21/03/2026
In my previous instruction I stressed three points to which I would like again to refer in the light of the emerging opportunity. My task is not to change you or to give you orders and commands. I have only one task, and that is to find and test out those who can serve the race under inspiration from the Ashrams of the Masters. I referred at that time to the loneliness which is one of the first things that indicates to a disciple that he is being prepared for initiation. It will be apparent, therefore, that the loneliness to which I refer is not that which is incident to those weaknesses of character which repel one's fellowmen, to an aloof or disagreeable nature, or to any form of self-interest which is so emphasized that it antagonizes other people. There is much loneliness in a disciple's life which is entirely his own fault and which is subject to cure if he employs the right measure of self-discipline. With these he must deal himself, for they concern the personality, and with your personalities I have no affair. I refer to the loneliness which comes when the accepting disciple becomes the pledged disciple and steps out of a life of physical plane concentration, and of identification with the forms of existence in the three worlds, and finds himself in the midway place, between the world of outer affairs and the inner world of meaning. His first reaction then is that he is alone; he has broken with the past; he is hopeful but not sure of the future; the tangible world to which he is accustomed must, he knows, be superseded by the intangible world of values, involving a new sense of proportion, a new range of values and new responsibilities. This world he believes exists, and he steps forward bravely and theoretically, but it remains for a while wholly intangible; he finds few who think and feel as he does and the mechanism of sure contact only exists within him in embryo. He is breaking loose from the mass consciousness with which he has been merged hitherto, but has not yet found his group, into which he will eventually be consciously absorbed. Therefore, he is lonely and feels deserted and bereft. Some of you feel this loneliness; few of you have, for instance, reached the point where you feel yourselves to be a definite, integral part of the group; only two or three of you realize - briefly and fleetingly at times - the close link with the Ashram; your attitude is largely one of hope, coupled with the idea that it is your physical limitations which prevent your realizing all that truly is, in connection with your inner affiliations. But, my brothers, such a sense of loneliness is only another form of self-consciousness, of undue self-interest, and (as you make progress upon the Path) you will find it disappearing. If you therefore feel lonely, you must learn to look upon it as a glamour or illusion and as a limitation which must be overcome. You must begin to act as if it were not. If only more disciples would learn the value of acting "as if." There is no time for any of you to be lonely these days, for there is no time for you to think about yourselves.
Source: Discipleship in the New Age Vol II