The Master makes an opening statement that philosophy is a subject not based upon reason but intuition and goes on to make a critical observation regarding the general approach adopted by most of the western philosophers towards the subject, namely, starting from doubt.

The word philosophy comes from the Greek word combination, 'philo' to madly in love with and 'sophia' meaning knowledge/ wisdom. The word 'Sophia' refers to the Greek goddess of wisdom. The philosopher should not be driven by a vulgar curiosity for knowing but must be a passionate seeker of the Reality behind appearance. It has been the ambitious effort of philosophers, eastern and western to unravel the mystery behind diverse natural phenomena and arrive at the cause or causes underlying them. In the early days of speculative thinking it was common in all societies to declare that a particular god or goddess was the governing agency for a specific phenomenon in nature and that god or goddess is to be appeased by following certain rituals or magical rites. These were usually laid down by the priest or Shaman who specialized in this kind of discipline and was believed by the rest to be endowed with the mystical powers of intuition and communion with the departed and the powers in nature. There had always existed in all societies the skeptics who questioned the belief in super-natural agencies, the special position given to the priestly class and their authority over ordinary men. The arrival of Socrates on the arena of philosophy in Greece saw the sway of the gods of the Greek pantheon over the lives of men on earth being questioned and the appeal to human reason being given importance. Socrates developed the method of persistent questioning in order to arrive at certain knowledge. Every answer to a question will be turned into yet another till the person being interrogated would raise his hands and admit his ignorance of the subject, which he had claimed to know in the beginning. The established priest class saw the threat being posed to its very existence by the iconoclastic approach of Socrates and brought about his end. The calm and stoic manner in which Socrates faced his death by consuming the cup of poison from the hands of his own disciples has become immortalized as the attitude expected of a genuine philosopher maintaining an imperturbable calm in the face of adversity. The Socratic school dethroned the gods as the ruling agencies and set people thinking about the phenomena afresh urging them to look for natural causes. Plato, a great admirer and close follower of Socrates, believed that philosophers must be kings and if the king is not a philosopher he should be trained to become one. This is what we find in the famous dialogue of Plato, namely, the 'Republic'. The basis of such a conviction is that a philosopher will be a wise man and he will therefore manage the affairs of the State with equanimity, fairness and impartiality ensuring the well being of the people.

The great philosopher following Plato and Socrates, namely, Aristotle, himself a disciple of Plato laid down the foundation of logic, especially the well-known pattern of propositions called as 'syllogism' and the methods of empirical investigation of nature. He confined himself strictly to the examination of things in nature such as matter, its motion, plants and animals. He was a prolific writer and was considered to be an authority all in fields of enquiry and left an indelible impression on the western minds for centuries to come. He pioneered the method of induction, i.e. deriving general principles from the study of particulars. Aristotle set the trend for all scientific studies by defining its scope as it were, limiting it to the study of matter and life and looking for strictly natural causes for the phenomena. Aristotle originated the scientific method consisting of systematic observation, collection and organization of data and attempting to trace meaningful patterns in them so as to develop an understanding of the phenomenon under study.

We can see from the above that reason became the favoured tool for comprehending the reality behind appearance but reason alone is unable to perform the task. The observations on which reason has to operate have to be accumulated by the senses. The validity of the conclusions depend very much on the integrity of the senses, proper functioning of the associated brain centres involved in perception and attentiveness of the observer during the act of observation. Not only that, the premises and initial assumptions made, the constancy of the factors proposed to be held constant during the observation such as temperature, pressure, humidity and so on and the correctness of the logical process of deduction followed all these have a say in the validity of the conclusions reached. That is why the skeptical school of philosophers said that it is impossible to have certain and accurate knowledge of even the world which is amenable to perception by the senses. This reminds us of the great French philosopher, Rene' Descartes considered to be the father of modern philosophy and who aimed to lay a very secure foundation of knowledge. His contribution to the theory of knowledge or more technically called epistemology is widely recognized. He systematically questioned all his beliefs in order to arrive at sure and certain knowledge and found that he could be certain only about his own questioning conscious self. The famous quote, 'Cogito ergo sum' meaning that I think, therefore I exist is attributed to Descartes and reflects the skepticism of the philosopher regarding the knowledge received through the senses. He is doubtful about all perceptual knowledge because there may be a demon who could deceive him in that respect creating the false impression that something exists outside which, in reality may not exist. Thus the only thing he can be sure is about the being, namely himself, that thinks. This is the beginning of subjectivism in modern western philosophical thought progressed further by Berkley, who held that the world exists only as ideas in our mind and there is no reality apart from the idea. Being a great mathematician and an admirer of Euclid, Descartes wished to place philosophy also on a firm footing even as geometry was securely founded on axioms or certain self- evident truths. The theorems of geometry could be derived using pure deductive logic from the fundamental postulates. Similarly conclusions in philosophy should be reached through incontrovertible reasoning starting from appropriate postulates. As Bertrand Russell, one of the greatest among modern Western Philosophers points out, it is to Leibniz that the credit should go for attempting to derive an entire philosophical system starting with five fundamental propositions. Leibniz attempted to develop a kind of generalized mathematics, a fore runner of modern mathematical logic (Principia Mathematica of Bertrand Russell and A.N. Whitehead) through which he hoped that we should be able to arrive at the truth of any proposition by calculating its truth value mathematically based on his theory of logical analysis and in case of any dispute the accountants on either side should able to say ' let us now calculate to see which side is truthful'. However this hope has not been realized.

It is found that the Master is a believer in science and the scientific method. This becomes apparent especially when we see Him making a statement that spirituality is a science of the power flowing from the original repository and His observations regarding the production of water from Hydrogen and Oxygen. The latter refers to the repeatability of the result whosoever may do it, whenever and wherever it may be done as long as the right proportions are used under the stipulated conditions. This vouches for the eternal validity of scientific truths and the objective reality behind natural phenomena. In modern astronomy and cosmology the laws underlying physical and chemical phenomena are found to be valid across the vast expanses of space and through time stretching to the very origins of the physical universe. Any field of scientific enquiry is characterized by defining first of all the scope of study, laying down the assumptions, stating the hypothesis to be verified, the experiment devised for the verification, the choice of instruments and test apparatus with required capability and sensitivity, systematic collection of data and last but not the least, organizing the data so as to facilitate their proper interpretation. A closer examination however reveals that scientific observations rely merely on sense perception. All the sophistication brought about in the instrumentation deployed in various branches of science be it the telescope, the electron microscope or whatever has only served to extend the range of sight. We rely on our auditory, visual, touch and sensations produced within us by the interaction with nature for making our observations. When it comes to the investigation of the very small, the atom, or the very large, the universe itself, we have to resort to indirect methods of observation. For instance, in the study the sub-atomic particles, we see the cloud chamber tracks for inferring the nature of the particle and the type of interaction. Undoubtedly the mind of the observer, thus, comes into play while designing the experiments, focusing the attention on the field of observation, discriminating what is relevant data and ultimately employing the rational faculty to arrive at a conclusion and defend the same against competing explanations for the same phenomenon. By choosing to study only manifested nature and that too external nature, science as it stands today cannot arrive at the nature the absolute reality, which is expected to be the subject of any philosophy worth the name. Surely it does not mean that we should abandon the scientific approach in the field of spiritual enquiry.

The Master says further that philosophy begins with wonder and not doubt. It has been the experience of mankind that the secrets of nature have been opened to those who have approached her with a sense of wonder, childlike curiosity and innocence. Great scientists and thinkers have expressed a deep sense of humility realizing the utterly insignificant position of man drowned as he is in the immensity and vastness of the universe. It is a wonder of wonders that this puny creature endowed with a three pound brain has dared to probe into the mysteries of nature and could make significant advances in understanding of her working. Arthur Eddington has compared this daring effort of man to that of a potato bug in a bag of potatoes in the hold of a ship trying to fathom the nature of the vast sea from its sensation of the ship's motion. Isaac Newton observed that he is like a child collecting pebbles on the sea- shore. Another significant point made by the Master is that the western philosophers mostly gave their findings without leading a life of practicality whereas the sages of India did so and each one of them expressed the truths from his level of approach. As already observed, the Master is very particular about defining knowledge as that which is attained as a result of mergence secured in a particular state of consciousness. Knowledge is not mere armchair speculation but has to be acquired by diligent practice and is always attained through identicality with the state in question.

While commenting on this work, Rev. Dr.K.C.Varadachari says in his 'Talks on Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga' that philosophy should start from a love of Ultimate Reality. Without this love to know, see and enter into the Ultimate, philosophy cannot really come into being. Great endeavours of the intellect and the spirit are made only when the passion to know is stirred in the enquirer's heart. Again it is necessary to believe that the Reality exists before the effort can be initiated. It is quite important to realize that any system of philosophy is an effort to construct a logical system of thought around an inspiring vision or revelation had by a yogi in the cave of his heart. This is what is meant by the word Darshana used for describing the six different schools of Indian philosophy such as Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta. It is not a mere dry exercise of dialectic or discursive thought. Thought must rise up to the level of vision for getting at the Reality behind outward phenomena. The system of Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga has been rightly termed 'The New Darshana of Sri Ramchandraji of Shajahanpur'.

The Master refers to the yogi as one who has the capacity to apply his inner powers to the tasks allotted to him by nature. It goes without saying that he should have the capacity developed in him so that he may receive divine commands. This automatically happens when he develops advanced mergence in his master. The yogis in India have always used this power for constructive purposes. The Master then goes on to intimate what is to befall this world, which is inexorably hurtling towards a catastrophic situation. Nature is undergoing a thorough overhaul through the hands of the Special Personality and the welfare of humanity lies in adopting a life based upon spirituality. No nation, which has not taken spirituality as a base, will survive. Again the light will travel from India to the west. It is the demand of Nature that the spirit of fraternity, cooperation and harmony be the ruling factors of human life. The present Personality who has come down for the purpose is working incessantly for achieving that aim and He has prepared AND IS EVEN NOW PREPARING THROUGH HIS WORTHY INSTRUMENTS, noble men and women for participating in this mammoth task of divinization of man. This is something unparalleled in the checkered history of human civilization. During the advent of the earlier Avatars there was one demon or a small group of wicked persons who had to be removed from the scene and the Avatar was helped by a loyal devoted band of warriors in that task. The task of transformation was not attempted as the person or persons to be dealt with were incorrigible and adamant and directly challenged the descent. In the present times the whole atmosphere has been polluted with extreme selfishness, acquisitive tendencies, pride, prejudice, sensuality and violence with no one individual or a group of individuals who could be targeted for removal. As the Master puts it, the Centre itself is yawning towards the circumference, the divine itself is prepared to pour itself into the seeker who may be inclined towards it and transform him. He observes such times so rare in the history of spirituality will not come again and exhorts all His fellow beings to take benefit from the divine grace so abundantly made available to mankind through the prayers offered by His Master. Spiritual renaissance has been ushered in and in due course of time every one will come to realize the truth and adopt spiritual ways of living.