through the seven doors as represented by the seven physical openings in the face.

When an initiate succeeds in actually entering the Divine Path, it is for him a single seven-in-one achievement, and it applies to the first of the seven folds of the veil, viz.: I) unfastening of the first knot, 2) disappearance of the first fold, 3) crushing out of the first root desires, 4) wiping out of the relative fundamental impressions, 5) doing away with the first of the seven deep, dark colors, 6) entrance through the first door (as represented by the mouth), and 7) arriving on the First Plane in the Subtle Sphere, the Pran Bhumika or the Aalam-e-Malakut.*

In dreams, an ordinary man is able to make partial use of his subtle body with subtle consciousness, but only in respect to gross experience and concerning only gross objects. Just as he experiences the gross world with full gross consciousness through his gross body, so the initiate on the First Plane begins to experience the subtle world with full consciousness through his subtle body.

If the initiate is able to proceed further and manages to maintain progress, he continues in the subtle sphere up to the Fourth Plane. This progress involves the successive second and third single seven-in-one achievements that are on the same lines of sevenfold results as the first. This passing through the second and third doors (as represented by the right and left nostrils) brings a still greater intensification of the Real Illusion, i.e. a higher consciousness of the Path. After going through the second door, he realizes all the more the wonderful things about the subtle world and at the same time begins to run the risk of being lost in the maze of wonderment. The mystical enchantments of the Path beyond the third door are still greater, and so also are the chances of becoming spellbound by them. Just as those with gross consciousness take the gross sphere and its illusory experience as the only reality, so the pilgrims in the Subtle Sphere, while they are absorbed in the wonder of the plane they are on, may mistake it for the ultimate Reality. Hence a pilgrim often gets stuck on a plane, deluded by its rapture into accepting it as the Goal, until a Perfect Master helps him by pushing him on to the next plane.

The fourth seven-in-one achievement is a double achievement because at one and the same time: I) the fourth and fifth knots are unfastened, 2) the fourth and fifth folds disappear, 3) the fourth and fifth root desires are

*also spelled Malakoot on page 17