moral sphere quite as surely as in the physical. The clouds were lifted long enough from the divine reality above and around us, for us to glimpse a little of the splendour and power of the Masters, the Models which human souls are destined to become. The way to realize that destiny has been shown through the life of devotion and aspiration and love. Success or failure rests with us. We must not allow the intellectual mise en scène to fascinate us, for all this exists only to help us to learn to live the life of discipleship. When once more an Avatar will fulfil his mission among men, let it not be said of him that his work had to be done by him all alone! Let us commence to work for him now. STANLEY V. LADOW.

There is a wide difference between that sweetness of devotion which we desire because it is agreeable, and that resolution of heart which we ought to desire because it renders us true servants of God.-SPIRITUAL LETTERS OF S. FRANCIS DE SALES.

ISHA UPANISHAD

TRANSLATED FROM THE SANSKRIT WITH AN INTERPRETATION

III

By a veil as of gold, the face of the Real is hidden. O thou Shepherd of the flock, Lord of the sun, lift up that veil, for the vision of the law of the Real!

T

HIS is the veil of Maya, the world illusion, the world glamour.
What in essence is that veil?

Let us begin with simple illustrations. We have used the word "glamour," which is the old English name of the power used by a sorcerer or witch, whether for self-concealment or to deceive in other ways; the power thus defined by the dictionary: "A magical deception of the eyes, making things appear different from what they are."

This is the power commonly known in our day as hypnotism, whereby the subject of hypnotic influence, for example, sees an onion as an apple, or takes vinegar for wine. All exercises of hypnotic power are dependent on glamour, and are, therefore, forms of sorcery and witchcraft. Our self-styled scientific age has simply changed the name, while using the same power.

This leads one naturally to self-hypnotism, which our age recognizes as a reality, though it is far indeed from realizing its scope. Selfhypnotism through the influence of desire is, indeed, fairly well understood, at least when it is operative in others; but the far more subtle self-hypnotism through the lower mind has a reach which is still almost unsuspected.

In these interpretations, we have spoken of Bergson, and of his penetrating analysis of the lower mind, as the instrument which the Life has called into being and developed, in order to deal with the material world; and the most valuable part of Bergson's work is the detailed description of the way in which the mind-machine distorts reality, in order thus to deal with it practically. Over against the mindmachine Bergson sets intuition, the power which, being a part of the Life itself, directly lays hold of the Life, and apprehends the Life as it is.

But, as we have suggested before, Bergson seems not to get at the heart of the matter, because he is inclined to consider rather the mental operation of the lower nature, without going deeply into its moral operation.

The mind-machine is, it is true, moulded and adapted to dealing with material facts, with the whole order of the material world. But Bergson passes lightly over the force, the impulse which has forced the Life in this direction, and has kept it thus bent upon the material world: the force of desire, the force called by the Buddhists "thirst," or "lust," in the general sense, as in the phrase "the lust of the eyes."

Speaking generally, then, the impelling force is the desire of the personal self, the personality, for all those things which gratify its thirst. And all these desires ultimately rest upon the lower self's desire of life, the desire to be keenly and vividly conscious of its own separate existence; a brute instinct, unreasoning, headstrong, for its own perpetuation. And this strong brute instinct continues, having, in a sense, an existence of its own, even after considerable development of the better and more humane, because more spiritual, nature has been attained. Besides the man's truer and deeper consciousness, with its aspiration and compassion, there lingers this submerged life, desperately fighting for its own perpetuation; alert, tricky, fruitful in expedients, endlessly resourceful, and quite determined to thwart any change or development which threatens its own lease of life. This is the passional element in the lower nature, which Bergson might have analyzed and set forth to view, had he been less exclusively interested in the mental and theoretical view of life, and more interested in the practical and spiritual.

The lower personal life, the egotism, that which is often called the "personality," though this word later comes to have a better and higher meaning, has a powerful life and obstinate purposes of its own; it is, in a sense, an invader, a traitor in the camp, or, quite literally, an obsessing force, an evil spirit, to use the term of an older and simpler day.

But it is a part of the resourceful and subtle strategy of this obsessing egotism, that it largely keeps itself in hiding; lurking, as it were, below the margin of ordinary consciousness, and, from this hiding place, warping both understanding and will, for its own purposes-for the perpetuation of that low order of life and consciousness in which it can luxuriate and grow fat.

Two things, which are in reality but two aspects of the same thing, namely, spiritual vision and sacrifice, directly cut at the root of the egotism's life, threatening to draw the Life upward beyond the low level on which the egotism flourishes. Therefore the egotism is ceaselessly at war with these two things. It is the deadly enemy of spiritual vision, and of the aspiration which foreshadows spiritual vision; and therefore it ceaselessly seeks to drug and benumb the mental powers, in order to blind them to spiritual reality.

All doctrines of materialism, without any exception whatever, are due to the wakeful activity of this skilful stage-manager, who sets the scenery while himself keeping out of sight.

These doctrines of the negation of spiritual things have their ultimate root, not in some mental shortcoming or even perversity, but rather

in a certain moral obliquity, in the prompting of the hidden demon who lurks in the darkness, until he is finally dragged forth into the light. Then begins a life and death struggle, which is the real drama of the soul, the theme of all mystical and religious books.

It is just because they are fighting an enemy now fully seen, that the saints recognize themselves to be "the chief of sinners." They have, through aspiration and sacrifice, stripped off the veil of this evil power; they see it in its hideousness, as it really is. And seeing, they know that they must fight to the death, overcoming, lest they be overcome. And they also know that no power or resource within the limits of their own personalities can give them the victory; nothing but the divine power of the Spirit itself, the Saviour, the Redeemer.

The saints speak with horror and loathing of this demoniac power, so long hidden but at last revealed, because they clearly see that its purpose is the death of every element of spiritual life. It seeks, quite literally, to "kill the soul," in the words of this Upanishad. And they likewise know how powerful it is, how subtle; its subtlety shown most of all in the way in which it remains concealed. Though obsessing the greater part of human life, it remains largely unsuspected, frankly disbelieved in by most people, and itself prompting that disbelief. It is well said that the devil's greatest triumph is to persuade people that there is no devil. Be it noted, by the way, that he generally persuades the same people that there is no God either, in the practical sense of a King requiring sacrifice and obedience.

The personality, in the sense we have given it, is "the veil of Maya"; that which conceals Truth, as with the lure of gold.

Who, then, is he who is to raise the veil? The name given in this Drama of the Mysteries is that of a Vedic deity, who is both a Shepherd of flocks and a Sun divinity, a Lord and Giver of Light.

The Good Shepherd, the Lord and Giver of Light-the symbolism is universal and old as life itself. That Lord and Shepherd is the Master who initiates the disciple, leading the disciple, by painful ways of sacrifice and purification, out of darkness into light, from beneath the yoke of evil into the liberty of the sons of God.

This intensely practical task is the essence and subject matter of all religion. When it is undertaken with full understanding and consciousness, it leads to full discipleship, and, in due time, to the Great Initiation, which is the subject of this Upanishad.

Therefore the Good Shepherd, the Lord and Giver of Light, is invoked, to lift the glistering veil, to give the vision of the Eternal.

Shepherd and Lord of Light, thou Only Seer, Lord of Death, LightGiver, Son of the Lord of Life, send forth thy rays and bring them together!

That radiance of thine, thy form most beautiful I behold; the Spiritual Man in the real world. That am I!

This marks the consummation of the Great Initiation, the full vision of Divinity, wherein the consciousness of the disciple becomes one with the consciousness of the Master, and of that Master's Master and the whole ascending chain of Spiritual Life, up to and including the supreme Nirvana.

Then follows the transformation spoken of in that most mystical tract, The Elixir of Life, which is thus indicated in this Upanishad :

My Spirit enters the Spirit, the Immortal. And this body has its end in ashes.

There remain only the closing words, addressed to the new-born spiritual man:

O Sacrifice, remember! Remember what has been done! O Sacrifice, remember! Remember what has been done!

O Divine Fire, lead us by the good path to Victory! O Bright One, thou who knowest all wisdoms!

Give us victory over our consuming sin! To Thee we offer the highest word of praise!

Everywhere and at all times it is in thy power to acquiesce in thy present condition, and to behave justly to those who are about thee.MARCUS ANTONINUS.