The Gift of Life

That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.
_{Bible, John 3: 6-7}

The spiritual birth of a human being is the most important event of his entire series of earthly existences. It is the goal towards which he has constantly been progressing, albeit much of the time unconsciously, throughout all his lives in the material world.

The first step in being born anew is initiation by a living perfect Master, at which time the Master connects the soul with the Word, the all-powerful current of spiritual life.

At the time of initiation the seed of the spiritual life is planted in the disciple and, like a material seed, it must and will grow and bring forth fruit. The process is in accordance with natural and spiritual law, and the result is inevitable. Thereafter, as the soul is drawn upward by the power of the audible life stream and rises above the body consciousness, it comes in due time to cosmic awareness and the spiritual birth is brought to a state of ultimate perfection. Initiation means the beginning of a new and higher life, a new and broader outlook, and a new and deeper understanding.

The Masters throughout human history have been the divinely appointed agents of the Supreme Father sent to this planet to give the new birth to those who long for it in right earnest and are ready for it. This they can do because they have free access to the souls of men. Their revivifying spiritual power and love can therefore pierce through outer coverings, and reach and touch the soul within by direct communication between soul and soul.

The power of the Masters to reach the soul is of the utmost importance, for in this way they can contact and bring to light the God-power within ourselves. The Masters can ignore or bypass the mind and exert the spiritualizing power directly on the soul. Thus they gradually develop or liberate a soul force within us of which we were not previously aware, and which in time becomes the dominant factor in our lives.

Over and over again the Masters have referred to the physical birth as a death, because it means that the soul, bright and radiant from God in its essential nature, must once again go down into darkness.

The real birth takes place when the soul is connected with the great luminous reality of the sound current or Holy Spirit by a perfect Master.

Thus, initiation is the first step in the divinely planned process that releases man from the relative death of the physical world and makes it possible for him to awaken spiritually, or be born of the spirit, and then rise up to live the spiritual and infinitely joyous life of the higher realms from which he long ago descended. There is but one final proof that this is true, one supreme authority by which it can be proved beyond dispute. And this is the authority of one’s personal experience, one’s own first-hand realization that it is a verifiable fact. This realization is made possible through initiation by a perfect Master and by the practice of meditation in which these Masters instruct their disciples.
_{Yoga and the Bible}