Spiritual Development

I’d like to paint before you a picture of spiritual Infinity. A person feels pressure from this world and starts running towards spirit. Someone uses himself to introduce you to the path. Then when you come to the path, it is not the person, but it is the discipline which is passed on to you. It is called Saram Pad-when you are introduced to the path. Then Karam Pad is the sadhana which you are to do on that path. Then within four to seven years, you enter Shakti Pad, where you confront your own ego. It is the last chance in 8.4 million lifetimes where you can escape the cycle of birth and death. Between Shakti Pad and Sahej Pad, there is no rope, there is no link-it is a leap. Either you leap forward in faith or you fall down to the base and crash. And when from Shakti Pad you enter Sahej Pad, you become Infinite-that which doesn’t change. That’s it. Then there is no He, no She, no ft.

This chapter includes … The Five Stages on the Path of Wisdom 218 Saram Pad • Karam Pad • Shakti Pad • Sahej Pad • Sat Pad Fallacies on the Path of Wisdom 223 Yogi Bhajan on Shakti Pad 223 Yogi Bhajan on Spiritual Awakening Through Group Consciousness 224 Different Teachers & Techniques Needed for each of the Five Stages 224

The Five Stages on the Path of Wisdom Saram Paa The “honeymoon period” when we consciously enter a relationship with our spirit and our spiritual path. We are happy. We have left the pain of the past and feel the freshness of a new life on the spiritual path. We have found a spiritual teacher and a path, and we feel the blessings of these gifts. Karam Paa In this stage we begin the personal work on ourselves. We have become aware of the work. issues, and growth needed to maintain a deeper relationship with our spirituality. Shakti Paa This is the most crucial, transitional, and challenging of all the stages. The choices made here, and the transformation that occurs determine whether the practitioner will progress toward mastery. stay at apprentice levels, or quit the study altogether. It is easy to forget ourselves at this stage and become hypnotized by the satisfaction and power of the skil ls we have gained. If we surrender to the path and goal we began our study to fulfill, we will emerge with strength, empowered with an unshakable direction. Sahd Paa A stage of ease, balance, and grace. when everything fits together. We make a decision, and it manifests. The creative force spontaneously serves our needs as we are al igned with our destiny. We sense what serves the moment, then hold the space, allow the tools and prosperity to awaken as each moment manifests. and enjoy the play of life as the Guru works to move the consciousness. Sat Paa We are in harmony with the universe, living in great peace, grace, and happiness as a servant of the Divine Will. There is no separation between the duty of the world and the choice of our own will. There is a sense of equality and transcendence. The job of the spiritual teacher is to give challenges and tests to enable a student to progress from one stage of wisdom to another. It is possible to slip back from a higher stage to another until the higher one is solid in its new perspective.

A MAP OF THE JOURNEY WISDOM IS ACQUIRED IN STAGES. It is learned by leaving behind the old and risking a venture into unknown territory. When you begin a journey into new territory, a map or a sketch of the road ahead gives you confidence, or at least comfort, to tackle the terrain and obstacles that await you. A map can give you hope, when you seem to be lost. It can remind you to be creative and daring since there are many ways to reach your goal. A map can forewarn you of dead-ends and detours and can record your journey to aid others who will travel to the same territory. It can give you the tenacity and patience to proceed in spite of obstacles. The best maps will show you when and how to prepare yourself for the different stages of the journey. A seasoned traveler knows that any such map, no matter how accurate or elaborate, is not the same as the territory which it describes. When you walk into the actual territory, the rich sensory, aesthetic. personal, and social dimensions of the actual experience will be yours. No map includes all the ways that the experience will change you, enrich you, and mature you. A map is the surface only. Only the actual experience and challenge of crossing the real territory takes you beyond the surface and opens the doorway to transformation and creativity. Only when you walk up high hills. wade across deep streams, and slip through shadow-filled woods do you increase your strength, build your confidence, transform your capacity for vision, and solidify feelings of integrity and You must have the skills to guide your mind through the stages of learning and mastery. A map of the stages of wisdom guides you across the levels of mapping that the mind uses at each stage of learning. self-worth. None of this can be given to you by the map. None of this will be exactly the same for each explorer who walks the territory recorded in the same map. Still, maps are essential to open the doorway to the deeper knowledge that comes with experience and wisdom. The most important map is the one that codifies the territory of the Self and the stages of Self-mastery. Regardless of the area of knowledge and action you encounter, the Self is at the core of that experience. You must have the skills to guide your mind through the stages of learning and mastery. The map of the stages of wisdom is a meta-map of how the mind works in any situation. A map of the stages of wisdom guides you across the levels of mapping that the mind uses at each stage of learning. Many great people became masters of a discipline and of the Self. From their efforts they left behind records. and sometimes explicit instructions, about the path of wisdom and the nature of

mastery. Since the map we want is a map of the acquisition of expertise, it can be gathered from any area of knowledge. In the spiritual world, those sages and saints who successfully walked the path, left many maps, gifts, sutras, scriptures, techniques, and inspirations to help us complete the journey and avoid its hazards. One of those maps is the knowledge that spiritual growth , and all inner growth, occurs in stages. Experience does not become knowledge, nor knowledge become wisdom in one step, one flash, one moment. It is not all or nothing, black or white. It is a cumulative effort. When we traverse the stages of mastery, we can skip none of them, even though in the end we see a new. encompassing reality in the self and in the area of knowledge we mastered. There are five stages, which are universal phases of learning and growth in human emotion, action, and cognition. In the spiritual world, these five stages (pad means “stage” or “step”) are: Saram Pad (the novice) Karam Pad (the apprentice) Shakti Pad (the craftsman) Sahej Pad (the expert) Sat Pad (the master) The nature of experience and the types of teaching and challenge helpful to the student are different in each stage. Once you understand the stages, you will find examples of the stages in every area of your life. SARAM PAD: THE STAGE OF THE NOVICE This first stage is that of the novice. We are called to do, learn, or explore something. This is the first time we are exposed to the subject or the task. It is our first look at a company we wil l manage, the first instruction on how to drive, the first time we test our walk in the new territory. In this stage, we have little or no experience. There are no memories of success and failure to guide us. We may have heard stories about it, but we have never encountered the actual situation or challenge before. There are three types of motivation that bring us to Saram Pad: necessity, possibility, and destiny. When life gives us pain. problems, failure, and frustration. we search for some other way. The old way seems insufficient. We are after something different, and someone introduces us to another method, or we are struck by a sudden vision of a way out of our pain. The second motivation arises from possibility. We notice a friend or colleague who enjoys an experience or task. We wonder how to gain that pleasurable state. We receive a sample of the exercise, food, or thought and find it pleasing. Then we seek to increase our pleasure. We begin a quest after something simi

ar. We take on the risks and the vestments of the novice, to seek the possibil ity of greater satisfaction or amplification of the pleasure we have sampled. The third style of motivation is intuitive, total, and comes from our creative being. It occurs regardless of pain and pleasure, fame or ignominy, wealth or poverty. or of acceptance or rejection by our peers. This is when we sense a “calling. ” It is not simply a desire that comes from a part of us that has been neglected or demands expression. A calling is from the whole self. When we act on a calling, there is the feeling of destiny. It feels as if we make a choice with true free will, and that we would make no other choice. It is a sense of the creative manifestation of something that is identified with our real self or goal. It is action from love rather than from passion or fear. We move forward equally comfortable with things that are different and things that are familiar. We seek the unique and the authentic expression of that uniqueness. Regardless of the motivation that brings us to the threshold of Saram Pad, we begin in the same situation with the same challenges. The beginner does not know what to pay attention to. To which of the hundreds or thousands of features, sensations. and actions do you give priority? We know from experiments in cognitive psychology that the capacity for attention is limited. You can simultaneously attend to only a few items that are unfamiliar to you. The limit of concentrated attention is usually estimated to be seven-plus or minus two-distinct items of focus. Instructions for a novice are based on features that are easy to identify. Novices are given rules to follow that are direct and absolute, allowing them to focus without being overwhelmed. A good instruction to a novice does not include the exceptions and special circumstances that occur. Ideally the novice drives on easy A novice must cultivate obedience, motivation, and discipline. roads without bad weather or dense traffic. Good rules for a novice are simple to understand. Listing or trying to list all the sensations and exceptions in a real life experience is an ineffective way to teach . Rules for novices must be clear and free of context. The job of the novice is to understand the rules and then follow them. The novice does not have an integrated sense of the whole task based on experience. The only way a novice can judge the quality of his or her performance is by how well he or she followed the rules. The personal quality a novice must cultivate is obedience. motivation, and discipline. The effect of following novice rules is to establish certain habits that become automatic. These habits become automatic so that attention can be trained on other features that detail the next

level of learning. The rules allow the novice to accumulate experience without great hazard. Students who can easily notice similarities and follow rules by matching behavior, excel in this stage of learning. Excellent novice students are considered to be enthusiastic, rule-followers. They are formula-seekers who do not ask prematurely about the advanced stages which they cannot yet understand. for a student of Kundalini Yoga , some novice rules would be: do Breath of fire for three minutes only; do each set exactly as given in sequence and timing; take a five-minute cold shower each morning; never speak an unkind word or gossip. Many times special conditions are created that accentuate the experience of the novice rules: live on a mono-diet for three days; do not speak during a retreat. Each of these experiences emphasizes certain features of the behavioral and emotional landscape. On a spiritual path, the rules help the novice to notice and distinguish between ego and the true Self. The spiritual aspirant develops behavioral habits which choose the true Self. With practice at this stage, it is easy to move on to the next stage. In music, learning how to strike a note automatically allows you to shift attention to and refine the execution of the notes, melody, and harmonies. KARAM PAD: THE STAGE OF THE APPRENTICE The second stage is that of the apprentice. What is called for in this stage is action, doing, and practice over a wide range of concrete situations. The word karam means “to do or accomplish tasks.” A student needs to get the task or job done in many greatly varied circumstances. During this process exceptions and new features will emerge which were not specified in novice formulas. So there is a need to have apprentice-level feedback about the experiences from a more advanced teacher and from peers who are taking on similar challenges. The great challenges of Karam Pad are sensory enrichment, accumulation of experience in many contexts, redefinition of the nature and expectations around the tasks, and the development of concentration in complex situations. As the student gains experience, there are many sensory elements of the skill or task that emerge and redefine the student’s concept of the task. The task may have been defined in only one sense as a novice. Ongoing experience presents many sensory cues to the student. Teaching techniques that enhance sensory openness are great catalysts at this stage. Usually the student prefers one sensory organ over the other. It is a matter of habit, training, and disposition of temperament. Sensory flexibility is essential to move past this stage of learning. Another skill central to this stage is the ability to concentrat

as the number of cues increase. This skill is partly a function of experience over a great range of situations. The ability to notice similarities-with-exceptions is a cognitive style that creates excellence in this stage of learning. In each new circumstance the ability to notice small deviations from the original rules and task form ulation direct the concentration to what needs to be learned. An apprentice does not encounter a situation without a history. An apprentice has experiences and a past to compare with the current situation. Practice makes it easy and quick to notice Regular practice gives the apprentice the ability to establish a perspective regardless of how the conditions around the practice changes. similarities to the past. So attention gradually shifts to the differences in similar circumstances. A student of yoga excels at this stage of learning if he or she practices regularly. The yoga sadhana of exercise and meditation needs to be done day after day, under mood after mood, during social situation after situation. This gives the apprentice the ability to establish a perspective regardless of how the conditions around the practice changes. It gives the student resilience and hardiness. A great catalyst for this stage of learning is to read the history of good models of the skill being studied, to listen to the experiences of peers who have trained in different contexts, and to have a mentor provide opportunities that challenge and extend previous learning. To prepare for the next stage of learning, the contexts that are experienced as an apprentice should be as varied as possible. SHAKTI PAD: THE STAGE OF THE PRACTITIONER The third stage of the practitioner is the most crucial, transitional, and challenging of all the stages. The choices made in this stage and the transformation of the student’s capacities that occur determine whether the practitioner will progress toward mastery, stay at apprentice levels, or quit the study altogether. It is a stage at which either transformation or discontinuity occurs. In the spiritual disciplines, Shakti Pad is known as the test of ego, or the test of power. At this stage the student has accumulated a lot of experience. He has tested the rules, stored up conscious and unconscious abilities and habits, and he is overwhelmed and inspired by possibil ities. What is required of the practitioner at this stage is the ability to choose a goal, fix on a motivation, and consciously commit to a set of values. The practitioner m ust also develop the abil ity to establish a hierarchy of choices. The practitioner must have a faculty to prioritize complex sets of tasks and decisions and to notice what is significant to the goal and what is not.

A practitioner must choose a strategy and must assume responsibility to choose between all the trails along the journey. The driver may have 50 ways to drive into Boston. Putting all those choices in mind without a method to restrict and direct a decision would be confusing, overwhelming, and time-consuming. The practitioner instead chooses the way to Boston based on a particular goal or value for the trip. Each route satisfies a different value. Route I is the ” quickest” and “saves time.” Route 2 is the ” most beautiful .” Route 3 is the most “social .” since it goes by friends’ houses. Route 4 is the most ” historical” as it goes by monuments. Route 5 is the most “challenging” due to the varied landscapes and driving conditions. The choice of value and route must occur before leaving for the trip. As an apprentice. each journey was assigned by the mentor. The choice is now the practitioners. An apprentice learned that there are many rules for different situations. The practitioner must now formulate the rules. The novice is like the newborn. The apprentice is like the young child. The practitioner is like the adolescent who is ready to challenge the rules. to risk new combinations, and to act in patterns that are unlike the past. It is a creative and dangerous stage. just as an adolescent wants the power of choice without This is the leap of faith, the moment where you choose to follow your own desires and limited perspectives, or the higher values of the path or teaching you began to study. the dangers of responsibility, the practitioner wants to make a choice without commitment. The practitioner who learns to command commitment, to overcome doubt. and to discern the proper values. conquers this stage of learning. In Shakti Pad is the test of power. The practitioner looks at the whole situation, at the panorama of facts and choices. He must then consciously act from the whole or from a part of the whole. This is a critical ability. The cognitive ability needed at this time is the capacity to perceive the implications of the whole collection of choices and information. To act unconsciously or incorrectly from a small piece of the whole is a fatal error. A practitioner fails if he chooses the value or goal which he enjoys or which he finds most interesting or stimulating, rather than the values that continue to serve the larger project, task, or study that he entered training to attain. The experience of this type of decision-making is often unpleasant and frightful. It is beset with uncertainty and often fills the practitioner with doubt. It is a perilous and existential

moment. It is an agonizing decision-a question of identity and commitment. The decision is made through deliberate effort to reach the correct perspective of the whole, and to discern the true significance of the decision. The goal or attachment of the student becomes the biggest block at this stage. Imagine the driver who so loves the feeling of the car as it moves that he refuses to study maps or make plans. The sensations of driving are so enthralling that the next capacity cannot develop. This attachment is equivalent to denying the guidance of the mentor who tells the practitioner to keep going and not to stop if she wants to reach the end. A practitioner who does not pass the test of Shakti Pad denies the teacher or mentor. She is filled with doubt about the value of what the teacher did before, and she doubts his wisdom . The real test at this stage is the test of overcoming doubt; i.e .. to create an action where all the parts of the mind are behind the original chosen path. This stage requires commitment. It requires involvement in the sense that the practitioner is responsible for the choice. Success and failure become portentous and filled with consequence. It is similar to adolescence. when the smallest rejection or acceptance by others is met with enormous reactions of grief or ecstasy. This choice of values is always a personal choice. It is not possible at this stage to take a cosmic perspective of detachment. The choice cannot be avoided without halting learning and growth, because the choice must be made first, before moving ahead. In spiritual disciplines, this choice is the leap of faith. This is the moment where the practitioner chooses to follow his own desires and limited perspectives, or choose the higher values established by the path or teaching that he began to study. Up to this point the student is detached from the choice. As a novice, you just follow the rules. The apprentice is busy learning new perceptions. He is competent to do most tasks related to the skills he is learning. He must choose where to use those skills and to what end. On the path of yoga, many students leave the path at the stage of Shakti Pad, because they feel that some part of themselves has been neglected or rejected by their own earlier efforts. Others gain spiritual ego and fancy themselves complete even though the teacher and teachings warn them against such a position. Others fade away slowly because they decide they are the exception to the rules, and they need not follow the original disciplines anymore. Those students who can act with faith and wholeness do well at this stage. Students who can search for differences from the main goal and correct their direction. pass through this stage the most easily. It is easy to forget yourself at this stage and become hypnotized by the satisfaction and power of the skills you have

gained so far. If you surrender to the path and goal you began your study to fulfill, you will emerge with strength and empowered with an unshakable direction. SAHEj PAD: THE STAGE OF THE EXPERT The fourth stage of the expert is a joy. It is a complete shift from the perilous stage of Shakti Pad. Sahej Pad means the stage of ease and elegance. At this stage the student is experienced, focused on the goal, and every new challenge increases the student’s skill. What changes is the concern with one’s self. At this stage the expert begins to merge into the task itself. He flips between complete merger with the task or subject and the assessment of the pattern of his performance. There is never a question about what The student learns to sense the big picture and the differences between many big pictures of the same situation, task, or person. This sensing opens intuition. one does or why one does it, there is only the intense teaming of pattern after pattern. The whole is not subdivided and analyzed component by component. The expert responds to the total entity or personality at once. This capacity is called intuition. It has been ignored and underplayed by psychologists and by the business world. Yet this capacity is especially useful in situations of high complexity and quick change that require immediate decisions and leadership. The expert uses intuition to act and analyze. to assess the impact of the decision. The athlete in this stage acquires a flowing, prescient quality to his movements. The salesperson will sense a new market for the product and then gather data to back up what he already knows. A consultant will use all the senses to notice exactly what a company needs in order to grow. Intuition makes some factor that will lead to a solution, suddenly leap into awareness. The expert then follows this intuition with data-gathering, coalition-building, and other skills in order to effect the change. The expert searches for differences with exceptions. He looks for significant elements. and then he matches them to patterns from the past that are similar and that work as a solution. The expert does not change behavior if everything is working well. ” If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it,” is a familiar motto. Instead, he goes directly to what needs a change. Where no change is needed. he simply does with elegance what he already knows. In most disciplines. such as the arts. chemistry. mathematics. music, and teaching, it takes seven to ten years to build the experiential base to move through the expert stage of learning and to have the chance to become a master. This stage is similar to Karam Pad in one way-the increase of

sensory openness to cues. The difference is that the cues are about the whole project, the entire staff, the whole person, the whole chess board, the entire yoga kriya. The expert learns to assess the whole not on management statistics or a set of measures, but with all the senses available to him both consciously and unconsciously. Instead of paying attention to small details, the student learns to sense the big picture and the differences between many big pictures of the same situation, task, or person. This sensing opens intuition. The expert learns by teaching. To truly master something you m ust teach it. This stage requires communication and sharing what has been studied with others. In business it means mentaring a younger or less experienced person. This is a powerful action that helps the student cultivate non-attachment to the task or skill. It becomes something to give away, to implant in others. It awakens the inner parent and teacher. This helps the student formulate the skills and information. Compassion is always present in a true expert. The expert is not threatened by personal gain or loss. The expert plays the games powerfully and skillfully, always focused on the goal. The feelings of fear and defensiveness are absent. This gives the expert the advantage of openness to all emotions and sensations. The expert is there more for the goal and the task than for himself. SAT PAD: THE STAGE OF THE MASTER The fifth and last stage is that of the master. It is rare and is not attained by everyone. In spiritual discipline it is called Sat Pad, the stage of Truth or Reality. The concern of the master is the actual reality of the task and the situation. There is no distortion by the ego needs of the student. There is no separation between the master and the action of the tasks. The master driver merges with the car, the road, and the journey. That awareness is not split, but focused everywhere at once. The master yogi merges with the real Self and finds it immanent and present in every part of the journey of life. The master businessman merges into the unique nature of the specific business and finds the universal principles of organization and prosperity in every part of the business. The position of the master is an embodied, fully present position whose focus is on the impact and context of the skill, task, or game. Novice airline pilots feel they fly a plane and are besieged by complications and hazards. The master pilot feels he actually flies-the sensations are of himself flying. If there is a misca lculation or an unforeseen incident, and even on the master level there always is, the master quickly tests many alternatives and forms a new move. It is all done in a fluid and instinctual way. It carries with it a quality of involved neu

trality. The master learner uses a neutral mind. The intuitive capacity is not only a perception of wholes, but a merger into the immediate situation, task, object, or person. We lack a good English word for this special intuitive capacity. Yogi Bhajan has called it comprehensive, comparative, intelligent, intuitive consciousness. Perhaps we can call it simply the use of Will! “Will” has many old connotations that we must drop to use it. Will in this context means the intuitive action that emanates from the whole person in response to the total situation. It is not forced. It is spontaneous but not impulsive. It is creative, playful, and completely real. To act from the Will is to use our essence, the soul, and not just a part of mind or emotion. When we communicate from our Will, we discharge our honest complete self. The purpose of communication is to represent our totality regardless of the subject. Similarly, when we use Will to perform an action, we are totally present and the action is performed with effortless effort since there is no internal resistance or any split of attention. This effort is referred to in the famous Zen story where the master explains that as a novice he carried water and chopped wood. After many years he received enlightenment. Now he “carries water and chops wood !” The yogi who is a master feels he acts in the direct command of the Will of God or dharma. There is no separation between the duty of the world and the choice of his own will. There is a sense of equality and transcendence in the Infinity of Being, enacted in the simplest of actions and in each conscious spoken word. A master yogi can raise the kundalini and entertain socially at the same time. To a novice it may seem as if the master does not pay attention or is distracted. The reality is that the novice must commit all his resources of attention to the tasks, whereas the master has focused and decided or acted before the novice has even formulated the real problem! A master will be very concrete in the application of abstract concepts. The novice will have only abstract ideas about the real experiences. The transformation from novice to master is accompanied by the capacity for metaphor instead of symbol, concrete specific action rather than abstract rules, spontaneity rather than impulsiveness, and intuition rather than rationalization.

Fallacies on the Path of Wisdom The following are the most common mistakes students make when they do not understand the nature of the five stages: ONE-LEVEL FALLACY. The student acts as if there is only one level. This action can come from a need for certainty or from simple ignorance. For this student the map is the territory. There are no alternatives. The world exists without gradation. The spectrum becomes a single color. The student stops the effort to learn more and represents the tasks poorly with a lack of depth and detail. Remember that there is always more to learn. If he finds himself at the top with no more to learn. he needs to shake himself awake! SHORT-CUT FALLACY. The student believes he can skip to a later stage because he can perceive that stage. Certain things cannot be learned without traversing the challenges of each stage. Students who settle for this fallacy merely imitate the real levels of expertise. They do not hold steady when the real pressure of life tests them. It is best to pay attention to the stage he or she is in. and let the next stage emerge. CROSS-DOMAIN FALLACY. This is the most frequent mistake. A student gains expertise and even mastery in one area, and assumes this expertise can be transferred to other areas. It is important to keep the beginners mind. open and ready for instruction in undeveloped areas. BOOTSTRAP FALLACY. This mistake comes from the assumption that the student can declare himself complete. Many students decide they no longer need a teacher-they are the perfect master. The ego believes it is powerful and great. The lesson is to cultivate a teacher or mentor at every stage. Continue to be challenged and to learn.

THE FIVE STAGES OF SPIRIIUAL DEVELOPMENT Yogi Bhqjan on Spiritual Awakening Through Group Consciousness Religious places were designed so that all the people who believe in some way could join together to praise the Lord and to feel elevated. In most places, this original purpose and practice to gather and experience the elevation of group consciousness is forgotten, diluted, or simply gone. With that factor of our life neglected and undeveloped, we have become confused. Individual consciousness will refine you, group consciousness will expand you, and Universal Consciousness will redeem you to Infinity. Take care of the spiritual factor of your life by joining with others to experience and elevate your self, the group, and the universe. When a person does not have and develop the strength of the individual consciousness toward group consciousness, he cannot attain the final experience of the Universal Consciousness. Barriers will always exist. Lack of knowledge, lack of a teacher, ego, fear, and karma are all barriers. These barriers keep a person limited. The development of group consciousness into the experience of Infinity is the bridge to Universal Consciousness. It releases the unlimited self and fulfills the spiritual longing. HAPPINESS AND MASTERY OF THE SPIRITUAL FACET OF HUMAN LIFE is a simple and direct practice. The problem is that we have never trained our minds to know our origin as Infinity. Instead we run and hide under rituals. All places of worship were meant to create group consciousness. Spiritual awakening starts with individual consciousness, then progresses to group consciousness. When group consciousness is established, where you care for others, then you can progress to Universal Consciousness.

PART6

Humanology

Er Yogic Lifestyle

Take just one understanding upon yourself: I am a human being. The day you remember that you are a human, that day you will become Divine, and duality will leave you. You will be prosperous. Opportunity will come to you. You will not try to get anything-all things will come to you. And your spirit will be high. As a human being you are very vast. And that vastness can give you all the happiness you need. That is your fulfillment. That is your completion

If in subtlety you become very refined, and in activity you become very subtle-very subtle-you are very near to your Soul. The Spirit and the Subtle body are very much related. There’s a direct relationship between the Subtle body and the Soul body. They never leave each other. So, anything you do which is refined-refined art, refined acts. refined speech. anything which is not gross-will put you nearer to the Soul. That’s rather a simple way of reaching your God-consciousness.” · YOGI BHA]AN