Theos-Talk Archives (May 1998 Message tt00148)

>From : Sophia TenBroeck
Submitted in observance of  H. P. Blavatsky's White Lotus Day--1998
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

		WHITE   LOTUS   DAY -- 1998

			8th of May

	[Reprinted from THE  THEOSOPHICAL  MOVEMENT, April 1935]

   The Theosophical world will commemorate on the 8th of May the
Anniversary of the Passing of the greatest Theosophist of this era.  The
student of Theosophy will prepare himself to participate in that holy
festival.

   The main task of the student is the acquiring of some perception
about H.P.B.—the teacher who passed on to all of us the light of Great
Teachers.  She ever disclaimed exaggerated praise of herself, and one of
the warnings she gave may be quoted here.  Commenting on high praise to
herself expressed in an article, "Yoga and Kalpa," in The Theosophist
for December 1883 (Vol. V. p. 77), H.P.B. makes the following comment :

	   We fully appreciate the kindly feeling in which we are    referred
to in the following article.  But  there should be a limit    even to
sincerely-felt expressions.  We have no desire of       following in the
steps of Kesub C. Sen, and never have or will lay    claims to being
classed with Sadhus or Gurus, "who have attained      the whole truth,"
least of all with "gods."  We warn our kind        Brother:  too much of
enthusiasm degenerates generally into       fanaticism.

           Unwise as such an error may be, it is not so bad as that
blunder which damns H.P.B.'s message and work with faint praise.
Every student should guard against a false estimate of the    Messenger
of the Masters and the Friend of all learners—avoiding    both extremes.
Whoever or whatever she was, she was not an    ordinary being.  To try
to understand H.P.B., save and except    through the philosophy she
taught, is a task fraught with risk.  To   try to visualize H.P.B. with
the aid of portraits painted by those    who surrounded her is worse
than profitless.  They depicted    incidents and events, heard of or
seen, the hidden motives of which   were more of less unfathomable to
them; and this, not because    H.P.B. wished to hide anything, but
because they had not the minds    to understand what their eyes saw, nor
the hearts to appraise what    their ears heard.  How could such people
who had not the all-round    perception needed for the task be relied
upon?  The very fact that    they drew conflicting pictures ought to
make thoughtful students    pause and ponder.

   Leave such alone and turn in the other direction.  The most
remarkable portrait is the one which emerges from the letters of those
Masters whose servant H.P.B. was; but even that portrait requires expert
knowledge and high discrimination for a true evaluation.  These virtues
have been conspicuous by their absence in theosophic interpreters.  What
is present?  Mostly rash and impulsive pronouncements, by those who
arrogate to themselves the power to know what the Masters surely and
unequivocally meant!  Numerous students of H.P.B.'s have indulged in
this folly for many, many years.  Instead of quietly meditating on what
the Masters have said, so that their own perception may grow and their
own insight deepen, these people perused what the Masters wrote
"explained" what They meant, and laughed at H.P.B.'s "whims and
fancies," H.P.B.'s "lack of control over herself," and so forth.  People
who were not worthy of unlashing her shoelaces fancied themselves
sufficiently progressed entities to judge and criticize her.  Thousands
in the Theosophical world have been taken in by such talk of deluded
"pupil" and self-styled "successors," some of whom proclaimed
themselves—albeit in whispers—as having taken initiations which H.P.B.
was not able to take!  The ruin of the Theosophical Movement to a
considerable extent is due to this.  Let the students of this generation
read the statements of the Great Ones.  If they desire to understand
their real significance let them maintain reverent silence—and meditate.

   From the many letters of the Masters we extract a few statements to
aid the student in his task referred to above.

	   While fathering upon us all manner of foolish, often clumsy    and
suspected phenomena, she has most undeniably been helping us in    many
instances;  saving us sometimes as much a two-thirds of the    power
used, and when remonstrated—for often we are unable to    prevent her
doing it on her end of the line—answering that she       had no need of
it, and that her only joy was to be of some use to     us.  And thus she
kept on killing herself inch by inch, ready to      give—for our benefit
and glory, as she thought—her life-blood drop    by drop, and yet
invariably denying before witnesses that she had     anything to do with
it.  Would you call this sublime, albeit       foolish
self-abnegation—"dishonest"?  We do not;  nor shall we ever    consent
to regard it in such a light.

	   You see the surface of things; and what you would term    "virtue,"
holding to appearances, we judge but after having    fathomed the object
to its profoundest depth, and generally leave    the appearances to take
care of themselves.  In your opinion H.P.B.    is, at best, for those
who like her despite herself—a quaint,    strange woman, a psychological
riddle impulsive and kindhearted,    yet not free from the vice of
untruth.  We, on the other hand,    under the garb of eccentricity and
folly—we find a profound wisdom    in her inner Self than you will ever
find yourselves able to    perceive.  In the superficial details of her
homely, hard-working    common-place daily life and affairs, you discern
but    unpracticality, womanly impulses, often absurdity and folly; we,
on    the contrary, light daily upon traits of her inner nature the most
delicate and refined, and which would cost an uninitiated
psychologist years of constant and keen observation, and many an    hour
of close analysis and efforts to draw out of the depth of that    most
subtle of mysteries—human mind—and one of her most complicated
machines—H.P.B.'s mind—and thus learn to know her true inner Self.

   Even these direct words of the Great Ones are not as helpful as her
own philosophical ethical writings in affording us a glimpse of the real
H.P.B.  In The Voice of the Silence we obtain a sketch-map of the
discipline through which she herself passed; from Isis Unveiled we learn
a little of her hard task, and long travels to gather knowledge;  in The
Secret Doctrine we get an idea of the sweep of her vast learning with
numberless details—of which she gave only a partial expression.  In The
Key to Theosophy and many articles her devotion to humanity, her zeal to
serve her fellowmen, her power to teach others to tread the path of
sacrifice and service manifest themselves.  It is in her writings that
we have the means to carry out the solemn injunction of H.P.B.:  "Follow
the path I show, the Masters that are behind—and do not follow me or my
Path."

   H.P.B. showed the path to the Masters, and while the homage of our
hearts in devotion and gratitude goes to those Suns of Light, how can we
forget the Window through which the Light poured in and continues to
pour in?  In a darkened house of thick walls of Kaliyuga-ignorance we
live, and but for the window that H.P.B. provided, where would students
of Theosophy be?  Wise are the words of Robert Crosbie, Founder of the
U.L.T., and they may be taken as a direction by every genuine student of
to-day :

	   I and every other was thought of in the message and the    direction
They gave.  It was and is not to be trimmed by    interpretations, nor
special mediums.  It stands as Their message    as it was left by Them,
and no one has the right to change it.  WE    WILL NOT,  Let others do
as they please—assume authority if 	they    think well of it;  but we
reject every authority except that of our    expanding spiritual
perceptions, and we recognize and give our    devotion to the cause of
Theosophy, and are loyal unto death to the    great Founders of the
Movement.
				-------End-------
~~~~~~~
Typed from a reprint of the above which appeared in The Theosophical
Movement for April 1998, pp. 181-4.  Tried to my best to see that no
typographical errors crept in, if any have my apologies


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com