Theosophy - Fourth Message of H.P.Blavatsky - 1891
The
Fourth Message of H.P.Blavatsky- 1891
TO THE BOSTON CONVENTION, T.S., 1891:
For the third time
since my return to Europe in 1885, I am able to send to my brethren in Theosophy
and fellow citizens of the United States a delegate from England to attend the
annual Theosophical Convention and speak by word of mouth my greeting and warm
congratulations. Suffering in body as I am continually, the only consolation
that remains to me is to hear of the progress of the Holy Cause to which my
health and strength have been given; but to which, now that these are going,
I can offer only my passionate devotion and never-weakening good wishes for
its success and welfare. The news therefore that comes from America, mail after
mail, telling of new Branches and of well-considered and patiently worked-out
plan for the advancement of Theosophy cheers and gladdens me with its evidences
of growth, more than words can tell. Fellow Theosophists, I am proud of your
noble work in the New World; Sisters and Brothers of America, I thank and I
bless you for your unremitting labors for the common cause so dear to us all.
Let me remind you
all once more that such work is now more than ever needed. The period which
we have now reached in the cycle that will close between 1897-98 is, and will
continue to be, one of great conflict and continued strain. If the T.S. Can
hold through it, good; if not, while Theosophy will remain unscathed, the Society
will perish - perchance most ingloriously - and the World will suffer. I fervently
hope that I may not see such a disaster in my present body. The critical nature
of the stage on which we have entered is as well known to the forces that fight
against us as to those that fight on our side. No opportunity will be lost of
sowing dissension, of taking advantage of mistaken and false moves, of instilling
doubt, of augmenting difficulties, of breathing suspicions, so that by any and
every means the unity of the Society may be broken and the ranks of our Fellows
thinned and thrown into disarray. Never has it been more necessary for the members
of the T.S. to lay to heart the old parable of the bundle of sticks than it
is at the present time; divided, they will inevitably be broken, one by one;
united, there is no force on earth able to destroy our Brotherhood. Now I have
marked with pain a tendency among you, as among the Theosophists in Europe and
India, to quarrel over trifles, and to allow your very devotion to the cause
of Theosophy to lead you into disunion. Believe me, that apart from such natural
tendency, owing to the inherent imperfections of Human Nature, advantage is
often taken by our ever-watchful enemies of your noblest qualities to betray
and to mislead you. Sceptics will laugh at this statement, and even some of
you may put small faith in the actual existence of the terrible forces of these
mental hence subjective and invisible, yet withal living and potent influences
around all of us. But there they are, and I know of more than one among you
who have felt them, and have actually been forced to acknowledge these extraneous
mental pressures. On those of you who are unselfishly and sincerely devoted
to the Cause, they will produce little, if any, impression. On some others,
those who place their personal pride higher than their duty to the T.S., higher
even than their pledge to their divine SELF, the effect is generally disastrous.
Self-watchfulness is never more necessary than when a personal wish to lead,
and wounded vanity, dress themselves in the peacock's feathers of devotion and
altruistic work; but at the present crisis of the Society a lack of self-control
and watchfulness may become fatal in every case. But these diabolical attempts
of our powerful enemies - the irreconcilable foes of the truths now being given
out and practically asserted - may be frustrated. If every Fellow in the Society
were content to be an impersonal force for good, careless of praise or blame
so long as he subserved the purposes of the Brotherhood, the progress made would
astonish the World and place the Ark of the T.S. out of danger. Take for your
motto in conduct during the coming year, "Peace with all who love Truth in sincerity,"
and the Convention of 1892 will bear eloquent witness to the strength that is
born of unity.
Your position as
the forerunners of the sixth sub-race of the fifth root-race has its own special
perils as well as its special advantages. Psychism, with all its allurements
and all its dangers, is necessarily developing among you, and you must beware
lest the Psychic outruns the Manasic and Spiritual development. Psychic capacities
held perfectly under control, checked and directed by the Manasic principle,
are valuable aids in development. But these capacities running riot, controlling
instead of controlled, using instead of being used, lead the Student into the
most dangerous delusions and the certainty of moral destruction. Watch therefore
carefully this development, inevitable in your race and evolution-period so
that it may finally work for good and not for evil; and receive, in advance,
the sincere and potent blessings of Those whose goodwill will never fail you,
if you do not fail yourselves.
Here in England
I am glad to be able to report to you that steady and rapid progress is being
made. Annie Besant will give you details of our work, and will tell you of the
growing strength and influence of our Society; the reports which she bears from
the European and British Sections speak for themselves in their record of activities.
The English character, difficult to reach, but solid and tenacious when once
aroused, adds to our Society a valuable factor, and there are being laid in
England strong and firm foundations for the T.S. of the twentieth century. Here,
as with you, attempts are being successfully made to bring to bear the influence
of Hindu on English thought, and many of our Hindu brethren are now writing
for Lucifer short and clear papers on Indian philosophies. As it is one of the
tasks of the T.S. to draw together the East and the West, so that each may supply
the qualities lacking in the other and develop more fraternal feelings among
nations so various, this literary intercourse will, I hope, prove of the utmost
service in Aryanising Western thought.
The mention of Lucifer
reminds me that the now assured position of that magazine is very largely due
to the help rendered at a critical moment by the American Fellows. As my one
absolutely unfettered medium of communication with Theosophists all over the
World, its continuance was of grave importance to the whole Society. In its
pages, month by month, I give such public teaching as is possible on Theosophical
doctrines and so carry on the most important of our Theosophical work. The magazine
now just covers its expenses, and if Lodges and individual Fellows would help
in increasing its circulation, it would become more widely useful than it is
at the present time. Therefore, while thanking from the bottom of my heart all
those who so generously helped to place the magazine on a solid foundation,
I should be glad to see a larger increase in the number of regular subscribers,
for I regard these as my pupils, among whom I shall find some who will show
the capacity for receiving further instruction.
And now I have said
all. I am not sufficiently strong to write a more lengthy message, and there
is the less need for me to do so as my friend and trusted messenger Annie Besant,
she who is my right arm here, will be able to explain to you my wishes more
fully and better than I can write them. After all, every wish and thought I
can utter are summed up in this one sentence, the never-dormant wish of my heart,
"Be Theosophists, work for Theosophy!" Theosophy first, and Theosophy last;
for its practical realization alone can save the Western world from that selfish
and unbrotherly feeling that now divides race from race, one nation from the
other; and from that hatred of class and social considerations that are the
curse and disgrace of so-called Christian peoples. Theosophy alone can save
it from sinking entirely into that mere luxurious materialism in which it will
decay and putrefy as civilizations have done. In your hands, brothers, is placed
in trust the welfare of the coming century; and great as is the trust, so great
is also the responsibility. My own span of life may not be long, and if any
of you have learned aught from my teachings, or have gained by my help a glimpse
of the True Light, I ask you, in return, to strengthen the Cause by the triumph
of which that True Light, made still brighter and more glorious through your
individual and collective efforts, will lighten the World, and thus to let me
see, before I part with this worn-out body, the stability of the Society secured.
May the blessings
of the past and present great Teachers rest upon you. From myself accept collectively
the assurance of my true never-wavering fraternal feelings, and the sincere,
heartfelt thanks for the work done by all the workers.
From their servant
to the last,
H. P. Blavatsky
April 15, 1891 |