Falsehood to oneself and to others are rooted in past failures and future fears, and these things have no place on the spiritual path. Falsehoods, fears, and failures produce emotional disturbances that completely negate inner progress; these unfortunate maladies are due to emotional imbalances are due to emotional imbalances, and it is a sobering thought that over half the patients lying in the hospital beds in our civilized society are suffering from illness of emotional origin. The sincere aspirant must free himself from such negative qualities. He must learn to live squarely and honestly in the eternal present, which is “a city which hath foundations,” Sought for by patriarch Abraham. The unbalance manifested in society and the individual is a reflection of the web of falsehoods woven into international, national, and personal life; it is also a basic symptom of man’s ignorance of the basic unity of life. The community – whether regional, national or international - is a collective, social organism; its living cells are the individual who comprise it. when divided against itself the community is a manifestation of locals, national or global schizophrenia. The individual aspirant must rise above the maladies of modern society, being “in the world but not of it.” He must face the truth, both about himself and about the world at large.

The aspirant will develop a high character as the third prerequisite on the spiritual path. High character is the mantle of the self-disciplined person. The bounties of Nature are for legitimate use, but when a human being ravenously indulges in sensual pleasure for their own sake, he becomes that much less than human. His personal standards are lowered to the degree where he becomes a miserable puppet of his own overwhelming lusts and desires. But the removal of such deficiencies of character is easier said than done. Theologians and educators alike admonish man not to sin. But these wise authorities do not teach mankind how to eliminate the conditioning of the mind which predisposes man to sin. Ceasing wrong conduct, although admirable in itself, it is not the same as removing the cause of the human tendency to error. The elimination of the cause of sin is a prime necessity in the inner path. The individual aspirant must seek out the inner cause of a bad habit and then transform the misused thinking pattern into a blueprint for positive good. 

A great deal of the technique used in educational practice is comprised of pseudo-methodology. Because of this, some time will usually elapse before the aspirant is completely free of the false patterns of thinking with which he has been conditioned by the forces of authorities, dogmatic “education.” The inertia inherent in every individual human being enables these erroneous patterns of thought to continue functioning until they have been eliminated by corrective methods. Character building is a gradual process, for the human mind opposes any change in the inner orientation of the human being. But the true spiritual teacher will show the aspirant the correct techniques of reorientation, which is one of the natural, aesthetic transmutations of these false tendencies into higher qualities.

The fourth pillar of behavior avers that the aspirant will have love for all, hatred for none. Love is the core of all human virtues, and it could be a panacea for most of the world’s ills, if only mankind would recognize this fact. Shrieved of its divisive doctrines and dogmas, the central edifice of the Christian religion is built on the twin principles of love for God with all thy soul, with all thy mind and with all thy might,” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru of the Sikh faith, emphasized the basic need for love as a prime requisite on the path to God-realization: 

“Verily I say unto you that God reveals Himself only to those who love.” The great mystic adepts have always taught that God is love , and the human soul , being of the same essence as God , is also love . Detractors from this central truth about the sol ask how it could have become so separated from its innate consciousness of the Supreme being; and this is a deeply pertinent question for all who aspire to the spiritual path.

The soul is truly of the same essence as God; but as it descended into physical incarnation it separated itself from the original source, just as a running stream which is initially pure and cool becomes separated from the main flow of water. Some of the water becomes filtered through stones and marshlands, some through sand and mud, and so forth. The stream Singh still the same pure water, but the muddy pools are no longer part of the stream. Even though the water is basically the same, no sensible person would care to wash himself in these dirty pools. But if the water is returned to its original purity by the removal of the mud, it again partakes of the clarity and cleanliness of its original source, and once more it can be used to quench the thirst or bathe the body of a human being. So it is that the soul, being of the same essence of God, when separated through the dirt of mind and matter becomes different from the original source – God. when it is cleansed and purified by the living waters, the “God into Expression Power,” the soul once more partakes of the pristine Nature of God. 

Throughout recorded history the cancer of hatred has plagued mankind. The hatred of man for man, class for class, race for race, has produced the most dangerous of human concepts, that of separativeness. This idea of “divide ad rule” has chained humankind to a low level of existence. In the individual it blocks out any inner progress, for he who sees divisiveness around him cannot see the unity of the inner kingdom. To erase these false concepts of separativeness, it is necessary for the aspirant to start within himself by radiating love to all beings. Some advanced seekers recapitulate in their own consciousness the cosmic and planetary creative process, and often discover in this way the precise historical reason for mankind’s regression from spiritual oneness. When the aspirant reaches the consciousness that all things are of the essence of love, he no longer sees any duality in creation, but beholds the one deity pervading everything and everywhere. He sees that he himself is intrinsically no different from that being of love, and says with Christ: “I and my Father are one.”

Finally, the fifth basic prerequisite of spiritual development states that the aspirant will live a life of selfless service for the uplift of all humanity. This does not mean that the seekers is given a mandate to know what is best for all sundry. The path of outer service is strewn with the thorns of egotism, and the most sincere aspirant can get his feet pierced if he attempts to proffer service where it is not welcomed. The aspirant should try to serve humility. The fragrant flower which blossoms in a garden and fills the atmosphere with its perfume has no awareness with its perfume has no awareness of giving pleasure to this individual or that one; the aspirant should try to cultivate such detachment in his giving to others. The secret of selfless service is for the sincere aspirant to renounce any reward or recognition for what he has done; on the contrary he should consider himself as a lowly instrument in the divine love that sustains and protects all things. The true disciple, if inevitable confronted by recognition in the name of his own spiritual preceptor, the mystic adept, who is the true agents of God. When Kirpal Singh, one of the two supreme mystic adepts living in the twentieth century, was invested with a higher order of Chivalry, he accepted the honor on behalf of his spiritual preceptor with the following words:

The truth of the matter is – as stated in the holy Guru Granth Sahib – throw all honors of the world in the fire. The only things worth having is that which helps us to find our Beloved – God. Desire of worldly greatness and honor takes us into the world. True greatness lies in following the path that would take us into our cherished goal. And what is that goal? Our soul, separated from its source – its creator – revolves endlessly in the cycle of birth and rebirth. It must find its way back to God. I think that this honor is not for me but for my Master, at whose holy feet I had the good fortune to sit and learn all that I learned, and who is with me even now. It is with his grace that these honors are coming to me, completely unsolicicitated. But if you ask me, I would say from the very depths of my heart that I have no linking for these things.

Selfeless service is thus a great virtues and is the outer manifestation of love and goodness. Both mind and body becomes sanctified through the labor and sacrifice entailed in selfless service, so long as this is performed without egotism or vanity. The pinnacle of selfless service is to consider oneself the humble servant of the mystic adept, who is conscious embodiment of God. this leads to the lower ego and the aspirant is dramatically faced with the illumined realization that he himself is truly God. love know constant service and sacrifice; this is the pearl of great price, the greatest treasure of all. The external life of the aspirant lived in service to others, and he does not allow himself to become inflated by thoughts of pride and possessiveness. If the words of the Bhagavad Gita, the superb spiritual poem of Hinduism:

He who does the task dictated by duty, 
Caring nothing for the fruit of the action, 
He is a yogi.

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