6. An intuitional perception of one's being the vehicle of the
manifested Avalokiteswara or Divine Atma (Spirit);
7. Calm indifference for, but a just appreciation of, everything that
constitutes the objective and transitory world, in its relation with,
and to, the invisible regions.
Such, at the least, must have been the recommendations of one aspiring
to perfect Chelaship. With the sole exception of the first, which in
rare and exceptional cases might have been modified, each one of these
points has been invariably insisted upon, and all must have been more or
less developed in the inner nature by the Chela's unhelped exertions,
before he could be actually "put to the test."
When the self-evolving ascetic--whether in, or outside the active
world--has placed himself, according to his natural capacity, above,
hence made himself master of his (1) Sarira--body; (2) Indriya--senses;
(3) Dosha--faults; (4) Dukkha--pain; and is ready to become one with
his Manas--mind; Buddhi--intellection, or spiritual intelligence; and
Atma--highest soul, i.e., spirit; when he is ready for this, and,
further, to recognize in Atma the highest ruler in the world of
perceptions, and in the will, the highest executive energy (power), then
may he, under the time-honoured rules, be taken in hand by one of the
Initiates. He may then be shown the mysterious path at whose farther
end is obtained the unerring discernment of Phala, or the fruits of
causes produced, and given the means of reaching Apavarga--emancipation
from the misery of repeated births, pretya-bhava, in whose determination
the ignorant has no hand.
But since the advent of the Theosophical Society, one of whose arduous
tasks it is to re-awaken in the Aryan mind the dormant memory of the
existence of this science and of those transcendent human capabilities,
the rules of Chela selection have become slightly relaxed in one
respect. Many members of the Society who would not have been otherwise
called to Chelaship became convinced by practical proof of the above
points, and rightly enough thinking that if other men had hitherto
reached the goal, they too, if inherently fitted, might reach it by
following the same path, importunately pressed to be taken as
candidates. And as it would be an interference with Karma to deny them
the chance of at least beginning, they were given it. The results have
been far from encouraging so far, and it is to show them the cause of
their failure as much as to warn others against rushing heedlessly upon
a similar fate, that the writing of the present article has been
ordered. The candidates in question, though plainly warned against it
in advance, began wrong by selfishly looking to the future and losing
sight of the past. They forgot that they had done nothing to deserve
the rare honour of selection, nothing which warranted their expecting
such a privilege; that they could boast of none of the above enumerated
merits. As men of the selfish, sensual world, whether married or
single, merchants, civilian or military employees, or members of the
learned professions, they had been to a school most calculated to
assimilate them to the animal nature, least so to develop their
spiritual potentialities. Yet each and all had vanity enough to suppose
that their case would be made an exception to the law of countless
centuries, as though, indeed, in their person had been born to the world
a new Avatar! All expected to have hidden things taught, extraordinary
powers given them, because--well, because they had joined the
Theosophical Society. Some had sincerely resolved to amend their lives,
and give up their evil courses: we must do them that justice, at all
events.
All were refused at first, Col. Olcott the President himself, to begin
with: and he was not formally accepted as a Chela until he had proved
by more than a year's devoted labours and by a determination which
brooked no denial, that he might safely be tested. Then from all sides
came complaints--from Hindus, who ought to have known better, as well as
from Europeans who, of course, were not in a condition to know anything
at all about the rules. The cry was that unless at least a few
Theosophists were given the chance to try, the Society could not endure.
Every other noble and unselfish feature of our programme was ignored--a
man's duty to his neighbour, to his country, his duty to help,
enlighten, encourage and elevate those weaker and less favoured than he;
all were trampled out of sight in the insane rush for adeptship. The
call for phenomena, phenomena, phenomena, resounded in every quarter,
and the Founders were impeded in their real work and teased
importunately to intercede with the Mahatmas, against whom the real
grievance lay, though their poor agents had to take all the buffets. At
last, the word came from the higher authorities that a few of the most
urgent candidates should be taken at their word. The result of the
experiment would perhaps show better than any amount of preaching what
Chelaship meant, and what are the consequences of selfishness and
temerity. Each candidate was warned that be must wait for year in any
event, before his fitness could be established, and that he must pass
through a series of tests that would bring out all there was in him,
whether bad or good. They were nearly all married men, and hence were
designated "Lay Chelas"--a term new in English, but having long had its
equivalent in Asiatic tongues. A Lay Chela is but a man of the world
who affirms his desire to become wise in spiritual things. Virtually,
every member of the Theosophical Society who subscribes to the second of
our three "Declared Objects" is such; for though not of the number of
true Chelas, he has yet the possibility of becoming one, for he has
stepped across the boundary-line which separated him from the Mahatmas,
and has brought himself, as it were, under their notice. In joining the
Society and binding himself to help along its work, he has pledged
himself to act in some degree in concert with those Mahatmas, at whose
behest the Society was organized, and under whose conditional protection
it remains. The joining is then, the introduction; all the rest depends
entirely upon the member himself, and he need never expect the most
distant approach to the "favour" of one of our Mahatmas or any other
Mahatmas in the world--should the latter consent to become known--that
has not been fully earned by personal merit. The Mahatmas are the
servants, not the arbiters of the Law of Karma.
Lay-Chelaship confers no privilege upon any one except that of working
for merit under the observation of a Master. And whether that Master be
or be not seen by the Chela makes no difference whatever as to the
result: his good thought, words and deeds will bear their fruits, his
evil ones, theirs. To boast of Lay Chelaship or make a parade of it, is
the surest way to reduce the relationship with the Guru to a mere empty
name, for it would be prima facie evidence of vanity and unfitness for
farther progress. And for years we have been teaching everywhere the
maxim "First deserve, then desire" intimacy with the Mahatmas.
Now there is a terrible law operative in Nature, one which cannot be
altered, and whose operation clears up the apparent mystery of the
selection of certain "Chelas" who have turned out sorry specimens of
morality, these few years past. Does the reader recall the old proverb,
"Let sleeping dogs lie?" There is a world of occult meaning in it. No
man or woman knows his or her moral strength until it is tried.
Thousands go through life very respectably, because they were never put
to the test. This is a truism doubtless, but it is most pertinent to
the present case. One who undertakes to try for Chelaship by that very
act rouses and lashes to desperation every sleeping passion of his
animal nature. For this is the commencement of a struggle for mastery
in which quarter is neither to be given nor taken. It is, once for all,
"To be, or Not to be;" to conquer, means Adept-ship: to fail, an
ignoble Martyrdom; for to fall victim to lust, pride, avarice, vanity,
selfishness, cowardice, or any other of the lower propensities, is
indeed ignoble, if measured by the standard of true manhood. The Chela
is not only called to face all the latent evil propensities of his
nature, but, in addition, the momentum of maleficent forces accumulated
by the community and nation to which he belongs. For he is an integral
part of those aggregates, and what affects either the individual man or
the group (town or nation), reacts the one upon the other. And in this
instance his struggle for goodness jars upon the whole body of badness
in his environment, and draws its fury upon him. If he is content to go
along with his neighbours and be almost as they are--perhaps a little
better or somewhat worse than the average--no one may give him a
thought. But let it be known that he has been able to detect the hollow
mockery of social life, its hypocrisy, selfishness, sensuality, cupidity
and other bad features, and has determined to lift himself up to a
higher level, at once he is hated, and every bad, bigotted, or malicious
nature sends at him a current of opposing will-power. If he is innately
strong he shakes it off, as the powerful swimmer dashes through the
current that would bear a weaker one away. But in this moral battle, if
the Chela has one single hidden blemish--do what he may, it shall and
will be brought to light. The varnish of conventionalities which
"civilization" overlays us all with must come off to the last coat, and
the inner self, naked and without the slightest veil to conceal its
reality, is exposed. The habits of society which hold men to a certain
degree under moral restraint, and compel them to pay tribute to virtue
by seeming to be good whether they are so or not--these habits are apt
to be all forgotten, these restraints to be all broken through under the
strain of Chelaship. He is now in an atmosphere of illusions--Maya.
Vice puts on its most alluring face, and the tempting passions attract
the inexperienced aspirant to the depths of psychic debasement. This is
not a case like that depicted by a great artist, where Satan is seen
playing a game of chess with a man upon the stake of his soul, while the
latter's good angel stands beside him to counsel and assist. For the
strife is in this instance between the Chela's will and his carnal
nature, and Karma forbids that any angel or Guru should interfere until
the result is known. With the vividness of poetic fancy Bulwer Lytton
has idealized it for us in his "Zanoni," a work which will ever be
prized by the occultist while in his "Strange Story" he has with equal
power shown the black side of occult research and its deadly perils.
Chelaship was defined, the other day, by a Mahatma as a "psychic
resolvent, which eats away all dross and leaves only the pure gold
behind." If the candidate has the latent lust for money, or political
chicanery, or materialistic scepticism, or vain display, or false
speaking, or cruelty, or sensual gratification of any kind the germ is
almost sure to sprout; and so, on the other hand, as regards the noble
qualities of human nature. The real man comes out. Is it not the
height of folly, then, for any one to leave the smooth path of
commonplace life to scale the crags of Chelaship without some reasonable
feeling of certainty that he has the right stuff in him? Well says the
Bible: "Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall"--a text that
would-be Chelas should consider well before they rush headlong into the
fray! It would have been well for some of our Lay Chelas if they had
thought twice before defying the tests. We call to mind several sad
failures within a twelve-month. One went wrong in the head, recanted
noble sentiments uttered but a few weeks previously, and became a member
of a religion he had just scornfully and unanswerably proven false. A
second became a defaulter and absconded with his employer's money--the
latter also a Theosophist. A third gave himself up to gross debauchery,
and confessed it, with ineffectual sobs and tears, to his chosen Guru.
A fourth got entangled with a person of the other sex and fell out with
his dearest and truest friends. A fifth showed signs of mental
aberration and was brought into Court upon charges of discreditable
conduct. A sixth shot himself to escape the consequences of
criminality, on the verge of detection! And so we might go on and on.
All these were apparently sincere searchers after truth, and passed in
the world for respectable persons. Externally, they were fairly
eligible as candidates for Chelaship, as appearances go; but "within
all was rottenness and dead men's bones." The world's varnish was so
thick as to hide the absence of the true gold underneath; and the
"resolvent" doing its work, the candidate proved in each instance but a
gilded figure of moral dross, from circumference to core.
In what precedes we have, of course, dealt but with the failures among
Lay Chelas; there have been partial successes too, and these are
passing gradually through the first stages of their probation. Some are
making themselves useful to the Society and to the world in general by
good example and precept. If they persist, well for them, well for us
all: the odds are fearfully against them, but still "there is no
impossibility to him who Wills." The difficulties in Chelaship will
never be less until human nature changes and a new order is evolved.
St. Paul (Rom. vii. 18,19) might have had a Chela in mind when he said
"to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I
find not. For the good I would I do not; but the evil which I would
not, that I do." And in the wise Kiratarjuniyam of Bharavi it is
written:--
The enemies which rise within the body,
Hard to be overcome--the evil passions--
Should manfully be fought; who conquers these
Is equal to the conqueror of worlds. (XI. 32.)
(--H.P. Blavatsky)