crushed out, 4) the fourth and fifth deep, dark colours vanish, 5) the fourth and fifth fundamental impressions are wiped out, 6) the fourth and fifth doors (as represented by the right and left ears) are passed through, and 7) the soul arrives on the highest plane of the Subtle Sphere, the Fourth Plane.

The Fourth Plane is the plane of spiritual splendour and of divine powers. The pilgrims, advanced this far, can even—among many other things—raise the dead. They run a very grave risk of misusing these powers, thus inviting disaster, and only a very few can independently cross these dizzy heights without the aid of a Perfect Master.

It is of them that Hafiz says:

"Dar astane , Janan az asman beyandish

Kaz auje sar bulandi uf ti be khak pasti."

i.e.: “On the threshold of the Beloved, beware of the fourth plane; for you can fall down from the great height to the lowest of dust."

In such cases man is then thrown back from the progress of his material evolution to beyond that of the stone form.

As anything is likely to happen to a man traveling an unknown path in the pitch blackness of the night, so it is for one who has to pass through the Fourth Plane without the guiding hand of a Master. That is why, for all its dazzling splendour and power, the period of going through the Fourth Plane is termed in Christian mysticism, “the dark night of the soul."

If the advanced pilgrim is able to get free at all of the allurements and treacheries of the "dark night of the soul," he enters the Mental Sphere (Mun-Bhumika or the Aalam-e-Jabrut) by the fifth and final double seven­in-one achievement on the same lines as the fourth. All the folds of the veil are removed, together with the relative knots, desires, colours, impressions; the sixth and seventh doors (as represented by the right and left eyes) are crossed and the Fifth Plane of Light and Love is reached.

Those who have safely arrived on the Fifth Plane are the Vali-Allah (literally meaning "friends of God"). Their inner sight or the third eye is now fully developed, but though all the seven folds of the veil have disappeared, the Veil itself is still there. The pilgrim is therefore not yet face to face with God and cannot see the Beloved.

Because of their pure love for God, unadulterated by the false ego, the position of these pilgrims on the Fifth Plane is secure, and there is no possibility of retrogression. Without any harm to themselves they can and do,