ARRIVING AT SELF-KNOWLEDGE

 
When the time is ripe the advancement of a person towards self-knowledge comes about as naturally as the physical body of the child grows into the full-fledged form. This growth of the physical body is worked out by the operation of natural laws; whereas the progress of the aspirant towards self-knowledge is worked out by the operation of the spiritual laws pertaining to the transformation and emancipation of consciousness.

The physical body of the child grows very gradually and almost imperceptibly; and the same is true of the spiritual progress of the person who has once entered the Path. The child does not know how its physical body grows: the aspirant also is, in the same way, often oblivious of the law according to which he makes headway towards the destination of his spiritual progress.

The aspirant is generally conscious only of the manner in which he has been responding to the diverse situations in life: but he is rarely conscious of the manner in which he makes progress towards self-knowledge. But without consciously knowing it the aspirant is gradually arriving at self-knowledge by traversing the Inner Path through his joys and sorrows, his happiness and suffering, his successes and failures, his efforts and rest, and, through his moments of clear perception and harmonised will as well as through moments of confusion and conflict.

These are the manifestations of the diverse sanskaras which he has brought from the past; and the aspirant forges his way towards self-knowledge through the tangles of these sanskaras like the traveller treading his way through a wild and thick forest.