A "chela" is a person who has offered himself to a master as a pupil to
learn practically the "hidden mysteries of Nature and the psychical
powers latent in man." The master who accepts him is called in India a
Guru; and the real Guru is always an adept in the Occult Science. A
man of profound knowledge, exoteric and esoteric, especially the latter;
and one who has brought his carnal nature under the subjection of the
WILL; who has developed in himself both the power (Siddhi) to control
the forces of Nature, and the capacity to probe her secrets by the help
of the formerly latent but now active powers of his being--this is the
real Guru. To offer oneself as a candidate for Chelaship is easy
enough, to develop into an adept the most difficult task any man could
possibly undertake. There are scores of "natural-born" poets,
mathematicians, mechanics, statesmen, &c. But a natural-born adept is
something practically impossible. For, though we do hear at very rare
intervals of one who has an extraordinary innate capacity for the
acquisition of occult knowledge and power, yet even he has to pass the
self-same tests and probations, and go through the self-same training as
any less endowed fellow aspirant. In this matter it is most true that
there is no royal road by which favourites may travel.
For centuries the selection of Chelas--outside the hereditary group
within the gon-pa (temple)--has been made by the Himalayan Mahatmas
themselves from among the class--in Tibet, a considerable one as to
number--of natural mystics. The only exceptions have been in the cases
of Western men like Fludd, Thomas Vaughan, Paracelsus, Pico di
Mirandolo, Count St. Germain, &c., whose temperament affinity to this
celestial science, more or less forced the distant Adepts to come into
personal relations with them, and enabled them to get such small (or
large) proportion of the whole truth as was possible under their social
surroundings. From Book IV. of Kui-te, Chapter on "The Laws of
Upasanas," we learn that the qualifications expected in a Chela were:--