237. The Light Of The Soul - 13. BOOK III - UNION ACHIEVED AND ITS RESULTS - Part 2 - A. BAILEY

BOOK III - UNION ACHIEVED AND ITS RESULTS - Part 2

6. The seven Emanations,

7. The seven Prajapatis,

and other less known terms, and much light will be forthcoming.

In the characteristic form (taking into consideration its specific point in development, and its lack of development) is revealed to the knower:

a. The sum total of acquirement.  That which the past has given.  This is the total chord which the soul of that object is as yet capable of sounding.

b. The particular range of qualities out of that total acquisition which the life is manifesting through any specific form.  This is the present note in the acquired chord which the soul of the object has chosen to sound.

c. That which is latent and possible.  This knowledge will be dual, revealing first, the latent possibilities to be unfolded through the medium of the form contemplated, and secondly, the latent possibilities capable of unfoldment in the present world cycle through various forms.  This covers future developments.  This will give the yogi the completed chord when the great evolutionary cycle has run its course.

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15. The stage of development is responsible for the various modifications of the versatile psychic nature and of the thinking principle.

This is a very general paraphrase of the idea involved and is in the nature of a summing up of the rather abstruse ideas of the text.  The sutras following upon this one deal (for the remainder of Book III) with the results of meditation.  The preceding sutras have considered the hindrances and difficulties that have to be overcome before true meditation becomes possible.  The key to that overcoming and the difference between aspirants to the path is made apparent in this sutra.  The ascertaining of one's approximate place upon the ladder of evolution, the summing up of one's assets and debits is one of the most useful activities the would-be aspirant can undertake.  An understanding of the stage reached and of the next step to be taken is essential for all true progress.

Johnson translates this sutra in the words:  "Difference in stage is the cause of difference in development," and goes on to say:  "The first stage is the sapling, the caterpillar, the animal.  The second stage is the growing tree, the chrysalis, the man.  The third is the splendid pine, the butterfly, the angel ..."

16. Through concentrated meditation upon the triple nature of every form, comes the revelation of that which has been and of that which will be.

The sutra which we are considering sums the [270] preceding ideas and it is interesting to note how this first great result of meditation takes one right back to the true facts anent divine manifestation and emphasizes the three aspects through which every life (from an atom of substance to a solar Logos) expresses itself.  The great Law of Cause and Effect and the entire process of evolutionary unfoldment are recognized and that which is, is seen to be the result of that which has been.  Similarly that which will later eventuate is recognized to be the working out of causes set in motion in the present, and thus the cycle of development is seen to be one process existing in three stages.

These three stages in the three worlds of human unfoldment correspond to the three dimensions, and students will find it interesting to work out these analogies of the various triplicities, remembering that the third aspect (intelligent substance), the Holy Ghost or Brahma aspects, corresponds to the past (hence a hint as to the nature of evil).  The second aspect (consciousness) or the Christ or Vishnu aspect relates to the present, whilst only the future will reveal the nature of spirit, the highest or Father aspect.  This line of thought, through concentrated meditation will become clear, and a sense of proportion and a sense of just values as to the present point in time will grow.  A recognition also of the relation of all lives to each other will be developed and the life of the aspirant will be stabilized and adjusted so that past karma will be adjusted and possible future karma negated and the process of liberation will proceed with rapidity.

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17. The Sound (or word), that which it denotes (the object) and the embodied spiritual essence (or idea) are usually confused in the mind of the perceiver.  By concentrated meditation on these three aspects comes an (intuitive) comprehension of the sound uttered by all forms of life.

This is one of the most important sutras in the book, and holds the key to the object of the entire meditation process.  This is to reveal or to unveil to the perceiver or spiritual man, the true nature of the self, the second aspect, and the correspondence to the second aspect in all forms of subhuman life, as well as to put him en rapport with the second aspect in all superhuman forms.  Thus it concerns the subjective side of all manifestation and deals with those forces which in every form constitute the consciousness aspect, which concern the Christ or buddhic principle and which are the direct cause of objective manifestation and the revelation of spirit through the medium of form.

This is the AUM.  First the breath, then the word and all that is, appeared.

Just as long as the great Existence who is the sum total of all forms and of all states of consciousness continues to sound the cosmic AUM, just so long will the objective tangible solar system persist.

The following synonyms in connection with this sutra must be borne in mind if clarity of thought is to be achieved:

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I. Spiritual Essence.	II. The Sound or Word.	III. The Object.
1. Spirit.	1. The Soul.	1. Body
2. Pneuma.	2. The Psyche.	2. Form
3. The Father.  Shiva	3. The Son.  Vishnu.	3. The Holy Spirit. Brahma
4. The Monad.  The One.	4. The cosmic Christ.	4. The vehicle of life and of incarnation.
5. The eternal Will or Purpose.	5. Eternal Love-Wisdom.	5. Eternal activity and intelligence.
6. One great Breath.	6. The AUM.	6. The Worlds.
7. Life.	7. Consciousness Aspect.	7. Activity Aspect.
8. Synthesising Energy.	8. Attractive Force.	8. Matter.
9. First Aspect.	9. Second Aspect.	9. Third Aspect.

In the mind of man these three aspects are confused and that which is outward and objective is usually recognized as reality.  This is the great maya or illusion and can only be dissipated when the perceiver can distinguish the three great aspects in every form, his own included.  When the second aspect, the soul, the middle or mediating principle is known, the nature of the form is also known, and the essential nature of spirit can be inferred.  The immediate field of knowledge, however, which the yogi has to master is that of the second aspect.  He must arrive at the Sound or Word which brought every form into manifestation, and which is the result of the breath, the essence or spirit.

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word [273] was with God and the Word was God.  All things were made by Him.  .  .  "  (John I. 1:2.)

Here, in the Christian Bible, is the substance of the entire teaching, and in the significance of the three letters of the Sacred Word, AUM, lies the clue to the entire cosmic process.  The meditation process when duly and correctly carried out reveals therefore the second or soul aspect, and the Sound, or Word (the Voice of the Silence) can then be heard.

Once heard and the work carried steadily forward, the realm of consciousness is revealed and the yogi is en rapport with the second aspect of his own nature and with the second aspect in every form.  This is the basis of the whole science of the soul and leads a man to know his own soul or psyche and the psyche in every form of divine life.  It is the foundation for the entire science of psychism, both in its higher and lower aspects.

When a man is a lower psychic he is aware of, and responds to the soul aspect of the material forms and the third or Brahma aspect (the body), dominates, for every atom of matter has a soul.  This concerns all that is subhuman.

When he responds to the higher correspondence of this, to the reality of which the lower is but the shadow, he is in touch with the Christ consciousness, with the soul of his being which is one with the soul in all the superhuman kingdoms.

In connection with this, two things must be remembered.  If he is a lower psychic he is in touch with the second aspect of the lower man, the astral body, the middle principle in the lower [274] man, linking the mental body and the etheric.  He is, therefore, en rapport with all that can be contacted on that plane.

If, however, he is a higher psychic he is en rapport with the second aspect of divine manifestation, the ego or soul on its own plane, mediating between and linking the monad with the personality, spirit with the body.

It is interesting here to note that a clue to the truth of this can be found in the manifestations of lower psychism such as are seen in the average mediumistic seance and the ordinary type of spiritualism.  Contact with the astral plane is made through that great centre, the solar plexus which links the higher three centres and the lower.  It accounts also for the fact that flowers are such a feature in materializations at seances, for the vegetable kingdom is the middle kingdom of the three subhuman kingdoms, mineral, vegetable, and animal.  The explanation as to the prevalence of Indian guides is also found here, for they are the shells and powerful thought-forms left by the second of the three strictly human races, Lemurian, Atlantean and Aryan.  No Lemurian shells or thought-forms are left now, but many Atlantean shells are still to be found preserved through the use of certain forms of Atlantean magic.

By concentrated meditation upon the distinction between these aspects there will eventually come a hearing of the Voice of the Silence and contact with a man's own second aspect.  He will know himself as the "Word made flesh" and will recognize himself as the AUM.

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When this is the case he will then hear the word in other units of the human family, and will awaken to a recognition of the sound, as it is emanated by all forms in all the kingdoms of nature.  The realm of the soul will stand open to him and this, when it includes recognition of the sound in all the four kingdoms, will lead him to know himself as Master.  Soul knowledge and the power to work with the soul of all things in the three worlds is the distinctive mark of the Adept.

18. Knowledge of previous incarnations becomes available when the power to see thought images is acquired.

The significance of this sutra is very great, for it gives the basis for the regaining of a knowledge of past experience.  This basis is strictly mental, and only those mentally polarised and with the mind under control can regain this knowledge if they so wish.  The power to see thought-images only comes through mind control, and the mind can only be controlled by the real or spiritual man.  Therefore only egoically centred people can truly acquire this knowledge.  It might be asked here what therefore do those people see who are emotional and not mental, when they claim to know who they are, and to relate the past lives of their friends?  They are reading the akashic records and because their mental control and equipment are not adequate, they cannot discriminate nor ascertain accurately what they see.

The akashic record is like an immense photographic [276] film, registering all the desires and earth experiences of our planet.  Those who perceive it will see pictured thereon:

1. The life experiences of every human being since time began,

2. The reactions to experience of the entire animal kingdom,

3. The aggregation of the thought-forms of a kamic nature (based on desire) of every human unit throughout time.  Herein lies the great deception of the records.  Only a trained occultist can distinguish between actual experience and those astral pictures created by imagination and keen desire.

4. The planetary "Dweller on the Threshold" with all that appertains to that term and all the aggregations of forms which are to be found in its environment.

The trained seer has learnt to dissociate that which pertains to his own aura and the aura of the planet (which is in actuality the akashic record).  He can distinguish between those records which are:

a. Planetary,

b. Hierarchical or pertaining to the work of the twelve Creative Hierarchies as they bring to concretion the plan of the Logos.

c. Imaginative forms, the result of the desire-thought activity of the myriads of men, animated by desire for some form of experience or other.

d. The historical record pertaining to races, nations, groups and families in their two great divisions on the physical plane and on the astral.  [277] It should be borne in mind that every human being belongs to a physical family which constitutes his link with the animal kingdom, and also belongs to an astral family.  Through that affiliation on the upward are he is linked with his egoic group and on the downward arc with the vegetable kingdom.

e. The astrological record, or the forms taken on the astral plane under the influence of the planetary forces.  These are in two great groups.

1. Those forms or pictures in the akasha produced by the inflow of solar force via the planets.

2. Those forms or pictures which are produced by the inflow of cosmic force from one or other of the signs of the zodiac, that is, from their corresponding constellations.

These points are enumerated to show how impossible it is that the majority of the claims regarding past incarnations can be true.  They are the result of a vivid imagination and the assumption that the flashes of astral sight which reveal glimpses of the akashic film give that which pertains to the one who sees.  This is not the case any more than the people and activities seen out of any window in a big city reveal to the onlooker his own relatives, friends and pursuits.

The knowledge referred to in the sutra comes in three ways:

1. Direct ability to see the records if so desired.  This form of acquiring knowledge is seldom employed except by initiates and adepts in connection with their pledged disciples.

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2. Through direct knowledge of the group activities and relations of a man's own ego.  This, however, only covers that cycle of time which began when a man stepped upon the probationary path.  Experiences prior to that are relatively of no more vital importance than is a second in the life of an old man as he passes in retrospect his long life.  All that stands out are events and happenings and not the individual hours and seconds.

3. Through the instinctual life.  This is based on memory, on acquired faculty and capacity and on the possession of those qualities which go to the equipment of the ego.  The ego knows that the possession of the power to do thus and so in the three worlds, is the direct result of past experience, and knows too that certain effects are only to be achieved through certain causes.  These he arrives at through concentrated meditation.

The thought images he becomes aware of are:

1. Those in his aura at the time of his meditation,

2. Those in his immediate environment,

3. Those of his present family, group and race,

4. Those of his present life cycle,

5. These of his egoic group.

Thus through the process of elimination he gradually works his way through grade after grade of thought images until he arrives at the particular layer of thought impression which deals with the cycle about which he is concerning himself.   This is not therefore simply a perception of certain aspects of the records, but a definitely [279] scientific process, known only to the trained occultist.

19. Through concentrated meditation, the thought images in the minds of other people become apparent.

It should be remembered that the result of the eight means of yoga is to produce a yogi or trained knower.  He is, therefore, one who concerns himself with causes and not with effects.  He perceives that which causes the tangible to appear, that is the thoughts which start into motion the forces of substance and eventually produce the concretion of that substance.

The use of this power to read the minds of others is only permitted to the yogi in those cases where it is necessary for him to understand the causes, lying back of certain events, and this only in order to work out intelligently the plans of the Hierarchy and of evolution.  The power here is analogous to that of telepathy but it is not identical.  Telepathy entails the tuning in of one mind with another, and necessitates their being en rapport.  This faculty of the trained seer is more in the nature of an act of the will and the manipulation of certain forces whereby he can instantly see what he wants in any aura at any time.

The subject of his investigation may be attuned to him or not; through intense meditation and the use of the will faculty thought images stand revealed.  This power is a dangerous one to use and is only permitted to trained disciples.

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20. As however the object of those thoughts is not apparent to the perceiver, he sees only the thought and not the object.  His meditation excludes the tangible.

All that he is "awake" to in his meditation is thought substance, his own chitta (or mind-stuff) and that of others.

It is the inherent activity of this chitta which is the cause of the eventual appearing of forms, tangible and objective, on the physical plane.

Everything that appears is the result of a subjective happening.  All that is exists in the mind of the thinker, not in the sense that is usually understood but in the sense that thought sets in motion certain currents of force.  These currents of force gradually sweep into shape forms which correspond to the thinker's idea and those forms persist as long as the mind of the thinker is on them and disappear when he "takes his mind off" them.

It is the nature of the thought force or current which is perceived through concentrated meditation.  The form which will be ultimately produced does not interest the seer.  He knows from the cause what the inevitable effect will be.

21. By concentrated meditation upon the distinction between form and body, those properties of the body which make it visible to the human eye are negated (or withdrawn) and the yogi can render himself invisible.

This is one of the most difficult of the sutras to the western thinker for it involves certain recognitions [281] which are foreign to the occident.  It involves primarily the recognition of the etheric or vital body and its functions as the attractive force holding the dense physical vehicle in shape.  Through this etheric substratum the physical body is realized as a coherent whole and its objectivity is observable.  This vital body is the true form from the standpoint of the occultist and not the dense tangible sheath.

The yogi, through concentration and meditation, has acquired the power to center his consciousness in the true or spiritual man and to control the thinking principle.  It is an occult law that "as a man thinketh, so is he" and it is equally true occultly that "where a man thinketh there is he."  At will the trained seer can withdraw his consciousness from the physical plane and center it on the mental.  At will he can "shut off the light" and when that is the case visibility is negated and (from the standpoint of the human eye) he disappears.  He also becomes intangible from the point of view of touch, and inaudible from the standpoint of hearing.  It is this fact that demonstrates the reality of the hypothesis that there is nothing but energy of some form or other, and that that energy is triple; in the East they call the nature of energy sattvic, rajasic, or tamasic.  That is translated as follows:

Sattva	rhythm	spirit	life
Rajas	mobility	soul	light
Tamas	inertia	body	substance

All are differentiations in time and space of the one eternal primordial spirit-essence.  It may [282] be suggested that the modern western correspondences are to be found in the terms:

Energy	spirit	life
Force	soul	light
Matter	form	substance

The outstanding characteristic of spirit (or energy) is the life-principle, that mysterious something which causes all things to be and to persist.  The outstanding characteristic of the soul (or of force) is light.  It brings into visibility that which exists.

The outstanding characteristic of living matter is that it is that which "sub-stands" or is found back of the objective body; and provides the true form.  It should be remembered here that the basis of all occult teaching and of all phenomena is to be found in the words:

"Matter is the vehicle for the manifestation of soul on this plane of existence; and soul is the vehicle on a higher turn of the spiral for the manifestation of spirit."  (Secret Doctrine I. 80.)

When the soul (or force) withdraws itself out of the matter aspect (the tangible objective form), that form is no longer to be seen.  It disappears, and temporarily is dissipated.  At present this can be adequately accomplished by the seer through a concentration of his consciousness in the ego, the spiritual man or soul, and (through the use of the thinking principle and an act of the will) his withdrawal of the etheric body from the dense physical.  This is covered by the word "abstraction" and entails:

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1. A gathering together of the life or vital forces of the body into the physical plane nerve centres up the spine,

2. Their direction up the spine to the head,

3. Their concentration there and subsequent abstraction along the thread or sutratma, via the pineal gland and the brahmarandra,

4. The seer then stands in his true form, the etheric body, which is invisible to the human eye.  As etheric vision develops in the race this will necessitate a further abstraction, then the seer will likewise withdraw the vital and luminous principles (the qualities of sattva and of rajas) out of the etheric body and stand in his kamic or astral body and thus be also etherically invisible.  However, that time is still distant.

W. Q. Judge, in his commentary, makes certain interesting remarks, as follows:  "Another great difference between this philosophy and modern science is here indicated.  The schools of today lay down the rule that if there is a healthy eye in line with the rays of light reflected from an object—such as a human body—the latter will be seen, and that no action of the mind of the person looked at can inhibit the functions of the optic nerves and retina of the onlooker.  But the ancient Hindus held that all things are seen by reason of that differentiation of Satwa—one of the three great qualities composing all things—which is manifested as luminosity, operating in conjunction with the eye, which is also a manifestation of Satwa in another aspect.  The two must conjoin; the absence of luminosity [284] or its being disconnected from the seer's eye will cause a disappearance.  And as the quality of luminosity is completely under the control of the ascetic, he can, by the process laid down, check it, and thus cut off from the eye of the other an essential element in the seeing of any object."

This entire process is only possible as the result of concentrated and one pointed meditation, and hence is impossible to the man who has not passed through the long discipline and training involved in the work of gaining control of the thinking principle and setting up that direct alignment and functioning which is possible when the thinker on his own plane, the mind, and the brain, are all aligned and coordinated via the sutratma, thread or magnetic silver cord.

22. Karma (or effects) are of two kinds:  immediate karma or future karma.  By perfectly concentrated meditation on these, the yogi knows the term of his experience in the three worlds.  This knowledge comes also from signs.

This sutra can be somewhat elucidated if read in connection with Sutra 18 of Book III.  The karma referred to here deals primarily with the present life of the aspirant or seer.  He knows that every event in that life is the effect of a previous cause, initiated by himself in an early incarnation; he knows also that every act of the present life must produce an effect (to be worked [285] out in another life) unless it is done in such a way that:

1. The effect is immediate and culminates within the scope of the present life time,

2. The effect involves no Karma, for the act has been done from a selfless motive and carried out with complete detachment.  He then produces the effect desired in accordance with the law but it carries no consequences for himself.

When the seer enters into incarnation in a life wherein only a few more effects remain to be worked out, and when all that he initiates is freed from karma, then he can set a term to his life experience and he knows that the day of liberation is at hand.  Through meditation and ability to function as the ego he can arrive at the world of causes, and he knows therefore what acts must be performed to release the few remaining effects.  Through strict attention to the motive underlying every act of the present life he obviates the necessity for their effects to tie him in any way to the wheel of rebirth.  Thus he consciously and intelligently nears his goal and every deed, act and thought is governed by direct knowledge, and in no way chains him.

The signs or portents referred to, relate primarily to the mental world, where the real man dwells.  Through an understanding of three things:

a. Numbers,

b. Colours,

c. Vibrations,

the seer becomes aware of the freedom of his [286] aura from "death producing" effects.  He knows there is nothing more written, symbolically, in the records which can bring him back to the three worlds, and therefore "by signs" his path is seen to be clear.

This has been expressed for us in the ancient writings found in the Masters' archives as follows:

"When the star with five points shines with clarity and no forms are seen within its points, the way is clear.

When the triangle encloses naught but light, the path is freed for the passing of the pilgrim.

When within the aura of the pilgrim the many forms die out and colours three are seen, then the road is freed from that which might obstruct.

When thoughts call not to forms and when no shadows are reflected, the thread provides a way direct from the circle to the center.

From that point of rest, no return is possible.  The term of necessary experience in the three worlds is at an end.  No karma then can draw the freed spirit back to earth for further lessons, or the working out of prior causes.  He may, however, continue or resume his work of service in the three worlds, without ever really leaving his true home in the subtler realms and higher spheres of consciousness.

23. Union with others is to be gained through one-pointed meditation upon the three states of feeling—compassion, tenderness and dispassion.

Some understanding of this will come if the student will compare this sutra with one in the [287] first book (Sutra 33).  The union here dealt with marks a step further than the previous attainment.  In that, the nature of the aspirant is being trained to harmonious peaceful association with all around him.  In this, he is taught to identify himself with all other selves through concentration upon what are sometimes called the "three states of feeling."  These are:

a. Compassion, the antithesis of passion which is selfish and grasping,

b. Tenderness, the antithesis of self-centredness, which is always hard and self-absorbed,

c. Dispassion, the antithesis of lust or desire.

These three states of feeling when understood and entered into, put a man en rapport with the soul of all men.

Through compassion, he is no longer occupied with his own selfish interests but enters into and suffers with his brother; he can adapt his vibration so that it responds to his brother's need; he is enabled to share in all that is taking place in his brother's heart.  This he does through the keying up of his own vibration to respond to the love nature of his own ego, and through that unifying principle all hearts everywhere are open to him.

Through tenderness, that compassionate understanding works out into practical expression.  His activities are no longer in-going and self-centred but are out-going and inspired by an unselfish heartfelt desire to serve and aid.  This state of feeling is sometimes called mercy, and characterizes all the servers of the race.  It involves active [288]help, unselfish intent, wise judgment and loving activity.  It is free from any wish for reward or recognition.  This has been beautifully covered by H. P. Blavatsky in The Voice of the Silence in the following words:

"Let thy Soul lend its ear to every cry of pain like as the lotus bares its heart to drink the morning sun.

Let not the fierce sun dry one tear of pain before thyself hast wiped it from the sufferer's eye.

But let each burning human tear drop on thy heart and there remain; nor ever brush it off until the pain that caused it is removed.

These tears, O thou of heart most merciful, these are the streams that irrigate the fields of charity immortal."

Through dispassion, the aspirant and server stands free from the karmic results of his activity on behalf of others.  It is, as we know, our own desire which binds us to the three worlds and to others.  "Binding to" is of a different nature to "union with."  One is full of desire and causes obligation and effects; the other is free from desire, produces "identification with" and has no binding effects in the three worlds.  Dispassion has more of a mental quality than the other two.  It might be noted that dispassion brings in the quality of lower mind, tenderness is the emotional result of dispassionate compassion and involves the kamic or astral principle, whilst compassion concerns also the physical plane for it is the working out into physical manifestation of the two other states.  It is the practical ability to identify oneself with another in all the three world conditions.

This union is the result of the egoic oneness brought down into full activity in the three worlds through meditation.

24. Meditation, one-pointedly centred upon the power of the elephant, will awaken that force or light.

This sutra has given rise to much discussion and its usual interpretation has given the idea that meditation upon the elephant will give the strength of the elephant.  Many commentators infer from these words, that meditation upon other animals will give their characteristics.

It should be remembered that this is a scientific text-book, having for its objective the following:

1. Training the aspirant so that he can enter into subtler realms.

2. Giving him power over the mind, so that it is his instrument to use as he will as an organ of vision into the higher worlds and as a transmitter or intermediary between the soul and the brain.

3. Awakening the light in the head so that the aspirant can become a radiant centre of light and illumine all problems, and through its light see light everywhere.

4. Arousing the fires of the body so that the centres become active, luminous, connected and coordinated.

5. Producing a coordination between:

a. The ego or soul on its own plane,

b. The brain via the mind,

c. The centres.  By an act of the will they can then all be thrown into uniform activity.

6. This effected, the fire at the base of the spine, dormant hitherto, will be aroused and can proceed upward with security, blending ultimately with the fire or light in the head, and so pass out, having "burned out all dross, and left all channels clear" for the use of the ego.

7. Developing thus the powers of the soul; the siddhis, higher and lower, so that an efficient server of the race is produced.

When these seven points are borne in mind, it is interesting to note that the symbol of the centre at the base of the spine, the muladhara centre, is the elephant.  It is the symbol of strength, of concentrated power, of the great moving force, which once aroused, carries all before it.  It is for our fifth root race, the symbol of the most powerful and mighty of the animal kingdom.  It is a picture of the transmutation or sublimation of the animal nature, for at the base of the spine is the elephant and in the head is the thousand petalled lotus hiding Vishnu, seated in the centre.  Thus is the animal nature carried upward into heaven.

By meditation upon this "elephant force," the power of the third aspect, the energy of matter itself and therefore of God the Holy Ghost or of Brahma, is aroused and conjoined to that of the second or consciousness aspect, to soul energy, that of Vishnu, the second aspect, the Christ force.  This produces the perfect at-one-ment, or union between soul and body, which is the true goal of Raja Yoga.

Will the students of this science remember here, [291]  however, that these forms of one-pointed meditation are only permitted after the eight means of yoga (dealt with in Book II) have been followed.

25. Perfectly concentrated meditation upon the awakened light will produce the consciousness of that which is subtle, hidden or remote.

Throughout all teachings of an occult or mystical nature reference is found frequently to what is called the "Light." The Bible has many such passages as have all the Scriptures of the world.  Many terms are applied to this but space only permits us to consider those to be found in the various translations of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.  They might be enumerated as follows:

a. The awakened inner Light (Johnston),

b. The Light in the head (Johnston),

c. The Light of immediate cognition  (intuitive knowledge) (Tatya),

d. That effulgent Light (Vivekananda),

e. The Light from the top of the head (Vivekananda),

f. The coronal Light (Ganganatha Jha),

g. The Light of the luminous disposition (Ganganatha Jha),

h. The inner Light (Dvivedi),

i. The mind, full of Light (Dvivedi),

j. The radiance in the head (Woods),

k. The luminosity of the central organ (Rama Prasad),

1. The Light of the higher sense-activity (Rama Prasad).

From a study of these terms it will be apparent [292] that within the physical vehicle there is to be found a point of luminosity which (when contacted) will pour the light of the spirit upon the path of the disciple, thus illuminating the way, revealing the solution of all problems, and enabling him to stand as a light bearer to others.

This light is in the nature of an internal radiance, its position is in the head, in the neighborhood of the pineal gland, and it is produced by the activity of the soul.

A good deal of discussion has been aroused, by the term "central organ" associated with this light.  Some commentators refer this to the heart, others to the head.  Technically neither of them are entirely right, for to the trained adept the "central organ" is the causal vehicle, the karana sarira, the body of the ego, the sheath of the soul.  This is the middle of the "three periodical vehicles" which the divine Son of God discovers and utilizes in the course of his long pilgrimage.  These find their analogies in the three temples found in the Christian Bible:

1. The transitory ephemeral tabernacle in the wilderness, typical of the soul in physical incarnation, persisting for one life.

2. The more permanent and beautiful temple of Solomon, typical of the soul body or causal vehicle, of longer duration and persisting for aeons, and increasingly revealed in its beauty upon the Path up to the third initiation.

3. The, as yet, unrevealed and inconceivably beautiful, temple of Ezekiel, the symbol of the sheath of the spirit, the home of the Father, one [293] of the "many mansions," the "auric egg" of the occultist.

In the science of yoga, which has to be wrought out and mastered in the physical body the term "central organ" is applied to the head or the heart, and the distinction is one of time primarily.  The heart in the earlier stages of unfoldment upon the Path is the central organ; later it is the organ in the head where the true light has its abiding place.

In the process of unfoldment, heart development precedes head development.  The emotional nature and the senses unfold prior to the mind, as can be seen if we study humanity as a whole.  The heart centre opens before the head centre.  Love must ever be developed before power can be safely used.  Therefore the light of love must be functioning before the light of life can be consciously employed.

As the lotus centre of the heart opens and reveals the love of God, through meditation a synchronous unfoldment takes place within the head.  The twelve petalled lotus in the head (which is the higher correspondence of the heart centre, and the intermediary between the twelve petalled egoic lotus on its own plane and the head centre) awakens.  The pineal gland is gradually brought from a state of atrophy to full functioning activity and the centre of consciousness is transferred out of the emotional nature into the illuminated mind consciousness.  This marks the transition which the mystic has to make onto the path of the occultist, keeping, as he always does, his mystical [294]knowledge and awareness but adding to it the intellectual knowledge and conscious power of the trained occultist and yogi.

From the point of power in the head the yogi directs all his affairs and undertakings, throwing upon all events, circumstances and problems the "awakened inner light."  In this he is guided by the love, insight and wisdom which is his through the transmutation of his love nature, the awakening of his heart centre and the transference of the fires of the solar plexus to the heart.

It might be asked very pertinently here how this junction between head and heart, producing the luminosity of the central organ and the emission of the inner radiance can be brought about.  Briefly stated, it is produced as follows: