Theos-Talk Archives (March 2003 Message tt00150)

Dear friends,


I would like to remind some theosophical ideals
expressed by Blavatsky in the Key to Theosophy. This
goes specially for those pseudo-theosophists that are
supporting the war.
No activity implying violence, murdering, and
destruction was ever supported for any real
theosophist and never will be. One day will arrive
when humanity will be civilized enough to understand
the endless chain of cause and effect (karmic law),
the unity of life, and will guided by noble and
immortal principles of respect, justice and love.
Below in a excerpt of the Book Key to Theosophy,
written by Blavatsky.

Erica Letzerich

“ENQUIRER. What do you consider as due to humanity at
large? 

THEOSOPHIST. Full recognition of equal rights and
privileges for all, and without distinction of race,
colour, social position, or birth. 

ENQUIRER. When would you consider such due not given? 

THEOSOPHIST. When there is the slightest invasion of
another's right -- be that other a man or a nation;
when there is any failure to show him the same
justice, kindness, consideration or mercy, which we
desire for ourselves. The whole present system of
politics is built on the oblivion of such rights, and
the most fierce assertion of national selfishness. The
French say: "Like master, like man"; they ought to
add, "Like national policy, like citizen."

ENQUIRER. How, then, should Theosophical principles be
applied so that social co-operation may be promoted
and true efforts for social amelioration be carried
on? 

THEOSOPHIST. Let me briefly remind you what these
principles are -- universal Unity and Causation; Human
Solidarity; the Law of Karma; Re-incarnation. These
are the four links of the golden chain which should
bind humanity into one family, one universal
Brotherhood. 

ENQUIRER. How? 

THEOSOPHIST. In the present state of society,
especially in so-called civilized countries, we are
continually brought face to face with the fact that
large numbers of people are suffering from misery,
poverty and disease. Their physical condition is
wretched, and their mental and spiritual faculties are
often almost dormant. On the other hand, many persons
at the opposite end of the social scale are leading
lives of careless indifference, material luxury, and
selfish indulgence. Neither of these forms of
existence is mere chance. Both are the effects of the
conditions, which surround those who are subject to
them, and the neglect of social duty on the one side
is most closely connected with the stunted and
arrested development on the other. In sociology, as in
all branches of true science, the law of universal
causation holds good. But this causation necessarily
implies, as its logical outcome, that human solidarity
on which Theosophy so strongly insists. If the action
of one reacts on the lives of all, and this is the
true scientific idea, then it is only by all men
becoming brothers and all women sisters, and by all
practising in their daily lives true brotherhood and
true sisterhood, that the real human solidarity, which
lies at the root of the elevation of the race, can
ever be attained. It is this action and interaction,
this true brotherhood and sisterhood, in which each
shall live for all and all for each, which is one of
the fundamental Theosophical principles that every
Theosophist should be bound, not only to teach, but to
carry out in his or her individual life. 

ENQUIRER. All this is very well as a general
principle, but how would you apply it in a concrete
way? 

THEOSOPHIST. Look for a moment at what you would call
the concrete facts of human society. Contrast the
lives not only of the masses of the people, but of
many of those who are called the middle and upper
classes, with what they might be under healthier and
nobler conditions, where justice, kindness, and love
were paramount, instead of the selfishness,
indifference, and brutality which now too often seem
to reign supreme. All good and evil things in humanity
have their roots in human character, and this
character is, and has been, conditioned by the endless
chain of cause and effect. But this conditioning
applies to the future as well as to the present and
the past. Selfishness, indifference, and brutality can
never be the normal state of the race -- to believe so
would be to despair of humanity -- and that no
Theosophist can do. Progress can be attained, and only
attained, by the development of the nobler qualities.
Now, true evolution teaches us that by altering the
surroundings of the organism we can alter and improve
the organism; and in the strictest sense this is true
with regard to man. Every Theosophist, therefore, is
bound to do his utmost to help on, by all the means in
his power, every wise and well-considered social
effort which has for its object the amelioration of
the condition of the poor. Such efforts should be made
with a view to their ultimate social emancipation, or
the development of the sense of duty in those who now
so often neglect it in nearly every relation of life. 

ENQUIRER. Agreed. But who is to decide whether social
efforts are wise or unwise? 

THEOSOPHIST. No one person and no society can lay down
a hard-and-fast rule in this respect. Much must
necessarily be left to the individual judgment. One
general test may, however, be given. Will the proposed
action tend to promote that true brotherhood which it
is the aim of Theosophy to bring about? No real
Theosophist will have much difficulty in applying such
a test; once he is satisfied of this, his duty will
lie in the direction of forming public opinion. And
this can be attained only by inculcating those higher
and nobler conceptions of public and private duties
which lie at the root of all spiritual and material
improvement. In every conceivable case he himself must
be a centre of spiritual action, and from him and his
own daily individual life must radiate those higher
spiritual forces which alone can regenerate his
fellow-men. 

ENQUIRER. But why should he do this? Are not he and
all, as you teach, conditioned by their Karma, and
must not Karma necessarily work itself out on certain
lines? 

THEOSOPHIST. It is this very law of Karma which gives
strength to all that I have said. The individual
cannot separate himself from the race, nor the race
from the individual. The law of Karma applies equally
to all, although all are not equally developed. In
helping on the development of others, the Theosophist
believes that he is not only helping them to fulfil
their Karma, but that he is also, in the strictest
sense, fulfilling his own. It is the development of
humanity, of which both he and they are integral
parts, that he has always in view, and he knows that
any failure on his part to respond to the highest
within him retards not only himself but all, in their
progressive march. By his actions, he can make it
either more difficult or more easy for humanity to
attain the next higher plane of being. 

ENQUIRER. Is equal justice to all and love to every
creature the highest standard of Theosophy? 

THEOSOPHIST. No; there is an even far higher one. 

ENQUIRER. What can it be? 

THEOSOPHIST. The giving to others more than to oneself
-- self-sacrifice. Such was the standard and abounding
measure which marked so pre-eminently the greatest
Teachers and Masters of Humanity -- e. g., Gautama
Buddha in History, and Jesus of Nazareth as in the
Gospels. This trait alone was enough to secure to them
the perpetual reverence and gratitude of the
generations of men that come after them. We say,
however, that self-sacrifice has to be performed with
discrimination; and such a self-abandonment, if made
without justice, or blindly, regardless of subsequent
results, may often prove not only made in vain, but
harmful. One of the fundamental rules of Theosophy is,
justice to oneself -- viewed as a unit of collective
humanity, not as a personal self-justice, not more but
not less than to others; unless, indeed, by the
sacrifice of the one self we can benefit the many."




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