Theos-Talk Archives (March 2005 Message tt00226)

Person approaching the path of discipleship feels worthlessness of 
things of the ordinary world and he is not satisfied with them. In 
this stage, in a sense, he has left ordinary world but has not gained 
knowledge of Ultimate Reality by direct experience. So it is painful 
state. However Theosophy greatly helps and reduces sorrow because it 
explains to the aspirant importance of experiences which made him 
evolve and brought to a state where he seeks even higher knowledge of 
spiritual things. And when aspirant knows by study of Theosophy this 
gradual process of evolution he becomes certain that same 
evolutionary process will ineviably take him to Nirvana although time 
taken for it will depend on how wisely he lives his life and 
cooperate with factors working for evolution. So Theosophy, when 
understood properly, can reduce pain and sorrow of the aspirant 
greatly.
Anand Gholap


--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Anand Gholap" <AnandGholap@A...> 
wrote:
> [ www.AnandGholap.net - Online Books on Theosophy ]
> " For the Masters are the distributors of the spiritual energies 
that help on human evolution, and the use of these for the swifter 
growth of a single soul is only permitted when that soul shows a 
capacity for rapid progress and can thus be quickly fitted to become 
a helper of the race, returning to it the aid that had been afforded 
to himself. When a man, by his own efforts, utilising to the full all 
the general help coming to him through religion and philosophy, has 
struggled onwards to the front of the advancing human wave and when 
he shows a loving, selfless, helpful nature, then he becomes a 
special object of attention to the watchful Guardians of the race, 
and opportunities are put in his way to test his strength and call 
forth his intuition.In proportion as he successfully uses these, he 
is yet further helped, and glimpses are afforded to him of the true 
life, until the unsatisfactory and unreal nature of mundane existence 
presses more and more on the soul, with the result already mentioned –
the weariness which makes him long for freedom and brings him to the 
gateway of the probationary Path. 
> 664. His 
entrance on his Path places him in the position of a disciple or 
chelâ, on probation, and some one Master takes him under His care, 
recognising him as a man who has stepped out of the highway of 
evolution, and seeks the Teacher who shall guide his steps along the 
steep and narrow path which leads to liberation. 
> 
> 665. That 
Teacher is awaiting him at the very entrance of the Path, and even 
though the neophyte knows not his Teacher, his Teacher knows him, 
sees his efforts, directs his steps, leads him into the conditions 
that best subserve his progress, watching over him with the tender 
solicitude of a mother, and with the wisdom born of perfect insight. 
The road may seem lonely and dark, and the young disciple may fancy 
himself deserted, but a "friend who sticketh closer than a brother" 
is ever at hand, and the help withheld from the senses is given to 
the soul. 
> 
> 666. There 
are four definite "qualifications" that the probationary chelâ must 
set himself to acquire, that are by the wisdom of the great 
Brotherhood laid down as the conditions of full discipleship. They 
are not asked for in perfection, but they must be striven for and 
partially possessed ere Initiation is permitted.The first of these is 
the discrimination between the real and the unreal which has been 
already dawning on the mind of the pupil, and which drew him to the 
Path on which he is now entered; the distinctions grows clear and 
sharply defined in his mind, and gradually frees him to a great 
extent from the fetters which bind him, for the second qualification, 
indifference to external things, comes naturally in the wake of 
discrimination, from the clear perception of their worthlessness. " 
> 
> Complet book can be read at
> 
> http://www.anandgholap.net/Ancient_Wisdom-AB.htm