References compiled from the Agni Yoga Series
43. Learn to approach Our Heights pure of heart.
Our Ray will shine upon you and exalt your daily life.
76. Be not dismayed at the Teacher’s criticisms.
Pupils should rejoice at every message.
Contemplate the spiritual guidance of One Teacher.
Your spirit presses onward;
At the Gates I shall await you.
I:V:3. Ponder each day how to fulfill My Work. Teach the inheritors—teach them beauty. Affirm their eye. Wherefore years, when one may accomplish in weeks?
I:IX:7. I teach through the manifestations of life. I give daily signs. As rose petals are strewn the signs, for the time is near. Think of the New World; think of the procession of peoples.
8. Cooperation must be based upon sound rules. This teaches orderliness; that is, it helps the acquirement of a rhythm. Thus even in daily work are expressed the great laws of the Universe. It is especially needed to become accustomed from childhood to continuous labor. Let the better evolution be built upon labor as the measure of value.
33. I can give joy only to him who has adopted the community not in conjurations, not with incense burning, but in daily life.
91. Maintain pure air in your dwellings, project to those who come best wishes, and await Us intently. Let each community await its Teacher, for a community and a Teacher constitute the ends of one and the same column. Even in daily trifles it is necessary to remember the foundation of the house. Again we arrive at the necessity of altering the quality of the consciousness; then the transition is easy.
118. One must tell the builders of life to find new words, forged by new necessity. Realization of the newness of each hour will provide the impulse.
Point out to friends what happiness it is to be eternally new. And each electron of the New World will give new power. Apprehend the power of the new call. You can apply it in the life of every day. You know well enough that My words are for application.
128. You are often astonished that the Teacher foresees the smallest details. But who told you that these details are small? Often a leg is broken from a most insignificant stone, and a blade of grass casts one over the precipice.
Even in daily life you save your near ones from dangers. Then, in Our Community, are not the lives of the coworkers protected in a larger scope? The lips of Friends do not keep silent, but it is necessary to learn to harken to the call of warning.
137. When one is guided daily one may lose consciousness of the guiding thought. Weak minds think that they remain without connection with the guide—the details of daily routine reduce them to ordinariness. But, indeed, amidst daily routine it is possible to grow flaming thought. As a metal is forged with an ordinary hammer, and as seed filled with the great substance of life is gathered with an ordinary sickle, so amid ordinary matters look for the thread of greatness.
152. Day and night Our coworkers are prepared for all the scintillation of the Cosmos. In their readiness they will pass invisibly by day and will find at night the radiant path. Nothing will alarm you when you are constantly alert.
65. If a very simple man should ask you the purpose of the Teaching, say, “That you may live happily.” He should not be overwhelmed by too complicated considerations. Let his entire being be filled with the realization that the whole Teaching is concerned with improving his life. The understanding of responsibility will come later. First—proclaim the joy and betterment of life.
66. Can one reveal to people the truth of the evolution of worlds when they cannot even be certain of having their daily bread? One must avoid even a hint of offering abstractions.
83. Spread the grains of the Teaching little by little. Let it imperceptibly flood the being. The time for preaching has passed, and life remains. Inspire the consciousness of your brother with an imperceptible touch, brought to him as his daily bread. Expose and understand his wrath and quench it with goal-fitness. Affirm him in the joy of realized containment. Beware of manifesting miracles to him, but reveal to him the co-measurement of that which passes into the Infinite. Abolish special holidays, and make of life a perpetual holiday.
84. I believe everyone can read Our books. I do not see any among those who approach Us who are afraid. ... One can distinguish Our people at the first call. Like deer will Our own hasten.
152. Not by gazing at the sky, but through daily life will man multiply life’s riches and discover the meaning and relative value of many daily events.
184. Among the achievements on the path of Yoga is included the possibility of communion with the Teachers. In this regard one must distinguish two currents, the single current and the spatial one. The single current evokes the response of one chosen Teacher. The current of space not only brings one into contact with several Teachers but also provides the possibility of receiving knowledge from Cosmos itself. It is necessary to understand the different ways in which one’s energy is expended when in contact with these two currents. Just as a lamp responds variously to different currents, so do the centers vibrate to the currents of space. Truly, caution is needed to bring into daily life the combinations of such varied energies.
You have an example of the difference between two currents, and you know that the single current has less effect upon one’s health. For future research it is important to know with which of the currents you are dealing.
304. The Teaching of Wisdom is not a textbook with numbered pages. The Teaching is one of indications for life as applied to each necessity. ...
While affirming the common unity, the Teaching of Life must address itself to each person. The Teaching offers solutions to one’s daily problems. ...
Often a person, having mastered a possibility, then becomes careless about it. The festival flower is brought down into ordinary life, as something ordinary. Of course flowers are always pleasing, but it is better to transform everyday life into a festival of the spirit than to dirty the flowers with everyday dust.
357. It is not right to think that if today has passed unchanged, then tomorrow will also pass in the same way. Each hour can bring transformation for the advent of the New World.
Find a way to make the Teaching a part of your everyday life. The busiest people can devote an hour each day to their approach to the Teaching. We cannot believe that there is not a moment available for the most essential, for that for which we live. Daily we partake of food, and without it regard the day as miserable. But our spirit also requires nourishment of thought, and it is a crime to pass one’s day without it.
Let us magnify our thoughts, and let us think of the fundamentals of Yoga as our bread and milk. This should not be forced, because the Teaching itself attracts by taming all that impedes growth.
25. Verily, man is the highest manifestation of Cosmos. Verily, he is chosen as the predestined builder and collector of all treasures of the Universe. Verily, the term “man” means the affirmation of creativeness. Long ago was the key entrusted to man, but when revelation illumined him there appeared the extinguishers of the fires.
35. Do not think of Fire as an abstract concept. Although We do not summon you to the stake, We do not detach you from daily life. Verily, We see Fire even in the most humble worker, if in his spirit lives the song of the endless joy of labor. We shall say that We value each manifestation of true labor, leading toward evolution. Search for this identity and you will become identical with the higher.
72. We bring to humanity the most creative possibilities. We lead humanity toward realization of Truth. We proclaim the cosmic life as embodiment of the principle of perpetuity. One should accept the manifestation of cosmic energy as a fact of daily life, as the herald of new lives.
We manifest the Brotherhood as the affirmation of cosmic power, and Our symbol is the material result.
188. Now We assemble the spirits of the sixth race, and Agni Yoga is the Call! And the synthesis of the Lotus attests a new creative step.
255. The assembling of the new race is based upon spirit-creativeness. The principle of the subtle energies is reposed in the seed of the spirit, and each spirit who has contacted the spatial current is thus imbued by the Assembler of the new race. Thus, the vibration of the Tara awakens the consciousness toward the higher worlds. Yes, yes, yes!
59. Some people pour a daily gruel over the Image of the Teacher and imagine themselves to be in the Great Service. The Teaching and Service presuppose first of all the expansion of consciousness on the basis of adherence to the Teaching and reverence for the Teacher. In studying Infinity one should first of all realize the limitlessness of love and devotion. It is not wise to say that love has overflowed and devotion has withered, because the consequence will be the disintegration of one’s self. One should understand the limitlessness of love and devotion as the first steps toward Service and Yoga. One should set oneself this task, at least as a means of one’s own progress. One should advance only in the direction of the Teacher. Then, only, does relief come. But making a daily onion gruel out of the Teacher will not lead to success. Sacredly, limitlessly, let us sustain our love and reverence for the Teacher, as a healing means of regeneration.
177. Learn not to count days and not to notice years, because there is no difference when you are in the great expanse of Service. One should learn to feel oneself beyond trivial usualness and to adhere in spirit to the manifested world of Beauty. Let us proceed together to where there are no boundaries or end, where one can transform each beneficent gleam into the radiation of a rainbow of blessings to the worlds.
Through devotion one can reach all gates. Let us not forget this even for a moment. Precisely, let us be filled with the smile of devotion, and let us bless the daily routine. ... Let us also daily thank the Highest One.
197. Do not strive to only a customary decision. ... But let us discriminate between commonplaceness and daily labor.
273. Humanity comments in its own way on each ordained affirmation. It distorts in its own way each Ordainment from Above. It applies great principle to life in its own way. It asserts each manifested will in its own way. How can the great be contained in the small, and the cosmic in the personal? How can the great Servitor of Reason and of entire humanity be understood by a consciousness that recognizes only its own hearth? How can a self-denying Leader become affirmed in the understanding of a small daily routine? Only when a spark of devotion to Hierarchy burns in the heart will one find the Gates open. Only gratitude to the Teacher can reveal the entrance to the Gates. Each one who has chosen his own path must realize the loneliness of his orbit, because only love and devotion for Hierarchy include the spirit in the Chain of Light. Thus, each one determines his own karma. Only through Light do we approach Light.
278. It can be understood how much more complex are group, state, and national karmas. Their intermingling is not lessened but increased by the conventional boundaries of humanity.
16. Here We are speaking of direct striving to Us. We speak about the benefit and success which result from such direction. It would seem enticing to test this remedy. But how many attempt to go by this path? Whereas, each one who has tested Our panacea will say that Our Advice is beneficent. He will confirm everywhere and always that when his thoughts remained with Us, he was successful. Each failure was due to the strain upon the silver thread. How beautiful it would be if on completing a day each one would question himself regarding the quality of his thinking during these hours! How powerful could one become in the realization that his thoughts have strengthened the linking thread! The appearance of unfit thoughts could be eradicated at once, but people are such that they listen without hearing and do not read beyond the sight.
Thus My Advice once again is to transform the Teaching into a daily necessity.
173. The Teacher has taken an eternal oath about the affirmation of the New World; follow Him with complete striving. Humanity needs to purify its existence. Thus reconstruction must begin from the very hearth, from daily life. One must not wait for movements of entire nations; on the contrary, the life principle will be rectified in the entire world outside of nationality, along the personal channel. Thus, one ought to remember first of all that it is not the former narrow boundaries that will divide the world. The basis of psychic energy is not limited to a specific nation, but will find a completely different world design.
248. Each day brings new decisions. It is wrong to think only of today, for thus one may remain with the past. All battles waged for today will be lost tomorrow. The Banner will reveal the path of the whirl.
300. If thought in itself contains creative energy, then how useful it is to direct good thought into space. When mankind shall agree to send forth good thought simultaneously, then the infected atmosphere of the lower spheres will at once clear. Hence, it is necessary to take care, even a few times daily, to send out thought not about oneself, but about the world. Thus the thinking will accustom itself to disinterested strivings. As the Savior of mankind thinks only of the entire world, so in emulation of him we can apply our thoughts for the manifestation of creative energy. It is not necessary to look upon the transmission of thought as a supernatural act. Let it provide nurture for the spirit, just as does fuel for the bonfire during the night. Thus, also, it is necessary simply to follow the highest example. The heart will be like a trusty chronometer when it calls to thought about all. It is not necessary to have tiring meditations; thought about the world is short and reflects so simply the renunciation of self. Let good befall the world!
392. I consider that one may permit present daily life to advance along the channel of the heart, but with knowledge of fundamental laws. Thus I affirm the substance of a firm and beautiful construction.
441. Who will encumber himself with the Teaching if his heart has not moved upward? Not conversation, but the introduction into life of quality of details is needed. Each day brings some knowledge and deepening of the heart. Precisely therein lies the accumulation of energy. One should only be free of boredom, which, like fear, cuts off a great deal.
508. It will be asked how to feel the influence of the Teaching in the midst of daily life. Answer—by the smallest things, by each action, each touch. Denial and daily habit deprive certain pupils of much.
549. The family is indicated in all Teachings as the pillar of the entire future. Verily, in addition to all other meanings the family is the nursery of karmic ties. Thus, the Teaching would not be complete without affirming the significance of the family. The family should be regarded as the hearth of conscious understanding and cooperation. Humanity can meet upon cooperation, and this quality will bring one to the realization of Hierarchy.
221. Especially during eating, the inner fire should not be tensed. It is not without reason that some people prefer to eat in silence. Indeed, through all daily life necessary information is scattered. Men rarely utilize wholesome truths. Thus, for example, people like not only to buy quantities of things but also to use them immediately, forgetting that each object carries many complex stratifications. The ancient custom of fumigating each new object had an obvious reason. However, this custom was a precaution not so much against physical stratification as against the subtle, with all its psychic effects.
405. The idea of having at least a half-hour daily for thought is good. I do not mean some special concentration. It is useful to think about the best aspect of everything that is taking place. Even small signs reflecting the best in life afford a glimpse of Light. They also stimulate the flow of gratitude and magnanimity.
652. Self-perfectment is the most difficult achievement. People inject into this process so many inconsistencies that the manifestation of true self-perfectment is obscured. Self-perfectment is simplified primarily when Hierarchy is accepted. Everyone should realize that the perfecting of the consciousness in itself contains all other aspects of improvement, but one cannot accept the mechanical betterment of the details of daily life as perfectment.
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.
100. When you observe nagging thoughts, you may notice that usually they are of the most everyday nature. They may be called a product of the Earth, but in spite of their small significance, they attempt to contend with the greatest ideas. One should carefully cleanse the brain of these unbidden guests. Indeed, there is a time for everything. One may be making all progress, but it should be remembered that small worms may succeed in boring through a very strong tree. Particularly do they love to undermine the anchor of confidence. Beside mistrust, one may also admit obscuring thoughts. It is terrible to lose confidence—it is almost like the loss of communion. When suddenly, instead of communion, a mute emptiness breaks in, this is surely an abyss!
161. Reverence of the Teacher is a remedy against all ailments. When very ill, turn to the Lord.
240. The consciousness directed to Us is continually being refined. The process of refinement becomes a code of every day. Could it be admissible that the subtlest energy be turned into chaos? Everywhere it has been said, “Whoever comes unto Me shall also abide in Me.” This must be understood literally. The subtlest energy cannot be turned into amorphousness; therefore I am so concerned about refinement of consciousness.
374. One may accomplish not a few good actions and then cover them up with one blasphemy. This blasphemy is called the fire-extinguisher; it begets a dark flame and consumes the luminous aura. Repeat to friends that the boundary line between disparagement and blasphemy is a very fine line. Disparagement of one’s neighbor must be eradicated from daily life; this error surely opens the way to the blasphemy of the Highest. He who understands containment will also understand the cosmic harm of disparagement.
464. People are so carelessly engulfed in an everyday routine of life, that even the most striking thing appears dull to them. Ingratitude, laziness, unwillingness to respond with the heart, all are engendered by darkness of existence. But the fiery path shines with the fire of the heart.
465. You think correctly about gratitude. The best expression of gratitude will lie in the realization of the greatness of the Mission. The Service is so great that each step already constitutes an achievement. Each day, with each thought, something significant is done. A great manifestation gives rise to innermost solemnity. In this solemnity there is also expressed gratitude. Solemnity is one of the best magnets. Hence, let us think about the greatest, for by this measure all else can be covered.
37. The achievement of the spirit consists in that amidst earthly difficulties and struggles the spirit develops the higher striving. The spirit cannot become affirmed amidst conditions of well-being or abundance. Therefore the co-workers can prove the strength of their spirit and striving amidst daily labors and difficulties. How could one attain the highest state, attain refinement of consciousness, without spiritual labor? So many blessed cares are on the path of purification of consciousness! Each action which rends the spirit from earthly desires is a higher affirmation. The path to the Fiery World leads through the labors of spirit, through earthly privations; and highest achievements come through departure from earthly manifestations in quest of the higher ones. Thus, when it is said, “the achievement of spirit will be with those who have known the struggle and search for knowledge,” it means this will be a fiery attainment. Thus let us remember upon the path to the Fiery World.
41. Kingliness of the spirit is contained in fiery consciousness, precisely as discipline of the spirit, as an affirmed synthesis, and as a manifestation of broad understanding. Thus, only slaves in spirit are afraid of everything which is fiery, because each manifestation of Fire scorches them. One may trace how regally the revealed co-worker proceeds, illumined by the Fire of consciousness. One should note not only the achievements of apparent heroism, but also the great path of kingliness of the spirit amidst daily life. It is impossible to err in the potentiality of the regal Bearer of Fire. We know these great heroes who saturate the space and all surroundings with their fire and inspire others to achievement. Thus, it is necessary in life to watch the subtle actions of the kingly spirit. One should subtly discern heroism, because we do not always see the fiery heroism of the spirit; and the basis of heroism is not always revealed to the eye of ordinary man. How beautiful is the path of a kingly spirit!
43. On the path to the Fiery World one should revere the heroes of everyday life who saturate life with an achievement in each hour.
46. How beautiful is the law which gives life to every good and to each creative beginning! Indeed, the structure of the Cosmos is aggrandized by all the origins of each hour. Verily, the heroes of the spirit know how their striving of each day links them with the construction of life.
67. The meaning of life is affirmed in the human consciousness when the understanding of man’s role in the Cosmos is revealed. The world is then designated by Us as a field for action in the name of the good of humanity. When the spirit apprehends the truth that Macrocosm and microcosm are inseparably bound together, a conscious bond is established, and cooperation with the cosmic energies becomes possible. But how helpless people are when they lead a form of life isolated from cosmic currents! Indeed, life is transformed when the spirit consciously ascends, understanding the leading principle—Hierarchy. Only when the perception of a guiding Hierarchy is consciously affirmed will humanity realize its true role in the Cosmos. Each link is connected with the next link leading upward. How poor is humanity, in whose consciousness the concept of the great cosmic laws is not affirmed! Only the creativeness of the spirit manifest will bring the worlds closer together. On the path to the Fiery World let us remember about the connecting law of Hierarchy.
126. Free will engenders a cause of a cosmic current, and the current of evil or the current of good will be chosen by the spirit through free will, expressed by everyday actions. Thus, on the path to the Fiery World, comparison of the currents of good and evil gives the impulse for pure striving.
180. The earthly firmament is infected, and is to be purified by humanity itself. Each vital manifestation leaves its precipitations on all space. All must be transmuted, all must be outlived. Thus, each stratum represents a sphere saturated with human lusts, survivals, and aspirations. The fluids of heart and spirit, which saturate space with pure fires, refine the spatial strata. Only in this way can equilibrium be established.
567. It is of no help for people not to think about the future. Each day it is possible to meditate beautifully about a better life beyond the limits of Earth. The more beautiful the imagination, the better are the possibilities engendered there where thought rules.
573. Millions of years have not been enough for humanity to learn to rejoice at Good, to grow to love it as something of the utmost utility. The Teaching must stimulate in all the bearers of Good a feeling of broad sympathy. Otherwise it will not be the Teaching of Good but a teaching of egoism.
602. Each day passed in unity is already an offering of treasure. It is not difficult to cooperate, it is not difficult not to disturb space. Thus, it is each day possible to fill the sacred storehouse.
603. Thought is sometimes compared with the ocean—the comparison is plausible. Each man has three basic currents of thought. A superficial one—from the flesh, connected with muscular reflections, obvious in the external life. The second already concerns the heart, and contributes to improvement and progress in the subtle feelings. And finally, in the depths of the consciousness is being conceived the achievement of self-renunciation—here the Fiery World will be near. Each man can touch all Worlds; even in the routine of his everyday life he can choose the type of thinking he desires. In order to harken to the voice of the heart it is not necessary to be poor or rich, lofty or lowly; it is not even necessary to be very learned. Verily, thought is an ocean with all its currents.
40. Everyone, even in his daily routine, reveals the peculiarities of his nature. A few love especially the deep blue of the mountain peaks, manifesting there the best affirmation of the spirit; others need verdure, and call it the color of hope; a third group lives cramped in the confines of cities and feels content. Different also are the prayers of such people. Little do they understand each other. Therefore, it is necessary to cultivate the consciousness so that it be made tolerant and able to contact the diverse facets of existence.
58. There are ignorant ones who assume that prayer is generally out of place in practical life. They should be asked what sort of business they consider incompatible with prayer—that which is evil and greedy? Certainly in evil there is no place for prayer, yet every good work is in need of prayer—that which reveals the Higher Forces.
Thus, in the New World one should affirm the true realities. We shall not retrogress if we keep in mind that which permanently and unalterably will be the law of Existence.
71. Prayer is good at any time, yet there are two periods of change of currents when turning to the Higher World is especially desirable—at sunrise and after sunset. Besides, upon going to sleep it is befitting to invoke the Higher World.
Sleep is not understood by science. The idea of rest is primitive. If each action is preceded by a spiritual act, then such an extraordinary state as that of sleep must be especially noted. For almost half their lives people entrust themselves to an invisible world. It is necessary to purify one’s consciousness before entrance into the sacred Gates. Thought about the Higher World, thought about the Guardians, already lights up the drooping consciousness; hence, there may be more desirable meetings, and attacks may be warded off. Only the heart’s thought about the Higher World provides an impenetrable armor.
Thus, let us be conscious of all that is most beautiful and needed on the lengthy journey.