This then is the path which lies before us, the path which each one of us should be beginning to tread. Stupendous though its heights appear we should remember that they are attained but gradually and step by step, and that those who now stand near the summit once toiled in the mire of the valleys, even as we are doing. Although this path may at first seem hard and toilsome, yet ever as we rise our footing becomes firmer and our outlook wider, and thus we find ourselves better able to help those who are climbing beside us. Because it is at first thus hard and toilsome to the lower self, it has sometimes been called by the very misleading title of “the path of woe;” but, as Mrs. Besant has beautifully written, “through all such suffering there is a deep and abiding joy, for the suffering is of the lower nature, and the joy of the higher. When the last shred of the personality is gone all that can thus suffer has passed away, and in the perfected Adept there is unruffled peace and everlasting joy. He sees the end toward which all is working, and rejoices in that end, knowing that earth’s sorrow is but a passing phase in human evolution. “That of which little has been said is the profound content which comes from being on the path, from realizing the goal and the way to it, from knowing that the power to be useful is increasing, and that the lower nature is being gradually extirpated. And little has been said of the rays of joy which fall upon the path from loftier levels, the dazzling glimpses of the glory to be revealed, the serenity which the storms of earth cannot ruffle. To any one who has entered on the path all other ways have lost their charm, and its sorrows have a deeper bliss than the best joys of the lower world.” (Vâhan, vol. v., No. 12.) Let no man therefore despair because he thinks the task too great for him; what man has done man can do, and just in proportion as we extend our aid to those whom we can help, so will those who have already attained be able in their turn to help us. So from the lowest to the highest we who are treading the steps of the path are bound together by one long chain of mutual service, and none need feel neglected or alone, for though sometimes the lower flights of the great staircase may be wreathed in mist, we know that it leads up to happier regions and purer air, where the light is always shining. INDEX. Adept, 26, 95, 109, 127, 129, 133 Adeptship, 109, 115, 127 Anâgâmî, 124 Ânanda and the Buddha, 125 Angels and Gods, Hierarchies of, 7, 8 Angel Story, 42 Anuloma, 114 Arahat, consciousness of, 126 Arûparâga, 126 Asekha, 127, 129 Astral body, 36, 37 of children, 69 after death, 81, 82 active consciousness in, 37, 67 physical elements, no obstacle to, 99, 100 Astral world, power of thought in, 99 Athanasian Creed, 120 Avijjâ, 126 Awakening pupils on the astral plane, tests for, 99-100 Bhavagga, 119 Black magicians, 94