The spiritual life

Devotion and the Spiritual Life. 71

studylaiddowninthe Indianbooks; noreven

themasteryofthesixty-threesciencesintowhich

allhumanlearningisdivided. Whenwespeak

ofthePathof Knowledgewemeanmorethan

intellectual learning; we meanthe pathwhich

leads to spiritual knowledge, that is, to the

knowledgeoftheONE,oftheSELF,theseeking,

thefindingBrahman,forbyknowledgeHemay

be found, byknowledge He may be entered

into. And therearesomewhochoosethePath

of Knowledge unallied to Devotion, and who

tread that Path ever, life after life, until the

right to Liberation has beengained. Let us
trytorealisethe stepsof sucha path. First,

there must be the recognition of the ONEon

whom all worlds are built, of the ONE, the

SELF eternal and unchanging that throws out

universes,as a spider throws out its web,and

drawstheminagain^-theoneExistencewhich

is at the root of all, supreme,incognisable by

humanthought: knowledgerecognises theOne

without a second. The next stage in that

knowledge,inrecognisingthe One,isthereali-

sationthatallthingsthattakeonseparateforms

musthaveanend,thatinverytruththereisno

separatenessintheuniverse,butonlyappearance

of separation; the One withouta second who

*"Mundakopaiiishad,"i,I.7.