Topic Archetypes
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Master-Saint-Prophet
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Vol. 13, Gathas Metaphysics Three Paths
Questions and Answers (July 19, 1923)
Q: Will you please explain what you said yesterday about the two paths, the one which leads to saintliness, and the one which leads to mastership?
A: There are two paths which lead to the goal, one of the saint and the other of the master.
In one path [master] the will is used in outward things, in the other path [saint] the will is mostly used to control oneself, in other words for the time being against oneself. This is the saintly path. It is wise, before one knows of the will of God, first to handle one's own will, and to use it knowing that it is given for some great purpose in life. This one is the path of renunciation, abnegation, resignation, self-denial, from the beginning to the end. And by doing this one arrives to that meeting ground where one touches that divine perfection.
And then there is the path of the master. The path of firmness and obstinacy, breaking and penetrating through every difficult situation that comes before him. And so fighting all along from the beginning to the end. In this he has to fight with himself and with the life outside. Therefore the struggle is both sides. And there is all the time the work of the will-power, and all through there is a battle; and in this battle all the conditions that one has to go through are of the same character and nature as of the warfare. To be wounded and to cause wounds, and to be hurt and to hurt another also. And in this way it is a constant struggle. But still for the higher aim, and for the greater gain.
In the end [the master] strikes the same note which the saint has struck. Neither the path of the saint is easy, nor of the master. The place where they meet, both become one. For the resignation brings the saint to the same realization of the harmony with the Infinite, as the struggle brings the master to the same conviction in the end.
There is a third temperament, and that is the middle temperament, in which temperament there is the saintly temperament and the temperament of the master; that is the prophetic temperament, because the prophet begins his life with both, struggle and resignation. One moment struggle, and another moment resignation; gain and resignation, continually going on. And therefore in the prophet one sees the saint and the master, both in one.
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