Is The Practice Of Concentration Beneficent?

Such is another question often asked. I answer: Genuine concentration and meditation, conscious and cautious, upon one's lower self in the light of the inner divine man and the Pâramitâs, is an excellent thing. But to “sit for Yoga,” with only a superficial and often distorted knowledge of the real practice, is almost invariably fatal; for ten to one the student will either develop mediumistic powers in himself or lose time and get disgusted both with practice and theory. Before one rushes into such a dangerous experiment and seeks to go beyond a minute examination of one's lower self and its walk in life, or that which is called in our phraseology, “The Chelâ's Daily Life Ledger,” he would do well to learn at least the difference between the two aspects of “Magic,” the White or Divine, and the Black or Devilish, and assure himself that by “sitting for Yoga,” with no experience, as well as with no guide to show him the dangers, he does not daily and hourly cross the boundaries of the Divine to fall into the Satanic. Nevertheless, the way to learn the difference is very easy; one has only to remember that no Esoteric truths entirely unveiled will ever be given in public print, in book or magazine.

I ask students to turn to the Theosophist of November, 1887. On [pg 491] page 98 they will find the beginning of an excellent article by Mr. Râma Prasâd on “Nature's Finer Forces.”820 The value of this work is not so much in its literary merit, though it gained its author the gold medal of the Theosophist, as in its exposition of tenets hitherto concealed in a rare and ancient Sanskrit work on Occultism. But Mr. Râma Prasâd is not an Occultist, only an excellent Sanskrit scholar, a university graduate and a man of remarkable intelligence. His essays are almost entirely based on Tântra works, which, if read indiscriminately by a tyro in Occultism, will lead to the practice of most unmitigated Black Magic. Now, since the difference of primary importance between Black and White Magic is the object with which it is practised, and that of secondary importance the nature of the agents used for the production of phenomenal results, the line of demarcation between the two is very—very thin. The danger is lessened only by the fact that every Occult book, so-called, is Occult only in a certain sense: that is, the text is Occult merely by reason of its blinds. The symbolism has to be thoroughly understood before the reader can get at the correct sense of the teaching. Moreover, it is never complete, its several portions each being under a different title, and each containing a portion of some other work; so that without a key to these no such work divulges the whole truth. Even the famous Shivâgama, on which Natures Finer Forces is based, “is nowhere to be found in complete form,” as the author tells us. Thus, like all others, it treats of only five Tattvas instead of the seven as in Esoteric teachings.

Now, the Tattvas being simply the substratum of the seven forces of Nature, how can this be? There are seven forms of Prakriti, as Kapila's Sânkhya, the Vishnu Purâna, and other works teach. Prakriti is Nature, Matter (primordial and elemental); therefore logic demands that the Tattvas also should be seven. For whether Tattvas mean, as Occultism teaches, “forces of Nature,” or, as the learned Râma Prâsad explains, “the substance out of which the universe is formed” and “the power by which it is sustained,” it is all one; they [pg 492] are Force, Purusha, and Matter, Prakriti. And if the forms, or rather planes, of the latter are seven, then its forces must be seven also. In other words, the degrees of the solidity of matter and the degrees of the power that ensouls it must go hand in hand.

The Universe is made out of the Tattva, it is sustained by the Tattva, and it disappears into the Tattva,

says Shiva, as quoted from the Shivâgama in Nature's Finer Forces. This settles the question; if Prakriti is septenary, then the Tattvas must be seven, for, as said, they are both Substance and Force, or atomic Matter and the Spirit that ensoule it.

This is explained here to enable the student to read between the lines of the so-called Occult articles on Sanskrit Philosophy, by which they must not be misled. The doctrine of the seven Tattvas (the principles of the Universe and also of man) was held in great sacredness and therefore secrecy, in days of old, by the Brâhmans, who have now almost forgotten the teaching. Yet it is taught to this day in the Schools beyond the Himâlayan Range, though now hardly remembered or heard of in India except through rare Initiates. The policy has, however, been changed gradually; Chelâs began to be taught the broad outlines of it, and at the advent of the T. S. in India in 1879, I was ordered to teach it in its exoteric form to one or two. I now give it out Esoterically.

Knowing that some students try to follow a system of Yoga in their own fashion, guided only by the rare hints they find in Theosophical books and magazines, which must naturally be incomplete, I chose one of the best expositions upon ancient Occult works, Nature's Finer Forces, in order to point out how very easily one can be misled by their blinds.

The author seems to have been himself deceived. The Tantras read Esoterically are as full of wisdom as the noblest Occult works. Studied without a guide and applied to practice, they may lead to the production of various phenomenal results, on the moral and physiological planes. But let anyone accept their dead-letter rules and practices, let him try with some selfish motive in view to carry out the rites prescribed therein, and—he is lost. Followed with pure heart and unselfish devotion merely for the sake of experiment, either no results will follow, or such as can only throw back the performer. But woe to the selfish man who seeks to develop Occult powers only to [pg 493] attain earthly benefits or revenge, or to satisfy his ambition; the separation of the Higher from the Lower Principles and the severing of Buddhi-Manas from the Tântrist's personality will speedily follow, the terrible Karmic results to the dabbler in Magic.

In the East, in India and China, soulless men and women are as frequently met with as in the West, though vice is, in truth, far less developed there than it is here.

It is Black Magic and oblivion of their ancestral wisdom that lead them thereunto. But of this I will speak later, now merely adding: you have to be warned and know the danger.

Meanwhile, in view of what follows, the real Occult division of the Principles in their correspondences with the Tattvas and other minor forces has to be well studied.