Once upon a time there lived a certain sage in Hyderabad, and people used to go to him for help. But he never came out to see them unless he was in a mood to do so. So after a while people got to think of him as so disagreeable, that only those would seek an interview who had great faith and confidence in his power.

One day a person came and said; "My case is going to the court, but I have no money, and so if I lose the case it will be hard for my children." So the sage asked him, "Tell me what you are going to say to the judge." The sage then wrote on a piece of paper, "I see nothing in this case, and will dismiss it." Then he told the man to go home and not trouble himself any further.

In due time the man went to court and answered all the questions put to him. The judge asked various questions of the barrister on the opposite side, and finally wrote down his opinion - using the selfsame words which the sage had written! What had the sage done? He had engraved on the mind of this judge the selfsame words that he himself had written down.

What a wealth of power is latent in man, and yet his lack of confidence bars him from it! Sometimes he is afraid to offend his religious belief; sometimes he is afraid of unknown dangers; sometimes he may think he is offending friends, enemies, people in high places. But we are in this world not just to roam about, and eat, and drink, and sleep, and amuse ourselves, without ever getting to know and understand this world around us, to understand ourselves, to understand life, the powers latent in us, the inspiration and unused power. We may have become wholly absorbed in some power in our daily life, but this does not mean we are to go no further towards the realization of our real self. No, if on the road along which we pursue our real self, we meet with some realities and powers not before suspected, surely it is worth our while to take notice of them, to understand them and use them for a good purpose.

Mystics understand that a certain moral evolution is necessary before a person can attain a certain power. So they do not teach it indiscriminately - not out of desire for monopoly, or to hold something back in their possession. What will a child do if you give him a loaded rifle to play with? He does not understand what killing means. Yes, if we stop to examine our aims, aspirations, pursuits in life to which we attach so much importance, perhaps we shall discover that we are not very far removed from the children.

The world as a whole is not prepared or ready to use spiritual powers. The sages and mystics will ask: "will he do real justice to the power if he had it?" This explains why they select a few awakened souls, and leave the children to go on playing. They think it is a sin to take little children away from their play when they wish to go on playing - why make them grave, serious, anxious, sorrowful? Surely, it is better just now to give them more toys - the occupations they are so engrossed in, the sports they so much love.

In the East, it is regarded as a sin to wake a sleeping person. Let him rest. He is comfortable. It is not time yet for him to wake up. So, if you went and woke him up you would make him unhappy, and even resentful. Let him go on sleeping till the time comes when he will wake up naturally. A person is asleep when he says there is no such thing as telepathy, no such thing as heaven, no such thing as God, and so on. Let such a one be. He is not ready.

So mystics do not openly talk about mysticism, but keep their knowledge for the few who have woken up. And when a person wakes up he will see for himself. The only purpose which the sage or mystic fulfills is to take his hand when this happens. "It is now his time to wake; I must give him help." This is called, "initiation," and from that time a person is ready to go into the mysteries of life.

A person may ask: "What is the sign that one is ready to awake from sleep?" It is this: When a person begins to think "all I have learnt and understood seems so unreal; there are some realities which I am vaguely aware of, and yet compared with them all I have studied and done seems to be of no account!" As the dawn comes after the night of darkness, so he sees light coming; but he has not yet seen the sun! He is only beginning to be awake.

People think life is simple; the things that are good they think good; the things that are bad just seem "bad", and so on. But the time comes when a person asks himself in a bewildered manner; "Are those really bad, are they really good? Is the ideal of these people really high, or really low?" He is beginning to see things in a different light. He sees joy in sorrow, sorrow in joy, right in wrong, wrong in right, low in the high and high in the low.

At this point, he does not know where to turn, so he has to speak to himself, and unlearn what he has learnt all his life. He discovers that there is some knowledge in the light of which everything appears the opposite to its previous appearance. In fact, everything is different. He is like a person who admired the theatrical performance, and finds how different everything is next morning. On wakening to the day, how different the view of the world! Before the awakening, the person with his little knowledge thinks he knows so much, but now his pride is finished. He finds that all he has hitherto known is useless. He has to begin all over again. But this is the very time when inspiration and power both come.

The power of concentration is the means by which to acquire not only the power of telepathy, but will-power, moral power, inspirational power, moral courage, mental strength, physical strength, and so for all the different kinds of development in life it is the first stage, and maybe it is the last stage, when the person's eyes open to real light.

There are three different steps in concentration: observation, concentration and vision.

Observation is developed by singleness of glance. For instance, if I look at a person, I can see that one person much better than if I looked at many persons. It is like this with everything in life. The first step in learning mysticism is just this to develop our observation. We are always looking at a hundred thousand things around us, and never study one properly at all. To understand and know a thing better you keep looking at it. If you keep looking at everything, you look at nothing! Such is the "law of observation."
The next step - concentration - implies steadiness of mind. You cannot concentrate until you have made the external part steady. Just think! Can you keep your eye in one place for a few moments, without moving it? Can you sit in one posture without fidgeting? Why, you cannot sit still even for a photographer. This shows us that the vehicle given us to control and utilize is not completely in our power. If the lowest vehicle we have is not in our power, though this is the simplest thing to control, how can our mind be in our control? How can we acquire more pure and more powerful thoughts?

Various postures have been recommended to enable a person to acquire control. The body has to be made one's obedient servant first. When the body has been subdued, the mind will learn obedience from it, because order teaches order. The inner self cannot be in order if the external self is not in order - for our mind is always affected by the body.
The third step is vision. When concentration has been mastered, the vision is clear. When the vision is clear, you can aim clearly, like a person who has learnt to aim a ball at a certain spot, and hit it. If he does not throw the ball properly how can it reach the goal? To hold the ball in one's hand and aim it at and hit the desired goal, one must master three things - observation, concentration and vision.

Q. Should everybody learn mysticism?
A. The only difficulty in this is man-made. It is not of God's making. The higher life is so much simpler than life on the surface of the earth. But man does not know what he is. He does not know he is a drop on the surface, and yet that he is an ocean in his innermost part - that there is nothing that is not in him. A person who says to himself; I do not possess that faculty; I cannot put up with that; I am sorry but I could not think of such a thing; and so forth - well, all these ideas are his imagination, part of his confusion of thought, and his lack of understanding what he is.

If a person understood what he is he would never say "I cannot do that." Instead, he would become the real man, - what man ought to be. The mystic says "cannot" only rarely, and believes the word still less often. This is the one thing he does not believe in: "I have not", "I cannot." When God is with you, everything is with you; when God is in you, everything is in you - inspiration, knowledge, light all things are within you.

But if you confuse yourself; if you put yourself into darkness; if you find joy in confusion, - you may do so. But you inherit from the heavenly Father His inspiration, His light, His power. You inherit might from Almighty God; you inherit light from the Light of the Universe. Therefore you are blessed with both if you can only open your eyes and see the Blessing! God bless you.