Across the great distance that India is from here they could precipitate
letters to their friends and disciples in New York. Many thought that if
this were done it was only for amusement; others looked at it in the
light of a test for the faithful, while still others often supposed
Mahâtmas acted thus for pure love of exercising their power. The
Spiritualists, some of whom believed that Mme. Blavatsky really did the
wonderful things told of her, said that she was only a medium, pure and
simple, and that her Brothers were familiar spooks of séance rooms.
Meanwhile the press in general laughed, and Mme. Blavatsky and her
Theosophical friends went on doing their work and never gave up their
belief in the Brothers, who after a few years came to be called
Mahâtmas. Indiscriminately with Mahâtma the word Adept has been used to
describe the same beings, so that we have these two titles made use of
without accuracy and in a misleading fashion.
The word Adept signifies proficiency, and is not uncommon, so that, when
using it, some description is necessary if it is to be applied to the
Brothers. For that reason I used Theosophical Adepts in a previous
paper. A Mahâtma is not only an Adept, but much more. The etymology of
it will make the matter clearer, the word being strictly Sanskrit, from
_mahâ_, great, and _âtmâ_, soul--hence Great Soul. This does not mean a
noble-hearted man merely, but a perfected being, one who has attained to
the state often described by mystics and held by scientific men to be an
impossibility, when time and space are no obstacles to sight, to action,
to knowledge or to consciousness. Hence they are said to be able to
perform the extraordinary feats related by various persons, and also to
possess information of a decidedly practical character concerning the
laws of nature, including that mystery for science--the meaning,
operation and constitution of life itself--and concerning the genesis of
this planet as well as the races upon it. These large claims have given
rise to the chief complaint brought forward against the Theosophical
Adepts by those writers outside of the Society who have taken the
subject up--that they remain, if they exist at all, in a state of cold
and selfish quietude, seeing the misery and hearing the groans of the
world, yet refusing to hold out a helping hand except to a favored few;
possessing knowledge of scientific principles, or of medicinal
preparations, and yet keeping it back from learned men or wealthy
capitalists who desire to advance commerce while they turn an honest
penny. Although, for one, I firmly believe, upon evidence given me, in
all that is claimed for these Adepts, I declare groundless the complaint
advanced, knowing it to be due to a want of knowledge of those who are
impugned.
Adepts and Mahâtmas are not a miraculous growth, nor the selfish
successors of some who, accidentally stumbling upon great truths,
transmitted them to adherents under patent rights. They are human beings
trained, developed, cultivated through not only a life but long series
of lives, always under evolutionary laws and quite in accord with what
we see among men of the world or of science. Just as a Tyndall is
greater than a savage, though still a man, so is the Mahâtma, not
ceasing to be human, still greater than a Tyndall. The Mahâtma-Adept is
a natural growth, and not produced by any miracle; the process by which
he so becomes may be to us an unfamiliar one, but it is in the strict
order of nature.
Some years ago a well-known Anglo-Indian, writing to the Theosophical
Adepts, queried if they had ever made any mark upon the web of history,
doubting that they had. The reply was that he had no bar at which to
arraign them, and that they had written many an important line upon the
page of human life, not only as reigning in visible shape, but down to
the very latest dates when, as for many a long century before, they did
their work behind the scenes. To be more explicit, these wonderful _men_
have swayed the destiny of nations and are shaping events to-day.
Pillars of peace and makers of war such as Bismarck, or saviors of
nations such as Washington, Lincoln and Grant, owe their elevation,
their singular power, and their astonishing grasp upon the right men
for their purposes, not to trained intellect or long preparation in the
schools of their day, but to these very unseen Adepts, who crave no
honors, seek no publicity and claim no acknowledgment. Each one of these
great human leaders whom I have mentioned had in his obscure years what
he called premonitions of future greatness, or connection with stirring
events in his native land.
Lincoln always felt that in some way he was to be an instrument for some
great work, and the stray utterances of Bismarck point to silent hours,
never openly referred to, when he felt an impulse pushing him to
whatever of good he may have done. A long array of instances could be
brought forward to show that the Adepts have made "an ineffaceable mark
upon diverse eras." Even during the great uprising in India that
threatened the English rule there, they saw long in advance the
influence England and India would have in the affairs of the world
through the very psychic and metaphysical changes of to-day, and often
hastened to communicate, by their own occult and wonderful methods, the
news of successes for English arms to districts and peoples in the
interior who might have risen under the stimulus of imaginary reports of
English disasters. At other times, vague fears were spread instantly
over large masses of the Hindûs, so that England at last remained
master, even though many a patriotic native desired another result. But
the Adepts do not work for the praise of men, for the ephemeral
influence of a day, but for the future races and man's best and highest
good.
XI.
For an exhaustive disquisition upon Adepts, Mahâtmas and Nirmânakâyas,
more than a volume would be needed. The development illustrated by them
is so strange to modern minds and so extraordinary in these days of
general mediocrity, that the average reader fails to grasp with ease the
views advanced in a condensed article; and nearly everything one would
say about Adepts--to say nothing of the Nirmânakâyas--requiring full
explanation of recondite laws and abstruse questions, is liable to be
misunderstood, even if volumes should be written upon them. The
development, conditions, powers, and function of these beings carry with
them the whole scheme of evolution; for, as said by the mystics, the
Mahâtma is the efflorescence of an age. The Adepts may be dimly
understood to-day, the Nirmânakâyas have as yet been only passingly
mentioned, and the Mahâtmas are misconceived by believers and deniers
alike.
But one law governing them is easy to state and ought not to be
difficult for the understanding. They do not, will not, and must not
interfere with Karma; that is, however apparently deserving of help an
individual may be, they will not extend it in the manner desired if his
Karma does not permit it; and they would not step into the field of
human thought for the purpose of bewildering humanity by an exercise of
power which on all sides would be looked upon as miraculous. Some have
said that if the Theosophical Adepts were to perform a few of their
feats before the eyes of Europe, an immense following for them would at
once arise; but such would not be the result. Instead of it there would
be dogmatism and idolatry worse than have ever been, with a reaction of
an injurious nature impossible to counteract.
Hypnotism--though by another name--has long been known to them. The
hypnotic condition has often aided the schemes of priests and churches.
To compel recognition of true doctrine is not the way of these sages,
for compulsion is hypnotism. To feed a multitude with only five loaves
would be easy for them; but as they never act upon sentiment but
continually under the great cosmic laws, they do not advance with
present material aid for the poor in their hands. But, by using their
natural powers, they every day influence the world, not only among the
rich and poor of Europe and America, but in every other land, so that
what does come about in our lives is better than it would have been had
they not had part therein.
The other class referred to--Nirmânakâyas--constantly engage in this
work deemed by them greater than earthly enterprises: the betterment of
the soul of man, and any other good that they can accomplish through
human agents. Around them the long-disputed question of Nirvâna
revolves, for all that they have not been distinctly considered in it.
For, if Max Müller's view of Nirvâna, that it is annihilation, be
correct, than a Nirmânakâya is an impossibility. Paradoxically speaking,
they are in and out of that state at one and the same time. They are
owners of Nirvâna who refuse to accept it in order that they may help
the suffering orphan, Humanity. They have followed the injunction of the
_Book of the Golden Precepts_: "Step out from sunlight into shade, to
make more room for others."
A greater part is taken in the history of nations by the Nirmânakâyas
than anyone supposes. Some of them have under their care certain men in
every nation who from their birth are destined to be great factors in
the future. These they guide and guard until the appointed time. And
such protégés but seldom know that such influence is about them,
especially in the nineteenth century. Acknowledgment and appreciation of
such great assistance are not required by the Nirmânakâyas, who work
behind the veil and prepare the material for a definite end. At the same
time, too, one Nirmânakâya may have many different men--or women--whom
he directs. As Patanjali puts it, "In all these bodies one mind is the
moving cause."
Strange, too, as it may seem, often such men as Napoleon Buonaparte are
from time to time helped by them. Such a being as Napoleon could not
come upon the scene fortuitously. His birth and strange powers must be
in the order of nature. The far-reaching consequences going with a
nature like his, unmeasurable by us, must in the eastern Theosophical
philosophy be watched and provided for. If he was a wicked man, so much
the worse for him; but that could never deter a Nirmânakâya from turning
him to his uses. That might be by swerving him, perchance, from a path
that would have plunged the world into depths of woe and been made to
bring about results in after years which Napoleon never dreamed of. The
fear of what the world might think of encouraging a monster at a certain
point never can deter a sage who sees the end that is best. And in the
life of Napoleon there are many things going to show at times an
influence more powerful than he could grapple. His foolhardy march to
Moscow was perhaps engineered by these silent campaigners, and also his
sudden and disastrous retreat. What he could have done had he remained
in France, no present historian is competent to say. The oft-doubted
story of the red letter from the Red Man just when Napoleon was in a
hesitating mood, may have been an encouragement at a particular
juncture. "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad." Nor will
the defeat at Waterloo be ever understood until the Nirmânakâyas give
their records up.
As a change in the thought of a people who have been tending to gross
atheism is one always desired by the Sages of the Wisdom Religion, it
may be supposed that the wave of spiritualistic phenomena resulting now
quite clearly in a tendency back to a universal acknowledgment of the
soul, has been aided by the Nirmânakâyas. They are in it and of it; they
push on the progress of a psychic deluge over great masses of people.
The result is seen in the literature, the religion and the drama of
to-day. Slowly but surely the tide creeps up and covers the once dry
shore of Materialism, and, though priests may howl, demanding "the
suppression of Theosophy with a firm hand," and a venal press may try to
help them, they have neither the power nor the knowledge to produce one
backward ripple, for the Master hand is guided by omniscient
intelligence propelled by a gigantic force, and--_works behind the
scene_.
XII.
There have been so many secret societies during the Christian era, by
whom claims were made to knowledge of nature's secret laws, that a
natural question arises: "In what do the Theosophic Eastern Sages differ
from the many Rosicrucians and others so often heard of?" The old
bookshelves of Germany are full of publications upon Rosicrucianism, or
by pretended and genuine members of that order, and to-day it is not
uncommon to find those who have temerity enough to dub themselves
"Rosicrucians."
The difference is that which exists between reality and illusion,
between mere ritualism and the signs printed by nature upon all things
and beings passing forever up the road to higher states of existence.
The Rosicrucian and Masonic fraternities known to history rely upon
outward signs and tokens to indicate the status in the order of their
members, who, without such guarantees, are only uninitiated outsiders.
But the Sages we speak of, and their disciples, carry with them the
indelible mark and speak the well-known words that show they are beings
developed under laws, and not merely persons who, having undergone a
childish ordeal, are possessed of a diploma. The Adepts may be called
rugged oaks that have no disguise, while the undeveloped man dabbling in
Masonic words and formulas is only a donkey wearing a lion's skin.
There are many Adepts living in the world, all of whom know each other.
They have means of communication unknown to modern civilization, by
using which they can transmit to and receive from each other messages at
any moment and from immense distances, without using any mechanical
means. We might say that there is a Society of Adepts, provided that we
never attach to the word "society" the meaning ordinarily conveyed by
it. It is a society which has no place of meeting, which exacts no dues,
which has no constitution or by-laws other than the eternal laws of
nature; there are no police or spies attached to it and no complaints
are made or received in it, for the reason that any offender is punished
by the operation of law entirely beyond his control--his mastery over
the law being lost upon his infringing it.
Under the protection and assistance and guidance of this Society of
Adepts are the disciples of each one of its members. These disciples are
divided into different degrees, corresponding to the various stages of
development; the least developed disciples are assisted by those who are
in advance of them, and the latter in a similar manner by others, until
the grade of disciple is reached where direct intercourse with the
Adepts is possible. At the same time, each Adept keeps a supervisory eye
upon all his disciples. Through the agency of the disciples of Adepts
many effects are brought about in human thought and affairs, for from
the higher grades are often sent those who, without disclosing their
connection with mysticism, influence individuals who are known to be
main factors in events about to occur.
It is claimed that the Theosophical Society receives assistance in its
growth and the spreading of its influence from the Adepts and their
accepted disciples. The history of the Society would seem to prove this,
for unless there were some hidden but powerful force operating for its
advantage it would have long ago sunk into obscurity, destroyed by the
storm of ridicule and abuse to which it has been subjected. Promises
were made, in the early history of the Society, that assistance would at
all times be rendered, and prophecies were hinted that it would be made
the target for vilification and the object of opposition. Both
prophecies have been fulfilled to the letter.
In just the same way as a polished diamond shows the work which gives it
value and brilliancy, so the man who has gone through probation and
teaching under the Adepts carries upon his person the ineffaceable
marks. To the ordinary eye untrained in this department, no such
indications are visible; but those who can see describe them as being
quite prominent and wholly beyond the control of the bearer. For this
reason that one who has progressed, say, three steps along the way, will
have three marks, and it is useless to pretend that his rank is a step
higher, for, if it were, then the fourth mark would be there, since it
grows with the being's development. Now, as these signatures cannot be
imitated or forged, the whole inner fraternity has no need for
concealment or signs. No one can commit a fraud upon or extract from
them the secrets of higher degrees by having obtained signs and
pass-words out of a book or in return for the payment of fees, and none
can procure the conferring of any advancement until the whole nature of
the man exactly corresponds to the desired point of development.
In two ways the difference between the Adept fraternity and the worldly
secret societies can be seen--in their treatment of nations and of
their own direct special disciples. Nothing is forced or depends upon
favor. Everything is arranged in accordance with the best interests of a
nation, having in view the cyclic influences at any time prevailing, and
never before the proper time. When they desire to destroy the chains
forged by dogmatism, they do not make the error of suddenly appearing
before the astonished eyes of the people; for they know well that such a
course would only alter the dogmatic belief in one set of ideas to a
senseless and equally dogmatic adherence to the Adepts as gods, or else
create in the minds of many the surety that the devil was present.
XIII.
The training of the disciple by the teachers of the school to which the
Theosophical Adepts belong is peculiar to itself, and not in accord with
prevailing modern educational ideas. In one respect it is a
specialization of the pilgrimage to a sacred place so common in India,
and the enshrined object of the journey is the soul itself, for with
them the existence of soul is one of the first principles.
In the East the life of man is held to be a pilgrimage, not only from
the cradle to the grave, but also through that vast period of time,
embracing millions upon millions of years, stretching from the beginning
to the end of a Manvantara, or period of evolution, and as he is held to
be a spiritual being, the continuity of his existence is unbroken.
Nations and civilizations rise, grow old, decline and disappear; but the
being lives on, spectator of all the innumerable changes of environment.
Starting from the great All, radiating like a spark from the central
fire, he gathers experience in all ages, under all rulers, civilizations
and customs, ever engaged in a pilgrimage to the shrine from which he
came. He is now the ruler and now the slave; to-day at the pinnacle of
wealth and power, to-morrow at the bottom of the ladder, perhaps in
abject misery, but ever the same being. To symbolize this, the whole of
India is dotted with sacred shrines, to which pilgrimages are made, and
it is the wish of all men in that so-called benighted land to make such
a journey at least once before death, for the religious duties of life
are not fully performed without visiting such sacred places.
One great reason for this, given by those who understand the inner
significance of it, is that the places of pilgrimage are centers of
spiritual force from which radiate elevating influences not perceptible
to the pig-sticking, wine-drinking traveller. It is asserted by many,
indeed, that at most of the famous places of pilgrimage there is an
Adept of the same order to which the Theosophical Adepts are said to
belong, who is ready always to give some meed of spiritual insight and
assistance to those of pure heart who may go there. He, of course, does
not reveal himself to the knowledge of the people, because it is quite
unnecessary, and might create the necessity for his going elsewhere.
Superstitions have arisen from the doctrine of pilgrimages, but, as that
is quite likely to come about in this age, it is no reason why places of
pilgrimage should be abolished, since, if the spiritual centers were
withdrawn, good men who are free from superstition would not receive the
benefits they now may have. The Adepts founded these places in order to
keep alive in the minds of the people the soul idea which modern Science
and education would soon turn into agnosticism, were they to prevail
unchecked.
But the disciple of the Adept knows that the place of pilgrimage
symbolizes his own nature, shows him how he is to start on the
scientific investigation of it and how to proceed, by what roads and in
which direction. He is supposed to concentrate into a few lives the
experience and practice which it takes ordinary men countless
incarnations to acquire. His first steps, as well as his last, are on
difficult, often dangerous places; the road, indeed, "winds up hill all
the way," and upon entering it he leaves behind the hope for reward so
common in all undertakings. Nothing is gained by favor, but all depends
upon his actual merit. As the end to be reached is self-dependence with
perfect calmness and clearness, he is from the beginning made to stand
alone, and this is for most of us a difficult thing which frequently
brings on a kind of despair. Men like companionship, and cannot with
ease contemplate the possibility of being left altogether to themselves.
So, instead of being constantly in the company of a lodge of
fellow-apprentices, as is the case in the usual worldly secret society,
he is forced to see that, as he entered the world alone, he must learn
to live there in the same way, leaving it as he came, solely in his own
company. But this produces no selfishness, because, being accompanied by
constant meditation upon the unseen, the knowledge is acquired that the
loneliness felt is only in respect to the lower, personal, worldly self.
Another rule that this disciple must follow is that no boasting may be
indulged in on any occasion, and this gives us the formula that, given a
man who speaks of his powers as an Adept or boasts of his progress on
the spiritual planes, we can be always sure he is neither Adept nor
disciple. There have been those in the Theosophical Society who gave out
to the world that they were either Adepts in fact or very near it, and
possessed of great powers. Under our formula it follows that they were
mere boasters, with nothing behind their silly pretensions but vanity
and a fair knowledge of the weakness as well as the gullibility of human
nature; upon the latter they play for either their profit or pleasure.
But, hiding themselves under an exterior which does not attract
attention, there are many of the real disciples in the world. They are
studying themselves and other human hearts. They have no diplomas, but
there resides in them a consciousness of constant help and a clear
knowledge of the true Lodge which meets in real secrecy and is never
found mentioned in any directory. Their whole life is a persistent
pursuit of the fast-moving soul which, although appearing to stand
still, can distance the lightning; and their death is only another step
forward to greater knowledge through better physical bodies in new
lives.
XIV.
Looking back into the past the nineteenth-century historian finds his
sight speedily striking a mist and at last plunging into inky darkness.
Bound down in fact by the influence of a ridiculous dogmatism which
allows only some six thousand years for man's life on earth, he is
unwilling to accept the old chronologies of the Egyptians or Hindûs,
and, while permitting the assumption of vast periods for geological
changes, he is staggered by a few millions of years more or less when
they are added to the length of time during which humanity has peopled
the globe. The student of Theosophy, however, sees no reason why he
should doubt the statement made by his teachers on this subject. He
knows that the periods of evolution are endless. These are called
Manvantaras, because they are between two Manus, or, two men.