Practical Theosophy
By
C Jinarajadasa
First Published 1918
Based on lectures delivered in
Contents
I
Introductory
II Theosophy in the Home
III
Theosophy in School and College
IV Theosophy in Business
V Theosophy in Science
VI
Theosophy in Art
VII Theosophy in the State
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
THE value of Theosophy as a philosophy of conduct lies in the
fact that Theosophy approaches us every hour of the day and in every occupation
that is ours. While it contains universal truths relating to the profoundest
problems of existence, at the same time it tells us luminous truths about the
little things of our daily lives. Once a man has grasped Theosophical
principles, even if only
intellectually, they will never leave him. They are as
inseparably woven into the fabric of all life as the truths of evolution are
woven into the fabric of Nature. A man may refuse to live up to them, but he
cannot separate himself from them; they dog his footsteps in the home, in his
business, in his amusements; they make a running commentary on all that he sees
and hears.
There are three fundamental Theosophical truths which transform a
man's attitude to life when he begins to apply them. They are :
1. Man is
an immortal soul who grows through the ages into an ideal of
perfection.
2. The
growth of the soul is by learning to cooperate with God's Plan which is
Evolution.
3. Man
learns to co-operate with God's Plan by learning first how to help his fellow men.
The first truth tells us that man is a soul and not the body;
that the body is merely an instrument used by the soul, and discarded, as at
death, when no longer fit for the soul's purposes. It also tells us of
Reincarnation or the process of repeated births on earth, by which method a
soul grows by experiences life after life, slowly growing thereby into wisdom
and strength and beauty.
The second truth tells us that the purpose of life is not
contemplation but action, and that each action of a man's life should be so
guided by understanding that it fits in harmoniously with the Divine Plan of
Evolution. The more a soul co-operates with the Divine Plan, the happier, wiser
and more
glorious he becomes.
The third: truth tells us that each man is bound by invisible
bonds to all his fellow men; that they rise and fall with him and he with them;
that only as he helps the whole of which he is a part, does he really help
himself. Love of one's fellow men and altruism in the highest form are therefore
the essentials
of growth.
These fundamental truths are applicable to every occasion of
life, and the Theosophist is he who applies them. Let us see how they can be
applied in various departments of human activity.
CHAPTER II
THEOSOPHY IN THE HOME
WHAT is the family, in the light of these Theosophical truths ?
It is a meeting-place of souls to help each other towards perfection, No
individual in a family comes there by mere chance. The elders and the youngers,
the masters and the servants, the guests, even the domestic animals, are in a
family because each is to help and to be helped. There is no such thing as
chance in the Divine Plan; each individual in the family comes and goes, is a
member of it for a long or a short time, because he can co-operate to further
the welfare of all the other members of the family. He has a definite role in
the family, and his growth as a soul is by playing that role to the fullness of
his capacity. The home is a place for growth, and the ideal home is where the
conditions are such as enable each individual member of it to grow swiftest
towards his perfection.
There are several aspects of life in the home, and each is
affected by the principles of Theosophy, What has Theosophy to say concerning
the relation of parent and child, husband and wife, master and servant, host
and guest ?
First let us take the relation of parent and child. The child has
a dual nature, first as a soul and second as a body. It is only the body which
the parents provide; the soul of the child lives his life independently, and
takes charge of the body provided for him because he hopes to evolve through
it. It is only as regards the body of the child that the parents are the
elders; but the child, as
a soul, is the equal of the parents, and sometimes is wiser, more
capable, and more evolved than they.
Therefore the child does not belong to the parents; they are only
guardians of his body, so long as the soul cannot fully direct the body during
its infancy and youth. The phrase "my child" gives no right over the
destiny of the child; it gives only the privilege of helping in the evolution
of a brother soul. As
the parents evolve by learning to help their fellow men, one such
is sent to them as their child.
During the years of infancy, the parent's duty is to help the
soul of the child to take control of his body so as to do his work. That soul
comes with many experiences of past lives; he is preparing himself for a vast
work in the distant future. He takes birth in a particular family because its
environment is both what he deserves and that ]from which he can get the
experiences he
needs for his growth. The duty of the parents is to help the
child to those experiences.
This is to be done first by surrounding the child with all that
makes for a healthy life; it is the duty of parents to know the rules of
hygiene and sanitation, so that the physical conditions for the child may be as
perfect as possible. Next the parents must provide an emotional and mental
atmosphere that helps the child. The soul of the child is not perfect; he comes
from his past lives where he has been both good and evil; tendencies of both
are in him as he takes his new birth. But the parents can help the child's
growth by recalling to his memory in his early years only the good and helpful
experiences and not the evil and vicious. It is true that the soul must
eradicate the evil in himself only by his own action; but others can make it
easier for him, especially when he begins a new life as a child, by throwing
their weight on the side of his good rather than of his evil.
Therefore the parents must understand the invisible power of
thought and feeling, how a thought of anger, whether expressed or not
expressed, waters the hidden seeds of anger which the child has brought from
his past lives, and how equally thoughts of love and affection starve out the
germs of evil while they feed the germs of good. A soul ] with both good and
evil in him can start his new experiment with life as a good child rather than
as a bad one, if the parents will foster in themselves their good thoughts and
feelings rather than the evil.
While the duty of parents is to surround children with all that
tends to goodness and beauty, the failure of a child to be good under those
circumstances is not necessarily due to the parents. The soul of the child may
find the seeds of evil in himself too strong for control; the parents can but
attempt to guide him, but if he will not be guided he must go his own way. The
soul will learn through his mistakes, and through the suffering resulting to
him and to others from them. If the parents do their duty, they have done all
the Divine Plan expects of them; they cannot make or unmake the nature of a
soul, for the soul himself must work out his salvation. A mistake is not the
calamity that it appears to be when we know that the soul has not one life only
within which to set right his error, but several lives. The Divine Plan gives
the soul as many opportunities as he needs, till he finally grows into strength
and virtue.
Therefore no parent need blame himself, if he has done his duty,
because his child does not respond to ideals of virtue. The opportunities that
the child refuses to take will come to
him again, though only after he has been taught by pain to grasp them. What the
]parents must always do under these
circumstances is not to think of the soul by his failures, and so
increase his weaknesses, but to think of the soul by his virtues, and so
strengthen them.
In the training of children, one important question is how to
make a child do the right thing and not the wrong. Unfortunately, civilization
hitherto has believed that some kind of corporal punishment is inevitable as a
part of the method. While parents have the duty of training a child, they have
no right
whatsoever to force him ; the excuse that punishment is good for
a child is not really borne out in the light of the fullest facts. It is true
that in early years the child body is very largely an animal intelligence
overshadowed by the soul nature, and that many of a child's activities have
little or no direct
association with the soul; it is not the soul that eats and
drinks, is pettish or obstinate, or is made happy with toys, or laughs when tickled.
This animal side of the child does indeed often require curbing; but any kind
of outward pressure by corporal punishment, while it may achieve the intended
result, brings about also a certain coarsening of the child's vehicles which
makes them
more obstructive to the spiritualising influences of the Ego.
The higher nature of the child, represented by his latent
emotions and thoughts, has in childhood ]great sensitiveness; if proper care is
taken, a fine and happy emotional nature and an open and intuitive mentality
can result for the child as he grows up. Harsh treatment of any kind coarsens
his finer vehicles, however much it may temporarily check the crudities of the
physical; and repeated shocks of this kind finally coarsen and deaden that higher
sensitiveness which should be prominent in all men and women as a normal
characteristic of human beings. The man who is thankful that he was made to be
good by punishment does not realize how much better he might have become, had a
more rational system of training been understood by those who had his young
vehicles in their charge.
When parents and educationists realize that all the experiences
of life have not to be condensed into one brief lifetime; that the soul has an
eternity of growth before him ; that he has the right to make his own
experiments in life, so long as he does not hinder the growth of others; that
each individual alone is responsible for the good or evil that he may do; that
others are responsible for him only as they are his brothers and fellow men ;
then we shall have a saner outlook upon this matter of child welfare and
training, and there will be little difficulty in arranging methods of child
discipline which will curb the child's animal nature in ways that ]are not
derogatory to his higher nature as a soul.
When we come to the relation in the family as between husband and
wife, Theosophy tells us that they are both equal in the responsibilities and
privileges which they have in life. What has brought them together in this
family relationship is a series of duties and privileges which is called the
Law
of Karma, or the Law of Action and Reaction. They do not meet for
the first time in their age long existence, they have met many times before and
have "made Karma" between themselves; they have also " made
Karma " with certain other souls who may come to them as their children
and dependants. It is this karma, which they owe to each other and to those
that shall surround them in the home, that brings two souls together as husband
and wife.
Often this karma brings with it the blossoming of affections and
sympathies; in such a case we have the ideal marriage. But it may well happen
that, after two people have been brought together, the karma between them
produces phases of unhappiness. In both conditions, it is the Divine Purpose
that they shall get to know each other in their Divine natures, and discover
their common work, which
is indeed a part of the great Divine work. For while souls can
discover each other through love, yet if they will not through love, life
forces them to discover through hate; for hate that repels in the beginning
attracts in the end. Men and women discover these mysteries of life outside the
marital
relationship; but nevertheless that relationship has been planned
as one mode of discovery. No relation gives such great opportunities for the
discovery of another's self and also of one's own self as this; and the man or
woman who uses these opportunities, when karma gives them, thereby grows in
spirituality and comes nearer the discovery of the great Self of God and all
humanity.
When this high spiritual purpose is recognized as underlying
family life, family responsibilities and privileges appear in a new light; the
trivial duties of the home have shining through them the light of Eternity. The
birth of children or their loss, the anxieties and cares of tending them and
training them, the joys and the sorrows which they give, are all so many
experiences leading to the great Discovery. The family is not a meeting-place
of simple travellers who meet for a few brief years, and then go their separate
ways in eternity; it is far more a theatre or concert hall where a drama or a
composition is being rehearsed, so that all the individuals may learn to
perform their parts with beauty and dignity for the delight of man and of God.
Not dissimilar too is the relation in the home between master and
servant. Usually where this relation exists, the servant is less evolved than
the master; he therefore appears in the family in order that he may be helped
to grow by an elder soul. We may engage a servant, but his coming to us is not
a matter of chance; we may pay him wages, but our " karmic link" does
not cease with the money which we give him. The servant is the master’s brother
soul; he is usually the younger brother, but the monetary contract between them
should never be allowed to make less real the great fact they are brothers.
Servants come to us to be shown a higher ideal in life than they
would normally be aware of, were they not brought into association with their
masters. Neatness, method, conscientiousness, generosity, courtesy, fine
behaviour and culture are examples of conduct which the master has to place
before the
consciousness of his younger brother, the servant; but while we
present to him our example, we must not ask of him, since he is our younger
brother, our standard of achievement. It is our duty as masters to be patient
and understanding while we call out the best from our servants through a spirit
of
willing co-operation. Many a virtue can be learned as a servant
which, in a later life of larger opportunities, will lead to great actions; and
those of us who are 1]masters, but who have not yet learned such virtues, will
need to return to life as servants to learn them.
Who toiled a slave may come anew a prince,
For gentle worthiness and merit won ;
Who ruled a king may wander earth in rags,
For things done and undone.
The domestic animals who form a part of the family are not such
unimportant members of it as people usually imagine. The Divine Life that is in
man is in the animal too; but it is at an earlier stage and therefore less
evolved. But it is to evolve to a higher through contact with man. Man's duty
to his domestic animals is to soften their savage nature and implant in them
manlike attributes
of thought and affection and devotion. Therefore, while the
animal gives us its strength in service, we must use it purposely to train it
towards humanity, for the animal will some day grow to man. If we bring out a
dog's intelligence by our training, it should not be used to strengthen his
animal attributes, as when we train our dogs to hunt. A domestic cat may be
"a good mouser," but it is not
for that reason that God has guided him into the family. If we
train horses, it certainly should not be to develop speed for racing or hunting
; the service they give us should be rewarded by bringing out of them qualities
that more contribute to their evolution towards humanity than speed. The
general
principle with regard to our relation to our domestic animals is
that they are definitely sent to us to have their animal attributes of savagery
as far as possible weaned out of them and human attributes implanted in their
stead, for what is animal today will some day be man, as man today will some
day be a God ; and he serves evolution best who helps the Divine Life to move
swiftly on its upward way.
CHAPTER III
THEOSOPHY IN SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
THERE are just now in the educational world many attempts at
reforms;
all who have the practical duty of teaching and helping in the
building of the
character of children are aware how unsatisfactory are the
existing theories and
methods. The drift of these various reforms is clearly evident
when we approach
the problem of education from the standpoint of Theosophy. The
existing theories start with the supposition that the child is an intelligence
which began at
birth, and that, when he comes to school, his mind is a tabula
rasa;
necessarily, therefore, the aim of education is to give the child
a knowledge
which he does not possess and to mould a character which is yet
unformed.
These theories are still accepted as true, in spite of the fact
that every one who has had to teach boys and girls, and every parent who has
had to bring them up,
knows by practical experience that children have definite
characters, as well as
definite aptitudes, from their earliest infancy.
From the Theosophical standpoint, the first fact that, has always
to be kept in
mind with regard to a child is that he is an immortal soul, and
that his
appearance as a boy or girl is in order that the qualities latent
in that soul
may unfold themselves through experience. The second fact is that
the visible
world is only one part of a larger world in which the child
lives, and that all
the time the child is being affected for good or evil not only by
what he sees
and hears, but also by the invisible atmosphere of the thoughts
and feelings of
others. As an immortal soul, the child has already had many
experiences of life,
and his present appearance as a child is only one of many similar
appearances in
past ages. He has, therefore, known much about life, and has
already gained a
certain amount of experience of what to do and what not to do.
This knowledge,
however, is largely dormant, so far as the child's brain is
concerned.
The true aim, therefore, of education is twofold: first, to call
out this latent
knowledge in the child; he must be made quickly to rediscover
such principles of conduct as, in his past lives, he has tested and found were
valid for him; and
that form of education is the best which enables the soul,
working through the
child's brain, to come swiftest to a remembrance of his past successes
and
failures. The second aim in education is to bring the child 1 as
quickly
as possible to a synthetic view of life; for no man or woman
begins to be
educated until he or she sees life from some central standpoint.
In the general
activities of life, we are apt to miss the mark, because we
permit divisions
between our mental and emotional and moral worlds; and when we
thus exist in
compartments, the resultant of our energies is always less
forceful than it
might be if we lived as a whole. Therefore education must, from
the beginning,
instill into the child the sense of a whole in life and since he
has already
come to some degree of synthesis through his experiences in past
lives, the
educationist should aim at bringing the recollection of this
synthesis swiftly,
and at developing it to embrace a yet larger horizon.
This work of enabling a soul, through his child body, to come to
his old
synthesis, has to be done in three stages, those of the
Kindergarten, the
School, and the College; we shall now see what Theosophy has to
say concerning education in each of these stages.
The child is not merely the little physical body which we see; he
is also an
astral body of emotions and a mental body of ideas. All the three
vehicles,
mental, astral and physical, make up the child; and all three are
sensitive and
require training and co-ordination. Each vehicle has a certain
vitality of its
own, quite apart from the commanding general 1vitality of the
soul of
the child; and each has a rudimentary consciousness with likes
and dislikes
which are not necessarily those of the soul of the child. These
subconscious
streams of consciousness are pronounced during child life, and
they have to be
kept within their proper bounds while the soul uses the vehicles
which give rise
to them. Sometimes some of these subconscious elements may be
quite contrary to the nature of the child; the. physical body of the child may
be extremely boisterous or lethargic, because of the physical heredity of the
parents, but this need not mean, necessarily, that the soul lacks either
serenity or
strength. Exactly similarly, each child's astral and mind body
have energies of
their own to start with, quite apart from the energy of the soul
of the child
who uses the vehicles. Therefore, the principal aim in the
Kindergarten stage of
education is to enable the child to get control of his vehicles;
the brain needs
to be developed by muscular movements, the emotional nature by
feelings, and the mental by thoughts.
The work in the Kindergarten, as we all know, trains the child's
body in method
and order and rhythm, and trains his brain centres to recognise
the concepts of
colour, shape, weight, temperature, and so on. The deftness of
hand taught in
Kindergarten work reacts on the emotional and, 1mental nature of
the
child, and such training is very necessary, so as to enable the
soul to come
more swiftly to his synthesis. But we have to recognise that the
child's
character is influenced not only by the objects he handles and by
the shapes he
sees, but also by innumerably invisible influences; the lines and
angles and
curves of the room in which he works, the colour of walls, and
the shapes of the
physical objects surrounding him in his Kindergarten room, all
invisibly help or
hinder him; every line in the objects around him, every shade of
colour, every
tone he hears has its influence on his mental and emotional
natures; we can help
children or hinder them by the objects which surround them in
their Kindergarten
life. Modern Kindergarten methods have recognised the value of
the handling of
various objects by the child; but they have yet to recognise that
the objects
themselves are continually, though invisibly, handling the child,
and that they
are moulding him in the right way or warping him in the wrong.
The influence of the teacher upon the child, when viewed
theosophically, is far
more than educationists now realise; for the child is influenced
not only by the
visible teacher but also by that part of the teacher's nature
which is
invisible. A sharp word or a bright smile from a teacher has, we
know, visible
effects; exactly similar, but far more powerful, is 1the effect
of the
thought of the teacher. The true teacher must be equipped in educational
methods not only intellectually but also emotionally; and in the Kindergarten
specially is this essential, since the child's delicate astral and mental
vehicles are
extremely sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of the teacher.
Without love
for children and a keen interest in their ways no one has a right
to be a
teacher; and this general principle is most important in the
Kindergarten, where
children are given over to the teacher almost body and soul.
Many improvements have yet to be made in the Kindergarten, but
the general
principle underlying them all is that, while the child's three
vehicles are
plastic, it is the duty of the teacher to bring to bear upon them
not only the
visible but also the invisible influences, so as to bring down
into the child's
brain as quickly as possible the fuller nature of the soul.
After the child gains a certain amount of control of his vehicles
in the
Kindergarten, in the next stage at school he has to gain the
sense of Law. His
emotions are therefore now, to be more fully worked upon. Now the
child is born with an emotional nature which he has developed through many
lives; the teacher has not therefore an altogether plastic or inchoate
emotional nature to work upon. He can only modify it, eradicating any twists or
warps which exist in it, and strengthening what is beautiful. What has to be
given to the child
— or usually, as a matter of fact, reawakened in him — is a deep
capacity for
feeling, with, at the same time, a serenity while he feels, .
This can largely be achieved by working with the child's physical
body; Herein
lies the value of gymnastics, especially all gymnastics, which
have in them some
sense of rhythm. Wherever a rhythm can be developed in physical
action, as in
the dance or in eurhythmies, there is a clear emotional reaction
and the child's
invisible emotional body is steadied and gains a sense of law and
order; and
this reacts on the mental nature so as to attune it to the
thought of law. This
effect is specially heightened where the rhythmic movements are
performed by
many children in common; it is as if while they all work together
they become
units of an invisible rhythmic movement, which imposes upon them
a great law of beauty and order in action.
The sense of law and beauty is also greatly developed by training
the child in
poetry and music; this training does not mean that the child must
be made to
write poetry or to compose music — unless indeed he has a special
aptitude for
either within him — but that he shall be given both music and
poetry as his
emotional food. Every child from earliest years should know some
poetry and some music suited to his capacity; but we must take the greatest
care that
the word-phrases or musical phrases are really suitable. For just
as physical
dirt may infect the sensitive body of the child, so too can the
emotional land
mental natures be infected by harmful poetry and crude music.
Nursery rhymes,
with their usual jumble of thoughts and images which have little
relation to
life, are in this respect distinctly harmful; perhaps presently
our poets will
give us great poems for little children to take the place of the
nursery rhymes
which are taught them now. If we could, in our modern
civilisation, abolish the
ugly noises of the streets, and the ugly pictures on hoardings,
as well as the
use of phrases in language distorted from their true meaning, we
should not need
to complain of unruly children; unruliness is a malady of the
emotional nature,
but the germs of it are not so much in the children as in the
outer world which
surrounds them in our modern civilizations.
The mental nature of the child has to be trained by making it
strictly true to
fact; and this is exceedingly difficult in these days, because so
many of the
words we use do not signify what they are meant to signify. Words
having
definite, accepted meanings are often used for purposes of
exaggeration or as
slang, and these things confuse the sensitive mental nature of
the child.
Therefore the greatest care has to be taken that children only
hear
words which are true, that is, words which have some clear and
precise relation
to the thing signified. The mental nature of the child is
extremely active and
difficult to hold along definite lines; therefore clear
descriptions of things
must be given to him and also expected from him. This mental
accuracy in his
education will enable his dormant mentality to express itself
more fully as the
years pass; accuracy of thought and description is necessary for
the highest of
reasons, which is to bring down to the child's brain his
consciousness as a soul
who has already thought accurately about such experiences as have
been his in
his past lives.
Needless to say the child's mind has to be trained by stories.
The mind is one
of the finest architectural implements that we have; the mind's
nature is to
build. We must, therefore, give it suitable material at the
varying stages of
its growth, and in early years show the mind what makes for
beauty in building.
Here comes in the use of fairy stories, and especially of myths;
myths have in
them an intrinsic beauty of structure, and the child's mind is
trained to high
imaginative faculty by teaching him the great romances of the
visible and
invisible worlds.
A necessary element in education is to give the child, even in
his earliest
years, some definite synthesis upon which to found his
imagination; and for
this religion is fundamentally necessary. A religion need not
mean
definite dogmas of a theological kind; what the child needs to
start with is
some great universal thought embodying in it a universal feeling.
Every religion
has many such suitable thoughts, even for a child's mind, and it
is perfectly
possible to surround children with a beautiful religious
atmosphere. Each child
should be taught morning and evening to recollect himself as a
soul by some
simple prayer of dedication ; one such, greatly in use among the
children of
Theosophists, is this simple prayer of the "Golden Chain
" :
I am a link in the Golden Chain of Love that
stretches around the world,
and must keep my link bright and strong.
So I will try to be kind and gentle to every
living thing I meet,
and to protect and help all who are weaker
than myself.
And I will try to think pure and beautiful
thoughts, to speak pure and
beautiful words,
and to do pure and beautiful actions.
May every link in the Golden Chain become
bright and strong.
In this beautiful prayer the child's imagination can easily grasp
its symbolism,
while the prayer has within it the great thought of a larger unit
of life than
the child himself. A work yet waiting to be done for education is
to write
textbooks and story-books for children which present to them the
universal life of humanity, while fascinating their imagination
at the same
time; we could make of children great philosophers, if only we
realised that
philosophy is not a matter of definite systems or schools, but of
thoughts and
feelings and aims which the best of humanity have all in common.
One further important element in the child's education should be
the teaching
given to him through tending plants and animals; these lower
orders of creation
should be near the child's life constantly, so that he may
remember himself as
one linked in a great chain of life, and realise that his
nobility grows as he
serves not only those above him but also those below. And apart
from this, each
flower or tree or animal radiates its own influence, and we can
utilise these
invisible aids to hasten the child's growth in thought and
feeling.
When the time comes for a boy or girl to go to College, we may
take for granted
that the vehicles — physical, astral and mental — have been
disciplined to some
extent and are fairly under control. Therefore now begins a
period when the soul
can definitely impress on the brain his inner attitude to life,
in order to
train his vehicles for the work in life which he plans to do.
Unfortunately, in
present-day Universities, the training given is deficient,
because the teaching
is so exceedingly academical and has little relation to the
practical
problems of life as seen by the soul. The most useful part in
many ways, of
University life is not the instruction received from the
professors, but that
received from the students, in games and in social intercourse.
The usual result
of College education as it exists now is very well described in
these lines :
A young Apollo, golden-haired,
Stands dreaming on the verge of strife,
Magnificently unprepared
For the long littleness of life.
When Theosophical ideas prevail in Universities, it will be
recognised that the
teaching given must definitely aim at making clear to the student
his own
problems as a soul. He has come to life to do a work, and the
preliminary years
of child and youth have been spent in building his vehicle; now
he is free to
survey his past and look into the future, in order to make clear
to himself what
he is and what is his work. The help to be given to him is by
presenting such
aspects of culture as awaken within him his ancient synthesis.
All through his
education in Kindergarten and School this has been one of its
aims; but while
the synthesis there was mainly felt emotionally, during College
it should be
recognised intellectually.
The synthesis is to be brought before him by arranging the
experiences of the
geniuses of the past and
of the present in such a manner that their
general impression is to strengthen in him his innate enthusiasm
for his own
special work as a soul. If any man or woman finishes College
without having
found within himself or herself a deep enthusiasm for a work, the
University has
failed in its aim so far as he or she is concerned. It is the
function of a
University to show us what are the objects worth pursuing in
life, not, as now,
merely to equip us for a profession. This was indeed the aim of
University life
in
life is, that in the University the professors themselves are
confused as to the
great problems of existence, and hence their enthusiasms run
primarily on
intellectual and academic lines. It is well known that
a strong atmosphere of their own, but that atmosphere is more of
a crystallised
past than of a living present or an absorbing future.
A true University should so train a man that through all his work
in life, after
he leaves the University, there shines a serene radiance as of an
immortal doing
a work in time; and this is the real basis of any culture worth
the name. It has
been said that the function of a University is to turn out
gentlemen and
scholars; the work of the University, from the Theosophical
standpoint, should
be to make of men immortals and servers. It is in the University
that
the highest ideals of life should be reflected with beauty and
serenity; and the
greatest ideal of life to be taught to men in such a place in modern
days should
be the joy of fellowship in working together with all men and
nations in one
definite work for the welfare of humanity. Of the many
perfections which a
University can give to a man or woman, that which is most needed
today is to
make him or her a Knight of Service, just as of old with King
Arthur's band, one
of that
Goodliest fellowship of famous knights
Whereof this world holds record.
Those of us who have gained what modern Universities have to
give, know how much we owe to them; but we cannot help confessing that while
they equipped us in some fashion mentally, they did not equip us to understand
the problem of life which confronted us when we left College. We have had to
unlearn, slowly and painfully, many of the lessons of the past, and learn many
strange and difficult lessons of whose existence our professors told us
nothing. If all this could be radically changed, and the University be made
definitely a place where to us, as souls, our soul's work is pointed out, and also
how, as we do that work, there is all round us the background of Eternity, what
could not University life be as an essential part in the life of every man and
woman ! As things are
now, many a man and woman who has had no College education is a
nobler Soul and a greater Server than those who have had their years in a
University. All this will surely change when the fundamental principles of
Theosophy permeate
education, and our professors profess above all things the great
truths which
reveal to men their Divine nature, and how that nature is
developed through
human service.
CHAPTER IV
THEOSOPHY IN BUSINESS
THERE is an idea largely prevalent in the world among religious
people
that business activities are incompatible with a truly religious
life. This has
been due to the peculiar conception of life which certain
exponents of religion
have given to their followers. We know how today people think of
" religious "
interest and " secular " interests, and there is a
tacit recognition that they
must be opposed, or, if not actually in opposition, at least
mutually exclusive.
This conception arises from an exaggeration in religions of the
thought of the
Transcendence of God; the Creator, having once created His world,
is thought of as living in some sphere removed in space from that world, and as
merely
supervising it.
In this religious conception, man, as the creature of God, has
only the duty of pleasing his Maker so as to make secure his own salvation. I well
remember a sermon which I heard once in a Christian Church on the duty of man
to God; this duty was described as composed of the three virtues of humility,
gratitude and obedience. The preacher insisted upon the subservience of the
soul of man to God as a pre-requisite to a religious life.
It was evident that according to him the ordinary activities of
life in the
home, in business, and in amusements, counted for very little
with God, and that
man was judged according to certain theological virtues which he
had or had not
acquired. This extreme Christian conception of the old problems
of man's
everyday life is very vividly summed up, in the verse of a hymn
which was sung
by the congregation on this particular day of the sermon; the
verse is this :
I am going home in the good old way,
I have served the world with its worthless
pay,
For its hopes are vain and its gains are
loss,
And I glory now in the blood-stained Cross.
Here we have very clearly the thought that the multifarious activities
of the
world have no special use in the spiritual growth of man, and
that what we gain
of capacity and growth outside the strictly religious sphere is
but "worthless
pay". Wherever in a religion we have the idea of
renunciation and asceticism,
there usually develops this idea of the uselessness of life in
the world.
The natural consequence of the division of life into secular and
religious is
the creation of two moralities which have often little relation
to each
other; the religious man will consider that it is perfectly
legitimate to be
selfish, savage and unspiritual in his business dealings with a
fellow man, whom
he will try to love as a "neighbour” in his religious
relation towards him; a
deeply religious man, both tender-hearted and kind in one part of
his nature,
yet will possess another part of savagery and resentment, and
will see no reason
why this latter phase of himself should be modified at the cost
of business
gain. A fraudulent but pious milkman, who will water his milk on
weekdays with
perfect nonchalance, will do it on Sunday too, with his pious
Sunday face, and
then go to church and revel in his religion !
Now Theosophy abolishes these two moralities in the world of
business, by
showing that the business world is as much a part of God's world
as temples and churches. It is One Life which is manifesting through all the
activities of men, and all the activities which have been developed in
civilisation are necessary in the Divine Plan.
God's plan for the salvation of humanity works not only through
individual men, but also through men as groups. Men's natures must be grown
emotionally, mentally and spiritually, and one cause of this growth is their
collective activity in various organisations. In the collective life of
humanity, various types of divine agents are required to carry out His purpose;
the ruler and the lawgiver, the fighter, the teacher, the priest, the healer,
the artist, are all required to play their roles as actors in the Divine Drama
of life; but not less of a divine actor is the business man.
Now the man to whom business is one of his principal obligations
comes as a soul into life with as much a spiritual purpose as the man who is
the priest; that
purpose is to equip himself as a soul for activities everywhere
and in all time.
He does not come to gain wealth or ease, but capacity; his Soul
is put into a
business life, rather than into one of religion or art, because
he can learn
such soul qualities as he next requires for his growth more
swiftly in the
business world than any other sphere. The sterling virtues which
are learned in
business are fundamentally spiritual; no man can be a successful
business man
unless he is one-pointed unless he is quick to respond to
opportunities, unless
he grows in imagination. These are not " secular"
virtues because they are
developed in what we hold to be secular activities; they are
capacities which
are built into the life of the soul. Certainly we find that a
large number of
business men, highly endowed with these qualities, are selfish,
cruel and hard,
but this does not mean that the virtues are useless, because the
possessors of
them lack other virtues. When we remember that a man lives many
lives, and that
once he acquires a capacity he never loses it, we shall then
understand how, after a business man has developed these virtues in one life
(even though it has meant the development at the same time of selfishness), in
a future life, when his vision is cleared and he begins to be altruistic, he
will still have this marked ability when he turns to his work in altruism.
In the evolution of humanity, the faculties of all men, good and
bad, are used;
"blindly the wicked work the righteous will of heaven".
The world's lands are,
habitable today only because a few pioneers originally went out
into the deserts
and forests and made them habitable; they may have gone out
purely for selfish
purposes, but nevertheless they were used as the agents of a
Divine Plan. Men
may go out as pioneers into new lands to gain wealth for
themselves; but we know that such a life requires heroism, sacrifice,
doggedness, strength, and these virtues become permanent acquisitions of the
soul. In the same way, today, in the "trust magnates" and "beef
barons" of
they developed through their greed and selfishness, and they will
then be far
more efficient on the side of good than many another who may have
been good and pious but had acquired little capacity.
The practical message of Theosophy to the business man is that he
should
identify himself with the higher possibilities and motives in
business, and not
with the lower. What the former are, we can see if we look at the
various stages
of development in business capacity which men show. In the
earliest stage of
commercial life, we have mere greed, and the man is all the time
thinking of his
private interests and gloating over them as his particular
possessions. In the
second stage, the element of greed is mastered by the mental
element of business routine, and the individual becomes practically the slave
of business, busying himself continually with all kinds of activities in
business, not always because of the profits involved, but largely because these
activities give him the sense of vitality and reality.
In the third stage of growth, the business man is conscious of
himself as the great master of capacity, and is far more conscious of this
power as he exercises it than of the gain it brings; he is often most unselfish
about individuals and most ascetic in his private life, though of course he
will manifest the acme of selfishness in his utter one-pointedness in the
exercise of this power. But then will inevitably come the last stage, when, in
the exercise of his master-capacity, he sees what are the honourable lines of
activity for him as a guardian of divine energies.
The Theosophical business man should always aim at idealism in
his profession;
and this is quite compatible, even today, in spite of all the
obstacles in his
way. The first characteristic of this idealism should be the
holding of a high
conception of his business as a noble contribution to human
welfare, and with
this a keen desire to bring it to a high state of perfection. He
will,
therefore, be thoroughly efficient not only in his own line, but
he will try to
join with others in associations, so as to uphold the ideal. Much
has yet to be
done in bringing business men together into organizations, not
merely for
private interests, as in Trusts, but to discuss the fundamentally
efficient
principles involved in business. Into the hands of business men
the Divine Plan
entrusts the development of one aspect of the world's work, and
it is their duty
to see that their work is done with as little waste of time and
energy as
possible. Something has been done so far in standardising tools
and machinery;
much more needs to be done along this line, so that there may be
throughout the
world facilities for the mutual development of inventions and
processes. It is
from the business men of
the world today that we expect the practical
carrying out of the great ideals of Internationalism; while
religious teachers
may expound Universal Brotherhood, the practical foundations for
it must be laid by the business men of the world.
The Theosophical business man must always remember that the
world's development is part of a great Plan, and "big men" in all
departments of life are employed to carry out the Divine work. For instance,
just now there are great changes taking place in the business world in bringing
about great combinations; we know how ruthless such Trusts are and how they
push to the wall the small merchant.
Yet we see at the same time the slow transformation of material
development from the work of a few for their own gain to the work of a great
national department for the welfare of all. It is because of the plans of
business development laid down by such combinations that one day, where
spirituality and not greed controls such Trusts, we shall be able utterly to
abolish poverty. Every invention that has made life easier for men is a
realization of the thought of
God, and an inventor is not less a God's priest than is a priest
of religion.
All men are channels of one great Divine Force, and as it runs
through them they
retain it for themselves, some more and some less; and most do
not
understand the duty they have of transmuting that Force into the
least little
activity of life. If the business man were to recognize this
principle, he would
then realize how much of a builder he is in the divine edifice of
human life.
Did not Christ say : "I must be about my Father's business ?
" The great Father
lives mysteriously in our world — as ruler and lawgiver, healer
and priest; but
He lives, too, strange as it may seen, as the "business
man". This is the high
aspect of business which Theosophy shows, and the man or woman,
whose Dharma or Duty is business, can bring a high spirituality to all work in
shop and in office, in factory and in counting-house, doing all as a part of
“my Father's
business ",
CHAPTER V
THEOSOPHY IN SCIENCE
THEOSOPHY stands foremost among the religious philosophies of the
world today in the wholehearted acceptance of the facts of modern
science. More than this, Theosophy so continually appeals to observation and
reason that an inquirer into Theosophy, who has had any preliminary scientific
training, finds himself thoroughly at home in the Theosophical method. This is
not necessarily because the conclusions of science and Theosophy are the same,
but because both are the result of a certain method of inquiry. We owe the
modern scientific method largely to the work of Francis Bacon; it was he who
laid such emphasis on the need of careful obervation, of methodical grouping of
facts, and of rising from particular ideas about them to general concepts of
natural law.
This method of induction has enabled the modern scientist to
discover great fundamental natural laws, and the practical application of the
discoveries of science has been to revolutionise civilization.
The facts which have so far been considered by the modern
scientist tell us of a
vast mechanical process in Nature, and, within her an
inexplicable tendency to
transformation which is called Evolution; and this tendency, ever
at work,
brings into being the myriads of forms in the mineral, vegetable
and animal
kingdoms. The facts observed show us a great ladder of life,
which stretches
without a break from the speck of dust to the greatest human
genius.
Of course it is recognized that this process, which has created
the human
intelligence, must not be judged in its sole relation to man, for
man is only
one species out of myriads. Now, if we consider what science says
about man,
then, so far as the generally accepted facts of modern science
tell us, man, as
an individual of his type, is merely a material form and the
forces playing
through that form. When that material form disintegrates, nothing
remains of him
except what slight change he has caused, in the trend of the
evolutionary
process, by any attempts he may have made to modify his
environment away from savagery and towards civilization.
Theosophy has no doubts to cast upon scientific facts, nor as to
their complete
authority to solve the problems of life. There are, however,
certain weaknesses
inherent in modern science which make the present scientific
conclusions only of
partial value.The first of these is the over-hasty generalization
which characterises the inductive method in practice;
theoretically, the
conclusions drawn from a group of facts should be recognized as
warranted only so long as no contradictory facts present themselves; in
practice, however, the tendency is for the scientist, when his hypothesis seems
to explain his facts,
to take for granted that there are not other facts which might
question his
deductions.
There is hence an authoritative conclusion in scientific theories
which is really unscientific. A striking instance of his weakness in scientific
method is illustrated by the geological theories as to the age of the world, which
was stated conclusively not so many decades ago to be only a few hundred
thousand years. But one sole fact, in itself of no greater consequence in
evolution than any other fact, the nature of Radium, has largely modified all
these geological theories; and scientists now feel warranted in assuming that
the earth's age should be counted by millions of years instead of by hundreds
of thousands.
A second example is the way that theories of heredity were
accepted for decades as absolutely conclusive, in the light of the assumption
that acquired characteristics were transmitted; this assumption was accepted as
a truth mainly because the facts so far gathered did not contradict such a
hypothesis. But a few facts discovered in the crossing of peas, considered
sotrivial as not to deserve notice for several years, have imposed on the old
theories an entirely new adjustment to facts, and
A second weakness in science is due more to the individual
scientist and less to
the method, and this is exemplified in the general tendency,
still shown by
scientists, to ignore those facts which tend to prove a psychic
or spiritual
nature in man. Scientists, owing to an unscientific bias, have
erected barriers
to truth in this matter as cramping to human progress as any that
theologies
have ever made. Even today, the small band of scientists who have
scientifically
examined such facts about man's spiritual nature as are within
the range of
modern science, meet with an unscientific hostility when they
announce the
results of their investigations, largely because those results
condemn the
dogmatism of past scientific conclusion.
A third and a more fundamental weakness of science, so far as
practical life is
concerned, is that science cannot give, by her very nature, a
real philosophy of
life. Every day that passes adds to the old stock of facts, and
so many
specialised branches of science now appear, that today we cannot
"see the wood for the trees". There are so many facts being
discovered, that every scientific "law" must be held merely
tentatively, if we are to be strictly scientific; one new fact — as Radium —
may mean a profound modification of the "law". Science can
legitimately only describe a process, and not a direction; not having all the
facts, she cannot scientifically presume any kind of a resultant diagonal.
Science can, therefore, never give a philosophy, but she can give
the
indispensable facts for one.
Theosophy, dealing as it does continually with the facts of the
Universe, is but
a continuation of science; the difference, however, is that
Theosophy has a
larger group of facts to go upon, and also shows in what way an
individual can
discover for himself that final diagonal of life which is the
true philosophy of
conduct. The facts of Theosophy have been gathered in precisely
the same way as the geologist or physicist gathers his facts, that is, by a
carefully trained
faculty of observation, leading to induction and deduction, and
tested
repeatedly by every new fact. In Theosophy there is the tradition
of
an Ancient Wisdom, carefully built up by this method by mighty
scientific
Intelligences, who are called the Masters of the Wisdom; it is
their scientific
knowledge which is stated in modern Theosophy.
The principal point in which this ancient science differs from
the modern is in the conclusion, in the light of facts discovered by the
ancient scientists, that the evolutionary process consists in a dual
development of life and of form. Every object consists of the form it appears
to be, and a life which holds the matter in that form, but is capable of
independent existence at the dissolution of the form. This life may seem
scarcely to have the characteristics of life, as in a piece of mineral, or it
may show the first germs of what we call life, as in the fungus. Just as
science shows a magnificent ladder of the evolution of form, so Theosophy shows
a similar ladder of the evolution of life and consciousness, from that of the
atom to that of the Creator of the Universe. The Masters of the Wisdom have
also brought within the range of scientific observation the invisible worlds,
upon the fringes of which some modern scientists are now beginning to come in
some of their experiments.
Moreover Theosophy can give that which modern science cannot give
legitimately, and that is a proof of the final consummation of evolution, which
is
the transformation of the human individual consciousness, by a
process of
rebirth and growth, into a consciousness showing the attributes
of Divinity. The
immortality of the soul and its steady growth into greater life
need not always
be mere speculations, because Theosophy points out how an
individual can know these things for himself.
The method of discovery of these "final causes" follows
logically from the
highest ideals of modern science, which inculcate a pure,
impersonal observation
and thinking. Theosophy carries this high scientific thought
concerning nature
into a vaster realm, presenting to the intelligence the greater ranges
of facts
of the invisible worlds. The high training of the imagination
which Theosophy
gives, guided as it is by a perfect altruism, evokes then within
the
individual's consciousness a new faculty greater than mind, and
this new faculty
can know the final causes. When the perfect scientist, or the
true Theosophist,
has " cast out the self" in his observation of life,
his mind develops a
luminous quality which makes it the mirror which reflects a
greater faculty than
the mind itself. This new faculty, which is nearest described,
though only
partly, by the word Intuition, is acquired by no external means,
but is born
within a man's own inner nature; it gives him then the sole
criterion of Truth,
for beyond any doubt of the most criticalmind, he is able to know
Truth at first hand for himself. In thus continuing the
scientific training of
the mind till the mind itself is transcended, Theosophy fills up
the inevitable
gaps in the scientific method, since it gives that final
criterion directly to
each individual, for the lack of which science is unable to give
a valid
philosophy of life and conduct.
The great value of science in human evolution is due not only to
the practical
changes that the discovery of natural law effects in
civilization, but also to
the spiritual training that each individual gains by being taught
to be
scientific in his observation of the world around him. There is
no one who can
do without the scientific method, till at least he gains
sufficient serenity and
purity of mind to discover the higher process of intuition within
him; the more
are the facts of nature, to be observed by him impersonally and
purely, which
are brought into the consciousness of man, the more is he helped
to realize the
higher nature within him. This is why the scientific method is a
necessary part
of the highest human training and of spiritual growth.
Theosophy applied to science means that scientific facts are
considered not
mainly for their utilitarian value to add to man's comforts, but
primarily
because their understanding shows man the true harmony of the
larger whole of
which he is but a part.
There is no greater strength or dignity
possible to man than from his realization of a Divine Mind at
work in all the
manifestations of nature; for when that Divine Mind is seen, then
it is seen as
the Good, the True and the Beautiful; and when that Divine Mind
is reverenced,
then man himself grows in wisdom, strength and beauty. Only
slight changes are
needed, in the present groupings of scientific facts, to show to
man's
intelligence the wonderful design that is woven in nature to make
a perfection
and harmony cognisable alike by the eye and the brain. The study
of nature's
forms, under the guidance of Theosophical scientists, can be
worked out, even
for little children, so as to train the mind to reverence all
manifestations of
life, whether in stone or plant or animal. Specially would
emphasis be laid on
the geometry of nature, according to which electrons are built
into atoms, and
atoms into elements, and elements into the forms of the mineral,
vegetable and
animal kingdoms; not chemical forces alone would be studied, but
chemical shapes too. The Platonic solids, with their development from the
tetrahedron into the icosahedron, would be studied as the " axes of growth
" of all forms. Science would then give the alphabet of rhythm and beauty,
learning which, men would know how to find beauty everywhere in every object of
all the worlds, visible and invisible. A pure intellect is the glory of
science, and the pure
in mind take conscious delight in the Good, the True and the
Beautiful, which
mirrors itself in their minds.
Every child should be taught to observe the life of nature around
him; he should
be guided to take a keen interest in such facts of nature as are
within the
range of his experiences, and his elders should carefully lead
him on stage by
stage in his discoveries and in his thinking till, even with his
child's
limitations, he develops something of the faculty of impersonal
observation. He
will then develop, if not a keen interest in nature, at least a
deep respect for
her ways. This faculty, which he develops through a scientific training,
will
affect his whole mentality, enabling him to come more quickly
than without such
training to truth in all the departments of life in which he will
engage. His
moral nature will manifest greater justice because he will be
less passionate in
his judgment; he will be less affected by hearsay and opinion and
popular
prejudice because of the growing instinct in him to be on guard
against the mere
presentations of facts, when such presentations are not real but
illusory. There
would be less of malice and hatred, gossip and prejudice in the
world, if men in
their childhood were to be trained in the rudiments of scientific
thinking;
these moral failings become impossible when the cause of them,
which
is false thought, is removed.
The message of Theosophy to science is to bring out her real
strength as an aid
to the discovery of truth. For that which science deals with, the
facts of
nature, are expressions of a great Divine Life; and he who can
come in the true
scientific spirit before a fact comes indeed before God Himself.
For a fact,
when clearly conceived, is a fragment of the great Reality in
which is all that
men need for their growth and happiness. The truer the
Theosophist, the more
scientific he is, just as the truer the scientist is to his ideal
method, the
more of a Theosophist he is, in fact though not in name.
CHAPTER VI
THEOSOPHY IN ART
THE place of Art in life grows in significance each day as men
develop
greater faculties of thought and feeling. The higher the
civilisation the more
powerful is the influence of art in it; and the capacity for
artistic conception
and expression in a man becomes in many ways the standard of his
evolutionary
achievement. Why this is so we shall see, when we examine what
art is from the
standpoint of Theosophy.
Now all our living leads to action; even in deep meditation a man
is acting, and
acting in reality far more vigorously than when he disturbs
merely the
equilibrium of physical nature. Each action is the final issue of
a series of
forces either mental or emotional. When an action originates in
thought, that
action is wise and just where thought has dealt with realities
and not
falsities; where the thought has been grounded in truth, and is
four-square to
the facts of nature, the action is right and productive of good
to the
individual and to the whole. It is the function of science to
produce right
action by purifying the mind and by training it to be true to
reality.
The function of art, on the other hand, is to induce right action
through right
feeling; and since art has shown itself to be in many ways a
synthesis of man's
highest self-expression, it is obvious that in our human feelings
there are
ranges of emotion by means of which we can come to truth swifter
than by any
exercise of even the most discriminating mind. Man in his
emotional nature is
near to the brute in some of his desires; yet there are within
him certain
emotions which unbar hidden reservoirs of power which makes him
absolute master of circumstance. It is with these finer emotions that art is
concerned.
The keen sensibility to the beauty of a sunset synthesises in a
moment our past
experiences of life and states them to our emotions in vast,
sweeping
generalisations; a phrase of music in a particular mood may give
us the glimpse
of a heaven hoped for or lost; the beauty of a human face may
lead us whither
all the philosophies lead as they seek eternal verities. And these
finalities,
which are stated to us by the highest developments of the
intellect, are given
to us equally, and sometimes more profoundly and more truly, by
our
feelings.
An understanding of Theosophy explains the process of that right
feeling which
is necessary for art. Feeling, looked at from within the man, is
a mood; but
looked at from without, is the setting in movement of a finer
vehicle, called
the astral body. Upon the purity of material, delicacy of
structure, and
pliability of the astral body, depend the nature of a man's
feelings, and
therefore his capacity for art. Theosophy applied to art deals
primarily with
the purification and the training of the feelings.
Since the astral body is dependent for its sensations so largely
upon impacts
which reach it through the physical body, the purification of the
physical body
becomes the first essential. According to the kind of food eaten
is the kind of
body; if the diet contains flesh of any animal, the body acquires
a gross
texture which reacts on the texture of the astral body, the
vehicle of feeling;
when the food is pure and refined, the finer texture of the
physical body
induces purity and delicacy in the astral. It is true that
hitherto some of the
greatest artists have had, from the Theosophical standpoint,
gross bodies, and
yet they have been creators of art; but this only means that they
would have
achieved still more, had not something of their creative force
been lost in its
transmission through a coarsened physical vehicle. In spite of
the over-riding
by will of nature's laws, the general law remains that the purer
is
the physical body the greater is the sensibility to feeling, and
hence the
greater the capacity for art.
Next, the feelings must be trained to be pure, that is, they must
be
irresponsive to what conduces to impurity and keenly sensitive to
what harbours, purity. Here at once the question arises : What is, purity ?
Leaving aside the question of what purity is as a moral virtue, purity in the
domain of art means a correct appreciation of Beauty. What the Ideal Beauty is,
which is the
unchanging standard, we need not for the moment consider; for
there is already
in the world some knowledge of that Ideal Beauty, and for the
practical purposes of life there is no difficulty in distinguishing the
beautiful front the
commonplace or the ugly. What is important to realise is that,
for artistic
development, there must be a continuous communion with Beauty and
a definite
avoidance of what is the not-beautiful.. We little realise how
the lines in the
objects that surround us in the home and in the streets affect
our astral bodies
and so our emotional nature; discords of colour and sound,
impurities of line
and form: give a warp to our natures which adds to our moral
weaknesses and
debilitates our mental strength.
Men find it difficult to be virtuous largely because so much
ugliness surrounds them; just as bacteria in the dust and the air, and
parasites of various kinds, induce many a disease and diminish the physical
vitality of men, so invisibly, but not the less harmfully, hosts of emotional
bacteria, the ugly lines and forms and colours and sounds, infect our feelings
and induce in them a chronic moral ill-health which saps the vitality of the
soul.
Civilisation has not yet awakened to the gravity of this hidden
contagion; it is taking place all the time, though we are little; aware of it
because we are "used" to it. But it is never the soul's nature to be
" used " to ugliness and evil; the inner constraint shows itself in
outer fractiousness; and, just as a baby's peevishness is to be traced to some
hurt produced in his little body by improper feeding or by some annoyance like
a pin sticking into him, so it is with men's tendencies to evil; the visible
and invisible uglinesses in life are responsible for the crimes of men
sometimes far more than their own criminal propensities.
Since every object around us affects invisibly our capacity for
feeling, either
by hardening and coarsening or by making it more sensitive and
profound, a
practical understanding of the place of art in life means a
thorough
reconstruction of the environment of each man. Specially is that
reconstruction
necessary in the case of children, whose astral bodies during
their childhood
and youth are sensitive to outer influences far more than are the
astral bodies
of grown-up people. Every object that surrounds children from the
moment of birth should have some touch of beauty; the lines and curves and
colours of walls and ceilings and furniture should definitely be aimed to
influence the child's feelings; ungainly street hoardings and palings, ugly
plots of ground and discordant sounds should all be banished from our towns for
the sake of the children, if not for our own sakes. We insist on sanitation to
preserve the health of the physical body; why should we not equally insist on a
moral sanitation to safeguard the health and sensitiveness of our finer
vehicles ?
Purity of feeling is thus one element of right feeling; a second
element is
sympathy. No feeling is right feeling unless in it there is
reflected the larger
world of men's griefs and joys; each feeling, if it is to develop
the higher
sensitiveness which produces art, must enshrine in ,it in
miniature the similar
feelings of all humanity. There is no such thing as "art for
art's sake", if by
that phrase is meant that there exists a world of art and beauty
irrespective of
its relation to the world of men. The highest art, consciously or
unconsciously,
had its roots in men's hearts, though its boughs may lift up
their flowers to
heaven; the most abstractly musical phrase of a symphony of
Beethoven has yet
its reflex in our human feelings. The more the artist's feelings
widen out in
their sympathy withmen's sufferings and hopes and dreams, the
vaster
is his art horizon, and the more universally understood his
artistic creation.
Hence it follows that the artist must train his sympathies by
observation, by
meditation, by travel, by practical service; while he purposely
uses his
purified feelings as the tools of his art, yet must those
feelings be supported
by a broad and purified intellect. There could be no greater boon
to an artist
than Theosophy, which teaches him what are the universal feelings
of men, and
what is that "God's Plan for men", the contemplation of
which is a perennial
source of wisdom and purification.
While the purely artistic development is possible by temperament
to only a few,
there is no man or woman or child born who has not some distinct
capacity for
artistic feeling and expression. Every effort should be made to
rouse in the
child the dormant tendency to appreciate beauty; not only should
he be
surrounded by beautiful objects, he should also be taught how to
produce
beautiful things. The energies of his physical body should be
taught the meaning
of rhythm through the dance; his eye and brain should be trained
by drawing. He
should be taught what are pure tones of sound in speech and in
singing, and his
imagination should be trained through poetry and through abstract
music. Just as
it is the duty of parents
to see that children have healthy bodies,
not less is it their duty to see that their children have refined
tastes too. By
placing before the sensitive feelings and unspoiled natures of
children none but
what is in the best of taste, and only what is best artistically,
an immense
impetus is given to the unfolding of the Divine Spirit in man.
For art is less a
faculty of the soul than an element of its inmost structure. Just
as, in the
evolutionary process, the senselessness of the stone gives way to
the
sensitiveness of the plant, and the vague feeling of the plant
gives way to the
surging passions of the animal, and the animal's inchoate
thoughts give way in
the next grade to man's coherent thinking, so too man's power of
understanding
through the mind is to be made subordinate to knowledge by the
Intuition. In
most men this intuition is dormant, or only dimly sensed; the
next stage in
human evolution is to understand life in the full light of the
intuition.
Therefore it is that artistic development becomes supremely
necessary for all
men; it enables them to do their life's work by a swifter and
completer process
- that of the intuition - than thought can provide them.
It is true that the loftiest thought, by its utter impersonality
and when suffused by a desire for service, touches the realm of the intuition;
the great philosophers especially reveal the same insight into life's problems
which the pure intuition
reveals when reflected in art. But it is far easier to make men
pure and
sympathetic in feeling than impersonal in thought; therefore,
while science and
philosophy are essential for human culture, that culture is more
swiftly
developed by appealing to the artistic instincts of men.
When, by surrounding men with beauty, and by training them to
respond to it,
their intuitions are aroused, they discover a higher and a more
lasting truth
than science can reveal to them. The great advantage of the
vision of truth by
the intuition is that it is always synthetic; each truth of life
discovered by
the intuition is linked to the totality of truth, and man can
proceed in his
further discoveries along a road that has no break nor
divergence. The drift of
things is seen clearer, and from a more central point, by the
intuition than by
the highest purely mental process.
There is scarce any such humanitarian influence in life as art,
if its inner
force is understood and consciously used. Each feeling which art
gives rise to
is like the segment of a circle of universal feeling in which the
feelings of
all the rest of humanity too are like segments. Each artistic
creation — not the
mere imaginative fancy or tour de force, but the real creation
which is as a
window into a Divine World of Ideas — links the creator to all
men; it at-ones
him with humanity.
A soul capable during life of only one work of art, either in the
thought world
or in the emotional realm, has yet linked all humanity with him
to that measure
of the artistic capacity in him; while a great poet or painter or
sculptor or
musician becomes like an eternal priest of humanity, linking man
ever to God.
This at-one-ing quality of art is a force which is as yet but
dimly understood
by man; when civilisation everywhere is instinctively artistic,
then
un-charitableness and enmity must utterly vanish, since to love
art is to love
that Totality of which each of us is but an infinitesimal
fraction.
Lastly, there is through artistic development a discovery that
utterly
revolutionises the life of the discoverer. True art, as already
explained, is
born where there is purity of feeling and sympathy; and when art
becomes
creative there results a lofty impersonality. The result achieved
of "casting
out the self" by scientific thought is also achieved by the
artist while he
creates; all great artists concur that at the supreme moments of
inspiration all
thought and sense of their little selves are swept away. When the
little self of
the artist is thus swept away, there steps into his life for the
moment a larger
Self, an indescribable Personality. It is the discovery of this
Personality, who
is master of his craft and infallible in his wisdom, which is the
great
event in the artist's life.
It is the artist's "salvation", that realisation of
man's eternal safety and of his imperishable nature which religions try to give
through ecstatic contemplation. Perhaps it is only at a few moments of his
creative life that the artist makes the great discovery; but each moment of
discovery is as a milestone in his unending artistic career, and to have even for
once known that Personality is thenceforth to see all life with "larger,
other eyes" than are possessed by men.
The artists who have this vision are "not of an age but for
all time," and an
Ideal World hovers round them, shedding its many-hued gleams on
the drab events of this mortal world. That world is always around us, though
only the great artists can tell us what it is in its grandeur and totality. Yet
each man can
gain a glimpse of it, in so far as he trains his feelings to be
pure and
radiating with understanding and sympathy. A child with his
integrity of heart
and innocency of hands, may gain a glimpse of that world,
becoming for the time truly an artist; gleams of it are seen in the colour of
the clouds, in the blue
of the sea and in the roar of the waves. The mountain ranges
mirror it, and in
every lake and pool, and in the fields at eventide, and in
forest, and in
thicket, that world looks into our hearts and minds. The face of
friend and
beloved is a mirror of it; the harmonies of music tell us ofit
with an almost maddening insistence. The great Reality, in which our immortal
natures are rooted, is not far away, to be realised perhaps - who knows ? —
only after death; it is here, and now, the source of every solace as it is too
the cause of all pining and death. And Art has the key to open the door to it,
to all who seek that door.
CHAPTER VII
THEOSOPHY IN THE STATE
EVERY great body of ethical teaching has stood or fallen
according to
its effect on men as they form organised states. Since a man is a
unit of a
social organisation, the value which any ethical teaching may
have for the
individual is inseparable from its application to the community
of which he is a
part. Just as an understanding of certain simple truths of
Theosophy modifies a
man's conception of himself, so too the conception of what
constitutes the true
state, when viewed in the light of Theosophy, profoundly modifies
a man's
attitude to his life among his fellow men.
For what is the modern state today ? In the main it is very
little different
from the pack which we find among the higher vertebrates, like
jackals and
wolves. As the aim of the pack is to protect itself against a
common enemy, and
to get more easily food for itself, so the chief aim of the modern
state is to
protect itself against aggression and to increase its means of
sustenance.
The morality of the pack rules the state today; any individual
who diminishes the power of the state's resistance or of its aggression, or who
lessens the quantity of food, is regarded as the enemy of the state. Hence our
attitude to the law-breaker and to the poor; the criminal is looked upon as one
who has lost his right of citizenship, and he is punished more to deter others
from crime than with the intention of redeeming him; we do not inquire into
what made him commit the crime and who is responsible for the environment which
made his criminality possible.
The poor man is considered a failure in life, a part of the
refuse of civilisation, and we do not inquire how far the state itself is
responsible for the causes of his poverty. Armies and navies are part and
parcel of modern civilisation, and woe indeed to that state which should refuse
to imitate all the other states and not equip itself to be efficient in
destruction. In our ordinary conceptions of the state, in most peoples minds,
the individual is largely regarded as an animal to be curbed for the good of
the state, and the neighbouring states are regarded as rivals against whose
enmity the state must ever be on the watch. How radically different is the
Theosophist's conception of the state will be seen when we apply Theosophical
truths to the problems of the state.
There are two fundamental facts about the true state, and they
are: first, that
the State is a Brotherhood of Souls, and secondly that the State
is an
expression of the Divine Life of God. Let us see how the state
appears in the
light of these two truths.
The State is a Brotherhood of Souls. The individuals who compose
the state are
Souls, immortal egos in earthly bodies; they are the members of
the state in
order to evolve to an ideal of perfection. As souls, and as all
partaking of one
Divine Nature, all within the state are brothers; whether rich or
poor, cultured
or ignorant, law-abiding or law-breaking, all are brothers, and
nothing one soul
does can modify that fact of nature. The educated or the proud
may refuse to see an identity of nature with the ignorant and the lowly; the
weak and the
criminally minded may show more the attributes of the brute than
of the God. Yet is there in high and low alike the one nature of the Divine
Life, and nothing a
man does can weaken the bond of brotherhood between him and all
the others.
But this Brotherhood of all souls is like the relation of
brotherhood within a
family; brothers are not all of the same age, though they are of
the same
parents. So too, among the souls who compose a state, there are
elder souls and
younger souls; it is just this difference of spiritual age and
capacity which makes possible the functions of the real state.
The age of the
soul is seen in the response to ideals of altruism and
co-operation; he is the
elder soul who springs forward to help in the welfare of others,
and that soul
is the younger who thinks of self-interest first and follows its
needs in
preference to self-sacrifice on behalf of others.
The divisions which we now have in a state's life of rank and of
wealth are no true distinctions which divide the elder souls from the younger
souls; one man born into a high class or caste may yet be a very young soul,
while another whose birth is ignoble, according to the world's conventions, may
be far advanced as a soul.
There being in each state elder souls and younger souls, the Law
of Brotherhood
requires that the elder shall be more self-sacrificing, on behalf
of the
younger, than the younger should be towards the elder. Since life
through long
ages has given more to the elder souls than to the younger, more
is required
from the elder, both of self-sacrifice and of responsibility.
By the natural order of events, the direction of a state's
affairs will fall
inevitably on the elder souls. It does not matter whether the
power in a state
is administered by a monarchy, oligarchy or democracy, because
when the state
begins to perform its true functions, the direction of its
affairs is by
an aristocracy, by the best souls, that is, the elder and the
more capable
souls. These best souls may call themselves democrats or
republicans, and may
hold their power in trust from the masses, but the fact remains
the same that
the guidance of the state is entrusted by the younger souls into
the hands of
the elder souls. Till the day comes in the far-off future when
each soul will
himself, as the Divine Lawgiver, be a law unto himself, the
direction of the
state must come into the hands of a few, whom we call the rulers
or
administrators.
The great principle to guide them in their administration is that
in all the
state's affairs the principle of Brotherhood shall dominate in
all things. This
will mean the clear recognition that any preventible suffering or
ignorance or
backwardness of even one citizen is to the detriment of the
welfare of all the
citizens; that since the destiny of each is inseparable from the
destiny of all,
as rises one so rise all, and as falls one so fall all; that
there must be no
shadow of exploitation of one man by another, of one class or
caste by another.
Since, too, all men are souls and, even the least developed, Gods
in the making,
it becomes the duty of the administrator in all laws and
institutions
continually to appeal to the hidden Divinity in man. In existent
states, the
attempt is first and foremost to curb the remnant of the brute in
man, utterly
forgetting the power in
him of co-operation on the side of good, if
only the God in him were to be appealed to.
When there comes in the state the recognition of this hidden God
in a man, a
complete revolution will take place in our attitude to and in our
treatment of
the criminal. First and foremost, whatever he does, he is our
brother. He is a
younger brother truly to those of us who are the elders and give
implicit and
willing obedience to the laws of the state; but though he fall a
thousand times,
he is our brother even after the thousandth time. The problem of
crime then
turns first upon the understanding of the causes which contribute
to crime, and
secondly of the means of the proper building of the character of
the law-breaker
which will make failure impossible again for him.
The contributory causes to crime are physical and mental. Of the
physical, want
of health is the great cause; it may be due to malnutrition or to
bad housing
conditions or to disease, but where an individual lacks health of
body, due to
any one of these causes, part of the responsibility of the crime
rests upon the
state's administrators and upon all who have appointed them by
their suffrages.
The mental contributory causes are both of the individual and of
the community.
The individual has in him a weakness of character brought from
his past lives, a
weakness strengthened by an unfavourable environment, instead of,
as
it should be, atrophied by a favourable one; to the strength of
his own failing,
the individual is responsible for his crime. But the strength of
his own innate
failing may not necessarily be the full strength evidenced in the
crime;
sometimes much of the strength required for committing the crime
was given to
the criminal by others.
Thus, for instance, when a weak-willed, undeveloped man in a fit
of drunkenness commits a murder, we should see, were we to analyse fully all
the hidden causes, that there was added to his fury and anger an additional
power of hatred from outside. Some outwardly law-abiding citizen may have
willed with hate to kill an opponent but have refrained, because of the
consequences to him of the crime; but though he refrained from the act, he did
not refrain from the powerful thought of murder. His thought, launched into the
atmosphere, flies to the weak-willed, drunken man, whose will alone would not
be sufficient to impel him to murder, and fastens upon him at the time of
anger, and discharges its full force through him, and so commits vicariously a
murder through him. In each criminal act of every criminal all of us have a
share; it is the thoughts of malice and hatred of the seemingly law-abiding
citizens that as much contribute to crime as the innate weakness of the
criminals themselves. Crime committed by a few is caused by all, and the final
doer of the act is not alone responsible for the act, but also each and every
one who impelled him to that act.
Next follows the consideration of the cure of the criminal. Since
the criminal
is fundamentally diseased, and since all have contributed, some
more and some
less, to his disease, the cure must not have the slightest
thought of punishment
about it. On the contrary, it must be guided by the thought of
atonement. It was
the state's function as guardian of every citizen to see that in
his environment
everything which could foster the seed of evil in the weak-willed
man or woman
had been removed; if he or she commits a crime, it is a proof
that the state had
betrayed the trust imposed upon it by the Divine Law. We, as
citizens of the
state, must cure the disease of the law-breaker, not by our
hatred, as now when
we imprison and punish him, but by our Brotherhood. We do not
punish the
consumptive, but try to cure him with the best treatment we can
give, sparing
him none of the state's resources to save his life. Similar must
be our attitude
to the law-breaker, who is our brother.
If only we could realise our Brotherhood with each citizen in the
state, we
should discover dozens of new modes of curing crime. Already our
growing sense of humanity has discovered alternatives to banishment in goal in
the
system of Probation adopted in many countries for
first-offenders, and in the
Juvenile Courts and
is needed on our part, and we shall know him as ever our brother.
Then a full
tide of wisdom will be ours to solve many of the problems which
baffle us today
as we try to improve the lives of our fellow men.
If all our laws could be so framed as to reveal that the sacrosanct
ideas of the
state are not of rights to property but of preserving
Brotherhood; that men are
not regarded as brutes, whose animality is taken for granted, but
rather as the
sons of God, whose divine nature is continually expected to
reveal itself in
response to ideals of integrity and virtue and Brotherhood; that
he who refuses
to co-operate with the state is not regarded by the state as less
a citizen and
a brother but the more to be tended and cherished because of his
weakness; if
this conception of the state could be taught to every child and
reverenced by
every man and woman; then indeed would crime diminish generation
after
generation and the joys of co-operation replace the bitternesses
of competition,
and for the first time would appear on earth a true state. Some
day there will
be everywhere on earth these true states, for it is the Divine
Plan
that men shall come to realise that a state is a Brotherhood of
Souls.
The State is an expression of the Divine Life of God. Stage by stage
in an
ascending ladder of life, the Nature of God as the Immanence
reveals itself in
stone and plant, in invertebrate and vertebrate; each stage
reveals more of His
life by greater complexity of the organism, bringing about on the
side of the
Form many units built up into a whole, and on the side of the
Life, a new
expression of life higher than the separate lives of its
component parts. So too
is there taking place with men, and through men, a fashioning of
new vehicles
for the life of God. At one stage it is God the Man; at a later
stage it is God
the Family, and dimly we see in the family more of the
possibilities of life for
each member of it, and by realising these possibilities we feel a
new call to
sacrifice and idealism - for the Family. The man, as the unit of
a family, finds
that his Divine Life is surrounded by a larger, more mystically
beautiful
radiance, which envelops him as the nutrient matter surrounds the
nucleus in the
cell.
Then comes the later stage still, when another and a more
glorious wave of
Divine Life descends on men, and out of families builds a State,
fashioning out
of units a new and a larger whole. Thence appear new
possibilities of
life for each within the state. A new sphere of Divine Life
surrounds the souls
who make the state, feeding them with new hopes and dreams with
which to live,
even as the mother nourishes within her womb the child and feeds
its young life
with her own blood.
Could but citizens know of this brooding Life which is the
essence of the state,
then would they joyfully build for it the perfect vehicle out of
themselves and
their homes and their cities. Ugliness would vanish, to be
replaced by beautiful
dwellings and stately cities; disease and misery would be as an
evil dream, and
poverty and bitterness and strife could nevermore mar the serene
and joyous life
of the state. In each citizen's face would then be seen something
of the glory
of the state; the artisan who toils as for the state would have a
beauty of
bearing all his own; the artist and dreamer would reveal a beauty
all his own,
other than the beauty he discovers and proclaims. For, as man
seeks God, so God seeks man; as man through slow passage of time rises from the
savage to be the civilised man, from the solitary, self-seeking man to be the
unit of a family, and then of a state, so God descends to man first as the
man's conscience and his hopes and dreams of immortality, then as the family,
and then as the state.
For the true state is a revelation of God, and it is because that
revelation is yet to come that man strives to change his environment from good
to better, from better to best. Through barbarities and savageries, through
selfish greeds, through fratricidal wars, the world's states are changing age
by age, and men rise from the brute to the God; they change because God the
State calls for His habitation. It is this knowledge of God the State which
Theosophy reveals to all who desire to understand, what is the future that
awaits men.
When men understand what makes the true state, then will come a
fuller
revelation still of God as the
then will manifest a larger purpose than men have ever dreamed of
before; each
state will grow into new, beauteous achievements because over all
the states
broods the mighty power of God's Plan fulfilled at last. None
will ask which is
the better state, for where God's hands have touched, there is
perfection. Shall
a man, seeing that miracle of God, a sunset, ask whether the rose
is lovelier
than the blue or the gold, or ask that the sunset be of one
colour alone ? So
shall the world be some day, when the Wisdom of God
"mightily and sweetly
ordereth all things". To this Day of all humanity the
world's states are
tending, and they will reach their goal at last because it is
God's Plan that
they shall.
Wisdom in planning, confidence in endeavour, and a joyous outlook
night and day to all things in life are his who thus sees God's world and man's
world
illumined by Theosophy.
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,