Theos-Talk Archives (October 2004 Message tt00405)

Below are given some passages.
Can anybody tell name of the book.
Anand Gholap

Even those who have been students for many years-- sometimes seem to 
fail to realise the Masters as They truly are. I have often found 
people thinking of Them as some kind of angels or devas, or, at any 
rate, as so far removed from us by Their greatness that it is 
scarcely possible for us to derive much help from Them. Their 
greatness is indisputable, and from that point of view the gulf 
between Them and ourselves may well seem incalculable in its extent; 
and yet from another point of view They are very close to us, so that 
Their sympathy and help are very near and very real. That our thought 
on the subject may be clear, let us first of all try to define 
exactly what we mean by the term "Master." 

We mean by it always one who is a member of the Great White 
Brotherhood-- a member at such a level that He is able to take 
pupils. Now the Great White Brotherhood is an organization unlike any 
other in the world, and for that reason it has often been 
misunderstood. It has sometimes been described as the Himalayan or 
the Tibetan Brotherhood, and the idea has been conveyed of a body of 
Indian ascetics residing together in a monastery in some inaccessible 
mountain fastness. Perhaps this has risen largely from the knowledge 
of the facts that the two Brothers principally concerned in the 
foundation and work of the Theosophical Society happen at the moment 
to be living in Tibet, and to be wearing Indian bodies. To comprehend 
the facts of the case it may be better to approach its consideration 
from another point of view. 

Most of our students are familiar with the thought of the four stages 
of the Path of Holiness, and are aware that a man who has passed 
through them and attained to the level of the Asekha has achieved the 
task set before humanity during this chain-period, and is 
consequently free from the necessity of reincarnation on this planet 
or on any other. Before him then open seven ways among which he must 
choose. Most of them take him away from this earth into wider spheres 
of activity, probably connected with the solar system as a whole, so 
that the great majority of those members of our humanity who had 
already reached this goal have passed entirely out of our ken. 

The limited number who are still working directly for us may be 
divided into two classes-- those who retain physical bodies, and 
those who do not. The latter are frequently spoken of under the name 
of Nirmanakayas. They hold themselves suspended as it were between 
this world and nirvana, and They devote the whole of Their time and 
energy to the generation of spiritual force for the benefit of 
mankind. This force They pour into what may be described as a 
reservoir, upon which the Masters and their pupils can draw for the 
assistance of Their work with humanity. The Nirmanakaya, because He 
remains to this extent in touch with the lower planes, has been 
called ` a candidate for woe,' but that is misleading. What is meant 
is that He has not the joy of the higher work, or of the nirvanic 
levels. He has chosen to remain upon lower planes in order to help 
those who still suffer. It is quite true that to came back from the 
higher life into this world is like going down from the fresh air and 
glorious sunlight into a dark and evil-smelling dungeon; but the man 
who does this to help some one out of that dungeon is not miserable 
and wretched while there, but full of the joy of helping, 
notwithstanding the greatness of the contrast and the terrible 
feeling of bondage and compression. Indeed, a man who refused such an 
opportunity of giving aid when it came to him would certainly feel 
far more woe afterwards, in the shape of remorse. When we have once 
really seen the spiritual misery of the world, and the condition of 
those who need such help, we can never again be careless or 
indifferent about it, as are those who have not seen.