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THE PRINCIPAL PROBLEM

HERE is a problem in life—a marvellous and most important one-which seekers of truth ought to contemplate daily, not only till it is fairly well understood, but till it has made them eagerly anxious to make the wisdom it unveils to them a living power in their lives. In "The Two Paths" this problem is mentioned in the following way: "Alas, Alas, that all men should possess Alaya, be one with the Great Soul, and that possessing it, Alaya should so little avail them."

From a Christian point of view I venture to phrase this clause thus: “Alas, Alas, that all men should possess the Spirit of God, be one with the omnipresent Deity, and that possessing it, God should avail them so little."

This complaint reverberates through all nature. It is secretly expressed in every sound, in every movement of things that move, nay even in the stern silence of the immovable rock. Why is it that the omnipresent Deity is not felt in the heart of man? God must be there, since no place, no spot, not a single atom can be without that which is omnipresent. The reason is that He is there as a latent potency only, as a power at rest. He is there in His own state of being, unrevealed as before the beginning of the present period of cosmic activity; and in that state man knows Him not, in spite of all that has been said, heard, read, or learned by heart about Him. We are unconscious of that which is not manifest, and what we are unconscious of, is non-existent to us. God is a thoughtform only, used as an ornament in our lives, and when we are praying to God we are but praying to this ornament, unless the Deity has been brought to reveal Itself in our heart, to some extent, thus making it possible for us to have some rare glimpses of Its glorious nature.

life.

But God must be manifest in man. This is, in fact, the purpose of

In what way, then, can this be done? Is it something that occurs spontaneously without our co-operation or will? If so, then the gift of free will is not a blessing, but a malignant trap only, set up by an evil spirit for the purpose of tormenting man.

But fortunately it is not so. Man has free will as a remedy for his salvation. It is the only remedy that can further his development from his original animal state to that of a self-conscious human being, and then to a divine being that has become one with the Father in Heaven. In order to become a God, he must learn to discern between good and evil, between morality and immorality, between the immortal and the mortal. And he must learn to choose, of his own free will, between these two opposite sides of life. His free will puts him on a higher level than the animal, which acts according to natural instinct and without

discernment between good and evil. On the scale of evolution man stands between God and the animal, and of his own free will he can raise himself or sink,-raise himself to the Kingdom of God, or sink back into the animal kingdom for an Eternity;-in due time (in another evolutionary period) to scale again the steep ladder that leads from the animal state to the human state, and then to the blessed state of the immortal.

Man has got free will for his birthright, but the power to discern right and wrong must be developed and made perfect. If he chooses right he becomes a co-worker with nature and the law of evolution, and he will reap strength, happiness and peace. If he makes mistakes the Law will oppose him and put him to rights. It will be the schoolmaster that brings him to Christ. And the Law is a teacher whose instruction is based on right principles. Therefore, man, the pupil, is brought to learn with his own brain, of his own experience, that which is to be learnt. He must raise his whole nature with an effort of his own. This does not mean that man, as he generally thinks himself to be, viz., a being that is under the authority of his brain-consciousness, can do this, because this authority is the mind governed by desire and therefore weak, unstable and not reliable. But there is a higher authority in man than the consciousness of the brain. There is the soul that is a spark of the Universal Soul, the Father in Heaven. And through his soul man is a child of this Father, and as long as he has not forfeited his sonship, he can appeal to his Father for help. And help is never denied him that worships in spirit and in truth.

In what way, then, can man be a co-worker with the evolutionary law in order to develop his nature from its present low state to the state of a divine being, thus making God manifest in his life? Or to put it differently: How must he direct his aspiration and effort, and use his will, in order to raise himself to the Kingdom of God and become conscious of his union with the Father in Heaven?

In the excellent scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, this question is answered to such an extent that the possibility of being doubtful seems precluded. But as Christians we ought to find an answer in our own religion, in the Gospel of Love brought to the Western people by our Master, Jesus the Christ. A few quotations from the sayings of this Master will suffice. He said: "I am the way," . . . "No man can come to the Father except by the Son." From this it is evident that access to the Father and His Kingdom can only be obtained by being a follower of Christ, or by becoming His disciple. Christ is the way for the Christian, as Krishna is the way for many Hindus. The essential thing is, therefore, to find out what discipleship means, what its rules are, and then to comply with them. On this head the Master has spoken very clearly. These are His words: "Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple," . . "If ye continue in my word then are ye my disciples indeed," "I have given an example,"

"Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." These are plain words. Discipleship means that we must bear our cross, and accept our circumstances in this world without complaint or reluctance, always striving to keep His word, to follow His example, to learn from Him to be meek and lowly in heart, and to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect. This means an entire change of life, not a change of circumstances, or to run away from our duty here and now, but a change of our inner attitude to the things of this world, and to things divine as well. We must learn to meet the circumstances and events of this life as something sent us from above for our schooling, and as a help in our efforts to raise ourselves from our present low state as mortals to the divine state of immortals. And we must learn to pray with a cheerful mind: "Not my will but thine,”-knowing that nothing can happen against the will of the heavenly Father, and that all must be for the best, since it is the eternal Law of Compassion and Righteousness that governs our lives both in this world and the next. It is only our ignorance about the great need of our souls, and our lack of faith and love, that make us accept so many of the blessings of our heavenly Father with bad grace and even with obstinacy. We must learn obedience, and obedience will strengthen our love. If only we will study life, as it is, we shall see that there can be no true love without obedience, or the will to give one's life for the beloved one, and to serve and defend him. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," said the Christian Master. And this is not an obedience forced upon us; nor do we obey from fear, or reluctantly as a slave, but of free will governed by love. We are, in truth, obedient to the highest biddings of our own hearts. We are following the example of the Master who gave his life for all, and whose meat it was to do the will of the Father. We are bearing our cross, continuing in the Master's words, and striving to be perfect as the Father in Heaven is perfect. Then we shall have become disciples or true followers of Christ.

Another distinctive feature of the disciple's life must be mentioned, because true discipleship is impossible without it. He must acquire the power of continual meditation. The meaning of this has often been expounded in a most explicit way. At the present time, however, when discipleship has become the most vital thing in the life of a Christian, it seems wise again and again to point out the real meaning of it.

Continual meditation is a life not made up of scattered moments of life, but a life that is unbroken in its continuity. And human life is consciousness combined with reason and will. And since it is only when we are conscious of a thing that it really exists for us, it is evident that if we are not conscious of the presence of God in our inner life, then He has no reality for us, though He abides there as He does everywhere else. We may talk of God because we have been taught so much about Him. We may think that we know much about Him from what we see in the nature of the world and read in its history. But this is intellectual knowl

edge only. Many of us may firmly believe in His existence, because to us He is a logical necessity, and because so many have borne strong witness about Him. But this is not the same as being conscious of Him. To us He is still but a thought-form, a fine ornament. Christ is still an outer ideal and not an inner reality, which He must be. It is only when we begin to be conscious of His presence in our inner life that He gradually becomes something real to us. It is only then that Christ and the Father have come and made their abode with us. And here some quotations from the sayings of St. Paul and St. John may be helpful: "If any man hath not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." "Know ye not as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?" Thus speaks St. Paul, and St. John says: "And he that keepeth his commandments abideth in him, and he in him. He that saith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." Therefore, as long as we do not keep the commandments of God, we cannot in truth say that God is in us as an active power, though He is there as a power at rest, or, let us hope, as the power in the little leaven that in time will leaven our whole inner and outer lives.

How, then, shall we gain this consciousness of God?

We must begin to practise the presence of God, which means to practise the presence of Christ, our Master; for Christ has said: "Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him." "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." And this must be taken literally. Not that we shall see Him with our physical eyes, but with the eyes of the developed spiritual man. We must try to feel that the Master is present in our inner life, not only for short intervals when we are absorbed in prayer or meditation, but continually. We must imagine Him to be there always, taking part in our doings, always watching, guiding, repairing, that He upholds us every minute with His tender love and compassion.

To begin with, we must hold this attitude of mind at certain times a day, for instance, when rising in the morning, in the middle of the day, and before going to bed at night. And on certain days, especially on Sundays in church or at home, we must try to make this time for prayer and meditation longer and more effective by giving ourselves to the Master with profound thankfulness and devotion. At first we shall find this practice very difficult, and it will claim all our strength and resoluteness to carry it out to some small extent only. We shall find that we fail continually, and we may feel discouraged and lose faith in ourselves; and perhaps shortly all is given up, and we rush back to the world and are again shackled with the chains that had already begun to loosen, or were partly fallen. But if we really desire to be disciples of the Master, we shall persevere even if our efforts seem utterly in vain. And it will not be long before we shall experience the blessing of the practice. What at first seemed so difficult, and so objectionable to our lower nature, will gradually become easy and pleasant. This practice will

grow into a habit, and we shall come to love it; and what we love we are always going back to in our thought and feelings. We shall find ourselves able to extend our consciousness of the Master's presence, first, to frequently recurring times, then to every hour, to every minute and while doing all kinds of work. We shall come to think of Him as always standing by, controlling and inspiring us to do the will of the Father. And finally we shall recognize Him in our inner life, not only as a vague idea, but as an ever-present reality. Then we have found our Master, have become one with Him, and He will bring us to the Father. Then the principal problem of life has been solved.

There is no reason for us to feel discouraged, or to fear that we shall fall short of the goal. The Divine Law of evolution will in time. bring us there. But it depends on us whether our journey along the evolutionary stream, from our present stage onward, shall be short and pleasant, or long, wearisome and full of pain. But it must be remembered that the conscious presence of the Master is the life of the new man which, according to St. Paul, "after God, hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth." And it must also be remembered that the new man has his fœtal state, and develops in a similar way to that of a physical embryo from within without, although on a higher scale of evolution. And after the foetal state comes the childhood. From a spiritual point of view few people are yet above the state of childhood, and how many are even born again, or have left the foetal state? And as the physical embryo, as well as the physical child, can die when unfavourable circumstances set in, so adverse circumstances can bring the new man to perish in his fœtal state, or later, when still a child. And we are creating adverse circumstances whenever our free will jars against the will of God, though, as a rule, not unfavourable enough to kill, fortunately. But if they kill, then that personality is thrown off from the evolutionary stream as waste for an eternity, or until another period of cosmic activity.

As the life of the animal man must be kept up and strengthened with proper food and exercise, so the man of the second birth, must be nourished and trained properly. Christ has pointed out the proper food when saying: "My meat is to do the will of the Father." Thus, whenever we are doing the will of the Father, we are feeding the man who is to be the perfect man. And in order to attain to this state, we have to be trained and taught by the Master while we are in the physical world, the boarding-school of the new man in his younger days, or till he has attained "unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ," as St. Paul has said. When this is accomplished, the purpose of life has been fulfilled, and man has become more than man. THOMAS H. KNOFF.