Theos-Talk Archives (October 1999 Message tt00059)

Oct 16th

Offered by Dallas TenBroeck

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The ADEPTS -- the BROTHERS -- the MAHATMAS


"What appears to the Western mind to be a very strange superstition
prevails in India about wonderful persons who are said to be of
immense age, and who keep themselves secluded in places not accessible
to the ordinary traveler. So long has this been current in India that
the name applied to these beings is well known in the Sanskrit
language: "Mahatma," a compound of two words, maha, great, and atma,
soul. The belief in the existence of such persons is not confined to
the ignorant, but is shared by the educated of all castes. The lower
classes look upon the Mahatmas as a sort of gods, and think most of
their wonderful powers and great age. The pundits, or learned class,
and educated Hindus in general, have a different view; they say that
Mahatmas are men or souls with unlimited knowledge of natural laws and
of man's history and development. They claim also that the Mahatmas --
or Rishees, as they sometimes call them -- have preserved the
knowledge of all natural laws for ages, not only by tradition among
their disciples, but also by actual records and in libraries existing
somewhere in the many underground temples and passages in India. Some
believers assert that there are also stores of books and records in
secluded parts all over that part of Tibet which is not known to
Europeans, access to them being possible only for the Mahatmas and
Adepts.


	MAN -- A SPIRITUAL BEING

The credence given to such a universal theory grows out of an old
Indian doctrine that man is a spiritual being -- a soul, in other
words -- and that this soul takes on different bodies from life to
life on earth in order at last to arrive at such perfect knowledge,
through repeated experience, as to enable one to assume a body fit to
be the dwelling-place of a Mahatma or perfected soul. Then, they say,
that particular soul becomes a spiritual helper to mankind. The
perfected men are said to know the truth about the genesis of worlds
and systems, as well as the development of man upon this and other
planets.


	SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND OBSERVATION

"...the Adepts have for ages pursued scientific experimentation and
investigation...Seers themselves of the highest order, they have
recorded not only their own actual experiences beyond the veil of
matter, on both sides, but have collected, compared, analyzed and
preserved the records of experiences of the same sort by hundreds of
thousands of lesser seers, their own disciples; and this process has
been going on from time immemorial.

Let Science laugh as it may, the Adepts are the only true scientists,
for they take into account every factor in the question, whereas
Science is limited by brain-power, by circumstance, by imperfection of
instruments, and by a total inability to perceive anything deeper than
the mere phenomena presented by matter. The records of the visions and
experiences of the greater and lesser seers, through the ages, are
extant today. Of their mass, nothing has been accepted except that
which as been checked and verified by millions of independent
observations; and therefore the Adepts stand in the position of those
who possess actual experimental knowledge of what precedes the birth
of the Ego in a human form, and what succeeds when the "mortal coil"
is cast away. [see SD I 272-3]

This recording of experiences still goes on; for the infinity of the
changes of Nature in its evolution permits of no stoppage, no "last
word," no final declaration.


	KARMA and CYCLES in MANKIND and in CIVILIZATION


As one of the Masters of this noble science has written:

"We never pretended to be able to draw nations in the mass to this or
that crisis in spite of the general drift of the world's cosmic
relations. The cycles must run their rounds. Periods of mental and
moral light and darkness succeed each other as day does night. The
major and minor yugas must be accomplished according to the
established order of things. And we, borne along on the mighty tide,
can only modify and direct some of its minor currents. If we had the
powers of the imaginary personal God, and the immutable laws were but
toys to play with, then, indeed, might we have created conditions that
would have turned this earth into an Arcadia for lofty souls."

And so in individual cases -- even among those who are in direct
relations with some Adept -- the law cannot be infringed. Karma
demands that such and such a thing should happen to the individual,
and the greatest God or the smallest Adept cannot lift a finger to
prevent it. A nation may have heaped up against its account as a
nation a vast amount of bad Karma. Its fate is sure, and although it
may have noble units in it, great souls even who are Adepts
themselves, nothing can save it, and it will "go out like a torch
dipped in water."


	EVOLUTION:  ROUNDS AND RACES

In dealing with these doctrines, one is compelled now and then to
greatly extend the scope and meaning of many English words. The word
"race" is one of these. In the Theosophical scheme, as given out by
the sages of the East, seven great races are spoken of. Each one of
these includes all the different so-called races of our modern
ethnology. Hence the necessity for having seven great root-races,
sub-races, family races, and countless offshoot races. The root-race
sends off sub-races, and these divide into family groups; all,
however, being included in the great root-race then undergoing
development.

The appearance of these great root-races is always just when the
world's development permits. When the globe was forming, the first
root-race was more or less ethereal and had no such body as we now
inhabit. The cosmic environment became more dense and the second race
appeared, soon after which the first wholly disappeared. Then the
third came on the scene, after an immense lapse of time, during which
the second had been developing the bodies needed for the third. At the
coming of the fourth root-race, it is said that the present human form
was evolved, although gigantic and in some respects different from our
own. It is from this point -- the fourth race -- that the Theosophical
system begins to speak of man as such.

The old book quoted by Mme. Blavatsky has it in this wise:

"Thus two by two on the seven zones the third race gave birth to the
fourth"; and,
"The first race on every zone was moon-colored; the second, yellow,
like gold; the third, red; the fourth, brown, which became black with
sin."

The evolution of these seven great races covers many millions of
years, and it must not be forgotten that when the new race is fully
evolved the preceding race disappears, as the monads in it have been
gradually reincarnated in the bodies of the new race. The present
root-race to which we belong, no matter what the sub-race or family we
may be in, is the fifth. It became a separate, distinct and
completely-defined race about one million years ago, and has yet many
more years to serve before the sixth will be ushered in. This fifth
race includes also all the nations in Europe, as they together form a
family race and are not to be divided off from each other.

Now, the process of forming the foundation, or great spinal column,
for that race which is to usher in the sixth, and which I said is now
going on in the Americas, is a slow process for us. Obliged as we are
by our inability to judge or to count except by relativity, the
gradual coming together of nations and the fusion of their offspring
over and over again so as to bring forth something new in the human
line, is so gradual as to seem almost without progress. But this
change and evolution go on nevertheless, and a very careful observer
can see evidences of it. One fact deserves attention. It is the
inventive faculty displayed by Americans. This is not accorded much
force by our scientists, but the occultist sees in it an evidence that
the brains of these inventors are more open to influences and pictures
from the astral world than are the brains of the older nations.

The Theosophical Adepts believe in evolution, but not that sort which
claims an ape as our ancestor. Their great and comprehensive system is
quite able to account for rudimentary muscles and traces of organs
found complete only in the animal kingdom without having to call a
pithecoid ape our father, for they show the gradual process of
building the temple for the use of the divine Ego, proceeding
ceaselessly, and in silence, through ages upon ages, winding in and
out among all the forms in nature in every kingdom, from the mineral
up to the highest. This is the real explanation of the old Jewish,
Masonic, and archaic saying that the temple of the Lord is not made
with hands and that no sound of building is heard in it.


	MAHATMAS and NIRMANAKAYAS


These two classes of exalted personages are the Mahatmas and
Nirmanakayas.

In the early days ... the name Mahatma was not in use here, but the
title then was "Brothers." This referred to the fact that they were a
band of men who belonged to a brotherhood in the East. The most
wonderful powers and, at times, the most extraordinary motives were
attributed to them by those who believed in their existence.  They
could pass to all parts of the world in the twinkling of an eye.
Across the great distance that India is from here they could
precipitate letters to their friends and disciples in New York. Many
thought that if this were done it was only for amusement; others
looked at it in the light of a test for the faithful, while still
others often supposed Mahatmas acted thus for pure love of exercising
their power. The Spiritualists, some of whom believed that Mme.
Blavatsky really did the wonderful things told of her, said that she
was only a medium, pure and simple, and that her Brothers were
familiar spooks of seance rooms...


	ADEPTS and SAGES and RISHEES


Indiscriminately with Mahatma, the word Adept has been used to
describe the same beings, so that we have these two titles made use of
without accuracy and in a misleading fashion. The word Adept signifies
proficiency, and is not uncommon, so that, when using it, some
description is necessary if it is to be applied to the Brothers...

A Mahatma is not only an Adept, but much more. The etymology of it
will make the matter clearer, the word being strictly Sanskrit, from
maha, great, and atma, soul -- hence Great Soul. This does not mean a
noble-hearted man merely, but a perfected being, one who has attained
to the state often described by mystics and held by scientific men to
be an impossibility, when time and space are no obstacles to sight, to
action, to knowledge or to consciousness. Hence they are said to be
able to perform the extraordinary feats related by various persons,
and also to possess information of a decidedly practical character
concerning the laws of nature, including that mystery for science --
the meaning, operation and constitution of life itself -- and
concerning the genesis of this planet as well as of the races upon it.

These large claims have given rise to the chief complaint brought
forward against the Theosophical Adepts by those writers outside of
the Society who have taken the subject up -- that they remain, if they
exist at all, in a state of cold and selfish quietude, seeing the
misery and hearing the groans of the world, yet refusing to hold out a
helping hand except to a favored few; possessing knowledge of
scientific principles, or of medicinal preparations, and yet keeping
it back from learned men or wealthy capitalists who desire to advance
commerce while they turn an honest penny. Although, for one, I firmly
believe, upon evidence given me, in all that is claimed for these
Adepts, I declare groundless the complaint advanced, knowing it to be
due to a want of knowledge of those who are impugned.

Adepts and Mahatmas are not a miraculous growth, nor the selfish
successors of some who, accidentally stumbling upon great truths,
transmitted them to adherents under patent rights. They are human
beings trained, developed, cultivated through not only a life but long
series of lives, always under evolutionary laws and quite in accord
with what we see among men of the world or of science. ... The
Mahatma-Adept is a natural growth, and not produced by any miracle;
the process by which he so becomes may be to us an unfamiliar one, but
it is in the strict order of nature.


	HISTORY and the MAHATMAS and NIRMANAKAYAS


Some years ago a well-known [writer] writing to the Theosophical
Adepts, queried if they had ever made any mark upon the web of
history, doubting that they had. The reply was that he had no bar at
which to arraign them, and that they had written many an important
line upon the page of human life, not only as reigning in visible
shape, but down to the very latest dates when, as for many a long
century before, they did their work behind the scenes. [They are the]
very unseen Adepts, who crave no honors, seek no publicity and claim
no acknowledgment...

For an exhaustive disquisition upon Adepts, Mahatmas and Nirmanakayas,
more than a volume would be needed. The development illustrated by
them is so strange to modern minds and so extraordinary in these days
of general mediocrity, that the average reader fails to grasp with
ease the views advanced in a condensed article; and nearly everything
one would say about Adepts -- to say nothing of the Nirmanakayas --
requiring full explanation of recondite laws and abstruse questions,
is liable to be misunderstood, even if volumes should be written upon
them. The development, conditions, powers, and function of these
beings carry with them the whole scheme of evolution; for, as said by
the mystics, the mahatma is the efflorescence of an age. The Adepts
may be dimly understood today, the Nirmanakayas have as yet been only
passingly mentioned...  But one law governing them is easy to state
and ought not to be difficult for the understanding. They do not, will
not, and must not interfere with Karma; that is, however apparently
deserving of help an individual may be, they will not extend it in the
manner desired if his Karma does not permit it; and they would not
step into the field of human thought for the purpose of bewildering
humanity by an exercise of power which on all sides would be looked
upon as miraculous.

Some have said that if the Theosophical Adepts were to perform a few
of their feats before the eyes of Europe, an immense following for
them would at once arise; but such would not be the result. Instead of
it there would be dogmatism and idolatry worse than have ever been,
with a reaction of an injurious nature impossible to counteract.



	The NIRMANAKAYAS and their INFLUENCE


The other class referred to -- Nirmanakayas -- constantly engage in
this work deemed by them greater than earthly enterprises: the
betterment of the soul of man, and any other good that they can
accomplish through human agents.

Around them the long-disputed question of Nirvana revolves.  For, if
Max Muller's view of Nirvana, that it is annihilation, be correct,
then a Nirmanakaya is an impossibility. Paradoxically speaking, they
are in and out of that state at one and the same time. They are owners
of Nirvana who refuse to accept it in order that they may help the
suffering orphan, Humanity. They have followed the injunction of the
Book of the Golden Precepts: "Step out from sunlight into shade, to
make more room for others."  [see SD I 207-10]

A greater part is taken in the history of nations by the Nirmanakayas
than anyone supposes. Some of them have under their care certain men
in every nation who from their birth are destined to be great factors
in the future. These they guide and guard until the appointed time.
And such proteges but seldom know that such influence is about them,
especially in the nineteenth century.

Acknowledgment and appreciation of such great assistance are not
required by the Nirmanakayas, who work behind the veil and prepare the
material for a definite end. At the same time, too, one Nirmanakaya
may have many different men -- or women -- whom he directs. As
Patanjali puts it, "In all these bodies one mind is the moving cause."

As a change in the thought of a people who have been tending to gross
atheism is one always desired by the Sages of the Wisdom Religion, it
may be supposed that the wave of spiritualistic phenomena resulting
now quite clearly in a tendency back to a universal acknowledgment of
the soul, has been aided by the Nirmanakayas. They are in it and of
it; they push on the progress of a psychic deluge over great masses of
people. The result is seen in the literature, the religion and the
drama of today. Slowly but surely the tide creeps up and covers the
once dry shore of Materialism, and, though priests may howl, demanding
"the suppression of Theosophy with a firm hand" and a venal press may
try to help them, they have neither the power nor the knowledge to
produce one backward ripple, for the Master hand is guided by
omniscient intelligence propelled by a gigantic force, and -- works
behind the scene.



	DISCIPLES of the SAGES AND MAHATMAS


But the Sages we speak of, and their disciples, carry with them the
indelible mark and speak the well-known words that show they are
beings developed under laws, and not merely persons who, having
undergone a childish ordeal, are possessed of a diploma. The Adepts
may be called rugged oaks that have no disguise, while the undeveloped
man dabbling in Masonic words and formulas is only a donkey wearing a
lion's skin.

There are many Adepts living in the world, all of whom know each
other. They have means of communication unknown to modern
civilization, by using which they can transmit to and receive from
each other messages at any moment and from immense distances, without
using any mechanical means. We might say that there is a Society of
Adepts, provided that we never attach to the word "society" the
meaning ordinarily conveyed by it. It is a society which has no place
of meeting, which exacts no dues, which has no constitution or by-laws
other than the eternal laws of nature; there are no police or spies
attached to it and no complaints are made or received in it, for the
reason that any offender is punished by the operation of law entirely
beyond his control -- his mastery over the law being lost upon his
infringing it.

Under the protection and assistance and guidance of this Society of
Adepts are the disciples of each one of its members. These disciples
are divided into different degrees, corresponding to the various
stages of development; the least developed disciples are assisted by
those who are in advance of them, and the latter in a similar manner
by others, until the grade of disciple is reached where direct
intercourse with the Adepts is possible. At the same time, each Adept
keeps a supervisory eye upon all his disciples. Through the agency of
the disciples of Adepts many effects are brought about in human
thought and affairs, for from the higher grades are often sent those
who, without disclosing their connection with mysticism, influence
individuals who are known to be main factors in events about to occur.


	DISCIPLES in TRAINING


The training of the disciple by the teachers of the school to which
the Theosophical Adepts belong is peculiar to itself, and not in
accord with prevailing modern educational ideas. In one respect it is
a specialization of the pilgrimage to a sacred place so common in
India, and the enshrined object of the journey is the soul itself, for
with them the existence of soul is one of the first principles.

In the East the life of man is held to be a pilgrimage, not only from
the cradle to the grave, but also through that vast period of time,
embracing millions upon millions of years, stretching from the
beginning to the end of a Manvantara, or period of evolution, and as
he is held to be a spiritual being, the continuity of his existence is
unbroken.

Nations and civilizations rise, grow old, decline and disappear; but
the being lives on, spectator of all the innumerable changes of
environment. Starting from the great All, radiating like a spark from
the central fire, he gathers experience in all ages, under all rulers,
civilizations and customs, ever engaged in a pilgrimage to the shrine
from which he came. He is now the ruler and now the slave; today at
the pinnacle of wealth and power, tomorrow at the bottom of the
ladder, perhaps in abject misery, but ever the same being. To
symbolize this, the whole of India is dotted with sacred shrines, to
which pilgrimages are made...one great reason for this, given by those
who understand the inner significance of it, is that the places of
pilgrimage are centers of spiritual force from which radiate elevating
influences not perceptible to the ... traveller.

It is asserted by many, indeed, that at most of the famous places of
pilgrimage there is an Adept of the same order to which the
Theosophical Adepts are said to belong, who is ready always to give
some mead of spiritual insight and assistance to those of pure heart
who may go there. He, of course, does not reveal himself to the
knowledge of the people, because it is quite unnecessary, and might
create the necessity for his going elsewhere... The Adepts founded
these places in order to keep alive in the minds of the people the
soul idea which modern Science and education would soon turn into
agnosticism, were they to prevail unchecked.

But the disciple of the Adept knows that the place of pilgrimage
symbolizes his own nature, shows him how he is to start on the
scientific investigation of it and how to proceed, by what roads and
in which direction.


	ACCELERATED PROGRESS for the DISCIPLES


He is supposed to concentrate into a few lives the experience and
practice which it takes ordinary men countless incarnations to
acquire. His first steps, as well as his last, are on difficult, often
dangerous places; the road, indeed, "winds up hill all the way," and
upon entering it he leaves behind the hope for reward so common in all
undertakings. Nothing is gained by favor, but all depends upon his
actual merit. As the end to be reached is self-dependence with perfect
calmness and clearness, he is from the beginning made to stand alone,
and this is for most of us a difficult thing which frequently brings
on a kind of despair. Men like companionship, and cannot with ease
contemplate the possibility of being left altogether to themselves.
So, instead of being constantly in the company of a lodge of
fellow-apprentices, as is the case in the usual worldly secret
society, he is forced to see that, as he entered the world alone, he
must learn to live there in the same way, leaving it as he came,
solely in his own company. But this produces no selfishness, because,
being accomplished by constant meditation upon the unseen, the
knowledge is acquired that the loneliness felt is only in respect to
the lower, personal, worldly self.

Another rule this disciple must follow is that no boasting may be
indulged in on any occasion, and this gives us the formula that, given
a man who speaks of his powers as an Adept or boasts of his progress
on the spiritual planes, we can be always sure he is neither Adept nor
disciple.

There have been those ... who gave out to the world that they were
either Adepts in fact or very near it, and possessed of great powers.
Under our formula it follows that they were mere boasters, with
nothing behind their silly pretensions but vanity and a fair knowledge
of the weaknesses as well as the gullibility of human nature; upon the
latter they play for either their profit or pleasure. But, hiding
themselves under an exterior which does not attract attention, there
are many of the real disciples in the world. They are studying
themselves and other human hearts. They have no diplomas, but there
resides in them a consciousness of constant help and a clear knowledge
of the true Lodge which meets in real secrecy and is never found
mentioned in any directory. Their whole life is a persistent pursuit
of the fast-moving soul which, although appearing to stand still, can
distance the lightning; and their death is only another step forward
to greater knowledge through better physical bodies in new lives.


	Can GRADES be DISTINGUISHED among the ADEPTS

In just the same way as a polished diamond shows the work which gives
it value and brilliancy, so the man who has gone through probation and
teaching under the Adepts carries upon his person the ineffaceable
marks.

To the ordinary eye untrained in this department, no such indications
are visible; but those who can see describe them as being quite
prominent and wholly beyond the control of the bearer. For this reason
that one who has progressed, say, three steps along the way, will have
three marks, and it is useless to pretend that his rank is a step
higher, for, if it were, then the fourth mark would be there, since it
grows with the being's development.

Now, as these signatures cannot be imitated or forged, the whole inner
fraternity has no need for concealment of signs. No one can commit a
fraud upon or extract from them the secrets of higher degrees by
having obtained signs and pass-words out of a book or in return for
the payment of fees, and none can procure the conferring of any
advancement until the whole nature of the man exactly corresponds to
the desired point of development.

In two ways the difference between the Adept fraternity and worldly
secret societies can be seen -- in their treatment of nations and of
their own direct special disciples.

Nothing is forced or depends upon favor. Everything is arranged in
accordance with the best interests of a nation, having in view the
cyclic influences at any time prevailing, and never before the proper
time. When they desire to destroy the chains forged by dogmatism, they
do not make the error of suddenly appearing before the astonished eyes
of the people; for they know well that such a course would only alter
the dogmatic belief in one set of ideas to a senseless and equally
dogmatic adherence to the Adepts as gods, or else create in the minds
of many the surety that the devil was present.



[Culled from ECHOES FROM THE ORIENT]

Dallas
dalval@nwc.net 


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