puts on fair raiment; for of this cleansing it is said: Though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be as crimson,
they shall be as wool.

24. The psychic nature, which has been printed with mind-images of
innumerable material things, exists now f or the Spiritual Man,
building for him.

The "mind," once the tyrant, is now the slave, recognized as outward,
separate, not Self, a well-trained instrument of the Spiritual Man.

For it is not ordained for the Spiritual Man that, finding his high realm,
he shall enter altogether there, and pass out of the vision of mankind.
It is true that he dwells in heaven, but he also dwells on earth. He has
angels and archangels, the hosts of the just made perfect, for his
familiar friends, but he has at the same time found a new kinship with
the prone children of men, who stumble and sin in the dark. Finding
sinlessness, he finds also that the world's sin and shame are his, not to
share, but to atone; finding kinship with angels, he likewise finds his
part in the toil of angels, the toil for the redemption of the world.

For this work, he, who now stands in the heavenly realm, needs his
instrument on earth; and this instrument he finds, ready to his hand,
and fitted and perfected by the very struggles he has waged against it,
in the personality, the "mind,' of the personal man. This once tyrant is
now his servant and perfect ambassador, bearing witness, before men,
of heavenly things and even in this present world doing the will and
working the works of the Father.

25. For him who discerns between the Mind and the Spiritual Man,
there comes perfect fruition of the longing after the real being of the
Self.

How many times in the long struggle have the Soul's aspirations
seemed but a hopeless, impossible dream, a madman's counsel of
perfection. Yet every finest, most impossible aspiration shall be
realized, and ten times more than realized, once the long, arduous
fight against the "mind," and the mind's worldview is won. And then
it will be seen that unfaith and despair were but weapons of the
"mind," to daunt the Soul, and put off the day when the neck of the
"mind" shall be put under the foot of the Soul.

Have you aspired, well-nigh hopeless, after immortality? You shall be
paid by entering the immortality of God.

Have you aspired, in misery and pain, after consoling, healing love?
You shall be made a dispenser of the divine love of God Himself to
weary souls.

Have you sought ardently, in your day of feebleness, after power ?
You shall wield power immortal, infinite, with God working the works
of God.

Have you, in lonely darkness, longed for companionship and
consolation ? You shall have angels and archangels for your friends,
and all the immortal hosts of the Dawn.

These are the fruits of victory. Therefore overcome. These are the
prizes of regeneration. Therefore die to self, that you may rise again
to God.

26. Thereafter, the whole personal being bends toward illumination,
toward Eternal Life.

This is part of the secret of the Soul, that salvation means, not merely
that a soul shall be cleansed and raised to heaven, but that the whole
realm of the natural powers shall be redeemed, building up, even in
this present world, the kingly figure of the Spiritual Man.

The traditions of the ages are full of his footsteps; majestic,
uncomprehended shadows, myths, demi-gods, fill the memories of all
the nobler peoples. But the time cometh, when he shall be known, no
longer demi-god, nor myth, nor shadow, but the ever-present
Redeemer, working amid men for the life and cleansing of all souls.

27. In the internals of the batik, other thoughts will arise, through the
impressions of the dynamic mind-images.

The battle is long and arduous. Let there be no mistake as to that. Go
not forth to this battle without counting the cost. Ages have gone to
the strengthening of the foe. Ages of conflict must be spent, ere the
foe, wholly conquered, becomes the servant, the Soul's minister to
mankind.

And from these long past ages, in hours when the contest flags, will
come new foes, mind-born children springing up to fight for mind,
reinforcements coming from forgotten years, forgotten lives. For once
this conflict is begun, it can be ended only by sweeping victory, and
unconditional, unreserved surrender of the vanquished.

28. These are to be overcome as it was taught that hindrances should
be overcome.

These new enemies and fears are to be overcome by ceaselessly
renewing the fight, by a steadfast, dogged persistence, whether in
victory or defeat, which shall put the stubbornness of the rocks to
shame. For the Soul is older than all things, and invincible; it is of the
very nature of the Soul to be unconquerable.

Therefore fight on, undaunted; knowing that the spiritual will, once
awakened, shall, through the effort of the contest, come to its full
strength; that ground gained can be held permanently; that great as is
the dead-weight of the adversary, it is yet measurable, while the
Warrior who fights for you, for whom you fight, is, in might,
immeasurable, invincible, everlasting.

29. He who, after he has attained, is wholly free from self, reaches the
essence of all that can be known, gathered together like a cloud. This
is the true spiritual consciousness.

It has been said that, at the beginning of the way, we must kill out
ambition, the great curse, the giant weed which grows as strongly in
the heart of the devoted disciple as in the man of desire. The remedy
is sacrifice of self, obedience, humility; that purity of heart which gives
the vision of God. Thereafter, he who has attained is wrapt about with
the essence of all that can be known, as with a cloud; he has that
perfect illumination which is the true spiritual consciousness. Through
obedience to the will of God, he comes into oneness of being with
God; he is initiated into God's view of the universe, seeing all life as
God sees it.

30. Thereon comes surcease from sorrow and the burden of toil.

Such a one, it is said, is free from the bond of Karma, from the burden
of toil, from that debt to works which comes from works done in
self-love and desire. Free from self-will, he is free from sorrow, too,
for sorrow comes from the fight of self-will against the divine will,
through the correcting stress of the divine will, which seeks to
counteract the evil wrought by disobedience. When the conflict with
the divine will ceases, then sorrow ceases, and he who has grown into
obedience, thereby enters into joy.

31. When all veils are rent, all stains washed away, his knowledge
becomes infinite; little remains for him to know.

The first veil is the delusion that thy soul is in some permanent way
separate from the great Soul, the divine Eternal. When that veil is rent,
thou shalt discern thy oneness with everlasting Life. The second veil
is the delusion of enduring separateness from thy other selves,
whereas in truth the soul that is in them is one with the soul that is in
thee. The world's sin and shame are thy sin and shame: its joy also.

These veils rent, thou shalt enter into knowledge of divine things and
human things. Little will remain unknown to thee.

32. Thereafter comes the completion of the series of transformations
of the three nature potencies, since their purpose is attained.

It is a part of the beauty and wisdom of the great Indian teachings, the
Vedanta and the Yoga alike, to hold that all life exists for the purposes
of Soul, for the making of the spiritual man. They teach that all nature
is an orderly process of evolution, leading up to this, designed for this
end, existing only for this: to bring forth and perfect the Spiritual Man.
He is the crown of evolution: at his coming, the goal of all
development is attained.

33. The series of transformations is divided into moments. When the
series is completed, time gives place to duration.

There are two kinds of eternity, says the commentary: the eternity of
immortal life, which belongs to the Spirit, and the eternity of change,
which inheres in Nature, in all that is not Spirit. While we are content
to live in and for Nature, in the Circle of Necessity, Sansara, we doom
ourselves to perpetual change. That which is born must die, and that
which dies must be reborn. It is change evermore, a ceaseless series
of transformations.

But the Spiritual Man enters a new order; for him, there is no longer
eternal change, but eternal Being. He has entered into the joy of his
Lord. This spiritual birth, which makes him heir of the Everlasting,
sets a term to change; it is the culmination, the crowning
transformation, of the whole realm of change.

34. Pure spiritual life is, therefore, the in- verse resolution of the
potencies of Nature, which have emptied themselves of their value for
the Spiritual man; or it is the return of the power of pure
Consciousness to its essential form.

Here we have a splendid generalization, in which our wise philosopher
finally reconciles the naturalists and the idealists, expressing the crown
and end of his teaching, first in the terms of the naturalist, and then in
the terms of the idealist.

The birth and growth of the Spiritual Man, and his entry into his
immortal heritage, may be regarded, says our philosopher, either as
the culmination of the whole process of natural evolution and
involution, where "that which flowed f rom out the boundless deep,
turns again home"; or it may be looked at, as the Vedantins look at it,
as the restoration of pure spiritual Consciousness to its pristine and
essential form. There is no discrepancy or conflict between these two
views, which are but two accounts of the same thing. Therefore those
who study the wise philosopher, be they naturalist or idealist, have no
excuse to linger over dialetic subtleties or disputes. These things are
lifted from their path, lest they should be tempted to delay over them,
and they are left facing the path itself, stretching upward and onward
from their feet to the everlasting hills, radiant with infinite Light. 

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