he is so regardless of consequences that his thoughtless grip on the person who has come to save him, not only makes it impossible for him to be saved but often becomes instrumental in drowning the one who has come to save him. The person who wants to save a drowning man, has to be very careful; in fact, one who is expert in this art of saving drowning persons, often has to hit the drowning man on the head and render him "unconscious," so that he may not grab him in an awkward manner. Through his apparent cruelty, he minimizes the danger which the drowning man is likely to invite upon himself, and secures success for his help; in the same way, the apparent sternness of the God-man is intended to secure the ultimate spiritual well-being of others.

The soul in bondage is caught up in the universe; and the universe is nothing but imagination. But since there is no end to imagination, he is likely to wander indefinitely in the mazes of false consciousness. The God-man can help him to cut short the different stages of false consciousness by revealing the Truth. When the mind does not perceive the Truth, it is likely to imagine all kinds of things. For example, the soul can imagine that he is a beggar or a king, a man or a woman, etc.

The soul, thus goes on gathering the experiences of the opposites. Wherever there is duality, there is a tendency to restore balance through the opposite. For example, if a person has the experience of being a murderer, it has to be counter-balanced by the experience of being murdered; and if the soul has the experience of being a king, it has to be counter-balanced by the experience of being a beggar. Thus, the soul may wander "ad infinitum" from one opposite to the other without being able to put an end to his false consciousness. The God-man can help him to arrive at the Truth by giving him perception of the Truth and cutting short the working of his imagination, which would otherwise be endless. The God-man helps the soul in bondage by sowing in him the seed of God-realization, but it always takes some time to attain God-realization. Every process of growth in the universe takes time.

The help of the God-man is, however, far more effective than the help which some advanced aspirant may give. When the aspirant helps, he can take a person only up to the point which he has himself reached; and even this limited help, which he can give, becomes effective very gradually, with the result that the person, who ascends through such help, has to stay in the