ties
some amount of retirement from the world is very useful. For the
development of the spiritual consciousness no such retirement is
necessary. In fact, for the most part, except in the earlier stages
perhaps, seclusion is a mistake; for the world is the best place for
the unfolding of the sense of unity, and best amongst men and women
and children can we call out the powers of the spiritual life. And
that for a simple reason. In the lower world the Spirit shows itself
out by love, by sympathy; and the more we can love, the more we can
sympathise, the greater will be the unfolding of the consciousness of
the Self within. It was a true word of the early Christian Initiate,
that if a man loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how shall he
love God whom he hath not seen? And if the perfection of the
spiritual consciousness be that vision of the Supreme, the
consciousness which knows itself to be one with God, then the way to
the realisation will be by the partial realisation of loving sympathy,
for which the world is the most fitting field, and our brethren around
us the natural stimulus. Love, sacrifice, these are the manifestations
of the Spirit on the physical plane, as is right knowledge also. For
the Spirit is not a one-sided thing, but a Trinity, and knowledge is
as necessary as love. The special value of love lies in its unifying
power, and in the fact that it makes what the world calls sacrifice
natural and delightful. You know it in your own experience. Just in
proportion as you love another is it a joy and not a sorrow to give up
things in order that the happiness of the other may be increased. It
is no sacrifice for a mother to give up personal enjoyment for the
sake of giving it to her children. A deeper joy is felt in the
happiness of the child than could possibly have been felt in the
enjoyment of the thing by herself; a sweeter, finer, profounder
happiness is the enjoyment of the happiness of the beloved. And that a
little widens out the consciousness, and hence family life is one of
the best schools for spiritual unfolding; for in the continual
sacrifices of the family life, springing from love and rendered joyful
by affection, the Self feels itself a larger Self, and reaches the
sense of unity with those immediately around. And after the family the
public life, the life of the community, the life of the nation: these
also are schools for the unfolding of the spiritual consciousness. For
the man who is