Theos-Talk Archives (November 2005 Message tt00102)

11/19/2005 4:22 AM

RE: World Travelling TO "FIND THE MASTER"

Dear Friends:

Considering what might be said in answer to this -- the Masters are
everywhere -- rushing off to India or Tibet, or anywhere else -- can
produce nothing unless some if not all of the following advice is carried
out by each individual who desires and WILLS.  

This advice has been offered for many years, and I but repeat it:

The Master wrote:



"I now answer the above and your other questions.

[1] It is not necessary that one should be in India during the seven years
of probation. A chela can pass them anywhere.

[2] To accept any man as a chela does not depend on my personal will. It can
only be the result of one's personal merit and exertions in that direction.

Force any one of the "Masters" you may happen to choose; do good works in
his name and for the love of mankind; be pure and resolute in the path of
righteousness [as laid out in our rules]; be honest and unselfish; forget
your Self but to remember the good of other people - and you will have
forced that "Master" to accept you.

So much for candidates during the periods of the undisturbed progress of
your Society. 

There is something more to be done, however, when theosophy, the Cause of
Truth, is, as at the present moment on its stand for life or death before
the tribunal of public opinion -- that most flippantly cruel, prejudiced and
unjust of all tribunals. ... 

He who would shorten the years of probation has to make sacrifices for
theosophy. Pushed by malevolent hands to the very edge of a precipice, the
Society needs every man and woman strong in the cause of truth. It is by
doing noble actions and not by only determining that they shall be done that
the fruits of the meritorious actions are reaped. 

Like the "true man" of Carlyle who is not to be seduced by ease --  
"difficulty, abnegation, martyrdom, death are the allurements that act" 
during the hours of trial on the heart of a true chela.

You ask me - "what rules I must observe during this time of probation, and
how soon I might venture to hope that it could begin". 

I answer: 

you have the making of your own future, in your own hands as shown above, 
and every day you may be weaving its woof. 

If I were to demand that you should do one thing or the other, instead of
simply advising, I would be responsible for every effect that might flow
from the step and you acquire but a secondary merit. Think, and you will see
that this is true. So cast the lot yourself into the lap of Justice, never
fearing but that its response will be absolutely true. 

Chelaship is an educational as well as probationary stage and the chela
alone can determine whether it shall end in adeptship or failure. Chelas
from a mistaken idea of our system too often watch and wait for orders,
wasting precious time which should be taken up with personal effort. 

Our cause needs missionaries, devotees, agents, even martyrs perhaps. But it
cannot demand of any man to make himself either. So now choose and grasp
your own destiny, and may our Lord's the Tathagata's memory aid you to
decide for the best."
K.H.		

[ MAHATMA LETTERS , Letter 32]



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ADVICE TO "CHELAS"

>From MASTER


COPY  	

Master K H wrote to Miss Arundale:

"It is not enough that you should set the example of a pure, virtuous life
and a tolerant spirit; this is but negative goodness-and for chelaship will
never do. 

You should, even as a simple member, much more as an officer, learn that you
may teach, acquire spiritual knowledge and strength that the work may lean
upon you, and the sorrowing victims of ignorance learn from you the cause
and remedy of their pain. 

If you choose, you may make your home [where H.P.B. was the 
guest of Mrs. and Miss Arundale.] one of the most important
centres of spiritualising influence in all the world. The 'power' is now
concentrated there, and will remain-if you do not weaken or repulse it:
remain to your blessing and advantage. 

You will do good by encouraging the visits of your fellow members and of
enquirers and by holding meetings, of the more congenial for study and
instruction. You should induce others, in other quarters, to do likewise. 

You should constantly advise with your associates in the Council how to make
the general meetings of the Lodge interesting. 

New members should be taken in hand from the first, by the older ones
especially selected and assigned to the duty in each case, and instructed
thoroughly in what you have already learnt, so that they may be capable of
participating intelligently in the proceedings of regular meetings. ...

If every Fellow took for his motto the wise words of a young boy, but one
who is a fervent Theosophist, and repeated with Bertram Keightley 'I am a
theosophist before I am an Englishman,' no foe could ever upset your
Society. 

However, candidates should be taught, and old members always recollect, that
this is a serious affair the Society is engaged in; and that they should
begin the work as seriously by making their own lives theosophical. The
'Journal' is well begun, and should be continued. It should be the natural
complement to that of the 'S.P.R.' -- Society for Psychical Research --
which is
a bag of nuts uncracked.

Your branch should keep in correspondence with all the others in
Europe...whose leading members were the Gebhard family and Dr Hubbe
Schleiden can help you, the others need your help. This is a movement for
all Europe, not for London only, remember. 

The American members are under great disadvantages, and have had until now,
since the Founders left, no competent leaders; your Branch can, and should,
help them, for they are your neighbours, and the Headquarters have already
too much to do in other quarters. 

A chela will be detailed to answer general questions if the Branch deserves
assistance. 

But remember: we are not public scribes or clerks, with time to be
continually writing notes and answers to individual correspondents about
every trifling personal matter that they should answer for themselves. Nor
shall we permit those private notes to be forwarded as freely as hitherto.

Time enough to discuss the terms of chelaship when the aspirant has digested
what has already been given out, and mastered his most palpable vices and
weaknesses. This you may show or say to all. The present is for the Branch
addressed to you as its officer. ...

If the members in Europe wish well to the Mother Society, they should help
to circulate its publications, and to have them translated into other
languages when worthy of it. Intentions-you may tell your
fellows-members -- and kind words count for little with us. 

Deeds are what we want and demand. Mrs. Laura C. Holloway, has done - 
poor child-more in that direction during two months than the best of your 
members in these five years.

The members of the L[ondon]. Lodge have such an opportunity as seldom comes
to men.

A movement calculated to benefit an English-speaking world is in their
custody. If they do their whole duty, the progress of materialism, the
increase of dangerous self-indulgence, and the tendency towards spiritual
suicide can be checked. 

The theory of vicarious atonement has brought about its inevitable reaction:
only the knowledge of karma can offset it. The pendulum has swung from the
extreme of blind faith towards the extreme materialistic skepticism, and
nothing can stop it save Theosophy. 

Is not this a thing worth working for, to save those nations from the doom
their ignorance is preparing for them?

Think you truth has been shown to you for your sole advantage? That we have
broken the silence of centuries for the profit of a handful of dreamers
only? The converging lines of your karma have drawn each and all of you into
this Society as to a common focus, that you may each help to work out the
results of your interrupted beginnings in the last birth. 

None of you can be so blind as to suppose that this is your first dealing
with Theosophy? You surely must realize that this would be the same as to
say that effects came without causes. Know then that it depends now upon
each of you whether you shall henceforth struggle alone after spiritual
wisdom thro' this and the next incarnate life, or, in company of your
present associates and greatly helped by the mutual sympathy and aspiration.
Blessing to all-deserving them."	

K.H.
LETTERS FROM THE MASTERS OF WISDOM, 1919, Series I, pp 23-5


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

2

"THE process of self-purification is not the work of a moment, nor of a few
months but of years-nay, extending over a series of lives. 

The later a man begins the living of a higher life, the longer must be his
period of probation, for he has to undo the effects of a long number of
years spent in objects diametrically opposed to the real goal. 

The more strenuous his efforts and the brighter the result of his work, the
nearer he comes to the threshold. 

If his aspiration is genuine-a settled conviction and not a sentimental 
flash of the moment-he transfer from one body to another the 
determination which finally leads him to the attainment of his 
desire. Bhawani Shankar (*) has seen me in my own physical body and he
can point out the way to others. He has been working unselfishly for his
fellow men thro' the Theosophical Society and he is having his reward tho'
he may not always notice it."
	
K.H.	[MAHATMA LETTERS , Letter 31]


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(*) BHAWANI SHANKAR 



1904 - 1907 BHAWANI SHANKAR -- 


Pandit Bhawani Shankar was a direct pupil of HPB, became a friend of
BPW in his early Adyar days.

Not long after HPB landed in Bombay in February 1879, Bhawani
Shankar, then 20 years old, put himself under her guidance. On several
occasions he was among those who recorded they had seen the Masters visiting
her at the T S Headquarters, at "Crow's Nest," Cumballa Hill, in Bombay.

When, later, doubts arose concerning the existence of the Masters,
he declared openly that he had seen them numerous times at the Bombay
Headquarters of the T S, speaking or delivering messages of instruction to
HPB in connection with its work.  

"They are not disembodied spirits, as the Spiritualists would force us to
believe, but living men. I was on seeing them neither hallucinated nor
entranced...I as a Theosophist and Hindu Brahmin give to disbelievers...that
these Brothers are not mere fictions of our respectable Madame Blavatsky's
imagination, but real personages, whose existence to us, is not a matter of
mere belief, but of actual knowledge."	THE THEOSOPHIST 


Bhawani Shankar -- one of H.P.B.'s direct pupils from the early
days, 1879-84, was living temporarily at Versova (north of Bombay, near Juhu
beach, (where the Wadias had been given land in part payment for their
services as ship-builders many years before, by the British East India
Company). BPW was invited to come and to attend the Pandit's "morning
puja" -- a period which he spent in meditation and devotion with thought
centered on HPB and the Masters.

This, BPW said, began at 4.00 a.m. and would continue for a period
of 4 to 5 hours. Bhawani Shankar used at that time a special bell. It had
a "peculiar, a curious ring to it" which "produced a deep psychological
effect on those who heard it." [ Mr. B. R. Shenoy, who in his youth had
been a direct pupil of Bhawani Shankar also spoke of this. He lived in New
Delhi in the 1960s, and was at that time one of the Governors of the Reserve
Bank of India. Earlier, he had spent several years in Washington, D.C., as
one of the Directors of the World Bank. He had been professor of Economics
for many years at Gujerat University in Ahmedabad.] 


1885 ---


After the departure of HPB and Damodar from India in 1885 he took
earnestly to the study of the Bhagavad Gita which became his text-book for
Theosophical exposition. Up and down the vast peninsula he traveled from
1891 to 1909. In 1907 Col. Olcott, the President Founder of the T S died.
He was succeeded as President by Mrs. Annie Besant. During that time, on
visits to Adyar, Bhawani Shankar had become friends with BPW.

Serious differences developed with the new group of Adyar "leaders."
This resulted in his limiting his services to small groups of independent
students who needed and welcomed him.  

1929


After the formation of the ULT in Bombay he quickly recognized that
the real Theosophical work was being carried on there. Under its auspices
he gave a series of talks on the Gita in October 1931, September 1933 and
September 1934.	THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT Vol. VI, p. 146


1936


At the time of his death, Bhawani Shankar asked B.P.Wadia to come
and visit him. He apparently delayed that event until his arrival. They
had a private talk, after which he expired. The date was the Full Moon of
the month of Ashadha--the 4th of July 1936. Born in 1859, Bhawani Shankar
was 77 years old, and, active to the last, was ever ready to help and
instruct his fellows.  
THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT Vol. VI, p. 146

-- DTB

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-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Hamilton Jr.
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2005 5:46 PM
To: Theosophy
Subject: World Travelling

I was wondering if anyone here been to the East to meet a
teacher/master/guru. If you have, I would enjoy hearing your
experiences. I'm planning on going some day.

-Mark H.