Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism

The Yogi Philosophy teaches that in the world of forms, or relativity, all Matter, or forms of Akasa, is in perpetual motion— there is no rest in the world of Matter. The apparent rest of material objects is only relative and not a fact. Heat and Light are merely forms of motion, a manifestation of Energy. Suns and worlds rush through space—their particles are constantly changing and moving—chemical composition and decomposition is constant and unceasing—building up and breaking down are invariable incidents of cell-life; atom-life; and molecular being. There is no rest in Nature at any point. Work is constantly being done, and something is always being produced (in the sense of new combinations being formed, for there is no creation of something from nothing).

All existence, conscious or unconscious, is an emanation of one Being.

Bhakti Yoga is divided into two great branches or stages. The first is known as Gauni Bhakti, and the second, and higher, is called Para Bhakti. The first, Gauni Bhakti, is the preliminary stage, and consists of the science of the love and worship of God by means of the mental conception of God as a personal being—a “personal God.” The second, or higher stage, Para Bhakti, consists of the worship and love of an impersonal God— the Absolute. Of course the same God is loved and worshiped in both cases, but the mental development of the follower of Gauni Bhakti does not admit of his forming a mental concept of an impersonal God, and he, doing the best he can, forms a mental image of a personal God. There are many sub-stages to both of these main stages, the conception of God depending upon the mental and spiritual development of the man. We will go over the question briefly in order that the student may distinguish the great difference between the two great stages of Bhakti Yoga, and at the same time may recognize that both ideas are of the same stock, the difference being a matter of mental and spiritual growth.