The third way of prayer is still greater. It is the way followed by philosophers and mystics. Advancement in this spiritual path is gradual. One cannot use this third way without first having used the other two kinds of prayer.

The third kind of prayer is that of Invocation of the Nature of God, of the Truth of His Being. These are symbolic names. In their meaning there is a subtlety. God's nature is explained in this form of prayer; He is analyzed. The benefit of this prayer is perceived when one has arrived on this plane and the benefit is that he has passed from being a human being -- as in the first prayer -- through being a holy being, as in the second prayer -- to become a God-conscious man. Why? Because this third prayer is in order to bring man still closer to God. Not only does this prayer draw him closer to God, but it makes him forget his limited self until it is entirely forgotten in the end, leaving only the Self of God -- the only ideal and aim of all Teachers.

Man has not arrived at his ideal goal until he has used prayer to help him to this stage.

When we look at things from a mystical point of view, we shall find that there is one single straight line, which is called Aim. That line represents the line of the life of any being; the upper end is God, the lower end is man. The line is one. Though that line is one to the mystic and the philosopher, in the realization of the Truth, yet the line is unlimited at the upper end, limited at the other. One end is immortality, the other is mortality.

The innermost yearning of life is to see the ends brought together. It is the third prayer that draws the end which is man near to the end which is God. When he invokes the Names of God, man forgets his limitations, and he impresses his soul with the thought of the Unlimited. This brings him to the ideal of Unlimitedness. This is the secret of life's attainment.

Man is the picture or reflection of his imagination. He is as large as he thinks himself, as great as he thinks himself, as small as he thinks himself. If he thinks he is incapable, he remains incapable; if he thinks himself foolish, he will be foolish, and will remain foolish; if he thinks himself wise, he will be wise, and become wiser every moment; if he thinks himself mighty, he is mighty.

Those who have proved themselves to be the greatest warriors, where did their might come from? It was from their thought, their feeling that "I am a mighty one." The idea of "mighty one" was impressed on their soul, and the soul became might. The poet had poetry impressed on his soul, and so the soul became a poet. Whatever is impressed on man's soul, with that the soul becomes endowed, and that the soul will become. If the devil impresses himself on man's soul, he will become a devil; if God impresses Himself on man's soul, he will turn into God!