72. Distinctive Features of the Three Methods of Practice

DISCOURSES ON

RADHASOAMI FAITH

BY

MAHARAJ SAHAB

Pandit Brahm Sankar Misra, M.A.

72. DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF THE THREE METHODS OF PRACTICE

            110. We have now completed the explanation of the three different methods of spiritual practices by which the development of the spirit-force and the ascent of the spirit-entity to higher spheres are accomplished. The method of spiritual or internal repetition of the holy name 'Radhasoami' at the centre of the spirit-entity, and the contemplation of the image of a living true spiritual guide or adept at the same spot, are usually performed during the earlier portion of a devotee's spiritual training with the object of achieving concentration of spirit and developing the latent spiritual powers. This preliminary training endows the spirit with sufficient energy to attend to the sound-practice later on. The two preliminary methods referred to are, however, not discarded on the commencement of the sound-practice. They are all along continued as part of the daily spiritual training. The methods of repetition and contemplation are at a later stage performed at centres higher than that of the spirit-entity, and they are as efficacious in awakening the potentialities of the higher spheres as they are in respect of the potentiality of the spirit-centre. If the adept, however, belongs to the second grand-division of creation, the contemplation of his form is of no use when it is performed at centres situated beyond the centres appertaining to the regions of the Universal Mind or Brahma. On the contrary, it would constitute a positive obstacle, if this course is persisted in. The contemplation of the form of an adept of the spiritual region, viz, that of a Sant Satguru alone is prescribed. Of course, the contemplation of the form of such a guide at lower centres also is very beneficial, and the efficacy of this process is not confined to the centres of the purely spiritual regions. This is the reason for prescribing the contemplation of a Saint's form from the commencement of the spiritual training. The above remarks, mutatis mutandis, apply to the repetition of the holy name of Brahma, viz, 'Om', and to the repetition of the supreme holy name, 'Radhasoami'.