Theos-Talk Archives (October 2003 Message tt00259)

Stephan, 
The SD online edition you downloaded from Theosophical University Press - 
Pasadena is from the "facsimile" edirtion. But, by leaving out the diacritical 
marks it is not as helpful as the printed facsimile edition published by 
Theosophy Company - ULT.-- which I think is the one they are selling. 

<<Originally published 1888. Theosophical University Press electronic version 
ISBN 1-55700-124-3 (print version also available). Due to current limitations 
in the ASCII character set, and for easy in searching, no diacritical marks 
appear in this electronic version of the text. This edition was corrected 
against the facsimile edition of 1888. Obvious errors, such as missing letters, 
have been corrected; otherwise it follows the facsimile edition -- materialnot 
appearing there appears in double brackets [[ ]]. Hebrew characters are 
inserted as illustrations, but Greek text has been transliterated into italic Latin 
characters in double brackets. For further explanation of the conventions used, 
go to the Notes file".>>

Also, here are some articles by HPB that might be helpful. Len

-----------------------------------------------------------

Look at : MAHATMAS AND CHELAS by H. P. Blavatsky


{I quote in part)


A MAHATMA is a personage, who, by special training and education, has

evolved those higher faculties and has attained that spiritual

knowledge, which ordinary humanity will acquire after passing through

numberless series of reincarnations during the process of cosmic

evolution, provided, of course, that they do not go, in the meanwhile,

against the purposes of Nature and thus bring on their own annihilation.



This process of the self-evolution of the MAHATMA extends over a number

of "incarnations," although, comparatively speaking, they are very few.

Now, what is it that incarnates? The occult doctrine, so far as it is

given out, shows that the first three principles die more or less with

what is called the physical death. The fourth principle, together with

the lower portions of the fifth, in which reside the animal

propensities, has Kama Loka for its abode, where it suffers the throes

of disintegration in proportion to the intensity of those lower desires;

while it is the higher Manas, the pure man, which is associated with the

sixth and seventh principles, that goes into Devachan to enjoy there the

effects of its good Karma, and then to be reincarnated as a higher

individuality. 


Now, an entity, that is passing through the occult training in its

successive births, gradually has less and less (in each incarnation) of

that lower Manas until there arrives a time when its whole Manas, being

of an entirely elevated character, is centered in the higher

individuality, when such a person may be said to have become a MAHATMA.

At the time of his physical death, all the lower four principles perish

without any suffering, for these are, in fact, to him like a piece of

wearing apparel which he puts on and off at will. 


The real MAHATMA is then not his physical body but that higher Manas

which is inseparably linked to the Atma and its vehicle (the sixth

principle)-a union effected by him in a comparatively very short period

by passing through the process of self-evolution laid down by the Occult

Philosophy. ...


Higher things can be perceived only by a sense pertaining to those

higher things. And whoever therefore wants to see the real MAHATMA, must

use his intellectual sight. He must so elevate his Manas that its

perception will be clear and all mists created by Maya must be

dispelled. His vision will then be bright and he will see the MAHATMAS

wherever he may be, for, being merged into the sixth and the seventh

principles, which are ubiquitous and omnipresent, the MAHATMAS may be

said to be everywhere. But, at the same time...although the whole of

humanity is within the mental vision of the MAHATMAS, they cannot be

expected to take special note of every human being, unless that being by

his special acts draws their particular attention to himself. 


The highest interest of humanity, as a whole, is their special concern,

for they have identified themselves with that Universal Soul which runs

through Humanity, and he, who would draw their attention, must do so

through that Soul which pervades everywhere. This perception of the

Manas may be called "faith" which should not be confounded with blind

belief. "Blind faith" is an expression sometimes used to indicate belief

without perception or understanding; while the true perception of the

Manas is that enlightened belief, which is the real meaning of the word

"faith."

 

This belief should at the same time be accompanied by knowledge, i.e.,

experience, for "true knowledge brings with it faith." Faith is the

perception of the Manas (the fifth principle), while knowledge, in the

true sense of the term, is the capacity of the Intellect, i.e., it is

spiritual perception. In short, the higher individuality of man,

composed of his higher Manas, the sixth and the seventh principles,

should work as a unity, and then only can it obtain "divine wisdom," for

divine things can be sensed only by divine faculties. Thus the desire,

which should prompt one to apply for chelaship, is to so far understand

the operations of the Law of Cosmic Evolution as will enable him to work

in harmonious accord with Nature, instead of going against its purposes

through ignorance. 


Theosophist, July, 1884   


[H P B Articles I p.. 293]


-------------------------



Best wishes,


Dallas


============================


See also this article by H P B



--------------CHELAS AND LAY CHELAS by H. P. Blavatsky



AS the word Chela has, among others, been introduced by Theosophy into

the nomenclature of Western metaphysics, and the circulation of our

magazine is constantly widening, it will be as well if some more

definite explanation than heretofore is given with respect to the

meaning of this term and the rules of Chelaship, for the benefit of our

European if not Eastern members. A "Chela" then, is one who has offered

himself or herself as a pupil to learn practically the "hidden mysteries

of Nature and the psychical powers latent in man." The spiritual teacher

to whom he proposes his candidature is called in India a 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 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, etc., 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 same self-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 Tibet, a considerable one as to

number--of natural mystics.


The only exceptions have been in the cases of Western men like Fludd,

Thomas Vaughan, Paracelsus, Pico di Mirandola, Count St. Germain, etc.,

whose temperamental 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 Kiu-te, Chapter on "the Laws of Upasans," 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

any power in nature that could interfere: 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 Avalokitesvara or Divine Atman (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 1st, 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--had placed himself, according to his natural capacity, above,

hence made himself master of, his (1) Sarira--body; (2) lndriya--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 thither end

the Chela is taught 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 (in whose

determination the ignorant has no hand), and thus of avoiding

Pratya-bhava--transmigration. 


But since the advent of the Theosophical Society, one of whose arduous

tasks it was 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 becoming convinced by practical

proof upon 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, pressed to be taken as candidates.

And as it would be an interference with Karma to deny them the chance of

at least beginning--since they were so importunate, they were given it. 


The results have been far from encouraging so far, and it is to show

these unfortunates 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 develope 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'

establishment 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 as to the latter gentleman there is now no harm in saying that

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 he must wait for years in any event, before his fitness could be

proven, 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 "favor" 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 thoughts, 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 primâ 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 pinch. 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 the

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 ADEPTSHIP; 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 whole volume of maleficent power

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 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, or

bigoted, 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 try to

lure 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 idealised 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 common-place

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 it they had thought twice

before defying the tests. We call to mind several sad failures within a

twelvemonth. One went bad 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 sort 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 Kirátárjuniya of Bharávi 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.) 



From: Supplement to Theosophist, July, 1883 


[H P B Articles I p. 308]