Theosophical Society,
H P Blavatsky
"The Brothers" of Theosophy
by
A.P. Sinnett
A P Sinnett
First Published in two articles in 1883
Article 1
The
following paper was read by Mr. Sinnett at a recent private gathering of
Theosophists
and their friends: -
I
have put down on paper the few remarks I want to make this evening, in order
that
some views connected with the Theosophical Society may be presented for
your
consideration in a systematic way.
All
persons who become interested in any of the teachings which have found their
way out into the world through the intermediation of the Theosophical Society
very soon turn to the sanctions on which those teachings rest.
Now
the orthodox occult reply hitherto given to inquirers as to the authenticity
of
any small statements in occult science that have hitherto been put forth, has
simply
been this: - "Ascertain for yourself." That is to say, lead the pure
spiritual
life, cultivate the inner faculties, and by degrees these will be
awakened
and developed to the extent of enabling you to probe Nature for
yourself.
But that advice is not of a kind which great numbers of people have
ever
been ready to take, and hence knowledge concerning the truths of occult
science
has remained in the hands of a few.
A
new departure has now been taken. Certain proficients in occult science have
broken
through the old restrictions of their order, and have suddenly let out a
flood
of statements into the world, together with some information concerning
the
attributes and faculties they have themselves acquired, and by means of
which
they have learned what they now tell us.
It
is very widely recognised that the teaching is interesting and coherent, and
even
supported by analogies, but every new inquirer in turn must ask what
assurance
can we have that the persons from whom this teaching emanates, are in a position
to ascertain so much. Most people, I think, would be ready to admit that
persons invested, as the Brothers of Theosophy are said to be invested, with
abnormal and extraordinary powers over Nature - even in the departments of
Nature with which we are familiar - may very probably have faculties which
enable them to obtain a deep insight into many of the generally hidden truths
of Nature. But then comes the primary question, "What assurance can you
give us that there really are behind the few people who stand forward as the
visible representatives of the Theosophical Society, any such persons as the
Adept Brothers at all?" This is an old question which is always recurring,
and which must go on recurring as long as new comers continue to approach the
threshold of the Theosophical Society. For many of us it has long been settled;
for some new inquirers the existence of psychological Adepts seems so probable
that the assurances of the leading representatives of the Society in India are
readily accepted; but for others, again, the existence of the Brothers must
first be established by altogether plain and unequivocal evidence before it
will seem worth while to pay attention to the report some of us may make as to
the
specific
doctrine they teach.
I
propose, therefore, to go over the evidence on this main question, which
certainly
underlies any with which the Theosophical Society, so far as it is
concerned
with the Indian teachings, can be engaged. Of course, I am not going
to
trouble you with any repetition of particular incidents already described in
published
writings. What I propose to do is briefly to review the whole case as
it
now stands, very greatly enlarged and strengthened as it has been during the
last
two years. The evidence, to begin with, divides itself into two kinds.
First,
we have the general body of current belief, which in
that
such persons as Mahatmas or Adepts are somewhere in existence; secondly, the
specific evidence which shews that the leaders of the Theosophical Society are
in relation with, and in the confidence of, such Adepts.
As
to the general body of belief, it would hardly be too much to say that the
whole
mass of the sacred literature of
Adepts;
and a very widely-spread belief, covering great areas of space and time,
can
rarely be regarded as evolved from nothing, - as having had no basis of
fact.
But passing over the Mahabharata and the Puranas and all they tell us
concerning
"Rishis" or Adepts of ancient date, I may call your attention to a
paper
in the Theosophist of May, 1882, on some relatively modern popular Indian
books, recounting the lives of various "Sadhus," another word for
saint, yogee, or adept, who have lived within the last thousand years. In this
article a list is given of over seventy such persons, whose memory is enshrined
in a number of Marathi books, where the "miracles" they are said to
have wrought are recorded.
The
historical value of these narratives may, of course, be disputed. I mention
them
merely as illustrations of the fact that belief in the persons having the
powers
now ascribed to the Brothers is no new thing in
the
testimony of many modern writers concerning the
very remarkable occult featsof Indian yogees and fakirs. Such people, of
course, are immeasurably below the psychological rank of those whom we speak of
as Brothers, but the faculties they possess, sometimes, will be enough to
convince anyone who studies the evidence concerning them, that living men can
acquire powers and faculties commonly regarded as super-human.
In
Jaccolliot’s books about his experiences in
subject
is fully dealt with, and some facts connected with it have even forced
their
way into Anglo-Indian official records. The report of an English Resident
at
the court of Runjeet Singh describes how he was present at the burial of a
yogee
who was shut up in a vault, by his own consent, for a considerable period, six
weeks, I think, but I have not got the report at hand just now to quote in
detail - and emerged alive, at the end of that time, which he had spent in
Samadhi
or trance. Such a man would, of course, be an "Adept" of a very
inferior type, but the record of his achievements has the advantage of being
very well authenticated as far as it goes. Again, up to within a few years ago,
a very
highly
spiritualised ascetic and gifted seer was living at
a
group of disciples and by their own statement has frequently re-appeared
amongst
them since his death. This event itself was an effort of will
accomplished
at an appointed time. I have heard a good deal about him from one of his
principal followers, a cultivated and highly respected native Government
official, now living at
Thus,
in
hardly
regarded as open to dispute. Most of those, of course, concerning whom
one
can obtain definite information, turn out on inquiry to be yogees of the
inferior
type, men who have trained their inner faculties to the extent of
possessing
various abnormal powers, and even insight into spiritual truths. But
none
the less do all inquiries after Adepts superior to them in attainments
provoke
the reply that certainly there are such though they live in complete
seclusion.
The general vague, indefinite belief, in fact, paves the way to the
inquiry
with which we are more immediately concerned, - whether the leaders of
the
Theosophical Society are really in relation with some of the higher Adepts
who
do not habitually live amongst the community at large, nor make known the
fact
of their adeptship to any but their own regularly accepted pupils.
Now
the evidence on this point divides itself as follows: -
First,
we have the primary evidence of witnesses who have personally seen
certain
of these Adepts, both in the flesh and out of the flesh, who have seen
their
powers exercised, and who have obtained certain knowledge as to their
existence
and attributes.
Secondly,
the evidence of those who have seen them in the astral form,
identifying
them in various ways with the living men others have seen.
Thirdly,
the testimony of those who have acquired circumstantial evidence as to
their
existence.
Foremost
among the witnesses of the first group stand Madame Blavatsky and
Colonel
Olcott themselves. For those who see reason to trust Madame Blavatsky, her
testimony is, of course, ample and precise, and altogether satisfactory. She
has lived among the Adepts for many years. She has been in almost daily
communication with them ever since. She has returned to them, and they have
visited her in their natural bodies on several occasions since she emerged from
persons
in
relations
going about the business of their daily lives, instructing her by slow
degrees
in the vast science to which she is devoted, and be in any doubt as to
whether
they are living men or spirits? The conjecture is absurd. She is either
speaking
falsely when she tells us that she has so lived among them, or the
Adepts
who taught her are living men. The Spiritualists’ hypothesis about her
supposed
"controls" is built upon the statement she makes that the Adepts
appear to her in the astral form when she is at a distance from them. If they
had never appeared to her in any other form, there would be room to argue the
matter from the Spiritualists’ point of view, or there might be, but for other
circumstances again. But her astral visitors are identical in all respects with
the men she has lived and studied amongst. At intervals, as I have said, she
has been
enabled
to go back again and see them in the flesh. Her astral communication
with
them merely fills up the gap of her personal intercourse with them, which
has
extended over a long series of years. Her veracity may, of course, be
challenged,
though I think it can be shewn that it is most unreasonable to
challenge
this, but we might as reasonably doubt the living reality of our
nearest
relations, of the people we live amongst most intimately, as suppose
that
Madame Blavatsky can be herself mistaken in describing the Brothers as
living
men. Either she must be right, or she has consciously be en weaving an
enormous
network of falsehood in all her writings, acts and conversation for the
last
eight or nine years. And the plea that she may be a loose talker and given
to
exaggeration will no more meet the difficulty than the Spiritualists’
hypothesis.
Pare away as much as you like from the details of Madame Blavatsky’s statement
on account of possible exaggeration, and that which remains is a great solid
block of residual statement which must be either true or a structure of
conscious falsehood. And even if Madame Blavatsky’s testimony stood alone, we
should have the wonderful fact of her total self-sacrifice in the cause of
Theosophy to make the hypothesis of her being a conscious impostor one of the
most extravagant that could be entertained.
At
first when we in
and
in fact as a member of the aristocratic class.
Difficult
as the hypothesis of her imposture thus becomes, we next find it in
flagrant
incompatibility with all the facts of Colonel Olcott’s life. As
undeniably
as in the case of Madame Blavatsky he has forsaken a life of worldly
prosperity
to lead the theosophical life, under circumstances of great physical
self-denial,
in
in
the flesh and in the astral form. By a long series of the most astounding
thaumaturgic
displays when he was first introduced to the subject in America, he
was
made acquainted with their powers. He has been visited at Bombay by the
living
man, his own special master, with whom he had first become acquainted by seeing
him in the astral form in
surrounded
with the abnormal occurrences which Spiritualists again will
sometimes
conjecture - so wildly - to be Spiritualism, but which all hinge on to
that
continuous chain of relationship with the Brothers, which for Colonel
Olcott
has been partly a matter of occult phenomena and partly a matter of
waking
intercourse between man and man. Again, in reference to Colonel Olcott,
as
in reference to Madame Blavatsky, I assert, fearlessly, that there is no
compromise
possible between the extravagant assumption that he is consciously
lying
in all he says about the Brothers, and the assumption that what he says
establishes
the existence of the Brothers as a broad fact, for remember that
Colonel
Olcott has now been a co-worker of Madame Blavatsky’s, and in constant intimate
association with her for eight years. The notion that she has been able to
deceive him all this while by fraudulent tricks, apart from its monstrosity in
other ways, is too unreasonable to be entertained. Colonel Olcott, at all
events, knows whether Madame Blavatsky is fraudulent or genuine, and he has
given up his whole life to the service of the cause she represents in testimony
of
his conviction that she is genuine. Again the spiritualistic hypothesis comes
into
play. Madame Blavatsky may be a medium whose presence surrounds Colonel Olcott
with phenomena; but then she is herself deceived by astral influences as to the
true nature of the Brothers who are the head and front of the whole phenomenal
display, and we have already seen reason, I think, to reject that hypothesis as
absurd.
There
is no logical escape from the conclusion that things are broadly as she and
Colonel Olcott say, or they are both conscious impostors, rival champions of
the age in this respect, both sacrificing everything that worldly-minded people
live for, to revel in this life-long imposture which brings them nothing but
hard living and hard words.
But
the case for the authenticity of their statement, far from ending here, may
in
one sense be said to begin here. Our native Indian witnesses now come to the
front.
First Damodar, of whom the well-known writer of "Hints on Esoteric
Theosophy"
speaks as follows in that pamphlet: -
"You specially in a former letter
referred to Damodar, and you asked how it
could be believed that the Brothers would
waste time with a half-educated slip
of a boy like him, and yet absolutely refuse
to visit and convince men like
----- and ----- Europeans of the highest
education and marked abilities. But
do you know that this slip of a boy has
deliberately given up high caste,
family and friends, and an ample fortune, all
in pursuit of the truth? That he
has for years lived that pure, unworldly,
self-denying life which we are told
is essential to direct intercourse with the
Brothers? ‘Oh a monomaniac’ you
say, ‘Of course he sees anything and
everything.’ But do not you see whither
this leads you? Men who do not lead the life
do not obtain direct proof of the
existence of the Brothers. A man does lead
the life and avers that he has
obtained such proof, and you straightway call
him a monomaniac and refuse
his testimony . . . . . quite a ‘heads I win,
tails you lose’ sort of position."
Damodar
has seen some of the Brothers visit the headquarters of the Society in
the
flesh. He has repeatedly been visited by them in the astral shape. He has
himself
gone through certain initiations; he has acquired very considerable
powers,
for he has been rapidly developed as regards these, expressly that he
might
be an additional link of connection, independently of Madame Blavatsky,
between
the Brothers, his masters, and the Theosophical Society. The whole life
he
leads is impressive testimony to the fact that he also knows the reality of
the
Brothers.
On
any other hypothesis we must include Damodar in the conscious
imposture
supposed to be carried on by Madame Blavatsky, for he has been her
intimate
associate and devoted assistant, sharing her meals, doing her work,
living
under her roof at Bombay for several years.
Shall
we, then, rather than believe in the Brothers, accept the hypothesis that
Madame
Blavatsky, Colonel Olcott, and Damodar, are a band of conscious
impostors?
In that case Ramaswamy has to be accounted for.
Ramaswamy is a very respectable, educated, English speaking - native of
Government
service as a registrar of a court in Tinnevelly, I believe. I have
met
him several times. First, to indicate the course of his experience in a few
words,
- he sees the astral form of Madame Blavatsky’s Guru, at Bombay; then he gets
clairaudient communication with him, while many hundred miles away from all the
Theosophists, at his own home in the South of India. Then he travels in
obedience to that voice to
neighbourhood,
and after various adventures meets him, - the same man he has
seen
before in astral shape, the same man whose portrait Colonel Olcott has, and
whom he has seen, the living speaker of the voice that has been leading him on
from
daylight
interview, with a living man, and returns his devoted chela as he is at
this
moment, and assuredly ever will be. Yet his master who called him from
Tinnevelly
and received him in Sikkim, is of those who on the spiritualistic
hypothesis
are Madame Blavatsky’s spirit controls.
Two
more witnesses who personally know the Brothers next come to me at Simla, in
the persons of two regular chelas who have been sent across the mountains on
some business, and are ordered en passant to visit me and tell me about their
master, my Adept correspondent. These men had just come, when I first saw them,
from living with the Adepts. One of them, Dhabagiri Nath, visited me several
days running, talked to me for hours about Koot Hoomi, with whom he had been
living for ten years, and impressed me and one or two others who saw him as a
very earnest, devoted, and trustworthy person. Later on, during his visit to
He,
of course, must be a false witness, invented to prop up Madame Blavatsky’s vast
imposture, if he is anything else than the chela of Koot Hoomi that he declares
himself to be. Another native, Mohini, soon after this begins to get direct
communication from Koot Hoomi independently altogether of Madame Blavatsky, and
when hundreds of miles away from her. He also becomes a devoted adherent to the
Theosophical cause; but Mohini must, as far as I am aware, be ranked in the
second group of our witnesses, those who have had personal astral communication
with the Brothers, but have not yet seen them in flesh.Bhavani Rao, a young
native candidate for chelaship, who came once in company with Colonel Olcott,
but at a time when Madame Blavatsky was in another part of India, to see me at
Allahabad, and spent two nights under our roof there, is another witness who
has had independent communication with Koot Hoomi, and more than that, who is
able himself to act as a link of communication between Koot Hoomi and the outer
world. For during the visit I speak of, he was enabled to pass a letter of mine
to the master, to receive back his reply, to get off a second note of mine, and
to receive back a little note of a few words in reply again. I do not mean that
he did all this of his own power, but that his magnetism was such as to enable
Koot Hoomi to do it through him.
The
experience is valuable because it affords a striking illustration of the fact
that Madame Blavatsky is not an essential intermediary in the correspondence
between myself and my revered friend. Other illustrations are afforded by the
frequent passage of letters between Koot Hoomi and myself through the mediation
of Damodar at
The
correspondence is visible on paper, a considerable mass of it. How has it come
into existence; reaching me at different places and times, and in different
countries, and through different people? I do not quite understand what
hypotheses can be framed by a non-believer in the Brothers about my correspondence.
I can think of none which are not at once negatived by some of the facts about
it.
It
would be useless to copy out from statements that from time to time have been
published in the Theosophist, the names of native witnesses who have seen the
astral forms of the Brothers - spectral shapes which they were informed were
such
- about the headquarters of the Society at Bombay. Quite a cloud of
witnesses
would testify to such experiences, and I myself, I may add, saw such
an
appearance on one occasion at the Society’s present headquarters in Madras.
But,
of course, it might be suggested of such appearances that they were
spiritualistic.
On the other hand, in that case the argument travels back to the
considerations
already pointed out, which shew that the occult phenomena
surrounding
Madame Blavatsky cannot be Spiritualism. They can be, in fact,
nothing
but what we who know her intimately and are now closely identified with
the
Society, believe them to be with full conviction, viz., manifestations of
the
abnormal psychological powers of those whom we speak of as the Brothers.
"The Brothers" of Theosophy. Article
II
by
A P Sinnet
In continuation of the
paper on this subject , recently read by Mr.
Sinnett, the
following
address by the same author has been communicated to us for
publication:
-
Many
people who approach the consideration of occult philosophy, are inclined to lay
great emphasis on the difference between believing in the existence of those
whom we call "the Brothers," and believing in the vast and
complicated body of teaching which has now been accumulated by their recent
pupils. I think it can really be shewn that there is no halting place at which
a man who sets out on this inquiry can rationally pause and say, "Thus far
will I go, and no farther."
The
chain of considerations which will lead any one who has once realised the
existence
of the Adepts to feel sure that there can be no great errors in a
conception
of nature obtained with their help, consists of many links, but is
really
unbroken in its continuity, and equally capable of bearing a strain at
any
point.
It
consists of many links, partly because no one at present among those who are
in
our position as students - who are living, that is to say, an ordinary
worldly
life all the while that they are intellectually studying Occultism - can
ever
obtain in his own person a complete knowledge of the Adepts. He cannot,
that
is to say, come to know of his own personal knowledge all about even any
one
Adept. The full elucidation of this difficulty leads to a proper
comprehension
of the principle on which the Adepts shroud themselves in a
partial
seclusion, a seclusion which has only become partial within a very
recent
period, and was so complete until then that the world at large was hardly
aware
of the existence of any esoteric knowledge from which it could be shut
out.
This is a matter that is all the more important because experience has
shewn
how the world at large has been quick to take offence at the hesitating
and
imperfect manner in which the Adepts have hitherto dealt with those who have
sought spiritual instruction at their hands. Judging the occult policy pursued
by
comparison with inquiries on the plane of physical knowledge, the impatience
of
inquirers is very natural, but none the less does even a limited acquaintance
with
the conditions of mystic research shew the occult policy to be reasonable
likewise.
Of
course everyone will admit that Adepts are justified in exercising great
caution
in regard to communicating any peculiar scientific knowledge which would put
what are commonly called magical powers within the reach of persons not morally
qualified for their exercise. But the considerations that prescribe this
caution do not seem to operate also in reference to the communication of
knowledge concerning the spiritual progress of man or the grander processes of
evolution. And in truth the Adepts have come to that very conclusion; they have
undertaken the communication to the general public of their safe theoretical
knowledge, and the effort they are making merely hangs fire or may seem to do
so to some observers, by reason of the magnitude of the task in hand, and the
novel aspect it wears, as well for the teachers as for the students.
For
remember if there has been that change of policy on the part of the Adepts to
which I have just referred, it has been a change of such recent origin that it
may almost be described as only just coming on. And if the question be then
asked why has this safe theoretical knowledge not been communicated sooner, it
seems reasonable to find a reply to that question in the actual state of the
intellectual world around us at this moment. The freedom of thought of which
English writers often boast, is not very widely diffused over the world as yet,
and hardly, at all events, in any generation before this, could the free
promulgation of quite revolutionary tenets in religious matters have been
safely undertaken in any country.
Communities
in which such an undertaking would still be fraught with peril, are even now
more numerous than those in which it could be set on foot with any practical
advantage. One can thus readily understand how in the occult world the question
has been one of debate up to our own time, whether it was desirable as yet to
promote the dissemination of Esoteric philosophy in the world at large at the
risk of provoking the acrimonious controversies, and even more serious
disturbances, liable to arise from the premature disclosure of truths which
only a small minority would really be ready to accept.
Keeping
this in view, the mystery of the Adepts’ reserve, up till recently, can hardly
be thought so astounding as to drive us on violent alternative hypotheses at
variance with all the plain evidence concerning their present action. There is
manifest
reason why they should be careful in launching a body of newly won
disciples
on to the general stream of human progress; and added to this, the
force
of their own training is such as to make them habitually cautious to a far
greater
extent than the utmost prudence of ordinary life would render ordinary
men.
"But," it will be argued, "granting all this, but assuming that
at last
some
of the Adepts, at all events, have come to the conclusion that some of
their
knowledge is ripe for presentation to the world, why do they not present
as
much as they do present, under guarantees of a more striking, irresistible,
and
conclusive kind than those which have actually been furnished?" I think
the
answer
may be easily drawn from the consideration of the way in which it would
be
natural to expect that a change of policy amongst the Adepts, in a matter of
this
kind, would gradually be introduced.
By
the hypothesis we conceive them but just coming to the conclusion that it is
desirable to teach mankind at large some portions of that spiritual science
hitherto conveyed exclusively to those who give tremendous pledges in
justification of their claim to acquire it. They will naturally advance, in dealing
with the world at large, along the same lines they have learned to trust in
dealing with aspirants for regular initiation.
Never
in the history of the world have they sought out such aspirants, courted
them
or advertised for them in any way whatever. It has been found an invariable
law
of human progress that some small percentage of mankind will always come
into
the world invested by nature with some of the attributes proper to
adeptship,
and with minds so constituted as to catch conviction as to the
possibilities
of the occult life, from the least little sparks of evidence on
the
subject that may be floating about. Of persons so constituted some have
always
been found to press forward into the ranks of chelaship, to resort, that
is
to say, to any devices or opportunities that circumstances may afford them
for
fathoming occult knowledge. When thus besieged by the aspirant the Adept has
always, sooner or later, disclosed himself.
The
change of policy now introduced prescribes that the Adept shall make one step
towards the disclosure of himself in advance of the aspirant’s demand upon him,
but we can easily understand how the Adept, in first making this change, would
argue that if many chelas have hitherto come forward in the absence of any
spontaneous action from his side, it might be that an almost dangerous rush of
ill-qualified aspirants would be invited by any manifestation from him that
should be more than a very slight one. At any rate, the Adept would say it
would be premature to begin by too sensational a display of faculties inherent
in advanced spiritual knowledge with which the world at large is as yet
unfamiliar. It will be better at first to make such an offer as will only be
calculated to inflame the imagination of persons only one step removed beyond
those whose natural instincts would lead them into the occult life.
This
appears actually to have been the reasoning on which the Adepts have proceeded
so far, and this may help us to understand how it is that, as I began by
saying, no one person amongst those outer students, who have been called
lay-chelas, has yet been enabled to say that of his own personal knowledge he
knows all about any of the Adepts.
On
the other hand, putting together the various scattered revelations concerning
the
Brothers which have been distributed amongst various people in
belonging
to the Theosophical Society, so much can be learned about the Adepts as to put
us in a very strong position in regard to estimating their
qualifications
for speaking with confidence as they do about the actual facts of
nature
on the super-physical plane. These scattered revelations, - if my
reasoning
in what has gone before may be accepted, - have been broken up and
thrown
about in fragments designedly, in order that as yet it should only be
possible
to arrive at a full conviction concerning Adeptship after a certain
amount
of trouble spent in piecing together the disjointed proofs. But when this
process
is accomplished we are provided with a certain block of knowledge
concerning
the Adepts, out of which large inferences must necessarily grow. We
find,
to begin with, that they do unequivocally possess the power of cognising
events
and facts on the physical plane of knowledge with which we are familiar,
by
other means than those connected with the five senses.
We
find also that they unequivocally possess the power of emerging from their
proper bodies and appearing at distant places in more or less ethereal
counter-parts thereof which are not only agencies for producing impressions on
others, but habitations for the time being of the Adepts’ own thinking
principles, and thus in themselves, if the proof went no further,
demonstrations of the fact that a human soul is something quite independent of
brain matter and nerve centres. I do not stop now to enumerate instances.
The
record of evidence must be disassociated from its manipulation in arguments like
the present, but the records are abundant and accessible for all who will take
the trouble of examining them. Now, if we know that the Adept’s soul can pass
at his own discretion into that state in which its perceptive faculties are
independent of corporeal machinery, it is not surprising that he should be
enabled to make, of his own knowledge, a great many statements concerning
processes of nature, reaching far beyond any knowledge
that
can be obtained by mere physical observation. Take, for example, the
Adepts’
statement that certain other planets, besides this earth, are concerned
with
the growth of the great crop of humanity of which we form a part. This is
not
advanced as a conjecture or inference. The Adepts tell us that once out of
the
body they find they can cognise events on some other planets as well as in
distant
parts of our own.
This
is not the exceptional belief of an exceptionally organised individual, who may
be regarded by doubters as hallucinated; there is no room for doubting the fact
that it is the concurrent testimony of a considerable body of men engaged in
the constant experimental exercise of similar faculties. In this way the fact
becomes as much a fact of true science, as the fact that the great nebula in
Orion, for instance, exhibits a gaseous spectrum, and is therefore a true
nebula.
All
of us who have star spectroscopes can ascertain that fact for ourselves, if we
make use of a clear night when the conditions of observation are possible. To
doubt it, would not be to shew greater caution than is exercised by those who
believe it, but merely an imperfect appreciation of the evidence. It is true
that in regard to the condition of the other planets our acceptance of the
Adepts’ statement must be governed by our impressions concerning the bona fides
of their intention in telling us that they have made such and such
observations. So far it is a matter of inference with us whether the Adepts are
saying what they believe to be true
-
when they speak of the septenary chain of planets to which the earth belongs,
-
or consciously deluding us with a rigmarole of statements which they know to
be
false. I think it can be shewn in a varriety of ways that the latter
supposition is absurd. But an exhaustive examination of its absurdity would be
a considerable task in itself. For the moment the position I am endeavouring to
establish is one which does not depend upon the question whether the Adepts are
telling us, in reference to the planets, what they know to be true, or
something which they know to be untrue.
My
present position is that at all events the Adepts themselves know what is true
in the matter, and that position, it will be observed, is not vitiated by the
fact that, as yet, we, their most recent pupils, are unable to follow in their
footsteps and repeat the experiments on which their teaching rests.
The
same train of reasoning may be applied to the whole body of teaching which
the
Theosophical Society is now concerned in endeavouring to assimilate. As
offered
now to the uninitiated world, it can only take the form of a set of
statements
on authority. And that sort of statement is not one which is most
agreeable
to our methods or to the Adepts’ habitual methods of teaching. For
there
is no chemical laboratory in
rigidly
confined to the direction of the learner’s own experiments, than that
same
system is adopted with occult chelas following the regular course of
initiation.
Step by step, as the regular chela is told that such and such is the
fact
in regard to the inner mysteries of nature, he is shewn how to apply his
own
developing faculties to the direct observation of such facts. But those
developing
faculties carry with them, as pointed out a-while ago, fresh powers
over
nature which can only be entrusted to those from whom the Adepts take the
recognised pledges. In teaching outsiders as they are trying to do now, the
Adepts
must depart from their own habitual methods, - we must depart, if we wish to
understand what they are willing to teach, from our habitual methods of
inquiry.
We must suspend our usual demand for proof of each statement made, in turn as
it is advanced.
We
must rest our provisional trust in each statement on our broad general
conviction which can be satisfied along familiar lines of demonstration, - that
such men as the Adepts certainly exist, even though we cannot visit them at
pleasure, that they must understand an enormous block of Nature’s laws outside
the range of those which the physical senses cognise, that in any statement
they make to us, they must be in a position to know absolutely whether that
statement is or is not true.
This
much fully realised, the truth is that each inquirer in turn becomes satisfied,
pari passu with his realisation of the case so far, that reason revolts against
the notion that the Adepts can be engaged in their present attempt to convey
some of their own knowledge to the world at large in any other than the purest
good faith. It may be concluded that we who have come to the conclusion that
their teaching is altogether to be accepted, are rearing a large inverted
pyramid upon a small base. But the logical strength of our position is not
impaired by this objection. In every branch of human knowledge, inferences far
transcend the observed facts out of which they grow. And even in the most exact
science of all, a theorem is held to be proved if any alternative hypothesis is
found, on examination, to be irrational. Moreover, the doctrine even of legal
testimony recognises the value of secondary evidence where in the nature of the
case it is impossible that primary evidence can be forthcoming.
That
is exactly the state of the case in regard to the present attempt to bridge
the
gulf that separates the school of physical research from the school of
spiritual
knowledge. As long as we of this side were justified in doubting
whether
there was anywhere on earth such a thing as a school of spiritual
knowledge,
it may have been hardly worth while to worry ourselves with the stray fragments
of its teaching which now and then broke loose in barely intelligible shapes.
But to doubt the existence of such a school now is equivalent, really, to
doubting the statement about the nebula in Orion, according to the illustration
I adduced just now. It can only arise from inattention to the facts of the
whole case as these now stand, - from reluctance to take that trouble to
examine these thoroughly, which still, as a sort of hedge, separates the
Theosophical
Society from the general community in the midst of which it is
planted.
Regarded in the light of an occult barrier - as an obstacle which
corresponds
in the case of the lay-chela, to the really serious ordeals which
have
to be crossed by the regular chela, - the necessity of taking this trouble
can
hardly be regarded as a hedge that it is difficult to traverse. And on the
other
side there lies a wealth of information concerning the mysteries of nature
which
clearly lights up vast regions of the past and future hitherto shrouded in
total
darkness for critical intelligences, and the prey for others of
untrustworthy
conjecture. For those who once thoroughly go into the matter, and obtain a
complete mastery over all the considerations I have put forward - who thus
obtain full conviction the Brothers certainly exist, that they must be
acquainted
with the actual facts about nature behind and beyond this life, that
they
are now ready to convey a considerable block of their knowledge to us, and that
it is ridiculous to distrust their bona fides in doing this, - for all such
true
Theosophists of the Theosophical Society, nothing, at present, connected
with
spiritual success is comparable in importance with the study of the vast
doctrine
now in process of delivery into our hands.
Theosophical Society,