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October 1964 to December 1964

Pages 134-135 – The Theosophical Movement – October 1964 (pp. 473-474)

It is, in this curve of the Great Cycle of Necessity, necessary to understand that we as souls learn through bodies of both types — male and female. Sex does not inhere in spirit but its roots are in the psychic nature. Judge’s Letters and if I am not mistaken Gita Notes contain several points. Before man rebecomes a one-sexed being he will progress through what is called the hermaphrodite stage; not homosexuality but a proper and proportionate development of the Buddhi (Hermes) and Manas (Aphrodite). In the fifth sub-race of the Third Root Race separation of the sexes took place and what begins must end; S.D., Vol. II, especially, explains when and how. In every incarnation sex of the body is determined by certain psychic tendencies inhering in us and our personal development demands and Nature responds by building a male or a female form for us.

The problem of the origin and development of the two sexes is connected with the sin of the mindless. It is an obscured study inasmuch as only hints are given, and these few in number. Dignity and purity of sex life will take us, one by one, to the plane where reverence for the opposite sex (and not only attraction) will be born. One hint — between the prevailing and growing homosexuality and the development of the hermaphrodite the difference is as between black and white magic.

Please remember that there are affinities and affinities. For one like you there cannot be an ordinary kind of marriage without spiritual affinity, for otherwise you will find your inner life made a hundredfold more difficult. Love also is of two kinds, represented by the blind Cupid and the all-seeing Eros. So my advice to you would be: Hold on to Theosophy; live the life as best you see it at the moment, and let Karma decide. Do not force the issue, and please remember that there is always time for consideration and reflection before any decision is taken.

It is perfectly proper that when a suitable mate is found a man should marry and settle down as a householder, bringing up a family with right views and high purposes. But decide nothing hastily. Brahmacharya, the way of true celibacy, is not for all. It is in some ways and at a certain stage superior to, but much more difficult than; the Grihastha way, or the householder’s life described by Mr. Judge in his article “Living the Higher Life” (U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 34). But remember also this: there are marriages, and marriages. The ideal of the householder is high and sacred, and some of its esoteric aspects are brought out in this pamphlet, which you will do well to read carefully. You speak of killing out the desire for sexual gratification. It is possible to do this, not by a single effort which tries to kill and to unroot in a moment, but by gradual training in self-control, making the lower nature yield to the higher and training it day by day until it is absolutely subject to the will. When the animal instincts are simply suppressed or crushed out, man is in a very different condition from that in which these same gross elements are refined, elevated, purified and preserved. Of course you can develop before marriage that right attitude to sex by dwelling on the idea that the creative power in man is a divine gift and we abuse that power and desecrate that gift when we use it merely for animal gratification. That selfishness is the real root of unhappy marriages or marriages which are failures, and that the association of man and woman when really inspired by altruism is a very different thing indeed, lying as it does at the very foundation of every happy home, is not generally admitted because such relations are seldom seen.

Brahmacharya is truly service of Brahma. Conservation of energy, of time, of speech, of thought, feeling, etc., is related to it. This is a most difficult topic. Conservation of Prana rooted in and emanating from Jiva on different planes of being, is involved in the process of Brahmacharya. Not only the body but our other constituents also have their own seminal principle. That creative power has to be conserved and then concentrated, only after which true creative acts by body, mind or heart should take place.

We cannot let this confusion in the mind of the questioner pass about marriage in the East and marriage in the West. Marriage in the East is no more predestined than marriage in the West. And marriage in the West is not all free choice and free will without the basis of Karma. Go away for the moment from the question of marriage and please note that a man cannot exert his free will save and except by the recognition of his weakness as well as his merit. It is custom and not nature’s law which functions both in the East and in the West. Marriage in the East is not regarded in the real sense as predestined. We have our affinities and there are affinities now in existence with those we contact. These affinities may work out as in the Western world through what is called free will, but there are other circumstances which surround that free will. Here in India also though horoscopes are consulted there are innumerable factors which-go into the determination of the marriage question. The whole problem needs to be looked at Theosophically, for in both ways that are called Eastern and Western there are grave defects which make marriage a lottery, as H.P.B. puts it. It is well to draw the questioner’s attention to what is said by her in the Key, as also to the pamphlet “Living the Higher Life.”

Pages 136-137 – The Theosophical Movement – November 1964 (pp. 38-39)

Thank you for your letter which I have read with close interest and sympathy for your continued pain and weakness. The ways of our Karma are always hard to follow with our lower minds and feelings, for the bodily elementals which suffer pain and enjoy pleasure seem to interfere with our highest wishes for the Work and our deepest feelings of helpfulness. Yet we know that nothing does happen without a cause and even the pain has its message of freedom from the past through fulfilment in the present. All I can say to comfort you is: Keep on like the brave soul you are, shouldering your heavy burden with complete faith and trust in those Great-Souled and Compassionate Ones to whom we are devoted and who will give us all that is possible. While you are so weak try to relax your mind and let the assimilation of our great philosophy which you have studied in past years play its beneficent role on your personal consciousness. So, while great and beneficent Karma keeps you in the body you still are a comfort to those around you, and however little you are able to do, you are still a “witness” on this earth.

As for the future and the present pain and weariness, my dear friend, place your will in the hands of the great Will and surrender and trust, with your thought on the Work which is our Work from the past to the future, for all times. And look forward to your next life and the re-­meeting with old friends. As age progresses more and more, comfort comes in remembering Mr. Judge’s first meeting with H.P.B. We all take on where we left off and in between we are in Masters’ keeping. I suffer for and with you and hope sincerely that the cause of your pain may be found and relief be given to you. But it is one of the difficulties of human life that we can never bear the pain of another. All we can do is to send you loving thoughts and strength and say again, try (though we know how difficult it is) to find a centre within your consciousness which can squeeze out of the pain the life-essence of freedom.

You have suffered great pain and no doubt there has been mental anguish; but, taken aright, every ache becomes a purifier and more — an uplifter. And so if you utilize the period aright you will emerge from your illness not only better in body but also stronger in soul. You must, however, guard against undue haste in coming out of your convalescence. Work will not gain from such haste, nor will your own inner unfoldment. You have but one duty at present — to get strong in body, to gain clearer mental perceptions. Nothing else matters, for nothing else is your duty. Give your body the chance it now so deserves. Having survived such ab­normalities it deserves compensation at your hands and you, the Ego, get a fine chance of acquiring a purchase on the new lives, the new Builders, who are now active. So try to maintain mental serenity, mental contentment. Do not give one minute to the notion that time is being wasted while you are taking it easy. Mental gentleness towards the brain and the body, especially the aching and injured parts and organs, is needed. Builders require their own time for construction and you cannot force their pace without irritating them, spoiling their work and delaying your complete recovery. Just think not about when you can get up, get out and get to work. Let the Builders take their time — it may look long to you — but in the end you yourself will be the gainer. What you may gain in speed now you will lose in permanency later; so be wise and remember the Self is the friend of the self and self can become its own enemy.

You are already through with an ordeal and it is very good that you were able to go through it in the right spirit. The coming period of convalescence will be more trying, especially if it is a little prolonged. Do not allow yourself to be tempted away from the course of prudence and hasten to do this and that after a few days. Take advantage of what has happened and give your neglected body a good chance to renovate itself. Driving the body is not wise as pampering it is not wise. All of us have to learn to make it our friend and there are opportunities which well taken cement friendship — of this type or any other kind. So take it easy. You will be doing it more naturally if you go on recalling the truth to your consciousness that during bodily ailments, when the corpus is at a low speed of functioning and when as a consequence the mind is freer from the knots of the brain than ordinarily, the Ego gets a better purchase on the entire bodily system; the quieting of the cerebrum makes the Ego’s work on and with the cerebellum a little more effective. So, your immediate duty is not to be impatient to get to work, but to relax and recuperate fully and thoroughly, thus avoiding any kind of compli­cation and any kind of relapse. If through this seemingly evil experience you will (and you can) develop inner calmness to balance your outer enthusiasm you will never regret the pain you have been undergoing. So, retain calmness, go slow in the matter of outer movements, hold fast and let Nature and Karma complete their cycle — these bring pain so that real healing may follow.

Pages 138-139 – The Theosophical Movement – December 1964 (pp. 82-83)

In silence, in study, in inner effort, much of nourishment to the Soul can be gained. The manifestations of the lower nature are many and they have to be controlled. For this, silence is needed. But silence has to be real. Merely abstaining from verbal activity is not real silence if sen­suous enjoyment and indulgence in fancy are going on within. Real silence is the controlling of the ebullitions of our mind and of the feelings of the lower psychic nature.

To be silent is not to become dumb; it means to speak (a) deliberately, (b) manasically, (c) composedly. We are not evolved enough to do so every day and hour by hour. Therefore, we have to learn the art of true speaking through the study of Nature which always speaks and sings. The Esoteric Philosophy insists that we remain silent and give Nature a chance to speak to us. There is a motive and a method in the practice of both silence and secrecy. Narada, the Deva-Muni, talks plenty! Secrecy and silence are faculties which can be wrongly used, but so can any faculty. Light on the Path has numerous valuable hints. We have to lose the power to wound; we have to acquire knowledge, for speech comes with knowledge. Expand your circle of friends, says Crosbie. How? By speech, of course, situated as we are. But what type of speech?

Think what an effort silence is for so many of our friends! Small talk, shop talk, deteriorates into base and worse talk. Secrecy covers a wider field, as outer environment is involved. We are not able to get away from our environment, but Karma opens the door when we are ready or have made ourselves ready. The principle of that procedure is in Light on the Path — the seclusion of the Adept. As you labour per­sistently in this you will win your own seclusion.

There never has been in my mind any question as to whether to speak falsehood or truth; that issue is as clear as daylight. It is the speaking of unnecessary truth which might harm; to my mind an unnecessary truth is as wrong as what people call a necessary falsehood. As for the main issue — there can be no question on that at all and ever, but for the truly accurate a way always opens.

The less you talk about it, the easier you will find it to carry out your plans. Otherwise you will have from all and sundry a hundred questions of why, how and what. From the start keep to your discretion. It is none of other people’s business as to where you go and what you do or why it is done. All this is a good discipline for you in observing silence and secrecy.

Indulgence in phantasy may be due to wrong mental habits from the past and the elementals in the present, which implies influence of and from the Astral Light. Phantasy has numerous aspects. You have to take into account that Item of the Ten Items which deals with the Astral Light and its two aspects — the lower separative astral and the higher divine Akasha. As for the purification of the elementals and their handling, Judge has many wise things to say in his “Conversations” (see Vernal Blooms).

There is something useful in the Transactions about our two brains — cerebrum and cerebellum. As above, so below, and the very process of emanations reveals the Law of Correspondence. One has to keep the mind busy with useful and constructive work; thus we gain some con­centration and overcome the habit of fancy. Imagination is the image­ making faculty. There is. an important footnote in the S.D., Vol. II, p. 59, which points to the use of this faculty, and Judge’s article in Vernal Blooms (p. Ill) has some good things. Shall we say that false imagination is phantasy and right phantasy is imagination? It is what and why we image forth that counts.

The imagination and visualization faculty (the reverse of fancy and daydreaming) is the master-power. Will, thought, aspiration or higher feelings, are all involved. Works can be endowed with sacramental values and auras by Imagination. The doctrine of transubstantiation is not wholly inaccurate. The leaf, flower, fruit, of the ninth chapter of the Gita are but examples. They point to the fact that small trifles are usable; next, that by imagination such objects become holy, because our powers go into them — e.g., the flower of Karma which fades after giving the sense pleasure of fragrance and colour; there are flowers without scent; there are flowers with different scents, etc. Fragrance-aroma is the assimilation aspect of Karma. Similarly, a fruit is nourishment with its properties and tastes, curative or laxative; water is a purifier; and so on. Imagination is a power and we develop it harmoniously by this exercise. Attention and perseverance are also called for.