Miscellaneous Theosophical Writings of G. de Purucker

Contents

- A Spiritual Unity- After-Death States- After the Kali-Yuga- Aham asmi Parabrahma- An Attitude of Balance- At this Time of Year- AUM- Buddhas of Compassion and Pratyeka Buddhas- Buddhas of Compassion- Buddhic Principle- Buddhism and Theosophy- Capturing a World with Ideas- Let Christ-Child Live- Collective Spiritual Flame- Comets and Meteors- Consummatum Est- Cosmic Heart- Cremation- Cyclic Periodicity- Two Questions on Density- Doctrine Concerning the Ego- Easter Thoughts- Every Theosophist a Leader- Fellows of the T.S.- Fidelity to H.P.B.- The Flow of Spiritual Energy- Forgiveness and Karma- Fraternization- Fraternization Conventions- Future Spiritual Brotherhood- On "God"- Good and Evil- The Guardian Angel- Healing- Hierarchical Government- The Hill of Discernment- Hints on Cycles- How the Soul Returns- Hpho-Wa- Hypnotic Practice- Ideas and Ideals

- In Times of Crisis- Initiation and Suffering- Letter on Karman- Lamaic Succession- Laugh at Yourself- Lead Us Not into Temptation- Letter on Cycles- Letter on Spiritual Importance of Pt. Loma- Letter on Work of the Monad- Letter to Pierce Spinks- The Light She Brought- The Mahabharata- Maha-Maya- Monads, Rounds, Astral Molds- Narada- The New Age is Born- The New Year- A Noble and Sublime Field- On Adolescents- Deity and Karman- On the Mahatma Letters- One Life - One Law- Opportunity in the Kali-Yuga- Man in an Ordered Universe- Our Work- Paganism- Pineal and Pituary Glands- Planetary Chains and Principles- The Principle of Success- The Psychic Tide- The Psychic World - Beware- Psychism- Puruckers "Fundamentals" - Review - A.E.S.S.- Pygmies and Races- Questions and Answers- Questions and Answers (2)- Quick Reincarnation- Requisites of Chelahood- Scientific Basis for Ethics- Secret of Human Conflict- The Sense of Reverence- Separation of the Sexes- Seven Human Groups- Six Schools of Ancient Thought- The Story or Jesus- Strength and Balance

- Struggle and Cooperation- Studies in The Mahatma Letters- Note on Technical Theosophy- A Theosophical Super-Society- Theosophy and Universal Brotherhood- Three Aspects of Karman- Three Ways Self Recognizes Truth- Time of the Winter Solstice- Letter to 1936 European Convention- Letter to 1938 Convention- To Those Who Mourn- The Theosophical Society- The T.S. and the Lost Cause of Materialism- Tibetan Doctrine of Tulku- Universality- The Way of Heaven- Weather and Eclipses- What is Truth?- What Lessons Have We Learned?- Where Can Truth Be Found?- Who Are You?- Why Theosophy?- Wind of the Spirit- Wind of the Spirit Excerpts- Winter Solstice- Winter Solstice - Its Meaning- A Word on Chelaship- Work of the T.S.- Work Out Your Own Salvation- The World's Trouble and Cure- Yoga Training- The Yoga We Follow- Quotes

Appendix- Gottfried de Purucker: A Biographical Sketch - Boris de Zirkoff- Some Tributes to G. de Purucker

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A SPIRITUAL UNITY - G. de Purucker

[Those who today speak slightingly of fraternization or unity among Theosophistsof various groups or Societies should study history. We go back 48 years to June 1931.

On the 24th of that month at the headquarters of the English Section of the T.S. (PointLoma) in London, what was called "the H.P.B. Centennial Conference" was held, attendedby representatives of the different Theosophical Societies in Europe. This was the outcomeof the announcement in late 1929 and early 1930 by Dr. G. de Purucker of the need for thebreaking down of barriers among Theosophists worldwide, to unite in the spiritual teachingsof H.P.B., and to practice the brotherhood that they preach. The centennial year of thebirth of H.P.B. was seized upon to call this gathering together. (Similar meetings, onAugust 11, 1931, were held at Point Loma, California, attended mainly by those living in theU.S.A. but open to Theosophists of all Societies; and at Adyar, India, for members of theAdyar Society). At the close of the London meeting the following cable was sent by A.Trevor Barker, the convener of the Conference and National President of the EnglishSection T.S. (P.L.), received on June 26 at Point Loma:

"Centennial positive success. Leader eminently satisfied. Sixty-five representativeTheosophists of nineteen nationalities, four societies, including Arundales, Phoenix Lodge,fourteen executive officers national sections. Yesterday's public meeting splendid. Fineaudience. - Barker."

It would take far too long to go into the subsequent history of this movement towardsfriendly theosophical interassociation. The great ideal of One Theosophical Society hasnot been attained; but beneath the outer flow and movement of events the alchemicalprocess of a spiritual unity has been growing, not with emotional fervor, but steadily, withdeepening understanding, friendship, and real brotherly love amongst individualTheosophists and Theosophical groups worldwide.

We invite Eclectic readers to go back in thought nearly half a century whenTheosophists around the world celebrated with high purpose and deep aspiration the onehundredth anniversary of their great Teacher's birth - and reflect! Following are extractsfrom Dr. de Purucker's closing address at that particular London H.P.B. CentennialConference, which we reprint from The Theosophical Forum, Vol. III, No. 1, Sept. 1931. -Eds.]

What we want is truth. Let us therefore find that truth and follow it, which we can doin the grand original Theosophical teachings of H.P.B.; and let us remember that it wasH.P.B. who collected together the first members of the Theosophical Society and gavethem the key in the majestic doctrines of the Ancient Wisdom-Religion which sheelaborated in her later years among us. In these words lies the reason why I am so heart-faithful to her....

I have always sought truth, and that truth for me is found in the Ancient Wisdom-Religion of mankind which H.P.B. brought; and when I find individuals teaching that truth,them I call Brothers in this Work. One such was H.P.B. That I know. One such wasJudge. That I know. And one such was my great predecessor Katherine Tingley. That Iknow. Many here did not know her; but am I going to turn my back on those who have notfelt what I have felt and known? No indeed. I am going to practice the brotherhood whichI preach; and in witness thereof here is my hand in the spirit of genuine fraternity.

... The most important and most practical thing for us Theosophists to do [is] toforget the opinions and to hold to the fundamental Theosophical realities. For me, theserealities are in the teachings of the Masters, and they can be found in H.P.B.'s works. Ofcourse they are not found there merely because our beloved H.P.B. wrote them. If any

individual person had written them, the truths would be the same. It so happens, however,that I love H.P.B. because she was H.P.B.; but, after all, that is my own affair. I can easilysee that there are many who could not, at any rate who would not, understand H.P.B. asI see her and understand her, but am I going to condemn such because they differ from mein views and in feeling concerning H.P.B.?

Another thing: I do not think it a practical method for bringing about our workingtogether, my Brothers, merely to sit together at a table in a brain-mind way and in a brain-mind way seek brain-mind points of agreement. That method has been tried so manyscores, indeed hundreds, of times, and has always failed, for it invariably leads intodiscussions which in their turn will lead to argument, which again leads only to woundedfeelings and further causes of misunderstandings, concerning what Timothy Dexter or G.de P. or Dr. Besant, or some other prominent Theosophist, thinks to be 'an essential'. Ithink that such brain-mind methods are worse than futile; I think that they are dangerous.Isn't it much better to be practical than to follow the methods which have proved theirimpractical and futile and dangerous character? If we Theosophists cannot unite on thebasis of the spiritual and intellectual verities which we have from the Teachers, and whichwe all know that we accept, we cannot unite and remain united merely by subscribing ina brain-mind way to a list of Articles of Belief, which as individual teachings all of us alreadyaccept. Why not, instead of doing this, unite in our love of and belief in H.P.B. as theMasters' Messenger.

In the future, and I see it clearly - no, not by any psychic vision, I do not indulge inthat - but my logic, my instinct, my spiritual feeling, tell me that in the future theTheosophical Movement will be once more a unified organism, somewhat changed it maybe from what it was in the days of our beloved H.P.B., but with her teachings as thefoundation of its life and its activity, and with the same policy guiding its destiny. I yearnto see this accomplished in my own lifetime, if I can bring it about. This basis of mutualunderstanding and of a common fellowship I do not want to have written, I do not want tosee it set forth in black and white on paper. I want it based on the mutual understandingand tacit acceptance of genuine Theosophists and honest men, and to have it clearlyunderstood that any man, or any one of the component Theosophical Societies, will be freeto withdraw from such association at any moment when it should please them to do so. Iyearn to see this Spiritual Brotherhood that I speak of composed of all the TheosophicalSocieties in the world, and all working together for a common end, confessing by theiraction of unification and by the doctrines which they teach that they believe in thebrotherhood which they preach.

This is not an unattainable ideal which lies beyond the bounds of possibility. It iseasily to be brought about, and by the only way which is practical and practicable: Changemen's hearts and minds to forget the opinions which they cherish so dearly, and to consentto work on the basis of the essential spiritual realities of life which we all acknowledge asfundamental, essential Theosophy. That is what I want, and I believe that the members ofthe Adyar Society and that the members of the United Lodge of Theosophists and that themembers of all the various different Theosophical bodies, all have pretty much the samehope and ideal latent in their souls. I know that they all feel that they are working forgenuine Theosophical principles, and I hope that I am large-hearted enough and broad-minded enough to realize that they have as much right to their opinions and feelings as Ihave to mine; and I hope that they are broad-minded enough to know that we all are

brothers, fellow-Theosophists, every Society having its own difficulties, its own problems,and its own line of work in the world.

Do you know that the Path to the Heart of the Universe is different for every livingentity, and yet that all those paths merge into One? Each man must tread his ownevolutionary path, which in the world's foolish view means that in his ordinary brain-mindway each man must hold fast to his own opinions. But verily this is a mistaken view.Opinions! It is opinions that separate men in politics, in religion, in all the ordinary affairsand avocations of human life. It is so, alas, even in our own Theosophical Movement; itis so in religious and philosophical societies everywhere. Men worship opinions instead ofrealities.

I know indeed that all these various Theosophical Societies have their respectiveand differing opinions; but I also know that each one is pursuing its own line of work andis, I believe, trying to do good in the world; and I also know that each one of them, as wellas every individual composing their respective fellowships, is following its own pathway tothe Heart of the Universe. Let us then remember this great truth. It will bring generosityinto our hearts and a kindlier feeling for those who differ from us.

I will now close, with the expression of the hope that this will not be the last meetingof its kind. Our gathering is an historic event, believe me, Brothers, in the history of themodern Theosophical Movement. I know that if these thoughts which I have attempted sopoorly this afternoon to lay before you, are understood, and accepted in your hearts inother words if your minds and hearts will run parallel with them - we shall have taken agreat step forwards towards the accomplishment of that Universal Brotherhood of humanitywhich the Masters have set before us as the main work of the Theosophical Society; andI remind you of a great truth which I will quote for you in the words of the ancient Vedicsage:

Tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat.

which we may translate and paraphrase as follows:"Oh, thou golden sun of most excellent splendor, illumine our hearts and fill our

minds, so that we, recognizing our oneness with the divinity which is the Heart of theUniverse, may see the pathway before our feet, and tread it to those distant goals ofperfection, stimulated by thine own radiant light."

This is a paraphrase of the Savitri, perhaps the most sacred verse in the ancientHindu scriptures, and it contains a world of truth, for it sets forth the spiritual oneness of allthings that are - that all things are rooted in the spiritual Universe, nay, more, in theBoundless: that in THAT we forever move and live and have our being; and that our wholeduty is so to live, which means so to feel and so to think and so to act, that day by day andyear by year we may recognize this fundamental oneness with the Cosmic Heart, andmanifest its supernal glory and strength in our own lives.

(The Conference closed with a few moments of Silence after seven strokes on thegong.) - Eclectic Theosophist, July 15, 1979

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AFTER DEATH STATES

....... This may we also learn if we will. For, in the words of Dr. de Purucker, in hisfirst lecture on `The Mysteries of Sleep and Death':

When a man while alive on earth can ally himself with his own inner god, with thedivine entity at the very root of his being, then he dreams no more but becomes divinelyself-conscious - becomes godlike in his consciousness; for then his consciousness takescosmic sweep, expands to embrace the solar system and even beyond; and though livingon earthwalks among his fellows as a god-man. This not only can be done but has often beendone, and done again and again; and the great titanic Seers and intellects: the greatspiritual visionaries of the human race, were just such god-men; the Buddha,Sankaracharya, Jesus the Syrian, Lao-Tse, Krishna, Pythagoras - oh! a host of them - weresuch god-men; some were greater than others, but all, each me of them, in greater or lessdegree, had become at one with his own inner god, with what the modern mysticalChristian calls his immanent Christ, the Christ dwelling within him; we Theosophists saythe inner god .... O my Brothers, why not become at one with this divinity within you?Addendum

In order to make clearer certain of the passages quoted from The Mahatma Lettersto A.P. Sinnett, the following questions were asked of Dr. de Purucker, to which he verykindly dictated answers. The spelling of the original in The Mahatma Letters has beenfollowed in the questions.

Question 1 - On page 186 of The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett, we read:Every just disembodied four-fold entity . . . loses at the instant of death all

recollection, it is mentally annihilated; it sleeps it's akasic sleep in the Kama-loka.Please explain the significance of the phrase `every just disembodied four-fold

entity.'Answer by G. de P. - The reader should bear in mind in reading The Mahatma

Letters to A.P. Sinnett that all answers were given to more or less elementary questionsasked by individuals who had virtually no idea whatsoever of the Esoteric Wisdom nor ofits intricacies, nor again of the very stringent regulations forbidding the divulging of theancient teachings except to those, who had, at least in some degree, pledged themselvesto keep these teachings secret. However, answering this question, the phrase `every justdisembodied four-fold entity' refers to the sevenfold constitution of man just after death,who thereafter becomes a four-fold entity, because the physical body, the Linga-sarira ormodel-body, and the pranic currents belonging to it, have been shed or cast off. Three ofthe so-called `principles' thus being dropped, the entity remaining is obviously a four-foldentity or double duad. But this four-fold entity is all the best part of the man that was - infact, all of the man except the outer-most carapace and its vitality and astral pattern.

Question 2 - On page 187 of The Mahatma Letters occurs the following:That remembrance will return slowly and gradually toward the end of the gestation

(to the entity or Ego), still more slowly but far more imperfectly and incompletely to the

shell, and fully to the Ego at the moment of its entrance into the Devachan.What is the meaning of the words `gestation' and `shell' in the above passage?Answer by G. de P. - The ` remembrance' here referred to by the Master K.H. is that

panoramic vision or reviewing of the events of the past life which occurs to every normalhuman being at least twice after death, and in some cases three times; but this is anotherstory. The `gestation' is a word used in those early days of the Theosophical Society tosignify the preliminary preparation of the entity entering into its devachanic condition orstate of consciousness; just as the gestation of a child precedes its birth on earth intophysical life, so is there a gestation of the devachanic entity before it enters into thedevachanic state.

The `shell' here refers to the kama-rupic entity or `spook' which is cast off at thesecond death, which second death takes place virtually shortly preceding the entrance ofthe entity into the devachanic state, and therefore at the end of the gestation-period alludedto. The meaning is that after death the four-fold entity is in a more or less unconscious,semi-conscious, or dreamlike state; and the panoramic vision or remembrance returnsslowly to the Ego at the end of the gestation-period, but fully so when the gestation-periodis completed and when the entity stands, as it were, on the devachanic threshold. Theremembrance returns very imperfectly and incompletely to the kama-rupic shell more orless at the time the kama-rupic shell is dropped; and this remembrance is incomplete andimperfect, because the shell, being a mere garment, although to a certain extent vitalizedand therefore as it were quasi-conscious like the physical body, it obviously can retain nocomplete or full recollection of all the past life, because it is incapable of retaining thespiritual and noble intellectual vistas of the life just lived. The `remembrance' is obviouslytherefore `imperfect' and `incomplete.'

Question 3 - On page 188 of The Mahatma Letters one reads:. . . from the last step of devachan, the Ego will often find itself in Avitcha's faintest

state, which, towards the end of the ` spiritual selection' of events may become a bona fide"Avitcha."

What is meant here by the `spiritual selection' of events? Answer by G. de P. - Before answering the question I must point out that `Avitcha'

is of course a miswriting by the chela-amanuensis for Avichi. The `spiritual selection' ofevents is but a phrase, which rather neatly and graphically describes the selecting by thedevachanic entity, as it enters into the devachanic state, of all the spiritual and nobleintellectual vistas, events, with his emotions and aspirations, of the life just lived. If thesevistas and events, etc., are few to recollect or select, the devachanic state is not high andis probably a rupa-lokic Devachan. Similarly, if these vistas and events are extremely few,then the Devachan is so low or faint that it is practically the same as verging towards thehighest part of Avichi; because the highest part of Kama-loka blends insensibly into thevery lowest conditions or states of the Devachan, while the Kama-loka's lowest part blendsinsensibly into the highest conditions of the Avichi. In other words, there is no solution ofcontinuity as between any of these three; for both Devachan and Avichi are states: theyblend insensibly into each other.

Question 4 - Again on page 188 of The Mahatma Letters one reads:Yes: Love and Hatred are the only immortal feelings; but the gradations of tones

along the seven by seven scales of the whole keyboard of life, are numberless.What are `the seven by seven scales' referred to above?

Answer by G. de P. - `The seven by seven scales' referred to above are the forty-nine steps or degrees on the ladder or scale of consciousness: i.e., of life as experiencedin our hierarchy by a conscious or quasi-conscious entity. Consequently, the gradationsof tones along the forty-nine scales are virtually innumerable or `numberless.' We musthere understand not only whole tones, to adopt the musical phraseology, but half-tones andeven quarter-tones, and perhaps eighth-tones. It is a mistake to suppose that even in themusical diatonic scale the notes are actually distinct, entitative vibrations withoutintermediate connecting links. The chromatic scale proves this. As a matter of fact anymusical scale is only apparent. There is in fact one universal sound divided into seventimes seven, or forty-nine, gradations of pitch or scalar differences; but these differencesor degrees or steps are more or less illusory and depend upon the receptivity or lack of itof the percipient consciousness.

Question 5 - On page 198 of The Mahatma Letters occurs the following:Deva Chan is a state, not a locality. Rupa Loka, Arupa-Loka, and Kama-Loka are

the three spheres of ascending spirituality in which the several groups of subjective entitiesfind their attractions.

Please explain the three words ` Rupa Loka,' ` Arupa-Loka,' and Kama-Loka,' and thephrase `three spheres of ascending spirituality.'

Answer by G. de P. - ` The three spheres of ascending spirituality' are, in their properorder, Kama-loka, Rupa-loka, and Arupa-loka, and are a brief way of expressing the threegeneralized conditions or states both of matter and of consciousness between the lowestastral and the highest devachanic spheres. Kama-loka is the low-est; the next higher isthe Rupa-loka; and the highest of these three is the Arupa-loka.

Kama-loka is the astral world, the world of shells, of cast-off kama-rupic entities orspooks; and is itself divided into different steps or stages of ethereality, ascending from thelowest Kama-loka or that which is nearest to earth-condition. The Kama-loka then mergesinto the Rupa-loka, a Sanskrit phrase which means `Form-world'; and the Rupa-loka is inthis connection the lower part or half, so to speak, of the devachanic sphere of being. TheRupa-loka in its turn is divided into ascending grades of ethereality, so that the highest ofthe Rupa-loka merges insensibly into the lowest of the Arupa-loka or `Formless Sphere.'It is through these three `spheres of ethereality' (rather than spirituality) that the averageexcarnate entity passes in his post-mortem adventure, beginning at the moment of deathin the lowest part of the Kama-loka and ending with the highest part of the Devachan.Please recollect very carefully that, although the Kama-loka, the Rupa-loka, and the Arupa-loka may be considered as actual localities or spheres, they are merely so because all theentities inhabiting them must have place or position in space. The Devachan per se is astate of consciousness just as the Avichi is.

Question 6 - At the bottom of page 198 of The Mahatma Letters, the words AlayaVynyana are used in the sense of `hidden knowledge.' Are they synonymous with Gupta-Vidya? And are these last words, in turn, synonymous with the Guhya-Vidya which Dr. dePurucker refers to in his Occult Glossary (under Vidya) as `the Secret Knowledge' or `theEsoteric Wisdom'?

Answer by G. de P. - Alaya-Vijnana is a Sanskrit compound which indeed can betranslated metaphorically as ` hidden knowledge,' but which more comprehensively means`discernment' (or `recognition') `of the imperishable': i.e., of the Kosmic Soul or AnimaMundi. It is obvious that when an entity is able to vision the Alaya-Vijnana it becomes

instantly percipient of all the `hidden knowledge' that the Kosmic Soul is enabled to pourinto its more or less limited capacity. Consequently Alaya-Vijnana is not technicallysynonymous with Gupta-Vidya,. .because Gupta-Vidya, although literally meaning `hidknowledge' refers rather to the doctrines of the Secret Wisdom today taught in the EsotericSchool. Guhya-Vidya is synonymous with Gupta-Vidya, both signifying `the SecretKnowledge' or `the Esoteric Wisdom.'

- Canadian Theosophist, March-April, May-June, 1961

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AFTER THE KALI-YUGA - ? - G. de Purucker

At one of the meetings of the Point Loma Lodge T.S. in the 1930's a question wasasked by Mrs. Frances M. Dadd on the very interesting question to all students ofTheosophy of the order of the great Ages or Yugas. We give here the full question and theanswer then given by Dr. G. de Purucker. This was first printed in The TheosophicalForum, Sept. 1937, and later in the volume Studies in Occult Philosophy. - Eds.

We are told in the Occult Glossary that the four Yugas, with their respective time-periods of 4, 3, 2, 1, take up just half of the duration of a Root-Race. I have beenwondering in what order the Yugas follow after Kali-Yuga, in which we now are, becauseby analogy it might mean that they would go in the reverse order, so that after Kali-Yugathere would be DwiparaYuga, and then Treti-Yuga, and then Satya; but reasoning fromanother standpoint, it seems we merge into the Golden Age, at least that is what it seemsto say in the Vedas. Then from another standpoint, when a Race is dying out, as some ofthe primitive Races that we now know of, some of the aboriginal Races, they might be saidto be in a Golden Age in one way, because they have no responsibilities, they are childlike,and in that sense might be said to be in the Golden Age to the end. So my question is: Inwhat order do the Yugas in a Root-Race come after the Kali-Yuga?

I think I can best answer this very interesting question in a public gathering bypointing to the history of our own present or Fifth Root-Race. We are all at present, as youknow, part of the Fifth Root-Race on this Globe D in this Fourth Round. Now then, it wasa legend among the Greeks that the childhood of mankind was happy, that it was peaceful,blessed with plenty, with abundance, that there were no wars and harassing anxieties inthose halcyon days of the childhood of man. They called it the Saturnian Age, the Age ofSaturn, mainly, I think, because there were no real responsibilities, as the questioner hascorrectly stated. I question very much, however, whether I for one would like to live the lifeof a babe unborn, in the womb, without responsibilities, a mere human lump. No!

About the middle point of the Fourth Root-Race, our Fifth Root-Race began to takeform, which merely means that certain individuals who had passed through the FourthRoot-Race incarnations up to that time on the Earth, made among themselves a society,not organized, but the mere fact of their being and having more or less arrived at similar

mental and spiritual outlooks made them in the middle part of the Fourth Root-Race to beas it were a people apart. Do you catch my thought? It was not an organized Society, anorganization, a brotherhood, at first. It was simply that at about the middle point of theFourth Root-Race certain individuals were born, which means that they had reached a timewhen Fifth Root-Race qualities and attributes were to begin to appear in them; just as inour present Fifth Root-Race we have almost reached its middle point, we are in its fourthSub-race, and the forerunners of the Sixth Root-Race are just beginning to appear amongstus here and there over the world. Sporadically they appear, forming no definite body,organization, society, or brotherhood; but nevertheless beginning to imbody, to incarnate.

Now, as time went on, the Fourth Root-Race, which was then in its Kali-Yuga, beganto descend the facilis descensus averno, the easy descent to Hell more and more; but atthe same time a greater number of more advanced human monads were incarnating, thusconstantly increasing the number of the then Fifth Root-Race in the throes of its birth.These individuals were for the Fourth Root-Race set apart. Nature favored them, whichdoes not mean that they necessarily had a very easy time, but Nature favored them. Theywere fortune's favored pupils; they were receiving, because they had won all thesebenefits, special guidance, special help, special instruction, mostly unconscious except forthe highest among them. Why? Because they needed it. The balance of the Fourth Root-Race was simply running down hill, and with each thousand years going faster down. Butthese favored individuals, fortune's favored sons, were helped, guided, protected, sheltered- sheltered as far as it could be done because they had merited it on account of theirprevious evolutionary strivings to ascend; and because they were the seeds of the FifthRoot-Race to come, our present one. They were in their Satya-Yuga, the first and thelongest.

Thus the yugas begin with the longest, next the next long, third the next long, andfinally comes the culmination of wickedness and evil-doing in the Kali-Yuga, which we ofthe Fifth Root-Race have just begun. How many among us, I ask the question right here,are to be among the 'favored' to form the seed of the Sixth Root-Race now alreadybeginning on this continent and elsewhere, but more particularly perhaps in the Americas?We have reached our Kali-Yuga; it will last more than four hundred thousand years, andwe are only some five thousand years gone in it, barely entering upon it! And as themajority in the future days of the Fifth Root-Race will be growing worse and worse, andgoing steadily faster and faster down the relatively steep descent, the individuals of theforthcoming Sixth Root-Race will contemporaneously grow more numerous and will be intheir Satya-Yuga, their highest.

I think I have given in Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy a diagram [p. 251]in which the birth of each Race is shown as beginning at about the middle part of thepreceding one. There you have the picture. Each Race begins with its Satya-Yuga, itslongest; passes from that into the next, the Treta; then into the third, the Dwapara; andthen into the fourth and shortest and most intensely individual, the Kali-Yuga. And justabout that time the seeds of the Race to follow are in their throes of birth.

I might add this - although I hope that it won't complicate your understanding - thatthese wonderful figures, 4, 3, 2, followed by one or two or more zeroes, are key-numbersin Nature, and they are computed by means of the Six, commonly called the senary, oragain the duo-decimal, system of reckoning either by six, or twelve which is twice six; andhence there are the same yugas but with more zeroes added - for globes as well as for

Races; for Chains as well as for globes, and so forth.Thus it is that the hey-day of civilization and progress of a Root-Race lasts through

the four yugas from beginning to end; during its Kali-Yuga and towards the beginning ofit, the seeds of the new succeeding Race begin to appear, and these seeds are in thebeginning of their Satya-Yuga. Aa the centuries and the millennia roll slowly by, the scepterof dominion and of empire, of progress and advancing intelligence and wisdom, slowlypasses from the former Race to the latter Race; so that when the former Race is finishingits Kali-Yuga the succeeding Race is already beginning the hey-day of its halcyon times ofprogress and power and civilization.

Meanwhile, even after the Kali-Yuga of the former Race is ended, the more or lessdegenerate remnants of the former Race continue in existence, but steadily going down hillstill, and these degenerate descendants, although slowly through the ages growingconstantly fewer and fewer, nevertheless last on until the succeeding Race in its turn hasrun through its three yugas and is entering its fourth or Kali-Yuga.

This is what I meant when I stated that although a Race begins its career at themiddle point of the previous Race, it lives on for pretty much the same length as before,although in a state of degeneracy and senile decrepitude; the old waters gradually mix withthe new and fresh, because the more advanced and better egos of the previous Racebegin to reincarnate in the bodies of the succeeding or newer Race.

- Eclectic Theosophist, July 15, 1976

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Aham Asmi Parabrahma

Dr. de Purucker's last public address given in the Temple at the InternationalTheosophical Headquarters, Covina, California, on September 20, 1942, at the time of theAutumnal Equinox, known to Theosophists as the sacred season of the Great Passing.

BRILLIANCE like the almighty wings of love knows no barriers, and can and doespenetrate everywhere; and this thought was born in my mind this afternoon as I hearkenedto our speaker giving us excerpts of great beauty, of great depth, from the archaic Wisdom-teachings of mankind, teachings which belong to no race, to no age, and which, since theyare essential truth, must be taught in spheres not earthly but divine, as they are taught hereon earth to us men. For it struck me that the burthen of his brilliant address was this: thatwe men, we human beings, as indeed all other things and entities everywhere, are butparts of one vast cosmic whole, intimately united together, despite our failings and ourstumblings, in the working out of our common destiny. And therefore in proportion to ourown individual understandings, we respond to that cosmic source which the Christian callsGod, and which I prefer to call the Divine, from which we came, inseparable from which weare and always shall be, and into which again we are now returning on our ages' longpilgrimage. Oh, just that one thought, if we men could keep it alive in our hearts and allowit to stimulate our minds from day to day, how would it not soften the asperities of humanlife, how would it not teach us men to treat our brothers like brothers instead of bitter foes!

Don't you see, Brothers and Friends, that this teaching is brilliant because it is ateaching of a genius? It contains everything within it, all the Law and all the Prophets. Andwhat is this teaching? Succinctly phrased it is simply this: that the cosmic life is a cosmicdrama in which each entity, be it super-god or god, or demi-god, or man, or beast, ormonad or atom, plays his or its proportionate part; and that all these dramaticpresentations are welded together, leading up to one vast cosmic climax - to which, by theway, there is no anticlimax. So that with every even human day we are coming closer tothat time in the immensely distant future when we all shall, once more reunited, enter intothe deep womb of utter cosmic being - call it God, call it Divinity, call it Spirit, call it what youwish. The drama then will have ended. The curtain will fall, and what we Theosophists callPralaya will begin, the rest-period. But just, as in human affairs, when night is over therecomes the day, so when the night of pralaya ends, the manvantara, the cosmic day, dawnsagain. The curtain on the cosmic stage once more rises. Each entity, each being, thenbegins its cosmic play, its role, exactly at the metaphysical and mathematical point whereit stopped when the bells of pralaya rang down that cosmic curtain on the manvantara orworld-period just ended. Everything begins anew precisely like a clock or watch, which,when it has stopped and is rewound, begins to run again at the exact point at which thefingers themselves stopped. Why, this single conception of human identity with thecosmos, together with all the religious and philosophical and scientific and moralimplications which it imbodies, is older than thinking man. We are one and yet we knowit not, we recognise it not; so that in the drama of life we commit all the follies on the stage,and tragedy becomes comedy and comedy, alas, through our own fault becomes tragedy.

I want to quote to you something that I love and have loved from boyhood. I learnedit when I was a child and found it again once more in The Secret Doctrine of H.P.B., whenin after life as a young man I joined the T.S. It is this: the picture is that of the Hindu guruor teacher. A pupil stands or sits before him, and he is testing the knowledge of this pupilregarding the teaching that this pupil has received, and he says: "Chela, Child, dost thoudiscern in the lives of those around thee anything different from the life that runs in thyveins?" "There is no difference, O Gurudeva. Their life is the same as my life." "O Child,raise thy head and look at the violet dome of night. Consider those wonderful stars, thosebeings radiating, irradiating, from the cosmic splendor above our heads. Seest thou thatcosmic fire which burns in all things, and shines supremely bright in this and that and thatand that yonder brilliant orb? Child, dost thou discern any difference in that cosmic light,in that cosmic life, from that which shines forth from our own day-star, or from that whichburns in thine own heart both day and night?" And the child says, "O Gurudeva, I see nodifference between life and life, and light and light, and power and power, and mind andmind, except in degrees. The light that burns in my heart is the same as the light that burnsin the hearts of all others." "Thou seest well, Child. Now listen to the heart of all thisteaching: AHAM ASMI PARABRAHMA." And the child, who has been taught Sanskrit, theVedic Sanskrit, understands and bows his head, "Pranjali." The meaning is: "I am theBoundless, I myself am Parabrahma, for the life that pulses in me and gives me existenceis the life of the divinest of the divine." No wonder the child has understood. Am I a childof God? Essentially it is the only thing I am, and if I fail to realize it, it is not the Divine'sfault but mine.

I believe, Friends and Brothers, that you will find this sublime teaching with itsinnumerable deductions - and you will feel bound logically to make deductions for

yourselves as you understand it - I believe that you will find this teaching of Divinity in everyone of the great systems to which the genius of mankind has given birth; Religion is it;Philosophy was born from it; Science is now aspiring towards it, and is beginning to getfeeble adumbrations of what if means. Think even in our own small human affairs - smallwhen compared with the vast cosmic majesty which holds us around in its sheltering care -think, if every man and woman on earth were thoroughly convinced of the utter reality ofthis cosmic truth! Never again would the hand of man be raised against man. Always itwould be the extended hands of succor and brotherhood. For I am my brother - in ourinmost we are one. And if we are separate it is because of the smallnesses that make useach one an atom as it were, instead of the spiritual monad which for each one of us is oursource. That monad is of the very stuff of divinity. As Jesus the Avatara phrased it in hiswonderful saying, "I and my Father are one" - the Father and the divine spark, the sparkof divinity which is identic with the cosmic life, with the universal ocean of life, to useanother metaphor. This idea of the cosmic ocean of life, of which we are all droplets in ourinmost and in our highest, was in the mind of Gautama the Lord Buddha when he spokeof that ultimate end of all beings and things; for, as he said, all beings and things are intheir essence Buddha, and some day shall become Buddha themselves, when, as phrasedso beautifully by Edwin Arnold, the dewdrop slips into the Shining Sea. CONSUMMATUM EST.

- Theosophical Forum, Nov., 1942-----------------------

AN ATTITUDE OF BALANCE AND VISION

IT is true that the world is in a saddened and anxious state. But mark you, I think it unwise and spiritually and psychologically unwholesome toemphasize this, for it raises none to higher things but depresses courage, the courage tomeet life and carry on in a higher and nobler way. See the beauty in and behind things,see the beauty in your fellow men; see likewise the ignominy and the ugliness in life,although do not let these latter depress you or discourage you. There is no reason to loseour calm, our inner peace, in order to become like unto them of the mobs, passion driven,governed by prejudice. Such an attitude will not help us or those who suffer. But we cansend forth into the world thoughts of courage and hope and an optimistic looking into thefuture, founded on our own blessed God-Wisdom: that no matter what happens throughman's folly or infamy or infidelity to his spiritual inner God, to his spiritual Essence, thereare always right and justice which will ultimately triumph over all. The only thing is to besure we are on the side of right and justice - and we cannot always judge by appearances.

An English poet, Browning I think it was, expresses this thought, albeit in thetheological language of the time when he said: "God's in his heaven, all's right with theworld." Those who do not like this optimistic outlook and conviction and who are trying toget down into the arena of hysteria and discouragement, mock at it; and yet every saneman who keeps his mind cool and clear and can think for himself realizes full well that themightiest forces in this world are cosmic right and cosmic justice, and they in the long runwill always prevail. There is no need to be discouraged. Avoid hysterias; or again on the

other hand avoid running at one and the same time with the hares and chasing with thehounds, which is what we all do more or less. Have your own convictions and sometimeshide them if it is not wise to shout them from the housetops; but keep your own heartupright, in love with love, hating hate, always standing up for justice and innate right. Onlybe sure that when you stand up you are not standing up for the propaganda-atmospherearound you, but for something that you in your own heart know to be right and true.

It would be a sorry thing indeed if there were naught to our world but what we seearound us today, or have seen at particular intervals during the past; but every time andalways the conscience and the sense of justice of mankind have proved supreme over alland risen above human feelings and follies, and marched onwards and upwards to balanceand harmony. Don't be down-hearted or discouraged or think the world is going to the devilbecause you don't like what is going on. You have a right to like it or to dislike it. But besure that you, as an individual, on your part do not add to the hatred in the world, to itsdiscouragement and unhappiness. That is my point. - G. de P.

- Theosophical Forum, June, 1941

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AT THIS TIME OF THE YEAR - G. de Purucker

Extracts from a lecture given April 8, 1930, in the Temple, Point Loma, California.

The Mysteries of Antiquity were celebrated at various times of the year: in thespring, in the summer-time, in the autumn, and at the winter solstice. But the greatest wasthat which was celebrated in the winter-time, when the sun had reached his southernmostpoint, and, turning, began his return-journey northwards.

Beginning with the winter solstice, on December 21st, these most sacred of theancient Mysteries began. Therein were initiated certain men who had been chosen onaccount of having perfected a certain preliminary period of training: chosen to go throughinitiatory trials for the purpose of bringing out into manifestation in the man the divinefaculties and powers of the inner god.

Two weeks were passed in this cycle of training or of initiation; and on the 6th ofJanuary, later called Epiphany (a Greek word which means 'the appearance of a god'),celebrated even today in the Christian Church: on that day came the supreme moment inthe ancient crypts of initiation, when the aspirant, having successfully passed through thepreliminary trials, was brought face to face with his own inner god.

If he withstood successfully the supreme test, he was suddenly suffused withsplendor, with light which shone from him, so that he stood there radiating light like the sun.His face shone brilliantly; back of his head was an aureole of splendor, and he was saidto be "clothed with the sun". This splendor is the Christ-light, called in the Orient theBuddhic Splendor, and is simply the concentrated spiritual vitality of the human beingpouring forth in irradiation. The 'Christ-sun' was born....

At this most sacred time of the initiatory cycle was born the Christ, to use the

mystical phraseology of the primitive Christians; and, using the phraseology of the Greeksand Romans from whom the Christians adopted and, alas! adapted, the idea, on thatsupreme day was born the mystical Apollo - to give the mystical name given to the man soraised; and in the Orient it was said that a Buddha was born...

The Theosophist looks upon this season with reverence and awe, for he knows thatin the proper quarter some human being is undergoing the supreme test, and that ifsuccessful, if he is 'raised,' if he can raise his own personal being into communion with hisinner god and hold it there, so that he becomes suffused with the divine splendor, a newChrist is born to the world, a Teacher of forgiveness, of compassion, of almighty love to allthat is.

- Eclectic Theosophist, Jan. 15, 1979

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The Meaning of AUM

Will you explain the meaning of the passage in The Voice of the Silence (p. 8, PointLoma Ed. footnote to AUM) referring to Kala-Hansa:

"The syllable A is considered to be its (the bird Hansa's) right wing, U, its left, M, itstail, and the Ardha-Matra (half metre) is said to be its head."

It is the Ardha-Matra (half metre) which puzzles me. - J. T.G. de P. - Here again you have picked out one of the less important things, which

I dare say you realize yourself. Just as in all religions there is always a certain class whoare seeing wonderful mystic meaning in this or that or some minor detail, which may bequite interesting and important in a small way, but it does not rank among the fundamental,or topnotch, or through-and-through important, things - such is the case with the simplyreams of stuff that have been written not only by Hindus through centuries, but even byEuropeans, about the so-called sacred syllable OM or AUM. It is simply amazing how thisone word has exercised the ingenuity and mystical feelings of literally centuries andcenturies of generations of Hindus belonging to almost all Schools.

The word is a sacred name on account of its vibrational quality, and used to be usedin ceremonial magic, pronounced aloud, although in most secret privacy. And from this onefact, connected with which is the reverence that used to be paid to the Hebrew andChristian AMEN, arose all this vast literature of guessing and mystical and semi-mysticalwriting.

Now all this talk that H.P.B. has in The Secret Doctrine, The Voice of the Silence,and elsewhere, is merely a kind of appeal to those interested in this kind of thing, in orderto attract them to her really deep teachings. That is why she made so much of them.

However, now, here comes the point: Kala-Hansa, of course, is the Bird of Time,which means the bird of cycles, and the bird stands as a symbol for the Reincarnating Egotaking its flight across time and space, mostly time. The same can be applied to theUniverses and the Cosmic Logos which in the Universe is, so to speak, the ReimbodyingEgo.

Now then, of course today Hindus consider this word so sacred, whether Om or

AUM, that they themselves rarely or never pronounce it above a whisper, and mostlymerely pronounce it in the head as it were, without voicing it. So much for that point.

Thus AUM stands for the Kala-Hansa; and from this mystical thought, the mysticalsaying runs that A stands for one wing, the U stands for the other wing, and the M standsfor its tail, and the Ardha-Matra, or short half-syllable, stands for its head. The Ardha-Matrareally here does not mean a syllable, or a half-syllable rather, but that connection betweenthe sounds A U, and again between U M, which gives inner direction and one-pointednessto the whole pronunciation of the word, and for that reason is called its head, the head ofa bird being the first part of it, and guiding its flight. I wonder if I make my meaning clear.The bird takes its flight on its wings, which support it. The tail serves as a guide to thedirection, and the head leads the way. The Ardha-Matra then is the so-called half-syllable,lying in the sound between A U on the one hand, and U M on the other hand, and formingthe middle of the body of the bird ending in the head. I wonder if I make this funny thoughtclear - and that is really all there is to it!

Now the mystics say in connexion with this word that it is the symbol, the Ardha-Matra, of the consciousness guiding the pronunciation; or, changing the figure of speech,the Ardha-Matra or half-syllable is the consciousness guiding the karmic forward progressof the mystic flight of the Ego or Bird, as it is the consciousness which gives the tone to thepronunciation of the syllable. Thus a singer singing a song not merely changes from noteto note, but it is just in that change between any two notes that there is a kind ofconsciousness-sound wherein the singer's ability to make an impression, what might becalled his vitality, or his individuality, expresses itself. It is called a half-syllable becauseit is so short. And yet as it is the point where the consciousness enters in, shifting overfrom note to note, and therefore guiding the sound, it is called the head of the bird. I hopeall this is clear. You will see that out of such a little thing has grown all this big literatureabout the Hindu sacred word.

- Theosophical Forum, Oct., 1938

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The Buddhas of Compassion and the Pratyeka Buddhas - G. de Purucker

. . . A Buddha is one who has ascended the rungs of the evolutionary Ladder of Life,rung by rung, one after the other, and who thus has attained Buddhahood, which meanshuman plenitude of spiritual and intellectual glory, and who has done all this by his ownself-devised and self-directed exertions along the far past evolutionary pathway. He is an"Awakened One," one who manifests the divinity which is the very core of the core of hisown being.

The Buddhas of Compassion are the noblest Flowers of the human race. They aremen who have raised themselves from humanity into quasi-divinity; and this is done byletting the light imprisoned within, the light of the inner god, pour forth and manifest itselfthrough the humanity of the man, through the human soul of the man . . .

Every human being is an unexpressed Buddha. Even now, within you and above

you, it is your Higher Self; and as the ages pass and as you conquer the self in order tobecome the Greater Self, you approach with every step nearer and nearer to the 'sleeping'Buddha within you. And yet truly it is not the Buddha which is 'asleep'; it is you who aresleeping on the bed of matter, dreaming evil dreams, brought about by your passions, byyour false views, by your egoisms, by your selfishness - making thick and heavy veils ofpersonality wrapping around the Buddha within.

For here is the secret: The Buddha within you is watching you. Your own innerBuddha has his eye, mystically speaking, on you. His hand is reached compassionatelydownward toward you, so to speak, but you must reach up and clasp that hand by yourown unaided will and aspiration - you, the human part of you - and take the hand of theBuddha within you. A strange figure of speech? Consider then what a human being is: agod in the heart of him, a Buddha enshrining that god, a spiritual soul enshrining theBuddha, a human soul enshrining the spiritual soul, an animal soul enshrining the humansoul, and a body enshrining the animal soul. So that Man is at the same time one, andmany more than one.

When the human being has learned all that earth can teach him, he is then godlikeand returns to earth no more - except those whose hearts are so filled with the holy flameof Compassion that they remain in the schoolroom of earth that they have long sinceadvanced beyond and where they themselves can learn nothing more, in order to help theiryounger, less evolved brothers. These exceptions are the Buddhas of Compassion.

There are, on the other hand, very great men, very holy men, very pure men in everyway, whose knowledge is wide and vast and deep, whose spiritual stature is great; butwhen they reach Buddhahood, instead of feeling the call of almighty Love to return and helpthose who have gone less far, they go ahead into the Supernal Light - pass onwards andenter the unspeakable bliss of Nirvana - and leave mankind behind. Such are the PratyekaBuddhas. Though exalted, nevertheless they do not rank with the unutterable sublimity ofthe Buddhas of Compassion . . . .

It is a wonderful paradox that is found in the case of the Pratyeka-Buddha. Thename 'pratyeka' means 'each for himself'; but this spirit of 'each for himself' is just theopposite of the spirit governing the Order of the Buddhas of Compassion, because in theorder of Compassion the spirit is: Give up thy life for all that lives.

The 'Solitary One' knows that he cannot advance to spiritual glory unless he livesthe spiritual life, unless he cultivates his spiritual nature, but when he does this solely inorder to win spiritual rewards, spiritual life, for himself alone, he is a Pratyeka-Buddha. Heis for himself, in the last analysis. There is a personal eagerness, a personal wish, to forgeahead, to attain at any cost; whereas he who belongs to the Order of the Buddhas ofCompassion, has his eyes set on the same distant objective, but he trains himself from thevery beginning to become utterly self-forgetful. This obviously is an enormously greaterlabor, and of course the rewards are correspondingly great.

The time comes when the Pratyeka-Buddha, holy as he is, noble in effort and inideal as he is, reaches a state of development where he can go no farther on that path.But, contrariwise, the one who allies himself from the very beginning with all Nature, andwith Nature's heart, has a constantly expanding field of work as his consciousness expandsand fills that field; and this expanding field is simply illimitable because it is boundlessNature herself. He becomes utterly at one with the spiritual Universe; whereas thePratyeka-Buddha becomes at one with only a particular line or stream of evolution in the

Universe.The Pratyeka-Buddha raises himself to the spiritual realm of his own inner being,

enwraps himself therein, and, so to speak, goes to sleep. The Buddha of Compassionraises himself, as does the Pratyeka-Buddha, to the spiritual realms of his own inner being,but does not stop there, because he expands continuously, becomes one with All, or triesto, and in fact does so in time.

The Buddha of Compassion is one who having won all, gained all, gained the rightto cosmic peace and bliss, renounces it so that he may go back as a Son of Light in orderto help humanity, and indeed all that is. The Pratyeka-Buddha passes onwards and entersthe unspeakable bliss of Nirvana, and there he remains for an aeon or a million of aeonsas the case may be; whereas the Buddha of Compassion, who has renounced all forCompassion's sake, because his heart is so filled with love, continues evolving. Thus thetime comes when the Buddha of Compassion, although having renounced everything, willhave advanced far beyond the state that the Pratyeka-Buddha has reached; and when thePratyeka-Buddha in due course emerges from the Nirvanic state in order to take up hisevolutionary journey again, he will find himself far in the rear of the Buddha of Compassion.

Self, selfhood, self-seeking is the very thing that the Buddhas of Compassion striveto forget, to overcome, to live beyond. The self personal must blend into the Self Individual,which then must lose itself in the Self Universal. The consciousness then blends with theUniverse and lives eternally and immortally, because it is at one with the Universe. Thedewdrop slips into the shining sea - its origin.

Which path will you then take, the path of the Buddhas of Compassion, or the pathof Pratyeka-Buddhas? . . . - Extracts from Golden Precepts

(Eclectic Theosophist, No. 56)----------------------

BUDDHAS OF COMPASSION

"Diamond-heart" is the term used when speaking of the Mahatmas; and it has asymbolic meaning, signifying the crystal-clear consciousness reflecting the misery of theworld, receiving and reflecting the call for help, reflecting the Buddhic Splendor in the heartof every struggling soul on earth; but yet as hard as the diamond for all calls of thepersonality, the self-personality, and first of all of the Mahatma's own personal nature.

Should the Mahatma abandon his physical body and live in his other principles, hebecomes de-facto a Nirmanakaya, living in the auric atmosphere of the earth and workingfor mankind invisibly.

The Nirmanakaya is a complete man possessing all the principles of his constitution,except the Linga-sarira and its accompanying physical body. He lives on the plane of beingnext superior to the physical plane, and his purpose in so doing is to save men fromthemselves by being with them, and by continuously instilling thoughts of self-sacrifice, ofself-forgetfulness, of spiritual and moral beauty, of mutual help, of compassion, of pity.Thus it is that he too forms one of the Stones in the Guardian Wall invisibly surrounding

mankind.Most Mahatmas prepare to become Buddhas of Compassion, and therefore to

renounce a Nirvanic state.The real Buddha of Compassion renounces Nirvana for himself in order to help the

world, for he is compassion incarnate. He lives through aeons, working for all that is; andit is this utter self-sacrifice of the human being of the most sublime and lofty typeconceivable to men, which makes of a Buddha so holy and exalted a being.

In the distinction between the Pratyeka-Buddha and the Buddhas of Compassionthere enters the element of a deliberate choice which each one must some day make.

Which path will you then take, the path of the Buddhas of Compassion, or the pathof the Pratyeka-Buddhas? Either is noble; both lead to heights of spiritual sublimity - onethe path of compassion, the path divine; the other the path of personal rest, utter peace,bliss, and living in the Divine. Some day you must make that choice. But the results ofmaking that choice, of choosing the road of self-forgetfulness and pity and impersonal lovefor all others, for all things, while temporarily holding you in the realms of illusion, of matter,will ultimately lead you by a road, straighter than any other, to the very core of the core ofthe Universal Heart; for you shall have obeyed the impersonal commands of Cosmic Love,and that means allying yourself consciously with divinity.

Nirvana if chosen for oneself can be looked upon as a species of sublimated spiritualselfishness: for the attempt of trying to gain Nirvina for oneself alone is a solely individualyearning to free oneself from manifested life, to stand apart in utter peace and utter bliss,in pure consciousness, and without regard for anything else.

How different from this is the teaching of our Lord: "Can I remain in utter bliss whenone single human heart beats in pain?" Give me rather, is the thought, the suffering ofpersonal existence, so that I may help and comfort others instead of attaining the purelyindividual selfish bliss of individual Paranishpanna.

Compassion is the very nature and fabric of the structure of the Universe itself, thecharacteristic of its being, for compassion means "feeling with," and the Universe is anOrganism, a vast and mighty organism, an organism without bounds, which mightotherwise be called Universal Life-consciousness.

Compassion is the fundamental law of Nature's own heart. It means becoming atone with the divine Universe, with the universal life and consciousness. It means harmony;it means peace; it means bliss; it means impersonal Love.

Having this Vision Sublime, do not shut your eyes to the misery of others, but devoteyour life like the Buddhas of Compassion to help all things, first by raising yourself -impersonally, not personally - so that you may help others to see the Light divine.

Is there anything so beautiful, so high, so noble, as bringing comfort to brokenhearts, light to obscure minds, the teaching of men how to love, how to love and to forgive?

To bring peace to men, to give them hope, to give them light, to show them the wayout of the intricate maze of material existence, to bring back to one's fellow-men theknowledge of their own essential divinity as a reality - is not that a sublime work?

Peace to all Beings!- G. de Purucker, Golden Precepts, Chapter 8.

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THE NATURE OF THE BUDDHIC PRINCIPLE - G. de Purucker

Comments made at the close of discussion at a Lodge meeting in the Temple atPoint Loma. The subject for study for several months in 1933 had been The MahatmaLetters. - Eds.

" . . . Once separated from the common influences of Society, nothing draws us toany outsider save his evolving spirituality. He may be a Bacon or an Aristotle in knowledge,and still not even make his current felt a feather's weight by us, if his power is confined tothe Manas. The supreme energy resides in the Buddhi; latent - when wedded to Atmanalone, active and irresistible when galvanized by the essence of `Manas' and when noneof the dross of the latter commingles with that pure essence to weigh it down by its finitenature. Manas, pure and simple, is of a lower degree, and of the earth earthly: and soyour greatest men count but as nonentities in the arena where greatness is measured bythe standard of spiritual development." - The Mahatma Letters, Letter LIX, p. 341.

Passages out of these wonderful communications from our beloved Teachers areso filled with not only truth but beauty, that one's mind is held in the enchantment of thethoughts aroused by reading these communications or by hearing them summarized. It isamazing - and yet why should it be so, but it is to us inferior folk - to sense how the majestyof truth and the greatness of soul accompanying such majesty affect us so deeply as tomove the inmost core of our being. And I for one know no experience more exalting, noexperience more penetrating than this. How vain some of the things of the world when wediscern the glory of Reality. I venture to say that no man or woman living, no matter howsimple-minded he or she may be, is unsusceptible, is insensible, to such feelings - dare wecall them that? - at any rate to such consequences of having received the touch of supernalbeauty. It is an experience which in itself is worth lifetimes of ordinary garnering of life'simpressions. I think that this spiritual and intellectual consequence of having theseteachings in our inmost must be indeed almighty influences not only on our own characters,but on our future destiny. I am assured from my own observation and from what I feelwithin myself, that a man's whole future lives can be changed, because of change occurringhere and now within him.

We see the compelling power of the beauty born within us when studying thesegreat Teachers' communications, for Truth indeed is thus compelling when its expositionis directed by Master Minds; and it is thus compelling not because it is enslaved, butbecause it gives us freedom, the freedom of brotherhood, the freedom of fellowship,fellowship in understanding, fellowship in fellow-feeling.

The statement has been made that Buddhi is negative unless it has the Manas ormind to work through, and of course this is true. But don't imagine for a moment that thismeans that the Buddhi is negative on its own plane, quite the contrary. It is as active onits own plane as the supreme truth within us, the Atman, is forever active on its own plane.The meaning is that the Buddhi is negative on this our human plane of experience andaction, without the transmitting principle to step it down to us, which is the mind and thepsychical elements within us. Then, if the mind be pellucid as the mountain lake, crystalclear, so that it cannot transmit the nondivine, then we have indeed a man who for the timebeing is like unto a god, for he speaks with power, with the voice of authority; and none

who listens unto him, in his heart can say Nay. Our minds are taken captive, mightilypersuaded. And why? Because the Buddhi in the Teacher speaks to the Buddhi within us.Voice as it were calls to voice. Thought evokes correspondential thought. Truth awakens,by its impact on our minds, the spark of truth within us; and it compels us, compels usbecause our own best is awakened, and we know thereafter that that is freedom, that istruth, that is reality; and no man wants aught else than freedom, truth, love, reality. Thatis why truth is so compatible. That is why its authority over our hearts and minds issupreme, for it awakens within us itself. Strange paradox and yet so simple.

What is this Buddhic principle? It is so difficult in our awkward European tonguesto give to this almost mystical Sanskrit word a proper translation. It is discrimination. It isintuition, it is the organ of direct knowledge, it is the clothing of the divine spark within uswhich instantly not only knows truth but communicates it, if indeed the barriers be not toothick and heavy between it and our receptive minds. Ay, reception, that is the point. Canour minds receive? If not, it is our own fault for we have enshrouded ourselves with theveils of the lower selfhood so strongly that the light from above, or from the Master mind,cannot reach our own higher mind and descend into the physical brain and into the physicalheart where truth abides for all. For mystical fact it is, that although we know it not, thetruth is already within us, here in heart, and here in mind; and we are like those spoken ofby the Avatara Jesus in the Christian Bible, having ears they hear not, having eyes theysee not, having minds they apprehend and comprehend not.

I want to point out one more thought, that the inner God works within its own vehicle,and this vehicle is the Buddhi principle, and it is just as easy to come into sympatheticrelationship, into companionship with the Buddhi as it is with the kama-manas within us.In other words, it is just as easy to yearn for the inspiration of the highest within you as itis to look for the heat and fevers of the lower part of our being.

Now whereas in the old religions and philosophies the God within has always beencalled a Divinity or God - masculine; the Consort, the Buddhi of the Atman, has alwaysbeen looked upon as feminine. The German poet Goethe meant more than mere poetrywhen he uttered that remarkably telling phrase, Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan. Theeternal feminine draweth us ever onward and inward. It does not mean woman, it meansthat part of our natures to which and in which the god within works. Our own individualBuddhi is that which gives us intuition and insight and sensitiveness and delicacy and theability in quick response to feel the suffering, the sorrow of others. It is the god within whichdoes this, but it is what in common language we call the feminine side of us which receivesit, the sensitized part of us, and carries the thought to the place where dwelleth the Atman.It has naught to do with physical woman or physical man.

There is a great and wonderful mystery here, and I may add in closing that one moresmall and minor phase of this mystery is alluded to by H.P.B. in The Key to Theosophywhere she speaks of the Buddhi as being the root and the key itself of individuality. Thereis the remote source why on this low physical plane some of our lifetimes are passed asmen and some as women. By each we learn, if we have the wit. It always vexes me whenI hear people talk, as I sometimes hear, about which is greater, man or woman. Whichreally is greater? It is the uttermost poppycock.

Where would you be without your mothers? Where would you be without yourfathers? Sex of course is but a passing phase. It did not exist some 18 or 19 million yearsago, and some 8 million years from now it will again vanish. Its place will be taken by

kriyasakti. But at present the most complete men are the men who have a healthy dashof the feminine in them; and the most perfect women are they who have a touch of themasculine. The most courageous man is always the man who feels the most tendertowards the weak and helpless. If a man has not a touch of the mother-instinct in him, lookout, you cannot trust him! If a woman has not a touch of the father-instinct in her, in myjudgment she is incomplete. - Reprinted from The Theosophical Forum, Aug. 1945; also Studies inOccult Philosophy, pp 361-64.

- Eclectic Theosophist, No. 81

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Buddhism and Theosophy

Could you give a little explanation of the difference between Theosophy andBuddhism as it is generally taught today amongst the masses?

(Question asked at a Public Meeting, Dublin, Ireland, October 5, 1937)G. de P. - That is a good question, and one I like, because if I were not a

Theosophist, I most emphatically would have accepted the doctrines of the Lord Gautama,the Buddha, as the most humane, the most philosophic, the most generous, the mostprincely, not only in their attitude towards men, but in the effect they produce upon men.

The difference is that between the mother and a very lovely daughter. The sublimemother is Theosophy, the lovely daughter is Buddhism. I would say that even as Buddhismis practiced today, some 2500 years after the passing of its great Founder, even today itis the most theosophical of all the religions existent, the most generous, the most tenderin its understanding of human problems; and in its dealing with them, without a vestige ofanything that is harsh, unkind, or colored by hatred in any form. It has no doctrine ofarbitrary punishment. Its doctrine of retribution based on cosmic law or karman, isretribution infinitely just. The evil that ye do will live after you, and ye yourselves the doersof it will meet it one day, and until ye undo the evil that ye have wrought it will abide -wonderfully logical, satisfying, and comforting.

Just see how this takes hold of the human heart. The true Buddhist says of hisinjurer: "He has injured me terribly. I pity him. I desire no revenge. That would be butadding my might to the evil that is wrought, for some day the evil that he wrought upon mewill fall, helpless man, upon him, and in addition he will have the evil that that evil-doingwrought in his own character. A double evil. I, his victim in this life, will receiverecompense, double the recompense of the wrong, the injury, done unto me, because Ishall have retributive compensation for the wrong, and because I do not in my turn hit backat my injurer, I have the increments of strength of character thus growing out of the injurywrought upon me, which is a double good to myself, who have suffered. I have therecompense in my own soul, that I know how to be patient and strike not, hit not back."

Divinity breathes through that. It is the very heart of pity, of compassion. And thatis pure Theosophy. In other words, Buddhism is but a lovely daughter of a still more lovely

mother. Christianity is its daughter, Brahmanism is its daughter, Taoism, all the religionsof India, Persia, China, Egypt, of ancient Europe, and of the Americas. They all sprangfrom this one source, our God-Wisdom, as we call it, kept in the Guardianship of theMahatmans, greatly evolved men. But I think that Buddhism is the loveliest of thedaughters, because the truest. Fidelity has crowned her. Justice has followed herfootsteps.

- Theosophical Forum, July, 1938

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Capturing a World with Ideas - G. de Purucker

IT takes some courage, I mean the true courage of the Seer, whom naught candaunt and none may stay, to oppose a world's thought-currents, and for this sublime workare called forth the truest heroism, the sublimest intellectual vision, and the deepestspiritual insight. These last prevail always. Sometimes he who runs counter to the world'sthought-currents loses what the world esteems highest: reputation, fortune, even perhapslife. But his work - that is never lost!

That is what H.P. Blavatsky did. And that is what the Theosophical Society hasbeen doing ever since her time, in certain ways opposing a world's lower thought-currentsand prevailing in the end. It is a strange paradox of our life on this earth that the noblestthings call for sacrifice, and yet it is one of the most beautiful; so that the Theosophist maysay with the proud boast of the Christian Church - and I deem it true, and even truer thanin their case - that the blood of its martyrs is the seed of its success, and of its victory. Theworld is ruled by ideas, and an inescapable truth it is also that the world's lower thought-currents must be opposed by ideas higher than they. It is only a greater idea which willcapture and lead captive the less idea, the smaller. Graecia capta Romam victricemcaptam subducit. "Captured Greece leads conquering Rome captive."

What is this Theosophical Movement which was so magnificently voiced in some ofits teachings by H.P. Blavatsky, but a series, an aggregate, of grand ideas? Not hers, notcollected by her from the different great thinkers of the world; but the god-wisdom of theworld; and she brought together the world's human wisdom in order to bulwark, for theweaker minds who needed such bulwarking, the grand verities shining with their stellarlight, and bearing the imprint of divinity upon them. Some men cannot see the imprints ofdivinity. Forsooth, they say, it is to be proved! They must put the finger into the nail-mark,into the hole. Millions are like that, they have not learned to think yet.

So the only way to conquer ideas is to lead them captive by grander ones; and thatis what Theosophy does: it is a body of divine ideas - not H.P. Blavatsky's, who was butthe mouthpiece in this day of them, but the ancient god-wisdom of our earth, belonging toall men, all nations, all peoples, all times; and given to protoplastic mankind in the verydawn of this earth's evolution by beings from higher spheres who had learned it themselvesfrom beings higher still - a primeval revelation from divinities. The echo of this revelationyou will find in every land, among every people, in every religion and philosophy that has

ever gained adherents.When H.P. Blavatsky brought our modern Theosophy to this world in our age, she

did not bring something new, she brought the cosmic Wisdom, the god-wisdom studied bythe Seers, as understood on this earth, which had been stated in all other ages precedingthat in which she came. She merely repeated what she had been taught; the same starryWisdom, divine in origin: Science because voicing nature's facts; Religion because raisingman to divinity; Philosophy because explanatory of all the problems that have vexedhuman intelligence. No vain boast this - aye, no empty words; no vain boast I repeat, buttruths which are provable by any thinking man or woman who will study our blessed god-wisdom faithfully and honestly.

It was an amazing world to which H.P. Blavatsky came, a world held by - theWestern world I am now speaking of - held by one slender, yet in a way faithful, link toSpirit, to wit the teachings of the Avatara Jesus called the Christ, nevertheless held to byfaith alone and by the efforts of a relative few in the Churches. On the other hand, millions,the major part of the men and women of the west, absolutely psychologized - by what?Facts? No! By theories, postulates, ideas, which had gained currency because they wereput forth aggressively and with some few natural facts contained in them. Why, all thescience of those days practically now is in the discard, and the scientists themselves havebeen the discarders, the later generations of scientists have themselves overthrown theoverthrower of man's hope in those days.

It was in such a time that H.P. Blavatsky came, and almost single-handed in an erawhen even in the home-life, in society so-called, it was considered exceedingly bad formeven to speak of the "soul" in a drawing-room; it was considered a mark of an inferiorintelligence. Alone, she wrote her books, challenging the entire thought-current of thewestern world, backed as it was by authority, backed by so-called psychology, backed byeverything that then was leading men astray. And today we Theosophists happen to knowthat her books are being read, mostly in secret, by some of the most eminent ultra-modernscientific thinkers of our time. What did she do? Mainly she based her attack on thatworld-psychology on two things: that the facts of nature are the facts of nature and aredivine; but that the theories of pretentious thinkers about them are not facts of nature, butare human theorizings, and should be challenged, and if good accepted pro tempore, andif bad, cast aside. She set the example; and other minds who had the wit to catch, to see,to understand, to perceive what she was after, gathered around her. Some of the meneminent in science in her time belonged to the Theosophical Society, although they rarelyworked for it. They lent their names to it occasionally. But she captured them by the ideasshe enunciated, and these men did their work in their own fields. That indeed already wasmuch.

Consider her titanic task: that of changing the shifting and varying ideas of a bodyof earnest scientific researchers after nature's facts: replacing these shifting ideas, thencalled science - which had for nearly two hundred years been casting out all thatinnumerable centuries of human experience had shown to be good and trustworthy -replacing these, I say, with thoughts that men could live by and become better by following,thoughts that men could die by with hope and in peace; and bringing these back intohuman consciousness by the power of her own intellect voicing the immemorial traditionsof the god-wisdom which she brought to us!

- Theosophical Forum, Dec., 1938

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Let the Christ-child Live

Theosophists look upon Christmas in two ways: First as the record of a sublime factin occult history and life, a sublime fact that every son of man some day in his own spiritualhistory will repeat, if he climb successfully. And the other way is even more dear to me;for as the cycling days bring the Christmas season around and the Christian worldcelebrates the supposed birth of the physical body of its Prince, its Chief, its Savior so-called, we Theosophists take the words of the Avatara, the Christ, in their higher sense Ido believe; for we feel that we men are the "sons of god," of the Divine that is, and that thespirit of love and consciousness of the most high dwelleth in the sanctuary of every man'sheart - which means that there is a Christ-child in my heart, in your heart. There is anunborn Christ in the soul of every one of us, the Christos, the Prince of Peace, the Bringerof Peace, the Prince of Love. Certain Orientals call it the Buddha, the Celestial Buddha inour hearts, but the idea is the same, if the words are not.

So when the Christmas season comes around, we realize that it is a good time tolet the Christ-child in our hearts speak, to attempt to understand it; nay more, to becomeat one with it so that with each new Christmas we may become more Christ-like, moreBuddha-like, more spiritual, nobler exemplars of the Christ which lives in the heart of eachone of us; so that one day, at the proper occult time, the Christ-child may be born as aChrist-man. And then, then the Sun of Healing will have arisen with health, with healing,with wholeness, in its wings, healing our sorrows, healing our troubles, effacing our woes,wiping the tears of grief from our eyes; simply because we as individuals shall havebecome at one with the spirit of the Universe of which, from which, a Ray, a bright Ray,lives at the heart of each one of us. This is what we Theosophists understand by the truebirth of the Christ - quite outside of the other facts of the case.

Let the Christ-child live. Do you know, we Occidentals have not ever tried it? Wetalk about it and dream it and debate it, but how few of us men and women live it, live it, tryit, come under its celestial influence? Why, I tell you, Brothers, that the man who does sois ten times the man he was before, keener of intellect, quicker of wit, larger of mind; forhe is inspired by the very forces that hold the Universe in order, in proportion as hebecomes the Christ-child in his heart. - G. de Purucker

- Theosophical Forum, Dec., 1938

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A COLLECTIVE SPIRITUAL FLAME - G. de Purucker

The following is extracted from a Letter written by Dr. G. de Purucker - recipient not

indicated, nor date of writing, though probably to a President of a T.S. Lodge in Europe,and in the 1930's - published in Messages to Conventions (pp. 228 - 30) by TheosophicalUniversity Press, Covina, California, in 1943. - Eds.

My heart yearns to broadcast throughout the ranks of the fellowship of the T.S., highand low, and everywhere, the sublime verity that any one of you, my Brothers, may becomea channel, if you only will to do so and train yourself so to become, for the reception of onlythe gods know how great an inrushing of the spiritual-psychic energies flowing from theseGreat Beings who, known or unknown, visible or invisible, presided over the founding of theT.S., and who will have it under their mighty protection and watchful care as long as weprove ourselves worthy and adequate instruments of their mighty strength and lovingguidance.

Hypocrisy and pretense in these matters on the part of fraudulent claimants tospiritual powers or guidance will not only defeat their own ends, but will infallibly slam thedoor of communication tight shut between the pretender and the source of Light, for sucha pretender is de facto a dissembler whose inner nature is divided against itself, and whotherefore, for this very reason, makes himself to be a crooked and therefore an utterly unfitinstrument and channel. Union with the high source is in his case stopped and blocked,and therefore is the connection broken.

What I am here writing to you about, my beloved Brothers, is to me one of thegreatest truths that all the various world-religions or world-philosophies originally taught,and which all, alas, with one possible exception, have now very largely forgotten, exceptas a theory, all empty possibility, mentally recognized but not followed, because consideredto be too abstract and afar off, and therefore virtually impossible of fulfilment. I tell you thatit is not impossible; it is not afar off; it is a reality. It is something nearer to you than yourown body, nearer to you than your own mind; closer than hands and feet. For if you butrealize it, you would know that your own higher consciousness at all times is inseparablylinked with this sublime Fountain or Source; and all the vestments of consciousness orsheaths of understanding, or bodies with which the Monad may clothe itself, are less closeto the Monad than this inmost of its own essence.

What a great, what a truly wonderful, thing it would be if only a hundred membersin the T.S. could become such self-consciously trained vehicles or channels for thisWonder-Force or Energy to flow through! Nay, why do I say a hundred? Why not say athousand; indeed, why not say five thousand - why not include every member of' the T.S.who realizes that as a Theosophist he has a possibility of becoming far more than a manof the world, merely, better than the average? What a picture rises before my mind's eye,as I see an ideal Theosophical Society, whose fellowship is formed of men and women whoare inspired, directed, comforted, by the divinity within each one of them, and who areworking in self-conscious collaboration with the Nirmanakayas whose holy presence everyintuitive Theosophist must at least at times feel the nearness of! With our spirits thusexpressing themselves, with our intellects thus enlightened, and with our hearts thusstimulated, the Fellowship of the Theosophical Society, within a relatively short time, wouldconquer the world, not in a material sense forsooth, but spiritually and intellectually, for theywould become like a collective Spiritual Flame in human society, lightening the path of all,and guiding the footsteps of those still in the darkness towards the Great Light.

I am not here dreaming of the Seventh Race in the Seventh Remind of this Globe

D of ours, although such indeed will be to a large extent the `human' society of that fardistant day. I am thinking of what might happen even today among men, if Theosophistswould realise the destiny that is theirs, the mission that it is ours to perform, and thetremendous unspeakably great, spiritual and intellectual energies that we could loose intothe world for the world's benefit and help and guidance.

(Eclectic Theosophist, No. 76)------------------------

COMETS AND METEORS - G. de Purucker

Because of world-wide interest in the approach of Halley's comet (nearest to the sunaround February 9, 1986), the following extracts may be of general interest. They arequoted from G. de Purucker's Studies in Occult Philosophy under the Section "Transactionsof the Headquarters Lodge." The student's presentation of the topic for the evening's study(Letter XXIII-B, especially pp. 161-2, of The Mahatma Letters) was followed by generaldiscussion, after which G. de P. spoke as follows:

I would never state that meteorites are fragments of disintegrated comets, norindeed that they are cometary material at all. When you reflect that comets or cometarymaterial are but one stage or degree less ethereal than is a nebula, you will realize that thefundamental idea here is wrong. It is perfectly true, however, that comets gather untothemselves in their peregrinations through cosmic and solar space, the waste-material ofthe universe. They accrete these to themselves by attraction, and often lose them becausewhen they pass by a sun, the solar attraction for such material things is heavy, muchstronger than the very weak attraction that the comets exercise.

Reflect that any comet, even the largest known comets, are composed of materialso exceedingly fine, so ethereal, that Halley's comet, for instance, one of the largest everknown perhaps, could be packed in a hand-bag and the hand-bag would not be filled; andyet some of these comets stretch for millions and millions and millions of miles, if youinclude the head and the tail.

Returning to meteorites: what then are these bodies? They are the waste-material,the ejecta, of former suns; and hereby hangs another wonderful tale which would take meseveral hours even to sketch if it were only to make that statement fully comprehensible.Perhaps I should remark that while a sun in its life-time is extremely ethereal, at its hearteven spiritual, as it approaches its end, it becomes much more concrete, thick, heavy,dense, and as we Theosophists say, material, until, just before the last flicker of solar lifepasses out, and the sun dies or becomes extinct, all that remains is a relatively heavy body.Then with the last