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July 1965 to September 1965

Pages 156-158 – The Theosophical Movement – July 1965 (pp. 387-389)

The Buddhas are full of Bliss and Enjoyment now and here because of Their Sacrifice and Service. Are we not called upon to learn the lesson of experiencing Ananda as we study and apply and promulgate? In the very attempt not to look for the fruits of our karmas do we not develop the inner attitude that whatever is, is best? And does that not produce inner contentment in the ultimate analysis? Extend that idea to Those who know what They have renounced and why and how. They are Healers and Helpers, Instructors and Inspirers of thousands, of mortals. Then, there is that state of which the Gita speaks — “My highest place.” Manvantaras and Pralayas do not disturb those who have reached that place.

I do not think that for Buddhas and Bodhisattvas there is Bliss mixed with suffering. The pity aspect of Compassion is devoid of suffering. A doctor may feel pity for his patient, but if he felt suffering he would not be able to prescribe or to perform an operation. Judge has written about this “Path of Woe.” Those who have chosen the Path of Liberation fall into incarnation “after an immensity of years”; they take up the thread of Evolution.

Of course the Blessed Ones feel, but not as we know feeling. It seems to me that it would be futile to try to fathom how or what They feel face to face with the darkness of evil and of ignorance. We cannot say that the “Exile” is as happy as if “at home”; but freedom from doubt and regret, sticking at the self-chosen post — these are joys in themselves.

In one state or another, the immortal Self, the Waters of Wisdom, and Those who know the Self of the Whole are alive, awake, labouring. You are bound to find, if you persevere, your own life flooded with the memory of Them. Memory and Meditation are a pair— we are always thinking one way or another (and when we are not vigilant we should bring the mind to Master), according to our thoughts, cogitations, speculations or by true repetition, and the last is the highest. May your ideation be always and ever of Them whose servant you aspire to become!

Impersonalizing our emotions does not mean doing away with affection. Devotion to Masters implies affection towards human beings. We cannot serve without loving those we serve. There is love between the Guru and the chela; also between each chela and his several co-disciples.

We are disciples of one Teacher in more than one sense and at more than one level. “The Master-Soul is one, Alaya, the Universal Soul.” That is the Logos — the Parent of the seven Dhyanis. Our own Triple Atma (see Voice, p. 21: “The three that dwell in glory and in bliss ineffable... ”) is the correspondence at the human psychological level. Secondly, “Fix thy soul’s gaze upon the star whose ray thou art” refers to the original Dhyani-Buddha from which or whom our Atma-Buddhic Monad, the Eternal Pilgrim, has emanated. When the Duad becomes a Triad at the time of the lighting up of Manas, a new factor emerges — that Triadic Monad’s kinship with the Kumara-Rishi who gives light. Finally, there is the Great Guru, the Mahatma difficult to find, who is a Chief and Instructor of the Great Lodge and Fraternity. H.P.B. is the Guru for us all, for the Lodge sent her, and in her message each one of us finds his own way or path. The Path is one, but each walks it differently in speed of concentration. I hope all this will prove useful.

The ties of the soul are: (1) to its own Higher Triad and through It to the Dhyani-Buddha to whom that Triad looks up as the “star”; (2) to the Master whom Karmic kinship of soul-spirit makes our Initiator in the unspoken Mysteries; He very often, almost always, belongs to the same Beam, Ray or School to which we in our Triadic higher aspect belong; (3) to our colleagues and companions who under Karma, past and present, are striving for perfection side by side on the plane of the personal. Such make our affinities which anon bless and anon damn, as Judge puts it. The Guruparampara chain extends from the Dhyani Buddha to our teacher-helper whom the Judge letter calls the “little guru.” You need to reflect upon this Guruparampara chain and see the chief and important links. Judge’s letter contains the clues. Then consider the footnote in the Voice about the Hall of Wisdom where alone we are asked to seek our Guru — the great Father. Read also S.D., Vol. I, pp. 567-578. Do not remain ignorant about the subject of chelaship. It is a very important subject for real practical evolution along the lines of the Third Fundamental.

What Judge has said about the Guru and the “little guru” taken by itself is a puzzle. But when the philosophical basis of Guruparampara is understood much of the difficulty vanishes. Idealizing a living personality, without understanding, is wrong. “Idealizing,” if based upon discernment and after checking up with the higher links of the chain as well as the teachings, and not on blind acceptance of everything said, is correct and beneficial. A safe test— does the “little guru” exploit the neophyte, interfere with his free will, order him about, tell him to sit down and get up, so to speak; or do there prevail love and trust which are mutual, brotherliness which is not sentimental and emotional but thoughtful, will-full and so on? Again, is it a steadily growing thing which aids the living of the spiritual life? Of course it is a matter which requires tact and discretion on the part of both the neophyte and his “little guru,” and also silence and secrecy, without which such a relationship will prove a disaster. In this relationship there is a test and a trying out of both parties; the pure in motive and in heart will have due protection as well as guidance. Increase your faith and trust when you find your own condition fulfilled: reliable, capable of helping and guiding.

It feels good and helps to know that there are a few who recognize one’s long efforts to hold grimly on and go forward with the Great Work. If one perseveres, one can feel Masters’ Eye watching and Hands protecting and guiding. Blessed be Their Names and Immortal Forms! One knows how very unworthy one has been and is and yet what a solace it is to repeat — “Ingratitude is not one of our vices”! Of course They help all who serve Them, for there are not many instruments at Their disposal and everyone who is earnest, sincere and devoted receives Their help. They look at these virtues and leave our vices and weaknesses to us to get over. Our study, effort and sacrifices for the Work enable us to overcome our defects in a great measure.

“The point of view from which we regard things determines the kind and quality of action. The keeping in mind that the Masters are not only Ideals, but Facts, and that all that H.P.B. and W.Q.J. have written about Them was for our help and encouragement in the struggles that must be ours, brings us closer to Them, and makes us strong with the power that flows from such reliance.” —Robert Crosbie.

Pages 159-161 – The Theosophical Movement – August 1965 (pp. 430-432)

We are asked in the Voice to look for our Guru in the Hall of Wisdom; in other words, in Sushupti. Read the paragraph which follows and note that there is something in us which is also in that Hall; we are called upon to blend the two. When your Higher Self and your Guru-Teacher, H.P.B., are constantly in your consciousness, when your body sleeps that consciousness, plunging into Sushupti, carries the work one step forward, without undesirable interference from the five senses and the organs, or from the desires and the feelings. It is the spiritual Heart, and that alone which can function in the Hall of Wisdom. If that does not function, we plunge into Sushupti and emerge rested and refreshed but not energized and enlightened. This Sushupti-preparation exercise is of vital importance. Of course the Master will appear when the disciple is ready — but how shall he become ready? The Master can be met only in the Hall of Wisdom; how to ascend to that Hall to see Him, to hear Him, has to be considered and preparation made.

First I will answer the questions which refer to the conception of the Guru — how anyone can know a real Guru from a false one. One of the favourite phrases of H.P.B. was: “By their fruit ye shall know them.” You cannot know the status and dignity of a teacher even on the physical plane save and except by the test of knowledge. How will a student of physics or mathematics know a true physicist or mathematician save and except by testing the knowledge that these teachers impart in their own subjects as against our own knowledge? So, through our own spiritual insight alone we are able to see the profundity of the spiritual nature of a real teacher. Apply this to no less a person than H.P.B. How can we know that H.P.B. was a real teacher? If we go by all that her colleagues as well as those who lived with her and worked with her say, we would very much bring her down, not only to the ordinary human level but perhaps to an extraordinary human level where she becomes a mixture of falsehood and truth, of fiction and genuine philosophy, etc. We have to proceed on the basis of the spiritual rule— from the teaching to the teacher.

In the early years, during the first 25-year cycle when the Masters were often visible, not only psychically but even physically, many, many people saw Them, but how could they judge of the real nature of a Master by looking at His physical body or seeing Him perform psychical and psychological phenomena? Can we know the knowledge of an ordinary fakir or juggler, whether he performs his tricks by merely physical means, as so many people do, or by psychological means, as a few fakirs and yogis perform? I will give you an example out of my own experience. Many years ago in Bombay, near the Rajabai Tower, I saw the performance of what is ordinarily called a rope trick. I actually saw with my own eyes a little boy climb up the rope and disappear in the air. Some people were so credulous that they fell at the feet of the juggler, who had no wisdom but who had the power of hypnotization — what is called mass hypnotization. Are we to judge this man as a wise man because he performed the phenomenon and collected money for it?

So now comes your proposition: How shall we know Them? There is only one way of knowing Them. By our own silent development. And how shall we develop ourselves? H.P.B. has shown the method directly and indirectly in The Voice of the Silence. She has indicated that we must contact the Master on the spiritual plane by rising to that level and not by dragging the Master down to our level. This level is really speaking Sushupti. When our consciousness is freed from the body and its senses and from the kamic nature which works even in the Swapna condition, we so to speak rise to a plane where our Monadic Triad functions in what is called the causal body by H.P.B., or Ananda-mayakosa in the Vedantic classification. Mr. Judge speaks of it as the ethereal vesture. We function there in Sushupti that way, but not being accustomed to the subtle vibrations of that state we naturally go to sleep and fall into subjectivity. All the same we begin to absorb whatever is there in that state of consciousness for us. Please turn to The Voice of the Silence and note that it is said that there abides in that hall something that is uncreate and it also abides in the disciple’s heart. And therefore there is a kind of a consubstantiality between the Hall of Wisdom and the person who rises to the plane of that Hall. Ordinary people return without any experience of any kind, but those who know of the Masters, who are aspiring to be chelas, become, by certain practices on the physical plane, more and more aware of the activities of that which is uncreate in the Sushupti level.

Two great ideas are known to be the most powerful awakeners of human consciousness in that Sushupti subjectivity. One is study and meditation on the nature and character of the Monadic Triad, Atma-Buddhi-Manas. Therefore study and meditation on this subject is an important link, but is not altogether sufficient. Our Higher Self is far away, and there are many links forged by various hierarchies of intelligences between our physical-plane consciousness and the consciousness of the spiritual Triad. The link which helps most is that of the real Teachers or Gurus. It is necessary for us to take note that a study of the nature and powers of the Masters is recommended both by H.P.B. and by Mr. Judge. This enables us once again to open a more intimate layer of our subjective consciousness in Sushupti. The Masters teach their chelas first in that spiritual state of consciousness. And for long years the chelas do not even remember what they are learning and assimilating, because on their return journey they are caught up once again in the swapna state, and finally in bodily sense-life. But as we continue to study and meditate on these two subjects we begin to build up a new centre of consciousness in ourselves at the back of the ordinary normal sense consciousness, and we bring the two centres of consciousness closer and closer by a repeated endeavour and by giving ourselves wholly up to a contemplation of these two subjects. This is the real reason for the practice of retiring which is recommended by so many spiritual teachers. In our civilization, physical retirement is neither recommended nor possible, but this inner retirement is possible and has to be undertaken by every earnest student who wants the light of guidance directly from the Masters. The teachings can take us so far and no further.

You also ask about the function of intuition in relation to the Masters. Intuition, as H.P.B. points out in the Glossary, comes to us directly in the Sushupti condition. She says, “Buddhi, the Spiritual Soul, is the direct cause of the Sushupti condition.” Sushupti is entirely subjective for most people because Buddhi is passive in them. Intuition or Buddhi has to be activated, says The Voice of the Silence in an important footnote. How? By the application of the principles of correspondence and analogy. That is one of the ways in which intuition on the subject of the Higher Self and the Masters has to be viewed.

People who rise to the higher planes, like Sushupti, have to take precautionary measures on the physical plane, otherwise there will be a confusion caused by the mixing up of two opposing planes. You cannot understand spiritual truths by the senses and brain which are full of personal ideas. Therefore it is necessary to take precautions. The purification of the brain and the senses is recognized in all systems of exercises for meditation. One sense after another has to be purified of its own peculiar kamic tint till the body loses its lower memory and is responding to the higher aspect of its memory.

Pages 162-164 – The Theosophical Movement – September 1965 (pp. 476-478)

The descent of Kali Yuga obscures and wipes out our spiritual memory. Judge has something very valuable to say about this in his Notes on the Bhagavad-Gita. Our inner Wisdom is obscured and, worse, even wiped out and we are apt to act as if we never cared for chelaship in the long past. Disciples of the same Master, in serving Him are creating, sustaining and strengthening the great bond between themselves ꟷ a bond only one remove in grandeur from the Mighty Bond between the chela and the Guru Himself. Keep this bond of the spiritual family in your consciousness.

Companionship and secrecy are the two ingredients of chelaship We all move together and are made to assimilate those we like and those we dislike, causing the growth of unselfishness and impersonality.

About preparatory work for Chelaship: it is like the matriculation examination; in one way, the most difficult, for it is preparatory for a change of venue; an entering into a new plane where one feels an awkward stranger. The fundamental inner principle is not grasped: outer habits and mundane ways are not to be handled first; unless the mind and the heart undergo a change, outer changes of diet or dress will not help. When people are trying to control speech they begin with their tongue and lips; the result really is a failure. Silence does not mean our becoming dumb. Mental silence is a preliminary necessity. The seeking by the lower self of the existence of the Higher, to study the nature and power of the latter, is the first step. Therefore Viraga becomes the first step.

In chela-life there is no “thus far and no farther.” Understand this metaphysically. Chelaship is a mental attitude to begin with. This attitude is that of the embodied soul which soon learns that the real embodying vehicle is not physical but astral. The idea to be impressed on the consciousness is that of the continuity of the discerning power in one state of that consciousness or in another. This continuity is a highly important factor; on it depends the life of and ultimate success in Chelaship.

Chelaship brings about as a necessary experience — despair. Is not that stage described as Vishad-Yoga, i.e., union with despondency? It is the place of experience from which Vairagya can be developed. Love for his tribe and hatred for the Kauravas had to be overcome by Arjuna. The survey of the armies has a significance. Therefore we must not be afraid of despair, but must learn to overcome it in the right way. The gospel of chelaship is the 12^th chapter — those pairs are meaningful.

Lesser mysticism corresponds to lay-chelaship; higher, to real chelaship. Aspiration, higher desire, is the beginning that we make, which means we deserved it under Karma. Next, we learn the qualifications, what is wanted and expected of us, and we must labour to deserve a real response. Take your own case; your aspirations constitute a first step in Their direction and They have promised: “Take one step in our direction and we will take one in yours.” Do you suppose They have not kept to that in your case? Reflect upon this in and with your heart. It is a big subject and a highly important one. Follow up your study with “Occultism and the Occult Arts.” But do not be frightened by the serious warnings. Go to Judge; constructive teachings are what he gives — telling us what to do. Do not drop this topic; pursue it patiently and confidently.

At every stage of evolution there is the principle cf “Nature unaided fails.” In the human kingdom, at critical times, we get help from the Lunar, and then from the Solar, Pitris. The human kingdom would not be what it is now but for the Teachings imparted and implanted in us, and if a cyclic effort were not made time and again. So also in chela-life. The chela is left alone and yet at the eleventh hour and fifty-ninth minute there is the gracious help. The Initiations into the Mysteries also show this. Unless we oppose and build a wall, consciously or unconsciously. They are ever ready to help. By correspondence, the same is true of our own inner being — the Ruler Immortal.

Do not fancy that the Guru feeds the chela with knowledge. He helps the chela to seek out knowledge, to take knowledge. If the chela goes wrong in his surmises and deductions, then the Guru by a hint or two adjusts the mind of the chela and enables him to resume his journey of the mind-heart. Tests and trials of chelaship exist. We err when we think that heat and cold are feelings in themselves; they are not. We feel them because we have bodies. Similarly joys and sorrows are felt and known because we have a feeling nature and a mind nature. The Master shows the way to come to that terrace where we separate ourselves from heat and cold, pleasure and pain, fame and ignominy. The first to be overcome is the last of the pairs. Heat-and-cold body-feeling is the last to go.

As to knocking at the door: to dare is one of the qualities required. Taking the kingdom of heaven by violence implies that chelaship is not for ready-made saints. Sinners are brought to repentance and ill minds are made whole. Of course humility has always to be there or one is done for. Chelaship extends through many lives. Seven years are mentioned, but that was in the old days when the Guru was physically near to run to. In this day and generation probation itself lasts, for more than one life.

There were others besides. Damodar and Judge who succeeded. But you are not correct in your deduction that in the early years discipleship was comparatively easier of attainment. The one and only difference is that in every century-cycle during the first 25 years Masters’ effort is open and talked about, and during the remaining 75 years privacy, secrecy and silence are more thorough and become so increasingly. They were then talked about and They worked through H.P.B. and other chelas more openly. But the very nature and technique of discipleship make it impossible for it to be relaxed. No one ever escaped probation; no one can escape it; but it is possible to be a probationer and the person not know it in his waking brain consciousness; e.g., a person may have become a probationary chela in one life and have made good progress; he goes to Devachan or even returns immediately to a new body; in the measure of his progress he continues his probationary life in that new body and brain. So it is well to remember that the woes and ways of chelaship are many and varied.

As to the period of probation: it is not changed; it was seven years then and it is seven years now. But then as now people do not get through and seven becomes 70 and extends to more than one life. Life itself is the tester; “‘Great Sifter’ is the name of the ‘Heart Doctrine,’ O disciple.” Occultism or the Secret Doctrine tests as events occur in our lives day by day. We do become tired by the onslaughts which life and living bring to us. To endure, to learn and thus to grow the probationer has the use of the Heart Doctrine. He is told what to do. His “sins of omission and commission” have to be met with the Teachings. People lose their enthusiasm; earnestness, dependent upon enthusiasm, suffers. Spiritual stamina needs to be replenished.