Material Success and Happiness Through Yoga Principles

by Swami Kriyananda
(J. Donald Walters)

Copyright © 2005 Hansa Trust
All rights reserved.
Lesson Twenty-One
The Stages of Human Evolution
The Principles
I remember many years ago—I was twenty at the time—entering an informal chess tournament. The man against whom I was pitted was said to be a local chess champion—a title to which I had no claim at all. I’d heard that his specialty was a complicated pawn play. I therefore decided, in a spirit of fun, to “spook” him with an unusual “pawn play” of my own. In truth, I had no system. My only hope of victory lay in bluffing him.
He was a man in his fifties, I’d say, very serious of visage, and bristling with confidence in his own ability. Mine was a sort of “last ditch” strategy: to confuse the fellow completely by moving my pawns haphazardly without the slightest logic. My only aim was to bewilder him.
Well, he couldn’t imagine that I might be playing just for the fun of it. Probably fun was even foreign to his nature. I could almost hear him thinking, “Now, what can the reasoning be behind that move?” So perplexed did that brooding make him that I actually check-mated him before he could get any inkling of what I was doing. Still he didn’t understand, and came to our second game only slightly better prepared, but insufficiently so. My mad-cap moves brought him this time to a “stalemate”—which, for those who don’t know chess, means that the game was a draw.
At this point, aware by now that I’d been “taking” him, he became furious—more at himself, I suspect, than at me—rose from the table, and stalked fiercely away. Evidently he felt—and quite rightly so!—that it was beneath his dignity to play against such an ignoramus as me!
To succeed in one’s work requires a certain expertise, and one not too dissimilar from the skill needed to play a good game of chess. It helps also to have the kind of “skill” that inspired me that day. I hadn’t the necessary ability to be expert at the game, but, fortunately for me, I possessed another advantage: I was blessed with a certain creative flair—enough, at least, to see the possibilities of “beating him at his own game,” which enabled me to leap, figuratively speaking, left or right as the occasion demanded, and to adjust to the situation at hand.
On many other occasions in my life I’ve had, similarly, to “tilt” circumstances in my favor by studying a situation, and then taking a new approach to it.
Anyone with a hope of achieving success in life, especially if he is seeking it through yoga principles, must understand that success doesn’t always come by plodding along on a predictable course: Often it comes by putting out the mental energy, first, to look for a new way.
Yoga principles might seem to be fixed in an ancient tradition. This is certainly true in the sense that certain realities of human nature never change, and that yoga deals with those realities. It is not true, however, in other vitally important ways. The more central a truth is, the greater the number of avenues one can take to reach it. From the center of a wheel outward, the entire wheel can be seen in proportion. From its periphery, the center can be approached from every point of the compass, but every approach is from a different direction.
Really to succeed in life demands a creative outlook. Don’t be afraid to develop this gift—for that is what it is, simply: a gift, not a unique quality which only a few individuals possess. Be careful, on the other hand, for others who haven’t developed this gift will not appreciate it. If your superior especially prefers the “tried and true” ways, realize that he may consider you a mere upstart. Be careful, and respect him for what he is. Creative arrogance is notorious, and is, in the end, self-defeating. Never allow ability to go to your head. As my Guru said, “A swelled head is the death of wisdom.”
People tend to be creatures of habit. Habit, too, is “the death of wisdom.” It is amusing, though understandable, to see people in the malls of India who have never before seen a moving staircase or escalator. In Gurgaon, just south of New Delhi, I once tried to assist a young lady who feared to set foot on a downward-moving escalator. Her more enterprising mother had met the challenge and overcome it; she was already waiting at the bottom.
I took pity on the young woman. “Now,” I urged her, “set one foot in the middle of a step the moment it appears.” After several attempts, she finally “took the plunge” and descended easily to the bottom. Other people whom I’ve tried to help onto that first step have given up and turned away to take the nearby, and less convenient elevator (or lift).
If you are an employer, recognize that people are like chessmen, in a sense. The bishop in chess can only move diagonally. The castle can only move vertically or horizontally. The knight moves two steps then one step sidewise; he can also leap over other players, something the bishop and castle cannot do. Pawns, of all the pieces, have the most restricted movements.
Obviously, my purpose here is not to teach you chess! I’m using it, however, as a good illustration.
Chess originated in India. The consciousness of Indians can be very subtle, though, as Sherlock Holmes rightly said of chess, exceptional skill in that game suggests a talent for scheming. My point here is that people resemble chessmen in that they, too, each have their limitations. Don’t expect the “pawns” in your work force to be able to act like castles or knights. If you are an employee, be tolerant of eccentricities in your fellow workers and even in your boss. Everyone has to work within the limitations of his own nature, which is the result of his own actions in the past. Thus, if you (as an employee) marvel at certain limitations in your coworkers, and if you (as a boss or employer) shake your head at people’s inability to grasp something that to you seems obvious, tell yourself that perhaps that person is a knight, not a bishop as you might have wished, and that another person is a castle, not a queen. There must, of course, be pawns also; they will probably be (as in chess) the more numerous. If you, as an employee, find your boss hemmed in by his own limitations—as he almost certainly will be, since he is human—accept that fact good-naturedly. And if you are the boss, don’t get impatient with workers on your staff who don’t seem to come quite “up to snuff.” There are few things more difficult for an intelligent employee than to have an unintelligent boss, or for one who is creative and imaginative to have a boss who is a “plodder.” The best thing to do if you find yourself in this position is to see if you can’t find some other place of employment. And if you are a boss and a staff member of yours fails similarly, try to fit him into some other position. It may take time to see how a person’s talents or abilities can be put to the best use. On the other hand, if his main defect is that he lacks willingness, and if you fail to get him to motivate himself, it may be necessary, after all, to send him on his way.
It is idle to expect people to change drastically. It simply doesn’t happen. You can’t make them change, and they themselves, try as they will, can only refine the natures they were born with.
Years ago, while I was writing my autobiography The Path, I looked at a photograph of myself at the age of four, and saw in those eyes the same fellow I still was. I’ve had superiors say about me, “Why must he be like this?” or, “Why can’t he be like that?” There is something I might do about it, I suppose—but not as much as might be wished.
The ancient teachings of India make it very clear that there are different lines of human development. Wise gurus see clearly into the uniqueness of each disciple, and encourage his or her development along that line. Such is the way of wisdom.
Some people are more naturally inclined to seek out opportunities. Others wait for opportunity to present itself. Still others would not recognize opportunity if you framed it, wrapped it, and gave it to them as a gift. Many people are too thrustful by nature for their own spiritual good. They may need to be tamed, either by a wise guru or by life itself. Other people are too passive, and need to be spurred to greater activity. Some people are naturally solemn, and cannot be made to laugh even at a good joke. Others react quickly to humor, and can be won best through their sense of fun.
Many years ago, the government of Nevada County, where I founded our first Ananda Sangha community, decided to see us as a threat because we didn’t fit into any of their accepted categories. The head of the Planning Department tried to arrange things so that we’d simply blow away. She made things as difficult for us as she could. She insisted, first, that we develop a master plan according to her way of thinking. I think she must have deliberately made it impossible to complete. We presented a plan to her, whereupon she declared that it was too simple. We elaborated it: She then declared that it was too complex. What were we to do? By this time, she’d already been holding up our development for five years.
I decided that the only possible solution was to have her replaced. Obviously, she didn’t want to help us to resolve what she saw as our problem. Rather, to her mind, our community itself was the “problem.” Her hope was for us simply to fail.
And then came 1976, the bicentennial year of the United States of America. I proposed to our members that year that we form a “Bicentennial Liberty Committee” to publicize America’s need for a return to basic liberties. It was my way of protesting official persecution.
The great majority of the Ananda members opposed this idea. To them, it was “goofy” and a conflict with our apolitical nature. “We won’t even have a community,” I replied, “if we don’t do something! My suggestion isn’t immoral: It’s super moral!” The county officials we had to deal with, I pointed out, had been appointed to their positions and were duty-bound in a democracy to listen to public opinion. Refractory persons at Ananda simply dug in their heels and refused to cooperate.
I myself was busy at the time writing my autobiography, The Path, and couldn’t go out pamphleteering. At last I managed to interest one member, a woman, by appealing to her lively sense of humor. I figured that if I pitched my appeal to her sense of fun, she might feel inspired to give me the support I needed. She laughed and enlisted a few others. They distributed handbills outside of supermarkets and in various other public places. She herself spoke in radio news broadcasts about our “Bicentennial Liberty Committee” and what it was all about. Naturally, the literature I wrote for them emphasized the large numbers of people who were seriously concerned. Many people, in fact, had begun to look upon the resistance of the officials as a form of harassment.
We were finally successful. The head of the Planning Department was fired, and a man was brought in from outside who was sympathetic to our needs.
People in the county later tried to get this Ananda member to run for public office, but I discouraged her from that activity. It was, in fact, too different from what Ananda was really all about.
My point here is that one must be flexible in his approach to every situation. Never let any self-definition limit the options before you.
Many years later, that woman member wrote up her recollections of this episode in Ananda’s history, centering her recollections of it in the “crazy humor” of the situation. My own intentions, however, had been quite serious from the start (as I reminded her). I’d appealed to her sense of humor only because I considered it the best way to reach her and get her involved.
Any time you find it difficult to get people to do what is needed in some work, consider them from a point of view of their own natures. Work with them as they are. If you are the boss, this concept may prove, for you, all-important. If you are an employee, you may find it helpful in your work to take others into account, and to accept them as they are. It seldom works to criticize or judge others. Go with their reality as it is. Go with them as they are. And in the process, take your own nature into account!
I remember having to work once with an older woman who insisted on always having the last word. I’d been told simply to try to work with her. I wasn’t under her. Instead, however, of pushing the fact that our responsibilities were supposedly equal, I learned to persuade her to new ideas by reminding her that she had had that idea also. This I was able to do sincerely even if she’d only hinted, once, at the possibility.
Others under me have sometimes tried to use that tactic with me. As I am constituted, however, the tactic doesn’t work. If someone tries to tell me that an idea was mine, I am likely to reply, “Did I say that? It seems to me that So-and-so’s suggestion is better.” People have learned in working with me that my concern is with what will work best, not with who had the idea. I say this not to boast, but simply to urge everyone to recognize the diversity in people’s natures, and to try to work with them as they really are.
Anyone who is in a leadership position—and, to a lesser degree, anyone who works with others in any capacity—may need to concentrate on deepening his understanding of people—not only of human nature generally, but of the human natures with which he must deal. His understanding, in other words, needs to be not only general, but specific. One thing should be understood above all: There is, for everyone on earth, a specific, clear direction that will lead him or her to highest fulfillment—an apotheosis to which everyone on earth aspires.
Irrespective of the different lines of development people take in the intricate web of possibilities in human nature, there is, as I have said, one basic direction that all must take in their development. The successive stages in that development apply universally. No one can avoid them for the simple reason that all mankind manifests one, universal reality.
This is not the place to argue the doctrine of reincarnation. It is profound, and, in fact—if one will consider it deeply—self-evident. It explains all the differences in human nature, and answers any question that can arise regarding that nature. If you, who study these lessons, believe that a person lives on earth only once, then instead of my trying to win you to this concept let me say only that what follows will make sense to you anyway, though it may be less justifiable philosophically.
The fact is, there are differences of refinement and sensitivity in all human beings. Even were I to give the traditional explanation for these differences, as it is presented in the Hindu scriptures, and even if you were to reject that explanation, you would still find yourself facing certain clear and evident realities.
According to the ancient teachings to which I’ve referred, the manifestations of consciousness in matter evolve upward from lower to higher stages of life. It takes five to eight million incarnations, as I said in an earlier lesson, to reach the human level. At this stage, life has evolved upward to the point where it is fully self-, or ego-conscious. There are lower animals that manifest some degree of ego, but not enough to ask themselves such all-important questions as, “Why am I suffering?” Man’s ego, too, must evolve before he asks himself that question, and also the next one, which is even more important: “What can I do about it?”
A soul newly raised to the human level has all the mental equipment to ask these questions. It hasn’t the long memory, however, of repeated suffering for him to give his suffering serious, long-term consideration. Man’s natural inclination, earlier on, is to seek gratification through physical sense-pleasures. He is not inclined yet to rely on brain-power to solve any problem more intricate than, “What can I eat today?” or, “How can I fulfill this desire, or that one?” He divides other human beings up into those who please and those who, because they frustrate his desires, displease him. Such a person eats, sleeps, breeds, and dies. His entire life span might be compared, in its productivity, to a crocodile sleeping on a river bank.
After a few lives of physical and mental indolence, a person begins to think, “I wish I didn’t have to suffer.” He then begins to analyze his life. He concludes that suffering comes from not having what he wants. In time, he realizes that even this is not the whole story. Slowly, step by step, he seeks his fulfillments on ever-subtler levels. For a long time, his awareness remains wholly centered in the ego, which causes him to define good and bad in terms of how he himself is affected. He uses his intelligence to ask, of every opportunity, “What’s in it for me?”
An individual takes many incarnations to realize that accumulation is not his true goal: that what he wants is that abstraction, happiness. He learns, first, that happiness comes more from sharing his gains with others, including their well being in his own. Thus, he thinks, “What is best for all concerned?”
Finally, the realization dawns on him that happiness is not a mere thing, but a state of mind. To share his happiness with others is more fulfilling to him than to seek it only for himself. His consciousness becomes focused on becoming a source of happiness for others, and on sharing with them such intangible benefits as peace, love, and understanding.
Everyone wants to expand his self-awareness. Opposing this natural instinct is the ego’s desire for self-gratification, which, as long experience shows one, causes self-contraction. The more expansive one’s consciousness becomes, the greater his sense of true fulfillment. This truth is universal, because the natural impulse of the soul is to reach toward its origin in God. The more contractive one is, out of ignorance, the more he draws suffering upon himself. Self-limitation contradicts his own inherently expansive urge, which his soul holds up to him constantly, albeit silently.
There are countless pitfalls on the way to Self-realization. Many people, when they first become aware of an expansive urge, want to accumulate wealth. First indeed, I should say, they think to satisfy that urge by indulging in sense-pleasures. Later, others, if they eschew wealth, try to achieve self-expansion by an increase of knowledge. These apparent routes to self-expansion and fulfillment are illusory. At the end of each lies the desire, always, for “something more.” One may be wealthy, or absorbed in sense-pleasures, or a veritable paragon of erudition, but everything, in the end, will disappoint him. Wealthy people make the same discovery Howard Hughes made, who was asked toward the end of his life, “Are you happy?” He replied in a thin, cracked voice, “Nah, I can’t say that I’m happy!”
There is another type of human being who tries to find happiness by destroying everything he thinks stands in the way to his own fulfillment. He will harm and even kill others, dominate them, trample them underfoot. Is he happy? By no means! Joseph Stalin, ruthless dictator that he was, became paranoid with fear in his last years—as I said earlier—that everyone around him only schemed to do him in, as he himself had “obliterated” so many others.
Kings and emperors dream of ruling over more and more territory, more and more people, and possessing more and more money and power. Are they ever satisfied? The question itself is laughable. Alexander “the Great” sent a drastic summons to a certain yogi he’d heard about in India who slept on a bed of leaves, and whose “roof” consisted of tree branches: “If you come in answer to this summons, and reply to his imperial majesty’s questions, he will lavish vast wealth upon you. If, however, you refuse, he will strike off your head!”
The yogi sent back his reply: “What your majesty offers me is of no value to me. I am already wealthy in my few possessions. As for my head, it has served its purpose now that I’ve realized the Self. If your majesty needs anything of mine, come here and request it of me.” Legend tells us that the emperor went humbly to the yogi, and asked for wisdom.
When the vast variety in human nature is reduced to its essentials, we see in the four stages I outlined in an earlier lesson that they define the ego’s long journey to Self-realization in the Infinite. Thus did the caste system originally evolve. As I have quoted my Guru, and many other saintly authorities, as saying, caste was not actually a system at all, but simply an explanation of a universal reality. A person’s true caste has little to do, except accidentally, with his birth lineage. Often it happens, of course, that people take after their parents. This is because, when a man and a woman unite sexually, their state of mind at that moment emits a light in the astral world; that vibration attracts souls (egos, that is to say) that are ready to be reborn, and who have similar tendencies. This rule is by no means infallible, but the old rule generally applies: “Birds of a feather flock together”! As Krishna states in the Bhagavad Gita, it is difficult for a fallen yogi to be born into a spiritual family, for spiritual people often have few or no children.
A friend of mine once scolded her little five-year-old son, who left the room in a huff. He returned a moment later and announced, “And you weren’t my first choice, either!”
Later she asked him, “Who was your first choice?”
“Oh, some woman in the Philippines,” he replied. “She was already taken.”
The lowest type of human being is defined not only by such qualities as vengefulness and destructiveness, but principally by his nearness to the consciousness of animals. He may even be peaceful by nature, but unless he has self-expansive impulses he may still be a lower type of human being—a sudra type.
It is possible for the highest type of human being to sink to the lowest level. The one thing that differentiates man from the lower animals is free will. Self-awareness enables him to rise or fall, as he himself chooses—though few would choose to fall if they understood the consequences of that choice.
It is possible even to sink below the human level. This occurrence is unusual. When it happens, it does so for only one incarnation at a time. If a human being continues to act bestially, he may have to return to that lower state again, and even again repeatedly—for one incarnation, each time. To do so is a great punishment, for there lingers in the subconscious a vague recollection of having been more evolved.
Is it possible to descend even lower than the animal level? Unfortunately, yes, though I am not going to explain that depressing fact here. The soul’s capacity to rise or fall is, indeed—like cosmic consciousness itself—infinite.
A Western visitor to Tibet many years ago wrote of an experience she had heard about in that mysterious land. A certain elderly lama had tried to violate a young maiden sexually. She, being stronger than he, was able easily to fend him off. She ran home and told her mother what had occurred. The older woman, however, replied in astonishment, “But he is such a holy lama! Perhaps you should not have resisted him. He must have had some reason. I suggest you return to him and apologize.”
When the girl appeared before him again, the lama told her he wasn’t interested. “I was concerned for a certain lama,” he explained, “who, owing to his wrong deeds, was destined to take a lower birth in his next life. I saw that he was ready to be reborn, and, out of compassion for him, wanted to help him to achieve at least a human birth. Now conception has occurred anyway. Two asses in that nearby field were copulating at the time, and the ex-lama will be born to the mare.”
One naturally wonders: Did the compassion of the lama not extend also to the poor maiden whom he’d intended to burden with this fallen soul? I haven’t an answer to that question, and can only be relieved for the sake of the girl herself that he failed in his attempt.
In the normal course of upward human evolution, however, as I have explained earlier, from sudra to vaisya to kshatriya to brahmin to self-realized master, the closer one comes to God, the greater the joy he finds in himself, and the deeper his instinct becomes to share that joy with others. Thus, the saints alone—as distinct from merely religious priests—are the true brahmins.
A jivan mukta, finally, is a spiritual master. He has attained the highest spiritual state of nirbikalpa samadhi, having merged ego-consciousness wholly in the Infinite. Such a one is no longer merely a human being: He has expanded his sense of selfhood to the point where it embraces the Self of all. He is above all the four castes, and beyond the three qualities or gunas: tama (inertial), raja (activating), and sattwa (elevating). His nature has no farther to rise, for he has attained the Absolute.
An interesting question was once asked my Guru by a guest at Mt. Washington: “Is there any end to evolution?”
“No end,” the Master replied. “You go on until you achieve endlessness.”
When working with others, try to see them in relation to the four castes. Never mind what caste their parents seem to be: That is a false categorization, and has been a cause of much social injustice. It has, moreover, excused much unjustified arrogance. See, rather, whether the individuals who work with you have, first, the capacity to think for themselves. In many a business there is a need also for sudra types who will not, and should not even be expected to, put their minds to anything. Such persons should be given tasks that require little or no mentation.
My paramguru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, said that menial positions, far from demeaning such people, are actually helpful to them spiritually owing to their close association with people of higher consciousness. That association raises their consciousness, and thereby improves their karma.
Thus, also, a vaisya is raised by mixing with people of a kshatriya disposition. A natural brahmin, finally, who needs good company as much as anyone, can derive the greatest benefit from mixing with spiritual masters.
Much has been said in popular Hindu tradition about the danger of pollution, from mixing too closely with lower types of humanity than one’s own. People have carried this tradition to absurd lengths, creating rules for who pollutes whom. They have made people the prisoners of their own culture. My Guru pointed out that fear itself attracts the objects of its fears. If you fear pollution, you may actually draw occasions of pollution to yourself. Moreover, my Guru said that, in any exchange of magnetism, it is the stronger that influences the weaker, not the reverse. When faith in God is strong, no negativity can touch you.
I remember once sitting out of doors with a group of monks in the company of our Guru. We were eating. Someone dropped a piece of food onto the ground, and our Guru warned, “Don’t eat it!” Then he added, “But if you declare with faith, ‘All is Brahma!’ it won’t matter if you eat it.” Accordingly, we all chanted, “All is Brahma!” Whoever it was that had dropped the food picked it up solemnly and put it in his mouth. It was an occasion of amusement.
An attitude very often encountered in offices, or wherever groups of people work together, is one of behaving slightingly toward others. Egoism is strongly rooted in human nature. Many would define virtue itself in terms of the sort of people they are, themselves. “I may be a slow worker, but at least I don’t leave my desk cluttered as you do!” Or, “I may not be neat, but at least I get things done quickly.” Which way is better? To be both neat and efficient is best of all, of course, but neither quality deserves special placement in any gradation of virtue, until other factors have been taken into consideration. The ancient system in India was supreme in that it provided a reasonable guideline to excellence. That person is best who is the least centered in the common attitude of, “What’s in it for me?”
We cannot leave the subject there, however. To do so would be too simplistic. Every organization, every office, every group of people who work together has specific needs that may have nothing to do with caste refinements. A man who lays bricks needs, from his employer’s point of view, to be skilled only at laying bricks. He may be of any caste: all that matters to his employer is that he lay the bricks straight, well, and true. Although these considerations are important, they have little or nothing to do with our course on yoga principles. On the other hand, efficiency also is a yoga principle, and is more likely to be found in persons of greater intelligence, and therefore is more likely to exist in people of a naturally higher caste, where the brain gets some employment, at least.
What I am saying, in practical terms, is that an efficient brick layer may find himself forever confined to that kind of work—much to his own detriment in terms of his spiritual growth. Look at those who work for you—and, for that matter, at those also who work with you—and see what might be done to raise them higher than their present position, and not keep them doing the same thing adequately. In this way you will—if your position is that of leader—improve your business in the highest way, by producing other leaders.
Several times in my own life I have felt that I must sacrifice an excellent secretary, simply because he or she was ready to serve in some other and perhaps higher way. For me, personally, to do so was a setback, but it meant a gain for the over-all work I was developing.
Understanding that the different castes are a valid way of separating people into self-determined categories will help you to direct your entire work force along yoga principles, for it will mean keeping in mind, and helping to advance, everyone’s evolution. This system will help you to think not only of developing people’s natural skills, but also of unfolding their natures to their own highest effectiveness in the organization.
This lesson may help you above all by getting you to stop judging people (if this happens to be your fault) in terms of what you think they ought to be, and to work with everybody, instead, as he is.

The Application
Ultimately, the quest for material success through yoga principles must be related to the kind of success you yourself desire in life. Everything you seek is, if you will analyze it deeply, something that you hope will increase your happiness. Why aspire to be as wealthy as Howard Hughes, who was possibly the wealthiest man in the world, but who never found happiness?
I myself turned to God only after realizing that what I thought I wanted—namely, intellectual understanding—couldn’t give me the simple, heartfelt joy I remembered having as a child. I decided that that simple joy was what was lacking in my life. It is that realization which, in the end, turns everyone to God. People may hope, for the present, to find the end of their “rainbow” in lesser fulfillments. Whatever that hope, their hearts will be dry and unfulfilled until they turn back toward their own true Source, within.
You may think of that Self as God. You may think of it in more personal, or more abstract, terms. Still, there is something within you that will never let you rest until you’ve found the joy of your own being.
So—you may wonder—is this not also a “principle,” rather than an “application” of the teachings in this chapter? No, for what I’ve pointed out to you as the end you are already seeking is the essence of your own nature. Now you must do something about it! What you must do is expand your self-identification.
You’ve been seeking self-expansion already, by developing your brain and nervous system. You’ve sought it also, presumably, by expanding from selfish accumulation and self-indulgence to helping others. You must have done so; otherwise, you would not be studying these lessons!
What you need, now, is to continue to expand your sympathies consciously. Try to feel other people’s joys and sorrows as your own. When you take a solitary walk, try to feel the breeze that moves the leaves of the trees around you. Try to feel the atmosphere that encircles you. When traveling, try to feel the vibrations of the places you visit. Should you enter a holy shrine, try to feel the blessings it emanates. Indeed, the holier the place, the more its vibrations will uplift you.
You are so much more than you know! Direct your quest for success through normal goals in life to ever-higher levels of fulfillment in your own Self. It is for that fulfillment that you will always long, until you achieve your destiny at last—endless, eternal bliss!

Meditation
Sit in meditation. Try to feel the world around you. As you apply yourself to this practice you will develop a real intuition of it as a conscious reality.
In business, or when contemplating an investment, or a new direction of activity, try to feel whether or not it is right for you. That kind of intuition will appear in your heart center, the anahat chakra. Concentrate, first, at the point between the eyebrows, and visualize clearly there what it is you contemplate doing. Then “listen” in the heart: see whether the response you get there is “Go!” or “Stop!” A “Go” feeling will uplift you; it will be accompanied by a certain flow of energy. A “Stop” feeling will produce a sort of nervousness, of rejection; there will be no flow in it at all. Rather, you will feel the energy blocked. Try it!
Years ago, the owner of a bookstore in Menlo Park, California, asked me if I would like to buy her out (she was growing old and wanted to retire). It took me hardly a moment to decide. I simply practiced what I’ve written above: Standing before her desk, I inwardly asked myself the question: “Should I?” Suddenly I felt a “Go!” response in my heart. I didn’t have the money, nor anything close to it, at the time. Nor did our Ananda community. Even so I felt to say, “Yes.” The money came—miraculously, and within the two weeks I’d promised!
Affirmation
“Of the two choices before me—
to move downward in consciousness, or upward—
I choose with all my heart to rise toward inner joy!”

Points to Remember 
1. Everyone must work within the limitations he himself has placed on his own nature, by his past actions. It is idle to expect people to change drastically. They can only refine the natures they were born with.
2. Any time you find it difficult to get people to do what is needed in some work, consider them from a point of view of their own natures. Work with them as they are. 
3. Anyone who works with others may need to concentrate on deepening his understanding of people—not only of human nature generally, but of the human natures with which he must deal. 
4. The natural inclination of a soul newly raised to the human level is to seek gratification through physical sense-pleasures. Slowly, step by step, a person seeks his fulfillments on ever-subtler levels. For a long time, his awareness remains wholly centered in the ego, which causes him to define good and bad in terms of how he himself is affected. 
5. An individual takes many incarnations to realize that accumulation is not his true goal: that what he wants is happiness. He learns that happiness comes more from sharing his gains with others. Thus, he thinks, “What is best for all concerned?”
6. Finally, the realization dawns on him that happiness is not a mere thing, but a state of mind. His consciousness becomes focused on becoming a source of happiness for others, and on sharing with them such intangible benefits as peace, love, and understanding.
7. The more expansive one’s consciousness becomes, the greater his sense of true fulfillment. 
8. Caste was not originally a system at all, but simply an explanation of a universal reality. A person’s true caste has little to do, except accidentally, with his birth lineage. 
9. Self-awareness enables man to rise or fall, as he himself chooses.
10. In the normal course of upward human evolution from sudra to vaisya to kshatriya to brahmin to self-realized master, the closer one comes to God, the greater the joy he finds in himself, and the deeper his instinct becomes to share that joy with others. 
11. When working with others, try to see them in relation to the four castes. 
12. The association between different castes helps to raise the consciousness of the lower caste person. In any exchange of magnetism, it is the stronger that influences the weaker, not the reverse. When faith in God is strong, no negativity can touch you.
13. That person is best who is the least centered in the common attitude of, “What’s in it for me?”
14. Look at those who work for you—and with you—and see what might be done to raise them higher than their present position. In this way you will—if your position is that of leader—improve your business in the highest way, by producing other leaders.
15. Understanding the different castes will help you to direct your entire work force along yoga principles, for it will mean keeping in mind, and helping to advance, everyone’s evolution. This system will help you to think of unfolding people’s natures to their own highest effectiveness in the organization.
16. The end you are already seeking is the essence of your own nature. What you need, now, is to continue to expand your sympathies consciously. Try to feel other people’s joys and sorrows as your own. 
17. You are so much more than you know! Direct your quest for success through normal goals in life to ever-higher levels of fulfillment in your own Self. It is for that fulfillment that you will always long, until you achieve your destiny at last—endless, eternal bliss!

Workbook Ideas
by Joseph Bharat Cornell
Work with Others

In the 1890’s, American scientist George Washington Carver landscaped the barren campus of Tuskegee University. The newly planted trees and flowers were a joy to behold, but no matter how carefully Carver laid out his footpaths, the students and faculty ignored them and walked in a direct line to their destination, trampling and killing the new grass. 
Carver removed his ineffective pathway signs and took a fresh look at the problem. He realized that people would walk in a logical way, no matter how hard he tried to persuade them otherwise. A better idea for laying out the paths came to him; soon the grass began to flourish. The university president was so impressed that he asked Carver, “How did you manage it?” Carver replied, “I spent a few days observing where people naturally walked, then I put my paths under their feet.” 
When working with others, work with, not against, their natures, and you’ll be much more successful. Peoples’ characters develop over lifetimes of repeated responses to other people and circumstances. People have a tremendous amount of momentum invested in their way of coping with life, and it isn’t easy for them to change drastically or embrace ways foreign to their nature. In fact, people usually can only refine the natures they were born with. 

Action Item
It is a common—although unrealistic—human trait to think that others should behave in specific ways. Judgment implies condemnation, or at least a preference that someone be other than he is. 
1.	When you notice that you are mentally criticizing someone, immediately stop yourself.
2.	Remember that what you dislike in others is usually what you dislike in yourself. Their behavior would not upset you unless it found a place to resonate inside of you. 
3.	As you think of the criticism you were making, substitute your own name for that of the other person. 
4.	See how your desire to criticize that person vanishes. 

Accept and be patient with the eccentricities of others. Deepen your understanding of human nature by observing how different people respond to the same situation. Look for natural opportunities to help others broaden their perspectives and expand their sympathies. 

“The best leadership,” Swami Kriyananda says, 
“is rooted in compassion, in kindness, in deep 
concern for the welfare of others. But to be most 
effective it must at the same time be liberated 
from personal likes and dislikes."