Gita points out that it is not enough to keep fighting the sense impulses and thus strengthen the mind; to become one with Spirit the Yogi must keep his consciousness ever identified with the soul. Not only must he withdraw his attention from the sensory world but must betake himself through the interpenetrating physical, astral, and ideational bodies into the infinite ocean of Spirit. To become free forever the devotee must destroy all karma connected with each of his three bodies.

When he is able to extricate himself, by non-attachment and the practice of Kriya Yoga, from further fleshly incarnations, he is then confined in an astral body and entangled in his astral karma. By deeper immersion in ecstasy, the devotee escapes from the astral body and becomes lodged in the causal or ideational body, vibrating with the original subtle seeds of all past karmic impulses. When God thought...