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July 1962 to October 1962

Pages 63-64 – The Theosophical Movement – July 1962 (pp. 355-356)

To “practise the Paramita Path,” says the Voice, “means to become a Yogi, with a view of becoming an ascetic.” To become a Yogi is to be united in and through love. Now how and where does this begin? It begins where we stand and are. We have love and charity — it is animal love and charity which have become human love and charity; but there are selfishness and crudities, lust and the passion to possess. Don’t you think that vast numbers of men and women of today are at this stage? How can they begin to walk consciously and deliberately the Paramita Path? We have to take hold of our love and charity. So that Path begins with Vairagya-Detachment, Dispassion, Desirelessness. Herein is asceticism. It is triple — of mind, psyche and sensorium. False asceticism tries to be without affection instead of without attachment, which is true asceticism. To love those we like may prove a hindrance unless we enlarge as well as deepen our love on the plane of Vairagya-Detachment. Not to love those we dislike is not to forgive and again we do not practise Vairagya. Therefore this middle Paramita must be unfolded subjectively first, within one’s own soul. This builds Antahkarana, for mind becomes detached from aversions and attractions, dislikes and also likes.

The Yogi is united; the ascetic indicates his mode of unity — e.g., how to be united to vessels of dishonour? How not to shudder to touch evil? etc. So union, partial and will-full, with the good, the noble, etc., is the beginning. Then expansion begins; what can be excluded from the good and the noble? What is evil and what is ignoble? It is not only seeing “a world in a grain of sand,” i.e.,Wisdom; it is also seeing good in things evil. Equal-mindedness is Dhyanic, but is not the Dhyana Paramita. What terrifies Arjuna when he sees in the Universal Form details ugly, ignoble, wicked? The absence of the full perception of Shila. Therefore the immediately succeeding lesson is the 12^th chapter — the pairs of opposites. Read the closing portion.

A real Yogi — a united one — is of course an altruist. One cannot, in verity, exercise Divine Virtues without a prior living to benefit mankind.

The seven Divine Virtues are the stuff of which Masters’ Personalities are made. Their great Detachment, Their profound Seclusion, Their grand Compassion (the mother of the seven Para-mitas) all point to Vairagya. Men say: “Why do not the Masters do something? Why do They permit inequalities? etc.” Well, They are Divine Vairagis.

The Ten Transcendental Paramitas include the three corresponding to the three planes beyond the seven principles; see the diagram on p. 200 of the S.D., Vol. I, and read what is said about the three higher planes beyond the Planetary Chain. Man in the Earth Chain is a seven-principled being, but in reality he has to become a perfect number 10. The Three Hypostases of the First Fundamental are the metaphysical aspects of the three higher or Transcendental Paramitas.

The Paramitas are human, universal and divine — personal morality, egoic morality and Monadic morality. Consider this; herein is practical occultism.

Crosbie’s classification of the Paramitas [The Friendly Philosopher, pp. 80-81] is a modified form of the fourfold discipline: (1) Viveka, (2) Vairagya, (3) the six qualities (Dama, Sama; Uparati, Titiksha; Shraddha, Samadhan) and (4) Mumukshuta. The six glorious virtues are the Voice Paramitas. The Six and the Ten Paramitas are exoteric, and if my memory serves me right you will find them in Suddharma Pundarika. The seven Paramitas of the Voice with their Mother, Compassion, spring from the Esoteric Philosophy.

Pages 65-66 – The Theosophical Movement – August 1962 (pp. 394-395)

Today, the calendar reminds me, is a new lunar month in which Krishna took shape some 5,000 years ago. How illusory is time, for the Self in us, the Divine Krishna, is near and dear and here — close! It is in your heart and head and hands. It sees through your eyes and speaks through your lips. And Krishna, the one and the same, is what I am trying to find and to hold in my own consciousness.

The manifested human form of Krishna is the form of his incarnation as Krishna. He has his Universal Form. The former shines with his Vibhutis, his Divine Excellences, as given in the 10th discourse. The Universal Form is the Vishiva Rupa of the 11^th chapter. The first is visible but is not understood unless the Vibhutis are understood; e.g., his blue-black form is due to certain of his Vibhutis, and so on. The Universal Form is not visible unless the divine eye is opened by one’s own effort, or, as Krishna did for his devoted chela Arjuna, as a “gift”— of course deserved.

The form of Krishna represents the unity aspect of Spirit manifesting in the diversity aspect of Matter. How do the Vibhutis manifest or express themselves? Through what kind of matter? What does the formless Universal Form mean and signify? What is the “Word made flesh”? Think along this line.

As to the keys for understanding the Gita. We use the psychological key most of the time, for in living the life it proves most useful. But there is the historical or socio-political key; and there is the cosmic key. Tilak’s Arctic Home in the Vedas refers to it, I think. Also the Glossary speaks about the Dance of the Gopis as related to the signs and the belt of the Zodiac. Look up also Judge’s article on “Two Lost Keys: The Bhagavad-Gita — The Zodiac.” It seems to me, however, that for us the psychological key has a fascination and also a practicality.

The classification of Krishna’s nature in the seventh chapter of the Gita is somewhat unique — exoteric and esoteric. As a matter of fact, without H.P.B.’s esoteric wisdom it would sound like abracadabra. The 13^th chapter makes it clearer and also the triple division of the 15th. The lower nature of Krishna corresponds to the lowest line of human evolution; His higher to the second; and Himself as the third. (See S.D., I. 181.) But do not overlook that this passage in the S.D. deals with human evolution. Metaphysically, the lower nature is a manifestation of Mulaprakriti, the higher, of Daiviprakriti or Fohat and the third, of the Logos or Verbum.

Let me try to put for your consideration something of the lower nature of Krishna. First, the source of the lower nature is Mulaprakriti, via the three gunas. Now, the physical body, the astral body, Prana, Kama and Lower Manas form the lower man in our Theosophical classification. But Kama and Manas are now a joint unit. We have Higher Manas, Lower Manas, Kama-Manas. At present we have Higher Manas overbrooding the personality and, because its agent, the Lower Manas, has been enslaved by Kama, the Higher can do little, if anything. Now note — the Manas, Buddhi and Ahankara of the Gita are not our Manas or our Buddhi; the last, Ahankara, is the “I”-making power. In the personality it represents or corresponds to Atma. Buddhi is not our sixth principle; it is the Buddhi of the Gita which is either tamasic, rajasic or sattvic. Manas is mind dominated by Kama; Kama enlivens Prana which energizes the astral body, which in its turn guides and moulds the gross body. So Manas, Buddhi and Ahankara form the higher aspect of the lower nature of—- Krishna. Earth, water, air, fire, light, build the body. Fire gives heat and one kind of light; Akasha gives another kind of light. When Manas by the power of will frees itself from Kama, that Manas becomes Antahkarana. So we have Kama-Manas, then Kama controlled by the Internal Organ, Antahkarana; and it goes with the aid of Akasha towards the Monad. It is the bridge. Antahkarana is made of four constituents — Manas, Chit, Buddhi, Ahankara. Chit is the power in and of Manas which can secure the discerning power of Buddhi and the will power of Ahankara and become the Personal Centre of Krishna, which can join itself with the Higher Nature — the Atma-Buddhi-Manas Monad which is Daiviprakriti or Fohat. We cannot put in parallel columns our Theosophical principles and the eightfold constituents given in the Gita. The lower nature is personal; the higher nature is the Individual, and the Monad is Krishna. The lower Ahankara is “I am Mr. So-and-so”; the individual Ahankara is “I am I”; the spiritual Ahankara is “I Am.” See S.D., I, 335 fn.

Krishna stands metaphysically for the Ego made one with Atma-Buddhi, and performs mystically the same function as the Christos of the Gnostics, both being “the inner god in the temple” — man. —H. P. Blavatsky.

Pages 67-68 – The Theosophical Movement – September 1962 (pp. 434-435)

Today must bring its Karma through and by which we live and learn to love and teach; so let us be thankful to the Blessed Law’. Its infallible, impersonal attentiveness to remove crookedness and restore harmony is a mighty lesson for all of us. People pray to some personal god while they should make a right appeal in the right way to this all-seeing, all-attentive Law which is not blind but is Supreme Intelligence itself.

The New Year is in and what will it bring? Whatever comes will be for the best, for we shall make or mar it. The Master is Atman and also Karma, Judge says. He adds that the Master is in every phase of our changing days and years. If we use the power to fight and to wage war against weaknesses and also unfold by the use of the power to grow, we can say that our merits and demerits from the past are provided as Karma by the Master. It is the highest view of Karma and the Gita teaches it in the last chapter. It is difficult to comprehend that our dislikes and hates, our wrong tendencies of Karma, are “gifts” from the Master, but a feeling is growing in and with me that that is so. Are we sincere and consistent fighters? That is the big question. What determines that sincerity and constant and consistent fighting? Memory — it seems to me. Remembering to fight is more than half the battle. “Haply to remember and haply to forget” will not do. We must remember and remember and again remember. Remembering to fight sets us seeking the how of the fighting — seeking knowledge.

Our Karma, i.e., the Karma of every devoted disciple, is a gift from the gracious Guru. “The Guru is Karma,” says Judge. What does he imply? When a devotee surrenders himself to the service of his Master, he surrenders his Karma — the whole assemblage of it from the past. In each incarnation we ordinarily bring with us so much of Karma. When a devotee surrenders himself, the apportioning of Karma is, so to speak, looked after by his Guru. Whatever comes is right — “just what you in fact desired,” says Judge. Through each Karma we learn; even the evil Karma turns to brightness through our suffering or what not.

Every earnest devotee has to train himself in the art of using Karma. Not to chafe but to fulfil; not to indulge in self-pity but to maintain a cheerful attitude to pains and ills; this implies and entails the cultivation of several Paramitas. To forget is a more difficult undertaking than to forgive. Memory has to be trained to remember to live the truths, to apply the teachings. We forget to remember. On the other hand, how absurd and ludicrous even are the bits of memory which spring up and impinge upon us! The causal power, it seems to me, is the Great Remembrance that the Master is Karma. The constancy in the Presence of the Guru in every hour, as we breathe, has to be remembered. Half our difficulties will be over if this is not forgotten, but remembered. It is also the test of our devotion to the Master. “Put no one out of your heart” is of profound significance. Where we are weak is in the mental remembrance and in the silent repetition of sacred texts. This implies ideation. Your practice will increase and expand if it proceeds from the depth of the Thinker in the body. Feeling love as an abstraction for all and everyone cannot precede love for soul-companions in a concrete way.

I am sorry to note that you find the place uncongenial, but the very fact that Karma has brought you to this particular type of environment means that it is an opportunity. Mr. Judge once wrote to a person who was not given to doing business, that he should mortify himself and learn because presently he would find himself in a situation where Theosophical office work would need his capabilities. Everything can be turned to use if you have the right attitude to your existing environment.

If we take what Karma brings with the right kind of Resignation, and work with the Law. every event will become an opportunity. If circumstances have worked to take you to the South, you might be able to do something there. Wherever a devotee is, there a Theosophical Centre verily is. If you read at this juncture W.Q. Judge’s article “Each Member a Centre.” you will find inspiration if you make it applicable to yourself.

You need not worry about the uncongenial atmosphere in which you find yourself because in reality once we understand Theosophy, there is no such place. I understand what you mean. — is a big city and you are doing an important piece of work though it is also the earning of your livelihood; but H.P.B. has written in the First of her Five Messages that each one, if he orients himself in the right way in spiritual matters, can draw to himself those whom he can benefit. Mr. Judge has also written that each member is a centre of light and life and should become so by self-examination and assuming a firm position in regard to life. You know enough of Theosophy in order to have a clear perception that by studying the great philosophy and working on yourself you will be able to derive more than mere sustenance. You will be able to secure from the philosophy the strength to help others through correspondence and conversation.

The Good Law provides for everything if we work with it. All our progress depends on the extent we work with the Law. We learn Patience and Resignation of the right kind and become possessors of ingenuity learning to turn forces of obstacles and evil into experiences and good.

Pages 69-71 – The Theosophical Movement – October 1962 (pp. 471-473)

Masters have said that They cannot interfere with the Karma of even Their chelas. Their purpose and method are to “help Nature and work on with her.” They will “interfere” or act only when the All and the Whole is benefited. They cannot help individuals or even nations and races at the cost of others, be they individuals or nations. What then is implied in the idea of “taking upon oneself the Karma of others”? Take H.P.B.’s case: she was asked and she consented to take upon herself the burden of others’ Karma. Now, all beings, small and great, make Karma (Aphorism 1): but, further, each also may become the “agent” of Karma for those makers of Karma. So H.P.B. could take up the Karma of the entire humanity, but in doing whatever she had to do she had to encounter those “agents” — in her case, special individuals like Judge, Damodar, Olcott, Mrs. Besant, Sinnett, etc., and also groups like the Theosophical Society which she created. (As she said, she was the Society’s mother and her magnetic fluid circulated in it.) Outside the T.S. and the Theosophical Movement she had other work and other agents of Karma. Of course this does not include her own family or national Karma; that she had to deal with independently, so to speak. We are all learning to be Universal Beings, aspiring to serve Humanity without any distinctions. New our “universe” is small, but the same principles are at work. Every accredited chela gets his share in learning to take upon himself the Karma of others. Theosophical students make a jump and a short cut, so to say, from personal Karma to universal Karma, taking in their stride family, community, national and race Karma. There is the factor of self-surrender and Self-surrender also involved.

Karma is a difficult topic. Metaphysically speaking, Natural Impulse Karma or Fohatic Will expression is primary and basic; then, man’s self-induced ways make his own Will Karma. A higher phase of that Will-full Karma is what you are looking into when you refer to H.P.B.’s having made herself a scapegoat for the Kali Yuga. The essay on “Karma” in Light on the Path has seme implications of it. Of course there is the melting pot of Karma and there is not your Karma and mine, but one Karma. How it all functions, works out, rewards and punishes — that remains a puzzle and a mystery. It may not be soluble by us at present, but some day—!

We know our Karma very definitely from the effect side: whether I am well or ill; what my character is; why my knowledge is what it is, limited or otherwise, and so on. These are effects and people always seek causes and give answers — God, heredity, the stars, etc. The cause in every case is ourselves — our Karma, i.e., action. Therefore from the effect side I know my Karma. We get into a wrong line of thought when in the present life, we meet agents of Karma through whom we fulfil Karma and pay our debts. That these are our agents of Karma there is no doubt. But there is unexpended Karma and there are other agents. Also in collective life half-a-dozen agents may be used for our effect-experience. The mystery of individual Karma as a part and an aspect of collective Karma is again the philosophic problem of the One in the many. People ask why they suffer, but accept wrong answers in nine cases out of ten. Even our students seeking full understanding through partial knowledge look in the wrong direction. Making applications to our own self in the field of Karma — that is indeed a difficult thing.

We repeat our errors. Even knowing the cause will not enable us to banish the error; a remedy has to be found. Take a very simple case a headache; you may trace it to wrong eating as cause, but to remove the headache you have to take a pill! But that does not tell you why this food gives you a headache and this pill removes it. To go through an experience is one thing; to learn the lesson thereof, another. You have to trace the causal weakness; not what kind of food causes headache or indigestion but how and why. Otherwise we shall be lost in the process of links. Mind-feelings or feeling-thoughts are the root and we have to set that right; one cause will remove several ill effects. That is where corporate Karma comes in. No, we do not learn from every Karma and we will not till we learn the remedy side of Karma — to stand up and fight the Great War. There is one Right Way for everything: patience, resignation and action based on and after study of the Sacred Science. You see, we cut across mundane webs to a Celestial Force.

About counteracting Karma and three lives [Aphorism on Karma. No. 26], as I understand it: though there are always agents of Karma (that is, others) we make Karma and feel its effects. But when the time comes and we feel within ourselves that a deliberate effort should be made to pay off Karma, we naturally turn to the inner environment of mind and heart, look at our weaknesses and powers and, with the aid of will, knowledge and aspirations, work; we succeed though the period of three lives witnesses the death of what we have been working at. Is there not fulfilment of past Karma by what and how we act now?

As to the effort made by man to overcome his Karma and obliterate the impressions of the past: We have a very important Aphorism given in U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 21. Please see Aphorism N°27, where we are told that measures can be taken by an ego to repress tendency, eliminate defects and to counteract by setting up opposite causes, thus weakening past Karma and transmuting it into real Karmic stamina for the benefit of the ego. Please also consult Aphorism N°13. We never create a new force without the basis of an old impression, good or bad. Just as our new knowledge is but an extension of old knowledge, so also our new impressions are an extension of old impressions, whether they be Kamic or Buddhic. The transfer from the Kamic to the Buddhic impressions occurs because knowledge is acquired through study, and application is made of that knowledge. Our old impressions can be turned into good forces by the help of knowledge.

Karma always offers opportunities for eager longings; your wish will be fulfilled if your heart yearns that way.

National Karma is like personal Karma — we succumb or we overcome. A nation is composed of persons, individuals, i.e., two classes: those who live and act as personalities, and others as Individualities. The former are guided by the fate aspect of the Law; the latter are guided by knowledge which teaches the meaning and mystery of Free Will — the Will to be freed. This freeing of the Will is gradual. More and more we must act with responsibility by self-induction, by self-devised ways and means, and when our Karma checks us, find out how to checkmate the move of Karma.