Fourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism

Fourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism By Yogi Ramacharaka
Author of "Science of Breath," "Hatha Yoga," etc.
Copyright, 1903, By The Yogi Publication Society.
Copyright, 1904, By The Yogi Publication Society.
Copyright, 1931, By The Yogi Publication Society.
THE FIRST LESSON.
THE FIRST THREE PRINCIPLES.
It is with no ordinary feelings that we address ourselves to our students of the Yogi class
of 1904. We see, as they perhaps do not, that to many of them this series of lessons will
be as seed planted in fertile soil, which will in due time put forth sprouts which will force
their way gradually into the sunlight of consciousness, where they will put forth leaves,
blossom, and fruit. Many of the fragments of truth which will be presented to you will not
be recognized by you at this time, but in years to come you will recognize the verity of
the impressions which will be conveyed to you in these lessons, and then, and then only,
will you make these truths your own.
We intend to speak to you just as if you were gathered before us in person, and as if we
were standing before you in the flesh. We feel sure that the bond of sympathy between us
will soon grow so strong and real that as you read our words you will feel our presence
almost as strongly as if we were with you in person. We will be with you in spirit, 1 and,
according to our philosophy, the student who is in harmonious sympathy with his
teachers really establishes a psychic connection with them, and is in consequence enabled
to grasp the "spirit" of the teaching and to receive the benefit of the teacher's thought in a
degree impossible to one who merely reads the words in cold print.
We are sure that the members of the class of 1904 will get into harmony with each other,
and with us, from the very start, and that we will obtain results that will surprise even
ourselves, and that the term of the class will mark a wonderful spiritual growth and
unfoldment for many of the class. This result would be impossible were the class
composed of the general public, in which the adverse thought vibrations of many would
counteract, or at least retard, the impelling force generated in the minds of those who are
in sympathy with the work.
But we will not have this obstacle to overcome, as the class has been recruited only from
that class of students who are interested in the occult. The announcements sent out by us
have been worded in such a way as to attract the attention only of those for whom they
were intended. The mere sensation hunters and the "faddists" have not been attracted by
our call, while those for whom the call was intended have heard and have hastened to

communicate with us. As the poet has sung: "Where I pass, all my children know me."
The members of the class having been attracted to us, and we to them, will form a
harmonious body working with us to the common end of self-improvement, growth,
development, and unfoldment. The spirit of harmony and unity of purpose will do much
for us, and the united thought of the class, coupled with our own, will be a tower of
strength, and each student will receive the benefit of it, and will be strengthened and
sustained thereby.
We will follow the system of instruction of the East, rather than that of the Western world.
In the East, the teacher does not stop to "prove" each statement or theory as he makes or
advances it; nor does he make a blackboard demonstration of spiritual truths; nor does he
argue with his class or invite discussion. On the contrary, his teaching is authoritative,
and he proceeds to deliver his message to his students as it was delivered to him, without
stopping to see whether they all agree with him. He does not care whether his statements
are accepted as truth by all, for he feels sure that those who are ready for the truth which
he teaches will intuitively recognize it, and as for the others, if they are not prepared to
receive the truth, no amount of argument will help matters. When a soul is ready for a
spiritual truth, and that truth, or a part of it, is uttered in its presence or presented to its
attention by means of writings, it will intuitively recognize and appropriate it. The
Eastern teacher knows that much of his teaching is but the planting of seed, and that for
every idea which the student grasps at first there will be a hundred which will come into
the field of conscious recognition only after