An extract from Spiritual Growth

The purpose of the Yoga of Self-knowledge is to accelerate man's fulfilment of his higher destiny and to realize the immortality and freedom of the essential reality of his being, his true Self. All human beings are destined to evolve spiritually as we learn our lessons from experience and adjust our lives accordingly. But the turning point comes when this spiritual evolution becomes a conscious process. This can only come about when we understand and embrace the high goal revealed by the knowers of Truth. That goal is nothing less than conscious immortality. It is the realization that one's own innermost consciousness is not individual but universal, and that one's Self is the Self of all. This knowledge dissolves at a single stroke all uncertainty, all puzzlement about the ultimate meaning of life and all spiritual doubts about the essential identity of the innermost Self of man with God. The Truth of this identity manifests as clearly as the sun in a cloudless sky.

Our lack of direct knowledge of this identity is the ultimate cause of our restlessness and lies behind our feelings of unfulfilment and frustration. These can only be permanently cured by spiritual means. Expressed positively, there is a principle within us that must grow and expand if we are to be at peace with ourselves.

When a child is growing, his clothes need constant replacement as they become too tight for his expanding body. When a man starts to grow spiritually, he becomes aware of a sense of inward limitation and stagnation. Many of the ideas, assumptions and opinions he has harboured so far, now seem to offer no real lead in life, and yet he feels intuitively that there is something more to be discovered about life and its meaning. This state of mind is a spiritual opportunity, a chance to open ourselves to new influences that will promote the true progress and expansion of the soul...