
 
 As we have said, the cells multiply by division, after 
 a period of growth. The cell grows by material taken 
 into its substance, as food. When sufficient food has 
 been partaken, and enough new material accumulated 
 to cause the cell to attain a certain size, then it divides, 
 or separates into two cells, the division being equal, 
 and the point of cleavage being at the kernel or nu- 
 cleus. As the two parts separate, the protoplasm of 
 
COSMIC EVOLUTION. 161 
 
 each groups itself around its nucleus, and two living 
 forms exist where there was but one a moment before. 
 And then each of the two cells proceed to grow rap- 
 idly, and then separate, and so on to the end, each cell 
 multiplying into millions, as time passes. 
 
 Ascending in the scale, we next find the living forms 
 composed of cell-groups. These cell-groups are 
 formed by single cells dividing, and then subdividing, 
 but instead of passing on their way they group them- 
 selves in clusters, or masses. There are millions of 
 forms of these cell-group creatures, among which we 
 find the sponges, polyps, etc. 
 
 In the early forms of life it is difficult to distin- 
 guish between the animal and the plant forms, in fact 
 the early forms partake of the qualities of both. But 
 as we advance in the scale a little there is seen a de- 
 cided "branching out," and one large branch is formed 
 of the evolving plant forms, and the other of the evolv- 
 ing animal forms. The plant-branch begins with the 
 sea-weeds, and passes on to the fungi, lichens, mosses, 
 ferns, pines and palm-ferns, grasses, etc., then to the 
 trees, shrubs and herbs. The animal-branch begins 
 with the monera, or single-cell forms, which are little 
 more than a drop of sticky, glue-like protoplasm. Then 
 it passes on to the amoebae, which begins to show a 
 slight difference in its parts. Then on the foramin- 
 ifera, which secretes a shell of lime from the water. 
 Then on a step higher to the polycystina, which se- 
 cretes a shell, or skeleton of flint-like material from the 
 water. Then come the sponges. Then the coral-ani- 
 
162 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 mals, anemones and jelly-fish. Then come the sea- 
 lilies, star-fish, etc. Then the various families of 
 worms. Then the crabs, spiders, centipedes, insects. 
 Then come the mollusca, which include the oysters, 
 clams and other shell-fish; snails, cuttle-fish, sea- 
 squirts, etc. All of the above families of animal-forms 
 are what are known as "invertebrates," that is, with- 
 out a backbone. 
 
 Then we come to the "vertebrates," or animals hav- 
 ing a backbone. First we see the fish family with its 
 thousands of forms. Then come the amphibia, which 
 include the toads, frogs, etc. Then come the reptiles, 
 which include the serpents, lizards, crocodiles, turtles, 
 etc. Then come the great family of birds, with its 
 wonderful variety of forms, sizes, and characteristics. 
 Then come the mammals, the name of which comes 
 from the Latin word meaning "the breast," the char- 
 acteristic of which group comes from the fact that 
 they nourish their young by milk, or similar fluid, se- 
 creted by the mother. The mammals are the highest 
 form of the vertebrates. 
 
 First among the mammals we find the aplacentals, 
 or those which bring forth immature young, which are 
 grouped into two divisions, i. e., (i) the monotremes, 
 or one-vented animals, in which group belong the 
 duck-bills, spiny ant-eaters, etc.; and (2) the marsu- 
 pials, or pouched animals, in which group belong the 
 kangaroo, opossum, etc. 
 
 The next highest form among the mammals are 
 known as the placentals, or those which bring forth 
 
COSMIC EVOLUTION. 163 
 
 mature young. In this class are found the ant-eaters, 
 sloth, manatee, the whale and porpoise, the horse, cow, 
 sheep, and other hoofed animals; the elephant, seal, 
 the dog, wolf, lion, tiger, and all flesh eating animals ; 
 the hares, rats, mice, and all other gnawing animals; 
 the bats, moles, and other insect-feeders; then come 
 the great family of apes, from the small monkeys up 
 to the orang-outang, chimpanzee, and other forms 
 nearly approaching man. And then comes the highest, 
 Man, from the Kaffir, Bush-man, Cave-man, and Dig- 
 ger Indian, up through the many stages until the high- 
 est forms of our own race are reached. 
 
 From the Monera to Man is a long path, containing 
 many stages, but it is a path including all the interme- 
 diate forms. The Yogi Teachings hold to the theory 
 of evolution, as maintained by modern Science, but it 
 goes still further, for it holds not only that the physical 
 forms are subject to the evolutionary process, but that 
 also the "souls" embodied in these forms are subject 
 to the evolutionary process. In other words the Yogi 
 Teachings hold that there is a twin-process of evolu- 
 tion under way, the main object of which is to develop 
 "souls," but which also finds it necessary to evolve 
 higher and higher forms of physical bodies for these 
 constantly advancing souls to occupy. 
 
 Let us take a hasty glance at the ascending forms of 
 animal life, as they rise in the evolutionary scale. By 
 so doing we can witness the growth of the soul, within 
 them, as manifested by the higher and higher physical 
 forms which are used as channels of expression by 
 
164 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 the souls within. Let us first study soul-evolution 
 from the outer viewpoint, before we proceed to ex- 
 amine it from the inner. By so doing we will have a 
 fuller idea of the process than if we ignored the outer 
 and proceed at once to the inner. Despise not the 
 outer form, for it has always been, and is now, the 
 Temple of the Soul, which the latter is remodelling 
 and rebuilding in order to accommodate its constantly 
 increasing needs and demands. 
 
 Let us begin with the Protozoa, or one-celled forms 
 — the lowest form of animal life. The lowest form of 
 this lowest class is that remarkable creature that we 
 have mentioned in previous lessons — the Moneron. 
 This creature lives in water, the natural element in 
 which organic life is believed to have had its begin- 
 ning. It is a very tiny, shapeless, colorless, slimy, 
 sticky mass — something like a tiny drop of glue — 
 alike all over and in its mass, and without organs or 
 parts of any kind. Some have claimed that below the 
 field of the microscope there may be something like 
 elementary organs in the Moneron, but so far as the 
 human eye may discover there is no evidence of any- 
 thing of the kind. It has no organs or parts with 
 which to perform particular functions, as is the case 
 with the higher forms of life. These functions, as you 
 know, may be classed into three groups, i. e., nutrition, 
 reproduction, and relation — that is, the function of 
 feeding, the function of reproducing its kind, and the 
 function of receiving and responding to the impres- 
 sions of the outside world. All of these three classes 
 
COSMIC EVOLUTION. 165 
 
 of functions the Moneron performs — but with any 
 part of its body, or with all of it. 
 
 Every part, or the whole, of the Moneron absorbs 
 food and oxygen — it is all mouth and lungs. Every 
 part, or the whole, digests the food — it is all stomach. 
 Every part, or the whole, performs the reproductive 
 function — it is all reproductive organism. Every part 
 of it senses the impressions from outside, and responds 
 to it — it is all organs of sense, and organs of motion. 
 It envelops its prey as a drop of glue surrounds a par- 
 ticle of sand, and then absorbs the substance of the prey 
 into its own substance. It moves by prolonging any 
 part of itself outward in a sort of tail-like appendage, 
 which it uses as a "foot," or "finger" with which to 
 propel itself; draw itself to, or push itself away from 
 an object. This prolongation is called a pseudopod, 
 or "false-foot." When it gets through using the 
 "false- foot" for the particular purpose, it simply draws 
 back into itself that portion which had been protruded 
 for the purpose. 
 
 It performs the functions of digestion, assimilation, 
 elimination, etc., perfectly, just as the higher forms of 
 life — but it has no organs for the functions, and per- 
 forms them severally, and collectively with any, or 
 all parts of its body. What the higher animals per- 
 form with intricate organs and parts — heart, stomach, 
 lungs, liver, kidneys, etc., etc. — this tiny creature per- 
 forms without organs, and with its entire body, or any 
 part thereof. The function of reproduction is start- 
 lingly simple in the case of the Moneron. It simply 
 
166 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 divides itself in two parts, and that is all there is to it 
 There is no male or female sex in its case — it com- 
 bines both within itself. The reproductive process is 
 even far more simple than the "budding" of plants. 
 You may turn one of these wonderful creatures in- 
 side out, and still it goes on the even tenor of its way, 
 in no manner disturbed or affected. It is simply a 
 "living drop of glue," which eats, digests, receives im- 
 pressions and responds thereto, and reproduces itself. 
 This tiny glue-drop performs virtually the same life 
 functions as do the higher complex forms of living 
 things. Which is the greater "miracle" — the Moneron 
 or Man? 
 
 A slight step upward from the Moneron brings us to 
 the Amoeba. The name of this new creature is derived 
 from the Greek word meaning "change," and has been 
 bestowed because the creature is constantly changing 
 its shape. This continual change of shape is caused by 
 a continuous prolongation and drawing-in of its pseu- 
 dopods, or "false-feet," which also gives the creature 
 the appearance of a "many-fingered" organism. This 
 creature shows the first step toward "parts," for it has 
 something like a membrane or "skin" at its surface, 
 and a "nucleus" at its centre, and also an expanding 
 and contracting cavity within its substance, which it 
 uses for holding, digesting and distributing its food, 
 and also for storing and distributing its oxygen — an 
 elementary combination of stomach and lungs! So 
 you see that the amoeba has taken a step upward from 
 the moneron, and is beginning to appreciate the con- 
 
COSMIC EVOLUTION. 167 
 
 venience of parts and organs. It is interesting to note, 
 in this connection, that while the ordinary cells of the 
 higher animal body resemble the monera in many 
 ways, still the white corpuscles in the blood of man 
 and the animals bear a startling resemblance to the 
 amoebae so far as regards size, general structure, and 
 movements, and are in fact known to Science as 
 "amoeboids." The white corpuscles change their 
 shape, take in food in an intelligent manner, and live 
 a comparatively independent life, their movements 
 showing independent "thought" and "will." 
 
 Some of the amoebae (the diatoms, for instance) 
 secrete solid matter from the water, and build there- 
 from shells or houses, which serve to protect them 
 from their enemies. These shells are full of tiny 
 holes, through which the pseudopods are extended in 
 their search for food, and for purposes of movement. 
 Some of these shells are composed of secreted lime, 
 and others of a flinty substance, the "selection" of 
 these substances from the other mineral particles in the 
 water, evidencing a degree of "thought," and mind, 
 even in these lowly creatures. The skeletons of these 
 tiny creatures form vast deposits of chalk and similar 
 substances. 
 
 Next higher in the scale are the Infusoria. These 
 creatures differ from the amoebae inasmuch as in- 
 stead of pseudopods, they have developed tiny vibrat- 
 ing filaments, or thread-like appendages, which are 
 used for drawing in their prey and for moving about. 
 These filaments are permanent, and are not temporary 
 
168 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 like the pseudopods of the monera or amoebae — they 
 are the first signs of permanent hands and feet. These 
 creatures have also discovered the possibilities of or- 
 gans and parts, to a still greater degree than have their 
 cousins the amoebae, and have evolved something like 
 a mouth-opening (very rudimentary) and also a short 
 gullet through which they pass their food and oxygen 
 — they have developed the first signs of a throat, wind- 
 pipe and food-passage. 
 
 Next come the family of Sponges, the soft skeletons 
 of which form the useful article of everyday use. 
 There are many forms who weave a home of far more 
 delicacy and beauty than their more familiar and 
 homely brothers. The sponge creature itself is a 
 slimy, soft creature, which fills in the spaces in its 
 spongy skeleton. It is fastened to one spot, and gath- 
 ers in its food from the water around it (and oxygen 
 as well), by means of numerous whip-like filaments 
 called cilia, which flash through the water driving in 
 the food and oxygen to the inner positions of its body. 
 The water thus drawn in, as well as the refuse from 
 the food, is then driven out in the same manner. It 
 is interesting to note that in the organisms of the 
 higher animals, including man, there are numerous 
 cilia performing offices in connection with nutrition, 
 etc. When Nature perfects an instrument, it is very 
 apt to retain it, even in the higher forms, although in 
 the latter its importance may be dwarfed by higher 
 ones. 
 
 The next step in the ascending scaJe of life-forms is 
 
COSMIC EVOLUTION. 169 
 
 occupied by the polyps, which are found in water, fast- 
 ened to floating matter. The polyps fasten themselves 
 to this floating matter, with their mouths downward, 
 from the latter dangling certain tentacles, or thin, long 
 arms. These tentacles contain small thread-fike coils 
 in contact with a poisonous fluid, and enclosed in a 
 cell. When the tentacles come in contact with the 
 prey of the creature, or with anything that is sensed 
 as a possible enemy, they contract around the object 
 and the little cells burst and the tiny thread-like coils 
 are released and twist themselves like a loop around 
 the object, poisoning it with the secreted fluid. Some 
 of the polyps secrete flint-like tubes, which they in- 
 habit, and from the ends of which they emerge like 
 flowers. From these parent polyps emerge clusters of 
 young, resembling buds. These bud-like young after- 
 wards become what are known as jelly-fishes, etc., 
 which in turn reproduce themselves — but here is a 
 wonder — the jelly-fish lay eggs, which when hatched 
 produce stationary polyps like their grandparent, and 
 not moving creatures like their parents. The jelly- 
 fishes have a comparatively complex organism. They 
 have an intricate system of canal-like passages with 
 which to convey their food and oxygen to the various 
 parts. They also have something like muscles, which 
 contract and enable the creature to "swim." They 
 also possess a "nervous system," and, most wonderful 
 of all, they have rudimentary eyes and ears. Their 
 tentacles, like those of the parent-polyp, secrete the 
 poisonous fluid which is discharged into prey or 
 enemy. 
 
170 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 Akin to the polyps are the sea-anemones, with their 
 beautiful colors, and still more complex structure and 
 organism, the tentacles of which resemble the petals 
 of a flower. Varying slightly from these are the coral- 
 creatures, which form in colonies and the skeletons 
 of which form the coral trees and branches, and other 
 forms, with which we are familiar. 
 
 Passing on to the next highest family of life-forms, 
 we see the spiny-bodied sea-creatures, such as the sea- 
 urchin, star-fish, etc., which possess a thick, hard 
 skin, covered by spines or prickly projections. These 
 creatures abound in numerous species. The star- 
 fish has rays projecting from a common centre, which 
 gives it its name, while the sea-urchin resembles a 
 ball. The sea-lilies, with their stems and flowers (so- 
 called) belong to this family, as do also the sea- 
 cucumbers, whose name is obtained from their shape 
 and general appearance, but which are animals pos- 
 sessing a comparatively complex organism, one of the 
 features of which is a stomach which may be dis- 
 carded at will and replaced by a new one. These 
 creatures have a well defined nervous system, and 
 have eyes, and some of them even rudimentary eye- 
 lids. 
 
 Ascending the scale of life-forms, we next observe 
 the great family of the Annulosa, or jointed creatures, 
 which comprises the various families of the worm, the 
 crab, the spider, the ant, etc. In this great family 
 are grouped nearly four-fifths of the known life- 
 forms. Their bodies are well formed and they have 
 
COSMIC EVOLUTION. 171 
 
 nervous systems running along the body and consist- 
 ing of two thin threads, knotted at different points 
 into ganglia or masses of nerve cells similar to those 
 possessed by the higher animals. They possess eyes and 
 other sense organs, in some cases highly developed. 
 They possess organs, corresponding to the heart, and 
 have a well-developed digestive apparatus. Note 
 this advance in the nutritive organism: the moneron 
 takes its food at any point of its body; the amoeba 
 takes its food by means of its "false-feet," and drives 
 it through its body by a rhythmic movement of its 
 substance; the polyp distributes its food to its various 
 parts by means of the water which it absorbs with 
 the food; the sea-urchin and star-fish distribute their 
 food by canals in their bodies which open directly 
 into the water; in the higher forms of the annulosa, 
 the food is distributed by a fluid resembling blood, 
 which carries the nourishment to every part and or- 
 gan, and which carries away the waste matter, the 
 blood being propelled through the body by a rudi- 
 mentary heart. The oxygen is distributed by each of 
 these forms in a corresponding way, the higher forms 
 having rudimentary lungs and respiratory organs. 
 Step by step the life-forms are perfected, and the or- 
 gans necessary to perform certain definite functions 
 are evolved from rudimentary to perfected forms. 
 
 The families of worms are the humblest members 
 of the great family of the Annulosa. Next come the 
 creatures called Rotifers, which are very minute. 
 Then come the Crustacea, so called from their crust- 
 
172 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 like shell. This group includes the crabs, lobsters, 
 etc., and closely resembles the insects. In fact, some 
 of the best authorities believe that the insects and the 
 Crustacea spring from the same parent form, and 
 some of the Yogi authorities hold to this belief, while 
 others do not attempt to pass upon it, deeming it im- 
 material, inasmuch as all life-forms have a common 
 origin. The western scientists pay great attention to 
 outward details, while the Oriental mind is apt to 
 pass over these details as of slight importance, pre- 
 ferring to seek the cause back of the outward form. 
 On one point both the Yogi teachers and the scientists 
 absolutely agree, and that is that the family of insect 
 life had its origin in some aquatic creature. Both 
 hold that the wings of the insect have been evolved 
 from organs primarily used for breathing purposes by 
 the ancestor when it took short aerial flights, the need 
 for means of flight afterwards acting to develop these 
 rudimentary organs into perfected wings. There 
 need be no more wonder expressed at this change 
 than in the case of the transformation of the insect 
 from grub to chrysalis, and then to insect. In fact 
 this process is a reproduction of the stages through 
 which the life-form passed during the long ages be- 
 tween sea-creature and land-insect. 
 
 We need not take up much of your time in speak- 
 ing of the wonderful complex organism of some of 
 the insect family, which are next on the scale above 
 tfie Crustacea. The wonders of spider-life — the al- 
 most human life of the ants — the spirit of the bee- 
 
COSMIC EVOLUTION. 173 
 
 hive — and all the rest of the wonders of insect life are 
 familiar to all of our readers. A study of some good 
 book on the life of the higher forms of the insect 
 family will prove of value to anyone, for it will open 
 his or her eyes to the wonderful manifestation of life 
 and mind among these creatures. Remember the 
 remark of Darwin, that the brain of the ant, although 
 not much larger than a pin point, "is one of the most 
 marvelous atoms of matter in the world, perhaps more 
 so than the brain of man." 
 
 Closely allied to the Crustacea is the sub-family of 
 the mollusca, which includes the oyster, clams, and 
 similar creatures ; also the snails, cuttle-fish, slugs, 
 nautilus, sea-squirts, etc., etc. Some are protected 
 by a hard shell, while others have a gristly outer skin, 
 serving as an armor, while others still are naked. 
 Those having shells secrete the material for their 
 construction from the water. Some of them are fixed 
 to rocks, etc., while others roam at will. Strange as 
 it may appear at first sight, some of the higher forms 
 of the mollusca show signs of a rudimentary verte- 
 bra, and science has hazarded the opinion that the 
 sea-squirts and similar creatures were descended from 
 some ancestor from whom also descended the verte- 
 brate animals, of which man is the highest form 
 known today on this planet. We shall mention this 
 connection in our next lesson, where we will take up 
 the story of "The Ascent of Man" from the lowly 
 vertebrate forms. 
 
 And now, in closing this lesson, we must remind 
 
174 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 the reader that we are not teaching Evolution as it is 
 conceived by modern science. We are viewing it 
 from the opposite viewpoint of the Yogi Teaching. 
 Modern Science teaches that Mind is a by-product of 
 the evolving material forms — while the Yogi Teach- 
 ings hold that there was Mind involved in the lowest 
 form, and that that Mind constantly pressing forward 
 for unfoldment compelled the gradual evolution, or 
 unfoldment of the slowly advancing degrees of or- 
 ganization and function. Science teaches that "func- 
 tion precedes organization," that is, that a form per- 
 forms certain functions, imperfectly and crudely, be- 
 fore it evolves the organs suitable for the functioning. 
 For instance the lower forms digested food before 
 they evolved stomachs — the latter coming to meet 
 the need. But the Yogi Teachings go further and 
 claim that "desire precedes function," that is, that the 
 lowly life form "desires" to have digestive apparatus, 
 in order to proceed in the evolutionary scale, before it 
 begins the functioning that brings about the more 
 complex organism. There is ever the "urge" of the 
 Mind which craves unfoldment, and which the crea- 
 true feels as a dim desire, which grows stronger and 
 stronger as time goes on. Some yield more readily 
 to the urge, and such become the parents of possible 
 higher forms. "Many are called, but few are chosen," 
 and so matters move along slowly from generation to 
 generation, a few forms serving to carry on the evo- 
 lutionary urge to their descendants. But is always 
 the Evolutionary Urge of the imprisoned Mind striv- 
 
COSMIC EVOLUTION. 175 
 
 ing to cast aside its sheaths and to have more perfect 
 machinery with which, and through which, to mani- 
 fest and express itself ? This is the difference between 
 the "Evolution" of Modern Science and the "Unfold- 
 ment" of the Yogi Teachings. The one is all ma- 
 terial, with mind as a mere by-product, while the other 
 is all Mind, with matter as a tool and instrument of 
 expression and manifestation. 
 
 As we have said in this lesson — and as we shall 
 point out to you in detail in future lessons — accom- 
 panying this evolution of bodies there is an evolution 
 of "souls" producing the former. This evolution of 
 souls is a basic principle of the Yogi Teachings, but it 
 is first necessary that you acquaint yourselves with the 
 evolution of bodies and forms, before you may fully 
 grasp the higher teachings. 
 
 Our next lesson will be entitled "The Ascent of 
 Man," in which the rise of man — that is, his body — 
 from the lowly forms of the vertebrates is shown. In 
 the same lesson we shall begin our consideration of 
 the "evolution of souls." We trust that the students 
 are carefully studying the details of each lesson, for 
 every lesson has its part in the grand whole of the 
 Teachings. 
 
THE EIGHTH LESSON 
 
 The Ascent of Man. 
 
 In our last lesson we led you by successive steps 
 from the beginnings of Life in living forms up to 
 the creatures closely resembling the family of verte- 
 brates — the highest family of living forms on this 
 planet. In this present lesson we take up the story 
 of the "Ascent of Man" from the lowly vertebrate 
 forms. 
 
 The large sub-family of forms called "The Verte- 
 brates" are distinguished from the Invertebrates by 
 reason of the former possessing an internal bony skele- 
 ton, the most important feature of which is the ver- 
 tebra or spinal column. The vertebrates, be it remem- 
 bered, possess practically the same organs as the lower 
 forms of life, but differ from them most materially 
 by the possession of the internal skeleton, the lower 
 forms having an external or outside skeleton, which 
 latter is merely a hardening of the skin. 
 
 The flexibility of the vertebra creates a wonderful 
 strength of structure, combined with an ease of move- 
 ment peculiar to the vertebrates, and which renders 
 them the natural forms of life capable of rapid de- 
 velopment and evolution. By means of this strength, 
 and ease, these forms are enabled to move rapidly in 
 pursuit of their prey, and away from their pursuers, 
 and also to resist outside pressure or attack. They 
 are protected in a way similar to the invertebrates 
 having shells, and yet have the additional advantage 
 of easy movement. Differing in shape and appear- 
 
 177 
 
178 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 ance as do the numerous members of the sub-family 
 of vertebrates, still their structure is easily seen to 
 spring from a single form — all are modifications of 
 some common pattern, the differences arising from 
 the necessities of the life of the animal, as manifested 
 through the desire and necessities of the species. 
 
 Science shows the direct relationship between the 
 Vertebrates, and the Invertebrates by means of sev- 
 eral connecting-links, the most noticeable of which is 
 the Lancelot, a creature resembling the fish-form, and 
 yet also closely resembling the lower (invertebrate) 
 forms of life. This creature has no head, and but 
 one eye. It is semi-transparent, and possesses cilia 
 for forcing in the water containing its food. It has 
 something like gills, and a gullet like the lower forms. 
 It has no heart, the blood being circulated by means 
 of contracting vessels or parts. Strictly speaking, it 
 has no back-bone, or vertebra, but still Science has 
 been compelled to class it among the vertebrates be- 
 cause is has a gristly cartilage where the back-bone is 
 found in the higher forms. This gristle may be 
 called an "elementary spine." It has a nervous sys- 
 tem consisting of a single cord which spreads into a 
 broadened end near the creature's mouth, and which 
 may therefore be regarded as "something like a 
 brain." This creature is really a developed form of 
 Invertebrate, shaped like a Vertebrate, and showing 
 signs of a rudimentary spin« and nervous system of 
 the latter. It is a "connecting-link." 
 
 The lowest forms of the true Vertebrates are the 
 
THE ASCENT OF MAN. 179 
 
 great families of Fishes. These Fish families in- 
 clude fishes of high and low degree, some of the 
 higher forms being as different from the lowest as 
 they (the highest) are different from the Reptile 
 family. It is not necessary to go into detail regard- 
 ing the nature of the fish families, for every student 
 is more or less familiar with them. 
 
 Some peculiar forms of fish show a shading into 
 the Reptile family, in fact they seem to belong nearly 
 a? «auch to the latter as to their own general family. 
 Sonns jpecies of fish known as the Dipnoi or "double- 
 breathers," have a remarkable dual system of breath- 
 ing. That is, they have gills for breathing while in 
 the water, and also have a primitive or elementary 
 "lung" in the shape of an air-bladder, or "sound," 
 which they use for breathing on land. The Mud-fish 
 of South America, and also other forms in Australia 
 and other places, have a modification of fins which 
 are practically "limbs," which they actually use for 
 traveling on land from pond to pond. Some of these 
 fish have been known to travel enormous distances in 
 search of new pools of water, or new streams, having 
 been driven from their original homes by droughts, 
 or perhaps by instincts similar to the migrating in- 
 stinct cf birds. Eels are fish (although many com- 
 mon^ 2orget this fact) and many of their species are 
 able to leave the water and travel on land from pond 
 to pond, their breathing being performed by a peculiar 
 modification of the gills. The climbing perch of 
 India are able to live out of water, and have modified 
 
180 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 gills for breathing purposes, and modified fins for 
 climbing and walking. So you see that without leav- 
 ing the fish family proper, we have examples of land- 
 living creatures which are akin to "connecting links." 
 
 But there are real "connecting-links" between the 
 Fish and the Reptiles. Passing over the many queer 
 forms which serve as links between the two families, 
 we have but to consider our common frog's history 
 for a striking example. The Tadpole has gills, has 
 no limbs, uses its tail like a fish's fin, eats plants, etc. 
 Passing through several interesting stages the Tad- 
 pole reaches a stage in which it is a frog with a tail — 
 then it sheds its tail and is a full fledged Frog, with 
 four legs; web- feet; no tail; and feeding on animals. 
 The Frog is amphibious, that is, able to live on land 
 or in water — and yet it is compelled to come to the 
 surface of the water for air to supply its lungs. 
 Some of the amphibious animals possess both lungs 
 and gills, even when matured; but the higher verte- 
 brates living in the water breathe through lungs which 
 are evolved from the air-bladder of fishes, which in 
 turn have been evolved from the primitive gullet of 
 the lower forms. There are fishes known which are 
 warm-blooded. Students will kindly remember that 
 the Whale is not a fish, but an aquatic animal — a mam- 
 mal, in fact, bringing forth its young alive, and 
 suckling it from its breasts. 
 
 So we readily see that it is but a step, and a short 
 step at that, between the land-traveling and climbing 
 fishes and the lower forms of Reptiles. The Frog 
 
THE ASCENT OF MAN. 181 
 
 shows us the process of evolution between the two 
 families, its life history reproducing the gradual evo- 
 lution which may have required ages to perfect in the 
 case of the species. You will remember that the 
 embryo stages of all creatures reproduce the various 
 stages of evolution through which the species has 
 passed — this is true in Man as well as in the Frog. 
 
 We need not tarry long in considering the Reptile 
 family of living forms. In its varieties of serpents, 
 lizards, crocodiles, turtles, etc., we have studied and 
 observed its forms. We see the limbless snakes; the 
 lizards with active limbs; the huge, clumsy, slow 
 crocodiles and alligators — the armor-bearing turtles 
 and tortoises — all belonging to the one great family 
 of Reptiles, and nearly all of them being degenerate 
 descendants of the mighty Reptile forms of the geo- 
 logical Age of Reptiles, in which flourished the mighty 
 forms of the giant reptiles — the monsters of land and 
 water. Amidst the dense vegetation of that pre- 
 historic age, surrounded by the most favorable con- 
 ditions, these mighty creatures flourished and lived, 
 their fossilized skeleton forms evidencing to us how 
 far their descendants have fallen, owing to less favor- 
 able conditions, and the development of other life- 
 forms more in harmony with their changed environ- 
 ment. 
 
 Next comes the great family of Birds. The Birds 
 ascended from the Reptiles. This is the Eastern 
 Teaching, and this is the teaching of Western Science. 
 It was formerly taught in the text-books that the line 
 
i82 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 of ascent was along the family of winged reptiles 
 which existed in the Age of Reptiles, in the early 
 days of the Earth. But the later writers on the sub- 
 ject, in the Western world, have contradicted this. 
 It is now taught that these ancient winged-reptiles 
 were featherless, and more closely resembled the Bat 
 family than birds. (You will remember that a Bat is 
 neither a reptile nor a bird — it is a mammal, bringing 
 forth its young alive, and suckling them at its breast. 
 The Bat is more like a mouse, and its wings are 
 simply membrane stretched between its fingers, its 
 feet, and its tail.) 
 
 The line of ascent from Reptile to Bird was along 
 the forms of the Reptiles that walked on land. There 
 are close anatomical and physiological relations and 
 correspondences between the two families (Reptiles 
 and Birds) which we need not refer to here. And, 
 of course, many modifications have occurred since the 
 "branching-out." The scales of the reptiles, and the 
 feathers of the birds, are known to be but modifica- 
 tions of the original outer skin, as are also the hair, 
 claws, hoofs, nails, etc., of all animals. Even teeth 
 arose in this way, strange as it may now seem — they 
 are all secreted from the skin. What a wonderful 
 field for thought — this gradual evolution from the 
 filmy outer covering of the lowest living forms to the 
 beautiful feathers, beaks, and claws of the bird! 
 
 The evolving of wings meant much to the ascend- 
 ing forms of life. The Reptiles were compelled to 
 live in a narrow circle of territory, while the Bird6 
 
THE ASCENT OF MAN. 183 
 
 were able to travel over the earth in wide flights. 
 And travel always develops the faculties of observa- 
 tion, memory, etc., and cultivates the senses of seeing, 
 hearing, etc. And the creature is compelled to exer- 
 cise its evolving "thinking" faculties to a greater ex- 
 tent. And so the Birds were compelled by necessity 
 of their travels to develop a greater degree of thinking 
 organism. The result is that among birds we find 
 many instances of intelligent thought, which cannot 
 be dismissed as "mere instinct." Naturalists place 
 the Crow at the head of the family of Birds, in point 
 of intelligence, and those who have watched these 
 creatures and studied the mental processes, will agree 
 that this is a just decision. It has been proven that 
 Crows are capable of counting up to several figures, 
 and in other ways they display a wonderful degree 
 of almost human sagacity. 
 
 Next above the Bird family comes the highest 
 form of all — the Mammals. But before we begin our 
 consideration of these high forms, let us take a hasty 
 glance at the "connecting-links" between the Birds 
 and the Mammals. The lowest forms of the Mam- 
 mals resemble Birds in many ways. Some of them 
 are toothless, and many of them have the same primi- 
 tive intestinal arrangements possessed by the birds, 
 from which arises their name, Monotremes. These 
 Monotremes may be called half-bird and half-mam- 
 mal. One of the most characteristic of their family 
 is the OmithorhynchuSj or Duck-bill, which the early 
 naturalists first thought was a fraud of the taxider- 
 
184 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 mists, or bird-stuffers, and then, when finally con- 
 vinced, deemed it a "freak-of-nature." But it is not 
 a freak creature, but a "connecting-link" between the 
 two great families of creatures. This animal presents 
 a startling appearance to the observer who witnesses 
 it for the first time. It resembles a beaver, having 
 a soft furry coat, but also has a horny, flat bill like a 
 duck, its feet being webbed, but also furnished with 
 claws projecting over the edge of the web-foot. It 
 lays eggs in an underground nest — two eggs at a 
 time, which are like the eggs of birds, inasmuch as they 
 contain not only the protoplasm from which the em- 
 bryo is formed, but also the "yolk," on which the 
 embryo feeds until hatched. After the young Duck- 
 bill is hatched, it feeds from teatless glands in the 
 mother's body, the milk being furnished by the mother 
 by a peculiar process. Consider this miracle — an ani- 
 mal which lays eggs and then when her young are 
 hatched nourishes them with milk. The milk-glands 
 in the mother are elementary "breasts." 
 
 The above-mentioned animal is found in Australia, 
 the land of many strange forms and "connecting- 
 links," which have survived there while in other parts 
 of the globe they have vanished gradually from exist- 
 ence, crowded out by the more perfectly evolved 
 forms. Darwin has called these surviving forms 
 "living fossils." In that same land is also found the 
 Echdina or spiny ant-eater, which lays an egg and 
 then hatches it in her pouch, after which she nour- 
 ishes it on milk, in a manner similar to that of the 
 
THE ASCENT OF MAN. 185 
 
 Duck-bill. This animal, like the Duck-bill, is a 
 Monotreme. 
 
 Scientists are divided in theories as to whether the 
 Monotremes are actually descended directly from the 
 Reptiles or Birds, or whether there was a common 
 ancestor from which Reptiles and Birds and Mam- 
 mals branched off. But this is not important, for the 
 relationship between Reptiles, Birds and Mammals 
 is clearly proven. And the Monotremes are certainly 
 one of the surviving forms of the intermediate stages. 
 
 The next higher step in the ascent of Mammal life 
 above the Monotreme is occupied by the Marsupials, 
 or milk-giving, pouched animals, of which family the 
 opossum and kangaroo are well known members. 
 The characteristic feature of this family of creatures 
 is the possession of an external pouch in the female, 
 in which the young are kept and nourished until they 
 can take care of themselves as the young of other 
 animals are able to do. The young of the Marsupials 
 are brought forth, or born, in an imperfect condition, 
 and undeveloped in size and strength. There are 
 fossil remains of Marsupials showing that in past 
 ages creatures of this kind existed which were as 
 large as elephants. 
 
 In the more common form of Mammals the young 
 are brought forth fully formed, they having received 
 nourishment, before birth, from the mother's body, 
 through the placenta, the appendage which connects 
 the fetus with the parent. The Placental Mammals 
 were the best equipped of all the life-forms for sur- 
 
186 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 vival and development, for the reason that the young 
 were nourished during their critical period, and the 
 care that the mammal must of necessity give to her 
 young operated in the direction of affording a special 
 protection far superior to that of the other forms. 
 This and other causes acted to place the Placentals in 
 the "Royal line" from which Man was evolved. 
 
 The following families of Placental Mammals are 
 recognized by Science, each having its own structural 
 peculiarities : 
 
 The Edentata, or Toothless creatures, among which 
 are the sloths, ant-eaters, armadillos, etc. These ani- 
 mals seem to be closer to the Monotremes than they 
 are to the Marsupials ; 
 
 The Sirenia, so called by reason of their fanciful 
 resemblance to the sirens of mythology, among which 
 are the sea-cows, manatees, dugongs, etc., which are 
 fish-like in structure and appearance, the fore-limbs 
 being shaped like paddles, or fins, and the hind-limbs 
 being absent or rudimentary; 
 
 The Cetacea, or Whale Family, including whales, 
 porpoises, dolphins, etc., which are quite fish-like in 
 appearance and structure, their forms being adapted 
 for life in the sea, although they are, of course, Mam- 
 mals, bringing forth matured young which are suckled 
 at the breast; 
 
 The Ungulata, or Hoofed Animals, which comprise 
 many varied forms, such as the horse, the tapir, the 
 rhinoceros, the swine, the hippopotamus, the camel, 
 the deer, the sheep, the cow, etc., etc. ; 
 
THE ASCENT OF MAN. 187 
 
 The Hyracoidea, which is a small family, the prin- 
 cipal member of which is the coney, or rockrabbit, 
 which has teeth resembling those of the hoofed ani- 
 mals, in some ways, and those of the gnawing ani- 
 mals in the others. 
 
 The Proboscidea, or Trunked Animals, which family 
 is represented in this age only by the families of ele- 
 phants, which have a peculiar appendage called a 
 "trunk," which they use as an additional limb ; 
 
 The Camivora, or Flesh-eaters, represented by 
 numerous and various forms, such as the seal, the 
 bear, the weasel, the wolf, the dog, the lion, the tiger, 
 the leopard, etc. The wolf and similar forms belong 
 to the sub-family of dogs; while the lion, tiger, etc., 
 belong to the sub- family of cats; 
 
 The Rodentia, or Gnawers, comprising the rat, the 
 hare, the beaver, the squirrel, the mouse, etc., etc. ; 
 
 The Insectivora, or Insect Feeders, comprising the 
 mole, the shrew, the hedgehog, etc. ; 
 
 The Cheiroptera, or Finger- Winged Animals, com- 
 prising the great family of Bats, etc., which are very 
 highly developed animals; 
 
 The Lemuroidea, or Lemurs, the name of which is 
 derived from the Latin word meaning a "ghost," by 
 reason of the Lemur's habits of roaming about at 
 night. The Lemur is a nocturnal animal, somewhat 
 resembling the Monkey in general appearance, but 
 with a long, bushy tail and sharp muzzle like a fox. 
 It is akin to a small fox having hands and feet like a 
 monkey, the feet being used to grasp like a hand, as 
 is the case with the true Monkey family. These crea- 
 
188 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 tures are classed by some naturalists among the Mon- 
 keys by reason of being "four-handed," while others 
 are disposed to consider as still more important their 
 marked relationship with, and affinity to, the marsu- 
 pials, gnawers and insect-feeders. On the whole, these 
 creatures are strangely organized and come very near 
 to being a "connecting-link" between other forms. 
 One of the Lemurs is what is known as the colugo, or 
 "flying lemur," which resembles a squirrel in many 
 particulars, and yet has a membranous web extending 
 from its hands, which enables it to make flying leaps 
 over great distances. This last named variety seems 
 to furnish a link between the insect-feeders and the 
 Primates ; 
 
 The Primates, which is a large family comprising 
 the various forms of monkeys, baboons, man-apes, 
 such as the gibbon, gorilla, chimpanzee, orang- 
 outang, etc., all of which have big jaws, small brains, 
 and a stooping posture. This family also includes 
 MAN, with his big brain and erect posture, and his 
 many races depending upon shape of skull, color of 
 skin, character of hair, etc. 
 
 In considering the Ascent of Man (physical) from 
 the lowly forms of the Monera, etc., up to his present 
 high position, the student is struck with the continuity 
 of the ascent, development and unfoldment. While 
 there are many "missing-links," owing to the disap- 
 pearance of the forms which formed the connection, 
 still there is sufficient proof left in the existing forms 
 to satisfy the fair-minded inquirer. The facts of 
 
THE ASCENT OF MAN. 189 
 
 embryology alone are sufficient proof of the ascent 
 of Man from the lowly forms. Each and every man 
 today has passed through all the forms of the ascent, 
 within a few months, from single cell to the new-born, 
 fully formed infant. 
 
 Embryology teaches us that the eggs from which 
 all animal forms evolve are all practically alike so far 
 as one can ascertain by microscopic examination, no 
 matter how diverse may be the forms which will 
 evolve from them, and this resemblance is maintained 
 even when the embryo of the higher forms begins to 
 manifest traces of its future form. Von Baer, the 
 German scientist, was the first to note this remarkable 
 and suggestive fact. He stated it in the following 
 words: "In my possession are two little embryos, 
 preserved in alcohol, whose names I have omitted to 
 attach, and at present I am unable to state to what 
 class they belong. They may be lizards, or small 
 birds, or very young mammals, so complete is the 
 similarity in the mode of the formation of the head 
 and trunk in these animals. The extremities, how- 
 ever, are still absent in these embryos. But even if 
 they had existed in the earliest stage of their devel- 
 opment, we should learn nothing, for the feet of 
 lizards and mammals, the wings and feet of birds, no 
 less than the hands and feet of man, all arise from 
 the same fundamental form." 
 
 As has been said by Prof. Clodd, "the embryos of 
 all living creatures epitomize during development the 
 series of changes through which the ancestral fcims 
 
igo GNANI YOGA. 
 
 passed is their ascent from the simple to the com- 
 plex; the higher structures passing through the same 
 stages as the lower structures up to the point when 
 they are marked off from them, yet never becoming in 
 detail the form which they represent for the time 
 being. For example, the embryo of man has at the 
 outset gill-like slits on each side of the neck, like a 
 fish. These give place to a membrane like that which 
 supersedes gills in the development of birds and rep- 
 tiles; the heart is at first a simple pulsating chamber 
 like that in worms; the backbone is prolonged into a 
 movable tail; the great toe is extended, or opposable, 
 like our thumbs, and like the toes of apes; the body 
 three months before birth is covered all over with 
 hair except on the palms and soles. At birth the 
 head is relatively larger, and the arms and legs rela- 
 tively longer than in the adult; the nose is bridgeless; 
 both features, with others which need not be detailed, 
 being distinctly ape-like. Thus does the egg from 
 which man springs, a structure only one hundred and 
 twenty-fifth of an inch in size, compress into a few 
 weeks the results of millions of years, and set before 
 us the history of his development from fish-like and 
 reptilian forms, and of his more immediate descent 
 from a hairy, tailed quadruped. That which is indi- 
 vidual or peculiar to him, the physical and mental 
 character inherited, is left to the slower development 
 which follows birth." 
 
 This, then, in brief is the Western theory of Evo- 
 lution — the Physical Ascent of Man. We have given 
 
THE ASCENT OF MAN. 191 
 
 it as fully as might be in the small space at our dis- 
 posal in these lessons on the Yogi Philosophy. Why? 
 Because we wish to prove to the Western mind, in the 
 Western way, that Western Science corroborates the 
 Ancient Yogi Teachings of the Unfoldment of Living 
 Forms, from Monad to Man. The Eastern teachers 
 scorn to "prove" anything to their pupils, who sit at 
 the feet of teachers and accept as truth that which is 
 taught them, and which has been handed down from 
 the dim ages long past. But this method will never 
 do for the Western student — he must have it "proven" 
 to him by physical facts and instances, not by keen, 
 subtle, intellectual reasoning alone. The Eastern stu- 
 dent wishes to be "told" — the Western student wishes 
 to be "shown." Herein lies the racial differences of 
 method of imparting knowledge. And so we have 
 recognized this fact and have heaped up proof after 
 proof from the pages of Western Science, in order 
 to prove to you the reasonableness, from the Western 
 point of view, of the doctrine of Physical Unfold- 
 ment as taught for ages past by the Yogi gurus to their 
 chelas. You have now the Eastern Teachings on the 
 subject, together with the testimony of Western 
 Science to the reasonableness of the idea. 
 
 But, alas ! Western Science, while performing a 
 marvelous work in piling up fact after fact to support 
 its newly-discovered theory of Evolution, in a way 
 utterly unknown to the Oriental thinker who seeks 
 after principles by mental concentration — within rather 
 than without — while actually proving by physical facts 
 
IS« GNANI YOGA. 
 
 the mental conceptions of the Oriental Teachings, still 
 misses the vital point of the subject-thought. In its 
 materialistic tendencies it has failed to recognize the 
 mental cause of the physical unfoldmeni. It is true 
 that Lamark, the real Western discoverer of Evolu- 
 tion, taught that Desire and Mental Craving, was the 
 real force behind Evolution, but his ideas were jeered 
 at by his contemporaries, and are not regarded seri- 
 ously by the majority of Evolutionists even today. 
 And yet he was nearer to the truth than Darwin or 
 any other Western Evolutionist. And time will show 
 that Science has overlooked his genius, which alone 
 throws the true light upon the subject. 
 
 In order to see just this difference between the 
 Darwinian school and the Yogi Teachings let us ex- 
 amine into what causes the Western Evolutionists give 
 for the fact of Evolution itself. We shall do this 
 briefly. 
 
 The Darwinians start out to explain the causes 
 of the "Origin of Species," with the statement that 
 "no two individuals of the same species are exactly 
 alike ; each tends to vary." This is a self-evident fact, 
 and is very properly used as a starting point for 
 Variation. The next step is then stated as "variations 
 are transmitted, and therefore tend to become per- 
 manent," which also is self-evident, and tends to prove 
 the reasonableness of the gradual evolution of species. 
 The next step in the argument is "as man produces 
 new species and forms, by breeding, culture, etc., so 
 has Nature in a longer time produced the same effeot, 
 
THE ASCENT OF MAN. 193 
 
 in the same way." This also is reasonable, although it 
 tends to personify Nature, and to give it a mind 
 before the evolutionists admit "mind" was evolved. 
 
 It will be as well to quote Darwin himself on this 
 point. He says: "As man can produce, and cer- 
 tainly has produced, a great result by his methodical 
 and unconscious means of selection, what may not 
 natural selection effect? Man can act only on ex- 
 ternal and visible characters, while Nature, if I may 
 be allowed to personify the natural preservation or 
 survival of the fittest, cares nothing for appearances 
 except in so far as they are useful to any being. She 
 can act on every internal organ, on every shade of 
 constitutional difference, on the whole machinery of 
 life. Man selects only for his own good ; Nature only 
 for the good of the being which she tends. Every se- 
 lected character is fully exercised by her, as is implied 
 by the fact of their selection. Man keeps the natives 
 of many climates in the same country; he seldom ex- 
 ercises each selected character in some peculiar and fit- 
 ting manner; he feeds a long-beaked and a short- 
 beaked pigeon on the same food ; he does not exercise 
 a long-backed or long-legged quadruped in any pecu- 
 liar manner; he exposes sheep with long hair and 
 short wool in the same climate. He does not allow 
 the most vigorous males to struggle for the females. 
 He does not rigidly destroy all inferior animals, but 
 protects during each varying season, so far as lies in 
 his power, all his productions. He often begins his 
 selection by some half-monstrous form, or at least by 
 
194 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 some modification prominent enough to catch the eye 
 or to be plainly useful to him. Under Nature the 
 slightest differences of structure or constitution may 
 well turn the nicely balanced scale in the struggle for 
 life, and so be preserved. How fleeting are the wishes 
 and efforts of man ! how short his time ! and conse- 
 quently how poor will be his results, compared with 
 those accumulated by nature during whole geological 
 periods ! Can we wonder, then, that Nature's produc- 
 tions should be far 'truer' in character than man's 
 productions; that they should be infinitely better 
 adapted to the most complex conditions of life, and 
 should plainly bear the stamp of far higher work- 
 manship ?" 
 
 Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest is begun 
 by the statement of the fact that the number of organ- 
 isms that survive are very small compared with the 
 number that are born. To quote his own words, 
 "There is no exception to the rule that every organic 
 being naturally increases at so high a rate that, if not 
 destroyed, the earth would soon be covered by the 
 progeny of a single pair. Even slow-breeding man 
 has doubled in twenty-five years, and at this rate in 
 less than a thousand years there would literally not be 
 standing room for the progeny." It has been com- 
 puted that if the offspring of the elephant, which is 
 believed to be the slowest breeding animal known, 
 were to survive, there would be about 20,000,000 ele- 
 phants on the earth in 750 years. The roe of a single 
 cod contains eight or nine millions of eggs, and if 
 
THE ASCENT OF MAN. 195 
 
 each egg were to hatch, and the fish survive, the sea 
 would shortly become a solid mass of codfish. The 
 house fly is said to have 20,000,000 descendants in a 
 season, counting several generations of progeny, from 
 its several broods. And some scientist has computed 
 that the aphis, or plant-louse, breeds so rapidly, and 
 in such enormous quantity, that the tenth generation 
 of one set of parents would be so large that it would 
 contain more ponderable animal matter than would 
 the population of China, which is estimated at 500,- 
 000,000! And this without counting the progeny 
 preceding the tenth generation! 
 
 The result of the above conditions is very plain. 
 There must ensue a Struggle for Existence, which 
 necessitates the Survival of the Fittest. The weak are 
 crushed out by the strong; the swift out-distance the 
 slow. The individual forms or species best adapted 
 to their environment and best equipped for the strug- 
 gle, be the equipment physical or mental, survive those 
 less well equipped or less well adapted to environment. 
 Animals evolving variations in structure that give 
 them even a slight advantage over others not so fa- 
 vored, naturally have a better chance to survive. And 
 this, briefly, is what Evolutionists call "The Survival 
 of the Fittest." 
 
 As appertaining to the Struggle for Existence, color 
 and mimicry are important factors. Grant Allen, in 
 his work on Darwin, says concerning this, and also 
 as illustrating "Natural Selection": "In the desert 
 with its monotonous sandy coloring, a black insect or 
 
196 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 a white insect, still more a red insect or a blue insect, 
 would be immediately detected and devoured by its 
 natural enemies, the birds and the lizards. But any 
 greyish or yellowish insects would be less likely to 
 attract attention at first sight, and would be over- 
 looked as long as there were any more conspicuous 
 individuals of their own kind about for the birds and 
 lizards to feed on. Hence, in a very short time the 
 desert would be depopulated of all but the greyest 
 and yellowest insects; and among these the birds 
 would pick out those which differed most markedly in 
 hue and shade from the sand around them. But those 
 which happened to vary most in the direction of a 
 sandy or spotty color would be more likely to sur- 
 vive, and to become the parents of future generations. 
 Thus, in the course of long ages, all the insects which 
 inhabit deserts have become sand-colored, because the 
 less sandy were perpetually picked out for destruc- 
 tion by their ever-watchful foes, while the most sandy 
 escaped, and multiplied and replenished the earth with 
 their own likes." 
 
 Prof. Clodd, remarking upon this fact, adds : "Thus, 
 then, is explained the tawny color of the larger ani- 
 mals that inhabit the desert; the stripes upon the 
 tiger, which parallel with the vertical stems of bam- 
 boo, conceal him as he stealthily nears his prey; the 
 brilliant green of tropical birds; the leaf-like form 
 and colors of certain insects ; the dried, twig-like form 
 of many caterpillars ; the bark-like appearance of tree- 
 frogs ; the harmony of the ptarmigan's summer plum- 
 
THE ASCENT OF MAN. 197 
 
 age with the lichen-colored stones upon which it sits ; 
 the dusky color of creatures that haunt the night; the 
 bluish transparency of animals which live on the sur- 
 face of the sea; the gravel-like color of flat-fish that 
 live at the bottom ; and the gorgeous tints of those that 
 swim among the coral reefs." 
 
 All this does not run contrary to the Yogi Philoso- 
 phy, although the latter would regard these things as 
 but the secondary cause for the variation and survival 
 of species, etc. The Oriental teachings are that it 
 is the desire of the animal that causes it to assume 
 the colors and shapes in accordance with its environ- 
 ment, the desire of course operating along sub-con- 
 scious lines of physical manifestation. The mental 
 influence, which is the real cause of the phenomena, 
 and which is taught as such by the Yogis, is almost 
 lost sight of by the Western Evolutionists, who are 
 apt to regard Mind as a "by-product" of matter. On 
 the contrary, the Yogis regard Matter as the product 
 of Mind. But there is no conflict here as far as re- 
 gards the law of the Survival of the Fittest. The in- 
 sects that most desired to become sand-colored became 
 so, and were thus protected, while their less "desireful" 
 brethren were exterminated. The Western scientist 
 explains the outward phenomena, but does not look 
 for the cause behind it, which is taught by the Oriental 
 sages. 
 
 The doctrine of "Sexual Selection" is another of the 
 leading tenets of the Darwinists. Briefly, it may be 
 expressed as the theory that in the rivalry and strug- 
 
198 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 gle of the males for the females the strongest males 
 win the day, and thus transmit their particular quali- 
 ties to their offspring. Along the same lines is that 
 of the attraction exerted by bright colors in the 
 plumage of the males of birds, etc., which give them 
 an advantage in the eyes of the females, and thus, 
 naturally, the bright colors are perpetuated. 
 
 This, then, is the brief outline of the Story of 
 Man's Physical Evolution, as stated by Western Sci- 
 ence, and compared with the Yogi Teachings. The 
 student should compare the two ideas, that he may 
 harmonize and reconcile them. It must be remem- 
 bered, however, that Darwin did not teach that Man 
 descended from the monkeys, or apes, as we know 
 them now. The teaching of Western Evolution is that 
 the apes, and higher forms of monkey life descended 
 from some common ancestral form, which same an- 
 cestor was also the ancestor of Man. In other words, 
 Man and Apes are the different branches that emerged 
 from the common trunk ages ago. Other forms 
 doubtless emerged from the same trunk, and perished 
 because less adapted to their environments. The 
 Apes were best adapted to their own environments, 
 and Man was best adapted to his. The weaker 
 branches failed. 
 
 One must remember that the most savage races 
 known to us today are practically as far different from 
 the highest American, European or Hindu types of 
 Man as from the highest Apes. Indeed, it would 
 seem far easier for a high Ape to evolve into a Kaffir, 
 
THE ASCENT OF MAN. 199 
 
 Hottentot, or Digger Indian, than for the latter to 
 evolve into an Emerson, Shakespeare, or Hindu Sage. 
 As Huxley has shown, the brain-structure of Man 
 compared with that of the Chimpanzee shows differ- 
 ences but slight when compared with the difference 
 between that of the Chimpanzee and that of the Lemur. 
 The same authority informs us that in the important 
 feature of the deeper brain furrows, and intricate 
 convolutions, the chasm between the highest civilized 
 man and the lowest savage is far greater than between 
 the lowest savage and the highest man-like ape. Dar- 
 win, describing the Fuegians, who are among the very 
 lowest forms of savages, says: "Their very signs 
 and expressions are less intelligible to us than those 
 of the domesticated animal. They are men who do 
 not possess the instinct of those animals, nor yet ap- 
 pear to boast of human reason, or at least of arts con- 
 sequent upon that reason." 
 
 Professor Clodd, in describing the "primitive man," 
 says : "Doubtless he was lower than the lowest of the 
 savages of today — a powerful, cunning biped, with 
 keen sense organs always sharper, in virtue of con- 
 stant exercise, in the savage than in the civilized 
 man (who supplements them by science), strong in- 
 stincts, uncontrolled and fitful emotions, small faculty 
 of wonder, and nascent reasoning power; unable to 
 forecast tomorrow, or to comprehend yesterday, living 
 from hand to mouth on the wild products of Nature, 
 clothed in skin and bark, or daubed with clay, and 
 finding shelter in trees and caves ; ignorant of the sim- 
 
200 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 piest arts, save to chip a stone missle, and perhaps to 
 produce fire; strong in his needs of life and vague 
 sense of right to it and to what he could get, but 
 slowly impelled by common perils and passions to 
 form ties, loose and haphazard at the outset, with his 
 kind, the power of combination with them depending 
 on sounds, signs and gestures." 
 
 Such was the ancestral man. Those who are inter- 
 ested in him are referred to the two wonderful tales 
 of the cave-man written in the form of stories by two 
 great modern novelists. The books referred to are 
 (i) "The Story of Ab," by Stanley Waterloo, and (2) 
 "Before Adam," by Jack London. They may be ob- 
 tained from any bookseller. Both are works of fiction, 
 with the scientific facts cleverly interwoven into them. 
 
 And now in conclusion before we pass on the sub- 
 ject of "Spiritual Evolution," which will form the sub- 
 ject of our next lesson, we would again call your at- 
 tention to the vital difference between the Western 
 and the Eastern Teachings. The Western holds to a 
 mechanical theory of life, which works without the 
 necessity of antecedent Mind, the latter appearing as a 
 "product" at a certain stage. The Eastern holds that 
 Mind is back of, under, and antecedent to all the work 
 of Evolution — the cause, not the effect or product. 
 The Western claims that Mind was produced by the 
 struggle of Matter to produce higher forms of itself. 
 The Eastern claims that the whole process of Evolu- 
 
THE ASCENT OF MAN. aoi 
 
 Hon is caused by Mind striving, struggling and press- 
 ing forward toward expressing itself more fully — to 
 liberate itself from the confining and retarding Mat- 
 ter — the struggle resulting in an Unfoldment which 
 causes sheath after sheath of the confining material 
 bonds to be thrown off and discarded, in the effort to 
 release the confined Spirit which is behind even the 
 Mind. The Yogi Teachings are that the Evolution- 
 ary Urge is the pressure of the confined Spirit striv- 
 ing to free itself from the fetters and bonds which 
 sorely oppress it. 
 
 The struggle and pain of Evolution is the parturi- 
 tion-pangs of the Spiritual deliverance from the womb 
 of Matter. Like all birth it is attended by pain and 
 suffering, but the end justifies it all. And as the 
 human mother forgets her past suffering in the joy 
 of witnessing the face, and form, and life, of her loved 
 child, so will the soul forget the pain of the Spiritual 
 birth by reason of the beauty and nobility of that 
 which will be born to and from it. 
 
 Let us study well the story of Physical Evolution, 
 but let us not lose ourselves in it, for it is but the 
 preliminary to the story of the Unfoldment of the 
 Soul. 
 
 Let us not despise the tale of the Body of Man — 
 for it is the story of the Temple of the Spirit which 
 has been built up from the most humble beginnings, 
 until it has reached the present high stage. And yet 
 
202 GNANI YOGA. 
 
 even this is but the beginning, for the work will go 
 
 on, and on, and on, in the spirit of those beautiful 
 
 lines of Holmes: 
 
 "Build thee more stately mansions, oh, my soul! 
 As the swift seasons roll! 
 Leave thy low-vaulted pastl 
 Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 
 Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 
 Till thou at last art free, 
 Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea." 
 
THE NINTH LESSON 
 
 Metempsychosis. 
 
 As we have said in our last lesson, while the Yogi 
 Teachings throw an important light upon the Western 
 theory of Evolution, still there is a vital difference 
 between the Western scientific teachings on the subject 
 and the Eastern theories and teachings. The Western 
 idea is that the process is a mechanical, material one, 
 and that "mind" is a "by-product" of Matter in its 
 evolution. But the Eastern Teachings hold that Mind 
 is under, back of, and antecedent to all the work of 
 Evolution, and that Matter is a "by-product" of Mind, 
 rather than the reverse. 
 
 The Eastern Teachings hold that Evolution is 
 caused by Mind striving, struggling, and pressing for- 
 ward toward fuller and fuller expression, using Mat- 
 ter as a material, and yet always struggling to free 
 itself from the confining and retarding influence of the 
 latter. The struggle results in an Unfoldment, caus- 
 ing sheath after sheath of the confining material bonds 
 to be thrown off and discarded, as the Spirit presses 
 upon the Mind, and the Mind moulds and shapes the 
 Matter. Evolution is but the process of birth of the 
 Individualized Spirit, from the web of Matter in 
 which it has been confined. And the pains and strug- 
 gles are but incidents of the spiritual parturition. 
 
 In this and following lessons we shall consider the 
 "Spiritual Evolution, of the race — that is the Unfold- 
 ment of Individualized Spirit — just as we did the 
 subject Physical Evolution in the last two lessons. 
 
 203 
 
204 GNANI YOGA 
 
 We have seen that preceding Spiritual Evolution, 
 there was a Spiritual Involution. The Yogi Philoso- 
 phy holds that in the Beginning, the Absolute medi- 
 tated upon the subject of Creation, and formed a 
 Mental Image, or Thought-Form, of an Universal 
 Mind — that is, of an Universal Principle of Mind. 
 This Universal Principle of Mind is the Great Ocean 
 of "Mind-Stuff" from which all the phenomenal Uni- 
 verse is evolved. From this Universal Principle of 
 Mind, proceeded the Universal Principle of Force or 
 Energy. And from the latter, proceeded the Univer- 
 sal Principle of Matter. 
 
 The Universal Principle of Mind was bound by 
 Laws imposed upon it by the mental-conception of the 
 Absolute — the Cosmic Laws of Nature. And these 
 laws were the compelling causes of the Great Involu- 
 tion. For before Evolution was possible, Involution 
 was necessary. We have explained that the word 
 "involve" means "to wrap up ; to cover ; to hide, etc." 
 Before a thing can be "evolved," that is "unfolded," 
 it must first be "involved," that is "wrapped up." A 
 thing must be put in, before it may be taken out. 
 
 Following the laws of Involution imposed upon it, 
 the Universal Mental Principle involved itself in the 
 Universal Energy Principle ; and then in obedience to 
 the same laws, the latter involved itself in the Uni' 
 versal Material Principle. Each stage of Involution, 
 or wrapping-up, created for itself (out of the higher 
 principle which in being involved) the wrapper or 
 sheath which is to be used to wrap-up the higher prin- 
 
METEMPSYCHOSIS 205 
 
 ciple. And the higher forms of the Material Princi- 
 ple formed sheaths of lower forms, until forms of 
 Matter were produced far more gross than any known 
 to us now, for they have disappeared in the Evolu- 
 tionary ascent. Down, down, down went the process 
 of Involution, until the lowest point was reached. 
 Then ensued a moment's pause, preceding the begin- 
 ning of the Evolutionary Unfoldment. 
 
 Then began the Great Evolution. But, as we have 
 told you, the Upward movement was distinguished by 
 the "Tendency toward Individualization." That is, 
 while the Involuntary Process was accomplished by 
 Principles as Principles, the Upward Movement was 
 begun by a tendency toward "splitting up," and the 
 creation of "individual forms," and the effort to per- 
 fect them and build upon them higher and still higher 
 succeeding forms, until a stage was reached in which 
 the Temple of the Spirit was worthy of being occu- 
 pied by Man, the self-conscious expression of the 
 Spirit. For the coming of Man was the first step 
 of a higher form of Evolution — the Spiritual Evolu- 
 tion. Up to this time there had been simply an Evo- 
 lution of Bodies, but now there came the Evolution 
 of Souls. 
 
 And this Evolution of Souls becomes possible only 
 by the process of Metempsychosis (pronounced me- 
 temp-si-ko-sis) which is more commonly known as 
 Reincarnation, or Reembodiment. 
 
 It becomes necessary at this point to call your at- 
 tention to the general subject of Metempsychosis, for 
 
204 GNANI YOGA 
 
 We have seen that preceding Spiritual Evolution, 
 there was a Spiritual Involution. The Yogi Philoso- 
 phy holds that in the Beginning, the Absolute medi- 
 tated upon the subject of Creation, and formed a 
 Mental Image, or Thought-Form, of an Universal 
 Mind — that is, of an Universal Principle of Mind. 
 This Universal Principle of Mind is the Great Ocean 
 of "Mind-Stuff" from which all the phenomenal Uni- 
 verse is evolved. From this Universal Principle of 
 Mind, proceeded the Universal Principle of Force or 
 Energy. And from the latter, proceeded the Univer- 
 sal Principle of Matter. 
 
 The Universal Principle of Mind was bound by 
 Laws imposed upon it by the mental-conception of the 
 Absolute — the Cosmic Laws of Nature. And these 
 laws were the compelling causes of the Great Involu- 
 tion. For before Evolution was possible, Involution 
 was necessary. We have explained that the word 
 "involve" means "to wrap up; to cover; to hide, etc." 
 Before a thing can be "evolved," that is "unfolded," 
 it must first be "involved," that is "wrapped up." A 
 thing must be put in, before it may be taken out. 
 
 Following the laws of Involution imposed upon it, 
 the Universal Mental Principle involved itself in the 
 Universal Energy Principle ; and then in obedience to 
 the same laws, the latter involved itself in the Uni- 
 versal Material Principle. Each stage of Involution, 
 or wrapping-up, created for itself (out of the higher 
 principle which in being involved) the wrapper or 
 sheath which is to be used to wrap-up the higher prin- 
 
METEMPSYCHOSIS 205 
 
 ciple. And the higher forms of the Material Princi- 
 ple formed sheaths of lower forms, until forms of 
 Matter were produced far more gross than any known 
 to us now, for they have disappeared in the Evolu- 
 tionary ascent. Down, down, down went the process 
 of Involution, until the lowest point was reached. 
 Then ensued a moment's pause, preceding the begin- 
 ning of the Evolutionary Unfoldment. 
 
 Then began the Great Evolution. But, as we have 
 told you, the Upward movement was distinguished by 
 the "Tendency toward Individualization." That is, 
 while the Involuntary Process was accomplished by 
 Principles as Principles, the Upward Movement was 
 begun by a tendency toward "splitting up," and the 
 creation of "individual forms," and the effort to per- 
 fect them and build upon them higher and still higher 
 succeeding forms, until a stage was reached in which 
 the Temple of the Spirit was worthy of being occu- 
 pied by Man, the self-conscious expression of the 
 Spirit. For the coming of Man was the first step 
 of a higher form of Evolution — the Spiritual Evolu- 
 tion. Up to this time there had been simply an Evo- 
 lution of Bodies, but now there came the Evolution 
 of Souls. 
 
 And this Evolution of Souls becomes possible only 
 by the process of Metempsychosis (pronounced me- 
 temp-si-ko-sis) which is more commonly known as 
 Reincarnation, or Reembodiment. 
 
 It becomes necessary at this point to call your at- 
 tention to the general subject of Metempsychosis, for 
 
208 GNANI YOGA 
 
 again on the wide ocean of human belief. But strang- 
 er things have happened in the history of human 
 opinions." — James Freeman Clarke. 
 
 "If we could legitimately determine any question of 
 belief by the number of its adherents, the * * * * would 
 apply to metempsychosis more fitly than to any other. 
 1 think it is quite as likely to be revived and to come 
 to the front as any rival theory." — Prof. Wm. Knight. 
 
 "It seems to me, a firm and well-grounded faith in 
 the doctrine of Christian metempsychosis might help 
 to regenerate the world. For it would be a faith not 
 hedged around with many of the difficulties and objec- 
 tions which beset other forms of doctrine, and it offers 
 distinct and pungent motives for trying to lead a more 
 Christian life, and for loving and helping our brother- 
 man." — Prof. Francis Bowen. 
 
 "The doctrine of Metempsychosis may almost claim 
 to be a natural or innate belief in the human mind, if 
 we may judge from its wide diffusion among the na- 
 tions of the earth, and its prevalence throughout the 
 historical ages." — Prof. Francis Bowen. 
 
 "When Christianity first swept over Europe, the 
 inner thought of its leaders was deeply tinctured with 
 this truth. The Church tried ineffectually to eradicate 
 it, but in various sects it kept sprouting forth beyond 
 the time of Erigina and Bonaventura, its mediaeval 
 advocates. Every great intuitional soul, as Paracelsus, 
 Boehme, and Swedenborg, has adhered to it. The 
 Italian luminaries, Giordano Bruno and Campanella, 
 embraced it. The best of German philosophy is en- 
 
METEMPSYCHOSIS 209 
 
 riched by it. In Schopenhauer, Lessing, Hegel, Leib- 
 nitz, Herder, and Fichte, the younger, it is earnestly 
 advocated. The anthropological systems of Kant and 
 Schelling furnish points of contact with it. The 
 younger Helmont, in De Revolutione Animarum, ad- 
 duces in two hundred problems all the arguments 
 which may be urged in favor of the return of souls 
 into human bodies according to Jewish ideas. Of 
 English thinkers, the Cambridge Platonists defended 
 it with much learning and acut?ness, most conspicu- 
 ously Henry More; and in C-ut>orth and Hume it 
 ranks as the most rational theory of immortality. 
 Glanvil's Lux Orientalis devotes a curious treatise to 
 it. It captivated the minds of Fourier and Leroux. 
 Andre Pezzani's book on The Plurality of the Soul's 
 Lives works out the system on the Roman Catholic 
 idea of expiation." — E. D. Walker, in "Re-Incarna- 
 tion, a Study of Forgotten Truth." 
 
 And in the latter part of the Nineteenth Century, 
 and this the early part of the Twentieth Century, the 
 general public has been made familiar with the idea 
 of Metempsychosis, under the name of Re-incarna- 
 tion, by means of the great volume of literature issued 
 by The Theosophical Society and its allied following. 
 No longer is the thought a novelty to the Western 
 thinker, and many have found within themselves a 
 corroborative sense of its truth. In fact, to many the 
 mere mention of the idea has been sufficient to awaken 
 faint shadowy memories of past lives, and, to such, 
 many heretofore unaccountable traits of character, 
 
210 GNANI YOGA 
 
 tastes, inclinations, sympathies, dislikes, etc., have been 
 explained. 
 
 The Western world has been made familiar with the 
 idea of the re-birth of souls into new bodies, under 
 the term of "Re-incarnation," which means "a re-entry 
 into flesh," the word "incarnate" being derived from 
 the words "in," and "carnis," meaning flesh — the 
 English word meaning "to clothe with flesh," etc. 
 The word Metempsychosis, which we use in this les- 
 son, is concerned rather with the "passage of the 
 soul" from one tenement to another, the "fleshly" idea 
 being merely incidental. 
 
 The doctrine of Metempsychosis, or Re-incarnation, 
 together with its accompanying doctrine, Karma, or 
 Spiritual Cause and Effect, is one of the great founda- 
 tion stones of the Yogi Philosophy, as indeed it 
 is of the entire system of systems of Oriental 
 Philosophy and Thought. Unless one under- 
 stands Metempsychosis he will never be able to 
 understand the Eastern Teachings, for he will be 
 without the Key. You who have read the Bhaga- 
 vad Gita, that wonderful Hindu Epic, will remem- 
 ber how the thread of Re-Birth runs through it all. 
 You remember the words of Krishna to Arjuna : "As 
 the soul, wearing this material body, experienceth the 
 stages of infancy, youth, manhood, and old age, even 
 so shall it, in due time, pass on to another body, and 
 in other incarnations shall it again live, and move and 
 play its part." "These bodies, which act as envelop- 
 ing coverings for the souls occupying them, are but 
 
METEMPSYCHOSIS 211 
 
 finite things — things of the moment — and not the Real 
 Man at all. They perish as all finite things perish — 
 let them perish." "As a man throweth away his old 
 garments, replacing them with new and brighter ones, 
 even so the Dweller of the body, having quitted its old 
 mortal frame, entereth into others which are new 
 and freshly prepared for it. Weapons pierce not the 
 Real Man, nor doth the fire burn him; the water 
 affecteth him not, nor the wind drieth him nor bloweth 
 him away. For he is impregnable and impervious 
 to these things of the world of change — he is eternal, 
 permanent, unchangeable, and unalterable — Real." 
 
 This view of life gives to the one who holds to it, 
 an entirely different mental attitude. He no longer 
 identifies himself with the particular body that he may 
 be occupying, nor with any other body for that mat- 
 ter. He learns to regard his body just as he would 
 a garment which he is wearing, useful to him for 
 certain purposes, but which will in time be discarded 
 and thrown aside for a better one, and one better 
 adapted to his new requirements and needs. So firm- 
 ly is this idea embedded in the consciousness of the 
 Hindus, that they will often say "My body is tired," 
 or "My body is hungry," or "My body is full of ener- 
 gy," rather than that "I am" this or that thing. And 
 this consciousness, once attained, gives to one a sense 
 of strength, security and power unknown to him who 
 regards his body as himself. The first step for the 
 student who wishes to grasp the idea of Metempsycho- 
 sis, and who wishes to awaken in his consciousness a 
 
212 GNANI YOGA 
 
 certainty of its truth, is to familiarize himself with the 
 idea of his "I" being a thing independent and a part 
 from his body, although using the latter as an abiding 
 place and a useful shelter and instrument for the time 
 being. 
 
 Many writers on the subject of Metempsychosis 
 have devoted much time, labor and argument to prove 
 the reasonableness of the doctrine upon purely specu- 
 lative, philosophical, or metaphysical grounds. And 
 while we believe that such efforts are praiseworthy 
 for the reason that many persons must be first con- 
 vinced in that way, still we feel that one must really 
 feel the truth of the doctrine from something within 
 his own consciousness, before he will really believe it 
 to be truth. One may convince himself of the logical 
 necessity of the doctrine of Metempsychosis, but at the 
 same time he may drop the matter with a shrug of the 
 shoulders and a "still, who knows?" But when one 
 begins to feel within himself the awakening conscious- 
 ness of a "something in the past," not to speak of the 
 flashes of memory, and feeling of former acquaintance 
 with the subject, then, and then only, does he begin to 
 believe. 
 
 Many people have had "peculiar experiences" that 
 are accountable only upon the hypothesis of Metem- 
 pyschosis. Who has not experienced the conscious- 
 ness of having felt the thing before — having thought 
 it some time in the dim past? Who has not witnessed 
 new scenes that appear old, very old? Who has not 
 met persons for the first time,, whose presence awak- 
 
METEMPSYCHOSIS 213 
 
 ened memories of a past lying far back in the misty 
 ages of long ago? Who has not been seized at times 
 with the consciousness of a mighty "oldness" of soul? 
 Who has not heard music, often entirely new composi- 
 tions, which somehow awakens memories of similar 
 strains, scenes, places, faces, voices, lands, associations 
 and events, sounding dimly on the strings of memory 
 as the breezes of the harmony floats over them? Who 
 has not gazed at some old painting, or piece of stat- 
 uary, with the sense of having seen it all before? Who 
 has not lived through events, which brought with 
 them a certainty of being merely a repetition of some 
 shadowy occurrences away back in lives lived long 
 ago? Who has not felt the influence of the moun- 
 tain, the sea, the desert, coming to them when they are 
 far from such scenes — coming so vividly as to cause 
 the actual scene of the present to fade into compara- 
 tive unreality. Who has not had these experiences — 
 who we ask? 
 
 Writers, poets, and others who carry messages to 
 the world, have testified to these things — and nearly 
 every man or woman who hears the message recog- 
 nizes it as something having correspondence in his 
 or her own life. Sir Walter Scott tells us in his 
 diary: "I cannot, I am sure, tell if it is worth mark- 
 ing down, that yesterday, at dinner time, I was 
 strangely haunted by what I would call the sense of 
 preexistence, viz., a confused idea that nothing that 
 passed was said for the first time; that the same 
 topics had been discussed and the same persons had 
 
214 GNANI YOGA 
 
 stated the same opinions on them. The sensation was 
 so strong as to resemble what is called the mirage in 
 the desert and a calenture on board ship." The same 
 writer, in one of his novels, "Guy Mannering," makes 
 one of his characters say : "Why is it that some scenes 
 awaken thoughts which belong as it were, to dreams 
 of early and shadowy recollections, such as old Brah- 
 min moonshine would have ascribed to a state of pre- 
 vious existence. How often do we find ourselves in 
 society which we have never before met, and yet feel 
 impressed with a mysterious and ill-defined conscious- 
 ness that neither the scene nor the speakers nor the 
 subject are entirely new; nay, feel as if we could an- 
 ticipate that part of the conversation which has not 
 yet taken place." 
 
 Bulwer speaks of "that strange kind of inner and 
 spiritual memory which so often recalls to us places 
 and persons we have never seen before, and which 
 Platonists would resolve to be the unquenched con- 
 sciousness of a former life.'' And again, he says: 
 "How strange is it that at times a feeling comes over 
 us as we gaze upon certain places, which associates 
 the scene either with some dim remembered and 
 dreamlike images of the Past, or with a prophetic and 
 fearful omen of the Future. Every one has known 
 a similar strange and indistinct feeling at certain 
 times and places, and with a similar inability to trace 
 the cause." Poe has written these words on the sub- 
 ject : "We walk about, amid the destinies of our world 
 existence, accompanied by dim but ever present mem- 
 
METEMPSYCHOSIS 215 
 
 ones of a Destiny more vast — very distant in the by- 
 gone time and infinitely awful. We live out a youth 
 peculiarly haunted by such dreams, yet never mistak- 
 ing them for dreams. As memories we know them. 
 During our youth the distinctness is too clear to de- 
 ceive us even for a moment. But the doubt of man- 
 hood dispels these feelings as illusions." 
 
 Home relates an interesting incident in his life, 
 which had a marked effect upon his beliefs, thereafter. 
 He relates that upon an occasion when he visited a 
 strange house in London he was shown into a room 
 to wait. He says : "On looking around, to my aston- 
 ishment everything appeared perfectly familiar to me. 
 I seemed to recognize every object. I said to my- 
 self, What is this? I have never been here before, 
 and yet I have seen all this, and if so, then there must 
 be a very peculiar knot in that shutter.' " He pro- 
 ceeded to examine the shutter, and much to his amaze- 
 ment the knot was there. 
 
 We have recently heard of a similar case, told by 
 an old lady who formerly lived in the far West of the 
 United States. She states that upon one occasion a 
 party was wandering on the desert in her part 
 of the country, and found themselves out of water. 
 As that part of the desert was unfamiliar even to the 
 guides, the prospect for water looked very poor in- 
 deed. After a fruitless search of several hours, one 
 of the party, a perfect stranger to that part of the 
 country, suddenly pressed his hand to his head, and 
 acted in a dazed manner, crying out "I know that a 
 
216 GNANI YOGA 
 
 water-hole is over to the right — this way," and away 
 he started with the party after him. After a half- 
 hour's journey they reached an old hidden water-hole 
 that was unknown even to the oldest man in the party. 
 The stranger said that he did not understand the mat- 
 ter, but that he had somehow experienced a sensation 
 of having been there before, and knowing just where 
 the water-hole was located. An old Indian who was 
 questioned about the matter, afterward, stated that the 
 place had been well known to his people who former- 
 ly travelled much on that part of the desert; and 
 that they had legends relating to the "hidden water- 
 hole," running back for many generations. In this 
 case, it was remarked that the water-hole was situated 
 in such a peculiar and unusual manner, as to render 
 it almost undiscoverable even to people familiar with 
 the characteristics of that part of the country. The 
 old lady who related the story, had it direct from the 
 lips of one of the party, who regarded it as "some- 
 thing queer," but who had never even heard of Me- 
 tempsychosis. 
 
 A correspondent of an English magazine writes as 
 follows : "A gentleman of high intellectual attain- 
 ments, now deceased, once told me that he had 
 dreamed of being in a strange city, so vividly that he 
 remembered the streets, houses and public buildings 
 as distinctly as those of any place he ever visited. A 
 few weeks later he was induced to visit a panorama 
 in Leicester Square, when he was startled by seeing 
 the city of which he had dreamed. The likeness was 
 
METEMPSYCHOSIS 217 
 
 perfect, except that one additional church appeared in 
 the picture. He was so struck by the circumstance 
 that he spoke to the exhibitor, assuming for the pur- 
 pose the air of a traveller acquainted with the place, 
 when he was informed that the church was a recent 
 erection." The fact of the addition of the church, 
 seems to place the incident within the rule of awak- 
 ened memories of scenes known in a past life, for 
 clairvoyance, astral travel, etc., would show the scene 
 as it was at the time of the dream, not as it had been 
 years before. 
 
 Charles Dickens mentions a remarkable impression 
 in his work "Pictures from Italy." "In the fore- 
 ground was a group of silent peasant girls, leaning 
 over the parapet of the little bridge, looking now up 
 at the sky, now down into the water; in the distance 
 a deep dell; the shadow of an approaching night on 
 everything. If I had been murdered there in some 
 former life I could not have seemed to remember the 
 place more thoroughly, or with more emphatic chill- 
 ing of the blood; and the real remembrance of it ac- 
 quired in that minute is so strengthened by the imagi- 
 nary recollection that I hardly think I could forget it." 
 We have recently met two people in America who 
 had very vivid memories of incidents in their past 
 life. One of these, a lady, has a perfect horror of 
 large bodies of water, such as the Great Lakes, or the 
 Ocean, although she was born and has lived the great- 
 er part of her life inland, far removed from any great 
 body of water. She has a distinct recollection of 
 
.218 GNANI YOGA 
 
 falling from a large canoe-shape vessel, of peculiar 
 lines, and drowning. She was quite overcome upon 
 her first visit to the Field Museum in Chicago, where 
 there were exhibited a number of models of queer 
 vessels used by primitive people. She pointed out one 
 similar in shape, and lines, to the one she remembers 
 as having fallen from in some past life. 
 
 The second case mentioned is that of a married 
 couple who met each other in a country foreign to 
 both, on their travels. They fell in love with each 
 other, and both have felt that their marriage was a 
 reunion rather than a new attachment. The husband 
 one day shortly after their marriage told his wife in 
 a rather shamed-faced way that he had occasional 
 flashes of memory of having held in his arms, in the 
 dim past, a woman whose face he could not recall, but 
 who wore a strange necklace, he describing the de- 
 tails of the latter. The wife said nothing, but after 
 her husband had left for his office, she went to the 
 attic and unpacked an old trunk containing some odds 
 and ends, relics, heirlooms, etc., and drew from it an 
 old necklace of peculiar pattern that her grandfather 
 had brought back from India, where he had lived in 
 his younger days, and which had been in the family 
 ever since. She laid the necklace on the table, so that 
 her husband would see it upon his return. The mo- 
 ment his eyes fell upon it, he turned white as death, 
 and gasped "My God! that's the necklace!" 
 
 A writer in a Western journal gives the following 
 story of a Southern woman. "When I was in Heidel- 
 
METEMPSYCHOSIS 219 
 
 berg, Germany, attending a convention of Mystics, in 
 company with some friends I paid my first visit to the 
 ruined Heidelberg Castle. As I approached it I was 
 impressed with the existence of a peculiar room in an 
 inaccessible portion of the building. A paper and 
 pencil were provided me, and I drew a diagram of the 
 room even to its peculiar floor. My diagram and de- 
 scription were perfect, when we afterwards visited the 
 room. In some way, not yet clear to me, I have been 
 connected with that apartment. Still another impres- 
 sion came to me with regard to a book, which I was 
 made to feel was in the old library of the Heidelberg 
 University. I not only knew what the book was, but 
 even felt that a certain name of an old German pro- 
 fessor would be found written in it. Communicating 
 this feeling to one of the Mystics at the convention, 
 a search was made for the volume, but it was not 
 found. Still the impression clung to me, and another 
 effort was made to find the book; this time we were 
 rewarded for our pains. Sure enough, there on the 
 margin of one of the leaves was the very name I had 
 been given in such a strange manner. Other things 
 at the same time went to convince me that I was in 
 possession of the soul of a person who had known 
 Heidelberg two or three centuries ago." 
 
 A contributor to an old magazine relates, among 
 other instances, the following regarding a friend who 
 remembers having died in India during the youth of 
 some former life. He states: "He sees the bronzed 
 attendants gathered about his cradle in their white 
 
220 GNANI YOGA 
 
 dresses ; they are fanning him. And as they gaze he 
 passes into unconsciousness. Much of his description 
 concerned points of which he knew nothing from any 
 other source, but all was true to the life, and enabled 
 me to fix on India as the scene which he recalled." 
 
 While comparatively few among the Western races 
 are able to remember more than fragments of their 
 past lives, in India it is quite common for a man well 
 developed spiritually to clearly remember the inci- 
 dents and details of former incarnations, and the evi- 
 dence of the awakening ot such power causes little 
 more than passing interest among his people. There 
 is, as we shall see later, a movement toward conscious 
 Metempsychosis, and many of the race are just mov- 
 ing on to that plane. In India the highly developed 
 individuals grow into a clear recollection of their past 
 lives when they reach the age of puberty, and when 
 their brains are developed sufficiently to grasp the 
 knowledge locked up in the depths of the soul. In 
 the meantime the individual's memory of the past is 
 locked away in the recesses of his mind, just as are 
 many facts and incidents of his present life so locked 
 away, to be remembered only when some one men- 
 tions the subject, or some circumstance serves to sup- 
 ply the associative link to the apparently forgotten 
 matter. 
 
 Regarding the faculty of memory in our present 
 lives, we would quote the following from the pen of 
 Prof. William Knight, printed in the Fortnightly Re- 
 view. He says : "Memory of the details of the past 
 
METEMPSYCHOSIS 221 
 
 is absolutely impossible. The power of the conserva- 
 tive faculty, though relatively great, is extremely lim- 
 ited. We forget the larger portion of experience soon 
 after we have passed through it, and we should be 
 able to recall the particulars of our past years, filling 
 all the missing links of consciousness since we entered 
 on the present life, before we were in a position to re- 
 member our ante-natal experience. Birth must nec- 
 essarily be preceded by crossing the river of oblivion, 
 while the capacity for fresh acquisition survives, and 
 the garnered wealth of old experience determines the 
 amount and character of the new." 
 
 Another startling evidence of the proof of Metem- 
 psychosis is afforded us in the cases of "infant prodi- 
 gies," etc., which defy any other explanation. Take 
 the cases of the manifestation of musical talent in cer- 
 tain children at an early age, for instance. Take the 
 case of Mozart who at the age of four was able to 
 not only perform difficult pieces on the piano, but ac- 
 tually composed original works of merit. Not only did 
 he manifest the highest faculty of sound and note, but 
 also an instinctive ability to compose and arrange 
 music, which ability was superior to that of many men 
 who had devoted years of their life to study and prac- 
 tice. The laws of harmony — the science of commingl- 
 ing tones, was to him not the work of years, but a fac- 
 ulty born in him. There are many similar cases of 
 record. 
 
 Heredity does not explain these instances of genius, 
 for in many of the recorded cases, none of the ances- 
 
222 GNANI YOGA 
 
 tors manifested any talent or ability. From whom 
 did Shakespeare inherit his genius? From whom did 
 Plato derive his wonderful thought? From what an- 
 cestor did Abraham Lincoln inherit his character — 
 coming from a line of plain, poor, hard-working peo- 
 ple, and possessing all of the physical attributes and 
 characteristics of his ancestry, he, nevertheless, mani- 
 fested a mind which placed him among the foremost 
 of his race. Does not Metempsychosis give us the 
 only possible key? Is it not reasonable to suppose that 
 the abilities displayed by the infant genius, and the 
 talent of the men who spring from obscure origin, 
 have their root in the experiences of a previous life? 
 Then take the cases of children at school. Children 
 of even the same family manifest different degrees of 
 receptivity to certain studies. Some "take to" one 
 thing, and some to another. Some find arithmetic so 
 easy that they almost absorb it intuitively, while gram- 
 mar is a hard task for them ; while their brothers and 
 sisters find the exact reverse to be true. How many 
 have found that when they would take up some new 
 study, it is almost like recalling something already 
 learned. Do you student, who are now reading these 
 lines take your own case. Does not all this Teaching 
 seem to you like the repetition of some lesson learned 
 long ago? Is it not like remembering something al- 
 ready learned, rather than the learning of some new 
 truth? Were you not attracted to these studies, in 
 the first place, by a feeling that you had known it all 
 before, somewhere, somehow? Does not your mind 
 
METEMPSYCHOSIS 223 
 
 leap ahead of the lesson, and see what is coming next, 
 long before you have turned the pages? These in- 
 ward evidences of the fact of pre-existence are so 
 strong that they outweigh the most skillful appeal to 
 the intellect. 
 
 This intuitive knowledge of the truth of Metem- 
 psychosis explains why the belief in it is sweeping 
 over the Western world at such a rapid rate. The 
 mere mention of the idea, to many people who have 
 never before heard of it, is sufficient to cause them to 
 recognize its truth. And though they may not under- 
 stand the laws of its operation, yet deep down in their 
 consciousness they find a something that convinces 
 them of its truth. In spite of the objections that are 
 urged against the teaching, it is making steady head- 
 way and progress. 
 
 The progress of the belief in Metempsychosis how- 
 ever has been greatly retarded by the many theories 
 and dogmas attached to it by some of the teachers. 
 Not to speak of the degrading ideas of re-birth into 
 the bodies of animals, etc., which have polluted the 
 spring of Truth, there are to be found many other 
 features of teaching and theory which repel people, 
 and cause them to try to kill out of the minds the 
 glimmer of Truth that they find there. The human 
 soul instinctively revolts against the teaching that it 
 is bound to the wheel or re-birth, willy-nilly, com- 
 pulsorily, without choice — compelled to live in body 
 after body until great cycles are past. The soul, per- 
 haps already sick of earth-life, and longing to pass on 
 
224 GNANI YOGA 
 
 to higher planes of existence, fights against such 
 teaching. And it does well to so fight, for the truth 
 is nearer to its hearts desire. There is no soul long- 
 ing that does not carry with it the prophecy of its 
 own fulfillment, and so it is in this case. It is true 
 that the soul of one filled with earthly desires, and 
 craving for material things, will by the very force of 
 those desires be drawn back to earthly re-birth in a 
 body best suited for the gratification of the longings, 
 desires and cravings that it finds within itself. But 
 it is likewise true that the earth-sick soul is not com- 
 pelled to return unless its own desires bring it back. 
 Desire is the key note of Metempsychosis, although up 
 to a certain stage it may operate unconsciously. The 
 sum of the desires of a soul regulate its re-birth. 
 Those who have become sickened of all that earth has 
 for them at this stage of its evolution, may, and do, 
 rest in states of existence far removed from earth 
 scenes, until the race progresses far enough to afford 
 the resting soul the opportunities and environments 
 that it so earnestly craves. 
 
 And more than this, when Man reaches a certain 
 stage, the process of Metempsychosis no longer re- 
 mains unconscious, but he enters into a conscious 
 knowing, willing passage from one life to another. 
 And when that stage is reached a full memory of the 
 past lives is unfolded, and life to such a soul becomes 
 as the life of a day, succeeded by a night, and then 
 the awakening into another day with full knowledge 
 and recollection of the events of the day before. We 
 
METEMPSYCHOSIS 225 
 
 are in merely the babyhood of the race now, and the 
 fuller life of the conscious soul lies before us. Yea, 
 even now it is being entered into by the few of the 
 race that have progressed sufficiently far on the Path. 
 And you, student, who feel within you that craving 
 for conscious re^birth and future spiritual evolution, 
 and the distaste for, and horror of, a further blind, un- 
 conscious re-plunge into the earth-life — know you, 
 that this longing on your part is but an indication of 
 what lies before you. It is the strange, subtle, 
 awakening of the nature within you, which betokens 
 the higher state. Just as the young person feels with- 
 in his or her body strange emotions, longings and 
 stirrings, which betoken the passage from the child 
 state into that of manhood or womanhood, so do these 
 spiritual longings, desires and cravings betoken the 
 passage from unconscious re-birth into conscious 
 knowing Metempsychosis, when you have passed 
 from the scene of your present labors. 
 
 In our next lesson we shall consider the history of 
 the race as its souls passed on from the savage tribes 
 to the man of to-day. It is the history of the race — 
 the history of the individual — your own history, 
 student — the record of that through which you have 
 passed to become that which you now are. And as 
 you have climbed step after step up the arduous path, 
 so will you, hereafter climb still higher paths, but no 
 longer in unconsciousness, but with your spiritual eyes 
 wide open to the Rays of Truth pouring forth from 
 the great Central Sun — the Absolute. 
 
226 GNANI YOGA 
 
 Concluding this lesson, we would quote two se- 
 lections from the American poet, Whitman, whose 
 strange genius was undoubtedly the result of vague 
 memories springing from a previous life, and which 
 burst into utterances often not more than half under- 
 stood by the mind that gave them birth. Whitman 
 says: 
 
 "Facing West from California's shores, 
 Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound, 
 A, a child, very old, over waves, toward the house of 
 
 maternity, the land of migrations, look afar, 
 Look off the shores of my Western sea, the circle 
 
 almost circled: 
 For starting Westward from Hindustan, from the 
 
 vales of Kashmere, 
 From Asia, from the north, from God, the sage, and 
 
 the hero, 
 From the south, from the flowery peninsulas and 
 
 spice islands, 
 Long having wandered since, round the earth having 
 
 wandered, 
 
 Now I face home again, very pleased and joyous. 
 
 (But where is what I started for so long ago? 
 
 And why is it yet unfound?)" 
 
 * * * 
 
 "I know I am deathless. 
 
 I know that this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a 
 
 carpenter's compass; 
 And whether I come to my own to-day, or in ten 
 
 thousand or ten million years, 
 
METEMPSYCHOSIS 227 
 
 I can cheerfully take it now or with equal cheerfulness 
 
 can wait." 
 
 * * * 
 
 "As to you, Life, I reckon you are the leavings of 
 many deaths. 
 
 No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times be- 
 fore." 
 
 * * * 
 
 "Births have brought us richness and variety, and 
 other births have brought us richness and variety." 
 
 * * * 
 And this quotation from the American poet N. P. 
 Willis : 
 
 "But what a mystery this erring mind ? 
 It wakes within a frame of various powers 
 A stranger in a new and wondrous world. 
 It brings an instinct from some other sphere, 
 For its fine senses are familiar all, 
 And with the unconscious habit of a dream 
 It calls and they obey. The priceless sight 
 Springs to its curious organ, and the ear 
 Learns strangely to detect the articulate air 
 In its unseen divisions, and the tongue 
 Gets its miraculous lesson with the rest, 
 And in the midst of an obedient throng 
 Of well trained ministers, the mind goes forth 
 To search the secrets of its new found home." 
 
THE TENTH LESSON 
 
 Spiritual Evolution. 
 
 One of the things that repel many persons who have 
 had their attention directed to the subject of Metem- 
 psychosis for the first time, is the idea that they have 
 evolved as a soul from individual lowly forms, for in- 
 stance that they have at one time been an individual 
 plant, and then an individual animal form, and then an 
 individual higher animal form, and so on until now 
 they are the particular individual human form con- 
 templating the subject. This idea, which has been 
 taught by many teachers, is repellent to the average 
 mind, for obvious reasons, and naturally so, for it has 
 no foundation in truth. 
 
 While this lesson is principally concerned with the 
 subject of the Spiritual Evolution of the human soul, 
 since it became a human soul, still it may be as well 
 to mention the previous phase of evolution, briefly, in 
 order to prevent misconception, and to dispel pre- 
 viously acquired error. 
 
 The atom, although it possesses life and a certain de- 
 gree of mind, and acts as an individual temporarily, 
 has no permanent individuality that reincarnates. 
 When the atom is evolved it becomes a centre of en- 
 ergy in the great atomic principle, and when it is 
 finally dissolved it resolves itself back into its original 
 state, and its life as an individual atom ceases, al- 
 though the experience it has gained becomes the prop- 
 erty of the entire principle. It is as if a body of water 
 were to be resolved into millions of tiny dew-drops for 
 
 229 
 
230 GNANI YOGA 
 
 a time, and each dew-drop was then to acquire certain 
 outside material in solution. In that case, each dew- 
 drop when it again returned to the body of water, 
 would carry with it its foreign material, which would 
 become the property of the whole. And subsequently 
 formed dew-drops would carry in their substance a 
 particle of the foreign matter brought back home by 
 the previous generation of dew-drops, and would thus 
 be a little different from their predecessors. And this 
 process, continuing for many generations of dew- 
 drops, would ultimately cause the greatest changes in 
 the composition of the successive generations. 
 
 This, in short, is the story of the change and im- 
 proving forms of life. From the atoms into the ele- 
 ments; from the lower elements into those forming 
 protoplasm ; from the protoplasm to the lower forms of 
 animal life ; from these lower forms on to higher forms 
 — this is the story. But it is all a counterpart of the 
 dew-drop and the body of water, until the human soul 
 is evolved. 
 
 The plants and the lower forms of animal life are 
 not permanent individual souls, but each family is a 
 group-soul corresponding to the body of water from 
 which the dew-drop arose. From these family group- 
 souls gradually break off minor groups, representing 
 species, and so on into sub-species. At last when the 
 forms reach the plane of man, the group-soul breaks 
 itself up into permanent individual souls, and true 
 Metempsychosis begins. That is, each individual 
 human soul becomes a permanent individual entity, 
 
SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 231 
 
 destined to evolve and perfect itself along the lines of 
 spiritual evolution. 
 
 And from this point begins our story of Spiritual 
 Evolution. 
 
 The story of Man, the Individual, begins amidst 
 humble surroundings. Primitive man, but little above 
 the level of the lower animals in point of intelligence, 
 has nevertheless that distinguishing mark of Individu- 
 ality — "Self-Consciousness," which is the demarkation 
 between Beast and Man. And even the lowest of the 
 lowest races had at least a "trace" of this Self-Con- 
 sciousness, which made of them individuals, and 
 caused the fragment of the race-soul to separate itself 
 from the general principle animating the race, and to 
 fasten its "I" conscious upon itself, rather than upon 
 the underlying race-soul, along instinctive lines. Do 
 you know just what this Self-Consciousness is, and 
 how it differs from the Physical Consciousness of the 
 lower animals? Perhaps we had better pause a mo- 
 ment to consider it at this place. 
 
 The lower animals are of course conscious of the 
 bodies, and their wants, feelings, emotions, desires, 
 etc., and their actions are in response to the animat- 
 ing impulses coming from this plane of consciousness. 
 But it stops there. They "know," but they do not 
 "know that they know" ; that is, they have not yet ar- 
 rived at a state in which they can think of themselves 
 as "I," and to reason upon their thoughts and mental 
 operations. It is like the consciousness of a very young 
 child, which feels and knows its sensations and wants, 
 
232 GNANI YOGA 
 
 but is unable to think of itself as "I," and to turn the 
 mental gaze inward. In another book of these series, 
 we have used the illustration of the horse which has 
 been left standing out in the cold sleet and rain, and 
 which undoubtedly feels and knows the unpleasant sen- 
 sations arising therefrom, and longs to get away from 
 the unpleasant environment. But, still, he is unable 
 to analyze his mental states and wonder whether his 
 master will come out to him soon, or think how cruel 
 it is to keep him out of his warm comfortable stable; 
 or wonder whether he will be taken out in the cold rain 
 again tomorrow ; or feel envious of other horses who 
 are indoors ; or wonder why he is kept out cold nights, 
 etc., etc. In short, the horse is unable to think as 
 would a reasoning man under just the same circum- 
 stances. He is aware of the discomfort, just as would 
 be the man ; and he would run away home, if he were 
 able, just as would the man. But he is not able to pity 
 himself, nor to think about his personality, as would a 
 man — he is not able to wonder whether life is worth 
 the living, etc., as would a man. He "knows" but is 
 not able to reflect upon the "knowing." 
 
 In the above illustration, the principal point is that 
 the horse does not "know himself" as an entity, while 
 even the most primitive man is able to so recognize 
 himself as an "I." If the horse were able to think in 
 words, he would think "feel," "cold," "hurt," etc., but 
 he would be unable to think "/ feel ; / am cold ; / am 
 hurt," etc. The thought "I" would be missing. 
 
 It is true that the "I" consciousness of the primitive 
 
SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 233 
 
 man was slight, and was but a degree above the Physi- 
 cal Consciousness of the higher apes, but nevertheless 
 it had sprung into being, never again to be lost. The 
 primitive man was like a child a few years old — he 
 was able to say "I," and to think "I." He had become 
 cm individual soul. 
 
 And this individual soul inhabited and animated a 
 body but little removed from that of an ape. But this 
 new consciousness began to mould that rude body and 
 the ascent was begun. Each generation showed a 
 physical improvement over that of the preceding one, 
 according to the lines of physical evolution, and as the 
 developing soul demanded more perfect and developed 
 bodies the bodies were evolved to meet the demand, 
 for the mental demand has ever been the cause of the 
 physical form. 
 
 The soul of the primitive man reincarnated almost 
 immediately after the death of the physical body, be- 
 cause the experiences gained were mostly along the 
 lines of the physical, the mental planes being scarcely 
 brought i.ito play, while the higher and spiritual facul- 
 ties were almost entirely obscured from sight. Life 
 after life the soul of the primitive man lived out in 
 rapid succession. But in each new embodiment there 
 was a slight advance over that of the previous one. 
 Experience, or rather the result of experiences, were 
 carried over, and profited by. New lessons were 
 learned and unlearned, improved upon or discarded. 
 And the race grew and unfolded. 
 
 After a time the number of advancing souls which 
 
234 GNANI YOGA 
 
 had outstripped their fellows in progress became suf- 
 ficiently large for sub-races to be formed, and so the 
 branching off process began. In this way the various 
 races and types were formed, and the progress of 
 Mankind gained headway. At this point we may as 
 well consider the history of the Races of Mankind, that 
 we may see how the great tide-wave of Soul has ever 
 pressed onward, marking higher and still higher stages 
 of progress, and also how the various minor waves of 
 the great wave pushed in and then receded, only to be 
 followed by still higher waves. The story is most in- 
 teresting. 
 
 The Yogi Teachings inform us that the Grand Cycle 
 of Man's Life on the Earth is composed of Seven 
 Cycles, of which we are now living in the third-seventh 
 part of the Fifth Cycle. These Cycles may be spoken 
 of as the Great Earth Periods, separated from each 
 other by some great natural cataclysm which de- 
 stroyed the works of the previous races of men, and 
 which started afresh the progress called "civilization," 
 which, as all students know, manifests a rise and fall 
 like unto that of the tides. 
 
 Man in the First Cycle emerged from a gross ani- 
 mal-like state into a condition somewhat advanced. It 
 was a slow progress, but nevertheless a distinct series 
 of advances were made by the more progressive souls 
 who passed over on to the Second Cycle, embodying 
 themselves as the ruling races in the same, their less 
 progressive brothers incarnating in the lower tribes of 
 the Second Cycle. It must be remembered that the 
 
SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 235 
 
 souls which do not advance during a Cycle reincar- 
 nate in the next Cycle among the lower races. So that 
 even in this Fifth Cycle we have remnants of the 
 previous cycles, the lives of the members of which give 
 us an idea of what life in the earlier cycles must have 
 been. 
 
 The Yogi Teachings give us but little information 
 regarding the people of the First and Second Cycles, 
 because of the low state of these ages. The tale, if 
 told, would be the story of the Cave-dweller, and 
 Stone-age people; the Fire-peoples, and all the rest 
 of savage, barbarian crew ; there was but little trace 
 of anything like that which we call "civilization," al- 
 though in the latter periods of the Second Cycle the 
 foundations for the coming civilizations were firmly 
 laid. 
 
 After the cataclysm which destroyed the works of 
 Man of the Second Cycle, and left the survivors scat- 
 tered or disorganized, awaiting the touch of the organ- 
 izing urge which followed shortly afterward, there 
 dawned the first period of the Third Cycle. The scene 
 of the life of the Third Cycle was laid in what is 
 known to Occultists as Lemuria. Lemuria was a 
 mighty continent situated in what is now known as 
 the Pacific Ocean, and parts of the Indian Ocean. It 
 included Australia, Australasia, and other portions of 
 the Pacific islands, which are in fact surviving por- 
 tions of the great continent of Lemuria, its highest 
 points, the lower portion having sunk beneath the 
 seas ages and ages ago. 
 
236 GNANI YOGA 
 
 Life in Lemuria is described as being principally 
 concerned with the physical senses, and sensual enjoy- 
 ment, only a few developed souls having broken 
 through the fetters of materiality and reached the be- 
 ginnings of the mental and spiritual planes of life. 
 Some few indeed made great progress and were saved 
 from the general wreck, in order to become the leaven 
 which would lighten the mass of mankind during the 
 next Cycle. These developed souls were the teachers 
 of the new races, and were looked upon by the latter 
 as gods and supernatural beings, and legends and tra- 
 ditions concerning them are still existent among the 
 ancient peoples of our present day. Many of the myths 
 of the ancient peoples arose in this way. 
 
 The Yogi traditions hold that just prior to the great 
 cataclysm which destroyed the races of the Second 
 Cycle, there was a body of the Chosen Ones which 
 migrated from Lemuria to certain islands of the sea 
 which are now part of the main land of India. These 
 people formed the nucleus of the Occult Teachings of 
 the Lemurians, and developed into the Fount of Truth 
 which has been flowing ever since throughout the suc- 
 cessive periods and cycles. 
 
 When Lemuria passed away, there arose from the 
 depths of the ocean the continent which was to be the 
 scene of the life and civilization of the Fourth Cycle — 
 the continent of Atlantis. Atlantis was situated in a 
 portion of what is now known as the Atlantic Ocean, 
 beginning at what is now known as the Caribbean Sea 
 and extending over to the region of what is now known 
 
SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 237 
 
 as Africa. What are now known as Cuba and the 
 West Indies were among the highest points of the 
 continent, and now stand like monuments to its de- 
 parted greatness. 
 
 The civilization of Atlantis was remarkable, and its 
 people attained heights which seem almost incredible 
 to even those who are familiar with the highest 
 achievements of man in our own times. The Chosen 
 Ones preserved from the cataclysm which destroyed 
 Lemuria, and who lived to a remarkably old age, had 
 stored up within their minds the wisdom and learning 
 of the races that had been destroyed, and they thus 
 gave the Atlanteans an enormous starting-advantage. 
 They soon attained great advancement along all the 
 lines of human endeavor. They perfected mechanical 
 inventions and appliances, reaching far ahead of 
 even our present attainments. In the field of elec- 
 tricity especially they reached the stages that our 
 present races will reach in about two or three hun- 
 dred years from now. Along the lines of Occult At- 
 tainment their progress was far beyond the dreams 
 of the average man of our own race, and in fact from 
 this arose one of the causes of their downfall, for they 
 prostituted the power to base and selfish uses, and 
 Black Magic. 
 
 And, so the decline of Atlantis began. But the end 
 did not come at once, or suddenly, but gradually. The 
 continent, and its surrounding islands gradually sank 
 beneath the waves of the Atlantic Ocean, the process 
 occupying over 10,000 years. The Greeks and Ro- 
 
238 GNANI YOGA 
 
 mans of our own Cycle had traditions regarding the 
 sinking of the continent, but their knowledge re- 
 ferred only to the disappearance of the small remain- 
 der — certain islands — the continent itself having dis- 
 appeared thousands of years before their time. It is 
 recorded that the Egyptian priests had traditions that 
 the continent itself had disappeared nine thousand 
 years before their time. As was the case with the 
 Chosen Ones of Lemuria, so was it with the Elect of 
 Atlantis, who were taken away from the doomed land 
 some time prior to its destruction. The few advanced 
 people left their homes and migrated to portions of 
 what are now South America and Central America, 
 but which were then islands of the sea. These people 
 have left their traces of their civilization and works, 
 which our antiquaries are discovering to-day. 
 
 When the Fifth Cycle dawned (our own cycle, re- 
 member) these brave and advanced souls acted as the 
 race-teachers and became as "gods" to those who came 
 afterward. The races were very prolific, and multi- 
 plied very rapidly under the most favorable condi- 
 tions. The souls of the Atlanteans were pressing for- 
 ward for embodiment, and human forms were born to 
 supply the demand. And now begins the history of 
 our own Cycle — the Fifth Cycle. 
 
 But before we begin a consideration of the Fifth 
 Cycle, let us consider for a moment a few points about 
 the laws operating to cause these great changes. 
 
 In the first place, each Cycle has a different theatre 
 for its work and action. The continent of Lemuria 
 
SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 239 
 
 was not in existence during the Second Cycle, and 
 arose from the ocean bed only when its appointed time 
 came. And, likewise the continent of Atlantis reposed 
 beneath the waves while the Lemurian races mani- 
 fested during the Third Cycle, rising by means of a 
 convulsion of the earth's surface to play its part dur- 
 ing its own period — the Fourth Cycle — only to sink 
 again beneath the waves to make way for the birth 
 of the Fifth Cycle with its races. By means of these 
 cataclysms the races of each Cycle were wiped out 
 when the time came, the few Elect or Chosen ones, 
 that is those who have manifested the right to live on, 
 being carried away to some favorable environment 
 where they became as leaven to the mass — as "gods" 
 to the new races that quickly appear. 
 
 It must be remembered, however, that these Chosen 
 Ones are not the only ones saved from the destruction 
 that overtakes the majority of the race. On the con- 
 trary a few survivors are preserved, although driven 
 away from their former homes, and reduced to "first 
 principles of living" in order to become the parents of 
 the new races. The new races springing from the 
 fittest of these survivors quickly form sub-races, being 
 composed of the better adapted souls seeking reincar- 
 nation, while the less fit sink into barbarism, and show 
 evidences of decay, although a remnant drags on for 
 thousands of years, being composed of the souls of 
 those who have not advanced sufficiently to take a part 
 in the life of the new races. These "left-overs" are in 
 evidence in our own times in the cases of the Austra- 
 
240 GNANI YOGA 
 
 lian savages, and some of the African tribes, as well 
 as among the Digger Indians and others of similar 
 grade of intelligence. 
 
 In order to understand the advance of each race it 
 must be remembered that the more advanced souls, 
 after passing out of the body, have a much longer 
 period of rest in the higher planes, and consequently 
 do not present themselves for reincarnation until a 
 period quite late when compared with the hasty rein- 
 carnation of the less advanced souls who are hurried 
 back to rebirth by reason of the strong earthly attach- 
 ments and desires. In this way it happens that the 
 earlier races of each Cycle are more primitive folk 
 than those who follow them as the years roll by. The 
 soul of an earth-bound person reincarnates in a few 
 years, and sometimes in a few days, while the soul of 
 an advanced man may repose and rest on the higher 
 planes for centuries — nay, even for thousands of 
 years, until the earth has reached a stage in which the 
 appropriate environment may be afforded it. 
 
 Observers, unconnected with Occultism, have noted 
 certain laws which seem to regulate the rise and fall 
 of nations — the procession of ruling races. They do 
 not understand the law of Metempsychosis that alone 
 gives the key to the problem, but nevertheless they 
 have not failed to record the existence of the laws 
 themselves. In order to show that these laws are 
 recognized by persons who are not at all influenced by 
 the Occult Teachings, we take the liberty of quoting 
 from Draper's "History of the Intellectual Develop- 
 ment of Europe." 
 
SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 241 
 
 Dr. Draper writes as follows : "We are, as we often 
 say, the creatures of circumstances. In that expres- 
 sion there is a higher philosophy than might at first 
 appear. From this more accurate point of view we 
 should therefore consider the course of these events, 
 recognizing the principle that the affairs of men pass 
 forward in a determinate way, expanding and unfold- 
 ing themselves. And hence we see that the things of 
 which we have spoken as if they were matters of 
 choice, were in reality forced upon their apparent 
 authors by the necessity of the times. But in truth 
 they should be considered as the presentation of a 
 certain phase of life which nations in their onward 
 course sooner or later assume. To the individual, 
 how well we know that a sober moderation of action, 
 an appropriate gravity of demeanor, belonging to the 
 mature period of life, change from the wanton will- 
 fulness of youth, which may be ushered in, or its be- 
 ginnings marked by many accidental incidents ; in one 
 perhaps by domestic bereavements, in another by the 
 loss of fortune, in a third by ill-health. We are cor- 
 rect enough in imputing to such trials the change of 
 character; but we never deceive ourselves by suppos- 
 ing that it would have failed to take place had these 
 incidents not occurred. There runs an irresistible des- 
 tiny in the midst of these vicissitudes. There are anal- 
 ogies between the life of a nation, and that of an in- 
 dividual, who, though he may be in one respect the 
 maker of his own fortunes, for happiness or for mis- 
 ery, for good or for evil, though he remains here or 
 
242 GNANI YOGA 
 
 goes there as his inclinations prompt, though he does 
 this or abstains from that as he chooses, is neverthe- 
 less held fast by an inexorable fate — a fate which 
 brought him into the world involuntarily, so far as he 
 was concerned, which presses him forward through 
 a definite career, the stages of which are absolutely in- 
 variable, — infancy, childhood, youth, maturity, old 
 age, with all their characteristic actions and passions, 
 — and which removes him from the scene at the ap- 
 pointed time, in most cases against his will. So also 
 is it with nations; the voluntary is only the outward 
 semblance, covering but hardly hiding the predeter- 
 mined. Over the events of life we may have control, 
 but none whatever over the law of its progress. There 
 is a geometry that applies to nations an equation of 
 their curve of advance. That no mortal man can 
 touch." 
 
 This remarkable passage, just quoted, shows how 
 the close observers of history note the rise and fall of 
 the tides of human race progress, although ignorant 
 of the real underlying causing energy or force. A 
 study of the Occult Teachings alone gives one the 
 hidden secret of human actions and throws the bright 
 light of Truth upon the dark corners of phenomena. 
 
 At the beginning of the Fifth Cycle (which is the 
 present one) , there were not only the beginnings of the 
 new races which always spring up at the beginning of 
 each new cycle and which are the foundations for the 
 coming races which take advantage of the fresh con- 
 ditions and opportunities for growth and development 
 
SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 243 
 
 — but there were also the descendants of the Elect 
 saved from the destruction of Atlantis by having been 
 led away and colonized far from the scene of danger. 
 The new races were the descendant of the scattered 
 survivors of the Atlantean peoples, that is, the com- 
 mon run of people of the time. But the Elect few 
 were very superior people, and imparted to their 
 descendants their knowledge and wisdom. So that we 
 see at the beginning of the Fifth Cycle hordes of new, 
 primitive people in certain lands, and in other places 
 advanced nations like the ancestors of the Ancient 
 Egyptians, Persians, Chaldeans, Hindus, etc. 
 
 These advanced races were old souls — advanced 
 souls — the progressed and developed souls of Ancient 
 Lemuria and Atlantis, who lived their lives and who 
 are now either on higher planes of life, or else are 
 among us to-day taking a leading part in the world's 
 affairs, striving mightily to save the present races 
 from the misfortunes which overtook their predeces- 
 sors. 
 
 The descendants of the people were the Assyrians 
 and Babylonians. In due time the primitive new races 
 developed and the great Roman, Grecian, and Car- 
 thaginian peoples appeared. Then came the rise of 
 other peoples and nations down to the present time. 
 Each race or nation has its rise, its height of attain- 
 ment, and its decline. When a nation begins to de- 
 cline it is because its more advanced souls have passed 
 on, and only the less progressive souls are left. The 
 history of all nations show the truth of the Occult 
 
244 GNANI YOGA 
 
 Teachings in this respect, and the strange phenomena 
 noted by historians is explainable in no other way. 
 
 It will be seen by the careful student that the Great 
 Law of Metempsychosis is ever urging on humanity 
 toward higher and higher achievements. The ad- 
 vanced souls of a race pass on to new scenes of activ- 
 ity, and even the backward ones are not suffered to 
 lag behind very long, for the continual change, and 
 creation of new environments for them tend to re- 
 awaken, sleeping energy and to stimulate the lagging 
 one to fresh endeavor and activity. In this way the 
 whole race is being constantly stimulated toward the 
 advancement which is its natural heritage. 
 
 But it must not be forgotten that increased power, 
 wisdom and opportunity bring with them increased re- 
 sponsibility. As the soul advances along the lines of 
 Spiritual Evolution, it becomes endowed with a greater 
 and greater opportunity of choosing between the Good 
 and the Evil. In the earlier races the soul was not 
 sufficiently developed to exercise this power of dis- 
 crimination and choice, and consequently its responsi- 
 bility was limited. But as the soul advanced and at- 
 tained greater powers, greater things are expected of 
 it. Power brings with it responsibilities. 
 
 The present stage of Man's Spiritual Evolution is a 
 critical one. Men are beginning to be conscious of 
 the great spiritual questions presenting themselves be- 
 fore them for settlement, discrimination and choice. 
 It is like the awakening of the child into manhood or 
 womanhood, and the confronting of problems hereto- 
 
SPIRITUAL EVOL UTION 243 
 
 fore undreamt of. Man is developing latent faculties 
 which are bringing to him new perceptions of the 
 Great Truths of Existence, and he can no longer plead 
 "I do not know." In the present stage of life on this 
 planet there is a battle royal beingwaged between the 
 forces of Materiality and Spirituality, and all are tak- 
 ing part in that battle. Some are ranged on one side, 
 and some on the other, and families are divided over 
 the great question of Spirituality vs. Carnality. But 
 the outcome is in no danger. The Higher will always 
 triumph over the Lower. 
 
 On the one side are seen the great mass of men 
 who look upon this present physical life as the only 
 real one, and who regard all ideas of future existence 
 and life as "moonshine" and "wishy-washy talk." 
 These people devote their entire time to the satisfac- 
 tion of sensual appetites, and the gratification of the 
 lower instincts of the Instinctive Mind. Some few 
 have acquired the Pride of Intellect, and forget the 
 lower physical satisfaction in the greater satisfaction 
 that comes from the exercise of the rational faculties 
 of the mind. But, alas only a few, comparatively, 
 realize the meaning of the word "Spirituality," and 
 know it to be a thing of Strength rather than of Weak- 
 ness. But even these few are the leaven that shall 
 lighten the mass of the race in due time. Even now 
 the evidences of the work of those who have attained 
 Spiritual Consciousness is being manifested. On all 
 sides one may see signs of spiritual unrest and distress 
 affecting even those who know not the meaning of 
 
246 GNANI YOGA 
 
 the term. Men are forsaking old ideals, creeds and 
 dogmas, and are running hither and thither seeking 
 something they feel to be necessary, but of the nature 
 of which they know nothing. They are feeling the 
 hunger for Peace — the thirst for Knowledge — and 
 they are seeking satisfaction in all directions. 
 
 This is not only the inevitable working of the Law 
 of Evolution, but is also a manifestation of the power 
 and love of the great souls that have passed on to 
 higher planes of existence, and who have become as 
 angels and arch-angels. These beings are filled with 
 the love of the race, and are setting into motion in- 
 fluences that are being manifest in many directions, 
 the tendency of which are to bring the race to a reali- 
 zation of its higher power, faculties, and destiny. 
 
 As we have said in other places, one of the greatest 
 difficulties in the way of the seeker after Truth in his 
 consideration of the question of Spiritual Evolution is 
 the feeling that rebirth is being forced upon him, 
 without any say on his part, and against his desires. 
 But this is far from being correct. It is true that the 
 whole process is according to the Great Law, but that 
 Law operates through the force of Desire and Attrac- 
 tion. The soul is attracted toward rebirth by reason 
 of its desire or rather the essence of its desires. It is 
 reborn only because it has within itself the desire for 
 further experience, and opportunity for unfoldmept. 
 And it is reborn into certain environments solely be- 
 cause it has within itself unsatisfied desires for those 
 environments, etc. The process is just as regular and 
 
SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 247 
 
 scientific as is the attraction of one atom of matter 
 for another. 
 
 Each soul has within itself certain elements of de- 
 sire and attraction, and it attracts to itself certain con- 
 ditions and experiences, and is in turn attracted by 
 these things. This is the law of life, in the body and 
 out of it. And there is no injustice in the law — it is 
 the essence of justice itself, for it gives to each just 
 what is required to fill the indwelling desires, or else 
 the conditions and experiences designed to burn out 
 the desires which are holding one back, and the de- 
 struction of which will make possible future advance- 
 ment. 
 
 For instance, if one is bound by the inordinate de- 
 sire for material wealth, the Law of Karma will attract 
 him to a rebirth 'n conditions in which he will be sur- 
 rounded by wealth and luxury until he becomes sick- 
 ened with them and will find his heart filled with the 
 desire to flee from them and toward higher and more 
 satisfying things. Of course the Law of Karma acts 
 in other ways, as we shall see in our next lesson — it 
 deals with one's debts and obligations, also. The Law 
 of Karma is closely connected with Metempsychosis, 
 and one must be considered in connection with the 
 other, always. 
 
 Not only is it true that man's rebirths are in strict 
 accordance with the law of Attraction and Desire, but 
 it is also true that after he attains a certain stage of 
 spiritual unfoldment he enters into the conscious stage 
 of rebirth, and thereafter he is reborn consciously and 
 
248 GNANI YOGA 
 
 ^vith full foreknowledge. Many are now entering into 
 this stage of development, and have a partial con- 
 sciousness of their past lives, which also implies that 
 they have had at least a partial consciousness of ap- 
 proaching rebirth, for the two phases of consciousness 
 run together. 
 
 Those individuals of a race who have outstripped 
 their fellows in spiritual unfoldment, are still bound 
 by the Karma of the particular race to which they be- 
 long, up to a certain point. And as the entire race, or 
 at least a large proportion of it, must move forward 
 as a whole, such individuals must needs wait also. 
 But they are not compelled to suffer a tiresome round 
 of continued rebirths amid environments and condi- 
 tions which they have outgrown. On the contrary, the 
 advanced individual soul is allowed to wait until the 
 race reaches its own stage of advancement, when it 
 again joins in the upward movement, in full conscious- 
 ness, however. In the interim he may pass his well 
 earned rest either on some of the higher planes of rest, 
 or else in conscious temporary sojourn in other mate- 
 rial spheres helping in the great work as a Teacher 
 and worker for Good and Spiritual Evolution among 
 those who need such help. In fact there are in the 
 world to-day, individual souls which have reached 
 similar stages on other planets, and who are spending 
 their rest period here amidst the comparatively lower 
 Earth conditions, striving to lift up the Earth souls to 
 greater heights. 
 
 So long as people allow themselves to become at- 
 
SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 249 
 
 tached to material objects, so long will they be reborn 
 in conditions in which these objects bind them fast. 
 It is only when the soul frees itself from these en- 
 tangling obstructions that it is born in conditions of 
 freedom. Some outgrow these material attachments 
 by right thinking and reasoning, while others seem to 
 be compelled to live them out, and thus outlive them. 
 before they are free. At last when the soul realizes 
 that these things are merely incidents of the lower 
 personality, and have naught to do with the real in- 
 dividuality, then, and then only, do they fall from it 
 like a wornout cloak, and are left behind while it 
 bounds forward on The Path fresh from the lighter 
 weight being carried. 
 
 The Yogi Philosophy teaches that Man will live 
 forever, ascending from higher to higher planes, and 
 then on and on and on. Death is but the physical 
 symbol of a period of Soul Rest, similar to sleep of 
 the tired body, and is just as much to be welcomed 
 and greeted with thanks. Life is continuous, and its 
 object is development, unfoldment and growth. We 
 are in Eternity now as much as we ever shall be. Our 
 souls may exist out of the body as well as in it, al- 
 though bodily incarnation is necessary at this stage 
 of our development. As we progress on to higher 
 planes of life, we shall incarnate in bodies far more 
 ethereal than those now used by us, just as in the past 
 we used bodies almost incredibly grosser and coarser 
 than those we call our own to-day. Life is far more 
 than a thing of three-score and ten years — it is really 
 
250 GNANI YOGA 
 
 a succession of such lives, on an ascending scale, that 
 which we call our personal self to-day being merely 
 the essence of the experiences of countless lives in the 
 past. 
 
 The Soul is working steadily upward, from higher 
 to higher, from gross to finer forms and manifesta- 
 tions. And it will steadily work for ages to come, al- 
 ways progressing, always advancing, always unfold- 
 ing. The Universe contains many worlds for the Soul 
 to inhabit, and then after it has passed on to other 
 Universes, there will still be Infinitude before it. The 
 destiny of the Soul of Man is of wondrous promise 
 and possibilities — the mind to-day cannot begin to 
 even dream of what is before the Soul. Those who 
 have already advanced many steps beyond you — 
 those Elder Brethren — are constantly extending to 
 you aid in many directions. They are extending to 
 you the Unseen Hand, which lifts you over many a 
 hard place and dangerous crossing — but you recognize 
 it not except in a vague way. There are now in ex- 
 istence, on planes infinitely higher than your own, in- 
 telligences of transcendent glory and magnificence — 
 but they were once Men even as you are to-day. They 
 have so far progressed upon the Path that they have 
 become as angels and archangels when compared with 
 you. And, blessed thought, even as these exalted ones 
 were once even as you, so shall you, in due course of 
 Spiritual Evolution, become even as these mighty ones. 
 
 The Yogi Philosophy teaches that You who are 
 reading these lines have lived many lives previous to 
 
SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 251 
 
 the present one. You have lived in the lower forms, 
 and have worked your way arduously along the Path 
 until now you are reaching the stage of Spiritual 
 Consciousness in which the past and future will begin 
 to appear plain to you for the first time. You have 
 lived as the cave-man — the cliff-dweller — the savage — 
 the barbarian. You have been the warrior — the priest 
 — the Medieval scholar and occultist — the prince — the 
 pauper. You have lived in Lemuria — in Atlantis — in 
 India — in Pereia — in Egypt — in ancient Rome and 
 Greece — and are now playing your part in the West- 
 ern civilization, associating with many with whom you 
 have had relations in your past lives. 
 
 In closing this lesson, let us quote from a previous 
 writing from the same pen that writes this lesson : 
 
 "Toward what goal is all this Spiritual Evolution 
 tending? What does it all mean? From the low 
 planes of life to the highest — all are on The Path. To 
 what state or place does The Path lead? Let us at- 
 tempt to answer by asking you to imagine a series of 
 millions of circles, one within the other. Each circfe 
 means a stage of Life. The outer circles are filled with 
 life in its lowest and most material stages — each circle 
 nearer the Centre holds higher and higher forms — 
 until Men (or what were once Men) become as gods. 
 Still on, and on, and on, does the form of life grow 
 higher, until the human mind cannot grasp the idea. 
 But what is the Centre? The MIND of the entire 
 Spiritual Body— the ABSOLUTE! And we are 
 traveling toward that Centre I" 
 
2S2 GNANI YOGA 
 
 And again from the same source : 
 
 "But beyond your plane, and beyond mine, are plane 
 after plane, connected with our earth, the splendors of 
 which man cannot conceive. And there are likewise 
 many planes around the other planets of our chain — 
 and there are millions of other worlds — and there are 
 chains of universes just as there are chains of planets 
 — and then greater groups of these chains — and so on 
 greater and grander beyond the power of man to 
 imagine — on and on and on and on — higher and higher 
 — to inconceivable heights. An infinity of infinities of 
 worlds are before us. Our world and our planetary 
 system and our system of suns, and our system of 
 solar systems, are but as grains of sand on the beach 
 of the mighty ocean. But then you cry, 'But what am 
 I — poor mortal thing — lost among all this inconceiv- 
 able greatness?' The answer comes that You are that 
 most precious thing — a living soul. And if you were 
 destroyed the whole system of universes would crum- 
 ble, for you are as necessary as the greatest part of it 
 — it cannot do without you — you cannot be lost or de- 
 stroyed — you are a part of it all, and are eternal. 'But,' 
 you ask, 'beyond all of this of which you have told me, 
 what is there — what is the Centre of it All?' Your 
 Teacher's face takes on a rapt expression — a light not 
 of earth beams forth from his countenance. 'THE 
 ABSOLUTE!' he replies. 
 
THE ELEVENTH LESSON. 
 
 The Law of Karma. 
 
 "Karma" is a Sanscrit term for that great Law 
 known to Western thinkers as Spiritual Cause and Ef- 
 fect, or Causation. It relates to the complicated affini- 
 ties for either good or evil that have been acquired by 
 the soul throughout its many incarnations. These af- 
 finities manifest as characteristics enduring from one 
 incarnation to another, being added to here, softened 
 or altered there, but always pressing forward for ex- 
 pression and manifestation. And, so, it follows that 
 what each one of us is in this life depends upon is what 
 we have been and how we have acted in our past 
 lives. 
 
 Throughout the operations of the Law of Karma 
 the manifestation of Perfect Justice is apparent. We 
 are not punished for our sins, as the current beliefs 
 have it, but instead we are punished by our sins. We 
 are not rewarded for our good acts, but we received 
 our reward through and by characteristics, qualities, 
 affinities, etc., acquired by reason of our having per- 
 formed these good acts in previous lives. We are our 
 own judges and executioners. In our present lives 
 we are storing up good or bad Karma which will stick 
 to us closely, and which will demand expression and 
 manifestation in lives to come. When we fasten 
 around ourselves the evil of bad Karma, we have 
 taken to shelter a monster which will gnaw into our 
 very vitals until we shake him off by developing oppo- 
 site qualities. And when we draw to ourselves the 
 
 253 
 
254 GNANI YOGA 
 
 good Karma of Duty well performed, kindness well 
 expressed, and Good Deeds freely performed without 
 hope of reward, then do we weave for ourselves the 
 beautiful garments which we are destined to wear 
 upon the occasion of our future lives. 
 
 The Yogi Teachings relating to the Law of Karma 
 do not teach us that Sin is an offense against the 
 Power which brought us into being, so much as it is 
 an offense against ourselves. We cannot injure the 
 Absolute, nor harm It in any way. But we may harm 
 each other, and in so doing harm ourselves. The 
 Yogis teach that Sin is largely a matter of ignorance 
 and misunderstanding of our true nature, and that the 
 lesson must be well learned until we are able to see 
 the folly and error of our former course, and thus 
 are able to remedy our past errors and to avoid their 
 recurrence. By Karma the effects arising from our sins 
 cling to us, until we become sick and weary of them, 
 and seek their cause in our hearts. When we have dis- 
 covered the evil cause of these effects, we learn to 
 hate it and tear it from us as a foul thing, and are 
 thence evermore relieved of it. 
 
 The Yogis view the sinning soul as the parent does 
 the child who will persist in playing with forbidden 
 things. The parent cautions the child against playing 
 with the stove, but still the child persists in its dis- 
 obedience, and sooner or later receives a burn for its 
 meddling. The burn is not a punishment for the dis- 
 obedience (although it may seem so to it) but comes 
 in obedience to a natural law which is invariable. TLH 
 
THE LAW OF KARMA 255 
 
 child finds out that stoves and burns are connected, 
 and begins to see some sense and reason in the ad- 
 monitions of the parent. The love of the parent 
 sought to save the child the pain of the burn, and yet 
 the child-nature persisted in experimenting, and was 
 taught the lesson. But the lesson once thoroughly 
 learned, it is not necessary to forbid the child the 
 stove, for it has learned the danger for itself and 
 thereafter avoids it. 
 
 And thus it is with the human soul passing on from 
 one life to another. It learns new lessons, gathers 
 new experiences, and learns to recognize the pain that 
 invariably comes from Wrong Action, and the Happi- 
 ness that invariably comes from Right Action. As 
 it progresses it learns how hurtful certain courses of 
 action are, and like the burnt child it avoids them 
 thereafter. 
 
 If we will but stop to consider for a moment the 
 relative degrees of temptation to us and to others, we 
 may see the operations of past Karma in former lives. 
 Why is it that this thing is "no temptation" to you, 
 while it is the greatest temptation to another. Why 
 is it that certain things do not seem to have any at- 
 traction for him, and yet they attract you so much 
 that you have to use all of your will power to resist 
 them ? It is because of the Karma in your past lives. 
 The things that do not now tempt you, have been out- 
 lived in some former life, and you have profited by 
 your own experiences, or those of others, or else 
 through some teaching given you by one who had 
 
256 GNANI YOGA 
 
 been attracted to you by your unfolding consciousness 
 of Truth. 
 
 We are profiting to-day by the lessons of our past 
 lives. If we have learned them well we are receiving 
 the benefit, while if we have turned our backs on the 
 words of wisdom offered us, or have refused to learn 
 the lesson perfectly, we are compelled to sit on the 
 same old school-benches and hear the same old lesson 
 repeated until it is fairly driven into our conscious- 
 ness. We wonder why it is that other persons can 
 perform certain evil acts that seem so repulsive to us, 
 and are apt to pride ourselves upon our superior vir- 
 tue. But those who know, realize that their unfor- 
 tunate brethren have not paid sufficient attention to 
 the lesson of the past, and are having it repeated to 
 them in a more drastic form this time. They know 
 that the virtuous ones are simply reaping the benefit of 
 their own application in the past, but that their lesson 
 is not over, and that unless they advance and hold fast 
 to that which they have attained, as well, they will be 
 outstripped by many of those whose failure they are 
 now viewing with wonder and scorn. 
 
 It is hard for us to fully realize that we are what 
 we are because of our past experiences. It is difficult 
 for us to value the experiences that we are now going 
 through, because we do not fully appreciate the value 
 of bitter experiences once lived out and outlived. Let 
 us look back over the experiences of this present life, 
 for instance. How many bitter episodes are there 
 which we wish had never happened, and how we wish 
 
THE LAW OF KARMA 257 
 
 we could tear them out of our consciousness. But we 
 do not realize that from these same bitter experiences 
 came knowledge and wisdom that we would not part 
 with under any circumstances. And yet if we were to 
 tear away from us the cause of these benefits, we 
 would tear away the benefits also, and would find our- 
 selves back just where we were before the experience 
 happened to us. What we would like to do is to hold 
 on to the benefits that came from the experience — the 
 knowledge and wisdom that were picked from the tree 
 of pain. But we cannot separate the effect from the 
 cause in this way, and must learn to look back upon 
 these bitter experiences as the causes from which our 
 present knowledge, wisdom and attainment proceeded. 
 Then may we cease to hate these things, and to see that 
 good may come from evil, under the workings of the 
 Law. 
 
 And when we are able to do this, we shall be able 
 to regard the painful experiences of our present day 
 as the inevitable outcome of causes away back in our 
 past, but which will work surely toward increased 
 knowledge, wisdom and attainment, if we will but 
 see the Good underlying the working of the Law. 
 When we fall in with the working of the Law of 
 Karma we recognize its pain not as an injustice or 
 punishment, but as the beneficent operation of a Law 
 which, although apparently working Evil, has for its 
 end and aim Ultimate Good. 
 
 Many object to the teachings of the Law of Karma 
 by saying that the experiences of each life, not being 
 
2S« GNANI YOGA 
 
 remembered, must be useless and without value. This 
 is a very foolish position to take concerning the mat- 
 ter. These experiences although not fully remem- 
 bered, are not lost to us at all — they are made a part 
 of the material of which our minds are composed. 
 They exist in the form of feelings, characteristics, in- 
 clinations, likes and dislikes, affinities, attractions, re- 
 pulsions, etc., etc., and are as much in evidence as are 
 the experiences of yesterday which are fresh in our 
 memory. Look back over your present life, and try 
 to remember the experiences of the past years. You 
 will find that you remember but few of the events 
 of your life. The pressing and constant experiences 
 of each of the days that you have lived have been, for 
 the most part, forgotten. Though these experiences 
 may have seemed very vivid and real to you when 
 they occurred, still they have faded into nothingness 
 now, and they are to all intents and purposes lost to 
 you. But are they lost? Not at all. You are what 
 you are because of the results of these experiences. 
 Your character has been moulded and shaped, little 
 by little, by these apparently forgotten pains, pleasures, 
 sorrows and happinesses. This trial strengthened you 
 along certain lines; that one changed your point 
 of view and made you see things with a broader sweep 
 of vision. This grief caused you to feel the pain of 
 others; that disappointment spurred you on to new 
 endeavors. And each and every one of them left a 
 permanent mark upon your personality — upon your 
 character. All men are what they are by reason of 
 
THE LAW OF KARMA 259 
 
 what they have lived through and out. And though 
 these happenings, scenes, circumstances, occurrences, 
 experiences, have faded from the memory, their ef- 
 fects are indelibly imprinted upon the fabric of the 
 character, and the man of to-day is different from 
 what he would have been had the happening or ex- 
 perience not entered into his life. 
 
 And this same rule applies to the characteristics 
 brought over from past incarnations. You have not 
 the memory of the experiences, but you have the fruit 
 in the shape of "characteristics," tastes, inclinations, 
 etc. You have a tendency toward certain things, and 
 a distaste for others. Certain things attract, while 
 others repel you. All of these things are the result of 
 your experiences in former incarnations. Your very 
 taste and inclination toward occult studies which has 
 caused you to read these lessons is your legacy from 
 some former life in which some one spoke a word or 
 two to you regarding the subject, and attracted your 
 interest and desire. You learned some little about the 
 subject then — perhaps much— and developed a desire 
 for more knowledge along these lines, which manifest- 
 ing in your present life has brought you in contact 
 with further instruction. The same inclination will 
 lead to further advancement in this life, and still 
 greater opportunities in future incarnations. Nearly 
 every one who reads these lines has felt that much of 
 this occult instruction imparted is but a "re-learning" 
 of something previously known, although many of the 
 things taught have never been heard before in this 
 
260 GNANI YOGA 
 
 life. You pick up a book and read something, and 
 know at once that it is so, because in some vague way 
 you have a consciousness of having studied and 
 worked out the problem in some past period of your 
 lives. All this is the working of the Law of Karma, 
 which caused you to attract that for which you have 
 an affinity, and which also causes others to be attracted 
 to you. 
 
 Many are the reunions of people who have been re- 
 lated to each other in previous lives. The old loves, 
 and old hates work out their Karmic results in our 
 lives. We are bound to those whom we have loved, 
 and also to those whom we may have injured. The 
 story must be worked out to the end, although a 
 knowledge of the Law undoubtedly relieves one of 
 many entangling attachments and Karmic relation- 
 ships, by pointing out the nature of the relation, and 
 enabling one to free himself mentally from the bond, 
 which process tends to dissolve much of the Karmic 
 entanglements. 
 
 Life is a great school for the learning of lessons. 
 It has many grades, many classes, many scales of 
 progress. And the lessons must be learned whether 
 we will or no. If we refuse or neglect to learn the 
 lesson we are sent back to accomplish the task, again 
 and again, until the lesson is finally learned. Nothing 
 once learned is ever forgotten entirely. There is an 
 indelible imprint of the lesson in our character, which 
 manifests as predispositons, tastes, inclinations, etc. 
 All that goes to make up that which we call "Char- 
 
THE LAW OF KARMA 261 
 
 acter" is the workings of the Law of Karma. There 
 is no such thing as Chance. Nothing ever "happens." 
 All is regulated by the Law of Cause and Effect or 
 Karma. As a man sows so shall he reap, in a literal 
 sense. You are what you are to-day, by reason of 
 what you were in your last life. And in your next life 
 you will be what you are making of yourself to-day. 
 You are your own judge, and executioner — your own 
 bestower of rewards. But the Love of the Absolute is 
 ever working to lead you upward to the Light, and to 
 open your soul to that knowledge that, in the words 
 of the Yogis, "burns up Karma," and enables you to 
 throw off the burden of Cause and Effect that you 
 have been carrying around with you, and which has 
 weighted you down. 
 
 In the Fourteen Lessons we quoted from Mr. Berry 
 Benson, a writer in the Century Magazine for May, 
 1894. The quotation fits so beautifully into this place, 
 that we venture to reproduce it here once more, with 
 your permission. It reads as follows : 
 
 "A little boy went to school. He was very little. All 
 that he knew he had drawn in with his mother's milk. 
 His teacher (who was God) placed him in the lowest 
 class, and gave him these lessons to learn: Thou 
 shalt not kill. Thou shalt do no hurt to any living 
 thing. Thou shalt not steal. So the man did not kill ; 
 but he was cruel, and he stole. At the end of the day 
 (when his beard was gray — when the night was come) 
 his teacher (who was God) said: Thou hast learned 
 not to kill, but the other lessons thou hast not learned. 
 Come back tomorrow. 
 
262 GNANI YOGA 
 
 "On the morrow he came back a little boy. And 
 his teacher (who was God) put him in a class a little 
 higher, and gave him these lessons to learn: Thou 
 shalt do no hurt to any living thing. Thou shalt not 
 steal. Thou shalt not cheat. So the man did no hurt 
 to any living thing; but he stole and cheated. And 
 at the end of the day (when his beard was gray — 
 when the night was come) his teacher (who was God) 
 said : Thou hast learned to be merciful. But the other 
 lessons thou hast not learned. Come back tomorrow. 
 
 "Again, on the morrow, he came back, a little boy. 
 And his teacher (who was God) put him in a class yet 
 a little higher, and gave him these lessons to learn: 
 Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not cheat. Thou 
 shalt not covet. So the man did not steal; but he 
 cheated and he coveted. And at the end of the day 
 (when his beard was gray — when the night was come) 
 his teacher (who was God) said: Thou hast learned 
 not to steal. But the other lessons thou hast not 
 learned. Come back, my child, tomorrow. 
 
 "This is what I have read in the faces of men and 
 women, in the book of the world, and in the scroll of 
 the heavens, which is writ with stars." 
 
 Under the operation of the Law of Karma every 
 man is master of his own destiny — he rewards him- 
 self — he punishes himself — he builds, tears down and 
 develops his character, always, however, under the 
 brooding influence of the Absolute which is Love 
 Infinite and which is constantly exerting the upward 
 spiritual urge, which is drawing the soul toward its 
 
THE LAW OF KARMA 263 
 
 ultimate haven of rest. Man must, and does, work 
 out his own salvation and destiny, but the upward 
 urge is always there — never tiring — never despairing 
 — knowing always that Ultimate Victory belongs to 
 the soul. 
 
 Under the Law of Karma every action, yea, every 
 thought as well, has its Karmic effect upon the future 
 incarnations of the soul. And, not exactly in the 
 nature of punishment or rewards, in the general ac- 
 ceptation of the term, but as the invariable operation 
 of the Law of Cause and Effect. The thoughts of 
 a person are like seeds which seek to press forward 
 into growth, bud, blossom and fruit. Some spring 
 into growth in this life, while others are carried over 
 into future lives. The actions of this life may rep- 
 resent only the partial growth of the thought seed, 
 and future lives may be necessary for its full blossom- 
 ing and fruition. Of course, the individual who un- 
 derstands the Truth, and who has mentally divorced 
 himself from the fruits of his actions — who has robbed 
 material Desire of its vital force by seeing it as it is, 
 and not as a part of his Real Self — his seed-thoughts 
 do not spring into blossom and fruit in future lives, 
 for he has killed their germ. The Yogis express this 
 thought by the illustration of the baked-seeds. They 
 show their pupils that while ordinary seeds sprout, 
 blossom and bear fruit, still if one bakes the seeds 
 their vitality is gone, and while they may serve the 
 purposes of a nourishing meal still they can never 
 cause sprout, blossom or fruit. Then the pupil is 
 
264 GNANI YOGA 
 
 instructed in the nature of Desire, and shown how 
 desires invariably spring into plant, blossom and fruit, 
 the life of the person being* the soil in which they 
 flourish. But Desires understood, and set off from 
 the Real Man, are akin to baked-seeds — they have 
 been subjected to the heat of spiritual wisdom and 
 are thus robbed of their vitality, and are unable to 
 bear fruit. In this way the understood and mastered 
 Desire bears no Karmic fruit of future action. 
 
 The Yogis teach that there are two great principles 
 at work in the matter of Karmic Law affecting the 
 conditions of rebirth. The first principle is that 
 whereby the prevailing desires, aspirations, likes, and 
 dislikes, loves and hates, attractions and repulsions, 
 etc., press the soul into conditions in which these char- 
 acteristics may have a favorable and congenial soil 
 for development. The second principle is that which 
 may be spoken of as the urge of the unfolding Spirit, 
 which is always urging forward toward fuller expres- 
 sion, and the breaking down of confining sheaths, and 
 which thus exerts a pressure upon the soul awaiting 
 reincarnation which causes it to seek higher environ- 
 ments and conditions than its desires and aspiration, 
 as well as its general characteristics, would demand. 
 These two apparently conflicting (and yet actually 
 harmonious) principles acting and reacting upon each 
 other, determine the conditions of rebirth, and have 
 a very material effect upon the Karmic Law. One's 
 life is largely a conflict between these two forces, the 
 one tending to hold the soul to the present conditions 
 
THE LAW OF KARMA 265 
 
 resulting from past lives, and the other ever at work 
 seeking to uplift and elevate it to greater heights. 
 
 The desires and characteristics brought over from 
 the past lives, of course, seek fuller expression and 
 manifestation upon the lines of the past lives. These 
 tendencies simply wish to be let alone and to grow 
 according to their own laws of development and mani- 
 festation. But the unfolding Spirit, knowing that the 
 soul's best interests are along the lines of spiritual un- 
 foldment and growth, brings a steady pressure to bear, 
 life after life, upon the soul, causing it to gradually kill 
 out the lower desires and characteristics, and to de- 
 velop qualities which tend to lead it upward instead 
 of allowing it to remain on its present level, there to 
 bring to blossom and fruit many low thoughts and 
 desires. Absolute Justice reigns over the operations 
 of the Law of Karma, but back of that and superior 
 even to its might is found the Infinite Love of the 
 Absolute which tends to Redeem the race. It is that 
 love that is back of all the upward tendencies of the 
 soul, and which we all feel within our inner selves in 
 our best moments. The light of the Spirit (Love) is 
 ever there. 
 
 Our relationship to others in past lives has its effect 
 upon the working of the Law of Karma. If in the 
 past we have formed attachments for other indi- 
 viduals, either through love or hate; either by kind- 
 ness or cruelty; these attachments manifest in our 
 present life, for these persons are bound to us, and 
 we to them, by the bonds of Karma, until the attach- 
 
266 GNANI YOGA 
 
 ment is worn out. Such people will in the present 
 life have certain relationships to us, the object of 
 which is the working out of the problems in which 
 we are mutually concerned, the adjustment of relation- 
 ship, the "squaring up" of accounts, the development 
 of both. We are apt to be placed in a position to 
 receive hurts from those whom we have hurt in past 
 lives, and this not through the idea of revenge, but by 
 the inexorable working out of the Law of Compensa- 
 tion in Karmic adjustments. And when we are 
 helped, comforted and receive favors from those who 
 we helped in past lives, it is not merely a reward, but 
 the operation of the same law of Justice. The person 
 who hurts us in this way may have no desire to do so, 
 and may even be distressed because he is used as an 
 instrument in this way, but the Karmic Law places 
 him in a position where he unwittingly and without 
 desire acts so that you receive pain threugh him. 
 Have you not felt yourselves hurting another, al- 
 though you had no desire and intention of so doing, 
 and, in fact, were sorely distressed because you could 
 not prevent the pain ? This fs the operation of Karma. 
 Have you not found yourself placed where you unex- 
 pectedly were made the bestower of favors upon some 
 almost unknown persons? This is Karma. The 
 Wheel turns slowly, but it makes the complete circle. 
 Karma is the companion law to Metempsychosis. 
 The two are inextricably connected, and their opera' 
 tions are closely interwoven. Constant and unvary- 
 ing in operation, Karma manifests upon and in 
 
THE LAW OF KARMA 267 
 
 worlds, planets, races, nations, families and persona. 
 Everywhere in space is the great law in operation in 
 some form. The so-called mechanical operations 
 called Causation are as much a phase of Karma as is 
 the highest phases manifest on the higher planes of 
 life, far beyond our own. And through it all is ever 
 the urge toward perfection — the upward movement of 
 all life. The Yogi teachings regard the Universe as 
 a mighty whole, and the Law of Karma as the one 
 great law operating and manifesting through that 
 whole. 
 
 How different is the workings of this mighty Law 
 from the many ideas advanced by man to account for 
 the happenings of life. Mere Chance is no explana- 
 tion, for the careful thinker must inevitably come to 
 the conclusion that in an Universe governed by Law, 
 there can be no room for Chance. And to suppose 
 that all rewards and punishments are bestowed by a 
 personal deity, in answer to prayers, supplications, 
 good behavior, offerings, etc., is to fall back into the 
 childhood stage of the race thought. The Yogis teach 
 that the sorrow, suffering and affliction witnessed on 
 all sides of us, as well as the joy, happiness and bless- 
 ings also in evidence, are not caused by the will or 
 whim of some capricious diety to reward his friend? 
 and punish his enemies — but by the working ot an 
 invariable Law which metes out to each his measure 
 of good and ill according to his Karmic attachments 
 and relationships. 
 
 Those who are suffering, and who see no cause ioj 
 
268 GNANI YOGA 
 
 their pain, are apt to complain and rebel when they 
 see others of no apparent merit enjoying the good 
 things of life which have been denied their appar- 
 ently more worthy brethren. The churches have no 
 answer except "It is God's will," and that "the Divine 
 motive must not be questioned." These answers seem 
 like mockery, particularly when the idea of Divine 
 Justice is associated with the teaching. There is no 
 other answer compatible with Divine Justice other 
 than the Law of Karma, which makes each person 
 responsible for his or her happiness or misery. And 
 there is nothing so stimulating to one as to know that 
 he has within himself the means to create for himself 
 newer and better conditions of life and environment. 
 We are what we are to-day by reason of what we 
 were in our yesterdays. We will be in our tomorrows 
 that which we have started into operation to-day. As 
 we sow in this life, so shall we reap in the next — 
 we are now reaping that which we have sown in the 
 past. St. Paul voiced a world truth when he said: 
 "Brethren, be not deceived. God is not mocked, for 
 whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." 
 
 The teachers divide the operation of Karma into 
 three general classes, as follows: 
 
 (i) The Karmic manifestations which are now 
 under way in our lives, producing results which are 
 the effects of causes set into motion in our past lives. 
 This is the most common form, and best known phase 
 5f Karmic manifestation. 
 
 (2) The Karma which we are now acquiring and 
 
THE LAW OF KARMA 269 
 
 storing up by reason of our actions, deeds, thoughts 
 and mental and spiritual relationships. This stored up 
 Karma will spring into operation in future lives, when 
 the body and environments appropriate for its mani- 
 festation presents itself or is secured; or else when 
 other Karma tending to restrict its operations is re- 
 moved. But one does not necessarily have to wait until 
 a future life in order to set into operation and manifes- 
 tation the Karma of the present life. For there come 
 times in which there being no obstructing Karma 
 brought over from a past life, the present life Karma 
 may begin to manifest. 
 
 (3) The Karma brought over from past incarna- 
 tions, which is not able to manifest at the present time 
 owing to the opposition presented by other Karma 
 of an opposite nature, serves to hold the first in 
 check. It is a well known physical law, which like- 
 wise manifests on the mental plane, that two opposing 
 forces result in neutralization, that is, both of the 
 forces are held in check. Of course, though, a more 
 powerful Karma may manage to operate, while a 
 weaker is held in check by it. 
 
 Not only have individuals their own Karma, but 
 families, races, nations and worlds have their col- 
 lective Karma. In the cases of races, if the race 
 Karma generated in the past be favorable on the 
 whole, the race flourishes and its influence widens. 
 If on the contrary its collective Karma be bad, the 
 race gradually disappears from the face of the earth, 
 the souls constituting it separating according to their 
 
270 GNANI YOGA 
 
 Karmic attractions, some going to this race and some 
 to another. Nations are bound by their Karma, as 
 any student of history may perceive if he studies 
 closely the tides of national progress or decline. 
 
 The Karma of a nation is made up of the collective 
 Karma of the individuals composing it, so far as their 
 thoughts and acts have to do with the national spirit 
 and acts. Nations as nations cease to exist, but the 
 souls of the individuals composing them still live on 
 and make their influence felt in new races, scenes and 
 environments. The ancient Egyptians, Persians, 
 Medes, Chaldeans, Romans, Grecians and many other 
 ancient races have disappeared, but their reincarnat- 
 ing souls are with us to-day. The modern revival of 
 Occultism is caused by an influx of the souls of these 
 old peoples pouring in on the Western worlds. 
 
 The following quotation from The Secret Doctrine, 
 that remarkable piece of occult literature, will be in- 
 teresting at this point: 
 
 "Nor would the ways of Karma be inscrutable were 
 men to work in union and harmony instead of disunion 
 and strife. For our ignorance of those ways — which 
 one portion of mankind calls the ways of Providence, 
 dark and intricate, while another sees in them the 
 action of blind fatalism, and a third simple Chance 
 with neither gods nor devils to guide them — would 
 surely disappear if we would but attribute all these 
 to their correct cause. With right knowledge, or at 
 any rate with a confident conviction that our neigh- 
 bors will no more work harm to us than we would 
 
THE LAW OF KARMA 271 
 
 think of harming them, two-thirds of the world's evil 
 would vanish into thin air. Were no man to hurt his 
 brother, Karma-Nemesis would have neither cause to 
 work for, nor weapons to act through. . . . We 
 cut these numerous windings in our destinies daily 
 with our own hands, while we imagine that we are 
 pursuing a track on the royal road of respectability 
 and duty, and then complain of those ways being so 
 intricate and so dark. We stand bewildered before 
 the mystery of our own making and the riddles of life 
 that we will not solve, and then accuse the great 
 Sphinx of devouring us. But verily there is not an 
 accident in our lives, not a misshapen day or a mis- 
 fortune, that could not be traced back to our own 
 doings in this or another life. . . . Knowledge of 
 Karma gives the conviction that if — 
 
 'Virtue in distress and vice in triumph 
 
 Makes atheists of Mankind/ 
 it is only because that mankind has ever shut its eyes 
 to the great truth that man is himself his own savior 
 as his own destroyer; that he need not accuse heaven, 
 and the gods, fates and providence, of the apparent 
 injustice that reigns in the midst of humanity. But 
 let him rather remember that bit of Grecian wisdom 
 which warns man to forbear accusing That which 
 'Just though mysterious, leads us on unerring 
 Through ways unmarked from guilt to punishment' 
 — which are now the ways and the high road on 
 which move onward the great European nations. The 
 Western Aryans have every nation and tribe like their 
 
272 GNANI YOGA 
 
 eastern brethren of the fifth race, their Golden and 
 their Iron ages, their period of comparative irrespon- 
 sibility, or the Satya age of purity, while now several 
 of them have reached their Iron Age, the Kali Yuga, 
 an age black with horrors. This state will last 
 . . . until we begin acting from within instead of 
 ever following impulses from without. Until then 
 the only palliative is union and harmony — a Brother- 
 hood in actu and altruism not simply in name." 
 
 Edwin Arnold, in his wonderful poem, "The Light 
 of Asia," which tells the story of the Buddha, explains 
 the doctrine of Karma from the Buddhist standpoint. 
 We feel that our students should become acquainted 
 with this view, so beautifully expressed, and so we 
 herewith quote the passages referred to: 
 
 "Karma — all that total of a soul 
 
 Which is the things it did, the thoughts it had, 
 The 'self it wove with woof of viewless time 
 
 Crossed on the warp invisible of acts. 
 
 "What hath been bringeth what shall be, and is, 
 Worse — better — last for first and first for last; 
 
 The angels in the heavens of gladness reap 
 Fruits of a holy past. 
 
 "The devils in the underworlds wear out 
 Deeds that were wicked in an age gone by. 
 
 Nothing endures: fair virtues waste with time, 
 Foul sins grow purged thereby. 
 
THE LAW OF KARMA 273 
 
 "Who toiled a slave may come anew a prince 
 For gentle worthiness and merit won; 
 
 Who ruled a king may wander earth in rags 
 For things done and undone. 
 
 "Before beginning, and without an end, 
 
 As space eternal and as surety sure, 
 Is fixed a Power divine which moves to good, 
 
 Only its laws endure. 
 
 "It will not be contemned of any one: 
 
 Who thwarts it loses, and who serves it gains ; 
 
 The hidden good it pays with peace and bliss, 
 The hidden ill with pains. 
 
 "It seeth everywhere and marketh all: 
 Do right — it recompenseth ! Do one wrong — 
 
 The equal retribution must be made, 
 Though Dharma tarry long. 
 
 "It knows not wrath nor pardon ; utter-true 
 
 Its measures mete, its faultless balance weighs; 
 
 Times are as naught, to-morrow it will judge, 
 Or after many days. 
 
 "By this the slayer's knife did stab himself; 
 
 The unjust judge hath lost his own defender ; 
 The false tongue dooms its lie; the creeping thief 
 
 And spoiler rob, to render. 
 
274 GNANI YOGA 
 
 9 
 
 "Such is the law which moves to righteousness, 
 Which none at last can turn aside or stay ; 
 
 The heart of it is love, the end of it 
 Is peace and consummation sweet. Obey ! 
 
 "The books say well, my brothers ! each man's life 
 
 The outcome of his former living is; 
 The bygone wrongs bring forth sorrow and woes, 
 
 The bygone right breeds bliss. 
 
 "That which ye sow ye reap. See yonder fields ! 
 
 The sesamum was sesamum, the corn 
 Was corn. The silence and the darkness knew ; 
 
 So is a man's fate born. 
 
 "He cometh, reaper of the things he sowed, 
 Sesamum, corn, so much cast in past birth ; 
 
 And so much weed and poison-stuff, which mar 
 Him and the aching earth. 
 
 "If he shall labor rightly, rooting these, 
 And planting wholesome seedlings where they grew, 
 
 Fruitful and fair and clean the ground shall be, 
 And rich the harvest due. 
 
 "If he who liveth, learning whence woe springs, 
 
 Endureth patiently, striving to pay 
 His utmost debt for ancient evils done 
 
 In love and truth alway; 
 
THE LAW OF KARMA 275 
 
 "If making none to lack, he thoroughly purge 
 The lie and lust of self forth from his blood ; 
 
 Suffering all meekly, rendering for offence 
 Nothing but grace and good : 
 
 "If he shall day by day dwell merciful, 
 Holy and just and kind and true ; and rend 
 
 Desire from where it clings with bleeding roots, 
 Till love of life have end : 
 
 "He — dying — leaveth as the sum of him 
 
 A life-eount closed, whose ills are dead and quit, 
 
 Whose good is quick and mighty, far and near, 
 So that fruits follow it. 
 
 "No need hath such to live as ye name life ; 
 
 That which began in him when he began 
 Is finished : he hath wrought the purpose through 
 
 Of what did make him man. 
 
 "Never shall yearnings torture him, nor sins 
 Stain him, nor ache of earthly joys and woes 
 
 Invade his safe eternal peace ; nor deaths 
 And lives recur. He goes 
 
 "Unto Nirvana. He is one with Life 
 Yet lives not. He is blest, ceasing to be. 
 
 Om, mani padme Om ! the dewdrop slips 
 Into the shining sea! 
 
276 GNANI YOGA 
 
 "This is the doctrine of the Karma. Learn! 
 
 Only when all the dross of sin is quit, 
 Only when life dies like a white flame spent. 
 
 Death dies along with it." 
 
 And so, friends, this is a brief account of the opera- 
 tions of the Law of Karma. The subject is one of 
 such wide scope that the brief space at our disposal 
 enables us to do little more than to call your attention 
 to the existence of the Law, and some of its general 
 workings. We advise our students to acquaint them- 
 selves thoroughly with what has been written on this 
 subject by ourselves and others. In our first series of 
 lessons — the "Fourteen Lessons?' — the chapter or les- 
 son on Spiritual Cause and Effect was devoted to the 
 subject of Karma. We advise our students to re-study 
 it. We also suggest that Mr. Sinnett's occult story 
 entitled "Karma" gives its readers an excellent idea 
 of the actual working of Karma in the everyday lives 
 of people of our own times. We recommend the book 
 to the consideration of our students. It is published 
 at a popular price, and is well worth the consideration 
 of every one interested in this wonderful subject of 
 Reincarnation and Karma. 
 
THE TWELFTH LESSON. 
 
 Occult Miscellany. 
 
 In this, the last lesson of this series, we wish to call 
 your attention to a variety of subjects, coming under 
 the general head of the Yogi Philosophy, and yet ap- 
 parently separated from one another. And so we have 
 entitled this lesson "Occult Miscellany," inasmuch as 
 it is made up of bits of information upon a variety of 
 subjects all connected with the general teaching of the 
 series. The lesson will consist of answers to a number 
 of questions, asked by various students of the courses 
 in Yogi Philosophy coming from our pen. While 
 these answers, of necessity, must be brief, still we will 
 endeavor to condense considerable information into 
 each, so that read as a whole the lesson will give to 
 our students a variety of information upon several 
 important subjects. 
 
 Question I : "Are there any Brotherhoods of Ad- 
 vanced Occults ts in existence, in harmony with the 
 Yogi Teachings? And if so, what information can 
 you give regarding them?" 
 
 Answer : Yes, there are a number of Occult Broth- 
 erhoods, of varying degrees of advancement, scattered 
 through the various countries of the earth. These 
 Brotherhoods agree in principle with the Yogi Teach- 
 ings, although the methods of interpretation may vary 
 somewhat. There is but one TRUTH, which becomes 
 apparent to all deep students of Occultism, and there- 
 fore all true Occultists have a glimpse of that Truth, 
 and upon this glimpse is founded their philosophies and 
 
 277 
 
278 GNANI YOGA 
 
 teachings. These Occult Brotherhoods vary in their 
 nature. In some, the members are grouped together in 
 retired portions of the earth, dwelling in the com- 
 munity life. In others the headquarters are in the 
 large cities of the earth, their membership being com- 
 posed of residents of those cities, with outlying 
 branches. Others have no meeting places, their work 
 being managed from headquarters, their members 
 being scattered all over the face of the earth, the 
 communication being kept up by personal correspond- 
 ence and privately printed and circulated literature. 
 Admission to these true Occult Brotherhoods is diffi- 
 cult. They seek their members, not the members 
 them. No amount of money, or influence, or energy 
 can gain entrance to these societies. They seek to 
 impart information and instruction only to those who 
 are prepared to receive it — to those who have reached 
 that stage of spiritual unfoldment that will enable 
 them to grasp and assimilate the teachings of the 
 Inner Circles. While this is true, it is also true that 
 these Societies or Brotherhoods are engaged in dis- 
 seminating Occult Knowledge, suited to the minds of 
 the public, through various channels, and cloaked in 
 various disguises of name, authority and style. Their 
 idea is to gradually open the mind of the public to 
 the great truths underlying and back of all of these 
 various fragmentary teachings. And they recognize 
 the fact that one mind may be reached in a certain 
 way, and another mind in a second way, and so on. 
 And, accordingly, they wrap their teachings in covers 
 
OCCULT MISCELLANY 279 
 
 likely to attract the attention of various people, and 
 to cause them to investigate the contents. But, under 
 and back of all of these various teachings, is the great 
 fundamental TRUTH. It has often been asked of us 
 how one might distinguish the real Brotherhoods from 
 the spurious ones which have assumed the name and 
 general style of the true societies, for the purpose of 
 exploiting the public, and making money from their 
 interest in the great occult truths. Answering this, 
 we would say that the true Occult Brotherhoods and 
 Societies never sell their knowledge. It is given free 
 as water to those who seek for it, and is never sold 
 for money. The true adept would as soon think of 
 selling his soul as selling Spiritual Knowledge for 
 gain. While money plays its proper place in the 
 world, and the laborer is worthy of his hire; and 
 while the Masters recognize the propriety of the sale 
 of books on Occultism (providing the price is reason- 
 able and not in excess of the general market price of 
 books) and while they also recognize the propriety 
 of having people pay their part of the expenses of 
 maintaining organizations, magazines, lecturers, in- 
 structors, etc., still the idea stops there — it does not 
 extend to the selling of the Inner Secrets of Occult- 
 ism for silver or gold. Therefore if you are solicited 
 to become a member of any so-called Brotherhood or 
 Occult Society for a consideration of money, you will 
 know at once that the organization is not a true 
 Occult Society, for it has violated one of the cardinal 
 principles at the start. Remember the old occult 
 
280 GNANI YOGA 
 
 maxim: "When the Pupil is ready, the Master ap- 
 pears" — and so it is with the Brotherhoods and So- 
 cieties — if it is necessary for your growth, develop- 
 ment, and attainment, to be connected with one of 
 these organizations then, when the time comes — when 
 you are ready — you will receive your call, and then 
 will know for a certainty that those who call are the 
 true messengers of Truth. 
 
 Question II: "Are there any exalted human 
 beings called Masters, or Adepts, or are the tales 
 regarding them mere fables, etc?" 
 
 Answer : Of a truth there are certain highly devel- 
 oped, advanced and exalted souls in the flesh, known 
 as Masters and Adepts, although many of the tales 
 told concerning them are myths, or pure fiction orig- 
 inating in the minds of some modern sensational writ- 
 ers. And, moreover, these souls are members of the 
 Great Lodge, an organization composed of these 
 almost super-human beings — these great souls that 
 have advanced so very far on The Path. Before 
 beginning to sepak of them, let us answer a question 
 often asked by Western people, and that is, "Why do 
 not these people appear to the world, and show their 
 powers?" Each of you may answer that question 
 from your own experiences. Have you ever been fool- 
 ish enough to open your soul to the crowd, and have 
 it reveal the sacred Truth that rests there ? Have you 
 ever attempted to impart the highest teachings known 
 to you, to persons who had not attained sufficient 
 spiritual development to even understand the mean- 
 
OCCULT MISCELLANY 281 
 
 ing of your words? Have you ever committed the 
 folly of throwing spiritual pearls to material swine? 
 If you have had these experiences, you may begin to 
 faintly imagine the reasons of these illumined souls 
 for keeping away from the crowd — for dwelling away 
 from the multitude. No one who has not suffered the 
 pain of having the vulgar crowd revile the highest 
 spiritual truths to him, can begin to understand the 
 feelings of the spiritually ilumined individuals. It is 
 not that they feel that they are better or more exalted 
 than the humblest man — for these feelings of the per- 
 sonality have long since left them. It is because they 
 see the folly of attempting to present the highest truths 
 to a public which is not prepared to understand even 
 the elementary teachings. It is a feeling akin to that 
 of the master of the highest musical conceptions at- 
 tempting to produce his wonderful compositions before 
 a crowd fit only for the "rag-time" and slangy songs 
 of the day. 
 
 Then again, these Masters have no desire to "work 
 miracles" which would only cause the public to become 
 still more superstitious than they now are. When one 
 glances back over the field of religions, and sees how 
 the miraculous acts of some of the great leaders have 
 been prostituted and used as a foundation for the 
 grossest credulity and basest superstition, he may 
 understand the wisdom of the masters in this respect. 
 There is another reason for the non-appearance of the 
 Masters, and that is that there is no occasion for it. 
 The laws of Spiritual Evolution are as regular, con- 
 
282 GNANI YOGA 
 
 stant and fixed as are the laws of Physical Evolution, 
 and any attempt to unduly force matters only results 
 in confusion, and the abortive results soon fade away. 
 The world is not ready for the appearance of the 
 Masters. Their appearance at this time would not be 
 in accordance with The Plan. 
 
 The Masters or Adepts are human beings who have 
 passed from lower to higher planes of consciousness, 
 thus gaining wisdom, power and qualities that seem 
 almost miraculous to the man of the ordinary con- 
 sciousness. A Hindu writer speaking of them has 
 said : "To him who hath traveled far along The Path, 
 sorrow ceases to trouble; fetters cease to bind; ob- 
 stacles cease to hinder. Such an one is free. For 
 him there is no more fever or sorrow. For him 
 there are no more unconscious re-births. His old 
 Karma is exhausted, and he creates no new Karma. 
 His heart is freed from the desire for future life. No 
 new longings arise within his soul. He is like a lamp 
 which burneth from the oil of the Spirit, and not from 
 the oil of the outer world." Lillie in his work on 
 Buddhism, tells his readers: "Six supernatural fac- 
 ulties were expected of the ascetic before he could 
 claim the grade of Arhat. They are constantly al- 
 luded to in the Sutras as the six supernatural faculties, 
 usually without further specification. ... In this 
 transitory body the intelligence of Man is enchained. 
 The ascetic finding himself thus confused, directs his 
 mind to the creation of Manas. He represents to 
 himself, in thought, another body created from this 
 
OCCULT MISCELLANY 283 
 
 material body, — a body with a form, members and 
 organs. This body in relation to the material body 
 is like a sword and the scabbard, or a serpent issuing 
 from a basket in which it is confined. The ascetic 
 then, purified and perfected, begins to practice super- 
 natural faculties. He finds himself able to pass 
 through material obstacles, walls, ramparts, etc.; he 
 is able to throw his phantasmal appearance into many 
 places at once. He acquires the power of hearing the 
 sounds of the unseen world as distinctly as those of 
 the phenomenal world — more distinctly in point of 
 fact. Also by the power of Manas he is able to read 
 the most secret thoughts of others, and to tell their 
 characters." 
 
 These great Masters are above all petty sectarian 
 distinctions. They may have ascended to their exalted 
 position along the paths of the many religions, or 
 they may have walked the path of no-denomination, 
 sect, or body. They may have mounted to their 
 heights by philosophical reasoning alone, or else by 
 scientific investigation. They are called by many 
 names, according to the viewpoint of the speaker, but 
 at the last they are of but one religion; one philos- 
 ophy; one belief— TRUTH. 
 
 The state of Adeptship is reached only after a long 
 and arduous apprenticeship extending over many lives. 
 Those who have reached the pinnacle were once even 
 as You who read these lines. And some of you — 
 yes, perhaps even You who are now reading these 
 words may have taken the first steps along the nar- 
 
284 GNANI YOGA 
 
 row path which will lead you to heights equally as 
 exalted as those occupied by even the highest of these 
 great beings of whom we are speaking. Unconsciously 
 to yourself, the urge of the Spirit has set your feet 
 firmly upon The Path, and will push you forward to the 
 end. In order to understand the occult custom that 
 finds its full fruit in the seclusion of the Masters, one 
 needs to be acquainted with the universal habit among 
 true occultists of refraining from public or vulgai 
 displays of occult power. While the inferior occultists 
 often exhibit some of the minor manifestations to the 
 public, it is a fact that the true advanced occultists 
 scrupulously refrain from so doing. In fact, among 
 the highest teachers, it is a condition imposed upon 
 the pupil that he shall refrain from exhibitions of his 
 developing powers among the uninitiated public. 
 "The Neophyte is bound over to the most inviolable 
 secrecy as to everything connected with his entrance 
 and further progress in the schools. In Asia, in the 
 same way, the chela, or pupil of occultism, no sooner 
 becomes a chela than he ceases to be a witness on 
 behalf of the reality of occult knowledge," says Sin- 
 nett in his great work on "Esoteric Buddhism," And 
 he then adds: "I have been astonished to find, since 
 my own connection with the subject, how numerous 
 such chelas are. But it is impossible to imagine any 
 human act more improbable than the unauthorized 
 revelation by any such chela, to persons in the outer 
 world, that he is one ; and so the great esoteric school 
 of philosophy guards its seclusion." 
 
OCCULT MISCELLANY 285 
 
 Question III: "Does the Yogi Philosophy teach 
 that there is a place corresponding to the 'Heavens' 
 of the various religions? Is there any basis for the 
 belief that there is a place resembling 'Heaven'?" 
 
 Answer : Yes, the Yogi Philosophy does teach that 
 there is a real basis for the popular religious beliefs 
 in "Heaven," and that there are states of being, the 
 knowledge of which has filtered through to the masses 
 in the more or less distorted theories regarding 
 "heavens." 
 
 But the Yogis do not teach that these "heavens" are 
 places at all. The teaching is that they are planes of 
 existence. It is difficult to explain just what is meant 
 by this word "plane." The nearest approach to it in 
 English is the term or word "State." A portion of 
 space may be occupied by several planes at the same 
 time, just as a room may be filled with the rays of the 
 sun, those of a lamp, X-rays, magnetic and electric 
 vibrations and waves, etc., each interpenetrating each 
 other and yet not affecting or interfering with each 
 other. 
 
 On the lower planes of the Astral World there are 
 to be found the earth-bound souls which have passed 
 out from their former bodies, but which are attracted 
 to the earthly scenes by strong attractions, which serve 
 to weight them down and to prevent them from as- 
 cending to the higher planes. On the higher planes 
 are souls that are less bound by earthly attractions, 
 and who, accordingly, are relieved of the weight 
 resulting therefrom. These planes rise in an ascend- 
 
286 GNANI YOGA 
 
 ing scale, each plane being higher and more spiritual 
 than the one lower than itself. And dwelling on each 
 plane are the souls fitted to occupy it, by reason of 
 their degree of spiritual development, or evolution. 
 When the soul first leaves the body it falls into a 
 sleep-like stage, from which it awakens to find itself 
 on the plane for which it is fitted, by reason of its 
 development, attractions, character, etc. The partic- 
 ular plane occupied by each soul is determined by the 
 progress and attainment it has made in its past lives. 
 The souls on the higher planes may, and often do, visit 
 the planes lower in the scale than their own, but 
 those on the lower planes may not visit those 
 higher than their own. Quoting from our own 
 writings on this subject, published several years 
 ago, we repeat: This prohibition regarding the 
 visiting of higher planes is not an arbitrary rule, 
 but a law of nature. If the student will pardon the 
 commonplace comparison, he may get an understand- 
 ing of it, by imagining a large screen, or series of 
 screens, such as used for sorting coal into sizes. The 
 large coal is caught by the first screen ; the next size 
 by the second ; and so on until the tiny coal is reached. 
 Now, the large coal cannot get into the receptacle of 
 the smaller sizes, but the small sizes may easily pass 
 through the screen and join the larger sizes, if force 
 he imparted to them. Just so in the Astral World, the 
 soul with the greatest amount of materiality, and gross 
 nature, is stopped by the spiritual screen of a certain 
 plane, and cannot pass on to the higher ones, while 
 
OCCULT MISCELLANY 287 
 
 other souls have cast off some of the confining and 
 retarding material sheaths, and readily pass on to 
 higher and finer planes. And it may be readily seen 
 that those souls which dwell on the higher planes are 
 able to re-visit the lower and grosser planes, while the 
 souls on the grosser cannot penetrate the higher boun- 
 dries of their plane, being stopped by the spiritual 
 screen. The comparison is a crude one, but it almost 
 exactly pictures the existing conditions on the spiritual 
 world. 
 
 Souls on the upper planes, may, and often do, jour- 
 ney to the lower planes for the purpose of "visiting" 
 the souls of friends who may be dwelling there, and 
 thus affording them comfort and consolation. In 
 fact, the teaching is that in many cases a highly de- 
 veloped soul visits souls on the lower planes in whom 
 it is interested, and actually imparts spiritual teach- 
 ing and instruction to those souls, so that they may 
 be re-born into much better conditions than would 
 have been the case otherwise. All of the planes have 
 Spiritual Instructors from very high planes, who sac- 
 rifice their well-earned rest and happiness on their own 
 planes in order that they may work for the less-de- 
 veloped souls on the lower planes. 
 
 As we have said, the soul awakens on the plane to 
 which it is suited. It finds itself in the company of 
 congenial souls, in whose company it is enabled to 
 pursue those things which were dear to its heart when 
 alive. It may be able to make considerable advance- 
 ment during .its sojourn in "heaven," which will result 
 
288 GNANI YOGA 
 
 to its benefit when it is reborn on earth. There are 
 countless sub-planes, adapted to the infinite require- 
 ments of the advancing souls in every degree of devel- 
 opment, and each soul finds an opportunity to develop 
 and enjoy to the fullest the highest of which it is 
 capable, and to also perfect itself and to prepare itself 
 for future development, so that it may be re-born under 
 the very best possible conditions and circumstances 
 in the next earth life. But, alas, even in this higher 
 world, all souls do not live up to the best that is in 
 them, and instead of making the best of their oppor- 
 tunities for development, and growing spiritually, they 
 allow the attractions of their material natures to draw 
 them downward, and too often spend much of their 
 time on the planes beneath them, not to help and as- 
 sist, but to live the less spiritual lives of their friends 
 on the lower planes. In such cases the soul does not 
 reap the benefit of the sojourn in the "after-life," but 
 is born again according to the attractions of its lower, 
 instead of its higher nature, and is compelled to learn 
 its lesson over again. 
 
 The Yogi teachings inform us that the lower planes 
 of the Astral World are inhabited by souls of a very 
 gross and degraded t type, undeveloped and animal- 
 like. These low souls live out the tendencies and 
 characteristics of their former earth lives, and rein- 
 carnate rapidly in order to pursue their material at- 
 tractions. Of course, there is slowly working even in 
 these undeveloped souls an upward tendency, but it is 
 so slow as to be almost imperceptible. In time these 
 
OCCULT MISCELLANY 289 
 
 undeveloped souls grow sick and tired of their materi- 
 ality, and then comes the chance for a slight advance. 
 Of course these undeveloped souls have no access to 
 the higher planes of the Astral world, but are confined 
 to their own degraded plane and to the sub-planes 
 which separate the Astral World from the material 
 world. They cling as closely as possible to the earthly 
 scenes, and are separated from the material world by 
 only a thin screen (if we may use the word). They 
 suffer the tantalizing condition of being within sight 
 and hearing of their old material scenes and environ- 
 ments, and yet unable to manifest on them. These 
 souls form the low class of "spirits" of which we hear 
 so much in certain circles. They hang around their 
 old scenes of debauchery and sense gratification, and 
 often are able to influence the minds of living persons 
 along the same line and plane of development. For 
 instance, these creatures hover around low saloons 
 and places of ill-repute, influencing the sodden brains 
 of living persons to participate in the illicit gratifica- 
 tions of the lower sensual nature. 
 
 Souls on the higher planes are not bound by these 
 earthly and material attractions, and take advantage 
 of their opportunities to improve themselves and de- 
 velop spiritually. It is a rule of the Astral World 
 that the higher the plane occupied by a soul, the longer 
 the sojourn there between incarnations. A soul on 
 the lowest planes may reincarnate in a very short time, 
 while on the higher planes hundreds and even thou- 
 sands of years may elapse before the soul is called 
 
290 GNANI YOGA 
 
 upon to experience re-birth. But re-birth comes to 
 all who have not passed on to other spheres of life. 
 Sooner or later the soul feels that inward urge toward 
 re-birth and further experience, and becomes drowsy 
 and falls into a state resembling sleep, when it is 
 caught up in the current that is sweeping on toward 
 re-birth, and is gradually carried on to re-birth in con- 
 ditions chosen by its desires and characteristics, in 
 connection with the operation of the laws of Karma. 
 From the soul-slumber it passes through what may be 
 called a "death" on the Astral plane, when it is re-born 
 on the earth plane. But, remember this, the soul, 
 when it is re-born on earth, does not fully awaken 
 from its Astral sleep. In infancy and in early child- 
 hood the soul is but slowly awakening, gradually from 
 year to year, the brain being built to accommodate this 
 growth. The rare instances of precocious children, 
 and infant genius are cases in which the awakening 
 has been more rapid than ordinary. On the other 
 hand, cases are known where the soul does not awaken 
 as rapidly as the average, and the result is that the 
 person does not show signs of full intellectual activity 
 until nearly middle age. Cases are known when men 
 seemed to "wake up" when they were forty years of 
 age, or even later in life, and would then take on a 
 freshened activity and energy, surprising those who 
 had known them before. 
 
 On some of the planes of the Astral world the souls 
 dwelling there do not seem to realize that they are 
 "dead," but act and live as if they were in the flesh. 
 
OCCULT MISCELLANY 291 
 
 They have a knowledge of the planes beneath them, 
 just as we on earth know of conditions beneath us 
 (spiritually), but they seem to be in almost absolute 
 ignorance of the planes above them, just as many of 
 us on earth cannot comprehend the existence of beings 
 more highly developed spiritually than ourselves. 
 This, of course, is only true of the souls who have not 
 been made acquainted with the meaning and nature of 
 life on the Astral Plane. Those who have acquired 
 this information and knowledge readily understand 
 their condition and profit thereby. It will be seen 
 from this that it is of the greatest importance for 
 persons to become acquainted with the great laws of 
 Occultism in their present earth life, for the reason 
 that when they pass out of the body and enter some 
 one of the Astral Planes they will not be in ignorance 
 of the condition, but will readily grasp the meaning 
 and nature of their surroundings and take advantage 
 of the same in order to develop themselves more 
 rapidly. 
 
 It will be seen from what has been written by us 
 here and elsewhere that there are planes after planes 
 on the Astral side of life. All that has been dreamt 
 of Heaven, Purgatory or Hell has its correspondence 
 there, although not in the literal sense in which these 
 things have been taught. For instance, a wicked man 
 dying immersed in his desires and longings of his 
 lower nature, and believing that he will be punished 
 in a future life for sins committed on earth — such a 
 one is very apt to awaken on the lower planes or sub- 
 
292 GNANI YOGA 
 
 planes, in conditions corresponding with his former 
 fears. He finds the fire and brimstone awaiting him, 
 although these things are merely figments of his own 
 imagination, and having no existence in reality. Mur- 
 derers may roam for ages (apparently) pursued by the 
 bleeding corpses of their victims, until such a horror 
 of the crime arises in the mind that at last sinking 
 from exhaustion into the soul-sleep, their souls pass 
 into re-birth with such a horror of bloodshed and 
 crime as to make them entirely different beings in the 
 new life. And, yet the "hell" that they went through 
 existed only in their imaginations. They were their 
 own Devil and Hell. Just as a man in earth life may 
 suffer from delirium tremens, so some of these souls 
 on the Astral plane suffer agonies from their delirium 
 arising from their former crimes, and the belief in 
 the punishment therefor which has been inculcated in 
 them through earth teachings. And these mental 
 agonies, although terrible, really are for their benefit, 
 for by reason of them the soul becomes so sickened 
 with the thought and idea of crime that when it is 
 finally re-born it manifests a marked repulsion to it, 
 and flies to the opposite. In this connection we would 
 say that the teaching is that although the depraved 
 soul apparently experiences ages of this torment, yet, 
 in reality, there is but the passage of but a short time, 
 the illusion arising from the self-hypnotization of the 
 soul, just as arises the illusion of the punishment 
 itself. 
 In the same way the soul often experiences a 
 
OCCULT MISCELLANY 293 
 
 "heaven" in accordance with its hopes, beliefs and 
 longings of earth-life. The "heaven" that it has 
 longed for and believed in during its earth-life is very 
 apt to be at least partially reproduced on the Astral 
 plane, and the pious soul of any and all religious de- 
 nominations finds itself in a "heaven" corresponding 
 to that in which it believed during its earth-life. The 
 Mohammedan finds his paradise; the Christian finds 
 his ; the Indian finds his — but the impression is merely 
 an illusion created by the Mental Pictures of the soul. 
 But the illusion tends to give pleasure to the soul, and 
 to satisfy certain longings which in time fade away, 
 leaving the soul free to reach out after higher concep- 
 tions and ideals. We cannot devote more space to 
 this subject at this time, and must content ourselves 
 with the above statements and explanations. The prin- 
 cipal point that we desire to impress upon your minds 
 is the fact that the "heaven-world" is not a place or 
 state of permanent rest and abode for the disembodied 
 soul, but is merely a place or temporary sojourn be- 
 tween incarnations, and thus serves as a place of rest 
 wherein the soul may gather together its forces, ener- 
 gies, desires and attractions preparatory to re-birth. 
 In this answer we have merely limited ourselves to a 
 general statement of the states and conditions of the 
 Astral World, or rather of certain planes of that 
 world. The subject itself requires far more extensive 
 treatment. 
 
 Question IV : "Is Nirvana a state of the total ex- 
 tinction of consciousness; and is it a place, state or 
 condition?" 
 
294 GNANI YOGA 
 
 Answer: The teaching concerning Nirvana, the 
 final goal of the soul, has been much misunderstood, 
 and much error has crept into the teaching even among 
 some very worthy teachers. To conceive of Nirvana 
 as a state of extinction of consciousness would be to 
 fall into the error of the pessimistic school of philos- 
 ophy which thinks of life and consciousness as a curse, 
 and regards the return into a total unconsciousness as 
 the thing to be most desired. The true teaching is 
 that Nirvana is a state of the fullest consciousness — 
 a state in which the soul is relieved of all the illusion 
 of separateness and relativity, and enters into a state 
 of Universal Consciousness, or Absolute Awareness, 
 in which it is conscious of Infinity, and Eternity — of 
 all places and things and time. Nirvana instead of 
 being a state of Nothingness, is a state of "Everything- 
 ness." As the soul advances along the Path it becomes 
 more and more aware of its connection with, relation 
 to, and identity with the Whole. As it grows, the Self 
 enlarges and transcends its former limited bounds. It 
 begins to realize that it is more than the tiny separated 
 atom that it had believed itself to be, and it learns to 
 identify itself in a constantly increasing scale with the 
 Universal Life. It feels a sense of Oneness in a 
 fuller degree, and it sets its feet firmly upon the Path 
 toward Nirvana. After many weary lives on this and 
 other planets — in this and other Universes — after it 
 has long since left behind it the scale of humanity, 
 and has advanced into god-like states, its conscious- 
 ness becomes fuller and fuller, and time and space are 
 
OCCULT MISCELLANY 295 
 
 transcended in a wonderful manner. And at last the 
 goal is attained — the battle is won — and the soul blos- 
 soms into a state of Universal Consciousness, in which 
 Time and Place disappear and in which every place is 
 Here; every period of Time is Now; and everything 
 is "I." This is Nirvana. 
 
 Question V: "What is that which Occultists call 
 'an Astral Shell,' or similar name? Is it an entity, 
 or force, or being?" 
 
 Answer : When the soul passes out from the body 
 at the moment of death it carries with it the "Astral 
 Body" as well as the higher mental and spiritual prin- 
 ciples (see the first three lessons in the "Fourteen 
 Lessons"). The Astral Body is the counterpart of the 
 material or physical body, although it is composed of 
 matter of a much finer and ethereal nature than is the 
 physical body. It is invisible to the ordinary eye, but 
 may be seen clairvoyantly. The Astral Body rises 
 from the physical body like a faint, luminous vapor, 
 and for a time is connected with the dying physical 
 body by a thin, vapory cord or thread, which finally 
 breaks entirely and the separation becomes complete. 
 The Astral Body is some time afterward discarded by 
 the soul as it passes on to the higher planes, as we 
 have described a few pages further back, and the aban- 
 doned Astral Body becomes an "Astral Shell," and is 
 subject to a slow disintegration, just as is the physical 
 body. It is no more the soul than is the physical body — 
 it is merely a cast off garment of fine matter. It will be 
 seen readily that it is not an entity, force or being — 
 
296 GNANI YOGA 
 
 it is only cast off matter — a sloughed skin. It has no 
 life or intelligence, but floats around on the lower 
 Astral Plane until it finally disintegrates. It has an 
 attraction toward its late physical associate — the phys- 
 ical body — and often returns to the place where the 
 latter is buried, where it is sometimes seen by persons 
 whose astral sight is temporarily awakened, when it 
 is mistaken for a "ghost" or "spirit" of the person. 
 These Astral Shells are often seen floating around over 
 graveyards, battlefields, etc. And sometimes these 
 shells coming in contact with the psychic magnetism 
 of a medium become "galvanized" into life, and mani- 
 fest signs of intelligence, which, however, really 
 comes from the mind of the medium. At some seances 
 these re-vitalized shells manifest and materialize, and 
 talk in a vague, meaningless manner, the shell receiv- 
 ing its vitality from the body and mind of the medium 
 instead of speaking from any consciousness of its own. 
 This statement is not to be taken as any denial of true 
 "spirit return," but is merely an explanation of certain 
 forms of so-called "spiritualistic phenomena" which is 
 well understood by advanced "spiritualists," although 
 many seekers after psychic phenomena are in igno- 
 rance of it. 
 
 Question VI: What is meant by "the Days and 
 Nights of Brahm"; the "Cycles"; the "Chain of 
 Worlds", etc., etc.? 
 
 Answer: In Lesson Sixth, of the present series, 
 you will find a brief mention of the "Days and Nights 
 of Brahm"— those vast periods of the Inbreathing 
 
OCCULT MISCELLANY 297 
 
 and Outbreathing of the Creative Principle which is 
 personified in the Hindu conception of Brahma. You 
 will see mentioned there that universal philosophical 
 conception of the Universal Rhythm, which manifests 
 in a succession of periods of Universal Activity and 
 Inactivity. 
 
 The Yogi Teachings are that all Time is manifested 
 in Cycles. Man calls the most common form of Cyclic 
 Time by the name of "a Day," which is the period of 
 time necessary for the earth's revolution on its axis. 
 Each Day is a reproduction of all previous Days, al- 
 though the incidents of each day differ from those of 
 the other — all Days are but periods of Time marked 
 off by the revolution of the earth on its axis. And 
 each Night is but the negative side of a Day, the posi- 
 tive side of which is called "day." There is really no 
 such thing as a Day, that which we call a "Day" being 
 simply a record of certain physical changes in the 
 earth's position relating to its own axis. 
 
 The second phase of Cyclic Time is called by man 
 by the name "a Month," by which is meant certain 
 changes in the relative positions of the moon and the 
 earth. The true month consists of twenty-eight lunar 
 days. In this Cycle (the Month) there is also a 
 light-time or "day," and a dark-time or "night," the 
 former being the fourteen days of the moon's visibility, 
 and the second being the fourteen days of the moon's 
 invisibility. 
 
 The third phase of Cyclic Time is that which we call 
 "a Year," by which is meant the time occupied by the 
 
298 GNANI YOGA 
 
 earth in its revolution around the sun. You will no- 
 tice that the year has its positive and negative periods, 
 also, known as Summer and Winter. 
 
 But the Yogis take up the story where the astrono- 
 mers drop it, at the Year. Beyond the Year there are 
 other and greater phases of Cyclic Time. The Yogis 
 know many cycles of thousands of years in which 
 there are marked periods of Activity and Inactivity. 
 We cannot go into detail regarding these various 
 cycles, but may mention another division common to 
 the Yogi teachings, beginning with the Great Year. 
 The Great Year is composed of 360 earth years. 
 Twelve thousand Great Years constitute what is 
 known as a Great Cycle, which is seen to consist of 
 4,320,000 earth years. Seventy-one Great Cycles com- 
 pose what is called a Manwantara, at the end of which 
 the earth becomes submerged under the waters, until 
 not a vestige of land is left uncovered. This state 
 lasts for a period equal to 71 Great Cycles. A Kalpa 
 is composed of 14 Manwantaras. The largest and 
 grandest Cycle manifested is known as the Maya- 
 Praylaya, consisting of 36,000 Kalpas when the Abso- 
 lute withdraws into Itself its entire manifestations, 
 and dwells alone in its awful Infinity and Oneness, 
 this period being succeeded by a period equally long — 
 the two being known as the Days and Nights of 
 Brahm. 
 
 You will notice that each of these great Cycles has 
 its "Day" period and its "Night" period — its Period 
 of Activity, and its Period of Inactivity. From Day 
 
OCCULT MISCELLANY 299 
 
 to Maya-Praylaya, it is a succession of Nights and 
 Days — Creative Activity and Creative Cessation. 
 
 The "Chain of Worlds," is that great group of 
 planets in our own solar system, seven in number, over 
 which the Procession of Life passes, in Cycles. From 
 globe to globe the great wave of soul life passes in 
 Cyclic Rhythm. After a race has passed a certain 
 number of incarnations upon one planet, it passes on 
 to another, and learns new lessons, and then on and 
 on until finally it has learned all of the lessons possible 
 on this Universe, when it passes on to another Uni- 
 verse, and so on, from higher to higher until the 
 human mind is unable to even think of the grandeur 
 of the destiny awaiting each human soul on The 
 Path. The various works published by the Theo- 
 sophical organizations go into detail regarding these 
 matters, which require the space of many volumes to 
 adequately express, but we think that we have at last 
 indicated the general nature of the question, pointing 
 out to the student the nature of the subject, and in- 
 dicating lines for further study and investigation. 
 Conclusion. 
 
 And now, dear students, we have reached the end 
 of this series of lessons. You have followed us closely 
 for the past four years, many of you having been with 
 us as students from the start. We feel many ties of 
 spiritual relationship binding you to us, and the part- 
 ing, although but temporary, gives a little pang to us 
 — a little pull upon our heart strings. We have tried 
 to give to you a plain, practical and simple exposition 
 
3 oo GNANI YOGA 
 
 of the great truths of this world-old philosophy— have 
 endeavored to express in plain simple terms the great- 
 est truths known to man on earth to-day, the Yogi 
 Philosophy. And many have written us that our work 
 has not been in vain, and that we have been the means 
 of opening up new worlds of thought to them, and 
 have aided them in casting off the old material sheaths 
 that had bound them for so long, and the discarding 
 of which enabled them to unfold the beautiful blossom 
 of Spirituality. Be this as it may, we have been able 
 merely to give you the most elementary instruction in 
 this world-philosophy, and are painfully conscious of 
 the small portion of the field that we have tilled, when 
 compared with the infinite expanse of Truth still un- 
 touched. But such are the limitations of Man — he can 
 speak only of that which lies immediately before him, 
 leaving for others the rest of the work which is remote 
 from his place of abode. There are planes upon planes 
 of this Truth which every soul among you will some 
 day make his or her own. It is yours, and you will be 
 impelled to reach forth and take that which is intended 
 for you. Be not in too much haste — be of great pa- 
 tience — and all will come to you, for it is your own. 
 "Mystic Christianity." 
 We have here to make an announcement that will 
 please our readers, judging from the many letters 
 that we have received during the several years of 
 our work. We will now enter upon a new phase of 
 our work of presenting the great truths underlying life, 
 as taught by the great minds of centuries ago, and 
 
OCCULT MISCELLANY 301 
 
 carefully transmitted from master to student from that 
 time unto our own. We have concluded our presen- 
 tation of the mystic teachings underlying the Hindu 
 Philosophies, and shall now pass on to a consideration 
 and presentation of the great Mystic Principles under- 
 lying that great and glorious creed of the Western 
 world — the religion, teachings, and philosophy of 
 Jesus the Christ. These teachings, too, as we should 
 remember, are essentially Eastern in their origin, and 
 source, although their effects are more pronounced in 
 the Western world. Underlying the teaching and 
 philosophy of the Christ are to be found the same 
 esoteric principles that underlie the other great sys- 
 tems of philosophies of the East. Covered up though 
 the Truth be by the additions of the Western churches 
 and sects, still it remains there burning brightly as 
 ever, and plainly visible to one who will brush aside 
 the rubbish surrounding the Sacred Flame and who 
 will seek beneath the forms and non-essentials for the 
 Mystic Truths underlying Christianity. 
 
 We realize the importance of the work before us, 
 but we shrink not from the task, for we know that 
 when the bright Light of the Spirit, which is found 
 as the centre of the Christian philosophy, is uncovered, 
 there will be great rejoicing from the many who while 
 believing in and realizing the value of the Eastern 
 Teachings, still rightly hold their love, devotion and 
 admiration for Him who was in very Truth the Son 
 of God, and whose mission was to raise the World 
 spiritually from the material quagmire into which it 
 was stumbling. 
 
302 GNANI YOGA 
 
 And now, dear pupils, we must close this series of 
 lessons on the Yogi Philosophy. We must rest ere we 
 so soon engage upon our new and great work. We 
 must each take a little rest, ere we meet again on 
 The Path of Attainment. Each of these temporary 
 partings are milestones upon our Journey of Spiritual 
 Life. Let each find us farther advanced. 
 
 And now we send you our wishes of Peace. May 
 The Peace be with you all, now and forever, even 
 unto Nirvana, which is PEACE itself. 
 
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