Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.

—Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians (vi, 14-17)

The ordinary man is an idolater. Idols are not only of stone, mud, metal or stained glass. Customs and habits, social shibboleths and religious dogmas and a hundred other varieties of "idols" exist, and bowing down to these frustrates the soul. Man generally lives according to the routine established for him; unconsciously to himself he is a slave to family, communal, religious, national and racial customs and taboos. Instead of seeking a rational basis for his actions, he is guided by what is done and what is not done in his own set or circle. The aspirant who earnestly resolves to emancipate himself from slavery to the lower self and daily attempts to purify himself, to give up non-rational living and to be guided in all circumstances by philosophical principles only, is often dubbed "queer."

His enemies are twofold: his own innate weaknesses, and his affinities with relatives and friends, who would persuade him to be "normal and natural," i.e., to be as they are. The second enemies strengthen the first; hence the advice of the Initiate Paul to "come out from among them, and be...separate."

This separation in thought is not from the souls of people but from the tendencies and weaknesses inherent in them. The aspirant must learn to distinguish between the evil-doer and the evil act, between his friends and kin and their wrong tendencies. The people we contact have to be helped and served and not to be condemned. But we cannot help and serve them by continuing in the ways of personality, prides and prejudices. By ourselves rising above these limitations we make it easier for our Karmic affinities also to rise.

What are those tendencies which we must overcome in ourselves and which demand that we come out from among those surcharged with them? From what shall we abstain because it is right to abstain?

The religious tendencies which we must shake off include (a) looking outside ourselves for salvation; (b) belief in the efficacy of any priest or ceremony to purify or to elevate us; (c) fancying that we can evade the consequences of our acts; and (d) the false assumption that we are inherently weak and sinful creatures instead of Gods in the making.

Modern science has rendered yeoman service in freeing many minds from thraldom to popes and priests everywhere; large numbers have awakened to the mental and spiritual exploitation to which they had been subject. But while science has helped in overthrowing religious exploitation, it has acquired in some measure the vice of its conquered enemy—the vice of dictating to and exploiting the human mind. In the name of science numerous superstitions and malpractices are being fostered. All the same, the spirit of enquiry and of quest is energizing an increasing number of men and women.

The social tendencies to be transcended by the aspirant include (a) habits of life which cannot meet the challenge, "Is it necessary?"; (b) undiscriminating acquiescence in what is expected of him by his family and friends, his club and his social set; (c) customs which mean nothing; and (d) partisanship to his own caste or class.

Prominent among the wrong national tendencies to be overcome is unreasoning patriotism—better called chauvinism—which champions the interests of one's own country, irrespective of the demands of right and justice. Political exploitation is only one remove from religious exploitation and there is little to choose between a pope and a dictator.

"Evil communications corrupt good manners," and vice grows by being fed. The aspirant cannot afford to trifle with his own discipline to suit the idiosyncrasies of others or to placate friends and kin. Neither priest nor politician, neither financial magnate nor social welfare worker, can really help him; but he can gain for himself the impetus to move to the region of the righteous. If he waits for his own regeneration till legislators act and society undergoes a change and nations rise in morals and capacity, he will wait till the day of doom. One by one, men have freed themselves from outside domination as also from the domination of the senses; one by one, they have taken the Kingdom of Heaven by violence, and have enjoyed the freedom of thought, will and action. And what men have done in the past we too can do today. The needed inspiration can be found in such words as these:

Even if thou wert the greatest of all sinners, thou shalt be able to cross over all sins in the bark of spiritual knowledge. (The Bhagavad-Gita, IV, 36)

Shun ignorance, and likewise shun illusion. Avert thy face from world deceptions; mistrust thy senses, they are false. But within thy body—the shrine of thy sensations—seek in the Impersonal for the "Eternal Man"; and having sought him out, look inward: thou art Buddha....Remember, thou that fightest for man's liberation, each failure is success, and each sincere attempt wins its reward in time. (The Voice of the Silence, pp. 28-29, 68-69)

Within you is the light of the world—the only light that can be shed upon the Path. If you are unable to perceive it within you, it is useless to look for it elsewhere. (Light on the Path, pp. 3-4)

What does it mean to look within? Within man are good and evil, God and Devil, Buddha and Mara. How can a man looking within and finding virtue and vice, ambition and aspiration, jostling each other, learn infallibly to be directed by the noble and not to be insidiously influenced by the ignoble? There is one and only one way—by acquiring right knowledge, not blindly accepting that knowledge but calmly studying and considering it, and then applying it to our own affairs. Before we come upon the Divine in us, Krishna-Buddha-Christos, there is work to be done.

People begin at the wrong end. In this, our nuclear age, on everybody's lips are the sincere words: "We must save our world." It is not acknowledged in full measure that saving the world implies saving ourselves. The issue has not been raised, save by a few: "What is wrong with us as individuals?" Selfishness manifesting in varied forms divides and subdivides the human family and causes all our woes. We live by the law of division and disintegration. Political rivalries, social degradation, religious superstition, scientific puzzlement—these are present now as before, however differently disguised.

That which is the forlorn hope for collective humanity is not forlorn for the man of courage who resolves aright, who pulls himself out of the milling, aimless crowd, and takes opportunity in his hands.

Patience is bearing the burden of life cheerfully.

—Bhagwat Purana