Studies In The Secret Doctrine | Pamphlets | Articles

Two years ago was published the first book of Studies in "The Secret Doctrine," containing three series of articles by the late B. P. Wadia. These articles had first appeared in Theosophy (Los Angeles) during the years 1922-25 and, since the author's passing, were reprinted in The Theosophical Movement (Bombay).

The present book contains two other series of Studies that were originally published in The Theosophical Movement during the years 1934-36 and a few miscellaneous articles which had appeared at different times in the same magazine. Both the books together form a most useful and instructive study of H. P. Blavatsky's monumental work, The Secret Doctrine, and will help its students to understand more clearly the synthetic Wisdom of its two volumes.

Our heartfelt gratitude to the revered author for his lucid expositions of such difficult metaphysical subjects—age-old truths which can be practised in daily life.

THE TEXT-BOOK OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

This work is written for the instruction of students of Occultism.

—The Secret Doctrine, I. 23

The rejection of these teachings may be expected, and must be accepted beforehand. No one styling himself a "scholar," in whatever department of exact science, will be permitted to regard these teachings seriously. They will be derided and rejected a priori in this century; but only in this one. For in the twentieth century of our era scholars will begin to recognize that the Secret Doctrine has neither been invented nor exaggerated, but, on the contrary, simply outlined; and finally, that its teachings antedate the Vedas. This is no pretension to prophecy, but simply a statement based on the knowledge of facts. Every century an attempt is being made to show the world that Occultism is no vain superstition. Once the door permitted to be kept a little ajar, it will be opened wider with every new century. The times are ripe for a more serious knowledge than hitherto permitted, though still very limited, so far. —The Secret Doctrine, I. xxxvii-xxxviii

The outline of a few fundamental truths from the Secret Doctrine of the Archaic ages is now permitted to see the light, after long millenniums of the most profound silence and secrecy. I say "a few truths," advisedly, because that which must remain unsaid could not be contained in a hundred such volumes, nor could it be imparted to the present generation of Sadducees. But, even the little that is now given is better than complete silence upon those vital truths. —The Secret Doctrine, I. xxii

The Secret Doctrine of H. P. Blavatsky has been rightly called the text-book of the 20th century. To many this will seem a fantastic claim, to be straightway rejected. To others it will seem a puzzling statement. A fair familiarity with the two volumes, as originally published in 1888, alone will bring the truth of the statement home to the reflective and studious mind. He who considers the contents of these two volumes dispassionately will evaluate the teachings of The Secret Doctrine as profound, will recognize the uniqueness of its method of imparting knowledge to our civilization, and will find its canvas staggeringly large. The picture is as rich in background as in details of the past of this earth and of man's evolution thereon. The Secret Doctrine presents arguments which demolish the false in modern knowledge and in modern civilization; its portrayal of the future which awaits humanity on earth is as fascinating as it is logical and inspiring. For over 60 years the two volumes have puzzled and provoked, drawn scorn from some and admiration from others, but they have continuously influenced the Zeitgeist of the 19th-

W. Q. Judge has said that he would use The Secret Doctrine and The Bhagavad-Gita to educate the young. Both these texts—the former stupendous, the latter concise—may well be called archetypal books; only a very few such are in circulation today. The instruction of the Gita seems to be meant for the entire Kali-Yuga; it deals only with fundamental principles of the cosmological and psychological sciences and with practices, necessary for men of this Dark Age to make soul-progress. The Secret Doctrine not only sketches those principles but also illustrates and amplifies them with innumerable demonstrations and details. To awaken the mind of the century to the false assumptions of modern knowledge, The Secret Doctrine offers many arguments, ever drawing the mind towards the truth that the ancients with their glorious civilizations knew in many spheres more and better than the moderns. It also attacks the theological falsehoods of separative and warring creeds and unveils that most inspiring truth that true Religion is ever one and indivisible and that the practice of this Universal Religion leads to the realization of Universal Brotherhood—the goal of human evolution.

The Esoteric philosophy is alone calculated to withstand, in this age of crass and illogical materialism, the repeated attacks on all and everything man holds most dear and sacred, in his inner spiritual life. The true philosopher, the student of the Esoteric Wisdom, entirely loses sight of personalities, dogmatic beliefs and special religions. Moreover, Esoteric philosophy reconciles all religions, strips every one of its outward, human garments, and shows the root of each to be identical with that of every other great religion.

—The Secret Doctrine, I. xx

The teachings recorded in the two volumes of The Secret Doctrine are not new— and yet are in many cases new to modern minds. The new in them includes arguments and points of view presented which enable the student to see the defects in modern knowledge, how these can be remedied and in what direction the next step must be taken for the correct solution of the problems which confront modern science, from Astronomy to Zoology. Again, what is new offers positive evidence that the warring religions, each with its claim to uniqueness, are enemies of truth inasmuch as they all engender blind belief in dogmas and shut the windows of the mind to universal truths. In advancing what is new in the book, H. P. Blavatsky points to the Real Source of Knowledge. She proves the existence of a Body of Knowledge, tested and verified, which has influenced the mind of humanity not for centuries but for millennia.

The Secret Doctrine was the universally diffused religion of the ancient and prehistoric world. Proofs of its diffusion, authentic records of its history, a complete chain of documents, showing its character and presence in every land, together with the teaching of all its great adepts, exist to this day in the secret crypts of libraries belonging to

Occult Science has its changeless traditions from prehistoric times. It may err in particulars; it can never become guilty of a mistake in questions of Universal laws, simply because that Science, justly referred to by philosophy as the "divine" was born on higher planes, and was brought on Earth by beings who were wiser than man will be, even in the seventh Race of his Seventh Round. —The Secret Doctrine, I. 516

Modern science traces the growth of human mind from savagery. Unable as yet to say definitely where and how human civilization began, or even from which particular species of the animal kingdom man's form evolved, it finds itself entangled in innumerable contradictions. That which specialists in one branch of science teach, their colleagues in another branch contradict. Modern knowledge is analytical and science wars against religion, philosophy now siding with the one, now with the other.

The unifying principle underlying true knowledge is lost in the babel of tongues on every plane of modern life. Wisdom synthesizes—synthesizes not only the branches of science, the schools of philosophy, the creeds of religion; but also synthesizes science, philosophy and religion themselves, as fields of human thought. These three form the sides of an equilateral triangle—the figure which perfectly symbolizes Wisdom. This synthesizing Wisdom is the foundation of the great book, The Secret Doctrine. Because modern knowledge lacks that synthesizing aspect which these volumes offer, it threatens to destroy human mind and engulf modern civilization.

To each fumbling scientist, no less than to each groping philosopher and theologian, The Secret Doctrine offers the next step by revealing his error in observation, in deduction or in judgment. Fully recognizing the place in human thought of many sciences, philosophies and religions, The Secret Doctrine puts each in its proper position, assigns to each its correct value, enables each to reject that in itself which is false and to progress along its own right path, accepting what is true. These admittedly are tremendous claims, but those who have carefully examined the two volumes have noted hints and suggestions for every sincere researcher. They have also perceived the unifying synthesis which transforms knowledge into Wisdom and are ready to concede the claims put forward here.

The reader must not overlook the fact that we are calling The Secret Doctrine the text-book of the 20th century. It has been doing its work indirectly these many years. The number of copies published and sold enables us to determine approximately how many there are in circulation. This is one gauge of its influence on the minds of modern men. It is not a book that he who runs may read and understand. It is, moreover, a costly book. Those who buy it cannot but be educated thinkers, and each of them doubtless uses what he gets out of the copy in his hands. Furthermore, Theosophists who keep in touch with books, periodicals, newspapers—the tremendous output of modern knowledge

—and again with sermons, addresses and lectures, from a million pulpits and platforms, are aware of the profound influence that The Secret Doctrine has wielded ever since its first publication in 1888. The analytical mind has been exploiting the two volumes to get what it can for its own personal purposes. So far, so good; but the time has come, it seems to devotees of this great work, to bring it forward for wider study for what its contents offer to mankind. The turn of the cycle brings an opportunity which Associates of the United Lodge of Theosophists should embrace, endeavouring to popularize the book for the synthetic outlook which it offers. Some who call themselves Theosophists have been misled by their leaders' having described The Secret Doctrine as a book of reference—a kind of encyclopaedia. The Secret Doctrine is encyclopaedic in its scope but it is not merely a book of reference. Its Wisdom is one and indivisible—its philosophy is a religious science and a scientific religion.

To perceive the synthetic Wisdom contained in the two volumes, the reader needs a concentrated mind, but he needs more than only the analytic mind of the scientist, more than the logical reasoning mind which functions according to principles and categories; if reason is necessary to evaluate correctly the data gathered by sensuous perception, intuition is necessary to evaluate the work of the modern logician, philosopher and theologian. As sensuous observation needs the light of mind and reason to arrive at truth, so reason in its turn needs illumination by the intuition.

Now, The Secret Doctrine is the book par excellence for developing intuition in the educated mind today. That is one reason why we call it the text-book of the 20th century. It is sometimes complained that H. P. Blavatsky has not written The Secret Doctrine in a straightforward style, giving information, imparting knowledge, proving her propositions after the fashion of the modern scholar and savant. This is true if the book is viewed from the standpoint of the man of reasoning mind; it is not true when The Secret Doctrine is viewed from the standpoint of the man of developing intuition. To such a reader almost every page reveals the soul of knowledge. The limbs of knowledge assume a coherent form—vital and vibrant. This does not happen all at once, not even in a year or two, but the book does gradually unfold the faculty of intuition in its devoted student.

Because The Secret Doctrine is not written for the man of mind or even for the man of intuition (as, for example, is the Bhagavad-Gita or the Tao Teh King or The Voice of the Silence or Light on the Path) but for the mind on its way to the development of intuition, its manner of presentation sometimes irritates alike the thinker who uses his mind and the mystic who depends on his intuition. But to the earnest student it provides the key—the sure way to develop intuition, namely, by the proper use of the Law of Correspondence and Analogy. That way of getting at the knowledge about any subject or object implies a universal synthesis, the relationship of each subject and object with all

Man lives and functions in a threefold Universe—Moral, Mental and Sensuous. These are not three separate and distinct universes but One Universe with three aspects—One Triangle of three sides and three angles. The stone has its mind and soul, however different they be from those which manifest, let us say, in a human body. Further, the body not only is a concretization of mind and soul but also is touched by other bodies, minds and souls. Man is the Microcosm; the Universe, the Macrocosm.

Everything in the Universe follows analogy. "As above, so below"; Man is the microcosm of the Universe. That which takes place on the spiritual plane repeats itself on the Cosmic plane. Concretion follows the lines of abstraction; corresponding to the highest must be the lowest; the material to the spiritual— The Secret Doctrine, I. 177

From Gods to men, from Worlds to atoms, from a star to a rushlight, from the Sun to the vital heat of the meanest organic being—the world of Form and Existence is an immense chain, whose links are all connected. The law of Analogy is the first key to the world-problem, and these links have to be studied co-ordinately in their occult relations to each other. —The Secret Doctrine, I. 604

Their interrelationship cannot be fathomed by sense-perception or by mind-perception; only by intuitive soul-perception can the parts of the One be comprehended as such. And this, as already indicated, demands the correct use of the Key of Correspondence and Analogy.

Analogy is the guiding law in Nature, the only true Ariadne's thread that can lead us, through the inextricable paths of her domain, toward her primal and final mysteries. —The Secret Doctrine, II. 153

Intuition is slowly developing in the most progressed intelligences of our race; that development can be consciously advanced by such as aspire to know more than modern knowledge can teach. Higher than the eye of the mind is the Eye of the Heart; the former imparts partial knowledge; the latter instructs the mind in Wisdom as old as man's soul, and as immortal. Only the immortal aspect in man can know that immortal Wisdom. Logic and Philosophy train the mind for accurate thinking and as it learns to use the Law of Correspondence and Analogy it receives flashes of intuition. Therefore symbols, glyphs, emblems, allegories, myths, etc., become valuable aids to the mind; for this reason, parts of The Secret Doctrine are devoted to these.

The untiring researches of Western, and especially German, symbologists, during the last and the present centuries, have brought every Occultist and most unprejudiced persons to see that without the help of symbology (with its seven departments, of which the moderns know nothing) no ancient Scripture can ever be correctly understood. Symbology must be studied from every one of its aspects, for each

nation had its own peculiar methods of expression. In short, no Egyptian papyrus, no Indian olla, no Assyrian tile, or Hebrew scroll, should be read and accepted literally.

This every scholar now knows. The able lectures of Mr. G. Massey alone are sufficient in themselves to convince any fair-minded Christian that to accept the dead-letter of the Bible is equivalent to falling into a grosser error and superstition than any hitherto evolved by the brain of the savage South Sea Islander. But the point to which even the most truth-loving and truth-searching Orientalists—whether Aryanists or Egyptologists—seem to remain blind, is the fact that every symbol in papyrus or olla is a many-faced diamond, each of whose facets not merely bears several interpretations, but relates likewise to several sciences. —The Secret Doctrine, I. 305

It is precisely because the book touches and awakens the now latent or only partially functioning faculty of Intuition that The Secret Doctrine has been called the text-book of the century. Intuitive men or mystics will be the true leaders and guides in the coming cycle—not men of mind, but men of intuition. A new era has been opening in the affairs of humanity; the Sun of intuition will follow the Dawn which has been upon us since 1877, the year in which was published Isis Unveiled, the precursor of The Secret Doctrine.

The Secret Doctrine attacks what is false and confirms what is true in modern knowledge. The rise and fall of a civilization are intimately related to its knowledge. When the parts are held to outweigh the whole, when specialization narrows the understanding of the ALL, the analytical and sensuous way of learning grows, the synthetic vision is first befogged and then lost.

We are at the bottom of a cycle and evidently in a transitory state. Plato divides the intellectual progress of the universe during every cycle into fertile and barren periods. In the sublunary regions, the spheres of the various elements remain eternally in perfect harmony with the divine nature, he says; "but their parts'" owing to a too close proximity to earth, and their commingling with the earthly (which is matter, and therefore the realm of evil), "are sometimes according, and sometimes contrary to (divine) nature." When those circulations—which Eliphas Levi calls "currents of the astral light"—in the universal ether which contains in itself every element, take place in harmony with the divine spirit, our earth and everything pertaining to it enjoys a fertile period. The occult powers of plants, animals, and minerals magically sympathize with the "superior natures," and the divine soul of man is in perfect intelligence with these "inferior" ones. But during the barren periods, the latter lose their magic sympathy, and the spiritual sight of the majority of mankind is so blinded as to lose every notion of the superior powers of its own divine spirit. We are in a barren period: the eighteenth century, during which the malignant fever of scepticism broke out so irrepressibly, has entailed unbelief as an hereditary

disease upon the nineteenth. The divine intellect is veiled in man; his animal brain alone philosophizes. And philosophizing alone, how can it understand the "SOUL DOCTRINE"?—The Secret Doctrine, II. 74

To save the modern global civilization an attempt was made by the Immortal Lovers of the Wisdom and They gave out all that was necessary for the 100-year cycle which dawned in the last quarter of the last century.

THE SECRET DOCTRINE is not a treatise, or a series of vague theories, but contains all that can be given out to the world in this century. —The Secret Doctrine, I. xxxviii

Once the sagacious student gets hold of the guiding thread he may find it out for himself. We give facts and show land-marks: let the wayfarer follow them. What is given here is amply sufficient for THIS century. —The Secret Doctrine, II. 742

Not Wisdom in its entirety is to be found in these two monumental volumes, but sufficient for the men of our civilization—be they materialistic scientists, speculative philosophers or dogmatic religionists—to carry forward their research and to sustain and spiritualize the life of humanity. Also, as shown above, these volumes offer a veritable shortcut to the mystic who waits for his intuitive faculty to function. Enough to quicken that faculty into activity has been given in the correspondential links between Man and the Cosmos, each of which acts like a magnet for intuition to flash its message to the mind.

As a closing thought, The Secret Doctrine contains seed-ideas and shows their lines of growth. It indicates how ideas can and should unfold in the entire sphere of modern knowledge. To the æsthete and the artist, the ritualist and the religionist, the metaphysician and the mathematician, the scientist and the sociologist, the mystic and the occultist—to all, The Secret Doctrine reveals the immediate step of advance and the distant whither. This, among other reasons, justifies the claim we make for The Secret Doctrine as the text-book of the 20th century.

A fresh perusal of the following will help the student to appreciate the viewpoint presented in the above article:-

It is necessary to record here that there are more editions than one of The Secret Doctrine which are not authentic. The original edition was published in two volumes in 1888. A photographic reprint of it was published in 1925 by The Theosophy Company, Los Angeles. Only the photographic reprint of the original edition is authentic and students should confine themselves to the use of that edition. There is a spurious third volume and even a fourth volume but these were not published by H.P.B. and have nothing to do with the monumental work of H.P.B.

THE BOOK AND THE PHILOSOPHY

It is needless to explain that this book is not THE SECRET DOCTRINE in its entirety, but a select number of fragments of its fundamental tenets. —S.D. I. viii

The SECRET DOCTRINE is the accumulated Wisdom of the Ages.

—S.D. I. 272

The student is called upon to distinguish between the two volumes of The Secret Doctrine by H.P.B. and the Esoteric Philosophy of the Archaic ages also named THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

The book was published in 1888 and H.P.B. described it as "the outline of a few fundamental truths from THE SECRET DOCTRINE of the Archaic ages," and she added, "I say 'a few truths' advisedly, because that which must remain unsaid could not be contained in a hundred such volumes" (S.D. I. xxii).

The title of the book is suggestive of the central idea it means to convey, namely, the existence of a body of knowledge, ancient and venerable, with which only a few elect in every age have been familiar. This body of knowledge, called THE SECRET DOCTRINE, has been given other names: Esoteric Philosophy is its exact synonym; it is also called the Wisdom-Religion, Ageless and Eternal Doctrine and Theo-Sophia. All these terms have their originals in Sanskrit; thus, Secret Doctrine and Esoteric Philosophy are English equivalents of Gupta Vidya; Wisdom-Religion of Bodhi Dharma; Ageless and Eternal Doctrine of Sanatana Dharma; Theo-Sophia of Brahma Vidya. No wonder H.P.B. speaks of it as "THE SECRET DOCTRINE of the East" (S.D. I. xvii).

THE SECRET DOCTRINE is a vast, a stupendous, a sublime Mountain Range of Wisdom, with numerous streams and falls of thirst-assuaging principles which act as landmarks; numberless trees and shrubs of details—tier over tier—each tier speaking of the altitude; from the foot of the hills several paths are available, and by slow ascent or steep they all meet on the snow-clad heights of Purity Eternal. Of that SECRET DOCTRINE "a partial sketch is here attempted" (S.D. 1.47), wrote H.P.B.

"This work is written for the instruction of students of Occultism" (S.D. I. 23), but the esoteric tenets given out therein "have become exoteric now" (Lucifer, III. 248).

In one place H.P.B. says that "the larger portion of The Secret Doctrine is devoted to the elucidation of the true esoteric views as to Man's origin and social development" (Lucifer, II. 257); this modest description should not be allowed to misguide the student. She also says

—"The Secret Doctrine is not a treatise, or a series of vague theories, but contains all that can be given out to the world in this century" (S.D. I. xxxviii). But even at that, the book is like a lake, compared to the mighty ocean of Wisdom-Religion, of which its writer says: "The present volumes . . . though giving out many fundamental tenets from the SECRET DOCTRINE of the East, raise but a small corner of the dark veil. For no one, not even the greatest living adept, would be permitted to, or could—even if he would— give out promiscuously, to a mocking, unbelieving world, that which has been so effectually concealed from it for long æons and ages" (S.D. I. xvii). And again H.P.B. refers to that which "is now permitted to see the light, after long millenniums of the most profound silence and secrecy" (S.D. I. xxii). And she adds: "The records we mean to place before the reader embrace the esoteric tenets of the whole world since the beginning of our humanity" (S.D. I. xx); "that which is given in these volumes is selected from oral, as much as from written teachings" (S.D. I. xxxvii).

The aim of the book is thus stated: to show that Nature is not 'a fortuitous concurrence of atoms,' and to assign to man his rightful place in the scheme of the Universe; to rescue from degradation the archaic truths which are the basis of all religions; and to uncover, to some extent, the fundamental unity from which they all spring; finally, to show that the occult side of Nature has never been approached by the Science of modern civilization" (S.D. I. viii).

The basis and foundation of the book are the Stanzas translated from the Book of Dzyan,* "which are the records of a people unknown to ethnology; it is claimed that they are written in a tongue absent from the nomenclature of languages and dialects with which philology is acquainted; they are said to emanate from a source (Occultism) repudiated by science; and, finally, they are offered through an agency, incessantly discredited before the world by all those who hate unwelcome truths, or have some special hobby of their own to defend" (S.D. I. xxxvii).

Even before the volumes were printed the book was "denounced as a product of my brain and no more," writes H.P.B. (S.D. II. 441, footnote), and adds:-

These are the flattering terms in which the Evening Telegraph (of America) referred to this still unpublished work in its issue of June 30, 1888: "Among the fascinating books for July reading is Mme. Blavatsky's new book on Theosophy . . . (!) THE SECRET DOCTRINE But because she can soar back into the Brahmin ignorance . . . (!?) is no proof that everything she

says is true." And once the prejudiced verdict given on the mistaken notion that my book was out, and that the reviewer had read it, neither of which was or could be the case, now that it is really out the critic will have to support his first state-

ment, whether correct or otherwise, and thus get out of it, probably by a more slashing criticism than ever.

In spite of the source and the foundation the book must not be called a Revelation. In no sense is it put forward as such; "nor does the author claim the position of a revealer of mystic lore, now made public for the first time in the world's history" (S.D. I. vii). But the earnest student must make certain of its authenticity, of what the Masters Themselves have said (see Foreword, Some Observations on the Study of The Secret Doctrine of H. P. Blavatsky). Students themselves should perceive the marvellous consistency of all that H.P.B. has written from first to last; and further, the consistency of her teachings with the previous records, down the ages.

Then, the student must be prepared for the repudiation of the book by modern scientists—though the vehemence with which it is now criticized is less than when the volumes were published. From one point of view this adverse criticism is natural, inasmuch as it is a "very mistaken notion that the work I have called the Secret Doctrine had ever been intended by me to dovetail with modern Science" (H.P.B., U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 15, p. 4).

However antagonistic modern scientists may be to H. P. Blavatsky personally, their most recent discoveries and teachings are coming closer and closer to the doctrines of the Esoteric Philosophy. Her prediction is being fulfilled: "It is only in the XXth century that portions, if not the whole, of the present work will be vindicated" (S.D. II. 442). "In the twentieth century of our era scholars will begin to recognize that the Secret Doctrine has neither been invented or exaggerated, but, on the contrary, simply outlined; and finally, that its teachings antedate the Vedas. This is no pretension to prophecy, but simply a statement based on the knowledge of facts" (S.D. I. xxxvii). "We are at the very close of the cycle of 5,000 years of the present Aryan Kaliyuga; and between this time [1888] and 1897 there will be a large rent made in the Veil of Nature, and materialistic science will receive a death-blow" (S.D. I. 612). The student will do well to prepare for himself a list of scientific discoveries of the period and to see how "a death-blow" was struck and how the nature of matter itself was discovered to be "different from the full-blooded matter and forbidding materialism of the Victorian scientist," to quote the words of Sir James Jeans, President for 1934 of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

The book is in two volumes; the students must reject as spurious a so-called third volume issued, for the first time, six years after the death of H. P. Blavatsky; it forms no part of her genuine Secret Doctrine. They must also be on their guard against so-called revised editions.

But when it becomes undeniably proven that the claim of the modern Asiatic nations to a Secret Science and an esoteric history of

the world, is based on fact; that, though hitherto unknown to the masses and a veiled mystery even to the learned (because they never had the key to a right understanding of the abundant hints thrown out by the ancient classics), it is still no fairy tale, but an actuality—then the present work will become but the pioneer of many more such books. (S.D. II. 795)

The first study on the great Text-Book of Theosophy of the Twentieth Century may be fittingly closed with the wise warning about it by H.P.B. herself:-

The reader can never be too often reminded that, as the abundant quotations from various old Scriptures prove, these teachings are as old as the world; and that the present work is a simple attempt to render, in modern language and in a phraseology with which the scientific and educated student is familiar, archaic Genesis and History as taught in certain Asiatic centres of esoteric learning. They must be accepted or rejected on their own merits, fully or partially; but not before they have been carefully compared with the corresponding theological dogmas and the modern scientific theories and speculations. (S.D. II. 449)

THE ATTITUDE NECESSARY

Every reader will inevitably judge the statements made from the standpoint of his own knowledge, experience, and consciousness, based on what he has already learnt. —S.D. I. xlvi

The true philosopher, the student of the Esoteric Wisdom, entirely loses sight of personalities, dogmatic beliefs and special religions. —S.D. I. xx.

The first study, published last month, closed with the injunction of H.P.B. that her teachings "must be accepted or rejected on their own merits, fully or partially" (S.D. II. 449). In the above two quotations she cautions the student against his own limitations, inherent in himself, and advises him to acquire the right attitude which would enable him carefully to compare and evaluate the teachings of The Secret Doctrine. He has to face the fact that these teachings are opposed to both theological dogmas and scientific theories. Born and bred in the manner that we all have been, we have inherited religious beliefs and acquired scientific notions. We have respect for erstwhile teachers, publicists, men of renown, and this colours every perception on every subject.

Esoteric Philosophy is sui generis. It is the source and foundation of all knowledge. It is not a collection of doctrines culled from various religious creeds—it is the source of every true idea in all faiths, new or old. It transcends modern science inasmuch as it covers a far vaster field than that of matter, and the method of acquiring knowledge it advocates is not bounded by the joint use of the senses and the mind. Its philosophy is not a speculative one in which the cognitive faculties form the supreme court of judgment, for it shows the way of unfolding the direct perception of intuition, not divorced from, but illuminating, all thinking and reasoning processes. It insists on the necessity of practising ethics, and this it derives from the observation and understanding of the Laws of Nature, physical and superphysical. It deals with the supernormal, but does not recognize the supernatural. Teaching as it does that Magic is Science, made divine or demoniac by the motive and morality of the practitioner, it rejects all miracles; it does not merely say that the age of miracles is past, it affirms that it never existed.

In the above paragraph we have dealt with (a) religion, (b) modern science, (c) speculative philosophy, (d) ethics, and (e) magic and miracles. These five topics provide for each and every student without exception obstacles in mastering the tenets of the Esoteric Philosophy or Wisdom-Religion.

Religious beliefs inherited from one's own family act as a barrier for a very large number of enquirers and students. Especially in a religiously inclined country like India they make a formidable barrier. In a

subsequent study we shall examine the problem of the One True Religion and the many false religions, and this will also include the truths contained in every religion but now covered over by falsehoods—beliefs, notions, practices, etc. The primary idea to be contemplated and assimilated by the student desirous of understanding The Secret Doctrine is found in the following statements of H.P.B.:-

It is perhaps desirable to state unequivocally that the teachings, however fragmentary and incomplete, contained in these volumes, belong neither to the Hindu, the Zoroastrian, the Chaldean, nor the Egyptian religion, neither to Buddhism, Islam, Judaism nor Christianity exclusively. THE SECRET DOCTRINE is the essence of all these. Sprung from it in their origins, the various religious schemes are now made to merge back into their original element, out of which every mystery and dogma has grown, developed, and become materialised. (S.D. I. viii)

THE SECRET DOCTRINE is the common property of the countless millions of men born under various climates, in times with which History refuses to deal, and to which esoteric teachings assign dates incompatible with the theories of Geology and Anthropology. The birth and evolution of the Sacred Science of the Past are lost in the very night of Time. (S.D. II. 794)

The Esoteric Philosophy of Theosophy does not belong to any religion; every truth in all religions belongs to it. Therefore the student should learn to examine the dogmas and beliefs of every creed including the one into which he is born, in and by the light of THE SECRET DOCTRINE and its exponent—the book of that name; and not reverse the process.

Turning to modern Science: its influence is more widespread in the West than in India, though here also the number of irrational "rationalists" who have their own religious beliefs and priest-guides is on the increase. There have been and are among students of Theosophy those who would like it to reflect the prestige of Science. It is necessary therefore to draw the attention of the reader to pp. 477 et seq. of Volume I, from which the following is a short extract:-

There can be no possible conflict between the teachings of occult and so-called exact Science, where the conclusions of the latter are grounded on a substratum of unassailable fact. It is only when its more ardent exponents, over-stepping the limits of observed phenomena in order to penetrate into the arcana of Being, attempt to wrench the formation of Kosmos and its living Forces from Spirit, and attribute all to blind matter, that the Occultists claim the right to dispute and call in question their theories. Science cannot, owing to the very nature of things, unveil the mystery of the universe around us. Science can, it is true, collect, classify, and generalize upon phenomena; but the occultist, arguing from admitted metaphysical data, declares that

the daring explorer, who would probe the inmost secrets of Nature, must transcend the narrow limitations of sense, and transfer his consciousness into the region of noumena and the sphere of primal causes.

A comparatively small number of students is hampered by individual philosophical views for the simple reason that only a few have any philosophy of life ere they come to Theosophy. In India, however, there are those whose mental perception is coloured and dwarfed because they employ a philosophical point of view (Darshana) for religious and other ends. Thus, an Advaiti and a Vishistadvaiti are not philosophers belonging to differing schools of thought, but something more. The Esoteric Philosophy is "not taught in any of the six Indian schools of philosophy, for it pertains to their synthesis—the seventh, which is the Occult doctrine" (S.D. I. 269). That being so, what can be said of the Western philosophical schools which, compared to the Darshanas, are both shallow and unscientific—shallow in speculation and unscientific in classification.

The ethics and moral principles which guide men and women of our civilization are derived from modern culture but are determined by commercial requirements. Culture and commerce are fighting in the brains and the blood of men and women; the expression of ethics in belief and words is high, in actual practice and deeds very low. Because the very existence of the super-normal is denied the invisible side of Nature is never considered; and while Magic is derided as a science, miracles are accepted on blind faith. Personal affections; cliques made out of class, caste, creed, community; an exaggerated sense of patriotism; racial pride and colour prejudice and the like, affect individual character and public morality, and these befog the clear vision of the student, thus dimming his appreciation of the noble ethics reared on the foundation of Universal Brotherhood and hindering their practice by the aspirant. The reader is requested to study carefully the whole section on "Cyclic Evolution and Karma" (S.D. I. 634 et seq.) and learn about "the esoteric bearing of the Karmic Cycles upon Universal Ethics"; learn that "there are external and internal conditions which affect the determination of our will upon our actions, and it is in our power to follow either of the two"; learn to "begin acting from within, instead of ever following impulses from without"; learn that "the only palliative to the evils of life is union and harmony—a Brotherhood IN ACTU, and altruism not simply in name"; and finally learn the uttermost necessity of "unity in thought and action, and philosophical research into the mysteries of being." Unless this moral perception is acquired, at least in some measure, the clear grasp of the tenets of The Secret Doctrine will be most difficult, if not almost impossible.

We cannot close this study of The Secret Doctrine without referring to a particular class among its readers. Since the days of H.P.B. distortion and corruption of the teachings of that great book have taken place. Those who have learnt their "theosophy" at any source other than that

of H.P.B. need a serious warning: between her teachings and those that commonly pass as Theosophy there is an unbridgeable gulf; the difference between the two is as between day and night. H.P.B. referred to "the wild and fanciful speculations in which many Theosophists and students of mysticism have indulged, during the last few years, in their endeavour to, as they imagined, work out a complete system of thought from the few facts previously communicated to them" (S.D. I. viii). There were only a few, to be counted on the fingers of one hand, to whom the above words applied, when they were penned by H.P.B.; today, alas! their number is—legion.

In one place H.P.B. wrote (U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 15, p. 6): "Indeed, the modern Eastern student's unwillingness to think for himself is now as great as Western exactions and criticism of other people's thoughts." Avoiding both these tendencies in all the above departments the student has to proceed.

So the true attitude of the student of The Secret Doctrine is one of freedom from religious, scientific and philosophical notions, and, facing the book with an open mind, one of response to the appeal made by H.P.B. in the words of Shakespeare:-

THE PREPARATION AND SUBJECTS FOR STUDY

It must be left to the intuition and the higher faculties of the reader to grasp, as far as he can, the meaning of the allegorical phrases used. Indeed it must be remembered that all these Stanzas appeal to the inner faculties rather than to the ordinary comprehension of the physical brain. —S.D. I. 21

The inner spiritual eye of the seer, and the faculty which manifests through it is not clairvoyance as ordinarily understood, i.e., the power of seeing at a distance, but rather the faculty of spiritual intuition, through which direct and certain knowledge is obtainable. —S.D. I. 46 fn.

Buddhi is the faculty of cognizing the channel through which divine knowledge reaches the "Ego," the discernment of good and evil, "divine conscience" also; and "Spiritual Soul," which is the vehicle of Atma. —S.D. I. xix

There are only two classes of people who will take to the study of The Secret Doctrine seriously.

One, the intellectually curious who want to learn something about Theosophy as expounded by its greatest teacher in her magnum opus. Some of these use the information obtained in order to fling ridicule on the book and especially on its writer; others appropriate the teachings without due acknowledgment; a very, very few find their way to practical Theosophy—which means a life of study and of service.

The second class is composed of those who are already students—either those with ready-made deposits from past lives in the shape of memory and character, etc.; or those who having contacted Theosophy take to the study of the monumental work.

The hereditary enemies of Theosophy, or the beneficent White Magic, also use the book, as best they can, for their own nefarious purpose—the enslavement of the human mind, thus creating the soulless entity which acts like a corpse in their hands.

As these studies are meant for the earnest and sincere student of Theosophy aspiring to become a pupil-teacher under the guidance of the Gurus of H.P.B., we shall deal with them, leaving the rest of the above-mentioned intelligences to their own tasks and their own Karma.

In the last study we saw what are the obstacles within man himself which the student must guard against and ultimately overcome. Here we must learn what virtues and faculties are necessary for a real, growing comprehension of The Secret Doctrine. In the three quotations given above a thorough answer will be found. It must not be, however, thought that a study of the two volumes is not possible without a previous development of the faculty of intuition. This fact must be impressed on

his consciousness by the student: The Secret Doctrine, regularly studied in a proper fashion, develops intuition. Paradoxical as it may sound, the persistent study of the book unfolds the very faculty without which its contents cannot be comprehended.

H.P.B. has said that since "this work withholds far more than it gives out, the student is invited to use his own intuitions" (S.D. I. 278); and he will do well to remember her statement elsewhere that "True knowledge comes slowly and is not easily acquired." With humility but with self-confidence the student should begin his task, but he must persevere in his communion with the book regularly and punctually day by day.

In the old Upanishadic traditions references are made to the right manner and approach by which the enquirer and the aspirant were wont to come to the Sages and their Wisdom. Here also a true approach is necessary: a quiet fresh mind free from moods, unconcerned with other views and sundry knowledge but steadily active in receiving impresses from the ideas of the book—not for blind acceptance but for intelligent grasp, to be assimilated later on when they are perceived to be true. It has been said that The Secret Doctrine should be regarded as a book of reference, a kind of Theosophical encyclopædia—this estimate is false. The Secret Doctrine is a book to be read and studied, not only to be referred to. It is a book by which the student can and should evaluate other teachings, but he should not use it to amplify or advertise the views and opinions of other books. Then, it has been said that The Secret Doctrine is too profound, too deep, too complex and intricate a book to be read and studied by the ordinary man. The alarm thus caused is false. Let not the student be glamoured or daunted either by the false estimate of the book, or by the false sense of alarm roused. Why was the book written? For whom? The dedication gives the answer and the lie to the false estimate and the alarm. What H.P.B. said of The Key to Theosophy (p. xiii) is, however, true of The Secret Doctrine:-

To the mentally lazy or obtuse, Theosophy must remain a riddle; for in the world mental as in the world spiritual each man must progress by his own efforts. The writer cannot do the reader's thinking for him, nor would the latter be any the better off if such vicarious thought were possible.

Putting aside mental laziness and rejecting false estimates of the book, the student must try to assimilate, for practical purposes, the significance of the following statement:-

Only those who realise how far Intuition soars above the tardy processes of ratiocinative thought can form the faintest conception of that absolute Wisdom which transcends the ideas of Time and Space. (S.D. I. 1-2 fn.)

The book deals with metaphysical ideas; with moral laws functioning in a living universe; with historical events which are regarded as reflec-

tions of spiritual occurrences; with psychological processes taking place in human consciousness, which must be experienced to be understood; and so on. These truths cannot be understood by passionate minds, i.e., by minds held in its service by Kama. Once freed from greedy desires, however unlearned the human head may be, it has within it the power to embrace wisdom from all sides. False knowledge is a hindrance, and "even ignorance is better than Head-learning with no Soul-wisdom to illuminate and guide it," says The Voice of the Silence (p. 28).

In the human consciousness, burnt in, as it were, is an impress of wisdom, which acts in man as intuition—this was the work of the "Solar Angels," the Agnishwatta Pitris—"the Endowers of man with his conscious, immortal EGO" (S.D. II. 88). "This 'Conscious Entity,' Occultism says, comes from, nay, in many cases is, the very entire essence and esse of the high Intelligences condemned, by the undeviating law of Karmic evolution, to reincarnate in this manvantara" (S.D. II. 248). Its influence and action are absent today because human consciousness is overlaid by non-spiritual longings and mortal impresses. The task of the student is to utilize the "gift quickened by the 'Lords of Wisdom,' who have poured on the human manas the fresh dew of their own spirit and essence" (S.D. II. 411). This idea well grasped will make it clear to the student as to wherein lies the true preparation for his approach to The Secret Doctrine.

The Esoteric Philosophy explains the great differences in human character and reasoning faculty as being caused not only by the process of reincarnation, but also by the difference in receptive capacity of the various classes of non-self-conscious intelligences belonging to the kingdom of men, i.e., men in form but not men in mind. Men and women belonging to what are generally called the educated and civilized classes possess within their consciousness that Impress of Fire which manifests as the Voice of Divine Conscience, as Instinctive Intuition, as sense of moral responsibility, as self-awareness.

The functioning of these is usually vague and indefinite, but differs in different people; it begins to become definite in the persistent student of The Secret Doctrine who earnestly tries to lead the life. In the process the student receives further impresses on his own Egoic consciousness; for, the work of the Host which lights up the Manas latent in man is not finished. Its beneficent labour continues, but, it may be said that this is confined to that class of human souls which aspires to learn the Higher Wisdom. Self-redemption through self-control and self-induced and self-devised ways and methods is the ideal of that class; what each unit in that class attracts to itself depends on the assiduity in devotion which he or she manifests.

The remaining factor in right preparation is the choice of subjects and sections of the two volumes of over 1500 pages. The great temptation is to get at the occult "titbits." To succumb to this would be fatal, for those "titbits" are indigestible without a previous familiarity with the basic ideas, principles and fundamentals of the book. The scientifically inclined student of Theosophy is apt to chafe at the philosophical and

mythological digressions of The Secret Doctrine; the mystically and philosophically inclined is likely to murmur against "all this scientific stuff," and so forth. Long experience and contact with the book has strengthened the conviction that H.P.B. has not been extravagant in the use of words, that there are no useless digressions, that the attacks of 1888 on science and theology offer principles of attack even today, just as her explanations and instructions provide soul-nourishment week by week.

A beginning, however, of the right type is necessary. The ordinary student's mind, as it is constituted today, in the East as in the West, may gain quicker and better comprehension if it is aided in the selection of pages to be read. While the following plan may not suit all, it has been found useful by a fair number during the last twenty-five years and more.

A careful perusal of the above pages will give the student a very fair idea of what to anticipate; it will also familiarize him with the method H.P.B. used in writing, compiling and recording her message.

WHAT IS THEOSOPHY?

The WISDOM-RELIGION was ever one, and being the last word of possible human knowledge, was, therefore, carefully preserved. It preceded by long ages the Alexandrian Theosophists, reached the modern, and will survive every other religion and philosophy. —The Key to Theosophy, p. 7.

What I do believe in is (1) the unbroken oral teachings revealed by living divine men during the infancy of mankind to the elect among men; (2) that it has reached us unaltered; and (3) that the MASTERS are thoroughly versed in the science based on such uninterrupted teaching. —H.P.B. in Lucifer, V, p. 157.

What constitutes Theosophy? The question lies at the very threshold of a study of The Secret Doctrine. And the student is taught—or is led to see—that there are two important factors constantly to be borne in mind: (1) Theosophy per se is Divine Wisdom, Eternal Truth, and its doctrines constitute a complete system of thought, consistent in all its parts, making a perfect whole. Variously is it named: H.P.B. uses two names most often, viz., Wisdom-Religion and Esoteric Philosophy. (2) In every civilization, and in every era, parts or aspects of that Wisdom-Religion or Esoteric Philosophy have been taught. At no time and in no country was the system fully and completely taught; individuals, however, who by effort and training fitted themselves to master it, have done so; such few elect have practised Theosophy and taught it to others, thus keeping its great light ever flashing.

As a system of thought Theosophy is as old as thinking man (Glossary, p. 328). Who evolved this system? Nobody evolved it, for it neither is an invention of some great mind, nor is it the result of speculations of some great school of thinkers. It is the knowledge of the Laws of Nature whose workings have been observed in every department and kingdom of Nature—material and spiritual, psychic and noetic. By whom have these observations been made? By Pure-Minded Intelligences, whose observations and findings were (and remain even today) flawless because of the virgin — pure nature of their minds. These Pure-Minded Intelligences, known as Kumaras in Hindu lore, incarnated among the races of mindless men, for the purposes of helping on the evolution of those races. Among the numerous acts of sacrifice they performed was the instituting of the method by which their knowledge was to be transmitted from generation to generation.

Thus Theosophy as a system of thought—Wisdom-Religion and Esoteric Philosophy with its definite teachings and doctrines—became oral tradition and parts of it were orally transmitted from one human

race to another, while the few elect mentioned above have preserved it intact and whole, transmitting the same to their peers who all belong to the Race that Never Dies. This oral tradition was reduced to a Record in the Fourth or Atlantean Race (S.D. I. 646).

What kind of a Record was it? It was a Record of signs and glyphs, symbols and emblems. This Record was the object of prolonged study by those who were saved and rescued from the cataclysm that destroyed the highly civilized communities of Atlanteans (S.D. I. 273). It is this Original Record of Theosophy which is the mother-source and fountainhead of religious philosophies of the prehistoric as of historic times.

H.P.B. gives the following answer (and it is so important that we print it in full) to the important question:-

The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated Wisdom of the Ages, and its cosmogony alone is the most stupendous and elaborate system: e.g., even in the exotericism of the Purânas. But such is the mysterious power of Occult symbolism, that the facts which have actually occupied countless generations of initiated seers and prophets to marshal, to set down and explain, in the bewildering series of evolutionary progress, are all recorded on a few pages of geometrical signs and glyphs. The flashing gaze of those seers has penetrated into the very kernel of matter, and recorded the soul of things there, where an ordinary profane, however learned, would have perceived but the external work of form. But modern science believes not in the "soul of things," and hence will reject the whole system of ancient cosmogony. It is useless to say that the system in question is no fancy of one or several isolated individuals. That it is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of generations of Seers whose respective experiences were made to test and to verify the traditions passed orally by one early race to another, of the teachings of higher and exalted beings, who watched over the childhood of Humanity. That for long ages, the "Wise Men" of the Fifth Race, of the stock saved and rescued from the last cataclysm and shifting of continents, had passed their lives in learning, not teaching. How did they do so? It is answered: by checking, testing, and verifying in every department of nature the traditions of old by the independent visions of great adepts; i.e., men who have developed and perfected their physical, mental, psychic, and spiritual organisations to the utmost possible degree. No vision of one adept was accepted till it was checked and confirmed by the visions—so obtained as to stand as independent evidence—of other adepts, and by centuries of experiences. (S.D. I. 272-3)

As a commentary on this highly significant and very important statement we may quote the following which refers to the origin of the Record:-

Next, we are told how that Record was brought into existence. In both her books, Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, H.P.B. speaks of "an old Book—so very old that our modern antiquarians might ponder over its pages an indefinite time, and still not quite agree as to the nature of the fabric upon which it is written. It is the only original copy now in existence" (Isis Unveiled, I. 1). Referring to it in The Secret Doctrine she says:-

Tradition says that it was taken down in Senzar, the secret sacerdotal tongue, from the words of the Divine Beings, who dictated it to the sons of Light, in Central Asia, at the very beginning of the 5th (our) race; for there was a time when its language (the Sen-zar) was known to the Initiates of every nation, when the forefathers of the Toltec understood it as easily as the inhabitants of the lost Atlantis, who inherited it, in their turn, from the sages of the 3rd Race, the Manushis, who learnt it direct from the Devas of the 2nd and 1st Races. (S.D. I. xliii)

It is impossible to narrate the fascinating story of the influence exerted by this Record on different civilizations. The part played by its Custodians for millennia in educating the mind of the race can never be fully known. That Record found partial expressions throughout the ages, moulding the cultures of diverse eras, and even today we come across them in the fragments of dead or dying civilizations. Such expressions are numerous and ramify in almost endless directions. But in the main we can trace the influence of the Record in world-religions and philosophies and in pure divine ethics. But whatever evidence we thus come across belongs to our Fifth Aryan Race for, says H.P.B. (S.D. II. 351)—"History does not begin with it [the Fifth Race], but living and ever-recurring tradition does."

The Fifth Race Adepts learnt the Record, reduced it to writing and, further, wrote the commentaries. In this connection we might quote what may be called the Hindu version of the Oral Tradition reduced to written record. H.P.B. says:-

The Veda of the earliest Aryans, before it was written, went forth into every nation of the Atlanto-Lemurians, and sowed the first seeds of all the now existing dying old religions. The offshoots of the never dying tree of wisdom have scattered their dead leaves even on Judæo-Christianity. (S.D. II. 483)

And the penetration of the Eastern Record in the West is hinted at in The Secret Doctrine, I. 612:-

The Mysteries of Nature . . . were recorded by the pupils of those same now invisible "heavenly men," in geometrical figures and symbols. The keys thereto passed from one generation of "wise men" to the other. Some of the symbols, thus passed from the east to the west, were brought therefrom by Pythagoras, who was not the inventor of his famous "Triangle."

And that brings us to a very important point. The propagation of the instructions of this Record has gone on along two paths: at times a direct translation of some part or aspect of the Record was made, as for example by Pythagoras who is mentioned in the above passage; at other times, translations of translations, interpretations of interpretations, have been made. The former method is comparatively rare, the second very common indeed.

H.P.B. used the first or direct method, but in doing so and in presenting the original instructions she also used the numerous translations and interpretations made in many lands and in diverse eras. This the reader should bear in mind when he reads (S.D. I. xx):-

The records we mean to place before the reader embrace the esoteric tenets of the whole world since the beginning of our humanity.

The following passage may well be taken, as an accurate description of the labours of H.P.B. herself. It is from The Secret Doctrine, II. 67:-

To the spiritual eagle eye of the seer and the prophet of every race, Ariadne's thread stretches beyond that "historic period" without break or flaw, surely and steadily into the very night of time; and the hand which holds it is too mighty to drop it, or even let it break. Records exist, although they may be rejected as fanciful by the profane; though many of them are tacitly accepted by philosophers and men of great learning, and meet with an unvarying refusal only from the official and collective body of orthodox science. And since the latter refuses to give us even an approximate idea of the duration of geological ages—save in a few conflicting and contradictory hypotheses—let us see what Aryan philosophy can teach us.

All these Secret Doctrine extracts must be taken into account by the student in formulating his own answer to—"What is Theosophy?" Much confusion will be avoided in the present by a study of the history of the Theosophical Movement from this particular point of view. Confusion, splits and failures in the Movement can all be traced to this very important teaching of what Theosophy is. In her Glossary, after defining what Wisdom-Religion is, H.P.B. ends thus: "It is on this Wisdom Religion that Theosophy is based." Note the italics.

There is a tendency on the part of many who are sincere in their attachment to the Cause of Theosophy to overlook the implications of

the correct view of Theosophy, namely, that it is a definite system of thought, a philosophy whose principles are clearly defined and a science whose findings are precise. Their desire to be broadminded and tolerant leads them to define Theosophy as something so all-inclusive as to become obscure, something so general as to become vague. To illustrate: Mr. A. E. S. Smythe of Canada whom all must respect as a persevering champion of pure Theosophy has defined it thus:-

Theosophy is not a creed, it is the grace of God in one's life; the power of God in one's work; the peace of God in one's rest; the wisdom of God in one's heart; and the beauty of God in one's dealings with others.

Even taking the word "God" to mean, as Mr. Smythe would, the Higher Self in each man, there is the danger that the enquirer, and also the student, might be led to regard Theosophy as anything but a definite body of knowledge. We are not finding fault with it, for such a definition has an appeal all its own and it is a beautiful definition; but there is a danger lurking in it: What would we say of a man who knowing nothing of navigation puts out his ship on the ocean because its blue waters sparkling in the sun and making music on the shore appeal to him? Ere long he would be wrecked. To try to avoid the pit of narrow dogmatism by falling into a wide chasm of vague generalities is, to say the least, unwise and unprofitable.

In her own day, writing on "Pseudo-Theosophy" (Lucifer, Vol. IV, pp. 2-3), H.P.B. said:-

If the "false prophets of Theosophy" are to be left untouched, the true prophets will be very soon—as they have already been—confused with the false. We do not believe in allowing the presence of sham elements in Theosophy, because of the fear, forsooth, that if even "a false element in the faith" is ridiculed, the latter "is apt to shake the confidence" in the whole.

Let not the student of the present generation lose the full significance of H.P.B.'s remark in The Key to Theosophy (p. 72) that "we have no two beliefs or hypotheses on the same subject."

UNLEARNING TO LEARN

The God of the Theologians is simply an imaginary power, un loup garou as d'Holbach expressed it—a power which has never yet manifested itself. Our chief aim is to deliver humanity of this nightmare, to teach man virtue for its own sake, and to walk in life relying on himself instead of leaning on a theological crutch, that for countless ages was the direct cause of nearly all human misery. To regard God as an intelligent spirit, and accept at the same time his absolute immateriality is to conceive of a nonentity, a blank void; to regard God as a Being, an Ego and to place his intelligence under a bushel for some mysterious reasons—is a most consummate nonsense; to endow him with intelligence in the face of blind brutal Evil is to make of him a fiend—a most rascally God. The best Adepts have searched the Universe during millenniums and found nowhere the slightest trace of such a Machiavellian schemer.

—Mahatma K. H.

The greatest obstacle in the way of an earnest student of Theosophy is not his ignorance. It is the false ideas which he holds, having acquired them by heredity, education, surroundings, or as Karmic heirlooms.

The centre round which the whole ideation of a student of The Secret Doctrine should turn is the teaching that he himself is the maker of his own destiny and the creator of his own circumstances. To that centre his study perforce brings him. However far he may roam, reaching to the very limits of his thought-circumference, along one radius or another he finds himself tracing back his steps to that centre. For study, application and promulgation, at every turn and on every occasion, he has to recall to his mind that central truth. It is worded thus (S.D. I. 17):-

The pivotal doctrine of the Esoteric philosophy admits no privileges or special gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego through personal effort and merit throughout a long series of metempsychoses and reincarnations.

In perceiving and in practising the truth enshrined in the above statement every one encounters difficulties arising out of a false conception of God and of soul—in the macrocosm a Personal God, in the microcosm a Personal Self. The personal idea of the human personality is rooted in the idea of a Personal God, distinct and separate from the universe. Belief in an Extra-Cosmic, Anthropomorphic God deludes a man into regarding himself as separate from all others, which, in its turn, must logically cause him to look upon himself as nothing more than an ephemeral flame that is burning itself out with the life of the body.

The correct view of the human soul as a ray of the Spirit depends on the correct view of Deity as the One Life. The immortal and divine nature of the human self can be comprehended only when the reality of the One Self is recognized by our minds. The false notion of a Personal God hinders and traps the student at every turn in understanding the teachings or in making applications thereof. The Personal-God-Notion is the greatest enemy of the student, and its manifestation in human nature is egotism. Whenever any manifestation of egotism is traced to its source it will be found to be the Personal-God-Notion. Egotistic tendencies are not deliberately and consciously fostered by any earnest student; similarly belief in a Personal God is held by many unconsciously to themselves.

Our last study was devoted to the Record of the Wisdom-Religion, and in it the answer to "What is Theosophy?" was formulated. Everywhere in the genuine Theosophical books, with great and reiterated emphasis, the delusion of the Personal-God-Notion has been attacked. In the two volumes of her Secret Doctrine, H.P.B. has exposed the fallacy, and before we can learn the Theosophical answer to "What is God?", we must learn to know what It is not.

Even in our so-called scientific civilization "the worshippers of a personal deity and believers in an unphilosophical paradise" (S.D. I. 266) are numbered by the million. They pray to "an extra-Cosmic and personal God, higher than whom no exoteric worship can ever soar" (S.D. II. 501), making the task of the Theosophical student most difficult. That task is to preach and promulgate the view that belief in such a God perverts human morals and deadens the action of the mind. To propagate this truth the student himself has to master it. Unless he meditates on the attacks made in The Secret Doctrine on the Personal-God-Notion, he will not be able to get rid of this deeply ingrained acquisition—for it is an acquired and not an innate idea. God conceived as a person is endowed with moral feelings and also with a mind, and The Secret Doctrine attacks both these notions:-

The attempt to derive God from the Anglo-Saxon synonym "good" is an abandoned idea, for in no other language, in all of which the term varies more or less, from the Persian Khoda down to the Latin Deus, has an instance been found of a name of God being derived from the attribute of Goodness. To the Latin races it comes from the Aryan Dyaus (the Day); to the Slavonian, from the Greek Bacchus (Bagh-bog); and to the Saxon races directly from the Hebrew Yodh or Jod. (S.D. I. 347)

The personal God of orthodox Theism perceives, thinks, and is affected by emotion; he repents and feels "fierce anger." But the notion of such mental states clearly involves the unthinkable postulate of the externality of the exciting stimuli, to say nothing of the impossibility of ascribing changelessness to a Being whose emotions fluctuate with events in the worlds he presides over. The conceptions of a Personal

God as changeless and infinite are thus unpsychological and, what is worse, unphilosophical. (S.D. I. 2 footnote)

Indeed, a Deity, a Being, "having a mind like that of man, only infinitely more powerful," is no God that has any room beyond the cycle of creation.... The Eastern Occultist has to decline the offer of such a God. (S.D. II. 544)

An extra-cosmic god is fatal to philosophy, an intra-cosmic Deity—i.e., Spirit and matter inseparable from each other—is a philosophical necessity. Separate them and that which is left is a gross superstition under a mask of emotionalism. (S.D. II. 41)

Philosophy rejects one finite and imperfect God in the universe, as the anthropomorphic deity of the monotheist is represented by his followers. It repudiates in its name of Philo-Theo-Sophia the grotesque idea that Infinite, Absolute Deity should, or rather could, have any, whether direct or indirect, relation to finite illusive evolutions of matter, and therefore cannot imagine a universe outside that Deity, or the latter absent from the smallest speck of animate or inanimate substance. This does not mean that every bush, tree or stone is God or a god; but only that every speck of the manifested material of Kosmos belongs to and is the substance of "God," however low it may have fallen in its cyclic gyration through the Eternities of the ever becoming; and also that every such speck individually, and Kosmos collectively, is an aspect and a reminder of that universal One Soul—which Theosophy refuses to call God, thus limiting the eternal and ever-present root and essence. (S.D. I. 533)

But how did such a crude view, at once illogical and demoralizing, arise? To say that priestly cunning took advantage of human credulity and created god in the image of man is not the whole answer. Even superstitious dogmas and false beliefs, in the final analysis, are rooted in some sublime truth. Shadows are not cast by non-existing things; and this gigantic, evil shadow is a huge elongated distortion of an eternal verity. If a learned and pure Brahmana, when asked whether he believes in the existence of God, is always likely to answer—"I am myself God," he would go on to explain the doctrine of the Self within and quote innumerable texts from the Gita, the Upanishads and the Brahmasutras. Now what "God" is meant here? Not God—the anthropomorphic fiction; but God—the Spirit incarnate in the innermost recess of the human heart, the Holy of Holies. But in spite of the highly philosophical religion which the Hindus possess, thousands of them are obsessed by the Personal-God-Notion; and so also men and women of other creeds. Restore to man the correct knowledge about Deity and he will enthrone the Soul as an active potency in his own heart.

Therefore, though Theosophy vigorously attacks the Personal-God-Notion, it is not to be inferred that its position is either atheistic or

The Secret Doctrine teaches no Atheism, except in the Hindu sense of the word nastika, or the rejection of idols, including every anthropomorphic god. In this sense every Occultist is a Nastika. (S.D. I. 279)

When the Theosophists and Occultists say that God is no BEING, for IT is nothing, No-Thing, they are more reverential and religiously respectful to the Deity than those who call God a HE, and thus make of Him a gigantic MALE. (S.D. I. 352)

That which divides the sectarian sacerdotal religion from the unifying philosophical Religion is the Personal-God-Notion. The One Impersonal Reality thus degraded into numerous jealous and competing gods has transformed the one pure Wisdom-Religion into many conflicting creeds, one humanity into various opposing clans. What can restore brotherliness among the clans, unity among the creeds and, destroying the false notion, substitute the true idea of Deity? Says The Secret Doctrine, I, xx:-

Esoteric philosophy proves the necessity of an absolute Divine Principle in nature. It denies deity no more than it does the Sun. Esoteric philosophy has never rejected God in Nature, nor Deity as the absolute and abstract Ens. It only refuses to accept any of the gods of the so-called monotheistic religions, gods created by man in his own image and likeness, a blasphemous and sorry caricature of the Ever Unknowable.

DEITY IS LAW

There is one eternal Law in nature, one that always tends to adjust contraries and to produce final harmony. It is owing to this law of spiritual development superseding the physical and purely intellectual, that mankind will become freed from its false gods, and find itself finally—SELF-REDEEMED. (S.D. II. 420)

In our last study it was shown that the Personal-God-Notion is like an iron gate which bars the way to the realm of understanding. The key which will unlock the gate is known as—Law. The great contribution of modern science which broke the fetters of theology and freed the race-mind in some measure at least is also related to the concept of law and order in the universe. Modern science proved that belief in miracles was a superstition. Its materialistic and machinistic tendency has carried it away and often science has arrogated to itself the position that what it did not know could not be known, and that outside of its own sphere exact knowledge was not available. But for all that in destroying the idea of miracles science served the cause of Theosophy and Occultism. Though it ridicules the idea of spirit and the spiritual universe, in establishing the reign of law in visible nature it helped the work of spiritual teachers who insist that infallible law functions in invisible nature also. While it is true that modern science has changed its position more than once about the character and the mode of function of the Law in Nature, it has adhered to the proposition that some kind of law operates in the universe of matter. Theosophy is more definite in its statement:-

While science speaks of its evolution through brute matter, blind force, and, senseless motion, the Occultists point to intelligent LAW and sentient LIFE. (S.D. I. 139)

According to The Secret Doctrine, law and order govern the moral universe also; it teaches that "the one absolute, ever acting and never erring law" functions everywhere (S.D. II. 87). The very manifestation of any universe is according to Law which is impersonal, and Law functions also in its dissolution. And what is true of the universe applies also to all beings in that universe.

The great obstacle of the Personal-God-Notion in the mind of the aspirant to spiritual life has to be removed. One of the questions often asked is: "If I give up God what is the substitute?" The answer of modern science is agnostical, that of Theosophy is gnostical. Theosophy rejects miracle, accident, chance; it also rejects the view that the ultimate mystery of Life, i.e., Spirit, Mind, Matter, cannot be solved. It answers:-

Most certainly chance is "impossible." There is no "chance" in Nature, wherein everything is mathematically co-ordinate and mu-

tually related in its units. "Chance," says Coleridge, "is but the pseudonym of God (or Nature), for those particular cases which He does not choose to subscribe openly with His sign manual." Replace the word "God" by that of Karma and it will become an Eastern axiom. (S.D. I. 653)

It is idle to speak of "laws arising when Deity prepares to create" for (a) laws or rather Law is eternal and uncreated; and (b) that Deity is Law, and vice versa. Moreover, the one eternal Law unfolds everything in the (to be) manifested Nature. (S.D. I. 152)

Karma is a highly philosophical truth, a most divine noble expression of the primitive intuition of man concerning Deity. It is a doctrine which explains the origin of Evil, and ennobles our conceptions of what divine immutable Justice ought to be, instead of degrading the unknown and unknowable Deity by making it the whimsical, cruel tyrant, which we call Providence. (S.D. II. 305-6 fn.)

In her own vivid language H.P.B. has written at some length on the subject of God and Law. Her statement is so important that we feel justified in giving a full extract (S.D. II. 304-5):-

Of all the terrible blasphemies and accusations virtually thrown on their God by the Monotheists, none is greater or more unpardonable than that (almost always) false humility which makes the presumably "pious" Christian assert, in connection with every evil and undeserved blow, that "such is the will of God."

Dolts and hypocrites! Blasphemers and impious Pharisees, who speak in the same breath of the endless merciful Love and care of their God and creator for helpless man, and of that God scourging the good, the very best of his creatures, bleeding them to death like an insatiable Moloch! Shall we be answered to this, in Congreve's words:-

"But who shall dare to tax Eternal Justice?" Logic and simple common sense, we answer: if we are made to believe in the "original Sin," in one life, on this Earth only, for every Soul, and in an anthropomorphic Deity, who seems to have created some men only for the pleasure of condemning them to eternal hell-fire (and this whether they are good or bad, says the Predestinarian), why should not every man endowed with reasoning powers condemn in his turn such a villainous Deity? Life would become unbearable, if one had to believe in the God created by man's unclean fancy. Luckily he exists only in human dogmas, and in the unhealthy imagination of some poets, who believe they have solved the problem by addressing him as—

"Thou great Mysterious Power, who hast involved
The pride of human wisdom, to confound

The daring scrutiny and prove the faith
Of thy presuming creatures! . . ."

Truly a robust "faith" is required to believe that it is "presumption" to question the justice of one, who creates helpless little man but to "perplex" him, and to test a "faith" with which that "Power," moreover, may have forgotten, if not neglected, to endow him, as happens sometimes.

Compare this blind faith with the philosophical belief, based on every reasonable evidence and life-experience, in Karma-Nemesis, or the Law of Retribution. This Law—whether Conscious or Unconscious—predestines nothing and no one. . . .

Karma has never sought to destroy intellectual and individual liberty, like the God invented by the Monotheists. It has not involved its decrees in darkness purposely to perplex man; nor shall it punish him who dares to scrutinise its mysteries. On the contrary, he who unveils through study and meditation its intricate paths, and throws light on those dark ways, in the windings of which so many men perish owing to their ignorance of the labyrinth of life, is working for the good of his fellow-men.

If the student-aspirant wishes to have some insight into the Theosophical concept of Deity he must begin to see the action of the unerring Law everywhere. He must attempt to perceive that the universe is not run by the caprice of a personal god, nor is it the fortuitous concurrence of atoms. There is intelligence at work in the harmony and design manifesting everywhere in nature and this is the result of Law. Karma has a metaphysical as well as psychological aspect—the former can be studied in the cosmos, the latter in one's own individual life.

Theologians and priests have created another difficulty by misinterpreting what are called in numerous religions the Names of God. What were once poetic and artistic personifications of abstract symbols have been degraded, grossly anthropomorphized and even carnalized. Priest-craft has corrupted the practice of telling beads or of Japa, of repeating the Names of God, etc. Names and Forms originally devised by spiritual instructors and great philosophers for meditation, for freeing the mind and fixing it on high ideas have been used for mumbling propitiatory prayers to a personal god or many personal gods and goddesses. What some Christian theologians have done with the teachings of Plato has been done by other theologians elsewhere with the instructions of mystics and philosophers. Writes H.P.B.:-

Is it Plato, the greatest pupil of the archaic Sages, a sage himself, for whom there was but a single object of attainment in this life—REAL KNOWLEDGE—who would have ever believed in a deity that curses and damns men for ever, on the slightest provocation? Not he, who considered only those to be genuine philosophers and students of truth who possessed the knowledge of the really existing in opposi-

tion to mere seeming; of the always existing in opposition to the transitory; and of that which exists permanently in opposition to that which waxes, wanes, and is developed and destroyed alternately. Speusippus and Xenocrates followed in his footsteps. The ONE, the original, had no existence, in the sense applied to it by mortal men. "The (honoured one) dwells in the centre as in the circumference, but it is only the reflection of the Deity—the world Soul"—the plane of the surface of the circle. (S.D. II. 554-5)

Ours is the age of materialism—not only in science, but in philosophy and religion also. In every department the abstract has been concretized. Poetic personifications have been mistaken for objective realities, humanized forces of invisible nature for actual divinities. In the mind as constituted today religious Names and Forms of God or Gods act not as a help but as a hindrance in glimpsing the truth about the Deity which is Law. Therefore, The Secret Doctrine mostly discards such personifications (Names) and humanizations (Forms) and reverts to metaphysical symbols, such as Space, Motion, Time, Light, a contemplation on which brings to us the answer that—God is LIFE.

METAPHYSICS

Outside of metaphysics no occult philosophy, no esotericism is possible.

—S.D. I. 169.

When the fogs of theology are dispersed and people find out that there is nothing but empty space where they fancied and believed was God, their lover and protector, they are taken back. When God disperses with the fogs, they find themselves left, face to face with empty space. Instead of enquiring what that empty space is, and whether perchance Deity is therein, they fly from the extreme of blind belief in the Personal God to the extreme of blind disbelief in no god. They argue—because physical fogs yielded nothing, metaphysical space will also yield nothing.

God is supposed to belong to the realm of religion and theology, and when the God of religions is rejected, people do not turn to enquire if there is not some other department of knowledge where the existence and nature of Deity are described. Especially as modern science has demolished that personal god, most people who have thrown away their religion, follow the dictates of science. Again, philosophy has been mistaken for theology, and theology is so closely akin to religion, that people sweep out fair philosophy along with crooked theology. Moreover, science dealing with concrete facts is looked upon as practical, while philosophy is regarded as unpractical because abstract and speculative. All this should be kept in mind, for herein is one of the difficulties which the student will have to face.

Theosophy teaches that the starting point for a man who aspires to live rationally is knowledge. In the world of actions people do wrong because they are moved by the impulse of feelings and desires. The knowledge necessary for right action is absent. Further, it is knowledge which first purifies and then elevates man's moral nature. Knowledge brings desire-impulses under control and stops their wanton movements which make a man fearful at one time, elated at another. Knowledge stops caprice. It unfolds devotion in which there are the ingredients of viveka—discrimination, vairagya—dispassion, and karuna—compassion. Then only the performance of right action becomes possible. Therefore, The Secret Doctrine recommends the study of metaphysics. Universal and impersonal ideas free the mind from circumscribing personal notions; in the presence of such ideas, petty, mean, narrow thoughts vanish. Metaphysics (not metaphysical jargon) are capable of evolving a true international outlook in the mind of the politician; of elevating to cosmic heights the intuitions of the poet; of infusing wisdom and a sense of proportion in the love of the saint; of suffusing with compassion the heart of the sage.

For this reason H.P.B. gives the Three Fundamental Propositions in such metaphysical terms. These Propositions "form the basis of the present work" (S.D. I. 13) and they have to be mastered sufficiently, for, "on their clear apprehension depends the understanding of all that follows" (I. 13). The first of these Propositions deals with the subject of God or Deity. That subject should first be studied from the metaphysical point of view. In one place (Transactions, p. 138) H.P.B. speaks of "practical Occultism" as "but the lowest form of applied Metaphysics." Let the student once for all make up his mind that without metaphysics there is no real grasping of the instructions offered in The Secret Doctrine. With all this in view let the student ponder over the following important statements (S.D. I. 169-170):-

Unfortunately, there are few who are inclined to handle these doctrines only metaphysically. Even the best of the Western writers upon our doctrine declares in his work that "on pure metaphysics of that sort we are not now engaged," when speaking of the evolution of the Monads ("Esoteric Buddhism"). And in such case, as the Teacher remarks in a letter to him, "Why this preaching of our doctrines, all this uphill work and swimming in adversum flumen? Why should the West . . . learn . . . from the East that which can never meet the requirements of the special tastes of the æsthetics?" And he draws his correspondent's attention "to the formidable difficulties encountered by us (the Adepts) in every attempt we make to explain our metaphysics to the Western mind."

And well he may; for outside of metaphysics no occult philosophy, no esotericism is possible. It is like trying to explain the aspirations and affections, the love and hatred, the most private and sacred workings in the soul and mind of the living man, by an anatomical description of the chest and brain of his dead body.

Those who are not educated in philosophy need not lose heart. The living philosophy of The Secret Doctrine is far removed from the cold abstractions and syllogistic speculations of the schoolman which ordinarily pass for philosophy. Any one not acquainted with the latter will not find the metaphysics of The Secret Doctrine beyond his comprehension. Any honest mind, however untutored in the lore of modern academies, will find it possible to grasp them, if the approach is earnest and the effort persistent.

ETHICS

Great intellect and too much knowledge are a two-edged weapon in life, and instruments for evil as well as for good. When combined with Selfishness, they will make of the whole of Humanity a footstool for the elevation of him who possesses them, and a means for the attainment of his objects; while, applied to altruistic humanitarian purposes, they may become the means of the salvation of many. —S.D. II. 163

Between metaphysics and morality there is an intimate connection. Our civilization does not recognise it. Theosophy does. The modern metaphysician deals learnedly in speculations and abstractions which have no ethical bearing. In the popular mind ethics are related to religions and naturally there is talk about Christian ethics, and Hindu ethics, etc. In reality religion makes little difference and everyone knows that there are moral, unmoral and immoral people belonging to every religion. Every religion, without exception, has lost its pristine purity and its original universal character. One of the main contributory causes of this corruption is the divorce between metaphysics and ethics. When true philosophy, which deals with cosmic ultimates and reveals the indissoluble and intimate connection between universe and man, ceases to be the soul of ethics we have false moral principles. Thus in the Christian church, where the philosophy of the great Gnostics is not imparted, the sublime ethics of Jesus are not possible of practice. That is one of the interpretations of the true saying— "nearer to church further from God." The same phenomenon is to be found among followers of other faiths; the orthodox Hindu cannot practise the ethical principles of the Gita and remain orthodox; the same may be said of the orthodox Zoroastrian and the Gathas. How can a man avoid polluting things in and of space when he is not given some instruction of boundless space of which he himself is an expression? How can a man conceive of immortality and see that he never was born, nor will he ever die, when he is not taught about timeless duration and long eternities which begin and end? How can a man confidently go forward fighting his own defects without a perception that Life is the Great Breath, the Perpetual Motion, unfolding and awakening to perfection beyond perfection and that he himself is the creator of the future? In a previous study (No. V) we saw how the false teaching about the personal god results in a false view about the human personality, developing the vice of egotism. It can similarly be shown that human vices and weaknesses are born of ignorance of philosophy and that many a virtue highly commended by sectarianism is not a virtue.

moral principles which are but faithful expressions of metaphysical ideas. To show, for example, how the ideas of the immanence of God and the brotherhood of man are respectively the philosophical and ethical phrases which express one and the same truth. Every great Theosophical book, e.g., the Bhagavad-Gita or the Tao Teh Ching, gives metaphysical and ethical principles and ideas side by side.

H.P.B.'s message, exoteric and esoteric, is based on the Ancient Record (see Studies Nos. I and IV in November 1934 and February 1935 issues) and in that message both ethics and metaphysics and their intimate kinship are given. The Stanzas of Dzyan on which The Secret Doctrine is based and the Book of the Golden Precepts from which the fragments called The Voice of the Silence are given may be described as the metaphysical and ethical aspects of the message. In her Preface to that little gem "Dedicated to the Few" H.P.B. writes:-

The work from which I here translate forms part of the same series as that from which the "Stanzas" of the Book of Dzyan were taken, on which the Secret Doctrine is based.

In the study of The Secret Doctrine, metaphysics play a very important part as was shown in the last instalment (No. VII). But it would be a very serious blunder to think that its philosophy could be comprehended without a practice of its ethical precepts. The ethics of Theosophy are the very instruments through which the cosmic ultimates can be perceived. Just as a drunken man cannot see his surroundings in the true perspective, an immoral profligate cannot see his cosmic surroundings in the true perspective. Because the modern scientist asserts that his powers of observation and understanding have nothing to do with his virtue, goodness and morality, he is not able to go beyond surface appearances. Because the modern philosopher does not connect his mental activity with his moral character his metaphysical abstractions and mathematical equations do not enable him to bear a toothache with equanimity.

Thus while on the one hand religions fail because they try to preach ethics without philosophy, science and philosophy fail because they try to impart knowledge without consideration of moral and ethical principles. The division between the sacred and the secular will continue as long as the divorce, between morality and metaphysics continues. Theosophy alone can bridge the gulf.

Now, The Secret Doctrine teaches that in the present era vices are an abnormal phenomenon. It may not be possible for man to manifest his divine powers, but it is possible for him to express his human nature. Instead, animalism is to the fore. Says H.P.B.:-

In short, Spirituality is on its ascending arc, and the. animal or physical impedes it from steadily progressing on the path of its evolution only when the selfishness of the personality has so strongly infected the real inner man with its lethal virus, that the upward attrac-

tion has lost all its power on the thinking reasonable man. In sober truth, vice and wickedness are an abnormal, unnatural manifestation, at this period of our human evolution—at least they ought to be so. The fact that mankind was never more selfish and vicious than it is now, civilized nations having succeeded in making of the first an ethical characteristic, of the second an art, is an additional proof of the exceptional nature of the phenomenon. (S.D. II. 110)

What is the very first step which has to be taken by the student who desires to assimilate the philosophy and ethics which are but aspects of the Wisdom-Religion or Theosophy? He must recognize the underlying unity between far-away cosmic ultimates and the near-at-hand human relations. To understand and assimilate the metaphysical morality and the ethical philosophy the student has to begin to feel in his heart the truth of his mental perceptions. He must learn to see himself endowed with divine powers, and feel in himself his inner God—a man-God in his true nature, though an animal in his physical self. The struggle between the two is the struggle for life between the spiritual and the psychic, the psychic and the physical. The end of the struggle should also be perceived: He who conquers the lower principles by obtaining mastery over the body, joins the Sons of Light. He who falls victim to his lower nature, becomes the slave of matter; he has fallen in the battle of mortal life with Life Immortal. The student is requested to read carefully p. 272 of Vol. II of The Secret Doctrine and note the adaptation of the words of H.P.B. to ourselves and our conditions of today, and see a fresh interpretation of the saying that the disciple must gain the child-state he has lost.

Next we must see the fundamentals of the philosophical morality advanced in the great book.

UNITY: THE MOTHER OF ALL VIRTUES

"That which is neither Spirit nor Matter, neither Light nor Darkness, but is verily the container and root of these, that thou art. The Root projects at every Dawn its shadow on ITSELF, and that shadow thou callest Light and Life, O poor dead form! (This) Life-Light streameth downward through the stairway of the seven worlds, the stairs, of which each step becomes denser and darker. It is of this seven-times-seven scale that thou art the faithful climber and mirror, O little man! Thou art this, but thou knowest it not."

It is only "with a mind clear and undarkened by personality, and an assimilation of the merit of manifold existences devoted to being in its collectivity (the whole living and sentient Universe)," that one gets rid of personal existence, merging into, becoming one with, the Absolute, and continuing in full possession of Paramârtha. (S.D. I. 54)

The Secret Doctrine is a book of practical Occultism; therefore its moral principles act as the soul of its metaphysics. The Magic it teaches is divine, and only those who take pains to purify and elevate their characters by acquiring knowledge and by taking the aid of its lofty metaphysics learn that Magic and become true philosophers as well as philanthropists.

The central principle of the Esoteric Philosophy is the Impartite Unit best named LIFE.

That One Life is the background of Nature and ever remains so. It is the source from which Nature springs, the medium in which Nature unfolds, the common link between all objects of Nature, the receptacle into which Nature dissolves into formlessness.

The relation between that Unit and the human kingdom is the same and yet different from the relation between It and other kingdoms.

The One Life is omnipresent, therefore "ALL IS LIFE, and every atom of even mineral dust is a LIFE." (S.D. I. 248)

The radical unity of the ultimate essence of each constituent part of compounds in Nature—from Star to mineral Atom, from the highest Dhyan Chohan to the smallest infusoria, in the fullest acceptation of the term, and whether applied to the spiritual, intellectual, or physical worlds—this is the one fundamental law in Occult Science. "The Deity is boundless and infinite expansion," says an Occult axiom. (S.D. I. 120)

The One Life is omnipotent also, i.e., from within Its homogeneity emanate countless heterogeneous forms of Itself, and of these the human being is one. These emanations are different and in the Esoteric Philosophy they are called hierarchies of beings and kingdoms of nature. The human hierarchy and the human kingdom differ from other hierarchies and kingdoms. Therefore it is said:-

No Occultist would deny that man—no less than the elephant and the microbe, the crocodile and the lizard, the blade of grass or the crystal—is, in his physical formation, the simple product of the evolutionary forces of nature through a numberless series of transformations; but he puts the case differently. (S.D. I. 636)

Man is certainly no special creation, and he is the product of Nature's gradual perfective work, like any other living unit on this Earth. But this is only with regard to the human tabernacle. That which lives and thinks in man and survives that frame, the masterpiece of evolution—is the "Eternal Pilgrim," the Protean differentiation in space and time of the One Absolute "unknowable." (S.D. II. 728)

Therefore while The Secret Doctrine recognizes "the Presence of the Unseen Principle throughout all nature" it also teaches that "the highest manifestation of it on Earth [is] man." (S.D. II. 555)

Thus it becomes evident that the kinship subsisting between man and man is special and exceptional in comparison with all other entities of the different kingdoms of Nature. Man's kinship with his fellow men is not the same as his kinship, for example, with the animals; and the difference is not only one of degree, it is one of kind.

The manifestation of this kinship is the Law of Brotherhood. Whether we recognize its existence or are ignorant of it, the Law of Brotherhood continues to function. As in the case of other laws of nature the knowledge of its existence and of the mode of its functioning is useful. The obtaining of knowledge about the Law of Brotherhood is necessary, for to it is related the fundamental principle of Theosophical ethics. Why should a human being practise Brotherhood? Says our book (I. 120):-

"Lift thy head, oh Lanoo; dost thou see one, or countless lights above thee, burning in the dark midnight sky?"

"I sense one Flame, oh Gurudeva, I see countless undetached sparks shining in it."

"Thou sayest well. And now look around and into thyself. That light which burns inside thee, dost thou feel it different in anywise from the light that shines in thy Brother-men?"

"It is in no way different, though the prisoner is held in bondage by Karma, and though its outer garments delude the ignorant into saying, 'Thy Soul and My Soul.'"

The first virtue of metaphysical morality is Brotherliness—the actual practice of the truth learnt by the mind that between man and his "Brother-men," in essence and in substance there is kinship—nay, identity. Different religious creeds begin with different virtues—love, faith, charity, purity, harmlessness, etc.; while these may and do awaken an indirect recognition of the Law of Brotherhood, Esoteric Philosophy and its Wisdom-Religion directly call upon the student-practitioner to be a brother to all his "Brother-men." This is not the culmination but the starting point in Theosophical discipline. Brotherhood is the mother of all virtues.

The practice of Brotherhood does not imply nonrecognition of outer differences of mind, character and body. Just as unity in diversity makes the order of nature, so identity in differences marks the human kingdom also. The differences, however, disappear in the process of evolution; their remains and residuum make a grand unity.

The flame and the countless undetached sparks shining as one human hierarchy are a fact; we are prisoners of Karma, and are so deluded by appearances into believing that differences are real, that we remain blind to the supreme fact that humanity is one. The practice of Brotherhood helps us to perceive that supreme fact; continuity of practice leads to recognition of the existence of Those who are Brothers—Units in a single Fraternity, sometimes called the "Wise Race that never Dies." Those Brothers have realized in Their own persons the supreme fact that humanity is one. The White Adepts of the Great Brotherhood are humanity's Great or Elder Brothers. They are of one mind and one speech; all of Them ideate and instruct alike; all of Them are engaged in the performance of but one duty, the act of one mighty sacrifice. They have assimilated "the merit of manifold existences devoted to being in its collectivity" (S.D. I. 54). Of the Brothers and the Great Brotherhood it can be said that Individuality is the characteristic of that Hierarchy, not of its separate units.

The student has to learn that the practice of Brotherhood originates in the word used above in the Catechism—"Brother-men." Right attitude and behaviour towards vast Nature will evolve out of the right practice of brotherliness towards all units in the human kingdom.

THE DUALITY OF GOOD AND EVIL

Esoteric philosophy shows that man is truly the manifested deity in both its aspects—good and evil, but theology cannot admit this philosophical truth. . . . evil will ever predominate unto the day when Humanity is redeemed by the true divine Enlightenment which gives the correct perception of things. (S.D. II. 515)

Our last study dealt with the mother virtue of Brotherhood, which harmonizes the different units of the human kingdom and produces unity. In our efforts to practise brotherliness towards all men and women each one of us finds numerous obstacles. Theosophy traces the root cause of all of them to the duality which is within man. Good and evil are struggling in the blood of every human being. Virtues and vices are waging a war in the individual and as long as the war lasts there is neither peace for himself nor brotherliness towards others. The Esoteric Philosophy teaches that the source of both good and evil is within man, not outside of him. It warns us against the religious doctrine that places the Devil, Satan, Ahriman, or God, Creator, Ahura Mazda outside of man.

As the whole philosophy of the problem of evil hangs upon the correct comprehension of the constitution of the inner being of nature and man, of the divine within the animal, and hence also the correctness of the whole system as given in these pages, with regard to the crown piece of evolution—MAN— we cannot take sufficient precautions against theological subterfuges. (S.D. II. 476)

Our text-book devotes very many pages to that which is called "the War in Heaven." That war stands for conflicts of different types, but all rooted in the archetypal war between the good and evil in man. The warning quoted above against "theological subterfuges" takes on a new and more serious aspect when we learn that the very origin of sacerdotal and sectarian religions is connected with a misinterpretation of the true archaic teaching about good and evil. The Secret Doctrine speaks about "the great schism" and "the great struggle" between the two schools of magic, and says that the "whole History of that period is allegorized in the Ramayana."

This was the great battle between Good and Evil, between white and black magic, for the supremacy of the divine forces, or of the lower terrestrial, or cosmic powers. (S.D. II. 495)

One of the direct and woeful results of this war was the emergence of "the first anthropomorphists who worshipped form and matter."

That worship degenerated very soon into self-worship, thence led to phallicism, or that which reigns supreme to this day in the symbolisms of every exoteric religion of ritual, dogma, and form. (S.D. II. 273)

This struggle may be described as the War between the One Universal Religion of the early Races who "knew no dogma," and the many sectarian religions, each with its own anthropomorphism. Those who seek to trace the source of evil with the aid of the latter are bound to come upon it as outside of themselves. As they get away from sectarian religions and move in the direction of philosophy, mysticism and ultimately Theosophical Occultism they will see the root of evil existing in the human kingdom and in their own blood and brain.

The Demon of Pride, Lust, Rebellion, and Hatred, has never had any being before the appearance of physical conscious man. It is man who has begotten, nurtured, and allowed the fiend to develop in his heart; he, again, who has contaminated the indwelling god in himself, by linking the pure spirit with the impure demon of matter. And, if the Kabalistic saying, "Demon est Deus inversus" finds its metaphysical and theoretical corroboration in dual manifested nature, its practical application is found in Mankind alone. (S.D. II, 274)

The ultimate root of Good and Evil, metaphysically speaking, is Spirit and Matter—the two aspects of the One Life.

Archaic philosophy, recognizing neither Good nor Evil as a fundamental or independent power, but starting from the Absolute ALL (Universal Perfection eternally), traced both through the course of natural evolution to pure Light condensing gradually into form, hence becoming Matter or Evil. (S.D. I. 73)

In human nature, evil denotes only the polarity of matter and Spirit, a struggle for life between the two manifested Principles in Space and Time, which principles are one per se, inasmuch as they are rooted in the Absolute. (S.D. I. 416)

Good and Evil are twins, the progeny of Space and Time, under the sway of Maya. Separate them, by cutting off one from the other, and they will both die. Neither exists per se, since each has to be generated and created out of the other, in order to come into being; both must be known and appreciated before becoming objects of perception, hence, in mortal mind, they must be divided. (S.D. II. 96)

This abstract and metaphysical teaching about good and evil has its concrete expression. Our book teaches that Akasa, the Astral Light, is dual. How it came to be dual is explained (S.D. II. 511-13). The higher or Divine Astral Light is beneficent; the lower or devilish is called "the fatal light"—"the tempting and deceitful serpent on our plane" (S.D. I. 74). But its raison d'être is man.

The Astral light becomes, with regard to Mankind, simply the effects of the causes produced by men in their sinful lives. It is not its bright denizens— whether they are called Spirits of Light or Darkness—that produce Good or Evil, but mankind itself that determines the unavoidable action and reaction in the great magic agent. (S.D. II. 512)

But man being the cause and creator of the nefarious can also become its destroyer.

Humanity, in its units, can overpower and master its effects; but only by the holiness of their lives and by producing good causes. (S.D. II. 512)

The corresponding powers or forces in man himself are represented by the dual mind.

"Manas is dual—lunar in the lower, solar in its upper portion," says a commentary. That is to say, it is attracted in its higher aspect towards Buddhi, and in its lower descends into, and listens to the voice of its animal soul full of selfish and sensual desires; and herein is contained the mystery of an adept's as of a profane man's life, as also that of the post-mortem separation of the divine from the animal man. (S.D. II. 495-96)

The astral through Kama (desire) is ever drawing Manas down into the sphere of material passions and desires. But if the better man or Manas tries to escape the fatal attraction and turns its aspirations to Atma—Spirit—then Buddhi (Ruach) conquers, and carries Manas with it to the realm of eternal Spirit The body follows the whims, good or bad, of Manas; Manas tries to follow the light of Buddhi, but often fails. (S.D. I. 244-45)

This teaching about the duality of Manas brings us the instruction about overcoming evil and manifesting good. Theosophical discipline revolves round the centre of Manas—whose foe is Kama; whose friend is Buddhi. To fight passion we require courage; to obtain the light of Wisdom-Compassion we need patience. Only when the evil mind is conquered and the good or superior mind begins to function can we manifest true brotherhood. To live brotherhood, discipline is necessary, discipline of the human mind. The task before the student-practitioner is to humanize his mind. The present civilization animalizes it. That is why the law of the jungle so widely prevails and human wolves hunt in packs, and birds of the same feather flock together as nations and classes. Theosophy teaches us how to overcome the animal and how to evoke the divine and thus how to make the whole world kin.

THE IDEAL AND THE WAY TO IT

These great Mahatmas, or Buddhas, are a universal and common property: they are historical sages—at any rate, for all the Occultists who believe in such a hierarchy of Sages, the existence of which has been proved to them by the learned ones of the Fraternity. —S.D. II. 423.

It has been shown¹ that to better one's walk on the Path of the Soul one must become a student of the metaphysics and a practitioner of the ethics taught in The Secret Doctrine. Those two are like the wings of a bird; the human Soul rises to supernal heights by them. The study of the metaphysical concepts must not be an intellectual effort only to learn and to enjoy, bringing a satisfaction to the mind; the implications of those concepts have numerous practical bearings on the day-to-day life. On the other hand, the practice of the ethics must not be like rites of religions, performed without adequate knowledge and rooted in mere blind belief; those ethical principles are intimately related to cosmic ultimates. Therefore we saw² how The Secret Doctrine connects the mind of man and the mind of the universe and reveals that what throbs at the centre of the human heart is identical with that which throbs at the heart of the universe. Thus the virtue of Brotherhood finds its metaphysical counterpart in the Unity of Life, on the other hand the philosophical concept of Deity reveals itself as the moral Law of Brotherhood. This metaphysical and ethical synthesis—Life-Unity and Brotherhood—becomes the substratum and basis of the daily discipline. We also saw³ how in man the struggle between the good and the evil minds goes on, and if Brotherhood becomes the basis, this war between the two minds offers the practitioner material in and on which he can execute the rules of his discipline. When the discipline of higher life is founded on the fundamental Law of Brotherhood, the Esoteric Philosophy brings its devotee to the plane where devotees of other schools have also risen and can also rise. The pure Soul who is not the disinterested philanthropist but is a philanthropist with vested interests arrives there; he may belong to any country or creed; but he has for his goal the freedom from material bondage, the liberty of the Soul, the retirement to æons of subjective peace. The discipline of the Esoteric Philosophy which starts with Brotherhood in actu teaches from the very beginning a way of life that may seem the same; in reality it only runs parallel for some distance to

the path of the aspirant for Mukti or Nirvana. Many of the teachings and practices of these two parallel ways are similar, but the motive and the final goal quite different.

The Esoteric Philosophy has a different and higher goal—not freedom from material bondage but acceptance of the woes of birth for the service of all Souls imprisoned in matter; not the liberty of the Soul for enjoyment of subjective bliss but living in an objective state so that help may be rendered to slave-souls.

In its metaphysics The Secret Doctrine introduces that principle "at present unknown to Western speculation"—Fohat; it is defined as "the dynamic energy of Cosmic Ideation" (S.D. I. 16) and is said to spring from Dzyu, "the one real (magical) knowledge or Occult Wisdom; its antithesis is Dzyu-mi, that which deals with illusions and false appearances only, as in our exoteric modern sciences. In this case, Dzyu is the expression of the collective Wisdom of the Dhyani-Buddhas." (S.D. I. 108)

Just as Fohat is related to the One Life metaphysically, so the central teaching of this real Wisdom of the Great Sages is related to the doctrine of Universal Brotherhood. That central teaching is called the Path of Great Renunciation and is distinct and different from the Path of Liberation or Emancipation. This Path of Great Renunciation is not the one ordinarily known among Eastern yogis and sannyasis, swamis and faquirs. That Path of Renunciation (Tyaga and Sannyasa Margas) is walked in the hope, for the purpose, and with the motive of gaining Liberation or Moksha. The Path of Great Renunciation taught in Esoteric Philosophy is not the means and the channel for liberation of the human spirit, but leads to the conscious and deliberate Renunciation of that liberation—"Nirvanas gained and lost from boundless pity and compassion for the world of deluded mortals." The path of renunciation of actions and of fruits of actions which leads to Liberation is called in Esoteric Philosophy the Open Path; the Path of Great Renunciation leads the Mukta and Nirvanee "to don the miseries of 'Secret Life'," and produces "mental woe unspeakable; woe for the living Dead, and helpless pity for the men of karmic sorrow." This is called the Secret Path.

Esoteric Philosophy teaches that there are Living Mahatmas who have ever kept the knowledge of the Secret Path alive in the world. It becomes obscure now and again; intimations of its existence are given in periods of obscuration—like the one the world has been passing through. H.P.B. was the spokesman of the Living Mahatmas of the Secret Path, and out of her knowledge and experience wrote the words quoted at the top of this instalment. It is not a new teaching or a new path; both are most ancient verities. This knowledge was lost and even in modern India its real significance is not grasped; outside the genuine Theosophical circle only a very few tread that Path and guard its secret most jealously.

this great truth. On page after page and through subject after subject treated in the two Volumes the student will discern this piece of instruction; it runs like a thread on which all the teachings are hung. Just as a number of precious stones are not usable as a necklace, so the large number of gems of the great book are not really usable, but when we perceive the thread we are able to hang the gems on it.

The discipline which starts with Brotherhood does not end in Peace for the individual but in his Philanthropic Service of the human race, in which Peace and all else are utilized. In an important section on "Cyclic Evolution and Karma" (p. 634) of the first Volume of The Secret Doctrine we find certain teachings which can be used to formulate rules of conduct and of life-discipline. We will give them here:-

It is a fundamental principle of the Occult philosophy, this same homogeneity of matter and immutability of natural laws, which are so much insisted upon by materialism; but that unity rests upon the inseparability of Spirit from matter, and, if the two are once divorced, the whole Kosmos would fall back into chaos and non-being.

There is a purpose in every important act of Nature, whose acts are all cyclic and periodical.

The only decree of Karma—an eternal and immutable decree—is absolute Harmony in the world of matter as it is in the world of Spirit. It is not, therefore, Karma that rewards or punishes, but it is we, who reward or punish ourselves according to whether we work with, through and along with nature, abiding by the laws on which that Harmony depends, or—break them. Verily there is not an accident in our lives, not a misshapen day, or a misfortune, that could not be traced back to our own doings in this or in another life.

Until we begin acting from within, instead of ever following impulses from without; namely, those produced by our physical senses and gross selfish body. Until then the only palliative to the evils of life is union and harmony— a Brotherhood IN ACTU, and altruism not simply in name. The suppression of one single bad cause will suppress not one, but a variety of bad effects. And if a Brotherhood or even a number of Brotherhoods may not be able to prevent nations from occasionally cutting each other's throats—still unity in thought and action, and philosophical research into the mysteries of being, will always prevent some, while trying to comprehend that which has hitherto remained to them a riddle, from creating additional causes in a world already so full of woe and evil.

SPACE AND THE PRESENCE

When, therefore, the Secret Doctrine—postulating that conditioned or limited space (location) has no real being except in this world of illusion, or, in other words, in our perceptive faculties—teaches that every one of the higher, as of the lower worlds, is interblended with our own objective world; that millions of things and beings are, in point of localization, around and in us, as we are around, with, and in them; it is no metaphysical figure of speech, but a sober fact in Nature, however incomprehensible to our senses.

But one has to understand the phraseology of Occultism. For example, the Doctrine refuses to use the words "above" and "below," "higher" and "lower," in reference to invisible spheres, as being without meaning. Even the terms "East" and "West" are merely conventional, necessary only to aid our human perceptions. For, though the Earth has its fixed points in the poles, North and South yet both East and West are variable relatively to our own position on the Earth's surface, and in consequence of its rotation from West to East. Hence, when "other worlds" are mentioned—whether better or worse, more spiritual or still more material, though both invisible—the Occultist does not locate these spheres either outside or inside our Earth, as the theologians and the poets do; for their location is nowhere in the space known to, and conceived by, the profane. They are, as it were, blended with our world— interpenetrating it and interpenetrated by it. There are millions and millions of worlds and firmaments visible to us; there are still greater numbers beyond those visible to the telescopes, and many of the latter kind do not belong to our objective sphere of existence. Although as invisible as if they were millions of miles beyond our solar system, they are yet with us, near us, within our own world, as objective and material to their respective inhabitants as ours is to us. But, again, the relation of these worlds to ours is not that of a series of egg-shaped boxes enclosed one within the other, like the toys called Chinese nests; each is entirely under its own special laws and conditions, having no direct relation to our sphere. The inhabitants of these, as already said, may be, for all we know, or feel, passing through and around us as if through empty space, their very habitations and countries being interblended with ours, though not disturbing our vision, because

we have not yet the faculties necessary for discerning them. Yet by their spiritual sight the Adepts, and even some seers and sensitives, are always able to discern, whether in a greater or smaller degree, the presence and close proximity to us of Beings pertaining to other spheres of life. Those of the (spiritually) higher worlds, communicate only with those terrestrial mortals who ascend to them, through individual efforts, on to the higher plane they are occupying. —S.D. I. 604-5.

Space is "the one thing which no human mind can either exclude from any conception, or conceive of by itself" (S.D. I. 14). Space is a thought-compelling and a thought-provoking symbol. It is a noble symbol inasmuch as it elevates the mind to the plane of serenity, and a useful one in so far as it frees the mind from pettiness, meanness, sordidness. It is a revealing symbol: the Great Presence can be sensed in and through it. The eye can see but not cognize it; the mind can cognize but not grasp it; the heart can grasp but not describe it. It is the symbol of Loneliness, for the human individual is lost in it, till he realizes that he is the All, and then space becomes the symbol of Divine and Impartite Unity. The orphan humanity and each individual human being learns the lesson of Unity in Loneliness. He who attains is not able to make the gift of his realization to all others. It is a sacred symbol, for space is the foundation, the corner-stone and the holy of holies in the shrine of Life.

Space is Parentless and Ever-Existing. The Occult Catechism contains the following questions and answers:-

"What is it that ever is?" "Space, the eternal Anupadaka [Parentless]." "What is it that ever was?" "The Germ in the Root." "What is it that is ever coming and going?" "The Great Breath." "Then, there are three Eternals?" "No, the three are one. That which ever is is one, that which ever was is one, that which is ever being and becoming is also one: and this is Space." (S.D. I. 11)

Space is called in the esoteric symbolism "the Seven-Skinned Eternal Mother-Father." It is composed from its undifferentiated to its differentiated surface of seven layers.

"What is that which was, is, and will be, whether there is a Universe or not; whether there be gods or none?" asks the esoteric Senzar Catechism. And the answer made is—SPACE. (S.D. I. 9)

The student-beginner is helped by first learning the two chief views of space— abstract and concrete, or unmanifested and manifested. As the starting point we must see that space is the symbol at once of the Absolute Be-ness and of conditioned existence, or the Becoming of Being. It is the boundless Background which ever is, in which universes rise and fall. It is the indestructible Ever-present in which births and deaths occur. But the Absolute is not distant or different from the Conditioned:

the Background is not something other than the Universes, nor is the Ever-Present separate from those that are born and die.

There is but one indivisible and absolute Omniscience and Intelligence in the Universe, and this thrills throughout every atom and infinitesimal point of the whole finite Kosmos which hath no bounds, and which people call SPACE, considered independently of anything contained in it. (S.D. I. 277)

CHAOS—THEOS—KOSMOS. These three are the containment of Space; or, as a learned Kabalist has defined it, "Space, the all containing uncontained, is the primary embodiment of simply Unity . . . boundless extension?' But, he asks again, "boundless extension of what?"—and makes the correct reply— "The unknown container of all, the Unknown FIRST CAUSE." This is a most correct definition and answer, most esoteric and true, from every aspect of occult teaching.

SPACE, which, in their ignorance and iconoclastic tendency to destroy every philosophic idea of old, the modern wiseacres have proclaimed "an abstract idea" and a void, is, in reality, the container and the body of the Universe with its seven principles. It is a body of limitless extent, whose PRINCIPLES, in Occult phraseology—each being in its turn a septenary— manifest in our phenomenal world only the grossest fabric of their sub-divisions. (S.D. I. 342)

The indissoluble intimacy between the Absolute and the Conditioned exists; the student of The Secret Doctrine is called upon to understand this by mental endeavour and to realize it, however inadequately or feebly, by heart-endeavour, i.e., by making applications of this truth to and within himself. To this end read the following in conjunction with the long but important extract given at the top of this instalment:-

[The Stanzas] teach belief in conscious Powers and Spiritual Entities; in terrestrial, semi-intelligent, and highly intellectual Forces on other planes (their intellection, of course, being of quite a different nature to any we can conceive of on Earth); and in Beings that dwell around us in spheres imperceptible, whether through telescope or microscope. (S.D. I. 478)

Space is boundless, however extensive and expansive it may become for the human eye, mind or heart.

Every one can see that beyond the horizon is space. Beyond the Solar System, beyond the Galactic or Stellar System, even beyond the totality called the Universe there is space. But that which we call Beyond in the vast exists equally in the minute. Between cells there are molecules and

between molecules atoms and then small and smaller units of life between any two of which there is the Beyond. There is a Beyond both to that which the most powerful telescope reveals, and to that which the most powerful microscope reveals.

The human mind can calculate and posit a boundary to the manifested whole, but beyond This, there is the That, to use the words of the ancient Upanishadic philosophers. Beyond the longest distance and the largest number is That; but also beyond the shortest distance and the smallest number is That. The philosophical and mathematical mind travelling in either of the two deeps of "emptiness" of the Beyond understands space differently from the scientist who observes the vast and the minute, just as the mind understands the phenomenon of the rising and the setting of the sun while the eye but sees the sun itself moving. But even understanding it the mind encounters the Beyond and says there is That to all This.

The mystic-occultist contacts space in a way that is as superior to the way of the mind as the latter is superior to the way of sense-observation. There is the eye of the body and the eye of the mind, which is reason; but there is also the eye of the heart which is intuition, and which the saintly sage possesses and uses. But even Heart-Compassion which annihilates distances and feels the unity of the whole and experiences It as the Real also encounters the awe-inspiring Beyond.

Therefore it is said: "It transcends the power of human conception and could only be dwarfed by any human expression or similitude" (S.D. I. 14). And yet, unless the supreme fact, the sublime truth is taken into account as the centre from which all philosophical enquiry must start, mind is bound to fail and man is bound to remain in bondage to that which seems and that which is conditioned.

Abstract Space is neither Being nor Non-being, therefore H.P.B. insists on calling It Be-ness.

Space is the one eternal thing that we can most easily imagine, immovable in its abstraction and uninfluenced by either the presence or absence in it of an objective Universe. It is without dimension, in every sense, and self-existent. Spirit is the first differentiation from THAT, the causeless cause of both Spirit and Matter. It is, as taught in the esoteric catechism, neither limitless void, nor conditioned fulness, but both. It was and ever will be. (S.D. I. 35)

Since there can be neither two INFINITES nor two ABSOLUTES in a Universe supposed to be Boundless, this Self-Existence can hardly be conceived of as creating personally. In the sense and perceptions of finite "Beings," THAT is Non-"being," in the sense that it is the one BE-NESS; for, in this ALL lies concealed its coeternal and coeval emanation or inherent radiation, which, upon becoming periodically Brahmâ (the male-female Potency) becomes or expands itself into the manifested Universe. Narayana moving on the (abstract) waters of Space,

is transformed into the Waters of concrete substance moved by him, who now becomes the manifested WORD or Logos. (S.D. I. 7)

In its absoluteness, the One Principle under its two aspects (of Parabrahmam and Mulaprakriti) is sexless, unconditioned and eternal. Its periodical (manvantaric) emanation—or primal radiation—is also One, androgynous and phenomenally finite. (S.D. I. 18)

It is symbolized by Darkness in and from which Light springs.

According to the tenets of Eastern Occultism, DARKNESS is the one true actuality, the basis and the root of light, without which the latter could never manifest itself, nor even exist. Light is matter, and DARKNESS pure Spirit. Darkness, in its radical metaphysical basis, is subjective and absolute light; while the latter in all its seeming effulgence and glory, is merely a mass of shadows, as it can never be eternal, and is simply an illusion, or Maya. (S.D. I. 70)

It is symbolized by the Great Void in and from which the manifested Plenum exists.

Space is neither a "limitless void," nor a "conditioned fulness," but both: being, on the plane of absolute abstraction, the ever-incognisable Deity, which is void only to finite minds, and on that of mayavic perception, the Plenum, the absolute Container of all that is, whether manifested or unmanifested: it is, therefore, that ABSOLUTE ALL. (S.D. I. 8)

That which is the abyss of nothingness to the physicist, who knows only the world of visible causes and effects, is the boundless Space of the Divine Plenum to the Occultist. (S.D. I. 148)

It is called the Absolute in and from which God in Nature is formed and dissolves.

THE TREES OF LIFE

From the highest antiquity trees were connected with the gods and mystical forces in nature. Every nation had its sacred tree, with its peculiar characteristics and attributes based on natural, and also occasionally on occult properties, as expounded in the esoteric teachings. —The Theosophical Glossary, p. 337.

The Occult reason why the Norse Yggdrasil, the Hindu Asvatha, the Gogard, the Hellenic tree of life, and the Tibetan Zampun, are one with the Kabalistic Sephirothal Tree, and even with the Holy Tree made by Ahura Mazda, and the Tree of Eden—who among the Western scholars can tell? Nevertheless, the fruits of all those "Trees," whether Pippala or Haoma, or yet the more prosaic apple, are the "plants of life," in fact and verity. —The Secret Doctrine, II. 97.

The pagan philosopher sought for the Cause, the modern is content with only the effects and seeks the former in the latter. What is beyond, he does not know, nor does the modern A-gnostic care: thus rejecting the only knowledge upon which he can with full security base his Science. —The Secret Doctrine,

II. 589.

We see two kinds of trees, one of which denudes itself entirely and remains expressionless for a large part of its cycle, and another which slowly and continually renews itself in every part, never ceasing to give expression, and often holding in evidence the old leaf, the new leaf, the blossom and the fruit. —The Friendly Philosopher, p. 6.

Those who walk, as pilgrims or peddlers, the plains of Hindustan, with the sun blazing in the sky, scorching the earth, worship the trees which shelter them. As a religious duty Asoka not only dug wells for the thirsty wayfarer, but also planted trees on the roads he built, to give the traveller refuge.

But the mountain passes and the high plateaus of India reveal a different protective value of trees to the climber who seeks the vision that high altitudes alone bestow. He who slowly mounts the circling path, thousands of feet above sea level, knows how trees protect when the gale blows and the rain beats and the snow swoops down upon him. As he ascends and the track becomes bare and barren longingly he strains his eyes to detect some green foliage at the next turn, like a camel-rider taut and concentrated to spot an oasis in the desert. And delight turns

into surprise when coming upon such a grove of firs he finds a Vairagi who welcomes him to his humble ashram.

The poet and the artist have adored the beauty of the trees but the religious devotee has worshipped them for their gracious shelter and benign protection. The mystic has heard the sermon of the trees while the poet has listened to their song. The pragmatical trader, the beauty-loving artist and the mystic desiring to penetrate the meaning hidden in the symbol feel gratitude to the trees, each in his own way and according to the depth of his own consciousness.

But it is the farmer, the Kshetri, who like a practising occultist knows the beneficence and maleficence which works in the kingdom of trees. He knows which tree gives best the shade which is protective to his crop. He also knows by practical experience the parasitic weed, the beautiful but poisonous creeper with sapping power, the bushes which, allowed to have their own way, would overrun his field and destroy his crop. He also appreciates the serpent who is a veritable guardian of his field against burrowing jungle rats and wild boars, and fears that other serpent who hangs from the tree and who is difficult to detect because he has built into himself green colour, to so match the green of nature as to exploit it for his own nefarious murdering work.

The expert botanist is like the Adept who makes use of the vast knowledge of the occult properties of every plant and creeper, every bush and tree. A fraction of that knowledge the Adept Fraternity has imparted to the world; while the ordinary and exoteric properties of the vegetable kingdom are already known and are being further investigated, the real and occult properties are in the custody of Those Knowers of the Essence of Things—Tattvagnyanis—and they only pass on such of that occult knowledge as humanity is ready for, i.e., will not abuse but utilize for the universal good, harming none—not even the ferocious panther or the more powerful but tiny boll-weevil.

Our concern, however, is not with the occult side of botany, but to examine another aspect of the Kingdom of Trees—the symbolic one. The tree, as a symbol, is an important one; such symbols afford the student an opportunity to exercise his mind on the Law of Correspondence and Analogy. Without the proper use of the Law of Correspondence the propositions of Esoteric Philosophy cannot be comprehended.

Evolution of ideas, according to the Esoteric Philosophy, proceeds from within without. Says The Secret Doctrine (I. 282):-

Everything that is, was, and will be, eternally is, even the countless forms, which are finite and perishable only in their objective, not in their ideal Form. They existed as Ideas, in the Eternity, and, when they pass away, will exist as reflections.

Occultism teaches that no form can be given to anything, either by nature or by man, whose ideal type does not already exist on the subjective plane. More than this; that no such form or shape can pos-

sibly enter man's consciousness, or evolve in his imagination, which does not exist in prototype, at least as an approximation.

All kingdoms of visible nature are but reflections of their invisible prototypes. Therefore every kingdom, nay, every form in every kingdom, has not only its outward and ordinary meaning but also an occult one. Each kingdom and each form is a symbol, i.e., an embodied idea. With Plato the lower types were but the concrete images of the higher abstract ones—an Eastern Esoteric teaching. The meaning and mission of any object in nature can be comprehended only when the higher abstraction which it ensouls, and of which it is a representative and a symbol on earth, is perceived. This apperceptive faculty can be unfolded only by a proper study of the Esoteric Philosophy according to the Law of Correspondences and full use can be made of it only when the learner is "initiated into perceptive mysteries."

H.P.B. has given a great deal of information about the symbol of the Tree—a symbol which has "never been so degraded by antiquity as it is now, in this our age of the breaking of idols, not for truth's sake, but to glorify the more gross matter." (The Secret Doctrine, I. 405)

The Symbol for Sacred and Secret Knowledge was universally in antiquity, a Tree, by which a Scripture or a Record was also meant. —The Secret Doctrine, I. 128.

The Symbol of the "Tree" standing for various Initiates was almost universal. Jesus is called "the tree of Life," as also all the adepts of the good Law, while those of the left Path are referred to as the "withering trees."—The Secret Doctrine, II. 496.

In the main, repeated mention is made of two trees—The Tree of Life, and The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Each man, assimilating by self-effort knowledge and experience, grows, and as he is a free-will being he becomes a tree of life or a withering tree. The Tree of Life symbolizes Unity, realization of which is Life in and of Spirit. (Cf. The Secret Doctrine, II. 214-5.) The other Tree symbolizes Duality. The Secret Doctrine quotes a Commentary—"The Tree of the Knowledge of the Good and the Evil grows from the roots of the Tree of Life" (II. 216). These symbols were transplanted elsewhere "from the soil of India."

The Arasa-Maram, the banyan tree, so sacred with the Hindus (since Vishnu during one of his incarnations, reposed under its mighty shade and there taught human philosophy and sciences), is called the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life. Under the protecting foliage of this king of the forests, the Gurus teach their pupils their first lessons on immortality and initiate them into the mysteries of life and death. —The Secret Doctrine, II. 215.

But the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil produces good and evil fruits. At one time in India Adepts of the Evil Science or Black Art were identified with trees: the Adepts of the Good Law had allegorically to take refuge not on earth but under the waters.

Throughout all Asia Minor, the Initiates were called the "trees of Righteousness," and the cedars of Lebanon, as also were some kings of Israel. So were the great adepts in India, but only the adepts of the left hand. When Vishnu Purâna narrates that "the world was overrun with trees," while the Prachetasas—who "passed 10,000 years of austerity in the vast ocean"—were absorbed in their devotions, the allegory relates to the Atlanteans and the adepts of the early Fifth Race—the Aryans. Other "trees (adept Sorcerers) spread, and overshadowed the unprotected earth; and the people perished . . . unable to labour for ten thousand years."—The Secret Doctrine, II. 494-5.

The Asvattha is the Tree of Life, and its Macrocosmic aspect is thus described:-

The tree was reversed, and its roots were generated in Heaven and grew out of the Rootless Root of all-being. Its trunk grew and developed, crossing the planes of Pleroma, it shot out crossways its luxuriant branches, first on the plane of hardly differentiated matter, and then downward till they touched the terrestrial plane. —The Secret Doctrine, I. 406.

. . . The trunk of the ASVATTHA (the tree of Life and Being, the ROD of the caduceus) grows from and descends at every Beginning (every new manvantara) from the two dark wings of the Swan (HANSA) of Life. The two Serpents, the ever-living and its illusion (Spirit and matter) whose two heads grow from the one head between the Wings, descend along the trunk, interlaced in close embrace. The two tails join on earth (the manifested Universe) into one, and this is the great illusion, O Lanoo!

This ancient Asvattha finds mention in the Vedas but it is best known because of the reference in the Gita. The Secret Doctrine comments on this:-

Thus, the Asvattha, tree of Life and Being, whose destruction alone leads to immortality, is said in the Bhagavatgita to grow with its roots above and its branches below (ch. xv.). The roots represent the Supreme Being, or First Cause, the LOGOS; but one has to go beyond those roots to unite oneself with Krishna, who, says Arjuna (xi.), "is greater than Brahman, and First Cause... the indestructible, that which is, that which is not, and what is beyond them." Its boughs are Hiranyagarbha (Brahmâ or Brahman in his highest manifestations, say Sridhara and Madhusûdana), the highest Dhyan Chohans or

Devas. The Vedas are its leaves. He only who goes beyond the roots shall never return, i.e., shall reincarnate no more during this "age" of Brahma. — The Secret Doctrine, I. 406.

Says the "preceptor": "Accurately understanding the great tree of which the unperceived (Occult nature, the root of all) is the sprout from the seed (Parabrahmam) which consists of the understanding (Mahat, or the universal intelligent Soul) as its trunk, the branches of which are the great egoism, in the holes of which are the sprouts, namely, the senses, of which the great (Occult, or invisible) elements are the flower-bunches, the gross elements (the gross objective matter), the smaller boughs, which are always possessed of leaves, always possessed of flowers which is eternal and the seed of which is the Brahman (the deity); and cutting it with that excellent sword— knowledge (secret wisdom) —one attains immortality and casts off birth and death."

This is the Tree of Life, the Asvattha tree, only after the cutting of which the slave of life and death, MAN, can be emancipated. —The Secret Doctrine, I. 536.

But with the disappearance of real esoteric knowledge the Tree of Life has now become the Tree of Death. It is easier for man today to transform himself into the Tree of Death; to save him from that great catastrophe—and many a person is nearer to it than he suspects—Theosophy entered the field. It says—"Eat of the fruit Of Knowledge from the Tree of Good and Evil." But to eat correctly one has always to keep in mind the very source of that Tree, viz., the Tree of Life. Therefore we are given this "Precept for Yoga":

"If thou wouldst believe in the Power which acts within the root of a plant, or imagine the root concealed under the soil, thou hast to think of its stalk or trunk and of its leaves and flowers. Thou canst not imagine that Power independently of these objects. Life can be known only by the Tree of Life."— The Secret Doctrine, I. 58.

To the follower of the true Eastern archaic Wisdom, to him who worships in spirit nought outside the Absolute Unity, that ever-pulsating great Heart that beats throughout, as in every atom of nature, each such atom contains the germ from which he may raise the Tree of Knowledge, whose fruits give life eternal and not physical life alone He cares little whether it be the seed from which grows the genealogical Tree of Being, called the Universe. Nor is it the Three in One, the triple aspect of the seed—its form, colour, and substance—that, interest him, but rather the FORCE which directs its growth, the ever mysterious, as the ever unknown. For this vital Force, that makes the

seed germinate, burst open and throw out shoots, then form the trunk and branches, which, in their turn, bend down like the boughs of the Asvattha, the holy Tree of Bodhi, throw their seed out, take root and procreate other trees— this is the only FORCE that has reality for him, as it is the never-dying breath of life. —The Secret Doctrine, II. 588-9.

By what constituent of our being can we become a "follower of the true Eastern archaic Wisdom"? We are told:-

While the Macrocosmic tree is the Serpent of Eternity and of absolute Wisdom itself, those who dwell in the Microcosmic tree are the Serpents of the manifested Wisdom. One is the One and All; the others are its reflected parts. The "tree" is man himself, of course, and the Serpents dwelling in each, the conscious Manas, the connecting link between Spirit and Matter, heaven and earth. —The Secret Doctrine, II. 98.

Let us then go to the tree within us—"the abode of Pitris (elementals in fact) of a lower order" and make it the Tree of Everlasting Life. Quotes The Secret Doctrine (II. 97-8):-

"Pippala, the sweet fruit of that tree upon which come spirits who love the science, and where the gods produce all marvels."

"WOULD'ST THOU BECOME A YOGI OF TIME'S CIRCLE?"

Time was not, for it lay asleep in the infinite bosom of duration. —The Secret Doctrine, I, 27.

The appearance and disappearance of the Universe are pictured as an outbreathing and inbreathing of "the Great Breath," which is eternal, and which, being Motion, is one of the three aspects of the Absolute—Abstract Space and Duration being the other two. —Ibid., I, 43.

Esoteric Philosophy . . . divides boundless duration into unconditionally eternal and universal Time and a conditioned one (Khandakâla). One is the abstraction or noumenon of infinite time (Kâla); the other its phenomenon appearing periodically. —Ibid., I, 62.

What is Time, for instance, but the panoramic succession of our states of consciousness?—Ibid., I, 44.

Time is only an illusion produced by the succession of our states of consciousness as we travel through eternal duration, and it does not exist where no consciousness exists in which the illusion can be produced. —Ibid.,

I. 37.

Kronos stands for endless (hence immovable) Duration, without beginning, without an end, beyond divided Time Chronos cuts down with his scythe even the longest and (to us) seemingly endless cycles, yet, for all that, limited in Eternity, and puts down with the same scythe the mightiest rebels. Aye, not one will escape the scythe of Time! Praise the god or gods, or flout, one or both, and the scythe will not be made to tremble one millionth part of a second in its ascending or descending course. —Ibid., I, 418.

Live neither in the present nor the future, but in the eternal.

—Light on the Path.

In our modern civilization the illusion of time is formidable. "Time is money," says the business man as he rushes from place to place or hurriedly scrutinizes the pile of papers on his desk. "I am pressed for time," says the social butterfly as she flutters from one engagement to another. Children have to tear through their lessons for at the end of the term there is the examination, and then—another term. That Time devours everything and all, is clear; and yet the very tick of the clock is rhythmic and even steady. The clock does not seem to rush; sometimes men wish that it did!

Numerous devices have been invented to resist the overpowering action of Time. Recreation is opposed to labour and a difference is made between Sunday and weekdays; but recreation, is made as strenuous as labour, and the holiday brings its own fatigue and reaction—they are different from those of labour. Many Theosophical students suffer from the illusion of Time, and "rush madly or boldly out to do, to do," and neglect the advice of Mr. Judge: "Let the anxieties to do lie still and dormant." Others mistake the teaching and take a fatalistic view of Time and Cycles of Time, overlooking the words of a Master: "It is always wiser to work and force the current of events than to wait for time—a habit which has demoralised the Hindus and degenerated the country."

What has The Secret Doctrine to say on the subject of Time? The quotations given at the head of this article tell the story. Beginning with the metaphysical aspect and passing through the psychological to the ethical and practical, these quotations give us, not complete and full information, but valuable food for thought. The Secret Doctrine is not written for those who want information but for those who need food for thought. To begin with the universal and the metaphysical: The Secret Doctrine distinguishes between Duration and Time. Duration is like Abstract Space, and Time like Manifested Space. Duration cannot be divided; Time can be, as, for example, Past, Present, Future; long or short cycles; Manvantara and Pralaya. Duration is beginningless and endless; Time is finite. Duration is Be-ness. Time is Becoming. Duration is an aspect of the Absolute and Time is the differentiated phenomenal manifestation of that noumenal aspect. In Zoroastrianism Duration is named as Zervane-Akerne, and Time is described as the "Sovereign Time of the Long Period" — Zervane Daregho Khodate.

Cycles of Time pertain to consciousness: ordinary human consciousness is able to comprehend the ordinary cycles, such as day and night, the seasons and the centuries. Mathematicians and astronomers formulate longer cycles which stagger the imagination of the ordinary man. But for every man there is a background to his past and a beyond to his future. The panoramic succession of cosmic events is related to the consciousness of the astronomer as that of mundane events is related to the consciousness of the ordinary man; but behind both panoramas the past still stretches, and beyond both lies the limitless future. But there are super-astronomers whose vision of yugas and kalpas makes the light-years of modern calculators a paltry computation. They know what are the ultimate divisions of Time, and such men "feel irritated at having to use these three clumsy words—Past, Present, and Future—miserable concepts of the objective phases of the subjective whole, they are about as ill-adapted for the purpose as an axe for fine carving." Such men live in the Eternal Now, for Their consciousness is freed from illusion; for Them Time does not exist but only the Active Repose of Duration. Krishna describes Himself as the mighty world-destroying Time because

He has conquered Time. None of us can escape the scythe of Time until we, through purity and enlightenment, acquire the art of wielding that scythe, co-operating with Nature. For it is said: "Help Nature and work on with her; and Nature will regard thee as one of her creators and make obeisance."

If we can abandon those states of consciousness in which the illusions of Time are produced, and can acquire that pure state which is not of the past, or of the present, or of the future, but of the Eternal—then the round of day and night, birth and death, manvantara and pralaya, ever extending into longer and longer periods, will cease, and the Duration of Blessedness will be ours.

By what method shall we reach this goal of living neither in the past, nor present, nor future?

As to the past: "Kill in thyself all memory of past experiences. Look not behind or thou art lost." Nature is so merciful in her process that our own memory of the distant past is veiled from our mortal eyes in the present. The assimilated lessons of all experiences are with us in the Ego, and if we can cultivate the habit of learning daily our lesson, storing the essence of experience and forgetting the incident, we should be copying Nature which is impersonal. Nursing our past wounds, dwelling on our past triumphs, we generate new Karma and enlarge the web of personality.

At the other end is the future: Fear of the future is a sure sign that we are centred in the personal. One strong manifestation of living in the future is the desire forcefully to change the present. "Beware of change! For change is thy great foe. This change will fight thee off, and throw thee back, out of the Path thou treadest, deep into viscous swamps of doubt." Shall we not then attempt to change? Why not?—but the change must be of the "within," not of the "without"; not of the environment but of the personality; not of the body but of the mind. No change of habits without a change of attitude energized by ideation. Change naturally results in the "without" because a false state of consciousness has been abandoned. That inner change ultimately begets the Steady Centre at which the Soul abides, guarding itself against "the lightest breeze of passion or desire," and "the smallest wave of longing or regret for Maya's gifts illusive."

Therefore our last quotation at the head of this article does not say "live in the present," but "live in the eternal." That Eternal, arrived at by our refusing to be affected by memory of the past and anticipation of the future, knows no change; but it can be obtained, not by neglecting the present, but by transmuting it.

Caught up in the self-made web of Karma, the only way to free ourselves is to pay our debts to Nature for bringing us those experiences by means of which we have progressed so far. Life must be lived and actions must be performed, but if we renounce the fruits of deeds which are our duties, and offer them as sacrifices on the altar of human brotherhood,

I would point out to you the only royal road, the one vehicle. Do all those acts, physical, mental, moral, for the reason that they must be done, instantly resigning all interest in them, offering them up upon the altar. What altar? Why, the great spiritual altar, which is, if one desires it, in the heart. Yet still use earthly discrimination, prudence, and wisdom.

Day by day, by ideation we have to learn to understand Duration as distinct from Time; by imagination to visualize "the Past, the Present and the Future as the ever-living trinity in one—the Mahamaya of the Absolute IS"; and by action to copy the examples of Those who are Masters of the "Boundless Age."

Know, if of Amitabha, the "Boundless Age," thou would'st become co-worker, then must thou shed the light acquired, like to the Bodhisattvas twain, upon the span of all three worlds.

"THE VOICE OF THE WILL"

The immutably Infinite and the absolutely Boundless can neither will, think, nor act. To do this it has to become finite, and it does so, by its ray penetrating into the mundane egg—infinite space—and emanating from it as a finite god. All this is left to the ray latent in the one. When the period arrives, the absolute will expands naturally the force within it, according to the Law of which it is the inner and ultimate Essence. —The Secret Doctrine, I. 354

Eros [is] the Divine Will, or Desire of manifesting itself through visible creation. —Ibid., II. 65

The AH-HI (Dhyan Chohans) are the collective hosts of spiritual beings— the Angelic Hosts of Christianity, the Elohim and "Messengers" of the Jews— who are the vehicle for the manifestation of the divine or universal thought and will. They are the intelligent Forces that give to and enact in Nature her "laws," while themselves acting according to laws imposed upon them in a similar manner by still higher Powers; but they are not the "personifications" of the powers of Nature, as erroneously thought. —Ibid., I. 38

It is those who have deserted the Superior Spheres, the Gods of Will, who complete the Manu of illusion. —From "The Catechism": Ibid., II. 57

The two higher principles can have no individuality on Earth, cannot be man, unless there is (a) the Mind, Manas-Ego, to cognize itself, and (b) the terrestrial false personality, or the body of egotistical desires and personal Will, to cement the whole, as if round a pivot (which it is, truly), to the physical form of man. —Ibid., II. 241

We see that every external motion, act, gesture, whether voluntary or mechanical, organic or mental, is produced and preceded by internal feeling or emotion, will or volition, and thought or mind. As no outward motion or change, when normal, in man's external body can take place unless provoked by an inward impulse, given through one of the three functions named, so with the external or manifested Universe. —Ibid., I. 274

The closer the approach to one's Prototype, "in Heaven," the better for the mortal whose personality was chosen, by his own personal deity (the seventh principle), as its terrestrial abode. For, with every effort of will toward purification and unity with

that "Self-god," one of the lower rays breaks and the spiritual entity of man is drawn higher and ever higher to the ray that supersedes the first, until, from ray to ray, the inner man is drawn into the one and highest beam of the Parent-SUN. —Ibid., I. 638-39

This thinking of oneself as this, that, or the other, is the chief factor in the production of every kind of psychic or even physical phenomena. The words "whosoever shall say to this mountain be thou removed and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt . . . that thing will come to pass," are no vain words. Only the word "faith" ought to be translated by WILL. Faith without Will is like a windmill without wind—barren of results. —Ibid., II. 59 fn.

Kriyapakti [is] that mysterious and divine power latent in the will of every man, and which, if not called to life, quickened and developed by Yogi-training, remains dormant in 999,999 men out of a million, and gets atrophied.

—Ibid., II. 173

The source of every power of man, and of his being also, is great Nature. If out of earth-matter his body is built, if from Divine Mind his mind is derived, so, too, the human will is born of the Universal Will which H.P.B. defines as "the one and sole principle of abstract eternal Motion, or its ensouling essence."

Man and the Universe from which he emerges are indissolubly linked. The illusory aspect of this emergence shows man to be a distinct and separate entity; the reality, however, is that he does not emerge out of the universe but is in it. Like a wave which rises and falls in the ocean, man, the microcosm, emanates from and retires again into the Ocean of Life; but all the time he is intimately connected with the Universe, which is the Macrocosm. Man is the small Universe; the Universe is called the Heavenly Man.

The Will-Power of every human being, like unto the Will in Nature, is septenary in its degrees of manifestation. As an eternal principle Will is neither spirit nor substance, but everlasting ideation. Emanating from the one eternal abstract and purely quiescent Will (Atma in Layam) it becomes Buddhi in its Alaya state, descends lower as Mahat (Manas) and runs down the ladder of degrees until the divine Eros becomes, in its lower manifestation, erotic desire.

Because of this sevenfold transformation it is difficult for the Theosophical student to put his finger on any aspect of his being and call it—Will. Obstinacy is mistaken for will; hard-headedness is called strong will; egotistical pride masquerades as will; and there are other errors.

When the student, following his aspirations, endeavours to practise esoteric doctrines, he fancies that a will-resolve is a simple expression of his good desires. Four short words, parenthetically inserted by H.P.B. in writing the Third Fundamental Proposition —"(checked by its Karma)"—have a far-reaching significance. All our self-induced and self-devised efforts are checked by the Karma of the long past. Free Will

and binding Fate function together like Spirit and Matter, two aspects of the One Reality.

During this month the following words of H.P.B. will be recalled, read, pondered over and acted upon by ardent aspirants:-

The astral life of the earth is young and strong between Christmas and Easter. Those who form their wishes now will have added strength to fulfil them consistently.

A question is sometimes asked: Why should this period between two Western Christian festivals be so important? Certainly not because it is a period between two church festivals. The period from December 21st (the Winter Solstice) to March 21st (the Spring Equinox) is a seasonal one which, copying the pagan custom, the church authorities utilized. Christmas, as the birthday of Jesus, was decided upon after much discussion at as late a date as the fourth century A.D.

The eternal enemy of man is his ahankara-egotism and it influences him adversely in pursuing his noble desire. Self-knowledge is necessary in formulating a resolve and remaining faithful to it. Application of Theosophical teaching in daily life means self-knowledge. Practice of Theosophy leads us astray when it is attempted without self-knowledge. This is a very important idea whose real implications need to be grasped.

In the quotations which open our study, the story of will is epitomized: The first three deal with the cosmic and metaphysical aspect of will; the next four with the human and psychological; the remaining two with the occult and practical. The student's task is to perceive the implications of this epitome and to make the necessary applications to himself.

A spiritual resolve cannot be carried out without Spiritual Will. But what is Spiritual Will? If "Will is consciousness in action" then Spiritual Will is Spirit in action. The beating of the heart, the processes of digestion and the phenomenon of blushing are examples of physical will; another group of actions, which follow ordinary wants and desires, results from psychic or personal will. Any intelligent person knows that there is a fundamental difference in kind between the two types of actions. Similarly, actions born of Spiritual Will are as different from those born of psychic or personal will, as the latter are from the beating of the heart, or digestion, or blushing. But as these bodily processes are intimately connected with desires and wants, so, too, there is a relation between the psychic-personal will and the higher Spiritual Will. The link is the Voice of Conscience. Actions born of desires and wants are not directly connected with Conscience. In ordinary men and women Conscience functions as an after-thought, bringing repentance on the heels of the evil or foolish results of wicked and selfish desires. When not acting as an admonisher, Conscience functions as a warner—for the most part a negative warner, telling the person what not to do. Thus a conflict between the voice of desire and the Voice of Conscience takes place.

Spiritual Will can be developed by a direct appeal to Conscience, but the appeal must be made with forethought, i.e., before the force of our wants and desires is allowed to impel us to action. Such a Promethean appeal to the inner Conscience soon reveals the necessity to aid its function by spiritual knowledge. The deeper and purer aspect of Conscience is the direct Voice of the Divinity within us. Therefore Mr. Judge states that "the desire to be guided, ruled and assisted by the Higher Self" is a prime requisite for the cultivation of Spiritual Will. The outcome of such a development is not to be judged by what are called good and virtuous deeds in the religious world. Spirit is free from good as well as from evil, and because it is free from both it is universal and impersonal. One expression of the Spiritual Will is to do that which, and to suffer and enjoy whatever, the Higher Self has in store for one by way of discipline and experience.

What resolve shall we make, and how shall we carry it out? Translate the question thus: What desire shall we arouse within us and by what mental faculty shall we realize it?

Let the student answer the question for himself with the help of the principles put forward above.

PANSOPHIA

Occult teachings are pre-eminently panspermic . . . supported on the one hand by that science which shows to us progressive development and an internal cause for every external modification, as a law in Nature; and, on the other hand, by an implicit faith in the wisdom—we may say, pansophia even—of the universal traditions gathered and preserved by the Initiates, who have perfected them into an almost faultless system—thus supported, we venture to state the doctrine clearly. —The Secret Doctrine, II, 133.

The whole of Nature is a memorial tablet. Every form of matter is a form of Life; contains within and on its surface its own life-story. Those who study only appearances, with the aid of the senses, are the men of science. Those who reflect on the processes by which the forms of matter become, with the help of their own reflecting apparatus, or minds, are the speculative philosophers. Those who in reverence and humbleness allow Nature to radiate its Light on their own Being are the practical mystics.

Sense-Knowledge, Mind-Knowledge, Soul-Knowledge are three different kinds of Knowledge, not knowledge about three different things. To the senses the earth is stationary and the sun is continually in motion; to the mind the earth is spinning round a comparatively stable sun; to the soul there is continuous exchange, rhythmic and purposive, between the composite parts of the Universe-Lotus whose centre is the sun. The Wisdom-Religion is Soul-Knowledge of all forms of Life, all forms of Spirit-Mind-Matter. Soul-Knowledge is vital Knowledge: it is not knowledge about the matter-aspect of life only, any more than about its spirit-aspect, or mind-aspect only; it is about all three. It is inherent in Nature, omnipresent. As Spirit it is omniscience itself,

Human evolution is the learning of this supreme fact. In each human being the Wisdom-Religion has become manifest to a degree; that is his degree of initiation. The soul which has become the Great Soul—Mahatma—bears the marks of the full Knowledge of the Wisdom-Religion. The knowledge each soul possesses has burgeoned from within and reposes within. What an astronomer knows is not contained in the stars and the comets, but in his own mind. Our vision is within ourselves and from within arise its limitations.

The universe is the Tree of Wisdom. Its seven Kingdoms are (1) the seed, (2) the root, (3) the trunk, (4) branches, (5) leaves, (6) flowers, (7) fruits, which contain the seed of futurity. The Seed-Being has within Itself the power and potency of manifesting everything. Correspondentially speaking, the seed is the Atmic Power which puts forth the Buddhic

root to become its vehicle; from the two emerges the Manasa-Ego, the trunk, which gives the Tree its individuality. The fourth, the branches, are the skandhic-lives which put forth the green leaves of a personal-lifetime. Only some of the human-trees bear flowers fragrant with sacrifice. Fewer still are fruit-growing. When a human soul in its long march of evolution becomes a devotee of Theosophy he becomes a flower-bearing tree; the fruits of chelaship are still to follow, and lives of holy striving go by while the seed is forming within its core, pulsating with the vital essence, purified of dross, enriched with experience. Between the first seed and the latest there is no difference of essence; only in characterization or substance. An additional Tree of Wisdom becomes possible—a whole new Universe, Alaya-soul, where before was but a laya centre.

The Truth-Satya, through its own energy of Compassion-Paramartha, works incessantly in the whole of the manifested universe. After ages of toil the universe-Tree produces the fruits—Adepts—Rishees, embodiments of Paramartha-Satya. These beings embody all the processes of Nature, codify her laws for the human Kingdom to comprehend—that human Kingdom in which the Divine Urge of Paramartha-Satya is mysteriously working, bringing to birth the hidden Light. This is the second way in which we should understand what is implied in the expression—the Wisdom-Religion. The Wisdom-Religion expressed in and by Nature becomes the synthesized Knowledge of every Warrior-Soul of every age and clime—the common source of true philosophy which made the eras of antiquity so glorious and which, in ages hereafter, will make humanity a perfect whole. This Universal Wisdom-Religion is focalized in Signs and Symbols, the material photographs of spiritual processes which build and sustain our earth, and whose true and full meaning is understood only by the Adept-Rishees. The third stage in the possession of that Wisdom-Religion is the translation of a portion of it for the salvation of any particular humanity—as seen in the Vedas, the Yasnas, the Pentateuch. The most recent, and fortunately for us the least polluted, as also the least ambiguous and the fullest transmission, is to be found in H.P.B.'s writings, preeminently in her Secret Doctrine.

The Secret Doctrine is a book of practical occultism. Its study calls for a particular attitude, without which it remains a sealed document. Ere the real task begins, let the student exhaust all doubts as to The Secret Doctrine being a record of the Wisdom-Religion's Teachings. Let him question the book, let him cross-examine its varied contents; let him do this till conviction is born on this point. If the student accepts on mere belief, as many have done before him, he is bound to fail and give up its study. The energy and sincerity with which the book is tested out in the first period will become perception and discrimination in the second. Fearless in searching flaws, when one has failed in finding them, he becomes fearless in perceiving and practising truth. Again, in approaching The Secret Doctrine let us put aside our preconceptions, whether religious

or scientific. Let the student be clear: the teachings of The Secret Doctrine will not substantiate orthodox religious tenets nor many "exact" scientific teachings. The former are too far corrupted, the latter too young, though growing fast.

The power of gaining conviction is locked up in Item I of The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, pp. 272-273. The items following contain the very pith and marrow of occultism, When even some slight comprehension dawns of all that those pages imply, true Faith—Shraddha—is born, the faith which opens the Eye of Manas. The words of the Gita are applicable to this task of study as to any other:-

Whatever is done without faith, whether it be sacrifice, almsgiving, or austerities, is called Asat and is not of any benefit either in this life or after death.

Before the Secret Doctrine can fulfil its mission to the searcher for truth and the striver after perfection, that searcher must arrive for himself at the conviction, or "faith," that The Secret Doctrine embodies, as far as any book can do, the Wisdom-Religion—or Truth. How is this to be achieved? Many read its statements—and pass on to other books and other statements. Many continue to read it without ever "making up their minds" whether it is to be relied upon, or the reverse. Many accept it on "faith," as that word popularly means. They "believe" it is true, but they do not know for themselves. Truth has no more power to carry conviction to the curious, the indolent or the contentious than water has power to remain in a leaky vessel—or enter a closed one. The Secret Doctrine invites study, thought, reflection, comparison, examination, cross-examination, verification—philosophically, logically, ethically, evidentially. How else can the Truth be known to us but by testing it out?

The credibility of the Secret Doctrine statements of fact and philosophy will be found the more impregnable the more they are laid siege to. The light they will shed on science, religion, and all the unsolved problems of life is the light of Truth, and will give the student the illumination of Self-knowledge.

Sharable Highlight

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Foreword

Contents