2 परमार्थ सोपान [ Part I selves before they can be convinced about the reality of the experiences of those who have gone before them. Finally, after having walked on the Pathway for a long time, and through travails and turmoils of body and mind, of nature and society, they can envisage to themselves certain landmarks, certain lamp-posts, which will help them to walk with courage and confidence on the Pathway to God, and attain to the highest ideal they have been seeking. CHAPTER I In the present work, we shall be concerned with these five chief topics which have characterised the pursuit, in the attainment of God, of seekers in the Hindi provinces, as they have also characterised that of the seckers in other provinces of India, as well as other parts of the world. We shall first state in brief the different incentives which have prompted the Hindi saints to the pursuit of the spiritual ideal. In the first place, there are the questions of the pursuit of illusions, of blindness to reality, and of sleeping while waking, which have been stressed by a number of thinkers all over the world. After this comes the great philosophical question of the architechtonic skill that has been exhibited by God in the creation and governance of the world, and which fills the aspirant with wonder and awe and a sense of determination for the realisation of the ideal to which it points. This would probably be the cosmo-teleological approach to the determination of the nature of God. After this philosophical approach, we have to tackle the ethical
