“At this stage he is “the man ready for Initiation”, ready to definitely “enter the stream” that cuts him off forever from the interests of earthly life except as he can serve his Master in them and help forward the evolution of the race.
Henceforth his life is not to be the life of separateness; it is to be offered up on the alter of humanity, a glad sacrifice of all he is, to be used for the common good.
During the years spent in evolving the four qualifications, the probationary chela will have been advancing in many other respects. He will have been receiving from his Master much teaching, teaching usually imparted during the deep sleep of the body;
the soul, clad in his well-organized astral body, will have become used to it as a vehicle of consciousness, and will have been drawn to his Master to receive instruction and spiritual illumination.
He will further have been trained in meditation, and this effective practice outside the physical body will have quickened and brought into active exercise many of the higher powers; during such meditation he will have reached higher regions of being, learning more of the life of the mental plane.
He will have been taught to use his increasing powers in human service, and during many of the hours of sleep for the body he will have been working diligently on the astral plane, aiding the souls that have passed on to it by death, comforting the victims of accidents, teaching any less instructed than himself, and in countless ways helping those who need it, thus in humble fashion aiding the beneficent work of the Masters, and being associated with Their sublime Brotherhood as a co-laborer in a however modest and lowly degree.”
Annie Besant
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 