A. The Sufi does not give preference to any particular path. Take whichever path suits your temperament best. However, in my own experience, I have found it better to take one path in particular as a special one for oneself, but also use the other three. Thus you lack nothing. If bhakti yoga suits you specially, you should also learn to understand something about hatha yoga, and also about the others if you can. By understanding these others also you gain great strength and perfection.

Q. Please say something about doctrines.

A. The Sufis have never given out any special doctrines; they only consider moral conceptions. So they never ask their mureeds to accept any doctrines. The Sufi never gives out a doctrine because he considers that the sole work is to blow upon a little spark or small flame to make it into a big flame, and then that flame will show you the path. The Sufi does not interfere and say, "This is the doctrine you must accept, because I believe this or that" -- for instance, about the life hereafter, the life after death, the continuity of life. The Sufi master does not concern himself with the laws of nature and assert that this doctrine is the truth or that speculation is the truth. All he says is, "Find it out for yourself. My work is only to tell you in what way the faculty will be awakened; you will then see for yourself. Then whatever you see for yourself, you will believe."

Q. Well then, why do we have lessons? If there are not tenets, what are lessons for?

A. The answer is, it is like learning the alphabet, that is one stage. When he can read a book, that is another stage. He needs books in order to practice reading. It does not matter what book you take up to read, you can practice reading with it. You do not have to take it as being an inspired scripture. Similarly, the exercises which are given in the form of lessons or instructions are just lines of thought to follow along till you get accustomed to the different lines of thought when you are enquiring into the different matters of metaphysics and spiritual things. But you do not have to accept them as rigid tenets or doctrines or principles and then make out that Sufism is limited to them. Therefore I do not restrict my pupils or my friends to the exercises. They are only exercises. After that, life itself is the scripture to read. It is the only real scripture. You must get to understand it. What you do not understand at the first reading, you must read again and try to understand it then.

Raja yoga is the best one for life in the western world. This is because life in the West is so full of responsibility. There is so little time to devote to solitude and practices. You have to practice wisdom and deep thought in all your affairs, from morning till night; in this way you make your life a teaching for yourself. Therefore whatever your work or business or profession, let that be your mode of progress, so that you advance through your every duty. At the same time if you will only devote ten or twenty minutes to a practice, it will prepare you for something better, and it will also help you in you work. Raja yoga, the yoga of life's experiences, is certainly the best for Western life. But if a person chooses a life of retirement, let him take it.

Why does one need yoga? Because in the first place it does not interfere with western education. The church has still less influence. Necessary though discipline, reverence, and respect are, they are allowed to lapse, and life becomes empty, drab, lacking. Dharma is the one thing needed for the spiritual path, as both Shiva and Buddha say. One must get the tendency to respect and to revere, and this comes from worship. This one thing that is needed is developed by devotion. That is why it is better, if possible, to add a little of the color of beauty to raja yoga, and thus beautify your life.