"There is not and there cannot be any choice of

the people who come into touch with the 'ways.'
In other words, nobody selects them, they select
themselves, partly by accident and partly by having
a certain hunger. Whoever is without this hunger
cannot be helped by accident. And whoever
has this hunger very strongly can be brought by
accident to the beginning of a way in spite of all
unfavorable circumstances.
A man, if he is hungry, has a chance to come into
contact with the beginning of a way. But besides
hunger still other 'rolls' are necessary. Otherwise a
man will not see the way. Imagine that an educated
European, that is, a man who knows nothing
about religion, comes into touch with the possibility
of a religious way. He will see nothing and he
will understand nothing. For him it will be stupidity
and superstition. But at the same time he may
have a great hunger though formulated intellectually.
It is exactly the same thing for a man who has
never heard of yoga methods, of the development
of consciousness and so on. For him, if he comes
into touch with a yoga way, everything he hears
will be dead. The fourth way is still more difficult.
In order to give the fourth way a right valuation a
man must have thought and felt and been disappointed
in many things beforehand. He ought, if
not actually to have tried the way of the fakir, the
way of the monk, and the way of the yogi previously,
at least to have known and thought about
them and to be convinced that they are no good
for him. It is not necessary to understand what I
say literally. This thinking process can be unknown
to the man himself. But the results of this process
must be in him and only they can help him to recognize
the fourth way. Otherwise he can stand
very near to it and not see it."