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in the writings of H P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge

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Periodical No1 Vol. LXXXIX

July, 2018


SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE

Even if thou wert the greatest of all sinners, thou shalt be able to cross over all sins in the bark of spiritual knowledge. As the natural fire, O Arjuna, reduceth fuel to ashes, so does the fire of knowledge reduce all actions to ashes. There is no perifier in this world to be compared to spiritual knowledge, and he who is perfect in devotion findeth spiritual knowledge springing up spontaneously in himself in the progress of time.

--Bhagavad-Gita

There is great encouragement in Krishna's words to Arjuna in the second chapter of the Gita: "In this system there is no destruction of or detriment to one's efforts; even a very small portion of this duty delivereth a man from freat fear." This refers to the Law of Karma. Every point of progress gained is never in reality lost. Even did we die at a time when our lives were not stainless, the real level of our development would not be lowered, for upon reassuming a mortal body in some after life on this earth we take up the thread just where we dropped it. In a later chapter Krishna says that we "come in contact with the knowledge which belonged to us in a former body, and from that time we struggle more diligently toward perfection." The aim for present man is his initiation into complete knowledge, and for the other kingdoms below him that they may be raised up gradually from stage to stage to be in time initiated also. This is evolution carried to its highest power; it is a magnificent prospect; it makes of man a god for no one is so originally sinful that he cannot rise above all sin. The old theosophical view makes the universe a vast, complete, and perfect whole.

- William Q. Judge

 




Periodical No2 Vol. LXXXIX

August, 2018


 

THE SPREAD OF ALTRUISM

The present Theosophical Movement has proved that neither race, nor creed, neith color, nor old antipathies are iremovable obstacles to the spread of the idea of altruism and himan brotherhood. - Utopian dream as it may have been considered by theorists who view man as a mere physical problem, ignoring the inner, greater, higher self. Though but a minority of our members are mystically inclined, yet, in point of fact the key to all our successes is in our recognition of the fact of the Higher Self---cplorless, cosmopolitan, unsectarian, sexless, unworldly, altristic, - and the doing of our work on that basis. To the Secularist, the Agmostic, the Sciolistic Scientist, such results would have been unattainable, nay, would have been unthinkable. Peace Societies are Utopian, because no amount of argument based upon exoteric considerations of social morals or expediency, can turn the hearts of the rulers of nations away from selfish war and schemes of conquest.

Social differentiations, the result of physical evolution and material environment, breed race hatreds and sectarian and social antipathies that are insurmountable if attacked from the outside. But, since human nature is ever identical, all men are alike open to influences which center upon the human "heart," and appeal to the human intuition, and as there is but one absolute Truth, and this is the soul and life of all human creeds, it is possible to effect a reciprocal alliance for the dissemination of that basic Truth. We know that a comprehensive term for that Eternal Varity is the "Secret Doctrine"; we have preached it, have won a hearing, have, to some extent, swept away old barriers, formed our fraternal nucleus, and by reviving the Aryan Literature, caused its precious religious, philosophical and scientific teachings to spread among the most distant nations.

-H.P.Blavatsky

 



Periodical No3 Vol. LXXXIX

September, 2018


CYCLES OF DESTINY

SEPTEMBER 2018

As our planet revolves once every year around the sun and at the same time turns once every twenty-four hours upon its own axis, thus traversing minor cycles within the larger one, so is the work of the smaller cyclic periods accomplished and recommenced, within the Great Saros. The revolution of the physical world, according to the ancient doctrine, is attended by a like revolution in the world of intellect -- the spiritual evolution of the world proceeding in cycles, like the physical one. Thus we see in history a regular alternation of ebb and flow in the tide of human progress. The great kingdoms and empires of the world, after reaching the culmination of their greatness, descend again, in accordance with the same law by which they ascended; till, having reached the lowest point, humanity reasserts itself and mounts up once more, the height of its attainment being, by this law of ascending progression by cycles, somewhat higher than the point from which it had before descended.

But these cycles -- wheels within wheels, -- do not affect all mankind at one and the same time. They are called in the Eastern esotericism the Karmic cycles. In the West, the full and awful significance of the Greek NEMESIS (or Karma) has been entirely forgotten. Otherwise Christians would have better realized the profound truth that Nemesis is without attributes; that while the dreaded goddess is absolute and immutable as a Principle, it is we ourselves -- nations and individuals -- who propel her to action and give the impulse to its direction. KARMA-NEMESIS is the creator of nations and mortals, but once created, it is they who make of her either a fury or a rewarding Angel.

-H. P. Blavatsky