Theos-Talk Archives (February 2005 Message tt00175)

Feb 7 2005

Dear Friends:


Re "ORPHAN HUMANITY"


We had some inquiries this week on this phrase.


Here are some of the original statements made.


The Master wrote to Mr. /Sinnett: 

".the business of 'magic' to humanise our natures with compassion" for the
whole mankind as all living beings, instead of concentrating and limiting
our affections to one predilected race -- yet few of us (except such as have
attained the final negation of Moksha) can so far enfranchise ourselves from
the influence of our earthly connection as to be insusceptible in various
degrees to the higher pleasures, emotions, and interests of the common run
of humanity. 

Until final emancipation reabsorbs the Ego, it must be conscious of the
purest sympathies called out by the esthetic effects of high art, its
tenderest cords respond to the call of the holier and nobler human
attachments. Of course, the greater the progress towards deliverance, the
less this will be the case, until, to crown all, human and purely individual
personal feelings -- blood-ties and friendship, patriotism and race
predilection -- all will give away, to become blended into one universal
feeling, the only true and holy, the only unselfish and Eternal one -- Love,
an Immense Love for humanity -- as a Whole! 

For it is "Humanity" which is the great Orphan, the only disinherited one
upon this earth, my friend. 

And it is the duty of every man who is capable of an unselfish impulse, to
do something, however little, for its welfare. Poor, poor humanity! It
reminds me of the old fable of the war between the Body and its members:
here too, each limb of this huge "Orphan" -- fatherless and motherless --
selfishly cares but for itself. The body uncared for suffers eternally,
whether the limbs are at war or at rest. Its suffering and agony never
cease. . . . And who can blame it -- as your materialistic philosophers do
-- if, in this everlasting isolation and neglect it has evolved gods, unto
whom "it ever cries for help but is not heard!" .

. . Thus -- 

"Since there is hope for man only in man 
I would not let one cry whom I could save! . . ." 

MAHATMA LETTERS 32-3, 


MAHATMA LETTERS Universal LOVE, A BROTHERHOOD OF HUMANITY M L pp.
23-4, 212  


"Q.:	What is the real meaning of that phrase so often seen in
Theosophical papers, "the great orphan, Humanity"?

W.Q.J.-This phrase has a deep significance for me. An orphan may also be one
who had no parents, as the state of orphanage is that of being without
father or mother. 

If we imagine a child appearing on the earth without a parent, we would have
to call it an orphan. Humanity is the "great orphan" because it is without
parents in the sense that it has produced itself and hence from itself has
to procure the guidance it needs. And as it wanders in the dark valley of
the shadow of death, it is more in need of help and counsel than the mere
body of a child which is the ordinary orphan. 

The soul is parentless, existing of itself from all eternity, and,
considered as soul, mankind is hence an orphan. Plunged into matter,
surrounded on every side by the vast number of intricate illusions and
temptations that belong to earthly life, it stands every day and hour in
need of protection as well as guidance.

If the idea of a loving parent be applied to the notion that a definite God
has produced mankind, then we find that this supposed parent has at the same
time invented the most diversified and ingenious series of bedevilments and
torments to beguile, hurt, harass, and finally destroy the child. For if a
certain one God is the maker or parent of man, then He also is the one who
made nature. Nature is cruel, cold, and implacable. It stops for no man, it
never relents, it destroys without mercy. 

When inhabitants of earth multiply, Nature manages to destroy millions of
people in a night or two, as has now and then happened in China; the very
elect of the earth are swept off the earth in a moment; slowly and painfully
the infant races creep up the ladder of time, leaving as they go vast heaps
of slain at the foot. The whole of life presents, indeed, to man more frowns
than smiles. It is this fact that has made so many who are told of a loving
father and at the same time of an illogical scheme of salvation revolt
altogether from the idea of any meaning to life but despair.

I cannot see how the phrase "great orphan" carries with it the notion of
being without guide or helper. The orphan is every where; but among the
units composing it are some who have risen through trial to the state where
they can help the lower ones. Orphans themselves, they live to benefit
mankind of which they are a part. 

They are the head of the body of which the lower members are the less
developed units or atoms. Enthusiasm for the "orphan" is that which will
lead to devotion and sacrifice; and that enthusiasm must be developed not
only in the Theosophist, but in all the men of earth. 

Having it they will help all on their own plane, and each stratum of men
rising in development will help all below until all belonging to the globe
have risen to the perfect height. Then they can proceed to other spots in
cosmos where are also wandering vast masses of souls also units in the
"orphan," who require and can then receive the same help that we had
extended to us. If this is not the destiny of man during the time when all
things are manifesting, then the remark of Spencer to the effect that
altruism is useless because when universal there is no one to benefit, must
be accepted. However, the phrase in the question is one of those rhetorical
ones that must not be read in its strict letter and ordinary meaning."
W Q Judge
FORUM ANSWERS p. 94-5


HPB observes:



"At least we may claim [in the SECRET DOCTRINE ] to have placed before the
thinking public a logical, coherent, and philosophical scheme of man's
origin, destiny, and evolution--a scheme pre-eminent above all for its
rigorous adherence to justice. 

And, that we may broaden our criterion of truth, our research extends to an
inquiry into the nature of the less known forces, cosmic and psychical. Upon
such themes many of our books have been written, and many of our reprints of
ancient works, with or without commentaries, have been selected with
reference to the light they throw upon these quaestiones vexatae. 

In one word, our whole aim and desire are to help, in at least some degree,
toward arriving at correct scientific views upon the nature of man, which
carry with them the means of reconstructing for the present generation the
deductive metaphysical or transcendental philosophy which alone is the firm,
unshakable foundation of every religious philosophy. 

Theosophy, the universal solvent, is fulfilling its mission; the opalescent
tints of the dawn of modern psychology are blending together, and will all
be merged into the perfect daylight of truth, when the sun-orb of Eastern
esotericism has mounted to its noon-stage. 

For many a long year the "great orphan," Humanity, has been crying aloud in
the darkness for guidance and for light. Amid the increasing splendors of a
progress purely material, of a science that nourished the intellect, but
left the spirit to starve, Humanity, dimly feeling its origin and presaging
its destiny, has stretched out towards the East empty hands that only a
spiritual philosophy can fill.

Aching from the divisions, the jealousies, the hatreds, that rend its very
life, it has cried for some sure foundation on which to build the solidarity
it senses, some metaphysical basis from which its loftiest social ideals may
rise secure. 

Only the Masters of the Eastern wisdom can set that foundation, can satisfy
at once the intellect and the spirit, can guide Humanity safely through the
night to "the dawn of a larger day." 

Such is the goal which theosophy has set itself to attain; such is the
history of the modern movement; such is the work which theosophy has already
accomplished in this nineteenth century. 

--H. P. BLAVATSKY
No. Amer. Review, August, 1890 


1 Brotherhood of man; 2. Study of Oriental philosophies; 3. Investigation of
the hidden forces in nature and man. Vide infra. 
HPB "RECENT PROGRESS IN THEOSOPHY " Vol. I p. 278



Best wishes to all,


Dallas