VOL. 134 NO. 7 APRIL 2013

CONTENTS

On the Watch-Tower 3 Make a Living Power 6 N. Sri Ram The Past, Present and the Future 7 Manju Sundaram Confirmation of the Existence of an Ancient Worldwide Wisdom Religion 14 Ray Walder and Edi Bilimoria The Making of 20 Michael Gomes Time — Some Reflections 30 D. P. Sabnis How Can Ancient Wisdom Heal the Earth? 34 Kusum Galada Theosophical Work around the World 36 International Directory 40

Editor: Mrs Radha Burnier

NOTE: Articles for publication in The Theosophist should be sent to the Editorial Office. Cover: An evening sky in Adyar — J. Suresh

Official organ of the President, founded by H. P. Blavatsky, 1879. The is responsible only for official notices appearing in this magazine.

1 THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY Founded 17 November 1875 President: Mrs Radha Burnier Vice-President: Mr M. P. Singhal Secretary: Mrs Kusum Satapathy Treasurer: Mr T. S. Jambunathan Headquarters: ADYAR, CHENNAI (MADRAS) 600 020, INDIA Secretary: [email protected] Treasury: [email protected] Adyar Library and Research Centre: [email protected] Theosophical Publishing House: [email protected] & [email protected] Fax: (+91-44) 2490-1399 Editorial Office: [email protected] Website: http://www.ts-adyar.org The Theosophical Society is composed of students, belonging to any religion in the world or to none, who are united by their approval of the Society’s Objects, by their wish to remove religious antagonisms and to draw together men of goodwill, whatsoever their religious opinions, and by their desire to study religious truths and to share the results of their studies with others. Their bond of union is not the profession of a common belief, but a common search and aspiration for Truth. They hold that Truth should be sought by study, by reflection, by purity of life, by devotion to high ideals, and they regard Truth as a prize to be striven for, not as a dogma to be imposed by authority. They consider that belief should be the result of individual study or intuition, and not its antecedent, and should rest on knowledge, not on assertion. They extend tolerance to all, even to the intolerant, not as a privilege they bestow but as a duty they perform, and they seek to remove ignorance, not punish it. They see every religion as an expression of the Divine Wisdom and prefer its study to its condemnation, and its practice to proselytism. Peace is their watchword, as Truth is their aim. Theosophy is the body of truths which forms the basis of all religions, and which cannot be claimed as the exclusive possession of any. It offers a philosophy which renders life intelligible, and which demonstrates the justice and the love which guide its evolution. It puts death in its rightful place, as a recurring incident in an endless life, opening the gateway to a fuller and more radiant existence. It restores to the world the Science of the Spirit, teaching man to know the Spirit as himself and the mind and body as his servants. It illuminates the scriptures and doctrines of religions by unveiling their hidden meanings, and thus justifying them at the bar of intelligence, as they are ever justified in the eyes of intuition. Members of the Theosophical Society study these truths, and theosophists endeavour to live them. Everyone willing to study, to be tolerant, to aim high, and to work perseveringly, is welcomed as a member, and it rests with the member to become a true theosophist.

2 On the Watch-Tower On the Watch-Tower

RADHA BURNIER

Ahimsâ — Civilized and Uncivilized great example of ahimsâ was the saint Some people are believers in the Rabia, shown in a picture of her sitting practice of ahimsâ, but much depends on quietly with many animals, big and small, what one means by the word. Is it merely normally dangerous but at other times a question of doing fairly well in the atti- surrounding her. This example was attri- tude and treatment of other human beings, buted to many of the persons who re- or is it something more than that? This is mained calm in what we may consider as an important question, to be answered provoking circumstances. Such people do correctly. The word ‘ahimsâ’ must be used not exist now; and they lived separately properly, both in understanding the mean- because they cannot attribute virtues ing, and the way it is used. There is a which they cherish, to others who do not great deal of difference between the two, value them. because when the word is used only in It is difficult to follow the same path. respect of other human beings it is in- In these days, products are becoming complete, and becomes uncivilized when more numerous, and all kinds of names it reaches a point where we do not include are given to them although they may be other creatures. For those who have very merely forms of materials we know. Real little care and consciousness there is names are not used for so many products little meaning to be practising ahimsâ as — perfumes, soaps, creams, etc., about a virtue. which we know nothing. Are they all We must realize that himsâ or doing harmless or are they the result of harmful harm in one way or another, is common, practices hidden from us — as many of even among those whom we consider as these things are, that are put on the mar- good people. The ancient view was that ket today. ahimsâ applies to our relations with all For example, we use medicines the things. Many people familiar with ancient provenance of which is of a variable thought know that ahimsâ is mentioned nature. Usually there are better substitutes, as a high duty (ahimsâ paramo dharmah). but the average person does not think it Of course, we do not have a suitable trans- matters. He wants only to have something lation of dharma because it has a wide which smells nice, appears good and is significance and role. It is said that the claimed to be the best.

April 2013 3 The Theosophist Dr I. K. Taimni says ahimsâ really applies to the treatment of all creatures. stands for the highest degree of harm- As the Bhagavadgitâ says, one may ab- lessness, which means that when a thing stain from harming a Brâhmana who is appears to be harmful, a person who really full of knowledge and fine character, but cares must abstain, because causing harm he is not different from pandit-s or other to living beings under all circumstances people. Even a dog or cow or an outcaste must be avoided. There are some actions needs to be treated with humility and good which seem to be even murder, because will. So we must in this direction be really people do not care what they do when Theosophists, referring to all alive, not producing something, and harm may be only all human beings, even if they do done of a very dire kind or consequence. not appear to us to be loving. Love is To counteract this one must have a dyna- something which exists not only towards mic sort of compassion. Anything which some people, but in itself. It can be known is out of harmony in practising the Law by all alike, and a cow, an elephant and a of Love puts us out of harmony with the dog are equal in value, says the Bhagavad- Law of Nature; for example, the cutting gitâ, which is considered to have very of vast forests, as they have done in high merit, at least by Indians. Brazil, Indonesia, etc. Avoiding doing harm indirectly by our way of life is Hints of the Future important so that harm in any form is There are a number of ways in which avoided. They discovered recently one to rise above the ordinary level to a higher island in Indonesia where animals are and higher extent, with a perception. It is not afraid because they have never been said ‘the prime and constant qualifications misused and their innocence never is a calm, even contemplative state of taken advantage of. Humans have rarely mind’. If we are ambitious, at the level we gone there. are trying to enter, it is itself an obstacle. Love is a positive action. The story There is always the I-ness behind the about Angulimâlâ who went to Buddha ambition which comes in the way and with violent intentions is a matter of in- therefore it should be seen and dropped. terest. The worst vibrations can be coun- Unimportant things must come to be teracted by love and kindness. Angulimâlâ known for what they are. We have to go was a violent man, but Buddha was at all so far that when we read and listen to times so full of love and kindness that he inspiring things — not exciting things — could influence even the worst charac- it helps, while the exciting by the very ters. This kind of attitude must pervade nature of the emotion becomes an everywhere. obstacle. Perhaps this is the reason they We are at present in a world where say that ºama must be learnt from the very killing is considered shocking only when beginning, because in an excitable body it affects other human beings, but ahimsâ everything gets somewhat distorted. The

4 Vol. 134.7 On the Watch-Tower measure of distortion may vary when the the individual self open itself to being distortion is in the way. a representative of the perfection which It is the same, when we are talking we already spoke about. The ancient about dama or mastery over the bodies Upanishadic teaching is constantly saying: which is possible provided the other put yourself in the way to perfection. ‘Be factors which control the body or bodies ye perfect.’ The human being when he has is also dominating the outer system. This shed all the qualities which characterize would mean for example that health him at present, which include both what would be taken care of. The physical body we understand and what we do not — is is an elemental creature. If allowed to do doing the work of trying to raise con- what it wants, it can go off the track. So sciousness to a new level. In other words we should have a sensible view in con- consciousness is constantly teaching: trolling the body. Health for example is a everything is learning, as children do yet. matter of regulation and we should not When mature, the university children give less than primary importance to it. learn more quickly. Students realize the The human being is capable of un- value of having a teacher and also the great derstanding and learning this. Life is value of internal processes like cogitation, constantly teaching us, but we do not observation, reflection, etc. These come realize it. It is an incomprehensible mys- as the capacity to understand increases tery. Is it a form of energy or intelligence in the student. He is learning now in or love? It can be any or all of these. In other ways. fact the whole of life is teaching, but we Many messages have come through do not realize it. We are all the time told evolved human beings — we call them that evolution is leading to greater and ‘Masters’ and by other names. They do greater expansion of form while it is not teach people until they realize for needed, and also of consciousness after themselves that this is what we exist for. the form ceases to help. Previous power We do not exist for gaining money, nor and qualities of consciousness are mani- for pleasure or even for cooperation with fested in ever increasing measure if we others or being good to each other. These allow this to happen. Wisdom, Love, are all only the power of Divine Life Beauty are all in the background as part which manifests in every one of its habi- of the perfection that we reach sooner or tations. In that sense we are all part of later — a state of development which at Divine Life, waiting to experience more, present we only speculate upon. to accept and not exceed the signs. If we But everything in the Universe is resist the ‘bad’ it does not come back, ordered to bring about such a culmination. because we abandon the desire for sen- Only we do not realize it. The natural laws, sation, possession, power and such things. meetings and partings, joys and sorrows, Small changes go out and instead there is all have one single purpose — to make a new life in the future. ²

April 2013 5 Make Theosophy a Living Power

N. SRI RAM

I AM not unconscious of the uphill nature of our task, of the fact that there is a great deal to be done, that we must have changes — first of all, in ourselves — that we must look into things deeply and not superficially, that we have yet to make Theosophy a living power in our lives. At the same time, I can honestly express the opinion that here is an organization which has great potentialities. When we think of the Theosophical Society, we have to think not only of what it has achieved and is today, but also of what we can make of it if we take hold of it rightly. How can we transform the minds of the members, what kind of an organization can the Society become twenty, thirty, fifty years hence? Is that not also an approach of great importance, to determine what possibilities there are in the movement as it is, in spite of every shortcoming, every weakness it may exhibit at present? Into what sort of an instrument of progress can we turn it by our efforts? How can we make it more effective for its purpose than it has ever been? There is a possibility, and it is for you and me to realize it. Whether we shall rise to the occasion, become channels for the flowing stream of life, transform the hearts of people and thus the external conditions is a big question. We cannot answer that question now, even if we would. If we answer it in the affirmative now, that answer is of no value. We have to give the answer by life, for a bright , a pattern of work for the benefit of humanity.

On the Watch-Tower, April 1953

6 Vol. 134.7 The Past, Present and the Future The Past, Present and the Future

MANJU SUNDARAM

MOST of us would remember the not just the literal meaning of the words; beautiful, profound verses that we find at it is not seeing or hearing in the ordinary the end of the book At the Feet of the sense, with one’s physical, sensory organs Master, and also in the text of ‘The Ritual that they speak of; they hint at something of the Mystic Star’ — lines which are much deeper, wider, higher. It is ‘seeing’ recited at the time of Invocation: beyond what is seen and hearing beyond the ordinary sounds. These words and Waiting the Word of the Master, lines encompass all the deeper, finer Watching the Hidden Light; intuitive faculties which bring one to the Listening to catch His orders understanding of the Essence of Reality, In the very midst of the fight; that is beyond the limits and compre- Seeing His slightest signal hension of intellect, beyond logic and Across the heads of the throng; reasoning. It is perception, entirely at a Hearing His faintest whisper different . Above earth’s loudest song. Sanskrit, it is said, is the language of These powerful words have inspired the gods, and music, the universal lan- and impelled one to explore the wide ex- guage as also the language of the Uni- panses and delve into the depths of the verse. These two powerful languages subject: The Past, Present and the Future. have helped one in many a way in per- These lines have helped one immensely ceiving and understanding the depths and in looking at it — anew, afresh, in a dimensions of life in its myriad hues. different light, a different dimension In all the languages of the world there altogether. are certain words and expressions which Let us mark the words: Waiting — have profound connotations, enshrining waiting the word of the Master — i.e., in themselves the deepest of truths, the waiting to hear the Word of the Master; eternal truths. Darºan is one of these Watching the Hidden Light . . . ! Every vibrant words. line stresses on Watching, Listening, The words philosophy in English Seeing and Hearing, and obviously, it is and darºan in Sanskrit are accepted as Mrs Manju Sundaram is a member of the Indian Section of the Theosophical Society, living in Varanasi. Talk delivered at the international Convention, Adyar, in December 2012.

April 2013 7 The Theosophist synonymous with each other. The word last three days of his life became true life. darºan is derived from the root d·º, to see, On the last day, a priest knocked at his to observe, view, vision, perception. So, cell door to extract a confession from him, darºan is neither an intellectual specula- but Meursalt refused. Finally the priest left, tion, intellectual sport or pastime, nor a frustrated. At that moment Meursalt de- maze of arguments. It is direct percep- scribed the priest as someone who lived tion (pratyakshânubhuti). It may also be like a dead person. Meursalt realized that a transmission of spiritual perception or it was the priest who needed to be saved, vision, when Reality, the Truth, the whole not he. He further says: ‘If we look around, phenomena await unfoldment before a we may see people, who are like dead per- sensitive, receptive being. The deeper one sons, carrying their own “dead bodies” on delves, the subtler become the meanings. their shoulders. They need to be touched It is, perhaps, like the profound resonances by something — the blue sky, the eyes of that linger long after the bell is struck. a child, an autumn leaf . . . so they can Those who are receptive, are able to hear wake up . . . anything can wake us up to the last resonance fading and merging into life’ — right here and right now. the vastness, into that all-pervading sound This is what darºan means, in its (nâda) from where it emerged. deepest of meanings — waking up to life The well-known Vietnamese Zen — right here and right now! This is what Master, Thich Nhat Hanh, tells a very ‘seeing’ is, not in fragments, but in entirety illuminating story in his book Cultivating — seeing the whole with one’s whole the Mind of Love: being. This moment of ‘seeing’ is the now, This is a story about a man named is the present, having nothing to do with Meursalt, who is in prison. In his cell one seconds, minutes, hours or days; with past, day, Meursalt was able to touch life the present or the future. It is the moment . . . Lying flat on his back, he looked up, that enshrines the all, the moment that has and through a small window near the in it the eternal now. This moment of ceiling, he ‘saw’ the blue sky for the first seeing brings about a new awakening, a time in his life. How could a grown man new awareness; this ‘seeing’ itself is see the blue sky for the first time? In understanding. These moments of percep- fact, many people live like that, im- tion are perhaps the moments when reality prisoned in their anger, frustration or belief can be seen — in a flash! It is in these that happiness and peace are only in the vibrant moments that the mist that masks future. Meursalt had three days to live one’s perception, disappears, and with before his execution. In that moment of which comes the clarity of vision, an mindfulness, the sky was really there and unblurred vision of the vast expanses of he was able to touch it. He saw that life Nature and Life. We all must have had meaning and he began living deeply experienced this: The sky is darkened as the moments that were left for him. The the storm approaches and one is unable

8 Vol. 134.7 The Past, Present and the Future to see anything; then all of a sudden the flow simultaneously, together, and not one thunderstorm breaks, with flashes of after the other — they cannot! So, there lightning — and then, in that flash of always is the movement in the present. The lightning one sees everything; things close song, the poem, the painting, blossom by and also the distant. This moment of from moment to moment. Song and words seeing is — being into it. This seeing is just flow, the brush just meanders spon- not a gradual process; it is instantaneous. taneously, every expression springing There is this beautiful word, again in forth from the fountain within. In fact, the Sanskrit, unmesha, which means light, painter lets the painting create itself, the flash, and also, opening, expansion, poet lets the words find their own rhythm awakening. So, the ‘flash of lightning’ and expression and the song too in the itself is the awakening. hands of a creative singer, is free to caress This ‘seeing’, this vision, though com- the melody it loves. plete in itself, yet always has so much As with the poet or the painter, so is more to convey, to express, to unravel, it with the one who looks at a beautiful and herein lies the beauty of creative painting, or enjoys reading a beautiful vision that penetrates into the immeasur- poem, or admires a lovely statue. One does able, the unfathomable, and brings out all not enjoy a painting piecemeal or music that is ever true, good and beautiful. in fragments; one enjoys it as a whole. The Tagore, in his inimitable style says: most beautiful landscape paintings by John Constable or Turner may be within The light that fills the sky the limits of the frame, but they certainly Seeks its limits in a dewdrop on the grass! give the feel, the vision, of the limit- And also: less. One feels the force, the energy, the beauty and vibrancy of colours, the True end is not in reaching of the limit many moods of Nature, as one looks But in a completion which is limitless. deeply at a painting. The exuberance, the The poet, the painter or the sculptor, serenity, the play of light and shade, the all have the vision of their poetry, picture, still skies, the gale, the storm — all that or the piece of sculpture within their own the painting depicts, touches the core of being — as a whole; and when one be- one’s being. The painting takes one into gins to write or paint or sculpt, one just its fold, allowing one to be a part of the begins from any point, giving expres- landscape! When one really ‘sees’ the sion to one’s feelings, emotions, poetic marvellous dawn, one does not see it just imageries and intuitive perceptions. In a passively, one does not see the beauty lyric or a song, a poem or a painting, the and light as a casual spectator; one rhythm or metre, the emotional percep- shares in the light, one feels the light, tion, the creative perception and their one is enwrapped in the light. It is a uni- expression, all are blended into one; they fied vision, nay, a complete vision, in

April 2013 9 The Theosophist which reality is not isolated, dissected, deep insight, that let the mysteries unfold, fragmented. unveil themselves, splashing all the Divine According to the ancient, traditional Beauty and Splendour around. faith of the Hindus, the Veda-s are con- The Vedic Seers saw, with wordless sidered to be texts not written or composed wonder and delight, the marvels and mys- by humans. They are supposed to have teries of Nature, of the Universe. They been directly revealed by the Supreme observed with great joy, the splendour of ONE. That is why they are known as ºruti, dawn and dusk; they also observed how what is heard or revealed or perceived. the changing seasons follow each other The many sages or ·shi-s to whom the — the spring, the summer, the rainy Vedic hymns are ascribed, are, therefore season, the autumn or fall, and then called mantra-d·shta, the seers of the spring again. They saw, they heard, they hymns, and not mantrakarta, composers felt, the whole of Nature breathing, sway- or writers. ing, dancing, to the sounds struck or A lot has also been said about unstruck, to the sounds of the Silence, a Revelation, that is, the Vedic Revelation. constant cycle of changes and counter- What is it, really — this Revelation? It changes, going on ceaselessly, unend- perhaps has nothing to do with just the ingly. They were dazed, wonderstruck activity of the brain, nor is it some narrow one moment, awestruck at another, and intellectual speculation. It surely hints at found their whole being bathed in sheer the unfolding of something immense, Bliss — at yet another moment! They something very vast and deep. felt, within their hearts, an intense stir- A wise man made this profound state- ring, a chord having struck deep within. ment more than a century ago: Failing to contain within, the ecstasy, they just burst into hymns and prayers! Never does it happen that Nature says one It was the irresistible joy of beholding thing and wisdom another. something extraordinary, it was the joy The seers, the mystics of all ages, of being blessed with the revelations of belonging to all parts of the world, have the immutable laws that govern this been graced, blessed, with this ‘awaken- Universe, it was the joy of being wakened ing’ to the mysteries, the truths of life, Life to the inherent harmony, rhythm, tremen- in its wholeness. It is all about seeing and dous order and regularity which hold this hearing, not just that which is visible or Universe intact. And the hymns were not audible on the physical plane but seeing, just meaningless utterances or outbursts hearing, feeling, observing, beyond that. either. They were the impelling, spon- To the great seers and creative beings taneous expression born out of the deep were revealed all the Eternal Truth of sense of gratitude, reverence, sense and Nature and Life, the immutable Laws of feeling of surrender and submission to the Life. It was their keen inner vision, their Power, the Energy, the Intelligence, that

10 Vol. 134.7 The Past, Present and the Future are behind all this manifestation. This Music is a revelation; a revelation, is what Revelation is all about. In this see- loftier than ing, in this hearing, is that awakening to all wisdom and all philosophy. the reality of all things, the awakening of These are the significant words of none the awareness of that Supreme Con- other than the all-time great composer, sciousness that abides in all. This is just musician Ludwig van Beethoven! the pure awareness of the Presence of that The seers come to the understanding, one in all. with their intense perception, that the laws We all must have seen and heard the of music are the laws of Life itself: the sound of the wonderful musical instru- law of harmony and rhythm, the law that ment known as the tânpura, which is brings about balance and the sense of used for accompanying a singer and also proportion. They are awakened to the other instruments. The four strings of the reality that behind this great phenomena tânpura are tuned in different notes, but of Life, there is movement, motion, vibra- once they are tuned to perfection, the tion. As is music, so is Life! an endless different notes, blending with each other, movement, a stream ever-flowing, ever merge into that ONE VIBRANT NOTE, em- in flux. It is this movement that causes anating endless resonances. One then day and night, sunrise and sunset, the ris- hears the ONE deep sound which has in it ing and falling of waves — which we all the cosmic vibration. One does not comprehend and label as time, which, in isolate, separate, one note from the other reality, is Eternity. — one cannot. The notes, the svara-s, There is a beautiful song by Kabir, in surrendering their individual entity, merge which he talks about the ocean and the into that ONE INDIVISIBLE NOTE. waves. The waves of the ocean are the Every musical note is independent, ocean itself. They are but one surf. When complete and perfect in itself, but no single the wave rises, it is water; when it falls, it note creates music; it may be a beautiful is still water. Tell me, where is the dis- note but it cannot be sung or struck alone, tinction? Just because it has been named for ever. It is the eternal melting of one ‘wave’, shall it cease to remain the Ocean? note before another that creates a song. It is really the different levels of being, The fulfilment of each note lies in surren- different planes of manifestations and dering, losing completely, its own entity forms that make them appear as different to bring about music; dying every mo- from each other. Life is no different from ment, as it were, for the sake of the eternal, this; there is just Eternity — with no for the sake of the whole. There is neither shores, no horizons and no boundaries. anything as past nor anything as future; We, on our physical plane of existence there is only that endlessness of movement. have fragmented the eternal into what we It is dying and being reborn every moment name as time. We, for our convenience, and so living anew every moment. for our day-to-day living and activities,

April 2013 11 The Theosophist measure our lives, segment our lives one with the source of Music. All the great linearly, chronologically, dividing them musicians of all ages and times, would not into seconds, minutes, hours, days, as also have been able to create such sublime, yesterday, today and tomorrow, as past, divine music had they not lost themselves present and future. In the depth of all this in Music. It is a state which Sufis call is the Infinite, the endless flow of Eternity. Fanâ-al-Fanâ, to die before one dies! And As the great Sufi saint Hazrat Inayat so, to dwell in the Eternal. Khan says: The singer is never tired of singing the same mode day after day; the painter is The art of music is the exact miniature of never tired of painting the same landscape the law working through the whole again and again. Every time, they look at Universe. it, feeling it afresh, with new inspiration The musician, while tuning his instru- and new vitality. It is that sense of deep ment also tunes his soul, his inner being, devotion, dedication, surrender and wor- and with it is also the attunement with the ship with which a devotee offers oblation listener, with the atmosphere. And then, to the morning sun rising from the depths the moment the first note is struck, some- of the horizon — every morning! And as thing amazing happens. The instrument, the singer and the painter enjoy their music the singer and the listener cease to be there and painting, so do the listeners and those as different entities. There is neither the who look at the painting. They share in singer, nor the listener, nor even the con- the beauty of the music and the landscape sciousness of all this. What remains is the painting with a new vision, full of wonder flow of wholesome music, in all its pure and delight. It is in no way bound to the freedom. These are the dynamic moments images and memories of the past, an- when the Creative Energy is in action — chored to the shores of the past or the in its effortless, spontaneous flow, leaving future. They just tune themselves to the behind, dissolving the narrow self; the music of the Universe. There is the com- ego, the individual consciousness, all is plete, unconditional surrender of their lost into nothing; music just flows on — individual entities to the Great Music, to unhindered. No one makes anything hap- what is, to what is seen or heard or felt in pen — everything happens on its own — that moment. There is this spontaneous smoothly, in complete accordance with understanding of and being in the reality the universal law and harmony. The singer of the creative moment. does not cling on to the music — he In this ‘seeing’ itself is the dawning of cannot. He just readies himself, his whole the awareness of the Unity, the Oneness being, to fulfil the demands of music. and the endless flow of that Harmony, that There is that state of losing, letting go of Music, which is beyond the limitations one’s narrow self, transcending one’s of time and space, beyond thoughts rational, dissecting self, and being thus, and concepts.

12 Vol. 134.7 The Past, Present and the Future This deep seeing and listening, with one is able to hear the faintest whisper and a heightened alertness, attention and en- see the Hidden Light. It is deep sensitivity, hanced receptivity, brings about a new heightened receptivity, that enables one understanding, a new awakening to what to hear, to see into, and to see beyond. is, to the present, free from the fetters of The deeper one sees into life, the wider time — past and future. One, then, lives a life opens itself to one. life which is not static, not stagnant, but a It is when one is intensely, passion- life ever fresh, ever new and ever sacred. ately, alive to every moment, fettered In the tranquil moments of contem- neither to the past, nor groping in vain for plation, reflection, one comes to the something labelled as the future — that is understanding that one has to ‘see’ life as the state, the moment when one abides in a whole, as one — and oneself, in no way the present, the present that is alive. The separate from the ONE. One is the whole. present is in the moment and in the In a musical instrument, the single string, movement. It is then, in the living moment, the single note, has to be in complete, that one sees the Infinite; in just a glance perfect consonance with all the other one sees, one touches, the Infinite skies; strings and notes. One discordant note, it is then that one hears the music in the one untuned string — and music pays the silence between two notes. It is this vibrant price. So, one, as an individual, has to be centre that one dwells in. One is then in complete consonance, or as Inayat blessed with the clarity of vision, with an Khan said, in ‘at-one-ment’, with the in- insight that reveals to one all that was divisible whole. One wrong deed, one veiled till then. In that living present selfish thought, one selfish motive, one moment is right perception, right res- callous, destructive move, one insensitive, ponse, right action, right step. One no thoughtless action — and the very more finds oneself standing at the cross- existence, very life is the price! One can roads, in a fix, in a conflict of choices; hardly evade, escape, this truth. one no more wavers between choices, And here one comes again to the lines alternatives, options, compromises. Then one began with: ‘waiting the Word of the the step taken is the right step and in that Master . . . watching the Hidden Light . . .’ very step is the step ahead. When is one able to watch the Hidden Every step, then, is complete in it- Light? To hear the faintest whisper? To self, is a destination in itself; every step see the slightest signal? is the sacred centre of pilgrimage and It is when one readies oneself with every step is that unique compass which absolute alertness, undistracted attention, directs one to the Realm of the Eternal, awareness, penetrating perception, that the Infinite. ²

Of first, and last, and midst, and without end. William Wordsworth

April 2013 13 The Theosophist Confirmation of the Existence of an Ancient Worldwide Wisdom Religion Transforming Belief into Knowledge

RAY WALDER AND EDI BILIMORIA

We tell you what we know, for we are made to learn it through personal experience. [Mahatma’s emphasis] Letter no. 70 C

Preamble: How Do We Truly Know? nature, etc.? This question is important H. P. Blavatsky (HPB) affirmed in her because, in our current intellectual cli- writings that there once existed through- mate, beliefs have no appeal. In fact, the out the world a wisdom religion which very idea that an organization is founded was known to the priests of ancient Egypt, upon beliefs may be — and often is — to the magi of Babylon and Persia, to the sufficient to frighten many people away. philosophers of ancient Greece, and to the These days, the very possession of beliefs ·shi-s of India. By no means was she alone is often enough to bring upon oneself the in holding this idea: many, many others accusation of belonging to yet another have asserted the notion — among them naive New Age movement or fundamen- such eminent thinkers as Marsilio Ficino talist religious cult. (1433–1499), Henry More (1614–1687) HPB strove to answer the question, and Isaac Newton (1642–1727). This ‘Was there once a worldwide wisdom ancient wisdom religion we term ‘Theo- religion?’. But we may put the question sophy’ — simply because ‘Theosophy’ another way: ‘If there was once a world- means ‘divine wisdom’. wide wisdom religion — a religion which But, in addition, Blavatsky set out to recognized a quintessential essence un- ‘assist in showing to men that such a thing derlying and underpinning life and the as Theosophy exists’. And, today, an im- world — how did the ancient priests, portant question arises: Does Theosophy magi, philosophers, sages and saints know place reliance on beliefs — belief in an that there is this underlying essence?’ infinite essence, belief in man’s immortal These questions cannot be answered

Dr Ray Walder has a Doctorate in Chemistry from Royal Holloway College, London, worked in industrial radiochemistry, and authored Experience and Essence. Dr Edi Bilimoria holds the Chair of Education on the Board of the Scientific and Medical Network, and wrote the award-winning The Snake and the Rope.

14 Vol. 134.7 Confirmation of the Existence of an Ancient Worldwide Wisdom Religion through entertaining the notion that this centuries of experiences (present writers’ wisdom religion was founded on beliefs. italicized emphasis). The Secret Doctrine, Beliefs would be insufficient; higher (Adyar edn.), vol. I, p. 316 knowledge (wisdom) based on direct ex- These quotations make it crystal clear perience is the surest foundation: one must that religion is not a establish that the holy ones possessed a set of beliefs to be taken at face value as certain higher knowledge, not that they an article of faith; rather it is something to held to a set of beliefs. be verified for ourselves through personal exploration and experience. But that is all One Way Forward very well for those gifted with such a pure One way to answer the question, ‘Was and elevated nature that they can under- there once a worldwide wisdom religion?’, take such exploration first-hand; or for is the method that HPB used: to collect those who can afford unlimited time and together immense tracts of literature from energy to work assiduously in libraries the archaic sciences, scriptures, myth- verifying those portions of the archaic ologies, literature and esoteric doctrines to which we can have access. writings of diverse ages, cultures and For the majority of us, many statements epochs, and then to highlight their com- in theosophical literature (like The Secret mon thread. When she did this, however, Doctrine) must remain at the level of HPB was not just acting in the manner of belief, even though, as just stated, a conventional PhD student performing Blavatsky has provided massive corrob- a literature survey on the theme of his oration from the sacred doctrines of chosen research. diverse cultures, races, and epochs. How, The quotation at the head of this article then, can we quicken our experience? and the one following are of seminal Surely by first trying to understand what importance: we mean by experience. The system in question is no fancy of Does there exist, then, another way one or several isolated individuals. That forwards in complete harmony with the it is the uninterrupted record covering first? The answer lies in attempting to thousands of generations of Seers whose understand what we mean by that dis- respective experiences were made to test armingly simple word ‘experience’. But and to verify the traditions passed orally first we need to clear our path. by one early race to another, of the teach- ings of higher and exalted beings . . . No Clearing Obstacles in the Way of vision of one adept was accepted till it was Understanding: The ‘I’ versus ‘You’: checked and confirmed by the visions — Subject versus Object Dichotomy so obtained as to stand as independent It seems that the prime difficulty in evidence — of other adepts, and by addressing the question of the nature of

April 2013 15 The Theosophist experience lies in the way we are con- (res cogitans). In fact, this idea took firm ventionally taught to look at life and the hold of the popular imagination — and world. For we are all taught — by our made possible an enormous advance in parents, by our peers, by the education mankind’s understanding of one — but system, by the very language that we use, only one — of Descartes’ ‘realms’: res etc. — to look at life and the world in extensa. terms of objects which are ‘out there’ and In large measure, this advance resulted a self which is ‘in here’ apprehending from the realization that the ‘realm’ of res those objects. In short, we are taught to extensa possesses a structure. It is because look at life and the world in terms of of this that any given part of res extensa objects and subject. What we are not can be understood in relation to other parts taught is to look at life and the world in of the ‘realm’. In the conventional way of terms of experience — that which, as considering the world, then, it can be said ordinarily considered, mediates between that each object possesses a structure and object and subject. that each object is related to all other But as soon as we speak of looking at objects through an over-arching structure. life and the world in terms of experience, In the ordinary way of considering the a problem is likely to arise: our reader world, these structures are ‘conveyed’ from is immediately likely to assume that object to subject by that which mediates ‘experience’ signifies the process of between them: experience. This thought apprehension of an object (or objects) by immediately suggests that experience must a subject. That is not the position that was itself possess a structure. But if that is so, taken by those priests, magi, philosophers, then it will be possible to analyse experi- ·shi-s: they did not assume a world ‘out ence as an ‘entity’ in itself. there’ which a self ‘in here’ is experi- encing. Rather, they looked at experience A Second Way Forwards — Under- as an ‘entity’ in itself without making standing the Structure of Experience assumptions (for that is what they are) of Has a structure for experience ever a world ‘out there’ or a self ‘in here’. been suggested? It has: indeed, a possible Humanity has ever been divided into structure has been suggested by one of the those whose view is founded upon twentieth century’s most eminent scien- ‘subject-experiencing-object’ and those tists — Wolfgang Pauli. Not only a Nobel whose view is founded upon ‘experience- laureate held in the highest esteem by his as-an-“entity”-in-itself’. But the former peers such as Einstein and Heisenberg, received a huge boost in the seventeenth Pauli was also a mystic and a friend and century when the philosopher René collaborator with Carl Jung. Pauli’s struc- Descartes announced the idea that Nature ture was a product of intuition, but now a is divided into two ‘realms’: an ‘extended structure for experience has been derived thing’ (res extensa) and a ‘thinking thing’ with mathematical rigour and shown to be

16 Vol. 134.7 Confirmation of the Existence of an Ancient Worldwide Wisdom Religion just that structure which Pauli proposed. other religions, and provides a template Before saying more about this structure, for answering such questions. And, however, the question concerning what underlying these questions, will be the is to be expected of a structure for experi- fundamental question as to whether there ence may be addressed. once existed a wisdom religion known First and foremost, it is to be expected to thinkers throughout the world. of the structure that it reflect everyday Through these questions, the structure experience. But immediately there arises begins, by showing how important an obvious difficulty: the question is open- insights within Hinduism, Buddhism, ended. For all that the structure can be Taoism, Christianity, etc., are incorpor- shown to reflect some types of experience, ated and explained, to obtain confirmation it is impossible to guarantee that it would of its correctness. But, as it transpires, it not fail completely when another type of is the answers obtained from questions experience is addressed. An additional concerning insights in Christianity which method is therefore required for the assur- most readily illustrate the correctness of ance that the structure is correct. the structure. Just such a method is provided by The Christian religion centres upon an considering the writings of those ancient ‘entity’ which has certain attributes. This priests, magi, philosophers, ·shi-s, and ‘entity’ can be called — following the ex- asking if the proposed structure for ex- ample of Paul the Apostle — ‘The Christ’. perience substantiates any of the claims According to Christian thought, the they made. For instance, is there a way in attributes of the Christ include the idea that which the structure shows itself to be built the Christ is selfless love, the idea that the up according to the six-stage scheme Christ is ‘the light of the world’, and the originated by the priests of ancient Egypt idea that the death of the Christ generates and set down in the first chapter of the newness of life. Does the structure for Book of Genesis? Notice how severe and experience incorporate ‘The Christ’ and demanding this question is: the structure does it do so in a way which demonstrates must complete itself in precisely six stages; at least these three attributes? It does the stages must follow the pattern given indeed incorporate ‘The Christ’, and it in Genesis; the structure must derive only does so in such a way as to substantiate from its own internal ‘workings’ — since these attributes, and more besides. there obviously cannot be anything So, Pauli’s suggestion for a structure outside of experience. for experience provides something that The answer to the question is in the reflects (and explains) everyday experi- affirmative: Pauli’s proposed structure, ence (to the extent that that is possible) when correctly interpreted, does all of and ideas encountered in the religions. these things. This finding opens the way And yet, demanding though they be, to questions concerning the insights of the pertinent methods of enquiry are

April 2013 17 The Theosophist insufficient to substantiate the structure for to see for oneself, for example, how it is experience as correct: something more is that there exists a smallest possible needed, something so definitive as to increment of time — the mathematical provide incontrovertible substantiation. aspects (which are not more advanced Incontrovertible substantiation of the than the university-undergraduate level) structure for experience has been obtained: are unavoidable. But, just as one can do the structure is found to predict correctly satisfying work in, say, chemistry without certain numbers known to science — the delving into the mathematical aspects of human gestation period, the Planck time molecules, so one can investigate experi- (smallest possible increment of time), and ence without delving into its mathemat- the fine-structure constant (which deter- ical aspects. mines, ultimately, how everything in the However, there is one aspect of the physical universe holds together). In other quantitative investigation which, without words, the structure proposed for ex- going into the mathematics as such, may perience has demonstrated the ability to be discussed: its prediction of the fine- generate both qualitative results (every- structure constant. The fact that the struc- day experience, ideas encountered in the ture for experience is built up in six stages religions) and quantitative results (num- which follow closely the pattern given in bers known to science). The structure has, Genesis implies that the first stage is a therefore, vindicated itself. ‘division of light from darkness’ (to use But what is this structure? Few readers the biblical description). Now, the fine- will be surprised to learn that Pauli’s structure constant can be considered as the original proposal for a structure for ex- measure of what it takes to separate a perience was a mathematical suggestion: particle of light (a ‘photon’) from a par- Pauli was, after all, a physicist. But the ticle of matter — in other words, ‘light idea that the structure is mathematical in from darkness’. This separation is, ac- nature is likely to be frightening to many cording to physics, fundamental to all readers. Yet how could it be otherwise? the processes which make possible the Even in the objects-and-subject view of physical universe. And the quantitative life and the world, the structures of ob- investigation of the structure for experi- jects — necessarily mathematical — are ence shows that the value of the fine- ‘conveyed’ through experience to the sub- structure constant is found from just that ject. Those who are not mathematically region which relates to the first stage as inclined can still investigate the structure described in Genesis. So, then, the for experience, gaining a qualitative description in Genesis is apposite: the appreciation of how the structure can be ‘division of light from darkness’ is, truly, used to generate new information con- fundamental to all that follows (namely, cerning life and the world. Of course for in popular terms, ‘Creation’; strictly a complete understanding — if one wishes speaking, emanation or manifestation).

18 Vol. 134.7 Confirmation of the Existence of an Ancient Worldwide Wisdom Religion It can also be correlated in a general religion which was known to the think- sense with several of the Stanzas of Dzyan ers of the ancient world. For there is which describe the stages of cosmic an essence which underlies and under- awakening and unfoldment. pins life and the world, an essence which All of the above serves to establish can be discovered simply through the that Blavatsky was, of course, wholly investigation of experience as an ‘entity’ correct: there once existed a wisdom in itself. ²

Note At face value, this article makes some astounding claims. The reader is assured that such claims could not be made were they not backed up by many years (about twenty-five) of continuous, detailed research by one of the authors (RW). That research is written up in a book Experience and Essence of over 200,000 words. A technical paper titled A Mathematical Solution of the Psychophysical Problem presents the mathematical essence of the book in justification of the qualitative assertions made in this article. The authors are more than willing to discuss, and expand upon, any aspect of the article with any interested reader.

Universal Order and Truth were born of blazing spiritual fire, and thence night was born, and thence the billowy ocean of space. From the billowy ocean of space was born Time — the year ordaining days and nights, the ruler of every moment. In the beginning as before, the Creator made the sun, The moon, the heaven and the earth, the firmament and the realm of light. §g-Veda X.190.1–3

April 2013 19 The Theosophist The Making of The Secret Doctrine

MICHAEL GOMES

WHILE most theosophists are famil- developed an interest in spiritualism. But iar with the fact that H. P. Blavatsky’s like many titled members of the early magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine, was Theosophical Society — the Earl of published in 1888, and are aware of the Crawford and Balcarres, Baron Spedalieri, theories of vast cosmogenesis and anthro- Duchesse de Pomar — her spiritualism pogenesis contained therein, the events soon developed into occultism. Her read- which shaped the making of the book are ing led her to join the British not as well known. Fortunately a number Theosophical Society in 1880.1 of eyewitness accounts have survived, It was at the London home of the popu- making it possible to reconstruct this lar Theosophical author, A. P. Sinnett, period. The most fascinating and detailed early in April 1884 that Countess Wacht- is Countess Wachtmeister’s Reminiscences meister first met HPB, who had come of H. P. Blavatsky and The Secret over briefly from Paris for the London Doctrine, published in 1893 after HPB’s Lodge TS elections. The Countess saw death, and reprinted by Quest Books. Mme Blavatsky later that spring at the The blond, blue-eyed Countess was a chateau of the Count and Countess society woman related to the old French d’Adhemar at Enghien, France, before family of Bourbel de Montjucon. Her returning to Sweden, and was told by HPB father was the Marquis de Bourbel, and that ‘before two years had passed, I would she was born in Florence, Italy, on 28 devote my life wholly to Theosophy’,2 March 1838. She married her cousin, the which at the time, she says, she regarded Count Karl Wachtmeister, in 1863, who as an utter impossibility. was then stationed in London as the When Countess Wachtmeister con- Swedish and Norwegian minister to the tacted HPB again, at the beginning of Court of St James. Subsequently they December 1885, the situation was a very lived in Copenhagen where he was minis- different one from the brilliant receptions ter to the Danish court, and in Stockholm, of London and Paris, which had culmin- where he was named minister of foreign ated with a gala farewell for Col. Olcott affairs. After his death in 1871 she and Mme Blavatsky at Prince’s Hall in Dr Michael Gomes is a scholar and author of Theosophical subjects, living in America. Article reprinted from The Theosophist, May 1988. The year 2013 marks the 125th anniversary of The Secret Doctrine.

20 Vol. 134.7 The Making of The Secret Doctrine London on 21 July 1884, attended by 500 Countess Wachtmeister says she could not people in evening dress. ‘It’s not life’, HPB help being on her guard as she climbed had written to her sister Vera, then, ‘but a the steps of No. 6 Ludwigstrasse in sort of mad turmoil from morning till Würzburg on the evening of her arrival. night. Visitors, dinners, evening callers She found an unhappy 54-year-old and meetings every day.’3 But now the woman who was smarting sensitively Theosophical leader was in disgrace, under insults and suspicions, and who ‘abandoned by all and deserted’. Letters embarrassingly told her that she had not attributed to her in the September and initially invited the Countess because the October 1884 Madras Christian College small size of her apartment, mainly a Magazine seemed seriously to compro- bedroom, dining room, sitting room and mise her phenomena, as had her failure maid’s quarters, might not satisfy some- to prosecute for libel, and her sudden leav- one of her guest’s background. ing of India in March 1885 for Europe. Countess Wachtmeister must have An agent had been sent by the newly- been a remarkably unpretentious person formed London Society for Psychical for she stayed with Mme Blavatsky for Research to investigate the matter, and his the next five months. A screen had been report to be issued soon was generally bought which separated the bedroom to believed to be unfavourable.4 provide their only private space. At six in The Countess had intended to spend the morning their Swiss maid, Louise, the winter of 1885/86 in Italy, and had would bring a cup of coffee for HPB, who stopped en route at the home of a fellow then rose and dressed, and was at her TS member and student of the occult, writing desk by seven. Breakfast was at Marie Gebhard in Elberfeld, Germany. eight when the day’s mail would be read, Mme Gebhard, who had been one of the and then Mme Blavatsky would return to few private pupils of the French Kabbalist, her writing. Their main meal was served Eliphas Levi, urged her guest to see at one in the afternoon, but when the HPB now settled in nearby Würzburg. Countess rang the handbell, sometimes Mme Blavatsky’s response was a polite HPB might not respond for hours de- refusal claiming lack of space and time pending how well her writing was going. to entertain a visitor, as she was engaged Finally at seven she put it aside, and after in writing The Secret Doctrine. But as tea, the two of them would spend ‘a plea- the Countess was preparing to leave for sant evening together’, HPB amusing her- Rome, and the cab was actually at the self with a game of patience, while the door, a telegram arrived saying, ‘Come to Countess read her passages and articles Würzburg at once, wanted immediately from the daily journals. By nine HPB — Blavatsky.’5 retired to bed where she would read the Because of the rumours of fraud and Russian newspapers late into the night. deception circulating about Blavatsky, They had few visitors at this time, the

April 2013 21 The Theosophist regularity of their days punctuated only Countess had managed to create by by the weekly visit of HPB’s doctor who relieving HPB from concern about the usually stayed an hour, and an occasional running of the household was shattered in appearance by their landlord. Most of a most dramatic way. On New Year’s Eve HPB’s time was spent working on her 1885 a member of the Germania TS, Prof. new book which had been advertised in Sellin, appeared with the finally published the Journal of the Society early in 1884 report by Richard Hodgson for the Society as a ‘new version of Isis Unveiled with a for Psychical Research Committee on new arrangement of the matter, large theosophical phenomena in which the and important additions, and copious Committee had judged her worthy of per- notes and commentaries’. But the work manent remembrance as ‘one of the most had gone slowly. An attempt at group- accomplished, ingenious and interest- ing subjects exists from HPB’s 1884 ing impostors in history’,7 and Hodgson European tour, and before the arrival of had added his own conclusion that she the Countess she had managed to put had done it all as a cover for her being a together a few chapters. Russian spy! Like Col. Olcott’s testimony for HPB’s ‘I shall never forget that day,’ the writing Isis Unveiled, and ’s Countess records in her Reminiscences, on the production of The Voice of the ‘nor the look of blank and stony despair Silence, Countess Wachtmeister’s account that she [HPB] cast on me when I entered tallies with the depiction of HPB being her sitting room and found her with the able to sit for long hours and write con- open book in her hands.’ In the intensity tinuously, stopping only to gaze into of the moment HPB turned on her, vacant space. HPB explained her tech- shouting, ‘Why don’t you go? Why don’t nique as being able to ‘make what I can you leave me? You are a Countess, you only describe as a sort of a vacuum in the cannot stop here with a ruined woman, air before me, and fix my sight and my with one held up to scorn before the whole will upon it, and soon scene after scene world, one who will be pointed at every- passes before me like the successive where as a trickster and an impostor. Go pictures of a diorama, or, if I need a ref- before you are defiled by my shame.’8 erence or information from some book, The Countess did not go; instead she I fix my mind intently, and the astral stayed on, not only through this crisis, but counterpart of the book appears, and from until HPB’s death in 1891. Her presence it I take what I need. The more perfectly did much to alleviate HPB’s suffering, and my mind is freed from distractions and her personal integrity must be counted to- mortifications, the more energy and in- wards influencing HPB’s later acceptance tentness it possesses, the more easily I can by London society. This is something HPB do this’.6 herself acknowledged, for in writing to a But soon the peaceful atmosphere the TS member in India, she says, ‘The widow

22 Vol. 134.7 The Making of The Secret Doctrine of the Swedish ambassador in London, to come forward and defend me as he the ex-visitor at all hours of the Queen, would his own mother, if thus scurrilously and one who is known in London for attacked, the whole current of the Theo- twenty years in the highest circles as a sophical Society would be changed”.’ It woman of unblemished reputation and was a critical moment for the Society, one who has never uttered a falsehood in and HPB was left alone in her agony her life, is not likely to throw her reputa- and despair.13 tion, her friends and position, to become Out of this crucial testing period came the most devoted champion of an HPB, the nucleus of The Secret Doctrine as we if there was nothing serious in it.’9 know it. The book would no longer simply Still, they had a terrible time as Count- be a revision of an earlier work, but ess Wachtmeister’s letters to A. P. Sinnett something HPB felt would serve as her in London show. ‘We have had a terrible vindication by answering the charges day and the Old Lady wanted to start to against her. She wrote to the President of London at once,’ she wrote him on the the Society accordingly on 6 January: evening of 1 January 1886.10 The Count- ‘Secret Doctrine is entirely new. There will ess had finally managed to calm HPB not be there 20 pages quoted by bits from down, who wanted to write a number of Isis. New matter, occult explanations — indignant protests to all concerned, and the whole Hindu Pantheon explained, who in her excited state had developed based on exoteric translations (to be easily palpitations of the heart and had required verified) and explained esoterically prov- a dose of digitals. The following days ing Xty and every other religion to have brought rude letters and resignations as taken their dogmas from India’s oldest the contents of the S. P. R. Report became religion. . . . In four Parts — Archaic, known, until, the Countess says, ‘my heart Ancient, Medieval and Modern Periods. used to sink every morning when the Each Part 12 chapters, with Appendices postman’s ring was heard, at the thought and a Glossary of terms at the end. Count- of the fresh insults which the letters would ess here, and she sees I have almost no surely contain’.11 books. Master and Kashmiri dictating in ‘We are having a horrible time of it turn. She copies all. This will be my vin- here,’ she informed Sinnett on 4 January. dication, I tell you.’14 ‘I thought Madame would have had an Here perhaps is the great lesson of the apoplectic fit — but fortunately a violent writing of The Secret Doctrine. Here was attack of diarrhoea saved her, but I weary someone whose world was crumbling of it all so much.’12 The Countess reports around her, who had worked for a decade how HPB ‘felt herself deserted by all those to see the Society that she had helped start who had professed such devotion for her. almost destroyed, to be socially ostra- As she pathetically said one day: “If there cized, shunned and dropped by friends was only one man, who had the courage and acquaintances. How did she react?

April 2013 23 The Theosophist Did she give up, as many others might postponed her leaving till July accom- have, defeated? No. She turned on her panied by her sister and niece. critics by producing a book containing She arrived in Ostende at the height of one of the most complete outlines of phys- the season to find everything overpriced. ical and of her century. With the help of her sister she managed A book that has survived a hundred years to find a suite of rooms, first at No. 10 and that is read around the world. Boulevard Van Isgham, and later at No. When HPB returned to the writing of 17 Rue d’Quest, where, reunited with the The Secret Doctrine at the start of February Countess, she passed the winter. The 1886, it was with a grim determination that regularity of their Würzburg days was would carry her through the next two repeated, the monotony broken only by years, and which would triumph over a few more visitors, the English seer, death itself. By the end of the month she , and her uncle, Edward had completed 300 foolscap pages of a Maitland; Sinnett gathering material for preliminary volume that would show ‘what his proposed biography of HPB; Arthur was known historically and in literature, Gebhard and Mohini Chatterji, who spent in classics and in profane and sacred their time ‘studying “Bhagavad Gitâ” all histories — during the 500 years that day’;16 the Revd A. Ayton; and K. F. preceded the Christian period and the 500 Gaboriau from France. years that followed it’ of the existence of A copy of the MS of the finished a ‘Universal Secret Doctrine’, and would preliminary volume of The Secret serve as an introduction to her translation Doctrine was given to Marie Gebhard to of the Stanzas of Dzyan.15 send to Col. Olcott from Elberfeld, but she As the rent on the apartment at kept it for a month, and it did not reach Würzburg was only paid up until 15 April, him in India until 10 December. This vol- HPB decided to pass the summer months ume was to be the introductory section at Ostende on the Belgian sea coast. Her to the ‘real pukka S.D.’ volume of the sister Vera and a niece would stay with Archaic Period with the seven stanzas of her, allowing the Countess the chance to Dzyan and the commentaries on them. return to Sweden to settle her affairs ‘It is an absolutely necessary one,’ HPB there. An English member, Miss Emily informed Olcott, ‘otherwise if they be- Kislingbury, whose affiliation with the gan reading the Archaic vol., the public Society went back to 1876, would travel would get crazy before five pages, too with HPB till Ostende. But when they metaphysical.’17 arrived at Cologne to change trains and The Countess had been sent to London rest for the day, Gustav Gebhard per- to attend to a business matter there, and suaded HPB to pay a brief visit to his HPB passed the New Year into 1887 alone. family in Elberfeld. It was there that she ‘The 2nd anniversary in exile and for what slipped and sprained her leg, which guilt or fault, ye Gods’, she wrote to an

24 Vol. 134.7 The Making of The Secret Doctrine American member. ‘Ah, life is a hard thing Elberfeld so that in shifts someone would to bear.’18 It was at this time that she made always be in attendance with HPB, and the following important decision about her as their local doctor could get no results, future. ‘Either I have to return to India to Countess Wachtmeister telegraphed Dr die this autumn, or I have to form between Ashton Ellis, a member of the London this and November next a nucleus of true group of Theosophists, to send over a Theosophists, a school of my own. . . . I specialist. Dr Ellis replied that he would can stop here, or go to England, or what- come immediately, and upon arrival ever I like,’ she revealed to the Countess prescribed a programme of massage to Wachtmeister.19 stimulate paralysed organs, which he Perhaps it was just coincidental, but proceeded to do for the next three days. after the Countess’s return HPB began As there seemed to be no improvement receiving letters from a small group of to HPB’s condition, Mme Gebhard sug- members of the who still gested that her will be made out, for if she met on a regular basis, and who wrote her died intestate in a foreign country there for advice on the best way of carrying on would be no end of complications. So the work. Dr , who a lawyer, the doctor and the American with his uncle Bertram, had joined the Consul were to come the next day. During Society in 1884, was deputed by this that night’s watch the Countess says: ‘To group personally to invite HPB to come my horror I began to detect the peculiar over to England where she could spend faint odour of death which sometimes the summer. Since Countess Wacht- precedes dissolution. I hardly dared hope meister had to go to Sweden that summer that she would live through the night.’21 to dispose of property there to enable her HPB was anxious about the fate of the to live with HPB on a more permanent manuscript of The Secret Doctrine, and basis, the move was decided upon. gave the Countess instructions to send it A departure date of 27 March had been to Col. Olcott at Adyar to have it printed. set, but on the 17th of the month HPB She said she was glad to die after what uncharacteristically lost consciousness in she had suffered in the last years. She her armchair after dinner. Then she de- drifted into unconsciousness, and as the veloped a cold, and on the fifth day of night passed seemed to grow weaker by her illness, the doctor diagnosed uremic the hour. The strain of the last few days poisoning due to inaction of the kidneys. was such that the Countess says a ‘wave The Countess says she became alarmed of blank despondency’ swept over her and when HPB began to drift into ‘a heavy she too drifted off. lethargic state, she seemed to be uncon- Morning light was already streaming scious for hours at a time, and nothing in when Countess Wachtmeister opened could rouse or interest her’.20 her eyes. Her first thought was that HPB Madame Gebhard had come from might have died as she slept. Instead she

April 2013 25 The Theosophist found an alert and awake HPB who told By the end of May, her that during the night she had the choice could write to W. Q. Judge, General of being able to die or finish The Secret Secretary of the newly formed American Doctrine. ‘But when I thought of those Section, and editor of the New York Path, students to whom I shall be permitted to that ‘HPB is fairly well and working away teach a few things, and of the Theo- right hard at The Secret Doctrine, which sophical Society, in general, to which I is awfully good, and I am sure you will be have already given my heart’s blood, I immensely pleased with it’.24 accepted the sacrifice.’22 Soon after her arrival at Maycot, HPB It was a joyous group that the lawyer passed her MS, which was now over three found when he arrived to make the will feet high, over to the Keightleys ‘to read, later in the day. The Belgian doctor kept punctuate, correct the English, alter, and repeating, ‘But she should be dead . . . generally treat as if it were our own’.25 she should be dead’, and the American Their summer was spent ‘reading, reread- Consul, who had come as a witness, left ing and copying’. The Secret Doctrine as with the words, ‘Well, I think this is it came to be published dates from this enough fatigue for a dying woman’,23 and time, for it was the Keightleys’ suggestion the little party laughed heartily over the that ‘instead of making the first volume to events of that day’s turnaround. consist, as she had intended, of the history The Countess looked so used up that of some great occultists, we advised her Mme Gebhard suggested that she leave to follow the natural order of exposition, for Sweden at once, and offered to stay and begin with the Evolution of Cosmos, until the Keightleys came to take HPB to to pass from that to the Evolution of London. In spite of bad weather the cross- Man, then to deal with the historical part ing to Dover was without incident, though in a third volume treating of some Great everyone was concerned for HPB who Occultists; and finally, to speak of Prac- had not left her heated rooms for weeks. tical Occultism in a fourth volume, should She was housed at ‘Maycot’, a small she ever be able to write’.26 cottage in Upper Norwood, with Mabel The material was then rearranged Collins, a member of the London group, under the headings of Cosmogenesis on 1 May, and before the day’s end was and Anthropogenesis with the stanzas of back at work with The Secret Doctrine. Dzyan and her commentaries leading off During Countess Wachtmeister’s each volume, followed by explanations of absence in Sweden throughout the sum- the symbolism and science treated therein. mer of 1887, the narrative for the making The thing that impressed the Keightleys of The Secret Doctrine is continued by was the paucity of Mme Blavatsky’s the accounts of two young Cambridge personal library. Archibald, who had graduates, Archibald (1859–1930), and made the transit with her from Ostende his uncle, Bertram Keightley (1860–1945). and who had helped her unpack, states:

26 Vol. 134.7 The Making of The Secret Doctrine ‘I knew there was no library to consult and the notation by Richard Harte that he I could see that HPB’s own books did not received it at Lansdowne Road from the amount to thirty in all, of which several printer on 20 October as he was leaving were dictionaries and several works for India with Colonel Olcott. The first counted two or more volumes.’27 Yet the edition of 500, bound in light grey, and manuscript edited by them for the press bearing the dedication ‘to all True Theo- quoted or referred to over 1300 books. sophists, in every Country and of every The checking of the sources alone occu- Race’, sold out immediately, going mainly pied a group of people, including E. to subscribers, and a second edition was Douglas Fawcett, assistant editor of the printed before the end of the year.28 With London Daily Telegraph, Richard Harte, the publication of the book, Countess a member from America, and it was even Wachtmeister closes her Reminiscences rumoured, S. L. Macgregor Mathers, who with the words ‘HPB was happy that day’.29 was regularly seen at the British Museum In comparison to Isis Unveiled, The poring over old folios of Kabbalistic lore. Secret Doctrine was not as widely Concurrent with the editorial work on reviewed by the press, though The The Secret Doctrine were a series of Theosophist reprinted notices from such events which revived Theosophical work diverse sources as the Memphis Appeal, in England. The of the the New Orleans Southland, and the Theosophical Society (still in existence) London Secular Review. Such was the was formed on 19 May with ten members; prejudice against the movement at the by the second meeting a week later it time that the New York Evening Telegram was decided to publish a magazine that published a review based only on the would bring theosophical ideas to a larger prospectus sent out four months before the public, and The Theosophical Publishing actual release date. The Telegram report- Company was started to manage this. ed: ‘Mme Blavatsky is undoubtedly an By the time Countess Wachtmeister ar- intellectual phenomenon, but because she rived in England in August, a three-storey can soar back into the Brahmin ignor- brick building had been leased at 17 ance of the Buddhists and furnish Edwin Lansdowne Road in London to serve as a Arnold with food for thought is no proof residence for the Theosophical household. that everything she says is true . . . Ten The Secret Doctrine was to be issued minutes of Edison and Noah Webster will by the London publisher George Redway, do more for civilization than all the fine with whom A. P. Sinnett had invested in, spun immoralities of the Indian poets. but after a disagreement on terms the However it is a good thing to study history, work was taken over by the Theosophical and Mme Blavatsky, with her learning and Publishing Society, and the release date patience throws the light of her intellectual of 27 October 1888 set. An advance copy dark lantern on the monstrosities of the of the first volume (723 pp.) exists bearing past. Her book is very elaborate and

April 2013 27 The Theosophist comprehensive in its scope, and will the East which, through her, challenges undoubtedly be widely read.’30 the West, and the Orient need not be Perhaps the most influential review ashamed of its champion. appeared in London’s literary Pall Mall ‘The book deserves to be read: it Gazette. The anonymous reviewer’s clos- deserves to be thought over; and none ing remarks serve as a fitting conclusion who believe in the progress of humanity to the making of The Secret Doctrine and has the right to turn away over-hastily from an introduction to the book itself. ‘Mme any contribution to knowledge, however Blavtsky’s views may not meet with new its form, from any theory, however acceptance, but they are supported by suf- strange its aspect. The wild dreams of one ficient learning, acuteness and ability to generation become the commonplaces of enforce a respectful hearing. It is indeed a later one . . .’31 ²

References and Notes 1. Biographical information on the Countess is member of the London household, James Pryse, given in the Path, N.Y., November 1893, pp. 246– Canadian Theosophist, 15 June 1932, p. 126. 47, and with slight amplification by Boris de 10. In The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Zirkoff in Theosophia, L.A., Fall 1957, p. 16. The Sinnett, (LBS), Letter CXXVI, p. 270. Countess’s early psychic experiences are given 11. Wachtmeister, ‘A New Year’s Greeting’, The in her 1897 talk, Spiritualism in the Light of Vahan, London, 1 January 1891, and Theosophy, printed by the Mercury Pub. Co., San Theosophical Siftings, 3:17, p. 3. Francisco, 1897. She applied for membership in 12. LBS, Letter CXXVII, p. 272. the Theosophical Society in London, 24 13. Wachtmeister, HPB and the Present Crisis November 1880, and was elected on 5 December. in the Theosophical Society, privately printed, 2. Wachtmeister, Reminiscences of H. P. London, c. 1895, p. 6. Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine, 14. In The Theosophist, HPB Centenary number, Theosophical Publishing Society, London, 1893, August 1931, p. 667. reprinted by Quest Books, Wheaton, 1976, p. 9. 15. HPB to A. P. Sinnett, 3 March 1886, LBS, 3. HPB to Vera Zhelihovsky, July 1884. The Letter LXXX, p. 195. Path, New York, June 1895, pp. 74–77. 16. LBS, Letter XCVII, p. 217. 4. For background on this incident see my article, 17. HPB to HSO, 23 September 1886, The ‘The Coulomb Case, 1884–1984’, in The Theosophist, March 1925, p. 789. Theosophist, December 1984, January and 18. HPB to Elliott Coues, dated by her ‘between February 1985. 1886–1887’, The Canadian Theosophist, 5. Wachtmeister, Reminiscences, p. 12. November–December 1984, p. 116. 6. Reminiscences, p. 25. 19. Reminiscences, pp. 54–55. 7. S.P.R. Proceedings 3 (1885): 202. 20–23. ibid., p. 59, p. 60, p. 62, p. 64. 8. Reminiscences, p. 18. 24. Letter of 29 May 1887, quoted in Kirby van 9. HPB to Judge N. D. Khandalavala, 12 July Mater’s ‘The Writings of The Secret Doctrine’, 1888, TS Archives, Adyar. ‘She would never Sunrise, November 1975, p. 60. consciously tell an untruth’, remembers another 25. Keightley, B., ‘Writing of The Secret

28 Vol. 134.7 The Making of The Secret Doctrine

Doctrine’, in Reminiscences, p. 78. notation on the flyleaf now in the Boris de 26. Keightley, B., in Reminiscences, p. 79. In Zirkoff Collection at the Olcott Library, addressing the December 1890 Adyar TS Wheaton, formerly belonged to the Blavatsky Convention he revealed that ‘what would now be Association in London. The note is transcribed in the 3rd volume was to have been the first de Zirkoff’s exhaustive presentation of the volume. . . .’ writing of The Secret Doctrine, Rebirth of the 27. Keightley, A., ‘Writing of The Secret Occult Tradition (TPH, Adyar, 1977, p. 1). A Doctrine’ in Reminiscences, p. 84. Marion copy of the second edition inscribed 7 December Meade in her biography Madame Blavatsky, 1888, and presented ‘to the Adyar Library by its 1980, p. 380, notes, ‘In fact, every person most devoted and humble servant, H. P. involved with Madame Blavatsky during the Blavatsky’, exists in the Adyar Archives. writing of The Secret Doctrine seems to have 29. Reminiscences, p. 72. gone out of their way to mention the 30. N. Y. Evening Telegram, 30 June 1888, curious lack of reference works.’ They were ‘Words with Wings’. genuinely impressed by it. 31. Pall Mall Gazette, 25 April 1889, p. 3, 28. Harte’s copy with the 20 October 1888 ‘Among the Adepts’.

It’s a very strange book, and I’ve even told Prof. Heisenberg, my fellow physicist, to get a copy and keep it on his desk. I urged him to dip into it when he’s handicapped by some problem. The strangeness of this book may relax or possibly inspire him . . . For instance, here is something she said which intrigued me, and I’m astonished how much in keeping it is with modern physics: ‘This is sufficient to show how absurd are the simultaneous admissions of the non-divisibility and elasticity of the atom. The atom is elastic, ergo, the atom is divisible, and must consist of particles, or of sub-atoms. And these sub-atoms? They are either non-elastic, and in such case they represent no dynamic importance, or, they are elastic also; and in that case, they, too, are subject to divisibility. And thus ad infinitum. But infinite divisibility of atoms resolves matter into simple centres of force, i.e., precludes the possibility of conceiving matter as an objective substance.’ There are many other significant statements of hers which I find interesting. Albert Einstein on The Secret Doctrine, 1935

April 2013 29 The Theosophist Time — Some Reflections

D. P. SABNIS

GENERALLY, we reckon time in to the continuous flow of moments, he hours, minutes and seconds, following comes to possess discrimination, which in the rotation of the earth around its own turn leads to subtle knowledge, i.e., know- axis. When the earth goes around the sun, ledge not limited by space and time. In it is one year, which gives us four seasons. this aphorism, Patañjali speaks of the But apart from this, there is a sense of time ultimate divisions of time, i.e. moments that is subjective. Besides defining time (kshana), and the order in which these by the motion of the earth, we can define moments precede and succeed each other. it in our conception. Time is something The kshana, or moment, that cannot be created entirely by ourselves, says a further subdivided, is smaller than the Master of Wisdom. Time seems to fly second, a nanosecond or pico-second of in happier moments, while it seems to science. We are aware of, and can distin- drag on, ever so slowly, during painful guish, periods such as days or hours. experiences. Thus, one moment of intense There are born mathematicians who can agony may appear as an eternity to one perceive the succession of minutes and tell person, while months and years may seem without a watch how many minutes would to fly like one brief moment to a person have elapsed between any two given surrounded by bliss. points in time. A yogi is able to distinguish Mahatmas have the knowledge of the between the successions of moments. very foundation of nature — they know Moments succeed each other in se- what the ultimate divisions of time are, and quence, and these sequences put together, also, the meaning and the times of the constitute time. Thus, moments are like cycles. In one of the Yoga aphorisms of spokes in the wheel of time. The move- Patañjali (Bk. III, Vibhuti Pâda), we are ment of moments, in the present, past and given the description of various powers future, constitute chronological time. The that a yogi comes to possess by practising yogi remains attentive to the moment and sanyama. Sanyama is the practice of con- does not allow his attention to slip into centration, contemplation and meditation, the moments, and thus conquers chrono- all three at once. When a yogi practises logical time. sanyama with regard to the moment and In other words, ‘Time is only an illusion Mr D. P. Sabnis is a member of Blavatsky Lodge, Mumbai, Indian Section of the TS.

30 Vol. 134.7 Time — Some Reflections produced by the succession of our states — is based on the image of him stored in of consciousness as we travel through our memory. Memory is based on eternal duration, and it does not exist experience. Should we allow it to have where no consciousness exists in which such an overriding influence on our the illusion can be produced; but “lies response and our capacity to meet life asleep”’ (The Secret Doctrine, I.37). HPB afresh? We seldom live in the present. We implies that time is but a by-product of live life, oscillating between the past and consciousness. In the experience of the future. advises mystic, past, present and future merge in us: ‘Kill in thyself all memory of past the Eternal Now. experiences. Look not behind or thou art A Master of Wisdom says that ‘past, lost.’ It is said that the past is gone, and present and future’ are clumsy words. The static, and nothing we can do can change subdivisions, which seem natural, are it, but the future is before us and dyna- man-made and purely subjective. It is mic; everything we do will affect it. The impossible to point out the dividing line suggestion is to forget the emotional ex- between the past and present, or the perience attached to the past events that present and future. Even as we say ‘now’, tend to take control of our mind and it has moved into the past. Our divisions colour the present and the future. Once of time are relative to the observer’s point we have extracted the lesson from an of view. event, we must let it pass without brood- Teachers down the ages, and espe- ing over it. Our capacity to do good in the cially, the New Age gurus advise us to present is adversely affected when we live in the present moment. We are so dwell too much on the past, which drags habituated to fly from the present that us down from our present level of con- the experience of trying to stay in the sciousness. HPB writes: present moment, even for an hour, could be daunting. If we can live in the mo- For the occultist . . . the Future and the ment, whether it is good, bad or indiffer- Past are both included in each moment of ent, without longing or sighing, then we their lives, hence in the eternal PRESENT. are free. The past is a torrent madly rushing by, We seem to live life, carrying with us that we face incessantly, without one a heavy load of past baggage. We seldom second of interval, every wave of it, and appreciate situations and people as they every drop in it, being an event, whether present themselves from moment to mo- great or small. Yet, no sooner have we ment. Our reactions are predominantly faced it, and whether it brings joy or based on a storehouse of memory, im- sorrow, whether it elevates us or knocks pressions and preconceived notions. For us off our feet, than it is carried away instance, when a person greets us, our and disappears behind us, to be lost sooner reaction — consciously or unconsciously or later in the great Sea of Oblivion. It

April 2013 31 The Theosophist

depends on us to make every such event cycle returns, we must compel ourselves non-existent to ourselves by obliterating to feel joyous, even against our will — or it from our memory; or else to create of at least to try to feel the joy of others. We our past sorrows Promethean Vultures. may do this the next day or even two days later. We would then have implanted Paradoxically, a person desiring to joyous impressions, so that when the cultivate concentration has to be aware of depression returns, it brings along with it his mental process, so that not even a fleet- the impressions of joy and they would ing impression or a passing thought might counteract each other’s momentum. Soon be missed. We must learn to be able to go we would succeed in establishing a joy- backwards into our days and carefully and ous cycle. in detail go over all that happened and all But why stop at moods and feelings? that we permitted to pass through our mind. We shall succeed in recollecting all The law of Karma postulates that an thoughts and impressions only if we have impulse, action or thought returns to the been vigilant and aware all through our sender in the course of time. The law of waking hours. Reincarnation lays down that man comes into this world, lives a life and then dies Karma is not subject to time, and therefore to come back in due time with a new body he who knows what is the ultimate div- and personality. In the state between death ision of time in this Universe, knows karma. and rebirth, the soul goes to Heaven or Cycles are the clocks of Karma. Cycles Devachan and assimilates the good are not arbitrary divisions of time, but garnered during earth-life so as to come they mark the periodic return of our back enriched in the next life. The average impressions and actions. Cycles mark the stay in Devachan is said to be 1000 to moments of cause and effect. Having the 1500 years. The time taken by the Ego knowledge of Karma and Cycles, the yogi for assimilation in Devachan is propor- can predict a future event. tionately more than the time spent on Earth One of the most practical applications in garnering experience. It takes only a of the concept of time is in understanding few minutes to eat our food but its diges- the value of cycles. By paying attention tion takes a much longer time — about to the cyclical return of impressions, we seven to eight hours. can save time and effort in the training of We have to regard each life as a pre- mind and body. If we eat at regular times, cious cyclic opportunity, which is going our digestive system is ready and active to come again only after 1000 to 1500 so that the food is digested well. If we years. It is only proper to question every study at a fixed time every day, then the action and every aspiration: ‘Is this the mind comes ready for work so that more thing I will take with me to Devachan?’ work gets done. Our ‘blues’ or depression ªiva is called Kâla-bhairava. Bhairava comes in cycles. When the depressive is that which makes you bhiru (afraid) and

32 Vol. 134.7 Time — Some Reflections we are all afraid of time, which snatches rose did not exist, and so also, at some away things and the people most dear to future time it will cease to exist. Similarly, us. K·shna too, says: ‘I am Time matured, the rose has certain qualities which make come hither for the destruction of these it a rose, distinct from all other objects; creatures’ (Bhagavadgitâ, XI). i.e., a rose has only ‘rose-ness’. Infinite time, or Kâla, is the symbol of Light on the Path says that ‘Time’ is a the One Reality or Absolute. The Absolute great deluder. A spiritual aspirant who is beyond time. Being beyond time and experiences divine discontent is described space, IT is described as ‘the Swan out as someone to whom the sense of space of time’ in its transcendental aspect. ‘The is like the bars of an iron cage, while the Swan in time’ represents the immanent sense of time is like the strokes of a sledge aspect of the Absolute, also called Iºvara. hammer. His consciousness struggles to Anything in manifestation is subject to a soar upwards, breaking free from the con- threefold limitation. For instance, a rose is fines of space and time. He wants to break limited in space, as it cannot be in two these limitations and experience timeless- places at the same time. It is limited by ness, where the oscillation between pain time, because there was a time when this and pleasure ceases. ²

Things of the past are already long gone and things to be, distant beyond imagining. The Tao is just this moment, these words: plum blossoms fallen; gardenia just opening. Ch’ing Kung, Mountain Dwelling

April 2013 33 The Theosophist How Can Ancient Wisdom Heal the Earth?

KUSUM GALADA

HOW can most ancient religions bring asura. All these happen due to karma. It about the spirit of brotherhood in the again states that karma is the root of universe through the doctrine of Karma? birth and death. It is also said in the All forces of life and nature are associated Uttarâdhyâyana Sutra that the soul bound with the principle of cause and effect. by karma goes and round in the According to Indian philosophy the Soul cycle of existence. (âtman) is endowed with consciousness, Karma denotes action, and action an infinite mode of knowledge, and self- denotes progress. Progress may be two- awareness in its perfect eternal state. But fold: (1) Progress that helps the realization we worldly souls are imperfect; our inner of one’s inner self and (2) Progress in ability is clouded by our mental, vocal worldly matters. It is the everyday ex- and bodily actions, called ‘karma’. It is perience of everyone that undisturbed this energy of karma which keeps us in peace and happiness cannot be obtained this mundane world (samsâra). The kinds from worldly attachments. Only self- of karma which keep an individual in a knowledge, i.e., liberation or Moksha, can backward condition are known as pâpa free us from pain and suffering. Almost and those that help in advancement are all thinkers agree that the sole aim of the called punya. soul is to liberate itself from the enslave- The unusual feature of Indian philo- ment of the world. As long as karma, sophy is its precise and scientific treatment comprising of the four passions, anger, of the law of karma. The Jaina Anga-s pride, deceitfulness and greed, is present, (sacred texts), belonging to the most freedom of the soul, i.e., salvation, cannot ancient religion of the world, treat karma be attained. as a motivational force of the cycle of When this law of karma of Indian existence. The Uttarâdhyâyana Sutra of philosophy is understood, nobody will the Jaina-s observes that the jiva, or soul, wonder at the inequalities found in the is sometimes born in devaloka (the world world and we will be always on the safe- of the gods), sometimes in hell, and guard to protect ourselves from further sometimes it acquires the body of an karma as far as possible. The belief of Mrs Kusum Galada, a member of the Indian Section, is a student of Jaina philosophy.

34 Vol.134.7 How Can Ancient Wisdom Heal the Earth? the Jaina-s that karma can be exhausted He whom you want to kill is you through austerities ensures that this doc- He whom you want to rule is you trine of karma does not promote fatalism He whom you torture is you among its believers. The Law of Non-violence, i.e., ahimsâ, We see that universal peace and is closely connected with the law of karma. promotion of human welfare can be This doctrine of ahimsâ internally impels brought about with the spirit of ahimsâ. man’s soul to treat other living beings of Today the concept of universal brother- the world as his own and behave towards hood is rising in the minds of wise and them in a friendly and brotherly way. As enlightened persons. Only non-violence man’s own existence and happiness are can give it a concrete form. To quote Max dear to him, so are they to other living Müller: beings. Lord Mahâvira, the twenty-fourth It is India that has taught the world how Thirthankara of Jainism says that ‘there to make our inner life more perfect, more is one uniform soul. All differences, like comprehensive, more universal, in fact caste, family, society, nation, are out- wardly imposed, so they are unreal. There more truly human, a life not for this life exists no question of struggle or conflict alone but a transfigured and eternal life. among human beings’. The doctrine of non-violence can All the negative actions of the human bring about a spirit of brotherhood in the mind, such as enmity, malice, envy, anger, universe. and ego, are different forms of violence. Annie Besant said: The remedy for violence is non-violence. Lord Mahâvira advises us to ‘conquer The Jaina doctrine of karma to me solves anger by forgiveness, ego by humility, the problem of inequality and apparent arrogance by modesty, greed by gene- injustice of the world. Personally, right rosity, hatred by love’. In the Âcharanga faith, right knowledge and right conduct Sutra, it is said: can destroy all karma and become divine.

Be human in the fullest, most beautiful sense, shedding gentle consideration, delicacy and graciousness, but with exquisite detachment. N. Sri Ram

April 2013 35 The Theosophist Theosophical Work around the World

Australia past president of the Theosophical Society The 2013 Annual Convention of The in the Philippines, thirty members parti- Theosophical Society in Australia was cipated in the seminar, which combined held in Melbourne during January on the lectures, exercises and interactive experi- theme ‘Theosophical Insights and the ences. The seminar was part of an annual Contemporary World’. Highlights in- series intended to further Partners in Theo- cluded the well-attended public talk by sophy, a programme funded by the Kern key speaker Prof. Richard Silberstein, Foundation, in which TS members and whose professional area of speciality is mentors collaborate to develop depth in neuroscience. His topic was ‘Intuition: a Theosophical understanding, leadership Transpersonal and Neuroscience Perspec- skills, and projects helpful to the Society’s tive’. Also featured as a key speaker was work. The Self-Transformation Seminar Dr Jenny McFarlane, an art historian, was followed by a Facilitator Training curator and writer who spoke about the programme attended by fifteen members influence of the Theosophical Society on for further understanding and mastery of a number of Australian artists, a subject the principles and methods used in guiding on which she had a book published during future seminars. 2012, and mentioned that the members in February programmes included the Australia could be proud of their heritage. following: 5–8 February: Understanding The programme also included among Reincarnation and Karma with Fernando other things various talks, an interview by de Torrijos; 12–15 February: Worlds the National President with two long- Without End: The Afterlife Today and in standing members, small group work- the World Religions with Robert Ellwood, shops, a day outing and a workshop for PhD; 15–17 February: A New Epoch Lodge/Branch Committee members. All and a New God: Esoteric and Jungian in all, the Convention was very successful Predictions about the Age of Aquarius, and well received by participants. with Stephan Hoeller, PhD; 22 February to 1 March: Therapeutic Touch: Healing The Krotona Institute, USA Based on Theosophy and Science, begin- The winter-spring semester of the ning and follow-up classes guided by Krotona School of Theosophy began Nelda Samarel, EdD, RN. with a TS Members’ Intensive programme, The Process of Self-Transformation, South America which was held from 18 to 25 January Mr Ricardo Lindemann, National 2013. Guided by Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., Lecturer of the Brazilian Section, was the

36 Vol. 134.7 Theosophical Work around the World

April 2013 37 The Theosophist

38 Vol. 134.7 Theosophical Work around the World guest speaker at the Winter School of the through Service’, ‘It is Enough if You Argentinian Section, which was held at Transform Yourself’, and so on. San Rafael from 10 to 15 July 2012, on the theme ‘Theosophy applied to Social Bangladesh Reconstruction’ ( developed in December Mr B. L. Bhattacharrya of the Indian 1996 by the speaker at the School of the Section visited Bangladesh for about two Wisdom in Adyar), and members from weeks in the first half of February at the Bolivia and Paraguay were also in invitation of members of Olcott Lodge attendance. Later, he also gave lectures in Dhaka and of Chittagong Lodge. In in Rosario and Buenos Aires. His lecture, Dhaka, he gave a talk on ‘Unity among ‘Regeneration and the Significance of Diversity’ which was attended by thirty- Life’, was broadcast live from Buenos five members, and another talk on the Aires to the whole world as a Web Video objectives of the TS where about twenty experiment from that Section, and thus people were present. ‘What is Theo- reached many Spanish-speaking coun- sophy?’ was the subject of his Chittagong tries simultaneously. He was also invited talk. He had discussions with members at to lecture on ‘Theosophy and Occult the Besant Lodge in Patiya, and spoke Science’ at the centenary celebration of about Theosophy and the Theosophical Fraternidad Lodge, Asuncion, Paraguay, Society at a public meeting arranged by from 16 to 18 November 2012. the Kusum Theosophical Lodge in the auditorium of the Ramkrishna Mission, Vice-President’s Visit where members of different religions The international Vice-President, Bro. attended. He reports there are members M. P. Singhal, was the Chief Guest at the interested in Theosophy and it was a Ninety-third Annual Conference of the successful trip. Telugu Federation, which took place in Visakhapatnam from 8 to 10 February Adyar 2013. The theme of the Conference was Adyar Day was celebrated as usual on ‘Human Regeneration and the Contem- 17 February this year in the beautiful porary World’. Bro. M. P. Singhal gave Headquarters Hall, where members re- the Inaugural Address as well as a public membered with gratitude the great work talk entitled ‘The Art of Listening’. More done by Col. Olcott, C. W. Leadbeater, than one hundred delegates attended the J. Krishnamurti, and Giordano Bruno who Conference. Lectures were also given by is believed to be a previous incarnation Federation and Lodge office-bearers and of Dr Besant. The children and teachers others, in English and Telugu, on topics of the Olcott Memorial High School such as ‘Life in the Modern World’, participated in the celebration. The work ‘Spiritual Regeneration of Humanity’, Col. Olcott started for the betterment of Theosophy for the Present’, ‘Salvation the underprivileged is carried on till today.

April 2013 39

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42 Gentle, and oh so wise, Brother Sri Ram touched the lives of many of us . . . . He brought us . . . to a Theosophy of consciousness, of experience, of that ‘living reality’ to which HPB had pointed in her ‘Golden Stairs’ and in The Voice of the Silence. Joy Mills Former International Vice-President

N. Sri Ram (15.12.1889–8.4.1973)

To coincide with the fortieth Death Anniversary of Bro. N. Sri Ram we offer the following books to read and to gift:

N. Sri Ram: A Life of Beneficence and Wisdom Pedro Oliveira

TITLES BY N. SRI RAM An Approach to Reality Human Regeneration Life’s Deeper Aspects Man, His Origins and Evolution The Nature of Our Seeking The Real Work of the Theosophical Society Seeking Wisdom Thoughts for Aspirants (First and Second Series) The Way of Wisdom

For catalogue, enquiries and orders, write to: THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE Adyar, Chennai 600 020, India Phones: (+ 91-44) 2491-1338 & 2446-6613; Fax: 2490-1399 E-mail: [email protected] & [email protected] Buy our books online at www.adyarbooks.com Receive a quotation/estimate by placing an indent for our books at www.ts-adyar.org/alltitles