symbolic expression among mystics for “the six Planes.”

Q.  There have been and still are so many false Messiahs. How can we recognize the “true” Messiah?

A.  The feeling and inspiration for things sublime and the Divine Love are imparted by a real Messiah to anyone who comes in contact with Him. A false Messiah cannot do this.

Through His Divinity the true Messiah gradually attracts the world to Himself, and people come to know and feel that He is REAL. The knowledge and feeling of confidence in His words and works grow gradually into certainty, and masses follow Him, drawn by an irresistible force. A mirage attracts the thirsty, but soon it is discovered to be an illusion and not the life-giving water. A false Messiah may attract the attention of the people through outward appearances, by force of personality, or by intellectual. dissertations about spirituality, but he cannot do that which the true Messiah can do, i.e., arouse the highest ideals in men and touch the hearts of millions.

Q.  How is it, that the Master, being superhuman, still has hunger, thirst, and the need of sleep?

A.  The Master works on different Planes . . . spiritual, mental, astral and physical. And in order to work with different individuals at different stages of evolution, he comes down to their level. Even when in the physical body, he can aid highly advanced souls on the mental plane, less advanced souls on the astral plane, and ordinary human beings on the physical plane. He uses the appropriate body . . . spiritual, mental, astral or physical, as the medium for his work on the required plane.

It is rightly said that the true teacher is he who can come down to the level of the student. The Master comes down to the level of this world for its upliftment. The physical body, now his medium of work, has its physical needs, food and rest, which must usually he attended to physically. If necessary, he could live for days together without food or water. In fact, he has often fasted for long periods. This attention to the requirements of the physical body of the Master, although outwardly similar, is inwardly different. It is not, as in ordinary men, actuated by any desire to satisfy hunger, thirst or sleep, nor for the pleasure that man derives from eating, drinking and other enjoyments. He tends to the physical needs of the body merely to preserve it as a medium for the great work that he has to do for humanity on this physical plane.