The Master discusses in this section the indispensability of a worthy guide for ensuring success on the path towards Realization. The real Guru is the connecting link between God and man. It is through his medium alone that man can reach God. He is the only power that can extricate us from the intricacies of the path. Selection of the right type of person as the Guru comes after one has determined the goal and the proper means which will lead him to it. It is clear that in all cases including even mundane instances we stand in need of a capable guide who has practical experience in the relevant field; even when one proceeds apparently by his efforts he goes only by what he hears from or reads in books on the subject written by those having sufficient experience in the field and thus is indirectly guided by them. Books are of no worthwhile practical utility whatever in the field of spirituality, while they may help one in achieving superficial knowledge of things, becoming a learned teacher or eloquent speaker in that field and winning arguments in debates. Quite often the information gleaned from the books on yogic sadhanas and attainments can be misleading and even harmful if followed indiscriminately. The Master has quoted elsewhere Viveka Chudamani of Sankara in this context to say that books are of no help in realization and they are of no relevance after realization. However books containing the practical wisdom and the teachings of great souls who have themselves traveled the path and secured higher spiritual attainments are invaluable as inspirational motivators to the beginner encouraging him to walk the narrow path of God-realization.

But the seeker should keep all the books aside once he has found his Master and be guided strictly by the instructions he receives from the Master on the path. The need for continuous help and support of the guide of practical attainments on the path for securing the final objective can never be overstated.

The Master gives the instance of the celebrated Persian poet and author of eighteen books on spirituality Maulana Rumi, who was asked by a great saint whom he had approached for spiritual training to throw all his books into the river if he really wished to have practical training at his hands. Reluctant to part with his books which were products of great labour, Rumi approached the saint seven times to be turned away empty handed each time. Finally he threw away all the books as demanded and was accepted by the saint for training. Actual realization comes only after training in the realm of practice and for that knowledge or erudition is hardly of any help. This is what has been declared in our tradition too, na medhaya na bahuna srutena.

The Master observes that the help of a guru or a Master is absolutely necessary for the aspirant who is determined to go on up to the final stage of realization, though there have been some rare instances of saints who have attained perfection by mere self effort surrendering themselves directly to God. But such examples are very rare and it is a very difficult course which can be followed only by persons endowed with uncommon genius.

The Master explains the need for practical guidance on the steep and slippery path of spirituality and states that the aspirant has to pass through various points known as Chakras (figuratively called lotuses), which are centres of the concentrated energy of the Real Power of the Divine Force inherited by man and located in different places within the human frame. The intervening space between any two centres is characterized by a network interwoven by numerous intricate fibres. In his march the abhyasi has to pass through the entanglements of these networks and has to spend a considerable time as well in them to complete his bhog or passing through the process of unfolding the intricacies therein as may be required in each case. The stay can often be quite long and in most cases it is almost impossible to extricate oneself from the intricacies by self-effort alone, though some may succeed somewhat in the initial stages of advancement as has happened in the case of most of the sages in the past who had tried it with self-effort only. They remained lingering for their whole life in the first or second stage and could not cross them. Further in the advanced stages of spirituality the person encounters slippery conditions of the place and though he advances a few steps he slips down again and the process repeats with the result that higher ascent becomes arduous and well-nigh impracticable. In these circumstances it is only the forceful push of a worthy Master that can bring the aspirant out of the whirl pool and enable his movement on to the next higher stage.

The worthy Master is only He who has Himself attained perfection or complete negation of self. The aspirant must connect himself with such a Master by feelings of love and attraction. It does not matter much what conception of the Master is entertained in the practicant’s mind, whether it be that of father, mother, friend or servant; it is solely the choice of the aspirant. The loving connection with him is what is more important.

The Master however states His preference in this regard, when He counsels the conception of the Guru as mother to be the most appropriate and advantageous. A mother is the very embodiment of love and affection and only a mother’s heart can bear with patience all the troubles and miseries caused to her by her son. Similarly the Master, the spiritual mother of the disciple, is always on the look out for the welfare of the disciple, his spiritual child. It is due to the affectionate attachment of the mother (Guru) towards the child (disciple) that the attention of the great Father (God) with whom the mother (Guru) is so closely attached is directed towards the disciple. Another aspect of this relationship is revealed by the Master when He observes that just as the mother retains the child for a certain duration in her womb and the child sucks the energy and nourishment through it from the mother for its nurture and growth, the Guru retains the devout disciple in his mental sphere for some time enabling him to draw energy and nourishment from the spiritual waves of the Guru’s thoughts. When the time matures the disciple is born into the brighter world and thence his own spiritual life begins.

The disciple can indeed be delivered into the brighter world even within seven months provided he enters the Guru’s mental sphere surrendering all belongings to him but this event is considerably delayed in most cases as the disciple retains the consciousness of his own thoughts and feelings. The conception of the Guru as the mother promotes in us feelings of love, reverence and surrender which are the main factors weaving the spiritual life.

The selection of a worthy Guru being very important as it can make or mar the aspirant’s spiritual future, the Master proceeds to give an easy method of judging the prospective Guru based upon His own personal experience. When the aspirant comes into contact with a person, the aspirant should try to understand whether the association promotes in him a feeling of peace, calmness and silence without causing any weight upon the mind at least for the duration of the association and if it so happens, the aspirant can conclude that the person can be a fit man to guide him on the spiritual path.

The Master highlights another difficulty associated with the selection of the capable guide; even when such a person satisfying the above mentioned norm for selection is available and accessible, the aspirant may not choose him due to the fact that he does not display miracles such as curing diseases, bringing the dead to life or materializing objects of desire from nowhere. The Master says that a true rajayogi endowed with power of pranahuti does not display miracles as doing so would be derogatory to his position. Citing the example of Christ the Master says that though Christ displayed miracles all his life he could get only twelve disciples and was betrayed finally by one amongst that twelve. This shows that miracles were of no avail in creating faith in Christ but it was only his noble teachings which secured such a large following for Christ subsequently. Miracles are no criterion for a saint or a yogi but on the other hand they are a deliberate fraud played by dexterous gurus upon the weak minded and credulous people for keeping them entrapped in the fold of their gurudom.

The Master counsels strongly that the aspirant must have continued association with the prospective master to judge things through perception and experience in a practical way so that he may be fully convinced of his capabilities and merits with regard to his practical attainments on the path. Once he is thus convinced he must trust the Master in good faith and rely upon him entirely and firmly for ensuring a successful pursuit of the goal. The Master rues the unfortunate fact that proper attention is not paid by people in general when they make this all important selection of the guru. They do not bother to consider his capabilities or worth for providing practical guidance on the path. They are induced by persuasion or miracles displayed by the so called Gurus to attract the ignorant masses. The Master calls these gurus as disciple hunters and they are as numerous as the leaves of a tree. These persons are after gurudom which is a profitable job for them ensuring enormous income and an enormous following of credulous followers who abjectly surrender themselves at their feet fearing the threat of their curse and dance to every one of their whims and fancies. It is a common but deplorable feature amongst these gurus to claim that only the person belonging to the privileged class will be entitled to become the guru, thus ensuring their professional monopoly. They even claim to be world- teachers of religion, Jagat Gurus by right of birth alone irrespective of their real capabilities and worth.

Sanyasins have also come out in their multitudes as world teachers and doctors of divinity prescribing all sorts of methods of worship and doling out empty promises to all those who throng to their grandiose sankirthans, megha satsanghs, melas, homas and mahayajnas conducted with lot of fanfare and incurring huge expenditures. The Master comes down heavily on such professional imposters calling them a shame to the nation and religion roaming about with complete impunity to cheat and defraud ignorant masses only to serve their own selfish ends. The Master gives a clarion call to the masses to come out of their slumber and see what havoc has been wrought by such persons to the spiritual fabric of themselves and the nation.

The Master makes critical comments on the mock ‘initiations’ made by these professional gurus which are really a cunning device adopted by them to keep their flock tied to them for ever and make their own position safe and secure. They declare falsely that the disciple can never break off the connection with his guru under any circumstances and further that it is a divine dictate that the disciple will be courting all the miseries of hell if he ever thought of breaking off the connection at any time. The unknowing masses take it as gospel truth and submit themselves in abject fear to all the atrocities that may be perpetrated on them by the gurus.

The Master declares that there is not the slightest suggestion to the above effect in our scriptures and states emphatically that it is the birthright of every man to break off from his guru at any time he finds that he has made a wrong selection or misjudged the guru’s capacity or worth. He is free to seek another guru if at any stage he finds that his guru is not in a position to take him beyond the stage he has reached already. The true, selfless and conscientious guru must and generally would, as a matter of sacred duty on his part, direct the disciple to a more accomplished person under the circumstances so that the progress of the disciple may not suffer adversely. No moral or religious law prevents a sincere seeker from breaking off from a guru who denies the permission on selfish grounds and is at perfect liberty to seek a better person.

Turning His attention to ‘initiation’ proper the Master refers to the usual process of initiation conducted by the professional gurus who do not seem to appreciate its real significance. They seem to think it is all and enough to breathe a few ‘mystical’ words in the ears of the disciple and advise him certain ceremonial practices by way of worship. Their duty to the disciple ends there and nothing more is done by them for the betterment of the disciple except giving their Darshan every year and collect their annual tribute. The Master states clearly that the real initiation should be done only when true faith exists in the disciple and Divine love has taken root in him. Initiation signifies that the disciple’s link has been connected with the Supreme Power and as a consequence the spiritual force begins to flow continuously into him automatically according to his absorbing capacity. It depends upon the power and capability of the Master to establish a sound connection for which high caliber is needed. A sound connection once established shall continue until the disciple secures liberation which is not a far off matter in such cases to be attained after numerous lives. The question of breaking off the connection does not arise at all in the case of the disciple initiated in the right sense by a Guru of high caliber.

The Master gives a classification of the gurus under the following heads:-

Quacks- Those who go about advising and conducting the worship of trees, animals, insects, diseases (especially for instance, small-pox in the south of India where the disease is treated as the visitation of a tribal goddess), ghosts and spirits.

Book-moths-These are the more advanced amongst the class of Gurus who teach and preach on the basis of their knowledge of the scriptures and other holy books. They have established orders and Ashrams and enjoy a kingly position among their followers. They go out and address large audiences and tell them what to do or not to do explaining the intricate questions relating to jiva, maya and Brahman and impress the lay audience with their erudition, vast store of book knowledge and their oratorical skills. People in general put stock questions in metaphysics to these learned pundits. If the gurus are able to answer the same out of the stock of their knowledge of the scriptures, the greatness of such gurus as Mahatmas is established in the questioners’ minds. They induce people to worship gods and deities and advise involved rituals for worship and remedial measures for coming out of the miseries and afflictions common to all. They are more like sign-posts on the road which tell the traveler which way to go. The seeker must bear well in his mind that it is not knowledge, eloquence or the outward display of powers which characterize the true yogi or saint. Despite possessing the mentioned attributes the person may be at the lowest level of spirituality. It is Realization in the right sense alone which makes a person a worthy and competent guide on the path.

Practical Teachers-Those who prescribe to others which they do or have done, not taking into account the merits or demerits thereof.

Inspired Teachers-Those who guide people on the basis of their inner inspirations.

Inspired experienced Teachers -Those who guide people on the basis of their practical experience supported by higher inspiration.

Similarly Master classifies the disciples also under five heads moving from the lowest to the highest category. These are respectively,

Self-seekers - Those who take up the pursuit for the fulfillment of the yearning of their senses (needs). Time passers - Those who take it up as a pastime. Followers - Those who try to follow the Guru’s directions. Earnest Disciples - Those who try to follow in the steps of the Guru and try to copy him. Devout Disciples - Those who become the focus of Master’s attention.

The Master has given the above classifications of gurus and disciples so that the discerning seeker will be able to make an enlightened selection of a worthy guru in today’s degraded spiritual environment, which indeed is a very difficult task having at the same time an enormous significance for the seeker’s spiritual progress. A wrong choice can ruin totally the material, mental, moral and spiritual aspects of his life.

We should also note that being a true and worthy disciple of the highest order, the devout disciple, is not an easy task. It is perhaps more difficult to get a good disciple than a good master. In fact it may be said that all sadhana in a way is aimed at becoming the ideal disciple who is the cynosure of the Master’s eyes, as once it is accomplished nothing more is to be done. The Adi Guru Revered. Lalaji Maharaj had remarked that though He had a number of followers, He could get only one whom He could structure in the ideal manner. We find always a herd of sheep and very rarely a lion in the field of spirituality. The Master says elsewhere that one lion is better than a hundred sheep. He also says He needs such persons in His organization who may shine out like the sun (SDG p 164). To be called a disciple one must be thoroughly disciplined and obedient. Obedience and submission are the stepping stones to surrender. We find in the life of Master Sriramchandraji the most vivid illustration of the ideal disciple who became the cynosure of His Master’s eyes, the object of His continued and constant remembrance and the perfect case of the lover turning into the beloved and vice versa.

The Master expresses His views on the nature of the real guru of excellent attributes and crowning attainments on the path of spirituality. Such a Master has a heart ever ready to help any one who might be in need of it. He is a samavarthi totally impartial and just and samadarshi looking equally upon every one. He prefers to carry out his task in a spirit of a humble servant of humanity, though there have been masterly Gurus who functioned as masters in their lifetime. The Master defines in this context, the oft-used form of reverential addressing of the saints, namely, ‘Mahatma’ in His own characteristic manner. The word has been defined in various ways not perhaps without some reasonable basis. However the Master would take it to mean ‘non-being Being’, that is, the person who has negated himself totally or has become a zero allowing only the Divine within, the Real Being, to express Itself in all his functioning. Such a person is quite away from spirituality as is normally known and understood. We may recall the Master’s utterance wherein He has stated that the end of religion is spirituality, the end of spirituality is Reality, the end of Reality is bliss and when that too has gone one arrives at the destination. So the Mahatma is one who has traveled far beyond the domain of spirituality and is dwelling permanently in the sphere of negation at least (non-being) with the really advanced persons like the Great Master swimming in the Ocean of the Infinite steeped in the state of Tam or total ignorance. The Master comments that this way of looking at ‘Mahatma’ would not be so easily appreciated by people at large as they are used to witnessing the proud, vainglorious and self-styled mahatmas who would like to showcase their talents and achievements demanding worship, obeisance and contributions from their following.

Disagreeing with the view that knowledge being the preliminary stage of Realization is essential and indispensable, the Master says that knowledge is only an achievement of the brain whereas Realization is the awakening of the soul which is far beyond the scope of knowledge. Therefore the real teacher is not one who can explain to us the soundness of religious dogmas or who can prescribe to us do’s and don’ts but one who can impart the true impulse for awakening the soul and offer direct support on the path towards Realization. The awakening of the soul may be understood as enabling the soul to realize its true nature, one of interdependency between God and soul. It becomes reminded of the homeland and also becomes cognizant of the glory of God, its progenitor. Restlessness is now created for achieving the union with the Godhead and it becomes impatient to get rid of all the shackles that have kept it bound to the world of manifestation. It realizes its own folly in having desired and developed undue attachments for the things, places, persons and ideas which stand as obstacles on the path.

It starts now developing love and devotion to the Master who will unite it with the Divine Beloved and resolves desperately that there should no more be a return to conditioned existence. It wants to soar higher and higher keeping company with the spiritual guide who has freed himself of all limitations and bondages and is deeply rooted in the Infinite. It is like the caged bird which happens to see its companion soaring in the vast limitless skies and is thus induced strongly to follow suit but flaps its wings helplessly seeing that it is still trapped in its cage. Perhaps if it stopped eating and feigns death, its master may open the cage and the relieved prisoner will jump in joy beat its wings in wild enthusiasm and fly away keeping its already liberated companion in sight all the while so that it may join him eventually and for all time to come. Thus while judging the suitability of a person to be his spiritual guide, the aspirant must take into account not his learning or the capacity to work miracles but his practical achievements in the field of Realization.

Hence we should pray to God that we might be blessed with the association of such Great Teachers who can awaken our souls by their inner powers. The most important consideration for the aspirant in spirituality is to see that the guide himself is free from the bondage of samskaras, maya or ahankar and is firmly connected to the Absolute otherwise it will be suicidal for his spiritual growth.

The Master now turns His attention to the most significant feature of the system of Sri Ramchandra’s Rajayoga. He reveals a great secret or little known mystery which people in general do not know. It is a great wonder when a great personality like Lord Sri Krishna, Swami Vivekananda or His Master Revered. Lalaji Maharaj changes the entire course of a man’s life. It is absolutely necessary for us to seek such a guide who can lift us to higher and higher stages in spirituality. The Master explains that the power behind such spiritual transformation is Pranahuti or the power of transmission which works through the channels of pure mind. Pranahuti is offered through the power of will of a spiritually evolved person for the improvement of the spiritual condition of another person in the spirit of brotherhood and sacrifice as the Master has put it. The trainer in spirituality exerts his will for moulding the mind of the trainee so that it gets regulated abandoning its fickle ways.

Many ochre clad Swamijis for whom gurudom has become a profession complain that although their disciples listen to them with interest yet they remain as crooked as the tail of a dog. The Master says that the reason behind it is simply that either the swamiji does not exert his will or he has no power. They prescribe many laborious and brain taxing practices and leave their disciples to their own fates unmindful of their duties and responsibilities being conscious only of their right to teach. Neither the teacher knows the result of the practices nor the disciples exercise discrimination with the consequence that the disciples develop grossness and dullness of intellect while corruption, degradation and moral turpitude accrue to the gurus. Some skeptics may comment that the transformation is not really due to the process of transmission and the changes occurred in the person because he was desirous of changing. They may cite the case of Duryodhana of Mahabharata whose heart could not be transformed even by Lord Krishna, the avatar endowed with great yogic powers. They may argue the case of some body taking a worthless person or even a lifeless object as a guide and becoming a great saint. The Master dismisses the above arguments stating that these do not hinder us in trying to find out the Reality because God’s ways are mysterious.

The Master states that the power of transmission is a yogic attainment of a very high order by which the yogi can infuse by his will force the yogic energy or the Godly effulgence within any one and remove anything unwanted in him or detrimental to his spiritual progress. He can exercise this power not only on those assembled around him, but on those too who are away from him. The power can be utilized in any way or any time. One who has got command over this power can create temporarily or permanently a condition of mind which is far ahead of the existing condition of the mind of the abhyasi and which, otherwise, will require a lifetime of effort to be achieved. The Master cites again the examples of His Master and Swami Vivekananda who could change the entire nature of a man through the exercise of the power of Pranahuti over which they had complete command. The Master considers it a great pity that this age old process of yogic transmission originated and widely practiced by our ancient sages has now gone into total oblivion in the very land of its origin, where, today only a few might feel even inclined to believe it.

The Master distinguishes Pranahuti from hypnotism or mesmerism with which it is often compared though wrongly. He states that one feels calm and collected after PAM while after being hypnotized he feels heavy and dull. The hypnotizer uses his will force with the backing of material power whereas Pranahuti is wholly spiritual in nature. The will of a hypnotized person is weakened whereas the will of the abhyasi undergoing Pranahuti is strengthened; he feels enthusiasm, energetic, cheerful, confident and optimistic after the sessions of PAM. His discriminative intelligence grows continuously as also his goal clarity and his capacity to meet and tackle challenges in life is ever on the increase. He develops resilience, fortitude and forbearance in the face of adversities common to all embodied beings. Further his thirst for Realization of the ultimate or final state is growing all the time, his love for his Master and the Divine increases and so is his concern for the well being of all without distinction. Godly attributes such as satya, ahimsa, karuna, maitri and the spirit of selfless service and sacrifice develop in the sincere and arduous practicant. He devotes his all progressively to his sadhana and the service of his fellow beings as willed by his Master. In short, he is moving steadily towards becoming the Real man, the man behind man.

The most that could be said in favour of hypnotism is that a disease may be cured or a particular tendency may be suppressed to some extent depending upon the power of the hypnotizer and the submission of the hypnotized. But the effect does not last long. The hypnotic power is developed by some intense mental and physical exercises using material things or mental images as objects of concentration and the practices often lead to mental deformity or insanity or even to physical deformities in some extreme cases. A successful practice may however result at most in the gain of some material power which is useful and limited to the gratification of some kinds of desires as long as the power lasts.

The Master wishes to dispel a commonly prevailing misconception regarding the nature of Pranahuti. Certain religious teachers have tried to explain the process of transmission by stating that there is nothing peculiar about it; it generally happens that when a person is in the company of a mahatma or a saint he is to some extent relieved of his disturbing thoughts and feels comparatively calm for a while. This is the effect of transmission by the Mahatma according to the above interpreters; the Master declares that the above explanation is far removed from reality. What they interpret as transmission is really the automatic radiation of the pious paramanus (fine particles) from the mahatma affecting all those assembled there with that calmness so long as they are there. This is only a natural process having nothing to do with transmission. The fine particles radiate not only from a saintly person but also from any person pious or wicked, saintly or devilish. If one were to spend some time in the company of an impious or morally degraded person, he would find that the impious paramanus flowing from such a person affecting him with the result that his thoughts flowing in the same channel during the period. The effect of such radiation remains only for a little while and disappears when the person is away from it. This is the reason why the religious teachers complain that their sermons are having little effect on their audience. On the contrary transmission is a deliberate and conscious process through which suggestions are infused into the aspirant by the will of the trainer who has secured higher approaches in spirituality and it produces long lasting and deep rooted effects.

It is commonly believed that the Gita was purely a sermon delivered by the Lord to Arjuna in the battle field when the armies were standing face to face ready to fight. The Master puts the question how much time the Lord would have really had to deliver the message to Arjuna under the conditions for it would take at least a few hours to recite all the seven hundred verses in it. The Master reveals that the Lord actually transmitted to Arjuna all the mental states necessary for the purpose in the very little time He had at His disposal. They were really the conditions which an abhyasi of SRRY passes through during the course of his march towards the Infinite. The process brought Arjuna at once to a higher state of spiritual consciousness and purged out the feeling of undue attachment in him which alone had clouded his sense of duty and was thus responsible for his hesitation to fight the battle against his honoured teachers and blood relatives. (SS p 421-2).

We had already seen while comparing the traditional Patanjali yoga and the system of Sri Ramchandra’a Raja yoga that in the older system the most important thing is control of prana at the physical level, namely, the breath. This was resorted to achieve the main aim of controlling the chitta vrittis as without regulation of the thought waves nothing can really be achieved in any field, mundane or spiritual. In the system of SRRY on the contrary the control of breath is not advocated. The Master strikes at the root and says that prana is not breath but the life energy which is essentially of the nature of consciousness. The kingly thing in man is thought which is prana in the human context. The nature of the Ultimate is also consciousness though of the most super fine or subtlest kind.

Thought it is which is common between Man and the Ultimate and this characteristic alone distinguishes him from all other existence in manifestation. This is the real meaning of the common expression that man is made in the image of God according to the Master.

We have also seen earlier the novel and at the same time very persuasive revelation of the Master for the origin of so many distracting and disturbing thoughts one gets whenever he sits for meditation. Prana is always in a state of balance and equanimity whenever it is dwelling on the thoughts of the Origin, Base or Ultimate. When it gets attached to anything other than the Origin due to peculiar circumstances, it tries to wriggle itself out of the clutches of gross matter. This leads to the awareness of thoughts and that it is mainly due to their rejection by the mind is a great contribution to the field of psychology by the Master. This immediately leads to the choice of the kind of thought which should be taken up for meditation. Naturally it shall be in consonance with the nature of the mind as described above and we are able to appreciate the Master’s suggestion that the meditation is to be done thinking that there is Divine light without luminosity in the heart. This helps in getting into the state of absorbency easily as the mind will not reject the thought of divine light which is as near as we can get to the original thought.

The Master has graciously offered to assist and is assisting all sincere seekers during their march towards the goal by means of the divine influx of pranahuti, the sacrifice (ahuti) of the life force which has been seen to be psychic in nature. All serious sadhakas have felt the need of assistance on the spiritual path especially with regard to the control of mind which as the Master has said elsewhere seems to take on wings as if it were whenever one withdraws into himself for some contemplation. It is to be kept in mind that whenever we seek assistance we should see that the process doe not lead to further bondage. The aspirant has sought to control the mind as a means for liberation from bondages and if the assistance were to mean imposition of yet another bondage it may not be welcome.

It is also necessary to consider whether such assistance offered by another person would really constitute interference with one’s destiny for each one of us is an expression of the divine having our own part to play and destinies to realize. The relationship with the divine is purely one to one and each soul has its own karmas that are to be enjoyed without exception. The law of cause and effect is immutable and the law of karma which is merely the expression of the principle of cause and effect is the basis of the principle of Divine Justice dealt impartially and according to merit. This being the situation, how can any person interfere with this process and even if it were possible what about the moral implications?

We will give in what follows the answer to the questions above through an explanation of the rationale behind the process of Pranahuti and how a person becomes fit to offer the same.

Usually a person is preoccupied with himself and his problems and all his actions are motivated in general by selfish considerations. It is only when his consciousness grows beyond his self that the questions and problems of others gain importance in his consciousness. Thus when we consider the task of pranahuti it is essential that the person offering pranahuti is above the normal mundane level of consciousness tied to the localized and particularized expression-the body or the form and answering to a name- called by the Master as pind consciousness and is capable of considering doing good to others without any consideration of self interest. Such a person is said to have access to the Brahmanda consciousness which expands to cover a vaster sphere including others also. He is not confined to his body and the structure he is associated or born with has no capacity to confine or limit him. Further he is able to percolate his consciousness through others for their benefit. As this consciousness grows and attains refinement, he is able to realize that all beings are merely extensions of his own real self and thus there is no feeling of separateness. Oneness with all develops and he is keen to serve others by removing the shortcomings in them only because those shortcomings are seen by him as his own. This becomes the real rationale for ceaseless service being extended to more and more fellow beings till the whole of humanity and later the entire universe is brought once again to the state of purity prevailing just before the process of manifestation commenced. When such a consciousness is ruling in a person he is not interfering with the destiny of another rather he is merely carrying out a sacred duty enjoined upon him by Nature which charges such persons with the task of ensuring that all his brethren arrive safely at the destination which they themselves have reached as the Master puts it.

They start working automatically for Nature which can not brook blemishes or impurities and tries out all means to restore all things to their pristine purity and thus inspires such noble souls and also empowers them according to the nature of their respective tasks in this regard. This is the rationale and spirit behind the declaration of the Lord in the Gita, yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavathi--; the advents seem to be part of an automatic restoration process in Nature by Nature whose look out seems to be preserving her original purity at all costs, even as the body expels the foreign matter or bodies from itself in an entirely automatic manner and the mind rejects automatically thoughts unconnected with the Divine, which is all purity. The presence of more and more such exalted souls will definitely augur well for a better world where all beings lead a happy life powered by a spirit of harmony and mutual well being. The role of such persons in sadhana is then of one spiritually elevated soul trying uplift another out of a sense of a fraternal obligation and sacred duty towards the Divine and in effect participating in the Divine task of spiritual transformation or divinization of the human being in obedience to the Divine Will.

We have thus seen that the nature of thought in the human is the same as that existed at the time of origin of the universe and it is Prana in its super fine and subtlest aspect and further that this Prana is to be offered for the spiritual equanimity in life which constitutes the goal of any existence. It can now be seen how this Prana is really offered. It is stated that the moment the ‘Form’ of the Master becomes manifest in one’s mind, his mind receives the power to transfer its thought to another’s mind.

When such a transfer of thought relates to the spiritual developments of the aspirant it becomes the offering of Prana (essence of existence). The Master holds that the capacity to offer Pranahuti is a high order yogic attainment through which a yogi can infuse by his own will force the yogic energy of Godly effulgence within any one and remove anything detrimental to spiritual sadhana in him. It is to be noted that it is the Godly effulgence which is to be utilized as yogic energy implying thereby that the transmitter should be in the realm of God. Such a person being a rarity, the Master considers that a person who has transcended at least the realm of physical existence can be made fit for the offering of Pranahuti through training. That is how we find Him insisting that a person should have at least access to Brahmand to become an arhat for this type of spiritual service. The trainer in the system of SRRY enables speedier progress of the sadhaka by serving him in a meaningful and positive manner by Pranahuti i.e. offering of thought (suggestions) even as the aspirant is pursuing the sadhana with dedication. The trainer completes the spiritual journey of the aspirant to the required extent in an indirect manner. It is the responsibility of the sadhaka to own up the conditions bestowed upon him through necessary sadhana. However Pranahuti does not replace the sadhana but is only a dynamic support for it. The assistance that is being rendered by the trainer is directly proportional to his approach as is made amply clear by the Master while He states, ‘This (Pranahuti) can best be introduced by those who have imbibed the real characteristic within their own centres; who know how to draw in power and piety from the higher centres to the lower ones and can transmit the effect into the abhyasi so that they may adopt the same character’.

Yet the Master says that if the laya avastha with the Master is total, the trainer can help even beyond his own level of approach, the suggestion having in such a case access to the highest level. But it is to be borne in mind that laya with the Master is not so easy of accomplishment being attained just by the mere wishing for it. Wishes are to be distinguished from will which is a concrete idea acted upon within a certain spatiotemporal frame. It is the will that is executed into an action through suggestions in a subtle, subtler or subtlest way.

We have mentioned that Pranahuti is put in the service of the sadhaka through suggestions which can be of the subtle, subtler or the subtlest (daivi) kinds. One is familiar with suggestions being put to use in hypnotism as well. The main difference between the two cases is to be noted clearly, namely, that the aspirant is never put into a morbid passive condition before giving suggestions in the case of pranahuti. The suggestions are not at the verbal level at all and are given from the original thought level itself. It is a prerequisite in hypnotism that the hypnotist puts the person into a trance or passive receptive condition before giving suggestions for his alleged improvement.

The trainer in pranahuti does not however make any such effort and works with the full knowledge and confidence that there are no barriers between him and the aspirant with the existence being one only and works out the suggestions for the inner spiritual development of the aspirant. There is no extraneous interference with the will of the aspirant but it is a will directed towards the improvement of the quality of the mental life of the aspirant and increasing his will power. Unlike in hypnotism the will of the aspirant is not subjecting to another’s will but improving the will of the sadhaka through the will of the trainer.

What makes human beings important in the scheme of Divinity is the fact prana is of the nature of pure thought and it is only man who is capable of sharing and expressing the nature of the original stir to the fullest extent when compared to any other being animals, or devas in the manifestation. This fact as revealed by the Master becomes the real reason behind familiar religious concept that human life is the most fortunate one to come by. We also see that while the ancient yoga school laid much stress on pranayama as an effective tool to bring the mind under control, SRRY stresses the need for Pranahuti for the diversion of the mental tendencies from the state of preoccupation with the base and animal need, wants and desires to the divine levels of consciousness that humanity is capable of. Evidence so far from the lives of dedicated practicants of the SRRY justifies this claim and we have the assurance from the great Master that this method (PAM) would be followed by all soon (adapted from article Pranahuti BP V1 3rd edition). Interested readers may refer to ‘Imperience, Inaugural Issue, 2002’ for a detailed treatment of the subject of Pranahuti covering its various aspects such as its nature, who can offer it, the levels from which it is offered, its efficacy and the analysis of the experience of Pranahuti had by men and women with different educational, cultural, societal and religious backgrounds during Guided Meditation sessions as part of their training programs in PAM conducted by IMPERIENCE, Centre for research and Training in PAM.