The Complete Works of Yogy Ramacharaka. William Walker Atkinson
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to him in the silence.
The soul may wait in solitude until the truth comes to it—but the truth, when once received and given a lodgment in the heart, fills the soul with a divine unrest, and causes it to go forth into the world and live the life of the Spirit among and with men, instead of apart and away from them. The man to whom spiritual illumination has come—even in its lightest form—is a changed being. He radiates thought of a different character from that emanating from the minds of those around him. He has different ideals and consequently different thoughts. And his thought—waves have an effect upon the great body of thought—waves of the world. They leaven the mass—they are like the stream of pure water pouring into the muddy pond, which pure stream gradually hears the entire pond. His thoughts and presence are needed in the world's work, and so the Spiritual Mind sends him an impulse to go forth and live the life—to live it among men and women, and not apart from them. It says to him: "Thou hast reaped, now thou must sow." "And knowing this voice to be the silence itself," he obeys.
There are three great stages m the spiritual and mental life of the race, and as the babe before birth goes through all the physical changes, shapes and forms that the race has passed through during long ages of evolution, so does the growing man go through the stages of the mental and spiritual evolution of the race. But the individual goes through only such changes as lead up to the stage of evolution he has reached at full maturity. He may reach only Stage I, if he is a Stage I individual If he is a Stage Il individual he passes through Stage I and then on to Stage II. If he is a Stage III soul, he passes through Stage I, and then Stage II (as rapidly as may be) and then unfolds into the Stage III consciousness. Let us consider these three stages.
Stage I is that plane of life in which the Instinctive Mind is in control, the Intellect not being sufficiently developed to assert itself fully and the Spiritual Mind being scarcely recognized. In this stage live the primitive races—and the young child. Those dwelling in it have but little concern for aught but that which pertains to the physical life. Their thoughts are mainly those relating to food, shelter, and the gratification of the physical senses. There exists among these people a certain freedom, democracy, and a lack of the "I am holier than thou" or "better than thou" fee1ing, which renders their 1ife freer and easier, and happier, than that of those in the next highest stage. They know little or nothing about "sin," and generally follow their desires without question. They have a sort of instinctive belief in a higher power, but do not trouble themselves much about it, nor do they imagine that certain ceremonies or observances are pleasing to Deity, and that failure to perform are apt to arouse his wrath. They do not worry much about their chances of "salvation," and are disposed instictive1y to realize that the Power that takes care of them Here, will take care of them There.
Stage II commences when the Intellect begins to assume control. Man then begins to awaken to a sense of "good and evil." He recognizes a mysterious something coming from a still higher part of his mind, which makes him feel ashamed of doing certain selfish things, and which causes him to experience a feeling of peace and satisfaction when he has done certain (comparatively) unselfish things. But the Intellect does not stop with this. It begins to invent "good" things, and "bad" things. Priests and prophets arise who say that certain things (usually the giving of a part of one's goods to the temple) are "good" and pleasing to Deity; and that certain other things (for instance, the refusal to attend the temple, or to contribute to its support) are "bad" and certain to be punished by Deity. These priests and prophets invent heavens suited to the desires of their followers, and hells filled with the particular things that their people fear. Things are separated into "good" and "bad," the "had" list seeming to be the larger. Most of the pleasant things of life are placed in the "bad" list for no other reason than that they are pleasant. In the same way the "good" list includes the majority of unpleasant things, the prevailing idea being that Deity delights in seeing his children doing things unpleasant to them, and waxes wroth if they chance to indulge in a pleasant act. Creeds and sects are devised, and dire punishment is meted to those who do not accept the former and join the latter. The idea seems to be that those who do not agree with one's particular conception of Deity are "against God," or "God's enemies," and must and will be punished by him. People often prefer to relieve God of the task of punishing these unbelievers, and proceed to do it themselves.
People in this stage of spiritual development are usually quite strenuous. They declare certain days to be "holy" (as if all days were not so) and insist that certain places are holier than others. They claim that certain peoples and races are "chosen" and favored, and that the rest are hated by Deity. They insist that only a handful of men are to be "saved," and that the majority of God's children are destined to everlasting damnation and punishment. Hell is very hot when seen from the viewpoint of Stage II. Hate, arising from the feeling of self-righteousness, is a marked characteristic of this stage—sects are formed, and hate and jealousy are manifested between them. Fear reigns, and the Divine Love is almost lost sight of. The Brotherhood of Man is but a name in this stage—all the brotherly feeling that is to be seen is confined to the people belonging to some particular sect. The outsiders are not "brothers," but "heathen," "pagans," "unbelievers," "dissenters," "heretics," etc. The sense of the Oneness of All, which is instinctively felt in Stage I (and both seen and felt in Stage III). is apparently neither seen or felt in Stage II. In this stage separateness seems to be the keynote. As the race passes still further along in this stage, and Inte1lect further unfolds, the reasoning faculties cause it to discard many superstitions and foolish notions that had at one time seemed sacred and the truth itself. Sheath after sheath is discarded as outworn and no longer necessary, and usually a period of disbelief and skepticism sets in. The old things have been thrown aside, but nothing seems to have come to take their place. But after this phase, the Spiritual Mind seems to concentrate its effort to force into the field of consciousness the internal evidence of the truth—of real religion—of the teachings of Spirit. And Man gradually passes into Stage III.
Stage III people see good in everyone—in all things—in every place. Some things are seen to be more highly developed than others, but all are seen to form a part of the great plan. The developed soul parts with certain things from lack of desire, casting them off as worn out tools or clothing. But it sees that to others these same things are the hest they have, and are far better than some other things which these undeveloped people had parted company with still farther back. It sees that all of life is on the Path—some a little father advanced than others, but all journeying in the same direction. It sees all learning their lessons and profiting by their mistakes. It sees manifestations of both "good" and "bad" (relative terms) in each man and woman, but prefers to look for the "good" in the sinner, rather than for the "bad" in the saint. It sees in "sin" principally mistakes, misdirected energy, and undeveloped mind.
The Stage III soul sees good in all forms of religions—so much so that it finds it hard to follow the narrow creeds of any particular one. It sees the Absolute worshiped and recognized in all the conceptions of Deity that have ever originated in the human mind, from the stone idol to the highest conception of Deity known to any of "the churches," the difference being solely in the spiritual growth of the different worshipers. As man grows, his conception of Deity advances—a man's idea of God is merely himself magnified. The God of the advanced man does not appeal to the savage, any more than does the God of the savage attract the advanced man. Each is doing the best he can, and is setting up a conception corresponding to his particular stage of growth. A writer has aptly expressed this thought in these words: "A man's god is himself at his best, and his devil is himself at his worst." But devils pass away from Man as his conception of Deity enlarges.
But the great distinguishing thought of the Stage III man is his consciousness of the Oneness of All. He sees, and feels, that all the world is alive and full of intelligence in varying degrees of manifestation. He feels himself a part of that great life. He feels his identity with all of Life. He feels in touch with all of nature—in all its forms. In all forms of life he sees something of himself, and recognizes that each particular form of life has its correspendence [sic] in something within himself. This does not mean that he is bloodthirsty like the tiger; vain like the peacock; venomous like the serpent. But, still he feels that all the attributes of these animals are within himself—mastered and governed by his higher self—still there. And consequently he can feel these animals, or for those of his race in which the animal characteristics are still in evidence. He pities