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The Writings of Annie Besant

Annie Besant

(1847 -1933)

 

Materialism Undermined by Science

 

A Lecture delivered in 1895 in Calcutta

 

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It is now fourteen months, my Brothers, since last I stood amongst you when I

came to Calcutta last January twelve-month. I had only then made the

acquaintance of, as I may say, the India of the South, with the various aspects

that there may be found in her laws and in her religious thoughts. Leaving your

capita city I travelled northwards and westwards and visited several parts of

India, those of the North and North-west, and afterwards the Punjab. Thence I

turned towards Bombay visiting several cities on the way, and then westwards

back to Europe, there spending some months; and then southwards again to far

Australia where a new race is growing up, where a new nation, as it were, is

being born; and from that far-off distant Isle, near to the South Pole, come

back once more to the Motherland amongst you again to bring you once more a

message of the Eternal Verities of Spirituality, to speak amongst you once again

the Eternal Truths which from ancient times have come down.

 

For whether it be in India or Europe or Australia there is one mighty Spiritual Truth to be proclaimed, the one thing needed for the soul of man, and that is the knowledge of its wanderings after the Spirit, the knowledge of the Will of the Supreme. And whether in the lands of the West and South or whether under the fire of the tropical sun man is still demanding spiritual knowledge, is still struggling after spiritual life, still hoping for the same spiritual unity. To whatever

land we may go, through whatever country we may pass, we have still Humanity as "the great orphan" crying for the Spirit, striving after Light, after spiritual

unity, striving to find in the many esoteric religions the one Spiritual Truth

which alone can satisfy the soul. And if I come back to you here and take up

again the message which in this land has clothed itself in the ancient forms of

Hindu religion from ancient times, it is not because India is the only land

where human souls need it, it is not because India is the only country where the

spirit of man is crying out for the Light, but it is because in this land there

is more hope of a spiritual revival, and if a spiritual revival here there

maybe, then it will pour outwards to all the four corners of the world. For

spirituality is more easily awakened in India than elsewhere.

 

The spiritual heart here is only sleeping, whereas in some other lands it has scarcely yet come to the birth; for you must remember that in this land is the birthplace of every religion, and that from India, outwards, religions have made their way.

 

Therefore it is that the soul of our mother India is so important for the future

of the world, and therefore it is that the Materialism of India is so fatal. For

it is here alone that lies the hope that man has of looking for spiritual life:

for, in truth, unless the life of the Spirit come in this land, by reviving

here, then the hope is baseless that spirituality is to spread over the world.

And I may say to you, ere glancing for a moment over the subjects with which I

am to deal, upon this visit, that in travelling through the length and breadth

of India, from South to North, from West to East, I have found this of the

people: that in the South of India you have more pronounced and outward

orthodoxy, you have the more defined observances of ancient ceremonies and

ancient rites, that on the surface of the people, as it were, you see more of

the outer signs of Hinduism and more exactitude in the discharge of the various

religious duties.

 

That is a characteristic of the Southern people; that is a marked attribute amongst their various communities. Far away in the Punjab, there you may find certain traits of manhood, of strength, of courage, which if they shall rise to the Spirit surely would give us great help, would give us an enormous reinforcement; for that race would move with force and energy, only perhaps slow to take action. In Bengal there is, as I have noticed, much outward sign of western influence, much of the surface of the people taking up western thought and western customs; but in the heart of Bengal there still remain, more than elsewhere, gleams of the ancient spirituality, so that, just as in spiritual matters India is the heart of the world, so is Bengal the heart of India and may save India as a whole for all Humanity. And therefore in speaking to you in the ten days which lie before me, I have chosen subject after subject which should all point to the one object--and that is the revival of spirituality and the spread of the ancient Hindu religion in the hearts of its children, who are bound to it by ancestral ties.

 

If you cannot revive spiritually in India through Hinduism, if you cannot thus reach India, then there is nothing else you can hope to do; and I say that here alone is the one hope of reviving this ancient potentiality. Here is the one certain hope which will bind all the hearts of the Indians into one and therefore we must look to the revival of the ancient faith which however it has fallen, however much it has been corrupted in modern times, however much it may have lost spiritual

life, is still the most ancient religion the world has ever known, sublime in

its Philosophy and magnificent in its Literature. So that if this shall again

become a living thing, India shall herself live; and with the revival all the

sleeping truths of other religions shall look again towards their Indian mother,

and make her once again the spiritual teacher of the world.

 

And now I am going to speak to you upon materialism; I am not going to deal now with a definite religious question, with definite religious teachings, with

mighty doctrines in Philosophy, in Spiritual knowledge, which later on I shall

hope to unfold before you. There is one thing that is eating the heart out of

India, and that is modern materialism. There is one thing which is poisoning the

mind of India, and that is the kind of science which is the teacher of

materialism and works against Spirituality in the mind. How should I be able to

tell you of the moral regeneration of India unless first I can strike at that

which is piercing her heart and sucking out her very lifeblood. So--as I have

been trained in the science of the West, trained in the knowledge of the

physical Universe which is so much used to make men believe that nothing but the physical remains--I take for my first subject this undermining of materialism by science, and I attack it with the weapons that were once used to build it up.

Now it is fair to ask in the beginning why it is that religion and science

should appear to be in opposition. Why is it that science should seem to play

into the hands of materialism? Why is it that as science has advanced, Religion

has found itself pressed backward and backward so that men begin to make excuses for spiritual truths and talk apologetically of religion? Why is it that men

advocating spiritual truth are afraid of being called superstitious? Let us see

whether there is no explanation why science at the outset should help

materialism and the reason also why, as science has advanced, it begins to

undermine the same materialism and to destroy that which it has helped to

establish?

 

You may remember Bacon, a great philosopher of the 17th Century,

speaking on this very point used the following phrase:--that a little learning

inclineth men to atheism, but deeper knowledge brings them back to religion. It

is a true statement. Look for a moment at religion and science, and you will see

why that should be the fact, and why one should be against the other. A man who is a spiritual man--a religious teacher--regards the universe from the

standpoint of the Spirit from which everything is seen as coming from the One.

When he stands, as it were, in the centre, and he looks from the centre to the

circumference, he stands at the point whence the force proceeds, and he judges

of the force from that point of radiation and he sees it as one in its

multitudinous workings, and knows the force is One; he sees it in its many

divergencies, and he recognises it as one and the same thing throughout.

Standing in the centre, in the Spirit, and looking outwards to the universe, he

judges everything from the standpoint of the Divine Unity and sees every

separate phenomenon, not as separate from the One but as the external expression of the one and the only Life. But science looks at the thing from the surface.

 

It goes to the circumference of the universe and it sees a multiplicity of

phenomena. It studies these separated things and studies them one by one. It

takes up a manifestation and judges it; it judges it apart; it looks at the

many, not at the One; it looks at the diversity, not at the Unity, and sees

everything from outside and not from within: it sees the external difference and

the superficial portion while it sees not the One from which every thing

proceeds. You may imagine, to take a figure, that you stand where there is a

white light--say an electric light sending out rays from a single point; imagine

three tubes going out from this centre and rays of light travelling down each

and passing through a glass of a different colour set in each tube; if you look

from the point where the electric light is you would see the white light

striking outward as a light which was one; but if you went to the far end of the

tubes you would there see that the light was of three different colours, as red

and blue and yellow, appearing as if the light was of three kinds not one,

because in their separation unity would be entirely lost. See how that works in

the Universe. You have your three great gunas or attributes through which, as it

were, the light comes as through three different glasses, and the one Divine

Spirit comes down into manifestation; and it is not only the three gunas that

you have but these intermingling one with another, and breaking in a thousand

different channels.

 

Then how great must be the differences at the circumference! But how it would lessen the difficulty if men could only see the processes, and know how those results were brought about; if they went further, and if travelling onward they found the divergences greatly diminish, see then how thus going forward, they may come, as it were, near to the one, and reconciliation between Religion and Science may arise. Religion shows everything from the point of the Spirit and proclaims the unity. Scientists show everything from the point of view of diversity and proclaim that, as if in opposition, to the world. But Plato says of the man who can discern the one in the many, that that man he

regards as a God; the work of the true spiritual teacher is to show the one

under the multiplicity, to make man see the fact of unity underneath diversity,

and as science goes forward she also may be used once more to help us, because in passing out of the physical into the super-physical and mental, she is going nearer to Unity.

 

And now let me turn to my science and give you the proofs of this. First let me

refer you, though I need not dwell upon the point, to the remarkable position

taken by Huxley in his latest writings, which were new when I was with you last

year, but which remain unchanged, uncontradicted, as the latest proclamation of

the great teacher of Agnosticism as the latest proclamation of its exponent in

European Science. Two great points he made, or rather three. First--and I only

mention these briefly, because I dealt with them last year--first he pointed out

that the evolution of virtue in man was directly in conflict with the evolution

of the physical world: that when man evolved compassion, and tenderness and

gentleness and self-sacrifice, when he learnt to use his strength for service

instead of self-assertion--he was flying right in the face of the laws by which

progress had been made in the physical Universe. He was following the law of

self-sacrifice as against the law of self-assertion. Why is it that man can thus

set himself against the cosmos? It is because he is approaching the spiritual

region; it is because he has begun to develop the essential nature of the

divinity itself: for the life of God is in giving and not in taking: the life of

God is in pouring out and not in grasping; and as man feels the life of the

Spirit in him against the life of the animal, he grows Divinely strong. And when

you find men of science admitting that the evolution of virtue is by the law of

self-sacrifice, you may perhaps begin to admit the possibilities of what is said

in some of the sacred scriptures, that Creation always begins with Sacrifice.

You may remember that--I am quoting to you, leaving out only the first great

word--"the dawn is the head of the sacrificial horse, of the horse which arose

out of the water, the water which the commentary says represents Paramatma."

 

All creation is Sacrifice. The source or dawn is the sacrifice, and everywhere the

soul that would develop must live a life of sacrifice, because as the Upanishad

says to you, a sacrifice of the Godhead was made in order that the world might

exist. Sacrifice is the first condition in order that the Universe may be, and

that man might be evolved to be one with Himself.

 

The second point made by Huxley seems taken from the sacred books of India; man can set himself against the cosmos because in man there is an intelligence which is the same as the Intelligence which pervades the Universe. That is the lesson of the Shastras. The intelligence of man is one with the Intelligence which

pervades the whole. Man can set himself against the external world, for "Thou

art Brahman," and when that is realised by man all else becomes subject to his

will. And the third belief that Huxley has thought fit to declare is that the

working of consciousness in the higher cannot be understood by the lower.

 

There is nothing against the analogy of nature in supposing that there are grades of intelligence rising above men. There may be other intelligences higher and

higher and higher, reaching further and further far above the noblest

intelligence of man. And there is nothing, he says, to make it impossible that

there should be in the universe, above these grades--a Single Intelligence. But

what is that? Nothing but what has been proclaimed in the Scriptures, Isvar, the

Lord, the Logos, the Word of which all things were made. So that you may see

how, on these lines, science in the mouth of one of its greatest teachers is

undermining materialism.

 

Now let me go a little further. Let us see, not from the mouth of the teacher,

but from the facts themselves, how changes are going on. Physical facts are

being discovered which show that underneath the material mind must be at work.

Underlying the physical, intelligence must be active; .underlying a particle of

what was once called dead matter, a metal, a crystal or a stone, there is a

moving life--there is a ruling intelligence. First let me say--and the force of

the argument may excuse repetition of it--that if you take a crystal, you find

it grow along geometrical lines, with absolute definiteness of angles, as though

a compass were used to trace it, and these lines make geometrical figures. So

that Plato's phrase "God geometrises" is seen to be true even in the animal

kingdom.

 

Then again when from the mineral you go to the vegetable where life is

more active, where there seems to be less regularity, where there seems at first

less of order, you will find in reality that even in its multiplicity there is

order, that in the vegetable as well there is the same immutable law. If you

take the branch of a tree, you may study the way the leaves are set, and you

will find every leaf in a definite place, both as regards the leaves lower down

and higher up. So that the leaves of the tree are developed on a geometrical

plan. More than that. Since I last stood here to speak to you, a series of

investigations has been made into the way that metals behave under exercise.

Every engineer and other employer of machinery has noticed that when metal is

used, where there are bars and wheels and other parts making up the machine,

that with the use of the machine, what is called "fatigue" occurs. The metal

gets tired. But what does this mean? It has been observed that, after a certain

amount of exercise, the machine will not work well. It works like a tired horse

or a tired man; it stumbles and cannot carry on the work. What shall be done?

Let it rest.

 

It does not want improvement, as every part is perfect; it does not

want repair--there is nothing in it which is broken; it only needs to rest; and

if it is allowed to rest it recovers from its fatigue, without a single thing

being done to it, and it goes on to work as well as ever, showing that rest has

given back its energies and that, just as a tired animal reposes, so also the

"dead" metal may repose. This shows that even in a metal there is life--for a

dead thing cannot get tired, a dead thing cannot lose its energies, a dead thing

cannot be restored by rest. These are all signs of a living body; where there is

fatigue and recovery of energies by rest, there is life existing, however hidden

it may be under the form which conceals it from our eyes.

 

And now for a moment turn to Chemistry. I took first that point of the metals because it is a point which on thinking over you will find exceedingly plain and intelligible. But turn now to Chemistry. One great argument which materialists used to take from Chemistry was this: that as advances were made in what was called organic Chemistry, or the Chemistry of living things, it was shown that the separation made between organic and inorganic Chemistry was artificial. As a matter of fact, they said there was no fundamental difference and both organic and inorganic Chemistry were on the same lines; therefore they thought that the

introduction of life as a thing separate and apart from chemical agencies must

be given up. That argument was very much strengthened by chemists in the

laboratory making certain things which before had been found only as products of vegetables and animals and which had been regarded therefore as the outcome of living energy.

 

These things were said to be things which could only be produced by living organisations. During the present century, however, a large number of

these bodies have been made by chemists, and they have succeeded here in

breaking down the barriers between the organic and the inorganic; and the result

was that at once it was said, "you see life is only, after all, the result of

chemical energy, and not an outcome from the supreme source, but only something in connection with the chemical energy; you were under a mistake in supposing those things were always found as products of living things, and therefore there is not needed to explain them a source of life from which all living things proceeded. See how the chemist has proved you out of court; see how he has made that which you said could only come from life." Thus apparently was one of the arguments knocked down which seemed to prove the life of the world as coming from the life which was Eternal and Supreme.

 

But Chemistry, in the course of these very investigations, going along the lines called organic, has given us an argument stronger than the one attacked. It places within our reach arguments far stronger, far more potent than the one which it destroyed; for it shows that in the organic the atom is not only, as I told you last year, formed by the action of electrical currents out of primary matter, but it shows further that the atom here progresses; that the atom in the animal kingdom is not at all the same as the atom of the vegetable in its combining power. It shows that the change is not a change of material attributes, but a change of inner life, of internal differentiations--the atom changes within itself, as all living things do; for one of the great signs of life used to be said to be this power of

adaptation from within.

 

Take an atom in the mineral kingdom such as carbon. All its combinations are simple, all its combinations are one by one. This fourfold atom can join with others in definite and simple combinations, but when it passes forward, having gone through the mineral kingdom, then by an inner evolution, it changes its combining power and unites with itself to form a number of compounds, forming closed rings, so as to make complicated combinations never found in the mineral kingdom.

 

Taking the old story of evolution as laid down thousands of years ago, not in the modern but in the ancient forms, we learn that this atom is part of the Universal life, that it is not dead matter but a living thing, that atoms are minute lives which go to build up external forms. We are able now to bring arguments from Chemistry to show that there is atomic evolution in the universe, that the progress of life which we see around us is no dream of the ancient Rishis but a reality. The scientists look only at the form and not at the inner life; but as you study the atom, you realise that this increased power of combination means evolving life within it. Not only is that seen, but it is also now admitted that life cannot be regarded as an outcome of chemical agency. It is admitted that life shows certain specific energies which differentiate it from electrical and chemical

affinities, and you may get the ,phenomena of living things among the energies

which science is unable to trace to their source. Once it was thought that life

might be explained as the outcome of chemical and electrical agencies, but now

it is admitted to be something more. Science now admits that although they are

correlated with the life, they are not the life itself, and although they

accompany the phenomena they cannot be regarded as their sources. So that from the chemistry which was the greatest hope of the materialist, we may now obtain arguments for its undermining.

 

Pass from that to electricity and see how here, in the latest discoveries, are

arguments that may help our works. It is not only that science has proved that

whenever thought is present, electricity is also present, interesting as that

is, as showing the close relationship between them; but we are also told that

there may be a development of an organ in the brain of man which will take

cognizance of electric vibration directly and not indirectly. Let me show you

what I mean. You see the light here because the light makes vibrations, and

these vibrations strike on the organ we call the eye. The eye is so put together

in its minute parts, that these vibrate in response to the vibrations of the

ether; so that whenever these vibrations are present, certain particles in the

eye vibrate in response and give to us the sensation which we call light. Now

these vibrations are within narrow limits; there are vibrations in the ether

wider and narrower in wave-length than those which we call light, and to these

our eyes do not answer. Therefore if they alone are present, we are in darkness;

we cannot see. So again suppose we had developed the organ which is necessary to respond to the electric vibration, while we had not the organ of sight.

 

Then this room would be dark to us, though filled with the vibrations we now call light. Then the consciousness could not perceive the light. But if we had

developed instead of the eye another class of organs which answered to the

electric vibrations, and suppose a large electric machine were fixed at one end

of the hall, and a strong electric current sent through the hall, we should be

able to perceive because the organ in us would vibrate in answer to the electric

current, and the current would reach our consciousness through this organ. The

consciousness is helpless without an organ that receives from without, and only

the body can receive and transfer vibrations to the inner intelligence. That has

been very clearly pointed out, and to take a striking illustration used by

Professor Crookes: suppose we had no eyes to see the light, and suppose we had an inner organ which answered to electricity. This air would be opaque and we could not see through it, while a silver wire going through the air would be

transparent, would be like a tube going through a solid mass. Though you would

be able to perceive along the silver wire, because silver is a good conductor of

electricity,you would perceive the air as a solid round the silver which would

look like a hole.

 

Do you see how rational the illusory theory can become when you learn a little more science? Do you see how matter is no longer the thing which it was, a solid material, but by a change in the organ of consciousness, what is solid today may be permeable to-morrow? And thus the idea is largely right that regards matter as an illusion; for what we call matter is only a generalisation of the impressions received by consciousness by way of the senses. It is the translation in consciousness of the unknown something which works upon us. In fact, what we call matter is but a reflection in the consciousness of an aspect of the Supreme Unknowable Unity, just as the Spirit is the reflection of the other aspect of the same Unknowable Unity.

 

Thus science is bringing us back to this part of the ancient teachings, and if a materialist comes to you and says that matter cannot pass from matter, just throw into his mind for him to think over, some of these later facts.

 

Pass I from that to another closely allied point--that of thought-transference.

Thought-transference is now being acknowledged, though for a long time science was very doubtful as to its acceptance, and if you spoke to a man about it he

most likely regarded you as a crank, or even called you a fraud, for it was

easier to call you a fraud than to admit that he was ignorant. There are men for

whom it is impossible to say "I do not know," but anybody can say "you are a

fraud." The ignorant who are not able to understand, people who are most

self-opinionated nearly always call out "fraud," when confronted with the

unintelligible. Look now at thought-transference. Thought is a form-producing

force; when Brahma thought, worlds appeared. In the ancient books it was always taken to be granted that action is an effect of the mind. But it has been asked contemptuously of the writers of these books, what did they know about modern science? What did they know compared to our advancement? For we are supposed to know everything nearly in this 19th century! Yet, after all, the old writers have become justified by the facts. The old teachers have been justified by the later investigations.

 

And some of the best of the younger scientists in England--the old ones are too prejudiced--are ready to take up facts, and they themselves have now performed the experiments that prove that thought-transference is possible. You have a man like Professor Lodge saying that his own experiments have convinced him and that he finds that thought can pass from mind to mind without what is called any material method. Not only he but the Psychical Research Society, which is an exceedingly "respectable" body from the public standpoint, have conducted a number of most careful investigations on thought-transference. The results of these were published in a book some three months ago by W. Podmore, a member of the Society. You will find in this book a record of most careful experiments on the transference of thought from one to another, and the evidence is now so strong that it is impossible to put it out of court.

 

Oliver Lodge speaking two years ago, said he was sure of thought-transference,

but it was alleged that matter might be moved by the action of the will without

material contact, and of that he was not yet convinced. But within the last few

months Mr. Lodge has himself carried on a number of experiments which have

convinced him, he says, beyond the possibility of doubt, that an article may be

moved from one place to another without physical contact at all; that bodies can

be moved or suspended in the air without the means of physical support, and that he himself has taken part in experiments which have been carefully arranged by himself and other scientific men and they have proved that it is possible and it

may be done over and over again. The experiments carried on included therein the taking of small articles and without physical contact passing them from one part of a room to another.

 

The conditions under which these things were done were very rigid. They were carried on in a small island where there were no persons living except the lighthouse-keeper and his family. It was a very little island, a mere rock. Mr. Lodge and two or three others got the owner's consent to make their experiments there. They brought with them what is called a medium who

belonged to the South of Europe, who could not talk the language of the

inhabitants of the island, so that she could not communicate even with the

family on the island, she being an absolute stranger never having been there

before. They took her into a room with themselves only, with locked door, and

there they performed the experiments in which these phenomena were produced.

They kept the reporter outside in the balcony so, that he could not be within

sight of what was occurring. The reporter was put outside with a closed shutter

between him and the people in the room. He was to write down what he heard, but he was not able to see what happened.

 

Mr. Lodge said he was himself absolutely convinced; he said he could not as yet explain it, but he thought it possible there might be a kind of expansion of vital energies by which a person, under certain conditions, could affect a body outside his physical reach. Just as one body can touch another by the exercise of physical energies, so can it draw others towards it. But he is not yet prepared to say how that energy is exercised. That this was, he knows; how it was, he has not yet satisfied himself. But if he were to read some of the ancient books, he could easily find out. He might find that a man does not consist only of what is called the food-sheath or our physical body, but that men have other sheaths in which consciousness may work, without the limitations which are attached to the

physical body. When it is working within there, it can also exercise its power,

just as much as it can in the physical body, and may lift an object from one

place to another by working with a law of nature in which other forces are

concerned. The sheath used is what the Theosophists speak of as the "astral"

body which can be utilised for the production of these phenomena, and though it was said to be a fraud when Madame Blavatsky brought an article from one side of a room to another, yet nearly four years after her death you have Mr. Lodge going into the subject, and asserting after a scientifically rigid repetition of

the facts that the thing could be done, thus justifying a statement as possible

which had been hastily dismissed as a fraud.

 

I might speak of many other cases of these latest investigations, and show you

how they are undermining the materialistic idea. I may turn to Hypnotism, and

remind you that last year I remarked that it was becoming a public danger--the

power of influencing another, the power recognised by science, which one man had of imposing his thoughts on another. I saw that before long nations would be face to face with crimes which they would not know how to deal with. I said to you that unless the exercise of these powers were very carefully guarded, so

that men who were unworthy should not be allowed to grasp these hidden powers of nature, there would be great danger to society in making safe particular classes of crime.

 

Since last year that prophecy of mine has proved itself true, and in certain cases both in France and the United States of America crimes were found to have been worked by the hypnotiser, and the courts have not been able to deal

with them, and verdicts of acquittal have been given on the ground that the

criminals were not responsible for their actions, that being thrown into the

hypnotised state, they could not justly be called to account by the law for the

crime which they had committed. So that you have this result justifying the

ancient practice of the East in withholding dangerous knowledge of occult

forces, and showing that society in the West is face to face with the peril of

men who commit crimes but who cannot be held responsible for them, because

committing them under the influence of those who suggest them.

 

What is to be the outcome of these arguments? What is to be the outcome of these later investigations in Chemistry, electricity, thought-transference, Hypnotism, the moving of bodies and the like? To what are these new lines of investigation tending? They tend to show you that the old doctrine is true, that everything is the outcome of mind, that the Supreme Mind is, as it were, behind every phenomenon, that matter is regulated in conformity with the dictates of mind, that it is the truth that thought-forces take for in particular manifestations,

and so the Universe is only an expression of the Divine Will. And inasmuch as

the mind generates thoughts, and inasmuch as the Supreme and human minds are one in their essence, therefore the mind of man, in its higher manifestations shares in the powers of Supreme mind, and can control matter, can move matter, can model matter, shape matter, and make itself visible in the envelope of thought, and so communicate with other minds without any attempt to speak or hear at all.

 

So that you begin to understand that the saying of the Purana as to creation is

not a dream, but that it is from the Supreme Will that forms emanate and build

the Universe. And you may understand that this power of the Supreme is more

manifest in the power of the mind than in the powers of the body, and that true

activity is shown not in running about from place to place, held in the bonds of

physical facts, but in quiet thinking, in the use of the imagination and the

will. Therefore the Yogi sitting apart, with body absolutely still, with eyes

closed, and mouth not communicating with other men, if he be a Yogi indeed, a

Yogi in heart not only in dress, he has an inner life, a spiritual life, he may

do more than the man of action by his thoughts, by his meditations, by the

forces which are going out from him. On these more than on the work of

politicians may turn the life of the nation.

 

Nor is this work only for the Yogi. Every one of you is sending out thoughts

that, passing into the astral atmosphere, will take form, and thence affect the

lives of men and in their totality the nation's future. If only every one of you

would give one brief quarter of an hour's thought each morning to the future of

India, and send out earnest wishes for her welfare, hopes for her revival,

aspirations for her spiritual greatness, believe me you would make a force that

would raise the nation and would mould her future. Your thoughts would gather

together, modelling, as it were, an ideal India that should take shape in the

external world; your prayers would gather together and ascend to the Feet of

Mahadeva, whence would flow forth a regenerating energy that would manifest

itself in teachers, in leaders, in guides of the people, who could move the

hearts of men and unite them into one mighty Unity. Such is your power over the

future, such the service you may render India; for in thought is the power of

the Supreme, and it is man's because "Thou art Brahman."

 

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Cardiff Theosophical Archive

The Theosophical Society, Cardiff Lodge, 206 Newport Road, Cardiff CF24 – 1DL  

 

 

 

 

 

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky 1831 – 1891

The Founder of Modern Theosophy

 

Index of Articles by

By

H P Blavatsky

 

 

 

Elementals

 

 

A Land of Mystery

 

 

A Case Of Obsession

 

 

Devachan

 

 

Reincarnation

 

 

The Mind in Nature

 

 

Elementaries

 

 

Fakirs and Tables

 

 

Is the Desire to Live Selfish?

 

 

A Paradoxical World

 

 

An Astral Prophet

 

 

Ancient Magic in Modern Science

 

 

Roots of Ritualism in

Church and Masonry

 

 

A Year of Theosophy

 

 

Can The Mahatmas

Be Selfish?

 

 

Chelas and Lay Chelas

 

 

Nightmare Tales

 

 

“My Books”

 

 

Dialogue On The Mysteries

Of The After Life

 

 

Do The Rishis Exist?

 

 

"Esoteric Buddhism"

And The

"Secret Doctrine"

 

 

Have Animals Souls

 

 

The Kabalah and the Kabalists

 

 

Babel Of Modern Thought

 

 

Thoughts on the Elementals

 

 

Karmic Visions

 

 

What Is Truth?

 

 

Civilization,

The Death of Art and Beauty

 

 

Gems from the East

A Birthday Book of Axions and

Precepts Compiled by H P Blavatsky

 

 

Obras Por H P Blavatsky

En Espanol

 

 

¿Es la Teosofía una Religión?

 

 

La Clave de la Teosofía

 

 

Articles about the Life of H P Blavatsky

 

 

Biography of H P Blavatsky

 

 

H P Blavatsky

the Light-Bringer

by

Geoffrey A Barborka

The Blavatsky Lecture of 1970

 

 

The Life of H P Blavatsky

Edited by A P Sinnett

 

 

 

 

 

 

Key Concepts of Theosophy

 

 

 

 

1) Infinitude

 

Nature is infinite in space and time -- boundless and eternal, unfathomable and ineffable. The all-pervading essence of infinite nature can be called space, consciousness, life, substance, force, energy, divinity -- all of which are fundamentally one.

 

 

2) The finite and the infinite

 

Nature is a unity in diversity, one in essence, manifold in form. The infinite whole is composed of an infinite number of finite wholes -- the relatively stable and autonomous things (natural systems or artefacts) that we observe around us. Every natural system is not only a conscious, living, substantial entity, but is consciousness-life-substance, of a particular range of density and form. Infinite nature is an abstraction, not an entity; it therefore does not act or change and has no attributes. The finite, concrete systems of which it is composed, on the other hand, move and change, act and interact, and possess attributes. They are composite, inhomogeneous, and ultimately transient.

 

 

3) Vibration/worlds within worlds

 

The one essence manifests not only in infinitely varied forms, and on infinitely varied scales, but also in infinitely varying degrees of spirituality and substantiality, comprising an infinite spectrum of vibration or density. There is therefore an endless series of interpenetrating, interacting worlds within worlds, systems within systems.

 

The energy-substances of higher planes or subplanes (a plane being a particular range of vibration) are relatively more homogeneous and less differentiated than those of lower planes or subplanes.

 

 

4) Space and time

 

Just as boundless space is comprised of endless finite units of space, so eternal duration is comprised of endless finite units of time. Space is the infinite totality of worlds within worlds, but appears predominantly empty because only a tiny fraction of the energy-substances composing it are perceptible and tangible to an entity at any particular moment. Time is a concept we use to quantify the rate at which events occur; it is a function of

change and motion, and presupposes a succession of cause and effect. Every entity is extended in space and changes 'in time'.

 

 

5) Causation/karma

 

All change (of position, substance, or form) is the result of causes; there is no such thing as absolute chance. Nothing can happen for no reason at all for nothing exists in isolation; everything is part of an intricate web of causal interconnections and interactions. The keynote of nature is harmony: every action is automatically followed by an equal and opposite reaction, which sooner or later rebounds upon the originator of the initial act. Thus, all our thoughts and deeds will eventually bring us 'fortune' or 'misfortune' according to the degree to which they were harmonious or disharmonious. In the long term, perfect justice prevails in nature.

 

 

6) Analogy

 

Because nature is fundamentally one, and the same basic habits and structural, geometric, and evolutionary principles apply throughout, there are correspondences between microcosm and macrocosm. The principle of analogy -- as above, so below -- is a vital tool in our efforts to understand reality.

 

 

7) Relativity

 

All finite systems and their attributes are relative. For any entity, energy-substances vibrating within the same range of frequencies as its outer body are 'physical' matter, and finer grades of substance are what we call energy, force, thought, desire, mind, spirit, consciousness, but these are just as material to entities on the corresponding planes as our physical world is to us. Distance and time units are also relative: an atom is a solar system on its own scale, reembodying perhaps millions of times in what for us is one second, and our whole galaxy may be a molecule in some supercosmic entity, for which a million of our years is just a second. The range of scale is infinite: matter-consciousness is both infinitely divisible and infinitely aggregative.

 

 

8) Hierarchy

 

All natural systems consist of smaller systems and form part of larger systems. Hierarchies extend both 'horizontally' (on the same plane) and 'vertically' or inwardly (to higher and lower planes). On the horizontal level, subatomic particles form atoms, which combine into molecules, which arrange themselves into cells, which form tissues and organs, which form part of organisms, which form part of ecosystems, which form part of planets, solar systems, galaxies, etc. The constitution of worlds and of the organisms that inhabit them form 'vertical' hierarchies, and can be divided into several interpenetrating layers or elements, from physical-astral to psychomental to spiritual-divine, each of which can be further divided.

 

The human constitution can be divided up in several different ways: e.g. into a trinity of body, soul, and spirit; or into 7 'principles' -- a lower quaternary consisting of physical body, astral model-body, life-energy, and lower thoughts and desires, and an upper triad consisting of higher mind (reincarnating ego), spiritual intuition, and inner god. A planet or star can be regarded as a 'chain' of 12 globes, existing on 7 planes, each globe comprising several subplanes.

 

The highest part of every multilevelled organism or hierarchy is its spiritual summit or 'absolute', meaning a collective entity or 'deity' which is relatively perfected in relation to the hierarchy in question. But the most 'spiritual' pole of one hierarchy is the most 'material' pole of the next, superior hierarchy, just as the lowest pole of one hierarchy is the highest pole of the one below.

 

 

9) From within outwards

 

Each level of a hierarchical system exercises a formative and organizing influence on the lower levels (through the patterns and prototypes stored up from past cycles of activity), while the lower levels in turn react upon the higher. A system is therefore formed and organized mainly from within outwards, from the inner levels of its constitution, which are relatively more enduring and developed than the outer levels. This inner guidance is sometimes active and selfconscious, as in our acts of free will (constrained, however, by karmic tendencies from the past), and sometimes it is automatic and passive, giving rise to our own automatic bodily functions and habitual and instinctual behavior, and to the orderly, lawlike operations of nature in general. The 'laws' of nature are therefore the habits of the various grades of conscious entities that compose reality, ranging from higher intelligences  (collectively forming the universal mind) to elemental nature-forces.

 

 

10) Consciousness and its vehicles

 

The core of every entity -- whether atom, human, planet, or star -- is a monad, a unit of consciousness-life-substance, which acts through a series of more material vehicles or bodies. The monad or self in which the consciousness of a particular organism is focused is animated by higher monads and expresses itself through a series of lesser monads, each of which is the nucleus of one of the lower vehicles of the entity in question. The following monads can be distinguished: the divine or galactic monad, the spiritual or solar monad, the higher human or planetary-chain monad, the lower human or globe monad, and the animal, vital-astral, and physical monads. At our present stage of evolution, we are essentially the lower human monad, and our task is to raise our consciousness from the animal-human to the spiritual-human level of it.

 

 

11) Evolutionary unfoldment

 

Evolution means the unfolding, the bringing into active manifestation, of latent powers and faculties 'involved' in a previous cycle of evolution. It is the building of ever fitter vehicles for the expression of the mental and spiritual powers of the monad. The more sophisticated the lower vehicles of an entity, the greater their ability to express the powers locked up in the higher levels of its constitution. Thus all things are alive and conscious, but the degree of manifest life and consciousness is extremely varied.

 

Evolution results from the interplay of inner impulses and environmental stimuli. Ever building on and modifying the patterns of the past, nature is infinitely creative.

 

 

12) Cyclic evolution/re-embodiment

 

Cyclic evolution is a fundamental habit of nature. A period of evolutionary activity is followed by a period of rest. All natural systems evolve through re-embodiment. Entities are born from a seed or nucleus remaining from the previous evolutionary cycle of the monad, develop to maturity, grow old, and pass away, only to re-embody in a new form after a period of rest. Each new embodiment is the product of past karma and present choices.

 

 

13) Birth and Death

 

Nothing comes from nothing: matter and energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but only transformed. Everything evolves from preexisting material. The growth of the body of an organism is initiated on inner planes, and involves the transformation of higher energy-substances into lower, more material ones, together with the attraction of matter from the environment.

 

When an organism has exhausted the store of vital energy with which it is born, the coordinating force of the indwelling monad is withdrawn, and the organism 'dies', i.e. falls apart as a unit, and its constituent components go their separate ways. The lower vehicles decompose on their respective subplanes, while, in the case of humans, the reincarnating ego enters a dreamlike state of rest and assimilates the experiences of the previous incarnation. When the time comes for the next embodiment, the reincarnating ego clothes itself in many of the same atoms of different grades that it had used previously, bearing the appropriate karmic impress. The same basic processes of birth, death, and rebirth apply to all entities, from atoms to humans to stars.

 

 

14) Evolution and involution of worlds

 

Worlds or spheres, such as planets and stars, are composed of, and provide the field for the evolution of, 10 kingdoms -- 3 elemental kingdoms, mineral, plant, animal, and human kingdoms, and 3 spiritual kingdoms. The impulse for a new manifestation of a world issues from its spiritual summit or hierarch, from which emanate a series of steadily denser globes or planes; the One expands into the many. During the first half of the evolutionary cycle (the arc of descent) the energy-substances of each plane materialize or condense, while during the second half (the arc of ascent) the trend is towards dematerialization or etherealization, as globes and entities are reabsorbed into the spiritual hierarch for a period of nirvanic rest. The descending arc is characterized by the evolution of matter and involution of spirit, while the ascending arc is characterized by the evolution of spirit and involution of matter.

 

 

15) Evolution of the monad

 

In each grand cycle of evolution, comprising many planetary embodiments, a monad begins as an unselfconsciousness god-spark, embodies in every kingdom of nature for the purpose of gaining experience and unfolding its inherent faculties, and ends the cycle as a self conscious god. Elementals ('baby monads') have no free choice, but automatically act in harmony with one another and the rest of nature. In each successive kingdom differentiation and individuality increase, and reach their peak in the human kingdom with the attainment of selfconsciousness and a large measure of free will.

 

In the human kingdom in particular, self-directed evolution comes into its own. There is no superior power granting privileges or handing out favours; we evolve according to our karmic merits and demerits. As we progress through the spiritual kingdoms we become increasingly at one again with nature, and willingly 'sacrifice' our circumscribed selfconscious freedoms (especially the freedom to 'do our own thing') in order to work in peace and harmony with the greater whole of which we form an integral part. The highest gods of one hierarchy or world-system begin as elementals in the next. The matter of any plane is composed of aggregated, crystallized monads in their nirvanic sleep, and the spiritual and divine entities embodied as planets and stars are the electrons and atomic nuclei -- the material building blocks -- of worlds on even larger scales. Evolution is without beginning and without end, an endless adventure through the fields of infinitude, in which there are always new worlds of experience in which to become selfconscious masters of life.

 

 

16) Universal brotherhood

 

There is no absolute separateness in nature. All things are made of the same essence, have the same spiritual-divine potential, and are interlinked by magnetic ties of sympathy. It is impossible to realize our full potential, unless we recognize the spiritual unity of all living beings and make universal brotherhood the keynote of our lives.

 

 

 

 

Wales Theosophy Links Summary

 

All Wales Guide to Theosophy

 

Instant Guide to Theosophy

 

Theosophy Wales Hornet

 

Theosophy Wales Now

 

Cardiff Theosophical Archive

 

Elementary Theosophy

 

Basic Theosophy

 

Theosophy in Cardiff

 

Theosophy in Wales

 

Hey Look! Theosophy in Cardiff

 

Streetwise Theosophy

 

Grand Tour

 

Theosophy Aardvark

 

Theosophy Starts Here

 

theosophycardiff.org

 

 

 

 

Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales

Theosophy House

206 Newport Road

Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24 – 1DL

theosophycardiff@uwclub.net

 

_________________

 

Wales Picture Gallery

 

 

Beaumaris Castle

 

 

Cardiff Castle

 

 

Conwy Castle

 

 

Flint Castle

 

 

Flint Castle North East Tower

 

 

 

Grosmont Castle

 

 

 

Beaumaris Castle

 

 

 

Llantilio Castle

 

 

 

Montgomery Castle

 

 

 

Rhuddlan Castle

 

 

 

Skenfrith Castle

 

 

 

Anglesey Abbey

 

 

 

Bangor Town Clock

 

 

 

Colwyn Bay Centre

 

 

 

The Great Orme

 

 

 

Llandudno Promenade

 

 

 

Great Orme Tramway

 

 

 

Caervarvon Castle

 

 

 

New Radnor

 

 

 

Blaenavon High Street

 

 

 

Blaenavon Ironworks

 

 

 

 

Llandrindod Wells

 

 

 

Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales

Theosophy House

206 Newport Road

Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24 – 1DL

theosophycardiff@uwclub.net

 

 

 

 

Carmarthen

 

 

 

Presteign Railway

 

 

 

Caerwent Roman Ruins

 

 

 

Colwyn Bay Postcard

 

 

 

Ferndale in the Rhondda Valley

 

 

 

Denbigh

 

 

 

National Museum of Wales

 

 

 

Nefyn

 

 

 

Penisarwaen

 

 

 

Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales

Theosophy House

206 Newport Road

Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24 – 1DL

theosophycardiff@uwclub.net