CHAPTER XX THE END OF THE CURVE OF REASON   THE rational collectivist idea of society has at first sight a powerful attraction. There is behind it a great truth, that every society represents a collective being and in it and by it the individual lives and he owes to it all that he can give it. More, it is only by a certain relation to the society, a certain harmony with this greater collective self that he can find the complete use for his many developed or developing powers and activities. Since it is a collective being, it must, one would naturally suppose, have a discoverable collective reason and will which should find more and more its right expression and right working if

The chapters constituting this book were written under the title THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT from month to month in the philosophical monthly, ARYA, from August 15, 1916 to July 15, 1918 and used recent and contemporary events as well as illustrations from the history of the past in explanation of the theory of social evolution put forward in these pages. The reader has therefore to go back in his mind to the events of that period in order to follow the line of thought and the atmosphere in which it developed. At one time there suggested itself the necessity of bringing this part up to date, especially by some reference to later developments in Nazi Germany and the development of

CHAPTER XIII  REASON AND RELIGIO CHAPTER XIII REASON AND RELIGION   IT WOULD seem then that reason is an insufficient, often an inefficient, even a stumbling and at its best a very partially enlightened guide for humanity in that great endeavour which is the real heart of human progress and the inner justification of our existence as souls, minds and bodies upon the earth. For that endeavour is not only the effort to survive and make a place for ourselves on the earth as the animals do, not only having made to keep it and develop its best vital and egoistic or communal use for the efficiency and enjoyment of the individual, family or the collective ego, substantially as is done by

CHAPTER III THE COMING OF THE SUBJECTIVE AGE   THE inherent aim and effort and justification, the psychological seed-cause, the whole tendency of development of an individualistic age of mankind, all go back to the one dominant need of rediscovering the substantial truths of life, thought and action which have been overlaid by the falsehood of conventional standards no longer alive to the truth of the ideas from which their conventions started. It would seem at first that the shortest way would be to return to the original ideas themselves for light, to rescue the kernel of their truth from the shell of convention in which it has become encrusted. But to this course th

CHAPTER XXII THE NECESSITY OF THE SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION   OUR normal conduct of life, whether the individual or the social, is actually governed by the balance between two complementary powers,—first, an implicit will central to the life and inherent in the main power of its action and, secondly, whatever modifying will can come in from the Idea in mind—for man is a mental being—and operate through our as yet imperfect mental instruments to give this life—force a conscious orientation and a conscious method. Life normally finds its own centre in our vital and physical being, in its cravings and its needs, in its demand for persistence, growth, expansion, enjoyment,

  CANTO THREE   THE CALL TO THE QUEST   A MORN that seemed a new creation's front, Bringing a greater sunlight, happier skies, Came, burdened with a beauty moved and strange Out of the changeless origin of things. An ancient longing struck again new roots. The air drank deep of unfulfilled desire, The high trees trembled with a wandering wind Like souls that quiver at the approach of joy, And in a bosom of green secrecy For ever of its one love-note untired A lyric coil cried among the leaves. Away from the terrestrial murmur tu

  CANTO THREE   THE GLORY AND FALL OF LIFE   AN uneven broad ascent now lured his feet. Answering a greater Nature's troubled call He crossed the limits of embodied Mind And entered wide obscure disputed fields Where all was doubt and change and nothing sure, A world of search and toil without repose. As one who meets the face of the Unknown, A questioner with none to give reply, Attracted to a problem never solved, Always uncertain of the ground he trod, Always drawn on to an inconstant goal He travelled through a land peopled by doubts In shifting confines on a quaking base

  CANTO TWO   THE KINGDOM OF SUBTLE MATTER   IN the impalpable field of secret self, This little outer being's vast support Parted from vision by earth's solid fence, He came into a magic crystal air And found a life that lived not by the flesh, A light that made visible immaterial things. A fine degree in wonder's hierarchy, The kingdom of subtle Matter's faery craft Outlined against a sky of vivid hues, Leaping out of a splendour-trance and haze, The wizard revelation of its front. A world of lovelier forms lies near to ours, Where, undisguised by earth's deforming sight, All shape

  CANTO FOUR   THE VISION AND THE BOON   THEN suddenly there rose a sacred stir. Amid the lifeless silence of the Void In a solitude and an immensity A sound came quivering like a loved footfall Heard in the listening spaces of the soul; A touch perturbed his fibres with delight. An influence had approached the mortal range, A boundless Heart was near his longing heart, A mystic Form enveloped his earthly shape. All at her contact broke from silence' seal; Spirit and body thrilled identified, Linked in the grasp of an unspoken joy; Mind, members, life were merged in ecsta

  Section Four THE FOUNDATION OF SADHANA THE FOUNDATION OF SADHANA I It is not possible to make a foundation in yoga if the mind is restless. The first thing needed is quiet in the mind. Also to merge the personal consciousness is not the first aim of the yoga: the first aim is to open it to a higher spiritual consciousness and for this also a quiet mind is the first need. *  *  *  The first thing to do in the sadhana is to get a settled peace and silence in the mind. Otherwise you may have experiences, but nothing will be permanent. It is in the silent mind that the true consciousness can be built.     A quiet mind does not m