ation refers to these. In the inner
School were three degrees--the first of Hearers, who studied for two
years in silence, doing their best to master the teachings; the second
degree was of Mathematici, wherein were taught geometry and music, the
nature of number, form, colour, and sound; the third degree was of
Physici, who mastered cosmogony and metaphysics. This led up to the true
Mysteries. Candidates for the School must be "of an unblemished
reputation and of a contented disposition."

The close identity between the methods and aims pursued in these various
Mysteries and those of Yoga in India is patent to the most superficial
observer. It is not, however, necessary to suppose that the nations of
antiquity drew from India; all alike drew from the one source, the Grand
Lodge of Central Asia, which sent out its Initiates to every land. They
all taught the same doctrines, and pursued the same methods, leading to
the same ends. But there was much intercommunication between the
Initiates of all nations, and there was a common language and a common
symbolism. Thus Pythagoras journeyed among the Indians, and received in
India a high Initiation, and Apollonius of Tyana later followed in his
steps. Quite Indian in phrase as well as thought were the dying words of
Plotinus: "Now I seek to lead back the Self within me to the
All-self."[30]

Among the Hindus the duty of teaching the supreme knowledge only to the
worthy was strictly insisted on. "The deepest mystery of the end of
knowledge ... is not to be declared to one who is not a son or a pupil,
and who is not tranquil in mind."[31] So again, after a sketch of Yoga
we read: "Stand up! awake! having found the Great Ones, listen! The road
is as difficult to tread as the sharp edge of a razor. Thus say the
wise."[32] The Teacher is needed, for written teaching alone does not
suffice. The "end of knowledge" is to know God--not only to believe; to
become one with God--not only to worship afar off. Man must know the
reality of the divine Existence, and then know--not only vaguely believe
and hope--that his own innermost Self is one with God, and that the aim
of life is to realise that unity. Unless religion can guide a man to
that realisation, it is but "as sounding brass or a tinkling
cymbal."[33]

So also it was asserted that man should learn to leave the gross body:
"Let a man with firmness separate it [the soul] from his own body, as a
grass-stalk from its sheath."[34] An