The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

THE EQUINOX From him,* who alone shines, all else borrows its brightness, The whole world bursts into splendour at his shining. And again in Maitrayana, 6. 24. When the darkness is pierced through, then is reached that which is not affected by darkness; and he who has thus pierced through that which is so affected, he has beheld like a glittering circle of sparks Brahman bright as the sun, endowed with all might, beyond the reach of darkness, that shines in yonder sun as in the moon, the fire and the lightning. Thus the Atman little by little came to be known and no longer believed in; yet at first it appears that those who realized it kept their methods to themselves, and simply explained to their followers its greatness and splendour by parable and fable, such as we find in Brihadaranyaka, 2. 1. 19. That is his real form, in which he is exalted above desire, and is free from evil and fear. For just as one who dallies with a beloved wife has no conscious- ness of outer or inner, so the spirit also dallying with the self, whose essence is knowledge, has no consciousness of inner or outer. That is his real form, wherein desire is quenched, and he is himself his own desire, separate from desire and from distress. Then the father is no longer father, the mother no longer mother, the worlds no longer worlds, the gods no longer gods, the Vedas no longer Vedas. . . . This is his supreme goal. As theory alone cannot for ever satisfy man’s mind in the solution of the life-riddle, so also when once the seeker has become the seer, when once actual living men have attained and become Adepts, their methods of attainment cannot for long remain entirely hidden. And either from their teachings directly, or from those of their disciples, we find in India * The Atman. + As the light of a lamp brought into a dark room is reflected by all surfaces around it, so is the illumination of the Adept reflected even by his unilluminated followers. 62