Th eosop h y

and th e

Th eo so p h ic a l S oc iet y

By

A' ' I E B ES A' T

Le ctu re s delivered a t the T hirt y -seven t h

Fo u r
Annu a l C onven t i o n o f t h e T he oso p h ic a l
S o c ie t y a t Ady a r o n De c e m b er
,

2 7t h , 2 8t h , 2 9t h a n d
30 th , 1912

T HEO S O PHI C AL PU BL I S HI ' G HO US E

A DY A R , MA DR AS , I' D I A

116 S . Mich iga n A ve .

,

C H I C A G O , ILL , U S . . A .

19 1 3
 CO ' TE' TS

PAG E

Th eos o phy oer Paravidya .

u n

Th eoso phy the Open Roa d to th e Ma st ers .

The osophy the Root o f A11 Rel i gion s .

The Th eosophic al Soc i ety , Its Mean i ng , Pu r

po se
,
a nd F u ncti ons
 THEO S O P HY o R PAR AVI D Y A

L ECTUR E I
F RI EN DS :
The fou r lect u res which are to be delivered
here during the thirty-seventh Anniversary o f the
Theosophical Society are intended to pl ace be fore the
public ce rta i n views as to the meaning o f Theosophy ,

as to the wo rk o f the Theosophical Society Those .

o f yo u who have had a programme will have seen

that w e begin to day with the declaration that
-

Theosophy is the Supreme Knowledge the Para ,

vidya Then to morrow I am to speak o f it as

.
-

the Open Road to the Masters the great Teachers ,

o f the W I S DO M On Sunday it is to be cons i dered

.

as the Root o f all the great Rel i gi ons And lastly .

,

on M onday the Meaning the Purpose the Func

, , ,

tions o f the Theosophical Society .

Let me say at the very outset that while I shall

try to put be fore you as well as I can that whi c h
I believe to be true no word I utte r no statement
, ,

I make is binding on must o r ought to be accepted

, , , ,

by any membe r o f the Theosoph i cal Society The .

Society has no tenets it has no beliefs that are

,

b i nding on its m embe rs The opin i ons o f the

.

Pres i dent of the Society have no more authority

within that body than the opinions o f the lowliest
membe r who is a Fellow o f the Theosophical S o
1
2 T h e o so p h y a nd th e T h eo sop h i ca l S o ci e t y

c iety We ad mi t no author i ty save that o f w i sdom

. ,

and every man must see the w i sdom for h i msel f .

None other c an reveal it to h im ; none other can

walk fo r him along the path to realization .

It i s written in a Hebrew Scripture that no man

may del i ve r h i s brother nor make agreement unto
God for him ; for between the supreme Spirit who
is God and the fragment of that Spirit who is man
there is no intermediary there is none w ith the ,

r ight to d i ctate And so in ou r Society while we

.
,

seek the truth we bid every membe r seek it and

,

find it for h i msel f ; for truth is only truth when

the i ntellect c an perceive it ; only then is it truth
to any individual man ; and the c ond i tion o f k now
ing the truth o f seeing the truth i s to develop
, ,

to the po i nt whence the truth is visible The .

moment you see it you must believe it ; until you ,

see it you ought not to say that you know it

, .

Hence the perfe c t freedom o f o u r Society the ,

absen c e o f all authority exe rcised over the minds

o f its members .

On the othe r hand Theosophy wh ile not binding ,

fo r a c ceptan c e on any membe r is a great Truth , ,

and secondar i ly a body o f truths that men may

, ,

study accept o r rej ect accord i ng to the i r knowl edge

, .

And T heosophy in i ts primary meaning Div i ne ,

Wisdom is the B r a h ma v idya the Atma v idya the

, , ,

1
Parav i dya Under any o f these names it is known
.

1
Th e S c i ence of th e E ter na l , th e S ci ence of the S el f , th e
S u p r e me S c i e nce .
 T h e o so p h y or P a r a v i dy a 3

to the readers o f the ancient H i ndu books and it ,

is that knowledge the h ighest knowledge which

, ,

I would strive however feebly to set be fore you

, ,

in these days o f our study .

One o f the t wo real Founders o f the Theosophical

Society known in M r S in nett s book Th e O ccu l t
, .
’

Wor ld under the initia ls o f K H said that it

, . .
,

was the mission o f the Theosophical So ci ety to

bring the western nations to drink at the pure
wells o f Aryan knowledge Under that name it .

is evident that the M aste r was alluding to that

great treasu re o f Wisdom gi ven to the root stock
o f th e Aryan race brought down by it into India
, ,

spread th roughout India by that greatest son o f

India Vya sa who l ate r was the Lord Gautama
, , , ,

the Buddha .

In these ancient faiths Hinduism and Buddhism , ,

together with that more fragmentary teach i ng wh i ch

i s all that has come down to u s from the great
Prophet of the th i rd or I ranian sub race—in these
, ,
-

you have declared this D i vine Wisdom with a ful

nes s and particularity wh i ch you do not find in
the younger faiths and that for a reason ; because
,

those younge r fa i ths—the faiths o f Christian i ty

and of I slam— came into a worl d in which the
supreme verities had long been declared and in
which they were the common her i tage of the whole
o f the fi fth Root Race Hence the Christ and the.

Prophet Muhammad gave more espe c ially to Their

followers lessons that were not emphasized so much
4 Th eo s op h y a nd th e T h e o s o p h i c a l S o c i et y

in the earl i er rel i g i ons l essons i ntended more for

,

practice than for ph il osophy as a gu i de to condu c t

,

more than as an i l l uminat i on o f the mind Fo r .

the i llum i nat ion was present in the world fo r all

who would to share i t and what the worl d o f ,

the young West wanted was a pract ic al guide to

l i f e and those great lessons o f indiv i dual i ty and
,

sel f sa cr ifi ce wh ic h are the special gl o ry of the

-

Chr i stian faith Hen c e the c ommand to lead these

.

to dr i nk at those pure wells o f W i sdom wh i ch

belong to them as much as they belong to you ;
f or they also are ch i ldren o f the Aryan Race ,

they also are descendants o f Va iv a sv a ta Ma n n ,

and ove r them H i s protecting hand is spread as

much as over the elder part of the Race I n taking .

that treasure o f Wisdom westwards we are onl y ,

carrying it from the f amily house to the younger

children who have colon i sed the outer world ; we
are not bringing to them what i s not theirs but ,

f amily treasures to wh ic h they have a r i ght ; fo r

those heirlooms belong to the younger as well as
to the elder and they may c laim the r i ght to wear
,

them as much as any dweller in India in Burma , ,

or i n any other o f the northern and eastern lands .

Let us now fo r a moment conside r three words

that we find i n one o f the old books the B r a h ma ,

s u tms
'
It is written the rein :
. Brahman is bliss .
'

T he ETER ' A L is bl iss

'
To some extent i f you
.
,

th i nk you will find that that fact— for you are

,

a part of Brahman— that that fact is testified

 T h e o sop h y or Pa ra v i dy a 5

to you by your own expe rience i f only you try ,

to realize the meaning o f what yo u feel Does .

not every one o f you when some sorrow falls ,

'
upon you ask : , Why has this sorrow come ?
Do you often ask the same question when some
unexpected happiness falls to your lot or do you ,

not take the happ i ness for granted ? Do you not

f eel that in the happiness you have that wh i ch is
yo ur right ? Do you not expect to be happy and ,

do you not only q uestion when unhappiness is your

'
lot ? '
What have I done to deserve this ? you
say indignantly when a so rrow str i kes yo u What .

'
have I done t o deserve this ? do you say when
'
j oy shines o n you ? Oh that is mine because I ,

a m a human being and j oy is my natural atmos

,

p h er e .

You are quite right T hat i nst i nctive feeling

.

that you have a right to j oy and that sorrow has ,

to be accounted fo r wells up f rom the depths o f

,

the div i ne Sp i rit w ith i n you who knows that he ,

is bliss and kn o ws naught o f sorrow and pain .

But when you loo k out into the world and in , ,

stead o f feeling begin to reason ah ' then yo u

, ,

begin to question the truth o f this great saying

that B rahman i s bl iss You look out upon the
.

fields and the woods around you and you see the
vast mass o f sub human consciousness ; you see
-

one an i mal preying upon anothe r ; you see the leop

ard springing upon the back o f the spotted dee r ;
you see the boa constricto r winding himsel f around
-
6 T h eo s o p h y a nd th e T h eos op h ic a l S oc i e t y

th e animal passing beneath h is tree and crushing ,

all his bones together into an ind i stinguishable mass ;

you see the hawk dropp i ng upon the wounded
bird You see pain t rouble so r row on eve ry s i de
.
, , ,

‘ ’
and you say : What is th i s ? Brahman i s bl i ss
'
,

a nd there is but One Life ? What then o f these

tortured creatures ? What then o f these wounds
'
and deaths ?
An Engl i sh poet as you know has vo i ced that
, ,

view in eloquent words and has described Nature ,

as red in tooth and claw ; but I venture to say

to you that the poet is wrong and that he doe s ,

not real i ze at all the l i fe side o f nature The li f e

-
.

o f the wild an i mal is a j oyous l ife a nd not a l ife ,

o f fear and pain Listen to the b i rd as its whole

.

l ittle being swells in the del ight o f the sunshine ,

and a flood o f music pou rs out from the th roat

o f the songste r that seems too m i gh ty to come from
the tiny throat that gives it fo rth Watch the .

k i tten as it plays upon the ground as it leaps at ,

every dancing lea f ; and i f the re i s naught else

to play with it goes round and round after its
,

own tail in sheer exuberance o f the j oy o f li fe

, .

Watch a s naturalists wat c h the wild l ife o f the

, ,

field and o f the forest where man is not They .

w il l tell you as th ey watch that the l i fe o f the

, ,

wil d creatures i s a li fe o f joy ; s i ckness is not

there ; death comes suddenly and strikes away the
body They tell you that the animal c an be seen
.

well nigh to laugh as it tri c ks its pursue r and

-
,
 T h eo so p h y or Pa ra v i dy a
‘
7

plays some s k ilful w i le that throws the be ast o f

prey from off its tra c k .

The truth is that i f we are to have evolution ,

the bodies must be struck away i n some fash i on

in order that the life within expanding may have
a new body as soon as it is ready to wear it .

W o u ld yo u say it was cruel that the mother when ,

she cl othe d the babe did not tie the babe fast
,

in the l i ttle garments that sh e made fo r it and ,

thus dwarf its future growth and make every in

crease o f the baby body pain ful as it strained ,

against the constr i cting cloth ? O r is it not wise ,

when the chil d outgrows the dress to tear the ,

dress in pieces and give a new one to the tiny

form ?
And so is death looked at from the l i fe s i de
,
-

o f Nature . The body has done i ts work ; i t is

broken asunder and cast aside that the li fe within
,

may burgeon into new beauty and a no ble r body , ,

bette r adapted for the growing l i fe may be taken ,

on by the an i mal that was sl ain Oh ' if you w ill.

look at Nature without prej udice w ithout throwing ,

your human cons c iousnes s into the animal con

sc iou sne s s
,
you will find that they are true those ,

words that I borro w fro m L igh t on th e Pa th :

'
Li fe is not a cry but a song — a song in every
plant that blossoms in the sunlight ; a song f rom
every bird that Hits among the branches o f the
tree ; a song from the tiny squirrel that leaps from
8 T h e o s op h y a nd th e T h eo sop h ic a l S o ci e ty

bran ch to branch ; a song f rom the bounding ante

lope from even the c reeping snake
,
.

Only with man comes i n sorrow and whe re ,

man i s seen sorrow treads upon h i s heels Now .

why ? Because ,ma n is the first consc i ousnes s

that reaches the po i nt where as the A i ta r eya ,

B r a h ma na says o f man :
'
He knows what o c
'
curred ye ste rday '
O f man it is true that
. he
looks before and afte r fo r he has memory o f ,

that which is past anticipat i on o f that which is

,

to come ; because he has mu c h imagination the ,

creative force ; and be c ause he adds to h i s su ffering

the memory o f past pain and the fear of f utu re
anguish Try if you have the strength o f mind
.
,

to do it when some pain i s upon you to turn ,

away your mind f rom t h e pain and leave the

body alone to suff e r ; and you will find the greater
part o f the pain has van i shed because the m i nd ,

i s no longer magnifying it and giving to it its own

intensity of memory and o f fear .

Man is sorrow f ul ; I grant it and the end o f ,

philosophy we are told by H i ndu sages is to put

, ,

an end to pain Fo r that all great philosophies

.

are given for that all m i ghty rel igious teachers

,

teach . That man may rise above sorrow he is ,

taught how to look upon h i s world ; and i f a

ph i losophy does not put an end to pain then ,

i t i s no t rue Wisdom but only the foolish spinning

,

o f the m i nd .

T here was a grac i ous Prince nearly twenty fi v e -

 T h eo s o p h y or P a r a v idy a 9

centu rie s ago f rom the knowledge o f wh o m all

,

s o rro w had bee n k ept and in a garden o f del ights

He spent His gladsome days All that co u ld be .

given o f bea uty and o f l ove clustered ar o und that

gracious fo rm a nd earth brought all he r treas u res
,

t o make happy the one who was to bec ome Teache r

and was P rince You kno w the story ; h o w the
.

Prince whose li fe had been a fai ry tale went

, ,

out o utside Hi s palace of delight and met a beggar ,

opp res sed with poverty near t o starvati o n ; met

,

a lepe r eaten u p by horrible disease ; saw an old

,

man tottering palsied along the road ; saw a co rpse

whence the l ife o f man had fled ; and you know
that the sight o f these sorrow s o f earth pierced
that heart that had been lapped i n joy drove ,

Him away from the s i de o f His w ife from the ,

protection o f His in fant child made Him draw ,

the sword t o cut off H is hair made Him cast ,

aside the r obes o f th e Prince and put on the

cloth o f the m endicant sent Him o ut in solitude
,

to dese rt and to fo re st to try by starvation and ,

austerity by misery of the body to find o ut the

, ,

redemptio n o f the soul .

Yo u k n owhow He o utdid all o the r ascetics in

His great a u sterities ; how He became a mere skele
to n b o nes showing th rough the fle sh stretched like
,

parchme nt acros s them How His heart as the

.
,
’
poet declared was bro k en with a whole world s
,
'

wo e and h o w beneath the Tree for eve r sacred

'

, ,

He f ou nd the illumination o f Wis dom and came ,

10 T h eo sop h y a nd t h e T h eo sop h ic a l S oc ie t y

out from the seat beneath the Bodh i tree to turn -

the Wheel of Law i n the garden o f the Gods .

He found the Four Noble Truths ; sorrow the ,

c ause o f sorrow the end i ng o f sorrow and the

, ,

noble eight fol d Path that leads to N i rvana So

- .

He procla i med the way of e scape by which man

m ight pass from sorrow into bl i ss—for none who
understand His teaching having touched at least ,

somewhat of the realities whereo f He spake think , ,

as many o f the Westerne rs th ink that Nirvana ,

i s merely an extinction Did not the Lo rd Buddha

.

declare that i f it had not been for N ir vana the ,

uncreate the eternal the essential BE I N G there

, , ,

could not exist the create the fleeting the many , ,

transitory beings of the world ?

We do not come forth from an emptiness but
from a fullness not from a void but from a plen u m
, .

Shall we in whom God is incarnate dream that

, ,

aught but eternity is the hei rloom o f the human

Sp i r i t '
' We find that it is taught in that e x
qu isite Up a n ish a t the S h v e tas h v a ta r a w i th a s i mile
'

, ,
' '
which is full o f suggestion : When a man it ,

i s written can s queeze together the ether l ike

,

leather then shall he find escape from pain w ith

,

out the knowledge o f the ET ERNAL .

'

The same idea unde rl i es Moksha Libe ration that , ,

underlies the Nirvana o f the Buddhist—the knowl

edge of God that puts an end to mise ry ;
,

useless all othe r e fforts ; fut i le all othe r searches .

When you can take the viewless ether and squeeze

 T h eo s o p h y or P a r a v i dy a 11

it as an obj ect then and then alone shall you

,

e scape from pain without the knowledge o f the

E T ERNAL And to those two statements Christ
.

adds anothe r when He decl ares that the knowl edge

o f God is eternal li fe That i s the Salvation o f .

the Ch rist i an the equivalent rightly understood

, , ,

o f the Nirvana o f the Buddhist and the Moksha

o f the Hindu ; for the great Teachers all teach
al ik e in essence and i f we understand Them not
, ,

i t i s not Their fault but the fault o f our ignorance .

T hat knowledge o f G od which is eternal li fe that ,

Moksha which i s Liberation that Nirvana which ,

i s t h e portion o f the J iv anmu kta that is not

'
, , ,

as a Maste r said a change o f conditions but o f

, ,

condition That is it is not a change in the outer

.
,

phenomena that su rround your li fe ; it is not a

change in the changing f eel ings which make up
you r emot i ons ; it i s not a change in the thoughts
that come and go ; i t i s a c hange which i s Real i za
tion a change in the inner attitude o f the Spi rit
,

himsel f .

That is the kn owledge wh ic h brings bliss to

man that the kn owledge wh i ch is the knowledge
,

o f the Supreme It need not be i n the future

. .

A Christian Apostle said God h a th given us '

'

'
eternal life It has nothing to do w i th Heaven ;
.

it has nothing to do w i th Svarga ; it has nothing

to do with any Parad i se ; call it by whateve r name
you will it i s a change in the inne r condition o f
,
12 T h eo s o p h y a nd th e T h eo sop h ic a l S o c iet y

the man a change b y wh i ch he knows himsel f

, ,

and knows himsel f as God .

And the books show it When the Lo rd Buddha .

had attained that wh i ch is beyond Nirvana He ,

remained on earth and taught for fi v e and— forty -

years W hen Janaka the King became a Jivan

.
, ,

mu kta he did not leave his throne nor qu i t his

,

royal city When Tu la dh a r a the groce r reached

.
, ,

Moksha Liberation he did not cease to sell h i s

, ,

commodities but in himsel f was l i fe and wisdom

,
.

You need not leave the world you need not leave ,

your work you need not leave your duties The

,
.

Kingdom o f God is with i n you and i f you cannot ,

find it there it is n o where to be found by you

, .

And so i f we tur n to one of these great Up a n i

,

shats in which the Aryan Wisdom is so ma gn ifi

c en tly taught we may read therein o f one named
,

S h a u naka who came to ask how he might ga i n

,

knowledge and finding the great R sh i A ngi r a s

, , .

'
he sa i d to him : In whom O Lord He be i ng , ,

known may everything el se be known ? and the

,
'

answer came from the ma n who had a ttained

'
to w i sdom : There are two things that ought to
be kn o wn ; thus have told us the knowers of the
E T ERNAL— the supre me and the lower In case .
'

the lay inquirer should not understand the two

' '
words the supreme and the lowe r he went
, ,

on to say in what the lowe r cons isted and he ,

gave first o f all the names o f the f ou r Vedas ,

the R k Ya ju r S a ma and A th ar v a and having

, , ,
14 T h e o s op h y a nd th e T h eo sop h ic a l S o ci et y

passage He declared that those who know the

ET ERNAL have reached Sel f— knowledge and are ,

they who know H i m ver i ly and are beyond l ife ,

and death liberated from both

,
1
.

So that we come to real i ze that the knowledge

o f the Sel f is the knowledge o f the E T ERNAL and ,

that they who know the G od w i thin know that

which alone is worthy o f the name o f Wisdom .

N ow what is the meaning o f that E T ERNAL ,

o f Him who is blis s know i ng whom we reach ,

Lib eration ? Eternal is not unending time Eternal .

is di ff erent from everlasting Fo r everlasting only .

means age afte r age in endless succession while ,

the Eternal is an eve r present Real i ty above Shri -

, ,

K r sh na said being an d not — , being ; and in the se

two w o rds the ultimate pai r o f opposites He
, ,

summed up all the pa i rs of opposites which make

up the universe in which we live P leas u re and .

pain j oy and sorrow th ese are the things that

, ,

make u p mo rtal l i fe ; but bliss i s something othe r

than u nending j oy The pairs o f oppos i tes always .

exist togethe r and you must transcend the pairs

,

o f opposites be fore you can reach the Supreme .

What i s pleasure ? Increase o f l ife What is .

pain ? Dim i nution o f li f e What is j oy ? An .

elation com i ng f rom outside What is sorr ow ? A .

pain that comes f rom w i thout They must pe rish . .

Pleas u re and pain must go Joy and sorrow m u st .

vanish B ut beyond this there is Bliss where there

.
,

i . i bi d v ii , 29 , 30 .
 T h eo so p h y or P a ra v i dy a 15

is no inc rease of life— for it is i nfin i te ; no decrease

o f l i fe—for decrease o f l i fe to the infinite is im
possible ; where there is no sorrow no fear for , ,

it i s all in all all embra c ing and the re i s nothing

,
-
,

external wh ic h can touch it for all is within i tsel f

, .

T he pa i rs o f oppos i tes come from the play o f

the outer unive rse on the inner Spirit Bliss is .

above the pa i rs of opposites and knows neither ,

increase no r diminution To l i ve i n the ET ERNAL

.

is to live i n unchanging bliss ; these sorrows and

j oys play around you r f eet ; they cannot rise above
your head It is to have your feet on the rock
.

o f Eternity and the waves o f time may br ea k

,

aga i nst the rock but they cannot wash you o ff

,

it fo r the re your feet are fixed To live in the

, .

E T ERNAL is to be above the streams o f time so ,

that none may touch that calm serenity o f him in

whose heart the E T ERNA L ever abides T hus we .

realize that to gain unending heaven would not

be to live in the E T ER NAL a nd that to win unending
,

kingdoms upon earth woul d fall far below that

rad i ant Bliss o f the ET ERNAL .

We ask how this supreme knowledge can be

gained by man and from the East the words come
,

to you from those who have won it and from ,

the West al so there is w itness ; fo r there we find

one form of Christianity wh i ch is called Mysticism ;
this asserts direct communion with God and
realization o f the divine Spirit with i n the Se l f in ,

Man the Sel f which is divine ' uite lately th e

,
.
16 T h e o sop h y a nd th e T h e o sop h i ca l S o c ie t y

Dean o f the Cathedral o f S Paul le c tured upon .

,

Mysticism and was commented upon by the Ti mes

,

newspaper which was surprised at what the Dean

,

dec l ared ; we find h i m saying Myst ic al expe rience '

i s a sol id fact guaranteed by those who have had

,

it But says the Ti mes : Myst i cism was commonly

.
'

supposed t o be an obsolete state o f m i nd o r to ,

pers i st only am ong the ignorant and sentimental .

And then the Dean goes on to explain that My sti

c ism is not a teach i ng
' '
rel igion at first hand ,

f rom outside but an unfolding fro m within ; and

he de c lares that the Mystic s f a i th i s more scien ’ '

t i fi ca lly secu re than any othe r k i nd o f faith Not .

only does he make that statement but in a late r ,

l e c tu re he uses a phrase which reminds us in

startling fashion o f one o f the sh loka s o f the
B h a gav a d G i ta He de c lares that a man who was
-
.

filled w i th water springi ng up i nto everlasting li f e

c oul d not very much care f or the stagn ant ciste rns
'
of tradition o f o rdinary relig i ous teach i ng When
, .

’
you hear su c h words f rom the Dean o f S Paul s .
,

when he speaks o f the se stagnant cisterns o f

'
trad i t i on doe s there not rise in the m i nds o f some
,

o f you that verse in the G i ta : Al l the Vedas '

are as use ful to an enl i ghtened Brahmana as is a

tank i n a place covered all over w i th water 1 .
'

When you have water around you you have no ,

need f o r a tank When God speaks w i th i n you .

,

there is no need fo r any Scripture howeve r sacred , ,

1 130 0 . Ci t . i i , 46 .
 T h e o s o ph y or P a r a v i dy a 17

for any trad i t i on howeve r an ci ent

,
Where the .

Supreme is known all el se becomes but ignoran c e ,

and the man who has f ound the God w i thin has
no furthe r need of teaching fro m aught that man
may say .

And our Dean declares that the one great myst i c

experience i s d i rect communion with God ; every
Mystic w o uld confirm the statement That is the .

’
obj ect o f the Mystic s e fforts ; that the crown of
’
the Mystic s strife .

Suppose then that for the moment you realize

, ,

that this possibility o f d i re c t communion w i th God

i s the beginn i ng o f Parav i dya or Theosophy that , ,

such communion is po ss ible to man You may .

say : How c omes it to be p ossible ; how can man

know God ? The answer is along the same l i nes
o f reasoning by which you obtain any othe r knowl
edge You know the thing to wh i ch you can
.

answe r from w i thin I f you are able to see this

.

banyan tree you see i t because in your eye there

,

is ethe r that can vibrate in response to the move

ments o f the ethe r that you call the light You .

cannot see it when light is not there ; you can only

see it when the vibrations o f the ether produce
in your eye the answering vibrations by wh ic h you
become con scious o f the presen c e o f the tree .

And so with God The human Spirit is a f rag

.

ment of that mighty One who declares in the G i ta

'
I establ ished this universe with a fragment of
mysel f and I remain — a fragment o f that Supreme
18 T h eo s o p h y a nd th e T h eo s o p h ic a l S o c ie ty

to whom all universes are but as waves in H is

own great ocean passing phenomena in that bound
,

less sea of H is l i f e That i s your S el f you r real

.
,

Sel f— not the foolish body that bl inds you not ,

the surging emot i ons that con fuse you not the ,

c hang i ng thoughts that deafen you— but that which

l i es beyond the m all And because you are Spirit
.
,

you can reach the supreme Spir i t ; because you are

o f Hi s Nature you can answe r to that whi c h comes
,

f orth from H i m ; and so the poet apostrophised

h i s own Spirit and sa i d to the Spirit w i thin h i m :
,

Speak to Him thou f o r He hears and Spirit

, , ,

w ith Spirit can meet ;

Close r is He than breathing neare r than hands ,

and feet .

You r hands are outs i de you ; you r feet are outside

you ; you r breathing is outside you ; you r emotions
and your thoughts are outside you But God i s .

w i thin you the Li fe o f yo u r l ife the Essence o f

, ,

your Spirit .

And so we find ove r and ove r again that in

thes e great Up a n ish a ts this tea c hing is repeated But .

you may fairly say to me : Do they tell us how

to gain the know l edge ? For to know that there
i s knowledge to be had and not to reach it woul d
only add a new grie f to the pain o f the worl d .

But I find in these sacred books that the knowledge

is c l early is distinctly g i ven S i nk into the depths
, ,
.
 Th e os o p h y or P a ra v i d y a 19

o f you r own being and there you will find God

, .

T u rn to that wonde rful passage in the K a th op ani

s h a t whe re the man is told the steps o f the road
,

and the w ay i n wh i ch h e should walk It is the .

passage in which it is declared that higher than

the senses are verily their obj ects ; higher than
their obj ects is the mind ; highe r than the mind
is the inte l le c t ; h igher than the intellect is the
Spirit ; h i gher than the Spirit is the Unmanifested ;
highe r than the Un manifested is
'
supreme Goal Translate those last two wo rds
.

by the help o f Theosoph i cal explanat i on and you ,

have first the Unmani f ested— the Monad immedi

,

ately beyond the Spirit o r the triple Atma as the

, ,

Spirit is sometimes called— the Monad who is the

Witness and beyond that Ishvara Himsel f God
, , ,

the Locos who is one w i th the Spirit in man since

, ,

the Monad i s part o f Himsel f .

And then the Up a n ish at goes on to i nstruct you

in what you shoul d do It begins in the oute r .

world whe re the senses are in touch with th e

,

obj ects o f sense And then it tell s you to merge

.

the senses in the m i nd and the m i nd in the ih ,

t ell ec t and the intellect in the Spirit and the

, ,

Spirit in the unmani fested Monad and that in the ,

supreme I shvara Himsel f T hat is the l ine o f .

ascent Another hint is given you as to method

. ,

for earl ie r i n the K a th opa ms h a t a graphic simile

'

, ,

i s given for instr u ction The body says the writer

.
, ,

i s the chariot and the r i der within the chariot is

,
20 T h e o s op h y a nd th e T h e o s o p h ic a l S o c i e t y

the embodied Sp i r i t T he horses are the sen ses

.

wh i ch pu ll along the char i ot and the m ind is the ,

re i ns whereby the horses may be controlled ; the

m i nd is the reins in the hands o f the dr i ve r who ,

is the i ntellect Then the Up a n ish a t goes on to

.

expla i n that un l ess the char i otee r holds the re i ns

o f the m i nd firmly he w i ll have the un c ontrolled
,

horses of the senses plung i ng along over the roads

o f the obj ects o f the senses ; but i f he is w i se
and with his intelle c t c ontrols the m i nd hold i ng ,

firmly the reins then the senses will be qu i et as

, ,

the well —broken horses o f the chariotee r And .

then we are told that when the senses are conquered ,

when the m i nd i s st i ll that then i n the quiet o f

, , ,

the senses and the tranquillity o f the mind we ,

'
may behold the glory o f the Sel f There l ies .

the Path .

But i mmed i ately after this Path has been de

s c r i bed ; i mmed i ately a f ter man has been taught
how he had best shape his e ff orts so that he may ,

go towards the great goal ; then there rings out

the statement Awake ; arise ; find the great Ones
'

and attend ; for the wise tell us that the road to

H i m i s hard to travel and sharp as the edge o f
,

a razor . Not by h i msel f may man travel that

razo r Path ; not without the help o f the T ea c hers ,

o f the Elde r Brethren may he hope to reach his,

goa L
So when the Path has been dep i cted he who
, ,

would tread it is po i nted to the T eachers f o r ,

22 T h eos o p h y a nd th e T h e o s o p h i c a l S oc ie ty

T hen turn the m ind to me d i tat i on and let it dis ,

criminate between the really des i rable and the a p

p a r e ntly desirable let i t realize by its own study
that every contact of the senses is but a womb o f
pain ; that as long as the senses rule pain will ,

follow on satis fact i on as n i ght follows on the day

,
.

I n those quiet moments listen to the voice of the

m i nd and use the m i nd to c ontrol the sense s and
,

to turn them to the really desirable to that which ,

i s lasting instead o f fleeting which will be a womb

,

o f j oy instead o f a womb of pain .

Tra i n yoursel f in med i tat i on and when you have ,

conquered the senses— fo r until they are your slaves

no further progress along thi s road is po ssible for
you— when the senses are silenced when they are ,

n o longer stirred by des i res com i ng from the oh

je cts of sense then hand ove r the mind to the

,

intellect the lower to the higher man Then let

, .

the lowe r m i nd be quieted ; then let it be still as

a lake w ithout a r i pple ; fo r as a lake ripples under
the wind so does the mind r i pple unde r the w ind
,

o f desire and the ruffled sur f ace will reflect no

,

obj ect aright But when the mind is still as a

.

mirro r when the lake i s quiet then in the lake

, ,

you c an see the stars that are sh i n i ng in the heaven ,

and in the mind you can see the image o f the Sel f
reflecte d down into it as into a m i rro r .

And when once you have seen the Se l f ; when

on c e you have real i zed the Sel f ; then the desires
and the mind will be silent fo r there i s naught ,
 T h e o sop h y or P ara v i dy a 23

that can a ff ect that maj esty So you may read .

i n the Up a n ish a t that I quoted be fore—the S hv e ta

s h v a ta r opa h is h a t— you may rea d the wondrous
description o f H i m who is found by the man who
has conquere d the senses and who is ruler o f his
m i nd It is declared in that that when the darknes s
.
,

o f ignorance has gone when the pairs of opposites

,

have been transcended then in meditation nothing

,

rema i ns save th e ever blessed One alone

-
No .

image may be made o f H i m whos e Name is infinite

glory Not for the sight exists His form non e
.
,

may by the eye behold Him ; but by devotion and

knowledge He may be seen in the heart by the
'
mind and who sees Him thus becomes immortal
,
.

That i s the Paravidya ; that the very essence o f

Theosophy ; man may know and knowing may , , ,

realize his own Eternity .

To that Realization to that Vision of the

,

Sup reme to that Peace whi c h knows no changing

, ,

to that Strength which know s no l imit may the ,

ever-blessed Ones gu ide yo u who l i stening to words ,

so feeble may translate them into beauty by the

,

voice o f the God within you Such is th e praye r .

o f all who once have seen ; and beca use man has
seen other men also may see
,
.
 THEOSOPHY THE OP EN ROAD TO
,

T HE MASTERS

L EC T U RE I I
FR I EN DS
You w i ll remembe r that yesterday we spoke of
the supreme knowledge o f the knowledge which
,

is Eternal Li f e o f the find i ng o f that knowledge

,

in the heart the temp l e o f the Supreme

, And .

you may remember that with refe rence to that I

quoted an an ci ent Word that Word in which it
,

is said : Awake ' Arise ' Seek the great Ones

and attend ; fo r the wise tell us that the road to
Him is hard to travel and sharp as the edge o f
,

a razor .
' u i te naturally then we , turn
, to —
day
t o see whether Theosophy wh i ch we found was
,

identical w i th th i s W i sdom o f God whethe r it ,

has something to tell us as to how we shall seek

the great Teachers how we may find Them in
,

order that we may attend to T he i r teaching And .

glancing back ove r the ve ry d i stant reaches o f

h i story we find that at the t i me and i n the countries
,

where this Science o f the Supreme was taught ,

there also the T eachers were to be found so that ,

there was no doubt for the searche r I f he sought .

,

he wo uld find .
 Th eo soph y th e Op e n R o a d to th e M a s te r s 25

In anc i ent India in the l i terature fro m wh i ch

,

I drew yesterday most o f my illustrations in that ,

l i terature we find a tradition a record o f the past , ,

whi c h speaks o f the great Tea c hers call s Them ,

by the name o f R sh is and looks to Them as the ,

gi vers o f W i sdom as Those who can guide us

,

along the razor Path And not only do we find .

Them mentioned in the l iterature but there are ,

certa i n f acts that we cannot but observe wh i ch ,

lead us to the conclusion that the l i terature is an

a c curate reco rd We find certain books that go
.
,

as you know by the name o f Aranyaka the

, ,
‘

’
f orest that which was taught i n the forest ; and
,

we have heard how these great Teachers wandered

in forest ways how bands o f disc i ples gathered
,

around Them and that the very name Up a n i sh a t

,
‘

came from the idea o f s i tting at the feet o f a

Tea c her T hen we also find when we look into
.
,

other parts o f the l iterature l i ke those compressed

,

’
statements that are kno wn as Sutras or threads , ,

that by themselves they are somet i mes wel l nigh -

unintell igible ; qu i te inev i tably the i dea is pressed

upon the m i nd that they are the mere headi ngs
o f d i scourses that when a Tea c her spoke one o f
,

these great sentences he then expounded i t ex, ,

plained it made his d i s c iples meditate thereon and

, ,

so led them to find out all that lay h i dden beneath

the f ew and pregnant words We find that i n .

late r times the lack o f true Teachers was suppl ied ,

inadequately indeed by the commentaries written

,
26 T h eo so p h y a nd th e T h e o s o p h i ca l S o c ie t y

by the learned and the s c holarly ; but when we

read these we find that while they are adm i rable
,

in grammar i n logic in the expos i tion of outer

, ,

mean i ng i t i s only now and again that some gleam

,

o f spiritual l i ght breaks through the j ungle o f

words illuminates the obscur i ty o f the passage
,
.

So much i s that true that I have sometimes adv i sed

,

the earnest student to shut up the commentaries ,

to place them on the shel f to go and s i t in medita ,

tion and by med i tat i ng on the or i g i nal words to

, ,

try to find out the depths o f sp i r i tual meaning

that li e hidden there i n f o r him who has learned
,

to conq u er his passions and to control his thoughts .

And look i ng at these great axiom s unde r which

m ighty truths are put in tersest fash i on we seem ,

to see beyond the words the speaker the Master ,

o f the Wisdom po i nt i ng H i s c h il dren to the truth

, .

And when we look elsewhere i n the older times ,

we find similarly that there were special Teachers

who unrolled the supreme knowledge to the earnest
and the pure We may read in the Hebrew Bible
.

o f the School o f the Prophets ; how men gathered

together that they m i ght unde r the train i ng o f an,

a cc epted Prophet l earn someth i ng o f the divine

,

Myster i es ; fo r you must remember that i n the

ol der l i terature Prophet does not mean specially ’

’
f orete ll e r but rathe r the T eacher o f the Hidden
‘

Knowledge the man who had ga i ned more o f

,

Wisdom than h i s f ellows .

Then aga i n we find i n a country l ike Egypt ,

 T h e o sop h y th e Op e n R oa d to th e M a s t e rs 27

pr i ests a p riesthood who were holders o f the secret

, ,

knowledge And those o f you who know some

.

thing o f symbol ism will remembe r that when you

see on the double crown o f Egypt the head and
part o f the body o f the asp the hooded head you , ,

will remember that that was the sign o f the o rgan

in the forehead by whi ch the th i rd sight the th i rd ,

eye mani fests itsel f as o rgan in the outer wo rld ;

,

and that men only made the symbol out of gold

and brass when that which it symbol i zed had been
forgotten and the power that it indicated no longe r
existed .

And so you find th i s idea of Teachers t o whom

the would b e learne r m i ght go and everywhere in
-
,

the el de r days there was the open road the road ,

along which the stude nt might travel the road ,

which led him to the beginning o f the Path where

the Teacher was certa i n to welcome him It was .

by that Gate which the Christ declared to be so

strait the entrance to that Pathway wh i ch He said
,

was so narrow it was by that Gate ready to gu i de

, ,

along that Pathway that the Teache r stood revealed

,

in anc i ent days .

And coming down neare r to ou r own day but ,

st i ll f ar away we find the Mysteries of G reece

, ,

o f l ate r Egypt o f Assyria symbol s in the lower

, ,

worl d o f those true Mysteries that have eve r

existed and still exist under the control of the
, ,

great White B rotherhood the Lodge o f the Mas ,

te rs o f the Wisdom The Mysteries had vario u s .

28 T h e o sop h y a nd th e T h eo s o p h i ca l S o ci e t y

grades ; somet i mes they were the way to real

knowledge and real T eachers used them for the
instru c t i on of the learne r You may read in the
.

writ i ngs of the Greek philosophers l ike P l ato that , ,

those who were in i tiated in the Myste ries lost the

f ear of death and knew the c ertainty o f immor
tal i ty You may come f arther down the stream
.

o f time to the early days o f the Chr i stian Church ,

and there you w i ll find the Mysteries o f Jesus to ,

wh i ch the Chr i stian was admitted under r i gi d con

ditions o f purity of c apac i ty to learn
,
And it i s .

said i n the older Chr i st i an writ i ngs—those that

were w ritten by the w i se men cal l ed the Fathers
o f the Chu r c h— that in those Myster i es were passed
on t o the pupils the teach i ng that Jesus gave in
secret to H i s own disc i ples T he whol e an ci ent
.

world is illuminated by these great pla c es of reve

lat i on and you find them lasting onwards i nto
,

comparat i vely modern t i mes d i sappear i ng finally ,

f rom Europe during the s i xth seventh and eighth ,

c entur i es a f ter the Christ i an e ra .

Now those Myster i es d i sappeared fo r lack o f

pupils and the lack o f pupils was not only due
to i gnorance and sloth among the peop l e It was .

al so due to the growth o f a sp i rit o f pe rsecution ,

as Chr i stian i ty became linked w i th the State and

grew orthodox and narrow — o rthodoxy laying down
certa i n c ond i t i ons o f membersh i p in the Church ,

which threatened all that we we re speak i ng o f

yesterday as Myst i cism To be a Mystic was to
.
30 T h eo so p h y a nd th e T h eo sop h ic a l S oc i e t y

the serv i ce o f the lower sel f For men who are .

i gnorant exoter i c rel i g i on is enough

,
It is the .

s c hool i n wh i ch they learn the elements o f right

l i ving and r ight knowledge Hen c e i n those days . ,

bo th in East and West— wh i le in the East Teachers

st i ll were to be f ound— men had to wander far
and wide undergo many a hardsh i p and many a
,

difficulty travel long d i stances f a c e many a danger

, ,

of desert o f wil d beasts o f flood wh i le they sought

, , ,

fo r the Guru who was able to teach them and ,

counted all th i ngs but as dross i f only Wisdom

m i ght be gained You find men wield i ng power
.
,

men who are ministers o f great Kings ; nay you ,

find Monarchs themselves com i ng down from their

thrones c asting aside sceptre and royal robe put
, ,

ting ou the garb the cloth o f the ascetic taking

, , ,

in hand the bowl and wander i ng forth in search

,

o f a Tea c her wh o had the gol d o f Wisdom more ,

priceless than the gold o f kingly crown Never .

the tradition vanished never was the world w ith

,

out gu i de s albe i t they m i ght b e hard to find In

, .

the West the an c ient knowledge was handed down

am i d great pe ril s to li fe and limb kept i n memory ,

by secre t Orders that f ro m time to time we find

emergi ng from the darkness o f h i story and giving ,

here and there an i nd ic ation that they had knowl

edge that the masse s did not share .

There are those of you who kno w the tragic

sto ry o f the Kn i ghts Templars ; those o f you who
-

have read o f the fright f ul persecut i ons to which

 T h e o so p h y th e Op e n R oa d t o th e M a st e r s 31

tho se Templars we re exposed ; who have read of

the bones crushed into me re powde r ; o f the limbs
strained asunde r by the dragging o f the rac k ; o f
the red-hot pincers ; and the f ear ful torment o f
the wedge driven between the knees and ankles .

And when y o u as k what were the acc u sations ,

'
what do you find ? You find testimony : We say ,

this man trampled on the Cross ; we say that man

trod u pon the Crucifix and any o f yo u who
know something of the great O rders that still e x ist
to day who are trained say in Masonic symbolism
-
, , , ,

and remember the detail s of you r own initiation

into Maso nry you will understand what was meant
,

by the treading on the Cross and yo u will realize ,

the hidden truth that lay behind the apparently

blasphemo u s action And other things als o yo u
.

may learn to u nderstand i f you take o pportunities

,

o f gaining some o f that hidden knowledge ; and

you w ill find that the old tradition never quite
pe rished that it neve r utterly died that unde r many
, ,

name s that hid the obj ects unde r many fantasies

,

that concealed the real i ty of the study there were ,

always men and women who we re pupil s o f the

tru e Teachers and who r i sked everything that earth
,

coul d give in order that the secret knowledge might

be discovered might be learned
,
.

And s o you come downwards eve r and find the ,

wo rld growing dar k er and darke r more and mo re ,

materialistic until you reach the nineteenth century

,

and notice the tremendous growth o f materialism .

32 Th eosoph y a nd th e T h eo so p h ic a l S oc iet y

You have never had in the East the conflict that

mark s European h i story between rel igion and
science T hey have never been placed in opposition
.

i n easte rn lands Sc i ence as we know it now

.
, ,

the study o f all the phenomena o f the oute r wo rld ,

that is the lower knowledge o f which the ancient ‘

Scriptures teach . Nature is but the garment o f

God natural phenomena they are H i s language
, ,

to men ; and so you find Bruno teach i ng i n the

’
sixteenth century that Natu re i s God s language that ,

eve ry natural obj ect is a word spoken by God and ,

that if you study nature i f you learn to know

,

the mean i ng behind natural phenomena then God ,

the Word is speaking to you through the outer

form ; thus shall science be a way to rel i gi on and ,

the study of Nature become the revelation o f the

Supreme . He taught it in strange ways under ,

strange symbols but the truth i s there

,
Alas ' .

re l i gion then would have noth i ng to do with

sc i ence ; it racked its teachers burnt its prophets
, ,

slew its messengers ; and so there grew up in the

m i nds o f the men o f knowledge a hatre d against the
religion that s i lenced them when they fa i n would
h ave spoken of truth Oh when we speak of the op
.
,

position o f science to —day we who have learned the

,

value o f relig i on neve r let us forget that in the past

,

it was the rel ig i on o f the day that tore out the

tongues o f Van i ni and many another so that no ,

words might come f rom the mouth whereby the ,

truth s o f sc i en c e m i ght be taught And these .

 T h e o sop h y th e Op e n R o a d to th e M a ste rs 33

things leave b i tte r memor i es ; these are handed

down from generation to generation T hen blame .

not too bitterly science that when i t came to its

,

own and was able to hold itsel f sa f ely aga i nst

,

the threats o f the Churches—blame it not if it

rej oiced to find anything wh i ch c oul d be u sed as
a stone to cast at rel igion and that the memorie s
,

o f the Inquis i tion o f the stake and of the rack

, ,

were flung back as contempt and hatred as scien c e

grew strong and rel i gion grew weak And so we .

find in Europe in the nineteenth century an im

, ,

mense growth o f material i sm ; not always a declara

tion that the material i stic philoso p hy was accurate ,

but the f ar more subtle and there fore more dan

gerou s allegat i on that man had n o means where
by he m i ght find out God Agnostic was the name
.

that was chosen—without knowledge ; but what

knowledge ? Clearly not the knowledge o f science ,

c learly not the knowledge o f the obj ects o f the

phenomenal worl d ; but th e knowledge the supreme ,

knowledge the Gnosis that the G reeks had followed

, ,

the Paravidya that h a d been known in eastern

lands M an they said had senses— b y these he
.
, ,

might study obj ects Man they said had mind

.
, , ,

whereby he coul d draw conclusions on the observa

tions he had made B ut beyond the senses and
.

beyond the mind there was nothing more whereby

kn owledge might be gained by man and therefore ,

he could not know that which was beyond th e

34 T h eosop h y a n d th e T h e o sop h ic a l S oc i e ty

observation of the senses and the reasoning power

o f the mind .

And into that material i stic world into the midst ,

o f that circle o f Agnostics that had gathered to

gethe r into it well nigh all the name s most hon ored
-

in the world o f modern thought into that came a ,

Messenge r from the ancient Masters o f the Wis

dom into that worl d there came al o ne a woman
, ,

that greatest that noblest o f women Helena Pet

, , ,

rovna Blavats ky Alone she came and proclaimed

.
,

again in that worl d the e x istence o f great Teachers

whom she declared that she knew She made no .

pretence o f great discoveries o f he r own ma k ing ;

'
I but teach what I have been taught was her
continual proclamation But she committed the .

great sin the intolerable o ff ense of declaring to

, ,
' '
an ignorant wo rld : I know and th a t they coul d ,

not bear Fraud they called her cheat they called

.
,

her swindle r they called her Mockery and ridicule

, .

—these were the least o f the i mputations that they

flung at her ; and she a woman o f nobl e b i rth , ,

proud intensely proud o f her hon o r o f he r tr uth

, , , ,

o f he r good name she wo uld rathe r a hundred

,

time s that they had burned he r like B runo at , ,

the stake than that they had tortured her with

,

foul accusations and soiled he r honor w ith imputa

tions o f f raud and o f d i sgrace But she knew ; .

her feet were on a rock and she found an old ,

friend o f older days that gallant soul whom you ,

knew as Henry Steele Olcott not full o f knowledge ,

 T h e o sop h y th e Op e n R oa d t o th e M a s te r s 35

as was the direct Me ssenge r o f the Lodge How .

often have the ol der among you heard him say

in his frankness an d stra i ghtforwardness : I am '

no philoso p her You must not come to me for

.

'
teaching .And yet he knew so much more than
many who were proud o f their knowledge o f
ph i losophy and have a long train o f letters afte r
,

their names o f the learned Societies to which they

belong And tho se two the American man and
.
,

the R ussian woman they stoo d alone against a,

world in arms And she poured out the knowledge

.

that none then l i ving had the powe r to test She .

prophesied of scient i fic discoverie s twenty years be

fore they we re made N ow science is beginning .

to j usti f y her ; now some of the statements ridiculed

and sco ff ed at are given out as great d i s coveri es
by Fellows of the Royal Societies and other learned ,

people in the European band of those who claim

the name o f knowledge You can find them in .

he r work Th e S ecr e t D octr in e so that none can ,

declare that she did not proclaim them long e re

western sc i ence had r e discovered them She told
‘

-
.

us that there was a hidden science an occult ,

scien c e the science that used to be taught in the

,

Mysteries the science that the R shis passed on

,

to Their pupils ; she told us that there were still

Masters and that she knew Them ; she told us
that the Teachers could be reached by those who
were will i ng to fulfill the conditions and to bring ,

the ancient sacrifice o f all that earth can o ffer in

36 Th eo so p h y a nd th e T h e o s o p h ic a l S o c i e t y

exchange f or the treasures of the Wisdom ; she

told us that the gateway was no t shut ; she told
us that open was the road to the Masters ; that
she had trodden it ; that she knew i t to be true .

And not only did she declare that but out o f his ,

own personal knowledge Henry Steele Olcott de

c l a r ed the same Then she took pup i ls in
.

order that she m ight tra i n them in the knowledge

that she had a c quired so that when she passed
,

out of he r worn— out broken body they m i ght carry

, ,

on the testimony that she had g i ven ; fo r neve r

again was the worl d to be le f t for many centur i es
'
to come without one o r more who coul d say : I
know who no longer sa i d : I think who no
,
'
,

'
longe r declared : I believe who no longer pro
,
'

'
claimed T he Church de c lares it o r trad i tion ,

a ffi rms it but who would say fearlessly despite

, ,

a mo c ki ng world : I know the Masters live fb r

'
,

I have seen Them ; I have been taught by Them ;

I have been led along the Path to which They
alone can give admissio n .

And so when she was c alled away she left ,

behind some o f he r pupils who had been led by

her into the p resen c e o f the Masters who c ould ,

speak o f their own knowledge and not by hearsay

f rom another Not yet the time o f peace for
.

them ; not yet the time o f gene ral acceptance and

o f easy l i ving But wh i ch think you is the better :
.

with strong hand to make the road whe re i n others

shall travel eas i ly in the future or to wait until ,
38 Th eo sop h y a nd th e T h eos o p h i ca l S o ci e t y

knew ; and so they determ i ned that no such declara

tion shoul d be made by the Society as a whole .

It should not be allowed to declare that it was

the servant and the messenger o f th e M asters
o f the W i sdom And They retired for a time
.
,

as They had said T hey would go i ng back into ,

the silen c e in whi c h so long They had lived Then .

H P B at the orders o f her own Maste r f ounded

. . .
, ,

what you now know as the Esoteric Section In .

1 888 that was made and she printed the statement,

that that was intended to f ulfill the early purpose

of the Soc iety .

And so the Society went along i ts easier road

o f ph i losophy metaphysi c s and rel i gion— a great
,

and noble road— but only those who were w i lling

to go f urthe r and eager to go f aster were gathered
, ,

by he r into that band o f dis c iples and o ff ered

by her the se c rets o f the Divine Wis dom And .

eve r s i nce that day this Esoteric Sect i on has e n

dured going through var i ous phase s accommodat
, ,

ing itsel f to the weaknesses o f its membe rs o f ten ,

giving up an imp o rtant matte r becau se men were

not yet ready fo r it but ever go i ng stead i ly though
, ,

slowly onwards towards the appo i nted goal And

, , .

then a M aste r sa i d Seek us through the Theo

'

soph i cal So ci ety and only thos e who entered the

So c iety were allowed to come onwards i nto the
Esoteric Section ; only those who took the first
step were allowed to go f urthe r a l ong the Open
Road The message went out to the struggl i ng
.
,
 T h e o soph y th e Op e n R oa d to th e M a s te r s 39

striv i ng seeke rs There i s an open road ; the re

.

is an open way ; no longe r search in the j ungle ,

in the desert in the cave f or those who can tea c h

, ,

you . Here i s the open gateway to the path i n

the world o f men ; walk ye in it and at the othe r ,

end you w ill find the Teacher standing And .

'

many came in and out o f many a few began

,

steadily to walk onwards seeking f o r the Master ,

that some i nner conv i ction tol d them must exist ,

more per fe ct might i er greate r than they the m

, , ,

selves and the men around them And gradually .

,

b i t by b i t that i nne r intuit i on became a divine

,

p ortion o f knowledge and the teaching was given ,

out even to the world as to the way by wh i ch

the Masters might be f ound .

And then we were taught that as They were

the great Servants o f Humanity it was by the ,

Path of Service that men l iving i n the outer world

might begin to tread the oute r way whereon they
should find thei r Tea c her Men were not asked .

to leave their o rd i nary avocations ; they were not

asked to come away from the market —pla c e to
the j ungle f rom the o ffice to the dese rt
,
Stay .

'
where you are came the word o f the Instructor ;
,

change you r att i tude not you r avoc at i ons ; for

,

avocations that help the world to roll along its

everlast i ng ways are activities which are blest by
God and in them the divine action i s carried on
,
.

Be a lawye r be a j udge be a docto r h e a mer

, , ,

chant b e what you will ; but do it all for the

,
40 Th e o s o p h y a nd th e T h e o sop h ic a l S o c i e t y

sa ke o f the divine law and as part o f the divine

activ i ty
. That was the lesson Theosophy began
to teac h by Se rvice by unselfish devot i on to the
,

interests o f others B y being w i lling to share your

.

knowledge with the igno rant ; by being will i ng to

take your purity amid the foul ; by recogniz i ng
the lowest as well as the h ighest as you r brothers ;
thus may you grad u ally tread the path that leads
to Initiation .

Those are the first steps So long as any human .

being is desp i se d by you looked down upon and ,

treated w i th contem p t ; so long as when you wou l d ,

g i ve money to the par i ah you take i t and fling i t on

,

the earth becau se you think you r purity will be spoilt

i f you pla c e it re spect f ully and courteously in h i s
hand ; so long as men are bidden to go out in to
the road so that their shadow may not defile the
ground on which you are go i ng to walk ; so long
as the B rahmana is proud o f his pr i vilege and
f orgets his duty so long the path o f discipleship
,

is not open to him .

You want to be the b rother o f the highest the ,

younger b rothe r o f the Elder Brothers o f man

kind ? B ut y ou have younge r brothers younger ,

brothe rs who are su ff er i ng who are in pain and ,

d i fficulty and distress who are festering i n the

,

midst o f dirt whom none has ever taught to be

,

clean and pure There is only one Brotherhood

.
,

the Maste r at the head th e pariah at the other,

end ; and i f yo u would grasp the hand o f the

 T h e o sop h y th e Op e n R o a d to th e M a s te r s 41

Master you must stretch out your hand to the

,

pariah For the brotherhood w i ll not be granted

.

to you which yo u deny to a fellow man -

.

And s o Service is the fi rst step And then we

, , .

have been tol d the ' ual ification s which we need

when str i ving to serve the worl d we woul d tread
, ,

the h i gher path the path which is called that o f

,

probation Y ou may read o f it i f you w ill in

.
, ,

Shri Shankaracharya where he laid down the con ,

d it ion s in S a msk r t terms familiar to eve ry student

amongst you You may read it i f you will in the
.
, ,

re c orde d teachings o f the Lo rd Buddha where , ,

in the P ali you w ill find the names that match

,

your own S a mskrt Hindu terms You may read .

it i f you will in the simple and beautiful l anguage

, ,

i n which a child disciple p u t down as h e remembered

-
,

them the wisdom o f the Maste r who taught h i m

, ,

and placed in that exqu i site l i ttle book A t th e F e e t ,

of th e Mas ter what the Hindu boy had learned

,

from one o f the Masters o f the Wisdom .

The re is no la c k o f information Take i t in .

the form o f scholarship o r i n the form that a ,

c hild can understand you are tol d what to do ,

.

You must develop V i veka discrim i nation between ,

the real and the unreal by which alone you can ,

distin gu ish the pass ing phenomena from the eternal

truths they ve i l and oftent i mes distort Having .

learned something o f V i veka o f true discrimination , ,

then you come to Va i r a gya d i spass i on des i reles s , ,

ness indi ff e rence to the oute r o bj ects in the search

,
42 T h e o sop h y a nd th e T h e o s o p h ic a l S oc i et y

f or wh i ch men weary themselves both day and

n i ght And when some d i scrim i nation is yours
.
,

when some dispassion has been reached then you ,

must try to bind round your forehead those S i x

Jewels o f the M ind which form the crown that
,

you mus t wear as you approa c h the Portal o f

I n i tiati o n Yo u must learn Control o f Th ought
. ,

you must learn Control o f A c t i on you must l earn ,

Endurance for the way is long Yo u must learn

,
.

Eq u ilibrium for there i s noth i ng that must upset

,

you . You must learn Tolerance fo r yo u must ,

see the Sel f in all You must learn Fa i th in the

.

God w ith i n you as we l l as in the God with out .

And when the S ix Jewels are bound upon your

f orehead then shall you be seen as ready to enter
,

the Po rtals of In i tiation And when that happy.

day has come for you when a Maste r has taken

, .

you under His personal care has put you on defin i te

probation has accepted you as His chela—child
,

d i sciple—then shall come the day when He and

one o f His Brethren shall take your hands in
T heirs and lead you up to the great H ierophant
,

who shall g i ve you the key of knowledge and ,

a l low the leaves o f the Portal o f Initiation to swing

open be f ore you r eager feet .

Then shall you be taught having gone through ,

the Portal that there are th ree weaknesses that

,

you must get rid o f Y ou must get rid o f super

.

s t itio n ,which thinks that the outer form is ma

t er ia l or necessary to the Sp i rit in order that he ,
 T h e o so p h y th e Op e n R o a d to th e M a s te rs 43

may make his way o nwards Yo u must get rid .

o f the delusion o f the separated self in which ,

yo u k n ow you r sel f as othe r than th o se around

you Yo u must cast away doubt by knowledge
.
,

o f ce rtain great truths—the knowledge o f rein

carnation the knowledge o f karma the knowledge
, ,

of the e x istence o f the P ath and o f the powe r ,

to walk the reon .

And when those fetters are cast away then the ,

next Door is open be fore you and then the great ,

downfl ow comes which g i ves power o f mind and ,

you are bidden through the years that lie in front

, ,

gradually to bring the highe r knowledge down into

the lowe r m ind and to gu ide your feet by the
,

light that stream s from the Highe r Sel f And .

when that is gained then the third Portal i s before

,

you ; and then yo u have to cast away love and

h a tred ; that is to say that form o f love which
,

i s attachment o f the personal sel f to the personal

sel f ; n ot the love o f Sp irit to Sp i rit which i s ,

the foundation o f the universe and the essence

o f God H imsel f ; but the pa i r o f oppos i te s as ,

des i re as hatred—those are fetters to be cast away

,
.

Then be fore you looms up the great fourth Por

tal whic h has e ver upon it marked the symbol
,
‘

o f the C ross Then you come to the gateway

.

that none may pass through until he has known

the lonel i ness o f utter d esolat i on ; until friends
have dese rted him and enemies have assa i led him ;
until thrown back on the Sel f within him when ,
44 T h eo so p h y a n d th e T h eoso p h ic a l S o c i et y

no answer comes to the cry of anguish My '

'
God My God why hast Th ou forsaken me ? then
, , ,

i n that uttermost loneliness he finds the Sel f and , ,

never again can know himsel f alone ; and he passes

through the fourth Portal and five are the final ,

weaknesses that he m u st cast aside .

Words here are mislead i ng rather than ill u mina

tive be cause the names that are gi ven t o the faults
,

i n the lower world hardly indicate the subtle and

refined weaknesses which are found as the Path
is draw i ng to its ending and the Liberat i on of
the Spir i t is at hand They speak o f throwing
.

aside desire for l i f e in form and des i re fo r form ,

l ess l i fe They speak o f getting rid o f pride ; they

.

speak o f getting rid of anger ; they spea k of getting

rid finally o f Avidya of ignorance , These are .

the last five fetters that h old the Spir i t i n bondage ,

and then the fi fth gateway is before the triumphant

combatant .

Then before the pilgrim who had trodden the

Path the razor Path so far there l i es the threshold
, , ,

that admits to Libe ration ; beyond that there open

the seven ways along any one of wh i ch the liber
ated Spirit may tread And T hose whom we ca l l
.

the Masters ; T hose to whom ou r hearts go out in

deepest adoration and most pass i onate gratitude :
They are the great Ones who be i ng libe rated have , ,

st i l l kept the burden of the flesh upon T hem who , ,

be i ng f ree bind themselves by Their own loving

,

'
w il l and wh o declare :
, Until the least o f my
 THEOSOPHY THE ROOT OF ALL
,

RELIGION S

L E CT U RE I II

FR I EN DS
We are to th i nk to day o f Theosophy as the
-

Root of all Rel igions We saw in ou r fi rst meeting

.

that there was a supreme teaching which is the

common heritage o f all sp i ritual men a nd w omen .

In ou r second gathering we learned that those who

would find their way to the knowledge o f God
should take advantage o f the help of the Elder
Brothers o f our race and should follow Them along
,

the road that Their feet have al ready trodden To .

day I would try to S how you that while the prin

c ip les are one,
the man i f estations are many ; that
wh il e the supre me knowledge the knowledge of
,

God l i es at the root o f every religion that has ex

,

alted man s i ntelligence and pur i fied man s emotions

’ ’

we can fin d unde rly i ng the various forms of religion

c ertain fundamental sp i ritual ve ritie s which are bu i lt
on the one foundation—the knowledge of the S u
preme . Now Origen one o f the greatest early
,

Christ i an teachers— who i s only not ca l led a Father

o f the Chur c h nor gi ven the prefix o f Saint b e ’

cause h i s thought was w i der than the thought of

the orthodox and his wisdom very much profounder
46
 T h eo s op h y th e R oo t of A ll R e l igi o n s 47

than the w i sdom o f the late r Church—the great

teacher Origen declared that no rel i gion could be
safely founded unless there were Gnostics among
its members And as you remember yesterday we
.
,

saw that the Gnosis was the Greek form of the

supreme W i s dom the Mysticism o f the West th e
, ,

B rahma Vidya o f the East Or i gen pointed out that .

every relig i on had the duty o f instructing the igno

rant had the duty o f guiding the thoughtless o f
, ,

bringing medi c ine fo r tho se who are sick w i th the

d i sease o f sin But not out o f the ignorant the
.
,

blind and the sinful could the foundations of a true

,

Chur c h a true rel ig i on be made And so we find

, , .

that at the begi nning o f each great Faith there are

certain Teache rs who come out into the world who ,

always teach the same fundamental verities who ,

always proclaim the same unchangeable moral it i e s ,

who always symbolize truth unde r the same ancient

symbol s And They only d i ffe r in the external s of
.

Their religions wh i ch are adapted to the genius o f

,

the people to whom They come to the age i n which ,

They go forth into the world to the spec i al develop ,

ment characteristic of the peopl e to whom They

bring Their message—They give only a new form
o f the eternal truth the S ana ta na Dharma,
.

Looking back over the past we see ris i ng ab ove ,

their contemporaries certain mighty figures the fi g ,

ures of the Founders o f the great rel i gions And .

we find that These while each o f Them strikes Hi s

,

own note teach what I have called the same funda

,
48 T h eo s op h y a nd th e T h eo s o p h ic a l S o c i e ty

mental verities Each d oes strike H i s own note ;

.

there is a d i fferen c e between the rel i gions o f the

world in the predominan c e wh i ch each rel i gion gives
to one particular tea ch i ng or group o f teachi ngs .

But those r i ghtly seen ought not to be regarded as

, ,

walls o f divis i on but rathe r as the notes o f some

,

ri c h c hord o f harmony every note adding a new ,

beauty to the chord so that not one o f them could ,

be dropped without an inj ury to the whole .

Let me rem i nd you o f what we f ound in our

Theosophical teach i ngs as to the notes o f the great
rel i gions which are characteristic o f the fi f th or
Aryan Race that Race taking its bi rth on the high
,

lands o i Arabia and then com i ng to Central As i a

,

for its definite establ i shment It spread out over .

the whole o f the western worl d— back to Arab i a to ,

Egypt along the sh o res of the Medite rranean then

, ,

to Persia then to Gree c e and from Greece over the

, ,

rest o f Europe ; then again from the Caucasus out

wards to north and west until you find five sub ,

races there with various subdivisions

,
Each o f .

those has its own note j u st as the Root stock com , ,

ing across the Himalayas into Ind i a had its own ,

note which dominates in a sense th e whole of the , ,

l ate r teachings We find that the note that was

.

given to Hindu i sm that most ancient of living ,

f a i ths was the great proclamation o f the omni

,

presence of God o f the i mmanen c e o f God in every

,

obj ect :

I establ ished this unive rse with one f rag

'
ment o f Mysel f and I remain , Out o f that great .
 T h e o sop h y th e Ro o t of A ll R e ligi o n s 49

teaching o f a un i versal Life embodying i tsel f in

end l ess form s came the correlative teaching o f the
,

Dharma the duty that belonged to each group o f the

, ,

forms s o that the l ife in man i fold emb odiments

,

might show forth the qual i t i es necessary for a well

builded and healthy So c iety ; and so on the basis o f
the Institutes of the great legislato r Manu you had , ,

built up the deathless fabric of Hinduism its p o lity ,

and philosophy .

T hen when you go westwards towards Egypt

, ,

you find the note o f Knowledge was the note struck

by the religion ; to Pe rsia you find Purity i s the ,

predominant qual ity ins i sted upon and does not ,

every Parsi to day repeat a f te r the teaching o f his

-
,

mighty Prophet : Pure thoughts pure words pure , ,

deeds ?
Then came the message to Greece and Greece ,

gave th e rel i gion o f Beauty to the world Rome .

took u p the message and spoke the word o f Empire

,

and o f Law .

Then came the great religion o f the Christ pro ,

cla i m i ng on the one side Individuality the value o f ,

the individual and o n the othe r Sel f S a cr ifi ce

,
-

the duty of the strong to be the servants o f the

weak the duty o f the greate st to be as he that doth
,

serve And so note a fte r note was added to the

.

c hord colo r afte r color was added to the radiance ;

,

and not one note can be spared not one color can ,

be cast aside ; for as all notes make the chord and

all colors make the whiteness o f the light so all ,
50 T h eosop h y a nd th e T h eo s o p h i c a l S o c i e ty

the religi ons together speak out th e one T ruth o f

God and i n the i r many syllables the one div i ne
,

Name i s heard .

Now that is a valuable fact I make no apology

,
.

here for the var i ety o f rel i gious be l i e fs f or I assert ,

that in that variety l ies the i r great value to men .

Men are o f di fferent temperaments o f d i ff erent ,

l i nes o f thought ; men are o f d i ffe rent types they ,

are put together in d i ff erent ways Would you have .

rel i gion one in i ts forms as well as one in its essence ?

T hen tell the sun to send out but a single ray o f
color and make all the varied worl d one color b e
, ,

c ause you only have one hue out o f the wh i te Look .

round th i s assemblage and you see many a color

,

gleaming out from the garments worn Look at .

the sea beh i nd us and see the depths o f its splend i d

,

blue Walk over the gardens that surround you

.
,

and see the many colored beauty o f the flowers

-
.

Look at the green o f the banyan tree and the many -

shades that othe r trees reveal Whence do they all .

c ome ? They come out o f the whiteness o f the light .

For every obj e c t on our earth takes out o f the white

l i ght the c o l ors which it needs and then reflects the
,

remainde r into the eyes o f men ; i f all the colors

were not i n the l i ght you could not have the sepa
,

rate colors wh ic h depend on the varieties o f the

ways i n wh ic h matte r is aggregated together And .

so i t i s that genera l ly the d i ff eren c es depend on the

d i fferences o f the ways i n wh ic h the human mind i s
built and the human emotions expressed ; the same
 T h e o s op h y th e Root of A ll R el igi o n s 51

light acts on them but by them is divided i nto

many colors and all the colors togethe r give back
,

the one wh i te light And i f at n ight in some won

.

de r fu l cathedral where the w indows were filled

,

w i th many colored glass you wandered outside the

-
,

bu i ld i ng you would see the violet and the red the

, ,

orange and the blue the green and the yellow and
, ,

you might say : See how many are the colors how ,

many are the lights ' Go within the bu i lding and ,

one wh i te l ight shines out and the colors are the ,

colors o f the glass and not o f the l ight So the .

di ff erent rel i gions vary in thei r presentment o f

truths but the light o f truth is one
, .

N ow is that only a poetical way o f speaking is

, ,

that only the trick o f the orator ? Or does i t r ep r e

sent a natural a demonstrable truth ? Only by
,

study can you answer the quest i on to your own satis

faction Let me po int out the way o f study so that
.
, ,

listening fo r a moment to the Theosophical expo

s it ion you may realize the facts on wh ic h that ex
,

position is builded There is no doubt fo r any

.

educated person that all the great rel i gions living ,

and dead h ave taught the same fundamental fa c ts

,
.

You may go i f you like to comparative mythology

, , ,

and colle c t together all the testimonie s that have

been gathered from the excavations made by ar c h a
ologists an d antiquarians ; and you will find that
where they have dug into the surface o f the earth ,

where they have unburied city after city—and some

times they have dug down through e i ght and ten
52 T h e o so p h y a nd th e T h e o s o p h i c a l S o ci e t y

cities be f ore the oldest one has been f ound— yo u

w i ll find that the things wh i ch they have brought
out f rom the excavat i ons the th i ngs wh i ch had ,

been made for and kept i n temples the f res c oes ,

painted on the walls the f ragments o f an ci ent papyr i

,

and other literature f ragments wh ic h have bee n

,

res c ued f rom the tombs ; that they tell the same
stories they teach the same do c trines they pro
, ,

cla i m the same moral pre c epts they S how the same ,

symbol s of religi ous truth T wo explanat i ons are .

poss i ble of th i s identity o f tea c h i ng One i s the ex .

planat i on g i ven by the comparative mythologists :

that all the rel i gions o f the world resemble ea c h
other because they all grew out o f the ign orance o f
the savage who person i fied the sun and the moon
, ,

the trees and the o c ean who S a w a God behind every

,

f orm and then gave names to the Gods and f ormed

,

a vast mythology In later t i mes the comparative

.
,

mythologists go on to say the more learned the , ,

more thought f ul built philosophies out o f these

,

ancient superst i t i ons ; human knowledge has refined

the savage guesses human growth has evolved more
,

spir i tual rel ig i ons and your comparat i vely modern

,

religions your ph i losophy your refined i deas o f

, ,

God the var i ous do c trines o f morality —th e y are

,

only the beaut i f ully evolved results o f the grow th of

human thoughts and human emotions .

It i s a de f ens i ble p os i tion at first S i ght Why .

S hould not man have evolved in rel i g i on as he has

evolved in eve rything el se ? T he only m i sfortune

54 T h eo s op h y a nd t h e T h eo s o p h i ca l S o ci e t y

less refined less sp i r i tual than those o f the Chris

, ,

t i ans of to day ? On the contrary we find no ev ol u

-
,

tion here rather degene ration Relig i ons grow less

,
.

po werful as generation succeeds generation the H i n

du i sm the Buddhism the Christ i an i ty of to day are
, , ,
-

not as pure as the religions the i r Founders gave

to the world and none c an bring forward a solitary
,

fact to S how this supposed evolution o f rel i gi on .

What then is the other possib i lity ? What I have

j ust h i nted at That great T eachers come forward
.

to reveal the d i vine W i sdom and they reveal always

the same truths in d i ff e rent forms What is the .

f undamental truth o f all religi o ns ? There is one

God But the H i ndu reads out from h i s Up a nish a t
.

'
One only without a second
, The Hebrew reads .

the declaration o f Moses his leade r : Hear O , ,

'
Israel the Lord thy God is one Lord
, The .

Buddh i st tells us o f the Amitabha f rom whom all

othe r Buddhas descend The ' oroastr i an tells u s
.

o f the supreme Ormuzd who is the Creator and ,

the Ruler of the world The Chr i stian proclaims :.

T here is one God even the Father ,

The Mussal .

'
man day by day rec i tes T here i s one God .

Eve ry great religion then teaches in its Scrip

, ,

tures this doctr i ne o f the un i ty of God Some put .

i t in a more p h i losoph i c form and some i n a form

more anthropomorphi c ; but that is a c cording to the
knowledge o r the ignoran c e o f the b ea r e r and not ,

ac cord i ng to the essen c e o f the truth .

Then we come to the next great do ctrine that ,

 T h e o s op h y th e R oo t of A ll R e ligi o n s 55

God reveals Himsel f in a tr i ple nature to the world .

The H i ndu tells u s that B rahman is : S a ch ch ida

nanda— Be i ng Intel l igen c e and Bl i ss T he ' o ro
, .

a s t r ia n tea c hes us o f the three f orms of the revealed

Deity The Hebrew in his secret teaching again

.

reveal s a Tr i nity and Egypt proclaimed the tr i plicity

,

o f God Greece and Rome po i nted to three supreme

.

manifestations Christ i anity speaks o f Them as

.

' '
The Fathe r the Son and the Holy Sp i rit
, But .

i f you want to understand the unity o f all loo k at ,

the qual i ties assigned to ea c h in the Tr i n i ty and ,

you will find those qualitie s are always the same .

There is the power that creates ; there i s the powe r

that mainta i ns ; there is the power that draws all
aga i n into i tsel f .

Does not the Mussalman speak o f God as Creator 7

Does he not S peak of God as Sovereign ? Does he
not tell u s that all w i ll return to H i m when he says ,

'
All shall perish save H i s fa c e ? And does it not
seem as though that thought o f the Mussalman were
an echo o f the anc i ent Christian teaching that in the ,

end all things shall return to God and God S hall be

all i n all ?
Pass on then from that do c trine to divine mani
fe sta t ion in the wo rld ; you find the doctrine o f
div i ne In ca rnat i on whether it be in the form o f the
,

H indu Avatara ; whethe r it be in the f orm o f the

Buddhi st the Lo rd Buddha ; whether it be in the
,

form of the Christ i an the Lord Christ ; whether i t,

be in the form o f men whose Spirit is a fragment

56 T h e o so p h y a nd th e T h e o sop h ic a l S oc i et y

of the D i vine Spirit ; whether it be in the great

Hierarch i es o f Devas the Angel s and Archangels
,

above us o r in the lower kingdoms of the animal s

, ,

the vegetables and the m i neral s below u s There is

,
.

one Life in eve ry form an d every form is a divine

,

incarnat i on ; in everyth i ng God abide s and there ,

is noth i ng that can exist apart from H is inspiring

'
Spirit . I f the Hindu i s taught : Thou art the
ET ERNAL is not the Chr i st i an taught that the Spirit
,

o f Go d dwell s in the human body : Know ye not

that your body is the temple o f the Holy Ghost
which is in you and you are born o f G od
In this idea o f God in c arnated in forms you find ,

all the great religions at one ; and if you would

have a quotation from the faith o f Islam take that ,

wonde rful passage written in the M iddle Ages when ,

none save I sla m in the West had eve r gl i mpsed

the truth o f evoluti on You find the Islamic doctor
.

say i ng : I die d out o f the stone and I became a ,

plant ; I died out o f th e plant and I became an ,

animal ; I died out o f the animal and I became a ,

man When did I grow less in dying ? I shall die

.

'
out of th e man a nd become an Angel ; and then he
'
finishes up with the phrase I quoted : All shall
perish save His face .

And so we also find among the religions the doc

tr i ne of th e evolution o f intell i gence which is ,

wanted in o rder to make good the evolution o f the

outer form I have j ust quoted that doctrine o f re
.

i ncarnat i on from I slam I need not qu ote it from

.
 T h e o s op h y th e Ro o t of A ll R e lig io n s

H induism for all you r S c ripture s are full o f it and

, ,

H induism c ould not exist without the central truth

o f reincarnat i on Is it taught in the Hebrew faith ?
.

T u rn to the book o f the h i storian Josephus and you ,

will find a l i ttle band o f Hebrew soldiers with their

c aptain surrounded in a fo rt with overwhelming
, ,

force s bes i eging the fort and n o possibility o f

escape Some o f the soldie rs began to murmur
.
,

as ke d to surrende r ; and their captain when he ,

wanted to pers u ade them not to dishonor themselve s

by surrender appealed to the great truth o f r einca r
,

nation ; he said to them i n e ff ect I f you d i shonor

you r place and shame your co u ntry then will you
, ,

be born again in low and shameful forms ; die fo r

your country ; die in the fortress that you have been
given to defend and then you shall be born again
,

in happy births and find the reward fo r wh i ch you

'
give you r l ife N ow I recall that rathe r than a
.

philosophical teaching for it S hows you that among ,

ordinary soldier -folk that doctrine wa s current .

B ut was it taught by Christianity ? Christ at least

alluded to it when he de clared that S John the Bap .

t ist was the prophet Elias The early Church taught .

it in varied forms not always in the most phil o sophic

,

form as it is ta ught in Hind u ism and i n Buddhism

, ,

and in modern Theosophy And that lay at the .

bottom o f the Christian doctrine that seems to many

o f you so absurd—the resurrection o f the b o dy .

Turn to Te rtullian an ol d Christian wr i ter and he

, ,

s pe aks o f many deaths and many resurrections o f

58 T h eo s op h y a nd th e T h eos o p h ic a l S o ci e t y

the body and prays that he may attain to the final

,

res u rrection f rom the dead ; in the early Christian

Church the doctrine o f the resurrection of the b o dy
w as not the absurdity of the body which has go ne
to dust be i ng gathered togethe r again and built into
th e same human form ; for then the earth itself
would not contain material enough for the count
less thousands of m i llions whose bodies have gone
to pieces during its li f et i me It was a resurrection
.

o f the Spir i t in a new body the transmigration o f,

the soul i nto a new form ; and so Te rtullian spoke

o f many births a nd many deaths and the final res u r ,

rection into a spiritual body when death S houl d have

,

no power ove r the l i berated Spirit S o also you

may read o f it in Or i gen and in many other Chris
tian writers o f the early days I grant it vanished ; .

it vanished in those t i mes of i gnorance which came

when the ancient l earn i ng o f Greece and Rome was
anathematised and the new l earning o f the West
,

had not yet made its way But yo u can trace it.

down generat i on a fte r generat i on in many o f the

, ,

heretical sects o f Chr i stendom that R ome sought

to ex tirpate It was taught among the Templars it
.
,

was taught among the Albigenses it was taught ,

among the Troubadours the S inge rs o f France and

, ,

by many another sect denounced as heretical and

excommunicated It was taught in the time o f
.

Charles the Second in Engl and by his o wn chaplain .

I have a little pamph l et wr i tten in the time o f

Charles the Second i n which a clergy man o f the
,
 T h eo sop h y th e R o ot of A ll R el i gi o n s 59

Churc h o f England says that this doctrine in the

form o f pre existence is necessary to j ustify the
-

ways of God Then you trace it downwards to the

.

Ge rman th inkers through Goethe through Fichte

, , ,

through S chelling through Lessing through many

, ,

anothe r o f the great German writers You find i t .

i n poet afte r poet Was it not Wordsworth who

.

sang :

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgett i ng ;

The soul that riseth w i th us our life s star ,
’

Hat h el sewhe re had its sett i ng ,

And cometh f rom a far .

You find it in the more modern poets ; in B rown

ing i n Tennyson in Rossetti in the poets that are
, , ,

the glory o f the England of the V i ctor i an age It has .

never wholly died away It is com i ng back in these

.

our days in the West and neve r f orget that Huxley

, ,

speaking of this doctrine declared that it might ,

cla i m the suppo rt o f the great argument from anal

ogy. And so we find that this is one o f the doc
trines o f the Eternal Rel i g ion .

And then comes the great doctrine o f Law .

Whatever you think and desi re and act bears i ts

, , ,

fruit i n l i fe None can e scape the action o f the

.

Law And a solemn word comes out f rom a Chr i s

.

tian Teacher : Be not deceived ; Go d is not mocked .

Whatsoeve r a man soweth that shall he al so reap , .

It might be a Hind u s p eaking fo r the clearness o f ,

60 T h eo s o p h y a nd th e T h e o s o p h i c a l S o c i et y

the defin i t i on of the law o f karma Whatever you .

sow to day to morrow you shall reap

-
,
- .

And then we come to the doctrine o f the other

worlds— the three worlds so famil iar in the East and
equally familiar in the West : the phys ical world in
which we live the inte rmed i ate worl d into which
,

the soul passes at death the heavenly worl d into ,

which it again passes onward when in the i nter ,

med i ate worl d it has worked off some o f the results

o f its transgressions And i f I had t i me to do it
.
, ,

I could show you that you will find every one o f

these the fundamental doctrines o f religi on taught
, ,

in the Scriptures of the great faiths and you may ,

study them there to convince yoursel f that what I

say is true .

B ut if in these great doctrines there is unity what .

about morality ? There i s only one moral law spoken

out by the great Teachers I quote it from the .

mouth o f Vya sa : To do good to an othe r is r i ght ;

'
to inj ure anothe r is wrong That in the H i ndu .

Scripture and in the Buddh i st has been carr i ed out

in many phrases as also i n the Chr i st i an along the
, ,

l i ne o f most instructive teaching identi c al wherever ,

you choose to find it It i s taught in the laws of

.

Manu that forgiveness o f inj ur i es i s one o f the ten

dut i es o f man It is taught by the Lord Buddha :
.

Hatred ceases not by hatred at any time ; hatred

'
ceases by love It is taught by the great teacher
.

'
Lao tze in China :
-
To the truth ful man I w i ll
speak truth ; to the untruthful I will speak truth
62 T h eo s o p h y a nd th e T h eo sop h i ca l S o ci e t y

have taught the same moral doctrine have declared ,

the same precepts And T heosophy putting them

.
,

all side by side and point i ng to that pe rfe c t unani

,

m i ty after showing the teach i ngs give s the scientific

, ,

reason only because men no longe r are will i ng to

,

learn by the authority o f the Holy Ones but demand ,

a proo f that convinces the reason a demonstration ,

i ntell i gi ble by the mind And that is the only dif

.

f erence between Theosoph i cal morality and the

morality o f all the great faiths o f the world We .

expla i n the reason where they formulate a com

mand and the only obj ect in do i ng it is to suit the
t i me because men have grown skept ic al No longer
, .

i s the authority o f the Manu o f the Buddha o f the , ,

Christ an authority be fore wh i ch men bow their

heads .They answer : W h y ? Why should I
obey ? Why shoul d I return good for evil ? Why
should I not gi ve blow for blow and curse for ,
'
c urse ? And so out o f the treasures o f the Anc i ent
Wisdom the sc i ence o f moral i ty is brought forward
as the experimental demonstration o f the truth of
the ancient teach i ng .

Theosophy is noth i ng new ; f or in rel i gion o r in

moral s it gathers together out o f the gardens of the
past all the flowers of truth and the flowers o f moral
ity and binds the m togethe r w i th the stri ng of
,

s ci entific demonstration in order that men may ,

obey i n a skepti c al and intellectual generation .

There l i es its value .

But there is one thing in whi c h religions di ff er ;

 T h e o so p h y th e R oo t of A ll R e l i g io n s 63

they di ff e r i n their ce remonies they di ffer i n wha t ,

we c all their sacraments they d i ffe r in their outer ,

fo rms in the customs they impose on their a d

,

h e r e nt s Now T heosophy as such includes none

.
, , ,

o f these While i t is essent i ally the Supreme Knowl

.

edge that we looked a t the day be f ore yesterday ,

while in a se c ondary sense it i s the consensus o f

doctr i ne and morality everywhere accepted every ,

where taught millennium a f ter millenn i um ; it does

,

not embrace any rite any c eremony any sacrament , , ,

any custom— only the unive rsal the everlast i ng ,

.

What use then is Theosophy to people of a special

faith ? It explains Take a sacrament The H i ndu
. .

has his sa mska r a s ; the Buddhist has his ; the Chris

tion has h i s ; the Parsi has his ; the M ussalman has
his What is a sacrament ? It is very well explained in
.

a phrase that will be un familiar to mo st o f yo u I .

am taking it f rom a Christian catechism : A sacra

'
ment says the Chur c h o f England
,
'
is the out ,

ward and visibl e S ign o f an inward and spir i tual ,

grace A perfect definit i on ; and it goes on to say

.
'

'
for the Christ i an ordained by Ch rist H i msel f ;
,

that is the local appl i cation— the other is a universal

definition .

There is always in a sacrament a Ma ter i a l O b

ject It may be th e p i nda that you use in you r
.

shraddha ; it may be the wate r that you use i n

your tarpana ; it may be the obj ects that the
Parsi spreads out a fte r a beloved f r i end has
passed away from earth ; it may be the cord he
64 T h e o soph y a nd th e T h eo s o p h i c a l S o ci e t y

t i es round h i s wa i st or the sa c red thread thrown

,

a c ross the shoulder ; it may be the wate r o f the

Christian baptism o r the bread and wine i n the
,

sa c rifi c e o f the Altar in the Holy Commun i on

,
.

But wherever there is a sacrament there is a

mater i al obj ect Then there i s a formula ; we
.

call i t a W or d of P ower It i s the mantra c hanted

.

by the pr i est ; i t is the sa c red sentence spoken by the

Pars i mobe d ; it is the words o f consecration S poken
by the Christian priest There is a gesture a S ign
.
,

of P ow e r . It matters not what the rel ig i on ; there

are form s and s i gns that each use to consecrate the
mater i al obj ect and following those a change a p
,

pears As the priest in the Roman Cathol ic Mass

.

spreads out h is hand over the un c onsecrated wafer

and makes over it the S ign of Pow er — l ike the
Hindu mudra— making the sign o f the Cro ss ab o ve
the wa f e r as he pronoun c es the Word o f Power
T h i s i s my body i n the Latin tongue ; there comes
'

down a flash o f l i ght ; there burst out from the

consecrated obj ect waves o f radiance that fill the
whole church w i th the i r glory and the Angel s come ,

around to see the w ondrous s ight and the great ,

powe r o f the Christ pours down upon His assem

bled worshippers through the c onsecrated symbol in
the sacrament whi ch is the means o f the spirit u al
,

gra c e
.

So i n you r own c eremon i es when the mantra ,

i s chanted when the S i gn i s made when the obj ect

, ,

is set apart f or d i vine serv i ce and the symbol i s ,

 T h e o so p h y th e Root of A ll R e ligi o n s 65

trace d on the stand where the image i s to be ; when

the words are spoken that conse c rate it and draw ,

the magnetism o f the worsh i pped Deva down upon

that form— then f rom that time onwards the image
, ,

is sacred ; f rom that time onwards magnet i sm pours

fro m and through it upon the worsh i pper; and all
who worship add to the sacred power and thoughts ,

play and interplay between the sa c red obj ect and

the heart that seeks God Th a t is the mean i ng o f a
.

sacrament All religions have them ; all rel i gi ons

.

use them And we Theosoph i sts we say that every

.
,

one ordained by the man who kn ows is a means

of grace to the worshippe r whereby the music o f ,

heaven comes down and harmonizes the discords o f

the earth .

And so to each religion we come as the expla i ner .

T o the H i ndu w e explain the me c hanism o f the

shraddha ; to the Chr i st i an the mechanism o f h i s
own sacraments ; t o the Parsi the Mussalman and , ,

the Hebrew the way in which these powers work

,
.

But Theosophy as such adopts none o f them

, ,
.

' '
Let that which is the oute r bridge it says h e , ,

trodden by those who belong to a particular f aith ;

all bridge s between earth and heaven are holy and ,

every rel i gi on has its own br i dge su i table to the ,

souls that are born into the faith which has made
that bridge But when you find the way to the
.

H i ghest i n the supreme Wisdom bridge s are no ,

longer needed While you need them use those

. ,

o f your own faith and respect those o f your

,
66 Th eosop h y a nd th e T h e o so p h ic a l S o c i e t y

brothers But when you can find your own way to

.

’
God then as we heard the Dean o f S Paul s de
, ,
.

clare Why should a man i n whom is spring i ng up

'

the water o f everlast i ng li f e turn to the cisterns of

’
the exoteric faith
That is true ; but because they are beautiful and
use f ul and hallowed by the reverence o f many gen
e r a t io n s never let anyone who has grown beyond
,

them speak one word aga i nst them to those to whom

they are the bread and the water o f l i f e Let not .

you r wisdom mislead the ignorant for you were ,

i gnorant in you r day and by these ve ry methods

,

you climbed to the knowledge that you now possess .

And so explain them ; teach them ; remove the

superst i tion that inj ures and gradually give the ex
,

planation that k i lls skept i cism by knowledge and ,

superstit i on by knowledge also and realize that di ,

v i ne Wisdom clothes itsel f in many ways and that ,

God g i ve s H i msel f to every Sp i rit that loves H i m

i n the form which su i ts the stage o f the unfolding
o f the l i f e .

T he re lies our use and there fore has Theosophy

,

been the reviver of rel ig i ons everywhere You .

know what it has done fo r Hinduism You heard .

to day the statement of a h igh o ffi ci al i n Ceylon that

-

the greatest agent in rev i ving Buddh i sm had been

the work o f the Theosoph ic al Soc i ety You may .

find the same statement in one o f the books issued

by the Government o f India You may find the .

same said by many who by Theo sophy have been, ,

 T h e o sop h y th e R o ot of A ll R e ligi o n s 67

brought back to the fa i th o f their fathe rs and again ,

are numbere d amid the adherents o f rel i gion You .

find it in the West in the growth o f Mysticism in ,

the gradual rising above the letter that killeth and

the realization o f the Sp i r i t that giveth l ife .

I f you as k when a man should drop the external

form and trust to the Spirit w ithin my answe r
‘

would be : when the form no longe r helps ; when

the ceremo ny n o longer i s a channel o f divine l ife ;
when you feel u p — springing w i thin you the powe r
o f the hidden God ; then the u se of the ceremony
fo r yo u is ove r and its value l ies behind
, .

What doe s the Sannyas i do ? He has come up

through the twice — born ; but when he brea k s the
thread and throws away the marks o f the B rah
mana then he has become above al l castes because
, ,

for him the value o f the caste system is ove r At .

last when from the Spir i t w i th i n you there comes

, ,

a law highe r more exacting more compelling than

, , ,

the law without then trust the Spirit for the idea'
, ,

then will be stronge r fo r you than the words o f an

outer code B ut as long as the oute r code is more
.

compelling than the inne r force as long as you ,

n eed the crutch o f a system without which yo u can

not walk s o l o ng cl i ng t o the system practise the

, ,

cerem o ny ; its use for you is not yet of the past .

And let m e say one last wo rd o n this part o f

our sub ject : that there i s no country in the wo rld
w here the spreading o f Theosophy is so vitally nec
essary as on this vast peninsula o f ou r Indian Em
68 Th eo sop h y an d th e T h eo sop h i c a l S o c i e t y

p i re In India all the great rel i gions o f the worl d

.

are l i ving S i de by s i de T he vast maj or i ty belong

.

to the S a na ta na Dharma the an c ient f aith o f the ,

H i ndus But you have many others am i dst you

. .

You have some Buddhists amongst you in India

prope r and i n Bu rma and Ceylon the mass o f the
,

population is Buddh i st You have some Hebrews .

scattered ove r your land You have some fi f ty mil .

l i ons o f the ch i ldren o f Islam who belong to Ind i a .

You have Chr i st i ans who have l i ved here since the
time o f the second century a fter the beg i nning of
the Chr i stian era Down the western coasts are
.

Chr i stian c olonie s that tra c e the i r history back to

the second century a f te r the reputed b i rth o f Christ .

Are you to cast them out ? But they are Indians ,

as you are .

T welve hundred years o f l ife have gi ven the

Mussalman a right to call himsel f a born Indian ,

who has his own pla c e i n the nation T he Chr i stian .

o f sixteen centur i es he may well claim h i s pla ce

,
.

T he Buddhist has nearly twenty fi v e centur i es b e -

h i nd h i m sin c e the holy f eet o i the Lord Buddha

,

trod the Indian land The ' o roastrian came to you

.

when driven by perse c ution out o f his own coun

try and you gave h i m welcome ; you were glad to
,

have h i m he re ; and though the Parsi body h e a

small one i t is respe c ted and loved over all the
,

Indian l and There is not o ne that you would

.

drive away i f you c ould There i s not one o f them

, .

who is really a foreigner i n the great house o f the

70 T h eos o p h y a n d th e T h e o s op h i c a l S oci et y

i t ; i f you drop every name o f hatred ; i f you neve r

speak o f the i nfidel o f the out c aste of the
, ,

mlechchha ; i f you speak of my brothe r Mussal

man my brother H i ndu my brothe r Christian ah '
, , ,
'

then India S hall rise to what she ought to b e—the

mode l nat i on f or spirituality the model nation for
,

rel i gi on ; for all here shall l i ve as children o f One

God as travelers to O n e Home sharers o f One
, ,

Hope Th a t is T heosophy and that is the spir i t

.
,

that will make India great '

TH E THEOS OPH I CAL SOCIETY I TS M EA N ,

I N G P UR P O S E A N D FU N CTI O N S
, ,

L E CT URE IV
F R I EN DS :
I ask you now to turn your thought from the
Theosophy that I have been expounding for the last
three afternoons to the Soc i ety the T heosophi c al
, ,

Society with wh i ch I a m to deal tonight

,
The .

Theosoph i cal Soc i ety exists fo r the sake of study

i ng and spreading Theo s ophy—to spread the
thought that the direct knowledge o f God is obtain
able by man ; to point to that open road to the Mas
ters o f the W i sdom wh i ch they may tread who w i ll ;
to go about among the rel ig i ons o f the world point
ing out the i r common basis and try i ng to evoke
mutual toleran c e by unde rstanding In those three .

subj e c ts as it were you may see what we mean

, ,

when we speak o f Theosophy Now it str i kes some

.
,

people as strange that a So c iety that exists for the

sake o f studying and spread i ng T heosophy should
not make the a c ceptance o f T heosophy a c ondition
for admission into i ts ranks Among the many
.

queer things that people put to the cred i t o f Th eoso

phy many I think regard th i s as one o f the queerest
, , ,

and most eccentric : You are a Society for spread

71
72 T h e os o p h y a nd th e T h eo s o p h ic a l S o ci et y

ing c erta i n ideas and yet you do not make accept

,

ance o f the ideas a c ond i t i on o f com i ng i nto your

So c iety How then do you expe c t that your mem
.

be rs w il l spread them ? What guarantee have you that

your Society will succeed in the wor k f or whi c h it
exists ? And the question is a very natural ques
t i on We are so a c customed to the i mpos i tion of
.

creeds we are told so o f ten that we ought to b e

,

l i eve this o r ought not to bel i eve that that when

, ,

we come across a body o f presumab l y sane people

who are gathered together f or a particular obj e c t ,

f or the gathering the studying and the spread i ng

, ,

'
o f certain ideas we m i ght naturally say :
, Well ,

you must make a c ceptan c e o f these ideas a condi

'
tion o f admission What would a Chemical
.

Soc i ety be unless Chemists were i ts members ? What

would be the use o f a Geographical Society unles s
its members traveled ove r the world extending the ,

lim its o f our knowledge of geography ? and so on .

And we seem fo r a moment to stand apart with ,

ou r absence o f a dogmatic o r credal bas i s on wh i ch ,

our So ci ety should be bu i lt .

And yet we have a very real a very ser i ous rea , ,

son f or not ask i ng f rom any human being when he ,

applies f or adm i ss i on : What do you bel ieve ? '

We do not ask o f a man whethe r he is a Hindu or a

Buddh i st whether he i s a Pars i o r a Mussalman
, , ,

whether he is a Hebrew a Ja i n o r a S i kh We only

, .

'
ask him one thing : Are you will ing to accept our
obj e cts ? An d the first o f those i s to form a nucleus
 T he T h e o so p h ica l S o ci e t y 73

o f u niversal B rothe rhood without distinction o f

,

creed o f sex o f race o f caste o r colo r To live

, , , .

with men a s form i ng a B rotherhood that is the ,

great o bj ect o f the Soc i ety ; and the othe r objects

are t o study comparative rel i gion and mythology to ,

study the latent powers in nature and man Such .

are our formulate d obj ects How do w e suppose .

then that our members w ill come to accept Th eoso

phy and to spread it ? It i s because w e hold that no
man should accept the formulat i on of a truth which
he himsel f has not studied and rece i ved because he
,

sees it to be true It is be c a u se we bel i eve that the

.

o nly condition o f intellectual advance is the f ree

e xercise o f the intell i gence on eve ry subj ect which
is submitted to it ; because we think that to pro fess
‘ ’
belie f without i nve stigation shows an entirely
wrong conception o f truth in the human being espe ,

c ia lly if that pro fess i on o f a bel i e f be imposed by

authority o r be made a condition o f ga i ning any

,

advantage Knowledge i s not to be barga i ned with

. ,

truth is not to be bought W h ether you really b e

.

lieve a truth o r not depends ent i rely upon whethe r

you see it t o be true ; and you can o nly see it by
using your reason to j udge i t and by you r own ,

st u dy assimilating it until it becomes part of your

mind Truth is seen the moment that in climbing
.

up the mountain side o f knowledge you reach a point

-

where that truth become s visible to your eyes What .

would yo u think o f a man who pointing to the ,

mountain -side be fore he would allow you to climb

,
74 T h e o so p h y and th e T h eo sop h ica l S o c i et y

up it said : You must bel i eve that when you reach

,

hal f way up you w i ll see such and such a town on

-
,

the plai n below ? The man would say '

Let
me climb up i t and then I wi l l know whether or not
there be a town on the plain you mention I have .

never been there I have never seen i t I do not

. .

care to take the statement on your authority and ,

unt i l I have seen i t there is no reason why you

should demand that I should bel i eve in its ex i st
ence . As you grow i n knowledge one truth a fter ,

another c omes within the s ight o f your intelligence .

T o pro f ess to bel i eve be f ore you have studied is irra

ti on a l and fool i sh Study first ; bel i eve afterwards
. .

But you may say : How are you sure that you
w i ll come to truth ? Fi rst we have fa i th in truth ;
'
,

we have f a i th that it only needs to be seen in order

to be accepted ; and we think that is so be c ause ,

man by his constituted nature has as one aspect

, , ,

o f his consc i ousness the powe r o f know i ng o f , ,

cogn i zing that whi c h i s outside himsel f His feel

, .

ings are w i th i n him internal changes ; h i s will i s

,

w i thin him the sel f —,

dete rminat i on to action ; but h i s
i ntellect has eye s wh ic h open outwards to the world
around h i m ; and as he is able to cogn i ze so he is ,

able to know Its nature is knowledge —so i s it

.
'

wr i tten in an Up a n i sh a t w ith regard to the intelle c t .

You are a reflect i on o f the d i v i ne N ature and one ,

aspect o f that Nature i s knowledge Your d i vine .

aspe c t of knowl edge answe rs to God i n the outer

u n i verse where He i s veiled i n the obj ects o f knowl
,
 Th e T h e o so p h i c a l S o ci e t y 75

edge T he God within looking out to the God w i th

.

out know s the obj ects ass i milates them and repro
, ,

duces them ; b u t the condition o f that i s the free

action o f the intelligence witho u t a bribe to lure and
,

without a threat to paralyze Hence we are i n .

,

favo r o f free inquiry and we realize that truth is so

,

great a th i ng so an swers to man s nature which is

,
’

truth that when the truth within sees the truth

,

witho u t the intellect is like the string which answers

,

to a single note As you tune the violin with a n

.

othe r violin or w ith the piano which is to accompany

,

i t and as the strik i ng o f the notes is enough to

,

know whether there i s accord or dis c ord so the ,

str i king of the note o f the truth in man by the f act

without sounds ou t a n accord o r dis c ord that the
man can real ize for every f al sehood i s discord and
,

every truth is acco rd ; and when the without and the

within answe r to each othe r perfectly there i s truth ,

and in no other way That is one reason why we.

ask for no pro f ession o f belie f .

There i s another We are evolving c reatures ; we

.

have not rea c hed the end of evolution ; we do not

know the whole o f truth Truth is i nfin i te as God .

i s infin i te ; and an infin i te un i verse w i th i n us and

without u s stret c hes beyond all bounds o f space or
time How shall we at th i s early stage o f evolution
. ,

how shall we dare to formulate a truth to impose

upon ou r brethren when we only know a fragment
,

o f any truth and o f ten know that f ragment but

,

imperfe c tly ? We may make a statement o f a truth .

76 T h eo sop h y and th e T h e o sop h ic a l S o ci e t y

It is a m i lestone on the road o f evo l ution And as .

a milestone it i s interesting ; it shows the point to

which human thought has trave l ed on some p a rticu
lar truth in nature ; but the place of the milestone i s
on the side o f the road to mark out how f ar a man
has trave l ed ; and if i nstead o f pl ac i ng the truth as a
m i lestone on the road you take it and pla c e i t as a
,

dogm a a barr i e r across the road then how shall

,

future generat i ons w in the i r way to highe r truth

and w i der knowledge ? They will have first to stop ,

and then to shatter the obstacle We have done it .

,

many o f u s in the b i tte r day when we found that

,

what we had been taught as truth was crumbl i ng

unde r the touch o f reason and breaking down unde r
,

our f eet l i ke a rotten bridge in the hou r o f our

sorest need Shall we make this mistake aga i n ?
.

We had to break the dogmas o f our ancestors Shall .

we make new dogmas for our posterity to b reak ,

and to su ff er in the breaking as we have su ff e red ?

Rather let us trust the truth as we trust the sun
l i ght You do not need to prove the sun It proves
. .

itsel f by i llum i nat i ng every obj e ct on which it falls ;

and t ruth proves itsel f by illuminating the whole
un i verse o f d i scourse No proo f is wante d f or
.

truth It proves itsel f by its own inhe rent l ight

. .

Hence among us no one speaks with author i ty of

compul s i on .T he wisest cannot force the most
ignorant to a cc ept what h e says .

Such then i s the general pr i n c iple o f the Society .

It f o l lows f rom it that what I shall say now as to

78 T h e o s op h y a nd th e T h e o s op h ic a l S o ci e t y

represent the var i ous rel i gions now liv i ng among

men perchance als o those of the past Look in
,
.

i magination at such a p i cture and i magine that you ,

may see there that every current o f thought is give n

its own color so that you can follow it fro m the
,

beg i nning to the end i ng ; that every religion is

marked by some spec i al hue so that you may see it ,

r i sing pass i ng over the c ountries of the world es

, ,

t a b l i sh ed i n century a f ter century m i ngling oc c a ,

'

S iona lly with other religions influenc i ng them in , ,

fl u en ce d by them with many a r i ll o f thought and

,

trad i t i on flowing into the ma i n current of the

stream and perchance a l i ttle chang i ng i ts colo r by
,

the admixture o f anothe r Imagi ne that as you .

study with great interest this wonder f ully i nterest

ing map o f human thought you see the r i sing of a ,

new kind o f th ought o f some new movement in ,

literature i n art i n science which makes its way

, , ,

among men As you see these many streams and

.

currents a great network over the whole world

, ,

represent i ng intellectual and devotional movements ,

imag i ne that you see that they all originate in some

great T ea c he r that each is c o l ored as it were by
, , ,

the color of the Teache r and so shows the line of ,

its des c ent and its or i gin in the far — off past ; and

then imagi ne that you see thes e Teachers gathered

together as men may gather i n a great group or
Lodge and realize that all those Teachers and
,

many others represent the great White Brotherhood

composed o f the Guardians o f the race You would .
 Th e T h e o so p h ic a l S o ci e t y 79

see come down f rom T hem the many impul se s

which mo di f y and change the thoughts o f men .

You would see one stream o f scien c e flowing down

into M i ddle Age Europe meet i ng with many d i f
,

fi cu lt ies gradually overcom i ng them and growing

, ,

wider and wide r and the current stronge r and

stronge r unt i l in the nineteenth century as it were
, , ,

it spreads out into a great lake in which the waters ,

are ready for the fe rt i l i zing f or the irrigat i on o f

, ,

the whole intellectual world And when you have .

looke d at this and have studied it and grasped i ts

wonderful mean i ng then your eye s may be str u ck
,

by a wh i te l i ne pure and spotless white that has i ts

, ,

o r i gin in the Wh i te Lodge itsel f and flows out o f ,

that as a white stream i n which all the colors have

lost their dist i nctive hue ; and you see it pure and
white although contain i ng and blend i ng all You
, .

f ollow that white rive r as it flows down into the

world o f men ; you see it stopping at one point a f ter
another and mak i ng as it were a lake here and a
, , ,

tank there and a pond in anothe r place ; but ever

,

they are full o f this wh i te l ight—giving water for it ,

flows from the great Lodge whi c h is its source f rom ,

which its l ight is taken ; and you w i ll see how it

goes to o n e c enter a f te r another established in a n
c i ent times where other Teachers f rom the great
,

Lodge have been and have made magnet i c condi

,

tions fo r the spread o f a new impulse o f spiritual

l i f e You would see it touch i ng a religion and the
.
,

religion glow i ng out in brighter colo r br i ghter but , ,

80 T h eo s o p h y a nd th e T h eo s o p h i c a l S o ci e t y

not los i ng i ts distinctive hue ; and you woul d see it

tou c h some part o f sc i ence and new d i s co ver i es
,

would break out whereve r that f ert i l i zing wate r

tou c hes ; and as you tra c e i t onwards and onwards ,

you woul d somet i mes see a l i ttle village which sends

out many streams o f this white l ight and you ,

woul d see a great town all dark ; and gradually you

would realize that you were look i ng at the Theo
soph i cal Society and the great centers it has made
,

in d i ff erent lands ; and some that are large have

but li ttle o f this wh i te current o f l i ght and some ,

that are smal l are shin i ng br i ll i antly i n all dir ec

t i ons ; and you would see that ever and always i t
rema i ns i n unbroken touch w i th its source so that ,

its flood can neve r be exhausted so that the l i ght ,

f rom the l i ving water can never grow d i m And .

as you study that a new conception would perhaps

,

come up in you r m i nds o f the way i n wh i ch the

Lodge i s wo rk i ng o f the way in which the great
,

Wh i te Brotherhood is labor i ng ; all comes f rom

T hem through many messengers but th i s white ,

stream o f l i fe comes f rom the Lodge as a whole ,

and remains as its vehicle in the w o rl d .

Drop my imaginary maps and take another ,

image An embassy comes out f rom the K i ng and

.

carries his message to some far off land An em -

.

bassy do es not exist for i tsel f it exists for the sake

o f the K i ng who sends it f or the sake of the coun
,

try to which it carr i es his message It i s a message .

from a King to a friendly people Such an em

 Th e T h e o so p h ic a l S o c i e t y 81

bassy to all the religions o f the world is the Theo

soph ical So c iety i n i ts mean i ng ; i t br i ngs a message
f rom the great K i ng ; it comes to a country in orde r
to tell its message ; it has no obj e c t to ga i n fo r it
sel f no reward which it can cla i m for obey i ng its
,

Ruler ; i t carries i ts me ssage and proclaims it and ,

leaves it to be accepted o r rej ected as the particular

natio n wills Su c h an embassy f rom the Masters
.

of the Race is the Theosophical Society to the r e

ligion s and nations of the world .

The ide a is not a new one When the Apostles .

o f the Christ went forth— as sheep in the m i dst o f

wolves He sa i d— you may find that one o f them
, ,

proclaiming H i s message de c lared We are a m

,
'
'

b a ssa dor s for Christ as though God did besee c h

,
'
you by us It is a f ore c ast o f the world wide
.
-

m i ss i on o f the Theosophical Society The Soc i ety .

is an ambassado r from the great White Lodge and ,

that is i ts meaning in the world a messenger fro m ,

the world s King for the help i ng and the enlighten

’

ing o f Hi s people You say that is a m i ghty cla i m

.
,

that it is a lo f ty almost audac i ous cla i m ? It has

, ,

been made over and over aga i n in the past by the

embassies that have been brought by the messengers
o f the Lodge Every religion has j ust i fied itsel f in
.

t i me and we have no fear that this latest messenge r

,

shall not al so j ustify itsel f and prove that its cla i m

,

is true It has only been in the world for seven

.

and—thirty years ; yet you find some f our and twenty - -

thousand men and women in all the countries o f the

82 T h e osop h y a nd th e Th eos o p h i c a l S o ci et y

Ci vil i zed world as act i ve work i ng membe rs in its

ranks We need not I th ink be ashamed o f our
.
, ,

growth i n the time i f we remember the slowness o f

,

su c h growth in the past and remember that we ,

have come to a more skeptical gene ration than the

world has ever known be f ore .

And so we stand here as a w i tness to the great

White Lodge Henry Steele Olcott our first Presi
.
,

dent was appo i nted by that Lodge Pres ident fo r

,

l i fe When he l ay on h is death bed he at the com

.
-
,

mand o f the Masters who had appo i nted him nomi ,

mated h i s su c cesso r by T he i r authority It was for .

the Soc i ety to a c cept o r to rej ect that nominat i on

from its real Heads And i n o rder that you ma y
.

understand the meaning o f that nom i nation and the ,

mean i ng o f the answe r made by the Theosoph i cal

Soc i ety all the world over let me remind you that ,

when the Society was first f ounded i t was founded ,

in three se ct i ons as they were ca l led : the third was

,

the mass o f the members the se c ond the pupils o f ,

the Lodge the first the great Lodge itsel f the Mas
, ,

ters o f the Wisdom So you may read in its h is

.

tory as to i ts or i gi nal foundation as to the way it ,

was o rganized in those early days o f the movement .

Founded by the Masters through the i r messenger ,

He l ena Petrovna Blavatsky organized by their ,

servant Henry Steele Olcott a cc ording to the will

, ,

o f the Masters i t was organ i zed w i th T hem as the

first section the se c ond the pu p i ls the th i rd the men
, ,

from the outer world who entered That was swept .

 Th e T h e o s o p h ica l S o ci e t y 83

away Many came i n who d i d not unde rstand the

.

meaning o f the Society and doubted the ex i stence

,

o f the M asters and then They de c lared that They

,

woul d withdraw from the Society and leave it to

stee r its own way And what They said They did ;
.

and the two uppe r sections disappeared and only the ,

third was left to carry on the work S o things re .

ma i ned w i th the establishment that H P B men

, . . .

tions in the K ey to Th eos ophy o f what was called

the Esoteric Section — until the death of our dear
P resident Founder -
Then once more the choi c e
.

was put be fore the So c iety : Will you stand be f ore

the world ac c ept i ng the nom i nee o f the Masters as
your Chie f o r will you c hoose your own man or
,

woman and leave the Masters nom i nee as i de ?

,
’ '

And the Society answered by an overwhelming ma

jo r i ty
— far mo re than the two —
thirds vote required
for the election o f the President ; it wel c omed the
nominee o f the Masters and gladly gave the con ,

st it u tion a l sanction to that which had come to it

from above Only a few months passed ove r be fore

.

the first and the second sect i ons were again estab
lish ed so that to -day we who know look to the Mas
,

ters as the first section o f Thei r Society and Their ,

li fe is ever spread i ng through i t and making it ,

strong to know and to endure There you find what .

to me at least is its meaning Worthless would be

, ,
.

a Society f rom the spiritual standp oint which did

, ,

not bear some such relation to the great White

Lodge .
84 T h e osop h y a nd th e T h eo s op h i ca l S o ci e ty

And i ts purposes ? Well here again naturally , , ,

di fferences o f op i nion w i ll arise But not o n the .

fi rst— B rotherhood We do not pretend to estab

.

l i sh a Brotherhood A Brotherhood o f man exists

.

by virtue o f the one li f e wh i ch develops in all al i ke .

There is no stone i n the road there is no plant grow ,

i ng out of the earth there is no animal that breathes

,

the breath of li f e there is no human being in whom

,

i ntell i gence i s developed that i s not rooted in the

,

One L i fe and does not draw i ts existence f rom Him

,
.

R emember the words o f the great Scr i pture of the

G i ta where it is written :
,
T here is nothing mov ,
'
ing nor unmov i ng that can exist bere f t o f Me
, .

’
Nothing c an exist i n God s worl d save by God H i m
sel f There is n one othe r l i f e but His life none
.
,

other cons c iousness than His Consc i ousness none ,

othe r will save H i s W i ll i n c ourse o f evolution in

,

us You are willing to recognize that in the h i ghest

.

Deva ; you are w i lling to see i t in the lo ft i est Ar ch

angel ; I tell you that i f God were not i n the gra i n
o f dust there is no reason to believe that He is in
,

the lo f tiest Archangel fo r a l l are but as pass i ng

,

shadow s in the eyes of the E T ERNA L f ragmentary ,

manifestat i ons o f H i s own i nexhaustible life On .

that is based universal Brotherhood Who are we .

that we should make it— w e ch i ldren o f a day we ,

who only live by H i m ? We are not so proud as to

pretend to make the Brotherhood that l ives in and
by the Eternal One alone We only re c ogn ize it .
,

and by recogn i z i ng i t we hope to spread the r ecogni

86 T h e o sop h y a nd t h e T h eo s op h ic a l S o ci e t y

had its own faith or a group o f nations united in

,

one The re were many fa i ths and Go d had many

.
,
’
names ; no man wanted to fight his neighbor s t e
’
l igio n unless he was fighting t o seize his neighbor s
country ; and desertion o f the religio n o f his
country was regarded more as treas o n t o the State
than as heresy in matters o f opini on Difficulty .

only began when a religion arose which claimed to be

a unique revelation and to cast do ubt on the other
relig i ons o f the world while claiming supremacy
,

fo r itsel f Then came persecutio ns and hatreds and

.

struggles the u se o f the swo rd as an instrument

,

fo r making a man believe — the most unsuitable in

strument eve r devised by the f o lly and cruelty of
man And so n o w we reproclaim the ancient teach
.

ing that all religions are branches o f o ne tree the ,

tree o f divine W isdom and that just as this banyan

,

tree throws d own its roots and starts afresh from

eve ry root that is struck into the earth so i t i s true ,

o f every branch o f the divine Wisdom that it sends ,

down ro ots int o the soil o f the h u man heart and

makes a new cente r when c e a new b ranch spreads
further Fo r the div i ne Wisdom i s the spreading
.

banyan tree and the great Lodge itsel f the trunk

,

from which the branches c o me forth and strike

their roots into the world And tr uly indeed is it
.

the tree o f li fe wh o se leave s are fo r the healing o f

the nations H u man brotherh oo d bro therhood o f
.
,

religions- there yo u have two o f o ur pu rposes ,

and our function is to spread these over the world .

 Th e T h e o s o p h ic a l S o c i e t y 87

Then co mes anothe r purpose and that next pur ,

pose i s to substitute I deal ism for materialism to ,

substitute sc i ence f or blind c redulity to substitute ,

knowledge fo r faith t o substitu te Mysticism for

,

formalism .

The other day we had a lette r from Engl and ,

telling us that a Roman Cathol i c prie st introduced ,

to a lady who was a T heos ophist made the remark ,

'
able statement : Well material ism is dead and
,
’ ' ’
buried and that s d u e to your lot
, I don t say the .

phrase was very poetical but it was very expressive

, ,

and that a R oman Catholic priest should declare

that the death and bu rial o f material i sm i n the
West was due to Theosophy shows that we have ,

carried o u t that part at least o f our mission .

To s ubst i tute Mysticism fo r formal i sm Look .

again over the we stern w o rld and see how Mysti

c ism is making its way is rev i ving the ancient
,

Churche s o f Christendom and giv i ng them new

strength new li f e and new unity among themselves
,
.

The mystic view which substitutes the authority o f

the Go d within for that o f the religion without
that is another o f the pu rposes o f the Theosophical
Society and it discharges its function as it carrie s
out that work .

It substitutes science f o r credulity—no t the sci

ence o f phenomena wh i ch is already in admirable
,

hands which i s be ing pursued by what Cli ff ord well

,

called the tirele s s patience o f the investigator

'
,

and is advancing w ith giant strides The marvelous .

88 T h e o s op h y a nd th e T h e o s op h i c a l S o ci e t y

work done i n the study o f the phenomena of ou r

world ; the advan c es made by the e ff orts o f sc i ent i fic
men ; the splend i d l ight they have thrown upo n the
workings o f nature— all this is be i ng admirably well
done and wh i le we cannot f o rget that one or two o f
the most em i nent o f those d i s c overe rs have been
members o f our Society— wh i l e we cannot f orget
that M r William Croo kes now Sir Will iam drew
.
, ,

from the teach i ngs o f the M aster the great ideas

which made h i m tea c h the genes i s o f the elements ,

and led him to be one o f the greatest lights o f the

scient i fic world of to day— s till we gladly give to
-

that noble band o f scientists full credit for their

marvelous dis c overies and thank them for the self
,

denial and labor whi c h have i llumined modern

thought w i th the l i ght o f modern s ci ence .

Our spe c ial work i s to gi ve to sc i en c e the great

help o f br i nging with i n reach other worlds than the
phys ic al 'for they are mater i al worlds as mu c h as
the physical world is material ' pointing to the pos
,

sible development o f new f aculties whereby those

worlds shall be observed by scientific methods ;
br i ngi ng them the results o f the discoverie s we have
thus made as when we issued the bo ok O ccu l t
, ,

Ch emis tr y not expe c t i ng sc i entists to accept it b e

, ,

c ause some of us have seen i t but pla ci ng i t on ,

record so that when the s c ience o f fi fty years hence

,

has discovered what we have seen they may see ,

that the T heosoph i cal Society was the p i onee r even

i n mater i al science even in the study o f phenomena
, .
 T he T h e o s op h i ca l S o ci e t y 89

B ut far more precious than that is the real sci

ence the science o f the soul the science o f the
, ,

Spirit Well is it to study the phenomena of the

.

changing world but far bette r is it to study the

,

truth of the unchang i ng Spirit and to know the , .

relation o f man to God and o f God to H is unive rse

at large The scien c e o f the Spir i t is as accurate
.
,

as definite as clear as any scien c e o f phenomena

, ,

and it has been the glory o f Theosophy t o carry

that science to the West and to revive that science
in the East .

I do not pretend that we have bro ught it to yo u ;

b u t yo u had fo rgotten it I s it no service i f when
.
,

people have l ived long in the i r f am ily house and

there is some ol d che st c overe d with dust and put
away in s ome out house where no one goes to go
-
,

to that out— hou se open the c hest take out the fam
, ,

ily j ewel s c ove red with dust c lear away the d u st

, ,

and give them back to the f amily that owns but

has forgotten them so that they may wear them
,

in all thei r beauty in the face o f the wo rld ? That

has been the service rendered by Theosophy to
eastern lands where the j ewels we re fo rgotten but
, ,

have again been b rought t o l i ght .

It is w ritten in an Up a n i sh a t that a man may

walk ove r a fiel d not knowing o f the gold that l ies
beneath hi s feet ; so has the divine Wisdom spread
by the Society opened up the vein o f gold beneath
the earth on whi c h you were treading and shown ,

you the treasures o f golden ore that lie in the depths

90 T h e o so p h y a n d th e T h e o s op h i c a l S o c i e t y

o f you r hearts Su c h then is the work the purpose

.
,

o f th i s movement .

T hen we come to anothe r purpose wh ic h many

amongst u s do not yet accept but wh i ch i s none ,

the le ss true for some o f us : To serve as a means

o f collecting togethe r material s suitable for the
s i xth sub race that out o f it the sixth Root Race
-
,

may grow The researches o f the past show us

.

that Va iv a sv a ta Manu gathered the mater i al s for

His fi f th o r Aryan Race out o f the fifth sub -race
, ,

o f the A tlanteans on one of the islands left by the

,

huge c onvul s ion o f two hundred thousand years ago .

He gathered them together ; He led them away from

the i r home G radually He led them upwards into
.

Central Asia far to the North to the borders o f

, ,

the Northern Sea There He kept them ; there He .

tra i ned them f o r a while ; took them afte r some ,

years to the Gobi Sea wherein the White I sland

, ,

was situated and there they settled for long long

, ,

years of growth .

From that the beg i nn i ng of the Root Race He

, ,

gradually sent out sub race after sub race ; the - -

first the Root stock i tsel f ult i mately came down

, ,

i nto India ; the se c ond spread into Egypt and

Arabia and South A f rica ; the th i rd spread into
Pers i a the f ourth the Kelts into Greece and South , ,

e rn Europe f or the most part ; the fi fth the ,

T euton i c more to the North and the sixth is yet

, ,

t o come It is already appearing i n Amer i ca where

.
,

H P B told us to look out fo r the appearing ; and

. . .
 Th e T h e o s o p h i c a l S o c ie t y 91

you ma y read in the report to the Government o f the

leading ethnologi st o f America the signs and marks
o f the development o f a new type which will be the
Amer i can type o f the future o r one of the Amer ,

ican types .

T he sixth sub race is gradually to be built u p

-
,

and ou r Theosophical Society i s the gathering to

gether o f the soul s that have taken part in the found
i ng o f othe r sub —races and w i ll be call ed u pon ere
,

long to take part in the f ounding o f the s i xth Out .

o f that the sixth Root Race will grow when the ,

new Manu—H e whom we know as the Maste r M .

will come to build His c olony as the Lord Va iv a s ,

vata Manu built His in days gone by Scores o f .

thousands o f years will pass away probably ere , ,

that Race will be ready for its new continent and ,

the continent will be ready for it B ut already i n .

the Pa cifi c—where H P B be fore there we re any

. . .
,

signs o f it said the continent o f the sixth R oot

Race was to arise—al ready it is arising as the
,

geographe rs tell us Volcanic outbursts mak i ng

.

i slands throwing up mounta i n peaks— until to day

,
-

in scientific asso ciations they discuss the dange r of

the uprising o f a new continent and the huge t i dal ,

wave s that they fear may desolate the earth Be .

not a fraid ; N ature is not going to move i n such a

hurry ; Nature take s her time ove r he r work I .

dare say there w i ll be some tidal waves sweeping ,

away perhaps hundreds or thousands o f people ;

b u t the Race will not die and cannot die and only ,
92 T h eo sop h y a nd th e T h e o so p h ic a l S o ci e t y

the old bodies w i ll be sla i n that the men in the m

may pas s into better bod i es to l i ve under noble r
surround i ngs I cannot go i nto detail s but many
.
,

o f you know the details o f wh i ch I am j ust giving

the rough outl i nes .

This is one o f the purposes o f the Theosophical

Soc i ety as I was told by the M aster who is to make
, ,

th i s gathering o f a Race He said that you c ou l d

.

not to-day segregate people as they could be segre

gated in the past ; that you c o uld not lead people
‘

i nto some far off country and shut them up there

-

f rom the races o f the world Steamboats trains .

, ,

othe r methods of commun i cat i on— to whi c h now are

added aeroplanes— make su c h a physical segrega
t i on imposs ible It is segregat i on o f thought rather
.

than o f bodies and the thought is Human B rother

,

hood whi c h is to be embodied in our s i xth Root

,
,

Race ; a co— operative c i vil i zation instead o f a com

p e t i t iv e a brotherly c i vil i zation instead o f the
plunder o f the weak by the strong .

That i s the broad idea and the T heosoph i cal S o

,

c i ety has that for one o f i ts purposes and whethe r , ,

many members believe it o r not it matters not sin c e , ,

i t is part of the d i vine Plan .

And then another purpose which is only believed ,

in as yet by a small m i nority i s that i t is to serve as

,

the herald o f the com i ng Tea c her and prepare H i s

way in our mortal world Not by one vo i ce as by
.
,

that o f John the Bapt i st i n the past but by thousands ,

o f voices from many lands is the coming of the

94 T h eos op hy a nd t h e T h eo sop h ic a l S o ci e ty

people as blind as foolish as they were when He

, ,

trod the roads o f Judaea and was despis e d and re

jected o f men He H i msel f said that eve ry r eligion
.

slew its own prophets and built sepulchres fo r the

prophets o f past generat i ons It may be that the .

worl d will again do that ; it may be that here in

India the people who revere Shri Shankaracharya
,

and rightly revere that might i est Teacher— will cast

stones as it we re aga i n when the Wo rld Teacher
, , ,
-

comes among them It may be that the Christians

.
,

with their particular thought— form as to the nature

o f the Christ will have naught to say when His
,

exquisite presence aga i n il lum i nates the darkness o f

our world Who may tell ? .

After He has gone the The osophical Society will ,

carry o n H is work wi ll spread His message will, ,

strive t o labor along the l ines He shall lay d own .

B ut to -day bef o re He comes ; to—day while still His ,

message is n ot accepted we now proclaim His com

i ng and l ik e our predecessors we declare that He
, ,

is near well -nigh at the door

,
.

You may say : What right have yo u to pro

'
claim it ? So said your prede c esso rs to my prede
ce s sor s M essengers o f the s a me great Lodge
,
You .

say : It i s bold proud audac i ou s to say y ou know

, , ,

what others know not But such has eve r been the .

message o f the M essengers and rej ectio n has ever ,

been the fate awaiting them Why shoul d it be .

otherwise with the modern Me s rs ? why should c

'
a

they be believed wh en their p r e d e ss or s we re re . .

 Th e T h e o s o p h ic a l S o ci e t y 95

j ected ? why should they be accepted when the world

a fo ret i me re f used to admit the existence of the
Lodge o r to wel c ome i ts greater Me ssengers ?
Nevertheless we who know are bound to speak ;
none the less we who know are bound to pass on
the message we have receive d We are not the.

King but w e a r e H i s heralds ; and no earthly vo i ce

,

shall silen c e the mouths which have been told t o

pro claim His coming .