If you are sure of the Divine Call and if thy soul wants to fufill that Divine Will, there can be immense progress for thee in the difficult path of Yoga.

If the call is not true, and only the lure of thy ego, the end of thy effort will be a spiritual disaster.

And if it is not the soul’s assent and vigour but only an egotistic interest or an intellectual pride or only the lower mind which tries to clutch at some side attractions of the fruits of Yoga, then again there can be no surety for thee in the rugged path of Yoga.

The Titanic inner battle going on in the human bosom is formidable and the outer instruments of man have no force to carry him through the severe rigours of this difficult journey. Terrible are the ordeals, trials and tribulations. Only his spirit’s indomitable will and the insatiable thirst for Immortality is sufficient for him to succeed.

Things that were hidden by the silence of the hours
Ideas that found no voice on human lips
The soul’s pregnant meeting with Infinity
Had come to birth in him and taken fire ! - ( Aurobindo ).

In the initial stages of Yoga, one will find that a power not located in the body but possessing it, is thinking for you and propelling you and that your body entire is moved by that force and not by yourself !

Even if His presence is felt behind the veil in the difficult path of Yoga, it is like the winter sun behind the clouds and saves one not from the rain and snow ! But the help is there, even when it seems to be withdrawn, but the background of the sunless total darkness still hovers around us !

The Divine Mother hath a face beautiful but She also has another face. The other face is the total darkness associated with tests and tribulations, the Dark Night of the Soul and Dark Night of the Spirit.

The Dark Night of the Spirit is combustion. Combustion is passion, combustion is Crucifixon. One will have to bear the Cross and may be crucified by the people one loves !

Can the Divine Crown be given to a weakling ? Or is Self Actualisation a prize to be given without effort ? Your trust will be justified ultimately and if you strive rightly, thou shalt have ! But the dread Law of the Path is there and the formidable trials and tribulations have to be overcome, in order to attain Self-Actualisation !

We find that there many trials and tribulations on the path divine. These are parts of the process and tests of fidelity.

When with pain thou hast destroyed the inner enemies, other thousands will rise up like a ten headed Hydra. The Negative Aspect will vomit its hordes to wound and threaten thee, to bring thee to terra firma. Heaven will test thee with its pitiless trials and cold denials, testing here and there thy will to transcend, testing thy patience, purity and perseverance. In thy anguish thou shalt find thyself isolated, the inner enemies furious in thy path, the positive elements unwilling above thee. Powerful, cruel, menacing, innumerable and close are the sinister powers that profit by Ignorance and which will block change in the body, the change which will be inimical to them. Far away are the Positive Elements who are permitted to help thee.

Each step of the ladder climbed is only a step on the way and there are many stairs to climb, to reach Heaven’s threshold, the Goal of Self Actualisation. Each victory which thou prize is only the prelude to a hundred thousand fierce battles, which are about to come ! But thou sayest Divine Grace is with me, I have the Lord’s support and there are divine forces out to help me.  Knowest thou not that Divine Grace is far more difficult to obtain than the Wealth of this world or the mundane Crown ?

Ask His instruments and they will tell you how often He had hid himself from them, how often He had hid in his veil mysterious , that they found themselves in the midst of Hell, in the abysmal darkness, totally defenceless in the anguish of the battle !

The Way or the Path is not easy. It is dangerous and difficult, if not long and rugged. Each step forward is a battle. There are alarming descensions and there are endless ascensions and higher and higher peaks left to conquer.

It has been referred to as Jacob’s ladder in Freemasonry. Tennyson defined it as

The world’s great altar stairs
Which slopes through darkness upto God !

This is the golden ladder by which we ascend to Self Actualisation, crossing many a trial and tribulation .

At every step there is unfortunately an ambush and a pitfall at every turn. We have to have implicit faith and an indomitable will to conquer our inner enemies. A thousand enemies, seen or unseen, will start up against thee, powerful against thy weaknesses and frailties, and awfully majestic against thy ignorance ! Fear not, the Grace Divine is with you and thou shalt not fail !