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February 1962 to March 1962

Pages 50-53 – The Theosophical Movement – February 1962 (pp. 154-157)

Money is neither good nor bad in itself. It is a disadvantage if wrongly used; also equally a disadvantage if used for good but personal purposes. It is an advantage Karmically for it enables a man to do much good. The highest aspect is of Trusteeship — all one has is held in trust for humanity and for Masters’ grand Work. Having renounced enjoy, says the Upanishad. The whole world is ours, so to speak. Good Karma is that which is pleasing to the Ishwara in man. It is not what we possess but what and how we do with it all that matters. How did Raja- develop? Rama was a king; Krishna ruled at Dwarka. This is a big subject and a fascinating one. If Karma brings you wealth it may prove highly advantageous if you use it Theosophically; then it will be a blessing you have earned. But, if immorally used, it proves a curse.

In all these problems the philosophical formula is this: Is the personality acting for itself, or by itself? If so, then Karma is bound to prove disadvantageous. If the personality is being worked through, if it is an avenue for the Inner Ruler, a channel for the Manasic Ego, then the personality itself is the highest blessing. What is the personality of a Master, a Mahatma, a Nirmanakaya? So, to be born in ease and comfort is not bad Karma: use it well and wisely, i.e., Theosophically, and it becomes most advantageous Karma.

As for money and Jesus’ statement [“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God”]: Yes, it was difficult for the rich young man to give up the sense of possession and follow him. ‘‘He had great possessions.” Our attitude to money is Kamic, or Kama-Manasic, or Manasic, or Buddhi-Manasic. There are students who think of their own comfort in the present and their own security in the future, and give of money what can be conveniently spared. The Cause comes third or fourth. We are asked to place “Theosophy first” in time, money and labour or work. Altruism is a mental feeling understood by many but not always a heart-energization.

Our own dharma in reference to all possessions, including money, is their appropriate use as trustees. We should be careful about what we spend and how. One has to be cautious about giving out knowledge, pouring out affection, or spending money — all these are the Soul’s possessions which, under Karma, at this period of time, are in one’s hands. Are we to give knowledge with a view to playing the guru, or give love for self-satisfaction and look for a return, or spend money for sense-gratification or donate it for self-glorification? Adversity and poverty are one extreme; at the other is the spendthrift who is as wrong as the miser and as unfortunate as the pauper. Crass ignorance is not a blessing, a cold heart is a curse; monetary poverty often breeds vice. In this as in all else —the Golden Mean. What Light on the Path lays down about possessions is the right method. The inner attitude to our possessions and to their use is the main thing. Take Gandhiji’s view about travelling in the third class. He did this with a noble motive — to identify himself with the poverty-stricken masses; to gain experience of the poor traveller’s discomforts. The change has come about because of his agitation, not only because he travelled in the third class.

Are Masters of Life and of Nature exploiters? Of course not. But are They paupers in the face of bountiful Nature? Or do They use it with right knowledge and right motive in the service of all? Yet They will not pour out Their Wisdom and are secretive! They will not practise compassion in the face of Karma! They have sources of gold and silver and wealth and yet will not bestow gifts on the starving or heal the unfortunate person stricken with leprosy! I have written at some length because I would like you to study this point. Again, at our stage of evolution we have to consider the learning of the lesson. How are Raja-Rishis made? How did the Divine Rulers of old act? Masters are Amirs and Fakirs. Earning of livelihood or living on charity or by inheritance are all acts of Karma. We encounter them as effects and grow wise by looking into the causal side with a view to getting the right remedy. Vairagya without Viveka proves dangerous.

Of course indulgence is wrong, i.e., personal self-indulgence. But what about Indulgence in and about the Great Self? Can a Nirmanakaya be without Self “capture” and centring his “body” in himself? To struggle against the impermanent and the transitory is our duty, and to all three — knowledge, love and money — there are maya and mortality attached. But what about Immortal, Ageless Wisdom? What about Compassion Absolute? What about the never-diminishing and ever-renewing wealth of Nature and of the Lords of Nature? Light and the shadows cast are the real and the unreal.

Our interest in our possessions is personal or Egoic and, philosophically, our involvement in and with them personally strengthens it. In modern civilization the limitations of the personal are not recognized; therefore the use of the possessions remains personal. You return to soul-knowledge and soul-application. The Middle Path in the use of possessions is difficult. What to give the body for food, dress, etc.— there is the middle path. What to give of knowledge on the personal path? Thrift, frugality, etc., are all to be of the Middle Path. To be thought-full about all and every possession as an Antahkaranic being is the objective. How we shall use, under any given circumstance, our possession depends upon our philosophy. Poverty begets many vices and yet Lady Poverty represents a power, a shakti. To be the owner of many things with which to pamper the personality is wrong; to use them from the ordinary point of view is less wrong; but the correct way is to use them as an Ego. Do I eat for the sake of the Ego or do I eat for the sake of the palate, i.e., for the sake of the personality? Most people do not know about trusteeship. Even when they hear about the idea they do not understand; those who are intelligent enough to understand it do not apply it. So you see, we return to study and application. Our faith our love, our power to trust are valuable possessions. How do we use them?

The high ideal of Trusteeship has its own complexities. In this as in all else we have ideals and aspirations, and on the other hand actions and realization of our hopes and inner ideals. Between the inner and the outer we ever and always find a big gulf and the bridging of the gulf spells application. Charity out of the treasury, if it is to be real, should be complete. Only Adepts rich in wealth physical and not only mental and moral can say, I am an Amir and I am a Fakir. At our different stages of evolution we are bifurcated. Further, Adepts have knowledge which They will not give us out of consideration for us. The same is true about money. Reread Judge’s “Advantages and Disadvantages in Life” in Vernal Blooms — there, it seems to me, are right principles. The Golden Mean in all things sustains our discrimination and dispassion. To sustain, Vishnu-like, and at the same time to renovate, Shiva-like, is a most difficult task.

Serving through earning is a fundamental teaching in the esoteric philosophy which is highly practical. The basic as well as the central idea is — whatever the avenue through which the money comes, what does one do with it? Even in the Sangha of the Buddha money was accepted — a great gift from a courtesan. The Buddha’s concern was what to do with the gift. He brought the courtesan round afterwards. People want to make money, but for what? Those who make money and do not think of Theosophy are not students of Theosophy though they may call themselves such. But, on our side, we have to make allowances for the foibles and frailties of human nature. Animal-man cannot become human because he reads or even understands Theosophy; transmutation of the animal into the human implies application. The trusteeship idea, though preached by Gandhiji, has been regarded as a platitude. The application aspect has not at all been considered. Pioneering work remains to be done. Students of Theosophy should become pioneers.

What all of us should remember is that an. unnecessary change of location or profession or position is not wise. Mere gain of money, uncertain at that, is never a safe guide for us. The lure of money is a great power of delusion, which is the worst form of illusion, for we cast it on ourselves. Now that you are gaining inner equipoise and strength, better for you to make up your mind to hold your job steadfastly; in your own life practice thrift, frugality, and save some money for the Work, for you may be suddenly called upon to shoulder a burden. Money is a resourceful weapon in the hand of the true Theosophist and we are trustees of our own earnings. To spend them wisely and well is our dharma. Spend every day some time, not only in study, but also in self-examination. Thus application of what we study becomes possible. You have gone forward very well indeed and I am pleased at your zeal, earnestness, as well as effort. Keep it up; sustain it with thought and feeling; cultivate the habit of inner rest, true repose, and memorize the spiritual experiences acquired through pain, error, suffering.

Pages 54-55 – The Theosophical Movement – March 1962 (pp. 195-196)

As to India and spirituality: It may have been comparatively easier for the Asiatic to get at and apply spiritual verities, but Asia is hardly Asia. It has become Europeanized. You see, we have to take into account three Indias — the physical and geographical, the psychic, and the third, moral or spiritual. Religious India (Hindu, Muslim, Parsi or Jewish) is psychic and so sectarian, contrary to Universal Brotherhood. The root of separative creeds is spoken of in S.D., Vol. II, as Black Magic. Note what is said: “Results proceeding from erroneous but sincere beliefs.” Now there is a spiritual India — very, very difficult to touch. You need quietly to ponder over the distinction between religion and spirituality, between the good in man and the spiritual in him.

Indian civilization is said to endure because the old seeds of Wisdom still live in India’s astral atmosphere. A few fragments exist. The ideal of soul life persists as a real thing.

Indian civilization forces, like a great family tradition, endure when Indian people or the present-day descendants have become unworthy. Who sustain the Vedic and the Avesta culture? Who popularize Sufi teachings? The few minds and hearts of the West. Sanskrit got nearly drowned till the phonetics and grammar search of the Sanskritists revived it. What is true of words is equally true of ideas. A person if he happens to be a real Indian is more capable of osmosing Theosophy, but how many are cosmopolitan Indians, not afflicted with caste, etc.?

India is bound to rise when the nadir point is reached, and that will be soon. Only H.P.B.’s Theosophy and the work of Judge would have spared India the saddening experience of Western vulgarization. But Hindu orthodoxy and Adyar Neo-theosophy made India lose her opportunities.

Our India is going West, in more than one sense. Gandhiji and his philosophy are not the guiding powers at New Delhi. India’s Karma as the Mother-Root of this Fifth Root-Race is strong but most peculiar. Whether America will dominate her or she succeed in inspiring the West that is the question. It remains to be seen. Our masses as also our youths and children are wrongly taught. Not the best of the West but the worst is copied; of the ancient native lore there is the shell of superstition and falsities and no soul. Our Aryan culture survives in this sense: the innate ideas of the old Philosophy live at least as germs belief in Reincarnation and Karma and therefore in soul and another world along more rational lines than in the Occident still prevails. We have to work to keep these divine intuitions alive in the masses and not only in the classes. For this purpose India needs a class of student servers and that particular mission our U.L.T. Movement must fulfil.

India is copying the West— the ugly and not the noble and beautiful West. India has to be served, not because we have been born on its soil but because it is “the Motherland of my Master” as H.P.B. put it, and there is more to the words than ordinarily appears.

No doubt the condition of the country since freedom has been attained has gradually deteriorated. In one way it is natural. All slaves who suddenly attain freedom go wild for a time. That is happening with us who have experienced slavery for a couple of centuries, and now think that we are free. As a matter of fact we have less freedom today than we had under the British. Efficiency of Government has deteriorated and the moral principles of the people have been cast to the winds. but all the same we are making headway. We are also paying for the breach of faith that people in great numbers evinced even during the lifetime of Gandhiji. They took his philosophy as an expedient to gain freedom, though he warned them that the freedom gained that way would not be real freedom. That also we have seen. But I repeat, for all that the country is making headway.

Do not allow yourself to be dejected by all that you see around you of corruption, selfishness and inefficiency. They are the karmic outcome for people who for years and years have spoken of themselves as followers of Gandhiji and have preached his doctrines without making any application of them to themselves. Even now many of them continually preach Gandhiji’s doctrines while in their own lives they not only do not practise his ideas but actually go in a contrary direction. This is bound to produce for the country dire and calamitous results. It is at such times that our Theosophy shows its great power to help us to go on with our own effort at study, application and promulgation. Mr. Judge has given for us his message — “hold grimly on.” The country has drifted into this chaotic condition, but it is only a passing phase and presently the balance will be reached. It is very clear from what is happening that it is not going to be a condition of truth and non-violence that Gandhiji imaged, but it is also not going to be a country of black-markets and exploitation. It will have to find its own balance if the important problems facing it are to be on their way to solution.