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<p class="paracenter">THE STEPS OF THE SOUL</p>
<p class="paracenter"></p>
<p class="para">The human individual is a 
very complex being: he is composed of innumerable elements, each one of which is 
an independent entity and has almost a personality. Not only so, the most 
contradictory elements are hous­ed together. If there is a particular quality or 
capacity present, the very opposite of it, annulling it, as it were, will be 
also found along with it and embracing it. I have seen a man brave, courageous, 
heroic to the extreme, flinching from no danger, facing unperturbed the utmost 
peril, the bravest of the brave, truly; and yet I have seen the same man 
cowering in abject terror, like the last of poltroons, in the presence of 
certain circumstances. I have seen a most generous man, giving away largely, 
freely, not counting any expenditure or sacrifice, without the least care or 
reservation; the same person I have also found to be the vilest of misers in 
respect of certain other considerations. I have seen again the most intelligent 
person, with a clear mind, full of light and understanding, easily comprehending 
the logic and implication of a topic and yet I have seen him betraying the 
utmost stupidity of which even an ordinary man without education or intelligence</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-37</p>
<hr>
<p class="para">would be incapable. These are not theoretical examples, but I 
have come across such persons actually in life.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> The complexity arises not only in 
extension, but also in depth. Man does not live on a single plane but on many 
planes at the same time. There is a scale of gradation in human consciousness: 
the higher one rises in the scale the greater the number of elements or 
personalities that one possesses. Whether one lives mostly or mainly on the 
physical or vital or mental plane or on any particular section of these planes 
or on planes above and beyond, there will be accordingly differences in the 
constitution or psycho-physical make-up of the individual personality. The 
higher one stands the richer the personality, because it lives not only on its 
own normal level, but also on all that are below and which it has transcended. 
The complete or integral man, some occultists say, possesses 365 personalities; 
indeed it may be much more. (The Vedas speak of the three and thirty-three and 
thirty-three hundred and thirty-three thousand gods that may be housed in the 
human vehicle—the basic three being evidently the triple status or world of 
Body, Life and Mind.)
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> What is the meaning of this 
self-contradiction, this division in man? To understand that we must know and 
remember that each person represents a certain quality or capacity, a particular 
achievement to be
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-38</p>
<hr>
<p class="para">embodied. How best can it be done? What is the way by which one 
can acquire a quality at its purest, and highest and most perfect? It is by 
setting an opposition to it. That is how a power is increased and strengthened 
—by fighting against and overcoming all that weakens and contradicts it. The 
deficiencies in respect of a particular quality show you where you are to mend 
and reinforce and in what way to improve in order to make it perfectly perfect. 
It is the hammer that beats the weak and soft iron to transform it into hard 
steel. The preliminary discord is useful and necessary to be utilised for a 
higher harmony. This is the secret of self-conflict in man. You are weakest 
precisely in that element which is destined to be your greatest asset.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> Each man, has then a mission to 
fulfil, a role to play in the universe; a part he has been given to learn and 
take up in the cosmic Purpose which he alone is capable of executing and none 
other. This he has to learn and acquire through life-experiences, that is to 
say, not in one life, but in life after life. In fact, that is the meaning of 
the chain of lives that the individual has to pass through, namely, to acquire 
experiences and to gather out of them the thread—the skein of qualities and 
attributes, powers and capacities—for the pattern of life he has to weave. Now, 
the inmost being, the true personality, the central consciousness of the 
evolving individual is his psychic being. It is,
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-39</p>
<hr>
<p class="para">as it were, a very tiny speck of light lying far behind the 
experiences in normal people. In grown up souls this psychic consciousness has 
an increased light—increased in intensity, volume and richness. Thus there are 
souls, old and new. Old and ancient are those that have reached or about to 
reach the fullness of perfection; they have passed through a long past of 
innumerable lives and developed the most complex and yet the most integrated 
personality. New souls are those that are just emerged or emerging out of the 
mere physico-vital existence; these are like simple organisms, made of fewer 
constituents, referring mostly to the bodily life, with just a modicum of the 
mental. It is the soul, however, that grows with experiences and it is the soul 
that builds and enriches the personality. Whatever portion of the outer life, 
whatever element in the mind or vital or body succeeds in coming in contact with 
the psychic consciousness, that is to say, is able to come under its influence, 
is taken up and lodged there: it remains in the psychic being as its living 
memory and permanent possession. It is such elements that form the basis, the 
ground-work upon which the structure of the integral and true personality is 
raised.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> The first thing then to do is to 
find out what it is that you are meant to realise, what is the role you have to 
play, your particular mission and the capacity or quality you have to express. 
You have to discover that
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-40</p>
<hr>
<p class="para">and also the thing or things that oppose and do not allow it to 
flower or come to full manifestation. In other words you have to know yourself, 
recognize your soul or psychic being.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> For that you must be absolutely 
sincere and impartial. You must observe yourself as if you were observing and 
criticising a third person. You must not start with an idea that this is your 
life's mission, such is your particular capacity, you are to do this or you are 
to do that, in this lies your talent or genius etc. That will carry you away 
from the right track. It is not the liking or disliking of your external being, 
your mental or vital or physical choice that determines the true line of your 
growth. Nor should you take up the opposite attitude and say, &quot;I am good for 
nothing in this matter, I am useless in that other, this is not for me.&quot; Neither 
vanity or arrogance nor self-depreciation or false modesty should move you. As I 
said, you must be absolutely impartial and unconcerned. You should be like a 
mirror that reflects the truth and does not judge.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> If you are able to keep such an 
attitude, if you have this repose and quiet trust in your being and wait for 
what may be revealed to you, then something like this happens: you are, as it 
were, in the woods, dark and noiseless; you see in front of you just a sheet of 
water dark and still, hardly visible—a bit of a pond imbedded in the obscurity, 
and slowly upon it a moonbeam is cast
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-41</p>
<hr>
<p class="para">and in the cool dim light emerges the calm liquid surface. That 
is how your secret truth of being will appear and present itself to you at your 
first contact with it: there you will see gradually reflected the true qualities 
of your being, the traits of your divine personality, what you really are and 
what you are meant to be.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> One who has thus known oneself 
and possessed oneself conquering all opposition within himself, has by that very 
fact extended himself and his conquest, making it easier for others to make the 
same or similar conquest. These are the pioneers or the elite who by their 
victorious campaign within themselves help others towards their victory.
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-42</p>
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