Raja Yoga or Occultism | Pamphlets | Articles

Raja - Yoga, or

OCCULTISM

By H. P. Blavatsky

Theosophy Company (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Mumbai, 2019

Preface

The one characteristic of Life is that it unfolds. Ceaseless is that process. Consciousness reaches awareness of itself and attains self-consciousness in the human kingdom. From the state of self-consciousness man evolves into a Self-Conscious Being, the Adept retaining his individuality, untrammelled by the overpowering influence of Living Nature which produces sleep, death, pralaya. Within the conscious being are all powers of the whole of Nature. The Adept develops those latent powers by his will; he subdues Nature by the selfsame process which she uses to put us to sleep or to kill us, to dissolve one planet or myriads of stellar universes. Thus he attains immortality called Nirvana-the condition of profound awareness of one's own existence, not apart from but as the whole of Nature.

The one and only kingdom of Nature which is capable of perceiving and understanding the ceaseless, perpetual motion of Nature's Will is the human kingdom. In it consciousness has gained senses keen enough to observe Nature, intelligence necessary to understand her and compassion essential to master her. When man abrogates the use of these he runs the risk of ceasing to be man. Having gained the perception of their self-conscious state and the possibility of retaining it, daring souls enter upon the great adventure of conquering Nature. Invading her secret recesses, persevering in his quest, man succeeds in wresting from the deathless Mother her mighty magic and attains Mastery even over her by serving her.

The Lodge of Adepts and aspirants to its membership are thus but natural products of evolution. In full knowledge the Lodge cooperates with Nature, its main task to enlighten the heart of every man. Wherever and whenever the grinding mill of evolution begets a living form ready to be lighted up by the Fire of the Wisdom, there and then the Brothers of the Lodge are present in action. On our earth, the Lodge began its active operation some eighteen million years ago. By the process described in The Secret Doctrine it lighted up the living forms of the human kingdom with the Light of Manas. The early frustrations of its noble efforts and the vicissitudes which followed when early humanities disregarded its guidance and directions are also narrated. It is all a matter of Record as to how the seeds of White and Black Magic were sown.

The forces of Buddhic-Altruism and karmaic-selfishness have fought each other in cycle after cycle, and the events of human history are but a record of that great struggle — even now in progress.

In every age Theosophists are the instruments of the Lodge for its continuous task of lighting up the Manas of the race in ever increasing measure. They are able to do this because they have kept their own heart-fires burning, feeding them with the fuel of study, practice and service. Theosophists (not members of any particular organization) form the front ranks of the race; thence the Lodge derives its new Members. The stage in the very long trail of evolution between men and Super-men, between serfs and Masters of Nature, is that of Discipleship, while the Lodge may be said to be composed of two classes — Gurus and Chelas, both of varying degrees. Likewise the work of the Lodge falls into two divisions — (1) that of fecundating the mind of the race, or mass movement; and (2) that of gaining new adherents and chelas to be trained as future members of the Lodge, or individualistic work. This work goes on in every cycle, and the existence of the Lodge and the Path to it are truths which every civilization has been taught. The qualifications and requirements, the rules of life and conduct, however differently arranged, enumerated, or explained, are the same. The exigencies of cycles are calculated by the Lodge. Rearrangement, recodification, reformation of the Teaching and Rules are the response of human aspirations, endeavours and achievements. Thus in historic times Gautama, the man who became Buddha, the Enlightened, was the reformer and codifier of the occult system; once again Sang-Ko-Pa of Kokhonor, in the fourteenth century, became the reformer of esoteric as well as of vulgar Lamaism. Among his commandments there is one that enjoins Those concerned to make an attempt to enlighten the world, including the "white barbarians," every century, at a certain specified period of the cycle. Ever since the fourteenth, every century has seen the dual attempt to change the manas of humanity, including that of the West, and to draw from within its ranks those ready, however few, for the Path of Discipleship leading to Emancipation-Enlightenment. The attempts of earlier centuries were mostly private, though their influence and the mark they have left behind are traceable by any intuitive student of history; but in pursuance of the fiat of this Tibetan World-Reformer, the Theosophic Movement of our era, fulfilling the requirement of the cyclic law, was launched on the stormy ocean of publicity. The time was ripe and the Benediction of the Chiefs sent H.P.B. to our world.

By 1888, she had already accomplished the task of giving a death-blow to scientific materialism as well as to religious super-naturalism, to doubt as well as to superstition. Man's mind was opened to enquiry regarding that which lay hidden — the force behind form, the spirit behind matter. Her insistent proclamation about Living Wise Men whose knowledge transcended that of science; whose philanthropy was rooted not in feeling but in knowledge; who had emancipated Themselves from the five fetters — sex, caste, creed, nation, race — by that knowledge; whose compassion led Them to impart it to all who were ready to receive it by a proper compliance with the rules of Their Science: all this had produced in the world and especially in the Theosophic Movement individuals fired by the intense desire to obtain that knowledge and know its Masters. Also it had produced false claimants, charlatans, adventurers eager to supply the demand her efforts had created.

One of the prime objects of H.P.B.'s mission was to open up communication between the world of man and that of Masters, and to create a suitable Embassy in the former domain through which the work of the Lodge could be carried on.

Chelaship as a process of unfoldment belongs to the metaphysical world. Chelas and chelaship belong to the world of the occult, wherein vision is clear, action is free of fetters, and words are words of power. H.P.B.'s work was to create an organism in which human egos would be drawn by a natural attraction to its principles and rules, and undertake the heavy labour of self-purification, self-education and self-attainment. This organism was meant to lead the successful students to direct chelaship under the great Gurus — the position, condition, rules and pledges whereof have always remained esoteric and always will. The efforts of the Lodge in the preceding centuries had succeeded in transforming the race-mind to such an extent that, by 1888, there were sufficient people ready to receive a plan and programme of life which, carried out, would bring them into the Occult World.

The creation of such an organism had been intended from the beginning. H.P.B. clearly refers to it in that epoch-making article "Chelas and Lay-Chelas" (Theosophist-Supplement, July 1883) in which she speaks of how and why "the rules of Chela selection have become slightly relaxed in one respect." That memorable article contains everything in germ: the rules, regulations, difficulties, operations of and about chelaship.

Theosophy and Occultism are terms with as definite meaning and applications as the nomenclature and laws of the most exact physical science. They relate to the study, understanding and control of the internal nature of the Student of the Mysteries of all life and being.

In the days preceding our modern physical sciences every community had its charlatans and quacks, as well as its honest and well-intentioned if ignorant and misguided devotees of knowledge. More often than not the latter fell victim to the pretensions and roguery of the former. This was true in astrology, in alchemy, in medicine, as well as in religion and in magic, through long centuries. The whole history of modern science, young in years, immense in the number of its devoted students, is a tale of practical Occultism applied to physical nature. Not an invention, not a discovery, maleficent or beneficent, has ever been achieved by prayer, by ritual, by reliance on miracle or the offering up of sacrifice to some deity, human or otherwise, infernal or supernal. All that has been gained has been gained by work, by study, by experiment, by observation, by comparison.

There are students, now as in the earlier days of the Movement, who are the victims of their own enthusiasm of ignorance. They are susceptible to the blandishments of the short and easy path. They fall prey to the promise of quick results made to them. They are practitioners of the ignoble art of getting something for nothing. They are ready to rush headlong into the laboratory of Nature's arcanum, lay hold on any of her secret apparatus, swallow at a gulp any prescription offered. The price they have paid for entrance is a frightful one — the sacrifice of their common-sense. The price to be paid is still more terrible — the sacrifice and loss of the evolution of the Soul. Fools still rush in where angels fear to tread, never counting the cost, as though their refusal to count made the reckoning less.

For all such students who little know or realize the depths of "human nature," H.P.B. wrote the article with which this volume opens. It is a warning to the heedless and the selfish, but a benediction, an affirmation, and a promise to all who would take the first step in fitting themselves for the noblest of all pursuits, the study of the Science of Life and the Art of Living.

Similarly every article in this volume contains priceless instruction — hints to be worked out, warnings to be heeded, seed-ideas to be meditated upon, information to be used and instruction to be absorbed.

The articles published in this volume will bring that knowledge which alone fortifies a student against wrong or fanciful Occultism, as against the perils of occult arts and psychic practices. Under the name of Yoga, dangerous exercises are taught all over the world, and in the West well-intentioned but credulous people are being exploited, and even when not exploited are being instructed in practices ruinous to body and mind alike, in the name of India and Indian philosophy. Worse still, in the name of Theosophy, esoteric progress is held out as a bait to those who are ignorant and who are kept ignorant of the instruction left behind by H. P. Blavatsky. A sound study in the theory will prepare the earnest devotee to practice the life of Occultism which is not psychic clairvoyance, not going into the silence, not becoming invisible helpers by night; it is knowing the Self within, recognizing Its Light as a ray from the Universal Light. The aim and method of Occultism is thus described by H.P.B.:-

Man ought to be ever striving to help the divine evolution of Ideas, by becoming to the best of his ability a co-worker with nature in the cyclic task. The ever unknowable and incognizable Karana alone, the Causeless Cause of all causes, should have its shrine and altar on the holy and ever untrodden ground of our heart — invisible, intangible, unmentioned, save through "the still small voice" of our spiritual consciousness. Those who worship before it, ought to do so in the silence and the sanctified solitude of their Souls; making their spirit the sole mediator between them and the Universal Spirit, their good actions the only priests, and their sinful intentions the only visible and objective sacrificial victims to the Presence.

(The Secret Doctrine, I. 280)

Now most students of Theosophy are not ready to practise this true Occultism, but all are in a position theoretically to study the problems connected with the Divine Science. We cannot find a better reason for the publication of this volume than the following inspiring words of its author:

If one cannot, owing to circumstances or his position in life, become a full adept in this existence, let him prepare his mental luggage for the next, so as to be ready at the first call when he is once more reborn.

Bombay,
17th November 1931.

Contents

Preface