IN THE HOURS 
 
OF 
 
MEDITATION - 
 
BY A DISCIPLE - - 
1921 
 
 
Himalayan Series. XXIX. 
 
IN THE HOURS OF 
- - MEDITATION. - - 
 
 
 
BY 
A DISCIPLE. 
 
 
 
SECOND EDITION 
 
 
 
ADVAITA ASHRAMA 
 
MAYAVATI, HIMALAYAS. 
1921 
 
 
 
All rights reserved. 
 
 
 
VEDANTA SOCIETY 
2963 WEBSTER STREET 
 
 
 
Published by 
 
SWAM I MADHAVANANDA, 
ADVAITA ASHRAMA, 
Mayavati, Almora. 
 
 
 
 
Printer : S. C. MAJUMDAR 
 
SRI GOURANGA PRESS. 
71/1, Mirzapore Street, Calcutta 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF 
1 MEDITATION 
 
i 
 
THERE are hours when one forgets the 
world. There are hours when one 
approaches that region of blessedness in 
which the soul is Self-contained and in the 
presence of the Highest. Then is silenced 
all clamouring of desire ; all sound of 
sense is stilled. Only God IS. 
 
There is no holier sanctuary than a 
purified mind, a mind concentrated upon 
God. There is no more sacred place than 
the region of peace into which the mind 
enters when it becomes fixed in the Lord. 
No more sweet-odorous and holy incense 
is there than the rising of thought unto 
God. 
 
 
 
2 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
Purity, bliss, blessedness, peace ! 
Purity, bliss, blessedness, peace ! These 
make up the atmosphere of the state of 
meditation. 
 
The spiritual consciousness dawns in 
these silent, sacred hours. The soul is 
close to its source. The streamlet of 
personality expands in these hours, becom 
ing a mighty, swift-moving river, flowing 
in the direction of that true and permanent 
individuality which is the Oceanic 
Consciousness of God. And this is one 
and only. 
 
In the hours of meditation the soul 
draws from On High those true qualifica 
tions which are of its nature fearlessness, 
the sense of reality, the sense of death- 
lessness. 
 
Draw within thy Self, O soul! Seek 
thou the silent hour with truth. Know 
thou thy Self to be of the substance of 
truth, the substance of divinity ! Verily 
within the heart doth God dwell 1 
 
 
 
I! 
 
 
 
Fear not ! All mortal things are as 
shadows. Unreality dominates all ap 
pearance. Thou art the reality within 
which no change abides. Know thou art 
the Immovable One ! Let nature play with 
thee as nature will. Thy form is a dream. 
Know this, and be thou content ! Thy 
soul is stationed in the formlessness of 
Divinity. Let the mind follow the blinking 
light, desire rules, limitations exist. Thou 
art not mind ; desire touches thee not. 
Thou art contained within Omniscience 
and Omnipotence. Remember life is but 
a play. Play thy part. Thou must. Such 
is the law. Yet, withal, thou art neither 
player, play nor law. Life itself cannot 
limit thee. Art thou not limitless ! Life 
is of th stuff of dreams. Thou dreamest 
not. Thou art the Dreamless One beyond 
the touch and taint ot unreality. Know 
 
 
 
4 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
this ! Know this and be free free 
free!.!! 
 
Peace ! Peace ! Silent, audible Peace ! 
Peace wherein the Voice of God is heard. 
Peace and Silence ! Then comes the 
Voice of God, audible audible within the 
Silence ! 
 
"I am with thee, ever and for ever. 
Never hast thou been nor canst thou be 
from Me apart. I am thy Soul. Verily 
thy Soul is I. Beyond the universe, be 
yond all dreams I rest, Self-contained with 
in immensity. And even so art thou ; aye. 
even so art thou. For I am thou and 
thou art I . Leave off all dreams ! Come ! 
Come unto Me ! I shall carry thee across 
the ocean of darkness and ignorance unto 
light and life everlasting. For I am these ; 
and thou and I are One. Thou art I ! I 
am thou ! Go dwell in Peace ! Dwell thou 
in Peace ! Again when the hour cometh, 
in the stillness and in the Peace thou shalt 
hear My Voice ! * the Voice of God the 
Voice of God ! 
 
 
 
Ill 
 
 
 
Again the hour is at hand. Day merges 
into the evening time. Everywhere with 
out is quiet. Nature herself is at peace. 
And when nature is at peace, more peace 
fully does the soul retire into the inner 
chamber of the heart. More readily also. 
Let the senses and their activity subside. 
Life, as it is, is short ; desire is rampant. 
Give at least some short time unto the 
Lord. He asketh little, only this, that thou 
shalt know thy Self ; for, verily, knowing 
thy Self, thou comest to know Him. For 
God and the Soul are One. Some say, 
"Remember, O Man, that thou art dust!" 
True, of the body ! Even of the mind is 
it true ! But the higher, the mightier, 
the truer, the holier revelation reads, 
"Remember, O Man, that thou art the 
Soul!" 
 
"Indestructible and imperishable art 
thou alone, O Soul!" So speaketh the 
 
 
 
6 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
Lord. All else wanes. However mighty 
the form, it perishes. Death and des 
truction are the lot of all form. Thought 
is subordinate to change. Personality is of 
the weaving of these thought and form. 
Therefore, stand aside, O Soul. Remem 
ber thou art the Self beyond both thought 
and form. All virtue resides in this 
consciousness, "Thou art One with God." 
In this alone art thou immortal ; in thi* 
alone art thou pure and holy. 
 
Try not to become the master. Thou 
art the master ! There is no becoming 
for thee. Thou art, O Soul ! However 
sublime may seem the process of be 
coming, the hour shall come when thou 
shalt know, "Progress is in time" but 
"Perfection is within eternity." And thou 
art not of time. Thou art of eternity. 
 
Is there divinity! Then, "Tat Tvam 
Asi!" meaning, "Thou art That! Thou 
art That!" Understand that which is 
the Highest within thee. Worship the 
Highest ! And the most perfect form of 
worship is the knowledge that thou and 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 7 
 
the Highest are One. And what is the 
Highest? That, O Soul, thou callest God. 
Throw all dreams into oblivion ! Hav 
ing heard of the Self within thee, the 
Self thou art, understand ! Having under 
stood, perceive ! Having perceived, know ! 
Having known, realise ! Having realised, 
then "Tat Tvam Asi !" which is, "Thou 
art That ! 
 
Retreat from the world ! It is the 
embodiment of dreams. It, together with 
the body, verily, these are the nests of 
dreams. Shalt thou be a dreamer! Shalt 
thou be bound for ever in the bondage of 
dreams ! "Arise ! Awake ! and stop not 
till the goal is reached!* 
 
So speaketh the Lord in the Silence 
in the deep, deep Silence when only His 
Voice is audible. Hari ! Om Tat Sat ! 
"Go thou in Peace!" Beyond all, aye, 
even within all appearance of form reigns 
the Spirit. Its nature is Peace, Peace, 
Unutterable Peace ! 
 
 
 
IV 
 
 
 
The Voice of God, speaking, saith in 
the Quiet Hour, "Remember, ever re 
member, Only the pure in heart see 
God! Purity is the first requisite. Even 
as they who are governed by desire are 
intense therein in their passions, even so 
be thou pure ; even so, do thou have a 
passionate longing for purity ! Search 
deeply and steadfastly for purity. It alone 
availeth. Call to thy mind that great 
prayer of My servant, Prahlada, unto Me, 
O Lord, that same intensity of love that 
worldly people have for the fleeting objects 
of the senses, give to me that same intensity 
of love for Thee I Purity is the ante 
chamber to the Lord s Presence. Before 
thou thinkest of the Lord, think of purity. 
Purity is the key by which the doors of 
meditation that lead into the Abiding-Place 
of the Most High, are opened. 
 
"Throw thyself upon the Ocean of 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 9 
 
My Strength. Strive not ! Seek not ! 
Know that I AM. This knowledge, added 
with complete resignation unto My Will, 
shall save thee. Have thou no fears ! 
Art thou not in Me ! Am I not in thee ! 
Know thou that all this passes, which men 
deem so great. Death is everywhere, 
swallowing up the forms of life. Death 
and change ensnare and bind all things 
save the Spirit. Know this ! Purity is the 
method of this knowledge. It is the 
foundation-ground. With purity come fear 
lessness, freedom and the realisation on 
thy part of thine own nature, the reality of 
which I AM. 
 
"Let the tempest blow, but when 
desire burns and the mind vacillates then 
THEN call upon ME ! I shall hear. For, as 
My servant hath said, I hear even the foot 
fall of an ant. And I shall speed unto 
thee. I do not desert them who call upon 
Me sincerely. Call upon Me, not only 
sincerely, but steadfastly as well. 
 
"I am not the universe ; I am the 
Spirit beyond it ! The universe is as a 
 
 
 
10 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
carcase unto Me. I am concerned with 
the SOUL alone. Be not deceived by 
the external magnitude of things. Divi 
nity is not in form, nor yet in thought. 
It is the purified, free, spiritual, blissful, 
form-emancipated, thought-emancipated 
consciousness which knows not, nor can 
know, any stain or sin or bondage or 
limitation. Within the innermost, That art 
thou, O Soul. Realisation shall come to 
thee with regard to this. It must. For 
such is the Sure Goal of the soul s life. 
Remember, remember I am with thee ! I 
am with thee ! I, the Lord, am with thee ! 
I am as Strength to all thy weakness ; I am 
as Forgiveness to all thy sins ; I am as Love 
to all thy search for Me ! I am thy Self ! 
I am thy Self ! Put off all other thoughts 
of Self ! For in the thought that thy Self 
is in anywise different from the Self of 
Me lies all ignorance and all weakness. 
Arise, thou Shining One, know that 
am thy Self ! I am thy Self ! 
 
"And purity is the pathway to My 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 1 1 
 
Presence ! Herein is thy Salvation 
Hari ! Om Tat Sat ! 
 
"Peace! Peace! Peace!" 
 
 
 
V 
 
The Voice of the Guru, who is God, 
speaks : 
 
"Lo ! I am ever with thee. No matter 
where thou goest, I am already there. I 
live for thee. The fruit of my realisation 
I bequeath unto thee. Thou art the 
treasure of my heart, the apple of mine 
eye. We are one in God. Our business is 
realisation. So well do I realise my one 
ness with thee I fear not to cast thee into 
the wilderness of the world and into the 
forest of doubt. It is because I know the 
measure of thy powers. Through ex 
perience after experience I send thee ; 
but always doth my eye follow thee 
in thy wanderings. Dost thou sin? Thou 
sinnest in my presence. Dost thou 
perform virtuous acts, I perceive them 
all. I know all thy moods. Through 
all manner of experience and of thought 
I fasten the bonds that are between us. 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 13 
 
My salvation is naught to me, unless thou 
dost take part in it. Thou art the Self of 
me in another form. The more thou dost 
absorb the vision which is mine, lo ! the 
more and more do we grow into that 
spiritual oneness which is the Divine Life. 
The veils of separate personality fall off 
and thou art mine own Self and mine own 
Self is thou. So close are the bonds. 
Death and separation have no hold in my 
relationship to thee. For though thou may- 
est be born far apart and though thou 
mayest not have even seen the physical 
form I wore, still none the less art thou 
my very own. Discipleship does not 
consist in having seen my form, but in 
having understood my will. Thou canst 
never escape the net I have cast out. 
 
"Seek out my will. Follow the teach 
ing which the Master has given unto me 
and which I have transmitted unto thee 
See thou the same vision which is mine. 
Then shalt thou be more at oneness with 
me than hadst thou dwelt near a myriad 
bodies which were mine. Discipleship 
 
 
 
14 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
consists in steadiness of devotion to my 
thought and will. And immeasurable love 
is between us. Go thou in peace. Harder 
than adamant are the bonds of relationship 
between Guru and disciple. Stronger than 
death are they. For they are tied by Im 
measurable Love and the Divine and 
Omnipotent Will. 
 
Om Tat Sat!" 
 
The Disciple responds in praise and 
thanksgiving : 
 
"Aye, my Lord, my God, my all in all 
So am I taught. The Guru is God. He 
yearns to merge in the Divine Reality, 
His vision is of God. Untiring is his zeal 
in the salvation of my soul. Through the 
eyes of the Guru, I also see the vision. 
True love is stronger than death ; aye, 
stronger than birth as well is love. Birth 
and death may separate me from his 
presence. What do I say? False! 
The Guru is God. Can I at any time be 
separated from God ! Taking His Name 
I shall struggle through this ocean of dark- 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 15 
 
ness safe to that other shore where all is 
wisdom and radiance. I shall march fear 
lessly through this interminable jangle of 
illusion, for He is watching all my move 
ments and, if I fall, he shall raise me up. 
Are there thorns in my path, lo ! He will 
brush them aside. Do the wild animals 
of doubt and temptation beset me, lo ! He 
will slay them. Or, perhaps, He will let 
me fall into their path. He will make me 
struggle with them in order to reveal my 
own powers to myself. And how shall a 
man ^ know His powers until he has tested 
himself ? 
 
"Birth and death are nothing to me. 
I shall tear aside all limitations. I shall 
go beyond all bonds. I shall see the 
Divinity in Him. That self -same Reality 
which is in me, O Guru, is likewise within 
Thee. Thou art the Sun and I the ray. 
Even so am I the Sun and Thou, the ray. 
The great utterance of Self-revelation of 
the Upanishads, "Tat Tvam Asi" "Thou 
art That" applies to Thee ; it applies to 
me. O the sense of Unutterable Oneness ! 
 
 
 
16 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
Adoration to the Guru as Guru f 
Adoration to the Guru as God. 
 
Om Tat Sat ! 
 
Tat Tvam Asi ! 
 
Aham Brahmasmi ! 
 
 
 
VI 
 
 
 
In the hour of meditation the soul 
speaking to itself sayeth : 
 
"Peace dwelleth in the Silence. And 
to gain Peace thou must be strong ; and 
the silence cometh when the tumult of 
sense has been drowned in the Powerful 
Stillness of Renunciation. Thou art a 
wanderer in the desert of this world. 
Tarry not lest thou dost perish by the 
wayside. Make thy caravan of good 
thoughts and provide thyself with the 
Waters of a Living Faith. Beware of all 
mirages. The goal is not there. Be thou 
not deceived by the attraction of externals. 
Renouncing all, go thou by those paths 
which lead thee into the solitude of thine 
own insight. Follow thou not the many 
caught within the net of manifoldness. 
Go thou along the paths whereby saints 
journey singly and separately to the Goal 
 
2 
 
 
 
18 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
or Oneness. Dare to be brave. Conquest 
lies in making the initial effort. Do not 
waver. Plunge into sanctity. With one 
mad leap drown thyself in the Ocean of 
God. Divinity is the End. In the nature 
of things there could be none other for 
thee thou shining ray of the Effulgent 
One! 
 
"Make haste, lest thou repent. Whip 
up the steeds of religious earnestness and 
powerful faith. Crush thyself if need be. 
Let nothing stand in thy path. Thine is 
no chance destiny. March thou on with 
surety and strength of soul, for thy destina 
tion is Reality. Verily, thou thyself art 
the Real. Be thou Free ! Be thou Free ! 
In all the language of Self-realisation none 
such valuable word is there as Strength. 
First last-^and always, be thou strong. 
Fearing neither heavens nor hells, neither 
gods nor demons, go thou forth ! Nothing 
shall conquer thee. God Himself is bound 
to serve thee ; for He is attracted by That 
which is Himself in thee ! And thus One 
ness is the Essence of Sublime Insight for 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 19 
 
That which is in thee, That which is thee 
is God. Verily thou thyself art Divine. 
 
Tat Tvam Asi ! Hari Om Tat Sat ! 
 
"Dost thou believe ! Have faith in thy 
Self ! How canst thou believe in God if 
thou believest not in thine own Self ? Thou 
must save thyself. God helps those who 
help themselves. Take cognisance of thy 
Real Self ; measure It according to the 
spiritual standard. Know thou art not the 
body. Even thought art thou not. 
Thought is the method of seeing, but the 
vision is the end. Thus the final truth is 
Realisation. The final mandate is, Man, 
know thy Self,* man, realise thy nature. 
Faith ! Faith ! Faith ! Everything depends 
on Faith. Not the Faith which is belief, 
but the Faith which is Vision. There is no 
other sin but doubt ; learn to hate doubt 
as thou dost poison ; the greatest weak 
ness is doubt. To doubt one s Self that, 
indeed, is blasphemy. Be thou afraid of 
naught, nay, not even of God, for God is 
to be loved, not feared. How canst thou 
 
 
 
20 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
fear thy Self ! And God is the Self of 
thee ! There is naught but God ! And 
thou art That ! Therefore, Arise ! Awake I 
and stop not till the goal is reached I * 
Such is the Gospel of the Blessed One ! * 
 
 
 
VII 
 
 
 
The Soul, speaking further in the times 
of meditation sayeth unto itself, 
 
"True, the hour of trial cometh and 
human weakness is great ; but then the 
very knowledge that sin is weakness will 
in time destroy it. For when once thou 
knowest poison, naturally thou wilt abhor 
it. When thou knowest thy weakness it 
shall no more be weakness. Thou hast 
laid bare the heart of thy trouble and that 
which is the Depth in thee will alter the 
currents of its movement. In time thou 
shalt conquer so long as the heart is 
sincere. And pray steadfastly, for constant 
vigilence of soul is required in the spiritual 
struggle. Now and then moments will 
come when thou shalt have insight into thy 
real nature and thou shalt know weakness 
as weakness. In that time call upon the 
Lord and He, heeding thy prayer, shall 
give thee Grace. 
 
 
 
22 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
"Theory is one thing and life another. 
Realise, that no matter how wonderful thy 
intellectual awareness of truth may be 
man-making is the goal. Realisation is all 
in all. The beast in thee is strong ; but 
it can be tamed down by sincere prayer. 
Prayer is the one thing. Only prayer can 
conquer lust. Nothing is greater than the 
name of God. Constant Vigilence be thy 
motto and Constant Prayer. And they who 
are the Helpers, the Messengers of the 
Most High, shall come and thou shalt be 
free ! Indeed, long is the way, but the 
end is sure ! Prayer goes deep ; it eats 
out the vitals of temptation. Pray, pray, 
pray constantly, pray always. And be 
not discouraged in the evil hour ; be not 
discouraged when thou dost fall. God is 
always near. He knows thy woe and thy 
sincerity, but never leave off calling upon 
Him ! Even in thy sin be strong in prayer 
From out the depth of prayer, all things 
come love for God, spiritual vision and 
spiritual realisation. Take thy stand upon 
the thought that God is All-Powerful and 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 23 
 
that His nature is that of the good shepherd 
who guides his sheep especially when they 
go astray. Know that before God is 
Author of Justice, He is Love Itself. Do 
thou but ask and it shall be given unto 
thee ; do thou but seek and thou shalt 
find ; do thou but knock and it shall be 
opened unto thee. Make but the feeblest 
effort ; even that shall lift thee up into the 
kingdom of righteousness. 
 
"Aye, every prayer which thou utter- 
est, each rising of thy heart unto God shall 
be added unto thee, giving thee strength. 
Thy prayers shall make thee whole. 
Depend on prayer ! It is the means. 
However dark thy heart, prayer shall bring 
light therein, for prayer IS meditation ; 
prayer in itself IS vision. Prayer is com 
munion with the Almighty. It links thee 
with Omnipotence and Supreme Love, it 
lends wings to thy soul. Even if thou art 
in the mire, thou shalt rise. Even if 
mountain-loads of iniquity have fallen 
upon thee and have buried every vestige 
of thy spirituality, prayer will raise thee 
 
 
 
24 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
up. And from the depths God will hear 
thee and His Love and Power shall be 
made manifest unto thee, and thou shalt 
be lifted up as a testimony of the works 
of the Most High. And thou shalt sing 
a song, magnifying God who is thy Saviour. 
And thine own heart shall testify to the 
greatness of the Mercy of the Lord ; and 
all who have ever known thee shall say, 
*Lo ! He hath become a saint! Verily 
His Mercy is His Justice and His Mercy 
endureth for ever and ever. Hold on to 
prayer ! No matter how numerous the 
temptations that assail thee as enemies, by 
prayer thou shalt build a fortress about 
thy nature and it shall be impregnable. 
Aye, even the Gates of Hell shall not pre 
vail against it ! For God shall have bound 
thee unto Him by the strong cords of Love 
and Realisation that come of prayer!" 
Hari Om Tat Sat ! 
 
 
 
VIII 
 
The Voice of the Guru speaks in the 
inmost silence of the heart : 
 
"My son, the Flesh w y ars constantly 
against the Spirit ! Therefore be cons 
tantly on the alert. How hollow is life ! 
Trust not the senses. These are swayed 
by pleasure and by pain. Go thou 
beyond ! Thou art the Soul ! At any 
moment the body may go ! Indeed, who 
knows the hour ! Therefore, keep thy 
vision fixed unalterably on the Ideal. 
Saturate thy mind with ennobling thoughts. 
Not in the hour of death, but in the hours 
of life keep thy mind free and pure. Then, 
if death overtake thee of a sudden, thou 
art prepared. Live thy life as though thou 
wert even now about to die. Then shalt 
thou truly live. Time is fleeting, but thou 
canst make eternity of time provided thou 
dost think eternal and immortal thoughts. 
 
 
 
26 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
"When thy body goes down into death, 
certainly thou shalt repent IF thou hast not 
lived the life of thy ideals here on earth. 
Ah ! IF that fatal word which spells 
neglect and remorse. Thousands are the 
spirits who lament, saying, *O, IF I had 
only done so in the body, I would now 
be nearer to my God ! Therefore throw^ 
thy whole soul at this very moment with 
all the sincerity of thy being into the Ideal. 
Say, O God ! MAKE me have the Vision 
of Thee ! Make me sincere. Make me 
yearn for Thee ! * Say to thyself every day 
that great prayer of all the devotees, Let 
me love Thee alone, O Lord. 
 
"The Spirit of Man is infinite. Infinite 
Power is at thy beck and call. Realise 
that thou art of the Soul of God. He 
breathes in thee ; He lives in thee ; He 
moves in thee ; thou hast thy very being 
in Him. When this thou dost realise, all 
fear shall drop off from thee. Thou shalt 
attain to the state of fearlessness." 
 
And the soul, in response to the Voice 
of the Guru says, "O Lord ! Thou Author 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 27 
 
of all things, Thy nature is Infinite Love ! 
Thou art everywhere. O grant that I be 
possessed of this consciousness intensely ! 
In all the worlds there is no hope but in 
Thee ! Terror and the forms of death are 
everywhere. Pain and illusion are on all 
sides. Such is the vision of mortal life. 
But do thou remove the illusion ! Then, 
where death stalks and where life is pain 
I shall behold Thee! O let me behold 
Thee even in the Terrible. O Thou 
Destroyer of Illusion, hear my prayer!" 
 
And the Voice of the Guru makes 
answer, "My son, call upon the Lord! 
Call always upon the Lord. Think of 
Him, and Him alone, and the Power that 
is Infinite shall surround thee, and the 
Love that is Infinite shall embrace thee, 
and He shall speak words of realisation to 
thy soul. True dependence upon God 
solves all difficulties. The process of true 
Man-making is in complete resignation to 
the Supreme Love ; it is manifest in un 
interrupted meditation. When life is seen 
as fraud, when death is present, when the 
 
 
 
26 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
heart is wrung with agony, and human woe 
attains its climax, remember, make thou 
the effort to remember, that these things 
are of the body and that thou art the Soul. 
Take hold of each day as if it were thy 
last. Make Japam of it every moment of 
thy life. Daily consecrate thy life to God. 
See the Wisdom of His Will. And then, 
even in the mouth of a tiger, even in the 
presence of death, even on the threshold 
of hell, thou shalt find God. 
 
"If this be thy life s labour to remem 
ber God, then a great joy and a serene 
peace shall abide with thee, and that which 
seems gruesome shall become beautiful, 
and that which seems terrible shall become 
all-loving. And with the saint, bitten by 
a cobra, thou shalt joyfully exclaim, 
Behold ! Behold ! A Messenger has come 
from my Beloved, or with the saint, in the 
tiger s mouth, thou shalt call out "Shivo- 
ham ! Shivoham !" And this is the Strength 
of the Soul. This is verily Its manifesta 
tion. This is the Spirit of the Divine 
because it is the Perception of the Divine. 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 29 
 
"The warrior rushes to the cannon s 
mouth in defence of the motherland. The 
mother rushes into fire and into water and 
into the tiger s mouth to save her child. 
The friend dies for the sake of his friend. 
The Sannyasin bears all hardships for the 
sake of the Ideal. Do thou bear all trials, 
face all dangers, live the Life of Ideals and 
be brave and fearless IN THE NAME OF GOD. 
Thou art my son. In death or in life, in 
sin or in virtue, in pleasure or in pain, in 
good or in evil, whithersoever thou goest, 
wheresoever thou art, I am with thee, I 
protect thee, I love thee. For I am bound 
to thee. My love for God makes me one 
with thee. I protect thee ! I love thee ! 
I am thy very Self. Child, thy heart is 
My abode!" 
 
Hari Om Tat Sat I 
 
 
 
IX 
 
There came a Voice resonant with 
Divinity. It said, "O there is a Love which 
fears nothing, which is greater than life and 
greater than death. I am that Love. 
There is a Love which knows no limit, 
which is everywhere, which is in the pre 
sence of death, and which is all-tender 
even in the Terrible. I am that Love. 
There is a Love which is Unutterably 
Sweet, which welcomes all pain, which 
. welcomes all fear, which drives away all 
sadness, which is wheresoever thou dost 
search for it. I am that Love. O I am the 
very Essence of that Love. And, O, My 
own Self, 1, that Love, am Thine Own 
Self. My nature is Love ! I am Love 
Itself ! 
 
"O there is a Beauty which is all- 
comprehending. It knows neither ugliness 
nor shortcomings. It is sublime. It is 
divine. O there is no limit to this Beauty ! 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 31 
 
It is like the expanse of the sky or the depth 
of the seas. It is manifest in odorous 
dawns and in flaming sunsets. It is 
manifest in the roar of a tiger and- the song 
of a bird. It is manifest as storm and as 
peace, but is beyond these. These are its 
aspects, I am that Beauty. There is a 
Beauty which is much deeper than pleasure 
and much deeper than pain. This is the 
Beauty of the Soul. I am that Beauty ! 
 
I am that Beauty ! Of all attraction, 
whatever its character, I am the Centre, 
 
1 am the magnet ; all other things are iron 
filings, some drawn this way, some that, 
but all are drawn irresistibly, O I am that 
Magnet ! I am that Beauty ! I am that 
Attraction, and My Nature is Blessedness ! 
 
"O there is a Life which is Love, which 
is Blessedness ! I am that Life ! Nothing 
circumscribes that Life ; nothing can limit 
it ; and this -is the Life Infinite. It is 
Eternal Life, and I am that Life. Its 
Nature is Peace ; and I am Peace. Within 
its all-embracingness there is -no strife, no 
hurried coming and going, no ruthless 
 
 
 
32 IN, THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
attempt to live, no desire to procreate. IT 
IS. I am that Life. Neither the stars nor 
the sun can contain It. It is a Light which 
no other light can outshine. It is Itself 
Light. There is no gauging the depths of 
this Life. There is no measuring Its 
Heights. I am that Life. -And thou art in 
Me and I am in Thee ! 
 
"Unsustained, sustaining everything, 
I am the Spirit in all forms that are. I am 
the Silence within the Sound of Life. I am 
Eternity woven on the warp and woof of 
Time. I am the Self beyond both form and 
thought. Mindless, yet am I Omniscient. 
Formless, yet am I everywhere. Contain 
ing naught, I am contained in everything. 
I am Power ! I am Peace ! I am Infinity ! 
I am Eternity ! I am the Unifying Unit of 
all Plurality. 1 am the Sum and Substance 
of all living things. Of all warring parts 
I am the whole ! Beyond the spheres of 
life and death I dwell deathless, birthless, 
beyond bondage. Who finds Me out, he 
is the Free, the Free ! 
 
"Through all illusion I perceive Reality. 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 33 
 
I am Reality perceived ! I am the Wielder 
of this magic force, this Sakti, this Maya 
which is the Mother s Form. From out 
the Womb of Time I take My birth, em 
bodying Myself in All that is of Form. I 
am the Womb of Time, and thus Eternity. 
And Thou art That, O Soul, which is in 
ME, the Self. Therefore, arise, awake and 
tear all bonds to shreds. Wipe out all 
dreams, dispel illusion s hold. Thou art 
the Self ! The Self art thou ! Naught can 
hinder thee from the realisation of thy 
nature. Arise ! Arise ! Stop not until the 
Goal is reached the Goal which is the 
Self, the Life, the Love, the Bliss Eternal 
and the Knowledge of the soul made 
Free!" 
 
 
 
X 
 
And the Voice of the Guru spoke unto 
my soul, "Man, where is thy Faith! Art 
thou a beast that thou goest quaking at 
every clanger ! Until thou hast overcome 
the body-idea, thou canst not realise the 
Truth ! Art thou then a carcase ! Wilt 
thou for ever dance in that mire of physical 
dirt ! Come out of thy smallness ! Come 
forth ! ! Be a man ! Where is thy divinity 
if it remains for ever unexpressed? Art 
thou then so important that the world 
stands in need of thee ! Overcome the self 
by the Self. Be Free ! If thou strivest 
after the Imperishable, death shall not 
touch thee, for thou shalt have lost the 
knowledge of what death is. Thine shall 
be Immortality. All the world has been 
struggling to express Reality but the very 
first success in this effort is the spelling 
of character. Character is everything. 
Make character ! Make character ! Every 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 35 
 
hour do thou make character ! Dwell 
thou in thy spirit upon the Deathless, and 
thou shalt become deathless ! Make thine 
abode Reality and then neither birth nor 
death, nor the varying experiences of life 
shall cause thee fear. 
 
"Let the body go ! Give up clinging 
to it ! Free thyself in mind ! The whole 
meaning of religion and of ethics is to over 
come the animal consciousness, confined 
in sex and fear and sleep and food. Give 
it up ! Give up this clinging to the car 
case ! Call it the carcase ! Regard it as 
such at all times. Throw no gold cloth over 
it. It is filth. Only the Spirit is real. The 
consciousness of the Spirit is immortality. 
The thinking of immortal thoughts leads 
thee into Eternity. Be brave ! Be bold ! 
Be as strong as adamant ! Dost thou desire 
to realise God ? Then, my boy, there is 
no time for caring for the body. Now is 
the time; even now is the opportunity. 
Thou art the child of Reality; thy nature is 
the True. Therefore, plunge into the 
Living Waters of the Life of the Soul. Be 
 
 
 
36 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
unafraid ! Learn to rise superior either to 
the joys or the miseries of life ! Remem 
ber thou art the Soul ! Remember thou 
art the Self I 
 
"Go down deep deep. And thou 
shalt find that thou art strong. Go to the 
bottom of thy nature. There thou shalt 
find that thou art genuine in thy spiritual 
effort. What matter a few failings? 
Learn that fear and weakness are physical ! 
They arise from the body that nest of 
dreams; but thou in thy inner nature art 
free and fearless. Sing a song of strength 
my son ! Sing a song of strength ! Thou 
art the child of Immortality. Thy destina 
tion is Reality.. What are those fleeting 
experiences of a day but phantoms in the 
Vast Mirage? Either deify life, or deny it. 
No matter how thou doest this realise 
divinity. Whether the method be positive 
or negative, it is all the same." 
 
And there arose in my soul a sense of 
peace. A great calm arose and in its quiet 
the passive all-pervading power of Omni 
potence suddenly revealed itself. This 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 37 
 
\vas a power that gave strength to my soul. 
And the Voice of the Guru was made 
audible in this state of consciousness and 
it spoke, "Beyond time, aye, within time, 
I am Eternity. Whether embodied or dis 
embodied, all is the Spirit. In the heart 
there is ever Oneness. In the heart there * s 
ever Peace. Deep beneath the storm on 
the surface, deep beneath the waves of^ 
manifoldness and of strife and all the woe 
that comes of these, there is the Under 
current of Reality. 
 
Tat Tvam Asi ! Tat Tvam Asi ! 
 
 
 
XI 
 
The Voice of the Guru, speaking in the 
hours of meditation, sayeth, 
 
Behold ! There is an inner as well 
as an outer world. There is a world of 
soul as well as a world of form. And, 
my son, if there are marvels and mysteries 
and vastness and beauty and great glory 
in the outer world, there are inestimable 
greatness and powers and incommunic 
able blessedness and peace and unshak 
able foundation of Reality in the inner 
world as well. O my son, the outer is 
only a semblance of this inner world. 
And in this inner world thy true nature 
doth abide. -Here thou livest in Eternity 
while the outer world is of time alone. 
Here there is endless and g unfathomable 
bliss, while in the outer world sensation 
is accompanied by pain as well as by 
pleasure. Here, too, is pain, but O what 
blessedness of pain, the ecstatic anguish 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 39 
 
of not having fully realised the Truth, and 
such pain is the pathway to more copious 
blessedness. 
 
"Come, draw thy nature within this 
inner world. Come come upon the 
wings of ardent love for me. Is there 
greater or closer union than that between 
the Guru and disciple? O my son O 
my son Silence is the nature of Love 
Inexpressibility. And deep within the 
deepest folds of Silence there is God. 
Abandon all outer concerns. Whither 
soever I go, do thou come ! Whatsoever 
I become, do thou likewise become. O 
for the Holiness of God ! Many are the 
shrines of the devotee s heart where 
thought, like incense, rises unto God. 
Spiritualise everything thou doest. See 
the Brahman, the Divinity in form as well 
as in the Formless. Than the Lord there 
is no greater good. 
 
In the inmost recesses of the inner 
world, into which one enters by the way 
of ardent love or ardent prayer, there are 
universes upon universes of the Divinity 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
in Revelation. And God is always near. 
He is near not in a physical sense; He 
is near in a spiritual sense as the very 
Self within the self of thee. He is the 
very Substance of thy soul. He is the 
Knower of all thy thoughts and of the 
most hidden and most silent aspirations 
of the heart. Give thyself up. Love for 
the sake of love; work for the work s own 
sake. Go into the chambers of the 
Silence; come into the Presence of 
Reality. The more thou goest inward the 
nearer dost thou come unto me. For I 
am the Dweller within the Innermost. I 
am the Magnet which draws out the reve 
lation and the glory of thy soul. I am 
Spirit ! I am Spirit, untouched by thought 
or form. I am the Invulnerable and the 
Indestructible ! I am the Atman ! I am 
Paramatman ! Lo ! I am Brahman ! I 
am Brahman !" 
 
How wonderful are the words of the 
Guru! My soul cries out, "O Blessed 
One, Thou Thyself art God. Thou Thy 
self art the Teaching which Thou dost 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 41 
 
teach, the very Spirit of the universe. Lo, 
Thou art all in all. Thy nature is the 
One, though Thy Maya sheds the glory 
of the manifold. Thine is the greater 
glory of the One. For Spirit is One, 
Spirit is an Essence of which there are no 
parts or divisions. Spirit is the One Light 
seen through variously coloured lenses. 
O Guru, O my Guru, catch me up into 
that Life which is thine. O Thou art 
Brahma, Thou art Vishnu, thou art Sada- 
shiva. Thou art Brahman, Para- 
Brahman." 
 
"Hara Hara, Vyoma Vyoma, 
Mahadeva !" 
 
Thereupon my soul was caught up, as 
it were, into the Seventh Heaven and I 
perceived the Divinity of Humanity, the 
great glory even of human weakness. I 
saw that everything was Divine ; and 
within this Radiance stood the Guru as 
another Krishna transfigured upon a 
mount of realisation in that inner world. 
Deep, deeper than time more all- 
 
 
 
42 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
embracing even than space is that inner 
world of meditation. There can be no 
darkness, for all is effulgence. There, 
there can be no ignorance, for all is 
Jnanam. There death cannot stalk, nor 
fire burn, nor water wet, nor the air dry. 
There is the region of the Ancient One, 
beyond all the lie of life ; there is the 
Immovable Infinite. 
 
And in that glory, speaking from the 
Innermost the Guru spoke, "My son, 
thine is the heritage. Infinite Strength is 
thine. Art thou then weak when thy 
power is the All-Power ! Thou canst not 
rest satisfied with the show of sense. 
Death and Forgottenness are behind the 
pageant of the outer world. The body 
becomes the corpse when death has 
seized it. But the Spirit is ever free. It 
is the unembodied ; It is the Witness 
for though the bodies are destroyed It 
can never be destroyed." 
 
My soul, communing with the Guru, 
said, "Then, O Lord, how wonderful ! 
There is no death ! There is no death ! 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 43 
 
And the Guru made answer, "Aye, 
and neither life of sense, rooted in desire. 
For those that thirst for them is the mud- 
puddle of the world. Like oxen revelling 
in the mud, their bodies covered with 
mud, thus are those souls who revel in 
the foulness of lust. Long is the path for 
them, beset with Maya, the substance of 
the warp and woof o,f desire. Go thou 
beyond ! Thy time shall come. Look 
up ! Above are the Eternal Lights ! 
Look up ; and they shall penetrate the 
opaqueness of thy soul ! 
 
Hearing these words my soul remem 
bered, Divine is the nature of the Self, 
and Freedom is the Goal. And the Goal 
is Now and Here, and not Hereafter ! 
And the destiny of the soul is certain 
Self-realisation, where time is blotted out, 
where the physical and mortal conscious 
ness is dispersed, where the Light which 
is Life and the Truth which is Peace 
shine forth, where all dreams end, where 
desire is swallowed up in Infinite Realisa 
tion the Region of the Great Vast. O 
 
 
 
-44 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
for the feeling of that Immensity ! O for 
the blotting out of time ! O for the des 
truction of the images of sense ! O for 
ihe Freedom of the Infinite ! 
 
Hari Om Tat Sat! 
 
 
 
XII 
 
 
 
And the Voice that dwells in the 
Silence speaking in the hours of medita 
tion said unto my soul, 
 
"Come, my son, into the deep, deep 
Quiet. Beyond the tumult of personality, 
beyond its manifold experience, come 
into the Great Peace. Do not be troubled 
by the storm of passion or desire on the 
surface ; do not be alarmed. Though 
the clouds gather thickest, beyond them 
the sun doth shine. In the Stillness the 
heart throbs best with quiet rapture. 
Make thyself open to the Love that is 
every where. How musical is the Still 
ness ! What Peace it brings forth ! O 
for the Infinite Stillness ! O for the 
Infinite Peace ! 
 
"In all eternity not one good thought, 
not one spiritual longing is lost. There 
fore go thou beyond the power of time ; 
in that dost thou think great thoughts, 
 
 
 
46 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
and in that mayest thy soul desire the 
Infinite. In thine own mind doth thine 
own universe exist. And thou canst 
make eternity reveal even within the flux 
of time; by thy thoughts thou canst reach 
out beyond the bounds of space. 
 
"O what power, what sense of exalta 
tion, what immeasurable sensing of Im 
mensity come with the knowledge that 
the Self is free, that nothing can bind It ! 
That thou comest or that thou goest, that 
thou dost do or that thou dost not do 
what are these ! They are but episodes 
within the great dream of life. They are 
but currents within the running stream of 
time while the Self is the Eternal. 
 
"Deep deep fathomlessly deep is 
the Silence; the Peace is immeasurable. 
Blot out all images of sense and thought. 
They are only refractions; go thou 
within the Light Itself." 
 
And the Voice added, 
 
"O in the Self there is no sense of 
self ; boundless, everlasting, absolutely 
free, It is the Unit knowing no diversity. 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 47 
 
In the Kingdom of the Self there is no 
room for thou, or I, or he. It is all That 
the Om Tat Sat, incomparable and in 
expressible. Who knows that Self, yea 
verily he knows. 
 
"True love is that yearning to be free, 
to become merged in <tihe Infinite. True 
love is that great yearning for the Silence. 
It will not be disturbed. It reaches out 
silently yet ail-comprehensively. It is 
irresistible. It gains the Goal. Wherein 
all the Gods merge, wherein all sound is 
lost, wherein form is swallowed up and 
thought remains un-thought, wherein life 
and death no more exist, know That to 
be the Self. Wherein struggle ceases, 
wherein Realisation lies, wherein all that 
is relative is blotted out, wherein Beauty 
and Holiness, Sin and Terror, Good and 
Evil lose distinction, wherein the mind 
in contemplation becomes omniscient, 
know That to be the Self. 
 
"My son, there is a Height beyond 
the greatest heights, there is Divinity 
beyond the greatest Gods. There is the 
 
 
 
48 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
background of the Indestructible. All 
vanishes, all is blotted out, that which 
endures is the Self." 
 
And as the Voice became still it 
seemed as if my soul arose into the 
Vastness. Then "1" was not. There 
was only the Light the Light ! 
 
 
 
XIII 
 
When the soul rose into the Stillness 
of the Innermost, the Voice made itself 
heard thus : 
 
"Deeper than sin, deeper than evil is 
goodness. The fabric of the universe, its 
essential element, is goodness, infinite, 
incomparable goodness. There can be 
naught of evil where there is God. Evil 
is phenomenal and never real. Deep, 
deep in the sea of the soul are the im 
movable rocks of wisdom and of truth. 
Against these, all error and darkness and 
all evil must perish. True, on the surface 
there may be the violent noise of hurry 
ing winds of desire, tempests of seething 
passion, hours of evil and of darkness, 
but Realisation one moment of Realisa 
tion is omnipotent. It sweeps aside all 
manner of raging and rampant evil. It is 
like the effulgence of the sun, blasting all 
darkness. Therefore, even in the dark 
ness, remember the Light ; even in the 
 
4 
 
 
 
50 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
very midst of thy sinning, call upon the 
Name of the Lord ! And He, the Lord, 
shall harken to thy prayers. He shall 
send His Angels to help thee. There is 
no power greater than the soul s own. 
Deep down is the flow of perpetual and 
unit Divinity. One glimpse of That, and 
all sense of diversity in which sin and 
ignorance make their abode will dis 
appear. In essence, thou art free, thou 
art pure, thou art divine. All the forces 
of the universe are at thy beck and call. 
"Shalt thou struggle for freedom when 
thou art free ! Thy aim must be the ac 
quirement of spiritual knowledge. A 
single ray of the Flame of the Beatific 
Vision destroys and eradicates the subtlest 
shades of evil. Know that thou art of 
the Strength and the Effulgence of the 
Eternal ! Thy life is neither here nor 
there ! It is stationed in Eternity ! All 
this sense of sin, in the deepest sense, is 
ignorance. It is a dream. The nature of 
sin is weakness ; be thou strong ! One 
glimpse of That which thou art, and 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 51 
 
thou art That, the Effulgent and Omni 
potent !" 
 
Then heard I the Voice cry out, as 
though in prayer : 
 
"O builder of these tabernacles of 
sense and thought, destroy that which 
thou hast erected ! Encased in fear, sex, 
food and sleep, and the thoughts that 
spring therefrom, thou hast, as it were, 
willingly enshrouded thyself in the dense- 
ness of ignorance, and thou goest on 
dreaming. Thy curse is thine own ignor 
ance. Break down all dreams ; destroy 
both the ideas of oleasure and pain, and 
the iron bar of the body-consciousness 
will be flung aside. Therefore the task 
before thee is prodigious. The web of 
Maya is as thin as the spider s, and yet 
equally as hard as adamant. O soul, 
come to thine own rescue ! This tabern 
acle thou hast built ; this tabernacle thou 
must destroy ! And the process of such 
destruction is thine own Self-realisation. 
This involves the divine awareness of the 
Oneness. Shall the sun and the stars and 
 
 
 
52 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
even space itself swallow up Thy Nature? 
The Soul is one-d with Thee ! Out of the 
darkness, out of ignorance, O soul ! It is 
all self-imposed. Better pain than plea 
sure ! Better misery than enjoyment ! For 
these mould the forms of thought and 
sense into the shapes of fit vehicles for 
the revelation of the Spirit. Be thou the 
lover of the Terrible, O soul ! And 
though in the vision of the Terrible thou 
shalt behold Death, k>, verily, thou shalt 
also behold Immortality ! Life is at best 
a dream. There is the Great Beyond. In 
the end unity is everywhere, a divine, all- 
embracing unity. It is all the same Sun 
though its rays be manifold. And the ray 
is the Sun, and the Sun, the ray. And 
thou, thou art the Sun, the Sun ! And 
even in the darkness there is Light." 
 
Hearing this, my soul passed into the 
deeper and yet deeper stages of medita 
tion ; and I knew, yea, verily, the ray 
itself as the Sun. 
 
Again the Presence came in the hours 
of meditation, speaking, 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 53 
 
"In the Silence, past all sound, in 
Eternal Peace thy nature dwells ! Far 
from the tumultuous noise of sense, far 
from the agony and pain of life, far from 
the sense of sin and woe, and yet even 
in their midst, dwells the Divinity that IS. 
How wonderful the weaving of the 
dream ! And yet, more wonderful is the 
Dreamer than the dream ! Immortal, 
past the boundaries of death, stainless, 
even in the presence of enormous evils, 
art thou, O soul, and rooted in Divinity. 
Good and ill, these are of the measure 
ments of thought ; and beyond thought 
art thou, the Effulgent and Supreme ! The 
splendours of thy nature transcend all 
things ! Incomparable art thou, beyond 
the terms of speech. O Effulgent and 
Celestial and Divine One, crowned in 
meditation s and Realisation s height, who 
shall call thee sinner, or even saint ; who 
can speak or even think of thee ! 
 
"O One in all, in all the same un 
dying Self, who shall refer to thee in the 
terms of mortal life ! Beyond art thou 
 
 
 
54 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
Immortal. And, within even the turmoil 
of tempestuous thoughts, know there is 
the Silent Watcher of all things. His 
Light the will-o -the wisps of sense can 
never blind ; nor can His Peace be re 
pressed by all the strife of life. Im 
movable, unthinkable is He. beyond the 
sun, beyond the moon and stars. He is 
the Self ; the Self is He ; He is the victor 
in the wars of sense ! 
 
"However the mountain-heights of 
ignorance loom up, however the deeps of 
sin and woe be deep, He is the En~ 
compasser of height and depth ; He is the 
All, the One, the Engulf er of all variance ! 
Know this and be thcu Free, the Free!" 
And the words came unto my soul, 
"Lo, I am ever near. When the net 
work of thy sin is drawn closest, and thou 
dost labour in utter darkness, know I am 
there suffering with thee the enormities of 
thy sin. I am conscious of thine inmost 
Self, knowing well the workings of thine 
inmost soul. Thou canst keep naught 
from me, who am ever-present, not even 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 55 
 
a grain of thy secret thought. I am in 
thee ; I know thee well. Without me 
thou canst not move nor breathe. Re 
member I am thy Self, going whither thou 
dost go, remaining where thou dost 
remain. Come, enfold thine heart in 
mine. Make it thy very own. Then all 
shall be well. Shadow and Silence, in 
them I dwell, within, in the tabernacle 
of thine heart. Go now ! Go thou into 
the world and preach my word as wide 
as is the Self, for it is its life. My 
blessings thou ever hast, and all- 
embracing love ! Mine is as a mother s 
love for thee ; as is a dove s love for its 
young, such is mine for thee. When 
trouble comes or danger threatens, re 
member I am thy servitor, the lover of thy 
soul ! 
 
When these words had ended, I knew 
that the Guru had spoken, washing away 
all my sins, and I cried out : 
 
"O ecstasy intense that my heart 
knows, being in the Presence of my Lord ! 
One in Him, one in Him ! How sweet 
 
 
 
56 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
the flow of such divinest thought ! And 
with the saints I exclaimed unto my self, 
"Plunge into the Sea of the Lord, 
O fool ; plunge into the Sea of the 
Lord!" 
 
 
 
XIV. 
 
When my soul had entered the Silence 
of meditation, the Voice of the Guru 
said, 
 
"My son, do I not know all thy weak 
nesses? Why dost thou worry? Is not 
life beset with trials and tribulations? But 
thou art a Man. Let not faint-heartedness 
take possession of thy soul. Remember 
that within thee is the Almighty Spirit. 
Thou canst be what thou choosest. There 
is only one obstacle, thyself. The body 
rebels, the mind wavers, but of the end 
be sure. For nothing can ultimately with 
stand the power of the Spirit. If thou art 
sincere with thyself, if in the depth of thy 
self there is integrity, then all is well. 
Nothing can have full or final possession of 
thee. Cultivate openness of mind and 
heart. Conceal nothing from me with 
reference to thyself. Study thy mind as 
though it were a thing apart from thee. 
 
 
 
58 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
Speak frankly concerning thyself to those 
with whom thy soul finds true association. 
For the gates of hell itself cannot stand 
against a soul which is sincere. Sincerity 
is the one hing needed. 
 
"After all, most of thy faults arise out 
of the body-consciousness. Treat thy 
body as though it were a lump of clay. 
Make it subservient to the purposes of thy 
will. Character is everything, and the 
power of character is the power of will. 
This is the whole secret of the spiritual 
life ; this is the whole meaning of religious 
effort. Behold the civilisations. How 
man glories over the pomp of sense 
powers and sense realities ! But at 
bottom it is all sex and food. The mind 
of the majority has arisen out of these two 
all-comprising facts. We cover the corpse 
with flowers, but it is all the same a 
corpse. Therefore, let the child of the 
Spirit be deep in his study of what the 
world calls great. For at heart it is all 
putrid, being grossly corporeal and 
physical. Have nothing to do with the 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 59 
 
ephemeral things of the world or with its 
attractions. Tear off the masks with 
which the body hides its shame. Enter 
into that insight where thou knowest that 
thou art net of these things. Thou art 
the Spirit ; and know that the rise or fall 
of empires, the tendencies of cultures or 
of civilisations are of little import to the 
highest spiritual consciousness, Know 
That which is unseen to be truly great ; 
know That to be truly desirable. 
 
"Be thou the child of poverty ; have 
thou an intense passion for purity. Lust 
and Gold make up the fabric of the world 
ly spirit. Root these out from thy nature. 
Know all tendencies thereunto to be 
poisons, one and all. Vomit out from 
thy nature all defilement. Wash thy soul 
clean from all impurities. See life as it 
is ; and then shalt thou know it as Maya, 
neither good, nor yet evil, but something 
to be utterly given up, for it is all of the 
body and of the body-idea. Harken to 
each whispering of thy higher nature. 
Seize avariciously each message of thy 
 
 
 
60 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
Self. For spiritual opportunity is a rare 
privilege, and unless thou takest heed, 
when the Voice enters the Silence, thou 
being busied with the call of the senses 
shalt not hear It ; and thy personality shall 
fall into the clutches of habits that will 
cause it to perish. Only one message 
have I for thee ; Remember that thou art 
the Spirit. The Power is behind thee. 
To be sincere is to be free. Be loyal to 
thy spiritual inheritance, for to be loyal is 
likewise to be free. Let every step which 
thou dost take be a step forward, and as 
thou goest along the highway of life, more 
and more shalt thou feel that thou art 
free. If thou hast integrity behind thee, 
thou canst face all men. Be true to thy 
self. Then shall thy words ring with the 
accents of reality. Thou shalt speak the 
language of Realisation. And thou shalt 
gain the power which shall make others 
whole. 
 
"Each man radiates the force of his 
character. One can never hide himself. 
If one is physically deformed, all men see 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 61 
 
the deformity. And if thou art spiritually 
deformed, likewise intuitively all men shall 
know. For when thou speakest of the 
things of the soul, men will feel that thou 
speakest that which is not in thy heart. 
Thou wilt not be able to communicate 
unto them anything whatsoever of the 
spiritual life. For thou thyself art not in 
and of it. Therefore, if thou wouldst be 
come a Prophet of the Most High, busy 
thyself with self -reform. Keep guard over 
thy nature ; watch every impulse ; spiri 
tualise thy instincts. Be sincere. But I 
would charge thee to keep thy realisations 
in reserve. Cast not thy pearls before 
swine. If thou dost feel wondrous states 
of the Spirit, remain silent, lest by loud 
talk thou dost detract from their intensity. 
Ponder over what thou receivest. Go with 
all things into the silence of the Spirit. 
Guard all thy wisdom and all thy realisa 
tions as a thief guards his possessions. 
Thou must conserve thyself ; and when 
thou hast practised silence for some time, 
then shall that with which thy heart has 
 
 
 
62 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
become full, overflow ; and thou shalt be 
come a treasure and a power unto men. 
 
"There is one path of austerity which 
I recommend to thee. Meditate on the 
Terrible.. For the Terrible is everywhere. 
Truly, has it been said by a Sage, Every 
thing that one touches is pain. Know 
this not in a morbid, but in a triumphant 
sense. In all mystical experience, in one 
form or another, thou shalt find this wor 
ship of the Terrible. In reality, it is NOT 
the worship of the Terrible. It is Terrible 
only to him who dwells in the senses. 
Pleasing and terrible are terms which have 
meaning only to one who is the bond-slave 
of the body-idea. But thou hast gone 
beyond, at least in thought and aspira 
tion, if not in realisation. By meditation 
on the Terrible thou shalt assuredly over 
come the lust of the senses. Thou shalt 
embrace the life of the Soul. Thou shalt 
be made pure and free. And thus, more 
and more thou shalt become united with 
me, who am on the other side of life. 
Never see life physically ; study it psychi- 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 63 
 
cally. Realise it spiritually. Then imme 
diately the whole purport of the spiritual 
life shall be made clear to thee. Thou 
shalt know why saints love poverty and 
purity, and shun, by fight or flight, any 
thing that savours of Lust and Gold. 
 
"Let this suffice. Follow what I have 
said. Think over it until the nervous 
system takes it up, and the fever of these 
ideas and their loftiness and ecstasy course 
through thy veins, renew thy personality 
and make thee altogether whole." 
 
 
 
XV 
 
When all was silence, in the deeps of 
meditation the Guru, appearing, said, 
 
"My son, meditate on the Power which 
is the Mother s form, and then transcend 
ing all the fear the Power inspires thou 
shalt go beyond the Power into the 
Mother s Spirit which is Peace. Tremble 
not at the uncertainties of life. Though 
all the forms of the Terrible appear, multi 
plying themselves a thousandfold, remem 
ber, these can only affect the physical and 
not the spiritual self. 
 
"Be steadfast and firm at all times, 
being fully aware that the Spirit is indes 
tructible. Take thy stand on that which 
is the Self. Believe in nothing but that 
Reality which is innate alike in all. Then 
shalt thou remain undisturbed alike in the 
tempest or the seduction of appearances. 
That which comes and that which goes is 
not the Self. Identify thyself with the 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 65 
 
Self, not with the form. Impermanency 
predominates in the realm of things, in the 
objective world ; permanency endures 
alone in that realm of eternal subjectivity 
wherein reigns the consciousness of the 
Spirit, free from the forms of thought and 
sense. 
 
"That which is the True is immeasur 
able, like the great ocean ; nothing can 
bind or circumscribe it whatsoever. The 
predicates of existence do not apply to that 
shoreless Ocean of Divinity which rushes 
in upon the Self as the Self on the 
summits of Realisation. 
 
"The misery of the world is in direct 
ratio to desire. Have, therefore, no blind 
attachment. Bind thyself to nothing. 
Aspire to be ; do not desire to possess. 
Shall any possession satisfy thy True 
Nature ! Art thou to be bound down by 
THINGS ! Naked thou comest into the 
world ; naked thou goest forth when the 
summons comes ! Wherein then shalt 
thou have false pride > Let thy posses 
sions be those treasures that perish not. 
 
5 
 
 
 
66 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
The increase of Insight is its own reward. 
The more thou dost perfect thy nature, the 
more readily dost thou acquire eternal pos 
sessions by which thou shalt, in time, 
purchase the Kingdom of the Self. 
 
"Therefore, from this moment, go and 
grow inwards, not outwards. Invert the 
order of experience. Retreat from the 
sensuous life, as lived for its own sake. 
Spiritualise everything. Make the body a 
taberrtacle for the Soul ; and let the Soul 
be more and more revealed, day by day. 
Then shalt that darkness which is ignor 
ance be gradually dispersed ; and that 
light which is the Divine Wisdom shall 
gradually be revealed. All the forces in 
the universe are behind thee, working in 
harmony for thy progress if thou wilt but 
face Truth. As said the Lord Buddha, 
The Tathagatas are only great preachers. 
You yourselves must make an effort. 
Aye, the Teachers can only impart 
wisdom ; the pupil MUST assimilate, and 
this assimilation is the making of charac- 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 67 
 
ter ; it is making wisdom one s own. By 
himself is one saved, by none other. 
 
"Therefore, arise. Be diligent, and 
stop not till the goal is reached. That is 
the Command of the Upanishads ! 
 
"Even as a wild animal seeks for its 
prey, even as the slave of passion seeks 
for the gratification of his lust, even as a 
man dying from hunger desires food, even 
as the man who is being drowned calls 
for rescue with that same intensity and 
strength of spirit do thou seek for Truth. 
Even as a lion, not trembling at noises, 
even as a lion, fearless and free so do 
thou roam about in this world, bent on the 
acquisition of Truth. For, infinite strength 
is needed and infinite fearlessness. Go 
thou forth, knowing that all limitations 
shall burst asunder for thee, that for thee 
all crooked roads shall be made straight 
if thou dost gather together the forces 
of thy soul and if thou dost boldly tear off 
the MASK. 
 
"Dost thou search for God? Then 
 
 
 
68 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
know that when thou hast seen the Self, 
the Self shall be revealed to thee as God." 
 
"Om Tat Sat!" 
 
And the Guru s Voice entered the 
Silence which is Peace, his Form that 
Radiance which is God ! 
 
 
 
XVI 
 
Again the Voice made itself heard in 
the hours of meditation, saying, 
 
"Peace be with thee, my son. Neither 
here nor hereafter is there any cause for 
fear. Interpenetrating all things is the 
great spirit of Love. And for that Love 
there is no other name but God. God is 
not far from thee. He is not bound down 
by the barriers of space, for He is the 
Formless One, reigning within. Resign 
thyself utterly to HJITK Give Him all that 
which thou art, both good and evil, all. 
Let nothing be reserved. By such an act 
of resignation thy whole nature shall be 
made pure. Think, how vast is the char 
acter of Love ! It is greater than life and 
stronger than death ; it is the quickest of 
all paths to God. 
 
"Difficult is the path of Insight, easy 
the path of Love. Become thou as a 
child. Have faith and love. Then no harm 
 
 
 
70 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
shall befall thee. Be patient and hopeful. 
Then shalt thou be enabled readily 
to meet with all the circumstances of life. 
Be large-hearted. Root out all small- 
mindedness and thought of small self. 
Surrender thyself wth aM trust unto Him,. 
He knows all thy ways. Trust irj His 
wisdom. How fatherly He is ! Above 
all, how motherly is He ! He is infinite in 
His long-suffering with thee. His mercy 
knows no bounds. If thou doest sin for 
the thousandth time, lo, for the thousandth 
time and ever doth He forgive thee. 
 
"Even should evil befall thee, it cannot 
be evil when thou lovest the Lord. Even 
the most fear-inspiring experience thou 
wilt recognise as a messenger from the 
Beloved. Through Love, verily, thou shalt 
attain God. Is not the mother at all times 
constant in affection? Even so is He, who 
is the Lover of thy soul. Believe, only 
believe, then all shall be well with thee. 
Do not fear what transgressions thou hast 
already committed. Be a man ! Face life 
boldly ! Let come what may, do thou 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 71 
 
remain strong. Remember that infinite 
strength is at thy beck and call. God Him 
self is with thee. What fear canst thou 
have? 
 
"Make thy struggle for immortality 
here and now. Train the mind. That is 
the only important task. That is the great 
meaning and purpose in life. Now is the 
opportunity to demonstrate immortality by 
overcoming the body-consciousness, even 
when the Spirit is encased, as it were, in 
flesh. Do thou make thyself worthy of 
immortality. Even the gods worship him 
who has vanquished the body-idea. Death 
is only a physical event ; long is the life 
of the mind, and immeasurably long is the 
life of the Soul. How necessary, then 
that thou shouldst think great though ts v 
and thus hasten the course of thy spiritual 
evolution f 9 Have done with things 
external. Even if a man master the whole 
universe, still has he to become the master 
of himself. Even if he discover all that 
is knowable, intellectually speaking, still 
he shall have to know himself. For Self- 
 
 
 
72 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
knowledge is the aim in life. Consciously 
or unconsciously, this is the aim which 
gives reason to life. It is this aim that 
explains the process of living, the process 
of Self -development. That knowledge is 
indeed worthy which leads to the improve 
ment of the inner Self. Therefore set thy 
self bravely to the task of Self-knowledge. 
Long, perhaps, shall be the way, but there 
can be no doubt of the end. Leaving off 
all other words, be thou concerned with 
That which is the Highest ! 
 
"Stand on thine own feet! Defy the 
whole universe, if need be. What can 
ultimately harm thee? Be thou content 
with the Highest. Others seek for external 
riches. Seek thou the treasures of the 
within. The time shall corne when thou 
shalt know that the empire of the whole 
world, aye, even the empire., of the gods, 
is as dust before the splendours pf Self- 
knowledge. Arise ! Gird thy loins for 
the great effort ! Come, great soul, thine 
is the heritage of the Divine Life. Thine 
are the riches of which no thief can rob 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 73 
 
thee. Thine are the riches of the Omni 
potent Soul !" 
 
 
 
 
. 
 
 
 
XVII 
 
The Voice, making itself heard in the 
stillness of meditation, said : 
 
"Terrible is the bondage of this world. 
Difficult is it to escape from out the net of 
Maya. Life teaches us that in order to 
live truly one must go beyond life ; pne_ 
must^cpnquer death. This is the supreme 
task, and the way to this conquest is 
j through the victory over those physical 
I instincts that lead unto death. I speak 
deeply to thee, my son, asking thee to 
keep wide, wide awake and pay heed to 
all that which comes to tempt thee. The 
only way in which to progress spiritually is 
to anticipate the faintest rise of tempta 
tion. Keep strict guard over thy mind. 
Constantly busy thyself with that^ which is 
great and noble. In this manner, thou 
shalt gradually make thyself free. 
 
"When temptation comes, it often 
comes, as it were, of a sudden, before the 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 75 
 
mind has time to become aware of what 
is happening. One is apparently hurried 
on to the point of yielding. All saints 
understand this. Therefore they anticipate 
evil thought, defeating its strength and the 
possibility of its arising by strenuous good 
thought. By thought is one made and 
unmade. Beware, then, that thou dost 
think good thoughts. 
 
"Remember that it is the mind which 
thou must keep constantly buoyed up. 
Never let it be idle. Idleness is the 
counterpart of evil, the nest wherein it 
bears itself most fruitfully. Beware of 
idleness. Take life seriously. Realise the 
shortness of time and the greatness of the 
task of Self-unfoldment before thee. Now 
is thy time ; now is thy opportunity. 
Bitterly shalt thou repent if thou dost allow 
thyself to drift carelessly into conditions 
of limitation and struggle, worse than those 
in which thou dost now find thyself. Be 
worthy of a better future, a better birth, 
by making thy present life a success of 
the Spirit. 
 
 
 
76 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
"The world abounds with death. The 
law of Karma is inevitable. Take heed, 
lest death find thee in the midst of thy 
sinning and lest Karma follow thy yielding 
to physical desire with increased bondage 
and dire misery. My son, after thou hast 
once tasted of the nectar of immortality, 
how is it possible for thee to feed on the 
husks of swine? 
 
"Yet, do not be alarmed. The Grace 
of God is greater than mountain-loads of 
sin. So long as thou dost believe, so long 
is there hope. But the way is almost in 
finite in length. Think of the life-times 
necessary for the complete eradication of 
evil, for the final transformation of the 
human into the divine consciousness. 
Canst thou, then, not understand how 
seriously thou shouldst labour for thine 
own good? And if thou dost love me, 
wilt thou not, for my sake at least, try to 
reach the Goal? How long have I waited 
for thee to be made whole and to struggle 
manfully ! I have yearned for thy 
righteousness. I shall always stand by 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 77 
 
thee ; I shall always love thee, but thou 
must shake off thy lethargy. Come out of 
thy moral slothfulness; come, be a man ! 
"Thy love for me is the pole-star of 
thy life. It is the basis of thy being. And 
there is good reason, for by thy love for 
me thou shalt be saved. Devotion to the 
Guru is the one thing needed. That will 
straighten out all thy difficulties. So be 
of good cheer. Know, always, that I am 
with thee. My longing for God, my 
Realisation, all that I am or possess, shall 
be given unto thee, for it is the pleasure 
of the Guru to give even himself, if need 
be, for the good of the disciple. Once I 
have accepted thee, it is for ever, for 
eternity. Now, go in peace, and be mind 
ful that if thou art true to thyself, thou 
dost add even unto my glory and even 
unto mine own vision. 
 
 
 
XVIII 
 
The Voice of the Guru spoke unto my 
soul : 
 
"My son, there is nothing so fascinating 
as the history of thine own development. 
It is the development of personality that 
makes life interesting. Be the witness ! 
Stand aside, as it were, and observe thy 
personality as though it were a thing apart. 
Study the wayward thought, the fleeting 
desire. How transient the importance of 
yesterday s experience ! What doth any 
thing matter a decade of years hence ! 
Thinking this, go through life undisturbed. 
Nothing which is earthly matters. It 
passes. Therefore give thy time up to 
things of the Spirit. Be unattached. 
Plunge into meditation. Let thine be the 
monastic spirit. The value of any experi 
ence or of any idea is its tendency in the 
way of making character. Realising this, 
do thou acquire a new perspective in life. 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 79 
 
"How much time do the worldly give 
unto the body, that fragile bit of clay ! 
How much are their minds concerned with 
ephemeral physical things ! They perish 
in perishable things. They are swallowed 
up in Maya. Refrain, therefore, from con 
cerning thyself with worldly things. Shun 
the society of the worldly-minded. How 
subtle is theHjy! It erKJgavcMtffr con- 
 
 
 
stantly to idealise the physical^ That is 
the witchery of Maya. Be not deceived 
Iw false beauty and by the gaudiness of 
appearances. Lose not thy insight. From 
immemorial time this struggle has been 
going on. What is all earthly attachment 
compared with the love of God for thy 
soul? Attachment is of the body, and 
therefore is bondage. But thou lovest me 
with thy soul. That is the difference. My 
son, it has not been amiss that thou 
shouldst pass through much pain in order 
to realise the danger and falseness of the 
world. The more thou dost suffer, the 
closer art thou brought to me. 
 
"Cultivate passivity! Thou art alto- 
 
 
 
80 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
gather too irresponsible and too aggres 
sive. Before thou seest the faults - of 
others and dost criticise them without 
mercy, discover thine own glaring faults. 
If thou canst not bridle thy tongue, let it 
rant against thyself, not against others. 
First of all, keep thine own house in proper 
order. Such precepts as thes.e-are in direct 
accordance with the highest philosophy of 
Self-realisation. For there can be no Self- 
realisation without character. Humility, 
meekness, gentleness, forbearance, t^fe 
non-seeing of evil in others all these are 
the practical elements in Realisation. Pay 
no attention to what others do to thee ; 
be busied with thine own improvement. 
When thou hast learned this, thou hast 
mastered a great secret. Egotism is at the 
bottom of everything. Root out egotsim. 
And as for passion, keep careful guard. 
Thou canst not be SURE of victory over it 
until thy body is laid at the burning-ghat. 
Make thy mind the shmasana (Funeral 
ground) and burn into ashes all thy desires 
if thou desirest to be free even in life. 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 81 
 
Thou must learn blind* obedience. 
What art thou but a child! Hast thou 
any real knowledge? Be led along the 
path, even as a child is led. Give thyself 
up entirely to my wishes. Am 1 not even 
as a mother unto thee in my love? And 
yet I am as a father unto thee as well, 
inasmuch as I do not spare the rod of 
chastisement. ^Ifc^thou wouldst be a 
Master, first of all learn how to be a dis 
ciple. Discipline is whai thou requirest. 
^ Before,* thy enthusiasjn for my cause 
was boyish and effervescent. Now it is 
becoming tempered by true insight. The 
1 ild is thoughtless, the yotTth is wilful ; 
?Mrii man that is worth while. My in 
tention is to make a man of J&ee in the 
spiritual sense. I would have thee deep, 
responsible, earnest, well-disciplined, and 
make manifest thy loyalty and love for 
me in steadfastness and sincerity of 
character. March forward. My love and 
blessings are ever with thee." 
 
 
 
 
XIX 
 
In the hours of meditation I heard the 
Voice addressing me : 
 
"Have no bitterness in thine heart. Be 
candid with thyself. Root out all false 
notions with regard to ^kyself. Root out 
all false attachment. See Divinity instead 
of body. See thyself as others see thee. 
Above all, have no false self-Commisera 
tion. Be strong ! If thou must have faults, 
let them be the faults of a lion. 
 
The Law is mighty. It will crush thy 
heart and shatter thy personality in exact 
ratio to thy self-will. But it will also lead 
thee to true Self-knowledge. Base thy 
faith, therefore, on the Law. Action 
breeds reaction. Therefore let thy actions 
proceed from purity of heart and thought. 
Then shalt thou know Peace. 
 
"Under the name of sentiment often 
times a multitude of sins is covered; at 
bottom the grossest physical instincts may 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 83 
 
be at work. Throwing a cloth of gold 
over them does not mend matters. .One 
is liable to idealise the purely physical 
sensations as lofty emotions. But des- 
crimination tears off the disguise and 
teaches that J^lsje__attachmei>t is always 
.self-centred, dominating, cruel and con 
science-less. It is wilful, blind, and body- 
bound. True love, on the contrary, is 
pure, related to the Spirit, gives infinite 
freedom to the beloved one_ and it is full 
of wisdom and self-renunciation. Vomit 
out from thy heart, accordingly, all attach 
ment and misplaced sentiment. And once 
you have done it, as thou wouldst not 
as much as look at thy vomit, being 
repelled, do not even as much as think of 
attachment. It is bondage, terrible 
bondage. Remember this, and march on 
bravely to Freedom s Goal ! 
 
"Monasticism is the highest of all 
vocations. By cutting thyself loose from, 
all bondage^ thoujdost help alMhat have 
known thee shall ever come into thy life. 
By Self-realisation the monk fulfils all 
 
 
 
84 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
duties. By his self-sacrifice others are 
redeemecL Be thou a monk in thy heart 
and deeds. Depend on nothing or on no 
one. Give others their freedom and be 
thou thyself free. 
 
"Be not disheartened because of thy 
disadvantages, for thy very disadvantages, 
given a spiritual direction, shall be trans 
figured into advantages ^ Spiritualise thy 
feeling; Then, when no malice or nervous 
irritation exists in thy nature, thou shalt 
stand on thy ground, and yet be a light 
and a help unto many, though thou 
shouldst not e en see them. Be a lion; 
then all weakness will fall away from thee. 
Aspire to be a God; then the limitations 
of thy body-consciousness will disperse. 
Thou shalt become pure Spirit. Take thy 
lesson from the sublime phenomena of 
nature, the mountains, the vast seas and 
shining suns. Become one with strong 
things. 
 
"Self-regeneration, my son, is a long 
and painful process. Before thou canst 
grow, is is necessary that thou be over- 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 85 
 
whelmingly frank with thyself. All veils 
of self-excuse or self-commiseration must 
be rent asunder by repeated experiences 
of pain and the humiliation of thy pride. 
There can be no foolishness with God and 
no hypocrisy with thine own soul. The 
finest and best must come forth. Be 
grateful, therefore, for each messenger of 
pain, that reveals at once thy weakness 
and thy Self to thee. Exclaim, Blessed, 
blessed pain ! 
 
"A little learning has made thee an 
intellectual egotist; a greater learning will 
make thee spiritual. Remember that mind 
is not the Soul. So let experience pound 
the mind as it will. It will purify it. That 
is the main thing. Gradually the Sun of 
the Soul will pierce the dark clouds of 
ignorance; and then the goal shall be 
revealed to thee, and thou shalt be merged 
in its effulgence." 
 
 
 
XX. 
 
Continuing his instructions, the Guru 
said : 
 
"Inch by inch I shall master thy per 
sonality. Step by step thou shalt be forced 
nearer unto me. For I am thy Lord and 
God, and I shall not tolerate any idols of 
sense or sense-idealised thought between 
me and thee. Rend the veils, my son ! 
Rend the veils ! * 
 
Then knew I that the Guru himself 
had become responsible for me. A great 
burden seemed to have fallen off from 
me. He continued : 
 
"The mystical experience is good, but 
better than the mystical experience is the 
consciousness that character brings. 
Character is everything; and character can 
come only through renunciation. ^Pain 
and affliction draw out the powers of the 
Soul ""and make character. Welcome 
them ! See the divine opportunities these 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 87 
 
create. Diamond cuts diamond, as the 
saying goes, and pain alone conquers in 
stinct. Blessed, blessed pain ! The preat 
devotee, Kunti, prayed that her lot might 
always be afflication, in order that there 
by she might always remember the Lord. 
My son, hers was a true prayer. Do thou 
pray likewise. If thou lovest me, know 
that pain will bring thee all the closer unto 
me, and thy higher nature will shine forth, 
The -mortal must be crushed out and 
crucified, if the immortal is to be made 
manifest. The real You* is behind the 
temporary configuration of consciousness. 
No insularity, my son ! Thyself having 
adopted a certain course in the spiritual 
Me, why ^become fanatic therein? God 
is not to be realised in one way, but in 
every way. Wheresoever there is glory 
or greatness, there the Lord Himself is 
manifest. Break down all walls ! _No 
special bounds are assigned to thee. Be 
all-sided; thy sole duty lies in self-perfec 
tion; Who commanded thee to preach 
any one idea to the exclusion of all others ! 
 
 
 
88 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
Who commanded thee to frreach at all ? 
I have opened thine eyes to some extent. 
\Before, thy vision was blurred. Now, 
Ithou art coming to know that before thou 
shalt teach others, thou must train thyself. 
Beware of conceit ! Underlying so much 
of seeming selflessness and seeming as 
piration to do work is this deep-rooted 
i passion. Verily, egoism is the greatest 
curse. Harness thyself first! With thy 
mind running hither and thither, how canst 
thou hope to do good unto others? Con 
centration is the first thing needed. Thy 
surface consciousness is as wayward and 
as untutored as that of a rebellious child. 
What is wanted is that thou dost bring the 
depth of thee, the real man that thou art, 
to the surface. This being god at one 
moment and slave to passion at another, 
will never do ! My boy, character, as I 
have said repeatedly, is the only test of 
Vision. 
 
"The glamour of romance and idealism 
stands between to-day and the days of 
Buddha and the Rishis. The earth was 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 89 
 
then the same as now. The summer was 
hot, the winter cold, passion held sway in 
the hearts of men, and poverty and 
wealth, health and sickness were side by 
side. There were jungles and mountains 
and rivers, and cities and bazaars; and 
death then as now stalked everywhere. 
The same difficulties were to be contended 
with. Buddha looked upon the same 
world as thou thyself dost look upon. So 
the same realisation is possible. Set thy 
self to the task ! The Vedas themselves 
were expired in exactly as human an en 
vironment as thou seest to-day. Set thy 
self to the task, my boy ! 
 
"It is the conscious mind that must 
be taken in hand. This is the instrument 
which, when perfected, will enable thee 
to explore the hidden depths of the sub 
conscious mind and to burn out old Sams- 
karas which, now and then, rush up from 
beneath the threshold. And by this same 
conscious mind, spiritualised, the highest 
Superconsciousness may be atttained. 
From the known, man proceeds to 
 
 
 
90 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
the Unknown. Knowledge is the con 
quest gained through the expansion of 
the conscious mind. More and more of 
the infinite territory of thought is acquired. 
The end is, Omniscience. True know 
ledge, my son, is not material, but spiri 
tual. It is the man that is revealed through 
knowledge, not the thing I 
 
"True knowledge is always a process 
of conscious realisation. The assimilation 
of ideas, like the assimilation of food, 
touches and acts upon the conscious per 
sonality. The nervous system must assi 
milate ideas. Then the very body itself 
becomes full of chaitanya. The very body 
is made Spirit. It was in this sense that 
some of the Masters have said, Even 
physically I am chinmayal That is why 
even physical service to the Guru is privi 
lege. The body itself then becomes Spirit 
in the process. 
 
"One of the greatest tasks thou shalt 
master, my son, is Self-communion. Now 
thy concentration is largely dependent on 
circumstances and environment. Thou 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 91 
 
findest need to commune with others. 
But other minds may give thee only the 
stimulus. Thou thyself to thyself dost 
speak even when speaking to another. 
But knowledge, the true stimulus, should 
come from within. Why depend on an 
other ! Like a rhinoceros march on 
alone ! 
 
"Mind itself becomes the Guru, my 
child. This is an old teaching. And 
why? Because, pressing in upon the 
mind for Self-realisation is the Divinity 
thou art. I and all others are only aspects 
of the Great Reality. The consciousness 
that I wore on thy plane, when in the 
body, was, as it were, only a window 
through which thou dost behold the In 
finite. But that consciousness which was 
/, I myself make effort to merge in the 
Divine. What is Real in me, what is 
Real in thee, is that Brahman ! Worship 
the Brahman, my boy, Worship that 
Brahman alone ! * 
 
 
 
XXI 
 
Then quoth a Voice, speaking of the 
glory of the Guru unto my soul : 
 
"Child, have unbounded faith in thy 
Guru. Through His mercy, through His 
illumination thy very inmost Soul has 
been resurrected. He has sought thee 
out, and through Him thou hast been 
made whole. The realisation of the Guru 
descends in torrents upon the disciple. It 
is ceaseless ; and nothing can resist it. 
His love for thee knows no bounds. To 
all lengths He shall go for thee. Never 
shall He desert thee. His very love is 
proof of His Divinity, and even His curse 
is blessing in disguise. 
 
"The Realisation of thy Guru is a 
thing, present and concrete before thee ! 
Through the transfiguration of His Nature, 
thou dost verily perceive the Divine. 
There is no other path for thee. Give 
thyself over wholly and entirely to the 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 93 
 
Guru. What, at bottom, are even all the 
Gods? He who has realised His Nature 
is the greatest Divinity. Man, seeing the 
great glory of Him who has realised the 
Self, perceives that Realisation in mani 
fold forms. The Guru is more than per 
sonality ; through Him, all aspects of the 
Divine shine forth. Is He not Siva Him 
self ! Of the Great Guru, Siva Himself is 
only an aspect. Meditate on thy Guru as 
Siva, as thy Ishtam, and at the supreme 
moment of Realisation thou shalt find the 
Nature which is the Guru merged in thy 
Ishtam. Before thee stands one, made 
Incarnate Divinity through Self-Realisa- 
tion. What then shalt thou have with 
abstract Gods or theological conceptions ! 
Wheresoever thou shalt go, He shall 
follow thee. Because, for the sake of 
helping mankind, He has renounced even 
Nirvana itself. In this He is verily an 
other Buddha. That He has realised His 
Nature makes His personality all the more 
real, all the more powerful. Having at 
tained the Brahman-Consciousness, He is 
 
 
 
94 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
empowered with superhuman life and 
knowledge. All the gods bow down to 
Him who has become Brahman. Through 
the perspective of thy Guru-worship, see 
all the Divinity that IS. Thus all shall 
be made one, and the highest Advaita 
Consciousness shall be gained. For the 
Guru shall be seen in larger and ever 
larger perspectives, even according to the 
enlargement of thine own Jnanam and thy 
Bhakti. Through the supreme expansion 
of personality, the Highest Selflessness 
which is the Self is realised. There, Guru, 
God and thyself, aye, the whole universe, 
are made One. That is the Goal. See 
the Guru through the perspective of the 
Infinite. That is the highest Wisdom. 
Through Guru-bhakti thou walkest on the 
highest path. 
 
"In one sense, the Divine Man is more 
real even than Pure Godhead. Thou 
canst only understand the Father through 
the Son. Before even thou dost worship 
God, worship the God-man ! Apart from 
the Brahman-realised Consciousness of 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 95 
 
Man, where is there God ? Guru-worship 
is the highest for the disciple, because 
through thy worship of the personality of 
the Guru, all sense even of personality 
shall ultimately be lost. Wider and wider 
become the horizons of the spiritual vision. 
First the physical presence is required ; 
then comes the worship of the person of 
the Guru. The next step is the going 
even beyond the physical presence and 
the worship of the Guru, for the Guru 
teaches that the body is not the Soul. 
Like a child has the disciple to be edu 
cated. From the physical to the percep 
tion of the Guru s message and ideas ; 
from the person to the principle. Mind 
and body cannot count in that supreme 
of all intimate relationships. The very 
Soul of the Guru is transmitted through 
lofty and still loftier realisations. More 
and more does the personality of the 
disciple merge in the Guru-Nature, while 
all the time the Guru s personality is seen 
to merge more and more into That of 
which even His body had been a mani- 
 
 
 
% IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
festation. Then the sublimest Oneness is 
attained. The waters of the dual person 
alities of Guru and disciple become the 
Ocean of the Infinite Brahman ! For the 
attainment of that Supreme Beatitude, 
wilt thou not go wheresoever He com 
mands ! For His sake, if He so wills, 
thou wilt gladly go through a thousand 
births and deaths. For thou art His 
loving servant ; His will is thy Law. Thy 
will has become the instrument of His 
will. To follow Him that is thy Dharma ! 
For, as the Scriptures say, Verily, the 
Guru is God, the Guru is Brahma, Vishnu 
and Mahadeva. He is indeed the Supreme 
Brahman ! There is none higher than 
the Guru ! 
 
 
 
XXII 
 
Then, in another hour of meditation, 
the Guru, spoke : 
 
"My son, at any moment the hour that 
brings death may come ; make therefore 
the most of life. When a lofty inspiration 
visits thy soul, seize it avariciously, lest 
through thy sin of omission it is lost 
utterly. For every ideal sentiment, there 
is a practical realisation. The method of 
realisation is equally as important as the 
perception of the ideal itself. What is all 
grandiloquent talk compared with an 
ounce of practice ? Talk may rouse 
emotion, but both time and feeling are 
wasted unless thou dost assume the res 
ponsibility the ideal demands of thee. 
Have no hypocrisy in thine heart. Throw 
not a cloth of gold over thy inaction and 
call it resignation. Behind all thy lack of 
response to spiritual stimuli, be sure there 
is always the physical consideration. If 
 
7 
 
 
 
98 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
it should enter thy mind to take some 
daring course in the spiritual life, it is 
likely that thy body shall arise, asking, 
*Mind, shall it be comfortable? Ah, for 
the sake of physical reason how far short 
hast thou fallen from the ideal ! 
 
"My son, courage is as much needed 
in the spiritual life as it is in the struggles 
which ensue in the world. As much per 
severance as the miser has in hoarding 
gold, as great courage as the warrior has 
in rushing forth to meet the foe, so much 
perseverance, so great a courage must 
thou possess to accumulate the treasures 
that are imperishable and to master once 
for all the body and the body-conscious 
ness. That is the secret that lies behind 
realisation in any form indomitable cour r 
age, courage that knows no jear., Develop 
the powers for self -analysis, then shalt 
thou find that when thou dost fail to take 
up bofcRy the life of true renunciation, it 
is because of the promptings of thy body 
which seeks to satisfy the narrow and 
selfish desires of the mortal self. 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 99 
 
"But this body must be rooted ottt. 
It must go in some definite resolve to 
realise one s srelf as Spirit. Boy, take one 
plunge into the dark, and thott shalt find 
the very darkness hath become the light. 
Cut off all bonds, or rather subordinate 
the body to the greatest bonds, that of 
the morrow *s uncertainty, and immediate 
ly thou shalt find that thou hast gained 
the highest freedom and that the body 
itself will become the servitor of the Soul. 
 
"Bold steps are needed in the life 
spiritual as in the life temporal. He who 
risks not can never hope to gain. Throw 
the body overboard into the sea of un 
certainty ; be like the wandering monk, 
attached neither to person, place or 
things, and though thou lose the body, 
thou shah gain the Soul. Boldness is the 
one thing needed, the boldness of a tiger 
in the jungle. Only strong hands can 
rend the veils of iMaya. Speculation will 
never do ; manliness is what is wanted. 
So long as there is fear for the body, so 
long there can be no realisation for the 
 
 
 
100 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
soul. Think of the sacrifices made by 
the worldly in worldly pursuits. Wilt 
thou not make sacrifice in the spiritual 
pursuit? Is God to be realised by 
eloquence or by mere form ! Get out 
from under all sheltering influences. 
Come out into the open. Make the In 
finite thy horizon. Let the whole universe 
be the field in which thou dost wander ! 
 
"Thou must welcome, all gyperience I 
Come out of thy narrow grooves ! Fear 
lessness will make _thee free^ As it is 
certain that in life Dharma alone is true, 
so it is equally certain that Sannyasa is 
alone the true spiritual path. Renuncia 
tion like reh gHHfrjfr not a form : it is ail-; 
inclusive ; it is a condition of conscious 
ness,, a state of personality. In realisa 
tion thou thyself must come face to face 
with God ; in renunciation thou thyself 
must find the peace eternal. No one can 
realise for thee ; for thee, likewise, no 
one can renounce. Therefore, be brave 
and stand on thine own feet. Who can 
help thee save that which is the Self in 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 101 
 
iheej* Making thine own mind thy Guru, 
thine own Inner Self thy God, march forth 
fearless as a rhinoceros. Let whatever 
-experience come to thee, know that what 
is affected is the body, not the Soul. 
Have such faith a Ad firmness that nothing 
can overpower thee. Then having re 
nounced everything, thou shalt find that 
all things are at thy command, and that 
thou art no longer their slave. Beware of 
false enthusiasm, however. Care nothing 
either for^ pleasant or unpleasant sensa 
tion. Simply go forth, without a path,, 
without fear, with-it orr^f Be thou the 
true Sannyasin. Do not shelter thyself 
under false notions. Tear all veils 
asunder ; destroy all bonds ; overcome all 
fear, and realise the Self. 
 
"Do not delay. Time is short and life 
is fleeting. Yesterday is gone ; to-day is 
flying fast ; to-morrow is already at hand. 
Depend on God alone ! By renouncing 
tthou obtainest_ajl ; byjrenouncing, thou 
fulfillest all obligations^ ; by giving up thy_ 
life thou dost gain Eternal Life. For, 
 
 
 
10? IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
what .c.th Sunce ? the life of 
 
 
 
the senses and sense-fed thought. Go 
down into the deeps of thy personality ! 
There thou shalt see that already a mighty 
undertow of the Spirit is at work^ which 
shall sometime sooiT"lash &e indifferent 
surface into a very tempest of renuncia- 
tion and Godj-yi$ion. Believe in thy Self ! 
Long enough hast thou been indifferent. 
Now be sincere ! Be tremendously 
.ffflffr r Then all good things of the Soul 
shall be thine." 
 
 
 
XXIH 
 
Again the Guru spoke : 
 
"Already the word has been spoken ; 
the commands have already been given 
thee. Now action is required. Teaching 
without practice is of no avail. How 
great would be thy sorrow that thou didst 
not put resolution and insight into prac 
tice long ago ! Having gained the path, 
march bravely^on. What shall stand in 
the way of one who has determined on 
Self-realisation ! When thou {gtandest 
alone, God shall be thy^conipgnion. thy 
friend, thy all in all! Is it not better to 
forsake all in order that the Presence of 
God shall be felt all the more? When 
thou dost renounce Nature, Nature her 
self shall reveal her true beauty to thee. 
Thus to thee everything shall become 
spiritual. Even a blade of grass shall 
speajk to thee of the 
 
 
 
"When thou hast renounced all and 
 
 
 
104 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
dost walk on lonely paths, remember that 
my love and wisdom shall be with thee 
always. Thou shalt be close, very close 
unto me. Thou shalt gain further in 
sight, increased purpose of will, and a 
great increase of the universal sense. 
Thou wilt become one with all things. 
Renunciation, my boy, is the one path. 
Imagine thyself dead to-day. 
 
"However it may rebel, know that 
sometime, somehow the body must be 
sacrificed as a holocaust unto the Soul ; 
the body-idea must be overcome. Thou 
canst make the long path, pursued by 
the lukewarm in spirit, short if thou art 
sufficiently sincere. Take time by the 
forelock. Take instant advantage of 
opportunity. If by one leap thou canst 
cross over the intervening barrier between 
thyself as thou art and thyself as thou 
shouldst become, hasten to do so. Turn 
on thyself like a tiger on its prey. 
Have no mercy on thy mortal self. Then 
shall the Immortal Self in thee shine forth. 
 
"Pay no attention to trivialities, my 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 105 
 
son. What can details matter when the 
Universal Itself has dawned upon thee?_ 
Details are purely physical. Centre not 
thy mind upon them. Be concerned with 
the One and not the many. Having the 
spirit of Vairagyam, care not what details 
of experience may come_to thee. Re 
member that thou thyself art thine own 
enemy as also thine own well-wisher. 
With one stroke thou canst cut off the 
bondage of a veritable host of past 
Samskaras. The necessary spirit once 
aroused in thee, the task wjll_ be_ an^ easy 
one. And my grace and blessings shall 
be with thee in the making and the 
strengthening of thaj^ spirit. Trust, and it 
shall be well with thee. 
 
"Why concern thyself as to the 
opinion of others? What can such an 
attitude of mind avail thee? So long as 
thou lookest for the regard of others, so 
long thou mayest be sure that conceit 
doth still hold the citadel of thine heart. 
Be righteous in thine own eyes ; then 
others may say what they will, thou shalt 
 
 
 
106 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
take no heed. Seek no advice ; follow 
thine own higher inclination. Only ex- 
perience can teach thee. Waste not thy 
time in idle speech. It will avail thee 
nothing. Each^ is guided by his_ own 
experience ; therefore who can advise 
another? Depend on thyself in all ways. 
Look to thyself for guidance, not to 
another. 
 
"Thy sincerity will make thee steacU 
fast ; thy Steadfastness will bring thee__to 
the goal. ^Thy sincerity will also make 
thee resolute ; and thy resoluteness will 
make thee overcome j*ll_fe. My bless 
ings upon thee ! My blessings upon thee 
for ever ! * 
 
 
 
XXIV 
 
And the Voice of the Guru said : 
"My son, draw thyself within the 
Innermost ! Outward things are like 
darts and arrows that do but bruise the 
soul. Make thine Inner Self thy true 
abode. The great Magi Solomon hath 
said, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity! 
Ah indeed so ! What is even the treasure 
of the whole world at the moment of 
death ! How well also did Nachiketas of 
Upanishadic fame know ! He conquered 
Yama himself through that great victory 
which renunciation brings. _A11_ that which 
possesses form must suffer death, the 
fate of all form. Even the mind itself is 
a form. It, too, is subject to change and 
to disintegration. Go thou, therefore, be 
yond both mind and form. 
 
From the highest standpoint nothing 
matters. In the supreme sense, once thou 
jiast given thine heart to thy Lord, nothing 
 
 
 
108 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
<;an bind thee. This should give thee a 
wonderful sense of freedom and expan 
sion. This should make thee fearless. 
Love is the greatest power. By the power 
of love all veils which blind thy vision of 
the Beloved One can easily be rent 
asunder. 
 
"Purify the mind! Purify the mind! 
That, once and for all, is the whole and 
only meaning of religion. Develop 
continuity of thought along the highest 
line. More and more develop consistency 
of purpose. Then nothing can withstand 
thee. Thou shalt move unto thy goal as 
readily as the eagle flies. O that one 
could think at all times of the Highest ! 
That in itself would be Freedom. 
 
"Rouse thyself from thy sluggishness! 
Reconstruct thy whole nature. Open 
thine eyes to the beauty which is every 
where. Commune with Nature. She 
shall teach thee many lessons, now un 
known to thee. She shall bring to thee 
great calm of personality. See the 
Invisible Divinity even in the visible uni- 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 109 
 
verse about thee. Be the witness ! The 
actor is burdened with the effects of ac 
tion ; if thou must act, even in action be 
thou the witness. Concern thyself with 
nothing but Self-realisation and self- 
analysis. Strengthen that which in thee 
is best. Pay no attention to the opinions 
of others. Be strong! Make thy very 
own self thy Guru. Saturate it to such an 
extent with great purposes and ideas, that 
of itself it shall seek and express the high 
est. Once strengthened it shall arouse it 
self, and things undreamed-of shall be 
revealed to thee. 
 
"Refrain from criticism! Art thou thy 
brother s keeper ! Art thou the custodian 
of his actions ! Who has placed thee as 
a judge above him ! Blot out the slight 
est memory of another s evil conduct. 
Be thou concerned with thyself. Thou 
shalt find enough in thee to condemn and 
criticise. And yet thou shalt also find 
enough to give thee joy. For each unto 
himself shouFd be his own universe. ^Let 
the human in thee die, so that the Divine 
 
 
 
110 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
shall be revealed. Is it not better to be 
at peace ! Disturb thyself about nothing ! 
Trust not in_man, btrt ift GdtTT JHe will 
lead and guide thee. 
 
"Stand like a rock in this samsara, the 
sea of unrest. Walk through this inter 
minable jungle of the manifold like a lion. 
Omnipotence is behind thee ; but first 
crush out all desire for earthly or purely 
physical power. With the sword of dis 
crimination cut hi twain all that comes of 
Maya within thy path. Dictate to none ; 
let none dictate to thee! Be unafraid of 
death, for if it should overtake thee even 
at this moment, know that thou art al 
ready on the Path_and walk on fearlessly. 
Death is only an incident in a larger Hfe.__ 
Even beyond death the possibilities and 
opportunities for spiritual progress exist. 
There is no end to what one may become. 
Everything depends on individual effort, 
and the Mercy of God is always at hand. 
 
"Study everything about thee ; and 
thou shalt find that for thee in every- 
thing there is a spiritual message. The 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 1 1 1 
 
One reigns supreme, the One that is in 
every aspect of the Many. Worship the 
Omnipresent Unity even when the mani 
fold, by its distracting variety, would give 
the lie thereto. Appearances deceive, as 
the proverb says, but it is man s duty to 
detect this deception and see Reality be 
hind all appearance. Each is the custo 
dian of his own Karma : each is the 
breaker of his own bondage ; each must 
for himself discover Reality.. There is no 
other way. Each stands on his own 
ground ; each must fight his own battles .: 
and Realisation is always a wholly indi 
vidual experience. Ultimately, each is 
his own Saviour.and his ownJLo_rd. For 
the E^iyinity^That-Is shall shine as the 
Unit Whole_ through each^and every frag^ 
jnent of personality. Such is the teach 
ing. That is to be realised. And That 
realised, the Great Goal will have been 
attained." 
 
 
 
XXV 
 
Again the Voice of the Guru spoke 
unto my soul : 
 
"Treat thy body as though it were a 
thing apart from thee. If thou shah say 
unto it, Do this, that it shall do. The 
Master has said, Imagine thyself seated 
as a clock upon the mantelpiece and 
study thy daily comings and thy goings. 
Thou shalt find how vain and useless 
most of them are. Therefore cease placing 
any undue importance or attachment upon 
the incident of the hour. Ignore the 
physical, if thou canst not spiritualise it. 
To bring Divinity even into commonplace 
daily life is difficult, indeed ; but that is 
the test. It is not only upon the Heights, 
but in the valleys, as well, that we must 
come face to face with God. How truly 
concentrated that mind that can gather 
glimpses of the Spirit even from the most 
ordinary circumstances ! 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 1 13 
 
"Root out the slightest trace of 
egotism. The more thou dost study thy 
personality, the more shalt thou find that 
egotism rushes forth in almost every ex 
perience, whether of action or of thought. 
Egotism is not only to be overcome, but 
verily to be entirely crushed out. Even 
in self-blame or self-pity this cursed 
phenomenon is seen to exist. The true 
man of Realisation blames neither others 
nor himself. He ignores circumstances^ 
being covered with migntierjjiings. 
 
"See thyself as already dead. Even iri 
life separate thyself from the body. See 
the spirit, not the form of things. Then, 
in thy new and clearer vision the whole 
of life shall be seen in a new light and be 
made manifest to thee in new, and loftier 
and altogether spiritual forms. 
 
"Reflect much on the immense conti 
nuity of mental and moral experience. 
That man is born and re-born, until pro 
gress has become merged in perfection, 
will then become self-evident. Each is 
creating, through thought, desire and ac- 
 
8 
 
 
 
114 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
tion, a world of which he himself should 
be the governor. It is not one, but 
innumerable bodies which the soul creates 
in its effort to sound the very bottom of 
the ocean of objective experience and 
pass beyond such experience into the full 
and subjective consciousness of Pure 
Spirit. 
 
"Kill out any hankering for the occult 
and merely speculative. The increase of 
false knowledge or the acquisition of so- 
called psychic powers, in and_Jp_r thpii-n.- 
selves, is pernicious as it intensifies the eg<3 
and makes for _a^ded_selfishnes.s. The 
extension of consciousness in various ways 
in the spirituaTprocess is an acknowledged 
phenomenon, and strictly incidental. 
Wken this, however, is placed superior 
to the aim of Self-realisation, the process 
on the Path is hampered a myriad-fold. 
Beware of the ego as thou wouldst beware 
of a mad dog. As thou wouldst not 
touch poison, or play with a poisonous 
snake, even so keep aloof from psychic 
powers and those who pretend to these 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 1 15 
 
Let all the facultie^ofjhy mind and heart 
be directed to the Lord. What else shall 
be the aim in the spiritual life ! 
 
"Be independent! By all means, be 
independent! Place diy trusty in thine 
own possibilities and the mercy of the 
?_ upreme - Faith in others will only make 
thee more and more helpless and miser 
able. If thou dost not believe in thyself. 
the most painful experiences will force 
flkee^to do so TT^e Law knows nothing 
of sentiment or self-commiseration. It 
shall grind thy animal nature into spirit 
ual shape. It has but one aim, that oi 
transforming thy character ! Why tarry, 
then ? .Why pufcoff until another life that 
which may be realised this very moment} 
.Be sincere ! Be tremendously sincere ! 
Worthiness or unworthiness is not the 
question. Thy salvation is assured ; for 
thou shalt be forced into the higher life. 
That is the destiny of each individual. 
Divinity must be made manifest. 
 
^*A glorious spiritual indifference is 
likewise necessary. Why take notice of 
 
 
 
116 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
the thousand and one irritating details the 
day may bring forth? Be thou free ; 
realise that all these are only the currents 
of that mighty flow of past Samskara from 
which thou must for ever sever thyself. 
Let come what may ; let concerning thee 
bcT~said whaT may. To thee all these 
things must become as unsubstantial as a 
mirage. If thou hast really renounced the 
world, how canst thou be troubled any 
longer ! Be consistent in effort as well as 
in idea and ideal. 
 
"In the galleries of art, the critic 
studies various paintings, some ghastly 
tragic, some radiantly beautiful, but he 
himself is not actually Affected by the 
emotions portrayed. Do thou similarly. 
Life is an art-gallery ; experiences are, 
as it were, so many paintings hung upon 
the walls of time. Study them, if thou 
dost choose to do so ; but free thyself 
from any emotional interest. Study, but 
be unaffected. Bearing this in mind thou 
shalt become, in veryjtruth. the witness. 
Study thy Tnind andall thy experiences 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 117 
 
as a physician might study the body or 
its diseases. Be unsparing in thy criti 
cism of thyself. Then shalt thou truly 
progress. 
 
"The way is long. The process of 
education necessitates repeated lives. But 
one may live intensively^ and thus avoid 
the circuitous paths which are trodden 
by such as live extensively and only on 
the surface of their personality. Think- 
ing deeply and continuously on spiritual 
subjects, and moulding desire into aspi 
ration and passion into spiritual fervour, 
these are among the ways and means. 
Determine to be consistent each hour 
of the day until thy whole nature become 
charged with the spiritual idea and inten 
tion. Be always on the guard. Resign 
everything to Him who is the Dispenser 
of all good things. Embrace whatever 
will keep thee steady on the spiritual path, 
even though it be the fear of death. Thou 
art the young plant that needs support; ^ 
catch hold of anything that makes thee 
.strong. Cling unto it with might and 
 
 
 
118 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
main. Be steady, sincere, earnest-mind- 
ed, righteous, and avail thyself of each 
moment and opportunity. Long is the 
way; time is flying. Therefore, as I have 
counselled repeatedly, set thyself to the 
task, devoting thy whole soul to it, and 
thou shalt reach the Goal ! * 
 
 
 
XXVI 
 
The Voice of the Guru spoke : 
"My son, thou wilt be compelled to 
learn that in this world there are certain 
difficulties with which thou must meet 
and which, because of thy past Karmas, 
will appear for thee insurmountable. Do 
not fret and fume over them. Know 
that wherever there are worry and ex- 
pectations in work A there is also the 
blindest form of attachment. Having 
done thy task, stand aside ! Let the 
work s own Karma float it as it will down 
the stream of time. ^After having com- 
pleted thy task let thy motto be Hands 
offr Work to thine utmost, and then to 
thine utmost be resigned. At all events, 
never be discouraged, for the fruits of 
work, be they good or ill, are all second 
ary considerations. Give them up and 
remember full well that in work \t is not 
so much the perfection of work as the 
 
 
 
120 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
perfection of personality^ through work 
which should be the goal. 
 
"Over thine own actions thou canst 
have sway ; over the actions of another 
thou hast no power. His Karma is one, 
thine another. Do not criticise; do not 
hope; do not fear! All shall be well. 
Experience comes and goes, be thou not 
disconcerted, Thou standest on sure 
ground. Let experience teach thee to be 
free, no matter what comes, do thou 
never forge any more bondage. And art 
Ihbu so foolish as to be bound down by 
one from of work? Is not ...the scope of 
 
 
 
my work "infinite ? Do not debase the 
great ideals of Karma-Yoga and true 
work by jealousy and attachment ! Let 
not childish emotions have hold over 
thee! 
 
n^Pp hot expect; do not anticipate. 
Let Samskara float thy personality 
withersoever its currents may lead. Re 
member^ that thy true Nature is the 
Ocean, ,and be unconcernecT Know the 
mind to be the body in a subtle form. 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 121 
 
Therefore make thy Austerity a mental 
one. Regard all thy moods as mere body- 
moods; remain aloof; tlioil ! art th* ftm.il. 
Be concerned only with thy Self; lead 
thou thine own life. Be true to thyself. 
 
"My son, take life calmly. At all 
times, be at peace. Agitate jjiyself over^ 
^notEing^ Thy physical natitre is too 
nervously Rajasika. But : ib$e ^nol thy_ 
Rajas ; spiritualise it ; that is the secret. 
TTave thyself so well under control that 
at any moment thou canst quiet thy 
active nature and remain altogether in 
the meditative state. Be all-sided ! Let 
thy relations with those with whom 
Karma brings thee into contact be such 
tEat : thou dost bear witness to the great-^ 
ness that is within them. And if thou 
must see faults, see first the beam in 
thine own eye rather than the mote in 
thy brother s eye. Be not overwhelmed 
by the experience of the hour. Ten days 
hence what doth it matter ! 
 
"The whole meaning of the religious 
life is to get rid of Ahamkara or egoism. 
 
 
 
122 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
So deep-rooted is it that, like the cause of 
a deep-seated disease, it is most difficult 
to discover. It disguises itself under a 
myriad forms; but of all its disguises 
none is so treacherous and so evil as the 
spiritual disguise. Believing carelessly 
that thou dost work for spiritual purposes 
thou shalt find, that at bottom it may 
often be selfish motives that do influence 
thee. Therefore, keep thou a sharp look 
out. It is only by the conquest and 
utter extinction of personality that the 
Sublime Impersonal can be understood 
and realised. To die to one s selMn order 
that one may truly live, thafc isirtfae aim 
or the Jife spiiituaL Satisfied with will- 
o -the-wisps, many fail to see the sun. 
Real immortality can be gained only 
when ^selfish peooi>ality is completely 
destroyed. Remember that ! Fix the 
mind on the Impersonal ! It is the Light 
of the Most High that shines through a 
self-conquered personality. When that 
Light shines fullest, then the Effulgence 
of Nirvana is made manifest." 
 
 
 
XXVII 
 
In the silence of the hour of meditation, 
the Voice of the Guru spoke unto my 
soul these blissful words : 
 
"My son, so long as there <nfe ideas, so 
long will the form-aspects of idea persist, 
For this reason the gods and all spiritual 
realities are true essentially. The spheres 
of the universe are innumerable. But 
in and through them all shines the 
splendour of Brahman. When thou dost 
realise Brahman, then for thee, all planes 
and spheres and conditions of con 
sciousness are made one. Therefore, 
accept all truths and worship all aspects 
of Divinity. Be catholic and universal. 
Widen the scope of religion, see the 
religious spirit as a possibility in all the 
walks of life. WTieresoever experience 
whatever be its character be interpreted 
spiritually, there the Voice of the Lord 
may be heard. Learn to see the other 
 
 
 
124 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
side in all matters. Then shalt thou 
never become a fanatic. Through the 
spiritual consecration even the most 
menial act may become divine. See the 
whole universe as permeated with the 
Divine Life. Eradicate all sense of 
 
 
 
distinction; destroy all narrowness of 
vision; widen the perspective until it be 
comes infinite and all-inclusive. Where 
soever there is righteousness/ saith the 
Lord, know that there I am manifest/ 
The hedge around the young tree is use 
ful; but the sapling must become the 
wide-spreading banyan, giving shelter and 
protection to all that comes within its 
shadow. Similarly, the sense of distinc 
tion may be useful for the growth of 
special ideas, but the time must come 
when the particular idea assumes a 
universal aspect. Be broad, my son, be 
broad. Make it an instinct to be broad- 
minded. For what is to be achieved 
intellectually must be achieved emotional 
ly as well. 
 
"Regard the whole universe with 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION \2"> 
 
equal_loye ; through loyalty in thy in 
dividual friendship, come to understand 
that in each individualised life shines, 
potentially, that same beautiful Light thou 
dost behold in him whom thou hast called / 
by the sweet name of brother. Be 
universal ! Love even thine enemy. 
These distinctions between friend and foe 
are only phenomena of the surface. 
Deep, deep, below it is all Brahman. 
Learn to see the Divine in everything and 
everyone^ and yet be sufficiently guarded 
so as to avoid the unpleasantness and 
clash of temperament. In the highest sense 
the truest relationship is that which is 
relationless, and therefore spiritual. Learn 
to recognise the Universal instead of the 
particular, the Soul instead of the physical 
personality. Then to thy friend thou shalt 
be bound closer; even death shall not 
separate ye, and, having overcome all 
distinction, in thine own self there shall 
be, also, no awareness of an enemy. See 
that which is beautiful in every form, but 
worship instead of craving to possess. 
 
 
 
126 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
Let every soul and form have a spiritual 
message for thee. 
 
"All ideas are relative to the tempera 
ment from which they proceed; therefore, 
in listening to another, see the realisation- 
side instead of the logic of his speech; 
then no argument shall ensue and thine 
own realisation shall receive new impulses. 
Then know, also, that silence is often 
times golden and that to speak and argue 
is to dissipate thy forces; and remember 
never to cast thy pearls before swine. 
All emotions are likewise relative to tem 
perament; therefore be the witness, in 
stead of being the attached one. Know 
that both thinking and feeling are in Maya. 
But Maya itself must be spiritualised; let 
thy self be Self-possessed therefore, and 
remain unattached. For what thou mayest 
think and feel to-day may not move 
thee on the morrow. And above all know 
that, in thy real nature, thou art indepen 
dent of both idea and emotion. These 
only help to reveal that which is truly 
thy Self; therefore let thy thoughts and 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 127 
 
feelings be great, universal and above all 
selfishness. Then, even in this dense 
darkness of the Samsara, thou shalt see, 
though it may be at first but dimly the 
Everlasting Light." 
 
 
 
XXVIII 
 
The Guru spoke : 
 
"Make no pjansj it is_only the worldly- 
minded that plan. Be independent of 
circumstance; make uncertainty thy 
certainty and live in strict accordance 
with the Sannyasin s vows. Why 
any heed to what the n^rrow^m 
 
 
 
Live the present as thou dost find it 
in the noblest way. Associate the namejjf 
thy Beloved One with each single circum 
stance of thy past, present or future ex 
periences. Thus they will be spiritualised. 
Regard them as thou wouldst study paint 
ings on the wall. The subjects they 
represent may be tragic, commonplace or 
fascinating; be thou only the critic. Be 
they good or evil, know that the Self in 
thee doth stand apart from all experiences. 
"And as for organisations, appreciate 
their usefulness, the greatness of the ideas 
they embody, but remain thou unidenti- 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 129 
 
fied. The religious life is purely^ personal^ 
and subjective^ It_may be born_in__a 
church but it must outlive it. Through 
law beyondTaw is the path of Realisation. 
Know that and be free. Carry on work 
as it doth come to thee and be indepen 
dent therein. If there must be organisa 
tion, let it be the organisation of ideas; 
but never labour for the extension of a 
purely organised form. No organisation 
can save thee; thou must save thyself. 
Generally speaking, organisations, how 
ever spiritual and unsectarian their intent,, 
degenerate into worldliness. Beware of 
any churchianity . Keep aloof from any 
dogmatism and fanaticism. Be all-inclu 
sive. 
 
"Be always true and loyal to the source 
from which thou hast received thy inspira 
tion. Have faith and love; have hope 
and be patient. All these veils of illusion 
shall be soon rent asunder for thee, and 
thou shalt behold me, thy Beloved One, 
in my true nature. Be not bound down 
by my nersonality, or rather thy notion 
 
9 
 
 
 
130 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
of it. I am not that which was in earth- 
life associated, like thine own personality, 
with limitation and human weakness. 
That personality I assumed; my real 
Mature is That which inspired my 
teaching there. Know me as I am, not 
 
I -as I was. Know me subjectively as thy 
Self and then thou shalt see the Self in 
 
\ all; then all sense of limitations and mani- 
foldness will have no power over thee. 
/ am not external; I dwell within the 
Innermost. I live in thy thought; I am 
with thee in thy aspiration. Space and 
time relations have no power over the 
Soul, and cannot stand in the way of 
spiritual communion. 1 am thy Antary- 
min. Know me as such; and whether 
thou art born a myriad years apart from 
me, whether even at death the separating 
veils are not destroyed, that matters not. 
In Love and in Realisation there are no 
barriers. I may even have need that thou 
shouldst labour and exist phenomenally 
apart from me; but I see through the veils, 
even though thou dost not. I am present 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 131 
 
eternally with thee, whether thou art aware 
or not. The time shall come, however, 
when thou shalt be made aware. The 
tusks of the elephant having gone out~i 
ward, never turn inwards; even so the! 
love and insight of the Guru, having been| 
once bestowed, have been bestowed for| 
ever. 
 
"By having become my servant thou, 
hast freed thyself. Thy liberation is in 
very ratio to thy service unto me. And 
know, that though thou dost labour for 
me, more precious in mine eyes than thy 
labour in my cause is the love and fidelity 
thou dost bear for me. The universe is 
infinite and time is eternal, but I am 
always at thy beck and call. 
 
"Thou standest in need of no forms; 
it is the monastic spirit, not the monastic 
garb, that is of importance, and the true 
Sannyasa is the Vidwat-Sannyasa, the 
Sannyasa which is conterminous with 
illumined Insight. Let thy name be that 
of one striving for the goal. There is 1 
infinite development in the monastic life. 1 
 
 
 
132 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
The form is nothing; the life is everything. 
 
"Be like Indra in thy strength. Be 
like the Himalayas in thy steadfastness. 
Above all be selfless, and hold communion 
with thy Self. Let thy Mantram be my 
Name. Let thy Yoga be the union of 
thy soul with mine, thy Realisation be the 
conscious knowledge, that in the heart 
of things I and thou are ever One. 
Distinction is death; Sameness is Life. 
 
"Thou hast heard my Voice; thou 
hast received my teaching; now obey 
implicitly ; love infinitely ; work selflessly. 
Be thou my instrument ; let thy very 
personality be mine. Say, Shivoham! 
Shivoham! I am He! 1 am He! 
 
"This whole universe is Brahman; 
That which is alike the Brahman in thee 
and in me, seek that Brahman, realise 
that Brahman in thyself and in all as the 
One Absolute Existence, Knowledge and 
Bliss, and be free, be free!" 
 
 
 
XXIX 
 
Hearing these words of the Guru in 
the hours of meditation day by day, I 
was made conscious of the real relation 
between the Guru and disciple. An im 
movable, eternal Realisation hath become 
mine; and in life or in death, near or 
apart, I know tKat a Great, Living 
Presence is always nigh, Presence that 
is unconfined by Time or Space, a Pres- 
-jiite that catt : kriow no s^ftafratipn. And 
^to^thfi Guru I dried out, the while a Great 
Light surrounded me : 
 
"Thou hast raised me up from dark 
ness by Thy Grace. Thou hast taken me 
as I was a mere nothingness and hast 
made me what I am a devotee who is 
conscious of infinite strength within him. 
From long since have I heard Thy Voice, 
and I listened as one intoxicated by some 
overwhelming music, some music pre 
viously unheard. But my own response 
 
 
 
134 IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 
 
was noisy and effervescent; and I under 
stood not that w_hich I had heard. Before, 
the Light on Thy countenance was too 
august, and I did not behold Thee as 
Thou art. Thus, ignorantly and wantonly 
I did waste the treasures Thou didst 
so freely bestow; and lo, I have sinned 
as the vilest sinner even in Thy very 
Presence, inflicted my iniquities upon the 
very Love and Blessings Thou didst show 
unto me. I was most unworthy of Thee. 
\Jn my conceit, I forgot Thee and did 
place myself on the pedestal of a leader 
of men]o that people might say of me, 
Lo, he is great! But now, O Lord, I 
have come to understand. With impure 
hands I defiled Thy teaching and dese 
crated Thy Presence. But Thy Mercies 
have been infinite; and Thy Love for me 
hath been inexpressible. Verily, Thine 
is the Divine Nature. Even greater than 
a mother s love for her own child, 
is Thy love for Thy disciple. O Lord, 
Thou hast scourged me with 
Power until I am made whole, and 
 
 
 
IN THE HOURS OF MEDITATION 135 
 
Jgoulded me as jhe^jtotter moulds his 
clay into whatsoever shape he desires. 
TKy~Mercy, Thy Patience, Thy Sweet- 
ness are Infinite. I adore Thee ! I adore 
Thee ! I adore Thee ! Le^my hands, feetT 
tongue, eyes, ears my teiitfce body, let 
my mind, will, emotidns^-^my whole 
personality, be off ere? aVa 
 
 
 
purified in the flames of my Devotion 
unto Thee. My good, my evil. all that 
which I was, am or sFiatf be ever. life upon 
Treated jjTeI consecrate to Thee. Thou 
alone art my God and Salvation! Thot 
art mj^ own Higher Self! L&T me possess 
nothing; let me have ho other home than 
Thy Heart. Let my life be a radiance of 
purity now and for 
 
 
 
Hari Om Tat Sat!" 
 
 
 
XXX 
 
And ever afterwards in tha hours of 
meditation I felt a Living Presence within 
and about me; and filled with ecstasy I 
heard and repeated the great Mantram : 
 
"Om! Thy very Self am I ever and 
 
ever ! 
 
"Thine is the Strength Infinite! 
 
"Arise! Awake and stop not till the 
Goal i reached ! 
 
"Thou art Brahman ! Thou art Brahman ! 
Om! Om! Om ! 
 
 
 
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