The Theosophical Society,
The Writings of C Jinarajadasa
The Law
of Renunciation
First Published 1915
The joy of life! Is it not everywhere? In plant and animal and man, do we not
see an instinct for happiness which impels all creation to rise from good to
better, from better to best? Since God said, “Let there be light!” are not all
men seeking to step out of darkness into light – blindly, dimly feeling that
happiness must be their goal? Yet how few find happiness in life! It is easy to
sing:—
God’s
in his heaven,
All’s right with the world!
But to sing so for long, one must be
blind to the facts. Life is a tragedy to many, and far more truly is it
described by Tennyson:—
Act
first, this Earth, a stage so gloom’d with woe
You all but sicken at the shifting scenes,
And yet be patient. Our Playwright may show
In some fifth Act what this wild Drama means.
Nevertheless all feel that happiness must
be the goal of life, and humanity never errs in its deepest feelings. But then
why should not the attainment of happiness be easier than it is ?
MAN AN EVOLVING SOUL
There is a philosophy of life which holds that man is an immortal soul,
living not one life on earth but many, growing through the experiences which he
gains in them manifold capacities and virtues. This philosophy further
postulates that all men are the children of One father, who has created a universe,
in order that working therein His children may know something of Him,
and come to Him in joy. According to this theory, the purpose of life is not to
achieve a stable condition of happiness for any individual, but rather to train
him to work in a Plan of an Ideal Future, and find in that work an
ever-changing and ever-growing contentment.
From the standpoint of the Theosophist, all men are indeed working for a
foreordained ideal future ; but they work at different stages, according to
their differing capacities. A recognition of these stages, and the laws of life
appropriate to each, makes life less the riddle that it is. There are three
broad stages on the Path of Bliss which leads to the Highest Good, and they are
happiness, renunciation, and transfiguration.
THE STAGE OF HAPPINESS
God calls upon all His children at this stage to co-operate with Him, by
offering them happiness as the aim of life. He has implanted in them a craving
for happiness, and He provides work for them which shall make them happy. Love
of wife and child and friend, fame and the gratitude of men, success and ease —
these are His rewards for them that serve Him. Many are the pleasant paths in
life for the young souls at this stage, to reap happinesses as they prove those
pleasures.
That
hills and valleys, dale and field,
And
all the craggy mountains yield.
Useful up to a point as men are in the Great Work at this stage, yet so long as
a man deliberately seeks happiness, his capabilities as a worker are
soon exhausted. For soon he “settles down in life” ; the precious gift of
wonder slowly fades away, and his happiness ceases to be dynamic. Self-centred,
he calls on the universe to give. But the Path to Bliss is by work, and if he
is to go ever on, he must fit himself for a larger work than has so far
fallen to his share. He must enter on the next stage, but for that he must
change utterly. Hither-to he has measured men and things by the standard of his
little self; henceforth the Great Self must be his measure. He must break the
sway of himself, and realize that evermore what is important in life is not he,
nor his happiness, but a Work. Before this realization can begin, there must be
a conversion.
CONVERSION
In many ways are men converted from the interests of the little self to the
work of the Great Self. Some, loving Truth in religious garb, open their hearts
to a Personality who dazzles their imagination. Thenceforth they must serve
Him, and be like Him, and gone forever is the standpoint of the little self.
Some study science and philosophy, and discover a magnificent plan of
evolution, with the inevitable result that they know that the individual is but
a unit in a great Whole, and not the centre of the cosmos. If they set to study
rightly, they see, too, that there is a Will at work, and that, cost what it
may, they must co-operate with that Will. A few there are to whom comes some
mysterious experience from the hidden side of things, and life speaks to them a
transforming message. Out of the invisible comes a “Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou Me?” and a persecutor of Christians is changed into an Apostle of Christ.
Manifold are the ways of conversion, the same in all lands and in all faiths.
One factor is common : the old personality is disintegrated, and a new one is
reintegrated in the service of a Work.
When, through conversion, the new personality is ready for a larger work, the
tools which he uses must be made pure. They are his thoughts and feelings, and
slowly a process of purification is begun. Disappointment and pain and grief
are his lot – the sad harvest of a sowing of selfishness in the unseen past of
many lives, for we reap as we have sown. When the worker is ready, swift is
Nature’s response to free him from the burden of his past, in order that he may
be fit to achieve the great work which she has prepared for him.
THE MEANING OF PAIN
With some, sorrow hardens the character, but with those who are ready to
enter on the second stage, it ever purifies. Does not the very texture and the
flesh of a sufferer, who has in patience and resignation borne his pain, seem
luminous and pure, as though through every cell there gleamed the light of a
hidden fire? How much more so is it with mental suffering? Are we not
irresistibly drawn to reverence one who has suffered much and nobly, and
sometimes to love, too?
I
saw my lady weep,
And Sorrow proud to be advanced so
In those fair eyes where all perfection keep.
Her face was full of woe: But such a woe (believe me) wins more hearts
Than Mirth can do with her enticing parts,
Sorrow was there made fair,
Passion wise ; tears a delightful thing;
Silence beyond all speech a wisdom rare.
She made her sighs to sing,
And all things with so sweet a sadness move
As made a heart at once both grieve and love.
THE STAGE OF RENUNCIATION
Life seems full of evil
days to those who come to the end of the first stage, but its lesson is clear.
That lesson is, “Thou must go without, go without!” That is the everlasting
song, which every hour, all our life through, hoarsely sings to us. Truly does
Carlyle voice the wisdom of the ages when he says, “The Fraction of Life can be
increased in value not so much by increasing your numerator as by lessening
your denominator. Nay, unless my algebra deceive me, unit divided by a zero
will give infinity. Make thy claim of wages a zero then ; thou hast the world
under thy feet.”
THE LAW OF RENUNCIATION
All great workers know that the Law of renunciation is true, and that “it
is only with renunciation that life, properly speaking can be said to begin”.
There are no great souls who are completely happy, can ever be! Once more let
the great apostle of Work speak to us: “the happy man was never yet created;
the virtuous man, tho’ clothed in rags and sinking under pain, is the jewel of
the Earth, however I may doubt it, or deny it in bitterness of heart. O never
let me forget it! Teach me, tell me, when the Fiend of Suffering and the base
Spirit of the World are ready to prevail against me, and drive me from this
last stronghold.”
Take whom you will who has done a great work, and he knows that renunciation is
the law. In bitterness of heart Ruskin cries out : “I have had my heart broken
ages ago, when I was a boy, then mended, cracked, beaten in, kicked about old
corridors, and finally, I think, flattened fairly out”. But he persevered in
his work all the same. There is no greater name in the world of art than
Michael Angelo, “this masterful and stern, life-wearied and labor-hardened
man”, whose history “is one of indomitable will and almost superhuman energy,
yet of will that had hardly ever had its way, and of energy continually at war
with circumstance”. It is the same with all who have been great.
THE MEANING OF LIFE
But through renunciation the soul on the threshold of greatness discover’s
life's meaning. If religious, he will state it, “Thy will be done” ; if
scientific or artistic he will say, “Not I, but a Work”. He is now as Faust who
sought happiness in knowledge, and failed ; sought it in the love of
Marguerite, and reaped a tragedy ; and only as he planned to reclaim waste
lands for men, and lost himself in the dream of that work, found that
long-sought-for happy moment when he could say, “Ah, tarry a while, thou art so
fair!”
So, renouncing live the souls of the second stage, lovers of a Work. Sad at
heart they are; but if they are loyal to their work, then comes to them in
fleeting moments more than happiness ; it is the joy of creation. Such wonders
they now body forth that to themselves their masterpieces are enigmas. In
fitful gleams they see a Light, and know that now and then it shines through
them to the world. Perfect masters of technique they are now, in religion, in
art, in science, in every department of life. But alas! Just as they have
discovered what it is to live, what it is to create, they are old, and life
comes to a close, before it seems hardly begun. Shall the path of renunciation
bring nothing but despair?
Despair
was never yet so deep.
In
sinking as in seeming;
Despair
is hope just dropp’d asleep
For
better chance of dreaming.
THE STAGE OF TRANSFIGURATION
“Hope just
dropp’d asleep for better chance of dreaming” – that, truly, is death. The
great worker leaves life but to return again, with every dream old and new
nearer realization. He returns, with the inborn mastery of technique of the
genius, to achieve now where once he only dreamed. The joy of creation is now
his sure and priceless possession, that wondrous joy which only those who know
can offer all gifts of heart and mind, and stand apart from them, while a
Greater than they creates through them. “Seeking nothing, he gains al ; foregoing
self, the universe grows I”. Now has he found that life which he lost in the
stage of renunciation ; henceforth, in all places and at all times is he become
“a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall no more go out”.
THE PATH OF BLISS
So life gives of its best to all —
happiness to some, renunciation to others, and, to a few, transfiguration. What
if now most of us, who love Truth, must “do without”? Let us but dedicate heart
and mind to a Work, and we shall find that renunciation leads to transfiguration.
There is but one road to God , for all to tread. It is the Path of Bliss. It
has steps — happiness, renunciation, and transfiguration. Whoso will offer up
all that he is to a Work, though he “lose his life” thereby, yet shall he find
it soon, and “come again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
History
of the Theosophical Society
Quick Explanations with Links to More Detailed Info
What is Theosophy ? Theosophy Defined (More Detail)
Three Fundamental Propositions Key Concepts of Theosophy
Cosmogenesis Anthropogenesis Root Races
Ascended Masters After Death States
The Seven Principles of Man Karma
Reincarnation Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott William Quan Judge
The Start of the Theosophical Society
History of the Theosophical Society
Theosophical Society Presidents
History of the Theosophical Society in Wales
The Three Objectives of the Theosophical
Society
Explanation of the Theosophical Society
Emblem
The Theosophical Order of Service (TOS)
Glossaries of Theosophical Terms
Quotes from the Writings of
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
The Secret Doctrine , Volume 2, Page 100
It is only by the attractive force of the contrasts
that the two opposites — Spirit and Matter — can be cemented together on
Earth, and, smelted in the fire of self-conscious experience and suffering, find
themselves wedded in Eternity.
The Secret Doctrine , Volume 2, Page 108
It is the motive, and the motive alone, which makes
any exercise of power become black, malignant, or white, beneficent Magic. It is
impossible to employ spiritual forces if there is the slightest tinge of
selfishness remaining in the operator .... The powers and forces of animal
nature can equally be used by the selfish and revengeful, as by the unselfish
and the all-forgiving; the powers and forces of spirit lend themselves only to
the perfectly pure in heart — and this is Divine Magic.
Isis Unveiled, Volume 1, Page 36
The Secret Doctrine , Volume 3, Page
14
Even ignorance is better than
Head-learning with no Soul-wisdom to illuminate and guide it.
The
Voice of the Silence, Page 43
Annotation - The
Path, May, 1888
The Secret
Doctrine , Proem [Volume 1], Page 35
Isis Unveiled,
Volume 1, Page 210
The Secret
Doctrine , Volume 1, Page 134
Oaths will never
be binding till each man will fully understand that humanity is the highest manifestation
on earth of the Unseen Supreme Deity, and each man anincarnation of
his God; and when the sense of personal responsibility will be so developed in him
that he will consider forswearing the greatest possible insult to himself, as
well as to humanity. No oath is now binding, unless taken by one who, without
any oath at all, would solemnly keep his simple promise of honour.
Isis Unveiled,
Volume 2, Page 374
It is the motive,
and the motive alone, which makes any exercise of power become black, malignant,
or white, beneficent Magic. It is impossible to employ spiritual forces if
there is the slightest tinge of selfishness remaining in the operator .... The
powers and forces of animal nature can equally be used by the selfish and
revengeful, as by the unselfish and the all-forgiving; the powers and forces of
spirit lend themselves only to the perfectly pure in heart — and this is Divine
Magic.
The Secret
Doctrine , Volume 2, Page 498
Isis Unveiled,
Volume 1, Page 36
From strength to
strength, from the beauty and perfection of one plane to the greater beauty
and perfection of another, with accessions of new glory, of fresh knowledge and
power in each cycle, such is the destiny of every Ego, which thus becomes its own
saviour in each world and incarnation.
The Key to
Theosophy, Page 105
The Secret
Doctrine , Volume 1, Page 69
The mind receives
indelible impressions even from chance acquaintance or persons encountered but
once. As a few seconds' exposure of the sensitized photographic plate is all
that is requisite to preserve indefinitely the image of the sitter, so is it
with the mind.
Isis Unveiled,
Volume 1, Page 311
The Key to Theosophy, Page 228
The Theosophical Society,