The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE EQUINOX 21. Thou hast to be prepared to anwer Dharma, the stern law, whose voice will ask thee first at thy initial step: 22. “Hast thou complied with all the rules, O thou of lofty hopes? “Hast thou attuned thy heart and mind to the great mind and heart of all mankind? For as the sacred River’s roaring voice whereby all Nature-sounds are echoed back, so must the heart of him “who in the stream would enter,” thrill in response to every sigh and thought of all that lives and breathes.” Here is another absurdity. What is the sense of asking a man at his initial step if he has complied with all the rules? If the disciple were in the condition mentioned, he would be already very far advanced. But of course if we were to take the words “The threshold of the Path” “The foremost gate” “The stream” as equivalent to Srotapatti, the passage would gain in intel- ligibility. But, just as in the noble eight-fold Path, the steps are concurrent, not consecutive, so, like the Comte de Saint Germain, when he was expelled from Berlin, one can go through all the seven Gates at once. 23. Disciples may be likened to the strings of the soul- echoing Vina; Mankind, unto its sounding-board; the hand that sweeps it to the tuneful breath of the GREAT WORLD- SOUL. The string that fails to answer ’neath the Master's touch in dulcet harmony with all the others, breaks—and is cast away. So the collective minds of Lanoo-Shravakas. 94