alking beyond the three gunas--Satva (feeling of
gratification), Rajas (passional activity) and Tamas (inertness)--what
injunction or what restriction is there?"--in the consideration of men,
walled in on all sides by the objective plane of existence. This does
not mean that a Mahatma can or will ever neglect the laws of morality,
but that he, having unified his individual nature with Great Nature
herself, is constitutionally incapable of violating any one of the laws
of nature, and no man can constitute himself a judge of the conduct of
the Great one without knowing the laws of all the planes of Nature's
activity. (As honest men are honest without the least consideration of
the) criminal law, so a Mahatma is moral without reference to the laws
of morality.

These are, however, sublime topics: we shall before conclusion notice
some other considerations which lead the ordinary "pantheist" to the
true foundation of morality. Happiness has been defined by John Stuart
Mill as the state of absence of opposition. Manu gives the definition
in more forcible terms:

Sarvam paravasam duhkham
Sarva matmavasam sukham
Idam jnayo samasena
Lakshanam sukhaduhkhayo.

"Every kind of subjugation to another is pain, and subjugation to one's
self is happiness: in brief, this is to be known as the characteristic
marks of the two." Now, it is universally admitted that the whole
system of Nature is moving in a particular direction, and this
direction, we are taught, is determined by the composition of two
forces--namely, the one acting from that pole of existence ordinarily
called "matter" towards the other pole called "spirit," and the other in
the opposite direction. The very fact that Nature is moving shows that
these two forces are not equal in magnitude. The plane on which the
activity of the first force predominates is called in occult treatises
the "ascending arc," and the corresponding plane of the activity of the
other force is styled the "descending arc." A little reflection will
show that the work of evolution begins on the descending arc and works
its way upwards through the ascending arc. From this it follows that
the force directed towards spirit is the one which must, though not
without hard struggle, ultimately prevail. This is the great directing
energy of Nature, and, although disturbed by the operation of the
antagonistic force, it is this that gives the law to her; the other is
merely