YOGA LESSORS FOR DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS BY SWAMIE A. P. MUKERJI ASSOCIATE EDITOR, KALPAKA MAGAZINE OF INDIA PUBLISHED BY YOGI PUBLICATION SOCIETY MASONIC TEMPLE, CHIGAGO, ILL. REPRESENTATIVES L. N. FOWLER COMPANY 7, IMPERIAL ARCADE, LONDON, ENGLAND. THE LATENT LIGHT CULTURE TINNEVELLY, SOUTH INDIA. DEDICATION I dedicate this work with deep re spect and love to D. P. Mukerji whose holy blessings I income for the spiritual well-being of my readers intelligence. Mop this Great Soul inspire. Aum. A. P. Mukerji CONTENTS YOGA LESSONS FOR DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS CHAPTER PAGE I The Yogi Conception of Life 9 II The Ideal and the Practical 15 III Read and Keflect 20 IV Man Animal and Divine 25 V Double Consciousness 30 VI Spiritual Unf oldment 34 VII- Cause and Effect 42 VIII Man The Master 50 IX Self - Development 56 X Developing the Spiritual Consciousness 61 XI Who Can Be a Yogi 75 XII Constructive Idealism 88 XIII Higher Reason and Judgment 101 XIV Conquest of Fear 112 XV The Role of Prayer 117 XVI Thought Creative and Exhaustive 130 XVII Meditation Exercises 142 XVIII--Self - De-Hypnotisation 152 XIX Self - De-Hypnotisation 156 XX Character-Building 176 CHAPTER I. THE YOGI CONCEPTION OF LIFE. IF we study the action of mind upon mind, of mind over matter, of mind over the human body, we may realize how each man is a power in himself to use Mr. Randalls phrase in his beautiful book on psychology. Life is demonstrative it speaks with a million, mil lion tongues. Life stands for Light and Love. Con templation of Death, which is really a change, will not lead to Happiness. All-stagnation is death. Humanity is a moving mass, arid this is true of it as regards single units aswell as of the collective whole. Stop we cannot. We must go forwards, which is God-wards or there is the backward line of progress which is IGNORANCE. Spasms of activity catch hold of us and push us on ward and, similarly, fear, weakness and worry, the triple weapons of our Old Friend, the Devil, catch us in their deadly grip and crib, cabin and confine us. We all are preparing to live, day in and day out. Is it not so The body ages the soul is ever on the alert. 9 10 DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS We all are trying to grasp life in its proper perspective, to get a clear view of the goal ahead. Some say I am for enjoying life some say, It is a bad mixture of heaven and hell, for the mast part, hell others stand on neutral ground and say, Let us make the best of a bad bargain. Since we are here, it is no use grumbling. This world is for our educa tion. Right. Move we must. It may be progress forward or progress backwards. . Life is a series of awakenings. Ideas dawn upon the mind from time to time, are caught up by brain and body and find physical expression as acts. Our out ward life with its environment is fitted to our inward development. Wealth, position, fame, power, all these are the simple expressions of individual char acter. This is not a platitude. Look and see for yourself. It is quite necessary that we should pass through certain experiences, that we rise from ideal to ideal. We create our own fate. Our sufferings, our joys, are so many projections from ourselves. We alone are re sponsible for them. Like the silkworm we build a cocoon around the soul and then feeling Cramped, we set to loosening the bonds. Enjoyment is not, ought not to be the goal of life.Sense-enjoyments end in satiety and exhaustion. Power and self, riches and all that riches mean, may tie THE YOGI CONCEPTION OF LIFE 11 us down to a narrow sphere. But in the long run we do come to know that happiness is not in them. This is a tremendous truth, yet God mercifully screens it from us till we are prepared to receive it. What remains then Man wants happiness. He rushes from one thing to another to grasp it, only to find everything slipping th rough his fingers. Let none deny it. The aim of philosophy is to put an end to pain. All pain is caused by IGNORANCE...