Yielding to the wisdom that one obtains during meditation, to the experience of an inexplicable oneness which somehow makes us feel that we are in our homeland and that all separateness is an illusion is the beginning of our endeavour to get over our 'I' ness. By repeated experience of such a wholesome oneness that knows no boundary and in fact is void, we are enabled to transcend the realms of egoism. Ego and egoism are the main barriers in the path of spirituality where the goal is to transcend ones' limitations of relationships.

It is obvious the sense of ego is the product of our relationships only. Once we understand that the sense of separateness we have is due to the training that is imparted in a society that wants us to respond to a particular name that is distinctly different from others do we understand the origin of relationships. The first relationship we know is our relation to the name. Later we understand that our form is our self which is another early relationship.

As we have noted earlier it is the Ego that is the main barrier in the path. Ego is deeply ritualistic and repetitive and a profoundly compulsive need to always see the personal self as being separate from others, separate from world and separate from the Universe. Ego is love denying obsession with heavy load on separation, narcissism and concern for self.

When we say that we want to be free we are only expressing the need to be free from a set of relationships that cause in us never ending fears and desires of the separate ego. We have earlier chosen to spend hours, days, years and lives in the process of identifying ourselves with desires and fears- all in the name of ultimately transcending them. We cherish to dwell in the network of desire, all the time assuring ourselves that there is time for seeking to be free. That is something that never happens, and those who would rather have spirituality as a post-retirement avocation are bound to end up with a cycle of rebirths. Spiritual life has to be an integral part of our general life and it should go hand in glove with the life of an ordinary house holder rich in emotions, feelings, desires and aspirations. Every thing in the right place is the way to be spiritual.

Afflictions, trials and tribulations in life have to be met squarely with a lion hearted determination and the tenacity of a crocodile in waters. Master in his 5th,6th and 7th Commandments gives us the attitudes that we should develop in the spiritual life. It is true these conditions are the results of sadhana, yet there is need to prepare the mindset that is capable of living according to these spiritual stages.

Yielding means we accept the superiority of the person or power over us. We have come to spirituality for freedom and the demand to yield appears on the face of it contradictory. But when we find the loci of our self is somewhere we are not able to identify, as it happens in the states of absorbency, it becomes evident that we are not the particular ego/self that we supposed we were and acceptance of the superior power becomes possible.

Master in his own ingenious way has taught us the lessons of yielding from the beginning of our sadhana. We are asked to just meditate on the Divine light without luminosity ignoring all other thoughts as uninvited guests. Having accepted that the Divinity is guiding us it is the most positive attitude to wait for it to do what it likes with us. This yielding is one of the toughest as we would like to feel that "we meditate"- the idea we are doing meditation is much more dear to us than the presence of the Divinity experienced by us as calmness, peace and absorbency. We would like to say we meditated and experienced Divinity rather than say during meditation we have yielded to the presence of the Divinity.

When we learn that Divinity is responding to our prayers and is available to us during meditation our Faith in Divinity starts. Repeated experiences of such awareness made possible through Pranahuti makes the way for laying stronger foundations for Faith in Divinity. Thus Faith starts.

First of all, it is to be understood that faith is not credulity or blind belief. It does not mean belief in the impossible. It is awareness in the consciousness that there is a superior force that responds to our call and it is immediately available. Faith is a spontaneous feeling. It does not care for human justification. It is always in tune with a higher Truth. The door of faith is always open to the Truth beyond, and by virtue of faith, we transcend ourselves.

When we are beset with discouragements in our daily life it is a good practice to remember the Master not as some one who is far off but close to our heart, nay in our heart. We should always try to feel from the day we were introduced into PAM, where our connection to the Master is established by the trainer that there is Master around us who does not want anything from us, but simply wants to see happiness and joy in and around us. We should consciously try to feel the Master who does not want anything else from us except happiness/joy, both in the inner and outer aspects of our being. He wants us always to swim in the sea of Bliss and delight. In fact he has suggested a method of purification where he wants us to conceive of him as the Ocean of Bliss so that we get purified thoroughly to the core of our being merged as we are in His Blissful Ocean. If we remain in joy/happiness - I do not mean outer joy, that is, going here and there, mixing with people, buying material things - but if we can have real joy/happiness, if we can feel the source of it, then we will automatically start developing faith in God/Master.

On the contrary when someone is worried, or is afraid of something, a tendency develops to create a kind of self-imposed faith in God. That is not true faith. In danger, we say, "God, save me, save me!" But we say this only to avert danger. This is an escape. This kind of faith does not last.

Spontaneous faith can come only when we have inner joy/happiness or balance and an inner fulfillment. Everything is inside the person - his happiness and his fulfillment. In reality it is the Master who is the possessor of this inner fulfillment. We are just His devoted instruments. So when we feel spontaneous inner happiness/ joy as part and parcel of our life, due to the constant awareness of the source of our being that is obtained during meditation under PAM we can then have faith in God, the possessor of infinite Bliss. From the moment such a faith develops in us we should always try to feel our own inner joy/happiness and live in it consciously.

True it is that our frustrations, afflictions, miseries and diseases are there, and that is due to the samskaras that we have acquired in the long journey away from the Homeland. But it is necessary that our outer frustrations should not be tried to be united with this inner peace/happiness/joy. It is necessary to separate our inner happiness/ joy from the outer happenings that have a separate logic of their own based on our past and present Karma. Such a separation in our perspective is necessary and only then will we be able to strengthen our faith in Master/God.

Master in his fifth Commandment states "Be truthful. Take miseries as divine blessings for your own good and be thankful." It is necessary to know that our real condition/status is that of devotee. This call to live true to our condition of a devotee is possible only when we understand the lesson of 'nothingness' that is given to us every time we take Pranahuti. This is what we mean when we say 'imperience beckons.' When we try to live according to our status of a devotee we are faced with many problems that cause misery to us. To protest against such a serving for having practiced a value in life is immature. True it is that the pain caused by the misery mentally and physically is hard to put up with. It is only when we know and feel that inseparable oneness with the 'nothingness' that is experienced in meditation, we feel enabled to look at things in an objective manner and accept every hurdle, pain and misery in the path as a necessity to grow in spiritual life. In fact these miseries are nothing but loss or separation that is felt by us of things, persons and ideas that we thought are our own exclusively. This identification or owning of things and persons is the main illusion that we are able to appreciate when we are merged in an ocean of bliss during meditation where oneness alone is experienced without any duality. We really own nothing and that is what the great Isa Upanishad states in its mantra that, all belongs to Him and therefore relinquishing all we should enjoy and be happy. This approach to the problems enables us to acquire one of the noblest spiritual qualities called as fortitude. Fortitude and forbearance cannot be cultivated that easily without the awareness of the true nature of ourselves as essentially Void/Nothingness. These attitudes are the basics of the quality of Yielding to the Divine Will. Thus we find in our system these qualities are developed by the constant influx of Pranahuti.

In his Sixth Commandment our Master exhorts us, to know all people as our brethren and treat them as such. The fraternity that we are asked to develop is again based on the requirement of not claiming everything that we see and feel as our own but share it with others in a spirit of fraternity. All existence has the same origin and their true nature is Nothingness. Ultimately all are the same and none of the separate existences have any claim of owning anything. This spiritual understanding once gained by reflecting on the quality of meditation that grants us an experience of Void, is the basis of the noblest spiritual quality called Maitri. It is not just fraternity or friendship that is the nature of our link with other existences but an essential oneness with all. There is an inseparable bond among all beings and things and that is most important to understand and live up to. Once this is understood the attitude of Yielding that is required in realizing our essential oneness with all is gained automatically.

In his Seventh Commandment Master asks us not be revengeful for the wrongs done by others and asks us to accept them with gratitude as heavenly gifts. In reality there is nothing wrong that is done by any to another. But certain acts appear to be wrong done to the person by another because of two essential factors, one is to think oneself as independent and another is granting independent status to the other person who is said to have wronged him. Pruning is no wrong done by the gardener to the plant and in fact it is necessary for growth. The plant does undergo suffering due to the pruning and does not know that it is for its development to the true stature. The acts done by others are treated as wrongs because of a purely personal egotistic approach where there is a basic refusal to know the other as part of oneself. Separation is an illusion. It is necessary that we implement the commandment in full before we can say that we are yielding to the Divine.