Fiery World - Book 1 (1933) - 304: 304. People love to discuss evolution and involution, but avoid applying these concepts to themselves. Not following their own evolution, people attract similarly insignificant satellites from the Subtle World! The Subtle World is really striving toward the earthly one, but in full conformity. Consequently, if people would strive toward evolution, they would attract evolving beings. Thus, the betterment of world conditions would be in the hands of humanity itself. Thus, each striving for the Good creates a response not only in the Subtle World but also in the Fiery World. If for some reason such striving remains unexpressed, it nevertheless remains in space in full measure. The potential of Good is like a pillar of light. A carpenter, shoemaker, or physician can think equally of the Good. Constancy and steadfastness in Good is already a conquest. Some may regard the time spent in the Ashram as imprisonment, but with the development of the spirit it will be the most salutary of all sojourns. You know how time flies, and in this flight one becomes accustomed to Infinity. Fiery World - Book 1 (1933) - 576: 576. When I speak again of beauty, I wish to accustom you to the great beauty of the Fiery World. Everyone who loves the beautiful transforms thereby a portion of earthly life. Only by meticulous spiritual cognizance can one burn the unnecessary rags here in advance. Such burning does not take place in specially constructed bonfires in public squares, but in each day's smile of love. Only by degrees do we come to realize the beauty of the world of spirit. Our sojourns in the various strata are short, but on entering the Fiery World we can remain there. And when we come from there, we preserve the fiery solemnity wherever we are. AUM (1936) - 153: 153. Each man bears a secret within himself. Rarely does the curtain of the past roll back - only when subtle energy abounds during one's earthly life. Only by transcending the boundary of Earth is man enlightened in the realization of a portion of his secret. Remarkable is the process when subtle energy reveals the Chalice of accumulations; the memory is suddenly illumined, and the past stands out in all justice. Amazing is the extent of man's transformation at the moment when he leaves the earthly sphere. People call this death, but it is really birth; therefore, how pitiful it is when the subtle body sojourns long in sleep. Especially noteworthy is the transition wherein consciousness is preserved. Then it can be clearly imagined how the earthly tatters fall off and the imperishable accumulation emerges, revealing itself to be a true treasure. It can be understood why this most subtle treasure cannot be revealed amid crude conditions. AUM (1936) - 240: 240. It may be asked why people do not, in the material world, remember their subtle sojourns. One of the reasons why it is impossible to recall everything of the Subtle World is the impossibility of its being assimilated by our physical envelope. Indeed, the spirit could not undertake physical evolution if it could preserve within itself a recollection of the expanses of the Subtle World. Of course, it is sometimes possible to catch from the Subtle World a glimpse of the fiery grandeur which the world of flesh can realize only in the rarest cases. Only at times can even the best spirits recall their earthly existence, and extremely rarely do they remember their conditions in the Subtle World. Sometimes the projection of the subtle body brings back a certain realization of life in the Subtle World. But to remember subtle existences is very difficult and it is incompatible with earthly conditions.
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