Theo. – When you told me I should rely on my inner Master, I had several options in mind: the heart and its source of light, the Master, or the Inner Master. As for you, you generally evoke the Master, the Lord or God. How to decide? Whom should I choose?

The Elder – Choose what will naturally emerge from your heart. Here again, the choice is not mental and it has not been planned. Beginners will more easily meditate on the heart. Following their philosophy, they’d rather resort to the idea of the source of light within the heart, or to the divine light. It doesn’t really matter since their spiritual guide will have connected them to the Centre, to the heart of their hearts, from the moment they were initiated.
When you turn on the light, you don’t think of the power plant electricity comes from. You just switch the light on.
The persons more advanced in raja-yoga will consider their hearts as the Inner Master and will easily take their spiritual guide, their living Master as their model.

Theo. – As far as I understand, the living Master becomes a reflection of the heart, of the Inner Master. The disciple totally, spiritually surrenders to his/her Master.

The Elder – It is one of the easiest method to rapidly develop surrendering, Theo, particularly when it is based on love and trust. It won’t really work unless love is there. The Master is the epitome of Love. He makes sure your heart will become Love too.

Theo. – Our relationship to the Master is a heart-to-heart one.

The Elder – Nothing more than that!

Theo. – Does the Master also give advice?

The Elder – He mainly gives guidance. Educating our minds is only secondary. Raja-yoga is the science of Being.

– Becoming what we already are… of all eternity… Theo whispered.

The Elder – At the last level, there is no more difference between the Master’s heart and the disciple’s heart.

Theo. – What will happen then?

The Elder – The Master has achieved the work God had entrusted to him. Then the disciple is directly connected to the Lord.

Theo. – This is the second level in untethering the soul (atman) you told me about, what you called God’s re-creation.

The Elder – It is indeed the beginning of a new great journey under the auspices of the Lord Himself.

Theo. – And where does it lead?

The Elder – It leads to God, to the Centre. What is most difficult to understand is that we don’t have to do anything, as He does all the work.

Theo. – What need of a Master do we have then?

The Elder – I’d rather say, “How does a Master work?” His work consists in withdrawing completely in order to make room for the Lord.

Theo. – So, who needs him?

The Elder – He is God’s perfect tool. The Lord uses his personality, his characteristics, to establish a contact, a relationship at the human level.  That work may occur quite naturally at all the levels of the being.

Theo. – By resonating, is it?

The Elder – Among other means, yes! A Master will make use of every available tool, of all the means at his disposal to serve a disciple and help him/her to progress further along the Spiritual path.

Theo. – I remember that once you even mentioned injustice as a possible means, something I do find surprising, coming from a Master.

The Elder – There may be a stage when the disciple gets stranded. All that he does is good, everything seems to be properly in place, and yet he does not progress anymore.

Theo. – Did not I hear you praise motionlessness?

The Elder – The Centre is motionless; hence it opens onto the Infinite, onto Eternity. As for the periphery, it is constantly, infinitely on the move.
Once a disciple has been through a stage, a motionless instant follows, which only means that he/she is getting ready for the next quantic jump.

Theo. – And what about the disciple?

The Elder – He just remains frozen, stuck fast. Danger comes when he remains entrapped in a sort of nirvana, an ecstasy that won’t let him go away as it creates a sense of arrival.

Theo. – It must be one of the eleven circles of the ego Babuji evoked. It’s a very subtle situation. Il makes me think of the avadhuta he mentioned. The spiritual seeker is stuck in a region, in a sphere that is within him.

The Elder – That is where a living Master would necessarily fit in. When the Master gets aware of it, he will ensure that the disciple leaves his spiritual prison and moves again.

Theo. – It looks as if he were trapped in ice. Babuji said that yogis could remain stuck like that for ages.

The Elder – Actually, everything is suspended within them and their minds are permanently in ecstasy.

Theo. – What is the problem?

The Elder – They have forgotten God and are still busy with themselves.

Theo. – Just like rocks.

The Elder – Yes! You can see it illustrated in Lord Krishna’s life when he was seen uprooting two trees within which two spirits were being trapped. That is the way he granted them freedom. On another occasion, he did it again by overturning a rock to free another trapped spirit.

The Elder stood up to take that wonderful book about Lord Krishna’s life and left Theo puzzled and lost in his thoughts.

Theophile the Elder
Excerpts from Dialogues with Theophile the Elder
Theophile the Younger’s Initiation