The Theosophical Society,
Theosophy
and Religion
The God without and the God within
by
C.Jinarajadasa
First Published July 1930
WHEN the doctrine of Evolution received an impetus with the work
of
But the idea that the individual must spend all his energies in a
perpetual
watchfulness to crush
his competitors was modified by a second deduction from the same facts
regarding evolution. It was pointed out by Herbert Spencer that Nature does not
spend all her energies only on a fierce competition to survive; she spends some
of her energies in modes which appear to have no relation to survival. The two
instincts to find food and to satisfy sexual cravings are very prominent in all
animals, and certainly they are primary activities in the
struggle for
existence. But no less prominent is a third instinct, which is for
play. When the
appetites for food and for sex are satisfied, Nature still has a
residuum of energy,
and this she expresses in play.
There are then three instincts - for food, for sex, and for play
- which
characterise animals.
They characterise men also, though their
manifestations
undergo subtle
transformations. As human societies organise
themselves for
communal life, the
brutalities of the perpetual struggle for existence become
softened bit by
bit; not all the hours of the day are necessary to find food,
because, by a
pooling of labour, energy is saved, and so there is time free for
other purposes.
Similarly, the violent forms of the sex instinct are curbed in
civilisation, and a
sense for propriety modifies the natural instincts of the
brute.
It is when communities are highly organised,
that is, when they use less and
less energy to
find food, and when they steadily refine the expressions of the
sex instinct,
that an increasing amount of their energy is devoted to play.
This play too undergoes transformation. Two children playing are
not different
from two
puppies playing; the same energy of Nature manifests through them. But this
energy has undergone a transformation when a spectator looks at a play.
A play of his mind replaces the play of muscle and limb; but
fundamentally it is
the same
instinct in Nature to play. So everything which is creative in
civilisation, like
poetry, music, sculpture, the dance, are but sublimations of
the primordial
instinct for play.
Sometimes this instinct for play undergoes a
degeneration, as in gambling,
whether with cards
or dice, or with stocks and shares; it is also the play
instinct which
manifests in such degenerate forms as society chatter and
spiteful gossip.
Perhaps it is more true that it is not the play instinct which
manifests as
criticism or gossip, but rather the instinct to kill a rival; as
Kipling remarks, there is little difference between the men of
the Neolithic age
and men of
to-day ; they killed with the spear, we try to stab with the tongue
or the pen.
I have taken you into the field of Biology in order to draw
attention to three
fundamental modes of
the natural energies which operate in man—to satisfy the
craving for food,
the craving for sex expression and the craving for play. But
there is a
fourth mode of expression of which evolutionary science has so far
taken no
account, though that mode is basic in the understanding of man both in
Hinduism and Buddhism. This is
the craving in man to understand. It is that
fundamental instinct
in men, to understand what they are and what is their
environment, which is
implied in the term Moksha. You are well aware that Moksha is the third in the triplicity
of Artha, Râga, and Moksha. Artha is the desire for
possessions, and he who possesses wealth need never starve; Râga
is desire in every form, from that fiercely sexual to that of mere personal
vanity. Moksha means Liberation, and an innate desire
in man for Liberation is postulated both in Hinduism and Buddhism, as residing
at the root of human nature.
Such a conception, that man is not merely the brute, whose
savageries are slowly being refined by social organisation,
but also the angel, a Divine Spark,
imbedded and
imprisoned in matter, but ever seeking his release, is utterly
foreign to the
Darwinian theories of evolution. Nevertheless, that conception is
absolutely necessary,
as I hope to show, if we are to profess a theory of life
which is not
only in accord with Nature's facts, but is also full of inspiration
for our daily
lives.
It is obvious that all men are not bothering their heads about
understanding
what life is;
the vast majority take life as it comes, and it is only a small
number who ask
questions. Yet the fact that the desire to understand is deeply
rooted in us all
is evinced by the existence of religions. Even the savage has a
religion. Today we
can prove that his religion is based on an ignorance of
Nature's facts and laws. But this
does not annul the fact that the savage with
his religion
tries to understand, and therewith to state a solution. Certainly,
when we look
around us, the many do not feel that they are surrounded by puzzles and
mysteries; the few of us here present today are indeed only a few.
But why are we only a few ?
Perhaps the reason is that the vast majority of mankind are still being pushed
hither and
thither, as pawns in a game, by Nature's primary forces which
underlie the instincts
of survival and of play. It is only a few at a time who
throw off the
thralldom to these two instincts; then it is that the third
instinct, that for
Liberation, begins to affect them. Sometimes, a calamity of
some kind is
necessary to make us sensitive to the voice within which bids us
enquire and
understand; sometimes, our awareness begins only when old age
begins, and the clamours of the body die down. Undoubtedly it is only the
few
who respond to
the call, "Arise, awake, seek out the Great Ones, and get
understanding";but those few
are nevertheless as "the first fruits of them that
slept".
Some day, as evolution advances, the many too will arise and awake and
get
understanding, as the few do today.
When the man who desires to understand himself and his
environment looks about him for explanations, he finds solutions offered to him
in religion, philosophy and science. Those of religion are offered to him as
revelations; they are authoritative, and each religion declares that its
solution is the final. The
philosophers too
pronounce their solutions as final, though they do not invest
them as do the
religions with divine sanctions. Science offers her solutions
too, but the
critical scientist knows that every solution offered by science is
only tentative.
From among these contradictory solutions, the seeker has to find
truth, and the
problem is not an easy one.
Theosophy here enters on the scene to help the inquirer. There
has always
existed in the
world, if not openly then in secret gatherings, a tradition as to
truth. Distinct
and apart from the orthodox revelation of religion, each
religion has had,
at some time or other, a secret tradition, which attempts to
formulate other
truths than those proclaimed to the masses. Theosophy is a
compilation of these
hidden truths, and the study of them gives to many a
clearer
understanding of life's problems, and therefore a more intimate
realisation where the
final solution is to be found.
When we analyse the various solutions
offered, especially in religions, those
solutions fall into
two groups. One group asserts that the key to the whole
problem is God.
Man must discover the supreme fact that God exists,
the Author of all things, and their final Abode. Exoteric Hinduism,
Zoroastrianism,
Christianity and Mohammedanism all proclaim the existence of a
Creator; they
assert that all
human problems can be solved only with the recognition that man
depends upon God.
Until the soul discovers that he is dependent upon God, until he turns to his
Maker in humility and adoration, not only can there be no peace, there is also
no real understanding. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom" ,says Christianity, and in one form or another this
same thought appears in all the theistic religions. In some, it is less the
fear of the Lord and more the love of the Lord ; but
all of them asseverate that no problem of man can be understood, unless man
starts with the recognition that he is dependent upon a Godhead external to
him, and whom he must worship and serve. " Seek
the God without" is the message of those religions which teach the
existence of a Creator.
But there is another group of solutions which equally offer to
teach man the one
true way to
peace and understanding. These solutions are found in esoteric
Hinduism, in Buddhism, and in
Confucianism and Taoism. In the Upanishads,
especially in the
older ones, their principal doctrine of Atman proclaims the
existence of God,
but He is not a Personal God whose nature is in some manner
different from that
of man. The most vital of all truths in esoteric Hinduism is
that God and
man are one and not two. "THAT art thou, 0 Shvetaketu",
is the ever insistent teaching of the Upanishads. It is only in the discovery
of the God
within that the
way is found to solve all problems; this is the clear teaching
of esoteric
Hinduism.
When we approach Buddhism, it is once again the path to the God
within which is its characteristic, though the Buddha never proclaimed the
existence of God.
Neither did He deny God's existence; for to the Buddhist, the
problem whether
God exists or not has no relation to the problem of man's
suffering. The way
within is the
sole discovery, necessary to solve all problems, and so the
Buddha's message to all men was, " Work
out your salvation with diligence".
In a similar manner, Confucianism builds an ethical system which
ignores God.
It is only as a man strives to be perfect, to be the " superior man", by embodying in himself all that
is best in the moral code of his ancestors, that man
achieves his goal
of perfect peace and freedom.
It is this same doctrine of the God within that we have once
again proclaimed
to-day by
Krishnamurti. He never uses the word God, and the conception of a
Personal God, an extra-cosmic God, a Deity who is in some manner
different from man, is alien to his thought. He proclaims the existence of an
absolute
Perfection, but he terms this "the Beloved", and he
ever insists that Liberation
means to become
one with "the Beloved". To "see the Goal", to be "one
with
Life", " to enter the
describe the summum bonum for all men ; and
those familiar with the Upanishads realise that the
ancient teaching of the Atman proclaimed of old by the Rishis
to the few as a " Rahasya", as a
"Secret", is now being proclaimed by
Krishnamurti today to the whole
world.
Are these two groups of solutions, one which proclaims the God
without, and the other the God within, contradictory one of the other? It would
certainly appear so. If in man, if in all men, the Perfect Godhead exists even
now in His
perfection, as the
Upanishads teach, what has an evolutionary process of births
and deaths to
do with the souls liberation ? What is the use of the gathering of
experience, the
acquirement of virtues, the performing of duties and the
aspiring after
ideals, if the goal of them all, which is to become one with God,
Is already accomplished ?
There is no use whatsoever in the world process, asserts boldly
the Sankhya
philosophy; and the
same reply is given by the Advaita or Pure Vedanta.
The
wheel of births
and deaths, the climbing from imperfection to perfection, all
these are purely
Maya, an illusion which envelops us. Let us but tear aside the
stifling folds of
the illusion which enwraps us, and we shall swiftly find
ourselves once again
as our true self, the Atman, the Godhead who never
descended from his
pure and perfect serenity and happiness into an imperfect
evolutionary world. The
only God who exists is in man himself, say the
Upanishads ; and they
go so far as to assert that the Divine Nature is all
things, not
merely in all things. God is not in the stone as a Divine Immanence,
but is the
stone itself - this is the esoteric teaching of Hinduism.
In the light of these teachings, which proclaim everything a Mâyâ, except the
eternal and
unchanging Spirit, there is no practical value to the soul in the
process of
evolution. Why the soul ever allows himself to be
entangled in it is
a mystery
which is not explained ; what forces all souls to put on the mantle of
matter is a
problem to which no solution is offered in the Vedanta. It is quite
clear, when one
arrives at the logical conclusion from the premisses
of esoteric
Hinduism, that there is no such thing as evolution or progress,
so far at least
as the soul
is concerned. The soul is always Atman, and needs only to step
outside the illusion
which hypnotises it to believe that it is not Atman
at all.
Ever the serene spirit, pure Sat, Chit and Ananda,
it is the power of Mâyâ which
deludes the soul
to regard itself as an evolving soul who is struggling to pay
his debts to
Karma.
The insistence by Krishnamurti that Liberation or Perfection is
possible, even
now, to every
individual, however ignorant or however primitive and
simple-minded, almost
leads one to imagine that he too, like the Upanishads and
the Vedanta,
ignores the bonds of helpfulness and compassion which in the minds of the
humanitarian bind all men in a common destiny. In the doctrine of the pure
Vedanta, man's sole duty is to himself ; he has but
one work, which is to tear the veil of illusion. Such ideals as Brotherhood and
Social Service are
mere sentiment,
compared to the supreme task before each soul of Liberation.
It is true that charity is enjoined on all, but such teachings
are a compromise
offered to our
limited human nature. Men suffer - and so need charity - only
because they
insist on being bound on the wheel of birth and death; to shod
tears over a
soul who prefers to remain bound is sheer sentimentality. What he
needs is not
sympathy but to be led towards illumination so that he discovers
that he is not
bound.
Similarly in Buddhism, where the sole task is to escape from the
"wheel", the
doctrine of
compassion seems illogical. It is Avidya or ignorance
which drives a
soul to drink
deep at the well of sensation; and though intense compassion is
inculcated as a
virtue, no clue is given how compassion can help in the
acquisition of wisdom.
In the list of virtues, with which the Buddha is
described in one of
the most famous of Buddhist verses, compassion is not
mentioned. He is
called "that Blessed One, Exalted, Omniscient, Endowed
with
knowledge and
virtue, Auspicious, Knower of worlds, a Guide incomparable for the training of
individuals, Teacher of Gods and humans, Enlightened and Holy".
But not a word about Him as full of
pity for all mankind. Yet Buddhist tradition
asserts that so
great was His compassion even as long ago as in the dispensation
of the Buddha
Dipankara - the fourth in the list of twenty-eight
Buddhas which
closes with the
Buddha Gautama - that He determined to tread the long
and
painful road to Buddhahood in order to lead men to Liberation. Buddhism
however does insist that compassion is necessary, as in some way stilling the
craving to live, which is at the root of misery. But both in the Vedanta and in
Buddhism, the emphasis laid upon understanding,
contemplation and withdrawal as requisite for Liberation has led to an
overemphasis upon individual salvation, to such an extent indeed as to lead
sometimes to an ignoring of the collective betterment of mankind.
Krishnamurti's teachings,
at first sight, would also appear to ignore collective
salvation, because
he is so insistent upon what be terms the "direct path". He
insists that there
is no need for any organisation of spiritual effort
into such
gradations as of
teacher and pupil - the one to instruct, the other to learn,
the science
which teaches where is the "Way". Since within each man resides the
power to see
"the Goal", no external aid is necessary, if only the seeker will
believe that he
can come to the Goal unaided. Above all, his insistent
declaration that
"the individual problem is the world problem" is being
construed as a
warning to desist from activities which hide their meddlesome and wasteful
nature under the guise of philanthropy and service. But though
Krishnamurti calls upon us to go the direct road, and to seek no
other God but
the God
within, it is very clear that the thought of the Liberation of the soul
is not
dissociated in his mind from that of the service of all men. While in one
sentence he sternly
challenges: "What have you, with your phrases, with your
labels, with your
books, achieved ?", in the sentences immediately following, he
tells us what we
should have done.
"How many people have you made happy, not in the passing
things, but in the ways of the Eternal ?"
" Have you given
the Happiness that lasts, the Happiness that is never failing,
the Happiness
that cannot he dimmed by a passing cloud ?"
" In what way
have you created a protecting wall, so that people shall not slip
into pitfalls
?"
" How far have
you built a railing along that deep river into which every human
being is liable
to fall ?"
" How far have
you helped these people who want to climb ?"
" How far has it
been your ambition to lead someone to that Kingdom of
Happiness, that garden where there is unchanging light,
unchanging beauty ?"
" But, if you
are all these things, have you saved one from sorrow ?"
"Have any of you given me happiness - ' me' the ordinary person ?"
"Have any of you given me the nourishment of heaven when I
was hungry ?"
"Have any of you felt so deeply that you could throw
yourself into the place of
the person who
is suffering ?"
"What have you produced, what have you brought forth ?"
"In what manner have you brought forth that precious jewel,
so that it shall
shine and guide
the whole world ? "
These words of Krishnamurti show that his gospel is not a gospel
of isolation.
While he challenges us as to our ways of service, he insists that
he who is
truly intent on
Liberation is equally bent on service. He tells us that when we
shall enter the
Kingdom of Happiness that then "you will lose the identity of
your separate
self; and there you will create new worlds, new kingdoms, new
abodes for
others". Again he insists,
And because I really love,
I want you to love ;
Because I really feel,
I want you to feel;
Because I hold every thing dear,
I want you to hold all things dear;
Because I want to protect,
You should protect.
And this is the only life worth living,
And the only happiness worth
possessing.
When, in another address, he asks us to "open the gate of
your hearts that you
may enter into
Liberation", he makes clear that the individual who liberates
himself can have
but one motive, which is to "become in yourselves the true
redeemers of
mankind, so that you will go out and show to the people that are in
sorrow and pain
that their salvation, their happiness, their Liberation, lies
within
themselves".
It is this inseparableness of Liberation and Service which has
ever been the
theme of
Theosophy as a code of ethics. Modern Theosophy has used less the word "Liberation"
and more the word "Perfection", but the thought is the same.
The value of the study of Theosophy lies in that each student can
construct for
himself a frame
work of the world's events of the past, the present and the
future, into
which he can set in an appropriate setting whatsoever he examines
of events in
the domains of religion and science, philosophy and art,
philanthropy and world
development. Thus it is that, with the aid of Theosophy,
we can synthesise truth after truth out of the contradictions
between those
religions and cults
which proclaim the God without, and the philosophies and
sciences which
proclaim the God within. And the way of that synthesis is as
follows.
The first great truth which must never for one instant be
obscured or forgotten
is that the
Divine Nature resides in man. Call that Divine Nature by any name we
will - God,
Atman, the Christ, Sammâsambodhi, the Perfect Wisdom
- its totality resides in man. In the wickedest sinner that Godhead resides in
the inmost heart of his being, with as perfect a fulness
of the Godhead as in the heart of the greatest of saints. Brahmana
and Pariah are equally divine; and the Brahmana who spurns
the Pariah but spurns the Godhead dwelling in his own self. This is the supreme
truth of Theosophy, which, as applied to daily conduct, is the soul and essence
of Brotherhood. To find the God within is the sole task of life; for when that
Godhead is found in stone and in plant, in sinner as in saint, all life's
processes are linked into one meaning, which ever guides to happiness and peace.
But there is a second truth which is less easy to understand ; it is, that the
Divine Nature is as if imprisoned in man, and not utterly free to
manifest in
freedom all its
perfections. That Divine Nature abides equally in the sinner as
in the saint.
Yet there is a difference as the Divine Nature energises
or
operates in the
encasement which holds it. When the Hindu Sâdhu
intent on God
saw the
British soldier coming to bayonet him, and said, " Even thou art He
!",
he truly saw
the Divine Nature in all things, even in his assassin. But yet
surely there was
a difference as that Divine Nature energised in the
heart of
the Sâdhu and in the heart of the soldier ? We can, if we will,
say with the
Upanishad, "If slayer thinks he slays, if slain thinks he is
slain, both these
know naught;
THIS slays not, nor is slain"; but we are also forced by our moral
conscience to say
that the Sadhu did good and the soldier did evil. But
since
both Sâdhu and soldier are, in their inmost natures, God, how
can the one
indivisible Divine
Nature be at one and the same time good and evil ?
Unless we adopt the solution of a Mâyâ,
which makes the Divine Nature appear
other than it
truly is, there is only one other line of solution, so far as I
know. That
solution is what Theosophy offers - that the world process, even if
it enshrines
a Mâyâ, is of use to the Divine Nature, in enabling
it to release
Itself from Its imprisonment.
Strangely enough, this conception, that the world process is a
releasing of
perfection from an
imprisonment, is suggested by modern Biology. As the
Mendelian theory of
heredity came to the front, one of its leaders, Bateson,
said at the
meeting of British Association in 1914 that Shakespeare lived in a
pinhead of
protoplasm. All that we know as the genius of Shakespeare existed in
the first
speck of protoplasm; but it existed there as if imprisoned. Now,
without a
particular arrangement of Mendelian
"factors" in the first cell which
was the embryo
of Shakespeare, his creative ability could not manifest;
therefore
rearrangement after rearrangement had taken place of the "factors" in
every one of the
myriads of cells which were the successive progenitors of that
one zygote or
embryo cell which finally became Shakespeare.
An evolutionary process stretching over millions of years was
necessary for this
continuous
rearrangement of " factors", which was needed to bring about just
that one
grouping of factors which alone could produce Shakespeare. Yet, all the time,
in the first speck of protoplasm, which somehow arose by a chance
juxtaposition of certain
colloidal substances, Shakespeare was sleeping, waiting
to be
awakened. The God within, Shakespeare, was there in the protoplasm; but
the God
without, that is, all Nature's processes which we term evolution, was
also necessary
in order to make Shakespeare dynamic and creative.
It is this conception which Theosophy gives - that there is a God
without, a
process of
evolution in a foreordained Divine Plan, calling to a God within, the
Divine Nature of the soul—which enables us to harmonise
all the contradictory
theories of the
religions among themselves, and of modern science which stands
opposed to all religions.
From the moment we accept that the Divine Nature in
man, the God
within, is imprisoned at the beginning of time, our next problem is
to understand
what is the process of his release. The answer can be summed up in one word -
Life. It is Life, in all its forms, in all its kingdoms visible and
invisible, Life
manifesting from eternity to eternity; it is this Life which
ever strives to
create, and to destroy in order to create again, that is the
instrument of release
of the imprisoned Godhead.
The long process of the release of Divinity by Life is the theme
of all
Theosophical study. That study
describes the details of the process, using
special technical
terms - a "jargon" if you like - such as Life and Form, Karma,
Reincarnation, Root and Sub-races, Principles, Planes, Rays,
Discipleship,
Initiation, Adeptship,
and others. But all such terms are like the terms of any
other study like
Chemistry or Botany. They serve to arrange into categories
those facts
which must be examined in order to come to a broad grasp of the
subject.
True, Life's activities can be watched with the eye of the poet
or artist, and
not with the
eye of the analytical observer like the Theosophist. Then no
"jargon" of technical terms is
required; then it is that we have such a
description of Life as
Krishnamurti gives in his poems.[The Search, pp. 9 -12. ]
I have been a wanderer long
In this world of transient things.
I have known the passing pleasures thereof.
As the rainbow is beautiful,
But soon vanishes into nothingness,
So have I known,
From the very foundation of the world,
The passing away of all things
Beautiful, joyous and pleasurable.
In search of the eternal
I lost myself in the fleeting.
All things have I tasted in search of Truth.
In bygone ages
Have I known the pleasures of the transient world -
The tender mother with her children,
The arrogant and the free,
The beggar that wanders the face of the earth,
The contentment of the wealthy,
The woman of enticements,
The beautiful and the ugly,
The man of authority, the man of power,
The man of consequence, the bestower
and the guardian,
The oppressed and the oppressor,
The liberator and the tyrant,
The man of great possessions,
The man of renunciation, the sannyasi,
The man of activity and the man of
dreams.
The arrogant priest in gorgeous robes and the humble worshipper,
The poet, the artist and the
creator.
At all the altars of the world have I worshipped,
All religions have known me,
Many ceremonies have I performed,
In the pomp of the world have I rejoiced,
In the battles of defeat and victory have I fought,
The despiser and the despised,
The man acquainted with grief
And agonies of many sorrows,
The man of pleasure and abundance.
In the secret recesses of my heart have I danced,
Many births and deaths have I known,
In all these fleeting realms have I wandered,
In passing ecstasies, certain of their endurance,
And yet I never found that eternal
But why must the soul thus wander from life to life, urged on by
the God-given
instinct for
Liberation, and yet miss time after time the entrance to the true
path ? There are
indeed some philosophies, like that of Christianity,
Zoroastrianism and Muhammedanism, which
insist that the soul does not so wander, and that
within the brief period of one life the ultimate goal of Liberation or Redemption
can be achieved. For this, an utter subservience to the will of God is necessary ; a perfect life so subservient to God gains the
recompense of an eternal heaven. But such a solution, which denies to Life its repeated
transformations by
Reincarnation, brings in its train a host of problems which
are difficult
of solution. The doctrine of a perfection which must be achieved
in one
life-time promptly raises question after question, such as, why God
permits evil to
exist, why if He is good some souls must be condemned to
perdition, why if He
is omnipotent He does not arrange for all to be born in an
environment favourable to the building of their character towards
perfection.
I cannot myself think of any scheme of things which is just - and
here I can
speak for all
Theosophists - unless Reincarnation is a part of that scheme. It
is far easier
for me to believe that God's love and compassion are real, just
because
Reincarnation is a fact, than to believe that there is no Reincarnation,
and yet that
God expects all in one life-time to understand His will and to
co-operate with it.
I said a while ago, Why must the soul wander from life to life,
missing the
entrance to the
true path ? But in reality that question of mine is not based on
fact. For, the
moment we realise that Life is a dual process, that
of the God
without knocking
at the door of the God within, then every experience is an
entrance on the
path. It is this which Theosophy makes clear.
The intricate scheme describing the soul's evolution and unfoldment which is
found in
theosophical text-books can easily be swept aside by saying that in
order to be good
and noble, it is not necessary to have experience after
experience. For
goodness is innate in man, because the God within resides in
man. Whence
then the need to struggle in order to be good, when goodness is of the very
nature of the soul ?
Here each of us must determine what line of thought he will
follow; no one,
least of all a
Theosophist, desires to impose a particular creed as the one and
only solution.
I can only say, speaking for most Theosophists, that every scrap
of reason
disappears from the universe if evolution is considered unnecessary.
On the other hand, a most inspiring sweet reasonableness is
clearly seen in the
world process,
when we admit that evolution by experience is the way to
Liberation. William
James once defined experience as "becoming expert by
experiment". If
we accept Life as the laboratory for the soul's experiments in
order to be
liberated, then, the environment which surrounds the soul in its
many migrations
begins to have a meaning.
Like as the dull uncut diamond dug from the bowels of the earth,
so is the God
within before
experience moulds him; but like as the cut diamond flashing all
the colours of the rainbow, so is the God within when he has
undergone
experience after
experience which the God without sends him. This is Life, deep
calling unto deep.
Within our inmost nature is "the Way, the Truth and the
Life"; within ourselves are all the Kingdoms - the
Krishnamurti, the
Deep calling unto deep, Godhead calling to Godhead, this is the
solution of the
mystery of misery
dogging at the heels of joy, of death ever the shadow of life.
But life and death, joy and misery, the friend and the enemy, are
not contrasted
opposites; they are
the one and the same Godhead, both equally divine when we
understand.
So experience, coming with the
message of the God without, knocks at the doors of the soul, the God within. When the
soul's dwelling place is the savage, then experience brings hatreds and
battles, in order to call out from the God within his hidden attributes of
courage and decision. When the soul passes to dwell as the civilised
man, then experience knocks to release the virtues of industry and efficiency,
of learning and judgment, of comradeship and self-sacrifice. As child, as
youth, as maid, as man, as woman, as husband and father, as wife and mother, at
each stage some hidden capacity within the soul is released, at the bidding of
the environment and of the experiences which it brings. So, in the long
pilgrimage of the soul to discover himself as the God, each, religion comes to
him in turn to teach one word of the Mantram with
which the God without created the world. Science reveals the framework of that
creation, Art the joy which it conceals, and Philosophy the inspiration which
it brings.
No fact in life, no event anywhere in the world but has a meaning
for the soul;
that meaning is
that the God without ever calls to the God within to be one.
This is the lesson which we all have to learn. And it is
difficult, because the
trend of our
thinking and feeling is to make a duality of what we are,
contrasted with what
we are not. It is far easier to divide the world into what
" I like"
and what "I do not like" than to be beyond both like and dislike, and
to
contemplate the world as it is, irrespective of its relation to oneself. It
is far easier
to divide life into good and evil than to see life just as it is,
and place no
labels whatsoever on it. It is only as we "cast out the self
" and
see things
"as they are", and so pass on to see "the
things-in-themselves", the
Archetypes of Plato, that for the first time we gain a glimpse of
our true self.
It is such a glimpse of the truth that reveals to man that the
suffering which
crushes him is
only himself at work, purifying himself. The moment we enter a
world of duality
and say, when we suffer, that it is God who sends us suffering,
suffering does not
end. For then suffering, as it discharges its force, creates
new force to
issue later in new suffering. But when we refuse to accept any
duality, and say
either, "It is Life releasing Life", - or "It is I the God
without releasing
myself the God within", then for the first time peace enters
the heart.
It is then that we shall know that Liberation is not an event at
the end of
time, but a
continuous happening which steadily brings nearer and nearer the God without to
the God within. When once these two poles of Being
commence to approach each other, Liberation has begun. Thenceforth 'the time
factor is
within the soul,
and is the soul's agent, not the soul's master. Less important
is when the
soul shall achieve Mukti or Nirvana, and more
important the fact
that the soul
shall know, and never cease from rejoicing, that the twain are
becoming one. This
is the most direct of all paths, and none can prevent the
swiftness of the
union except the soul himself.
This truth is our Ariadne's thread in
the maze of life. And we shall learn this
truth in myriads
of ways, according as we have eyes to see, and ears to hear.
Thus speaks Light on the Path.
Inquire of the earth, the air and the water, of the secrets they
hold for you.
Inquire of the Holy Ones of the earth of the secrets they hold
for you.
Inquire of the inmost, the One, of its final secret, which it
holds for you
through the ages.
And as we attempt to understand the meaning of it all, none can
help us or
guide. When
Krishnamurti says that no Guru or teacher is needed for the soul who is intent
on Liberation, he is only uttering once again what other teachers have said
before him. "THAT art thou" is the axiom of esoteric Hinduism, and
the Upanishads which proclaim this teaching have not insisted on any need of a
Guru in order to achieve the Unity. You know the immemorial tradition in India
-
first the student,
then the householder, then the hermit, lastly the sannyasi,
the " renouncer" of ceremonies and creeds, who goes out
alone into the world,
without a Guru, to
find the Unity directly for himself. So too, during the
forty-five years of
service rendered by the Lord Buddha, never once did He put
Himself as a Guru whose aid was
necessary in order to enter on the Path. His
last charge to
His Sangha or Order was to emphasise
the "individual uniqueness"
of each who
treads the Way. As He lay dying, He said: " It may be, Ananda,
that
some of you
will think. 'The word of the Teacher is a thing of the past; we have
now no
Teacher.' But that, Ananda, is not the correct view.
The Doctrine and
Discipline, Ananda, which I have taught
and enjoined upon you is to be your
teacher when I am gone."And His last words were", And now, O monks,
I take my leave of you ; all the constituents of being
are transitory; work out your
salvation with
diligence".
It is never the Guru who says "Guru is Brahma, Guru is
Vishnu, Guru is
Maheshvara";
that is the phrase invented by the Sishya or pupil.
No Guru has
claimed to be what
the pupil in his gratitude asserts of his teacher.
tvam eva mata ca pita tvam eva,
tvam eva bandhuscha sakha tvam eva;
tvam eva vidya dravinam
tvam eva,
tvam eva sarvam mama deva deva.
Thou art verily my mother, Thou art the
father indeed, my friend also art Thou,
and companion
as well. Thou indeed art my learning and possessions,
Thou art my all in all, O God of Gods.
But all this is what the disciple says as to the Guru, but not
what the Guru
says concerning
himself. What, then, does the Guru say ? We have that
in what
the Guru of H. P. Blavatsky, H. S. Olcott and Annie Besant once
said concerning Himself, and these are His words: "I am as I was, and as I
was and am, so am I likely always to be - the slave of my duty to the Lodge and
mankind; not only taught, but desirous to subordinate every preference for
individuals to a love for the human race"' That even a Guru himself, even
when liberated, is still striving for a yet larger love for the human race is
shown in the words of the same Master: "The mark of the adept is kept at [Shamballa] not at Simla, and I try
to keep up to it." It is His brother, the Master K.H., who has described
Him as a man as stern for himself, as severe for his shortcomings, as he is indulgent
for the defects of other people, not in words but in the innermost
feelings of his
heart".
And I desire here to give my testimony that the Master whom I
have followed this life for the last forty-one years has never been to me a
"crutch" on which I
could lean in
any one of my weaknesses. Never once has he made my path easier for me, nor
helped me to climb over stiles and obstacles; never once has he prevented me
from committing mistakes due to my stupidity or selfishness.
But he has ever been to me what a lighthouse is to a ship in a
stormy sea - a flashing blinding beam cleaving the dark of the storm clouds to
show that the harbour is not far away, and so not to
despair but to take courage. If I offer Him all my love and service, it is
because He is the living symbol of what I hope to become someday
; if I bend the knee before Him in gratitude and utmost reverence, it is
because He is to me the glorious promise that I too shall some day love all mankind
with the wondrous intensity of love with which He loves all men to-day.
He is the God without rousing the God within me to be aware of my
destiny, which is to strive through the ages to establish a
I close this dissertation on the theme of the God without and the
God within by
reading to you two
extracts from the Upanishads, one describing the God without, and the other the
God within.
THE GOD WITHOUT
[Shvetâshvatara Upanishad.(Mead's translation). ]
This God, in sooth, in all the quarters is long, long ago,
indeed, he had his
birth, he verily
is now within the germ. He has been born, he will be born;
behind all who
have birth he stands, with face on every side.
He hath eyes on all sides, on all sides
surely hath faces, arms surely on all
sides, on all
sides feet. With arms, with wings, he tricks them out, creating
heaven and earth,
the only God.
Whose faces, heads and necks, are those of all, who lieth in the secret place of
every soul,
spread o'er the universe is He, the Lord. Therefore as all-pervader,
He's benign.
Blue fly, green bird, and red-eyed beast, the cloud that bears
the lightning in
its womb, the
seasons, and the seas, art thou. In omnipresent power thou hast
thy home,
whence all the worlds are born.
Eternal of eternals, the consciousness which every being's
consciousness
contains, who, one, of many the desires dispenses - knowing that
cause, the God to be approached by sacred science and holy art, the mortal from
all bonds is free.
I know this mighty Man, sun-like, beyond the darkness; Him and
Him only knowing, one crosseth over death ; no other path at all is to go.
THE GOD WITHIN
[Kenn, Taittiriya,
Mundaka and Mândûkya
Upanishads]
What no word can reveal, what revealeth
the word, that know as Brahman indeed, not this which
I they worship below.
What none thinks with the mind, but what thinks-out the mind,
that know thou as
Brahman indeed, not this which thy
worship below.
What none sees with the eye, whereby seeing is seen, that know
thou as Brahman indeed, not this which they worship below
Who knows this thus, indeed, destroying sin, in endless highest heaven-world
he
stands immovable,
immovable he stands.
From whom the whole world comes, to whom indeed it goes again, by
whom this is supported surely too -to Him, the Self that knows, all honour be !
Truth, wisdom, endless, Brahm,
Source of all bliss, immortal, shining forth,
Peaceful, benign, and secondless !
Om ! Peace, Peace, Peace! Om !
The Theosophical Society,