No sooner the soul has touched the inner kingdom, which is the divine kingdom, the true nobility of the soul becomes manifest from that soul in the.form of graciousness. The kings and those belonging to the aristocratic families were trained in the manner of graciousness. But it is born in the heart of man. This means every soul shows the aristocratic manner from the moment it touches the inner kingdom. This shows that the true aristoc- racy is the nobility of the soul, when the soul begins to express in every feeling, thought, word and action that graciousness which belongs to God Himself.

Graciousness is quite different from that wrong manner which is termed in English patronising. The gracious one, before expressing that noble attribute, tries to hide himself even from his own eyes. The reason why the great ones are gracious, the truly noble people, is because they are more sensitive to all the hurt or harm that comes to them by the unripe. And therefore out of their kindness they try to keep themselves back from doing it to another, however small in position.

There is a story of a dervish who was standing in the royal road at the moment when the procession of the king was passing. Happy in his rags as he was, he did not at all mind who was coming. He did not move an inch on the warnings of the people who were running before the procession, till they pushed him away. Yet he did not move very far, only said: "That is why." There came the body guards on horseback; they did not push him but said: "Away, away, dervish, do you not see the procession coming?" The dervish did not move an inch, but only answered: "That is why." Then followed the noblemen. They saw the dervish standing. They did not like to tell him to move; they moved their own horses instead. The dervish seeing that said: "That is why."

Then arrived the chariot of the king. His eyes fell on the dervish standing in rags boldly in the middle of the road. lnstead of waiting for his bow, the king bowed himself, and the dervish answered: "That is why." There was a young man standing by his side. He could not understand the meaning of that word: "That is why," for every treatment. And when he asked the dervish to kindly explain what he meant by the word, "That is why," he said: "It explains all I mean."

There is a great truth in what Christ has said in the sermon on the mount, that 'Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the kingdom of the earth.' This will always prove true whatever be the time and evolution of the world. Be it the time of aristocracy, be it the period of democracy, the value of that nobility of nature which is expressed in graciousness, will always command its price. It is easy to know this word but most difficult to practise it through life, for there is no end to the thought that it needs to be given to every action in life. It wants judgement and the fair sense of weighing and measuring all one does. Besides that it needs the fine sense of art and beauty, for in making the personality finished, one attains to the highest degree of art. making of the personality is the highest art there is. The Sufi whose life's object is to cultivate humane attributes and in which lies the fulfilment of the purpose of his life, considers this as his religion.

A young man one day showed a little impatience to his aged father, who at his age could not hear very clearly, and had asked him three times to tell him again. Seeing the disturbed expression in his face, the father said: 'My son, do you remember that there was a day when you were a little child and asked me what the bird was? And I said to you: 'The sparrow.' You perhaps asked me fifty times and I had the patience to repeat it to you again and again, without being hurt or troubled about it. Only I was pleased to tell you all I knew. Now, when I cannot hear you clearly, you can at least have patience with me if I did not hear you once, to explain to me twice.'

It seems that in order to learn that noble manner of life, what is mostly needed is patience, sometimes in the form of endurance, sometimes in the form of consideration and sometimes in the form of forgiveness.

Service to the Cause

In order to do the service to the Cause, it is not necessary that a person must wait until he was given a certain position. Everyone must do according to his capacity all he can in order to further the Cause. For in this path it is the work which counts more than anything else.

A quiet working is most necessary in the spiritual work; for noise spoils. Although noise is the expression of enthusiasm; but in the noise enthusiasm is wasted.

The rules and regulations are necessary but not of the greatest importance. They must not hinder the working by forcing them too much upon people. The spiritual work is the work of freedom; and that freedom must be given wisely, gently, not seeming to break the law, not trying to force the law. The spiritual working is different from martial work, although the construction is the same. In one it is rigid, in the other it is fine.

In short, for the spiritual working it must be remembered by the workers, whatever position they may occupy in the scheme of working, that they are the trustees of the Message, which is to be received, studied, followed, and preserved for the coming generation. And as trustees they are responsible more or less for the Message, which is their most secret and sacred trust.

Knowledge and Wisdom

Question: Is intellectual knowledge located in the brain and wisdom located in the heart?
Answer: Neither of these are located in brain or heart, only intellectual knowledge has much to do with brain and wisdom comes from within the heart. But in wisdom heart and head both work.

Wisdom is spiritual knowledge. The best explanation of wisdom is perfect knowledge, that is the knowledge of life within and without.

What is gained by intuition, the mind makes it clear, and yet often it is the mind which spoils the intuition, for the mind interferes with the intuition. If the mind did not stand as a hindrance to intuition, every person would be intuitive, for intuition is more natural and more easy than the reasoning of the mind. The intuition by nature is clear, the characteristic of the mind is confusion. If the intuition is disturbed, it is because it has been confused by the mind. However, it is not necessary to give up reason for intuition. But naturally cultivate the faculty of intuition without letting it stand in the way of reason.

For instance if a person always did everything trusting to his intuition, he would have many difficulties, for very often the intuition will be wrong, for the reason that as a child he did not begin with intuition. So often reason disguised as intuition deceives him. While developing the faculty of intuition, one did not mind being deceived, and risked, then in time the mind would not play its tricks and the intuition will be powerful enough to manifest clearly. In time a person of finer feelings will be able to perceive the voice of intuition and will learn to discriminate between intuition and reason.

One thing must be remembered and that is to perceive the first suggestion that rises in the heart before it is disturbed by the action of the mind. If that opportunity is lost, it will not take one moment for the reason to attack the intuition and establish its own place there.

What comes from without is not intuition. Intuition is something which rises from our own heart and brings satisfaction, ease and happiness.

Question: Do all experiences reach the brain through the nerve centres?
Answer: Yes, mostly conveyed by the breath, but in this I do not mean the breath we inhale through the nostrils. Through the pores of the skin we breathe also, though the main stream of breath is that which we inhale through the nostrils and which is termed 'prana' in Vedantic terms.

The Attributes of the Five Great Degrees of Initiates.

Summer School Suresnes, July 27th, 1923

[14] Wali is the initiate whose will has come close to the Divine Will and he shows it by the harmony which reigns in his own life, harmony with the friends, and he himself is in harmony with the adversary also. He shows harmony with the changing weather and its different influences and in harmony with all he eats and drinks; he is in harmony with the place he lives and moves about, and he harmonizes with all atmospheres. And so his will becomes the Will of God, in other words, the Will of God becomes his will. He does that work for which he is appointed, mostly in an unknown way. The greater a person is spiritually advanced, the less assuming he becomes and avoids every show of piety or spirituality.

[15] Ghous is the next grade of the initiate. The influence of the ghous is wider. He gives up his personality fully to the Divine Guidance. Therefore in the district, wherever the ghous may be, an atmosphere will be created of protection from all kind of dangers, caused by floods and storms and by plagues and famines.

[16] Qutub is the third degree of a Master of a still higher grade, who becomes focused to the Divine Mind and who has, to a smaller or greater extent, power upon all elements and influence upon life. There is an area given under his domain in which he is responsible for the order and peace of souls.

[17] Nabi is the apostle whose spirit reflects the Spirit of Guidance, in Sanskrit words Buddhi Sattwa, [Bodhisattva] whose work mainly is the giving of the Message in the form of warning, wakening, preaching, teaching and inspiring those to whom he may be sent. He comes into the lives of those who are meant to be guided in the spiritual path. He is sent to the nations when the nations are meant to change their conditions. He is sent to a community or a race to give warnings. He is meant to be a reformer in the times when a reform is needed.

[18] Rasul is the world Messenger, who comes to the world for all the people in the time of the world's need, and brings along with him that inspiration, influence and power which will harmonize humanity. He may be a king or a pauper, in all conditions he will fulfil the purpose of his coming on earth; answering the cry of humanity, he fulfils the purpose of his mission on earth. In Sanskrit language the very same name is called Maitreya, which means the friend, the friend of God who is the friend of all.

The question, where does one receive the initiation of the higher orders, may be answered that no man in the world has the power to give the above said higher initiations. They are initiated by God Himself and they prove their initiations, not in their claims but in their works.

Question: Has man to go through the stages wali, ghous, qutub, nabi, to reach his goal?
Answer: Not at all. These are not the stages of human perfection, they are the stages of the servers of humanity. For instance there may be a person who has reached the goal, yet who had never been a wali, ghous, or qutub. And yet he is further than any of them -- he has reached that perfection as Christ has said: 'Be ye perfect.' Any soul can reach that perfection without having been a ghous because there are only two things, the imperfection and perfection. One can rise from imperfection to perfection. If it had not been possible, it would not have been mentioned by Christ.

No doubt, the whole world is progressive, every soul is progressive. It may be one person goes as far as the wali, another goes as far as the qutub, those are the grades of the servers, not of the perfection. Perfection is something from which God has not deprived any soul unless that soul deprives himself of that perfection. God does not deprive any soul of it.

Question: How does one recognize the different grades of initiates, the different Masters?
Answer: This is a question which is difficult to answer and by giving an example it will not be difficult. If a person wants to know the difference between Handel, Bach, Wagner, Beethoven, he must study them, play their music, become one with their composition. When his soul is charged with that, it will be easy for him to find it out, because he has become the instrument to find out. But no third person can say that Bach is greater than Beethoven.

No doubt the initiates they know it themselves and they know one another also. They do not need to speak in order to know another. They know one another by the meeting of their glance. They know one another by the words they have said, also they know one another by just their name mentioned. Their soul touches the other soul. It takes them no time, when the name of one initiate is taken before another. If that initiate is a true initiate, the other knows. He may not be aware of that person, but he instantly knows on the higher planes; he becomes conscious of it.

0ne day I was going in a little horse carriage with a person who was a very great adept. He was an initiate. He was a preacher and thousands of people were impressed by every word he said. His word was a living word, and we passed through the district of the poor where among some ragged people who were sitting in the street and laughing and chatting, there was one person sitting there among them, no outer form of piety or spirituality or learning or anything -- one among all the others in rags. And this one who was sitting in the carriage, he at once noticed, greeted him gently and called out in the terms of the mystic, asking for a word of help, in other words, for benediction. I turned at him, I saw it also. This man said to me: 'Don't you see the king in his eyes?' The glance proved it.

And if I were to tell you a little further: What is the reason? What is it of a wonderful character there? The souls of all are one, from the same source, but a soul which becomes unveiled shines out, its whole character and nature become different, that there is nothing that stands before it. If the clouds stand before it, it will break through, it will shine out by itself. The clouds for the time may cover the sun, but the nature of the sun is to break through. The light and the love which come from such souls spontaneously shines out.

You do not recognize such a person by his learning, argument or by his claim. The recognition is the love and light; all that is divine is love and light, and that is living. You do not need proof for it; it is the only thing living; all else is dead in comparison.

Question: Are there always wali, ghous and qutub in the different parts of the earth?
Answer: Yes, certainly there are, if our eyes were open to see them and to recognize them. There is no part of the earth whether East or West where real souls are not to be found. But the more real soul, the more unassuming; living perhaps in a humble guise without any noise of greatness or spirituality. Therefore it is difficult to find and say which is which, unless our heart is open to find them.

Because the thing is that the very thing which makes a person claim or be known or seen, which is the false ego, it is the very thing which is not there. The more spiritual the less egoistic; if there is any sign of spirituality, the more dead is the false ego, the greater is the soul.

That is why Christ has said: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit,' whose false ego has been so crushed and mashed that nothing is left except God. What they do is exist as God alone, they do not exist.

They are quite different from our everyday attitude: 'that person insulted me, I cannot forgive all my life.' They are ready to forgive a thousand times. Without asking they forgive, for goodness is theirs; there is no bitterness there. There is no desire for revenge there, there is no desire for benefit there. They cannot stand the harm and hurt to another person, even the worst person in the world. It is not their pleasure to see anyone suffer, even the worst person.

They have the love of the mother and father towards the children; so their love is for the whole humanity and it can even reach that perfection where they love every little insect and worm, that their love goes out to the trees and plants.

They do not care what people call them, wali, ghous or qutub, that does not increase their honour. It is no pride to them to be anything. The false ego is dead. Only one thing they know and that is God. And if there is such an initiation, it is put on them in order to make use of them. Their only desire is the consciousness of God, that is sufficient for them.

Question: What did you mean by real soul?
Answer: 'Real' I said in this way: there is a real gold and imitation gold. Gilt will turn out to be not the same. But the real will prove in the end to be real, as we say 'the real friend.' A person may be a friend one day and turn out different next time. Just think how man has always loved real, although man lives in the midst of the world and has to meet with falseness. Yet he has that innate love of reality. Even in a false thing, as earthly treasure, he seeks for the real gold. He is not satisfied with the gilt.

If one becomes conscious of the reality which is in oneself, one does not need to strive for anything else in life. If once a person has got hold of the real, he needs nothing else, for that is the seeking of every soul.

Question: Are there also five stages of human initiation?
Answer: In the initiations which are given in the esoteric School, there are five stages. They are the human initiations.

Question: Who leads the soul when there is no nabi on earth?
Answer: A nabi is always on earth, only the nabi appears when there was a need of appearing.

The Soul Towards Manifestation

Towards Manifestation from Summer School in Suresnes, August 10, 1923.

The divine Spirit is known by the mystics of all ages as the sun; and therefore in all ancient mystical symbols the sun has been pictured as the sign of God. This conception gives one a help in the further knowledge of metaphysics. This sun is that aspect of Absolute God in which God begins to manifest, and His first step towards manifestation is His contraction, that contraction which is seen in all living beings and in all objects. It is first contraction that takes place, and next expansion, which comes as a matter of course, as a reaction. The former tendency is the desire of inhalation, and the latter exhalation. The contraction and expansion which are seen in all aspects of life come from God Himself.

The Omnipotent Light by this tendency becomes concentrated; and it is this concentrated Light of Intelligence which is the sun recognized by the mystics.

As Shams-i-Tabriz has said, "When the Sun of His countenance became manifest, the atoms of both worlds began to appear; as its light fell every atom donned a name and a form.

The Hindus have called it in the Vedanta Chaitanya, the Spirit or the Light of God.

In the Qur'an it is mentioned, "We have made thy light out of Our Light, and of that Light We have made the universe.

In plain words this means that when there was nothing -- no form, no name, no person, no object -- except Intelligence; and it is the contraction of that intelligence which brought its essence into a form of light which is called the divine Spirit; and the expression of the same light has been the cause of the whole of manifestation. Creation is the exhalation of God; and what is called destruction is absorption, which is the inhalation of God.

The divine Spirit spreads itself; this we call creation and it consists of various names and forms. There arises a conflicting condition or entanglement of the Breath of God, disorder in its rhythm, which manifests in destruction, and culminates in what is called by Hindus Pralaya, the end of the world. For this many blame God, many judge Him, and many think it is unfair on the part of God to create, and to destroy; but for God, who is the only Being, this is the natural condition, by which He eternally lives. The beginning and the end of the world is only His one Breath, the duration of which is numberless years. During this one Breath myriads of beings have been born, have lived and died, and experienced both this world and the next.

Souls therefore are the rays of this Sun, which is called in Sanskrit Brahma, and the nature of the ray is to extend and withdraw, to appear and disappear, and the duration of its existence is incomparably short when compared with the duration of the eternal God, the divine Spirit. There are living creatures, small germs, worms and insects who live no longer than a moment; and there are other beings whose life is a hundred years; and some live longer still; and yet even if it were a thousand years it is a moment compared with eternity. Time, as man knows it, is in the first place discerned by the knowledge of his own physical constitution.

From the Sanskrit word Pala, which means moment, has come the word "pulse"; that which is pulsation. This knowledge has been completed to some extent by the study of nature, the changes of the seasons, and the journeys the world makes round the sun. Many wish to limit divine law to this man-made conception of time, and they make speculations about it; but the tendency of the mystic is to bend his head low in worship, as the thought of the eternal life of God, the only Being, comes to his mind. Instead of questioning why and what, he contemplates the being of God, and so raises his consciousness above the limitations of time and space, thus liberating his soul by lifting it to the divine spheres.

Question: What relation has the destruction of form during the manifestation to the Great Breath? Does it affect it at all?
Answer: No, it does not affect the great breath. As the ebb and flow of the sea is not at all affected by the waves; whether the wave goes this way or that way. But the manifestation is the same, all through the manifestation, from the beginning to the end and from God to the smallest atom. For instance, as God breathes so we breathe, and so the animals and birds. Now the scientist has brought the proof that the trees breathe, the same breath in the ebb and flow of the sea.

When one sees that contraction and expansion, which goes on in the whole universe in the same manner as it has begun, then one sees that the whole creation with its various aspects and all the difference there is of the nature and character of things and beings, there is one law and one manner in which the whole creation takes place and goes on to its finish.

Question: Can you explain us more why God inhales and exhales?
Answer: Yes, if not we could not exist, if we would not inhale and exhale. The condition of existing is inhaling and exhaling. So God exists also, only His inhaling is the end of the whole creation. But we say that it is a harm done to us. But is it unfair if we breathe? It may be unfair to many little germs. Such lives are destroyed while we are breathing. Also there are lives that by our breathing are created. There will come a time when science will find out that the breath of man is creative, not only of atmosphere, but also of life. It is a living being. At the root of this secret one will find out the reason of all disease. It is creative as a living being. The science now finds out that behind every disease there is a germ of disease. There will come a time when one will find out that it all comes from inhaling and exhaling. As God creates, so man creates by his breath.

Question: What is the difference between what God inhales and by what He exhales?
Answer: The difference is of the character, of the nature. His exhaling is creative, His inhaling is destroying. His inhaling is Shiva, the exhaling Brahma.

Question: Is the destruction which takes place at the end of the inhaling sudden or gradual?
Answer: It is gradual, as we inhale and exhale. At the finishing of the breath the destruction is finished. But a little picture of this is the life of very large cobras. There are stories of some people having seen very large cobras, cobras in whose mouth even a cow or a buffalo could enter. In six months or a year's time, when they are hungry, only they have to open their mouth, and to take breath, and as there is a cow, it is attracted and goes into the mouth of the cobra. Then the cobra eats it and then sleeps for six months or a year.

This is a legend or a story. I myself have noted a large cobra eating the chicken, not in part, all at once. One would never have thought that the cobra could eat the whole chicken. Then the cobra's power is great because it is meditative. In all mystical symbols the cobra has been made a mystical sign, because there is so much that one can learn from the life of a cobra. It fasts for a long time because it takes time to assimilate, not so greedy as a dog; does not run after its food, it attracts food. Then the patience of the cobra is wonderful. It is the same picture. Therefore mystics have given in the ancient mysticism the cobra in all their symbols. The whole manifestation is attracted to that divine spirit.

In the Qur'an it is said that "All has come from God and to Him all will return.'"

Answer: When the serpent has the tail in its mouth, it means perfection. Man and God are the two ends of the line.

Question: The real significance of the word nirvana?
Answer: The word nirvana means no vana, which means difference, distinction. When there is no difference, no distinction, that is nirvana. When one has risen above.

Question: You named contraction and inhalation together, but physically spoken, is ...?
Answer: The effect of inhaling has an effect upon the heart to expand, and when one exhales the effect is to contract. But really speaking, the effect is the outcome, not the action. It is the action of the contraction which produces that exhalation of the breath, and it is the expansion which produces the inhalation; it is on the contrary.

We see this tendency in all beings, in the octopus, in the insects. When the sheep fight, they also contract themselves first, then manifestation comes. The same tendency in the elephants, they first contract, then all strength is concentrated. We exhale what we inhale. If we inhale and keep ourselves in a better state, our exhaling would also become a healing. For instance, a person who wants to take revenge, who wants to harm another, when he inhales the breath becomes poison; in his breath he has already created numberless germs of illness, which will disturb his own life and those who come into his atmosphere. Also think of those who are inclined to kindness and love, of who have aspiration for goodness and and have good thoughts. Their inhaling and exhaling will be uplifting and healing; wherever the vibrations are moving it will be his healing atmosphere.

Breath is not only physical; it touches the deepest of our being. What we know is only inhaling and exhaling, what we feel through the nostrils. That is not breath. Breath is that power which makes our Iives, which connects body with soul, mind. Breath in point of fact is a rosary.

By Date

1923