Q. Do intellectual attainments help or hinder man’s progress on the spiritual path?

A. It is impossible to reach the spiritual Truth and Realization by talks, arguments, or by reading books. It can be reached by the heart alone; but that would be a very slow process. But when the heart and the head are equally developed and well-balanced, man's progress is much quicker.

The man in whom the head (intellect) is more developed than the heart, is liable to get idées fixes (fixed ideas), and he becomes attached to his intellectual achievements and superiority. The man with a warm heart has greater faith, and for Love and Truth, he will give up all.

Intellect is the lowest form of understanding, and is developed by reading, listening, reasoning and logic. These processes create an illusion of Real Knowledge.

The higher form of understanding is permanent illumination through which one experiences and sees things as they are. In this state, one feels in harmony with everyone and everything, and realizes Divinity in every phase of life and is able to impart happiness to others.

The last and the highest state of understanding results from the merging of the soul into the limitless Ocean of Infinite Knowledge, Bliss and Power. One who has himself attained to this can enable thousands to attain Perfection.

Q. Why is meditation on a Perfect Master the most effective form of meditation?

A. By meditation on a Perfect Master who is divine and fully conscious of his divinity, the individual who is divine, but not fully conscious of his divinity, is led into Divine Self-Consciousness.

Q. What is the theory of the manifestation of an Avatar?

A. God-realized Masters always do exist on the physical as well as on other planes, but are not always known and seen physically. After cycles of years when spirituality reaches its lowest ebb, and materialism is at its highest points, and at those critical periods when there is chaos and misery everywhere, the impersonal aspect of Divinity assumes personality, and the world sees the physical manifestation of an Avatar, or Prophet.

It is the same Divine Personality who manifested as an Avatar in the