Retire into the SILENCE. Shut off all thoughts and purposes relating
to the external world. Try to realise that you, the Real Ego are not
the body but that it is a mere garment you have put on for functioning
on the physical plane and which you shall put off some day. Try to
realise that you are immortal and that although a thousand bodies might
come and go, you, the Ego, shall be as alive as ever. These are your
shadows--your personalities. What dies and is born is a mirage--a
mere phantasm--which you materialise for certain purposes. All these
purposes centralise in one POTENTIALISED PURPOSE--the conquest of matter.
Realise that you the Ego, have your dwelling in Supernal Regions--on the
spiritual plane--with your Father-in-Heaven--but that you have come down
into matter that you may find the fullest possible objective expression.
Realise that you, the Ego, are a differentiated centre of consciousness
in the Great Consciousness--THE ABSOLUTE--EGO--SUM of the entire Universe
with all its gross and subtle manifestations--that you are endowed with
all the powers and attributes of the Absolute Self. Realise that you are
not the emotional and passional manifestations--surging up in your
personality. These are subject to the law of Flux and Rhythm and must be
brought under the control of Reason and Will--the balancing, equating
principle of mind. Realise that you are not the mind nor the intellect,
but that you exercise this function in order to analyse the external
manifestations of nature and study same. Realise that you are pure
Consciousness, Bliss and Existence in your essential nature--one with the
all-life. Realise that the form side of manifestation is but a
concentration, a precipitation within you. Your subjective nature is one
with the subjective self of others--an inlet for the influx and
efflux of the GREAT SUB-CONSCIOUS. Realise thus your Unity with
All-Life-manifesting objectively as Universal Brotherhood of all living
beings and the perfect recognition of the All-Father-Mother, the Great
Cosmic Power and Intelligence known as God whose intelligence
all-blissfulness and existence are ever pouring into each Unit of
Individualised Divine Energy and evolving through nature. And, student,
when you meditate daily that you are neither the body nor the emotions
nor the mind, you shall then unfold the consciousness of the "I am I"
that which rules the personality that which has been called
Soul-Consciousness. You shall then be Chaitanya-Spiritually awake.
You shall then know no Fear. Fear shall drop away like a worn-out
sheath. All fear-thoughts are due to undeveloped race-consciousness
which reacts upon individual consciousness and is stamped more or less
upon every atom of matter. You 'fear' because you think you are the
body. When you realise that you can command as many bodies for your
use as you like; when you realise in your heart of hearts that you are a
Spiritual Being expressing and energising through material personalities;
when you realise that you cannot die, fear shall be afraid of you and
drop tormenting and teasing you. Fear resides in the matter-fed
mind--that mind which has been grown and matured by the reception and
re-action upon external sensations and stimuli--what has been called
the objective mind. This mind identifies itself with the form, the body.
It has an incorrigible determination towards the form-side, the
concrete-side of existence. It sees nothing but the body and is darkened
by the forces of _Maya_. It sees nothing but separation. Yes, it is the
matter-fed mind. People with a development of this side of consciousness
are invariably selfish; have generally small, conical eyes, understand
nothing, but the welfare of the body. They are subject to the fear and
the delight in making others fear them. This mind needs illumination from
the soul, the Subjective Man, the "I am I" side of consciousness. It is
not that you are a body and have a soul--this is the dirty conviction of
the matter-fed mind--but you are a soul and have a body. The dawn of
Soul-Consciousness makes a man a Force for good. He himself is Fearless.
His is the voice of strength that does not crush and dominate but that
puts warmth, life, energy, hope and indomitable courage into cold and
despairing hearts. Some are born with this Soul-Consciousness. Do not
think that I am feeding with the theories of eccentricity. Often when a
boy playing with others the thought would strike me hard, "Are you the
same that is running and jumping and shouting." I would stop, looking
blankly ahead. A feeling of confusion would come over me and I would
forget everything. I could recall the feeling distinctly and vividly. Now
I understand. These were flashes of Soul-Consciousness unfolded in a
past life and struggling for "recognition" in this life. Such men face
DEATH for themselves calmly. They know they can't die. Such men are
incapable of sustained hatred. They too have their physiognomical
signs and distinctions. They represent an advanced order of intellect.
And, lastly, when the full blaze of realisation comes, your one object in
life shall be to bestow your sense of freedom on others. You shall
not be able to mock and smile calmly at the pain, the ignorance to
imperfections of your brother-man. You shall realise what it is to 'feel'
for humanity, yea, even for animals. You shall glimpse, in some measures,
the great feeling of pain that rent the hearts of the Buddas, the
Christs, the Ramakrishnas, the Vivekanandas of this world. They suffered,
they felt for humanity. And when undeveloped humanity forced them to the
Cross; they bore it in the same spirit in which the gentle nurse bears
the blows and abuses of the disease-racked patient. "Father forgive them,
for they know not what they do." Verily to know all is to forgive all.
This Soul-Consciousness is as much yours as that of anyone. It comes
through meditation on the Infinite, and the Formless Absolute--the
Over-soul of the universe--the Brahman of the Vedanta--the Self of the
philosophers--the Atman of the Yogis--the personal--impersonal God
of the devotee--and, last, but not least, the humanity of the
humanitarian.