illimitable intelligence and power commensurate with All-Being.
Now we have seen that the relation of man to the lower modes of spirit
is that of superiority and command, but what is his relation to these
higher modes? In any harmoniously constituted system the relation of the
part to the whole never interferes with the free operation of the part
in the performance of its own functions; but, on the contrary, it is
precisely by means of this relation that each part is maintained in a
position to discharge all functions for which it is fitted. Thus, then,
the subordination of the individual man to the supreme mind, so far from
curtailing his liberty, is the very condition which makes liberty
possible, or even life itself. The generic movement of the whole
necessarily carries the part along with it; and so long as the part
allows itself thus to be carried onwards there will be no hindrance to
its free working in any direction for which it is fitted by its own
individuality. This truth was set forth in the old Hindu religion as the
Car of Jaggarnath--an ideal car only, which later ages degraded into a
terribly material symbol. "Jaggarnath" means "Lord of the Universe," and
thus signifies the Universal Mind. This, by the law of Being, must
always move forward regardless of any attempts of individuals to
restrain it. Those who mount upon its car move onward with it to
endlessly advancing evolution, while those who seek to oppose it must be
crushed beneath its wheels, for it is no respecter of persons.
If, therefore, we would employ the universal law of spirit to control
our own little individual worlds, we must also recognise it in respect
to the supreme centre round which we ourselves revolve. But not in the
old way of supposing that this centre is a capricious Individuality
external to ourselves, which can be propitiated or cajoled into giving
the good which he is not good enough to give of his own proper motion.
So long as we retain this infantile idea we have not come into the
liberty which results from the knowledge of the certainty of Law.
Supreme Mind is Supreme Law, and can be calculated upon with the same
accuracy as when manifested in any of the particular laws of the
physical world; and the result of studying, understanding and obeying
this Supreme Law is that we thereby acquire the power to _use_ it. Nor
need we fear it with the old fear which comes from ignorance, for we can
rely with confidence upon the proposition that the whole can have no
interest adverse to the parts of which it is composed; and conversely
that the part can have no interest adverse to the whole.
Our ignorance of our relation to the whole may make us appear to have
separate interests, but a truer knowledge must always show such an idea
to be mistaken. For this reason, therefore, the same responsiveness of
spirit which manifests itself as obedience to our wishes, when we look
to those degrees of spirit which are lower than her own individuality,
must manifest itself as a necessary inflowing of intelligence and power
when we look to the infinity of spirit, of which our individuality is a
singular expression, because in so looking upwards we are looking for
the higher degrees of _ourself_.
The increased vitality of the parts means the increased vitality of the
whole, and since it is impossible to conceive of spirit otherwise than
as a continually expanding principle of Life, the demand for such
increased vitality must, by the inherent nature of spirit, be met by a
corresponding supply of continually growing intelligence and power.
Thus, by a natural law, the demand creates the supply, and this supply
may be freely applied to any and every subject-matter that commends
itself to us. There is no limit to the supply of this energy other than
what we ourselves put to it by our thought; nor is there any limit to
the purposes we may make it serve other than the one grand Law of Order,
which says that good things used for wrong purposes become evil. The
consideration of the intelligent and responsive nature of spirit shows
that there can be no limitations but these. The one is a limitation
inherent in spirit itself, and the other is a limitation which has no
root except in our own ignorance.
It is true that to maintain our healthy action within the circle of our
own individual world we must continually move forward with the movement
of the larger whole of which we form a part. But this does not imply any
restriction of our liberty to make the fullest use of our lives in
accordance with those universal principles of life upon which they are
founded; for there is not one law for the part and another for the
whole, but the same law of Being permeates both alike. In proportion,
therefore, as we realise the true law of our own individuality we shall
find that it is one with the law of progress for the race. The
collective individuality of mankind is only the reproduction on a larger
scale of the personal individuality; and whatever action truly develops
the inherent powers of the individual must necessarily be in line with
that forward march of the universal mind which is the evolution of
humanity as a whole.
Selfishness is a narrow view of our own nature which loses sight of our
place in relation to the whole, not perceiving that it is from this very
relation that our life is drawn. It is ignorance of our own
possibilities and consequent limitation of our own powers. If,
therefore, the evidence of harmonious correlation throughout the
physical world leads irresistibly to the inference of intelligent
spirit as the innermost within of all things, we must recognise
ourselves also as individual manifestations of the same spirit which
expresses itself throughout the universe as that power of intelligent
responsiveness which is Love.
Thus we find ourselves to