without an external guide. Even the progress that has already been made has not been made without the guide of Higher Intelligent Beings, though, indeed, this aid has been rendered independently of the will and choice of the individuals concerned. On attaining to a certain stage of intellectual development, each individual Ego has to consciously choose and act for himself. He should no longer content himself with the limited scope of his will and knowledge if he would ever rise above the present level where he is a slave to the surrounding circumstances, entirely guided and acted on by them,--a state which is quite contrary to that which he wishes to attain, to the state of unity with the very Divine Being who knows all and guides and shapes the whole universe according to His will, His will being the law according to which the universe has to evolve. Having this grand aim in view, he should develop faculties whereby the sphere of his knowledge and experience may be extended so that he may know the right from the wrong, the good from the evil, and consciously follow the right and the good while consciously avoiding the wrong and the evil. In short, he should be able to know what is absolutely right; and, rising above all human motives of action, his will should be as free to act in the right way as that of the Divine Being. Now is the time for Revelation to teach to man its first lessons. It

is the Guru or His voice as the Sruti (Revelation) that teaches man about the existence of an immortal Ego who is conscious of everything that goes on around him. It shows what man should do if he wishes to secure a happy life after death. To this end various rules of moral conduct are laid down and an elaborate process of ceremonial prescribed, which being duly observed,. man lives a happy life after death in the region of svarga, quite beyond the reach of misery which man here on earth is put to. A knowledge of the immortality of the Ego and of the means of securing bliss in a future world cannot be acquired by the mere unaided intellect of man. The past conscious experience is not enough even to make him suspect the existence of a disembodied Ego; much less can it convince him of his reality and enable him to discover the means whereby to secure unearthly happiness in a world altogether beyond his comprehension.

5. To realise the Vedic teaching on this subject and to act upon it, man must have an unbounded faith in the Veda. To have an unbounded faith in the Veda is to have an unbounded faith in the Guru who gives voice to the teaching which takes the form of the Veda. 'Veda' literally means 'wisdom'; and the sacred word we now call Veda derives its sanctity and authority from the fact that it wisdom taught by the