When Swamiji first met Mrs. Bull she was in her early forties and had been a widow for fourteen years. Aside from the fact that she was by nature warmhearted, courageous, independent, and, as Swamiji said, "very spiritual," her wide travels with her famous violinist husband, her experience with managers, audiences, and all that goes with public life, to say nothing of her close association with an artist, had well equipped her to help Swamiji, to give him not only good advice regarding his work in America but personal sympathy and, to some extent at least, understanding. Almost from the start of his acquaintance with her he felt a trust in her judgment and in her large heart-an intuitive trust which led him to write to her later, "Through the mercy of Ramakrishna, my instinct `sizes up' almost infallibly a human face as soon as I see it, and the result is this: you may do anything you please with my affairs, I will not even murmur. . . . Not only for the help you have given me, but from my instinct (or, as I call it, inspiration of my Master), I regard you as my mother and will always abide by any advice you may have for me."

Before Mrs. Bull's marriage to the Norwegian violinist, Ole Bull, she had been Miss Sara Thorp; daughter of the Honorable Joseph G. Thorp, a rich lumberman and state senator of Madison, Wisconsin. In her youth, her family had lived in a spacious mansion, the finest house in all of Madison, which in later years became Wisconsin's gubernatorial residence. Mrs. Thorp, a formidable woman of iron will, reigned as the city's social leader-"a reign," it is said, "that for brilliance and unchallenged authority has never since been equalled in the Wisconsin State capital." "The great house on `Yankee Hill,' " this same account continues, "became the acknowledged social center of the town, and invitations to the Thorp lawn parties, musicales, amateur theatricals, and elaborate formal dinners were frantically sought." Naturally enough, the Thorps entertained visiting celebrities, and it was in the great house on Yankee Hill that sixty-year-old widower Ole Bull met and courted Sara Thorp, a girl of barely twenty. In The Life of Ole Bull by Mortimer Smith, the young Sara has been described as "black-haired, of a serious, rather melancholy sort of beauty, highly impressionable, passionately fond of music and-thanks to her mother-entirely ignorant of young men of her own age." She was a highstrung girl, idealistic and sensitive. The story goes that when she was seventeen she attended with her mother one of Ole Bull's concerts and then and there made up her mind that she would one day become his wife. She was of the same mind when, three years later, she met him socially.

As for Ole Bull his meeting with Sara was evidently a case of love at first sight. "But," says his biographer, "this romantic attachment between age and youth might well have come to nothing had it not been for a very remarkable woman, Sara's mother." Brushing aside the protests of her husband, Mrs. Thorp encouraged the romance, until, in September of 1870, it culminated in marriage. It was a strange alliance; not only was there a forty years' difference in age between husband and wife, but a wide difference in background and temperament. Sara Bull belonged to a highly conventional midwestern family; Ole Bull to the unconventional, free society of artists. Yet the couple were in love, and all might have gone well had not Mrs. Thorp, Mr. Thorp, their son Joseph, a Mrs. Abbie Shapleigh (Mrs. Thorp's companion), and her two children kept almost constant tabs on the couple both in America and Europe. For several years this entourage lived with them, traveled with them, argued with them, and incessantly gave them advice. Explosion continuously threatened until finally, after numerous and unsuccessful attempts to transform the impulsive and extravagant Ole Bull into a docile and respectable son-in-law, Mrs. Thorp came to the conclusion that he was not, after all, a suitable husband for her daughter. She forthwith engineered a separation and bundled Sara and her small daughter, Olea, who had been born in 1871, home to Madison.

But as Sara grew older she became a match for her mother. After two years of pining at home, she one day rebelled against parental authority, left Madison, and rejoined her husband in Norway. After this, the Bulls lived a private and quiet life-if the life of a concert violinist may be said to be private and quiet. It was, at least, a life in which the Thorp family no longer interfered, but with which they finally came to terms. Henceforth peace reigned between Sara's family and Ole Bull. Mrs. Bull took charge of her impractical husband's affairs, virtually managed his concert tours, borrowed money from her father when necessary, and became, all in all, a mature and efficient wife to this aging, somewhat erratic man, whom she adored, indeed whom she worshiped.

In the meantime, Mrs. Thorp, bored with Madison, moved her family to Cambridge where, to her delight, her son Joseph married the youngest daughter of the poet Longfellow. It was in Cambridge that the Bulls made their home-in a separate establishment-when they were in America, and it was there that Mrs. Bull continued to live after the death of her husband in 1880. She became, The Life of Ole Bull relates, "a well-known figure in Cambridge, and her spacious house on Brattle Street, where she lived until her death in 1911, was a famous gathering place for `intellectual' society and for leaders of causes. She presided over her salon with a gentle, unobtrusive, and somewhat melancholy grace. Here she could be found introducing the Swami Vivekananda and his Vedanta philosophy to her cautious and faintly suspicions Cambridge friends, or discussing religion with William James, or playing accompaniments for the aggressive baritone of John Fiske. For two years she conducted in her house what she called `the Cambridge Conferences'; here, in a large living room panelled in Indian teakwood and dominated by a bust and innumerable portraits of Ole Bull, one was privileged to listen to the con-_x000d_ ¬troversial social questions of the day discussed by such figures as Professor James, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Josiah Royce, and Jane Addams. In the audience one could rub shoulders with such varied persons as the patrician Miss Alice Longfellow, Irving Babbitt, Professor Munsterberg, the still active Julia Ward Howe, and even a young woman named Gertrude Stein, then a student at Radcliffe.

Mrs. Bull could provide a sanctuary in her Cambridge home as well as a scintillating salon, and it was here that in October of 1894 she offered Swamiji a place where he could write undisturbed. It is, of course, not unlikely that she persuaded him to give one or two informal talks in her large living room, and very possibly it was during this stay with Mrs. Bull that Swamiji first became intimately acquainted with William James. (It was perhaps at this time that he demonstrated, as we have been told, the mystery of divine communion for the noted philosopher by plunging, in his presence, into samadhi.) But although Mrs. Bull may have introduced others of her friends to Swamiji she no doubt for the most part gave him an opportunity to rest and to write down his thoughts, for per¬ceptive and sensitive as she was, she must have seen that he was in need of a few days of peace.

Yet despite his fatigue, he continued in the last part of 1894 to lecture wherever opportunity presented itself. It would appear, as has been pointed out before, that he was destined, before settling down in one place, to spread his influence throughout America, to scatter his blessing and the potent seeds of spirituality over wide areas, to meet thousands upon thousands of people, and to stir not only their minds but the deep recesses of their souls ¬those depths which none but a prophet of his stature could reach and awaken. Therefore his stay at Mrs. Bull's house was not long, though it gave him a much needed rest.

This was the beginning of Mrs. Bull's long and generous service to Swamiji's work. Nor was she to serve him only with gifts of money, but in many other ways besides, making her house available to his classes, supporting in part some of his disciples, helping his New York work during the next two years. Small gifts she also gave him, such as a mother would give a son. When he left Cambridge for Baltimore, for instance, she presented him with a nice new outfit, all in brown. There was even a brown purse as a token of good luck.

On the gift card for this last she wrote:_x000d_ My dearest child_x000d_ This is a prosaic gift, but the handselen purse will complete in a pair of brown gloves the smartness of the brown costume. May you have many days of happy use of this outfit it has been such a pleasure & privilege to bring together. Lovingly, M.i.L. [Mother in Lord?]

Then, wanting, as he said; a place where I can sit down and write down m thoughts", he accepted an invitation from Mrs. Bull to spend a few days in her Cambridge house at 166 Brattle Street, where she lived with her daughter, a companion, and, generally, many guests. Mrs. Bull, widow of the famous Norwegian vio-linist and nationalist, was a patron of arts and letters in her own right and was to become one of the Swami's most ardent supporters in America, and a friend on whom he could always count. Her house in Cambridge was to be in some respects a headquarters for him on the East Coast, even as the Hales's house in Chicago was his headquarters in the Midwest.

on October 2 he went to Mrs. Bull's home in Cambridge, where his desire for a quiet place "to sit down and write" was at last fulfilled.

To Mrs. G. W. Hale_x000d_ C/o Mrs. Ole Bull_x000d_ 168 Brattle Street_x000d_ Cambridge, Mass._x000d_ 5 October 1894_x000d_ Dear Mother,_x000d_ I have not heard from you for long. Have you received the huge packages I sent over to you? Have you heard anything about the phonograph from the express office?_x000d_ I will be with Mrs. Ole Bull a few days, and then I go to New York to Mrs. Guernsey's._x000d_ Yours ever affectionately,_x000d_ Vivekananda

To Mrs. G. W. Hale_x000d_ C/o Mrs. Ole Bull_x000d_ Riverview, 168 Brattle Street_x000d_ Cambridge, Mass._x000d_ [Postmarked: Oct. 10, 1894, 4:30 a.m.]_x000d_ Dear Mother,_x000d_ Received two letters from you and a large number from India but none from Khetri._x000d_ I am sorry the sisters have got bad colds and more sorry for your getting worried over it. Nothing can make a Christian worry. I hope Narasimha will be a good boy this time forth. Sister Mary is coming to Boston__good. I am going off from here tomorrow to Baltimore. I had enough to pay all my expenses here; and since I am living with Mrs. Bull, there is no expense. She is a rich and highly cultured lady. She has given me $500 for my work or anything I like. As I am not going west very soon, I will have a bank account here in Boston. From Philadelphia I go to Washington, and then I will run between New York and Boston. So I do not think I will be able to see you, except perhaps Sister Mary. I want so very much that Mary will see Mrs. Bull and others of my friends here. I have the fat of the land as usual, and my dinner is cooking very well both here and in India. Do not make it public, Mother__that is between you and me and the babies__and do not worry yourself about anything. All things come to him that waits. I am going to send the greater part of the money I have got to India and then money will come faster. I have always found that the faster I spend, the faster it comes. Nature abhors a vacuum. I am in very good spirits, only you must not stop keeping me informed about yourself, Babies and Father Pope from time to time. _x000d_ Perhaps you remember the two letters that came from Mysore__I want one of those envelopes with the Mysore King's seal on the outside to be sent to Miss Phillips, 19 West 38th Street, New York._x000d_ I cannot go to New York now nor to Chicago, although I had a number of invitations and offers from both the places. I must see now the capital and the other cities. I am in His Hands. If Miss Mary be in Boston, sometime I may hope to see her._x000d_ I am glad that Narasimha was never fast__hope he will never be._x000d_ From India they always write me to come, come, come. They do not know the secret. I am acting more from here than I will ever do from there._x000d_ Kindly send my letters to this address and they will reach me safe wherever I be. This will be one of my homes when I am in Boston. _x000d_ Lord bless you all, dear Mother._x000d_ Yours ever affectionately,_x000d_ Vivekananda

My dear Mr Vive Kananda_x000d_ You have blessed to higher uses this home of ours by your presence. You have given us the pearl of great price. If there shall be as there have been those who would turn and send you, let us remember that it is ignorance and not allow the stones they would throw to obstruct the current, but by gentleness and dignity convert for them these very stones to bread that they have cast upon the waters-for truly they know not what they do. The conditions of life here where they differ from your own in their recognition of the need of that which is beyond all price, must not put you to a disadvantage. My husband worked here in this country during a period of some fifty years and gave his best. He would love you and your ideals. It was my great privilege to learn how I might guard & shelter him in his work from the hurts that came to the spiritual in him from both friends &. Enemies. As I believe the work is all one let me think of you as his son and please take the enclosed as a token. Let it be of such use & service as I would gladly make this house whenever you are near us and in the coming years I shall hope to put a like amount at your disposal asking you only that it may serve you & your people who are our people as well, as you find occasion. I would like to convert this cheque to a Bank order that can be used anywhere that you may be without difficulty, and can give you it in several far smaller amounts if you prefer. These will be safe as requiring your signature and better than the carrying about of money. I want to arrange it before you go to Baltimore. Believe me sincerely your obliged friend._x000d_ Sara Bull

After a quiet stay from October 2 to 12 in Cambridge, the Swami travelled to Baltimore, Maryland.

The next news we have of Swamiji is of his leaving for Baltimore, Maryland, on the evening of October 12.

Raja-Yoga is as much a science as any in the world. It is an analysis of the mind, a gathering of the facts of the supersensuous world and so building up the spiritual world. All the great spiritual teachers the world has known said, "I see and I know." Jesus, Paul, and Peter all claimed actual perception of the spiritual truths they taught._x000d_ This perception is obtained by Yoga._x000d_ Neither memory nor consciousness can be the limitation of existence. There is a superconscious state. Both it and the unconscious state are sensationless, but with a vast difference between them--the difference between ignorance and knowledge. Present Yoga as an appeal to reason, as a science._x000d_ Concentration of the mind is the source of all knowledge._x000d_ Yoga teaches us to make matter our slave, as it ought to be. Yoga means "yoke", "to join", that is, to join the soul of man with the supreme Soul or God._x000d_ The mind acts in and under consciousness. What we call consciousness is only one link in the infinite chain that is our nature._x000d_ This "I" of ours covers just a little consciousness and a vast amount of unconsciousness, while over it, and mostly unknown to it, is the superconscious plane._x000d_ Through faithful practice, layer after layer of the mind opens before us, and each reveals new facts to us. We see as it were new worlds created before us, new powers are put into our hands, but we must not stop by the way or allow ourselves to be dazzled by these "beads of glass" when the mine of diamonds lies before us._x000d_ God alone is our goal. Failing to reach God, we die._x000d_ Three things are necessary to the student who wishes to succeed._x000d_ First. Give up all ideas of enjoyment in this world and the next, care only for God and Truth. We are here to know truth, not for enjoyment. Leave that to brutes who enjoy as we never can. Man is a thinking being and must struggle on until he conquers death, until he sees the light. He must not spend himself in vain talking that bears no fruit. Worship of society and popular opinion is idolatry. The soul has no sex, no country, no place, no time._x000d_ Second. Intense desire to know Truth and God. Be eager for them, long for them, as a drowning man longs for breath. Want only God, take nothing else, let not "seeming" cheat you any longer. Turn from all and seek only God._x000d_ Third. The six trainings: First--Restraining the mind from going outward. Second--Restraining the senses. Third--Turning the mind inward. Fourth--Suffering everything without murmuring. Fifth--Fastening the mind to one idea. Take the subject before you and think it out; never leave it. Do not count time. Sixth--Think constantly of your real nature. Get rid of superstition. Do not hypnotise yourself into a belief in your own inferiority. Day and night tell yourself what you really are, until you realise (actually realise) your oneness with God._x000d_ Without these disciplines, no results can be gained._x000d_ We can be conscious of the Absolute, but we can never express It. The moment we try to express It, we limit It and It ceases to be Absolute._x000d_ We have to go beyond sense limit and transcend even reason, and we have the power to do this._x000d_ [After practising the first lesson in breathing a week, the pupil reports to the teacher.]_x000d_ _x000d_ FIRST LESSON_x000d_ This is a lesson seeking to bring out the individuality. Each individuality must be cultivated. All will meet at the centre. "Imagination is the door to inspiration and the basis of all thought." All prophets, poets, and discoverers have had great imaginative power. The explanation of nature is in us; the stone falls outside, but gravitation is in us, not outside. Those who stuff themselves, those who starve themselves, those who sleep too much, those who sleep too little, cannot become Yogis. Ignorance, fickleness, jealousy, laziness, and excessive attachment are the great enemies to success in Yoga practice. The three great requisites are:_x000d_ First. Purity, physical and mental; all uncleanness, all that would draw the mind down, must be abandoned._x000d_ Second. Patience: At first there will be wonderful manifestations, but they will all cease. This is the hardest period, but hold fast; in the end the gain is sure if you have patience._x000d_ Third. Perseverance: Persevere through thick and thin, through health and sickness, never miss a day in practice._x000d_ The best time for practice is the junction of day and night, the calmest time in the tides of our bodies, the zero point between two states. If this cannot be done, practise upon rising and going to bed. Great personal cleanliness is necessary--a daily bath._x000d_ After bathing, sit down and hold the seat firm, that is, imagine that you sit as firm as a rock, that nothing can move you. Hold the head and shoulders and the hips in a straight line, keeping the spinal column free; all action is along it, and it must not be impaired._x000d_ Begin with your toes and think of each part of your body as perfect; picture it so in your mind, touching each part if you prefer to do so. Pass upward bit by bit until you reach the head, thinking of each as perfect, lacking nothing. Then think of the whole as perfect, an instrument given to you by God to enable you to attain Truth, the vessel in which you are to cross the ocean and reach the shores of eternal truth. When this has been done, take a long breath through both nostrils, throw it out again, and then hold it out as long as you comfortably can. Take four such breaths, then breathe naturally and pray for illumination._x000d_ "I meditate on the glory of that being who created this universe; may he illuminate my mind." Sit and meditate on this ten or fifteen minutes._x000d_ Tell your experiences to no one but your Guru._x000d_ Talk as little as possible._x000d_ Keep your thoughts on virtue; what we think we tend to become._x000d_ Holy meditation helps to burn out all mental impurities. All who are not Yogis are slaves; bond after bond must be broken to make us free._x000d_ All can find the reality beyond. If God is true, we must feel him as a fact, and if there is a soul, we ought to be able to see it and feel it._x000d_ The only way to find if there be a soul is to be something which is not the body._x000d_ The Yogis class our organs under two chief heads: organs of sense and organs of motion, or knowledge and action._x000d_ The internal organ or mind has four aspects. First--Manas, the cogitating or thinking faculty, which is usually almost entirely wasted, because uncontrolled; properly governed, it is a wonderful power. Second--Buddhi, the will (sometimes called the intellect). Third--Ahamkara, the self-conscious egotism (from Aham). Fourth--Chitta, the substance in and through which all the faculties act, the floor of the mind as it were; or the sea in which the various faculties are waves._x000d_ Yoga is the science by which we stop Chitta from assuming, or becoming transformed into, several faculties. As the reflection of the moon on the sea is broken or blurred by the waves, so is the reflection of the Atman, the true Self, broken by the mental waves. Only when the sea is stilled to mirror-like calmness, can the reflection of the moon be seen, and only when the "mind-stuff", the Chitta is controlled to absolute calmness, is the Self to be recognised._x000d_ The mind is not the body, though it is matter in a finer form. It is not eternally bound by the body. This is proved as we get occasionally loosened from it. We can learn to do this at will by controlling the senses._x000d_ When we can do that fully, we shall control the universe, because our world is only what the senses bring us. Freedom is the test of the higher being. Spiritual life begins when you have loosened yourself from the control of the senses. He whose senses rule him is worldly--is a slave._x000d_ If we could entirely stop our mind-stuff from breaking into waves, it would put an end to our bodies. For millions of years we have worked so hard to manufacture these bodies that in the struggle we have forgotten our real purpose in getting them, which was to become perfect. We have grown to think that body-making is the end of our efforts. This is Maya. We must break this delusion and return to our original aim and realise we are not the body, it is our servant._x000d_ Learn to take the mind out and to see that it is separate from the body. We endow the body with sensation and life and then think it is alive and real. We have worn it so long that we forget that it is not identical with us. Yoga is to help us put off our body when we please and see it as our servant, our instrument, not our ruler. Controlling the mental powers is the first great aim in Yoga practices. The second is concentrating them in full force upon any subject._x000d_ You cannot be a Yogi if you talk much._x000d_ _x000d_ SECOND LESSON_x000d_ This Yoga is known as the eightfold Yoga, because it is divided into eight principal parts. These are: _x000d_ First--Yama. This is most important and has to govern the whole life; it has five divisions:_x000d_ 1st. Not injuring any being by thought, word, or deed._x000d_ 2nd. Non-covetousness in thought, word, or deed._x000d_ 3rd. Perfect chastity in thought, word, or deed._x000d_ 4th. Perfect truthfulness in thought, word, or deed._x000d_ 5th. Non-receiving of gifts._x000d_ Second--Niyama. The bodily care, bathing daily, dietary, etc._x000d_ Third--Asana, posture. Hips, shoulders, and head must be held straight, leaving the spine free._x000d_ Fourth--Pranayama, restraining the breath (in order to get control of the Prana or vital force)._x000d_ Fifth--Pratyahara, turning the mind inward and restraining it from going outward, revolving the matter in the mind in order to understand it._x000d_ Sixth--Dharana, concentration on one subject._x000d_ Seventh--Dhyana, meditation._x000d_ Eighth--Samadhi, illumination, the aim of all our efforts._x000d_ Yama and Niyama are for lifelong practice. As for the others, we do as the leech does, not leave one blade of grass before firmly grasping another. In other words, we have thoroughly to understand and practise one step before taking another._x000d_ The subject of this lesson is Pranayama, or controlling the Prana. In Raja-Yoga breathing enters the psychic plane and brings us to the spiritual. It is the fly-wheel of the whole bodily system. It acts first upon the lungs, the lungs act on the heart, the heart acts upon the circulation, this in turn upon the brain, and the brain upon the mind. The will can produce an outside sensation, and the outside sensation can arouse the will. Our wills are weak; we do not realise their power, we are so much bound up in matter. Most of our action is from outside in. Outside nature throws us off our balance, and we cannot (as we ought) throw nature off her balance. This is all wrong; the stronger power is really within._x000d_ The great saints and teachers were those who had conquered this world of thought within themselves and so spake with power. The story of the minister confined in a high tower, who was released through the efforts of his wife who brought him a beetle, honey, a silken thread, a cord, and a rope, illustrates the way we gain control of our mind by using first the physical regulation of the breath as the silken thread. That enables us to lay hold on one power after another until the rope of concentration delivers us from the prison of the body and we are free. Reaching freedom, we can discard the means used to bring us there._x000d_ Pranayama has three parts:_x000d_ 1st. Puraka--inhaling._x000d_ 2nd. Kumbhaka--restraining._x000d_ 3rd. Rechaka--exhaling._x000d_ There are two currents passing through the brain and circulating down the sides of the spine, crossing at the base and returning to the brain. One of these currents, called the "sun" (Pingala), starts from the left hemisphere of the brain, crosses at the base of the brain to the right side of the spine, and recrosses at the base of the spine, like one-half of the figure eight._x000d_ The other current, the "moon" (Ida), reverses this action and completes this figure eight. Of course, the lower part is much longer than the upper. These currents flow day and night and make deposits of the great life forces at different points, commonly known as "plexuses"; but we are rarely conscious of them. By concentration we can learn to feel them and trace them over all parts of the body. These "sun" and "moon" currents are intimately connected with breathing, and by regulating this we get control of the body._x000d_ In the Katha Upanishad the body is described as the chariot, the mind is the reins, the intellect is the charioteer, the senses are the horses, and the objects of the senses their road. The self is the rider, seated in the chariot. Unless the rider has understanding and can make the charioteer control his horses, he can never attain the goal; but the senses, like vicious steeds, will drag him where they please and may even destroy him. These two currents are the great "check rein" in the hands of the charioteer, and he must get control of this to control the horses. We have to get the power to become moral; until we do that, we cannot control our actions. Yoga alone enables us to carry into practice the teachings of morality. To become moral is the object of Yoga. All great teachers were Yogis and controlled every current. The Yogis arrest these currents at the base of the spine and force them through the centre of the spinal column. They then become the current of knowledge, which only exists in the Yogi._x000d_ Second Lesson in Breathing: One method is not for all. This breathing must be done with rhythmic regularity, and the easiest way is by counting; as that is purely mechanical, we repeat the sacred word "Om" a certain number of times instead._x000d_ The process of Pranayama is as follows: Close the right nostril with the thumb and then slowly inhale through the left nostril, repeating the word "Om" four times._x000d_ Then firmly close both nostrils by placing the forefinger on the left one and hold the breath in, mentally repeating "Om" eight times._x000d_ Then, removing the thumb from the right nostril, exhale slowly through that, repeating "Om" four times._x000d_ As you close the exhalation, draw in the abdomen forcibly to expel all the air from the lungs. Then slowly inhale through the right nostril, keeping the left one closed, repeating "Om" four times. Next close the right nostril with the thumb and hold the breath while repeating "Om" eight times. Then unclose the left nostril and slowly exhale, repeating "Om" four times, drawing in the abdomen as before. Repeat this whole operation twice at each sitting, that is, making four Pranayamas, two for each nostril. Before taking your seat it is well to begin with prayer._x000d_ This needs to be practised a week; then gradually increase the duration of breathing, keeping the same ratio, that is, if you repeat "Om" six times at inhalation, then do the same at exhalation and twelve times during Kumbhaka. These exercises will make us more spiritual, more pure, more holy. Do not be led aside into any byways or seek after power. Love is the only power that stays by us and increases. He who seeks to come to God through Raja-Yoga must be strong mentally, physically, morally, and spiritually. Take every step in that light.Of hundreds of thousands only one soul will say, "I will go beyond, and I will penetrate to God." Few can face the truth; but to accomplish anything, we must be willing to die for Truth._x000d_ _x000d_ THIRD LESSON_x000d_ Kundalini: Realise the soul not as matter, but as it is. We are thinking of the soul as body, but we must separate it from sense and thought. Then alone can we know we are immortal. Change implies the duality of cause and effect, and all that changes must be mortal. This proves that the body cannot be immortal, nor can the mind, because both are constantly changing. Only the unchangeable can be immortal, because there is nothing to act upon it._x000d_ We do not become it, we are it; but we have to clear away the veil of ignorance that hides the truth from us. The body is objectified thought. The "sun" and "moon" currents bring energy to all parts of the body. The surplus energy is stored at certain points (plexuses) along the spinal column commonly known as nerve centres._x000d_ These currents are not to be found in dead bodies and can only be traced in a healthy organism._x000d_ The Yogi has an advantage; for he is able not only to feel them, but actually to see them. They are luminous in his life, and so are the great nerve centres._x000d_ There is conscious as well as unconscious action. The Yogis possess a third kind, the superconscious, which in all countries and in all ages has been the source of all religious knowledge. The superconscious state makes no mistakes, but whereas the action of the instinct would be purely mechanical, the former is beyond consciousness._x000d_ It has been called inspiration, but the Yogi says, "This faculty is in every human being, and eventually all will enjoy it."_x000d_ We must give a new direction to the "sun" and "moon" currents and open for them a new passage through the centre of the spinal cord. When we succeed in bringing the currents through this passage called "Sushumna", up to the brain, we are for the time being separated entirely from the body._x000d_ The nerve centre at the base of the spine near the sacrum is most important. It is the seat of the generative substance of the sexual energy and is symbolised by the Yogi as a triangle containing a tiny serpent coiled up in it. This sleeping serpent is called Kundalini, and to raise this Kundalini is the whole object of Raja-Yoga._x000d_ The great sexual force, raised from animal action and sent upward to the great dynamo of the human system, the brain, and there stored up, becomes Ojas or spiritual force. All good thought, all prayer, resolves a part of that animal energy into Ojas and helps to give us spiritual power. This Ojas is the real man and in human beings alone is it possible for this storage of Ojas to be accomplished. One in whom the whole animal sex force has been transformed into Ojas is a god. He speaks with power, and his words regenerate the world._x000d_ The Yogi pictures this serpent as being slowly lifted from stage to stage until the highest, the pineal gland, is reached. No man or woman can be really spiritual until the sexual energy, the highest power possessed by man, has been converted into Ojas._x000d_ No force can be created; it can only be directed. Therefore we must learn to control the grand powers that are already in our hands and by will power make them spiritual instead of merely animal. Thus it is clearly seen that chastity is the corner-stone of all morality and of all religion. In Raja-Yoga especially, absolute chastity in thought, word, and deed is a sine qua non. The same laws apply to the married and the single. If one wastes the most potent forces of one's being, one cannot become spiritual._x000d_ All history teaches us that the great seers of all ages were either monks and ascetics or those who had given up married life; only the pure in life can see God._x000d_ Just before making the Pranayama, endeavour to visualise the triangle. Close your eyes and picture it vividly in your imagination. See it surrounded by flames and with the serpent coiled in the middle. When you can clearly see the Kundalini, place it in imagination at the base of the spine, and when restraining the breath in Kumbhaka, throw it forcibly down on the head of the serpent to awaken it. The more powerful the imagination, the more quickly will the real result be attained and the Kundalini be awakened. Until it does, imagine it does: try to feel the currents and try to force them through the Sushumna. This hastens their action._x000d_ _x000d_ FOURTH LESSON_x000d_ Before we can control the mind we must study it._x000d_ We have to seize this unstable mind and drag it from its wanderings and fix it on one idea. Over and over again this must be done. By power of will we must get hold of the mind and make it stop and reflect upon the glory of God._x000d_ The easiest way to get hold of the mind is to sit quiet and let it drift where it will for a while. Hold fast to the idea, "I am the witness watching my mind drifting. The mind is not I." Then see it think as if it were a thing entirely apart from yourself. Identify yourself with God, never with matter or with the mind._x000d_ Picture the mind as a calm lake stretched before you and the thoughts that come and go as bubbles rising and breaking on its surface. Make no effort to control the thoughts, but watch them and follow them in imagination as they float away. This will gradually lessen the circles. For the mind ranges over wide circles of thought and those circles widen out into ever-increasing circles, as in a pond when we throw a stone into it. We want to reverse the process and starting with a huge circle make it narrower until at last we can fix the mind on one point and make it stay there. Hold to the idea, "I am not the mind, I see that I am thinking, I am watching my mind act", and each day the identification of yourself with thought and feeling will grow less, until at last you can entirely separate yourself from the mind and actually know it to be apart from yourself._x000d_ When this is done, the mind is your servant to control as you will. The first stage of being a Yogi is to go beyond the senses. When the mind is conquered, he has reached the highest stage._x000d_ Live alone as much as possible. The seat should be of comfortable height; put first a grass mat, then a skin (fur), next a silken cover. It is better that the seat has no back and it must stand firm._x000d_ Thoughts being pictures, we should not create them. We have to exclude all thought from the mind and make it a blank; as fast as a thought comes we have to banish it. To be able to accomplish this, we must transcend matter and go beyond our body. The whole life of man is really an effort to do this._x000d_ Each soul has its own meaning: In our nature these two things are connected._x000d_ The highest ideal we have is God. Meditate on Him. We cannot know the Knower, but we are He._x000d_ Seeing evil, we are creating it. What we are, we see outside, for the world is our mirror. This little body is a little mirror we have created, but the whole universe is our body. We must think this all the time; then we shall know that we cannot die or hurt another, because he is our own. We are birthless and deathless and we ought only to love._x000d_ "This whole universe is my body; all health, all happiness is mine, because all is in the universe." Say, "I am the universe." We finally learn that all action is from us to the mirror._x000d_ Although we appear as little waves, the whole sea is at our back, and we are one with it. No wave can exist of itself._x000d_ Imagination properly employed is our greatest friend; it goes beyond reason and is the only light that takes us everywhere._x000d_ Inspiration is from within and we have to inspire ourselves by our own higher faculties._x000d_ _x000d_ FIFTH LESSON_x000d_ Pratyahara and Dharana: Krishna says, "All who seek me by whatever means will reach me", "All must reach me." Pratyahara is a gathering toward, an attempt to get hold of the mind and focus it on the desired object. The first step is to let the mind drift; watch it; see what it thinks; be only the witness. Mind is not soul or spirit. It is only matter in a finer form, and we own it and can learn to manipulate it through the nerve energies._x000d_ The body is the objective view of what we call mind (subjective). We, the Self, are beyond both body and mind; we are "Atman", the eternal, unchangeable witness. The body is crystallised thought._x000d_ When the breath is flowing through the left nostril, it is the time for rest; when through the right, for work; and when through both, the time to meditate. When we are calm and breathing equally through both nostrils, we are in the right condition for quiet meditation. It is no use trying to concentrate at first. Control of thought will come of itself._x000d_ After sufficient practice of closing the nostrils with the thumb and forefinger, we shall be able to do it by the power of will, through thought alone._x000d_ Pranayama is now to be slightly changed. If the student has the name of his "Ishta" (Chosen Ideal), he should use that instead of "Om" during inhalation and exhalation, and use the word "Hum" (pronounced Hoom) during Kumbhaka._x000d_ Throw the restrained breath forcibly down on the head of the Kundalini at each repetition of the word Hum and imagine that this awakens her. Identify yourself only with God. After a while thoughts will announce their coming, and we shall learn the way they begin and be aware of what we are going to think, just as on this plane we can look out and see a person coming. This stage is reached when we have learnt to separate ourselves from our minds and see ourselves as one and thought as something apart. Do not let the thoughts grasp you; stand aside, and they will die away._x000d_ Follow these holy thoughts; go with them; and when they melt away, you will find the feet of the Omnipotent God. This is the superconscious state; when the idea melts, follow it and melt with it._x000d_ Haloes are symbols of inner light and can be seen by the Yogi. Sometimes we may see a face as if surrounded by flames and in them read the character and judge without erring. We may have our Ishta come to us as a vision, and this symbol will be the one upon which we can rest easily and fully concentrate our minds._x000d_ We can imagine through all the senses, but we do so mostly through the eyes. Even imagination is half material. In other words, we cannot think without a phantasm. But since animals appear to think, yet have no words, it is probable that there is no inseparable connection between thought and images._x000d_ Try to keep up the imagination in Yoga, being careful to keep it pure and holy. We all have our peculiarities in the way of imaginative power; follow the way most natural to you; it will be the easiest._x000d_ We are the results of all reincarnations through Karma: "One lamp lighted from another", says the Buddhist--different lamps, but the same light._x000d_ Be cheerful, be brave, bathe daily, have patience, purity, and perseverance, then you will become a Yogi in truth. Never try to hurry, and if the higher powers come, remember that they are but side-paths. Do not let them tempt you from the main road; put them aside and hold fast to your only true aim--God. Seek only the Eternal, finding which we are at rest for ever; having the all, nothing is left to strive for, and we are for ever in free and perfect existence--Existence absolute, Knowledge absolute, Bliss absolute._x000d_ _x000d_ SIXTH LESSON_x000d_ Sushumna: It is very useful to meditate on the Sushumna. You may have a vision of it come to you, and this is the best way. Then meditate for a long time on that. It is a very fine, very brilliant thread, this living passage through the spinal cord, this way of salvation through which we have to make the Kundalini rise._x000d_ In the language of the Yogi, the Sushumna has its ends in two lotuses, the lower lotus surrounding the triangle of the Kundalini and the top one in the brain surrounding the pineal gland; between these two are four other lotuses, stages on the way:_x000d_ 6th. Pineal Gland._x000d_ 5th. Between the Eyes._x000d_ 4th. Bottom of the Throat._x000d_ 3rd. Level with the Heart._x000d_ 2nd. Opposite the Navel._x000d_ 1st. Base of Spine._x000d_ We must awaken the Kundalini, then slowly raise it from one lotus to another till the brain is reached. Each stage corresponds to a new layer of the mind.