THIS is a practical age, and every system or theory is challenged
to give proofs of what it may accomplish in action. How very
little is gained by mere belief is the standing reproach
to Churches. Their diversified Creeds have been steadily
evolving through the centuries as new problems in theology
or science arose, and today the separated sects have an
outfit of every possible belief on every possible theme.
No small proportion of these themes are in regions remote
from practical life, as also from any means of proof. They
concern such questions as the number and nature of Divine
Beings, the character and bearing of the Divine Will, the
fixedness of the future life, the best form of ecclesiastical
sacraments, — all of them
with little facility of demonstration and with no utility
when demonstrated. Moreover, it is quite evident that, whether
there be One God or Three, whether He predestinates or not,
whether evil-doers are damned eternally or temporarily, whether
Baptism is efficacious towards pardon, the various sects
have not made this earth more worthy of the Divine care or
diminished the evils which religion should cure.
As conservators of morals, abaters of sin, regenerators of
society, Churches are assuredly a lamentable failure. It
is not merely that society remains unregenerated, but that
nobody now expects them to regenerate it. A copious provision
of minute creeds has clearly done nothing to extirpate evil.
This being so, it is just as certain that the addition of
another creed
will not do so. The two classes interested in human progress
are the philanthropic and the devout, and both, when any
unfamiliar scheme for such progress is submitted to them,
are sure to point out that mere beliefs have wholly failed.
They say, with entire correctness, that not a new platform
or Church is heeded, but something with an object and an
impulsion hitherto untried. If Theosophy has no better aim
than have the sects, if it imparts no motive stronger than
do they, if it can show no results more distinct and valuable,
it may as well be rejected now as after a futile trial.
But, on the other hand, if it holds out a better prospect
and a finer spur, if it can prove that these have actually
operated where conventional ones have failed, it is entitled
to a hearing. The doctrinal question is subordinate, though,
of course, an ethical system is more hopeful if upon a rational
basis. [Page 18]
Let us see if the unfamiliar system
known as "Theosophy", and
which has lately received so much attention from the thinking
world, possesses any qualities warranting its substitution
for the religions around it. They have not reformed mankind;
can It ?
Now 1st.—Theosophy abolishes the cause of all of
the sin, and most of the misery of life. That cause is
selfishness. Every form of dishonesty, violence, outrage,
fraud, even discourtesy, comes from the desire to promote
one's own ends, even if the rights of others have to be sacrificed
thereby. All aggression upon fellow-men, all attempts to
appropriate their comfort, possessions, or plans, all efforts
to belittle, outshine, or humiliate them, express the feeling
that self-gratification is to be sought before all else.
This is equally true of personal vices, as well as of that
personal contempt for Divine authority which we may call “impiety".
Hence the root of all evil conduct towards God, towards other
men, or towards one-self is self-love, self-love so strong
as to sacrifice everything rather than its own indulgence.
From this indulgence follow two things. First, the pains
of envy, disappointment, jealousy, and all the mean and biting
passions which attend the ever-present thought of self; and
the utter loss of all those finer, gentler joys which are
the fruit of beneficence and altruism. Second, the restraining
measures which society, for its own protection, is obliged
to put upon aggression in its coarser forms — the workhouses,
jails, and gibbets from which no land of civilization and
churches is free. And if we wish to realize what would be
the effect of a universal reign of unselfishness among men,
we may picture a land without courts, prisons, and policemen,
a society without peculation, chicanery, or deceit, a community
whereof every heart was as vacant of envy and guile as it
certainly would be of unhappiness and pain. The root of universal
sorrow would be eradicated, the stream dried at its source.
Now this is what Theosophy enjoins. Its cardinal doctrine
is the absolute equality of human rights and the universal
obligation to respect them. If my neighbour's possessions — of
feeling, property, happiness, what not — are as much
to be regarded as are mine, and if I feel that, I shall not
invade them. Still more. If I perceive the true fraternity
of man, if I am in accord with the law of sympathy it evokes,
if I realize that the richest pleasure comes from giving
rather than receiving good, I shall hot be passively unaggressive,
I shall be actively beneficent. In other words, I shall be
a true philanthropist. And in being this I shall have gained
the highest reach of happiness to self, for " he that
loseth his life, the same
shall save it." You say that this is a Christian text
? Very well; it is also the epitome of Theosophy.
Then 2nd —Theosophy so tends ceaselessly the truth
that every act of right or wrong shall receive its due reward. Most
religious systems say otherwise. [Page
19] Usually
they provide a "vicarious" plan
by which punishment is to be dodged and unearned bliss secured.
But if awards may be transferred, so may duties, and thus
chaos is introduced into the moral order of the universe.
Moreover, the palpable injustices of human life, those injustices
which grieve the loving heart and sting the bitter one, are
unaccounted for. All the inequalities and paradoxes and uncertainties
so thick around us are insoluble. Why evil flourishes
and good withers may not be known. Night settles down on
the most important of human questions.
Theosophy illuminates
it at once. It insists that moral causes are no less effective
than are physical, and that its due effect, in harm or benefit,
is infallibly attached to every moral act.
There is no escape, no loss, no uncertainty; the law is absolutely
unflinching and irresistible. Every penny of debt must be
paid, by or to the individual himself. Not by any means necessarily
in one life, but somewhere and somehow along the great chain
is rigorous justice done; for the effect of causes generated
on the moral plane may have to exhaust themselves in physical
circumstances.
If unselfishness constitutes the method towards
social regeneration, Karma — for such is the name of
this doctrine of justice — must constitute its stimulus.
Nothing fails — no
good, no evil, can die without its fruit. The result of a
deed is as certain as the deed. How can a system be unpractical
when it abolishes every bar to the law of causation, and
makes practice the
key to its whole operation ?
Then 3rd .— Theosophy holds that every man is the
framer of his own destiny. All the theological apparatus
of "elections", and "predestinations",
and "foreordinations" it
breaks indignantly to bits. The semi-material theories of "luck",
and "fate", and "chance" fare
no better. Every other theory which shifts responsibility
or paralyzes effort is swept away. Theosophy will have none
of them. It insists that we can be only that which we have
willed to be, that no power above or below will thwart or
divert us, that our destiny is in our own hands. We may perceive
the beauty of that conception of the future which embodies
it in a restoration to the Divine fulness through continuous
purgation of all that is sensuous and selfish and belittling,
and, so perceiving, may struggle on towards that distant
goal; or self- besotted, eager only for the transient and
the material, we may hug closely our present joys, heedless
alike of others and of Karmic law; but, whatever be the ideal,
whatever the effort, whatever the result, it is ours alone.
No Divinity will greet the conqueror as a favourite of Heaven;
no Demon will seize the lost in a pre-destined clutch. What
we are we have made ourselves; what we shall be is ours to
make.
Here comes in the fact of Re-incarnation. No one life
is adequate to a man's development. Again and again must
he come to earth, to taste its quality, to lay up its experience
and its discipline, each career on earth [Page
20] determining the nature of its successor.
Two things follow: 1st, our present state discloses what
we have accomplished in past lives; 2nd, our present habits
decide what the next life shall be. The formative power is
lodged in us; our aspiration prompting, our will effecting,
the aim desired. Surely it is the perfection of fairness
that every man shall be what he wishes to be !
Of all the
many schemes for human melioration which history has recorded
and humanity tried, is there one so rational, so just, so
impartial, so elevating, so motived, as that presented by
Theosophy ? Artificial
distinctions and conceptions are wholly expunged. Fanciful
ambitions have absolutely no place. Mechanical devices are
completely absent. The root of all separations and enmities — selfishness — is
exposed and denounced. The inflexibility of moral law is
vigorously declaimed. The realization of individual aim is
made entirely individual. Thus sweeping away every artifice
and annulling every check devised by theologians, opening
the path to the highest ideal of religious fervour, insuring
that not an item is lost in the long account each man runs
up in his many lives, handing over to each the determination
and the acquirement of his chosen aim, Theosophy does what
no rival system has done or can do — affirms the moral
consciousness, vindicates the moral sense, spurs the moral
motive. And thus it is both practical and practicable.
Thus, too, it becomes a guide in life. Once given the aim
before a man and the certainty that every act affects that
aim, the question of the expediency of any act is at once
determined. Is an act selfish, unfraternal, aggressive? It
is then untheosophical. Is it conducive to unselfishness,
spirituality, progress? Then Theosophy affirms it. The test
is simple and uncomplicated, and, because so, feasible. He
who would be guided through the intricacies of life need
seek no priest or intercessor, but, illuminated with the
Divine Spirit ever present in his inner man, stimulated by
the vision of ultimate reunion with the Supreme, assured
that
each effort has its inseparately-joined result, conscious
that in himself is the responsibility for its an adoption,
may go on in harmony, hope, and happiness, free from misgivings
as to justice or success, and strong in the faith that he
who has conformed to Nature and her laws shall be conformed
to the destiny which she predicts for Man.
Go
to Top of this page
Back to our On Line Documents
Back to our Main Page
A free sample copy of our bilingual magazine can be sent
to you. This offer is only good for a mailing to a Canadian
address. You have to supply a mailing address.
The Canadian
membership of $25.00 includes the receipt of four seasonal
issues of our magazine "The
Light Bearer" . If you are a resident of Canada send
a note to enquirers@theosophical.ca requesting
a packet of information and your free copy of our magazine
For membership outside of Canada send a message to the International Secretary in Adyar, India theossoc@satyam.net.in
For a problem viewing one of our documents
- or to report an error in a document - send a note to the
webmaster at webmaster@theosophical.ca
We will try to answer any other query -if you
would send a note to info@theosophical.ca
This document is a
publication of the
Canadian Theosophical Association (a regional association
of the Theosophical Society in Adyar)
89 Promenade Riverside,
St-Lambert, QC J4R 1A3
Canada
To reach the President - Pierre Laflamme dial 450-672-8577
or Toll Free - from all of Canada 866-277-0074
or you can telephone the national secretary at 905-455-7325
website: http://www.theosophical.ca