This earth, the arena of so many struggles and strifes, full of sharp antinomies and contrarieties, presenting, as it does, a vast panorama of life in its variegated forms and colours, is but a speck in the boundless creation of the great Creator:

        There is no end to the creation;
        There are countless forms of life with varied names, species and colours;
        Writ on the objective world by the ever-flowing pen of the Creator.
                                                                                                          - Nanak

    With all its seeming imperfections, this world serves a useful purpose in the divine plan, just like an apparently insignificant cog in the machinery of a great powerhouse. Nature, the handiwork of God, is not the least extravagant in its design and plan. This world is a penitentiary, a house of correction, a sort of purgatory, a plan of expiation, a training ground where souls get chastened by experience. It is a half-way house between physical planes and spiritual realms. The powers that be of the earth are hard taskmasters, believing still in the ancient Mosaic Law of 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' Here all kinds of third degree methods are employed and hard knocks are administered, rendering less than justice, untempered by compassion and mercy, so that one should take his lessons seriously, and by degrees turn away from the way of the world to the Way of God. Life on the earth-plane then is a dreadful thing 'dark with horror and fear,' and we are long lost children of God in the labyrinthine wilderness of the world.

    Evolution is in the nature of living monads and consists in moving towards its source and becoming one with it, for true happiness lies in 'fellowship divine; fellowship with Essence; till we shine; fully alchemised and free of space.' But the tragedy of life on earth is that 'we do not know what we are and much less of what we may become' for 'what we are we do not see; what we see is our shadow.' The 'inner being' in us is so constituted after the fashion of God that it knows no rest until he rests in Him. "A truly religious experience," says Plotinus, "consists in the finding of the true Home by the soul exiled from heaven." And this experience can be ours if only we know how to unhook the 'self' from the trammels and trappings of body and mind.

    Self-realisation and God-realisation are the highest objects of mundane existence. Self-realisation precedes God-realisation. 'Know Thyself' has ever been an article of faith with the ancients. First the Greeks and then the Romans in their turn laid great stress on 'gnothie seauton' and 'nosce teipsum' as they called it respectively and both these terms stand for 'self-knowledge' or knowledge of the 'self' in us. The knowledge of the self or 'Atam Jnana' of the Hindu Rishis and 'Khud Shanasi' of the Muslim darveshes comes first. Next comes the realisation and experience of the Overself or God - Parmatman or Rab-ul-almeen and this is called Khuda Shanasi or Knowledge of God.

    The process of self-realisation whereby the self can be separated from the mighty maze of mind and matter, begins with introversion - receding of attention, the outward expression of spirit in the world outside. It is an art of inversion from the world of senses to the world within, and beyond the physical senses, technically called Pra Vidya. Real life or Reality is something that is cognised only in a death- like state, a state that intervenes on conscious withdrawal of the sensory currents from the body to the eye-focus. Life is 'an active principle, however removed; from senses and observation.'

    In the workaday world, we are prone to all kinds of lusts - lust of the flesh, eyes, ears and other sense- organs - and we are being constantly swayed by countless attachments, myriads of aspirations and desires, springing from the diverse longings of the heart and unknown latencies lying hidden in the folds of the mind. All types of likes and dislikes, prides and prejudices, loves and hatreds and many other things unwittingly keep creeping into our consciousness, personal consciousness, frittering our energy, and keeping us away from the ultimate goal and purpose of life; to wit, self-realisation. This ignorance of the aim of life is a serious malady we are afflicted with, and it is the cause of bondage, - bondage of the soul to a world 'bursting with sin and sorrow.' Yet, there is a Power within us that resurrects the soul. We have, therefore, to take a turn from this drama of hectic activity and find the still-centre of our being within the human body where the All-pervading and All-free Power resides. This body is verily the temple of God, and the Holy Ghost dwells therein. So all this present activity has got to be reversed and geared back into the opposite direction. This is termed by Emerson as 'tapping inside' and 'going into the fox-hole in the brain,' as once remarked by President Truman, for it was into this fox-hole that he repaired whenever he wanted peace and relaxation from the burden of his high office. The Vedas call it 'Brahm-rendra' or the hole through which Brahman could be contacted.

    "Knock and it shall be opened unto you," St. Matthew says significantly enough. It shows that a door within the body leads into the realm beyond - the Kingdom of God. And of this inlet it is said: 'Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.' To locate this gate and to have an experience of the ingress makes for personal conviction, for nothing becomes real till it is experienced. Intellect is finite and so is reasoning based on
intellect. Scriptural texts speak of Truth but do not demonstrate It, much less give a contact with Truth. Logical knowledge is all inferential and cannot be depended upon with certainty. Certitude comes only when 'the eternal Word speaks.' The shortest, the swiftest and the surest way to plumb Truth is through a mortal leap (into the Unknown), says Henri Bergson, the great philosopher. Perception, intuition and reasoning just help in understanding the Reality to a certain extent at the level of the intellect; but seeing is believing, seeing within with ones' own eye, the 'Single Eye' as it is called. Of this inlet or ingress little is known to the people at large. Nanak emphatically declares: "The blind find not the door." In order to find the 'strait gate' and the 'narrow way' leading unto life - life eternal - the life of spirit as distinguished from the life of the flesh, we have of necessity to recoil from the present downward and outward expansion, gather-in the outgoing faculties of the mind at the seat of the soul, behind and between the eyes. In other words, we have to change the centre of our being from the heart-centre as at present to the eye- centre (Tisra Til or Nukta-i-sweda) and develop the 'Single Eye' of which Jesus speaks : "If, therefore, thine eye be 'Single,' they whole body shall be full of light." This 'Single' or 'Third Eye' variously called by the sages as Shiv netra, Divya chakshu or Chashm- i-batin provides an ingress into the spiritual world - the Kingdom of God - now a lost realm to most of us. It is here that one has to tap within, and to knock and knock hard with fully concentrated and single- minded attention, as an undivided individual, in order to find the way-in and gain an entry into the astral world. Hence the exhortation: 'Now is the time to awaken and lovingly remember the Lord.' But how? We have not seen Him. And one cannot concentrate on and contemplate, the formless void as He is. In the same breath comes the sage's counsel as well. 'Learn of this (approach to the Absolute) from some God-man.' What does the God-man say? 'Fix thou thy attention at the eye-focus, the seat of the Lord Siva (the Shiva-netra), for then everything will follow of itself in due course, as you will gain experience of the 'self' in you.

    The Masters tell us that the entire world is blindly groping in the dark, chasing the fleeting shadows, ever eluding and ever fading away into airy nothings as we draw nigh to them; while the fountainhead of all bliss and harmony lies untapped within at the eye-centre which is the seat of the soul in the body in the waking state. This centre, when located, gives an access to, and provides a supra-conscious contact with, the realms that lie beyond the farthest ken of the human mind. Equipped with the sense-organs, our only means of knowledge is through them. The soul is perfect without the senses for its action is direct and immediate and not indirect and mediate depending upon outer aids as knowledge of the world is. After obtaining this contact, one is led, step by step, to the true Home of the Father. This is life in fullness. Thrice blessed is man for it is given unto him the power to traverse the regions, both astral and causal, and to go into the Beyond (Brahm and Par Brahm), the region of eternal bliss outside the pale of repetitive creation, dissolution and grand dissolution. But so long as one does not withdraw himself from the world and from himself as well, from his body, mind and intellect, he does not draw any the nearer to God. "It is only when the outward man perisheth (the human in the body is transhumanised), that the inward man (spirit) is renewed, and the dizzy heights of the mount of transfiguration are gained and one becomes a living spirit freed from the body and its impediments; capable of getting inner experience of meeting the ancient Masters like Moses and Elijah" (Matt. Ch. 17), "and joining the Lord in the feast of Passover." (Matt. Ch. 26 and Mark Ch. 14). It is at this place that the Lord awaits his disciples: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock, if any man hears my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Rev. 3:20). All this experience that St. John reveals to us, he had when he was transformed into 'spirit,' and he speaks of the coming in of the Lord 'as a thief in the night' (in the darkness of the soul). Hafiz, a Persian mystic of great repute, also testifies: 'The Murshid comes in the darkness with a lantern in his hands.'

    "The way Godward," says Prophet Mohammed, "is narrower than hair and sharper than the razor's edge." It is described by Nanak as 'khande-di-dhar' (sword's edge) and thinner than a hair; and one has actually to pass through a death-like experience. In this context St. Plutarch says: "At the moment of death, the soul experiences the same impressions and passes through the same processes as are experienced by those who are initiated into the Great Mysteries." But how many of us are prepared to experience the death processes while living? We are all mortally afraid of death. And why so, particularly when we know, and know so well that it is the necessary end of all created things ? The reasons therefor are not far to seek. In the first place, we have not yet learnt 'to die at will' while living. And secondly, because we do not know what happens after death? Where do we go? What lies beyond the death-trap? This is why we have a horror of death; and the mere idea of death holds us in a state of mortal terror:

            The entire world is mortally afraid of death,
            And everyone desires to have an endless life,
            If by the grace of the Guru one learns of death-in-life,
            He becomes the knower of divine wisdom.
            O Nanak! he who dies such a death,
            He gains for himself the gift of life eternal.

    Death, after all, is not a dreadful incident. 'How charming is divine philosophy; not harsh and crabbed as the ignoramuses suppose; but sweetly melodious as Apollo's lute; and a perpetual feast of nectared sweet.' It, in reality, opens new vistas and new horizons of life beyond the grave, and the flames of the funeral pyre, that engulf, entomb and extinguish the mortal remains. 'Dust thou art and to dust returneth' was not spoken of the soul. The life-principle in us or in fact in any other living thing never dies. It is only the elemental parts that go through a process of change which we erroneously call death, and wrongly understand it to be an extinction.

    'In nature, death feeds life and life illumines death.' It is the universal law that operates everywhere and on all planes of existence. 'The wise men discover that the perception of Reality comes with the annihilation of the self (the bodily self in which the spirit is incarcerated).' The moment the spirit voluntarily breaks through the fetters, something breaks in upon the spirit with a 'terrible illumination from the world behind the world' making It 'the Prophet of the Most High God.' 'It is at the Mt. of Transfiguration that one gets revelations and sees the mingling of heaven and earth.' It is here that one finds 'the dark grows luminous and the void fruitful.'

    Everyone has, as a matter of course, to die some day - man, bird, or beast; rich or poor, healthy or diseased, young or old. The soul which takes on the physical raiment has to shed it one day. Death alone is certain and real, while life (in this world) is uncertain. We seldom pause to think about the long journey which lies ahead of the inner being in us. We usually lament the death of others and mourn for them for days on end but are not wise enough to care for our own end and prepare ourselves for the final journey into the great unknown that lies beyond life's end. Before an analysis is offered of the death-process, practical and informative as it may be, it would be worth our while to know at least what we are? Who we are? Whence we come? Whither we go? And above all what is the meaning or purpose of life?

    Man, as at present constituted, is an aggregate of body, mind and intellect with a great motor-power working from behind, called soul. Formed and environed, as we are, through the ages, our attention is continuously flowing outwards and downwards through the nine portals of the body - the eyes, the ears, the nostril nares, the mouth and the two passages below the waist. It is not that we wish it or do it voluntarily but it has just become a habit with us. We are not yet master of the house in which we live. We are being constantly dragged out by mind and the senses through the various sense-organs, into the vast and varied fields of sense-enjoyments. It is this constant association of the self in us (attention) with the mind and the material objects that has not only debased us, but defaced us beyond recognition, and now we do not know what we really are. We have become so identified with our limiting adjuncts that we do not know anything independent of, and apart from them. Unless the self gets depersonalised by throwing off the mask of dross personality with which it has covered itself and becomes disrobed self, pure and simple; by dissociation from these countless limiting agents: (1) the mind comprising the faculties of hoarding impressions (chit), thinking (manas), reasoning intellect (buddhi) and egotism or self-assertiveness (ahamkar); (2) the sheaths or coverings: physical (ann-mai), subtle (pran-mai and mano-mai), causal (vigyan-mai and anand-mai); (3) the inborn and natural propensities of righteousness (satva), mercurial restlessness (rajas) and inaction born of ignorance (tamas); (4) the five elements (tattvas): earth, water, fire, air and ether of which the entire physical creation is made and (5) the twenty-five compounded elements in varying degrees of proportion (prakritis) which prepare the physical moulds or bodies in different shapes and patterns, shades and colours as a result of karmic reactions; the self imprisoned in so many meshes, cannot know its own real nature, much less its divine ancestory and the rich heritage, all of which come to light only when it comes to its own and realises itself as the self-luminous 'Self.'

    Let us see what some of the English thinkers have to say in this context:

        Man is a little world in himself, made cunningly of
        elements and angelic spirit. His God-like
        qualities have depraved by the fall, and he is
        constantly visited by divine wrath - wars, plagues
        and thunderstorms. Yet, he can enjoy a civilised
        happiness, provided he treats the world as
        preparation for the next, and keeps the body
        subject to his soul.
                                                                                           - J. Donne

        What is it to trust on mutability, Sith that in this world nothing may endure.
                                                                                                                                                 - Skelton

        There is within the all-comprehending ambit of animal
              instinct, some secret urge which drives the chosen
              men towards transcending of animal impulse. This
              transcending animal impulse manifests itself as
              complete disinterestedness (of all that is in the
              world without).

            The urge of animal ego is completely
              disregarded; and the evidence of this disregard
              is a willing submission to a 'self-sought death,'
              an acceptance of the annihilation of the animal
              instinct is arrayed against this acceptance...
              (till) nothing remains on the subjective side
              but pure consciousness, and one is transformed
              into a Superior Being whom he imagines
              (contemplates)...

            Nothing ever becomes real till it is (actually)
              experienced - even a proverb is no proverb till
              your life has illustrated it. But how many
              philosophers have made this acquisition?

            For this, the mind has to be reintegrated (made
              an undivided whole), as a faculty of sense,
              integrating which is a prelude to and a necessary
              condition to total detachment from it. The
              self must be whole before one can wholly
              detach oneself from it (body, mind and intellect).
              It is an all-seeing mind which embraces the
              totality of being under the aspect of eternity.
              As we gain our entrance into the world of Being,
              a total vision is ours.
                                                                           - Middleton Murray

            There is a communication between mystery and
              mystery, between the unknown soul and the
              unknown reality; at one particular point in the
              texture of life the hidden truth seems to break
              through the veil.
                                                                                                         - Ibid

    How then is this inner urge to be fulfilled? The process of getting fully into, and staying completely, in the eye-focus (the gateway to the so-called death), is akin to a part of the process of death. The process of withdrawal of the sensory currents from the body below the eyes is a voluntary one, and one comes to experience the mysteries of the beyond into which a Master-soul (Sant Satguru) initiates a disciple during his lifetime. He gives a first-hand inner experience of conscious contact with the holy Naam - the Divine Light and the holy Sound-Current (Holy Ghost) as coming from the right side, as the lowest expressions of the divinity within. One cannot by one's own unguided and unaided efforts have an access into the spirit world when one cannot hold on by himself even in the physical world without the active aid and guidance of many teachers from the cradle to the grave. Herein lies the paramount need and importance of Satguru or Murshid-i-Kamil (Perfect Master, an adept in the science and art of soul), competent enough to disentangle the spirit-currents from every pore of the body, the plane of sensations as it is, and to raise it above body-consciousness to witness for himself the inner divine splendiferous glory.

    With the process of withdrawal of the sensory currents from the body, the death-like process commences. You have not to do anything but simply to sit in a calm, composed and fully relaxed position with attention fixed at the eye-focus and engage in Simran or repetition of the charged names, which carry the life-impluse of the Masters through the ages and serve as passwords into the regions beyond. While so established in an easy posture (asan) in healthy surroundings, you forget yourself, entirely forgetting even the life-giving and life-sustaining pranas (vital airs) which will of themselves gradually slow down and grow rhythmic; and so do the entire respiratory and circulatory systems of the body. At first, the sensory currents begin to gradually withdraw from the extremities of the body - tips of the hands and feet and come upwards and gradually pass through the various bodily centres, each of which being the region of one of the five elements of which the body is composed, until taking off from the heart-centre they reach the throat-centre, the seat of Shakti, the Mother of the universe (the all-pervading energy); benumbing the entire bodily system below the eyes; and then proceed directly to the centre behind the eyes (Agya Chakra). This is where the spirit-currents get collected and gain an entry into the fox-hole within (Brahmrendra or the hole of Brahma) and have a peep into the Brahmand or the cosmic universe. This is the tenth aperture in the body, the only inlet, apart from the nine outlets. This is the place where you have to knock and get admittance into the realms above - realms more vast, more glorious, self-luminous and self-resounding with rapturous strains of celestial Music, unheard of anywhere in the physical world which has been left below; now no more than a great slum area fraught with miseries and tribulations 'fading into a faint reflection of the world of ideas' as Plato puts it. At this stage man becomes truly
blessed, blessed at having access to the aerial region, the world of spirits. He is now at the threshold of the astral world in company of the Radiant Form of the Master (Guru Dev) with Gur-bhakti complete in every respect. When a disciple reaches the Radiant Form of the Master, his job of self-effort is over. The Guru Dev now takes charge of the spirit and trains the spirit in Shabd-bhakti in the real sense, or devotion to the Sound Current, which is his own real form (Shabd Swaroop). From here He takes the spirit along with Him on the spiritual journey that lies through countless regions of varying spiritual sublimity: the causal or instrumental plane, the seed-world, the ever pregnant Mother with vast and countless creations lying involved in its womb; and then into the Super-cosmic Beyond (Par Barhmand) planes of Silence (Sunn) and Great Silence (Maha Sunn), and finally Sach Khand where dwells the Formless One of ineffable radiance (the Ocean of Consciousness) called Sat Purush, the primal manifestation of the Supreme Being. This holy process is simple, natural and does not involve any onerous austerities. It does not involve drastic control of pranas. The Masters have evolved this rare technique and termed it the 'Science of Soul' which can best be learnt under the able and competent guidance of some Master-saint, well versed in the theory and practice of life-current that exists in all created things, the creative and sustaining principle upholding all.

    All the scriptures of the world bear testimony to this fundamental truth:

            In the beginning was Prajapati (the Supreme Being),
            With him was Vak (the Holy Word),
            And the Vak (the Word) was verily the Supreme Brahma (Param Brahma).
                                                                                                                     - Vedas

            In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
              was with God, and the Word was God. The
              same was in the beginning with God. All
              things were made by Him; and without Him
              was not anything made that hath been made.
              In Him was life; and life was the light of men.
                                                                                       - John 1:1-5

            Kalam or Kalma is the All-creative principle.
              God Spake: "Kim-fia-kim," let there be and
              from this fiat the whole creation sprang into being.
                                                                                                     - Al Quran

            Shabd is the Creator of the earth,
            Shabd is the Creator of the firmament,
            Shabd is the Source of light,
            And Shabd resides in the heart of all.
                                                                             - Nanak

    It is on this basic principle in all existence (Light and Sound of God) that the Master gives a practical experience to all those who come to him in search of Truth. The rare boon of holy initiation, explanation of the theory and demonstration thereof (shiksha and deeksha), into the esoteric knowledge and experience of the saving life-lines within, is not an end in itself but just a beginning, a preliminary step for starting on the long journey for the soul to the true Home of the Father. Those who have chosen to undertake this course of life are indeed fortunate and experience this rare phenomena of 'death-in-life' and thus become jivan-mukat or the liberated beings, while yet in flesh, leading life in fullness on whatever plane they like, but always remaining within the Will of God. Such a lucky one, fully entrenched in God-head is in full control of his intellect, mind and senses. He is the master of the house and not a handmaid of his mind and intellect. Like a good charioteer, sitting in the chariot of the body, he directs his intellect aright which in turn gives a correct lead to his mind, and mind, when trained in the path of righteousness, refuses to be swayed by the senses which gradually lose their potency and cease to be attracted by the glamour of the sense- subjects. Thus is reversed the primal process of expansion and one gets settled in himself with the result that the still waters of the mind begin to reflect the Light of God, fulfilling the ancient maxim: Unless the senses are subdued, the mind is stilled and the intellect too is in a state of equipoise, one cannot witness the glory of God.

    This rich experience of life in fullness is variously called the second birth, the birth of the spirit as distinct from the birth of the flesh. Led by the spirit, one now lives and walks in the spirit, abandoning the lusts of the flesh and cuts right across the inexorable law of cause and effect or karma, which keeps all others in perpetual bondage. With the day to day progress on this path, new vistas of indescribable joy and beatitude open up and new horizons loom into view, encompassing the totality of all that is, thus giving greater and greater awareness, first personal, then supramental, next cosmic and super-cosmic.

    Hereafter the liberated souls, liberated from all the shackles of mind and matter, enjoy perpetual bliss in the life of the spirit with an outlook on life entirely changed; the vast creation now becoming the manifestation of the One life-principle pulsating everywhere in him and around him and in all things, animate and inanimate. The world that he now witnesses is totally different from the world known to him before. It now looks as the veritable abode of God and one sees God truly dwelling in it, nay in every constituent part of it; for all created things appear like so many bubbles in one vast ocean of life. Hereafter he lives unto the Lord and dies unto the Lord. Like St. Paul, he gets 'crucified in Christ' (fana-fi-sheikh) and Christ lives in him, and with repetitive experience of the death process he triumphantly swallows death in victory - the Father and the Son becoming one. Though the outward man of flesh and bones still persists and continues to exist to spin out what remains of the web of life, yet the inward man (the spirit in man) is renewed - growing stronger and more sublime with time. Thomas A. Kempis therefore says :

            Forsake the flesh for the spirit. Learn to die so that you may begin to live.

In this context, we have from Kabir:

            While the people are mortally afraid of death,
            I welcome death as a harbinger of bliss.
            Die and be thou dead to the world,
            Such a death I experience many times a day.

In all the four Gospels, we come across so many references of like nature:

            He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that
              loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
                                                         - Matt. 10:39 & 16:25

            For whosoever will save his life shall lose it:
              but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake
              and the Gospel's the same shall save it.
                                                                           - Mark 8:25

            For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever
              will lose his life for my sake, the the same shall save it.
                                                                                             - Luke 9:24 & 17:37

             He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life
                 in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal.
                                                                                                            - John 12:25

Dadu, a celebrated Saint says:

            O Dadu! learn to die ere death overtakes thee,
            What will it profit thee, when die thou must?

Guru Nanak also says the same thing:

            O Nanak! practise such a yoga as may teach thee to die in life.

Prophet Mohammed too exhorted his ummat, or the faithful, to practise the art of dying before death: 'Before thy death, do thou die - Mautoo-qibalantumautoo.' The mystic Muslim divines like Khawaja Hafiz, Shamas Tabrez and Maulana Rumi greatly emphasised the importance of such unique experience:

            So long as you do not transcend the plane of the
              senses, you remain unaware of the inner life.
            Thou hast raiments besides the outer (physical) one without;
            Why then dost thou fear to come out of the body?

One can go on multiplying any number of apothegms on this subject. We may close it with a passage from Earl R. Wassermann:

            Many are only imperfect individualisations of
              the One; and death permits the unindividualised,
              and hence unbounded, spiritual life.
              The post-mortal life therefore is a spiritual
              existence for death destroying the many
              coloured dome allows the soul to 'out-soar the
              shadows of night' instead of working inwards
              to destroy organic existence. What then
              appears to be physical destruction, proves to
              be spiritual immortality ... What we call 'life'
              is a decay; therefore earthly confinement, the
              mortal atmosphere stains the radiance of
              Eternity...On the other hand, the resurrected
              soul, reincorporated in the One, not the
              shadow of death or physical matter, is
              discovered in the true sense, spreading itself
              throughout nature, for the final reality everywhere
              is spirit ... Were the atmosphere of
              mortality removed, man would perceive that
              the 'One remains' and that 'Heaven's light
              forever shines;' and that day and night are one
              and so life and death, Lucifer and Vesper,...
              and that the ultimate reality of both earthly
              life and the post-mortal eternity is the Spiritual
              One; ... and this realisation of spiritual identity
              of mortal and post-mortal life finally ceases
              the pairings of opposites like life and death...
              Since One glows 'through time and change,
              unquenchably the Same.'

He then goes on to say:

            Learn to go unterrified into the gulf of death,
              for where mortal existence ends, the spiritual
              existence begins. With death the resurrected
              soul out-soars the shadows of night, and is
              reincarnated into the changeless One.

Prophet Mohammed also speaks of death in life in much the same strain:

            A death like this will not take thee to the grave,
            But it shall lead thee from darkness to light,
            Learn then to die every day by transcending the body.

When a man learns to transcend the human in him, the Master in His Radiant Form comes in to help the soul onwards to its true Home, guiding it on the higher planes, both in one's lifetime and even after when the mortal coil is finally cast off. In this connection Nanak says:

            O Nanak! snap all the ephemeral ties of the
              world and find thou a real friend in some Saint;
            The former shall leave thee while ye live but the
              latter shall stand by thee even in the hereafter.
            Following the instructions of a Satguru, take hold of Truth,
            Be thou true to Him and He shall stand true to thee unto the last.

A Muslim darvesh likewise says:

            O brave soul! take a firm hold of His hem,
            For He is truly above all the worlds, here and above.

So we find in the Gospels:

            Lo! I shall be with thee till the end of the world,
            I shall not leave thee nor forsake thee.

    In this way the highest mission of human life is achieved and the fullness of life experienced. This is the subject of contacting the 'Self' by the 'self' which disengages from the thorns and thistles of the worldly life, under the proper guidance and help of a Master-soul who vouchsafes this experience to all alike irrespective of sex, age, avocation, religious affinities and social orders based on blood, caste, colour and creed. The spirit has got to be divested of the false halo of the
self-created and self-projected personality that one unwittingly weaves around himself. Unless one becomes a pure spirit divested of the love of all created things, one cannot enjoy the life of the Creator which is a life of fullness in beatitude.