Here we have come, definitely, into the realm of material substance. This is essentially and, in a peculiar manner, the realm of force.

Maya is predominantly (for the individual) the aggregate of the forces which control the septenary force centers to the exclusion of the controlling energy of the soul.

Therefore, the bulk of humanity, until man stands upon the Probationary Path, are under the control of maya, for a man succumbs to maya when he is controlled by any other force or forces than those energies which come direct from the soul, conditioning and controlling the lesser forces of the personality as they eventually and inevitably must and will.

When a man is under the control of physical, astral and mental forces, he is convinced at the time that they are for him, right forces. Herein lies the problem of maya. Such forces, however, when they control, determine in a separative attitude and produce an effect which feeds and stimulates the personality and does not bring in the energy of the soul, the true Individuality.

If men and women would bring their lives under a closer scrutiny, by the true inner or spiritual being, and could thus determine what combination of energies conditions their life activity, they would not continue to function as they do now - so blindly, so inadequately and so ineffectually.

It is for this reason that the study and understanding of motives is of such value and importance, for such a study determines intellectually (if properly investigated) what factor or factors inspires the daily life. This is a statement worth careful consideration. What is your major actuating motive? For, whatever it may be, it conditions and determines your predominant life tendency.

Many people, particularly the unintelligent masses, are solely inspired by desire - material, physical and temporary. Animal desire for the satisfaction of the animal appetites, material desire for possession and for the luxuries of materialism, the longing for "things," for comforts and for security - economic, social and religious - control of the majority. The individual is under the influence of the densest form of maya, and the forces of his nature are concentrated in the sacral centers.

Others are motivated by some form of aspiration or ambition - aspiration towards some material heaven (and most religions portray heaven in this manner), ambitions for power, desire for the satisfaction of the emotional or aesthetic appetites and for the possession of the more subtle realities, and the longing for emotional comfort, for mental stability and assurance that the higher desires will meet with gratification.

All this is maya in its emotional form. Maya is tangible and etheric.

Such are the forces of maya which actuate, motivate and energize the life of the ordinary person. Under their influence one is helpless for they inspire all thinking, all aspiration and desire, and all activity on the physical plane.

The correct the problem, the aspirant must:

1) Bring all centers under the inspiration of the soul.
2) Transfer or transmute the forces of the lower nature, which control the personality, into the energies of the centers which respond automatically to the inspiration of the soul.

The motive is soul control, and though the methods employed are (in many cases) definitely undesirable yet the developing tendency of the life thought will prove inevitable by determining and conditioning.

The methods used may not save the unprepared physical body from certain disastrous results yet, in the long run, they may condition the future experience in such a manner that the aspirant will find himself more able to function as a soul than might otherwise have been the case.

In speaking of the work of those whose dharma it is to dissipate the illusion and glamor of the world, the following illuminating verses should be noted:

"They come and stand. Within the midst of whirling forms - some of beauty rare and some of horror and despair - they stand. They look not here or there but, with their faces turned towards the light, they stand. Thus through their minds the pure light streams to dissipate the fog.

"They come and rest. They cease their outer labors, pausing to do a different work. Within their hearts is rest. They run not here and there, but constitute a point of peace and rest. That which upon the surface veils and hides the real begins to disappear and from the heart at rest a beam of dissipating force projects, blends with the shining light and then the mists of man's creation disappear.

"They come and they observe. They own the eye of vision; likewise they own the right direction of the needed force. They see the glamor of the world, and seeing, they note behind it all the true, the beautiful, the real. Thus through the eye of truth comes the power to drive away the veiling, swirling illusions of the glamorous world.

"They stand, they rest, and they observe. Such are their lives and such the service that they render to the souls of men."

We must remember that the effort to free yourselves from illusion or from what is called in Agni Yoga "imperil" is particularly essential. Illusion is exceedingly prevalent in these days of wrath and tension and it most definitely imperils progress and retards the steps of the disciple of the Way.

Watch with care and remember that just in so far as you can live in the head and in the heart, you will end the disease of imperil and aid in the transference of the lower nature to the forces of the soul and of the heart.

Commend these lines to careful thought. They convey to you not only the field of service but also the desired attitude of the personal life of every aspirant.

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