“In this stage, the chela has to bring into full working order the inner faculties, those belonging to the subtle bodies, for he needs them for his service in the higher realms of being.
If he have developed them previously, this stage may be a very brief one, but he may pass through the gateway of death once more before he is ready to receive his third Initiation, to become “the Swan”, the individual who soars into the empyrean, that wondrous Bird of Life whereof so many legends are related.
On this third stage of the Path the chela casts off the fourth and fifth fetters, those of desire and aversion; he sees the One Self in all, and the outer veil can no longer blind him, whether it be fair or foul.
He looks on all with an equal eye; that fair bud of tolerance that he cherished on the probationary Path now flowers out into an all-embracing love that wraps everything within its tender embrace.
He is “the friend of every creature”, the “lover of all that lives” in a world where all things live.
As a living embodiment of divine love, he passes swiftly onwards to the fourth Initiation, that admits him to the last stage of the Path, where he is “beyond the Individual”, the worthy, the venerable.
(The Hamsa, he who realizes “I am THAT”, in the Hindu terms: the Anagamin, the man who receives birth no more, in the Buddhist.)
Here he remains at his will, casting off the last fine fetters that still bind him with threads however fragile, and keep him back from liberation.
He throws off all clinging to life in form, and then all longing for formless life; these are chains and he must be chainless; he may move through the three worlds, but not a shred of theirs must have power to hold him; the splendors of the “formless world” must charm him no more than the concrete glories of the worlds of form.”
Annie Besant
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 