The Sixth Brãhmana is devoted to showing that all the worlds are woven in and within each
other; and in the Seventh the teacher declares that " the puller " or mover in all things whatsoever is the same Self which is in
each man.
The questioners then
proceed and draw forth the statement that " what is above the heavens, beneath the earth, embracing heaven and earth, past,
present and future, that is woven, like warp and woof, in the ether," and that the ether is "woven like warp and woof in the Imperishable". If this be so, then any law that affects man must govern every portion of the
universe in which he lives.
And we find these sturdy
men of old applying their doctrines in every direction. They use the laws of
analogy and correspondences to solve deep questions. Why need we be behind
them ? If the entire great Self dwells in man, the body in all its parts must
symbolise the greater world about. So we discover that space, having sound
as its distinguishing characteristic, is figured in the human frame by the
ear, as fire is by the eye, and, again, the eye showing forth the soul, for
the soul alone conquers death, and that which in the Upanishats conquers death
is fire.
It is possible in this
manner to proceed steadily toward the acquirement of a knowledge of the laws
of Nature, not only those that are recondite, but also the more easily perceived.
If we grant that the human body and organs are a figure, in little, of the
universe, then let us ask the question: " By what is the astral light symbolised ?" By the eye, and especially by the retina and its mode of action. On the astral
light are received the pictures of all events and things, and on the retina
are received the images of objects passing before the man. We find that these
images on the retina remain for a specific period, capable of measurement,
going through certain changes before fading completely away. Let us extend
the result of this observation to the astral light, and we assume that it also
goes through similar changes in respect to the pictures. From this it follows
that the mass or totality of pictures made during any cycle must, in this great
retina, have a period, at the end of which they will have faded away. Such,
we find, is the law as stated by those who know the Secret Doctrine. In order
to arrive at the figures with which to represent this period, we have to calculate
the proportion thus: as the time of fading from the human retina is to the
healthy man's actual due of life, so is the time of fading from the astral
light. The missing term may be discovered by working upon the doctrine of the four yugas or
ages, and the length of one life of Brahma.
Now these Theosophical
doctrines, which we have been at such pains to elaborate during all the years
of our history, are either capable of universal application or they are not.
If they are not, then they are hardly worth the trouble we have bestowed upon
them; and it would then have been much better for us had we devoted ourselves
to some special departments of science.
But the great allurement
that Theosophy holds for those who follow it, is that its doctrines are universal,
solving all questions and applying to every department of Nature, so far as
we know it. And advanced students declare that the same universal application
prevails in regions far beyond the grasp of present science or of the average
man's mind. So that, if a supposed law or application is formulated to us,
either by ourselves
or by some other person, we are at once able to prove it; for unless it can
be applied in every direction — by correspondence — or is found to be one of the phases of some previously-admitted doctrine, we
know that it is false doctrine or inaccurately stated. Thus all our doctrines
can be proved and checked at every step. It is not necessary for us to have
constant communications with the Adepts, in order to make sure of our ground;
all that we have to do is to see if any position we assume agrees with well-known
principles already formulated and understood.
Bearing this in mind,
we can confidently proceed to examine the great ideas in which so many of us
believe, with a view to seeing how they may be applied in every direction.
For if, instead of selfishly considering these laws in their effect upon our
miserable selves, we ask how they apply everywhere, a means is furnished for
the broadening of our horizon and the elimination of selfishness. And when
also we apply the doctrines to all our acts and to all parts of the human being,
we may begin to wake ourselves up to the real task set before us.
Let us look at karma.
It must be applied not only to the man but also to the Cosmos, to the globe
upon which he lives. You know that, for the want of an English word, the period
of one great day of evolution is called a Manvantara, or the reign of one Manu.
These eternally succeed each other. In other words, each one of us is a unit,
or a cell, if you please, in the great body or being of Manu, and just as we
see ourselves making karma and reincarnating for the purpose of carrying off
karma, so the great Being, Manu, dies at, the end of a Manvantara, and after
the period of rest reincarnates once more, the sum total of all that we have
made him — or it. And when I say " we," I mean all the beings, on whatever plane or planet, who are included in that
Manvantara. Therefore this Manvantara is just exactly what the last Manvantara
made it, and so the next Manvantara after this — millions of years off — will be the sum or result of this one, plus all that have preceded it.
How much have you thought
upon the effect of karma upon the animals, the plants, the minerals, the elemental
beings ? Have you been so selfish as to suppose that they are not affected
by you? Is it true that man himself has no responsibility laid upon him for
the vast numbers of ferocious and noxious animals, for the deadly serpents
and scorpions, the devastating lions and tigers, that make a howling wilderness
of some corners of the earth and terrorise the people of India and elsewhere
? It cannot be true. But, as the Apostle of the Christians said, it is true
that the whole of creation waits upon man and groans that he keeps back the
enlightenment of all. What happens when, with intention, you crush out the
life of a common croton bug ? Well, it is destroyed and you forget it. But
you brought it to an untimely end, short though its life would have been. Imagine
this being done at hundreds of thousands of places in the State. Each of these
little creatures had life and energy; each some degree of intelligence. The sum-total of the effects of all these deaths of small things must be
appreciable. If not, then our doctrines are wrong, and there is no wrong in
putting out the life of a human being.
Let us go a little higher,
to the bird kingdom and that of four-footed beasts. Every day in the shooting
season in England, vast quantities of birds are killed for sport, and in other
places such intelligent and inoffensive. animals as deer. These have a higher
intelligence than insects, a wider scope of feeling. Is there no effect under
karma for all these deaths? And what is the difference between wantonly killing
a deer and murdering an idiot ? Very little to my mind. Why is it, then, that
even delicate ladies will enjoy the recital of a bird or deer hunt ? It is
their karma that they are the descendants of long generations of Europeans
who some centuries ago, with the aid of the Church, decided that animals had
no souls and therefore could be wantonly slaughtered. The same karma permits
the grandson of the Queen of England, who calls herself the Defender of the
Faith — of Jesus —to have great preparations made for his forthcoming visit to India, to the end
that he shall enjoy several weeks of tiger-hunting, pig-sticking, and the destruction
of any and every bird that may fly in his way.
We therefore find ourselves
ground down by the karma of our national stem, so that we are really almost
unable to tell what thoughts are the counterfeit presentments of the thoughts
of our forefathers, and what self-born in our own minds.
Let us now look at Reincarnation,
Devachan, and Karma.
It has been the custom
of Theosophists to think upon these subjects in respect only to the whole man — that is to say, respecting the ego.
But what of its hourly
and daily application ? If we believe in the doctrine of the One Life, then
every cell in these material bodies must be governed by the same laws. Each
cell must be a life and have its karma, devachan, and reincarnation. Every
one of these cells, upon incarnating among the others in our frame, must be
affected by the character of those it meets; and we make that character. Every
thought, upon reaching its period, dies. It is soon reborn, and, coming back
from its devachan, it finds either bad or good companions provided for it.
Therefore every hour of life is fraught with danger or with help. How can it
be possible that a few hours a week devoted to Theosophic thought and action
can counteract — even in the. gross material cells — the effect of nearly a whole week spent in indifference, frivolity, or selfishness?
This mass of poor or bad thought will form a resistless tide that shall sweep
away all your good resolves at the first opportunity.
This will explain why
devoted students often fail. They have waited for a particular hour or day
to try their strength, and when the hour came they had none. If it was anger
they had resolved to conquer, instead of trying to conquer it at an offered
opportunity they ran away from the chance so as to escape the trial, or they
did not meet the hourly small trials that would, if successfully passed, have
given them a great reserve of strength, so that no time of greater trial would
have been able to overcome them.
Now as to the theory
of the evolution of the macrocosm in its applications to the microcosm, man.
The Hermetic philosophy
held that man is a copy of the greater universe; that he is a little universe
in himself, governed by the same laws as the great one, and in the small proportions
of a human being showing all those greater laws in operation, only reduced
in time or sweep. This is the rule to which H. P. Blavatsky adheres, and which
is found running through all the ancient mysteries and initiations.
It is said that our
universe is a collection of atoms or molecules — called also "lives" — living together that through each the spirit struggles to reach consciousness;
and that this struggle is governed by a law compelling it to go on in or between
periods. In any period of such struggle some of these atoms or collections
of molecules are left over, as it were, to renew the battle in the next period,
and hence the state of the universe at any time of manifestation — or the state of each newly-manifested universe — must be the result of what was done in the preceding period.
Coming down to the man,
we find that he is a collection of molecules or lives or cells, each striving with the other, and all affected for either good or
bad results by the spiritual aspirations or want of them in the man who is
the guide, or god, so to say, of his little universe. When he is born, the
molecules or cells or lives that are to compose his physical and astral forms
are from that moment under his reign, and during the period of his smaller
life they pass through a small manvantara, just as the lives in the universe
do, and when he dies he leaves them all impressed with the force and colour
of his thoughts and aspiration, ready to be used in composing the houses of
other egos.
Now here is a great
responsibility revealed to us of a double character.
The first is for effects
produced on, and left in, what we call matter in the molecules, when they come
to be used by other egos, for they must act upon the latter for benefit or
the reverse.
The second is for the
effect on the molecules themselves in this, that there are lives or entities
in all — or rather they are all lives — who are either aided or retarded in their evolution by reason of the proper
or improper use man made of this matter that was placed in his charge.
Without stopping to
argue about what matter is, it will be sufficient to state that it is held
to be co-eternal with what is called "spirit". That is, as it is put in the Bhagavad-Gîtã: "He who is spirit is also matter." Or, in other words, spirit is the opposite pole to matter of the Absolute. But
of course this matter we speak of is not what we see about us, for the latter
is only, in fact, phenomena of matter; even science holds that we do not really
see matter.
Now, during a manvantara
or period of manifestation, the egos incarnating must use over and over again
in any world upon which they are incarnating the matter that belongs to it.
So, therefore, we are
now using in our incarnations matter that has been used by ourselves and other
egos over and over again, and are affected by the various tendencies impressed
on it. And, similarly, we are leaving behind us for future races that which
will help or embarrass them in their future lives.
This is a highly important
matter, whether reincarnation be a true doctrine or not. For if each new nation
is only a mass of new egos or souls, it must be much affected by the matter-environment
left behind by the nations and races that have disappeared for ever.
But for us who believe
in reincarnation it has additional force, showing us one strong reason why
universal brotherhood should be believed in and practised,
The other branch of
the responsibility is just as serious. The doctrine that removes death from
the universe and declares that all is composed of innumerable lives, constantly
changing places with each other, contains in it of necessity the theory that
man himself is full of these lives and that all are traveling up the long road
of evolution.
The Secret Doctrine
holds that we are full of kingdoms of entities who depend upon us, so to say,
for salvation.
How enormous, then,
is this responsibility, that we not only are to be judge for what we do with
ourselves as a whole, but also for what we do for those unseen beings who are
dependent upon us for light.