THE HELPERS.
Help, then, may be given by several of the many classes of inhabitants
of the astral plane. It may come from devas, from nature-spirits,
or from those whom we call dead, as well as from those who function
consciously upon the astral plane during life--chiefly the adepts and
their pupils. But if we examine the matter a little more closely we
shall see that though all the classes mentioned may, and sometimes do,
take a part in this work, yet their shares in it are so unequal that it
is practically left almost entirely to one class.
The very fact that so much of this work of helping has to be done
either upon or from the astral plane goes far in itself towards
explaining this. To any one who has even a faint idea of what the powers
at the command of an adept really are, it will be at once obvious that
for him to work upon the astral plane would be a far greater waste of
energy than for our leading physicians or scientists to spend their
time in breaking stones upon the road.
The work of the adept lies in higher regions--chiefly upon the arupa
levels of the devachanic plane or heaven-world, where he may direct his
energies to the influencing of the true individuality of man, and not
the mere personality which is all that can be reached in the astral or
physical world. The strength which he puts forth in that more exalted
realm produces results greater, more far-reaching and more lasting
than any which can be attained by the expenditure of even ten times
the force down here; and the work up there is such as he alone can
fully accomplish, while that on lower planes may be at any rate to some
extent achieved by those whose feet are yet upon the earlier steps of
the great stairway which will one day lead them to the position where
he stands.
The same remarks apply also in the case of the devas. Belonging as they
do to a higher kingdom of nature than ours, their work seems for the
most part entirely unconnected with humanity; and even those of their
orders--and there are some such--which do sometimes respond to our
higher yearnings or appeals, do so on the mental plane rather than on
the physical or astral, and more frequently in the periods between our
incarnations than during our earthly lives.
It may be remembered that some instances of such help were observed in
the course of investigations into the subdivisions of the devachanic
plane which were undertaken when the Theosophical manual on the subject
was in preparation. In one case a deva was found teaching the most
wonderful celestial music to a chorister; and in another one of a
different class was giving instruction and guidance to an astronomer
who was seeking to comprehend the form and structure of the universe.
These two were but examples of many instances in which the great deva
kingdom was found to be helping onward the evolution and responding
to the higher aspirations of man after death; and there are methods
by which, even during earth-life, these great ones may be approached,
and an infinity of knowledge acquired from them, though even then such
intercourse is gained rather by rising to their plane than by invoking
them to descend to ours.
In the ordinary events of our physical life the deva very rarely
interferes--indeed, he is so fully occupied with the far grander work
of his own plane that he is probably scarcely conscious of this; and
though it may occasionally happen that he becomes aware of some human
sorrow or difficulty which excites his pity and moves him to endeavour
to help in some way, his wider vision undoubtedly recognizes that at
the present stage of evolution such interpositions would in the vast
majority of cases be productive of infinitely more harm than good.
There was indubitably a period in the past--in the infancy of the human
race--when it was much more largely assisted from outside than is at
present the case. At the time when all its Buddhas and Manus, and even
its more ordinary leaders and teachers, were drawn either from the
ranks of the deva evolution or from the perfected humanity of a more
advanced planet, any such assistance as we are considering in this
treatise must also have been given by these exalted beings. But as man
progresses he becomes himself qualified to act as a helper, first on
the physical plane and then on higher levels; and we have now reached a
stage at which humanity ought to be able to provide, and to some slight
extent does provide, invisible helpers for itself, thus setting free
for still more useful and elevated work those beings who are capable of
it.
It becomes obvious then that such assistance as that to which we are
here referring may most fitly be given by men and women at a particular
stage of their evolution; not by the adepts, since they are capable of
doing far grander and more widely useful work, and not by the ordinary
person of no special spiritual development, for he would be unable to
be of any use. Just as these considerations would lead us to expect,
we find that this work of helping on the astral and lower mental planes
is chiefly in the hands of the pupils of the Masters--men who, though
yet far from the attainment of adeptship, have evolved themselves to
the extent of being able to function consciously upon the planes in
question.
Some of these have taken the further step of completing the links
between the physical consciousness and that of the higher levels, and
they therefore have the undoubted advantage of recollecting in waking
life what they have done and what they have learnt in those other
worlds; but there are many others who, though as yet unable to carry
their consciousness through unbroken, are nevertheless by no means
wasting the hours when they think they are asleep, but spending them in
noble and unselfish labour for their fellow-men.
What this labour is we will proceed to consider, but before we enter
upon that part of the subject we will first refer to an objection which
is very frequently brought forward with regard to such work, and we
will also dispose of the comparatively rare cases in which the agents
are either nature-spirits or men who have cast off the physical body.
People whose grasp of Theosophical ideas is as yet imperfect are often
in doubt as to whether it is allowable for them to try to help some one
whom they find in sorrow or difficulty, lest they should interfere
with the fate which has been decreed for him by the absolute justice
of the eternal law of karma. “The man is in his present position,”
they say in effect, “because he has deserved it; he is now working out
the perfectly natural result of some evil which he has committed in
the past; what right have I to interfere with the action of the great
cosmic law by trying to ameliorate his condition, either on the astral
plane or the physical?”
Now the good people who make such suggestions are really, however
unconsciously to themselves, exhibiting the most colossal conceit, for
their position implies two astounding assumptions; first, that they
know exactly what another man’s karma has been, and how long it has
decreed that his sufferings shall last; and secondly, that they--the
insects of a day--could absolutely override the cosmic law and prevent
the due working-out of karma by any action of theirs. We may be well
assured that the great kârmic deities are perfectly well able to manage
their business without our assistance, and we need have no fear that
any steps we may take can by any possibility cause them the slightest
difficulty or uneasiness.
If a man’s karma is such that he cannot be helped, then all our
well-meant efforts in that direction will fail, though we shall
nevertheless have gained good karma for ourselves by making them. What
the man’s karma has been is no business of ours; our duty is to give
help to the utmost of our power, and our right is only to the act;
the result is in other and higher hands. How can we tell how a man’s
account stands? For all we know he may just have exhausted his evil
karma, and be at this moment at the very point where a helping hand is
needed to give relief and raise him out of his trouble or depression;
why should not we have the pleasure and privilege of doing that good
deed as well as another? If we _can_ help him, then that fact of
itself shows that he has deserved to be helped; but we can never know
unless we try. In any case the law of karma will take care of itself,
and we need not trouble ourselves about it.
The cases in which assistance is given to mankind by nature-spirits
are few. The majority of such creatures shun the haunts of man, and
retire before him, disliking his emanations and the perpetual bustle
and unrest which he creates all around him. Also, except some of their
higher orders, they are generally inconsequent and thoughtless--more
like happy children at play under exceedingly favourable physical
conditions than like grave and responsible entities. Still it sometimes
happens that one of them will become attached to a human being, and do
him many a good turn; but at the present stage of its evolution this
department of nature cannot be relied upon for anything like steady
co-operation in the work of invisible helpers. For a fuller account
of the nature-spirits the reader is referred to the fifth of our
Theosophical manuals.
Again, help is sometimes given by those recently departed--those who
are still lingering on the astral plane, and still in close touch
with earthly affairs, as (probably) in the above-mentioned case of
the mother who saved her children from falling down a well. But it
will readily be seen that the amount of such help available must
naturally be exceedingly limited. The more unselfish and helpful a
person is, the less likely is he to be found after death lingering
in full consciousness on the lower levels of the astral plane, from
which the earth is most readily accessible. In any case, unless he
were an exceptionally bad man, his stay within the realm whence alone
any interference would be possible would be comparatively short; and
although from the heaven-world he may still shed benign influence upon
those whom he has loved on earth, it will usually be rather of the
nature of a general benediction than a force capable of bringing about
definite results in a specific case, such as those which we have been
considering.
Again, many of the departed who wish to help those whom they left
behind, find themselves quite unable to influence them in any way,
since to work from one plane upon an entity on another requires either
very great sensitiveness on the part of that entity, or a certain
amount of knowledge and skill on the part of the operator. Therefore,
although instances of apparitions shortly after death are by no means
uncommon, it is rare to find one in which the departed person has
really done anything useful, or succeeded in impressing what he wished
upon the friend or relation whom he visited. There are such cases, of
course--a good many of them when we come to put them all together; but
they are not numerous compared to the great number of ghosts who have
succeeded in showing themselves. So that but little help is usually
given by the dead--indeed, as will presently be explained, it is far
more common for them to be themselves in need of assistance than to be
able to accord it to others.
At present, therefore, the main bulk of the work which has to be done
along these lines falls to the share of those living persons who are
able to function consciously on the astral plane.