The Doctrine of the Heart · 2

27. Let us rejoice that we have opportunities of serving the great Cause by personal sacrifices, for such suffering can be used by Them to draw the poor, erring Humanity a little step higher. Any pain that a disciple may suffer is an earnest for a corresponding gain that comes to the world. He should, therefore,suffer ungrudgingly and gladly, since he sees a little more clearly than the blind mortality for which he suffers. In the whole course of evolution there is one law that is only too painfully evident, even to the eyes of the merest tyro,that nothing that is really worth having can be obtained without a corresponding sacrifice.

28. He who resigneth all sense of self, and maketh himself an instrument for the Divine Hands to work with, need have no fear about the trials and difficulties of the hard world. "As Thou directest, so I work". This is the easiest way of passing outside the sphere of individual Karma, for one who layeth down all his capacities at the Feet of the Lords creates no Karma for himself; and then, as SRI KRSHNA promises: "I take upon Myself his balance of accounts". The disciple need take no thought for the fruits of his actions. So taught the great Christian Master: "Take no thought for the morrow".

29. Do not allow impulses to guide conduct. Enthusiasm belongs to feeling, not to conduct. Enthusiasm in conduct has no place in real Occultism, for the Occultist must be always self-contained. One of the most difficult things in the life of the Occultist is to hold the balance evenly, and this power comes from real spiritual insight. The Occultist has to live more an inner than an outer life. He feels, realises, knows,more and more, but shows less and less. Even the sacrifices he has to make belong more to the inner world than to the outer. In ordinary religious devotion all the sacrifice and strength one's nature is capable of are used in adhering to externals, and in overcoming ridicule and temptations on the physical plane. But these have to be used for grander objects in the life of the Occultist. Proportion must be considered, and the external subordinated. In a word, never be peculiar. As the Hamsa takes the milk alone and leaves the water behind from a mixture of both,so doth the Occultist extract and retain the life and quintessence of all the various qualities, while rejecting the husks in which these were concealed.

30. How can people suppose that the Masters ought to interfere with the life and actions of people, and argue for Their non-existence, or for Their moral indifference, because They do not interfere? Folk might with equal reason question the existence of any moral Law in this Universe, and argue that the existence of iniquities and infamous practices among mankind is against the supposition of such a Law. Why do they forget that the Masters are Jivanmuktas and work with the Law, identify themselves with the Law, are in fact the very spirit of the Law? But there is no need to be distressed over this, for the tribunal to which we submit in matters of conscience is not public opinion but our own High Self. It is battle such as this that purifies the heart and elevates the soul, and not the furious fight to which our passions, or even "just indignation", and what is termed "righteous resentment", impel us.

31. What are troubles and difficulties to us? Are they not as welcome as pleasures and facilities? For are they not our best trainers and educators, and replete with salutary lessons? Does it not then behove us to move more evenly through all changes of life and vicissitudes of fortune? And would it not be much to our discredit if we failed in preserving the tranquility of mind and equilibrium of temper which ought always to mark the disposition of the disciple? Surely he should remain serene amid all external storms and tempests. It is a mad world this, altogether,if one looks at the mere outside of it, and yet who deceptive in its madness! It is the true insanity of lunacy where the subject of the disease is ignorant of his condition - nay, believes himself perfectly sound. Oh! if the harmony and the music which reign within the Soul of things were not perceptible to us, whose eyes have been opened to this utter madness that pervades the outer shell, how intolerable life would be to us.

32. Do you not think that it is not quite grateful to be cheerless, when we are obeying the wishes of our Lords and are out on our duty? You should not only have peace and contentment,but also joy and liveliness,while you are serving Those whose service is our highest privilege and the memory of whom is our truest delight. [Page29]

33. That They will never desert us is as certain as Death. But it is for us to cling to Them with real and deep devotion. If our devotion be real and deep, there is not the remotest chance of our falling away from Their holy Feet. But you know what real and deep devotion means. You know just as well as I do that nothing short of complete renunciation of the personal will, the absolute annihilation of the personal element in man, can constitute Bhakti proper and genuine. It is only when the whole human nature is in perfect harmony with the Divine Law, when there is not one discordant note in any part of the system, when all one's thoughts, ideas, fancies,desires, emotions, voluntary or involuntary, vibrate in response to and in complete concord with the "Great Breath", that the true ideal of devotion is attained,and not till then. We only rise beyond the chance of failure when this stage of Bhakti is reached, which alone ensures perpetual progress and undoubted success. The disciple does not fail through lack of care and love on the part of the Great Masters, but in spite of these, and through his own perverseness and inborn weakness. And we cannot say that perverseness is impossible in one who has yet lingering in him the idea of separateness- ingrained through aeons of illusive thought and corruption, and not yet completely rooted out.

34. We must not delude ourselves in any way. Some truths are indeed bitter, but the wisest course is to know them and face them. To dwell in a fancied paradise is only to shut off the real Elysium. It is true that if we sit down deliberately to find out whether or not we have still any trace of separateness or personality left in us, any wish to counteract the natural course of events, we may fail to find any motive, any reason, for such self-assertion or wish. Knowing and believing as we do that the idea of isolation is a mere product of Maya, that ignorance and all personal desires flow only from this feeling of isolation and are the root of all our misery, we cannot but scout these false and illusory notions when reasoning upon or about them. But if we analyse the actual facts, and watch ourselves all the day, and observe the various modes of our being, varying with the different circumstances, a very different conclusion will press itself upon us, and we shall find that the actual realisation in our own life of our knowledge and belief is yet a far-off incident and comes only for a brief moment now and again, when we are entirely forgetful of the body or any other material environment, and are completely wrapped in the contemplation of the Divine- nay, are merged in the Deity Himself.

35. To us, through the supreme mercy of our Lords,things one earth are a little plainer and more intelligible than to the man of the world, and that is why we are so eager to devote all our life's energy to Their service. All activity- charity, benevolence,patriotism, etc.- a cynic will say with jubilant sneer, is mere barter, is a pure question of give and take. But the nobler aspect which even this jeered-at, mercantile honesty - strictly construed and applied to higher walks of life - presents to the higher eye, is beyond the ken of the supercilious mocker; and so he laughs at and scouts honesty, calling it mercantile, and the foolish and light-hearted world, thirsting for a little mirth, laughs with him and calls him a shrewd and witty fellow. It we look at the surface of this wonderful sphere of ours,nothing but sadness and gloom will overspread our souls, and despair will paralyse all efforts at bettering its condition. But, looking beneath, how all inconsistencies melt away, and everything appears beautiful and harmonious,and the heart blooms and is gladdened, and liberally opens its treasures to the surrounding universe. So we need not feel disheartened at any frightful sight we see, nor mourn over the madness and the blindness of the men amidst whom we are born.

36. There are fixed moral laws,just as there are uniform physical laws These moral laws may be violated by man, endowed as he is with individuality and the freedom which that involves. Each such violation becomes a moral force in the direction opposite to that towards which evolution is drifting,and inheres in the moral plane. And by the law of reaction each has a tendency to evoke the operation of the right law. Now, when these opposing forces accumulate and acquire a gigantic form, the reactionary force necessarily becomes violent and results in moral and spiritual revolutions, pious wars, religious crusades, and the like. Expand this theory, and you understand the necessity for the appearance of Avataras on earth. How easy things become when one's eyes are opened; but how incomprehensible they look when the spiritual vision is blind, or even dim and dull. Nature in her infinite bounty has provided man on the outer planes with exact facsimiles of her inner workings, and verily those who have eyes to see may see, and those who have ears to hear may hear.

37. How intense is the longing to carry aid to the suffering Soul, in its hours of dire trial and of dreary darkness. But experience shows those who have passed through similar ordeals, that it is well that they did not at such times perceive the aid that yet is always given, and that they were weighed down with a sad sense of loneliness and of being totally forlorn. Were it otherwise,half the effect of the trial were lost, and the strength and knowledge which follow every such ordeal would have to be acquired by years of groping and tottering. The law of Action and Reaction is everywhere operative... One whose devotion is complete, i.e., one who in deed as well as in thought consecrates all his energies and all his possessions to the Supreme Deity, and realises his own nothingness as well as the falsity of the idea of separateness - such a one alone is not allowed to be approached by the powers of darkness,and is protected from every danger to his Soul. The passage in the Gita you are thinking of, must be interpreted to mean that no one who has the feeling of devotion once awakened in him can fall away for ever. But there is no guarantee for him against temporary aberrations. Why, in one sense, every living being, from the highest Angel to the meanest protozoon, is under the protection of the Logos of his or its system, and is carried through various stages and modes of existence back to His bosom, there to enjoy the blessedness of Moksha for an eternity.

38. The without always reveals the within to the seeing eye,and places and people are therefore always interesting. Again, the without is not such a despicable things as one may fancy in the first intensity and acuteness of his Vairagya, or disgust with shows. For if it were so, all creation would be a folly and purposeless expenditure of energy. But you know that it is not so in fact; that on the other hand there is a deep and sound philosophy even in these illusory manifestations and outward vestures, and that Carlyle in his Sartor Resartus has shadowed forth a portion of this philosophy. Why then turn with sickness and horror from even the outermost garbage? Are not even the robes in which the Supreme Deity masquerades holy to us and full of wise lessons? You say rightly that all things, fair and foul, have their suitable places in Nature, and constitute by their very difference and variety the perfection of the Supreme LOGOS.

39. Why should communication with the inside world be cut off, causing sadness and heaviness of heart? Because the outside has still some lessons to teach, and one of these lessons is that it is also divine in its essence, divine in its substance, and divine in its methods, and that therefore you should take more kindly to it. On the other hand,sadness and melancholy have their use and philosophy. They are as much needed for the evolution and budding out of the human Soul as joy and liveliness. They are, however, needed only at the earlier stages of our growth, and are dispenses with when the Self has blossomed out and has opened its heart to the Divine Sun.

40. You know how evolution works. We begin with no sensation at all. Gradually we develop it, and at one point of our pilgrimage we have it in the intensest degree. Then comes a period in which sensation is looked upon as Maya, and thus it begins to diminish and knowledge predominates,until in the end all sensation is burned up by knowledge, and we have absolute peace. But not peace in nescience, as at the commencement of our life in the mineral kingdom, but peace in omniscience; peace, not in complete apathy and as it were death,such as we see in stones, but in absolute life and absolute love. This finds rest, because it enlivens all that is, and pours its blessings upon the whole Universe. But extremes meet, and so in one of the aspects the beginning and the end coincide.

41. Two points I want to make clear: (1) that untrained psychics always run the risk of putting forward things really said by the enemy as injunctions from the Master; and (2) that the Master says nothing that the intellect of His audience cannot grasp, and against which their moral sense revolts. Master's words, however much they may be opposed to one's previous thoughts, never fail to bring the most absolute conviction, alike to the intellect and to the moral sense of the person addressed. They come like a revelation, rectifying an error which becomes at once apparent; they stream down like a column of light dispelling the gloom; they make no claim on credulity or blind faith.

42. You know how the enemy has been working against us, and if we fail in our devotion to the Masters, or in the discharge of the duties with which They have been pleased to entrust us, he will give us no end of trouble. But these troubles we do not mind much; we can endure them quite patiently and without a ruffle. What does torture us and disturb the peace of our mind, is the tearing away from our Lords with which we are now and again threatened. Nothing else can torment us - no personal pain, no physical loss, however great their amount. For we know beyond all doubt that all that is personal is transitory and fleeting, and all that is physical is illusory and false, and that nothing but folly and ignorance mourn over things belonging to the world of shadows.

43. For the disciple little is gained from teaching on the intellectual plane. The knowledge that infiltrates from the Soul down into the intellect is the only knowledge worth having, and surely as the days roll by, the disciple's store of such knowledge increases. And with the increase of such knowledge comes about the elimination of all that hinders him on the Path.

44. The feeling of pain is one to which any person who leads the life of the Spirit becomes accustomed. We know that pain cannot last for ever, and even if it did, it would not matter very much We cannot hope to be of any service to Them or to Humanity without taking our full measure of suffering from the enemies. But the ire of these Monarchs of Darkness is sometimes terrible to face, and they perfectly startle one by the Maya they sometimes create. But a pure heart has nothing to fear and is sure to triumph. The disciple must not distress himself over the temporary pain and illusion they try to create. Sometimes they may seem to work a regular havoc inside,and then he has to sit upon the ruins himself, quietly waiting for the time when the asuric Maya shall pass away. Always he should allow the wave of doubt and unrest to sweep over him, holding firmly to the anchor he has found. The enemy can do him no real or substantial harm,

45. so long as he remains devoted to Them with all his Soul and with all his might. "He who clingeth to Me, easily crosseth the ocean of death and of the world,by My help."

46. Nothing can happen to the disciple but that which is best for him. Once a person deliberately puts himself into the Hands of the gracious Masters, They see that everything happens at the proper time- the time at which the greatest advantage is reaped, alike for the disciple and for the world. He should therefore take all that comes in his way with a contented and cheerful spirit, and "take no thought for the morrow"... The storm-tossed bark on a raging sea is more peaceful than the life of the pilgrim to the shrine of Spirit. A peaceful life would mean stagnation and death in the case of one who has not acquired the right to peace by completely destroying the enemy - personality.

47. You should not fall into fallacies, that are committed by the ignorant. All real Love is an attribute of the Spirit, and Prana and Bhakti are the two aspects of the Divine Prakriti (Nature) which go to make worth living the life of an aspirant after the waters of immortality. In the stormy darkness of the disciple's life the sole light comes from Love, for Love and Ananda (Bliss) are in the highest sense identical,and the purer and the more spiritual the Love the more does it partake of the nature of Ananda, and the less is it mixed with incongruous elements. Only the Master's holy love is so majestically serene as to have nothing in it that does not partake of the Divine.

48. Discretion and economy are quite as necessary in Occultism as anywhere else. In fact, in the life of the Occultist all the faculties of the human mind that are regarded as virtues in the ordinary sense are put to the greatest use and exercise, and are necessary adjuncts to the real life which alone makes a disciple. The world cannot be helped so easily as many imagine,even if there were more agents available for the work. Knowledge on the part of the disciple is not the only thing needed. Look out and ponder,ere deciding that the knowledge and devotion of the few can push on the hands of the clock. Not a single attempt can be made without provoking fierce hostility from the other side,and is the world prepared to survive the reaction? You will understand how wise are our Lords in not going further than They do, if you only learn from all you have seen.

49. What would life be worth if we did not suffer - suffer to render the world groaning under our eyes a little purer, suffer to win a little more of the waters of life that will quench the thirst of some parched lips? In fact, but for the suffering that is the fate of the disciple who walks with bleeding feet on the Path,he might stray away and lose sight of the goal on which his gaze must ever be fixed. The Maya of the phenomenal world is so confusing, so bewitching, that it seems to me that the elimination of the pain a must inevitably be followed by oblivion of the realities of existence, and with the disappearance of the shadow of spiritual life its light would vanish too. So long as man has not been transformed into God, it is vain to expect to be in uninterrupted enjoyment of spiritual bliss, and in periods of its absence suffering alone keeps the feet of the disciple steady, and saves him from the death which would surely overtake him in the forgetfulness of the verities of the spiritual world.

50. The disciple should not be disturbed nor surprised when the spiritual forces turned against him by the other side find their playground on a plane higher than that of the physical intellect. It is true that the dying embers in some unseen and unnoticed cranny of his own nature may be fanned thereby into flame; but the flame is one that forms the signal of the final destruction of some weakness that must be burned away. So long as the taint of personality has not been clean washed out, vice in its manifold forms may find shelter in some neglected chamber of the heart, though it may not find expression in mental life. And the only way to render the sanctuary of the heart immaculate is to let the searchlight pierce into dark crannies, and calmly witness the work of their destruction. The disciple must never let this purificatory process fill him with dismay,whatever monstrosities he may be called upon to witness. He must hold fast to the Feet of Him who dwells in the glorious burning-ground of all that is material; then he has nothing to fear or to be anxious about. He has faith in Those who protect and help, and may well leave the workings on the spiritual plane to be watched and directed by Them. When the dark cycle is over, he will again recognise how the gold shines when the dross has been burned away.

51. In this mundane sphere of ours, as on all planes of existence, night alternates with day - there is shadow beneath the lamp itself. And yet how strange that men of culture and erudition should fancy that with the advancement of Science, of gross materialistic Science, all misery- individual, racial, and national - will cease for ever and ever; diseases, droughts, plagues,wars, inundations, nay, cataclysms themselves, will all be things of the remote past!

52. The interest that we have in all the affairs of this elusive sphere belongs only to the emotions and the intellect, and cannot touch the Soul. So long as we identify ourselves with the body and the mind, the vicissitudes which overcome the Theosophical Society, the dangers which threaten its life or solidarity,must have a depressing, nay, sometimes almost a frenzied, influence upon our spirits. But as soon as we come to live in the Spirit, to realise the illusory nature of all eternal existence, the changeful character of every human organisation, and the immutability of the Life within, we must, whether the brain-consciousness reflect the knowledge or not, feel an inward calm, an unconcernedness, as it were, with this world of shadows, and remain unaffected by the revolutions and eruptions of the world. Once the Higher Ego is reached, the knowledge that the Laws and Powers which govern the universe are infinitely wise becomes instinctive, and peace in the midst of outward throes is inevitable.

53. Roughly and broadly speaking, on the plane we live upon there are three standpoints of looking at human misery in general. We may regard it, for instance: (1) as a test of character; (2) as a retributive agency; and (3) as a means of education in the largest signification of the word. From all these points of view, I fancy the "deadness" (experienced by all aspirants at times) stands to acute pain in very much the same relation as solitary confinement to imprisonment with hard labour. The illustration is, no doubt, a very crude one, but it seems to me very suggestive, and I have invariably found analogy to be of great help in the comprehension of abstract and subtle propositions; hence this plan of explaining things. Again, all the forces here are working towards the evolution of perfected humanity, and it is only by the harmonious development of all our higher faculties and nobler virtues that we can attain perfection. And this harmonious development is possible only by the proper exercise of those faculties and virtues, while this exercise in its turn requires particular conditions for each distinct attribute. Positive intense suffering does not either test or repay or bring into play the same capacities and merits of mankind as a dull, dreary void within. Patience, passive endurance,faith, devotion, are far better developed under a mental gloom than during an active hard struggle. The law of action and reaction holds good on the moral plane,and the virtues evoked by this mental "numbness" are those best fitted to combat and overcome it; and these are certainly not the same with which you confront actual pain, however excruciating. One word more on this point, and I shall pass on. This state of mind indicates that the pilgrim is on the borderland between the known and the unknown, with a distinct tendency towards the latter. It marks a definite degree of spiritual growth, and points to that stage where the Soul in its onward march has vaguely, yet unmistakably, realised the illusive character of the material world, is dissatisfied and disgusted with the gross things it sees and knows, and hankers after things more real, knowledge more substantial.

54. The above explanation, though very succinct and desultory, will, I hope, satisfy you as to the utility of vairagya - of the feeling of the absence of all life and reality in both yourself and the world around you - in the economy of Nature, and show how it serves as a touchstone for firmness of mind and singleness of heart, how as a punitive measure it antidotes intellectual egoism- the philosophical blunder of identifying the Self with the personality - the folly of seeking to nourish the Soul with gross material food; and how, moreover, it develops, or rather tends to develop, true faith and devotion, and awakens the higher Reason and the Love of the Divine.

55. From the highest to the lowest, life is an alternation between rest and motion, between light and darkness, between pleasure and pain. So never allow your heart to sink into despair or to be carried away by any adverse current of thought. You have proved to yourself intellectually, and are now actually experiencing, the shadowy, unreal character of things perceptible by the organs of sense or even by the mind, and the ephemeral nature of all physical and emotional enjoyments. Hold fast, therefore, to the path which will bring you to a view of the real life, however rugged the regions through which it leads,however destitute of joy the deserts across which it now and then winds. Above all, have faith in the Merciful Ones, our Wise Masters,and devote yourself heart and soul to Their service, and all will come out well.

56. All that is needed for the weeding out of any vice: