Theos-Talk Archives (August 2004 Message tt00599)

August 28 2004

Re: Our AGE -- The Kali Yuga -- How can we use it ?


Dear Friends:

I was re-reading some of the important statements made in this brief
article, and as we are all in this age and we can do much with it I am
reprinting it here for all to read. 

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THE KALI YUGA - THE PRESENT AGE 



STUDENT. - I am very much puzzled about the present age. Some theosophists
seem to abhor it as if wishing to be taken away from it altogether,
inveighing against modern inventions such as the telegraph, railways,
machinery, and the like, and bewailing the disappearance of former
civilizations. 

Others take a different view, insisting that this is a better time than any
other, and hailing modern methods as the best. Tell me, please, which of
these is right, or, if both are wrong, what ought we to know about the age
we live in. 

Sage. - The teachers of Truth know all about this age. But they do not
mistake the present century for the whole cycle. The older times of European
history, for example, when might was right and when darkness prevailed over
Western nations, was as much a part of this age, from the standpoint of the
Masters, as is the present hour, for the Yuga - to use a sanscrit word - in
which we are now had begun many thousands of years before. And during that
period of European darkness, although this Yuga had already begun, there was
much light, learning, and civilization in India and China. 

The meaning of the words "present age" must therefore be extended over a far
greater period than is at present assigned. In fact, modern science has
reached no definite conclusion yet as to what should properly be called "an
age," and the truth of the Eastern doctrine is denied. Hence we find writers
speaking of the "Golden Age," the "Iron Age," and so on, whereas they are
only parts of the real age that began so far back that modern archaeologists
deny it altogether. 


Student. - What is the sanscrit name for this age, and what is its meaning? 

Sage. - The sanscrit is "Kali," which added to Yuga gives us "Kali-Yuga."
The meaning of it is "Dark Age." Its approach was known to the ancients, its
characteristics are described in the Indian poem "The Mahabharata." As I
said that it takes in an immense period of the glorious part of Indian
history, there is no chance for anyone to be jealous and to say that we are
comparing the present hour with that wonderful division of Indian
development. 


Student. - What are the characteristics to which you refer, by which
Kali-Yuga may be known? 

Sage. - As its name implies, darkness is the chief. This of course is not
deducible by comparing today with 800 A.D., for this would be no comparison
at all. The present century is certainly ahead of the middle ages, but as
compared with the preceding Yuga it is dark. 

To the Occultist, material advancement is not of the quality of light, and
he finds no proof of progress in merely mechanical contrivances that give
comfort to a few of the human family while the many are in misery. 

For the darkness he would have to point but to one nation, even the great
American Republic. Here he sees a mere extension of the habits and life of
the Europe from which it sprang; here a great experiment with entirely new
conditions and material was tried; here for many years very little poverty
was known; but here today there is as much grinding poverty as anywhere, and
as large a criminal class with corresponding prisons as in Europe, and more
than in India. Again, the great thirst for riches and material betterment,
while spiritual life is to a great extent ignored, is regarded by us as
darkness. 

The great conflict already begun between the wealthy classes and the poorer
is a sign of darkness. Were spiritual light prevalent, the rich and the poor
would still be with us, for Karma cannot be blotted out, but the poor would
know how to accept their lot and the rich how to improve the poor; now, on
the contrary, the rich wonder why the poor do not go to the poorhouse,
meanwhile seeking in the laws for cures for strikes and socialism, and the
poor continually growl at fate and their supposed oppressors. All this is of
the quality of spiritual darkness. 


Student. - Is it wise to inquire as to the periods when the cycle changes,
and to speculate on the great astronomical or other changes that herald a
turn. 

Sage. - It is not. There is an old saying that the gods are jealous about
these things, not wishing mortals to know them. We may analyze the age, but
it is better not to attempt to fix the hour of a change of cycle. Besides
that, you will be unable to settle it, because a cycle does not begin on a
day or year clear of any other cycle; they interblend, so that, although the
wheel of one period is still turning, the initial point of another has
already arrived. 


Student. - Are these some of the reasons why Mr. Sinnett was not given
certain definite periods of years about which he asked? 

Sage. - Yes. 


Student. - Has the age in which one lives any effect on the student; and
what is it? 

Sage. - It has effect on every one, but the student after passing along in
his development feels the effect more than the ordinary man. 

Were it otherwise, the sincere and aspiring students all over the world
would advance at once to those heights towards which they strive. It takes a
very strong soul to hold back the age's heavy hand, and it is all the more
difficult because that influence, being a part of the student's larger life,
is not so well understood by him. It operates in the same way as a
structural defect in a vessel. 

All the inner as well as the outer fibre of the man is the result of the
long centuries of earthly lives lived here by his ancestors. These sow seeds
of thought and physical tendencies in a way that you cannot comprehend. All
those tendencies affect him. 


Many powers once possessed are hidden so deep as to be unseen, and he
struggles against obstacles constructed ages ago. Further yet are the
peculiar alterations brought about in the astral world. It, being at once a
photographic plate, so to say, and also a reflector, has become the keeper
of the mistakes of ages past which it continually reflects upon us from a
plane to which most of us are strangers. In that sense therefore, free as we
suppose ourselves, we are walking about completely hypnotized by the past,
acting blindly under the suggestions thus cast upon us. 


Student. - Was that why Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do"? 

Sage. - That was one meaning. In one aspect they acted blindly, impelled by
the age, thinking they were right. '

Regarding these astral alterations, you will remember how in the time of
Julian the seers reported that they could see the gods, but they were
decaying, some headless, others flaccid, others minus limbs, and all
appearing weak. The reverence for these ideals was departing, and their
astral pictures had already begun to fade. 


Student. - What mitigation is there about this age? Is there nothing at all
to relieve the picture? 

Sage. - There is one thing peculiar to the present Kali-Yuga that may be
used by the Student. All causes now bring about their effects much more
rapidly than in any other or better age. 

A sincere lover of the race can accomplish more in three incarnations under
Kali-Yuga's reign than he could in a much greater number in any other age. 

Thus by bearing all the manifold troubles of this Age and steadily
triumphing, the object of his efforts will be more quickly realized, for,
while the obstacles seem great, the powers to be invoked can be reached more
quickly. 


Student. - Even if this is, spiritually considered, a Dark Age, is it not in
part redeemed by the increasing triumphs of mind over matter, and by the
effects of science in mitigating human ills, such as the causes of disease,
disease itself, cruelty, intolerance, bad laws, etc.? 

Sage. - Yes, these are mitigations of the darkness in just the same way that
a lamp gives some light at night but does not restore daylight. In this age
there are great triumphs of science, but they are nearly all directed to
effects and do not take away the causes of the evils. 

Great strides have been made in the arts and in cure of diseases, but in the
future, as the flower of our civilization unfolds, new diseases will arise
and more strange disorders will be known, springing from causes that lie
deep in the minds of men and which can only be eradicated by spiritual
living. 


Student. - Admitting all you say, are not we, as Theosophists, to welcome
every discovery of truth in any field, especially such truth as lessens
suffering or enlarges the moral sense? 

Sage. - This is our duty. All truths discovered must be parts of the one
Absolute Truth, and so much added to the sum of our outer knowledge. 

There will always be a large number of men who seek for these parts of
truth, and others who try to alleviate present human misery. 

They each do a great and appointed work that no true Theosophist should
ignore. And it is also the duty of the latter to make similar efforts when
possible, for Theosophy is a dead thing if it is not turned into the life.
At the same time, no one of us may be the judge of just how much or how
little our brother is doing in that direction. If he does all that he can
and knows how to do, he does his whole present duty. 


Student. - I fear that a hostile attitude by Occult teachers towards the
learning and philanthropy of the time may arouse prejudice against Theosophy
and Occultism, and needlessly impede the spread of Truth. May it not be so? 

Sage. - The real Occult Teachers have no hostile attitude toward these
things. If some persons, who like theosophy and try to spread it, take such
a position, they do not thereby alter the one assumed by the real Teachers
who work with all classes of men and use every possible instrument for good.
But at the same time we have found that an excess of the technical and
special knowledge of the day very often acts to prevent men from
apprehending the truth. 


Student. - Are there any causes, other than the spread of Theosophy, which
may operate to reverse the present drift towards materialism? 

Sage. - The spread of the knowledge of the laws of Karma and Reincarnation
and of a belief in the absolute spiritual unity of all beings will alone
prevent this drift. The cycle must, however, run its course, and until that
is ended all beneficial causes will of necessity act slowly and not to the
extent they would in a brighter age. As each student lives a better life and
by his example imprints upon the astral light the picture of a higher
aspiration acted in the world, he thus aids souls of advanced development to
descend from other spheres where the cycles are so dark that they can no
longer stay there. 

Student. - Accept my thanks for your instruction. 

Sage. - May you reach the terrace of enlightenment. 


Path, April, 1888 

[There are 14 more brief articles in this Series -- Interested ? ]

Precipitation -- Astral Light -- Elementals -- Elementaries ---
Rules of Occultism -- Magic, Black and White -- etc...

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Best wishes, 

Dallas