THE r r 1 AMERICAN JL HEOS O PH I ST Official Organ of THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY in America IN THIS ISSUE The Reality of the Masters D r . G e o r g e S. A r u n d a l e Love Between Friends C. JlNARAJADASA W hite Lotus Day Compiled by BLANCHE K. REED The W orld’s Dire Need for a Scientific Manifesto Dr. B hagavan Das MAY * 1938 Under the Auspices of THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY ADYAR M ay all beings be sprinkled as from a cloud with the essence o f righteousness, their natures delighted with love for the supreme Law. M ay all beings be endowed with the fragrance o f virtue, . endowed with the Bodhisatva’s perfections. M ay all beings be perfumed with liberality, full of sacrifice and renunciation. M ay all beings be fragrant with compassion, possessed of unshakable thoughts. M ay all beings be fragrant with courage, armed with patience for the Path. M ay all beings be fragrant with all the things that are pure, free from all things that are evil. ...” “May all beings have infinite vision in all the things of the Buddha. May all beings enjoy the potentiality of becoming a Buddha. M ay all beings be like a pillar o f healing, in­ fallible, acting for the world's cure. M ay all beings have one common purpose with good friends by seizing upon the common root of good. .. M ay all beings be purified by the ripening of their deeds. M ay all beings be without break or hindrance in goodness, rivers o f Buddha's qualities undestroy­ ed. ... May all beings attain the seat o f infinite wisdom. May all beings attain the throne o f Buddha's courage, conspicuous to behold." - - TRANSLATION FROM AN OLD NEPALESE MANUSCRIPT. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ THE AMERICAN I h e o s o p h is t OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN AMERICA V ol. X X V I M A Y , 1938 N o. 5 The Reality of the Masters Our Elder Brothers (7 he President concluded his Presidential Address to the Adyar Convention on December 26, 1937, with the following passage on the Masters Who gave Theosophy to the world and Who founded and still sustain The Theosophical Society.) Embodiments o f Greatness have discovered that which we ourselves still seek, ROM time to time, for urgent remembrance, then, such determination steadily growing strong­ it is imperative that in the midst o f the er, we may win enrollment in Their Company of F unreal, o f our pre-occupations with our seekers o f the Real and servants o f Life, graded shadow-selves, there should be sounded the note from the youngest recruit to the greatest Rishi. of the Real, of those Selves of ours of which the Ever more fruitful thus becomes our seeking. shadows we know down here are but fleeting Ever more and more perfect thus becomes our forms — here today, gone tomorrow. freedom. When did anyone grow less by drawing For many of us the supreme note of the Real near to Them? True indeed it is that in Their is the existence of the Masters and Their relation service is perfect freedom. to the world in which we live. Around us we perceive the past from which we have emerged. Gifts of the Masters In ourselves and in the rest of humanity around But as we pass away from the earlier days of us lives our present. The Masters are our future the founding of The Theosophical Society and of — the future of all that lives. the reincarnation o f Theosophy, and of the period Watching and working for the dawn, for the succeeding these beginnings, there is great danger rising upon the world of a Sun o f Peace and lest we forget our inheritance, our trusteeship, Brotherhood, our eyes are privileged, thanks to and our own free way to Truth. their unveiling through Theosophy and our mem­ What was it that gave us the Theosophy which bership of The Theosophical Society, to gaze means so much to most o f us, all, indeed, to many upon the Masters, not always as Persons whom of us? It was H. P. Blavatsky’s own knowledge, we know, but ever as embodiments of greatness not only of the existence of the Masters, but far of whose existence we are certain because it is more o f individual Masters intent upon helping necessary to the fulfillment of Truth. the world. Because of her relationship with Them, Yet so sacred are They, and so intent upon and therefore because o f Them, we have Theos­ slowly but surely lifting life everywhere to Their ophy today. stature, that They ask for no recognition, not What was it that gave us The Theosophical even as plausible hypotheses, nor do They permit Society? The relation between FI. P. Blavatsky either the experience or the authority of Their and Colonel Olcott on the one hand and the Truth to influence in any way our individual Masters on the other. The early history of our search for Truth. Freedom has made Them Mas­ Society is inexpressibly fragrant with the partici­ ters. Freedom alone can make us Masters too. pation o f the Masters in its growth. Well might The Truth shall make us free, Freedom shall an inner history be written of The Theosophical make us Kings. Society and o f the gradual unveiling o f Theos­ But if, in the course of our search for Truth we ophy, forthshowing the part the Masters played find Them, and if, finding Them, we determine to in endowing the new age with these two great ally ourselves with Them — knowing that They channels o f Truth. Let our great leaders have 9 8 THE AMERICAN THEOSOPHIST done what they may, and splendid indeed has an unbreakable bond of living brotherhood be­ been their selfless service, they themselves would tween persons, nations, faiths, and races. be the first to insist that without the Masters’ A Virile Challenge strength and wisdom they could haveaccomplished We are thirty thousand strong, or is it weak — little. And where would you and I be without she asks. If we are thirty thousand weak, then the wisdom of our Theosophy and the strength of the time has not yet come for the world’s de­ our membership of the Society — each the gift of liverance. But if we are thirty thousand strong, or the Masters? even strong but in half the number, then can we Look for the Light! inspire the world to conquer its self-created foes The Masters are the background o f our Society and move out from shadow-land into sunlight. and of our Theosophy, and in truth they are the She asks each one of you here present — visible background of each one o f us. In Them we live and invisible: has Theosophy so changed you and move and have our being, for through Them that you have become supremely intent upon shines forth the Light of Truth Eternal, through giving it to the world, has your membership of Them is sung the Song of the Happiness of Life, The Theosophical Society so changed you that to through Them does the certainty of the future give it added dignity and power is one of the strengthen us amidst the perplexities o f the preoccupying purposes o f your lives? If such be present. the case, then are you drawing close to the The Masters have brought us safely through Masters and to Their work, to Their Truth and some sixty years of strenuous and sometimes to Their Freedom. But if you are not thus troubled, though ever joyous, living. If the changed, if in you is not yet aroused the spirit of Truth in Theosophy and in The Theosophical the ardent pioneer, if neither Theosophy nor Society be vivid today for the whole world to see, The Theosophical Society yet possesses you to and strong for the whole world to grasp, it is the exclusion o f all other interests contending for because the light and strength in the Science and your sole preoccupation, if they are for your in its channel have round about them the cease­ leisure and as a hobby, rather than so truly your less protection of the Masters. life’s work that all you must do comes second and Theosophy and The Theosophical Society first H. P. Blavatsky Speaks and ever first: then you are not yet the soldier From this great hall at Adyar, Headquarters the Masters hope you will some day become. o f The Theosophical Society, goes forth a message She tells you that it was her delight to hold to every member, and to every Theosophist. It nothing back which she had — money, comfort, is from H. P. Blavatsky and from those who health, time, reputation. She tells you that so followed after her in the work first given to her was it also with her fellow-worker H. S. Olcott. by the Masters and shortly afterwards entrusted She tells you that so was it with Annie Besant and jointly to her and to H. S. Olcott. It is indeed C. W. Leadbeater. She tells you that so it is also their constant message, and specially emphasized with many, many humble members of the Society today — the beginning of a new year for the who give of their best and tremble lest their gift Society. become known. She tells you that it is such as H.