Anand Gholap
Theosophy
|
Anand Gholap Theosophy
|
Learn to discern the real from
the false, the ever-fleeting from the everlasting. Learn, above all, to
separate Head-learning from Soul-wisdom, the "Eye" from the
"Heart" Doctrine- Voice of the Silence
Extracts from Hindu Letters
with a foreword-- BY--
ANNIE BESANT
AS PUBLISHED BY THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE IN ADYAR,
FOREWORD
1.
Under the title of THE
DOCTRINE OF THE HEART are here printed a series of papers, consisting chiefly
of extracts of letters received from Indian friends. They are not given as
being of any "authority", but merely as containing thoughts that some
of us have found helpful and that we wish to share with others. They are
intended only for those who are resolutely seeking to live the Higher Life, and
are addressed to those especially who know that this life leads to a definite
entering on the Path of Discipleship under the Great Ones who trod it in the
past, and who remain on earth to help others to tread it in their turn. The
thoughts in these letters are thoughts that belong to all religions
, but the phrases and the sentiment are Indian. The devotion is of that
noble and intense kind known in the East as Bahkti- the devotion that
surrenders itself wholly and unreservedly to God and to the Divine Man through
whom God is manifest in the flesh to the devotee. This Bhakti has nowhere found
more perfect expression than in Hinduism, and the writers of these letters are
Hindus, accustomed to the luxuriant richness of the Sanskrit,and
tuning the harsher English into some faint harmony with the poetical sweetness
of their mother-tongue. The chill and reserved dignity of the Anglo-Saxon and
his emotional reticence are wholly alien from the outflowing of religious
feeling that wells up from the Eastern heart as naturally as song from the
lark. Here and there in the West we find a true Bhakta (devotee), such as
S.Thomas à Kempis, S.Theresa, S. John of the Cross, S.Francis of
2.
Let us now turn to the
consideration of one of the marked contrasts of the Higher Life. We have all of
us recognised the fact that Occultism makes on us demands of a character which
necessitates a certain isolation and a rigid
self-discipline. Both from our much-loved and revered Teacher, H.P.Blavatsky,
and from the traditions of the Occult Life, we have learned that renunciation
and stern self-control are required from him who would pass through the gateway
of the
3.
The true Occultist,
while he is to himself the sternest of judges, the most rigid of taskmasters,
is to all around him the most sympathising of friends, the gentlest of helpers.
To reach this gentleness and power of sympathy should, then, be the aim of each
of us, and it can only be gained by unremitting practice of such gentleness and
sympathy towards all, without exception, who surround us. Every would-be
Occultist should be the one person, in his own home and circle, to whom every
one most readily turns in sorrow, in anxiety,in sin- sure of sympathy, sure of
help. The most unattractive, the most dull, the most stupid,the
most repellent should feel that in him, at least, they have a friend. Every
yearning towards a better life, every budding desire towards unselfish service,
every half-formed wish to live more nobly, should find in him one ready to
encourage and strengthen,so that every germ of good
may begin to grow under the warming and stimulating presence of his loving
nature.
4.
To reach this power of
service is a matter of self-training in daily life. First we need to recognise
that the SELF in all is one; so that in each person with whom we come into
contact, we shall ignore all that is unlovely in the outer casing, and
recognise the SELF seated in the heart. The next thing is to realise- in
feeling , not only in theory- that the SELF is endeavouring to express
itself through the casings that obstruct it, and that the inner nature is
altogether lovely, and is distorted to us by the envelopes that surround it.
Then we should identify ourselves with that SELF, which is indeed ourself in
its essence,and co-operate with it in its warfare
against the lower elements that stifle its expression. And since we have to
work through our own lower nature on our brother, the only way to effectually
help is to see things as that brother sees them, with his limitations,his prejudices,his distorted vision; and thus seeing them,
and being affected by them in our lower nature, help him in his way and not in
ours, for thus only can real help be given. Here comes in the Occult training.
We learn to withdraw ourselves from our lower nature,to
study it, to feel its feelings without being thereby affected, and so, while
emotionally we experience,intellectually we judge.
5.
We must utilise this
method for our brother's help, and while we feel as he feels, as the
synchronised string gives out the note of its fellow, we must use our
disengaged "I" to judge, to advise, to raise, but always so using it
that our brother shall be conscious that it is his better nature that is
uttering itself by our lips. We must desire to share our best; not to keep, but
to give, is the life of the Spirit. Often our
"best" would be unattractive to the one we are trying to help, as
noble poetry to a little child; then we must give the best he can assimilate,
withholding the other, not because we grudge it, but because he does not yet
want it. Thus do the Masters of Compassion help us who are as children to Them, and in like fashion must we seek to help those who are
younger than we are in the life of the Spirit. Nor let us forget that the
person who happens to be with us at any moment is the person given to us by the
Master to serve at that moment. If by carelessness, by impatience, by
indifference, we fail to help him, we have failed in our Master's work. We
often miss this immediate duty by absorption in other work, failing to
understand that the helping of the human soul sent to us is our work of
the moment; and we need to remind ourselves of this danger, the subtler because
duty is used to mask duty, and failure of insight is failure in accomplishment.
We must not be attached even to work of any particular description; always at
work indeed, but with the soul free and "at attention", ready to
catch the slightest whisper from Him, who may need from us service of some helpless
one whom, through us, He wills to help. The sternness to the lower self, spoken
of above,is a condition of this helpful service; for only the one who has no
cares of his own, who is for himself indifferent to pleasure and pain, is
sufficiently free to give perfect sympathy to others. Needing nothing he can
give everything. With no love for himself, be becomes love incarnate to others.
In Occultism the book of life is the one to which we turn our chief attention.
We study other books merely in order that we may live. For study, even of
Occult works, is only a means to spirituality if we are striving to live the
Occult Life; it is the life and not the knowledge, the purified heart, not the
well-filed head, that leads us to our Master's Feet.
The word "devotion" is the key to all true progress in the spiritual
life. If in working we seek the growth of the spiritual movement and not
gratifying success, the service of the Master's and not our own
Self-gratulation, we cannot be discouraged by temporary failures, nor by the
clouds and deadness that we may experience in our own inner life. To serve for
the sake of service, and not for the pleasure we take in serving, is to make a
distinct step forward, for we then begin to gain that balance, that equilibrium,
which enables us to serve as contentedly in failure as in success, in inner
darkness as in inner light. When we have succeeded in dominating the
personality so far as to feel real pleasure in doing work for the Master
which is painful to the lower nature, the next step is to do it as heartily and
fully when this pleasure disappears and all the joy and light are clouded over.
Otherwise in serving the Holy Ones we may be serving self- serving for what we
get from Them , instead of for pure love's sake. So
long as this subtle form of self-seeking prevails, we are in danger of falling
away from service if darkness remain long around us,
and if we feel dead inside and hopeless. It is in this night of the spirit that
the noblest service is rendered, and the last snares of the lower self are
broken through. We lay this stress on devotion, because everywhere we find that
aspirants are endangered, and the progress of the Master's work is hindered, by
the predominance of the personal self. Here is our enemy, here our battleground.
Once seeing this, the aspirant should welcome everything in his daily life that
chips a bit off the personality,and should be grateful
to all the "unpleasant persons" who tread on his toes and jar his
sensibilities and ruffle his self-love. They are his best friends, his most
useful helpers, and should never be regarded with anything but gratitude for
the services they render in bruising our most dangerous enemy. Looking thus on
daily life,it becomes a school of Occultism, and we begin to learn that perfect
balance which is required in the higher walks of discipleship, ere deeper
knowledge ,and therefore power, can be placed in our hands. Where there is not
calm self-mastery, indifference to personal matters, serene devotion to work
for others, there is no true Occultism, no really spiritual life. The lower
psychism demands none of these qualities, and is, therefore, eagerly grasped at
by pseudo-Occultists; but the White Lodge demands these of its postulants, and
makes their acquirement the condition of entrance into the Neophytes' Court.
Let the aim of every aspirant be, therefore, to train himself that he may
serve, to practice stern self-discipline that when the Master looks into the
heart He may see no stain therein". Then will He take him by the hand and
lead him onward.
6.
Annie Besant
8.
THE DOCTRINE OF THE
HEART
9.
DISASTER hangs over
the head of the man who pins his faith on external paraphernalia rather than on
the peace of the inner life, which depends not on the mode of the outer life.
In fact, the more untoward the circumstances, and the greater the sacrifice
involved by living among them, the nearer does one come to the final goal from
the very nature of the trials one has to overcome. It is unwise, therefore, to
be attracted too much by any outward manifestation of religious life, for
anything that is on the plane of matter is ephemeral and illusive, and must
lead to disappointment. Anyone who is drawn powerfully to any external modes of
living has to learn sooner or later the comparative insignificance of all outer
things. And the sooner one passes through experiences necessitated by past
Karma, the better it is for the individual. It is unwelcome indeed to be
suddenly thrown off one's ground, but the cup which cures folly is every
bitter, and must be tasted if the disease is to be eradicated. When the gentle
breeze coming from Their Lotus Feet blows over the soul, then you know that the
worst external surroundings are not powerful enough to mar the music that
charms within.
10.
Just as a European who
is drawn to Occultism feels nearer to the Great Ones when he lands in
12.
If it be once
admitted, as it must be by all who have any knowledge of Occultism, that there
are hosts of invisible agencies constantly taking part in human
affairs,Elementals and Elementaries of all grades breeding all sorts of
illusion and masquerading in all garbs, as well as members of the Black Lodge
who delight in gulling and deluding the votaries of true wisdom- one must also
recognise that Nature, in her great mercy and absolute justice, must have
endowed man with some faculty to discriminate between the voices of these
aerial denizens and that of the Masters. And I fancy that it will be agreed on
all hands that reason,intuition and conscience are our
highest faculties, the only means by which we can know the true from the false,
good from evil, right from wrong. That being so, it follows that nothing which
fails to illumine the reason and satisfy the most scrupulous claims of the
moral nature should ever be regarded as a communication from the Masters.
13.
It must also be
remembered that the Masters are the Masters of Wisdom and Compassion,that Their
words illumine and expand,never confound and harass the mind; they soothe,not
disturb; they elevate, not degrade. Never to They use methods
which wither and paralyse reason and intuition alike. What would be the
inevitable result if these Lords of Love and Light were to force on Their disciples communications revolting equally to the
reason and the ethical sense? Blind credulity would take the place of
intelligent faith, moral palsy instead of spiritual growth would ensure,and the Neophytes would be left quite helpless, with
nothing to guide them, constantly at the mercy of every frolicsome nymph, and
worse still, of every vicious Dugpa.
14.
Is this the fate of
discipleship? Can such be the way of Love and Wisdom? I do not think that any
reasonable man can believe it for any length of time, although for a moment a glamour may be thrown upon him and he may be made to
swallow the veriest absurdities.
16.
Among the many doubts
thrown into the mind of the disciple to cause him distress, is the doubt
whether physical weakness may be a bar to spiritual progress. The process of
assimilation of spiritual nourishment involves no drain upon physical energies,
and spiritual progress can go on while the body suffers. It is an entire
fallacy,due to lack of knowledge and of balance, to
suppose that the torture and starvation of the body make it responsive to spiritual
experiences. It is by doing that which best serves the purpose of the Holy Ones
that steady and real progress is made. When the right time comes for spiritual
experiences to be impressed on the brain-consciousness, the body cannot stand
in the way. The little difficulty that can be raised by the body can be swept
away in a second. It is a delusion that any physical effort can advance
spiritual progress by a single step. The way to approach Them
is to do that which best furthers Their wish, and this done, nothing else needs
to be done.
18.
It seems to me that
there is a peculiar sweetness in being resignedly patient, in gladly
sacrificing one's own will to the will of Those who
know better and always guide aright. There is no such thing as personal wish in
the life of the Spirit. So the disciple may gladly sacrifice his own personal
bliss, while They find occasion to work through him
for others. He may sometimes feel as though forsaken when he is alone, but he
will always find Them at his side when work has to be
done. Periods of night must alternate with those of day, and it is surely well
that darkness should come at a time when it affects ourselves alone,even though our personal pain should be thereby
intensified. To feel Their presence and influence is indeed the divinest gift
imaginable, but even that we should be willing to sacrifice, if by renouncing
what we deem the highest and best, the final good of the world be made easier
of attainment.
20.
Try and realise the
beauty of suffering, when suffering only makes one better fitted for work.
Surely we can never crave for peace if in strife the world must be helped. Try
and feel that though darkness seems to be all round you, yet it is not
real. If They sometimes veil Themselves in an outer
Maya of indifference, it is but to shed Their blessings with greater luxuriance
when the season is ripe. Words avail not much when the darkness is
overshadowing, yet the disciple should try to keep unshaken his faith in the
nearness of the Great Ones, and to feel that though the light is temporarily
withdrawn from the mind-consciousness, yet,under Their wise and merciful
dispensation, it is growing daily within. When the mind again becomes sensitive,it recognises with surprise and joy how the spiritual work
has gone on without its having had any consciousness of the details. We know
the Law. In the spiritual world nights of greater or less horror invariably
follow the day, and the wise one, recognising the darkness to be the outcome of
a natural law , ceases to fret. We can rest assured
that the darkness, in its turn, will lift. Remember always that behind the
thickest smoke is ever the light from the Lotus Feet of the Great Lords of the
earth. Stand firm and never lose faith in Them, and
there is then nothing to fear. Trials you may, and indeed must have, but you
will be sure to withstand them. When the darkness that hangs like a pall over
the Soul's lifts, then we are able to see how really shadowy and illusive it
was. Yet this darkness, as long as it lasts, is real enough to bring ruin to
many a noble soul that has not yet acquired strength enough to endure.
22.
Spiritual life and
love are not exhausted by being spent. Expenditure only adds to the store and
makes it richer and intenser. Try and be as happy and contented as you can,
because in joy is the real spiritual life, and sorrow is but the result of our
ignorance and absence of clear vision. So you should resist, as much as you
can, the feeling of sadness: it clouds the spiritual atmosphere. And though you
cannot entirely stop its coming, yet you should not altogether yield to it. For
remember that at the very heart of the universe is Beatitude.
24.
Despair should find no
room in the heart of the devoted disciple, for it weakens faith and devotion,
and thus furnishes an arena for the Dark Powers to wrestle in. The feeling is a
glamour cast by them to torture the disciple, and if possible to reap some
advantage for themselves out of the illusion. I have learned form the bitterest
experience that self-reliance is quite unavailing and even deceptive under
trials of this nature, and the only way to escape unscathed from these
illusions is to devote oneself completely to Them. The
reason of this, too, is plain enough. The force, in order to be effective in
its opposition, must be on the same plane as that on which the power to be counteracted
plays. Now as these troubles and illusions come not from the self, the self is
powerless against them. Proceeding as they do from the Dark Ones,they can only be neutralised by the White Brothers.
Therefore it is necessary for safety to surrender ourselves- our separated
selves- and to be freed from All Ahamkara.
26.
Knowing as we do that
the The Theosophical Society- or, for the matter of that, every movement of any
consequence - is under the watch and ward of vastly wiser and higher Powers
than our little selves, we need not concern ourselves much about the ultimate
destiny of the Society, but rest content with doing our duty by it
conscientiously and diligently, playing the part assigned to us according to
our best light and abilities. Care and solitude have, no doubt,their own functions in the economy of Nature. In ordinary
men they set the brains to work, and even the muscles to motion, and were it
not for these the world would not make half the progress is has done in the
physical and intellectual planes. But at a certain stage of human evolution
these are replaced by a sense of duty and a love of Truth, and the clearness of
vision and impetus to work thus attained can never be furnished by any amount
of molecular energy and nervous vigour. Therefore shake off all despondency,
and with your Soul turned towards the Fountain of Light work on to that great
end for which you are here, your heart embracing all mankind, but perfectly
resigned as to the result of your labours. Thus have our Sages taught, thus did
Shri Krshna exhort Arjuna on the battlefield, and thus shall we direct our
energies.
27.
My own feelings with
regard to the sufferings of the world are precisely the same as yours. There is
nothing which pains me more than the blind and frantic manner in which a vast
majority of our fellow beings pursue the pleasures of the senses, and the
utterly blank and erroneous view they take of life. The sight of this ignorance
and madness touches my heart much more tenderly than the physical hardships
that people undergo. And although Rantideva's noble prayer moved me deeply
years ago, with the glimpse that I have since been allowed into the nature of
things, I regard the Buddha's sentiments as wiser and more transcendental. And
though I would gladly suffer agony to relieve a disciple of the torture to
which he is subjected,yet having regard to the causes
as well as the intimate consequences of a disciple's suffering, my grief for
them is not half so intense as it is for the misery of those ignorant wretches
who unintelligently pay the mere penalty of their past misdeeds.
29.
The functions of
intellect are merely comparison and ratiocination; spiritual knowledge is far
beyond its scope. You are probably quite surfeited with intellectual subtleties
in your present surroundings; but the world is, after all, only a school, a
training academy, and no experience, however painful or ridiculous, is without
its uses and value to the thoughtful man. The evils that we come across only
make us wiser, and the very blunders we make serve us in good stead for the
future. So we need not grumble at any lot, however outwardly unenviable.
31.
Karma, as taught in
the Gita and Yoga Vasishta, means acts and volitions proceeding
from Vasana, or desire. It is distinctly laid down in those ethical codes that
nothing done from a pure sense of duty, nothing prompted by a feeling of
"oughtness", so to say, can taint the moral nature of the
doer, even if he be mistaken in his conception of duty and propriety. The
mistake, of course, has to be expiated by suffering, which must be
proportionate to the consequences of the error; but certainly it cannot degrade
the character or tarnish the Jivatma (The Individualised Self.)
33.
It is well to use all
the events of life as lessons to be turned to advantage, and the pain caused by
separation from friends we love may thus be used. What are space and time on
the plane of the Spirit? Illusions of the brain, nonentities merely, acquiring
a semblance of reality from the impotency of the mind, the involucra which imprisons
the Jivatma. The suffering merely gives a fresh and more potent impulse to live
altogether in the Spirit. Good will come in the end to
every one of us out of the pain, and so we must not murmur. Nay, knowing that
to disciples nothing of any consequence can happen which is not the will of
their Lords, we must look upon every painful incident as a step towards
spiritual progress, as a means to that inner development, which will enable us
to serve Them, and hence Humanity, better.
35.
If we can but serve Them, if through all storms and conflagrations our Souls
turn to their Lotus Feet, what matter the pain and the sufferings that these
inflict on our transitory wrappings? Let us understand a little of the inner
meanings of these sufferings,these vicissitudes of outer circumstances- how so
much pain endured means so much bad Karma worked out, so much power of service
gained, such a good lesson learned - are not these thoughts sufficient to
support us through any amount of these illusory miseries?
36.
How sweet it is to
suffer when one knows and has faith; how different from the wretchedness of the
ignorant, and the sceptic, and the unbeliever. One could almost wish that all
the suffering and misery of the world were ours in order that the rest of our
kind might be liberated and be happy. The crucifixion of Jesus symbolises this
phase of the disciple's mind. Do you not think so? Only be always firm in faith
and devotion,and swerve not from the sacred path of
Love and Truth. This is your part - the rest shall be done for you by the
Merciful Lords you serve. You know all this, and if I speak of it, it is only
to strengthen you in your knowledge; for we often forget some of our best lessons, and in times of trouble the duty of a friend is
more to remind you of your own sayings than to inculcate new truths. Thus it is
that Draupadi often consoled her sage husband Yudhisthira, when dire misfortune
would for a moment overthrow his usual serenity, and thus Vasishtha himself had
to be smoothed and comforted when torn with the pangs of his children's death.
Truly unspeakable is the Maya side of this world? How beautiful and romantic on
the one hand, and yet how terrible and wretched on the other! Yes, Maya is the
mystery of all mysteries, and one who has understood Maya has found his own
unity with BRAHMAN- the Supreme Bliss and the Supreme Light.
38.
The startling picture
of Kali standing on the prostrate SHIVA is an illustration of the utility - the
higher use - of Anger and Hatred. The black complexion represents Anger; with
the sword it also means physical prowess; and the whole figure means that so
long as a man has anger and hatred and physical strength, he should use them
for the suppression of the other passions,the massacre
of the desires of the flesh. It also represents what really happens when first
the mind turns towards the higher life. As yet we are wanting in wisdom and in
mental equilibrium, and so we crush our desires with our passions; our anger we
direct against our own vices, and thus suppress them ;
our pride also we employ against the unworthy tendencies of the body and mind
alike,and thus gain the first rung of the ladder. The prostrate SHIVA shows
that when one is engaged in a warfare like this,he pays no heed to his highest
principle, the Atma - nay, he actually tramples upon it, and not until he has
slain the last enemy of his Self does he come to recognise his actual position
during the fight with regard to the Atma. Thus, Kali finds SHIVA at her feet
only when she has killed the last Daitya, the personification of Ahamkara, and
then she blues at her insane fury. So long as the passions have not all been
subdued, we must use them for their own suppression,neutralising
the force of one with that of another,and thus alone can we at first succeed in
killing out selfishness,and in catching the first glimpse of our true Atma -
the Shiva within us - which we ignore while desires rage in the heart.
40.
Well may we always lay
aside our own short-sighted personal wish in order to serve Them
faithfully; it is my experience that in thus following Their guidance alone,
one always avoids some dangerous precipice towards which one was unconsciously
running. For the moment it seems hard to break away from one's likings, but in
the end nothing but joy results from such sacrifice. There is no training
better than the few brief years of one's life when one is driven by sheer
disappointment to seek shelter under the blessed Feet of the Lords, for nowhere
else is there room for rest. And then there grows in the disciple a habit of
thinking always that his only refuge is in Them, and
whenever the thinks not of Them he feels miserable and forlorn. Thus from the
very darkness of despair burns out for him a light that never afterwards grows
dim. Those whose eyes penetrate the stretches of the far-off future,which are veiled from our mortal eyes, have done and will
do what is best for the world. Immediate results and temporary satisfactions
must be sacrificed, if the end is to be secured without a chance of failure. The
stronger we desire to make the chances of intimate success, the less should we
crave for the reapings of the day. Only by pain can we attain to perfection and
purity; only by pain can we make ourselves fit servants of the Orphan that
cries incessantly for food spiritual. Life is only worth having as it is
sacrificed at Their Feet.
41.
Let us rejoice that we
have opportunities of serving the great Cause by personal sacrifices, for such
suffering can be used by Them to draw the poor, erring
Humanity a little step higher. Any pain that a disciple may suffer is an
earnest for a corresponding gain that comes to the world. He should, therefore,suffer ungrudgingly and gladly, since he sees a little more
clearly than the blind mortality for which he suffers. In the whole course of
evolution there is one law that is only too painfully evident, even to the eyes
of the merest tyro,that nothing that is really worth
having can be obtained without a corresponding sacrifice.
43.
He who resigneth all
sense of self, and maketh himself an instrument for the Divine Hands to work
with, need have no fear about the trials and difficulties of the hard world.
"As Thou directest, so I work". This is the easiest way of passing
outside the sphere of individual Karma, for one who layeth down all his
capacities at the Feet of the Lords creates no Karma for himself; and then, as
SRI KRSHNA promises: "I take upon Myself his balance of accounts".
The disciple need take no thought for the fruits of his actions. So taught the
great Christian Master: "Take no thought for the morrow".
45.
Do not allow impulses
to guide conduct. Enthusiasm belongs to feeling, not to conduct. Enthusiasm in
conduct has no place in real Occultism, for the Occultist must be always
self-contained. One of the most difficult things in the life of the Occultist
is to hold the balance evenly, and this power comes from real spiritual
insight. The Occultist has to live more an inner than an outer life. He feels,
realises, knows,more and more, but shows less and
less. Even the sacrifices he has to make belong more to the inner world than to
the outer. In ordinary religious devotion all the sacrifice and strength one's
nature is capable of are used in adhering to externals, and in overcoming
ridicule and temptations on the physical plane. But these have to be used for
grander objects in the life of the Occultist. Proportion must be considered , and the external subordinated. In a word, never
be peculiar. As the Hamsa takes the milk alone and leaves the water behind from
a mixture of both,so doth the Occultist extract and
retain the life and quintessence of all the various qualities, while rejecting
the husks in which these were concealed.
47.
How can people suppose
that the Masters ought to interfere with the life and actions of people, and
argue for Their non-existence, or for Their moral
indifference, because They do not interfere? Folk might with equal reason
question the existence of any moral Law in this Universe, and argue that the
existence of iniquities and infamous practices among mankind is against the
supposition of such a Law. Why do they forget that the Masters are Jivanmuktas
and work with the Law, identify themselves with the
Law, are in fact the very spirit of the Law? But there is no need to be
distressed over this, for the tribunal to which we submit in matters of
conscience is not public opinion but our own High Self. It is battle such as
this that purifies the heart and elevates the soul, and not the furious fight
to which our passions, or even "just indignation", and what is termed
"righteous resentment", impel us.
49.
What are troubles and
difficulties to us? Are they not as welcome as pleasures and facilities? For
are they not our best trainers and educators, and replete with salutary
lessons? Does it not then behove us to move more evenly through all changes of
life and vicissitudes of fortune? And would it not be much to our discredit if
we failed in preserving the tranquility of mind and equilibrium of temper which
ought always to mark the disposition of the disciple? Surely he should remain
serene amid all external storms and tempests. It is a mad world this,
altogether,if one looks at the mere outside of it, and
yet who deceptive in its madness! It is the true insanity of lunacy where the
subject of the disease is ignorant of his condition - nay, believes himself perfectly sound. Oh! if the
harmony and the music which reign within the Soul of things were not
perceptible to us, whose eyes have been opened to this utter madness that
pervades the outer shell, how intolerable life would be to us.
50.
Do you not think that
it is not quite grateful to be cheerless, when we are obeying the wishes of our
Lords and are out on our duty? You should not only have peace and contentment,but also joy and liveliness,while you are serving Those
whose service is our highest privilege and the memory of whom is our truest
delight. [Page29]
52.
That They will never desert us is as certain as Death. But it is
for us to cling to Them with real and deep devotion.
If our devotion be real and deep, there is not the remotest chance of our
falling away from Their holy Feet. But you know what
real and deep devotion means. You know just as well as I do that nothing short
of complete renunciation of the personal will, the absolute annihilation of the
personal element in man , can constitute Bhakti proper
and genuine. It is only when the whole human nature is in perfect
harmony with the Divine Law, when there is not one discordant note in any part
of the system, when all one's thoughts, ideas, fancies,desires,
emotions, voluntary or involuntary, vibrate in response to and in complete
concord with the "Great Breath", that the true ideal of devotion is
attained,and not till then. We only rise beyond the chance of failure when this
stage of Bhakti is reached, which alone ensures perpetual progress and
undoubted success. The disciple does not fail through lack of care and love on
the part of the Great Masters, but in spite of these, and through his own
perverseness and inborn weakness. And we cannot say that perverseness is
impossible in one who has yet lingering in him the idea of separateness-
ingrained through aeons of illusive thought and corruption, and not yet
completely rooted out.
54.
We must not delude
ourselves in any way. Some truths are indeed bitter, but the wisest course is
to know them and face them. To dwell in a fancied paradise is only to shut off
the real Elysium. It is true that if we sit down deliberately to find out
whether or not we have still any trace of separateness or personality left in
us, any wish to counteract the natural course of events, we may fail to find
any motive, any reason, for such self-assertion or wish. Knowing and believing
as we do that the idea of isolation is a mere product of Maya, that ignorance
and all personal desires flow only from this feeling of isolation and are the
root of all our misery, we cannot but scout these false and illusory notions
when reasoning upon or about them. But if we analyse the actual facts, and
watch ourselves all the day, and observe the various modes of our being,
varying with the different circumstances, a very different conclusion will
press itself upon us, and we shall find that the actual realisation in our own
life of our knowledge and belief is yet a far-off incident and comes only for a
brief moment now and again, when we are entirely forgetful of the body or any
other material environment, and are completely wrapped in the contemplation of
the Divine- nay, are merged in the Deity Himself.
56.
To us, through the
supreme mercy of our Lords,things one earth are a little plainer and more
intelligible than to the man of the world, and that is why we are so eager to
devote all our life's energy to Their service. All activity- charity,
benevolence,patriotism, etc.- a cynic will say with
jubilant sneer, is mere barter, is a pure question of give and take. But the
nobler aspect which even this jeered-at, mercantile honesty - strictly
construed and applied to higher walks of life - presents to the higher eye, is
beyond the ken of the supercilious mocker; and so he laughs at and scouts
honesty, calling it mercantile, and the foolish and light-hearted world,
thirsting for a little mirth, laughs with him and calls him a shrewd and witty
fellow. It we look at the surface of this wonderful sphere of ours,nothing but sadness and gloom will overspread our souls,
and despair will paralyse all efforts at bettering its condition. But, looking
beneath, how all inconsistencies melt away, and everything appears beautiful
and harmonious,and the heart blooms and is gladdened, and
liberally opens its treasures to the surrounding universe. So we need not feel
disheartened at any frightful sight we see, nor mourn over the madness and the
blindness of the men amidst whom we are born.
58.
There are fixed moral
laws,just as there are uniform physical laws These moral laws may be violated
by man, endowed as he is with individuality and the freedom which that
involves. Each such violation becomes a moral force in the direction opposite
to that towards which evolution is drifting,and inheres
in the moral plane. And by the law of reaction each has a tendency to evoke the
operation of the right law. Now, when these opposing forces accumulate and
acquire a gigantic form, the reactionary force necessarily becomes violent and
results in moral and spiritual revolutions, pious wars, religious crusades, and
the like. Expand this theory, and you understand the necessity for the
appearance of Avataras on earth. How easy things become when
one's eyes are opened; but how incomprehensible they look when the
spiritual vision is blind, or even dim and dull. Nature in her infinite bounty
has provided man on the outer planes with exact facsimiles of her inner
workings, and verily those who have eyes to see may see, and those who have
ears to hear may hear.
59.
How intense is the
longing to carry aid to the suffering Soul, in its hours of dire trial and of
dreary darkness. But experience shows those who have passed through similar
ordeals, that it is well that they did not at such times perceive the aid that
yet is always given, and that they were weighed down with a sad sense of
loneliness and of being totally forlorn. Were it otherwise,half
the effect of the trial were lost, and the strength and knowledge which follow
every such ordeal would have to be acquired by years of groping and tottering.
The law of Action and Reaction is everywhere operative... One whose devotion is
complete, i.e., one who in deed as well as in thought consecrates all
his energies and all his possessions to the Supreme Deity, and realises his own
nothingness as well as the falsity of the idea of separateness - such a one
alone is not allowed to be approached by the powers of darkness,and is protected from every danger to his Soul. The passage
in the Gita you are thinking of, must be
interpreted to mean that no one who has the feeling of devotion once awakened
in him can fall away for ever. But there is no guarantee for him against
temporary aberrations. Why, in one sense, every living being, from the highest
Angel to the meanest protozoon, is under the protection of the Logos of his or
its system, and is carried through various stages and modes of existence back
to His bosom, there to enjoy the blessedness of Moksha for an eternity.
61.
The without always
reveals the within to the seeing eye,and places
and people are therefore always interesting. Again, the without is not
such a despicable things as one may fancy in the first intensity and acuteness
of his Vairagya, or disgust with shows. For if it were so, all creation would
be a folly and purposeless expenditure of energy. But you know that it is not
so in fact; that on the other hand there is a deep and sound philosophy even in
these illusory manifestations and outward vestures, and that Carlyle in his Sartor
Resartus has shadowed forth a portion of this philosophy. Why then turn
with sickness and horror from even the outermost garbage? Are not even the
robes in which the Supreme Deity masquerades holy to us and full of wise
lessons? You say rightly that all things, fair and foul, have their suitable
places in Nature, and constitute by their very difference and variety the
perfection of the Supreme LOGOS.
63.
Why should
communication with the inside world be cut off, causing sadness and heaviness
of heart? Because the outside has still some lessons to teach, and one of these
lessons is that it is also divine in its essence, divine in its substance, and
divine in its methods, and that therefore you should take more kindly to it. On
the other hand,sadness and melancholy have their use
and philosophy. They are as much needed for the evolution and budding out of
the human Soul as joy and liveliness. They are, however, needed only at the
earlier stages of our growth, and are dispenses with when the Self has
blossomed out and has opened its heart to the Divine Sun.
65.
You know how evolution
works. We begin with no sensation at all. Gradually we develop it, and at one
point of our pilgrimage we have it in the intensest degree. Then comes a period
in which sensation is looked upon as Maya, and thus it begins to diminish and
knowledge predominates,until in the end all sensation
is burned up by knowledge, and we have absolute peace. But not peace in
nescience, as at the commencement of our life in the mineral kingdom, but peace
in omniscience; peace, not in complete apathy and as it were death,such as we
see in stones, but in absolute life and absolute love. This finds rest, because
it enlivens all that is, and pours its blessings upon the whole Universe. But
extremes meet, and so in one of the aspects the beginning and the end coincide.
67.
Two points I want to
make clear: (1) that untrained psychics always run the risk of putting forward
things really said by the enemy as injunctions from the Master; and (2) that
the Master says nothing that the intellect of His audience cannot grasp, and
against which their moral sense revolts. Master's words, however much they may
be opposed to one's previous thoughts, never fail to bring the most absolute
conviction, alike to the intellect and to the moral sense of the person addressed.
They come like a revelation, rectifying an error which becomes at once
apparent; they stream down like a column of light dispelling the gloom; they
make no claim on credulity or blind faith.
69.
You know how the enemy
has been working against us, and if we fail in our devotion to the Masters, or
in the discharge of the duties with which They have
been pleased to entrust us, he will give us no end of trouble. But these
troubles we do not mind much; we can endure them quite patiently and without a
ruffle. What does torture us and disturb the peace of our mind, is the tearing
away from our Lords with which we are now and again threatened. Nothing else
can torment us - no personal pain , no physical loss,
however great their amount. For we know beyond all doubt that all that is
personal is transitory and fleeting, and all that is physical is illusory and
false, and that nothing but folly and ignorance mourn over things belonging to
the world of shadows.
71.
For the disciple
little is gained from teaching on the intellectual plane. The knowledge that
infiltrates from the Soul down into the intellect is the only knowledge worth
having, and surely as the days roll by, the disciple's
store of such knowledge increases. And with the increase of such knowledge
comes about the elimination of all that hinders him on the Path.
73.
The feeling of pain is
one to which any person who leads the life of the Spirit becomes accustomed. We
know that pain cannot last for ever, and even if it did, it would not matter
very much We cannot hope to be of any service to Them
or to Humanity without taking our full measure of suffering from the enemies.
But the ire of these Monarchs of Darkness is sometimes terrible to face, and
they perfectly startle one by the Maya they sometimes create. But a pure heart
has nothing to fear and is sure to triumph. The disciple must not distress
himself over the temporary pain and illusion they try to create. Sometimes they
may seem to work a regular havoc inside,and then he
has to sit upon the ruins himself, quietly waiting for the time when the asuric
Maya shall pass away. Always he should allow the wave of doubt and unrest to
sweep over him, holding firmly to the anchor he has found. The enemy can do him
no real or substantial harm,
74.
so long as he remains devoted to Them with all his Soul and
with all his might. "He who clingeth to Me, easily crosseth the ocean of
death and of the world,by My help."
76.
Nothing can happen to
the disciple but that which is best for him. Once a person deliberately puts
himself into the Hands of the gracious Masters, They see that everything
happens at the proper time- the time at which the greatest advantage is reaped,
alike for the disciple and for the world. He should therefore take all that
comes in his way with a contented and cheerful spirit, and "take no
thought for the morrow"... The storm-tossed bark on a raging sea is more
peaceful than the life of the pilgrim to the shrine of Spirit. A peaceful life
would mean stagnation and death in the case of one who has not acquired the
right to peace by completely destroying the enemy - personality.
78.
You should not fall
into fallacies, that are committed by the ignorant.
All real Love is an attribute of the Spirit, and Prana and Bhakti are the two
aspects of the Divine Prakriti (Nature) which go to make worth living the life
of an aspirant after the waters of immortality. In the stormy darkness of the
disciple's life the sole light comes from Love, for Love and Ananda (Bliss) are
in the highest sense identical,and the purer and the more spiritual the Love
the more does it partake of the nature of Ananda , and the less is it mixed
with incongruous elements. Only the Master's holy love is so majestically
serene as to have nothing in it that does not partake of the Divine.
80.
Discretion and economy
are quite as necessary in Occultism as anywhere else. In fact, in the life of
the Occultist all the faculties of the human mind that are regarded as virtues
in the ordinary sense are put to the greatest use and exercise, and are
necessary adjuncts to the real life which alone makes a disciple. The world
cannot be helped so easily as many imagine,even if
there were more agents available for the work. Knowledge on the part of the
disciple is not the only thing needed. Look out and ponder,ere
deciding that the knowledge and devotion of the few can push on the hands of
the clock. Not a single attempt can be made without provoking fierce hostility
from the other side,and is the world prepared to
survive the reaction? You will understand how wise are our Lords in not going
further than They do, if you only learn from all you
have seen.
82.
What would life be
worth if we did not suffer - suffer to render the world groaning under our eyes
a little purer, suffer to win a little more of the waters of life that will quench
the thirst of some parched lips? In fact, but for the suffering that is the
fate of the disciple who walks with bleeding feet on the Path,he might stray
away and lose sight of the goal on which his gaze must ever be fixed. The Maya
of the phenomenal world is so confusing, so bewitching, that it seems to me
that the elimination of the pain a must inevitably be followed by oblivion of
the realities of existence, and with the disappearance of the shadow of
spiritual life its light would vanish too. So long as man has not been
transformed into God, it is vain to expect to be in uninterrupted enjoyment of
spiritual bliss, and in periods of its absence suffering alone keeps the feet
of the disciple steady, and saves him from the death which would surely overtake
him in the forgetfulness of the verities of the spiritual world.
84.
The disciple should
not be disturbed nor surprised when the spiritual
forces turned against him by the other side find their playground on a plane
higher than that of the physical intellect. It is true that the dying embers in
some unseen and unnoticed cranny of his own nature may
be fanned thereby into flame; but the flame is one that forms the signal of the
final destruction of some weakness that must be burned away. So long as the taint
of personality has not been clean washed out, vice in its manifold forms may
find shelter in some neglected chamber of the heart, though it may not find
expression in mental life. And the only way to render the sanctuary of the
heart immaculate is to let the searchlight pierce into dark crannies, and
calmly witness the work of their destruction. The disciple must never let this
purificatory process fill him with dismay,whatever
monstrosities he may be called upon to witness. He must hold fast to the Feet
of Him who dwells in the glorious burning-ground of all that is material; then
he has nothing to fear or to be anxious about. He has faith in Those who protect and help, and may well leave the workings
on the spiritual plane to be watched and directed by Them. When the dark cycle
is over, he will again recognise how the gold shines when the dross has been
burned away.
86.
In this mundane sphere
of ours, as on all planes of existence, night alternates with day - there is
shadow beneath the lamp itself. And yet how strange that men of culture and
erudition should fancy that with the advancement of Science, of gross
materialistic Science, all misery- individual, racial, and national - will
cease for ever and ever; diseases, droughts, plagues,wars, inundations , nay,
cataclysms themselves, will all be things of the remote past!