Occult View of the War
(World War One)
C.W. Leadbeater
April 1916
1.
The Great War is the one topic of the day, the one thing about which
everyone speaks-the one thing, also, about which everyone thinks, and yet vast
numbers of people are not thinking rightly about it. There are many who do not
know what to think. They are torn by a number of different ideas, and they find
it hard to take a balanced view. On the one side there is often a rush of hatred
called forth by awful barbarities, by unexampled cruelties; on -the other side
there is a strong feeling -a well founded feeling-that war is an awful and inane
thing, which never settles any point properly, because the side that wins in a
war need not at all necessarily be always the right side. Providence, they say,
is on the side of the biggest guns, and the old mediaeval idea that what was,
was always decided by some higher power does not find invariable acceptance in
the present day. People say: "We know that war is an evil and a wicked thing; we
know that peace is right and beautiful; so how can we fight with any heart?"
Yet, on the other' hand, when such awful filings are happening, is it not every
man's duty to do what he can to stay the evil? So there is a general uncertainty
of feeling, and many people hardly know what line they ought to take.
2.
Perhaps a statement of facts with regard to the war from the inside may
help you as to the attitude which we ought to adopt. In my own mind that
attitude is absolutely clear and definite, and I shall endeavor to put it before
you with such advantage of knowledge of the inner side of things as has come to
me, because the attitude which men take with regard to this war is a matter of
great importance. It is quite true that the one thing to be thought of now is to
win. But many of us are not able to go and fight, and the attitude that we take
with regard to this matter may make the final settlement a comparatively easy
thing or an almost impossible thing and, therefore, it is not unimportant that
we should have the right ideas clearly in our minds.
3.
In order to have clear ideas upon any subject we must first of all have
the facts at our command. There is always a hidden side to everything-a side
which is unseen by the ordinary man, uncontemplated by the ordinary thinker; yet
that unseen side is nearly always vastly more important and vastly more
informing than the side which is seen.
4.
I am going to try to give you some glimpse of the hidden side of this
great struggle, and I hope that that may help you to take up an attitude, to
form an opinion, which will be helpful and not harmful when we come to the
settlement later.
5.
On the surface this war seems simple enough, although incredible. All who
know anything of the real history of events-I mean from the external point of
view-know that Germany has been prepared through many, many years with a
careful, calculated thoroughness which has, perhaps, never been equaled in the
world, to make a spring at the throat of Europe; just precisely that-to make a
tremendous bid for world-domination. I know that even that much is not generally
believed in Germany. There they try to persuade themselves that they were forced
to make this attack; but all of us who have read the evidence, the Blue books
and the various messages interchanged between the countries concerned, know that
the attack was absolutely unprovoked, and that one aide had prepared for it in a
perfectly marvelous manner-a manner which is an example of thoroughness to the
rest of the world, only unfortunately an example of unparalleled treachery and
dishonor as well. The Allies were most unfortunately unprepared to a terrible
extent-to an extent which has cost a vast amount in lives and in, suffering.
6.
All that is on the surface and is obvious. Calculated, detailed, and
marvelously unscrupulous as was the preparation, it has been fully equaled by
the execution, which has been carried out with a deliberate brutality, with a
finished cruelty never before approached. I know that is a strong thing to say,
but you have only to read unimpeachable evidence to see that it .is true.
Unfortunately, I know it to be true. I have had in the course of work on other
planes opportunities of observation for myself. I know that the most awful
stories you have heard are absolutely founded on fact. I am sorry, but it is so.
We have to face things as they are, so that actually we have come to see that
Kipling was right in his memorable phrase, "We shall now have to revise our
vocabulary; we shall now have to divide the inhabitants of the earth into human
beings and-Germans." I am-sorry, but I am telling you the facts of the case.
7.
If you think of it, that is a most amazing thing; and remember that, so
far as we have been allowed to hear, there has been no protest. Just think-I do
not want to stir up your passions, it is the last thing I would desire to do;
but just think of the things which have happened. Remember the Lusitania;
remember the Persia and the Arabic. Think of how many cases there have been of
attacks upon unprotected towns, the deliberate murder- a verdict of willful
murder has been brought in by a court over and over again-of non-combatants.
Think of that for a moment, and then say how can you account for such a thing?
8.
You have all, I am quite sure, known people belonging to this race. I, at
least, have known many Germans.
9.
I belong to the Theosophical Society-a society which has branches in
every country in the world. I have met men of that race. I have known them, they
have been friends of mine. I am sure that the same is true of a great many of
you.
10.
It is true that in that Theosophical Society we had a foretaste of this
endeavor to dominate the world, for the German Section of the Theosophical
Society rose against tlie rest of it and tried to obtain supreme power in the
Society some years ago, before this war was in sight They employed exactly the
same weapons that are now being employed by the political agents of the German
press;_ the same unscrupulous lies, the same discovery ot spies in all sorts of
unexpected places. We in the Theosophieal Society went through-on paper, of
course mainly-a small edition of this attempt to capture the whole organization.
We did not understand then; the .tter unscrupulousness of it all astounded us
Now we see that it was only part of the whole German scheme -an attempt to get
hold of a world-wide Society, through which something might have been done to
help the German plan of world-domination. Fortunately, the scheme was defeated,
with all its attendant calumny and treachery. We have all known men of German
race; were they on the whole the kind of people who would behave in this
fashion? You know that they were not. Do not you see that this dire change
requires accounting for- that it needs something absolutely unusual, something
entirely novel in the way of an explanation 7 I will try to tell you exactly how
it did happen-how it is happening.
11.
Here is another point. We all of us feel, I think that we are engaged
more or less in a war of principle that there are great principles at stake,
that we are fighting for liberty, far what is called democracy. I have not
personally by any means an unalloyed admiration of democratic methods; but I do
say that democracy at least means an effort towards liberty for the people
though I think there is a good deal which is crude and unfinished and
unscientific about it.
12.
We are fighting, then, surety, for this democracy and liberty on one side
as against terrible tyranny and slavery on the other. It is not only the right
of existence of smaller nations. You know it has been quite openly stated in
the. German press that the day of small nations is over, that Germany does not
want small nations, that they have no right to exist. It is not only that that
is at stake, but more nearly than that is it honor, and the keeping of a pledge.
You know well how the next man below the Emperor described a solemn treaty as
"only a scrap of paper" and could not understand how we could wish to go to war
merely for this scrap of paper. It is against that kind of thing that we are
fighting. The fact that our enemy has miscalculated docs not, after all, make
the matter any better; the fact that they cynically judged us by themselves-that
they supposed that Ireland would be certain to rebel (because it seemed on the
verge of civil war) if England were attacked; the fact that they believed that
you in Australia, with our fellow-citizens of the Empire in Canada and the Cape
of Good Hope, would all take the opportunity to break away- that is what they
expected. They calculated on all that. They have miscalculated, but that does
not make their case any better.
13.
So quite clearly we are standing for principles. And I can tell you
this-that more truly than you know, and on a greater scale than you know, is
this a question of principle.
14.
We know that there are forces which work against evolution as well as
those which work in favor of it. We know that there is frequently a small, even
a personal struggle -taking place between these forces over individuals, and
sometimes over what seem to us quite small things. But we know also that now and
then great world-crises arise where good and evil set themselves against one
another in serried array, and humanity is influenced by these powers and driven
into taking part on one side or the other. The last occasion on which so great a
world-struggle took place was in Atlantis some J or 13,000 years ago. There was
a great fight then between those who were on the side of good and those who were
on the side of selfishness.
15.
We may read something of the action of the Lords of the Dark Face in
Atlantis in THE SECRET DOC-Madame Blavatsky devotes much time and energy to
expounding their line of work. We must try to understand that there may be
people who are doing what to us seems absolutely evil, and yet they may think
themselves justified in their action. They may think that the line which they
are taking is not evil but, in the long run, good. Tt is true that when they
say: "in the long run, good," I think they generally mean good for themselves;
but these Lords of the Dark Face had their own view of evolution and to
themselves they justified it, much along the line in which some people in these
days try to justify the action of Judas Iscariot on the ground that he was more
anxious than the rest that the Master's glory should be shown forth to the world
and so he put Ins Master in a position where he thought that : must show forth
His glory. However incredible it may scorn, that view is gravely put forward by
some writers.
16.
The Lords of the Dark Face in Atlantis were intensifying themselves as
separated beings against the stream of evolution. We hold that The trend of
evolution is towards unity-that this vast multiplex Universe that we see around
us is all the expression of One Mighty Power, and that as from Him we all came
out so to Him one day we shall all return-not losing our sense Of individuality,
not losing the memory and the benefit of all our experience, but certainly
rising ever higher and higher into perfect realization of our unity with Kim.
Therefore to know it to be pleasing to Him that we should work ever towards that
unity. But those who hold the opposite view think that the Deity seta up this
current which we call evolution in order that we may strengthen ourselves by
fighting against it; and, although we do not believe that, we can see that it is
a possible view and it is clear that men who hold it will not live at all as we
do. We think that such people are vitally in error, that they are allowing
themselves to be clouded by the lower self; still we see that they try to
justify their position by a certain line of argument. It is not necessary to
suppose that those Lords of the Dark Face were doing evil for evil's sake; but
they held what we consider wrong and selfish views as to the intention of the
Deity. I have myself heard some of their successors of the present day say: "Yon
people think you know what GOD means; your Masters hold these views and, of
course, yon follow them. But we have a different view; we are following the
traditions of a very ancient school and we contrive to hold our own fairly
well."
17.
In Atlantis this attitude led, among the ordinary and commonplace
followers, to extreme selfishness find sensuality, to general unscrupulous™
SB-and irresponsibility. It led to an extraordinary condition in which each man
set up an image of himself and worshiped that as a God -a perversion of the
perfectly true idea that God is within everyone of us, and that if you cannot
find Him within yourself it is useless to look for Him elsewhere. So it came
about *that there was a Vast revolution against the Ruler of the Golden Gate,
and practically the good and evil forces which are always seeking to influence
the world found physical expression in that great series of battles in Atlantis.
In that case the majority of the population was distinctly on the side of evil,
and the evil won. Because the evil won, it was necessary more than 1,000 years
afterwards to whelm that great island of Poseidonis beneath the waters of the
Atlantic; and 65,000,000 people died within 24 hours in that great cataclysm.
18.
This time once more the forces of good and evil have materialized
themselves here on the physical plane, and the mighty contest has come down
again to this level.
19.
Remember, we are the same people who were in Atlantis, and it is probable
that we took our part in the struggle- with the minority, let us hope-yet
perhaps some of ua with the majority; it is a long time ago and we cannot be
certain.
20.
I remember reading a terrible story £ fiction only, I hope, for it could
hardly have been actual fact) of the recovered memory of a past incarnation.
There was once a man, an earnest and devout Christian, who through the accident
of subjecting himself to mesmeric treatment found that in a trance condition he
was able to gain glimpses of what he felt to be past lives of his own.
Incredulous at first, the strength and vividness of his experiences soon forced
him to admit that they must be real reminiscences; and in this way he acquired
much interesting information about mediaeval periods. Then arose in his mind a
wild but fervent hope that if lie could press his memory further, he might
discover that he had been on Earth during the lifetime of Jesus; he yearned
inexpressibly for a glimpse of that Divine Presence; he imagined himself
following and ecstatically worshiping the Lord whom he so loved; he even dared
to hope that perhaps he might have had the supreme honor of martyrdom for his
faith, Further and further in successive trances he pushed back his recollection
until at last, with inexpressible thankfulness and awe, he realized that he had
trodden the- sacred soil of Palestine at the very same time as that majestic
Figure. And then, with a shock so terrible that it left him a dying man, he knew
the appalling truth that in that life of long ago he had been a rabid unit in an
angry crowd, yelling wildly: " Crucify Him ! Crucify Him!''
21.
I trust devoutly that we were all on the right side in that stupendous
struggle in Atlantis; but, however that may have been, at least the very same
people are having their chance again now, but this time the majority, thank
Heaven, is on the side of the good, and the good will win. This very fact-that
many who were on the wrong side then are on the right side now-is full of hope
and cheer for us, for it shows that in spite of all appearances to the contrary
the world is evolving; and, however disheartening are our failures, we arc on
the whole better men than we were 12,000 years ago. Therefore we may hope to
avoid for some thousands of years to come a cataclysm on the tremendous scale
that sank Poseidonis. But if the evil won, the cataclysm would follow; it must
follow, for the Deity intends that humanity shall evolve, and if part of
humanity deliberately casts itself out of the line of evolution, that particular
set of bodies and minds ~must be wiped out, and must begin again under .other
conditions. The souls will come back to birth again presently, scattered all
over the world in various countries, so that there can no longer be the same
terrible strength of united unscrupulousness that has made that nation a danger
to the world. "
22.
We must not think, if we can help it (I know how hard it is to help it),
that all the people who fight on the side of evil are necessarily all wicked
people. Unquestionably mauy of them are appallingly wicked; but equally
unquestionably many of them are not so by nature ; they are victims of a mighty
obsession-an obsession so tremendous in its power that if you and I had been
subjected to it, we too might not have seen our way clear through it and come
out of it unstained; who can tell? Thousands and thousands of people as good as
we, have not come through it satisfactorily. The power behind which is contrary
to evolution can and does seize upon a whole nation and obsess it and influence
it. It is true that it cannot do that (just as is the case with individual
obsession) unless there is in the obsessed something or other which responds.
But if there be in any nation a majority, or even a powerful minority,
which-perhaps through pride, perhaps through grossness and coarseness, through
not having opened up sufficiently the love side of the nature, through having
given itself too entirely, too unscrupulously to developing intellect-is already
in that condition of ready response to evil, then the rest of the nation, the
weaker people, are simply swept along with them, and they cannot see straight
for the time. "We must try to realize that.
23.
What, then, was there in Germany which has made this awful, obsession
possible? I find part of the answer to this question in a remarkable sot of
statistics which I came across recently. They are taken from a book called THE
SOUL OP GERMANY, written by a Professor of the University of Erlangen, 111
Bavaria. He makes a comparison between the amount of certain kinds of crime
which came before the Courts in England and in Germany in a period of 10 years.
It must be remembered, in making such a "comparison, the population of Great
Britain is about 40,000,000, while that of Germany is 70,000,000; so that we
must add 75% to the English numbers to see what, if the two countries stood at
an equal level of moral development, we might reasonably expect to find in
Germany; but even after making this allowance we shall see a truly appalling
disproportion. Forgive me if the statistics are unsavory, but we want to
understand how this ghastly condition of affairs has arisen.
24.
The professor takes first the crime of maliciously or feloniously
wounding. Of this there occurred in England during the 10 years 1262 cases, so
we might expect in Germany about 2200; the actual number is 172,153.
25.
During the same time there were in England 97 murders, which would lead
us to estimate those in Germany at 170; the number given is 350--almost exactly
double what might be expected; and there is a further complication due to the
fact that (we read) there are hundreds upon hundreds of man-killing in the
Fatherland which the German law does not technically term murders- which,
therefore, do not appear in murder statistics.
26.
Of rapes there were in Britain 216, which should give 380 in Germany;
there were actually 9,381. Cases of incest were with us 56; we might, therefore,
look for about 100 in Germany, but we find 573.
27.
The number of illegitimate children was with us 37,041 -- a sufficiently
shameful total, which should lead us to look for perhaps 65,000 in the larger
country; instead of this there are 178,115.
28.
Of malicious damage to property-a peculiarly mean and cold-blooded
crime-I regret to say that we had in England 358; so on the same scale there
might have been 627 in the Fatherland, but there really were no less than
25,759.
29.
God forbid that we should set ourselves up to be self-righteous; we
English have our faults, and grave faults; but when- we examine those statistics
we cannot but realize that there has been a difference in the average level of
morality; we begin to see how this incredible and awful obsession has happened,
and why it was that the plan originally made by the Great Ones for this
particular little bit of human evolution could hot be carried out.
30.
It was hoped that the Fifth Root-Race would stand as a whole or, at any
rate that the fifth sub-race would stand as a whole, arid the hope was nearly
realized. The Powers that stand behind human evolution worked long through their
pupils to prevent this catastrophe. Whether these Powers knew all the time that
the labor would not achieve its end, I cannot tell. "We sometimes think of Them
as knowing beforehand all that will happen; whether They do or not, I know not,
but at least it is certain that in many cases They work most earnestly to
produce certain results and to give to men certain opportunities. Through the
failure of humanity to take the chances offered, the results may not then be
attained. They are always eventually attained,' but often they are postponed for
what to us seems an enormous time. The Great Deity of the Solar System, the
LOGOS Himself, knows perfectly all that will happen, and knows who will take his
chances and who will not. That we must believe; whether all who work under Him
also know that, we cannot tell. Certainly I know that a .great conflict between
good and evil forces has long been impending over us. I know also that it need
not have taken precisely the form it has, if only some of those to whom great
opportunities were offered had risen to the level of those opportunities and had
taken them.
31.
Some have taken them. This mighty British Empire has been formed and has
been welded together by bonds of close affection in a way in which no Empire has
ever been united before. There was a huge Roman Empire; but it was
self-interest, the Roman peace, and the power of Rome which held that together.
It was not the love for Rome of those subject races at all. There have been
other vast empires in the past, but they were held together by force, riot by
love. But what else than love holds this empire together? England, the little
Mother State, He has no wish to coerce it. Once she did, under utterly mistaken
direction by an obstinate King and a foolish Ministry, try to coerce the
American colonies. The only result of that was that nearly half of what should
have been the Empire is not part of it now, though it is being bound closely to
it by other ties. It should have been all within this one great Empire; that was
the plan, but the stupidity o£ it overthrew that part of it. England has made no
later effort to coerce the far mightier Dominions attached to her. She has left
them perfectly free; yet they are bound to her more closely now than they ever
were before.
32.
It was hoped that the other nations which belong to bur sub-race would
join in a great confederation. America and England have been drawn closely
together, so that war between them is now scarcely thinkable; and the hope was
that, Scandinavia and Germany would have come into a similar friendship; but
Germany would not come in. There has been for many years a curious and
undesirable form of national spirit arising in that country. There is plenty of
evidence as to this. Bead the German literature, and you will see perfectly well
the direction in which for 40 years and more, its people have been going.
Because of their intense pride, because of the teaching of brutality and of
force, (of blood and iron instead of the law of love and because of the low
level of general morality which is the direct consequence of such teaching, they
have laid themselves open to this dreadful obsession, and some of the great
Lords of the Dark Face have again taken their place among them.
33.
Prince Bismarck was such a one, as Madame Blavatsky told a long ago.
While he was still alive he laid his-plans for the subjugation of Europe. You
may be thankful he has not survived till the present, for plane were far wiser
than those of the men who have followed him. Long ago Madame Blavatsky explained
to us that he had considerable occult knowledge, and that before-the war with
France in 1870 he had traveled physically to certain points to the north, the
south, the east and the west of France, and had there east spells of some sort,
or made magnetic centers, with the object of preventing effective resistance to
the German armies. Undoubtedly the French collapse at the time was so complete
and unexpected that it seemed to need some unusual explanation.
34.
In the course of the work of the invisible helpers on the battle-field I
have several times encountered and spoken to the Prince, who naturally watches
with the keenest interest all that happens; and some months ago I had an
interesting conversation with him. Speaking of the war, he said that if we were
servants of the Hierarchy and students of Occultism, we must know that Germany
was in the right. One of our party, becoming somewhat indignant, replied that
all the rest of the world was willing to be at peace, that Germany had made an
unprovoked attack and had caused all this awful carnage, and was therefore
entirely in the wrong. But the Prince said :
35.
"No, no; you do not understand. This is a struggle -- which had to come
-- struggle between the forces of law and order, science and culture on the one
hand and, on the other, those of disorder and license, and the degrading
tendencies of democracy. It does not matter how it started. If, as you say;
Germany began it by an act of unexampled aggression, what of that? It is fate;
it had to be-if not in this way, then in some other; and this way offered us the
best chance of success; though, for my part, I should have set all these nations
to fight one another first, and I should have stepped in when they were all
exhausted."
36.
"We maintained that we also loved law and order, science and culture, but
we wished along with them to have liberty arid progress. The Prince would have
none of such ideas; he declared that democracy cared nothing for culture, but
wished to drag everybody down to a common level, and that the lowest; that it
desired law to rob and restrain the rich, but itself would obey no law; that it
had no conception of liberty under law (which is the only true liberty) but
desired a triumph of utter lawlessness, in which selfish might should rule, and
only those should be restrained who wished to live and work as free men.
Further, he said that if we ourselves served the true inner Government of the
world, we must know that it is the very opposite of all democratic theories, and
that therefore it is Germany and not England who is fighting for the ideals of
the hierarchical Government. "Which," he asked, "is nearer to the true ideal of
a King-our Kaiser, who holds his power from GOD alone, or your King George, who
can strike out no line of his own, whose every action is limited by his
ministers and his parliament, so that he can do no real good? And the French
President, what is he but the scum momentarily thrown to the top of a boiling
mass of corruption?''
37.
We were most indignant at such an insult to our brave Allies; but we
could, not but admit that there was a modicum of truth in some of his earlier
remarks. We tried to tell him that, though we shared his utter disbelief in the
methods of democracy, we thought it a necessary intermediate stage through which
the world had to pass on its way to a nobler freedom, because a scheme (however
good') which was forced upon a people could never lead to its ultimate
evolution; but that men must learn to choose the good for themselves with open
eyes, to renounced their brutal selfishness, not because they were driven to do
so at the point of the sword, but because they themselves had learnt to see the
higher way and the necessity that each should control himself tor the good of
all.
38.
The Prince was absolutely unconvinced; he said that our plan was Utopian,
and that we could never bring the canaille to understand such
considerations-that the only way to deal with them, was the method of blood and
iron, forcing them for their own ultimate good (and meantime for our
convenience) into the life which we who were wiser saw to be best for them.
39.
When some his was later reported to the King of England, he smiled and
said quietly: "I believe that GOD has called me to the, position which I hold,
just as much as He has called my imperial cousin, the Kaiser; I rule not by
force, but because my people love me, and I want no higher title than that."
40.
I fear we must admit the Prince's claim that man as a whole is not yet
fit for freedom; but he can never become fit unless he is allowed to try the
experiment.^ Of course at first he will go wrong just as often as he will go
right. We shall have an intermediate period when things are not at all as they
should .be, when they are not by any means as well managed as they would be
under a benevolent despotism. Nevertheless, we shall never get men to advance
unless we leave them a certain amount of freedom. We must pass thro' this
unlovely stage of democratic mismanagement, in order to get a time when the
government of the people will be the government of the best. At present,
frankly, it is not that. Aristocracy means government by the best; democracy
means government by the people. We hope for a time when democracy and
aristocracy will be one. We expect to reach that by our system; we should never
get there along the line of military despotism. That is the real fundamental
point at issue; so we see that this war 'is essentially one of principles.
41.
If any should be inclined to doubt that a whole nation can be so obsessed
from behind, a nation which has a great deal that is beautiful in its past
history, which has produced some really line people-if any should be disposed to
doubt that, let him, take the official German statements, and read the
proclamations of His Imperial Majesty the Kaiser; the proclamations in which he
speaks of himself (and probably he believes it) as commissioned by God to govern
the world; in which he says:
42.
On me the spirit of God has descended. I regard my whole task as
appointed by heaven. Who opposes me I shall crush to pieces. Nothing must be
settled in this world without the intervention of the German Emperor."-o See the
insane pride of this, and realize that the whole nation, so far as we know,
applauds and approves. Read Mr. Owen Wister's "embodiment of composite statement
of Prussianism compiled sentence by sentence from, the utterances of Prussians,
the Kaiser and his generals^ professors, editors and Nietsche; part of it said
in cold blood, a year before this war, and all of it a declaration of faith now
being ratified by action." Read the calm statement: "Weak nations have not the
same right to live as powerful nations. The world has no longer need of little
nationalities." "The Belgians should not be shot dead; they should be so left as
to make impossible all hope of recovery. The troops are to treat the Belgian
civil population with unrelenting severity and frightfulness." Remember all the
horrors of the sinking of the Lusitania, and remember how that great German
nation went mad with joy over the slaughter of non-combatants, of helpless women
and children. Except by the theory of obsession, how can we account for it? As I
have said, many of us have known people of that nation. Were they such people as
would have agreed to anything of that kind ? Of course they were not; no more
than you or I. Unquestionably it is true that the powers from behind are working
through these people now.
43.
This is the real explanation of all that seems so incomprehensible ;
these people that fight us are not fighting only of themselves, they are
directed by a power of will far stronger than their own, and they are driven on
to do awful things. They are willing enough to be driven, for that is part of
the obsession. The men who drive them are utterly unscrupulous, and will use any
means whatever to gain their end, for they know nothing of what we mean by right
or wrong. They hold it as a manly duty to kill out all emotion or sympathy,
because they consider such feelings a weakness. They are pitiless, exactly as a
shark is. The slaughter or torture of thousands or millions is nothing whatever
to' them -- so long as they gain their end.
44.
If this had not been; if the fifth sub-race had all combined together to
present a perfect front, we should still have had a conflict, but it would have
been with some tremendous uprising of the much less developed races- perhaps
another attempt such as Attilla made to overrun Europe. The evil would have
expressed itself, but it would have been among the backward nations. It is a
great victory for the powers that stand for darkness that they can take a nation
supposed to be in the forefront of civilization and- twist that to their ends.
45.
We must not think that all the members of that nation are wicked people.
We must not let ourselves be brought down to their level. They have made it
their special boast to set up a stream of hatred towards us, to compose hymns of
hate and teach them to the innocent school children. We must not be led away
into such foolishness as that. We must have no single thought of hatred. We
shall hear of the most terrible things being done of incredible brutality and
horror on their part; but if we wish to take the occult point of view, we must
have no shadow of hatred in our hearts for all this, but only pity,
46.
The tragedy of Belgium has horrified the world. It has been one of the
most terrible things that the world has ever known; but the tragedy of the moral
downfall of Germany is greater even than that-that such a great nation, with
such possibilities, should sink to this. That is, in truth, a more awful thing
to see than all the pain and misery of countless ruined homes. That a race which
produced Goethe and Schiller should so fall as to become a byword among the
nations, so that for centuries to come all decent men will be ashamed of any
connection with it, and none shall speak its name without a shudder of
horror-surely that is a tragedy unequalled since the world began.
47.
Therefore not hatred, but pity, should' fill our minds. But on no account
and under no circumstances must our pity be allowed to degenerate into weakness,
or to interfere with our absolute firmness. We stand for liberty, for right, for
honor, and for the keeping of the pledged word of the nation, and that work
which has come into our hands must be -done, and it must be done thoroughly, But
we must do it because we stand on the side of the Deity, because we are in very
truth the Sword of the Lord, Because this is, indeed, a holy war, in a far
deeper and more real sense than were the Crusades of old. Let us take care that
we do not spoil our work and our attitude by such, an unworthy passion as
hatred. We do not hate the wild beast that is attacking our children, but we
suppress it. We do not hate a mad dog, but for the sake of humanity we shoot it.
We do not hate the scorpion we tread under foot, but we tread on it effectively.
We do not hate a lunatic; we are sorry for him; but we defend our dear ones
against his attack with unflinching determination, and we have no hesitation in
taking whatever steps are necessary to deprive him of the power to do further
harm. There must be 110 thought of hatred, but there must be no weakness. There
must be no sickly sentimentality or wavering. -There are those who clamor that
the mad dog is our brother, and that it is unfraternal to shoot him. They forget
that the men whom his bite would doom to an awful death are also our brothers,
and that they have the first claim on our consideration. Germany is the mad dog
of Europe, and must be suppressed thoroughly and at all costs. "Therefore fight,
O Arjuna." Remember, we are fighting for the liberty of the world ; Germany
itself is a part of that world, and we are fighting to free Germany from its
obsession.
48.
Let us have that well in our minds, and we shall begin to see what is the
attitude we must take with regard to this terrible war; and if we do our duty
unflinchingly in maintaining that attitude, we shall make the final settlement
infinitely easier. When this is over, as it will be over presently, when the
struggle is of the past, there will still remain the aftermath. Those among the
Allies who have hated will find their hatred turning into fiendish glee in their
victory; hut, having allowed themselves to be turned aside from the true view of
the struggle those- people will be in no condition to understand calmly and
rationally what is to he done. It is only those who have kept their heads, who
have shown themselves philosophers, but nevertheless puissant soldiers to stand
and strike for the right-it is only they who will be able to judge what can be
done and what is best for the world.
49.
So we who are Theosophists should hold a firm and steady attitude, and
not allow ourselves to be misled. The path of wisdom is, as usual, a razor edge.
We must not fall over on one side or the other; we must have neither weakness
nor vindictiveness, but a grasp of the real reasons for it all, and of what it
is that is really happening.
50.
The egos that have been swept into this vortex of hate on the wrong side
of the fight will come back again, they will recover. It is indeed a terrible
thing to throw oneself open to such an obsession. They will have a long way to
climb, just as had those who went wrong in Atlantis; but thousands of those who
were on the wrong side in Atlantis are on the right side now, and that is an.
omen of great hope for us. The world has advanced, otherwise the evil would win
again; and this time it will not win.
51.
So our attitude must be one of unselfishness and of firm attention to
duty. But we must do our duty because it is our duty, and not because of any
personal feeling of hatred, or oven of horror. We cannot but feel horror at the
awful things that have been done, at the deliberate way they have been
justified, at the terrible things that have been said. We cannot help feeling
horror, but nevertheless we must try to hold ourselves steady, with iron
determination as to what is to be done, but yet with readiness when all this is
over to take once more the philosophical point of view.
52.
The Lord who is to come-although when He came last time He said to His
people : "1 come not to bring peace, but a sword," is nevertheless the Prince of
Peace, the Lord of Love and the Lord of Life; and when love and life and peace
can he for the people, He will lead them into love and life and peace. But when
the people have made that impossible for themselves for this incarnation, when
these things cannot be for them, then will the other side of the prophecy come
true, that those who draw the sword will perish by the sword.
53.
In the midst of raging selfishness let us try to live in utter
unselfishness, let us be full of trust, because we know; however dark and
difficult things may be, we cling to the certainty that evolution is working. We
went down in that great conflict in Atlantis, arid yet we never lost our faith
in the final triumph of good. This time good will triumph even in the outer
world; but, remember, victory will be achieved only by the greatest effort, by
the most utter determination, and the most thorough federation and trust among
the people who are chosen to rule the world and to do the work. To Germany also
a great opportunity was offered. To the egos incarnated there an opportunity is
offered even now of protest and martyrdom, They have not taken it so far, but
there may -yet be those among them who will take it. I trust and hope that it
may be so; that there will be those who will shake off the nightmare of
obsession, who will say: "Kill us if you will, but we will not share in these
horrors; we will denounce them." Those people will earn a better fate than their
fellow countrymen.
54.
Let us take it all as part of the development of the great world. That
war is an awful thing, wrong and-wicked in itself, none can doubt; also that it
is an utterly irrational way of deciding a disputed point. The karma of the man
who provokes a war is more appalling than the human mind can conceive. But for
those upon whom it is forced, as it has in this case been forced upon us, it may
be the lesser of two evils. Since it had to be, Those who stand behind and
direct the evolution of the world are unquestionably utilizing it for great and
high purposes, and thus wringing good out of the very 'heart of ill. Horrific as
it is, it has yet lifted thousands upon thousands of people clear out of
themselves, out of their petty parochialism into world-wide sympathy, out of
selfishness into the loftiest altruism-lifted them into the region of the ideal.
It has raised them at one stroke more than many lives under ordinary conditions
would raise a man.
55.
You know how nobly people have thrown away their lives-not even for their
country in the ordinary sense 'of the word. Remember that we were not in
immediate danger, though that would inevitably have come later. It was not
self-defense; it was the honor of the flag; it was the name of England; the
sacredness of a promise; the duty of standing by the weak and defending them
against brutality. It was for an ideal in the truest and noblest sense of the
word that your fellow-countrymen have shed their blood, and just because they
gave to the uttermost that they had to give, they have by that very act raised
themselves greatly in the scale of humanity. The ordinary man has not usually
any opportunity for a splendid effort such as this. It is true that wonderful
and beautiful self-sacrifice is often shown by individuals in ordinary life; a
man will give up all his hopes and ambitions to minister to some relation who is
weak and ailing; but still those, opportunities come only here and there. I
suppose nothing else than a colossal war could have offered an opportunity for
so splendid an outburst from so many simultaneously.
56.
Remember that unselfish and awakened egos are needed at this very moment
for the sixth sub-race, which is beginning in America and Australasia. Perhaps
there was no other way to get them in sufficient numbers and in a sufficiently
short time, except through some great world-conflict. Be thankful that we, at
least, are on the right side in this. Be thankful, you who send to this great
war those whom you love, that the, opportunity has come to them thus to advance
themselves in one incarnation more than otherwise they could have done in a
score of lives. You have sorrow and suffering find pain as your share; but yon
are offering that suffering for the freedom of the world; and remember that you
who send the soldier are thereby also taking your part in the fight, and that
the very sorrow and pain through which you pass is lifting you, just as his
devotion to duty has lifted him. Many of those who die will be worthy of birth
in the new sub-race, but so also will be many of the women who have bravely sent
forth their nearest and dearest to answer to their country's call. They have
given up husband or son or brother. They win the advantage by that noble
sacrifice just as much as the men who go and stand in the firing-line.
57.
There are many who cannot for one reason or another go and fight, though
I hold very strongly that everyone who can should do so.]?But we can all do
something to help. Some of us are too old to fight ourselves--or so the
Government thinks; but at least we can take up the work of some younger man and
set him free to go. That I have done myself. So you may all bear your share in
this. All can help, and, furthermore, all must help; certainly all should be on
the side of the right in a matter like this, and all should do whatever they can
to help in any one of the many indirect ways that are possible.
58.
We are all trying, so far as may be, to prepare for the coming of the
Great Teacher. Realize that this Great War is part of the world-preparation and
that, however terrible it may be, there is yet the other side--the enormous good
that is being done to individuals.) Perhaps in the distant future, when we come
to look back upon it all with greater knowledge and with wider purview, we shall
see that the good has outweighed all the frightful evil, and that though the old
order changeth, giving place to new, it is only that God may fulfil Himself in
many ways.
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