There is a trace of the meditative to be found in all ages, and yet no one can fully explain in words why people perform their meditations or what they experience while doing so. In order to make this more tangible I would like to say that life can be divided into two sections: the outer life and the life within.

There are very few even among the intellectual who will readily agree when I say that there exists a life within, since their intellect has kept them occupied with the life outside. They have only known the life outside; the experience they have had of the outer life by the help of reason and logic is their only experience, and it is this which they call their learning or knowledge. If one speaks of anything else to them they will say, "This is a mystification, it is confusing, what we would like as proof is a phenomenon!"

Besides, words can say so little about something that is only experienced by the meditative. How can a person who has had a certain pain, a pain which is not experienced by anyone else, explain to another how it feels? It is the one who experiences the pain who knows what it is. Therefore we can put into words all fine experiences in life and yet express so little of them.

Repose

In order to simplify this idea I would like to divide these two aspects, the meditative and the worldly, into two categories. One is connected with action, the other with repose. Much as action is needed in life, repose is just as necessary; and sometimes repose is even more necessary than action. All such complaints as nervous illnesses and disorders of the mind come from lack of repose. This realm of life which is explored by meditation is the world of repose. And as one can say that by a certain kind of work one has gathered this or that experience, or has had a certain success, or has added a particular aspect to one's knowledge, so one can also say that by this method of repose one has acquired a certain strength, illumination, and peace.

And when we go a little further we will find that it is this concept of repose which the wise turn into a method, considering it most sacred, for by this process they attain to something much more valuable than anything our actions can bring us.

1. Concentration

The first step on this path of meditation may be called concentration. This means the ability to control our mind, which is sometimes active with our will and sometimes without it. What we call imagination is an automatic working of the mind, and what we call thought is an action of mind and will. Therefore such words as "imaginative" and "thoughtful" distinguish the condition of the mind: that we either allow our mind to work as it wishes, or use our mind to work according to our will.

Another thing that can be accomplished by concentration is the following. The mind is a storehouse of all the impressions that one has gathered through the five senses; and the most wonderful phenomenon that one can perceive is that every one of those impressions is at hand as soon as the mind asks it to present itself before one. They instantly come to be used. For instance an artist wants to paint a wonderful picture. He would like it to be a picture of a man, but at the same time an unusual one. As soon as he closes his eyes images of the horns of an animal, of the wings of a bird, and of the body of a fish present themselves, and then he paints a figure with horns, wings, and the body of a fish, combining all into a fabulous whole. Now what would one call this action? This action is an action of the will of the artist, who wanted to produce something wonderful, and the mind was instantly ready to supply from the storehouse all that the artist wished.

Another side of this question is that imagination also helps concentration. As soon as a person has imagined a running stream, he also imagines the rocks near by and the beautiful scenery which is round the spring. From this we learn that concentration is not only something that is practiced by a mystic or a philosopher, but everybody--in business, in his art, in industry--practices concentration to some extent. At the same time it is concentration which makes a person a genius, it is concentration which brings success, and it is concentration which is the mystery of the accomplishment of all things.

2. Contemplation

And when one goes a little further on the same path one finds that there is contemplation, which means the retaining of the same thought or thought-picture. The distinction between concentration and contemplation is that the former is the composition of a form, and the latter is the retaining of this impression, of this form. It is difficult to explain to what extent the power of contemplation works; those who are acquainted with the working of contemplation can only call its result a phenomenon. The reason is that the mind is creative because the divine spirit is creative, and became the divine spirit is creative therefore the mind inherits, as its divine heritage, the faculty of creating. No one, however material, will deny the fact that all beauty and art, through whatever realm it is manifested, through science or industry, is a phenomenon of the mind. All the wonderful things made in the world in the way of inventions, of architecture, of art, have come as a phenomenon of the mind. But they are mostly the phenomena of an active mind, and one does not realize how great the phenomena are when produced by a controlled mind, controlled through concentration and contemplation.

3. Meditation

And when we proceed still further we come to the aspect we call meditation, an experience which is brought about by a perfect control of the mind and by rising above the action of the mind, an experience by which the inner side of life begins to reveal itself. For instance if you ask a person, "Tell me about your being, what you know about it", he will say, "I have a physical body composed of five senses, subject to sensation, pleasure, pain, decay, and disease. And if I have anything more, perhaps somewhere in my brain I have the faculty of thinking. Perhaps, as many scientists say, it is an impression in my brain of all the things I have seen; and that is what I know of my mind. If there is anything else I know about myself it is a feeling, which I may call love or sympathy, but I do not know where it is; perhaps it is a sensation like the other sensations which I perceive. Besides this I do not know anything about myself except the affairs that I have to attend to in my everyday life." This shows that the majority of people, and a very large majority, know very little about themselves; what they know about themselves is that limited part which cannot be compared with the part that is to be found within.

Should not this part then, which is much larger and of the greatest importance, be explored? And is it not great negligence on the part of man, which may be called sleep, that he goes on, day after day, without giving even a thought to that part of his being which is of much greater importance than the part he knows? In spite of all the wealth that one may earn, and in spite of all one's success and the rank and position that one may attain, one has lost a great deal if life is lost, and if that part of oneself is not found which is so much higher and greater, and which can be called sacred or the heritage of the divine Being. It is the inner self, and it can be explored by the path of meditation. When once this part of oneself is discovered then realization comes in the form of light, and this light becomes like the lantern of Aladdin, which was found with great difficulty, but when it was directed on to life it made life reveal itself.

In India there is an amusing story which illustrates this idea. A young lad was sent to school. He began his lessons with the other children, and the first lesson the teacher set him was the straight line, the figure "one." But whereas the others went on progressing, this child continued writing the same figure. After two or three days the teacher came up to him and said, "Have you finished your lesson?" He said, "No, I am still writing "one."" He went on doing the same thing, and when at the end of the week the teacher asked him again he said, "I have not yet finished it." The teacher thought he was an idiot and should be sent away, as he could not or did not want to learn.

At home the child continued with the same exercise, and the parents also became tired and disgusted. He simply said, "I have not yet learned it, I am learning it. When I have finished I shall take the other lessons." The parents said, "The other children are going on further, the school has given you up, and you do not show any progress; we are tired of you." And the lad thought with sad heart that as he had displeased his parents too he had better leave home. So he went into the wilderness and lived on fruits and nuts. After a long time he returned to his old school, and when he saw the teacher he said to him, "I think I have learned it. See if I have. Shall I write on this wall?" And when he made his sign the wall split in two.

What does this story tell us? It tells us that there is another direction of learning which is quite contrary to what we generally understand by learning. When this lad was taught to write "one", he could not see beyond "one." He thought: two is one and one. What is four? It is one and one and one and one. It was to this "one" that he put his mind, and when he went into the wilderness what was his contemplation? Every tree suggested the same figure "one" to him; every plant, everything in nature he saw as "one", because everything in nature is unique, and it is the uniqueness in nature which is the proof of the oneness behind it all. This symbolical story of the wall being split in two explains that when the meditative person has developed the sense of oneness, wherever he casts his glance, on a human being, on an object, it will open itself just as the wall opened into two, and it will show him its character, its nature, its secret, and its mystery. People who read occultism say that there are three eyes, and that the third is the inner eye. What does this mean? It means that the very two eyes we have turn from two into one. When a person meditates upon the One, and when he realizes One, then his eyes become one; and in becoming one this eye obtains such power that it pierces all things and knows all things. It is for this knowledge that the eye opens.

But now one might ask a question. Today we live in a world of struggle, where there is not only struggle to gain things of our choice and longing, but even the struggle for a living, the struggle for existence. What can one do under such conditions, and what shall we attain by coming to the realization about which I have spoken? The answer is that this difficulty of life which we experience just now is not a difficulty which arises from the conditions; it comes from our individual selves. It is we who cause this difficulty, it is not that the conditions have made it difficult for us. It is not true that the world is small and its population vast; the world would be large enough to accommodate a population ten times greater, if only man were as he ought to be, if he were humane, if his feelings towards others were what they should be. It is not that in this world there is a shortage of all that is good and beautiful and of all that we need. The shortage is in our hearts: we do not want others to have anything. And it is the culture of humanity which will bring about better conditions, and not this outer change with which many occupy themselves, thinking that through this change the condition of the world will improve.

Man experiences a kingliness of soul when he gets into touch with his inner being, and he experiences slavery, in spite of all that he may possess in life, if he has not come into touch with his inner self. But, one may say, can a meditative person not explain in words the knowledge that he receives, so that others can read such a book and thus acquire this knowledge? But I should like to say that of a man who had traveled to Venice gave an account of what he had seen there, it would entertain you for a moment, but it would not give you the same joy as you would experience by traveling to Venice yourself. That which a meditative person experiences in his meditation is not a speculation, neither is it a kind of conception or idea that a man can clothe in the form of poetry, that he can explain, that he can express.

Besides, what is our language made of? It is composed of names which were given to objects, to things that are intelligible to us. There are no words which can express that which is unintelligible; and the experience which is beyond words cannot be experienced by the help of explanations. When not even our everyday experiences such as gratefulness, sympathy, pity, devotion, can be explained in words, then such a feeling as is experienced by coming into the state of meditation, by being in communion with one's inner self, is so sacred that it can in no way be explained in words. That is why in the East this way is sought under the guidance of those who have trodden this path.

The Sufi Ideal

The word Sufi, although it comes from a Greek root which means "wisdom", has yet another meaning, which is from the Arabic, and that is "pure." One often wonders what this purity implies. In our everyday life we have corrupted many words, and we interpret such words according to our own understanding; thus many of us speak of goodness as purity, while others call moral character purity. But to a mystic purity means something quite different.

A mystic gives to purity its natural meaning. Pure water means that nothing is mixed with the water, that there is no other element in it, and therefore purity is that substance within oneself which is pure. As soon as this substance is realized one finds that all qualities such as good or bad, right or wrong, exist outside purity, since there is no goodness which is not touched by what may be called evil, nor is there any evil which has no touch of goodness. There is no wrong which has no right side to it, and there is no right which has not got a wrong side to it. Therefore as one comes to realize this purity one becomes reluctant to express an opinion about anything or anybody. It is always the foolish who are readiest to express their opinion about others; the wiser the person the less inclined he feels to form an opinion of anyone else. If he has to say anything about someone it is only good. Besides, no one who has once realized this purity tries to force his belief or his opinion upon another, because as soon as the purity which is within is realized, he no longer has an opinion which can be expressed in words.

There are three steps to this purity.

When a person takes the first step he distinguishes between right and wrong.
When he takes the second step he only sees the right and overlooks the wrong.
But when he takes the third step then his heart can see even the right of the wrong.

One might say that a realization such as this would upset the whole conception of right and wrong, and also the standard set by the nations or by religion. Yes, this is true; but at the same time keeping in harmony with the world, with those one lives with, does not mean that one should close one's eyes and not see the truth. It is for this reason that the Sufi says: do as the others do, live as the others live, think as the others think, but feel as you yourself feel and realize life as your soul guides you.

There is one sin, if ever sin existed, and it is expressed in the story of Adam. This sin becomes apparent from the time that the infant begins to come to childhood: the soul experiencing the kingship of infancy and beginning to feel "I", "I am separate from the others" -- that is the exile from the Garden of Eden. As soon as the soul begins to say "I" he is exiled from heaven, for all blessings belong to that state which the soul experienced before he claimed to be "I", a separate entity, separate from the others. It is because of this that man, whatever his position, whatever his situation in life, is not fully happy. The trouble of one may perhaps be greater than that of another, but both he who resides in heavenly palaces and the inhabitant of a grass hut have their troubles; both have their pain.

But man finds the reason for all affliction in the life outside him. The Sufi finds it in that one sin, that of having claimed to be "I." With this claim came all the trouble, it continued, and it will always continue. This sin has such a hold upon the soul that it is just like the eclipse of the sun, when its light is covered and cannot shine. In everyday life one may sometimes find this claim and the spirit of "I" helpful, and so the practical man looks upon a person who has less of this element as weak; he thinks that he is unpractical. If this person seems more simple he calls him dreamy, he will say that he is floating in the air. But after all, how long does this practical sense last, and to what end does it lead? The end of the one who was practical and the end of the unpractical one are the same.

There is the story of a Sufi who met a young man while traveling and said to him, "Come and see me if you pass the village where I live; you might call on me." This young man asked, "May I know the name of the place where you live?" The Sufi said, "The place of liars, it is near the temple." This young man was very confused; he thought the Sufi was speaking all the time of truth, and yet saying he lived in the place of liars! When he arrived at the village he tried to find the Sufi, but no one knew where the place of liars was. He only found it in the end when he came near the temple and saw the Sufi there. He said, "The first question that arises in my mind is why do you call this place the place of liars?" The Sufi said to the young man, "Come along with me, we shall go for a little walk in the graveyard, which is just close by."

Then he said, "They say that here the prime minister was buried, and here the king was buried, and here the chief judge, and here a very great general. Were they not liars? Here they are proved to be liars. They are nothing but the same in the same ground; they are buried with everybody else. They had the same end as all others. If that is the end, then think of the beginning. In the beginning there was no such thing as distinction either. No infant is born into this world saying, "I am so and so, my name is so and so, my position is such and such." All this the soul has learned after coming here. The soul has learned the first lie in saying "I", as a separate identity; and after that first lie a man tells numberless lies."

Thus the teaching and the occupation of the Sufi is to erase that error from the surface of his heart, and therefore the first and last lesson that the Sufi learns is: I am not, Thou art. And when the false claim no longer exists in his consciousness, then the claim can be made which is expressed in the Bible that first was the Word, and the Word was God. And by listening to that divine Word, by giving himself to that Word, the Sufi experiences the heavenly joy which is incomparable, the joy which is ecstasy.

There is only one thing in the world that cannot be defined, and that is the idea of God. If it could be defined it would not be God, because God is greater than His name and higher than our comprehension of Him. We call Him God; if we did not call Him God then what would we call Him? But by giving a name to the nameless, by making a concept of someone who is beyond conception, we only make Him limited; at the same time, if we did not do so then we would not be doing what we ought to do. My meaning is this, that in order to respect a great man we should have some conception of what greatness is; but our conception is not of that great man as he really is, it is the idea that we have made of him. Twenty admirers of a great personality would each have his own conception of that personality.

And I might also say that each of the twenty has his special great person, and that thus there are twenty great persons instead of one; only, the one name causes these twenty persons to unite under it. The Hindus have said: as many men, so many gods, and it was not an exaggeration; it only meant that every man has his own conception of God. It is necessary first to have a conception of God in order to reach the stage at which one realizes Him. If a man did not believe a personality to be great he would not be able to see into the greatness of that personality. He must first have the conception that there is something great in it. Thus we first make our God before we come to the realization of Him.

Belief in God leads to that perfection which is the quest of the soul. But it is not only belief, for there are numberless souls in this world that believe in God; but do you think that they are very far advanced? Often you find that those who claim to believe in God may be much more backward than those who make no such claim. Belief in God should serve the purpose of purification, the purity which is the ideal attainment for man; and which is attained by meditation. In this purity is fulfilled the purpose of life.

The Development of Personality

It is as important to think about the development of personality as it is to think about spirituality. A poet from Delhi says, "If God had created man to offer Him prayers there are many angels to do this. Man was created to become human.'

Many think that nature is greater than art. I say: art perfects nature. Someone proudly told me, "I was brought up by my parents just like a plant." And I said, "It is a great pity." When people say one should let children alone, let them go their own way, this means that although they live in the world which is itself a work of art they do not give their children any education in that art which is needed for living in this world. By this I do not mean that one should not be natural. One should develop naturally, for if one remains undeveloped one loses a great deal. Even if one were a spiritual person and the personality was not developed one would be missing a great deal in life. The personality must be developed. Parents think very little about this nowadays; they think that these are old-fashioned ideas; to be new-fashioned is to overlook all these things. But I say that it is not so at all; it is just the fashion to think about it in this way.

Individuality is one thing and personality is another. A soul is born an individual, but without a personality. Personality is built after one is born. What the soul has brought along is hands and legs and face, but not personality; this is made here on earth.

Very often people have taken the ascetic path and have gone where they could keep away from the world. Because they did not care for the personality, for the self, they kept themselves aloof from the crowd. In this way they are free to be as they wish to be; if they want to be like a tree or a plant or a rock they may. But at the same time, when it comes to personality it is a different thing. You can either have a manner or not have it; you can either have an ideal or not have one; you can either have principles or be without them; you can either be conventional or not. All these things have their place; manner, conventionality, principle, ideal, all have their value in life. And the person who goes about without considering any of these things is just like a wild horse let loose in the city, running here and there, frightening everybody and causing a lot of harm. That is what an untrained personality is.

Real culture is a matter of personality, not mathematics or history or grammar. All these different studies are practical studies, but the real study is how to develop personality. If you are a business man, a lawyer, a professional man., an industrialist, a politician, whatever be your occupation in life, you are forced, expected, to have a personality in every walk of life. It is the personality of the salesman which sells, not always the goods. In the case of a doctor it is his personality which can heal and cure a person much sooner than medicine can.

There are four different grades of evolution, and these differ according to the four different kinds of personality. A person is either born in it or a person evolves through it.

The first grade is called Ammara in Sufi terms, and it denotes a person who is coarse and crude, thoughtless and ill-mannered. And ill manner is connected with ill luck, and so whenever there is thoughtlessness there is failure connected with it; whenever there is blindness there is always a disaster. This is the first kind of person.
When a man is a little more evolved then there comes a certain consideration, a civilized manner, a refinement, a choice of action. This is called Lauwama.
A person who has advanced to the third stage, Mutmaina, is still further developed. It is not only that he is thoughtful but he is sympathetic, it is not only that he is considerate but he is kind, it is not only that he has a civilized manner but he has a natural politeness, it is not only that he is refined but he is tender-hearted.
And when a person goes still further then he has an even greater charm of personality, then there is calm, quietness, gentleness, mildness, tolerance, forgiveness, and understanding of all beings. It is when this fourth personality, or Alima, is developed that a person is entitled to embark on the spiritual path. Until then he is not entitled to go on it.

The modern way of recognizing the wrong kind of equality has taken away the idea of better personality. That respect and appreciation which were due to a higher personality is taken away by this madness of equality. If a person has no ideal before him to reach up to then he has no way in which to progress. People who think, "I am satisfied as I am. I earn so much money every day, is this not sufficient?" have nothing to reach up to. In spite of all the faults and errors of the ancient peoples they at any rate always kept this thought alive.

There is a story of a dervish, who was standing in the middle of the street when the procession of the king came along. First the pages who ran before the procession pushed him and said, "Don't you see the king is coming? Away!" The dervish smiled and said, "That is why." Then he went forward again and stood in the same place. When the horsemen, the bodyguard, arrived they said, "Get out of the way, the procession is coming!" The dervish smiled and said, "That is why." Then the courtiers came and saw the dervish standing there. And instead of telling the dervish to get out of the way they moved their horses a little to one side. And again the dervish said, "That is why." Finally came the king. When the king saw the dervish he greeted him first, and the dervish in answer said, "That is why." An intelligent young man who had seen and heard this asked, "What do you mean by saying this?" And the dervish said, "You can see, that is why they are what they are!'

We have wiped this ideal from our minds. Where is the real democracy? The kingliness of greeting the dervish first, that is democracy. But when a man who is not evolved is pulling the most evolved down to his level, that is the wrong democracy; it is going downward instead of going upward. If mannerlessness and thoughtlessness can be democracy it takes away its real ideal and true spirit. Democracy is the result of aristocracy; when the spirit of aristocracy has evolved enough then it becomes democracy. Then a person thinks, "I am the equal of any person in the world; there is no person lower than me." But if a person says, "There is no one higher than me," that is not democracy.

I will give an example of true democratic religious feeling. The people of Burma are Buddhists, and they are of a wonderful type. Here you will find the one race who for centuries has believed that there is no religion inferior to theirs. Just think of it today, when the followers of a particular religion look down upon the followers of any other religion! But these people say, "Whatever be the religion, Christian, Muslim, or Jewish, it is not worse than ours. Perhaps it is even better."

This is something wonderful, but when a person says, "No one is better than I", that is not democracy; it is going down, for it means closing our eyes to that which is greater, higher, and better. And if we cannot appreciate, cannot see, then we cannot rise to it. We can only rise towards that which we value and to which we aspire.

If, instead of telling people simple things like this, I were to speak about occult power, psychic power, spirit communication, breathing practices, they would be glad to hear me. But suppose one did not develop personality, what about spirituality? A man should first of all be a person; then only should he be spiritual. If he is not a person then what is the use of being spiritual? Man is born to fulfill the purpose of his life; he is made to be a man, a human being, a man who can be relied upon, a man whose word can be accepted, who uses thought and consideration, to whom we can entrust our secret; a man who under all conditions will never humiliate himself, who will never go back on his word, who will not deceive or cheat anybody; a man who will carry out what he has once undertaken. All these qualities make a man a human being.

Today our condition is such that we cannot believe each other's word. We have to have a stamp on a contract. Why are we in such a state? Became we are not evolving towards that great ideal which the ancient people had, that is why we cannot trust each other individually, that is why nations cannot trust each other. Human beings live only in order to exist from day to day, to strive and work for a loaf of bread. That is all. But is it all? If it is only to earn a loaf of bread we do no better than dogs or cats.

Rich and poor, all are wretched in every walk of life, because there is nothing but competition between individuals, nations, parties, and communities. We have made our life wretched. What are we here for? If we were only born to meditate and to be spiritual then we had better go into the forest or to the mountain caves; then it would not be necessary to remain in the world. And if we only had to live as the animals do then we could do as worldly people are generally doing today, and accomplish nothing. Therefore the first necessity for those who are seeking after truth is to develop the spirit of personality. I remember a quotation: "If one has gold and jewels it means nothing; if one has no personality they are valueless; then nothing is valuable." Personality can be more valuable than wealth. How strange it is that there is such a large population in this world, and that there are so few personalities. It is as the Greek philosopher said, who was going about with a lantern in daylight, and when people asked him what he was looking for he answered, "For a human being.'

This subject has only been overlooked; it is not that man is not capable of understanding it. Man is capable of it more than ever before, because he has so much to suffer. This life as we live it is a most painful life. It crunches and grinds him to make him a better man. If he gave his thought to it he would profit by it and would become a better person. In ancient times people underwent different ordeals, trials, and tests. We today do not need to do this. We have other trials today, we do not need to seek for them. If we only knew how to profit by them! At this time, when every little bone and piece of skin of every animal is used for something, we yet do not make use of our own life's experience, which is more precious than anything else. If there is news of an oil-well or a gold-mine everyone is interested, but people are not interested in this gold- and silver-mine, this mine of jewels and gems, the cultivation of which will produce all that can be produced! They do not think about the most valuable thing of all. Nevertheless, the great gurus and teachers of all times have put much emphasis on this one point, that those who wish to seek after truth must above all give their thought and mind to the development of personality.

Sufi Psychology

There is much in our lives that depends upon suggestions, suggestions which come from outside, either consciously or unconsciously, as well as suggestions which come to us from ourselves. The superstitions which existed in ancient times and which still exist in some countries tell us something of the psychology of suggestion. If a person saw a certain bird, a certain animal, before beginning his work, that impression affected his work. If a man, when starting some business or industry or new enterprise, met with an unpleasant incident or a disagreeable person, naturally this brought him ill luck. On the other hand, if he encountered desirable conditions and people with a good influence his whole life might be changed. People called this superstition; in fact it is a science, it is the psychology of impressions. It is in accordance with every impression which is made on us that our life works.

The greatest impression is made by the word. The Bible says, "In the beginning was the Word ... and the Word was God", which tells us of the creative power of the word: that the word is as creative as God Himself. In the East, in good families, children were taught when quite young to avoid words which might cause ill luck; such expressions as boys use, "I will kill you", "I will shoot you", or as are used by girls, "I wish I were dead", "I wish that it was all destroyed." The children were taught never to use words with a destructive meaning; for as far as we know at a certain time a universe may be connected with the word of man, and the word he speaks may come true. If he had spoken of something he did not wish to happen it would have been better not to have said it. People do not think about this. They say things as a joke, things that might cause serious trouble in their lives or in the lives of their friends, nor realizing how great is the power of words in our lives. Therefore the great teachers have made a science of words, so that by the repetition of certain words a definite result can be produced in one's character, in one's circumstances, or even that a person can help another by the use of a certain word.

Man's character can be changed by the repetition of certain words, entirely changed; the results brought about by their repetition are wonderful. Thus suggestion often proves to be the secret of a miracle. It is a field which still remains unexplored by science, and the more man gets to know about it, perhaps in five centuries from now, the more he will begin to believe that behind suggestion the spirit of God is hidden, the secret of the whole of creation.

Now coming to the question of attraction and repulsion, why are we drawn towards some people, and why do we feel repulsion in regard to others? I would say that it is the same with souls as with the notes in music. It is their combination which makes the notes either harmonious or inharmonious; it is not the notes themselves. Every note is harmonious enough if put with other harmonious notes, the notes which blend and make a consonant chord. Therefore it is wrong to say. "That person is inharmonious", or "harmonious." It is the blending of persons that proves either harmonious or inharmonious in accordance with their grouping.

It is the same with color. No color is inharmonious, however striking or however pale. If it is in its right place, if it is well blended with other colors, it is harmonious; it is inharmonious if it is not put next to colors that blend with it. And it is exactly the same with human nature. The wise person can get on with another who is near to him in wisdom, or he can get on with a foolish person; but a wise man has difficulty in getting on with the semi-wise, because the semi-wise makes it difficult for him. With a strong person another who has strength himself will get on all right, as well as the one who is quite feeble, but not the halfstrong. This proves to us that there are two principles to be understood. The person must either be of the opposite quality, or he must be of the same quality to blend harmoniously with the other. In other words, with a black coat either a black tie will be worn or a white tie; when the tie is of another color then there is disharmony.

The reason why the same quality is attracted is that like attracts like. Water attracts water, fire attracts fire; all elements attract their like, so every person attracts his like. A thief, wherever he goes, will find another thief; wherever a gambler goes he finds another gambler; wherever a drunkard goes he finds another man who drinks. And it is extraordinary that very often the first person these people will meet when they come to a town will be of their own kind; they attract each other unconsciously. If they are traveling they will be sitting in the same compartment, brought together by destiny. The wicked will be attracted by another wicked person, just at the meeting of a glance. They instantly become friends. But if a person is half-wicked he will not get along with the wicked one, although the wicked might get along with a good person because then he finds his opposite. The reason for the attraction of opposites is that the one lacks what the other has, and therefore one has power over the other.

Then there is the law of positive and negative forces. Where there are two people of positive nature there is always trouble, nor can two people of negative nature get along together. But the positive person can get along with someone who is negative, because the negative person needs what the positive one has. A talkative person is never happy with another talkative person; he wants someone who will listen to him.

Besides these laws there is an attraction of quality. There is a noble quality in every person, and there is a common quality. A noble quality is repulsed by commonness, and the common quality is irritated by the noble quality. It is such an amazing thing to see that someone of noble quality can be repulsed by a person of common quality. He gets irritated and cannot stand it, for the one quality cannot be compared with the other. It is the same with the quality of sincerity and that of insincerity. An insincere person is as antagonistic to a sincere person as a sincere person is to one who is insincere. The insincere cannot conceive of another being sincere; even if he saw it he could not believe it, because he does not know anything except insincerity.

Among Hindus there is a custom, a custom which still exists, that when a marriage is contemplated a Brahmin is consulted, a special priest, and he comes with his books of horoscopes. And after he has made his calculations he decides whether the marriage can take place or not. But in reality the drawing of the horoscopes is an excuse. He is a psychologist, and he considers the question whether the two who are to be married have the same qualities.

The Brahmins conceived of three qualities: Manusha, Deva, and Rakshasa, which means the human quality, the angelic quality, and the animal quality. The one left out was the devilish quality; may be they did not have it at that time! And then they saw if the two young people who were going to marry both belonged to Manusha, Deva, or Rakshasa; and if they found that for instance the girl was of the angelic quality and the man of the animal quality, then they thought, "It will never go right"; and they advised against the marriage. But if they thought that the man was of the human quality then they allowed it, because then there was only a difference of one degree, not of two degrees. The great and countless difficulties that are experienced today in marriage come from lack of consideration of these qualities. There is now a kind of false conception of equality; everyone says, "I am as good as you", but therefore there is no chance to be better.

I shall always remember an old man in India telling me, "The moment you think you are good, learned, wise, you close your heart's door to goodness, learning, and wisdom." The spirit of today is that a child begins to say, "I know what you do not know." There is no regard for the idea that another knows more, there is no appreciation of it. It is because something is missing in education; the children are not taught that way. What they are taught is self-pride, and even that is a false quality. True pride should be based upon a stronger foundation: the nobility of the soul. False pride must break one day or another. That is why the consideration of individuality seems to be lost.

A poet once said, "Lord, let me not live in a world where camphor, cotton, and bone are all considered white." Now our world is becoming more and more like that every day. If there is a distinction it is of money, of rank, of position, but not of human quality. The real distinction is not recognized; if there is any disparity it is what sort of house one lives in, what position one holds, or how much money one has in the bank. Therefore instead of evolving mankind is losing its opportunity.

The Meaning of Faith

Often people use the word "faith" in the sense of the particular religion they follow, whether they belong to the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or another religion. And in this way they obscure the real meaning of faith, which is light itself. Faith is not necessarily a belief, but faith is the culmination of belief. Belief is a conception, a conception which one has formed oneself or a conception of a certain idea arrived at by reading something. A person will hold this belief as long as his reason is not strong enough to root it out, or as long as he does not meet someone who will dig it out, or as long as he has not had an experience which entirely destroys it. How many does one see in the world around, counting spiritual words on their rosary, sitting in churches with eyes closed, worshipping every Sunday; and yet when someone who is more intellectual and whose reasoning is more powerful meets them he is able to change them completely. From being orthodox such a person has become a practical man, from a dreamer he has become. wide awake!

Steps of Belief

(1) No doubt one belief can be stronger than another. A sheeplike belief is a belief which everyone holds without admitting it. People think that they have a reason for believing that which they believe, but this is not always so. Often a person thinks that he has a reason for something, but he may be wrong. Religious questions apart, when one comes to political matters, a man may be raised up by one person's influence and the whole country follows him; he becomes the man of the day. Everyone follows him with his eyes shut. But then he may be despised by someone else and the crowd despises him too. That is crowd psychology. At the same time everyone says, "I am an intellectual. I always tell the truth for I know what I am speaking about." But is it so? It is not.

When I went to Russia I saw pictures of the Czar and the Czarina in every little shop. Do you think the people did not have a feeling of adherence to the Czar? Was it all hypocrisy? It could not have been. And what happened the next day? They broke the crowns in the street with hammers and carried them in their processions. Where had that belief gone, which one day was so great that they thought that the portrait of their Czar was sacred? Next day the belief was changed; it took no time. You may think, "This happened in Russia"; but you will see it in every country just by studying the psychology of the crowd.

Therefore wise people have never depended upon the praise of the crowd. They have always known that it was worth nothing. Buddha, with all the worship and praise given to him did not even look at it. He kept his work before his eyes, his service to humanity, and so did all the sages and prophets and seers and thinkers; they never believed in the praise of mankind, in its love and affection. What is it? The man who has not reached the realm of faith is not living; he does not yet know his mind. One day he believes something, the next he does not. Therefore faith is not only adherence to a certain religion or belonging to a certain church; faith is much greater than that.

(2) The next step on the path of belief is that one does not believe something because the crowd believes it, but because it comes from a certain authority. This is the child's belief, but at the same time this is the way one has to go. The child progresses when the mother says, "This is called water", and it repeats, "Water." It does not argue and say, "It is not water, it is bread." It just listens and believes, and that is the way it begins to learn.

(3) Then there is the third step, when the belief has a reason, when one says, "Why do I believe? Because I have a reason for it. I can explain my belief; therefore I believe it is such and such." This belief is more dependable. Yet, is reason always dependable? Reason sometimes proves to be so tricky that one day a person may reason out a certain thing, and the next day he has every reason to root out his belief. For is it not reason that makes the evildoer commit evil? No one does anything without reason. One day a person reasons how to do something, and after only a couple of hours he may discover that it was not a good reason.

(4) But there is a fourth belief, which alone can really be called belief, a belief which does not even depend upon reason, a belief which is a natural belief; one cannot help having it. Nothing can root it out, no argument, no reasoning, no study, no practice, nothing can take it away from one, for it is a natural belief. This is what faith is. A person who has not reached this belief is still on the way, and he cannot say that he has faith.

Faith is such a great virtue. Even in everyday life one cannot value enough a companion, a relative, a servant, or a friend who is faithful. There is no price for it, it is beyond price to have someone who is faithful, someone in whom one can have confidence, upon whom one can rely with closed eyes, of whom one can say that one is sure that he will never change his affection, his love, his kindness, his right feeling. If one has someone like this one should be most thankful, for it is more precious than any worldly treasure.

If I had to describe the meaning of faith I would say that faith means self-confidence. The secret of faith is that it can be used as a medicine and better than medicine, as wealth and greater than wealth; it can be religion and greater than religion, happiness and greater than happiness. For nothing can buy or sell faith. If there is anything that can be called the grace of God it is faith and selfconfidence. It is something one can neither teach nor develop; it must be in one, and it can only be strengthened by loving it, by enjoying it. It develops by itself. If a person comes to me and says, "I believe in you so much that I will believe anything you say; but I do not believe in myself", I will say, "Thank you, I will not believe in you either. You had better believe in yourself first; then I can depend upon you." What kind of belief is this? If a man does not believe in himself he will say one day, "I believe in you", and the next day, "I do not believe in you." Besides, faith is inspiring, faith causes a man to be brave, courageous, successful, and faith makes life wonderful.

Five Aspects of Faith

Faith can be observed in five different aspects: faith in one's impulses, faith in one's reason, faith in one's principle, faith in one's ideal, and faith in God.

(1) It is the mystical temperament that causes a person to have faith in his impulse. When a mystic thinks, "I must go to the North", he goes there. He does not ask himself why; he accepts the divine impulse, and he goes towards the North to meet whatever he may. If an impulse arises to do this business, to enter this profession, accomplish this or that, and a person does it there is something wonderful about it. Columbus is an example of this. He had the impulse to go and seek for India, and indeed he found a continent. The outer form of the impulse was wrong, but the inner right.

The mystics of all ages have believed in this. They cannot help it, it is the mystical temperament. If a thousand people say, "No, it is not right", they say, "Yes, it is right. I must do it." It is not necessary for everybody to become a mystic in order to have these impulses and listen to them. Listening to one's impulses is a question of temperament. There may be one man who has it, and another, perhaps a very intellectual man, thinks, "Is it right or wrong? Shall I do it or shall I not do it?" And the time passes and the chance is lost. Out of a hundred people only one will follow his impulse, and ninety-nine will wait to see if something is right or wrong, light or heavy.

(2) The second aspect is faith in reason. The success of great inventors such as Edison depends upon faith in reason. If they had not had this faith they would not have been able to create successfully, but by having it they made wonderful inventions.

(3) The third aspect of faith is faith in one's principle. Principle makes one strong, if only one has faith in it. There is a story of the young Prophet, who was taking care of the cows on a farm. When some young men of his own age came and said, "Mohammed, come along, we are going to town to have a good time!" Mohammed answered, "No, I will take care of your cows and you go and have a good time. I won't leave my cows.'

With this principle the Prophet began; and eventually the same principle made him what he was, so that thousands and millions of people for fourteen centuries have held the name of the Prophet as their strength and power.

(4) And then there is faith in the ideal. Those who had a high ideal for the welfare of their nation, of their race, of humanity, held their lives cheap. To give their life was nothing to them, their ideal was always greater. Not every man has faith in his ideal, but it gives great power and uplift, and raises a man from earth to heaven.

(5) Finally there is faith in God. People may say, "Is it not imagination to have faith in God?" But he who really has faith in God can work wonders. Someone said to a Brahmin, "How foolish, O Brahmin, to worship an idol, calling it God!" The Brahmin answered, "If you have no faith and you worship the God who is in heaven He will not hear you. But if I have faith I will make this God of stone speak to me."

A preacher once told his audience, "When you speak the Name of God with true faith you can walk on the waters." There was a farmer standing there who was very pleased to hear this. He went home pondering upon it. Next day he went to the preacher and said, "I could not understand all the dogmas and morals you preached, but one thing impressed me very much. Will you do me the great honor of having dinner with me?" The preacher accepted, and the farmer said that he would come to fetch him the next day. This the farmer did, and on their way they came to a river which they had to cross. So the preacher said, "Where is the boat?" The farmer said, "Boat? You taught me that if we pronounced the name of God we could walk on the water! Therefore I did not take my boat but walked on the water, as you said." The preacher was very much afraid that he would have to walk on the water too, for he had never tried this. He said, "Will you do it, please?" And the farmer did; but the preacher could not.

Such is the phenomenon of faith. We may say, "We have so much to do, so much to think about." But to have faith is beyond all this; it is something which words cannot explain, something which springs up from the heart and which elevates man, raising him from the earth to the sky.

Vol. 12, The Vision of God and Man

The Path of Meditation

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