Personal Meditation is directed towards persons who are spiritually perfect. Just as a man who admires the character of Napoleon and constantly thinks about him, has a tendency to become like him, an aspirant, who admires some spiritually perfect person and constantly thinks about him, has a tendency to become spiritually perfect. A suitable object of personal meditation is to be found in a living Master or Avatar or in the Masters and Avatars of the past but it is important to have as an object of personal meditation a person who is spiritually perfect. If the person who is selected for meditation happens to be spiritually imperfect, there is every chance of his frailties percolating into the mind of the aspirant who meditates upon him; but if the person who is selected for meditation is spiritually perfect, the aspirant has taken to a safe and sure path.

Personal meditation often begins by the admiration which the aspirant spontaneously feels for some divine quality which he sees in the Master. By allowing the mind to dwell upon the divine qualities expressed in the life of the Master, the aspirant imbibes them into his own being.* Ultimately the Master as he exists for himself, is beyond all qualities—good and bad; he is not bound by them. But, the qualities which he exhibits while interacting with life around, are all different aspects of divinity in action; and the expression of divinity through qualities, becomes a medium of helping those who are appreciatively responsive to them. Appreciation of the divinity perceived in the Master gives rise to forms of meditation, in which the aspirant constantly and strenuously thinks of the Master as being the embodiment of qualities like Universal Love or Complete Detachment, Ego-lessness or Steadfastness, Infinite Knowledge or Selfless Action. Sometimes the mind may dwell upon such qualities in their separateness; and sometimes it may dwell upon them in combinations which reveal their inter-relatedness. This form of meditation is very valuable when it is spontaneous; it then leads to a greater understanding of the Master and gradually remolds the aspirant into the likeness of the Master, thus contributing towards his self-preparation for the realization of the Truth.

Dwelling upon the qualities of the Master often facilitates concentration on the Form of the Master.** In this form of meditation, the aspirant is

*Meditation No. 3 in the Table.

**Meditation No. 4 in the Table.