Before we undertake a journey we need to find out all it will involve and to seek advice from those who know the difficulties and pitfalls on the way. We also need to look at ourselves and see if we possess the strength and ability to undertake the journey.

Therefore Fragment I of The Voice of the Silence contains instruction as to what the journey we are contemplating is likely to involve, what it leads to, and what qualities and capacities we must possess before starting out.

From this Fragment we learn that the one quality which it is necessary to possess if we would be instructed is the capacity to listen carefully to what is being said. Otherwise we may give our own interpretation to what is said, we may even distort the words to suit our own conceptions, and thus miss the real meaning. What, for example, is the meaning to be given to the word "mind," or to the word "soul," as used in The Voice of the Silence? We need accuracy in listening to place the words in their proper context before we can see clearly.

Listening carefully, therefore, to what is said in the book about ourselves, what do we learn? First, we learn that we have to change many things in ourselves, and to do so we must admit that we need changing. The major change to be made is to learn not to be deceived by what we see or hear. This is most important, because as we progress on the inner Path the awakening inner senses give us powers which we may not know how to use properly, and we may encounter one pitfall after another.

Admitting that we have to change ourselves, admitting that we shall meet with pitfalls, we come to see the necessity of having a guide on the journey. This guide we shall not see or hear at first, though He is with us unseen and unheard. The next important fact, therefore, is to know that we do have a guide all the time. He shows Himself to us in terms of our understanding, if we can recognize Him.

If we look at ourselves as we are today, we find that our main characteristic is awareness of our surroundings, of our body, feelings, desires and thoughts. But we also find that we have within us an urge to be better in every way; we realize that there is something we strive to reach up to, some ideal—whether of being a better businessman or professional, a better father or mother or husband or wife, or of acquiring a better character. Where does this urge come from? Let us recognize, mentally at least, that it comes from somewhere higher than our ordinary desires and thoughts. The nearest approach we have to it is our conscience, which, though it does not give positive guidance, at least warns us not to do this or that, that one course or another is not "right." To cultivate an awareness of this conscience is the first step which takes the mind away from excessive awareness of sense-objects, personal desires, etc.

In time, as we become more and more aware of this inner monitor, we shall find that it is not enough just to know what we ought not to do; we also need to know what we ought to do. This calls for knowledge, but we must first learn that much of what we know at present is false, deceptive, illusionary, incomplete. An effort to become aware of a higheer code of morality and knowledge will help us to see that we are something other than that which our present mode of awareness makes us believe we are.

Thus we begin to feel a touch of the Inner Guide or Master. A constant effort to remember the Wise Ones of all time will help, for we shall then have a model to copy, and shall see what is right action, right feeling, right thought as taught by them.

Our books, the words of those who have passed this way and learnt; our conscience; our Inner Master or Ruler; and the Bridge, the Great Ones who embody the Path and the Goal—all these are our teachers and guides. As we progress, we shall reach a point where we have to travel on alone. We have been taught; now we must apply. The only reliance at this stage is on the Inner Master. We must merge in Him, become one with Him. Steps as to how this is to be done are given. We must take those steps. Masters stand and beckon, but only our unhelped effort will bring the necessary strength to hold the position once it is attained. Only he who has conquered by his unaided efforts is the victor. We must be taught, but we must practise what we are taught.

It is necessary, therefore, at the very beginning to have a view of this Path and its Goal. Once we reach the stage when we realize (which means more than mental acceptance) that the Goal is within us, that the Master is a higher aspect of ourselves, we find our way lit by a flood of light, and we hear the Voice of Compassion which thrills through all and everything. We and the Light and the Sound are One. We are changeless and eternal.

Thou art THYSELF the object of thy search: the VOICE unbroken, that resounds throughout eternities, exempt from change, from sin exempt, the Seven Sounds in one.

The whole object of our search, therefore, is to find out who and what we are—to become that which we are. This is the goal.

Our first endeavour in practice is to learn to separate the mind from the senses and sensations, from the emotions and from self-centredness. "Thyself and mind, like twins upon a line, the star which is thy goal burns overhead." We must accept the fact that as we are now, we are very ignorant, ignorant as regards knowledge, yes, but more ignorant of our own character and lower psychic faculties. Also, of just what the goal of life is.

We learn that our faculties are of two kinds, the lower and the higher. The lower are those we have at present—to think, desire, feel and perform deeds. The higher faculties we do not know, but they can be known if we train our spiritual powers, powers which give us strength, ability and energy.

If we have these powers somewhere, why do they not function today? Because they have to function through the vehicles of the body and brain, through the capacities and energies we possess, and these being untrained as yet, cannot be used by the higher powers. In fact, it is a two-way effort, for the lower has to rise to the higher aspect of ourselves, and the higher has to subdue the lower. It is the constant struggle that goes on between our two natures. Unless we know the character and powers of both, we cannot undertake the necessary preparation, and will be misled by what our senses, thoughts and desires present to us.

Many teachers have given rules for the subjection of the lower mind and its concentration upon the higher. In The Voice of the Silence we are asked to cut it off from all external sights and sounds, as also from internal images. This, we are told, is Dharana—the stage of "intense and perfect concentration of the mind upon some interior object, accompanied by complete abstraction from everything pertaining to the external Universe, or the world of the senses." This requires the training of the memory, for it is only when the outer is effaced from the mind and memory that the ONE can be discerned at the back or centre of all. This ONE is the eternal and changeless. Hence no change must be allowed to affect the mind; it must remain unchanged through all changes.

This naturally gives us a different sense of Time and of the conditions of life. When we have attained this, we shall be like the wise man described in the second chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita.

In this struggle not only do we need to exert the mind or awareness consciously; we must also analyse why and how the senses affect the mind. We learn that what we see—and it is equally true of the impressions given by the other senses—is not a true picture of things because the senses have for long enjoyed a world of their own making. According to the knowledge we already possess, we analyse and accept the impressions. We have to be more particular now and analyse all that comes to us. We shall see that the eyes are often disturbed and give us distorted pictures. To avoid being affected by them, the mind must be in a state of peace and harmony. In fact, we must learn to use the eyes to see with, not let them bring us impressions that force themselves on our attention. The ears have to be trained in a similar manner, so that they remain unaffected by either the "cries of bellowing elephants" or "the silvery buzzing of the golden fire-fly."

When, therefore, in time, we have learnt to use the senses and the mind as they should be used, we can begin to hear the Silent Speaker. We begin to live within, and though we see outer sights and hear outer sounds, we are under no illusion as to their character. We begin to live as inner entities and not as lower forms of matter. We begin to see the One in the many, to hear the One Sound in the many sounds. Instead of desiring and feeling for ourselves, we desire and feel for the WHOLE. Our mind is cleansed and its functions on the plane of senses paralysed. Our heart, our whole motive, is purified.

One of the difficulties in our way is that, having started on the journey, we are apt to look back. There must not be any longing for what has been left behind, nor any grief for our loss. We have a glimpse of the importance of this idea in the Bible story of Lot's wife. When she had to leave the city where she had lived, she was warned not to look back; it was a doomed city. But she did look back, and was changed into a pillar of salt.

Let us learn that we can never satisfy longings by their fulfilment; for, if one kind of longing is indulged in to saturation point, the power of longing will still be alive, will in fact be strengthened, and will only change its form.

We learn next that there are two goals—Liberation and Renunciation, between which we have to choose. The second Fragment prepares us for the decision. The third Fragment deals with the steps we have to take after the decision is reached.

The pupil asks the Teacher what he should do to reach to Wisdom and to gain Perfection, and he is told to look at himself first and ask himself whether his heart is clean, whether he can discern the real from the false, the impermanent from the permanent, Head-learning from Soul-wisdom, the "Eye" from the "Heart" doctrine. There are two ways of looking at actions; one that of the head and the other of the heart; one leads to the cessation of sin and faults through non-action; the other to Self-knowledge through action, through loving deeds. The end of both Paths is Bliss: in the case of those who seek the Path of Liberation, the bliss comes at once; in the case of those who choose the Path of Renunciation, it comes at the close of Kalpas without number.

The decision has to be reached. But such a great decision can only be the legitimate result of minor decisions all along the Path.

In Fragment III we are led further, for the choice is made. It is Renunciation that we seek, not Liberation. The way that leads to the goal is through seven gates, to pass each of which we need the key of a particular developed virtue. We are given the keys and an idea of the difficulties to be surmounted. Some important hints are given us. For instance:

Thou shalt not let thy senses make a playground of thy mind.

...thou must have mastered all the mental changes in thy Self and slain the army of the thought sensations that, subtle and insidious, creep unasked within the Soul's bright shrine.

From the Heart point of view we learn: "Thou shalt not separate thy being from BEING and the rest, but merge the Ocean in the drop, the drop within the Ocean." To put this into practice we must be "in full accord with all that lives; bear love to men as though they were thy brother-pupils, disciples of one Teacher, the sons of one sweet mother."

This is so important that we are again asked whether we have attuned our "heart and mind to the great mind and heart of all mankind."

Then we must learn the pitfalls on the Paramita Path so that we can be prepared not to succumb to them. Let us keep in mind that we must be prepared if we would be free from fear. To us, struggling would-be neophytes, the message is—BE PREPARED. If we "remain unselfish till the endless end," we are bound to succeed.

Lest we lose ourselves in the treadmill of life and the struggles to achieve, we have been given a description of the end of the Path. Light and sound unite with the fourfold manifested Powers to blend in one glorious "wordless" proclamation—"Peace to all Beings."

The vision is necessary, or we lose the impetus to make the effort. Hence each Fragment ends with the Vision Beautiful of accomplishment.