Theosophy - Aspects of Divine Law - Compilation and Editorial notes by Geoffrey Farthing
ASPECTS
OF DIVINE LAW
Compilation
and Editorial Notes by GEOFFREY A.FARTHING
Geoffrey
Farthing has authorized us to reproduce
this document
for purely non-commercial purposes
only.
|
INTRODUCTION
Most of what follows is extracted from the
writings of H.P. Blavatsky. It has been
said that these writings constitute a
quarry from which generations of students
can extract treasures of information
concerning the truths of existence. What
follows has been taken from these writings
by the use of indexes, and the numerous
extracts classified very roughly according
to aspect.
The
story is a vast one. The universe manifests
dynamism in all its operations and these
operations apparently exhibit order.
Whatever chaos there may have been in
the remote beginnings of things now manifests
this order as harmony and equilibrium.
Were this not so the whole cosmic scene
would be chaotic and self-destructive
whereas it is self-preserving as is evidenced
by its very existence after countless
millions of years.
What
applies to the whole applies to the parts
and our earth is such a part; for us
humans living on it is a very significant
part. It is our home. It too manifests
in all its natural processes the harmony
of the whole. We see these in its cyclical
activities: the rhythmic changes of the
seasons, the processes of growth from
seed to flower and seed again, in birth,
adolescence, maturity and death. We are
also aware of the orbital journey of
our earth round the sun in relationship
to the movements of the other planets
of our system and the awesome immensity
of the map of heaven.
It
is perhaps too facile to say that these
planetary movements are governed by gravity.
The whole process is a happy resolution
of many complex forces which somehow
or other are made to support the relatively
stable but ever-changing grand scheme
of existence.
We
notice in all the activities of the countless
forms of Nature this same harmonizing
stability. In general everything has
the opportunity to fulfil whatever function
it was designed for in the overall scheme
of things.
This
overall ordering of the vast variety
of life forms which constitute a) our
planet and b) the universe that we know
of can be regarded as government by law.
It is the law to which the activity of
everything has to subscribe willy nilly
or disaster follows. The law maintains
the equilibrium or balance, at least
for a time, be that time very short or
very long.
Another
aspect of Nature, and this becomes
apparent to the student of Esoteric Science,
Occultism
or Theosophy, is that Nature comprises
everything, not only at physical level
but at inner subjective levels as well.
These inner levels reflect into us
human beings by way of our thoughts and
feelings,
our aspirations, our ecstasies, in
fact the whole gamut of our emotions. These
are all within the ambit of Nature’s processes and, in terms of their vehicles,
they are the structures which constitute
the parts of her make-up.
All
things in Nature and in the Cosmos, it
is said, manifest life. This life is
whole and homogeneous throughout the
piece. The same life manifests through
all things in their infinite diversity.
It is the dynamism of the whole, with
its infinity of cyclical, periodical
movement, as, for example, a clock spring
provides the energy for the eventual
movement of the hands on the face. Time
is told, so to speak, by movement and
the whole process or nature of our earth
is movement inherent in it by way of
the dynamism of this One life.
According
to the great science of Occultism this
One Life is the seat or source of consciousness.
Just as the One Life manifests in everything
in existence by way of its inherent dynamism,
so every thing in its degree is endowed
with consciousness.
The
building blocks of things in existence
are the infinitely small lives of which
everything is composed. They aggregate
and diversify in form and function by
specialization and are the basis for
the characteristics of every living thing,
enabling it to function in the sphere
to which it is allotted. In man this
aggregation results in his overall consciousness,
all his faculties and his physical constitution.
This
intelligence informing all creation is
inherent in it. It is by reason of the
aggregate of the accumulated learning
of all the lives comprising Nature that
it comes to ‘know’ the ‘rules’ of existence. It has learned what to do
and what not to do. In other words, paths
of action have been worked out, delineated
and adopted as the result of countless
ages of experience. These paths of action
in the aggregate constitute the governing
factors in the whole natural process.
These governing factors, it must be noted,
stem from the within to the without and,
if we ascribe to the within at its high
levels Divinity or Deity, that is the
nature of the original governing impulse.
There is a saying in Occultism that Deity
is Law and Law is Deity. By reason of
its very nature this law in all manifested
existence at any time is inexorable and
omnipotent at all levels of being. By
way of it everything is as it is, and
it is by reason of what went before.
In other words it is the law of cause
and effect.
These
aggregated entities comprising greater
or lesser numbers of constituent lives
not only have consciousness but, according
to Esoteric Science, are endowed with
memory. Consciousness and memory are
the basis of intelligence. By reason
of memory they are conditioned by experience
and can therefore learn. The learning
process modifies them, hence their growth
and development. Modifications to the
inner elements of their being are reflected
or projected into modifications in the
objective, physical world of forms. It
is in this sense that the forms of living
things are said to be possessed of memory.
There
is a tenet in Esotericism that all these
aggregated lives comprise hierarchies
of beings at all stages of development
from the lowest to the highest. At the
lowest level they are referred to as
Elementals but they are still possessed
of sentience and memory which, as in
the case of all other forms, conditions
them to fulfil a characteristic function
in the scheme of things. This sentience-cum-memory
is the basis of instinct. All forms in
the kingdoms of Nature up to man manifest
this inbuilt instinct. It can be said
that they do what they are.
The
learning process translates eventually
into intelligence, the degree of which
varies according to the development of
the form manifesting it. In man this
intelligence factor becomes very significant.
At a stage in his development it becomes
Mind. The teaching here makes the significant
statement that our present humanity did
not develop mind by this slow evolutionary
process but developed an otherwise latent
mental faculty sufficiently to enable
more progressive entities who had developed
mind in previous world cycles to endow
nascent humanity with the mind faculty.
The
hierarchies of beings move up in the
scale of evolutionary development from
the elemental into the mineral, vegetable,
animal and ultimately the human kingdoms
that we are familiar with at our physical
level of existence. The teaching has
it, however, that this evolutionary
development proceeds on after the man stage
into
super-human stages where there are
numerous hierarchies of beings of various
grades
of intelligence and power from those
immediately post-human to the very
exalted magnificent beings who play the
parts
in the grand evolutionary process of
what we might regard as gods. They
are the supreme intelligences controlling
all the intelligences beneath them.
In
this scale of things the lowest are
the Elementals which operate on all planes
of being and are the effective agents
of all action. The Great Beings, the
Planetary Spirits as they are called,
in some classifications Archangels,
are
each of them a collective being consisting
of lesser beings who themselves have
reached exalted states of knowledge
and power.
It
is the aggregate intelligence not only
of these Great Beings but of all others
on the total ladder of life that impress
upon all the forces of Nature (the Elementals)
their proper course of action. This proper
course constitutes the Universal or Divine
Law, and it applies in every detail from
the highest to the lowest of everything
in manifestation. As we shall see in
the extracts which follow, because of
its inherent intelligent nature, this
Law has a moral aspect. This means that,
in the case of man who is responsible
for his actions and even thoughts, his
intentions and motives determine the
Karmic effects of what he does.
But
it is the law of cause only by reason
of action. All actions as causes produce
effects. We have said that the law operates
at all levels, including the inner subjective
ones of emotion and mind, whereon it
also works.
Most
things, plants and animals in Nature
behave according to their characteristic
natures; they have no intent or purpose
other than to do what they are naturally
fitted to do. For them therefore the
effects of what they do are purely mechanical
and no blame attaches to them. The situation
is different for human beings. Their
motives for actions are very complex.
They can be benevolent or malevolent,
selfish or altruistic, and according
to their motive will be the result of
their actions.
In
Eastern scriptures this divine law
is known as Karma and that which things
do by way of their nature is known
as
their Dharma. Man’s Dharma therefore should be to act as a
human being. Many human beings at our
stage of evolutionary development are,
however, still motivated by animalistic
urges. They do not fulfil their Dharma
as properly developed human beings;
so, failing in that, they incur the
workings
of the law of Karma.
Eventually
by suffering and the processes of the
development of proper human faculties
and their use man will learn how to live
his life as a human being. This learning
process is long and leads him into difficulties
and distress along the way. His Karmic
destiny is, however, to become a fully-fledged
human being manifesting only the proper
human characteristics. According to the
teachings this is the road leading to
the perfectability of man. It is the
goal eventually for all of us; the law
is a vast educative process. We are not,
however, bound to it for ever; the ‘personal’ man ripens, so to speak, and becomes the
spiritualized man, fitting himself to
occupy the next level on the stupendous
ladder of existence.
Such
are the workings of the Law, often referred
to as “the good law”.
There
is an apt passage in a letter from
one of H.P.B.’s Teachers:
Teach
the people to see that life on this earth,
even the happiest, is but a burden and
an illusion, that it is but our own Karma, the cause producing the effect, that is
our own judge, our Saviour in future
lives, and the great struggle for life
will soon lose its intensity.
----------
Regarding
the text of this work, as it is entirely
based on quotations taken out of their
contexts in the original works, the result
is disconnected. It is hoped, however,
that what is presented will be regarded
as nuggets of information which, taken
together, will constitute a comprehensive
and valuable view of the vast subject
of Divine Law.
In
some of the extracts the cosmic planes
and the principles of man are given numbers,
e.g. mind (or manas) is the fifth. The
classification of the planes and corresponding
principles, together with the numeration,
is used consistently throughout the original
literature (see table at end).
REFERENCES
|
1 |
I.U. |
ISIS
UNVEILED, Vols I and II, all editions
same pagination
|
2 |
S.D. |
THE
SECRET DOCTRINE, Vols I, II and
III, Original Edition and C.W.
series [Vol III is 1897 ed. or in C.W.XII]
|
3 |
C.W. |
THE
COLLECTED WRITINGS OF H.P.
BLAVATSKY,
14 Vols, edited by Boris
de Zirkoff
|
4 |
KEY |
THE
KEY TO THEOSOPHY, Original Edition
|
5 |
MLC |
THE
MAHATMA LETTERS TO A.P.SINNETT, Chronological
Edition [Same content but different
pagination in 2nd and 3rd Editions]
|
1.
IN THE BEGINNING
To
start an essay on the nature of Karma
and its ramifications necessarily involves
a look at the very beginnings of things,
at least as far as our earth is concerned.
In the Introduction we mentioned the
importance of the idea of the One Life
manifesting in all lives. Associated
with that One Life, it is said, there
is a class of entities known as the Lipikas
described in The Secret Doctrine as “Scribes” :
...
these Divine Beings are connected with
Karma, the Law of Retribution, for they
are the Recorders or Annalists who impress
on the (to us) invisible tablets of the
Astral Light - “the great picture gallery of eternity” - a faithful record of every act, and even
thought, of man, of all that was, is,
or every will be, in the phenomenal Universe....
this divine and unseen canvas is the
BOOK OF LIFE. As it is the Lipikas who
project into objectivity from the passive
Universal Mind the ideal plan of the
universe, upon which the “Builders” reconstruct the Kosmos after every Pralaya,
it is they who stand parallel to the
Seven Angels of the Presence, whom the
Christians recognize in the Seven “Planetary Spirits” or the “Spirits of the Stars”; for thus it is they who are the direct
amanuenses of the Eternal Ideation -
or, as called by Plato, the “Divine Thought”.
[S.D.I,
104]
And
so we start our story with an account
of how these Divine Beings, the Lipikas,
impress the content of Divine Ideation
- conditioned by previous eternities
of existent things - upon the nascent
matter of a new Cosmos or Universe, which
of course includes our earth. All that
will be is conditioned by these antecedents
through the agency of the Lipikas.
Later
there is the following:
The
ONE LIFE is closely related to the one law which governs the World of Being - KARMA.
Exoterically, this is simply and literally “action”, or rather an “effect-producing cause”. Esoterically it is quite a different thing
in its far-fetching moral effects. It
is the unerring LAW OF RETRIBUTION. To
say to those ignorant of the real significance,
characteristics and awful importance
of this eternal immutable law, that no
theological definition of a personal
deity can give an idea of this impersonal,
yet ever present and active Principle,
is to speak in vain. Nor can it be called
Providence.
[S.D.I,
634]
This
last extract ends with a reference to ‘Divine Providence’ which in some quarters is regarded as “tempering His blessings to secure better
effects.” The quotation ends with “which Karma - a sexless principle - does
not.”
Quoting
again:
...
at the first flutter of renascent life,
Svabhabat, “the mutable radiance of the Immutable darkness
unconscious in Eternity”, passes, at every new rebirth of Kosmos,
from an inactive state into one of intense
activity; that it differentiates, and
then begins its work through that differentiation.
This work is KARMA.
[S.D.I,
634-5]
After
a brief dissertation on the processes
of ‘creation’ a passage concludes to the effect that these
processes:
...
are the direct reflex of the One Light,
yet men are far removed from these, since
the whole of the visible Kosmos consists of “self-produced beings, the creatures of Karma”.
[S.D.I,
635]
This
is followed by a statement to the effect
that:
...
only “two things are (objectively) eternal, namely Akasa and Nirvana”; and that these are ONE in reality, and
but a maya when divided.
[S.D.I,
635]
A
close study of the information given
us in the S.D. reveals that Maya - and
Karma - constitute the mechanism of evolution
and that that evolution as it applies
to spiritual man as Egoic or Divine Self
is the sole purpose of the whole process,
at least as far as our immediate Cosmos,
and in particular our Earth, is concerned.
Later,
still regarding Karma, there is the statement:
There
are “Cycles of Matter” and there are “Cycles of Spiritual Evolution”. Racial, national, and individual cycles.
[S.D.I,
638]
In
this surely we see two important things:
one is the material and spiritual aspects
of the Law and the other is that in its
cycles everything is included.
The
working of the cause and effect aspect
of the Law necessarily involves the fact
that what is now is the result of the
past and what is to come will be the
result of what happens now. There is
a passage which reads:
There is a
predestination in the geological life
of our globe, as in the history, past
and future, of races and nations. This
is closely connected with what we call Karma ...
[S.D.I,
641]
There
is an interesting reiteration of a statement
that has been made before, to the effect
that:
“The
revolution of the physical world, according
to the ancient doctrine, is attended
by a like revolution in the world of
intellect - the spiritual evolution
of the world proceeding in cycles, like
the physical one.
Thus
we see in history a regular alternation
of ebb and flow in the tide of human
progress. The great kingdoms and empires
of the world, after reaching the culmination
of their greatness, descend again,
in accordance with the same law by which
they ascended; till, having reached
the
lowest point, humanity reasserts itself
and mounts up once more, the height
of its attainment being, by this law of
ascending progression by cycles, somewhat
higher than the point from which it
had
descended before.” (from I.U.I, 34)
But
these cycles - wheels within wheels,
so comprehensively and ingeniously symbolized
by the various Manus and Rishis in India
... do not affect all mankind at one and the
same time ... Hence, as we see, the difficulty of
comprehending and discriminating between
them with regard to their physical and
spiritual effects, without having thoroughly
mastered their relations with, and action
upon, the respective positions of nations
and races, in their destiny and evolution.
This system cannot be comprehended if
the spiritual action of these periods
- preordained, so to say, by Karmic law - is separated
from their physical course....
[S.D.I,
641]
2.
THE LAW ITSELF
We
start this section with a splendid description
of Karma and how it works.
Karma
thus, is simply action, a concatenation of causes and effects. That which adjusts each effect to its direct
cause; that which guides invisibly and
as unerringly these effects to choose,
as the field of their operation, the right person in the right place, is what we call Karmic Law.... in the active laws of Karma - absolute Equity - based on the Universal Harmony, there
is neither foresight nor desire; and
because again, it is our own actions,
thoughts, and deeds which guide that law, instead of being guided by it.
[C.W.XI,
144-5]
It
is not the impersonal law of Karma which
creates causes, it is the actions of
living things and in particular the actions
of responsible man who creates them.
Karma is the adjuster of effects.
It
is not the absolute that creates Karma,
but the finite and sentient being evoluted
out of it, or the visible projection
of a finite portion of this absolute.
In other words, it is man, or matter
in its highest state of perfection on
earth - matter plus Brahm or the absolute.
[C.W.IV,
194]
There
was also a universal belief from early
times in rulers, gods, of the four cardinal
points, or the corresponding cosmical
forces, of space (with respect to our
earth). They had various names among
which were Rector and Maharaja.
It
is not the “Rector” or “Maharaja” who punishes or rewards, with or without “God’s” permission or order, but man himself - his
deeds or Karma, attracting individually
and collectively (as in the case of whole
nations sometimes) every kind of evil
and calamity. We produce CAUSES, and
then awaken the corresponding powers
in the sidereal world; which powers are
magnetically and irresistibly attracted
to - and react upon - those who produced
those causes; whether such persons are
practically the evil-doers, or simply
thinkers who brood mischief.
[S.D.I,
124]
In
the Christian scriptures (Corinthians
vi,7) it says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap”. Karma puts it thus:
We
firmly believe, in the actuality, and
the philosophical necessity of “Karma”, i.e., in that law of unavoidable retribution,
the not-to-be diverted effect of every
cause produced by us, reward as punishment
in strict conformity with our actions;...
[C.W.IV,
499]
In
a number of places H.P.B. points out
false teaching in other religions, particularly
in Christianity where, in spite of the
above quotation from Corinthians, its
doctrines teach the forgiveness of sins
whereby a man feels himself relieved
of his responsibility for the consequences
of his acts.
Instead
of bettering morality Christianity but
adds to the natural human vices, owing
to the doctrine of atonement and salvation
by prayer, instead of that of self-reliance
and Karma.
[C.W.V,
123]
It
is generally appreciated that the law
of Karma has a series of aspects. For
example, it maintains the equilibrium
and harmony of the operations of Nature.
This is generally accepted as the law
of cause and effect. Under that aspect
of the law things are as they are as
a result of their antecedents (what went
before). On the other hand H.P.B. has
on occasions pointed out that there is
a moral aspect to this law under which
motive is as important as an act itself
in terms of its effects. In the following
quotation a distinction is made between
the law of Karma as a moral law and that
of the law of cause and effect:
It
is generally supposed that animals are
not under the operation of the law of
Karma as applied to human beings....
The
error often committed is to mistake the
general law of cause and effect for the
law of merit and demerit....
The
law of Karma is a moral law, and where
no moral responsibility exists, there
can be no application of the law of karma;
but the law of cause and effect applies
to all departments of nature.
[C.W.VI,
236]
We
are seeing that Universal Law underlies
all the activities of Cosmos. Nevertheless,
however it is regarded, the law of Karma
is an integral part of that universal
process with its endless cycles, including
those of birth and death.
For
the latter [Karma] is the very corner-stone
of Esoteric philosophy ... it is the
grand and one pillar on which hangs the
whole philosophy of rebirths, and once
the latter is denied, the whole doctrine
of karma falls into meaningless verbiage.
[C.W.VII,
177]
That
is followed by:
The
law of retribution as Karma, awaits man
at the threshold of his new incarnation.
[C.W.VII,
180]
Our
responsibility for creating our Karma
is constantly reiterated:
[Theosophists]
preach against every dogmatic and infallible
religion and recognize no other deity,
which dispenses suffering and recompense,
than Karma, an arbiter created by their
own actions.
[C.W.VIII,
80]
The
following quotation could imply that
Karma fixes a man’s life span by allotting the amount of energy
he can expend during that life:
The
amount of Kinetic energy to be expended
during life by one particular set of
physiological cells is allotted by Karma
- another aspect of the Universal Principle
...
[C.W.IX,
76 fn]
H.P.B.
tells us in many places that it is possible
for unworthy people to obtain the secrets
of Nature and to use this knowledge selfishly.
She regards this as black magic.
And,
although it is the intention that decides
primarily whether white or black magic
is exercised, yet the results even of
involuntary, unconscious sorcery cannot
fail to be productive of bad Karma. Enough
has been said to show that sorcery is any kind of evil influence exercised
upon other persons, who suffer, or make
other persons suffer, in consequence. Karma is a heavy stone splashed in the quiet
waters of Life; and it must produce ever
widening circles of ripples, carried
wider and wider, almost ad infinitum.
Such causes produced have to call forth
effects, and these are evidenced in the
just laws of Retribution.
[C.W.IX,
259]
Karma
is ever working, even in the periods
between personal lives. The characteristic
effect of deeds, thoughts, etc., are
transmitted to the next personality via
Elementals (or Life Atoms) .
KARMA,
TANHA and SKANDHAS, are the almighty
trinity in one, and the cause of our
re-birth.... it is its KARMA that guides
the idiosyncracies and prominent moral
traits of the old “personality” that was (and that the EGO knew not how
to control), to reappear in the new man that will be. These traits and passions
pursue and fasten on the yet plastic
third and fourth priniples of the child,
and - unless the EGO struggles and conquers
- they will develop with tenfold intensity
and lead the adult man to his destruction.
For it is they who are the tools and
weapons of the Karmic law of retribution.
[C.W.X,
176]
The
importance of motive for our actions
is repeatedly stressed:
...
in ordinary human law, an assault is
more severely punished than the thought
or intention, i.e., the threat, whereas
Karmically it is the contrary.
[C.W.X,
399]
Nothing
in the manifest Universe lasts for ever
and this applies to circumstances in
life and to the after-death states of
being, as well as to all existent things.
Here
we positively refuse to accept the cruel
and unphilosophical belief in eternal
reward or eternal punishment.
[Key,
110]
Concerning
the operation of Karma, whilst this is
ultimately in the realms of mystery,
there is the following:
Neither
Atma nor Buddhi are ever reached by Karma,
because the former is the highest aspect
of Karma, its working agent of ITSELF in one aspect, and the other is
unconscious on this plane.
[Key,
135]
In
the extracts we have made so far there
is a considerable amount of reiteration
of content but each extract adds a little
more colour to our forming ideas.
...Our
philosophy has a doctrine of punishment
as stern as that of the most rigid Calvinist,
only far more philosophical and consistent
with absolute justice. No deed, not even
a sinful thought, will go unpunished;
the latter more severely even than the
former, as a thought is far more potential
in creating evil results than even a
deed. We believe in the unerring law
of Retribution, called KARMA, which asserts
itself in a natural concatenation of
causes and their unavoidable results.
[Key,
140]
The
operations of the Cosmos (on whatever
scale we conceive it) constitute a process,
and this process is orderly.
What
we believe in is strict and impartial
justice. Our idea of the unknown Universal
Deity, represented by Karma, is that
it is a Power which cannot fail, and
can therefore, have neither wrath nor
mercy, only absolute Equity, which leaves
every cause, great or small, to work
out its inevitable effects.
[Key, 199]
The
following extracts are a selection only
from a whole section in The Key on “What is Karma?” Readers are referred to the original; it
is particularly rich in application to
the human situation.
ENQ.
But what is Karma?
In
answer we have one of the most comprehensive
descriptions of the Law:
THEO.
As I have said, we consider it as the Ultimate Law of the Universe, the source, origin and
fount of all other laws which exist throughout
Nature. Karma is the unerring law which
adjusts effect to cause, on the physical,
mental and spiritual planes of being.
As no cause remains without its due effect
from greatest to least, from a cosmic
disturbance down to the movement of your
hand, and as like produces like, Karma is that unseen and unknown law which adjusts wisely, intelligently and equitably each effect to its cause, tracing the latter
back to its producer. Though itself unknowable, its action is perceivable....
ENQ.
Then it is the “Absolute”, the Unknowable again, and is not of much
value as an explanation of the problems
of life?
THEO.
On the contrary. For though we do not
know what Karma is per se, and in its essence, we do know how it works, and we can define and
describe its mode of action with accuracy.
We only do not know its ultimate Cause, just as modern philosophy universally admits
that the ultimate Cause of anything is “unknowable”.
[Key,
201]
THEO.
... according to our teaching all these
great social evils, the distinction of
classes in Society, and of the sexes
in the affairs of life, the unequal distribution
of capital and of labour - all are due
to what we tersely but truly denominate
KARMA.
ENQ.
But, surely, all these evils which seem
to fall upon the masses somewhat indiscriminately
are not actual merited and INDIVIDUAL
Karma?
THEO.
No. they cannot be so strictly defined
in their effects as to show that each
individual environment, and the particular
conditions of life in which each person
finds himself, are nothing more than
retributive Karma which the individual
generated in a previous life. We must
not lose sight of the fact that every
atom is subject to the general law governing
the whole body to which it belongs, and
here we come upon the wider track of
the Karmic law. Do you not perceive that
the aggregate of individual Karma becomes
that of the nation to which those individuals
belong, and further, that the sum total
of National Karma is that of the World?
The evils that you speak of are not peculiar
to the individual or even to the Nation,
they are more or less universal; and
it is upon this broad line of Human interdependence
that the law of Karma finds its legitimate
and equable issue.
ENQ.
Do I, then, understand that the law of
Karma is not necessarily an individual
law?
THEO.
That is just what I mean. It is impossible
that Karma could readjust the balance
of power in the world’s life and progress unless it had a broad
and general line of action. It is held
as a truth among Theosophists that the
interdependence of Humanity is the cause
of what is called Distributive Karma,
and it is this law which affords the
solution to the great question of collective
suffering and its relief. It is an occult
law, moreover, that no man can rise superior
to his individual failings, without lifting,
be it ever so little, the whole body
of which he is an integral part. In the
same way, no one can sin, nor suffer
the effects of sin, alone. In reality,
there is no such thing as “Separateness”; and the nearest approach to that selfish
state, which the laws of life permit,
is in the intent or motive.
ENQ.
And are there no means by which the distributive
or national Karma might be concentrated
or collected, so to speak, and brought
to its natural and legitimate fulfilment
without all this protracted suffering?
THEO.
As a general rule, and within certain
limits which define the age to which
we belong, the law of Karma cannot
be hastened or retarded in its fulfilment.
But of this I am certain, the point
of
possibility in either of these directions
has never yet been touched. Listen
to the following recital of one phase of
national suffering, and then ask yourself
whether, admitting the working power
of individual, relative, and distributive
Karma, these evils are not capable
of
extensive modification and general
relief. What I am about to read to you
is from
the pen of a National Saviour, one
who, having overcome Self, and being free
to choose, has elected to serve Humanity,
in bearing at least as much as a woman’s shoulders can possibly bear of National
Karma.
[Key,
202-4]
THEO.
Europeans have got so much into the ingrained
habit of considering right and wrong,
good and evil, as matters of an arbitrary
code of law laid down either by men,
or imposed upon them by a Personal God.
We Theosophists, however, say that “Good” and “Harmony”, and “Evil” and “Disharmony”, are synonymous. Further we maintain that
all pain and suffering are results of
want of Harmony, and that the one terrible
and only cause of the disturbance of
Harmony is selfishness in some form or another. Hence Karma gives
back to every man the actual consequences of his own actions, without any regard to
their moral character; but since he receives
his due for all, it is obvious that he will be made to atone
for all sufferings which he has caused,
just as he will reap in joy and gladness
the fruits of all the happiness and harmony
he had helped to produce. I can do no
better than quote for your benefit certain
passages from books and articles written
by our Theosophists - those who have
a correct idea of Karma.
[Key,
206-7]
H.P.B.
quotes a number of other people’s writings on Karma, one of which discusses
the views of religion vis-à-vis the provisions of the Law as given in
Esotericism. She selects some verses
from Edwin Arnold’s The Light of Asia (pp 140-143).
Before
beginning, and without an end,
As
space eternal and as surety sure,
Is
fixed a Power divine which moves to good,
Only
its laws endure
.
. . . . . . .
It
will not be contemned of anyone;
Who
thwarts it loses, and who serves it gains;
The
hidden good it pays with peace and bliss
The
hidden ill with pains.
It
seeth everywhere and marketh all:
Do
right - it recompenseth! Do one wrong
-
The
equal retribution must be made,
Though
Dharma tarry long.
It
knows not wrath nor pardon, utter-true
Its
measures mete, its faultless balance
weighs;
Times
are as naught, tomorrow it will judge,
Or
after many days.
Such
is the Law which moves to righteousness,
Which
none at last can turn aside or stay;
The
heart of it is Love, the end of it
Is
Peace and Consummation sweet. Obey.
[Quoted,
Key 214-5]
One
of the prime tenets of the Ancient Wisdom
is Unity. Unity is used in the special
sense of the Universe, as all existence,
being one thing, not a collection of
things put together. The implications
of this statement are not immediately
obvious and some of them may be very
hard to accept. They are rendered more
comprehensible by a conception of the “one thing” as the very essence of everything. The idea
is closely related to that of the “one life” which is manifest in the multitudes of “lives” which comprise the Cosmos. “Everything is a life or an aggregate of lives”. In terms of this “essence” man and Nature are one. By the Law what
affects one will affect the other. Hence
the vital importance of ecology, man’s responsibility for his environment. This
idea expands not only to environment
but to the circumstances of our lives
and even our climate. Man cannot escape
the consequences, the effects, of his
acts.
After
a dissertation on the influence of the
sun, the moon and the planets, on the
periodicity of our system, in the text
referred to as the behaviour of Nature,
there is an explanatory passage concerning
the metaphysical numbers involved, which
refer to the sevenfold nature of the
cosmic plan. It also refers to the astronomical
spheres of our system as follows:
The
spheres of action of the combined Forces
of Evolution and Karma are (1) the super-spiritual
or noumenal; (2) the Spiritual; (3) the
Psychic; (4) the Astro-ethereal; (5)
the Sub-astral; (6) the Vital; and (7)
the purely physical spheres.
[S.D.II,
621fn]
The ‘spheres’ here
refer to the cosmic planes with their
reflection into the principles of man
(see Table at end).
Sometimes
H.P.B. applies the general laws of Karma
to very specific cases; for example,
the following extracts tell about Karma
and abortion, and as it relates to plants.
There is an interesting passage reminding
us that Karma applies in the Kingdoms
of Nature as follows:
...
I must all the more remind you that there
may well be other spiritual laws, operating
on plants and animals as well as on mankind
...
We
call them Karmic laws ...
[Key,
46]
It
is interesting to note here that the
Dhyan-Chohans, in other places referred
to as Planetary Spirits of post-human
levels of evolutionary development, control
the Elementals who are their direct agents
in the processes of the plant kingdom.
And
here is the explanation of the curious
fact ... that each plant has its Karma
and that its growth is the result of
Karma. This Karma proceeds from the lower
Dhyan-Chohans who trace out and plan
the growth of the tree.
[C.W.X,
363]
The
crime [of abortion] lies precisely in
the willful and sinful destruction of
life, and interference with the operations
of nature, hence - with KARMA - that
of the mother and the would-be future
human being.
[C.W.V,
107]
It
has sometimes been said that there will
always be the ‘poor’ and that there simply is not enough of food
and other natural resources to supply
the ever-increasing populations of the
earth. Hear what H.P.B. says:
When
every individual has contributed to the
general good what he can of money, of
labour, and of ennobling thought, then,
and only then, will the balance of National
Karma be struck, and until then we have
no right nor any reasons for saying that
there is more life on the earth than
Nature can support. It is reserved for
the heroic souls, the Saviours of our
Race and Nation, to find out the cause
of this unequal pressure of retributive
Karma, and by a supreme effort to readjust
the balance of power, and save the people
from a moral engulfment a thousand times
more disastrous and more permanently
evil than the like physical catastrophe,
in which you seem to see the only possible
outlet for this accumulated misery....
We
describe Karma as that Law of readjustment
which ever tends to restore disturbed
equilibrium in the physical and broken
harmony in the moral world. We say that
Karma does not act in this or that particular
way always; but that it always does act so as to restore Harmony and preserve
the balance of equilibrium, in virtue
of which the Universe exists.
[Key, 205-6]
Questions
are often asked as to why “God” allows the devastating catastrophes of Nature,
e.g, hurricanes, erupting volcanoes,
floods, etc., with their attendant loss
of life, subsequent famines, disease
and so on. A rather surprising answer
is given:
...
the laws that govern our “Occult World”... do seem very often unjust, even at times cruel.
But this is due to the fact that they
were never meant either for the immediate
redress of wrongs, or the direct help
of those who offer at random their allegiance
to legislators. Still, the seemingly
real, the evanescent and quick passing
evils they bring about are necessary
to the growth, progress and final establishment
of your small Th. Society as those cataclysms
in nature, which often decimate whole
populations, are necessary to mankind.
An earthquake may, for all the world
knows, be a bliss and a tidal wave prove
salvation to the many at the expense
of the few.
[MLC
134, 440]
3.
HUMANITY AS A WHOLE
The
Law in its universal sense is the operational
direction given to the whole scheme of
Nature. As far as our Earth is concerned
this is described in some detail in The Secret Doctrine. Our objective planet and all on it comes
into manifestation and endures during
enormous periods of time, by stages.
The most rudimentary forces, or energies,
and forms come first; they constitute
three elemental kingdoms. From these
are eventually born what becomes the
mineral kingdom in all its variety, substances
which at the physical level come to constitute
the elements of the chemists. This kingdom
constitutes the base for and eventually
gives rise to the vegetable kingdom.
From that in turn is born the animal
kingdom and then comes the human. This
does not mean that minerals, as such,
become vegetables and so on. In the Esoteric
Science we are told that it is “Life” (dynamism, spirit, consciousness) which
always preserving its pristine unchangeable
purity assumes “forms” of infinite variety in the kingdoms to give
it expression on an ever-ascending scale.
The
whole process, however, in its progressive
nature, its ‘perpetual motion’, or ‘ever-becoming’, is subject to the Law in its cause-to-effect
aspect.
In
the process man, humanity in the aggregate,
occupies a unique position. It is at
this point of development that the
so-called descending arc of evolutionary
progress,
i.e. the one in which spirit is, so
to say, descending into matter, changes
to one of ascent, i.e. spirit emerging
from slowly regenerating matter. Coincident
with this man’s mental unfoldment begins to emerge from
the selfish concerns of his personality
to the more spiritual ones of his innate
but up-till-then dormant individual
spiritual Ego. A reflection of the
One Universal
SELF.
This
scheme of things is pre-ordained according
to Law and its working out according
as each man (human being of either sex)
responsibly works out his own ‘destiny’. Mankind as a whole progresses only by the
aggregate of the progress made by the
individuals comprising it.
The
Secret Doctrine makes it clear that the whole process of
Nature and what the literature calls “a man-bearing globe” such as our Earth, is centred in the spiritual
development of man. This is accomplished
by way of his innumerable incarnations
during which he slowly develops his
vehicles of consciousness at the mundane
level to a point where they can be
responsive to, and then reflect, the
ever-growing, truly spiritual nature
of the individual inner man. By this
means the whole of humanity is brought
to a state of spiritual perfection
in time:
The
Grand Cycle includes the progress of mankind
from the appearance of primordial
man of ethereal form. It runs through
the inner cycles of his (man’s) progressive evolution from the ethereal
down to the semi-ethereal and purely
physical; down to the redemption of man
from his coat of skin and matter, after which it continues running
its course downward and then upward again,
to meet at the culmination of a Round,
when the manvantaric Serpent “swallows” its tail” and seven minor cycles are passed....
[S.D.I,
642]
KARMA-NEMESIS
is the creator of nations and mortals,
but once created, it is they who make
of her either a fury or a rewarding Angel.
Yea - “Wise are they who worship [In a footnote
H.P.B. says that “dread” would be a better word than “worship”] Nemesis” - as the chorus tells Prometheus; and as unwise they, who
believe that the goddess may be propitiated
by whatever sacrifices and prayers, or
have her wheel diverted from the path
it has once taken. “The triform Fates and ever-mindful Furies” are her attributes only on earth and begotten
by ourselves. There is no return from
the paths she cycles over; yet those
paths are our own making, for it is we,
collectively or individually, who prepare
them. Karma-Nemesis is the synonym of
PROVIDENCE, minus design, goodness, and every other finite attribute and qualification, so unphilosophically
attributed to the latter.... For the
only decree of Karma - an eternal and
immutable decree - is absolute Harmony
in the world of matter as it is in the
world of Spirit. It is not, therefore,
Karma that rewards or punishes, but it
is we, who reward or punish ourselves
according to whether we work with, through
and along with nature, abiding by the
laws on which that Harmony depends, or
- break them.
[S.D.I,
643]
Nor
would the ways of Karma be inscrutable
were men to work in union and harmony,
instead of disunion and strife. For our
ignorance of those ways - which one portion
of mankind calls the ways of Providence,
dark and intricate, while another sees
in them the action of blind Fatalism,
and a third, simple chance, with neither
gods nor devils to guide them - would
surely disappear, if we would but attribute
all these to their correct cause. With
right knowledge, or at any rate with
a confident conviction that our neighbours
will no more work to hurt us than we
would think of harming them, the two-thirds
of the World’s evil would vanish into thin air. Were no
man to hurt his brother, Karma-Nemesis
would have neither cause to work for,
nor weapons to act through. It is the
constant presence in our midst of every
element of strife and opposition, and
the division of races, nations, tribes,
societies and individuals into Cains
and Abels, wolves and lambs, that is
the chief cause of the “ways of Providence”. We cut these numerous windings in our destinies
daily with our own hands, while we imagine
that we are pursuing a track on the royal
high road of respectability and duty,
and then complain of those ways being
so intricate and so dark. We stand bewildered
before the mystery of our own making
and the riddles of life that we will not solve, and then accuse the great Sphinx
of devouring us. But verily there is
not an accident in our lives; not a misshapen
day, or a misfortune, that could not
be traced back to our own doings in this
or in another life. If one breaks the
laws of Harmony, or, as a theosophical
writer expresses it, “the laws of life”, one must be prepared to fall into the chaos
one has oneself produced. For, according
to the same writer, “the only conclusion one can come to is that
these laws of life are their own avengers;
and consequently that every avenging
Angel is only a typified representation
of their reaction”.
Therefore,
if anyone is helpless before these immutable
laws, it is not ourselves, the artificers
of our destinies, but rather those angels,
the guardians of harmony. Karma-Nemesis
is no more than the (spiritual) dynamical
effect of causes produced and forces
awakened into activity by our own actions.
It is a law of occult dynamics that “a given amount of energy expended on the
spiritual or astral plane is productive
of far greater results than the same
amount expended on the physical objective
plane of existence.”
[S.D.I,
644]
There
are passages in The Secret Doctrine which tell us how the Karma of the human
race was developed. One significant factor
in this was brought about by entities
who had developed their spirituality
to a considerable degree in past cycles
but who were, however, destined by the
Law to incarnate into human forms at
a very lowly state of development. Some
did not incarnate, and incurred a Karmic
debt which they had to discharge later
by assuming even less developed human
bodies. This had considerable repercussions
in man’s relationship to the animal kingdom. This
is all described in some detail in Vol
II.
There
are many specific references to the consequences
of this delayed incarnation by those
superior Beings.
In
Vol II, 679, there is a discussion involving
the effects of the “sin of the mindless”, and later of the transgressions of the
early Atlanteans on the future of the
human race. The effects of these ‘sins’ could not be avoided. There is a short but
significant statement as follows:
...
but Karma is a mysterious law, and no
respecter of persons.
[S.D.II,
679]
In
places The Secret Doctrine, particularly Vol II, makes some quite specific
statements regarding prehistoric man.
In general terms it describes the movements
of human stock from continent to continent.
As
to the African tribes - themselves diverging
offshoots of Atlanteans modified by climate
and conditions - they crossed into Europe
over the peninsula which made the Mediterranean
an inland sea. Fine races were many of
the European cave men; the Cro-Magnon,
for instance. But, as was to be expected, progress is almost non-existent through the whole of the vast period allotted
by Science to the Chipped Stone-Age. The cyclic impulse downwards weighs heavily on the stocks thus transplanted
- the incubus of the Atlantean Karma is upon them. Finally, Palaeolithic man
makes room for his successor - and disappears
almost entirely from the scene.
[S.D.II,
740]
There
are some general statements as to how
Karma regulates the human race stocks:
plain statements to the effect that all
the race-remains of earlier types, i.e.
the Yellow Races and the Black Africans
down to the present European Whites,
are dying out:
It
is a most suggestive fact - to those
concrete thinkers who demand a physical proof of Karma - that the lowest races of
men are now rapidly dying out; a phenomenon
largely due to an extraordinary sterility
setting in among the women, from the
time that they were first approached
by the Europeans.
Why
does this (Karmic) sterility attack and
root out certain races at their “appointed hour”?... Ethnology will sooner or later have
to recognize with Occultists that the
true solution has to be sought for in
a comprehension of the workings of Karma.... “The time is drawing near when there will
remain nothing but three great human
types” ... the white (Aryan, Fifth Root-Race),
the yellow, and the African negro - with
their crossings (Atlanto-European divisions)....
Those who realize that every Root-Race
runs through a gamut of seven sub-races
with seven branchlets, etc., will understand
the “why”. The tide wave of incarnating Egos has rolled
past them to harvest experience in more
developed and less senile stocks; and
their extinction is hence a Karmic necessity.
[S.D.II,
779-80]
One
has only to read the history of the races
of men who have inhabited our Earth up
to the present one, the 5th Root Race, to discover that human imperfections
throughout, including those stemming
from the descent of Spirit into matter
with its lower urges, passions, have
broken the Law. In the words of The Secret Doctrine, “they have sinned”, and thereby incurred Karma, the effects
of which persist to the present time:
And
if we say “sin”, it is merely that everyone should understand
our meaning; as the term Karma would be the right one to use in this case;
while the reader who would feel perplexed
at the use of the term “spiritual” instead of “physical”, iniquity is reminded of the fact that there
can be no physical iniquity. The body
is merely the irresponsible organ, the
tool of the psychic, if not of the “Spiritual man”. While in the case of the Atlanteans [the
fourth race], it was precisely the Spiritual
being which sinned, the Spirit element
being still the “Master” principle in man, in those days. Thus it
is in those days that the heaviest Karma
of the Fifth Race was generated by our
Monads [Monads here is used in the sense
of the homogeneous Monad plus individual
Manas].
[S.D.II, 302]
In
many places Karma or the Law is related
to Deity or God, whose attributes are
compared with it. Occultism, however,
states categorically that Deity is Law and Law is Deity.
The “still
greater and still more exacting divinity” than the god of this world, supposed so “good” - is KARMA. And this true Divinity shows
well that the lesser one, our inner God
(personal for the time being), has no
power to arrest the mighty hand of this
greater Deity, the CAUSE awakened by
our actions generating smaller causes,
which is called the LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
[S.D.II,
555fn]
In
its broadest sense the law of Karma applies
to individuals, groups and even nations.
A student asks:
Are
there any causes, other than the spread
of Theosophy, which may operate to reverse
the present drift towards materialism?
The
answer is:
The
spread of the knowledge of the laws of
Karma and Reincarnation and of a belief
in the absolute spiritual unity of all
beings will alone prevent this drift.
[C.W.IX,
103]
That
quotation is a clear indication of
the Society’s responsibility via its members to let it
be known that such a thing as Theosophy
exists.
Another
question posed was:
Is
there not some connection between the
Karma of man and elementals?
And
the reply:
A
very important one. The elemental world
has become a strong factor in the Karma
of the human race.... In the earlier
ages, when we may postulate that man
had not yet begun to make bad Karma,
the elemental world was more friendly
to man because it had not received unfriendly
impressions. But so soon as man began
to become ignorant, unfriendly to himself
and the rest of creation, the elemental
world began to take on exactly the same
complexion and return to humanity the
exact pay, so to speak, due for the actions
of humanity.... And, being unconscious
and only acting according to the natural
laws of its being, the elemental world
is a powerful factor in the workings
of Karma.
[C.W.IX,
110]
In
the discourse between an enquirer and
a theosophist there are the following
passages:
THEO.
In every conceivable case he [the theosophist]
himself must be a centre of spiritual
action, and from him and his own daily
individual life must radiate those higher
spiritual forces which alone can regenerate
his fellow men.
ENQ.
But why should he do this? Are not he
and all, as you teach, conditioned by
their Karma, and must not Karma necessarily
work itself out on certain lines?
THEO.
It is this very law of Karma which gives
strength to all that I have said The
individual cannot separate himself from
the race, nor the race from the individual.
The law of Karma applies equally to all,
although all are not equally developed.
In helping the development of others,
the Theosophist believes that he is not
only helping them to fulfil their Karma,
but that he is also, in the strictest
sense, fulfilling his own.
[Key,
236]
The
law of Karma is often closely associated
with the doctrine of reincarnation and
in many places in the literature it is
said that a knowledge of these two could
be the salvation of mankind and lead
it safely along its evolutionary path.
It is said that it requires no special
education or intellectual capacities
to understand this dual doctrine. Nevertheless
the subject is treated in great depth,
leading to a real understanding of how
both the Law and reincarnation are parts
of the grand process of the Universal
Life.
It
does not require metaphysics or education
to make a man understand the broad truths
of Karma and Reincarnation.
[Key,
246]
Then
again:
The
chief point is to uproot that most fertile
source of all crime and immorality -
the belief that it is possible for them
[criminals] to escape the consequences
of their own actions. Once teach them
that greatest of all laws, Karma and Reincarnation, and besides feeling in themselves the true
dignity of human nature, they will turn
from evil and eschew it as they would
a physical danger.
[Key,
248]
One
further interesting piece of information
is given us:
It
is, moreover, unquestionable that in
the case of human incarnations the law
of Karma, racial or individual, overrides
the subordinate tendencies of “Heredity”, its servant.
[S.D.II,
178.]
In
the literature it is explained that there
are a finite number of monads associated
with our planet; they are all subject
to a vast cyclic evolutionary scheme
by Races and sub-Races. The seventh Race
will be the last and the most perfect.
...
Mankind, from the First down to the last,
or Seventh Race, is composed of one and
the same company of actors, who have
descended from higher spheres to perform
their artistic tour on this our planet,
Earth.... Our macrocosm and its smallest
microcosm, man, are both repeating the
same play of universal and individual
events at each station, as on every stage
on which Karma leads them to enact their
respective dramas of life.
[C.W.XIV,
303]
4.
MAN - AS AN INDIVIDUAL
At
the Introduction to Section 2 we saw
how the evolution of spiritual humanity
is according to the aggregate of the
progress made by individuals. Everything
during its period of existence is subject
to the Law, as the grand directive agent,
but each man becomes a special case by
reason of his freedom to act against
the Law. He is a responsible being whereas
all things and creatures below him can
only act according to their inherent
nature. They make no decisions whereas
man does, and, as we shall see, the intention
or motive behind any act he performs
affects its Karmic consequence.
But
Karma will reconcile all our differences
of opinion. A strict account of our actual
work will be taken, and the “wages” earned will be recorded to our credit. But
as strict an account will be taken of
the work which anyone, by indulging in
personal grievances, may have hindered
his neighbours from doing. Think you
it is a light thing to hinder the force
of the Theosophical Society, as represented
in the person of any of its leaders,
from doing its appointed work? So surely
as there is a Karmic power behind the
Society will that power exact the account
for its hindrance, and he is a rash and
ignorant man who opposes his puny self
to it in the execution of its appointed
task.
Thus,
then “UNION IS STRENGTH”; and for every reason private differences
must be sunk in united work for our Great
Cause.
[C.W.XI,
166]
Again
and again the idea of Unity, as it applies
to Cosmos and mankind, is stressed. What
affects the part affects the whole. Particularly
is this the case with human beings who
can make choices in their actions, and
who are thus responsible for the consequences.
The next extract is pertinent to this:
“.
. Let not the fruit of good Karma be
your motive; for your Karma, good or
bad, being one and common property of
all mankind, nothing good or bad can
happen to you that is not shared by many
others. Hence your motive, being selfish,
can only generate a double effect, good
and bad, and will either nullify your
good action, or turn it to another man’s profit.” . . “There is no happiness for one who is ever
thinking of self and forgetting all other
Selves.”
“The
Universe groans under the weight of
such action (Karma), and none other than
self-sacrificial
Karma relieves it.... How many of you
have helped humanity to carry its smallest
burden, that you should all regard
yourselves as Theosophists. Oh, men of
the West,
who would play at being the Saviours
of mankind before they even spare the
life of a mosquito whose sting threatens
them would you be partakers of Divine
Wisdom or true Theosophists? Then do
as the gods when incarnated do. Feel
yourselves the vehicles of the whole
humanity, mankind, as part of yourselves,
and act accordingly...
[C.W.XI, 168-9]
The
principle of Unity is further illustrated
in the next quotation in relation to
our inner spiritual selves, our Egos:
No
Ego differs from another Ego, in its
primordial or original essence and nature.
That which makes one mortal a great man
and another a vulgar, silly person is,...
the quality and makeup of the physical
shell or casing, and the adequacy or
inadequacy of brain and body to transmit
and give expression to the light of the
real, Inner man; and this aptness or inaptness is, in
its turn, the result of Karma.
[C.W.XII,
15]
In
various places The Secret Doctrine outlines the occult constitution of man,
delineating seven ‘principles’. Each of these principles characteristically
manifests aspects of life which have
so far been developed by living entities
during the cycles of existence preceding
our present one. All things in the kingdoms
of Nature become heir at their level
to what has been achieved beforehand
by other living entities. Man being at
the top of the scale inherits most, and
most of his seven postulated principles
are quickened and developed thereby.
Insofar as they are, his various subjective
faculties are operating.
In
several places the close association
of a man’s destiny with his astrological influences
is stressed. The following quotation
amplifies this:
...the
science of Astrology only determines
the nature of effects, by a knowledge
of the law of magnetic affinities and
attractions of the Planetary bodies,
but that it is the Karma of the individual
himself, which places him in that particular
magnetic relation.
[C.W.VI,
327]
Theosophy
tells us that we cannot judge anyone
by his apparent personality or by what
he does; we cannot know his spiritual
stature:
Do
not be too severe on the merits or demerits
of one who seeks admission among your
ranks [of theosophists], as the truth
about the actual state of the inner man
can only be known to, and dealt with
justly by, KARMA alone.
[C.W.VII,
170]
As
we have seen, motive is a factor in the
workings of the Law. Where causes are
created in ignorance or diminished responsibility,
the effects will be suitably adjusted,
for example:
A
short analysis of the Karmic effects
that would be produced by the exercise
of such powers [hypnotism] may prove
interesting to theosophists....
How
much more forcibly this law of simple
retributive justice must act on the psychic
plane; and what, therefore, may be the
responsibility incurred by using such
psychological powers, in the face of
Karma and its punitive laws, may be easily
inferred. Is it not evident that, if
even human justice recognizes the impossibility
of punishing an irrational idiot, a child,
a minor, etc., taking into account even
hereditary causes and bad family influences
- that the divine Law of Retribution,
which we call KARMA, must visit with
hundredfold severity one who deprives
reasonable, thinking men of their free
will and powers of ratiocination?...
What adept or even moderately informed
chela would ever risk an endless future
by interfering with, and therefore taking
upon himself, the Karmic debit of all
those whom he would so psychologize as
to make of them merely the tools of his
own sweet will!
[C.W.XI,
55-6]
There
is a footnote here (C.W.XI, 138) to the
effect that all Monads on their way to
becoming human pass through animal stages
but this in cycles of evolution on globes
other than our present one.
Concerning
the Karma of a child who dies before
reaching the age of seven and the spiritualistic
belief that the child having died can
visit them from the Summerland, we have:
We
[Theosophists] must not hurt their feelings by insisting that every child who dies before
the age of reason - when only it becomes
a responsible creature - reincarnates
immediately after its death - since,
having had no personal merit or demerit
in any of its actions, it can have no
claim on Devachanic reward and bliss.
Also that as it is irresponsible till
the age of say, seven, the full weight
of the Karmic effects generated during
its short life falls directly upon those
who reared and guided it. They will hear
of no such philosophical truths, based
on eternal justice and Karmic action.
[C.W.XI,
140]
As
with so many things in Occultism we have
always to bear in mind that we are not
just dealing with the objective plane.
Theosophy teaches us of the realms superior
to or behind that.
... crimes
and sins committed on a plane of objectivity
and in a world of matter, cannot receive
punishment in a world of pure subjectivity.... We believe in an immutable law of absolute
Love, Justice, and Mercy.
[Key,
138]
From
this it is obvious that love, justice
and mercy permeate the whole of existence.
There
are many telling passages in the literature
which, when brought to our attention,
can give us a proper understanding of
the ill or good fortunes that attend
us through life. One of these is in the
first book written by H.P.B. in 1877, Isis Unveiled. It indicates that, even at the commencement
of her writings, she was fully versed
in many occult subjects.
From
the remotest antiquity mankind as a whole has always been convinced of the existence
of a personal spiritual entity within
the personal physical man. This inner entity was more or less divine,
according to its proximity to the crown - Christos. The closer the union the more
serene man’s destiny, the less dangerous the external
conditions. This belief is neither bigotry
nor superstition, only an ever-present,
instinctive feeling of the proximity
of another spiritual and invisible world.
Which, though it be subjective to the
senses of the outward man, is perfectly
objective to the inner ego. Furthermore,
they believed that there are external and internal conditions
which affect the determination of our
will upon our actions. They reject fatalism, for fatalism implies
a blind course of some still blinder
power. But they believed in destiny (or Karma), which from birth to death every man is
weaving thread by thread around himself,
as a spider does his cobweb; and this
destiny is guided either by that presence
termed by some the guardian angel, or
our more intimate astral inner man, who
is but too often the evil genius of the
man of flesh (or the personality). Both these lead on the outward man, but
one of them must prevail; and from the
very beginning of the invisible affray
the stern and implacable law of compensation (and retribution) steps in and takes its course, following
faithfully the fluctuations (of the conflict).
When the last strand is woven, and man
is seemingly enwrapped in the network
of his own doing then he finds himself
completely under the empire of this self-made destiny. It then either fixes him like the
inert shell against the immovable rock,
or like a feather carries him away in
a whirlwind raised by his own actions.
[I.U.II,
593]
Such
is the destiny of the MAN -the true Ego,
not the Automaton, the shell that goes by that name. It is for him to
become the conqueror over matter.
[Key 182]
The
concern of most of us is what determines
the overall patten of our lives, sometimes
quite contrarily to what we have planned
or might wish. Something seems to determine
whether the wheel of fortune turns in
our favour or against us. The next paragraph
is very explanatory on this matter:
And
we believe neither in vicarious atonement,
nor in the possibility of the remission
of the smallest sin by any god, not even
by a “personal Absolute” or “Infinite”, if such a thing could have any existence.
What we believe in is strict and impartial
justice. Our idea of the unknown Universal
Deity, represented by Karma, is that
it is a Power which cannot fail, and
can therefore, have neither wrath nor
mercy, only absolute Equity, which leaves
every cause, great or small, to work
out its inevitable effects. The saying
of Jesus: “With what measure you mete it shall be measured
to you again” (Matt., vii, 2), neither by expression nor implication points
to any hope of future mercy or salvation
by proxy.... we cannot recommend too
strongly mercy, charity, and forgiveness
of mutual offences. Resist not evil, and render good for evil,... were first preached in view of the implacability
of Karmic law. For man to take the law
into his own hands is anyhow a sacrilegious
presumption. Human Law may use restrictive,
not punitive measure; but a man who,
believing in Karma, still revenges himself
and refuses to forgive every injury,
thereby rendering good for evil, is a
criminal and only hurts himself. As Karma
is sure to punish a man who wronged him,
by seeking to inflict an additional punishment
on his enemy, he, who instead of leaving
that punishment to the great Law adds
to it his own mite, only begets thereby
a cause for the future reward of his
own enemy and a future punishment for
himself. The unfailing Regulator affects
in each incarnation the quality of its
successor; and the sum of the merit or
demerit in preceding ones determines
it.
[Key,199-200]
After
many examples of the workings of Karma
in practice in society H.P.B. quotes
E.D. Walker in his Reincarnation as follows:
Briefly,
the doctrine of Karma is that we have
made ourselves what we are by former
actions, and are building our future
eternity by present actions. There
is no destiny but what we ourselves determine.
There is no salvation or condemnation
except what we ourselves bring about
. . . Because it offers no shelter
for
culpable actions and necessitates a
sterling manliness, it is less welcome
to weak
natures than the easy religious tenets
of vicarious atonement, intercessions,
forgiveness and death-bed conversions
. . . In the domain of eternal justice
the offence and the punishment are
inseparably connected as the same event,
because
there is no real distinction between
the action and its outcome . . . It
is Karma, or our old acts, that draws us
back into earthly life. The spirit’s abode changes according to its Karma, and
this Karma forbids any long continuance
in one condition, because it is always
changing. So long as action is governed
by material and selfish motives just
so long must the effect of that action
be manifested in physical rebirths.
Only the perfectly selfless man can
elude
the gravitation of material life. Few
have attained this, but it is the goal
of mankind.
[Key,
209-10]
A
very good summary of the law of Karma
as it applies to us individually is quoted
by H.P.B. in The Key; it is by the wife of Mr A.P. Sinnett to
whom the famous Mahatma Letters were
addressed:
Every
individual is making Karma either good
or bad in each action and thought of
his daily round, and is at the same time
working out in this life the Karma brought
about by the acts and desires of the
last. When we see people afflicted by
congenital ailments, it may be safely
assumed that these ailments are the inevitable
results of causes started by themselves
in a previous birth. It may be argued
that, as these afflictions are hereditary,
they can have nothing to do with a past
incarnation; but it must be remembered
that the Ego, the real man, the individuality,
has no spiritual origin in the parentage
by which it is re-embodied, but is drawn
by the affinities which its previous
mode of life attracted round it into
the current that carries it, when the
time comes for rebirth, to the home best
fitted for the development of those tendencies
. . . This doctrine of Karma when properly
understood is well calculated to guide
and assist those who realize its truth
to a higher and better mode of life, for it
must not be forgotten that not only our
actions but our thoughts also are most
assuredly followed by a crowd of circumstances
that will influence for good or for evil
our own future, and what is still more
important, the future of many of our
fellow-creatures. If sins of omission
and commission could in any case be only
self-regarding, the effect on the sinner’s Karma would be a matter of minor consequence.
The fact that every thought and act through
life carries with it for good or evil
a corresponding influence on other members
of the human family renders a strict
sense of justice, morality, and unselfishness
so necessary to future happiness and
progress. A crime once committed, an
evil though sent out from the mind, are
past recall - no amount of repentance
can wipe out their results in the future
. . . Repentance, if sincere, will deter
a man from repeating errors; it cannot
save him or others from the effects of
those already produced, which will most
unerringly overtake him either in this
life or in the next rebirth.
[Key,
212]
From
this extract we see the consequences
of our actions not only affecting the
perpetrators but many others as well.
ENQ.
Can anyone, even an Adept or Seer, follow
out this Karmic process of readjustment
in detail?
THEO.
Certainly: “Those who know” can do so by the exercise of powers which
are latent even in all men.
[Key,
215]
The
rest of this chapter (Key XI) to the
middle of p 218 gives further examples
of the workings of Karma in our lives.
Scattered
throughout the many references to Law
and Karma there are passages illustrative
of its workings:
The
case would be quite different if the
same evil acts (perpetrated by primitive
hunters for food) had been done by an
educated and civilised person from a
mere love of sport. The savage being
reborn would simply take a low place
in the scale, by reason of his imperfect
moral development, while the Karma of the other would be tainted with moral
delinquency.
[MLC
68, 192)
Collective
Karma, i.e., of group, nation or race,
is often referred to. Each individual
as well as his ‘personal’ Karma cannot escape his collective Karma
as well.
It
is a true manhood when one boldly accepts
one’s share of the collective Karma of the group
one works with, and does not permit oneself
to be embittered, and to see others in
blacker colours than reality, or to throw
all blame upon some one “black sheep”, a victim, specially selected.
[MLC
131, 437]
Sometimes
the question is raised of social status,
a person’s position not only within a particular society,
e.g., affluent, civilized, cultured
or backward, primitive and poor as
far as
worldly amenities go, in relation to
Karma. We have the following:
The
social status of a being is, of course,
a result of Karma; the law being that “like attracts like”. The renascent being is drawn into the gestative
current with which the preponderating
attractions coming over from the last
birth make him assimilate.
[MLC
104, 362]
Nor
has wealth nor poverty, high or low birth
any influence upon it, for this is all
a result of their Karma. Neither has
- what you call - civilization much to
do with the progress. It is the inner man, the spirituality, the illumination
of the physical brain by the light of
the spiritual or divine intelligence
that is the test.
[MLC,
62, 160]
5.
REINCARNATION
In
the literature the importance of a proper
understanding of the twin laws of Karma
and Reincarnation is stressed. Reincarnation
is the periodic embodiment of the immortal
spiritual Entity, the Ego, into a new
physical body at the start of a personal
life. Karma is the law of periodicity
or alternation under which this happens
and it is also that law which determines
from previous causes the nature, the
characteristics of the new person, and
also the place, parents and other circumstances
of the birth.
In
the literature, again, particularly in
the Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett,
there is a detailed account of the processes
of dying and afterwards. At each stage
Karma is involved. The after-death states
are all according to Law but the experience
of the deceased is always quite individual
and dependent on their thoughts and actions
during life.
One
of the most descriptive passages in the
Letters is a long one. It relates the
operations of the Law to the individual
in life, in death, and as it affects
the circumstances of rebirth.
If
you ask a learned Buddhist priest, what
is Karma? - he will tell you that Karma
is what a Christian might call Providence
(in a certain sense only) and a Mahomedan
- Kismet, fate or destiny (again in one sense). That
it is that cardinal tenet which teaches
that, as soon as any conscious or sentient
being, whether man, deva, or animal dies,
a new being is produced and he or it
reappears in another birth, on the same
or another planet, under conditions of
his or its own antecedent making. Or,
in other words that Karma is the guiding power, and Trishna (in Pali Tanha) the thirst or desire to sentiently live
- the proximate force or energy, the
resultant of human (or animal) action,
which, out of the old Skandhas produces the new group that form the new
being and control the nature of the birth
itself. Or to make it still clearer,
the new being is rewarded and punished for the meritorious
acts and misdeeds of the old one; Karma representing an Entry Book, in
which all the acts of man, good, bad,
or indifferent, are carefully recorded
to his debit and credit - by himself,
so to say, or rather by these very actions
of his. There, where Christian poetical
fiction created and sees a “Recording” Guardian Angel, stern and realistic Buddhist
logic, perceiving the necessity that
every cause should have its effect -
shows its real presence. The opponents
of Buddhism have laid great stress upon
the alleged injustice that the doer should
escape and an innocent victim be made
to suffer, - since the doer and the sufferer
are different being. The fact is, that
while in one sense they may be so considered,
yet in another they are identical. The “old being” is the sole parent - father and mother at
once - of the “new being”. It is the former who is the creator and
fashioner of the latter, in reality;
and far more so in plain truth than any
father in flesh. And once that you have
well mastered the meaning of Skandhas you will see what I mean.
[MLC
68, 198-9]
Skandhas
are shortly the predispositions and tendencies,
emotional, mental and to a degree physical,
brought forward from the old to the new
personality. In other words, they condition
it as effects of causes generated in
the past.
After
a series of ‘purificatory’ processes after actual physical death, during
which generally the deceased in unconscious,
consciousness slowly returns and the ‘person’ finds himself in idealized spiritual blissful
surroundings. This state is known as
Devachan:
"Who
goes to Devachan?" The personal Ego of course, but beatified,
purified, holy. Every Ego - the combination
of the sixth and seventh principles -
which after the period of unconscious
gestation is reborn into the Devachan,
is of necessity as innocent and pure
as a new-born babe. The fact of his being
reborn at all, shows the preponderance
of good over evil in his old personality.
And while the Karma (of evil) steps aside
for the time being to follow him in his
future earth-reincarnation, he brings
along with him but the Karma of his good
deeds, words, and thoughts into this
Devachan. "Bad" is a relative term for us ... and the Law
of Retribution is the only law that never
errs. Hence all those who have not slipped
down into the mire of unredeemable sin
and bestiality - go to the Devachan.
They will have to pay for their sins,
voluntary and involuntary, later on.
Meanwhile they are rewarded; receive
the effects of the causes produced by them.
[MLC
68, 190]
The
period in Devachan
...
lasts in proportion to the good Karma,
after which the monad is again reincarnated.... “In all these Rupa-Lokas the Devas (Spirits)
are equally subjected to birth, decay,
old age and death” means only that an Ego is borne thither,
then begins fading out and finally “dies”, i.e., falls into that unconscious condition which
precedes rebirth;...they leave a world
of bliss to be reborn in a world of causes.
The
period lasts
For
years, decades, centuries and milleniums,
oftentimes multiplied by something more.
It all depends upon the duration of Karma.
[MLC
68, 194-5]
The
mechanism whereby each individual man
proceeds in his evolutionary journey
from life to life is beautifully described:
The
latter (Occultism) teaches that - (a) the life-atoms of our life-principle (Prana) are never entirely lost when a man dies.
That the atoms best impregnated with
the life-principle (an independent, eternal,
conscious factor) are partially transmitted
from father to son by heredity, and partially
are drawn once more together and become
the animating principles of the new body
in every new incarnation of the Monads.
Because (b), as the individual Soul is ever the same, so are the atoms
of the lower principles (body, its astral,
or life-double, etc.), drawn as they are by affinity and
Karmic law always to the same individuality
in a series of various bodies, etc.,
etc.
[S.D.
II, 671-2]
Much
is said in theosophical literature about
the after-death states (particularly
in the Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett).
It is made abundantly clear in those
letters that all the after-death states
are effects of causes generated during
the lifetime of individuals upon Earth.
The
correct comprehension of the law of
Karma is entirely opposed to the idea (of
rites
and ceremonies after death). As no
person’s karma can be either lightened or overburdened
with the good or bad actions of the
next of kin of the departed one, every
man
having his karma independent and distinct
from that of his neighbour - no more
can the departed soul be made responsible
for the doings of those it left behind.
[C.W.IV,
507]
There
are some very illustrative passages concerning
the workings of Karma and our state after
death. The following are some sample
extracts:
In
each birth the personality differs from that of the previous or next
succeeding birth. Karma, the deus ex machina, masks (or shall we say reflects?) itself
now in the personality of a sage, again
as an artisan, and so on throughout the
string of births. But though personalities
ever shift, the one line of life along
which they are strung like beads, runs
unbroken . .
This
is followed by the statement:
The
time will come ... when the Ego [i.e.,
the one line of Life, the spiritual individuality]
will regain its consciousness of all
its past stages of existence ...
These
two quotations give “the key to a correct understanding of the
question as to what Karma propels the higher Ego into the next birth...”.
Another
informative quote is as follows:
...
no human soul is yet born utterly depraved,
and ... there was a time during the youth
of the sinful human personality when
it had worked out some kind or other
of Karma; and ... it is this that survives and forms
the basis of the Karma to come.
[C.W.IV,
571]
And
further:
The
fifth principle [Mind] of the sensual,
highly depraved man, may well and will
perish, while the Karma of his youth, though not strong and complete
enough to secure for him a bliss in Devachan and union with his higher principle - is
yet sufficiently outlined to allow the
monad a grasp on it for the next rebirth....
it so happens sometimes that the Karma of a personality is not fully worked out
in the birth that follows. Life is made
up of accidents, and the personality
that becomes, may be hindered by circumstances
from receiving the full due its Karma is entitled to, whether for good or for
bad. But the Law of Retribution will
never allow itself to be cheated by blind
chance. There is then a provision to
be made, and the accounts that could
not be settled in one birth will be squared
in the succeeding one.
[C.W.IV,
572]
(Note:
monad here is the monad proper, i.e.
Atma and Buddhi, plus Higher Manas.)
Regarding
the after-death states we have the following:
...
although one particular personality may
be so depraved as to be entirely dissociated
from the spiritual monad and go into
the eighth sphere, where annihilation is its lot, yet
the impressions of the previous personalities
upon the higher Ego have in them potentially enough to evolve
a new physical Ego ...
In
the same manner, the Ego when at the end of its long pilgrimage will
regain consciousness of those personalities only which have made a sufficiently strong
spiritual, hence indelible, mark on the
monad, while the memory of the conscious
acts of the particular depraved personality
which goes to the eighth sphere will
be entirely obliterated.
[C.W.IV,
572-3]
The
information we are given about the after-death
states can give us a completely new view
of death itself. After death we are in
a conscious intermediate state between
lives.
Were
people to study the scriptures of all
nations and interpret their meaning by
the light of esoteric philosophy, no
one would fail to become, if not anxious
to die, at least indifferent to death.
We should then make profitable use of
the time we pass on this earth by quietly
preparing in each birth for the next
by accumulating good Karma.
[C.W.VII,
48]
As
we have seen, there is a mechanism which
transmits the effects of past lifetimes
into our present one. This is by way
of life-atoms or Elementals. Concerning
any particular man we have the following:
All
that bundle of Egotism, that apparent and evanescent “I”, disappears after death,... Nothing remains
now of that “bundle” to go to the next incarnation, except the seed for future Karma that Manas may have united to its immortal group, to
form with it - the disembodied Higher Self in “Devachan”.
[C.W.VII, 186]
In
a general dissertation on Karma, H.P.B.
defines metempsychosis as “the transmigration of the human soul into
an animal form”. She distinguishes between that and “Reincarnation, or the rebirth of the same
Ego in successive human bodies”.
Useless
to tell him [ the seeker after truth}
that Nature, propelled by Karma, never
recedes, but strives ever forward in
her work on the physical plane; that
she may lodge a human soul in the body
of a man, morally ten times lower than
any animal, but she will not reverse
the order of her kingdoms; and while
leading the irrational monad of a beast
of a higher order into the human form
at the first hour of a Manvantara, she
will not guide that Ego, once it has
become a man, even of the lowest kind,
back into the animal species - not during
that cycle (or Kalpa) at any rate.
[C.W.XI,
137]
The
teachings tell us much in detail about
the after-death states where most of
us spend most of our time in the centuries
between lives. As we will see from the
following extract, it is not an unconditioned
state:
The
same unerringly wise and just rather
than merciful Law, which inflicts upon
the incarnated Ego the Karmic punishment
for every sin committed during the preceding
life on Earth, provided for the now disembodied
Entity a long lease of mental rest [Devachan] i.e. the entire oblivion of every event, aye,
to the smallest painful thought, that
took place in its last life as a personality,
leaving in the soul-memory but the reminiscence
of that which was bliss, or led to happiness.
[Key,
140]
There
is no accident in the coming together
again in future lives of groups of people,
including the members of families. We
read:
...
for pure divine love is not merely the
blossom of a human heart, but has its
roots in eternity. Spiritual love is
immortal and Karma brings sooner or later
all those who loved each other with such
a spiritual affection to incarnate once
more in the same family group.
[Key,
150]
A
reminder of how our after-life and future
lives are determined by our present actions
is as follows:
Karma
acts incessantly: we reap in our after-life only the fruit of that which we have ourselves
sown in this.
[Key,160]
That
is reinforced by the following:
Our
philosophy teaches that Karmic punishment
reaches the Ego only in its next incarnation.
After death it receives only the reward
for the unmerited sufferings endured
in its past incarnation. The whole punishment
after death, even for the materialist,
consists, therefore, in the absence of
any reward, and the utter loss of the
consciousness of one’s bliss and rest. Karma is the child of the
terrestrial Ego, the fruit of the actions
of the tree which is objective personality
visible to all, as much as the fruit
of all the thoughts and even motives
of the spiritual “I”; but Karma is also the tender mother, who
heals the wounds inflicted by her during
the preceding life, before she will begin
to torture this Ego by inflicting on
him new ones.
[Key,
161]
Nowhere
else but in the teachings of Theosophy
as given us by the Masters (sometimes
through H.P.B.) do we have the detail
of our after-life and what conditions
it.
Occult
science teaches that the frame of mind
in which a man dies, is
of
the utmost importance owing to the abnormal
and psychic state in which he then is.
The last thought of a dying person does
much to influence his immediate future....
This is not meant, however, to endorse
the superstition of a “death-bed repentance”, for the immutable justice and harmony of
the karmic Law can only return a fleeting
effect for a fleeting cause; and the
rest of the Karmic debt must be paid
in future earth-lives.... at death we
shall be judged by our own Higher Self,
and under the conduct of the agents of
the Karmic Law (the Demiurgos collectively),
will have to reincarnate again into the
prison of the body, until the past evil
Karma has been exhausted. For until the
last farthing of the Karmic debt is exhausted,
we can never be untied from the wheel
of “Samsara” [the great cycle of births and deaths of
the immortal Ego].
[C.W.XIII, 74-5fn]
In
the Masters’ account of the after-death states they say
that in Devachan victims of undeserved
suffering receive their recompense. Many
have questioned this on the score that
in their view of Karma there cannot be
any undeserved suffering. The following
passage justifies the Masters’ view:
...
it is not the injustice or mistakes of Karma which are the causes of such “undeserved misery” but other causes, independent of the past
Karma of either the producer or the innocent
victim of their effects, new actions generated by the wickedness of men and circumstances;
i.e., the punishment of those who caused
these new Nidanas (or causal connections) and the reward of
him who suffere d from them undeservedly.”
[C.W.X,
47]
ENQ.
Then the personal man must always go
on suffering blindly the Karmic penalties which the Ego has incurred?
THEO.
Not quite so. At the solemn moment of
death everyman, even when death is sudden,
sees the whole of his past life marshalled
before him, in its minutest details....
this instant is enough to show to him
the whole chain of causes which have
been at work during his life....
ENQ.
Does this happen to everyone?
THEO.
Without any exception. Very good and
holy men see ... not only the life they
are leaving, but even several preceding
lives in which were produced the causes
that made them what they were in the
life just closing. They recognize the
law of Karma in all its majesty and justice.
[Key,
162]
Then
there is the significant statement concerning
the processes of rebirth:
The
law of retribution as Karma waits man at the threshold of his new incarnation...
[C.W.VII,
180fn]
As
said before, the Masters have given us
a detailed account of the after-death
processes and those of rebirth:
ENQ.
And what is it that regulates the duration,
or special qualities of these incarnations?
THEO.
Karma, the universal law of retributive
justice.
ENQ.
Is it an intelligent law?
THEO.
For the Materialist, who calls the law
of periodicity which regulates the marshalling
of the several bodies, and all the other
laws in nature, blind forces and mechanical
laws, no doubt Karma would be a law of
chance and no more. For us, no adjective
or qualification could describe that
which is impersonal and no entity, but
a universal operative law. If you question
me about the causative intelligence in
it, I must answer you I do not know.
But if you ask me to define its effects
and tell you what these are in our belief,
I may say that the experience of thousands
of ages has shown us that they are absolute
and unerring equity, wisdom, and intelligence. For Karma in its effects is an unfailing
redresser of human injustice, and of
all the failures of nature; a stern adjuster
of wrongs; a retributive law which rewards
and punishes with equal impartiality.
It is, in the strictest sense, “no respecter of persons”, though, on the other hand, it can neither
be propitiated, nor turned aside by prayer.
[Key, 198]
Among
the details of the after-death processes
given by the Masters is what happens
to the victims of accident and to suicides.
The victims are not responsible for their
deaths but suicides are.
Motive is
everything and man is punished in a case
of direct responsibility, never otherwise. In the
victim’s case of the natural hour of death was anticipated accidentally, while in that of the suicide, death is
brought on voluntarily and with a full
and deliberate knowledge of its immediate
consequences.
[MLC
70c, 213]
The
Masters are quite explicit about the
nature of the post-mortem entities that
can communicate, through mediums, with
the living, and about the dangers to
them of doing so.
But
if the victim of accident or violence
be neither very good, nor very bad -
an average person - then this may happen
to him. A medium who attracts him will
create for him the most undesirable of
things; a new combination of Skandhas and a new and evil Karma.
[MLC
68, 198]
Now,
the causes producing the “new being” and determining the nature of Karma are, as already said - Trishna (or “Tanha”) - thirst, desire for sentient existence
and Upadana - which is the realization or consummation
of Trishna or that desire. And both of these the medium
helps to awaken and to develop nec plus ultra in an Elementary, be he a suicide or a victim.
[MLC
68, 200]
When
the after-death processes are complete
- mostly after a very long time, sometimes
millennia - rebirth by stages commences.
The characteristics of the new being,
and even the domestic and group circumstances
into which it will be born, are determined
by Karma.
...
the new being is rewarded and punished for the meritorious
acts and misdeeds of the old one; Karma representing an Entry Book, in
which all the acts of man, good, bad,
or indifferent, are carefully recorded
to his debit and credit ...
[MLC
68, 198]
Even
the sex of the new personality to be
is determined by Karma:
...
is sex a mere accident of each birth
...?
A
mere accident - as you say. Generally
a chance work yet guided by individual
Karma, - moral aptitudes, characteristics
and deeds of the previous birth.
[MLC
61, 157]
On
earth it is the physiological and mental
defects, the sins of the progenitors
which are visited upon the issue: in
that land of shadows, the new and yet
unconscious Ego-foetus becomes the just
victim of the transgressions of its old Self, whose karma - merit and demerit - will alone weave out
its future destiny.
[MLC
18, 66]
6.
THE ASPIRANT
In
instructions to aspirants on the spiritual
path duty is much stressed. It is not
always clear what our duty in certain
instances is. The following passages
are helpful:
...
it is always wiser to work and force
the current of events than to wait
for time”....
If
it is right to care for the poor and
those who suffer, it is right to care
for the rich and all those who will unavoidably
be brought to far greater sufferings,
unless warned and shown the true cause
of all such Karmic sorrows. The poorer
a man, the more sad his life, the nearer
he is to the end of his punitive Karma;
the richer his neighbour, the more full
of pleasures his life, the nearer he
is - unless he acts in the right path
- to his Karmic doom. Help the poor,
but pity the ignorant rich.
[C.W.XII,
60-1]
The
qualifications required of a chela, i.e.,
a student / aspirant after knowledge
of the Ancient Wisdom are listed. The
fourth of these requirements is as follows:
Truthfulness
and unswerving faith in the law of Karma,
independent of any power in nature that
could interfere: a law whose course is
not to be obstructed by any agency, not
to be caused to deviate by prayer or
propitiatory exoteric ceremonies;...
[C.W.IV,
608]
Misconceptions
regarding the Masters of the Wisdom or
Mahatmas are rife; occasionally some
plain statements help to put matters
right.
The Mahatmas
are the servants, not the arbiters
of the Law of Karma. LAY CHELASHIP CONFERS NO PRIVILEGE UPON
ANYONE EXCEPT THAT OF WORKING FOR MERIT
UNDER THE OBSERVATION OF A MASTER.
[C.W.IV,
611]
Many
who read this will be associated with
the Theosophical Society or another such
organization. The following will be interesting
to them:
Each
of us and all will receive his or her
Karma in it [the Society], but the vehicle
of Theosophy will stand indestructible
and undestroyed...
[C.W.VII, 165]
The
Law is universal and applies universally
to all things in existence, both creatures
and men - even to the Masters:
...
he [the Master] is himself under the
inexorable law of Karma, which no one
from the Zulu savage up to the highest
archangel can avoid ...
[C.W.VII,
243]
H.P.B.
tells us about her shortcomings and her
heavy Karma as one committed to the Path:
Imperfect
and faulty is my [H.P.B.’s] nature; many and glaring are my shortcomings
- and for this my Karma is heavier than
that of any other Theosophist..... as
soon as one steps on the Path leading
to the Ashrum of the blessed Masters ... his Karma, instead
of having to be distributed throughout
his long life, falls upon him in a block
and crushes him with its whole weight.
[C.W.VII,
247]
Many
an aspirant on the Path is concerned
to know the role of the Master towards
him. Most of us have not knowingly made
such a contact. What would our relationship
be with one in the matter of Karma? Answering
the question “Do Masters punish?”:
Now,
I’m not going to tell you all about this. They
are just; They embody the Law and Compassion.
Do not for an instant imagine that Masters
are going to come down on you for your
failures and wrongs, if any. Karma looks
out for this. Masters’ ethics are the highest. From the standpoint
of your question. They do not punish....
Karma will do all the punishing that
is necessary.
[C.W.X, 270]
By
now it is clear that of whatever Karma
we have been the cause we can in no wise
escape the effects:
The
acceptance of Truth and the practice
of virtue cannot avert Karma waiting
from other lives, but can produce good
effects in lives to come, and what the
extreme practice of mental curing does
is to stave off for a time an amount
of Karma which will, later on, reach
us. We prefer to let it work out naturally
through the material part of us...
[C.W.X,
288]
Returning
to the relationship between the Adept
and the pupil (chela) it is repeatedly
made clear that the teacher - the Adept
- under no circumstances interferes
with another’s Karma:
The
true Adept of the “Right Hand” never punishes anyone, not even his bitterest
and most dangerous enemy; he simply leaves
the latter to his Karma, and Karma never
fails to do so, sooner or later.
[C.W.XIV,
31fn]
Many
who read this will be Christians with
its doctrine of atonement, the forgiveness
of sins. This has been dealt with previously
but the idea that Karma and reincarnation
are implicit in the New Testament writings
will perhaps come as a surprise.
Jesus,
the Adept we believe in, taught our Eastern
doctrines, KARMA and REINCARNATION foremost
of all. When the so-called Christians
will have learnt to read the New Testament
between the lines, their eyes will be
opened and - they will see.
[C.W.XI,
61]
The
mass of human sin and frailty is distributed
throughout the life of man who is content
to remain an average mortal. It is gathered
in and centred, so to say, within one
period of the life of a chela - the period
of probation. That which is generally
accumulating to find its legitimate issue
only in the next rebirth of an ordinary
man, is quickened and fanned into existence
in the chela - especially in the presumptuous
and selfish candidate who rushes in without
having calculated his forces.
[MLC
134, 441]
Further
advice is given to the would-be aspirant
which indicates the immense difficulty
on the path he is intending to tread:
Desire
is an energy which ought to be repressed;...
It is got rid of by the man himself when
repressed, but if given effect hangs
round his neck like a mill-stone in the
form of Karma.... On his return thence
[from death] man finds the Karma of unrepressed
Desire waiting for him at the threshold....
Thus the Mahatma, being without desire
is outside of the sphere of action of
Karma;...
[C.W.XIII,
365]
Many
consciously on the long road to the fulfilment
of their human existences, the road to
human perfection, have tried to avoid
the effects of Karma by complete inactivity.
The following is a warning to all those
who think so:
Not
only European Sanskritists but also exoteric
Yogis, fall into the grievous mistake
of supposing that, ... a human being
can escape the operation of the Law of
Karma by adopting a condition of masterly
inactivity, entirely losing sight of
the fact that even a rigid abstinence
from physical acts does not produce inactivity
on the higher astral and spiritual planes.
[C.W.V,
338]
The
aspirant should take note of and heed
each of the following paragraphs:
We
[theosophists] believe the human body
to be but the shell, cover or veil of
the real entity; and those who accept
the esoteric philosophy and the theory
of “Karma” (the universal law of ethical causation)
believe that the entity, as it travels
around certain major and minor cycles
of existence with the whole mass of human
beings, takes on a different body at
birth, and shells it off at death, under
the operation of this Karmic law.
[C.W.XII,
302]
Every
transgression in the private life of
a mortal, is, according to Occult philosophy,
a double-edged sword in the hand of Karma;
one for the transgressor, the other for
the family, nation, sometimes even for
the race, that produced him.
[C.W.XII,
385
Crimes
committed in Avidya (ignorance) involve
physical but not moral responsibilities
or Karma.... But the case of each of
you, pledged to the HIGHER SELF, is
quite another matter.... consciously you
have
invoked the divine justice of Karma
to take note of your motives, to scrutinize
your actions, and to enter up all in
your account.... Never again can you
force yourself back into the Matrix
of
Avidya and irresponsibility... And
know further that if Karma relentlessly
records
in the Esotericist’s account bad deeds that in the ignorant
would be overlooked, yet equally true
is it that each of his good deeds is,
by reason of his association with the
Higher Self, an hundredfold intensified
as a potentiality for good.
[C.W.XII,
503-4]
COSMIC
PLANES AND HUMAN PRINCIPLES
|
NO. |
COSMIC PLANES
Common Names
May others |
HUMAN
PRINCIPLES
|
SANSKRIT
NAME |
ENGLISH NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
7 |
AKASHA
Spirit-Substance |
ATMA |
SPIRIT |
Ultimate Dynamism
Life or Spirit (Astract)
Seat of Consciousness
|
6 |
ALAYA
Universal Soul |
BUDDHI |
VEHICLE OF SPIRIT |
Plus Spirit =Life Effective.
The Monard. Inherent in everything.
Prime Duality. |
5 |
MAHAT
Universal Mind |
HIGHER
MANAS
LOWER
|
HIGHER MIND |
Orientates towards (7) and (6)
Astract though, Intuition, Unity. |
|
|
LOWER
MIND |
Orientates towards (1) to (4)
Personal Mind, Ordinary Thougths |
4 |
KAMA
Universal Energy |
KAMA |
DESIRE
Passion |
Driving Energy. Will at lower octave. The
Motivator. Has higher and lower
octaves. |
3 |
Formative Principle Within-Without |
LINGA SARIRA |
ASTRAL BODY |
Non-physical material form body (Morphic).
Collector and reservoir of Life
Force (Prana), vital body. |
2 |
LIFE FORCE
in Everything |
PRANA |
LIFE FORCE |
Vitality, without which a body is dead. |
1 |
Densest Substance
( PRAKRITI ) |
STHULA SARIRA |
PHYSICAL BODY |
Means of perception and action at physical
level. Vehicle for expression of
all human faculties. |
EPILOGUE
In
the The Key to Theosophy (p 204) H.P.B.
tells a story of a lady who had occasionally
visited Hampstead Heath north of London
and also its East End. Hampstead Heath
she found a delightful place with open
skies, fresh air, trees and flowers but
the East End was the exact opposite:
terrible poverty, squalor, noxious smells,
with children scratching a living there
as best they could. She came to the conclusion
that its social problem was too big and
not much could be done about it. She
did, however, take some flowers to one
of the children’s school. They were a source of great delight.
The story illustrated the lady’s genuine concern for the children and her
willingness to do something to alleviate
their lot.
This
kind of squalor, in western cities
at any rate, has become a thing of the
past.
Social reformers, local governments
and even national governments have made
the
necessary provisions to clean up slum
areas with new or renovated buildings,
proper sanitation, running water, etc.
and provided schools for even the most
deprived children. The grinding poverty
of the people and its consequence disease,
misery and generation deprivations
which were prevalent at the time of H.P.B.’ story have been virtually eliminated.
Things
have changed. Now, even in the case
of world-wide disasters like wars and natural
catastrophes massive aid is now quickly
available thanks to the initiatives
of
large international charitable organizations
and the more affluent countries. The
public conscience has been awakened
and much has been done to alleviate suffering
on a wide scale. Nevertheless there
are
still areas relatively untouched, of
child abuse and exploitation. Moreover,
large tracts of the world are being
deprived of their natural resources at
an alarming
rate. All these things will necessarily
incur a Karmic reaction. The social
one will react into the conditions both
ecological
and those affecting most people on
the planet and will affect not only the
physical
but the inner worlds, notably the elemental
kingdoms. Karma will restore balance
or harmony sometime and in some way.
The way is not predictable but it is
inevitable. All the extracts comprising
this work confirm the inexorable workings
of the Law, for good or ill.
The
matter of waste is one that surely must
be addressed soon by the civilized and
better-off countries of the world. Present
practices are unconscionable, i.e., the
profligate use of energy in electric
signs, the lavish use of heating and
air-conditioning in properties is taken
for granted. Humanity behaves as if there
were no tomorrow. Waste of good food
as garbage, waste of natural resources,
e.g., in terms of massive, largely unread
newspapers and magazines, use up the
natural resources of the earth faster
than they can regenerate. In the matter
of food production it is said that it
takes ten times as much vegetable fodder
to feed to animals for meat than it does
to provide that same value food direct
for human consumption. In view of the
ever-lessening of supplies and the continual
increase in world population the lesson
of the optimum use of food stuffs and
other resources must sooner or later
be learned.
Our
present survey of how the Law works
indicates that it is all-mighty and unerring.
It
can never be stayed in its course towards
harmony and equilibrium. We flaunt
it at our peril. We do this out of pure
ignorance. We are motivated by unthinking
greed. Nevertheless, we have to learn
that we cannot continue our ruthless
exploitation of Nature. We are ourselves
a part, we cannot continue our ways
without
dire penalty both in the short and
the long term. All our activities in the
mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms,
not to mention the human, involve the
Elementals in the invisible worlds
directly,
thereby affecting all the other planes.
The disturbances we cause, both good
and bad, at these levels, necessarily
have their effects at physical level.
Nature has to be accorded a due respect.
We must awaken to our responsibilities,
start thinking and grant her a proper
concern. We interfere with her exquisitely
balanced processes at a potentially enormous
cost to our own welfare and happiness.
So
much for our environment. As far as humanity
is concerned let us end by repeating
the passage from S.D.I, 643:
With
right knowledge, or at any rate with
a confident conviction that our neighbours
will no more work to hurt us than we
would think of harming them, the two-thirds
of the World’s evil would vanish into thin air.
Is
such a faith really beyond our achievement?
We could try to be ever mindful of it,
both as regards ourselves and our world
when, as we have seen, both are in the
deepest sense One.
In
conclusion here is a quotation at the
end of an article by H.P. Blavatsky, “Our Cycle and the Next” (May 1889):
If
Theosophy prevailing in the struggle,
its all-embracing philosophy strikes
deep root into the minds and hearts of
men, if its doctrines of Reincarnation
and Karma, in other words, of Hope and
Responsibility, find a home in the lives
of the new generations, then, indeed,
will dawn the day of joy and gladness
for all who now suffer and are outcast.
For real Theosophy IS ALTRUISM, and we
cannot repeat it too often. It is brotherly
love, mutual help, unswerving devotion
to Truth. If once men do but realize
that in these alone can true happiness
be found, and never in wealth, possessions,
or any selfish gratification, then the
dark clouds will roll away, and a new
humanity will be born upon earth. Then,
the GOLDEN AGE will be there, indeed.
[C.W.XI,
202]
But
if not, then the storm will burst, and
our boasted western civilization and
enlightenment will sink in such a sea
of horror that its parallel History has
never yet recorded.
|