Page 126 - Liberal Exposition of Pranahuti Aided Meditation

not so because the next quality, greatest quality that we have to develop is sraddha or faith. Until now the concept of faith has not come. We know there is a transiency of nature, we know that we have got to somehow or other get disinterested with these things, we also know that we are dependent and interdependent, we come to know that we have got to yield to the Divine but where is shraddha?
One of the most important ingredients of spiritual life is shraddha. Shraddha would mean, first of all do you have the confidence that you can know? Faith in yourself, faith in God, faith in the method, all these three things come here, without it you cannot understand much of faith. You should have faith in yourself or confidence in yourself, you can use that word if you want, you should have confidence in the Master or God, you should have confidence in the path that you are following. All these things get more and more regulated when you move on from 3rd knot to the 4th knot. The transition is relatively easier compared to 2nd to 3rd because there is a gradient there where as there is no gradient here, it is almost an equal plane and once shraddha develops, you will be in a position to move on to the higher plane.
I have been deliberately avoiding certain concepts. The bhouthika sarira with which we start has got the prana sarira also i.e. inside that is the prana that is moving around. That prana consists of 5 different types of prana we are aware of - prana, apana, vyana, udhana, samana., these things move inside our body, in the sense they are capable of determining our boundaries. A body is one which determines our boundary, beyond this we do not go. It is inside, encased in physical body itself. Similarly are our feelings i.e. the manasika sarira also is inside our body because up to that is the lower consciousness as we have seen. These are the lower planes most of which are had by the animals.
The journey started with the manasika sarira of trying to go up and then you started aspiring for something else – vijnanamaya. We started moving on and then we started with vijnanamaya, we came to first vijnana that is transiency, second vijnana - we are interdependent or dependent upon God and third one is one of dependency, total dependency of being a servant of the Divine for His purposes and when we come to the fourth we say yes we are now moving on to the higher plane with confidence. Can I now move on to the higher plane? You seem to have developed a confidence there, till that time you don’t have a confidence at all, you seem to be a slave of circumstances. I am yet but a slave of my wishes putting a bar