The Library
Between the ordinary man who takes himself as he is, and the philosopher who does exactly the same, there stands the Quester. In the first case, outlook is narrow, being limited by attending to the inescapable necessities and demands of day-to-day living. In the other case, peace of mind has been established, the thirst for knowledge fulfilled, the discipline of self realized. In between these two, the Quester is not satisfied with himself, has a strong wish to become a better and more enlightened man. He tries to exercise his will in the struggle for realization of his ideal.
2.1.1.4Listen If the Infinite Being is trying to express its own nature within the limitations of this earth--and therefore trying to express itself through us, too--it is our highest duty to search for and cultivate our diviner attributes. Only in this way do we really fulfil ourselves. This search and this cultivation constitute the Quest.
2.1.1.6Listen The inner meaning of life does not readily reveal itself; it must be searched for. Such a search is the Quest.
2.1.1.10Listen The quest we teach is no less than a quest for knowledge in completeness and a search for awareness of this Universal Self, a vast undertaking to which all men are committed whether they are aware of it or not.
2.1.1.14Listen The quest is simply the attempt of a few pioneer men to become aware of their spiritual selves as all men are already aware of their physical selves.
2.1.1.19Listen It is a quest to become conscious of Consciousness, to explore the I and penetrate the mystery of its knowing power.
2.1.1.20Listen The secret path is an attempt to establish a perfect and conscious relation between the human mind and that divinity which is its source.
2.1.1.21Listen When a man passes from the self-seeking motives of the multitude to the Overself-seeking aspirations of the Quest, he passes to conscious co-operation with the Divine World-Idea.
2.1.1.22Listen The very idea of a quest involves a passage, a definite movement from one place to another. Here, of course, the passage is really from one state to another. It is a holy journey, so he who is engaged on it is truly a pilgrim. And as on many journeys, difficulties, fatigues, obstacles, delays, and allurements may be encountered on the way, yes! And here there will certainly be dangers, pitfalls, oppositions, and enmities too. His intuition and reason, his books and friends, his experience and earnestness will constitute themselves as his guide upon it. There is another special feature to be noted about it. It is a homeward journey. The Father is waiting for his child. The Father will receive, feed, and bless him.
2.1.1.25Listen It is a brave struggle for freedom, a noble refusal to be the ego’s puppet or the animal-self’s victim, a fine resolve to win strength from weakness.
2.1.1.28Listen Many aspirants wrongly believe the quest to be a movement from one psychic experience to another or from one mystical ecstasy to another. But in fact it is a movement in character from animality to purity, from egoism to impersonality.
2.1.1.31Listen The Quest teaches a man the art of dying to the animalistic and egoistic elements in himself. But it does not stop with these negative results. It trains him also in the art of re-creating himself by the light of the ideal.
2.1.1.32Listen The worldling seeks to enjoy himself. Do not think that the truly spiritual man does not seek to enjoy himself too. The difference is that he does it in a better way, a wiser way.
2.1.1.35Listen Here is a goal for men and women which can bring them the fulfilment of their best purposes, the happiness of being set free from their inward bondages, and the calmness of knowing their own soul.
2.1.1.36Listen The Quest is a veritable re-education of the self, leading in its turn to a noble transcendence of the self.
2.1.1.37Listen What is the hidden metaphysical meaning of the Quest? It is that the infinite self in man finds that it cannot achieve adequate self-expression in the finite and imperfect life of the world. The ego may try as it will, do what it may, but the bliss, wisdom, serenity, and perfection that are the natural attributes of the Overself, in the end elude its every move. There is ultimately no alternative except to let go of searching and grasping the outer world, and retreat within. There, deep inside its own being the journey to enduring satisfaction will thenceforth be. This is the Quest leading to discovery of Overself.
2.1.1.39Listen The quest means disciplined emotions and disciplined living, sustained aspiration and nurtured intuition.
2.1.1.47Listen There is another kind of exploration than that which traverses deserts, penetrates jungles, climbs mountains, and crosses continents. It seeks out the mysterious hinterlands of the human mind, scales the highest reaches of human consciousness, and then returns to report routes and discoveries, describe the goals to others so that they also may find their way thereto if they wish.
2.1.1.50Listen The high teachers of the human race have given us goals and taught us ways to approach them.
2.1.1.59Listen ... Whoever comes eventually to mystical experience of the reality of his own Higher Self will recognize the infinite number of ways in which nature throughout life is beckoning him…
2.1.1.62,Listen The Quest is not to be looked upon as something added to his life. Rather it is to be his life itself.
2.1.1.71Listen It is only the beginner who needs to think of the quest as separate from the common life, something special, aloof, apart. The more proficient knows that it must become the very channel for that life.
2.1.1.75Listen He who stands on the threshold of this Path is about to commence the last and greatest journey of all, one which he will continue to the end of his days. Once begun, there is no turning back or deserting it, except temporarily. And since it is the most important and most glorious activity ever undertaken, its rewards are commensurate.
2.1.1.78The meaning and end of all such work is to arouse men to see certain truths: that the intuitive element is tremendously more important than the intellectual yet just as cultivable if pursued through meditation, that the mystical experience is the most valuable of all experience, and that the quest of the Overself is the most worthwhile endeavour open to human exertions.
2.1.1.80Listen If there is anything worth studying by a human being, after the necessary preliminary studies of how to exist and survive in this world healthily and wisely, it is the study of man's own consciousness - not a cataloguing of the numerous thoughts that play within it, but a deep investigation of its nature in itself, its own unadulterated pure self.
2.1.1.81In first, the discovery of the Overself, and second, the surrender to it, man fulfils the highest purpose of his life on this earth.
2.1.1.83The businessman who does not know that the true business for which he was put on earth is to find the Overself, may make a fortune but will also squander away a lifetime. His work and mind have been left separate from his Overself's when they might have been kept in satisfying harmony with them.
2.1.1.85Listen Every man has another and veiled identity. Until he finds out this mystical self of his, he has failed to fulfil the higher mission of his existence.
2.1.1.86Listen Life offers man a variety of meanings, but in the end one meaning comes to the top of all the others and that is the meaning which shall reveal the truth about his relation to God.
2.1.1.89Listen When he sees life whole and therefore sees it right, he will understand why Jesus said, ”Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all these things shall be added unto you,” and why, if he is to insist upon any single renovation in human life, it must be its own self-spiritualization. If he is to put emphasis anywhere, it must be upon the rediscovery of the divine purpose of his earthly life.
2.1.1.90Listen The old Sanskrit texts tell us of the “little purpose” of human life and of the “great purpose.” All know the one but few know the other; fewer still seek to realize it.
2.1.1.91Listen If men only knew how glorious, how rich, how satisfying this inner life really is, they would not hesitate for a moment to forsake all those things which bar their way to it.
2.1.1.92We do not understand the depths of our own being, the mystery in which it is grounded. I speak for mankind in general, not for those few great ones who have banished illusion and ignorance.
2.1.1.93Listen Socrates: “I spend all my time going about trying to persuade you, young and old, to make your first and chief concern . . . for the highest welfare of your inner selves.”
2.1.1.95,Listen What grander ideal could a man have than to live continuously in the higher part of his being?
2.1.1.96Listen When men acquire proper values, whether by reflecting over their experience or by listening to their prophets, they will recognize this truth--that nothing really matters except the search for the Overself…
2.1.1.98,Listen This enterprise of the quest is the most serious in which a man can engage. We must treat it as such. But let this not cause anyone to lose the sense of humour.
2.1.1.102Listen The fact that so few have ventured on this quest offers no indication of what will happen in the future. If mankind could take any other way to its own self-fulfilment, this situation might remain. But there is no other way.
2.1.1.104Listen He needs to recover his conscious relationship to the Overself: the subconscious one is never lost.
2.1.1.110Listen ... What shall it profit a man if he hear a thousand lectures or read a thousand books but hath not found his Overself? The student must advance to the next step and seek to realize within his own experience that which is portrayed to him by his intellect…
2.1.1.111,Listen The profound meaning of life is not put before our eyes. We have to dig for it with much patience and much perseverance.
2.1.1.115Listen The first duty of man, which takes precedence over all other duties, is to become conscious of his Overself. This is the highest duty and every other duty must bow before it…
2.1.1.117,Listen What a man sees and thinks is only an awareness gleaned by the shallower part of himself. There is his deeper being--indeed, the term part is quite inapplicable here--his real essence, the greater Consciousness from which thoughts and emotions emerge for their limited lives. To find and know this is a duty to which he must one day come.
2.1.1.118Listen The search for truth becomes, for such a man, neither a spare-time hobby nor an intellectual curiosity, but a driving moral compulsion.
2.1.1.119Listen The more deeply we understand the nature of man, the more reliably shall we understand the duty of man.
2.1.1.120Listen Man can come into the personal knowledge that there is this unseen power out of which the whole universe is being derived, including himself. But neither the animal nor the plant can come into this knowledge. Here we see what evolution means and why it is necessary.
2.1.1.125Listen The most important questions which a man can ask himself — What he is and What he is here for — must be answered before his life finds its proper course…
2.1.1.126,Listen Every life in the fleshly body represents an opportunity to obtain spiritual realization because man can only discover his divinity to the fullest whilst in the waking state.
2.1.1.128Listen When a man comes to his real senses, he will recognize that he has only one problem: ”How can I come into awareness of, and oneness with, my true being?”...
2.1.1.130,Jesus: ”Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all these things shall be added unto you,” and “To him that hath [enlightenment] shall be given [what he personally needs].”
2.1.1.130,Listen The earlier the age at which a man begins these studies and practices the better for him. To be born into a family where they already prevail, is to have an exceedingly good destiny. But however late in life anyone comes to them, it is never too late…
2.1.1.132,Listen It is not too late at any period of life, even in old age, to obtain a firm footing upon the spiritual path and gain its satisfying rewards.
2.1.1.134Listen In the end we all must turn to the inner Source of all our best human sources, to the Guru of all the gurus, to the Overself. Then why not now?
2.1.1.135Listen NOW is the right moment to practise philosophy, to crush the ego, and to think positively.
2.1.1.136Listen So long as man does not know the most important part of himself and the best part of his possessions, so long will he remain the blind creator of his own miseries and the duped plaything of his own trivialities.
2.1.1.140Listen If we choose to be endlessly preoccupied with external matters, business, and pleasure, if we will not turn lovingly in the only direction to which we must turn if we are to behold our divine self, then it is useless to blame life, God, or luck for our unhappy blindness.
2.1.1.141Listen Those who prefer their own ego’s opinion to the Overself’s impersonal intuitions, remain in the ego’s darkness.
2.1.1.142Listen The true mystic is always pleased to learn that an individual has started upon the spiritual quest in earnest. He knows that nothing else in life will yield such satisfaction, especially in these times of world crisis when the need for inner support is greater than ever before. There cannot be any true or lasting outward form of security today.
2.1.1.148Listen It is true that property, money, and possessions give most men a sense of security. But it depends on them and they bring anxieties, cares, even fears, along with their comfort and support. They still need to find or to add a personal security which is independent of these externals, which is personal. This can come only from within …
2.1.1.150,Listen Millions of other humans came into the world and after a relatively short existence disappeared. He will be no exception: his turn to vanish will also come. Thought, confronted with this terrible fact, must either despair, take refuge in the hopes of religion, or resolve to find out the truth behind the tremendous cosmic drama.
2.1.1.152Listen It is better to accept the loneliness of the quester than the complacency of the worldling who lives without any understanding of life’s inner purpose.
2.1.1.153Listen The response provoked in you by the entry of these ideas will determine your future.
2.1.1.156Listen We suffer from stagnation and imagine that existence in the intellect and body is enough; it is not. The primary emphasis must be laid on the living principle of our being, the central self which creates both body and intellect.
2.1.1.157Listen The making of money, the earning of a livelihood, and the attainment of professional or business success have their proper place in life and should be accorded it but--in comparison with the fulfilment of spiritual aspiration--ought to be regarded as having quite a secondary place.
2.1.1.159Listen The goals of progress are but imagined ones. There is only one goal which is undeniably real, completely certain, and authentically true--and that is an unchanging one, an eternal one. Yet it is also the one that has escaped mankind!
2.1.1.162Listen Man as scientist has put under observation countless objects on earth, in sea and sky. He has thoroughly examined them. But man as man has put himself under a shallower observation. He has limited his scrutiny first to the body, second to what thinking can find. Yet a deeper level exists, where a deeper hidden self can be found.
2.1.1.164Listen He will discover that it is not enough to regard as good only that which is favourable to his physical life. He must complete the definition and sometimes even contradict it by adding that which is favourable to his spiritual life.
2.1.1.165Listen There is nothing more important in life than the Quest, and the time will come when the student discovers that there is nothing more enjoyable as well. This is inevitable in a Quest whose essential nature is one of infinite harmony and unbroken peace. No worldly object, person, or pleasure can ever bestow the satisfaction experienced in uniting with the Overself.
2.1.1.166Listen It is not the animal needs and their gratification but the realization of our divine possibilities which is the hidden justification of our presence in this world.
2.1.1.167Listen The ceaseless longing for personal happiness which exists in every human being is a right one, but is generally mistaken in the direction along which satisfaction is sought. For all outward objects and beings can yield only a transient and imperfect delight that can never be equivalent to the uninterrupted happiness of life in the Overself.
2.1.1.168Listen An existence which has no higher aims than purely physical ones, no nobler activities than merely personal ones, no inner reference to a spiritual purpose, has to depend only on its own small resources. It has failed to benefit by its connection with the power behind the universe.
2.1.1.169Listen No one who ever gives the philosophic life a proper trial for a sufficient time is likely to desert it…
2.1.1.171,Listen We are regarded as odd people because we trouble our heads with the search for an intangible reality. But it never occurs to our critics that it is much more odd that they should go on living without pausing to inquire if there be any purpose in life at all.
2.1.1.174Listen A time comes in the intellectual growth of a man when he knows that he must put aside the trivialities of life and come to terms with the demands made upon him by his higher nature.
2.1.1.175Listen To put one’s own purposes in harmony with the universe’s purpose is the most sensible thing he can do. Therefore there is nothing unpractical, irrational, or eccentric in the Quest…
2.1.1.177,Listen The moment we become convinced that the universal life has a higher purpose than the mere reproduction of the species, that moment our own individual life takes on a higher meaning, a glorious significance.
2.1.1.178Listen The importance of this work is ignored by most people and unknown to many people … But if they could understand that it penetrates to the foundations of human living and affects the settlement of human problems, they might be less arrogant in their attitude towards it ...
2.1.1.184,Listen … Whoever, by this quest and practice, realizes the divine presence, does so not only for himself but for all others in that little part of the world confided to his care.
2.1.1.187,Listen All that really matters is how one lives one's life. But relative-plane activities do not constitute all there is to living. Consciousness rises from the plane behind the mind, and this region, like the outer world, needs to be explored with competent guides--its possibilities and benefits fully revealed by each individual for himself. Living will begin to achieve its own purpose when one's outer life becomes motivated, guided, and balanced by the fruits of one's inner findings.
2.1.1.191Listen He is not only an actor giving a performance on the world-stage. He is also someone who must learn to live in the still centre of his being.
2.1.1.194Listen Our whole life on earth is in the end nothing else than a kind of preparation for this quest.
2.1.1.197Listen It is not too late at any period of life, even in old age, to obtain a firm footing upon the spiritual path and gain its satisfying rewards.
2.1.1.2134Listen
2 Dec 2012
2 Jul 2015
1 Jan 2020
31 Jul 2022
6 Feb 2019
6 Jun 2017
6 Mar 2015
19 Jul 2014
7 Jul 2011
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28 Mar 2020
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22 Jun 2017
27 Mar 2019
2 Nov 2016
12 May 2018
18 Jul 2012
18 May 2021
2 Feb 2023
31 Dec 2010
12 Feb 2017
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24 Feb 2012
28 Aug 2013
31 Jul 2011
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27 Dec 2010
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2 May 2012
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29 Aug 2013
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8 Jun 2014
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9 Apr 2012
13 May 2011
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1 Nov 2023
22 Oct 2017
1 Feb 2022
7 Nov 2016
23 Dec 2021
4 Mar 2015
8 Aug 2023
19 Nov 2016
14 Oct 2023
10 May 2021
16 Feb 2024
20 Jan 2019
18 Mar 2014
23 Aug 2013
28 Feb 2017
26 Jul 2012
11 Apr 2012
8 Dec 2011
16 Jan 2014
22 Nov 2016
29 Jan 2017
7 Jun 2015
16 Jun 2023
9 Sep 2014
17 Feb 2022
21 Dec 2022
25 May 2014
12 Oct 2023
6 Jan 2015
31 Dec 2019
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