Preface

he Shri Ram Chandra Mission is privileged to offer to the general public the first volume of the Complete Works of Ram Chandra, this being the first time that my Masters works are being offered in collected form. Spiritual aspirants all over the world have been familiar with the work of Shri Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur, Founder-President of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission in India, with its headquarters in Shahjahanpur, in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The parent Mission in India has more than 150 centres all over India, and numbers spiritual aspirants who practice the system of Sahaj Marg in thousands. The teaching of the Master is made available to aspirants by trained preceptors, who are able to offer the Masters service to persons virtually at their own location. Shri Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur commenced his spiritual voyage under his Master, coincidentally bearing the same name, at the comparatively young age of 22 years. The founder of the system, Shri Ram Chandra of Fatehgarh, also in Uttar Pradesh, lived in a small town called Fatehgarh, not far from my Masters birthplace, Shahjahanpur. He rediscovered the ancient and long-forgotten spiritual technique of yogic transmission, refined it, and offered it as a sure and simple way to achieve the goal of human lifehuman perfection up to the highest level, also called divinization. This ancient technique utilizes the divine energy for the transformation of hu-

Preface man beings, and is called transmission in this system. It is unique in the history of spirituality, and its efficacy in making possible the attainment of the highest ideal of human perfection, or divinization, in one life, and that too to all and sundry who care to practice it, is something to be wondered at, for the spiritual practice, in India, was hitherto exclusively the privilege of ascetics who were able to renounce the world. Lalaji, as he was popularly known and affectionately addressed, the founder of Sahaj Marg, made the system available even to ordinary householders and assured them that a devoted aspirant, assiduously practicing the system under the instructions of the Master, could aspire to that goal which had till then been the preserve of ascetics and sannyasis. My Master completed his own spiritual evolution under Lalaji, and subsequently became his spiritual representative and successor. To honour the holy name of his own Master, he founded the Shri Ram Chandra Mission in India, with its headquarters in Shahjahanpur. From a humble beginning in 1945 when the Mission was established, the Mission has spread far and wide, and has now centres in many countries of the world. His teachings, part of which are to be found in this volume, are well known, as thousands of spiritual aspirants have benefited from his teaching and benefited from Sahaj Marg yogic practice. This volume contains the core works of my Master. Future volumes of the Complete Works will appear in due course, and complete the course of the Masters teachings. There are a large number of spiritual training centres of the Mission, with hundreds of trained preceptors serving the spiritual interest of aspirants worldwide. x

Preface It is hoped that people will welcome this edition of my Masters works with the same love and enthusiasm as they have had for him during his lifetime. P. Rajagopalachari Madras, India

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