both the deductive and the inductive.  The student must first learn the general axioms, which have sufficiently been laid down in the Elixir of Life and other occult writings.  What the student has first to do is to comprehend these axioms and, by employing the deductive method, to proceed from universals to particulars.  He has then to reason from the “known to the unknown,” and see if the inductive method of proceeding from particulars to universals supports those axioms.  This process forms the primary stage of true contemplation.  The student must first grasp the subject intellectually before he can hope to realize his aspirations.  When this is accomplished, then comes the next stage of meditation, which is “the inexpressible yearning of the inner man to ’go out towards the infinite.’” Before any such yearning can be properly directed, the goal must first be determined.  The higher stage, in fact, consists in practically realizing what the first steps have placed within one’s comprehension.  In short, contemplation, in its true sense, is to recognize the truth of Eliphas Levi’s saying:—­

To believe without knowing is weakness; to believe, because one knows, is power.

The Elixir of Life not only gives the preliminary steps in the ladder of contemplation but also tells the reader how to realize the higher stages.  It traces, by the process of contemplation as it were, the relation of man, “the known,” the manifested, the phenomenon, to “the unknown,” the unmanifested, the noumenon.  It shows the student what ideal to contemplate and how to rise up to it.  It places before him the nature of the inner capacities of man and how to develop them.  To a superficial reader, this may, perhaps, appear as the acme of selfishness.  Reflection will, however, show the contrary to be the case.  For it teaches the student that to comprehend the noumenal, he must identify himself with Nature.  Instead of looking upon himself as an isolated being, he must learn to look upon himself as a part of the Integral Whole.  For, in the unmanifested world, it can be clearly perceived that all is controlled by the “Law of Affinity,” the attraction of the one for the other.  There, all is Infinite Love, understood in its true sense.

It may now not be out of place to recapitulate what has already been said.  The first thing to be done is to study the axioms of Occultism and work upon them by the deductive and the inductive methods, which is real contemplation.  To turn this to a useful purpose, what is theoretically comprehended must be practically realized.

—­Damodar K. Mavalaukar

Chelas and Lay Chelas