The third stage is meditation. This stage has nothing to do with the mind. This is the experience of the consciousness. Meditation is diving deep within oneself, and soaring upwards into the higher spheres, expanding wider than the universe. It is in these experiences that one attains the bliss of meditation.

Man ought to turn every day of his life into a meditation. Whatever his work may be, he must do it, but at the same time he should meditate. Then he will get to know the secret meaning of his work, and in this way he will turn his life from a worldly life into a spiritual one. This applies to everyone, whether he works in a garden or in a factory, or elsewhere. As soon as he knows the appropriate meditation for the work he is doing he will develop, and all his work will become a meditation for him. And if he achieves this, the wages he earns will be nothing compared with the reward he will gain. When his mind is concentrated a person does his work well, and even better than others.

In a station in Rajputana I once saw a telegraph clerk accepting telegrams; while he was doing his work he was meditating at the same time. When it was my turn I said to him, "I have come to give you this telegram, but I marvel at you, it is wonderful how you are keeping up your meditation during your work." He looked at me and smiled; and we became friends.

If it were not for the spirit, work would be a nuisance at a time when life's needs are so great and when people have so little rest. Thus the best thing for a man is to meditate in his everyday life; if it is done properly he will reap the benefit of it not only from the earth, but from heaven. Meditation means the soul's endeavor towards spiritual unfoldment, and this endeavor may be practiced in different ways in order to suit one's profession and work.

People always ask what benefit they will get; and they are more concerned with benefit today than ever before. In no age have people been so anxious to make profits as today, and they will give their life for it. It does not mean that a man today is less inclined to make a sacrifice; he is as ready to make sacrifices as a thousand years ago or even more so; only, he must be sure of what he can get by it. He is so concerned with gain that he always has gain in his view. Even when there is something that does not show immediate profit, and when he does not quite know what or how much profit there might be, he thinks, "Well, perhaps this is something I can get without sacrifice." It is strange.

When people go to a voice-producer in order to develop their voice they work six, nine years and listen to everything the voice-producer says. They will do anything to develop their voice. But when they come to a spiritual man they ask him whether he can tell them something about concentration at the tea-table; taking tea they ask, "What about meditation?" And they want the answer in one sentence!

But it is not gained in this way. This knowledge is attained in accordance with one's ideal about it. It is greater than religion, more sacred than anything in the world. The knowledge of self is like union with God. Self-realization is spiritual attainment. Can this be gained by a shallow conception of it? It is the deepest "thing one can reach, the most valuable thing to attain to. It is for this reason that in the East a person does not look for it in a book, nor does a real teacher write a book on these things. He will write about philosophy; he prepares minds to appreciate his teaching; but he does not tell how to do it.

To my greatest surprise, while travelling in the West I saw people looking for books of this kind, wanting to buy books about Yoga, Yogis, spiritual attainment. Many have lost their mind by reading such books. They cannot keep balance. Trying to do what is in the book is just like going into the drug-store to get some Yoga-pills in order to attain spirituality! There are also many who look into the mirror to become clairvoyant, who gaze into a crystal in order to see the depth of life. They make light of something that is highest and best and most sacred.

This path can only be pursued by those who are serious. The ones who go first to some society, then to an institute, then to an occultist group, do not know what they are doing and what they are looking for. High knowledge is not to be got by going to twenty places and they will be disappointed in the end, because they went into it lightly.

There is a story of a Brahmin to whom a Moslem said, "I am a worshipper of God who is formless, and here you are praying to this idol of God." The Brahmin said, "If I have faith in this idol it will answer me. But if you have no faith, even your God in heaven will not hear you."

If we do not attach ourselves seriously to things then those things laugh at us. Even as regards the things of the world, if we take them seriously we will achieve serious results.

There cannot be anything more serious than spiritual attainment. If a person takes that lightly he does not know what he is doing. It is better not to go into these things at all, rather than go and come back empty-handed. To come back disappointed from the spiritual path before reaching the final goal is the worst possible thing. To go bankrupt does not matter. One can pick up again what one has lost in the world. But the man who has embarked on the spiritual path and has turned back is to be pitied. It is the greatest loss and can never be repaired.