The most natural Way

IX

This then is the natural way that is given by the Masters. It is the most suitable for these days. The secret of success lies in the conscious entity within us. The concentration of attention is all that is needed. Whenever a thing is done with undivided attention, the result is sublime. Even physical exercises with an eye on body-building processes will make you strong and healthy. Similarly, when your attention is directed to the centres of the brain, you become intellectual stalwarts. When you fix your attention or soul on the Divine Link within called the Word, you become spiritually great. Everything can be achieved by the direction of attention.

It is why Emerson said,

The key to success is one’s own thought.

All that is required is the proper direction and guidance. For this, you need no outer ceremonies and rituals; you can remain wherever you are. The Way is within you. The easiest way, the natural way, to go back to God is therefore by means of contact with the Sound Principle.

This is the most natural yoga which befits our times. On account of our short span of life and other inherent infirmities, we are not hereditarily and temperamentally fit to take up the harder yogic ways. There are other ways as well, but this is the simplest, easiest, and the most profitable.

I visited a village in India where a man had been engaged in Prana Yoga practices for over forty years. I went to him. He was a thin and emaciated figure. – That type of yoga requires a stout and strong body, for which you must have Hatha Yoga practices and others to make you strong before you take to that way. His body was so weak that he could not even talk or move easily. On being questioned as to the results achieved in forty years of Prana Yogic discipline, he informed me that at times he would see a streak of Light and occasionally hear some Sound – indistinguishable – within. Just compare the strenuous labour with the insignificant results achieved! When he was told of the natural way and asked to experiment, his joy knew no bounds and he discovered quicker and better results in shorter time.

What I mean to say is that the natural ways are always easier. The natural yoga does not interfere with the pranic system, which is a complicated affair. I do not deny the efficacy of the prana yoga. But are we fit for it? As explained above we are not.

The Masters, therefore, simply taught:

Let pranas do their own function in the physical frame. Ignore them altogether as one does when engaged in various activities. Withdraw the spirit currents and see within.

That is all.

The Surat Shabd Yoga or Yoga of the Sound Current needs initiation or first-hand experience from some Competent Master in the line Who is capable of giving some Spiritual Experience. When He puts you on the way, you see things for yourself. If you can have a little from Him in the beginning, you can also expect more from Him later.

Moreover, the Master being in tune with the Infinite is an unerring guide on the God way and an unfailing friend both within and without. He has the competency to appear to you within, as some of you had an experience of this morning, and guide you on the Inner Spiritual Planes as well.

A Mohammedan Saint says:

He who can give you instructions outside when on the physical plane, and go up voluntarily while alive, as at the time of death, has the competency to appear to you within and give you guidance there.

Such indeed is the Master!

That is what I have told you. I have not given you any rigmaroles, but facts from the scriptures. Until we come to and sit at the feet of some practical Master, we do not see things for our own selves. When we see our own Self, no further testimony will be required.

Of course, for that certain prerequisites are necessary. And what are these? To restrict ourselves to a strict vegetarian diet, for the reason that we should have normal lives. The diet which excites passions has to be avoided altogether. It is better to have a light, simple and natural diet, which is an aid to Spiritual Sadhan or Practice.

Those who take up the practices concerning the lower centres in the body, do take meat – the Mohammedans and people of other religions also. But those who are anxious to rise above body consciousness and go into the beyond have of necessity to eschew all that. This is the Path that I have put before you. Liberation or salvation is something which starts only when you rise above body consciousness. For that reason, vegetarianism is the first essential.

Another is that of abstention from intoxicants. You are a conscious entity. You have to rise in cosmic consciousness, and go beyond into the super-consciousness. The things which go to muddle your consciousness or make you morbid and lose your consciousness are to be avoided; therefore, leave off all intoxicants, liquors, narcotics, smoking and all kinds of drinks unnatural and artificial.

The third requirement, of course, is good character and ethical life, in thoughts, words and deeds.

These are the essential requirements which qualify a man to tread the God way. If you do not detach yourself from the above things, your further progress on the way will be retarded. Moreover, even in ordinary life, if you observe these instructions, that will give you a blessedness unknown hitherto.