the Master who is working through him. And, just as an instrument has a tendency to go wrong while in use, the seeker is also likely to get out of order when working in the world. From time to time, the instrument has to be cleansed, overhauled, repaired and set right. In the same way, the aspirant who, during his work, may have developed new perversities, entanglements and shelters for the personal ego, has to be put into working order, so that he can go ahead in his spiritual sojourn.

The aspirant who enlists in the service of the Master may be compared to the broom with which the Master cleanses the world of its impurities. While doing this work the broom is bound to accumulate the dirt of the world; and unless he is cleansed again and again and given a new tone, he will be less efficient in the course of time. Each time the aspirant goes to the Master, he goes to him with a crop of fresh spiritual problems. He might have gotten caught up in new entanglements connected with a craving for honor, riches, or other worldly things that allure men. If he pursues these, he may get them; but he may be far from the goal of experiencing God on whom he had set his heart. It is only through the active intervention of the Master that such spiritual diseases can be cured.

This task of curing spiritual diseases is comparable to the performance of an operation by a surgeon who promptly removes the very cause which may have been sapping at the vital energies of man. If a person develops physical ailments and complaints, he must go to the doctor or surgeon; and, if he develops spiritual troubles, he must go to the Master. Recurring contact with the Master is most necessary throughout the process of spiritual advancement.

The Master helps the seeker in his own invincible ways, which have no parallel in the ways of the world. But if the aspirant is to be the recipient of this help, he must make a real effort to surrender himself to the divine will of the Master. The personal ego which the aspirant renounced in his first surrender to the Master might reappear in a new aspect, even within the artificial ego which was meant to be completely subservient to the Master, and create disorder in its smooth working. So, this new resurrection of the limited personal ego of the seeker must be counteracted through fresh surrenderance to the Master. The series of successive resurrections of the personal ego have to be accompanied by a series of fresh acts of surrender to Him.