lives of a person, it is only to help him on towards the eternal Truth. Their knowledge of the past places them in a special position to give an aspirant just that guidance which he needs. The details of the Path are often determined by (i) the incidents of the past, (ii) the manner in which the aspirant has sought the highest Truth in his past lives and (iii) the obstacles or facilities which he has created for himself through his past doings. All these things, which are hidden from the aspirant, are open to the unclouded perception of the Master who uses his knowledge in order to accelerate the spiritual progress of the seeker of the Truth. The Master leads the aspirant from the place in which he has landed himself through the experimentation and search of several lives. In spiritual matters, as in mundane matters, greater and unerring knowledge means economy of energy and time.


Part IV
SPECIFIC CONDITIONS OF AN INCARNATION

THE individualised soul has its beginning and source in the infinite, formless, sexless and indivisible being of God, Who is beyond all forms of duality or evolution. Sex a specific form of duality With the beginning of the individualised soul there is the beginning of duality and evolution, though the specific form of duality consisting in the distinction and attraction based upon sex makes its appearance at a later stage of evolution. Duality exists as soon as there is subject and object—a centre of consciousness (howsoever dim) and its environment. Sex, however, is a specific kind of bodily attraction which presupposes differentiation of forms, a specific kind of psychic entanglement with the forms, and specific expression of life and energy.
In the mineral kingdom there is no sex. Sex in minerals and plants In the kingdom of plants and trees the bodily differentiations of sex, with specialised biological functions, have come into existence. Plants and trees do not generate sex-consciousness, since the devel-