I'm continuing to archive material that has disappeared from other
theosophical websites. This month I found some articles of historical
and occult interest by the founder of the Theosophical Society: Henry S. Olcott and by and about Geoffrey Hodson.
Y. Y. in the New Statesman (London): I have now come to the
point of disbelieving almost all scandalous stories upon instinct. If I
am given details of a famous woman's love affairs. I immediately
conclude that she leads a life of saintly chastity. If I hear that an
eminent surgeon is a hopeless drunkard, I am
convinced that he is a teetotaler. If I am told that a great
general is a notorious coward, I see him in my mind's eye as a lion of
courage. Nor is this attitude so unreasonable as it seems. The one
thing we may be certain of in regard to stories of the eminent is that
most of them are lies. Lies are told about the great because people
like to believe lies about the great. It drags the great down to the
common level, and is a perverted expression of the passion for equality.
BLISS is called the highest Divine attribute. Hence it is Eternal, beyond Space and Time. Happiness is the human counterpart. Who is happy? A man permeated with kindness, radiating kindness, disturbing no one's peace. No unkindness exists for such a one. He preaches the gospel of kindness. So does also every unkind person by contrast.
Mind is a name given to the sum of the states of Consciousness grouped under Thought, Will, and Feeling. During deep sleep, ideation ceases on the physical plane, and memory is in abeyance; thus for the time-being “Mind is not,” because the organ, through which the Ego manifests ideation and memory on the material plane, has temporarily ceased to function. A noumenon can become a phenomenon on any plane of existence only by manifesting on that plane through an appropriate basis or vehicle; and during the long night of rest called Pralaya, when all the existences are dissolved, the “UNIVERSAL MIND” remains as a permanent possibility of mental action, or as that abstract absolute thought, of which mind is the concrete relative manifestation. The AH-HI (Dhyan-Chohans) are the collective hosts of spiritual beings—the Angelic Hosts of Christianity, the Elohim and “Messengers” of the Jews—who are the vehicle for the manifestation of the divine or universal thought and will. They are the Intelligent Forces that give to and enact in Nature her “laws,” while themselves acting according to laws imposed upon them in a similar manner by still higher Powers; but they are not “the personifications” of the powers of Nature, as erroneously thought. This hierarchy of spiritual Beings, through which the Universal Mind comes into action, is like an army—a “Host,” truly—by means of which the fighting power of a nation manifests itself, and which is composed of army corps, divisions, brigades, regiments, and so forth, each with its separate individuality or life, and its limited freedom of action and limited responsibilities; each contained in a larger individuality, to which its own interests are subservient, and each containing lesser individualities in itself.
QUESTIONER: These monstrous wars cry for a durable peace. Every one is speaking already of a Third World War. Do you see a possibility of averting the new catastrophe?
KRISHNAMURTI: How can we expect to avert it when the elements and values that cause war continues? Has the war that is just over produced a deep fundamental change in man? Imperialism and oppression are still rampant, perhaps cleverly veiled; separate sovereign states continue; nations are manoeuvring themselves into new positions of power; the powerful still oppress the weak; the ruling elite still exploit the ruled; social and class conflicts have not ceased; prejudice and hatred are burning everywhere. As long as professional priests with their organized prejudices justify intolerance and the liquidation of another being for the good of your country and the protection of your interests and ideologies, there will be war. As long as sensory values predominate over eternal value there will be war.
...
What you are the world is. If you are nationalistic, patriotic, aggressive, ambitious, greedy, then you are the cause of conflict and war. If you belong to any particular ideology, to a specialized prejudice, even if you call it religion, then you will be the cause of strife and misery. If you are enmeshed in sensory values then there will be ignorance and confusion. For what you are the world is; your problem is the world's problem.
Have you fundamentally changed because of this present catastrophe? Do you not still call yourself an American, an Englishman, an Indian, a German and so on? Are you not still greedy for position and power, for possessions and riches? Worship becomes hypocrisy when you are cultivating the causes of war; your prayers lead you to illusion if you allow yourself to indulge in hate and in worldliness. If you do not eradicate in yourself the causes of enmity, of ambition, of greed, then your gods are false gods who will lead you to misery. Only goodwill and compassion can bring order and peace to the world and not political blueprints and conferences. You must pay the price for peace. You must pay it voluntarily and happily and the price is the freedom from lust and ill-will, worldliness and ignorance, prejudice and hate. If there were such a fundamental change in you, you could help to bring about a peaceful and sane world. To have peace you must be compassionate and thoughtful.
...
You may not be able to avert the Third World, War but you can free your heart and mind from violence and from those causes that bring about enmity and prevent love. Then in this dark world there will be some who are pure of heart and mind, and from them perhaps the seed of a true culture might come into being. Make pure your heart and mind, for by your life and action only can there be peace and order. Do not be lost and confused in organizations but remain wholly alone and simple. Do not seek merely to prevent catastrophe but rather let each one deeply eradicate those causes that breed antagonism and strife.
Theosophy is often referred to as a doctrine of hope and responsibility. It teaches that at the root of man's being spiritual powers far beyond his imagining lie dormant, and that "the soul of man is immortal, and its future is the future of a thing whose growth and splendour have no limit." It rests with each individual to awaken these powers into conscious activity. What greater thing could man ask from the Universe than this? What greater hope? He is told "the powers of nature lie before you: take what you can."
Theosophy teaches that man lives in a universe of law, and that he will get back from the universe the exact equivalent of what he puts in. In other words, there is no power outside himself which can add one inch to his stature; he himself has to grow as the result of his own efforts; no God or no Master, can do it for him. And conversely, what he has won from nature is his; there is no power in the universe can take it from him; he alone can gamble it away.
Here is hope and responsibility in fullest measure; often in looking at the world we grumble. "Would we not shatter it to bits and then remould it nearer to the heart's desire?"
But what man, worthy of the name of man, could wish for more than this to know that he alone is the maker of his destiny. Here are all the powers of the universe asleep at the heart of his being, and every effort made to awaken them will have its exact equivalent result, ounce for ounce.
All the pain, confusion, and frustration in the world is man's creation. Individually, racially, nationally; whatever it is, is our creation, our responsibility.
Theosophy is a philosophy which appeals to the strength and courage in men, it offers little for their personal comfort and security. It comes as a challenge to all that is finest and noblest in man, it is a teaching for pioneers, adventurers into the unknown.
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