Fourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism by Yogi Ramacharaka (bts books to read TXT) 📕

and have for their only object our ultimate good. We may need strengthening along certain lines, in order to round us out - and we are apt to get just the experiences calculated to round out that particular part of us. We may be tending too much in one direction, and we are given a check and an urge in another direction. These little things - and great things all mean something. And then our interests are bound up more or less with those of others, owing to the laws of attraction; and our acts may be intended to reflect upon them, and theirs upon us, for our mutual development and ultimate good. We will have more to say on this subject a little later on.

If we will stand still, and calmly consider our past life (the present life, we mean) we will see that certain things have led to certain other things, and that small things have led to great things - that little turning points have resulted in an entire change in our life. We may trace back the most important thing in our life to some trifling incident or occurrence. We are able to look back and see how the painful experiences of the past have strengthened us, and have brought us to a larger and fuller life. We are able to see how that particular thing in the past, which seemed needlessly cruel and uncalled for, was the very thing which has brought us to some great thing in the present.

All that is needed is the perspective of years. And if we get so that we are able to see this, we will be able to bear with a far greater degree of philosophy the pains and disagreeable occurrences of the present, knowing that they mean ultimate good. When we cease to think of these things as punishment, or a wanton interference of some outside power, or the cruelty of Nature, and begin to see them as either the consequences of our own past lives, or the result of the Spirit’s directing hand, we will cease to protest and struggle as we have been doing in the past, and will endeavor to fall in with the working of the great Law, and will thereby avoid friction and pain.

And no matter what pain, sorrow or trouble we may be undergoing, if we will open ourselves to the guidance of the Spirit, a way will be opened out for us - one step at, a time - and if we follow it we will obtain peace and strength. The Law does not heap upon a back more than it can bear, and not only does it temper the wind to the shorn lamb, but tempers the shorn lamb to the wind.

We have spoken of our interests being bound up with those of others. This also is a principle of the law of Spiritual Cause and Effect. In our past lives we have attached ourselves to certain others, either by love or hate - either by kind action or by cruelty. And these people in this life have certain relationships to us, all tending toward mutual adjustment and mutual advancement and development. It is not a law of revenge, but simply the law of cause and effect which causes us to receive a hurt (when a hurt is needed) from the hands of someone whom we have hurt in some past life - and it is not merely a law of reward for good, but that same law of cause and effect, that causes some one to bind up our wounds and comfort us, whom we have comforted and helped in some past life. The person who is caused to hurt us, may have no intention of doing so, being a perfectly innocent party, but we are brought into conditions whereby we receive pain from the acts of that person, although he be unconscious of it. If he hurts us consciously, and still in obedience to the law, it is because he is still on that plane, and is willing to hurt us, and is brought by the Law of Attraction into a condition whereby we may receive hurt from him. But even that hurt is calculated to benefit us, in the end, so wonderful is this law of cause and effect constituted. Of course, if we once reach the position where we see the truth, we do not need so many of these lessons, and their necessity having passed, the law allows us to escape that which would otherwise, have given us pain.

The above mentioned condition of affairs may be illustrated by the case of one who in a past incarnation deliberately won the love of another, for selfish reasons, and then having gratified the desire willfully threw aside the other one, as one would a worn-out toy. While not pretending to explain the exact working of the law in any particular case, we have been informed by those who have watched these matters from a higher point of view, that in such a case as above mentioned, the betrayer would probably in this life, fall violently in love with the person who was the victim in the last life, but the latter would be utterly unable to return that affection, and the former would suffer all the pain that comes to one who loves in vain, the result being that he would be brought to a realization of the sacredness of human affection, and the unkindness of trifling with it. It will be noticed in this case that the person causing pain in the present life is a perfectly innocent party to the whole thing and thereby does not start new causes and effects.

Those whom we have loved and have been friendly to in past lives are very apt to be connected with our present life, being kept near us by the law of attraction. The people who are brought into close relations with us are, in all probability, those with whom we have been close in past lives. Sudden likes and dislikes, so often observed between people, may be accounted for on this theory of rebirth, and many of the occurrences of our every day lives come under this law of spiritual cause and effect. We are constantly bound up with the lives of others, for pain or happiness, and the law must work out its course. The only escape from the complete working out of the law is the acquirement of the knowledge of the truth on our part, and the consequent modeling of our lives on the lines of this higher truth, in which case we are relieved of the unnecessary lessons, and we ride on the top of the wave, instead of having it submerge us.

Let us beware how we start into operation this law of cause and effect by Hate, Malice, jealousy, Anger, and general Unkindness toward others. Let us be as Kind as we can, in all justice to ourselves and others, and let us avoid feelings of Hate and a desire for Revenge. Let us live on, bearing our burdens with as much grace as we can summon, and let us always trust in the guidance of the Spirit, and the help of the highest Intelligence. Let us know that all is working together for good, and that we cannot be deprived of that good. Let us remember that this life is as but a grain of sand in the desert of time, and that we have long ages ahead of us, in which we will have a chance to work out all our aspirations and high desires. Be not discouraged, for God reigns, and all is well.

THE FOURTEENTH LESSON.

THE YOGI PATH OF ATTAINMENT

The student who has carefully acquainted himself with the fundamental principles of the Yogi Philosophy, as set forth in these lessons, will readily see that anyone who grasps and accepts these teachings, and makes them a part of his everyday life, will naturally live a very different life from one to whom this present earth-life is all, and who believes that death extinguishes individuality, and that there is no future life or lives. It will also lead one to live his life rather differently from the person who believes that we are but creatures of a rather capricious Providence, having but little responsibility of our own, and that our “salvation” depends upon a perfunctory “belief” in certain teachings, and a set form of attendance at certain forms of religious worship.

Remember, now, please, that the Yogi Philosophy has no fault to find with any form of religion - it teaches that all forms of religion are good, and each has its particular place to fill - each fills the need of humanity in some of its stages. It believes that no matter what form of worship is followed - no matter what conception of Deity is held - that every man really worships the One Great Intelligence, which we know under many names, and that the varying forms of such worship are immaterial, the motive behind each being the real test to be applied.

But the Yogi Philosophy, and, in fact, the teachings of all occultists, to whatever race they may belong, or what particular creed may be favored by them, hold that man is a responsible being, that he really makes his own conditions and bestows his own rewards and punishments, as a natural consequence of his acts. It also teaches that man cannot escape his own good, and that though he may slip backward a hundred times, still will he always make some little progress, and in the end will conquer his material nature, and then move steadily forward to the great goal.

It teaches that we are all God’s children, no matter what form of worship we may favor - that there are none of God’s children destined to be utterly cut off or damned. It teaches that we are punished by our sins instead of for them, and that the law of cause and effect brings its inevitable result. It emphasizes the teachings that “as we sow so shall we reap,” and shows just how and why we reap what we have sown. It shows how our lower desires and passions will weigh us down, and surround us with environments that will cause us to outlive them, and make us so thoroughly sick and tired of them that the soul will, eventually, recoil in horror from its past life of material grossness, and in so doing will receive an impetus in the right direction. It shows us that we have the Spirit always with us, anxious and willing to give us help and guidance, and that, through the Spirit, we are always in close connection with the source of all life and power.

Men are of varying temperaments, and the course that will best suit one will not be adapted to the requirements of another. One will seek progress and development in one direction, and another in a different way, and a third by a still different course. The Yogi Philosophy teaches that the way that seems to appeal the most to a man’s general temperament and disposition is the one best adapted to his use at the present time. They divide the Path of Attainment into three paths leading up to the great main road. They call these three paths, (1) Raja Yoga; (2) Karma Yoga; (3) Gnani Yoga; each of these forms of Yoga being a path leading to the Great Road, and each being traveled by those who may prefer it - but all lead to the same place. In this lesson we will give a brief description of each of the three paths, which together are known to the Yogis as “The Threefold Path.”

Some of the teachers treat what is known as “Bhakti Yoga” as if it