Theosophical Society,
H P Blavatsky
Chelas and Lay Chelas
By
H P Blavatsky
A
"chela" is a person who has offered himself
to a master as a pupil to
learn
practically the "hidden mysteries of Nature and the psychical
powers latent in man." The master who accepts him is called in
Guru; and the real Guru
is always an adept in the Occult Science.
A
man
of profound knowledge, exoteric and esoteric, especially the latter;
and
one who has brought his carnal nature under the subjection of the
WILL; who has developed in himself both the power (Siddhi) to control
the
forces of Nature, and the capacity to probe her secrets by the help
of
the formerly latent but now active powers of his being--this is the
real
Guru. To offer oneself as a candidate
for Chelaship is easy
enough,
to develop into an adept the most difficult task any man could
possibly
undertake. There are scores of
"natural-born" poets,
mathematicians,
mechanics, statesmen, &c. But a
natural-born adept is
something
practically impossible. For, though we do
hear at very rare
intervals
of one who has an extraordinary innate capacity for the
acquisition
of occult knowledge and power, yet even he has to pass the
self-same
tests and probations, and go through the self-same training as
any
less endowed fellow aspirant. In this
matter it is most true that
there
is no royal road by which favourites may travel.
For
centuries the selection of Chelas--outside the hereditary group
within
the gon-pa (temple)--has been made by the Himalayan
Mahatmas
themselves from among the class--in
number--of natural mystics. The only exceptions have been in the cases
of
Western men like Fludd, Thomas Vaughan, Paracelsus,
Pico di
Mirandolo, Count St. Germain,
&c., whose temperament affinity to this
celestial
science, more or less forced the distant Adepts to come into
personal
relations with them, and enabled them to get such small (or
large)
proportion of the whole truth as was possible under their social
surroundings. From Book IV. of Kui-te,
Chapter on "The Laws of
Upasanas," we learn that the qualifications
expected in a Chela were:--
1.
Perfect physical health;
2.
Absolute mental and physical purity;
3.
Unselfishness of purpose; universal
charity; pity for all
animate
beings;
4.
Truthfulness and unswerving faith in the law of Karma, independent of
the
intervention of any power in Nature: a
law whose course is not to
be
obstructed by any agency, not to be caused to deviate by prayer or
propitiatory
exoteric ceremonies;
5.
A courage undaunted in every emergency, even by peril to life;
6.
An intuitional perception of one's being the vehicle of the
manifested
Avalokiteswara or Divine Atma (Spirit);
7.
Calm indifference for, but a just appreciation of, everything that
constitutes
the objective and transitory world, in its relation with,
and
to, the invisible regions.
Such,
at the least, must have been the recommendations of one aspiring
to
perfect Chelaship.
With the sole exception of the first, which in
rare
and exceptional cases might have been modified, each one of these
points
has been invariably insisted upon, and all must have been more or
less
developed in the inner nature by the Chela's unhelped
exertions,
before
he could be actually "put to the test."
When
the self-evolving ascetic--whether in, or outside the active
world--has
placed himself, according to his natural capacity, above,
hence
made himself master of his (1) Sarira--body; (2) Indriya--senses;
(3)
Dosha--faults;
(4) Dukkha--pain; and is ready to become one with
his
Manas--mind; Buddhi--intellection, or
spiritual intelligence; and
Atma--highest
soul, i.e., spirit; when he is ready for this, and,
further,
to recognize in Atma the highest ruler in the world of
perceptions,
and in the will, the highest executive energy (power), then
may
he, under the time-honoured rules, be taken in hand
by one of the
Initiates. He may then be shown the mysterious path at
whose farther
end
is obtained the unerring discernment of Phala, or the
fruits of
causes
produced, and given the means of reaching Apavarga--emancipation
from
the misery of repeated births, pretya-bhava, in whose
determination
the
ignorant has no hand.
But
since the advent of the Theosophical Society, one of whose arduous
tasks
it is to re-awaken in the Aryan mind the dormant memory of the
existence
of this science and of those transcendent human capabilities,
the
rules of Chela selection have become slightly relaxed
in one
respect. Many members of the Society who would not
have been otherwise
called
to Chelaship became convinced by practical proof of
the above
points,
and rightly enough thinking that if other men had hitherto
reached
the goal, they too, if inherently fitted, might reach it by
following
the same path, importunately pressed to be taken as
candidates. And as it would be an interference with Karma
to deny them
the
chance of at least beginning, they were given it. The results have
been
far from encouraging so far, and it is to show them the cause of
their
failure as much as to warn others against rushing heedlessly upon
a
similar fate, that the writing of the present article has been
ordered. The candidates in question, though plainly
warned against it
in
advance, began wrong by selfishly looking to the future and losing
sight
of the past. They forgot that they had
done nothing to deserve
the
rare honour of selection, nothing which warranted their expecting
such
a privilege; that they could boast of
none of the above enumerated
merits. As men of the selfish, sensual world, whether
married or
single,
merchants, civilian or military employees, or members of the
learned
professions, they had been to a school most calculated to
assimilate
them to the animal nature, least so to develop their
spiritual
potentialities. Yet each and all had
vanity enough to suppose
that
their case would be made an exception to the law of countless
centuries,
as though, indeed, in their person had been born to the world
a
new Avatar! All expected to have hidden
things taught, extraordinary
powers
given them, because--well, because they had joined the
Theosophical
Society. Some had sincerely resolved to
amend their lives,
and
give up their evil courses: we must do
them that justice, at all
events.
All
were refused at first, Col. Olcott the President himself, to begin
with: and he was not formally accepted as a Chela until he had proved
by
more than a year's devoted labours and by a
determination which
brooked
no denial, that he might safely be tested. Then from all sides
came
complaints--from Hindus, who ought to have known better, as well as
from
Europeans who, of course, were not in a condition to know anything
at
all about the rules. The cry was that
unless at least a few
Theosophists
were given the chance to try, the Society could not endure.
Every
other noble and unselfish feature of our programme was ignored--a
man's
duty to his neighbour, to his country, his duty to
help,
enlighten,
encourage and elevate those weaker and less favoured
than he;
all
were trampled out of sight in the insane rush for adeptship. The
call
for phenomena, phenomena, phenomena, resounded in every quarter,
and
the Founders were impeded in their real work and teased
importunately
to intercede with the Mahatmas, against whom the real
grievance
lay, though their poor agents had to take all the buffets. At
last,
the word came from the higher authorities that a few of the most
urgent
candidates should be taken at their word.
The result of the
experiment
would perhaps show better than any amount of preaching what
Chelaship meant, and what are the consequences of
selfishness and
temerity. Each candidate was warned that be must wait
for year in any
event,
before his fitness could be established, and that he must pass
through
a series of tests that would bring out all there was in him,
whether
bad or good. They were nearly all
married men, and hence were
designated
"Lay Chelas"--a term new in English, but having long had its
equivalent
in Asiatic tongues. A Lay Chela is but a man of the world
who
affirms his desire to become wise in spiritual things. Virtually,
every
member of the Theosophical Society who subscribes to the second of
our
three "Declared Objects" is such;
for though not of the number of
true
Chelas, he has yet the possibility of becoming one, for he has
stepped
across the boundary-line which separated him from the Mahatmas,
and
has brought himself, as it were, under their notice. In joining the
Society
and binding himself to help along its work, he has pledged
himself
to act in some degree in concert with those Mahatmas, at whose
behest
the Society was organized, and under whose conditional protection
it
remains. The joining is then, the introduction;
all the rest depends
entirely
upon the member himself, and he need never expect the most
distant
approach to the "favour" of one of our Mahatmas or any other
Mahatmas
in the world--should the latter consent to become known--that
has
not been fully earned by personal merit. The Mahatmas are the
servants,
not the arbiters of the Law of Karma.
Lay-Chelaship confers no privilege upon any one except that of
working
for
merit under the observation of a Master.
And whether that Master be
or
be not seen by the Chela makes no difference whatever
as to the
result: his good thought, words and deeds will bear
their fruits, his
evil
ones, theirs. To boast of Lay Chelaship or make a parade of it, is
the
surest way to reduce the relationship with the Guru to a mere empty
name,
for it would be prima facie evidence of vanity and unfitness for
farther
progress. And for years we have been
teaching everywhere the
maxim
"First deserve, then desire" intimacy with the Mahatmas.
Now
there is a terrible law operative in Nature, one which cannot be
altered,
and whose operation clears up the apparent mystery of the
selection
of certain "Chelas" who have turned out sorry specimens of
morality,
these few years past. Does the reader
recall the old proverb,
"Let
sleeping dogs lie?" There is a
world of occult meaning in it. No
man
or woman knows his or her moral strength until it is tried.
Thousands
go through life very respectably, because they were never put
to
the test. This is a truism doubtless,
but it is most pertinent to
the
present case. One who undertakes to try for Chelaship
by that very
act
rouses and lashes to desperation every sleeping passion of his
animal
nature. For this is the commencement of
a struggle for mastery
in
which quarter is neither to be given nor taken.
It is, once for all,
"To
be, or Not to be;" to conquer,
means Adept-ship: to fail, an
ignoble
Martyrdom; for to fall victim to lust,
pride, avarice, vanity,
selfishness,
cowardice, or any other of the lower propensities, is
indeed
ignoble, if measured by the standard of true manhood. The Chela
is
not only called to face all the latent evil propensities of his
nature,
but, in addition, the momentum of maleficent forces accumulated
by
the community and nation to which he belongs.
For he is an integral
part
of those aggregates, and what affects either the individual man or
the
group (town or nation), reacts the one upon the other. And in this
instance
his struggle for goodness jars upon the whole body of badness
in
his environment, and draws its fury upon him. If he is content to go
along
with his neighbours and be almost as they
are--perhaps a little
better
or somewhat worse than the average--no one may give him a
thought. But let it be known that he has been able to
detect the hollow
mockery
of social life, its hypocrisy, selfishness, sensuality, cupidity
and
other bad features, and has determined to lift himself up to a
higher
level, at once he is hated, and every bad, bigotted,
or malicious
nature
sends at him a current of opposing will-power.
If he is innately
strong
he shakes it off, as the powerful swimmer dashes through the
current
that would bear a weaker one away. But
in this moral battle, if
the
Chela has one single hidden blemish--do what he may,
it shall and
will
be brought to light. The varnish of
conventionalities which
"civilization"
overlays us all with must come off to the last coat, and
the
inner self, naked and without the slightest veil to conceal its
reality,
is exposed. The habits of society which hold men to a certain
degree
under moral restraint, and compel them to pay tribute to virtue
by
seeming to be good whether they are so or not--these habits are apt
to
be all forgotten, these restraints to be all broken through under the
strain
of Chelaship.
He is now in an atmosphere of illusions--Maya.
Vice
puts on its most alluring face, and the tempting passions attract
the
inexperienced aspirant to the depths of psychic debasement. This is
not
a case like that depicted by a great artist, where Satan is seen
playing
a game of chess with a man upon the stake of his soul, while the
latter's
good angel stands beside him to counsel and assist. For the
strife
is in this instance between the Chela's will and his carnal
nature,
and Karma forbids that any angel or Guru should interfere until
the
result is known. With the vividness of
poetic fancy Bulwer Lytton
has
idealized it for us in his "Zanoni," a work
which will ever be
prized
by the occultist while in his "Strange Story" he has with equal
power
shown the black side of occult research and its deadly perils.
Chelaship was defined, the other day, by a Mahatma
as a "psychic
resolvent, which eats away all dross and leaves
only the pure gold
behind."
If the candidate has the latent lust for money, or political
chicanery,
or materialistic scepticism, or vain display, or
false
speaking,
or cruelty, or sensual gratification of any kind the germ is
almost
sure to sprout; and so, on the other
hand, as regards the noble
qualities
of human nature. The real man comes
out. Is it not the
height
of folly, then, for any one to leave the smooth path of
commonplace
life to scale the crags of Chelaship without some
reasonable
feeling
of certainty that he has the right stuff in him? Well says the
Bible: "Let him that standeth
take heed lest he fall"--a text that
would-be
Chelas should consider well before they rush headlong into the
fray! It would have been well for some of our Lay
Chelas if they had
thought
twice before defying the tests. We call
to mind several sad
failures
within a twelve-month. One went wrong in
the head, recanted
noble
sentiments uttered but a few weeks previously, and became a member
of
a religion he had just scornfully and unanswerably proven false. A
second
became a defaulter and absconded with his employer's money--the
latter
also a Theosophist. A third gave himself
up to gross debauchery,
and
confessed it, with ineffectual sobs and tears, to his chosen Guru.
A
fourth got entangled with a person of the other sex and fell out with
his
dearest and truest friends. A fifth
showed signs of mental
aberration
and was brought into Court upon charges of discreditable
conduct. A sixth shot himself to escape the
consequences of
criminality,
on the verge of detection! And so we
might go on and on.
All
these were apparently sincere searchers after truth, and passed in
the
world for respectable persons.
Externally, they were fairly
eligible
as candidates for Chelaship, as appearances go; but "within
all
was rottenness and dead men's bones."
The world's varnish was so
thick
as to hide the absence of the true gold underneath; and the
"resolvent" doing its work, the candidate proved in
each instance but a
gilded
figure of moral dross, from circumference to core.
In
what precedes we have, of course, dealt but with the failures among
Lay
Chelas; there have been partial
successes too, and these are
passing
gradually through the first stages of their probation. Some are
making
themselves useful to the Society and to the world in general by
good
example and precept. If they persist,
well for them, well for us
all: the odds are fearfully against them, but
still "there is no
impossibility
to him who Wills." The difficulties
in Chelaship will
never
be less until human nature changes and a new order is evolved.
St.
Paul (Rom. vii. 18,19) might have had a Chela in mind
when he said
"to
will is present with me; but how to
perform that which is good I
find
not. For the good I would I do not; but the evil which I would
not,
that I do." And in the wise Kiratarjuniyam of Bharavi it is
written:--
The enemies which rise within the body,
Hard to be overcome--the evil passions--
Should manfully be fought; who conquers
these
Is equal to the conqueror of worlds. (XI.
32.)
H P Blavatsky
The Mahatmas as Ideals
and Facts
By W Q Judge
The Masters as Ideals and
Facts
By Annie Besant
Characteristics of the Masters
By A P Sinnett
By H P Blavatsky
By Ernest Egerton
Wood
The Puranas
on the Dynasty of the Moryas and on Koot Hoomi By
R Ragoonath Row
The Himalayan
Brothers - Do They Exist ?
By Mohini M Chatterji
Accounts by Theosophists who have proved the
existence of Mahatmas for themselves
H P Blavatsky robustly defends herself against
allegations that she had never visited
Theosophical Society,
Find out more about
Theosophy with these links
Independent Theosophical Blog
One liners and quick explanations
About aspects of Theosophy
H P Blavatsky is usually the
only
Theosophist that most people
have ever
heard
of. Let’s put that right
The Voice of the Silence Website
An Independent
Theosophical Republic
Links to Free Online
Theosophy
Study Resources; Courses, Writings,
Try these if you don’t live
in
and
are looking for a local group
UK Listing of
Theosophical Groups