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Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 1 - The Call (1924) - 309:
309. Amidst fetters, amidst the slaughter, Amidst silence, amidst revolt, Amidst those afar and near, Remember Me. The Power is ever with you. Disciples, does the sea shell fear the velvet rolling of the waves? Be not afraid of the tide. Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 1 - The Call (1924) - 336:
Chains of happiness and chains of bondage. The slave drags heavily his fetters; The chains of joy resound with mirth. How shall I know the chains, O Lord? Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 2 - Illumination (1925) :
One must manifest discipline of spirit; without it one cannot become free. To the slave discipline of spirit will be a prison; to the liberated one it will be a wondrous healing garden. So long as the discipline of spirit is as fetters the doors are closed, for in fetters one cannot ascend the steps. Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 2 - Illumination (1925) - 1.9.15:
1.9.15. I want to tell you to proceed more boldly, with all the power of spirit. The fetters of Earth will not impede you. Success will accompany the courageous ones. Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 2 - Illumination (1925) - 3.4.6:
One should point out that millions of people await the opening of the Gates. The shackles of hardships should not be replaced by the fetters of fear. Fear can be compared to leprosy; both cover the man with a rime of repulsiveness. Leaves of Morya's Garden - Book 2 - Illumination (1925) - 3.5.1:
There is no ugliness which will not be engulfed in the rays of the rainbow. There are no fetters which will not disintegrate in the freedom of Beauty. New Era Community (1926) - 27:
27. Pure thought saturated with beauty points out the path to truth. The interdictions and the prescripts of renunciation in the Teachings were given in condescension toward a limited consciousness. But a broadened consciousness frees man from many fetters and affirms progress. Adorned lives allow departing freely and generously in order to return as victors. He who proceeds with a consciousness of beauty cannot be confused. Only confusion can bar the way. New Era Community (1926) - 44:
Those who are unfortunate and without kin may more easily accept this thought. Earthly fetters are not so lasting for them. In the worst position of all are people provided with comforts. Easily enough can the blind accept this thought, but it will be most difficult for the cross-eyed, because a false crossing of currents will always distort the distance of the striving. Try rifling a cannon with different spirals; the result will be a poor one. True, what has been said refers only to a certain state of cross-eyedness which involves the nerve centers. New Era Community (1926) - 218:
218. A certain state of matter composes the human individual calling up into life a conscious individualization, and from this moment is begun the conflict against the community. When, as is said, the beast in man awakens, precisely then individualization, without any nourishment by the consciousness, turns into a cruel egoism. Then begins a campaign against enlightenment and cooperation. Such egoism does not become a noble realization of personality, but returns to the animal state, at the same time losing the group values of animals. Such a man is worse than a beast. Is it possible to build a community out of these beastlike people who have no common language? Then the builders must re-examine the bases of human individuality. Each framework, each conventional program must be verified, but only courageous people who depart from the fetters of conventionalities can make the examination. Thus, it is necessary to safeguard the achievement of human personality. New Era Community (1926) - 263:
The suffering of privations is unknown to Us, for containment excludes privation. Our Teaching represents the world as rich, joyous and attractive. Nowhere are fetters and floggings indicated. Like a ship filled with treasures does the indicated community rush along. Realization of the innumerable properties of matter brightly illuminates all. The matter of yesterday is clothed in a radiant fabric of energy, which is not in need of a new name but which penetrates all space and palpitates with the rainbow of human rejoicing. Agni Yoga (1929) - 53:
Try to catch hold of the tip of doubt. Do not hinder your steps with such soiled fetters. Truly, it is easier to carry a real snake in your bosom than to be strangled by the boa constrictor of doubt. Agni Yoga (1929) - 463:
Who can change destiny? Where is the power? Only in thought. People do not trust thought sufficiently, and the power of their will is fettered seven times over. A man says, "I have gathered all my will power," yet at the same time he is afraid, and doubts, and hates, and hesitates. The will does not act in this way. It can send its arrow only when all fetters have been removed. This state was called dispassionateness, but this is not correct; it is better to define it as liberation. Let us take the example of an archer. If his arrow is weighed down with any objects, the flight of the arrow can only be spoiled. If people could learn to compare their inner actions with their physical activities, they would greatly enrich their consciousness. Agni Yoga (1929) - 524:
What treasures a pure, free, and dauntless consciousness can give to humanity! But the inertia of habit holds the inexperienced one in fetters. Infinity - Book 2 (1930) - 273:
273. The lack of commensurability of humanity sets up the alleged barriers. Each instance of incommensurateness forces a current which obstructs the path to Truth. Each stoppage sets up its consequences, and this creates fetters on the manifested ascent. Therefore, one must intensify all thoughts for the General Good, and the path of commensurateness will become the path of evolution for the spirit. Infinity - Book 2 (1930) - 334:
334. Those who have understood Our Teaching must approach most cautiously the determination of their own actions. The luminous future is being created under Our Shield. One cannot attain save through the pure striving, but the fetters of selfhood encircle the Teaching with misconception. Therefore, it is very important to penetrate into the nature of the striving manifested. Verily, the many broad possibilities will bring a broad understanding. I so affirm. Heart (1932) - 152:
152. Indeed We are not against ancient objects, if their aura is good, but one should not regard them through one's past. We are sufficiently aware that perfection is attained not through dwelling in the past, but by unrestrainable striving into the future. We advise, especially now, to transport your entire consciousness into the future, thus avoiding many fetters of past existences. Heart (1932) - 599:
599. A legend of the Uighurs speaks of the giant who captured the Black Dragon and chained him with many fetters. The giant left his sister to guard the dragon and himself hastened to the end of Earth to announce his victory. But when the giant reached the distant lands he heard his sister's call, and understood that the dragon was rending the chains. The giant hastened back, but when he saw the seas, he realized that he would be late if he continued by this way. Hence the giant determined to go from one mountain to another, avoiding the seas, the forests, and the marshes; only thus did the giant arrive in time. And as the dragon was cleaving through his last chain the giant again chained the Black Dragon. Fiery World - Book 1 (1933) - 423:
Earthly fetters obscure the eyes, and the Subtle World makes a wayfarer tremble if he has not cognized Fire. Fiery World - Book 2 (1934) - 42:
42. To turn to the future is not at all easy. It sounds simple - to leave the past and look to the future. It is both simple and beautiful, but how shall we light the bonfires of the past and where shall we find the fires to illumine the future? The attainments of the spirit will prompt how to find these boundaries and measures. But how to squeeze the heroic deed into everyday life? Fortunately every heart is a ready purse for achievement. In all times the population has been divided into settlers and nomads. The nomads moved by the power of search for achievement, they had no place of their own. But for the future they found the strength of achievement. Such striving of the heart is inherent in every human life. Amidst the precipitants resulting from heroic achievements must be found this noble restlessness, leading into the future. Only thus may one escape the snares of the past. I already have told you that one should avoid reminiscences in the Subtle World. They are like fetters! But already here one must become accustomed to the striving into the future. It is not said that one should not know the past; precisely knowledge is blessed. But one must not get stuck in the dust of the forefathers. Thus without forgetting, without limiting, let us advance towards the New Worlds. The freedom of consciousness gives birth to heroes. Discipline of spirit affirms the wise, and only the ignorant understand the future as a new bed. It is best to imagine movement and flights. AUM (1936) - 92:
In view of the fact that a potential of basic energy has been given to each man, it is difficult to conceive how contrarily people have dealt with his great gift. The very imagination can hardly encompass such a chasm. People regard that which is unpleasant to them as difficult and that which causes them no trouble as easy; out of such conventionality open up yawning abysses. People are not accustomed to keeping the Higher World in their consciousness, yet it is not difficult to replace the feeling of emptiness with infinite life. How much more beautiful is realization of the Higher World than the casting of oneself into stony fetters! Brotherhood (1937) - 105:
105. In ancient treatises can be found the expression "crippled souls." And it is explained that such crippling can be done only by oneself. As soon as a man imagines that no further path remains for him, he shackles his own primary energy. In such fetters there can be no advance. By cutting short the path, the man takes upon himself a grave responsibility. This cannot be justified by despair, for of course this dark phantom is engendered by one's own weak will. Having lodged in the spirit, this specter actually injures the health. The phantom has nothing in it of reality. If people will investigate the true causes of despair, the invalidity of these causes will become amazingly clear. If the concept of Brotherhood were near to people, how many such groundless despairs would be dispelled! Yet people would rather cut short their own progress than reflect about the healing fundamentals. The writers of the ancient treatises about crippled souls had good grounds for this expression. Brotherhood (1937) - 315:
In olden times prolonged testings were designated in order to assemble a nucleus of the spiritually concordant. However, length of time alone does not solve the problem of selection. An evil seed can remain concealed for years and years. The feeling of the heart can whisper the better intimations. Too lightly do people handle a higher concept, and only a few know how to guard it with full love. Such cherishing is not in gesticulations and obeisances, but in indissoluble heart devotion. For some the bond will be fetters and chains, but for others it is a ladder of ascent. Brotherhood (1937) - 529:
529. Habit is second nature - a wise proverb indicating to what an extent habit dominates man. Precisely, habits render a man immobile and unreceptive. One can suppress habits, but it is not easy to eradicate them. People are continually encountered who boast of their victory over habits. But observe the daily routine of such victors, and you will find them slaves of habit. They have become so imbued with habits that they do not even feel the weight of such a yoke. It is especially tragic when a man is convinced that he is free, whereas he is really shackled in the fetters of his habits. It is most difficult to cure a sick man who denies his illness. Each one can name such incurable ones among people known to him. Yet in order to assimilate the concept of Brotherhood, mastery of existing habits is indispensable. Under habits We have in mind not the service for good, but the petty habits of selfhood. Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 1 (1938) - 75:
People do much harm to themselves by limiting their awareness to one earthly existence. They build obstacles for themselves everywhere. When We direct them into the future, they generally do not understand how to begin to think in this new way. One may think that he will be forever attached to one place; another may tell himself that he must always cling to one vocation; a third may convince himself that he cannot endure a change of location; a fourth may imagine that he will perish from his very first illness. Thus each one invents his own fetters, not realizing that in his former lives he has already experienced the many ways of existence. Such a conventional life on Earth, in complete ignorance of the past, does not allow one the opportunity to think about the future. Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 1 (1938) - 81:
Urusvati is right in insisting upon unity. We call unity a healing infusion, a harmony of motion that cannot be summoned or created by coercion. Some people regard advice about unity as fetters. They prefer to evoke the destructive forces of the elements and be trampled, rather than make an effort toward cooperation. We shall not tire of showing compassion to the unwise ones preparing for their own destruction. But is it not clear what has been said? Does humanity learn only from bitter consequences? Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 2 (1938) - 415:
The Teacher will say that it is useless to regret the past, and He will be right, for regrets are fetters. But one should examine why the advice was not applied, and among the reasons we will find fear and selfishness. These vipers can turn the most attentive listener into an unbridled opponent! In his negation he will develop a peculiar bravado, and will cheat in order to justify himself and his deviations. The Teacher knows these human traits, and He will not regret the spilled seeds, for the earth may produce an unexpected yield. We have observed over and over how different listening is from actual application. We look into the future, and in this aspiration We find steadfastness and courage.
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