"1. The practices which make for union with the Soul are: fervent aspiration, spiritual reading, and complete obedience to the Master. The word which I have rendered "fervent aspiration" means primarily "fire"; and, in the Eastern teaching, it means the fire which gives life and light, and at the same time the fire which purifies. We have, therefore, as our first practice, as the first of the means of spiritual growth, that fiery quality of the will which enkindles and illumines, and, at the same time, the steady practice of purification, the burning away of all known impurities. The very study of Patanjali's Sutras is an exercise in spiritual reading, and a very effective one..."