{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_55940/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_55940","id":"gutenberg_55940","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55940","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Theosophy"],"text":"THEOSOPHY AND LIFE'S\n  DEEPER PROBLEMS\n\n\n\n\n  _Copyright Registered_\n  All Rights Reserved\n\n  _Permission for translations will be given_\n  BY\n  THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE\n  Adyar, Madras, India\n\n\n\n\n                         THEOSOPHY AND LIFE'S\n                            DEEPER PROBLEMS\n\n        _Being the four Convention Lectures delivered in Bombay\n            at the Fortieth Anniversary of the Theosophical\n                       Society, December, 1915._\n\n                                  BY\n                             ANNIE BESANT\n                _President of the Theosophical Society_\n\n                     THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE\n                         ADYAR, MADRAS, INDIA\n\n                   T.P.S., LONDON; T.P.H., BENARES;\n                       INDIAN BOOK DEPOT, BOMBAY\n                                 1916\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\n    The lectures really need no Foreword. They are frankly propagandist,\n    being delivered in the City of Bombay, on the occasion of the return\n    to that city for the first time since the Anniversary held in Framji\n    Cowasji Hall, on December 7th, 1882, with 15 delegates present. The\n    little seed there planted in India by our Founders has grown into a\n    mighty tree. May it continue to spread ever more widely its branches,\n    and may its leaves be for the healing of the Nations.\n\n  ANNIE BESANT\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                   PAGE\n\n  Lecture   I GOD                     1\n\n  Lecture  II MAN                    25\n\n  Lecture III RIGHT AND WRONG        47\n\n  Lecture  IV BROTHERHOOD            73\n\n\n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL CONVENTION\n\nLECTURES\n\n\n\n\nGOD\n\n\n  FRIENDS:\n\nAmid the excitements of the present National Week, amid all the\nConferences on matters of importance to the Nation, amid the\ndiscussions--industrial, commercial, political--which are agitating\nthis great City, and will agitate it during the next week, we, of the\nTheosophical Society, have ventured to invite you here to consider\nnot the passing concerns of the moment but the perpetual concerns of\nthe life dealing with the eternal interests, the life wherein alone\npermanence can ever be found.\n\nI have chosen for the subject of our Convention Lectures, those\ngreat problems of thought which ever challenge the attention of the\nhighest mind of man. That question of questions of the nature, of our\nconception, of God; the nature of man, his relation to the Universe\nin which he finds himself--the evolution of an intelligent spiritual\nBeing amid the transitory phenomena of passing worlds; then that\nprofound question of conduct, what is Right and what is Wrong? is\nit possible to find a standard of ethics? is it possible to find a\ncanon of conduct which will guide us in that tangled path of action\nwhich is one of the hardest problems of human life? Then, lastly, the\nmeaning of Brotherhood, on what it is based, in what it consists, what\nduties it imposes upon us, what is to be our attitude to our brethren\non every side. These questions, that on these four mornings we are to\nconsider, are not questions of the passing time, but are the problems\nthat confront humanity at all the stages of its evolution. Not only\nis that so, but in this alone can we find peace, amid the turmoil of\nthe world; not in the constant struggles of outer life may peace be\nfound, but in the heart of peace which abides in the ETERNAL, that can\nremain peaceful in the midst of storms, amid friends, amid enemies,\namid neutrals; only in the Peace of the ETERNAL may the human Spirit\nfind abiding rest. When that centre is found, when that knowledge of\nGod which is eternal life has been realised by man, then, and then\nalone, can action be wisely taken, not swayed by passion, not moved by\nprejudices, having nothing to gain which the outer world can give and\nnothing to lose which that world can take away; asking for nothing,\ndesiring nothing, save to be an instrument of the Will that works for\nRighteousness, seeing in the world around us the field of action where\nGod is working, and where we can be co-workers with God. There, and\nthere alone, can you work above the gu\u1e47as, using them for the Divine\npurposes, but not permitting yourself to fall under the glamour of\ntheir phenomena; making use of all: of the passions of man, of the\naspirations of man, of the good and of the evil, turning them all\nto send man forward on the path which God has marked out for human\nprogress. That is the high activity which finds its expression in\nService, and that can only be where God has been realised, and where\nthe Spirit of man, consciously one with the Spirit Eternal, sees\neverywhere one Will, one Wisdom, and one Activity, and men, in all\ntheir different workings, the instruments whereby the Divine Will is\nworked out in evolution.\n\nHence, our study in these four morning hours is not apart from the\nday's activity, but is really the source, the spring, of that activity;\nand so, loving all because in all the Self abides; seeing the inner\nSelf, unblinded by outer appearances; thus may work the messengers\nof the great Hierarchy that guides our world. It is to a treading of\nthe path that leads to Service, it is for that, that I invite your\nattention to these profound problems of the spiritual life of man.\n\nNow, to-day, we are first to consider the nature, the existence, of\nthat One Life in which we all subsist, and the views that man has taken\nthereof.\n\nLet me say at the very outset, that there is a common view to-day\namong many thoughtful, among many good men, that it does not much\nmatter what a man believes providing that his conduct is right. That\nis a half truth, not a whole truth, and it is the natural reaction\nfrom the Middle Age view in Europe that it did not matter what a\nman's conduct was provided that his beliefs were orthodox. Such a\nview has not only been found in medi\u00e6val Europe, but also has been\nfound in India herself. You will find among Indians to-day, as still\namong some Christians, that the all-important matter is belief in\ncertain dogmas, and that where those are held conduct is comparatively\nunimportant. We all know men in all faiths who are orthodox, as it\nis said, in belief, but whose lives are worldly lives, and sometimes\nnot even of a very high worldly character. Now, a century or so ago\nthat view was so common that men were persecuted, men were penalised,\nbecause of a difference of theological views. If men did not believe,\nat one stage, the dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church in Europe, then\ntheir fate was, at first, the stake, then later the prison, and still\nlater, slander, social ostracism, and disabilities under the law of\nthe land. In England, that is now largely swept aside, and we have the\nopposite exaggeration: \"Let a man think as he will; but let him be a\ngood citizen, a good man.\" But that leaves out the profound truth that\n\"man is created by thought, and as a man thinks, so he is\"; conduct\nis not independent of thought, for thought is the spring of conduct, and\nso it is written in the _Bhagava\u1e0d-G\u012b\u1e6d\u0101_, that \"a man is compacted,\ncomposed, of his beliefs,\" and as a man believes, so he is. You have to\nmake, however, a distinction between beliefs conventionally accepted,\nand the real belief, which is the conviction of the heart, out of\nwhich action arises. And so, I urge on you to-day that right-thinking\non the great truths of life is a most important part of the whole of\nyour conduct. The better your thought, the better will be your life.\nThe truer your thought, the more candid and transparent will be your\nactions. But _remember that it must be your own thought_, and not\nthe thought of your neighbour, not the thought of authority, not the\nthought of a book, however ancient and however sacred, not the thought\nof a great man, however true for him; the thought that moulds conduct\nis the thought of the actor, and every man is responsible for his own\nthinking; the repetition of the thought of another is useless and even\nmischievous. Be not then afraid to think, even about God Himself. Do\nnot think it is blasphemous to enquire; do not think it is blasphemous\nto doubt. Doubt is the stage which comes before a larger and truer\nthinking. You doubt your past thought, because you are opening up\nnew vistas of thought and the past is lying behind you. The man who\nnever doubts never really thinks; and there is a wholesome, a healthy\nscepticism which is the forerunner of a nobler and a truer faith. Think\nas far as you can. It is true that from the very Highest thought and\nspeech fall back unable to go farther; but as far as you can think,\nas far as your intellect is able to grasp, to investigate, to argue,\nthink your freest and your noblest, and you will grow by your errors\nas well as by your truths. Do not then fear to think; do not fear to\nbe called unorthodox; try your best to think truly and accurately, and\ntrust in Truth, who never betrays her servant. The determination to\nthink your highest, the determination to think your best, may lead you\ninto some desert for a time, but there are gardens on the other side of\nthe desert. You may have to cross many a desert, many a torrent which\nseems to sweep you away; but I, who ventured all to seek for Truth, who\nleft family, friends, religion, because their religion had become to me\nuntrue, I bear you witness that such unbelief is the way to a higher, a\ngreater, and a serener faith, and that those who are unwilling to lose\nthe life of the past will not be able to advance into the life of the\nfuture.\n\nNow, let us, with regard to our thoughts of God, realise that there are\ntwo lines towards knowledge. The first is the way of the intellect,\nwhich deals with metaphysics, which deals with philosophy, which\ngradually lifts a man out of superstition, out of narrowness, out of\nignorance, and carries him as far as human intellect can go. Along\nthose lines exercise your intellect, think your best, but remember,\nthat it is written that not by intellect shall the Self be found,\nand the path of realisation is not the path of the intellect. It is\nthe path of the conquered senses, of the conquered mind, when in the\n\"quietude of the senses and the tranquillity of the mind, the man\nbeholds the glory of the Self\". That is realisation: that is the only\nknowledge: that is Eternal Life. By the intellect we reach the highest\nphilosophy, and let none dare to despise philosophy, which rises up to\npeaks of knowledge, which are the glory of the human race. But, on the\nother hand, remember that it is the pure in heart who see God. It is\nthe conquest of the lower nature which enables us to breathe the air in\nwhich the higher nature lives; and not by intellectual research, not\neven by devotion itself, but by sinking into the depths of your own\nbeing, by searching within, there where the Self abides; by casting\naside everything that changes; by saying to the senses: \"You are not\nI\"; by saying to the mind: \"You are not I\"; by saying to the highest\nintelligence: \"You are not I\"; in the silence, where the mind has\nnaught to say; in the silence, where the senses are not heard; in the\ndepths of yourself, one with the Supreme Self; there, and there only,\nshall you realise that you yourself are one with the Self Universal. A\nhard path, a difficult path, the outcome of the practice of lives of\nself-abnegation and of service; but once you have realised God, you\ncan never doubt again. An intellectual argument may be overthrown by\nkeener logic, by larger grasp of facts; but the man who once has seen\nthe Face of God, he never again can doubt that God is, that God is All.\nThat is the Self-realisation of the Mystic. That is the triumph, not\nof the intellect but of the Spirit; then the Spirit which is Divine\nrecognises its kinship with the Spirit Omnipresent, and when once, as\nI have said before, you have found God within yourself, then, and only\nthen, will you find Him in every one in everything, around you. That is\nthe triumph of the Spirit. That is the Peace of the ETERNAL.\n\nAnd now, let us turn to man's conceptions of God, and see how they have\nchanged. And, in doing this, friends, let us seek for the kernel of\ntruth which underlies even mistaken beliefs; for, man is so constituted\nthat no error can hold him long in bondage save by the truth that\nthat error conceals. Just as you may have the husk, the shell, and\nthe kernel within it, so in every error that dominates mankind there\nis a kernel of truth that gives it its nutritive power. Only when you\nrecognise the kernel of truth will you be able to convince a man of the\nhusk of error.\n\nNow, looking back to early times in our race, we find what is called\nPolytheism; and that you practically find everywhere. You find it very\nvery strongly in the first half of the Hebrew _Old Testament_, as is\ncalled the Hebrew part of the Christian Bible. If you read that, what\nis the God that you find? Clearly, a God of limited power, a God of\nlimited knowledge, what in the talk, the jargon, of the day is called\na \"tribal God\". In the early story told by the Hebrews, the conception\nof God is very limited. You find Him \"walking in the garden in the cool\nof the day,\" and calling out to the man he had created: \"Adam, where\nart thou?\" You find him a little later--when men have multiplied and\nbegun to build a tower which in their ignorance they think will reach\nup to heaven--saying; \"Go to, let us go down, and there confound their\nlanguage, that they may not understand one another's speech.\" For \"now\nnothing,\" he said, \"will be restrained from them, which they have\nimagined to do\". And so, we read, that \"the Lord came down to see the\ncity and the tower, which the children of men builded,\" and he confused\nthe speech of the builders, so that they were scattered abroad and\ncould not build their tower. And the Babel of Tongues is a phrase in\nEnglish, because it was the Tower of Babel from which all the languages\non earth originated! You find him again with his chosen people, the\nchildren of Abraham, leading them into the land he gives them; and\nthen you come across the remarkable statement that \"the Lord was with\nJudah,\" one of the tribes, and he drove out all \"the inhabitants of\nthe mountain, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley,\nbecause they had chariots of iron\". You see at once that you are in\nthe realm of a very limited kind of tribal God. Of course, I know that\nin the days when the Bible was regarded as verbally inspired, as God's\nWord, they said these statements were an accommodation to the ignorance\nof man; but that is only the desperate effort of the believer in\nverbal inspiration to infuse the knowledge of later days into the form\nof ancient fables. You and I recognise at once that where thoughtful\nChristians are concerned, these are to them old ideas, that you have\nhere the local God, the tribal God, and that the God of the Hebrews of\nthe early days does not claim to be the only God, but only the chief\none, the chief for his own nation: \"Who among the Gods is like unto\nThee, O Jehovah!\" That is the position of the Hebrews, and they have\ntheir own National God. To go away from him is treachery to the State.\nTo disbelieve in him is punishable with death, because it is treason to\nthe Nation, and such punishment was not so much regarded as a religious\npersecution as a State penalty. As a State and social sanction, the\nworship of Yahveh was maintained among the Hebrews; it was the State,\nthe National, Religion. He conquered the Gods of the Philistines, He\nfought with the Gods of all the other people round about, each with\ntheir own God.\n\nThen you come to a new aspect. The people of Israel are scattered;\nthey are carried away captives into Babylon. They come into touch\nwith the great Theologies of the East, and then a new view of God\nis taken by their writers. You may draw a line in the Hebrew Old\nTestament between the post-Babylon, and the pre-Babylon views of God.\nThat is done now by every scholar. The pre-Babylon view is that of\nthe Tribal God, one among many; the post-Babylon view is the sublime\nconception drawn from a great eastern faith, and then we find poetic\nand splendid phrases regarding God. He is the \"High and Lofty One who\ninhabiteth Eternity, whose Name is Holy\". There you have a spiritual\nthought. You are no longer within the region of the tribal Gods. You\nare out of the region of the local Deities; you have passed on into\na great and spiritual world, where God inhabits Eternity, and where,\nin another splendid phrase, it is written: \"God made man in the image\nof His own Eternity.\" There you have the later conception, there the\nGod Universal; and with that, one remarkable fact that you must never\nforget, that in the later writing God is recognised not as what we call\nthe Author of good only, but the Author of evil also. It is written in\nthe Prophet Isaiah: \"I am the Lord, and there is none else; I form the\nlight and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord\ndo all these things.\" It is written again: \"Shall there be evil in a\ncity, and the Lord hath not done it?\" You must realise that where God\nis seen as \"the One,\" when there is \"none else,\" then He is the Author\nof all, and not only of the particular line of narrow morality that\nbelongs to the evolving human kind. So also in the _Bhagava\u1e0d-G\u012b\u1e6d\u0101_\nyou find the phrase of Shr\u012b K\u1e5b\u1e63h\u1e47a: \"I am the gambling of the\ncheat.\" I shall come back to that in order to point out to you its\nmeaning, but at the moment I only ask you to remember that in what is\nnow called the Christian Bible, not in the Hebrew part of it only,\nbut in the Christian part as well, you find that same conception of\none \"Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world,\" that\nshows itself in every form, that cannot be divorced from anything that\nexists. And so, in a very splendid psalm, again post-Babylon, you have\nthe psalmist saying: \"If I go up into Heaven, Thou art there; if I\nmake my bed in Hell, behold, Thou art there also; if I take the wings\nof the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there\nshall Thy Hand guide me, and Thy Right Hand lead me.\" Heaven or Hell,\nwhat are they? passing phenomena of human evolution. If God is found\nin Heaven, he is also found in Hell; only in Heaven he is the Bliss\nof Unity with the Law; in Hell He is the Pain of Law disregarded, and\nthat, in order that by the suffering caused by the onward rush of the\ndisregarded Law, He may teach the lesson of obedience to the Law, the\nlesson which the man refused to learn by precept, and must therefore,\nfor his own future safety, learn by experience. Now that idea is\neastern. When the Christians wrote the New Testament, they narrowed\nthis profound idea of God.\n\nThey brought also, those post-Babylon Jews, they brought also the\nBabylonian conception of an Evil Spirit over against the Good, the\ngreat idea in Zoroastrianism of the opposition between Hormazd and\nAhriman, that coloured all the Christian concepts. The Satan of\nChristianity, the Satan of the Christians, is the Ahriman of the\nZoroastrians. And so also with the Eblis of the Musulm\u0101ns. He is\nthe enemy of God. There you come down, as it were, to the planes of\npractice. Two forces quarrel for the mastery and we call them good and\nevil, recognising the duality of the flesh and the Spirit. We take\nthat duality, and we put one over against the other. We forget that\nthe flesh is necessary for the unfolding of the Spirit. We forget that\nmatter is the necessary field in which the Seed of Divinity shall\ndevelop into the manifest God, and so we lose the Unity. We live in\nthe realm of duality, and we make opposites, as they are in practical\nlife, of those two sides of Deity, the Spirit that informs, the matter\nthat makes action possible. Zarathushtra has, behind his duality, that\n\"Boundless Space\" which is really the description of the all-enveloping\nnature of God Universal; and when we deal with Hin\u1e0d\u016bism, we find\nthere the explanation of those rather fragmentary truths that come\ndown to us along other lines. We have finally that terrible blunder\nof the Christian, who makes God, all love--as in truth He is--giving\nforth from Himself--for He is the only creator, One, \"there is none\nelse\"--the Spirit Satan, who is the embodiment of hatred; and you\nfind, finally, that in the great struggle, according to the common\nChristian belief--which intellectual Christians are outgrowing, you\nmust not forget--you find in the final result of the struggle, that it\nis not God, but Satan that is the conqueror, for \"the bottomless pit\"\nis full to overflowing, while Heaven is a city with walls around it,\nand with a comparatively limited number of inhabitants. But that is not\nthe deeper teaching of Christianity; it is the crude popular view. If\nyou go through the writings of S. Paul, what is written there? You find\nit is written that the day shall come when the Son, who is God, shall\nbe \"subject to Him who put all things under Him, and God shall be all\nin all\"--God in Satan, God in Hell, God in the wicked, evolving them\nto righteousness. And so in the very centre of the Christian teaching\nyou find that \"God is all and in all,\" and is it not also written in\n_Al Qur\u0101n_, which largely reflects the popular necessary teachings of\nthe time, is it not written by the great Prophet of Arabia, that \"All\nshall perish, save His Face\"? Everywhere is God; God is everything; in\neverything He is the ultimate good, the inevitable fate of man.\n\nBut now what does this Polytheism mean? There is a truth in it. For\nevery Nation has its own \u1e0ceva, as we should say; its own Angel, as\nthe Christian and Musalm\u0101n would say. These subordinate hosts, these\nAngels and Archangels, these \u1e0cevas and \u1e0cev\u012bs, they are all superhuman\nintelligences, working out the will of God the Supreme. Think for a\nmoment of Astronomy. There was a time when this little world was the\ncentre of the Solar System, when fixed, with the Waters below and the\nWaters above, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars also, circled around our\nGlobe. Science gradually found out that the universe was larger than\nthe Solar System; that the Universe had many Suns and many systems.\nIt found out that our globe went round the Sun and not the Sun round\nour globe. The world was lifted out of this position of superiority\nand thrown out into space, one among myriads of worlds; that was the\nheresy for which Giordano Bruno died. He proclaimed the multiplicity of\nworlds, and that the Sun was the centre of our system, but that there\nwere other worlds and other Suns. In the old days that was a frightful\nhorror, for he turned everything upside down. What can you do with\nChristian teachings if our globe is one among many? Christ died for\nthis world. Did God die for a grain of dust in an endless Universe?\nThe whole dignity of our world was lost. Then they said that Christ\nascended up into Heaven, but Bruno said that there was no \"up\" and no\n\"down\". Our world with space below it; our world with space above it.\nWhere then is Heaven? Where is Hell? Where is Heaven? Where is the\nThrone of God? Where the right hand of God where Christ is sitting?\nWhere did He go to on that Ascension day? Where is He to be found\nin this unlimited space? And so they said: \"Oh! burn him, get rid of\nhim, send him to find the worlds of which he talks.\" So they burnt him\nand scattered his ashes, and joyed that he was dead. But Bruno lived\nstill although the body was dead, and Science, Science triumphed,\nalthough its votaries were burnt, were racked, were imprisoned. They\ntook Galileo and forced him to his knees to confess that he had\nbeen mistaken; \"and yet it moves,\" were the whispered words of the\nScientist, who did not dare to face the horrors of the Inquisition.\nAnd so Science triumphed, and now, what do you find? Not only that our\nSun is, to us, a stationary body and the world goes round it; but that\nours is only one of many systems, and that all those systems and their\nSuns go round another Sun, and that is not the last, and again that\nis not the last; for all those masses of systems, they also go round\na still higher Sun, and so concentric circles of worlds, of systems,\nof Universes, without end that human eye can pierce, without end that\nhuman mind can grasp; and so we begin to realise that the local Gods\nof the past, they have their places, all circling round the One who is\nthe centre of all life, \"the One without a Second\". All Universes rise\nand fall in Him. All Universes are born and die in His immensity. No\nthought may limit Him. No mind may grasp Him. He is the All, the One,\nthe Omnipresent, and His Life lives in the Angels and Archangels, lives\nin the \u1e0cevas of all the systems, and in all they are His Ministers,\ncarrying out His Will.\n\nAnd so there arose what is called Pantheism. God is All and in all.\nNow there is a great difference between the Pantheism of the West as\nembodied in Spinoza, and the Pantheism of the East, that you find in\nthe Ve\u1e0das, that you find in the Zend-Avesta, that you find in the old\ndead Religions of Egypt, of Greece, of Rome. The Pantheism of the\nWest is one Divine Existence with certain attributes, the Spinozean\nPantheism. It is the Formless Boundless Existence. Not quite the\nNirgu\u1e47a Brahman, the \"Brahman without attributes\". His Pantheism is\nas cold and uninspiring for conduct, as the Nirgu\u1e47a Brahman would\nbe if that were the last word of Hin\u1e0d\u016bism. Infinite, All-embracing,\nAll-in-holding, out of Space and Time, that is the central thought of\nevery great philosophy, Musalm\u0101n, Hin\u1e0d\u016b, Zoroastrian, I might almost\nsay Christian--though that is more doubtful, for it is more rigid,\nand narrowed by being confined more or less within the conceptions of\nthe Bible. If you go to the great Musalm\u0101n Doctors of the ninth and\ntenth centuries A. D. you will find magnificent descriptions of the\nAll-God. In That is said to exist not only what has been, not only what\nis, but that which shall he, and all eternally existent, all that is\nconceivable, all that is inconceivable, all is in Him. It is the\nsame as the A\u1e0dvai\u1e6da-Ve\u1e0d\u0101n\u1e6da--if you take away from that the\nconception of the Sagu\u1e47a Brahman, and the devotional side of Shr\u012b\nSha\u1e45kar\u0101ch\u0101rya in his s\u1e6do\u1e6dras--the One without a Second, embracing\nall, conceiving all, all-existing, one Now, without past, present,\nand future, nothing to be excluded. But then comes the next step, the\nSagu\u1e47a Brahman, the \"Brahman with attributes,\" that is not a second,\nbut the One in manifestation. He manifests a part of Himself. Said\nShr\u012b K\u1e5b\u1e63h\u1e47a: \"I established this Universe with a portion of myself,\nand I remain\"; all-transcending, all-embracing, the manifested God,\nlimiting Himself by manifestation. And so Manu speaks of Him as \"a\nmountain of light,\" the generating Light; the One with attributes,\nbut the attributes belong to the manifestation. They might vary\nperchance in another age, in another Universe. Then there go forth\nfrom Him the three great manifestations, Will, or Power; Wisdom,\nor Self-Realisation; Activity, or Creative Intelligence, and that\nthreefold manifestation, of Power, of Self-Realisation, of Creative\nIntelligence, that is the root of every Trinity, as it is called,\nthat you find in the ancient and in the modern worlds. Three forms\nof Manifestation inherent in one Existence, the creative Power,\nthat brings a Universe into existence, called Brahm\u0101 among Hin\u1e0d\u016bs;\nthe sustaining all-preserving Power, that maintains a Universe,\nall-permeating, all-preserving, that is called Vi\u1e63h\u1e47u; and He into\nwhom all re-enters, the Destroyer, the Regenerator, He into whom all\nreturns that a higher form may reappear, that is Mah\u0101\u1e0deva, Shiva, the\nSupreme Bliss.\n\nNaturally among a people unmetaphysical and unphilosophical, you get\na division which in truth does not exist. They see three different\nDeities and quarrel over them, where there is only One, showing\nHimself in the three essential forms for a Universe which comes, which\nlives, which passes; and hence you have the Shaiva and the Vai\u1e63h\u1e47ava\nfighting the one against the other. I saw the other day in the caves of\nElephanta, the Ar\u1e0dha Shiva Ar\u1e0dha Vi\u1e63h\u1e47u, the Hari-Hara, which is\nsaid in the legends to be the combination of the twain in one. A\nfanatic was worshipping one and depreciating the other, it is said, and\nthe image of Vi\u1e63h\u1e47u changed, and became half Mah\u0101\u1e0deva and half\nVi\u1e63h\u1e47u, and the double image smiled upon the worshipper, to remind him\nthat the division was in man and not in God.\n\nSo also there are hosts of \u1e0cevas, for the eastern Pantheism includes\nthe innumerable forms in which God-in-all expresses Himself, and so we\nhave Polytheism in a higher form. You need not be afraid of words, for\nthat is the all-embracing truth. Polytheism asserts the existence of\nthe \u1e0cevas and \u1e0cev\u012bs, who carry out the Will of the Supreme. \"Not for\nthe sake of the \u1e0ceva is the \u1e0ceva dear, but for the sake of the Self\nis the \u1e0ceva dear.\" Only as the manifestation of the Self is the \u1e0ceva\nseen, as you, in your turn, are manifestations of the same Self. But\nthe \u1e0ceva is a more highly evolved manifestation than you are. These\ninnumerable ministers of the Supreme Will, they also are manifestations\nof the One; they mar not the Unity. And so in the Ve\u1e0das you chant to\nall of them; and so in the Zend-Avesta you invoke them all.\n\nNow the Western will tell you that all these \u1e0cevas of yours are the\npersonifications of the elements; that Agni is not a being, but is the\nFire personified. You must turn that right upside down, if you want to\nmake it true. Agni is not a personification of the element Fire; but\nFire, the element, is the material expression of Agni, his body, his\nvehicle, by which he shows himself in the world. And that is your key.\nIgnorance personifies an Element. Knowledge sees a Being whose material\nexpression is an Element. Ignorance sees the physical. Knowledge sees\nin everything physical a manifestation of the One Self, showing Himself\nin a limited form for the helping of His world. And so the higher\nOccultist may address Agni, the \u1e0cevar\u0101ja of Fire, and, below Agni,\ncountless hosts of those who are called Fire \u1e0cevas, or Fire Elementals,\nall expressions of his nature, all using a special type of matter in\nthe world. Hence you hear that when the world was built, the elements\ncame forth, and each had the Life-principle within it. Fire came forth,\nbut Agni, the \u1e0cevar\u0101ja, was the Life-principle within the fire-matter,\nand so with Varu\u1e47a for water, and so with Kubera for earth. You have\nwithin every Element, nay, within everything that you call a law in\nnature, you have a Life-principle, a \u1e0ceva, or Angel, call him what you\nwill, names matter not, provided that you realise that the Self which\nworks in you as man, works in all these Beings in ascending ranks of\nhierarchical power; but they all are expressions of the one Divine\nWill, and the One works in all of them, and \"the wise see the One,\nalthough they call Him by many names\".\n\nNow there you have the whole truth: God is everything and in All.\nGod is manifested in countless forms, in countless grades of living\nintelligences, and each has its own place, and the \u1e0cevas come forth\nfrom Brahm\u0101, as later from Him come forth vegetables and animals\nand men. There is only the One Life, but it is manifest in infinite\nforms--Pantheism-cum-Polytheism, God-in-a-Universe. Now, if you\nrealise that, if you understand that, all these many \u1e0cevas and \u1e0cev\u012bs,\nthese many Angels and Archangels, are only expressions, phenomena,\nmanifestations, of the One, just as you are. Then, you will realise\nthat all these, carrying out the Divine Will, are the hearers of\nprayer, are the guardians of mankind; some are guardians of Nations,\nothers the guardians of special areas smaller than Nations, but\nall are agents of the One. When the peasant prays to the form that\nhe worships, and asks for help, that is really a prayer to the One\nSupreme, which is answered by His minister, the \u1e0ceva who is addressed\nby the peasant; and if you talk to the peasant here in India, you will\nfind that most, if not all, of them realise the One behind the many,\nand know, that the One alone is God, although they appeal to those\nwho are nearer in evolution to themselves, as they ask a Collector\nrather than the King. And so we begin to realise that Polytheism has\nits truth, and only needs to be understood. Then all Nature becomes\nliving, beautiful, sympathetic, God smiles in everything. The thinker\nshould realise it, and then none will ever blur the Unity by the\nmultiplicity of manifestations. Thus you come to the whole truth, and\nfind it living, exquisite, a perpetual joy. All Nature lives and loves.\nThere is but One Life, but One Existence, but one Supreme Omnipresent\nBeing. We cannot call him Spirit, because Spirit is the antithesis of\nMatter, and Spirit and Matter blend in Him. So we call Him the ONE\nWITHOUT A SECOND. In the boundless realms of space, in the infinity of\nUniverses, that ONE is expressing Himself in countless ways, but all is\na manifestation of Himself. He the One Thinker; from Him, all thought\ncomes forth. He, the one Actor; from Him all activities proceed. All\nour human words of right and wrong, of good and evil, those are limited\nto the evolving lives in relation to each other. There is nothing that\ncan be excluded from the One and Universal. In Him, all is well, all\nis highest and best. And, when we come to deal with Right and Wrong,\nwe shall see how this works out, how it gives us a human standard,\na standard by which we may guide our steps. But, for this morning,\nI will leave with you that Supreme Ideal: that there is but the One\nin All, in Everything; the lowest dust beneath your feet has the One\nwithin it; the highest \u1e0ceva in the highest heaven is but another\nexpression of the One. You express Him, the animal expresses Him, the\nvegetable expresses Him, the mineral expresses Him. How else shall\nthey live, save in Him who is life? How else shall they evolve, save\nin Him who is manifesting Himself through them? Be not afraid to love\nthe world, which is one of His manifestations, one of His thoughts; but\nsee Him everywhere and in everything, and so shall everything become\nspiritualised. Let Him speak to you through the world, as He speaks to\nyou through the Spirit. He speaks in every breath of air; He speaks in\nevery leaf on the forest tree; He speaks in the foam and crash of the\nOcean's breaking billows; He speaks in the solitude and silence of the\nMountain. There is none other. There is nothing else. He is the One\nExistence. And as you realise that, you share His power, and you share\nHis peace.\n\n\n\n\nMAN\n\n\nFRIENDS:\n\nI will ask you to remember the point at which we had arrived when\nthe first lecture was concluded. We had studied the nature, the\nexistence of God, and we had come to the point where we realised one\nall-pervading Life, the One without a Second, the One Life permeating\nevery form from the lowest mineral to the highest \u1e0ceva, nay--the Lord\nof the Universe, \u012ashvara Himself. He also is an embodiment of the\nSupreme Self, showing forth infinite Power, Wisdom and Activity, the\nattributes of the Self, showing them forth in supreme measure. But\neven in \u012ashvara Himself, the Lord of the Universe, we recognise that\nHe is an embodiment, and that, as is written in the _Bh\u0101gava\u1e6da_, there\nare many \u012ashvaras, many Shivas, Vi\u1e63h\u1e47us, Brahm\u0101s, each triplet the\ncentre of a Universe, each the \u012ashvara of a Kosmos. Realising that,\nthen, as our foundation, and that everything in a Universe, in its\nmeasure, is animated by the One Life, inspired by the One Energy, moved\nby the One Will, we then descend from those great heights to study\none phase of the embodiments, that which we know as MAN. Realise that\nMan is only one grade in this mighty hierarchy of existences, that,\nbeginning with the mineral, passing onwards through the vegetable, then\nascending through the animal, culminates in Man, more and more of the\nSupreme Life shown out stage by stage. You may remember how the great\ncommentator S\u0101ya\u1e47a pointed out that the Supreme Self in the mineral\nshows out only the quality of existence. Passing onwards to vegetable\nand animal, He shows out there the attribute of consciousness.\nPassing onwards to Man, He reveals Himself in fuller measure--Man,\nwho remembers what is past, who forecasts that which is yet to come.\nWhile man heads these ascending grades in our normal world, we\nyet pass onward in thought to the great hierarchies of Super-Men,\nof \u1e0cevas--Angels, call them what you will--then still onwards and\nonwards, ever in ascending grades of Power, of Wisdom and of Activity,\nuntil we reach those mighty Spirits who stand, as it were, around\n\u012ashvara Himself, His Viceroys in the mighty Empire of our system, all\nsubordinates and ministers, who carry out the will of the Supreme Lord.\n\nNow in this great Ladder of Life, Man occupies what we may call a\nmiddle place. The characteristic of Man is that in him there is a\nwarfare of Spirit and of Matter, striving for the mastery. In the\nmineral, in the vegetable, in the animal, there you find Matter is\nsupreme; Spirit is most deeply veiled in the mineral, rather less\nveiled in the vegetable, still less in the animal. When we come to Man,\nin his lowest condition we find that Matter is still triumphant; then\na struggle begins, and at last Spirit shows himself triumphant. Matter\nis spiritualised by the indwelling Life, and instead of being a fetter\nand a clog it becomes a vehicle, an expression of the indwelling, the\ndirecting, Spirit. The interest then of Man is that in all the stages\nof his long evolution the struggle is going on. First we see Matter\nis supreme. Gradually as Mind develops, the lowest manifestation of\nthe Spirit, the struggle becomes marked; then slowly and gradually\nevolving, ever further and further, in the Saints, in the Sages of our\nrace, we find the triumph of the human over the animal, the triumph of\nthe Spirit over Matter; it is that mighty evolution that is the subject\nof our study this morning.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhere shall we begin? We must necessarily begin in the bosom of \u012ashvara\nHimself, whence come forth the human Spirits, the J\u012bv\u0101\u1e6dm\u0101s. For is\nit not written that as millions of sparks go forth from the flaming\nfire, so do the J\u012bv\u0101\u1e6dm\u0101s go forth from \u012ashvara Himself; or again, do\nwe not find it said by Shr\u012b K\u1e5b\u1e63h\u1e47a, speaking as the Supreme\n\u012ashvara: \"A portion of Myself--Mam\u0101msha--a fragment of Myself, going\nforth into the world of Matter, draws round itself the senses, and\nmind as the sixth.\" There you have the definition of Man. A portion\nof \u012ashvara Himself, a fragment of that illimitable Life, thrown down\ninto the world of Matter, which incases the fragment within itself,\nwhich that fragment is destined to turn into a vehicle for the unfolded\npowers of God. As a seed is cast into the ground and within that seed\nlie hidden every power, every beauty, every possibility of the tree\nthat sent it forth, so from the eternal Tree of Life of God Himself\nthe seed is cast into the soil of our world, impotent, helpless,\nnescient--knowing nothing at first. But, inasmuch as it is a seed of\nGod, it is destined to unfold Divine Powers, and to become in the\ncourse of ages the image of That from whom it has come forth. And\nso we find it written in the _B\u1e5bha\u1e6d \u0100ra\u1e47yaka_, showing the contrast\nbetween the Supreme \u0100\u1e6dm\u0101, the Param\u0101\u1e6dm\u0101, and the Jiv\u0101\u1e6dm\u0101,\nthe human Spirit: \"All-powerful the one, but powerless the other.\"\nIn the one, all power manifests; in the other, every potentiality is\npresent. And so, you find also in the later religion of Christianity,\nthat it is declared by the mouth of the Christ Himself: \"Be ye\ntherefore perfect, as your Father which in Heaven is perfect.\" I\nask all of you to realise what lies in those words of the Christ;\nas God in Heaven is perfect, such is the destiny of the children of\nmen; not always to be weak and frivolous, not always to be childish\nand impotent, but to become, in the course of ages, _perfect_ as God\nHimself is perfect. That, and nothing less than that, is the destiny of\nevery one of you. You may delay it; you may retard it; you may wander\nin many bye-ways and lose ages of time; but what is time, however long,\nto you who are eternal, for whom there is no limit of space or time,\ninasmuch as your essence is the essence of God Himself. Nothing less\nthan that, your Future.\n\nBut now, let us look at this Seed of Divinity and ask: How it is to\ndevelop, how it is to grow into splendour so illimitable? For though\nyou be sons of a King, though your heritage be sure in the future,\nyou may yet, if you will, grovel in the mire; you may, if you will,\nforget your birthright; you may think yourselves children of the\ndust, while you are children of \u012ashvara; but you must at last come\nto your inheritance, for the Divine Will in you cannot be ultimately\nfrustrated, and your destiny, your Divine destiny, must be worked out.\n\nNow, we have a fragment of Divinity embodied in flesh. Under what\nconditions, by what laws, is that fragment to evolve, to unfold its\npowers? There are two great laws under which that Seed of Divinity\nmust develop into manifested God. The one, the Law of Reincarnation;\nthe turning of the wheel of births and deaths to which every one\nof us is bound; where freedom can only come to us by realising our\nDivinity; whence we may not escape until the law is utterly fulfilled.\nAnd the second, the Law of Karma, that law of the Divine Nature in\nwhich everything exists related, bound together, by simultaneous\nco-existence; hence, when out of that Eternity any portion of the\nDivine comes into space and into time, you have causation, where\nbefore there was simultaneity. You have what you call causation,\nwhich is only the coming into appearance and recognition of the real\nsimultaneity of all. In God all is; in man all becomes; but that is the\nonly difference; and what you call causation is nothing more than the\nunfolding in time, which is succession, of that which ever exists out\nof time in the Supreme. Let us then see how the law works, and it works\nthrough many stages, it works through endless ages. We have our Divine\nSeed--a child-Spirit, let us call him--born into our world. He is not\nleft there alone, to find out by long experience only how evolution\nmust proceed; for, out of previous Universes, out of past evolutions\nin other worlds, there come to the helping of these infant children of\nMan, Those who have passed through the earlier stages, and have become\nsuperhuman in Their knowledge and Their power. There are two ways of\nfinding out the existence of a law. One, the way in which, surrounded\nby the laws of nature that we may not change nor violate, unknowing\nthat they exist, unconscious that they are around us, we are like a man\nin a darkened chamber, where there is no light to see his environment,\nwho knocks himself up against one thing or another and bruises himself\nin the knocking. By the bruising, he finds out the obstacles; by the\npain that he suffers, he finds that he can only move without pain in a\ncertain direction. That is the scientific way. Every law of nature that\nhas been so far discovered by Science has been discovered by experience\nwhich has turned ignorance into knowledge. Take Roger Bacon, one of\nthe early chemists in the days when to investigate was heresy, in the\ndays when to understand was crime. He was a monk, but a monk with the\nsoul of a scientist in him. He experimented with chemical substances.\nHe knew nothing about them. He did not know that putting these two\ntogether made a new and useful substance; that putting another two\ntogether made an explosive substance, that scattered everything around.\nHe put together whatever he could find. What was the result? One time\nhe was stretched senseless on the floor of his cell; another time\na finger was blown off; another time an eye was blown out; onward\nand onward he went, with that dauntless courage, that interminable\npatience, which make the truly scientific man, who looks on knowledge\nas the supreme good. Struck senseless he came to again, and began again\nhis work: missing a finger, he used the rest for new experimentation:\nwhen one eye had gone, the other remained with which he could still\nsee. And, by such pain, by such loss, such infinity of dangers, Science\nslowly won its way to its knowledge of the laws around it. Inviolably,\nunchangeably, God manifests in Nature.\n\nThe result of the long experimenting is that now, when the young man\ngoes into the laboratory, textbooks are ready for him. A professor\nis there to warn him where the dangers of investigation lie. \"Do\nnot put,\" he will say to him, \"nitrogen and chlorine together; if\nyou put them together without certain precautions, you will find\nyourself in fragments and your laboratory will be destroyed.\" The\nboy in the laboratory now does not experience the dangers of earlier\ninvestigators. That, for him, is done. Men have come to show him the\nway, and the experience of the Past is the guide to the knowledge of\nthe Present, and the warning to the dangers of the Future. So with\nMan. There were Professors, there were Teachers, round the infant\nraces of our Globe. We call them \u1e5a\u1e63his; we call them Saints; we call\nthem God-illuminated men; we call them Sages; Founders of Religions;\nand They said to infant humanity, as the Professor says to the boy in\nthe laboratory: \"Do that, don't do the other. Here lies safety; there\nlies danger. Take our experience as a guide, and you will realise\nthe existence of the law; your happiness lies in your obedience, in\nyour conformity with law.\" Hence, infant humanity started with the\nadvantages of Sages to guide it who proclaimed the law.\n\nNow, for a moment, put yourselves by imagination in the position of one\nof those infant races, hearing the words of the Teacher, and willing\nto learn. \"If,\" said the Teacher, \"you follow that course of conduct,\nmisery will result.\" You may remember the words of the Lord Bu\u1e0d\u1e0dha,\nthat \"as the wheels of a cart follow on the heels of the ox, so misery\nfollows on the commission of evil. As the wheels of the cart follow the\nheels of the ox, so happiness follows on the commission of right.\" And\nwhy? because, as we shall see to-morrow, right is harmony with law, and\nwrong is discord with it. And, as the law cannot be broken, as the law\nitself is inviolable, the man who dashes himself against it is like the\nship that dashes against a rock; the rock remains unmoving, but the\nship is shattered into pieces. So is it with the law, the expression of\nthe Divine Nature.\n\nNow the recognition of law was helped by those declarations of the\nTeachers. For when a man, disobedient and careless, committed a wrong\nact, he suffered; and then he said: \"I was told that I should suffer;\nafter all, the Teacher was right; I have made myself miserable by\ndisobeying the law.\" And the earlier lessons of man ran along these\nlines.\n\nLet us see how it worked out. A savage. His passions are his guides.\nHe knows none other. He wants and takes; he desires and grasps; but\nhe is living among others who also want and take, who also desire\nand grasp, and, there is a conflict between the desires of one man\nand another. We will follow one man: He sees his neighbour's wife;\ndesires her; he takes her; perhaps, kills the husband--he is quite a\nsavage, remember. He sees in his neighbour's tent food that he wants;\nhe strikes the man down, and takes away the food. And he thinks: \"I\nhave done well; I am happy; I have gained a beautiful woman; I have\ngained food; I am no longer hungry. This is the path of happiness for\nme.\" But he has made enemies. The friends of those whom he may have\nstruck down in his licentiousness, they are his enemies, and presently\nhe has to die, perhaps is killed in revenge. But, what we call Death\nis only the striking away of the body in which the Spirit eternal is\ndwelling, and this ignorant creature, when the body is struck away,\nfinds himself in the midst of people whom he robbed and murdered during\nhis life on earth. He is surrounded by enemies; he finds on the other\nside antagonism and hatred; and he learns in the other world--the\nworld we call Pre\u1e6daloka or K\u0101maloka--he learns there that to do these\nthings means sorrow, and that pain is the ultimate result of the desire\nunjustly satisfied. It makes a little impression upon him. But during\nhis life, he has not only robbed and murdered: he has loved; perhaps\nhe has loved the woman he stole; perhaps he has loved the child that\nwas born of her. Those little seeds of love remain. The Spirit carries\nthem with him as he passes out of the body, and when he has suffered\nin Pre\u1e6daloka the result of the evil he has done, he passes on to\nPi\u1e6d\u1e5bloka and to Svarga, to enjoy the good that he has accomplished; and\nthe seed of love, selfish probably, desiring gratification, finds in\nPi\u1e6d\u1e5bloka satisfaction, and the power to love increases. And where there\nhas been a seed of unselfish love, perhaps where the wife was ill,\nand the husband sat up at night, tending and nursing her although she\nwas no longer a source of pleasure, but only a source of trouble and\nannoyance; that unselfishness grows out of love, even the animal love,\nor lust of the possessor, that remains as a little bit of unselfish\nseed to bear flower in Svarga. When he reaches Svarga, and finds there\nagain the wife and the child he loved, then that little seed of love\nbegins to grow, and grows through the life, the heavenly life, of\nhappiness that he leads, and that is transmuted into a greater power\nof loving, which he brings back with him to his next birth, so that he\nfinds himself on a higher plane of emotion than that he lived on in the\nlast.\n\nNow in the savage the growth is very slow. Hundreds of lives sometimes\npass and little change is seen. But where the Sages I spoke of are\npresent, there the growth is more rapid, for there comes in the\nrecognition of the law, and the understanding of the sequence of\nevents. The man comes back again for many births, until he comes back\nas an average common-place semi-civilised man. As a savage, he has\nhardly any power of thought; through the lives that pass the power of\nthought has grown. And now, you come to a man who, in a comparatively\ncivilised country, is born as an ordinary mediocre man--\"the man in\nthe street,\" we often call him. Now his experience is more varied. He\nhas many loves and hates, many unjust desires, but also some higher\naspirations; and as he goes through a life, the result of his own\npast, he gathers together fresh experiences, whereof presently more\nfaculty will be manufactured. Just as a sea-gull, sweeping through\nthe air, sweeps down into the ocean, catches a fish, comes up again\nand flies away to feed upon the fish, so does the human being, out\nof the great expanse of life in the higher world, sweep down into\nphysical existence to gain the food of experience there. He carries\nit away through the gateway of death, and feeds upon it in the worlds\non the other side of death. Again, more fully and more subtly than\nin the early stages of life, he reaps the result of the evil that he\nhas done; but his mind is now larger, his mind is more intelligent,\nhe traces the evil act bringing about the suffering, and that is\nimprinted on the tablet of the mind. Then he goes on into Svarga, and\nthere turns over the good experience he has gained. The experience in\nlove-emotion, that turns into higher powers of loving, greater desire\nto serve, greater recognition of the claims of others upon him, until\nhe has formed a better and higher love-emotion, ready to return with\nhim to his next experience of life. But he has also gathered much\nthought; he has gained experience in knowledge; he has exerted mental\nfaculties. He gathers up all the mental experiences and these he works\nup into intellectual faculties. Is it not written that man is created\nby thought, and what a man thinks upon that he becomes? The life of\nSvarga is a life of changing experience into faculty. Every experience\nthat you are making now, intellectual experience, you will weave into\nmental power on the other side of death. Whatever you may have gained,\nwhatever knowledge you have acquired, that you carry with you through\nthe gateway of death, and you work it up into mental power during your\nlife in Svarga. You may have been weak in some faculty, in judgment,\nwe will say, and you made many errors in judgment here: you suffer for\nthem on the other side of death. You remember them in Svarga, and you\nbuild up that experience into an increased power of judgment, and you\nbring that back with you as an innate quality, and it shows itself in\nyour childhood as part of your intellectual equipment. And, so with\nevery faculty, with reason, with memory, with logic, with the power\nof understanding; not one of your efforts here is wasted; they all\ncome back to you as food-experience in your heavenly life. You brood\nover them, you change them into faculty, and that faculty is yours for\nevermore. For that passes on into the intellectual side of the Spirit,\nas the emotions pass on into the moral, which is the wisdom side;\nand so, you come back to earth with higher intellectual power, with\ngreater moral faculty. That continues, on and on, life after life, and\nwhen you are born into the world with high ability, it only means the\nmany lives you have studied, the many lives you have laboured in, the\nmany after-death periods during which you have assimilated.\n\nSee how the process resembles your life here, which is, indeed, its\nreflection on the physical plane. You take food; you are satisfied.\nThat food passes down, and is digested. The nutritive part of that is\nassimilated, and your brain, your muscles, your nerves, all grow by the\nassimilated nourishment; and when it is assimilated you begin to feel\nhungry again. You have used up what you took, and you are hungry for\nmore food, in order that you may grow again; and then, you have again\nanother meal, and the whole process is repeated.\n\nSo in your spiritual life also. You take the food of experience; you\ndigest it; you assimilate the nutritive part of it, and by that you\nunfold the hidden powers of the Spirit, and, when you have assimilated\nall, when nothing remains to be transmuted, then in the heavenly world\nyou are hungry for more experience, and your hunger brings you back to\nbirth in the world in which that hunger can be satisfied. That is the\nLaw. That is the Law of Reincarnation.\n\nAs you grow more and more in stature, your growth becomes more rapid.\nAnd at last, a time comes, when you say: \"I have had enough of this;\nI no longer care for power--it ends in disappointment; I no longer\ncare for wealth--it is a burden rather than a joy; I no longer care\nfor the things that break in the enjoyment; I no longer care for the\nthings that perish in the using.\" And then there sets in the discontent\nwith the transitory goods of this world; there sets in that which is\ncalled Vair\u0101gya--dispassion. The objects no longer attract; and then\nthe man that has this Divine discontent within him begins to seek for\nthe permanent, begins to look for that which will satisfy; and there\nis nothing that can satisfy the Divine Spirit in man save God Himself,\nthe Illimitable Life and Love. And so, as an English poet wrote--an\nold-fashioned poet:\n\n      When God at first made man,\n      Having a glass of blessings standing by,\n      Let me, He said, pour on him all I can;\n      Let the world's riches which extended lie\n      Contract into a span. Then strength first made its way,\n      Then beauty followed, wealth and power and pleasure.\n      At last, when all was gone, God made a stay.\n      Perceiving that at last of all his treasure\n      Rest in the bottom lay.\n      For if I should, said He,\n      Bestow this jewel also on my creature,\n      He would adore my gifts instead of me,\n      And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature,\n      So both should losers be. Then let him keep the rest,\n      But keep them in repining restlessness.\n      Let him be rich and weary, that at last,\n      If goodness move him not, yet restlessness\n      Shall toss him to my breast.\n\nNow that is the truth. There is nothing in all this world that does not\nbreak in your hands, when you have it. God is like a mother, and He\ndangles in front of His children all the joys, the glittering baubles,\nthat earth can give. And, in front of one He dangles wealth, saying:\n\"Come, my child, and grasp the wealth.\" And the child, in trying to\ngrasp, puts out his power, and his strength develops, and his will\ndevelops, and in the struggle to be rich many of the faculties of the\nman and the power of will are developed, and when that has been done,\nand the child grasps the bauble--it breaks. For the value was in the\nstruggle and not in the possession, for the Divine Spirit in man.\nThe Divine Spirit in man can never be satisfied with gold or wealth.\nIf a mother took up her child and carried it always, as some foolish\nmen would have God carry us, then when the child ought to be walking,\nstrengthening its legs, tumbling down and picking itself up again, it\nwould have been carried in its mother's arms, until when it was 6 or 7\nor 8, it would be paralysed, and would never grow into a man at all.\nAnd so it is with God's child, Man. \"Struggle,\" He says. \"See all the\nbeautiful things I have here for you.\" For God is in all the objects\nof sense. God is in everything that attracts; there is no attraction\nsave in God, the only fair. And so, He hides Himself in gold, and He\nhides Himself in pleasure, and He hides Himself in Power; and He\nhides Himself in fame; and when the child has exerted himself and\ngained the desirable object, God slips out of it and the attraction\nvanishes, and so we grow and learn. It is the only way. We grow strong,\nintellectually strong, morally strong, until nothing has power to\nattract save the one supreme attraction, God Himself.\n\nAnd so it is written, that when a man becomes weary he begins to\nabstain from the objects of the senses. And then come the strange\nwords: \"The objects of the senses turn away from the abstemious dweller\nin the body.\" Why? because God is in them, and when they no longer\nattract they have done their work, and they turn away to educate some\nless developed man; and then, it is written, that the taste for them\nstill remains, but even the taste for them vanishes away when once\nthe Supreme is seen. There lies the truth. You feel distaste for the\nlower only when you have seen the higher. When you have seen the\nSupreme Beauty, the fragments of that Beauty down here can no longer\nmislead; you see God in them, and keep a grateful memory of all that\nthey have taught you, in that they have led to the realisation of the\nGod hidden in them, the treasure which remains. When you have gained\nthe knowledge, the realisation of God, what has earth left, that earth\ncan give? He is all power; He is all might; He is all beauty; He is\nall love; and you learn to know that nothing that has attracted you\ncan perish in its permanent reality. Although the form may break, and\nchange into another, it only increases your treasure in the riches\nof the Supreme. You love a woman; it is well; for love is the great\npurifier and the great uplifter of human hearts; but remember that her\nloveliness is but a fragment of the Divine Loveliness, and that all\nthat attracts in her is the beauty of the Self shining forth through\nthe beauty of the form.\n\n    Not for the sake of the wife is the wife dear, but for the sake of\n    the Self the wife is dear; not for the sake of the husband is the\n    husband dear, but for the sake of the Self the husband is dear; not\n    for the sake of the son is the son dear, but for the sake of the\n    Self the son is dear.\n\nBut the wife and the husband and the son are rightly dear, because\nthere is dwelling in them the glory of the Self, and that remains for\never, with all that has made it beautiful to you on earth; for God is\nLove, and love can never die; and all the loving and beloved J\u012bv\u0101\u1e6dm\u0101s,\nthat have been embodied in many forms, remain as your companions\nthrough the everlasting ages of the Future.\n\nNow when a man has learnt Vair\u0101gya, then comes the great period of\nService. No longer does he work for anything for himself, but to carry\nout the Divine Will in Evolution. Has not Shr\u012b K\u1e5b\u1e63h\u1e47a said that\nHe acts perpetually? Because, \"if I do not act,\" He says, \"all these\nworlds would perish.\" \"I have nothing to gain,\" are His words. But\nthey would perish, save for Him, and He goes on to say: \"Let the\nwise man, acting with me, render all action attractive.\" Action is\nonly a clog, is only a fetter, after man has gained all its fruit in\nexperience, when it is not done for the sake of sacrifice. But when\nthe action is consecrated to the Service of God and Man, that action\nbecomes wings that uplift, and not fetters that clog, the advancing\nSpirit. And so, in the arrangement of castes that we have in India,\nthere is one great lesson that comes out. The Sh\u016b\u1e0dra, the lowest\ncaste, is the man who serves all. But the highest, above all castes,\nthe Sanny\u0101s\u012b, what is he but the Servant of humanity, reproducing on a\nloftier plane the Service in which a Sh\u016b\u1e0dra is taking his first lesson\ndown here? The Sh\u016b\u1e0dra learns service to others, and accumulates what\nhe learns; the Vaishya learns to sacrifice material wealth in charity\nto others; the K\u1e63ha\u1e6d\u1e6driya learns to renounce life itself in defence\nof others; the Br\u0101hma\u1e47a learns to renounce all for knowledge, that he\nmay teach others. Then caste has taught its lessons, and the highest\nof all services are the services done for the sake of sacrifice by\nthe liberated Spirit, the Paramahamsa, the man who has gone beyond\nthe illusion of the Separated Self. So wisely was planned the ancient\norder, full of true significance.\n\nThe only other point that you have to remember is that all this is done\nunder inviolable Law. \"As you sow, so shall you reap.\" There is a great\nverse in a Christian Scripture too often forgotten by Christians: \"Be\nnot deceived; God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth, that shall\nhe also reap.\" No use for substitution; no putting on of an imputed\nrighteousness; no safety by a Saviour; you must reap your own harvest,\nyou must work out, earn, your own salvation for yourself. But this\nremember: that your only limitation in taking up the strength of God\nlies in you, and not in Him. That is where the doctrine of so-called\nDivine Grace comes in. As the Sun shines all around you, as the Sun\nshines upon your house, you may close all the shutters, and say: \"I\ndon't want light; I shut my windows and my doors against the incoming\nrays of the Sun.\" So may you say to the Supreme Sun, the Light and\nthe Life of the Universe: \"I shut against you the doors of my heart;\nI don't want you to penetrate within me. I close my doors; I close my\nwindows; your light shall not illuminate my Soul.\" And the answer of\nthe Divine is: \"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man open,\nI will come in.\" There lies what men call Divine Grace. The grace is\never there, shining upon your closed shutters. You may shut your door;\nthere is no change in the effulgence of the Sun. And so there is the\nDivine Light ever around you. You turn your backs upon it, and you say\nthat it is dark; you have refused to see the Light, and you dwell in\nthe shadow that you yourselves have made. Well, stay there, as long\nas you will. Play with the toys, as long as it pleases you. But know,\nthat the day will come when the breaking of the toys will leave you\ndesolate, and then you will open your hearts to the Supreme Love, and\nsay: \"Light, come in, and fill my heart with Thyself, for Thou and I\nare one, we were never separate; and I, the child of Man, recognise my\nbirthright, and I claim, in the Self-realisation of my Divinity, the\nfruition of my life as Man.\"\n\n\n\n\nRIGHT AND WRONG\n\n\nFRIENDS:\n\nThe problem that we have to consider this morning is one of great\ncomplexity and of great difficulty. Confusion as to \"What is Right,\"\nas to \"What is Wrong,\" is unfortunately very general among all, even\namong educated people. The standard of Right, the canon of Right, that\nis a matter that ought to be placed on some definite principle, some\nintelligible axiom; and, if instead of such definite foundation, you do\nnot realise on what the standard is based, the result is necessarily\na confusion of conduct, a doubt as to how Right and Wrong are to be\ndetermined. And so, sometimes, almost in despair of a rationally\nintelligible law, you find people saying that Right is absolute, is\nalways the same invariably for man at all stages of evolution. The\nresult of that has been, both in the East and in the West, that a\nstandard of conduct laid down for the Yog\u012b, the Sanny\u0101s\u012b is held to\nbe the standard to be held up before the comparatively undeveloped\nman. The Sermon on the Mount, among Christians; the teaching of the\n_Bhagava\u1e0d-G\u012b\u1e6d\u0101_, of action without desire for fruit, among Hin\u1e0d\u016bs;\nthese are regarded as universally binding; and the result is a divorce\nbetween theory and practice, between the conduct which is actually\nfollowed and the theory which is intellectually accepted. You find a\nstriking instance of that in the West, where the Sermon on the Mount,\nnominally regarded as binding on every one, is entirely put aside as\nregards the vast majority, and is held to have no bearing on National\nconduct, or the treatment of one Nation by another. You find, for\ninstance, a Bishop of the Church of England who declared that if any\nNation followed the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount it could not\nexist for a week. That is literally true. For if, when a man stole your\ncoat, you gave him your cloak, the result would be that the thief would\nbe doubly clothed, the honest man would go naked. If, when a man was\nstruck on the one cheek, he turned to the striker the other cheek, then\nthe oppressor and the tyrant would have free course, and the doctrine\nof non-resistance of evil would triumph over the resistance which\nmeans liberty and progress. And so, in the West, which has as a rule\na fair amount of common-sense, and is not too much given to logic in\npractical matters, they resist evil, they resist the oppressor, they\nstrike back when a blow is given, and they do not submissively bow to\nevery tyrant and every injustice. Yet, unless you bring into accord\ntheory and practice, you have no rule of conduct which in any way is\nan inspiration for life. Similarly in the East, where the doctrine is\ntaught in the _G\u012b\u1e6d\u0101_ that action should be undertaken without desire\nfor fruit. There you have a doctrine for the Yog\u012b, like Arjuna, to\nwhom the Song of the Lord was given; but if you say to the man of the\nworld, if you say to the man who does not regard the Divine Will as the\nbinding rule of conduct, \"work without desire for fruit,\" you paralyse\nhis activity, for there is no other motive sufficiently strong to move\nhim to action. To work without desire for fruit means that your own\nwill is so consciously in accord with the Will of God, that you work as\nearnestly for the benefit of the world as the ordinary man works for\nfame, for power, or for money. That is the highest rule of conduct; but\nif you teach the highest to the half-developed, you give them no ideal\nat all which is practical, by which they can guide their lives; and the\nresult of that in India has been a paralysis of action, and a yielding\nunduly to oppression and injustice, as the Sanny\u0101s\u012b would yield. Now\nHin\u1e0d\u016bism, as taught by the Sages, was not of that type. Hin\u1e0d\u016bism has\nalways had a relative morality. The whole of that part of its teaching\nwhich divided society into castes according to evolution, the unfolding\nof the spiritual life, is a recognition that \u1e0dharma, duty, depends on\nthe stage of evolution reached by the man. The \u1e0dharma of the Sh\u016b\u1e0dra\nis not the \u1e0dharma of the K\u1e63ha\u1e6d\u1e6driya or of the Br\u0101hma\u1e47a. The\nK\u1e63ha\u1e6d\u1e6driya is to keep order, he is to repress evil, he is to\nencourage good, he is to punish the wrong-doer; but the Br\u0101hma\u1e47a, the\nideal Br\u0101hma\u1e47a, he ought to suffer any wrong done to him, for it is not\nhis \u1e0dharma to resist. And so, it is written, that a man by following\nhis own \u1e0dharma, he attaineth to perfection. That it is better to\nfollow your own \u1e0dharma though imperfect, than to follow the \u1e0dharma of\nanother, for the \u1e0dharma of another is full of danger. That has been\nforgotten in India, though, nominally, the caste system has persisted.\nAnd so, with the teaching of the \u0100shramas; the duty of the student,\nthe Brahmach\u0101r\u012b, is not the duty of the G\u1e5bhas\u1e6dha, the householder,\nand when that is forgotten and when the duties of the householder are\nput on the shoulders of the student, you have then a debilitated race\nof youth that is not allowed to grow to the stature of manhood which\nfollows youthful celibacy. The duty of the householder is not the duty\nof the V\u0101napras\u1e6dha; the duty of the V\u0101napras\u1e6dha is not the duty of\nthe Sanny\u0101s\u012b; for the Sages, the \u1e5a\u1e63his that built the foundation of\nHin\u1e0d\u016bism, they knew that morality was relative, and gave an evolving\nethical teaching suited to the evolving children of Man. Let us then,\nwith that preface, try to find some common principle to which we can\nrefer Right and Wrong.\n\nRealise, first of all, what morality means. I give it the definition\nthat I have given elsewhere: \"Morality is the Science of harmonious\nrelations between intelligent beings.\" There is no morality for the\nmineral; there is no morality for the vegetable; there is no morality\nfor the animal. Those are in the group under evolutionary law which\ncompels them to go forward by the tremendous struggle for existence. By\nthat struggle certain qualities are evolved--the qualities which are\nthe bases of the humanity which is to be born into the world. There is\na stage where there is no morality; where the creature is not immoral,\nbut, is not-moral, is unmoral--without morality. He has not reached\nthe stage where conscious obedience to law is possible for him; and\nso, as he is without the knowledge of good and evil, you cannot claim\nfrom him obedience to a law of Right and Wrong. Not only so, but taking\nthat as our first point--that there is a stage where morality cannot\nexist because of the want of self-consciousness--the next point that\nyou must realise, in establishing a Science of Morality, is a clear\nunderstanding of the meaning of the word \"law\". Now \"law\" may be a\ncommand made by a human legislature, or made arbitrarily by the ruler\nof a Nation, changeable, therefore, with an arbitrary penalty attached\nto its transgression. But the moral law, like all laws of Nature,\nis not a command either to do, or not to do. It is a declaration of\nconditions which produce certain definite results. Chemical law does\nnot tell you, you _must_ put hydrogen and oxygen together and produce\nwater. You may produce water or not as you like; you are perfectly free\nto make it or not to make it; but the law is that if you put hydrogen\nand oxygen together at a certain temperature under a certain pressure,\nthen you must produce water. It is a statement of conditions, followed\nby unchangeable result. A law of Nature, therefore, is not violable.\nYou cannot change it. Nothing can prevent the formation of water, if\nonly the conditions for its production are present. Nothing can ever\nproduce water unless the conditions for its production are present.\nYou cannot change it; that is a law. But, according to your knowledge\nof law is your freedom in a realm of law. The ignorant man goes about\nin Nature buffeted by her laws, crushed by some, helped by others; to\nhim the happenings are matters of chance, for he knows not the laws\namid which he lives. Cabined, crippled, rendered helpless, he stands\nbefore an inexorable Nature, and knows not how, or whither, he should\nmove. But the man of knowledge, knowing the laws around him, walks\nwith perfect freedom in a realm of law; he balances one law against\nanother, he utilises laws that help, he neutralises laws that oppose\nhim, and in proportion to his knowledge is his freedom; for, as it has\nwell been said: \"Nature is conquered by obedience.\" Obeying, he is\nfree. Now the moral law is a natural law, not an artificial one. It is\nan expression, as are all the laws of Nature, of \u012ashvara, who is the\nlife, the sustenance, of His Universe. The moral law cannot be broken;\nthe moral law cannot be changed; it is the will of God in Evolution;\nand, by that alone may Right and Wrong be tested. That is Right which\nhelps evolution forward; that is Wrong which opposes the Divine Will\nin Evolution. There is your standard, or canon, of Right and Wrong.\nOh! you say, that is not a rough and ready definition, or standard.\nNo; it requires knowledge. And so the \u1e5a\u1e63his, the great Teachers, have\ngiven certain commands--morals to be followed by the ignorant, based\non the one supreme law of conformity to the Divine Will in Evolution.\nWe are told by Vy\u0101sa: \"To do good to another is Right; to do evil to\nanother is Wrong.\" We are told by the Christ: \"Do unto others as ye\nwould that they should do to you.\" But take those two moral commands,\nand see whether under all circumstances they should be obeyed. As a\nrough rule of conduct--yes; for the masses of people--yes; but can a\nKing obey Christ's command, or a Judge \"do unto others as\" he \"would\nthat they should do unto\" him? When he has a murderer before him in\nthe dock, and he sits to administer the law of the land, may he say:\n\"I must do to the murderer as I would that he should do to me, and I\nmust not sentence him to punishment because I would not wish to be\nso sentenced\"? All these general commands as to action are limited in\ntheir scope, are modified by surrounding conditions, depend on the\nposition of the person. You and I have no right to lock up in a room\nanother person because he has injured us; but the Judge has the duty\nof locking him up, if he has transgressed the law of the land and\nprison is the appointed punishment. Another precept was given by a very\npractical man, Confucius. He was asked: \"How shall we behave? What word\nis there which defines our duty? shall we return good for evil, as the\ngreat Sage L\u00e2o-tsze has declared?\" And Confucius, being a practical\nstatesman, answered: \"Is not 'Reciprocity' such a word? If you return\ngood for evil, with what will you recompense good? Recompense good\nwith good, and evil with justice.\" Now there you have the law of the\nState. The law of forgiveness, the law of returning good for evil, is\nthe law for the man aspiring to lead a spiritual life. It is a duty on\nthe Path of Holiness; it is a duty of one aspiring to become a Saint or\na Yog\u012b. It is the law for the individual conduct which raises the man\nfrom the brute to the God; but for the State, that is not the law. For\nthe Nation, the stage of evolution has not yet been reached which can\nreturn good for evil, and allow an enemy to overrun the country and to\nhave his will upon the people.\n\nAnd so, in dealing with morality, as in dealing with every Science, you\nmust use your brains as well as your emotions, and you must judge the\nconsequence of actions in order to guide your path.\n\nLooking then at it in this way, we must see what \"evolution\" means. It\nmeans that at first progress is secured by inviolable laws of Nature,\nthat press upon a whole class. As I said, the mineral, the vegetable,\nthe animal, they cannot resist the law; they cannot evade it; they\nare compelled by an inner instinct to conform themselves to the law\nof their nature, imprinted upon them by the hand of \u012ashvara Himself,\nand so you have no mental struggle. The wild beast in the forest, he\ndevelops keenness, swiftness, shrewdness, cunning, because without\nthem, he perishes. When you come to the savage, the law of evolution\nis very much the same. The savage is without the knowledge of good\nor of evil, and that is recognised everywhere. Most of you will know\nthe Jewish legend, how God created a man and a woman and placed them\nin a garden, so that they might enjoy the fruit of every tree in the\ngarden save the one tree that was forbidden, the tree of the knowledge\nof good and evil. Then comes in the curious point that God gives His\ncreatures a command: \"You shall not eat of that tree\"; but, having no\nknowledge of good and evil, they could not know that disobedience was\nevil and that obedience was good; and, as the fruit was attractive\nand desirable, they ate and gained the knowledge, which they had been\nforbidden to acquire. And so you have the curious condition that the\n\"fall of man\" is brought about by his ignorance of Right and Wrong; he\ndoes the Wrong unconsciously, and so gains the knowledge of distinction\nbetween good and evil. Now while it would be a terrible injustice that\ntheir ignorance should be counted as a sin, for which any of us, their\ndescendants, should perish everlastingly, yet if you look on the story\nas a symbolical representation of fact, it becomes most illuminative\nand helpful. For the first stage in the emergence of the human race\nfrom the innocence and the ignorance of the animal and the animal-man\nlies in the experience of good and of evil, which brings happiness in\nassonance with the law and unhappiness in discord with the law. The\nsavage knows no Right or Wrong. You remember the most typical case of\nthe Missionary, who wanted to point out to an Australian savage that he\nshould not, when he was hungry, have eaten his wife. He was short of\nfood, the poor man, and was very very hungry; his wife was the handiest\nform of food; he killed her and ate her. \"Oh!\" but said the Missionary:\n\"That was very wrong,\" and as there was no word in the savage's\nlanguage for \"wrong,\" he said: \"That was not good.\" \"I assure you,\"\nsaid the innocent savage, \"she was very good.\" There was no idea there\nof any \"good\" except physical gratification, and as the flesh of the\nwife stilled the hunger of the man, \"she was very good,\" he answered.\nNow there was no Right or Wrong there. The man was unmoral; he only\nknew the gratification of his own desires; he followed them blindly;\nbut that, as with Adam and Eve, was the road to progress. He would want\nhis wife presently, and he would miss her. The gratification of hunger\nwas a momentary pleasure, but the presence of the wife was a continual\nhelp and service. And so, presently, that man would think that it was\na mistake to kill her: \"I had better have been hungry for a few more\nhours, and have kept my wife.\" And the first idea dawns upon him that\nthe gratification of a momentary want is not the path to a lasting\nhappiness. Both are temporary, of course, but one is longer than the\nother. Now the first lessons of the savage come along that line. The\nwhite man gives the savage drink; the savage likes it; he gets drunk;\nbut he finds in the morning that he has a very bad headache; if the\nattraction of the drink is greater than the fear of headache, he goes\non drinking and drinking, until he dies perhaps in delirium tremens.\nAnd looking at it all, after death, the savages profit by that; and\nthey say: \"This drink makes us ill; this drink shortens our life; this\ndrink brings unhappiness at last\"; and they learn after very many such\nexperiences that intoxication is Wrong; but they cannot learn this\nwithout the experience. They cannot gain knowledge without knowing the\npair of opposites, one of which is good and the other evil; and all\nthe first evolution of the savage depends on his gathering experience,\nwhich shows him that going with the law of health means happiness in\nthe physical sense, going against it means unhappiness. Now the savage\ntakes a very long time to learn this. But he is not left, as I pointed\nout to you yesterday, only to the gathering of experience. Some wise\nman, the Founder of a religion, or nowadays a Christian or Musalm\u0101n\nMissionary, says: \"Don't touch drink; it will make you miserable.\"\nHe breaks the command. How many Hin\u1e0d\u016bs, how many Musalm\u0101ns to-day,\nforbidden by their religions to take strong drink, break the religious\ncommand and suffer thereby. How many Princes of R\u0101jpu\u1e6d\u0101na have died\nin middle age owing to excessive drinking; so that you find a number\nof young Princes succeeding to the gadi, their fathers having fallen\nvictims to the curse of European drink. The old Princes in R\u0101jpu\u1e6d\u0101na,\nMusalm\u0101n and Hin\u1e0d\u016b, are the men who have followed the law of their\nreligion, and have abstained from strong drink. Is that not a lesson to\nthe younger men who follow them? You can see the result of the lesson\nin the improved temperance of the younger generation of Indian Princes\nto-day. They have learnt the lesson by the experience of others,\ninstead of by the bitter fruit of experience in themselves.\n\nFor the elders who have died, not only is there the command given by a\nreligion, but there is the experience on the other side of death. Now\nof all the miseries which can follow a man into the world after death,\nof all the miseries, the results of drink are perhaps almost the most\nterrible. There is a constant craving, for not in the physical body but\nin the senses of the S\u016bk\u1e63hma Shar\u012bra, lie the craving, the desire, the\nlonging for sensual gratification; and, if a man has been drunken, if\nhe has been profligate in his life, he finds himself tortured on the\nother side of death by the drink he cannot enjoy, by the craving of the\nsex instinct which he cannot gratify. Torn by the agony of longing,\nfrustrated by the impossibility of gratification, there is branded\non that soul, as with a red-hot iron: \"It is foolish to yield to\ngratification that brings about the misery that now I am suffering.\" He\nhas to starve out the craving by non-satisfaction, and the agonies of\nstarvation are his doom. And so is impressed on the lasting memory of\nthe man the knowledge that suffering follows on the undue gratification\nof the passions of the body. That comes back in the next life--or after\nmany lives--that comes back in an innate distaste for this form of\nsense-gratification. You say: \"Would it not have been better that he\nshould have been spared this long experience?\" Nay, it would not have\nbeen better; for you are only finally rid of a craving, when you cease\nto desire that which gratifies it; and the teaching of pain kills the\n_desire_, whereas the enforced abstinence, not killing the desire,\nwould ever leave you a prey to the possibility of temptation. That is\nwhy the striking of the transgressor by the disregarded law, is the\nveriest mercy in the long life of Man.\n\nMost of you have been evolved without craving for drink; most of you,\nif you have touched it, have thrown it aside as distasteful. It has no\npower over you; it has no attraction for you; you turn away from it\nwith disgust, as that which cannot tempt; and the only way of reaching\nthat point is to have had experience of the evil, and to know that it\nis the womb of pain. Now out of this grows one great lesson for those\nof you who are more advanced. You know that sometimes, you who are\nfathers and mothers, you know that against all precept, against all\ntraining, against all prayer, your son goes wrong. You have told him:\n\"My boy, to give way to passion is ruinous\"; you have told him: \"If you\nyield, you will suffer in your manhood.\" He disregards your prayer; he\ndisregards your commands; the wild youth goes on; he will have his way.\nIn that moment of parental agony, in that moment of despair, remember\nthat doctrine of the Omnipresence of God that I spoke of in the first\ndiscourse: \"If I go down into hell, behold, thou art there also,\" and\nrealise that God--who loves your child more than you can love, more\nwisely as well as more intensely--has allowed that soul to go down into\nhell in order that He may meet him there in his degradation and his\nagony, and teach him by the lesson of pain, when he would not learn by\nthe lesson of precept, that there is a law that none may disregard and\nlive in happiness. For God is the Pain that comes to the transgressor\nfrom the disregarded law, as He is the Bliss that comes to the man who\nis in harmony with law.\n\nNow if you realise these great truths, you will understand how morality\nmust change with the upward evolution of the individual man. When\nyou see wrong-doing in the undeveloped, when you see evil in the\nsavage--whether the savage who is an anachronism in civilised society,\nor the savage who in his own native conditions--you will realise that\nthat man is only beginning to learn the lessons of morality, and must\nlearn them by dashing himself against the laws he knows not. And so,\ngradually, he grows out of the unmoral state into the beginning of\nthe moral state, when he knows a little distinction between Right and\nWrong, and often chooses the Wrong, because of the temporary pleasure\nthat the yielding to the Wrong affords. And then he has the lesson I\nhave just spoken of, until, within his innermost nature, he has branded\nthe evil to be avoided. Now it is no merit to any one of us that we do\nnot murder a man. We do not want to do so, because we have done it very\noften in the past, and have found that the fruit thereof was pain. We\ndo not want to do it now, and the not wanting to do a particular wrong\nis the proof of moral growth. I know how often we are inclined to say:\n\"Oh! How admirable is the man who struggles against evil.\" Yes. It is\nadmirable for a man to struggle against temptation, to see him fighting\nagainst his lower nature. He is a hero in the struggle. But greater\nthan the man who struggles is the man who has transcended the struggle,\nand who does the Right naturally, because he loves the Law and feels\nno inclination to turn towards wrong. That is not so often remembered.\nThe man who has conquered in past lives, the man who has risen above\nthe temptations that his younger brother struggles against, he is at\na higher stage of evolution, for he chooses with full conviction the\nconcord with the will of God. That means that the Divine Will in his\nown Spirit is emerging, and that quality, the Divine Will in the man,\nis the sign of approaching Liberation.\n\nCome to another point, where you do not know in a particular case,\nwhat is Right and what is Wrong. To the more developed man, it is no\nlonger a conflict between the \"Right and Wrong\" that he knows. It is a\nconflict between two duties, and he does not know whether of the twain\nis the one that he should follow. There you come to the agony of the\nopening Spirit, the unfolding God within, who is faced by two paths,\nand knows not which is the right one. Some arguments on one side, some\narguments on the other. \"Which of the two paths shall I take? How may\nI know what is the will of God?\" That is the agony of the Soul whose\nwill is set to the Right, but who does not know the Right under the\nconditions which surround him. What does it mean? It means that he\nlacks experience. For Conscience, that which tells you \"this is Right,\nthat is Wrong,\" is only the accumulated experience of your past, which\nhas registered certain facts in the nature that you bring into the\nworld with you as that fruit of experience. You have murdered--you have\nsuffered; you are born with the instinct that murder is wrong. You have\nrobbed--you have suffered; you are born with the instinct that theft is\nwrong. That does not exist in the savage. Take a savage child, and you\nwill find that your precepts carry him up to a certain point, and you\ncan go no further. You can awaken in him the result of past experience,\nbut you cannot give him a Conscience, an experience, which he has\nnot yet acquired. But you, you have a great fund of Conscience, a\ncompelling voice, which says: \"kill not,\" \"steal not,\" \"don't give way\nto lust which injures another\"; you take it for granted that is Right,\nand that knowledge is the outcome of your past experience. But now, you\ndo not know what is Right and what is Wrong. Why? Because, you have not\nhad the experience to enable you to judge in a new condition, to enable\nyou to see the Right in an environment that you have not been in\nbefore. When a fresh step forward is to be taken, when a new knowledge\nis to be gained, what shall you do? You have to act. First, use your\nbest intelligence; think as far as you can. Then try to put aside the\nbias which the inner desire is apt to imprint upon your thinking.\nTry to put aside all questions of personal gain, all questions of\npersonal loss, everything which makes you more inclined to take one\npath or the other. It is a difficult thing to do, and it implies\nconsiderable training before you can thus neutralise the inner desires\nof your nature. Do your best; and then having used your intelligence,\nhaving put aside your desires, try, in that tranquillity of mind and\nsenses, lifting up your heart to God, or Master, to see which is the\nhigher path. Sometimes an inner voice will whisper to you and give you\nguidance; sometimes a \u1e0ceva may help you and suggest the better path;\nsometimes you are left to find your own way. Having done your best,\ndecide; and when you have decided, act; for you have done all you can.\nThen watch the results; see what is the outcome of your decision;\nand you will discover by that outcome whether you judged rightly or\nwrongly. If you judged wrongly, do not regret. You did your best, and\nyou have gained a new experience by the blunder, and it will help you\nin the future. If you have done right, you are stronger for the future;\nyou have solved a new problem and gained a new knowledge. Sometimes\nyou may come to a point in your evolution, where you have to face\nthe question of following your conviction of the inner law of Right\nagainst every impulse that presses you to take a lower path. You have\ngrown to the point where new ideals attract. You have begun to realise\nthat the claim of humanity is greater than the claim of individuals\nwith whom you are connected. You have come to the point to which all\nmust come, to the point where to follow the Right is martyrdom, and\nwhere to follow the Wrong is easy and is regarded as praiseworthy by\nthose around you. My Brother, if you have come to that point, be glad\nwith exceeding joy; for it means that you have gone beyond the normal\nevolution of your race, and that which is Right to the men and women\naround you has become Wrong to you, who have caught a glimpse of a\nhigher law. And then, surely comes the question: \"Will you stand by\nthe fruit of your glimpse, alone, unhelped, unsupported, unregarded?\nWill you follow Conscience that bids you take the path alone, or\nwill you follow the voice of the multitude, still at a lower range\nof evolution?\" It is the choice of the Hero; it is the choice of the\nMartyr. Better to die, you will feel, than to bow to a lower law than\nthat which your Spirit has learnt to recognise. To tell a lie is to be\ndebased; to tell a lie is to lose the vision of Truth; to tell a lie\nis to put a bandage round your eyes, and to refuse to see that which\nis already glimpsed. And if for you it is easier to face calumny,\nostracism, the cold shoulder of friends, the hatred of Governments,\nand, if against all these things, you say: \"It is easier to suffer than\nto lie,\" then you are taking your place amidst earth's Heroes, and you\nare serving your day and generation. But make no mistake; the choice is\nnot as easy as it seems. The worst enemy of the martyr and the hero is\nthe inner enemy, not the outer--the love that pleads with you to falter\nin your duty; worse than all, the inner doubt. \"Can I really be Right,\nwhen every one around me tells me I am Wrong? Can I alone see what\nought to be done? All these good men and women, honourable, faithful,\ngood citizens of the world, tell me that I am mistaken and headlong.\nIs it not conceit, is it not vanity, to set my solitary choice against\nthe wisdom of the aged, against the experience of my time?\" Ah! that is\na worse enemy than any outside pressure, for the outer you can resist,\nbut the inner saps the very essence of your strength; the time comes\nwhen you are able to say: \"Right or Wrong, whether it leads me to\nheaven or to hell, I follow the Inner Voice, which is the best guide I\nhave; and, if it leads me wrong to-day, I shall know the Right by my\nblunder to-morrow.\" I know that means courage beyond the normal, but\nthat is the courage that the Martyrs have shown, and posterity rewards\nthem, if contemporaries destroy them. For it is true, as Giordano\nBruno said, going to the stake: \"To know how to die in one century is\nto live for all centuries to come.\" And so, again, he taught what he\ncalled \"the heroic life\". \"It is better to try nobly and to fail, than\nignobly not to try at all.\" That is the great inspiration for those who\nhave caught a glimpse of the higher. Follow your own higher, whatever\nit may be, and whithersoever it may lead you; for the inspiration comes\nfrom the highest yet manifest within you, and not to follow it is to\nbe a traitor to the Truth you see. Thus, by study of the Divine Will\nin Evolution, by trying to see where one stands in the long climbing\nupwards, every man ultimately, must be the supreme and final judge of\nRight and Wrong for himself.\n\nBut remember: you should not blame your neighbour because he does\nnot see with your eyes. You should not despise those who think you\nare wrong, but weigh their blame, and see how much of reason there\nis therein. Remember also that in this struggle upwards, full weight\nshould be given to the experience of the race as well as to your own.\nYou should not despise nor flout those laws which keep the mass of\nthe people in the path of decency and of good citizenship, and you\nshould remember the warning of Shr\u012b K\u1e5b\u1e63h\u1e47a, so pre-eminently wise:\n\"The standard that the wise man sets, by that the people go.\" To take\nyour own road alone means a tremendous responsibility, as well as an\nact of heroism, for others may follow, unknowing, where you have\ndeliberately chosen your path. Others less prepared by self-discipline\nand training may rush in after you where you have opened the gateway;\nand so, in your action, by which the blind must judge you, you must\nconsider your circumstances as well as your vision of the Best. Only\nwhen to yield is treason to the Highest in you, should you set yourself\nalone against the world. \"Tangled,\" said Shr\u012b K\u1e5b\u1e63h\u1e47a, \"Tangled is\nthe path of action,\" and that is true. Therefore you must develop your\nintellect; therefore you must train your will; therefore you must try\nto illuminate your judgment; no headlong, thoughtless action must be\ntaken on the first impulse towards an unaccustomed path.\n\nThere is one thing that I have often said, and that I will here repeat,\nespecially for my younger friends, whom I welcome to our meetings here.\nI would say to them: If you want advice, and ask: \"Shall I disobey the\ncustomary law, and go my own way?\"--then wait. The wanting of advice is\nthe sign that the Spirit in you has not yet spoken with the compelling\nvoice that you ought to obey. I have had boys come to me and say:\n\"Shall I disobey my father? this refusal to obey seems to be the right\npath.\" My answer invariably has been: \"My boy, if you are doubtful, as\nyou must be since you ask me, then obey your father and mother, and see\nwhat the result is; for, when the Spirit speaks, no outside advice is\nwanted.\" The great decisions of the Spirit are made in solitude, and\nthey are not made by the advice of man. If you want others to support\nyou, if you want the opinion of others to buttress you up, then the\nchances are, when the moment of stress comes upon you, you will quiver,\nyou will say to your adviser: \"Oh! you have advised me to do this; see\nwhat trouble it has brought, and I must suffer for it.\" And so, I have\nnever advised, nor will advise, a great act of sacrifice. O crowd of\nthoughtful men and women, I say to you: \"Choose your highest and follow\nit unflinchingly.\" But if any one of you comes to me and says: \"Shall I\nsacrifice this? shall I sacrifice that? shall I disregard the other?\"\nI say: \"My friends, the decision is with you and not with me. Your own\nconscience must guide you. Your own intelligence must direct you. As\nI cannot suffer for you, I will not advise.\" For one has no right to\nimpose upon another a sacrifice one is willing to face for one's self.\nI know my own strength and weakness. I am accustomed by many lives of\naspiration to judge what path I shall follow. But shall I follow the\npath that I see to be Right for me, the path of suffering, and invite\nothers to enter on it, who may not be prepared to face the pain? No;\nthe decision towards pain must be made by the open vision of the one\nwho affronts the suffering; otherwise, in the stress of the agony he\nmay wish he had chosen the easier and the smoother path. The pioneer\nmust know his strength; the pioneer must be ready for the stones that\npierce his feet, for the thorns that tear his flesh. Let no weakling\nenter on the path of that higher, more strenuous, endeavour. We want\npioneers. But we want pioneers of courage, of heart, of strength, of\nendurance, that no danger can daunt, that no peril can paralyse. Only\nsuch are worthy to come into the ranks of the pioneers, who make the\npath along which humanity shall march in days to come. And if you say\nto me: \"Why should we go? Why should we suffer that others may tread\nsmooth? Why should our flesh be torn that others may walk in ease?\"--my\nanswer is: \"Unless the Spirit is so unfolded in you that the path of\nprogress is to you the path of happiness, so that when the feet are\nbleeding, when the flesh is tortured, you can look up with a smile and\nsay: 'Lord, I have come to do Thy will'; until the path to you is the\nonly path of happiness, you had better tread the accustomed ways of the\nmen and women around you.\"\n\nFor there is a time in evolution, when all wish for aught the world can\ngive has vanished from the human Spirit; when there is no desire for\naught save that God's will may be done on earth, as it is done in the\nhigher realms of wisdom; when to be allowed to suffer in order that\nthat Will may be done is a joy beyond all earthly joy, is a delight\nbeyond anything that the world can give. Realise that the Martyr and\nthe Hero die, because death is the most joyous thing that they can\nmeet, knowing that by their death the world's progress is improved.\nUnless you feel this in you, then travel along the road that for you\nis Right; for the consent of the intelligence, the consent of the\nconscience, the realisation of God, these alone are the strength of the\nHero; these, in the midst of the very flames of martyrdom, enable him\nto smile with joy, for vision of the future that he sees.\n\n\n\n\nBROTHERHOOD\n\n\nFRIENDS:\n\nWe have arrived now at the last of the four Convention Lectures, and I\nwill ask you to recall for a moment the path that we have trodden on\nthese three days.\n\nFirst you remember we considered the nature, the existence of God,\nHis all-pervading Presence, His all-embracing Love and Power. Then we\nturned to the study of Man, and we saw that man evolved, grew from a\nSeed of Divinity into the tree in the likeness of the father-tree,\nwhence the seed was thrown into the world. That he evolved under two\ngreat Laws: the \"Law of Reincarnation\" and the \"Law of Causation,\nor Karma\". Yesterday, we considered the complex problem of Right\nand Wrong, tried to understand the tangled path of action, and to\nunderstand also how, by realising our highest capacities of the moment,\nwe could rise higher and higher in Knowledge, in Power, and in Love.\nTo-day we close our study by looking at the \"Law of Brotherhood,\"\ntrying to understand what it means, seeing what it implies,\nendeavouring then, in the understanding, to see the principles on\nwhich a stable Society may be builded, and to glance forward into the\nnear future of Humanity, with the changed ideals which will illuminate\nthe Coming Race.\n\nNow, this word, \"Brotherhood,\" has been used for many ages and held to\ncover many different ideals. First of all, let us take the fact that\n\"Brotherhood\" does not and cannot connote equality, save in blood, in\nessence; rather does it connote inequality of age and development. As\nyou know, you have the proclamation talked of so much in the French\nRevolution, \"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,\" and it has been taken for\ngranted by many that Liberty and Fraternity imply the middle term,\nEquality. Now what is meant by the word \"Equality\"? If it be meant that\nall men are equal in their origin, that every man is born of the Divine\nNature, that every man ultimately will reach the manifested Divinity,\nin that sense Equality is true. We all come forth from God, we all\nreturn to God, bearing with us the harvest of our long evolution,\nhaving unfolded potentiality into power. In the beginning and the\nending, men are equal, equally divine in their beginning, equally\ndivine in their ending; there all men stand on a common platform. But\nin the long course of evolution from the seed to the full-grown tree,\nin the long unfolding of Divinity, of God manifest in the flesh, in\nthe long changing struggle between Spirit and Matter, there the races\nof mankind stand at different stages of their pilgrimage, and they are\nnot on a common level, but are divorced the one from the other: While\nin Spirit all men are equal, in the flesh men are radically unequal;\nfor Nature, in her long evolution, knows nothing of equality, and\nprotests continually by facts against the theory of the eighteenth and\nthe early nineteenth century. Where is the equality between the man\nof genius and the fool? Where is the equality between the stalwart\nand healthy man and the man who has inherited a terrible disease?\nWhere is the equality between the cripple and the athlete? Between\nthe Saint who has nearly accomplished his pilgrimage, and the savage\nwho stands at the beginning? It is of no use to repeat a phrase that\nflies in the very face of facts and of Nature. Brotherhood connotes\ninequality of age, inequality of capacity, and inequality of duty. The\nduty of the elder brother is not the duty of the babe in the cradle.\nYou do not crush the infant of a year old with the heavy burden of the\nfamily that lies on the elder brother, who has passed out into the\nstruggle of life; and you need to get rid of the cant of a phrase and\nto understand the reality of life. You have to realise that the most\nthat can be asked--because the most that is possible--in the building\nup of Society, is that no man shall artificially, by a man-made law or\ncustom, be placed at an unfair disadvantage so far as those around\nhim are concerned, but that there shall be equality before the law,\nequality of rich and poor before the law, equality of every citizen\nin the face of the law. Moreover, you ought to make it your ideal to\ngive to every man equal opportunities; but you must remember that the\nradical inequality lies _in the power to grasp an opportunity_ when it\ncomes; there is the radical natural inequality that no human society\nand no human law can obviate.\n\nBut if you realise Brotherhood then you come to a new conception. You\nimagine the building of a social system, in which every man who is\nborn into it shall have the opportunity of developing every faculty\nhe brings with him into the world. A social system wherein from every\nmember of the Society there shall be demanded social service according\nto his capacity, and to every member shall be given social helping\naccording to his needs. You change the law of struggle into the law\nof life; you change the brute law of the struggle for existence into\nthe social law of sacrifice. You begin to realise, as Huxley said,\nquoting a statement of a Master, an Indian \u1e5a\u1e63hi, that while the\nbrute progresses by the law of the survival of the fittest, the man\nprogresses by the law of self-sacrifice.[1] There you come to the\nhigher ideal and you see that in an elder brother there is inequality\nof age, and therefore inequality of capacity, therefore inequality of\npower, and therefore inequality of duty. By the law of love, the strong\nexist not for tyranny but for service, and where the weakest members\nare found there the tenderest compassion protects them, and saves them\nfrom being trampled under foot. Therefore was it said by one of the\ngreat Prophets of our race, by the Christ of Jud\u00e6a: \"Let the greatest\namong you be as he that doth serve.\" Great is the strength evolved, but\nfor helping not for trampling; and so the inequalities of Nature are\nredressed by an infinite compassion.\n\nLet us see how in the ancient world these principles, or the denial\nof these principles, has worked. Now the ancient ideal of Kingship\nis drawn from the perfect example in the great White Brotherhood of\nthe \u1e5a\u1e63his of the race, wherein you find a graded order. They call\nthemselves the \"Elder Brothers\" of mankind. Those whom we call Masters,\nbecause of Their greatness, They love better the name of Elder Brothers\non whom lies the duty of guidance, of protection, of helping, in order\nthat the younger brothers of our Humanity may come to stand where\nThey are standing. There is the perfect Brotherhood. These, older in\nevolution than ourselves, wiser because of that longer evolution, these\nJ\u012bvanmuk\u1e6das, these liberated Spirits, They, who are free by right,\nbecome bound to our earth by love. They remain waiting for the growth\nof Their younger brethren; They use Their wisdom to guide them; They\nuse Their power to protect them; They use Their age to strengthen and\nsustain them. There is the ideal of Brotherhood, where Brother means\nthe Servant of mankind.\n\nAnd from that early recognition of the Elders in the childhood of\nthe Root Races of the world, you come to the first great historical\nexemplification, the Divine Dynasties, the Divine Kings, as you find\nthem in Egypt, as you find them in India, to go no further back to\nthat earlier civilisation of the fourth Race, where in the City of the\nGolden Gate, of which the Chinese tell us, the Divine Emperor ruled\nwith mighty power, and built the great Toltec race into a world-wide\ndominion. I will not go back so far, nor will I pause on Egypt,\nbecause here, in India, we have in the still living literature of the\nancient days, the duties laid down which fall upon the Elder Brother\nin a Nation, who in those ancient days was the recognised King of the\npeople. You find ideal Kings, like Shr\u012b R\u0101machan\u1e0dra, and you can see in\nHis life, as you can see in the description of the duty of the King,\nwhat, from the standpoint of the Elder Brothers of the race, was meant\nby the position of the King. His life is not a life of enjoyment, but\nof service and of sacrifice. It is written, that the King remains\nawake, in order that his subjects may sleep; that the King toils, in\norder that his subjects may enjoy; that the King faces danger, in\norder that his people may be protected; that he is the Supporter of\nthe State, the Guardian of the weak, the Dispenser of Justice to his\npeople, the Father of the fatherless, and the Husband of the widow.\nAnd so in early days the \u1e5a\u1e63hi comes to the court of the King, and\nquestions him how he is ruling his younger brothers. \"Have you seen,\"\nasked N\u0101ra\u1e0da, when He came to a later dynasty, no longer divine; \"have\nyou seen that the artisans are provided with all the materials that\nthey need for their manufactures and industries? Have you seen that\nthe agriculturists have a store of seeds, that they are provided with\nwater, and with agricultural implements? Do you take care that your\nsoldiers receive their wages? Do you take care that the widows and\norphans of those who have died for you in battle are well provided\nfor and carefully tended?\" And so, this Elder Brother of the race,\ncoming to this man, divine no longer, but only a human copy of the once\nmanifested Divine King, pressed on him the duties of his station, and\ndemanded whether those duties were being rightly exercised. Out of that\ngreat ideal of Kingship has grown the reverence for the modern King,\nthough he be of smaller stature, and has not often fulfilled his duties\nwell; for that ideal has printed itself on the heart of mankind, and\nthe passionate love, the intense loyalty, that go out to a King, who\nis in any sense worthy of Kingship, show how the human heart loves to\nreverence and to honour, where high power and great position are in any\nway worthy of the privileges enjoyed.\n\nAnd always one great warning went out to those ancient Kings, as spoken\nby Bh\u012b\u1e63hma, the Master of \u1e0charma, when the blameless King\nYu\u1e0dhi\u1e63hthira went to him to ask as to the duties of the Elder Brother\nof the Nation. He bade him remember that behind the King was the Law,\nthe Divine Law, which none might break with impunity. And then those\nfamous words were spoken that every King should daily remember: \"Take\ncare, O King, of the weak, not of the strong; take care of the weak,\nfor the tears of the weak undermine the throne of Kings.\" That is the\ngreat lesson for modern rulers. You may have enemies, you can fight\nthem and conquer them; you may have difficulties, you can surmount\nthem and turn them into steps upwards; but take care of the poor, take\ncare of the miserable, take care of the starving of your realm. For\nof these, said Bh\u012b\u1e63hma, to whose cry no man listens, the cry enters\ninto the ears of God, who calls on His representative to give account\nfor the miseries of the poor, and who avenges their wrongs by the\ndestruction of the careless King. Now there lies the old ideal.\n\nBut many of the States of the past were built on the denial of this\ngreat Law of Brotherhood. Look at Babylonia; look at the later Egypt;\nlook at the so-called Republics of Greece; look at the masses of\nthe people under the Roman Empire; what do you find? You find that\nevery great Empire of the later past has been built on a foundation\nof the misery of the lowest of the people. You find that the vast\nmajority in these Empires were slaves--slaves in name, as well as in\nreality. Brotherhood was denied; the weak were trampled on; strength\nwas used to plunder and not to cherish; with the result that every\nsuch Empire has faded from the pages of history. When we want to know\ntheir stories we have to burrow in their sepulchres, for they built\nagainst the Law of Brotherhood, and the Law has broken them into\npieces, and they are dead. Now of all the ancient Empires, Babylonia,\nAssyria, Nineveh, Egypt, Greece, Rome, all these have passed away;\nonly one Nation remains of that splendid circle of civilisations in\nthe past; only one people, contemporary with those mighty Empires, is\nstill a living Nation; they are dead, nay, they are buried, and only\nthe fragments of their bones remain; but one of their contemporaries\nlives in our modern days, for the India, that traded with Babylonia\nin the might of her prosperity, is a living Nation in the twentieth\ncentury. And why? because in her teaching, because in her religion,\nbecause in her literature, she taught the Law of Brotherhood, though\nlater she ceased to live it out in practice, and then began her long\ndownward course. The old theory of the castes was a law of Brotherhood;\nthe Sh\u016b\u1e0dra who serves, said Manu, he is to be the younger child in\nyour family. There is no humiliation in being a younger child in a\nfamily; there is no shame in being one of the juniors of the circle\nof brothers and sisters; nay, it means the enjoyment of the tenderest\ncompassion; it means a gentle protective attitude; it means that when\nanything is wanted, the younger shall have what there is and the elder\nshall go without. That was the old ideal of the Sh\u016b\u1e0dra, who was to\nbe the young and undeveloped soul. Let him in the National household\nbe the cherished youngling of the family; let him be as your younger\nson. Then came restrictions with the growing age of the soul. The\nVaishya--he was to accumulate wealth; he was to enjoy; he was to be\nthe centre of the great family life, the parent, the supporter of the\nwhole National household. Certainly wealth was to be acquired, but in\norder to be dispensed--wealth to support the remaining Orders in the\nState. And that charity that you still find in India, the charity which\nis of the older days rather than of to-day, is still ingrained in the\nwhole Vaishya caste. For though they will gather wealth--pie by pie,\nanna by anna, rupee by rupee, they give it away in lakhs and crores\nfor the use of the people. All that is wanted in this charity is to\nchange the direction. There is no use in letting fertilising water run\nover rocks, because they were once fields; turn it into the fields of\nto-day, which will then blossom as the rose. I say of the charity of\nthis great wealth-caste, the merchants, the traders, of modern India,\nthat they should turn the wealth they give away so largely into the\nfertilising streams which will nourish the National fields. Their\nduty as brothers who are working for the National household, is not\nonly to build temples, to gild the outside of those temples of \u1e0cevas.\nWhat is the use of a temple, if the worshippers are not there? And if\nyou let your youths grope through their studies without knowledge of\nreligion, of what avail to build a temple which will be left empty by\nthem in their manhood? It is the young who need training in religion\nand in morality, and such education is stopped for lack of the Vaishya\nliberality. Education is left in the hands of Government, whereas it is\nthe duty of the householders of the Nation. Education under National\ncontrol, Education in which religion shall form an integral part of\nthe curriculum, that is what India is demanding to-day, and what many\nare struggling to gain. That Central Hin\u1e0d\u016b College which we built\nin Benares, which has now flowered into the great Hin\u1e0d\u016b University,\nin that you have an attempt, partly frustrated, I admit, to have a\nUniversity under National control; down in the South, in the great\nfoundation of a merchant of Madras, Pachaiyappa, there you have also\nthe possibility of building up out of a College, a University under\nNational control.\n\nAnd remember that in this matter, the Indian States under their own\nPrinces are showing the way in which Education should be developed.\nH. H. the Nizam, the Ruler of Hyderabad, was first of the Indian\nPrinces who gave the order that in every State school in his realm\nreligion should be taught. The religion of Isl\u0101m to the Musalm\u0101ns,\nthe Hin\u1e0d\u016b religion to the Hin\u1e0d\u016bs. And he took our textbooks from the\nCentral Hin\u1e0d\u016b College in order that his Hin\u1e0d\u016b subjects might be\ntaught along liberal orthodox lines; it was a Musalm\u0101n Minister of\nEducation who sent out the decree that through the kingdom of Hyderabad\nevery child should be trained in his father's religion, and that\nreligious education should be a part of the duty of the State. And\nthen, H. H. the Maharaja of Mysore took up the same line, and in the\nState Schools of Mysore, religion is an integral part of education. So\nit is in some of the R\u0101jput States; so it is in some of the Kathiawar\nStates; and these Indian Princes are showing the way to a religious\neducation, that shall be National without being sectarian, that shall\nnot proselytise, that shall not turn boys away from their ancestral\nfaith, but shall respect the religion of the parents, and bring up the\nchildren in the faith into which they were born. But you see how the\nrealisation of this needs the charity of the great Vaishya caste, in\norder that the money may be available which shall make the schools\nunder National control the equals of the Government establishments.\n\nThen, in that caste system, you come to the K\u1e63ha\u1e6d\u1e6driya, from whom\nmore was demanded than from the Vaishya. He had the right to splendour;\nhe had the right to enjoy; he had the right to wealth; but on one\ncondition: he must be willing to sacrifice everything, if the safety\nof the people demanded it. From him was asked the offering of limb,\nthe offering of life. If he ruled, he must be first in the battle\nas well as first in the pageant, and he must learn to give up life,\nfamily, love, and all that makes life joyous, if the people were in\nneed of protection, and if the order of the State were threatened.\nAnd then came the Br\u0101hma\u1e47a, the teacher, the wise man, the educator\nof the people. He was not to be wealthy save in wisdom; he was not\nto gratify desires, but was to be the mouth of God, pure in conduct,\nascetic in life; he was to show that the wise man needed not wealth,\nand that the duty of wisdom was to teach the people. A splendid theory,\ncarried out for many ages. All is in confusion now. The \u1e0dharmas of the\ncastes have broken into pieces, and with the \u1e0dharmas the reality has\ndisappeared. And so the Br\u0101hma\u1e47a the elder brother, is a lawyer, a\nmerchant, a physician, or anything else, an engine driver sometimes,\nbut seldom a teacher from a sense of \u1e0dharma. And with the old duty, the\nold reverence has passed away; for only when the elders live up to\ntheir duties can the youngers be asked to give them reverence. And so\nnow, Indian Society has to be rebuilt. It has lived, as I have said,\nbecause the Law of Brotherhood was its centre, its theory, though its\npractical denial brought on it the judgment of decay. We find now in\nour India a mass of conquered people, a slave population in everything\nbut name. The \"untouchable\" too often goes so foul in body, so foul\nin speech, in food, that the cleanly shrink from personal contact,\nand they are left in their foulness, their degradation. But if it be\ntrue that the tears of the weak undermine the throne of Kings, what\nof the denial of Brotherhood which has made this lowest population in\nour midst? The sweeper, the scavenger, those who perform the hardest\nduties in Society, they are trampled under foot. India cannot live, if\nshe persist in that denial of Brotherhood, which leaves one section of\nher population untouchable by the remaining cleanlier people. They were\nconquered, they were trampled on, they were made outcastes, every foul\nduty was made their work; they were sacrificed to keep you clean; they\nwere untouchable that you might be refined; they were left in ignorance\nthat you might be educated; and they were degraded that you might be\nraised. Do you think that the cries of the miserable have not entered\ninto the ears of God? And He looked upon India, and made a stern\ndecree: As you enslave your brethren, you shall yourselves be enslaved.\n\nWhat ought to be the attitude of Society towards the man, the class,\nthat makes possible cleanliness, refinement and delicacy of life? If\nyou had to clean out your own foul places, if you had to sweep your\nyards and your streets, would you be as delicate, as refined, as you\nare to-day? But if these men and women do these humble offices in order\nthat you may live in cleanliness, ought you not to repay them with\ngratitude and not with contempt, with respect and not with opprobrium?\nThey make your lives possible; your children will have to do these\nthings, your wife and your children, if the scavengers are not there to\ndo the work, and you treat contemptuously those who make possible your\ncivilised life. There lies your crime as a Nation against Brotherhood,\nand India need not expect to stand high among the Nations of the world,\nuntil she sets herself to this work of redeeming her own outcaste\npopulation. You are not alone. Other Nations are similar to you. In the\ncountry whence my body comes one-tenth of the population is degraded,\nlike your one-sixth. One-tenth of the London population die in the\nwork-house, the prison, the hospital. But I am bound to say to you,\nthough I am sorry to say it, that you remain asleep while England is\nawake to her duty to her outcaste population, and she is beginning to\nredeem them from the degradation in which hitherto they have lived. She\nis educating them, and where education is, there refinement inevitably\nfollows. She is beginning to realise that the lowest work ought to be\nthe shortest. That the lowest work has a right to decent living. That\nif a man be sacrificed to social necessities, he should be repaid by a\nleisure which would enable him to live above the degrading tendencies\nof the necessary surroundings of his work. The British are building\nhouses for them, they are educating their children, they are helping\nthem to live in decency, and so, they are gaining the right to enjoy\nthe freedom they have won. And to you, my Indian brethren, I would say,\nthat if you hold up your hands to \u012ashvara and pray that liberty may be\nyour own, those hands will never be filled with liberty until you have\npoured out freedom among your own people, and have begun to redeem your\nmiserable slave population. For Justice is the Divine Law. Those who\noppress shall be oppressed; those who trample shall be trampled on;\nthose who make others outcastes shall be outcastes themselves. Until\nyou obey the law of Brotherhood in your dealings with these younger\nbrothers, ignorant, degraded, helpless, you will not win the smile of\nthe \u1e0ceva of India, nor have His mighty force running upon your side to\nredeem. But you are waking up, you are beginning to realise your duty.\nSchools must be scattered over the whole country for the education of\nthe submerged classes; every such school is a temple of Brotherhood,\nand is quickening the coming of the salvation of the Indian Nation.\n\nAnd now, finally, what is individual duty as regards Brotherhood?\nFirst, to realise that the very condition of the spiritual life is\nto see the same Self in all equally dwelling. The Self dwells in the\noutcaste as in the Br\u0101hma\u1e47a, dwells in the most degraded as in the\npurest and the noblest; and there is one law of the spiritual life,\nthat as you pour out to others, so shall your own vessel be filled\nwith the water of life. Each of us, then, has a duty as a brother. We\nare the elders of those younger brothers of our race, and the Law of\nBrotherhood for the coming Society is, as I said, that every man born\ninto a civilised community shall live under conditions that enable him\nto develop to the utmost every faculty that he brings with him into\nthe world. That is the law of the coming civilisation. Every child\nborn among you has a right to develop all that he has within him.\nNo obstacles should be placed in his way. Facilities of development\nshould be given. Some are not your equals, but you must not therefore\nstunt their growth. Every man has the God-given right to develop all\nthat he possesses within him. You must put no artificial barriers. You\nmust make no difficulties which shall be insuperable to them. You must\nhelp by virtue of your own longer evolution. You must learn together,\nin order that you may know the fulness of the Divine Life. But there\nis this great difference between the life of Matter and the life of\nSpirit. If on this table I had a heap of golden coins, and if I said\nI would give them to you, what a rush there would be for them. But\nwhy the rush? Because you know that with every gold mohur given away,\nthere is one less to give away to those who are behind; and so every\none wants to be in front, for suppose there is not enough to go round?\nSometimes men might try to grasp two or three, so that they may have\nfor the future as well as for the day. It is the law of matter that\nit perishes in the using; hence there is always struggle; hence it\ngenerates divisions, it is the parent of quarrels. But if you knew that\nthere was enough for all, there would be no struggle; if you knew the\nlast would be as the first, there would be no fighting. The law of the\nSpirit is quite other, for the Spirit lives by giving, not by taking.\nThe Spirit increases by using, he does not waste. As the Spirit has\nthree great aspects of Will, of Consciousness, of Intellect, these\nare the priceless possessions that we have, and that we can give away\nwithout fear of wasting. I have a truth that you have not, and go out\nand proclaim the truth among you; am I the poorer because you know the\ntruth, or do I know the truth all the better, because in giving it I\nhave appropriated it more thoroughly than I did before? There is no\nwastage, there is no diminishing; my truth is mine; and when I have\ngiven it to every one of you, and you all possess that truth, mine is\nno lesser. Truth never wastes in the sharing. As you can light one\ncandle from another, and the flame never diminishes though you light a\nthousand from it, so it is in the case of truth. Knowledge lights new\nknowledge, so that the total illumination grows greater and not less.\nHence if you have knowledge, do not give it among those who already\nshare it, but go out to the ignorant and give it to them. If you are\nwise, your duty is to make others wise, and not to sit in your own\nstudy and enjoy the wisdom as though it were a miser's treasure to\ngloat over. Knowledge that is not shared becomes a cancer in the brain,\nand the power to know diminishes and is finally lost, when you refuse\nto share with your ignorant brother that which you acquired from the\nboundless stores of Nature. And Purity? Are you pure, in order that you\nmay wrap your garments round you and say to the impure: Stand aside.\nI will not be polluted. O my friends, the purity that can be polluted\nis not purity at all, but a garment cast over impurity, hiding it from\nthe world. Purity cannot be soiled; purity cannot be stained; and the\nduty of the pure is to go out among the impure, in order that they\nmay be purified and lifted to the higher standard. Some I know, would\nsay: \"Level down. Pull the educated down. Pull the Br\u0101hma\u1e47a down.\nPull the rich man down. Let us have equality.\" Equality of what? Of\nignorance, of misery, of poverty, of general wretchedness? Nay; lift\nup the poor to the level of the rich, and let all be comfortable,\nand none have superfluities. Lift up the ignorant by learning, and so\nlet all be happy in the enjoyment of the treasures of the mind. Go\namong the sinners, the foul, and the debased, and raise them up to\nyour own purity, and so let the whole nation be pure and educated and\nhealthy and well-fed. And of this be sure--it is written in a Christian\nScripture, and is written hundreds of times in your own--\"God has made\nof one blood all the Nations of the earth.\" Is there one man among you\nwho has not the right to lift up his eyes and say to Brahman: \"I am\nThou\"? Is there one man to whom we can deny the glory of the indwelling\nDivinity of Spirit? If that be so, and you know it is so, then as your\nbody may have all the life-blood poisoned if a snake sheds his venom\ninto the lowest part of the body; if that poison circles in the blood\nthrough all your body, your head and your limbs begin to be paralysed,\nand your whole body suffers; presently your body will die, though the\nwound was only in the foot. So it is with the Nation. If the poison\nis in the foot, in the lowest part of the National body, it spreads\nthrough the whole of the Nation, and no part of it is strong. If one\nman be poor, no rich man is perfectly happy in the enjoyment of his\nwealth. If one man be ignorant, no wise man can rise to the highest of\nhis mental faculties. If one man be diseased, the health of the whole\nNation is lowered. Oh! Nature is always teaching it to you. Plague\nbegins in a filthy quarter of the town, but it spreads to a palace. In\nLondon, in the miserable dwelling of the seamstress, when she makes a\nball-dress for a Court Ball, she at times stitches into it her fever,\nwhich is the outcome of starvation; and the ball-dress carries it down\nto the house of a noble, and so it catches the fair daughter of the\nfamily. She catches typhoid, and she perishes of the fever generated\nin the London slum. You cannot separate yourselves; you are brothers\nwhether you will or not. You change your bodies; not one of you will go\nout of this hall with exactly the same body as you had when you entered\nit; some particles of your neighbour's body have come into yours. Some\nof yours have come to me. If you are diseased, you infect others; if\nyou are healthy, your health infects others; if you are drunken, you\ncommunicate the poison of drink; if you are plague-stricken, the plague\ngerms run from you to the healthy man. God has so bound us together\nthat we cannot break the chain. Bound as brothers in suffering we must\nbe, if we will not be brothers in love, in health, and in compassion.\nAnd so, to you, my brothers, I say: Take heed to yourselves; you stand\nwith the greatest opportunity opening before you, mighty possibilities\nlie in the near future, which are yours if your hands are pure and your\nhearts are clean. No Nation has lived, where its poor were despised.\nThe fragments of the past warn you of the dangers of your present.\nLive the Law of Brotherhood; rescue the miserable; teach the ignorant;\nfeed the starving; nurse the diseased; and, on our India, on her\nfuture, the \u1e0ceva of India shall pour out His blessing, when she lives\nthe law that she has always recognised in theory. That Future shall be\nmightier than her Past has been, a resurrection of the Spirit, and the\nspiritualisation of the flesh.\n\n[Footnote 1: \"The law of the survival of the fittest is the law of\nevolution for the brute; the law of self-sacrifice is the law of\nevolution for the man.\"]\n\n\nPrinted by Annie Besant at the Vasanta Press, Adyar, Madras.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note\n\n  Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations\n  in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and\n  punctuation remains unchanged.\n\n  Footnote placed at end of respective chapter.","title":"Theosophy and Life's Deeper Problems: Being the Four Convention Lectures Delivered in Bombay at the Fortieth Anniversary of the Theosophical Society, December, 1915","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":23504}