that it is the effect of a misapplication of power.

The cure then, for this state of Relativity, is found logically enough, in
an extension of individual consciousness.

That this idea is logical may be deduced from the fact that as the mind
expands, through the various channels of learning; observation; contact
with each other, and by the many roads of Experience, altruism becomes more
general. Almost every one readily admits that the world is "growing
better," as they express it.

This means that the individual consciousness is becoming broadened,
deepened, enlarged; and this enlargement makes it possible to show that
the happiness of each one, means the happiness of all, and that no one
human life can reach the goal of freedom and eternal life (_mukti_, which
can mean nothing less than godhood) unless he does so by some one of the
many paths of selflessness.

Up through the perilous paths and the devious ways of brute consciousness
toward a more or less perfect perception of that blissful state which the
Illumined have sought to describe, each individual has come to his present
state; and it is only by virtue of the ability to look back over the path,
and to look onward a little into relative futurity, that each may record
the fact of his gain in consciousness, and what this gain means to the
future of this earth.

But who is there who cannot see that each step in attainment of
consciousness brings with it a corresponding freedom from suffering?

The planet itself does not make us suffer. The latest discoveries of
astronomers indicate that as the standard of morality (using the term
"morality" in its true sense), becomes higher, the position of the earth
itself becomes changed, in its relation to the solar system.

In this way, it is expected that a uniform temperature will prevail all
over the earth's surface; and with the cessation of war, and of
competition (which is mental warfare) cataclysms, storms, and earthquakes
will cease. When we come, as we will, in succeeding chapters of this book,
to a review of the experiences of those who have attained cosmic
consciousness (mukti) we will find that, in each instance, there has come
a realization of the _nothingness_ of sin and consequent suffering.

The trouble then, is not with the earth as a planet, but with the lack of
consciousness of earth's inhabitants, which lack makes possible all the
suffering which afflicts human life.

Those who have attained to t