LIGHT ON THE PATH - 90 : Desire power ardently. - 8

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 90 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 7 - THE 13th RULE

🌻 13. Desire power ardently. - 8 🌻

350. We can understand how these things work. A vibration is most easily received by that which is in tune with it. If a man feels very angry he is liable to stir up the emotion of anger in the astral bodies of other people around him.

That will also disturb their lower thought; but it will not affect their higher thought, if they have any – most people have not as yet. One of the things we as students are trying to do in our thought and meditation is to awaken the higher parts of the mental body and bring them into working order.

Those who meditate regularly on the Masters and on the things connected with Them, must be using the higher part of the mental body to some extent, and the more it is used, the more will our thought be unaffected by desires, passions and emotions.

But since most people do not get so far as that, the great mass of thought in the world is very much coloured by desire, and most thought-forms that we see are loaded with astral as well as with mental matter.

351. We all live much too close together, with the consequence that even while other people may not be thinking of us they affect us. Of course we in turn affect them, and we should always definitely try to affect them for good.

If we set ourselves to be a centre of uttermost peace and love we shall very greatly help all those around us, but while we are centres of desire and emotion and selfish feeling we make development impossible not only for ourselves but for all those near to us, and that is a very serious matter. Every aspirant ought to take to heart the fact that he is preventing the progress of others if he gives way to this personal desire.

352. The power of self-effacement is impossible of attainment until we have utterly weeded out all personal desire. We talk of our devotion to our work and to the Masters; surely that is not too much to do for Their sake.

Even if a very great effort is necessary we ought to be willing to make it for the sake of these Great Ones who have done so much for us, through whom all the Theosophical teaching has come to us.

It is not a question of affording Them gratification by doing these things – though surely They cannot but be pleased to see the progress of those whom They are trying to help – but it is also common sense. If we want to help in evolution, the first and most necessary thing to do is to take ourselves in hand.

We must gain that control over the lower self which makes us appear as nothing in the eyes of men. Be it so; many of the great forces are working unseen. We may be among those forces, and as such we can afford to appear insignificant in the sight of the world.

Continues...

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31 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 89 : Desire power ardently. - 7

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 89 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 7 - THE 13th RULE

🌻 13. Desire power ardently. - 7 🌻

348. That is difficult, truly, because when that is perfectly done it means that the man is looking down from the ego upon this lower world. Even the use of the lower mind will give much of that power, although we get it perfectly only in the causal body.

The lower mind can exercise discrimination, and if we use it from the higher standpoint and do not allow it to be clouded by personal feeling, it is a very fine and beautiful thing when fully developed. We are rather proud of our intellectual development in this fifth sub-race of the fifth root race, which emphasizes this discriminating work of the lower mind, but what we call intellect is only a very small thing as compared with that which is to develop in the course of the next round, which will be that really devoted to intellect.

We are proud of the achievements of the lower mind, and not without a certain amount of reason; it has done wonderful work in science and invention.

But only those who are able to look forward into the future and have also seen the Masters, who are men of the future, realize what we shall be perhaps in the course of a few thousands of years. I can bear witness that our highest intellectual activity now is but child’s play compared to what it will be in the future, so it is clear that there is a splendid vista opening before us.

349. What the ordinary person calls his mind is exclusively the lowest part of it. In his mind there are four subdivisions, consisting of matter of the seventh, sixth, fifth and fourth sub-planes of the mental plane respectively, but practically he is using matter of the lowest or seventh sub-plane only.

That is very near to the astral plane; therefore all his thoughts are coloured by reflections from the astral world, and so they are much mixed with emotion, feelings and desires. Very few people can deal with the sixth sub-plane as yet.

Our great scientific men certainly use it a good deal, but unfortunately they often mingle with it the matter of the lowest sub-plane and then they become jealous of other people’s discoveries and inventions. If they can rise to the fifth sub-plane they are already getting much more free from the possibility of astral entanglement.

If they can raise themselves to the fourth sub-plane, which is the highest part of the mental body, they are then in the very middle of the mental plane, and next to them is the causal body. They are then far away from the possibility of having their thoughts affected by astral vibrations.

Continues...
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29 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 88 : Desire power ardently. - 6

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 88 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 7 - THE 13th RULE

🌻 13. Desire power ardently. - 6 🌻

346. There is, however, a side to that which is quite right and true. When people meet with a statement about something which they do not know and cannot verify for themselves, it is a matter of importance to them who said it. They may say: “Dr. Besant makes this statement; I have great reason to believe that she knows all about this matter, consequently I accept her statement.”

After all, that is no more than we do in regard to science. There are many facts in science which we have no means of proving for ourselves, but because certain eminent men have investigated these subjects and have come to certain conclusions we accept them. 

But when we consider a beautiful ethical statement, it does not matter whether it comes from the Bible or the Bhagavad-Gita, the Koran or the Vedas; we should accept it for its worth. It is then a question of the felicity of the expression and the beauty of the idea.

347. Just as we accept things, or try to do so, for what they are worth, so we must try to value our own work at what it is worth, and not think that, because we have done it, it must necessarily be well done.

Most men who can do anything very well know also the imperfections of their work. When a thing is good we should gladly admit that it is so; when we see faults in our own or in anyone else’s work we should not hesitate to say: “I do not agree; I think so-and-so might be better done.” 

It is well to get into the attitude of mind that does not care whence a thing comes if it is a good thing, and also does not hesitate to put aside the evil, even when it comes from oneself.

Continues...

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28 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 87 : Desire power ardently. - 5

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 87 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 7 - THE 13th RULE

🌻 13. Desire power ardently. - 5 🌻


344. In all matters of principle we must take a firm stand. For example, strict vegetarianism is with us a principle, because we believe it to be best in every way, not only for ourselves but for all the world around us.

It is a little inconvenient when we go out to dinner or when we are travelling, but we let such trifling inconveniences pass, and keep to our own point of view. But in a vast number of other things, which really do not matter, it saves trouble to yield to the ordinary customs of the time.

As regards our dress – to take another instance. The dress of modern man is peculiarly ugly, uncomfortable and unhealthy, but it saves trouble to adopt it. If we set ourselves against it, however much more rational, aesthetic and beautiful our costume might be, we should attract unwelcome attention, and should probably be regarded as more or less insane.

It is not worth while. It is better not to make ourselves unduly conspicuous by opposing things which do not matter. But when a principle is involved we must hold steadily to what we think is right.


345. If we could get into an absolutely impersonal attitude about all work it would help us very much. Ruskin speaks of that with regard to art; he says that while self-praise and conceit are vulgar beyond words, undue self-depreciation is only another form of vulgarity.

We should aim at the condition of mind in which we are able to view the work from the outside, and to say: “Be it mine or yours, or whose else it may, this also is well.”

We must be able to praise a good piece of work when we see it, not because it is ours or our friends ‘, or because it bears a great name, but just because it is good, putting aside absolutely the question of who did it. I am afraid we do not always do this. Our reason for quoting something is not always because it is fine and beautiful, but because Madame Blavatsky said it or Dr. Besant wrote it.

Continues...

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26 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 86 : Desire power ardently. - 4

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 86 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj


CHAPTER 7 - THE 13th RULE

🌻 13. Desire power ardently. - 4 🌻


342. A man who works without any regard to his own interests and is always willing to remain in the background is inevitably misunderstood by the world.

People understand and admire a man of strong will, who sets out to make a name for himself, to make an impression, and pushes his way to the front. Such a man has succeeded, from their point of view; he has shown the world that he is a strong man. The occultist may be in reality much more forceful, but he would not show his power in that way.

He seeks generally to efface himself. He realizes that one of the greatest qualifications is to know when to get out of the way, to know when to let the divine power do its work without spoiling and hindering it by putting himself in the way of it. It seems so simple, and yet the fact that there are hundreds of workers who cannot do it shows that it is really a great difficulty.


343. The man of the world is apt to regard the occultist as a person of no particular will-power, as one who is always ready to give way. So he is, as regards the minor details of life.

He lets others have their way in things which do not matter, and is even willing to be managed up to a certain point; but when it comes to a question of principle, he takes a firm stand. He cares nothing about what people say. People who talk and speculate about others are wrong in nine cases out of ten, so what does it matter what they happen to think about us? As Tennyson says, “Let them rave.”

Of course, I do not mean that we should utterly ignore all worldly conventions. In the early days some of our members felt that it was right to appear different from other people in the matter of wearing evening dress, and so on. We need not outrage the customs of society in this way. Moreover, it seems to me that if we wish to recommend our beliefs we must avoid offending the world unnecessarily.

It is not good policy to set ourselves violently against other people’s ideas. When there comes a point in which no principle is involved we must give way, merely because there is no sense in flying in the face of the usages of the world.

Continues...
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25 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 85 : Desire power ardently. - 3

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 85 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 7 - THE 13th RULE

🌻 13. Desire power ardently. - 3 🌻

339. All the problems of life which seem complex, if not incomprehensible, down here, become far simpler when looked at from a higher plane. The same thing is true of much lower levels.

When one examines microscopic creatures such as live in a drop of water one finds complex and beautiful forms of life. The further one goes into these infinitely small matters the more one discovers their amazing complexity.

One wonders how even to the Deity Himself these worlds could possibly be a, simple thing, and yet they are, for when we look from even such higher points of view as we are able to gain, we can see that it is the permutations and combinations of the seven forces of the One Life which produce all these wonderful results.

The factors involved in the production are few and simple; therefore the higher one rises the more one can understand, and that which down here seems impossible to grasp proves quite within reach when viewed from higher levels.

340. We may reverently and reasonably assume, I think, that the Logos can hold the whole of His system simultaneously in His mind, and without any difficulty see what is being done in every remotest ramification of it. The whole system in all its multiplicity must be immediately self-evident – something one could put down on a sheet of foolscap, as it were.

To the Manu and Bodhi-sattva the work of moulding and guiding the races of men, which seems to us so complex and even confused, must be quite clear and straightforward.

341. Our business is to serve the Master in our small sphere. The detail is our care, not His. What He wants is that the whole work shall go well, and anything that we can do to make it do so is our share in it.

Those who stand nearer to Him in thought and have by such association grown somewhat into His attitude in regard to it, are always eager to do anything, however simple, which may seem of use.

We can write a little letter, perhaps, which will change the current of a man’s life, or we may deliver a lecture and try to change the opinion of some hundreds of people, and not succeed; the little letter is just as real a piece of work.

There may be some of us who are so busy that we cannot do anything personally. In that case we are probably earning money, and so perhaps we could give some money to enable others to do that work.

There are a great many little ways in which every one can work. It is no use waiting for a big opportunity with the idea that when it comes we shall be ready to take it. We are very much more likely to be ready if we get ourselves into the habit of always doing the little things that we can do now.


Continues...
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24 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 84 : Desire power ardently. - 2

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 84 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 7 - THE 13th RULE

🌻 13. Desire power ardently. - 2 🌻

336. When a man first sees what life in the causal body is really like he also realizes how very useful he could be at that level, how many lines there are along which his activity could pour itself out, and he may well be disposed to ask: “Is it not better that I should do this new and splendid work which I see opening before me?” 

I have myself made a practice of seeking the advice or wish of the Master whenever what seemed to be grand opportunities opened up, and yet there was a possibility that it might be even better still to renounce them. I would say: “Master, what do you wish me to do?” Often His reply would be: “It is a matter for you to decide.” 

Then one can only use one’s own best judgment. No rule can be laid down in such cases. I should still be disposed to try the higher; but it must be remembered that we are cautioned again and again: 

“Do not let desire for your own development stand in the way of any useful work that you can do. Your development will come in due course.” I have always followed that plan, and I think-that it is the safest attitude.

337. Through the work done in that spirit of self-forgetful-ness we gain the power which shall make us appear as nothing in the eyes of men. Let us, if necessary, welcome humiliation because it all helps to put the personality out of sight and that is what is most needed. 

When opportunities come, we must take them, but always we should think: “It is not my work; it is the Master’s work.” It does not matter which of those who follow the Master has the privilege of doing any particular piece Of work for Him. Our business is to watch that we may lose no opportunity of doing any part of His work.

338. We should understand that there is nothing small or great in His work, but that anything, however small, done and offered to Him is as important in His sight as that which is a far greater achievement in the world’s eyes. We are a little apt to want to do what we think is the greater work. 

That is because we do not see that all parts of the\work are equally necessary. Realize for a moment how He must look down upon the whole from His stupendous elevation of wider power and knowledge. All these pieces of work will look very tiny, but all fit into their places.

Continues...

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23 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 83 : Desire power ardently. - 1

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 83 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 7 - THE 13th RULE

🌻 13. Desire power ardently. - 1 🌻

331. C.W.L. – The comment of the Chohan on this is:

332. And that power which the disciple shall covet is that which shall make him appear as nothing in the eyes of men.

333. The power that makes us appear as nothing in the eyes of men is the power of self-effacement in the work – of doing it without wanting any credit for it. Many people want to be in the forefront. That is often regarded as merely a sort of harmless vanity, but it means that they have not yet forgotten the lower self.

334. The disciple does not seek credit for anything he does; he seeks to get the work done and so long as it is done he cares not at all whether he or somebody else has the credit for having done it. If he has to put himself forward and draw people round him he does so, but not because he wants the credit of it. He knows it is always far better to keep in the background if possible.

335. It is always best not to think of results at all, but to do the best we can and forget ourselves. All occult teaching leads back to that one fundamental fact – forget the lower self and get to work.

Some people are constantly thinking of their own progress. It is at least better to think of making spiritual progress than to desire worldly wealth, but it is still selfishness, only in a more refined form. My own experience would lead me to say that the very best way to get on is to forget all about one’s own progress and simply devote oneself to the Master’s work.

If one does that the rest will follow. It is the old truth stated “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” That is utterly true; these other things come. When we are not looking for progress we suddenly find that we have really made some, and that also is well.

Continues...

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22 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 82 : Desire only that which is unattainable. - It is unattainable, because it for ever recedes. You will enter the light, but you will never touch the Flame. - 1

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 82 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 6 - THE 11th RULE

🌻 11. Desire only that which is unattainable. - It is unattainable, because it for ever recedes. You will enter the light, but you will never touch the Flame. - 1 🌻

328. C.W.L. – This does not mean that the higher life at which we aim is unattainable, but that when we have reached one height we always see another peak beyond.

We shall draw ever nearer and nearer to the Divine, becoming one with Him at level after level, but the Flame, His true consciousness, we shall never touch. There are many stages on the way, and they grow more and more indescribable in their beauty as we rise.

To whatever height we raise our consciousness, into whatever ineffable glories we can rise, we always see something more glorious still beyond. The Flame ever recedes. So far as any knowledge that we have goes, that chain of increasing glory and beauty is endless.

Perhaps it is not much use speculating upon that. The Lord Buddha said long ago that it was profitless to speak of the beginning and the end, because “Veil after veil will lift, but there must be veil after veil behind.”

329. I wish I could bring home to every one, as utterly and as vividly as I myself feel it, this absolute certainty of the progress that lies ahead, of its wonderful glory and beauty and power and wisdom and love, how from step to step it rises and becomes ever more and more indescribable down here, and more and more glorious and beautiful and true above.

The road to it lies through unselfishness. Only when we rise out of the lower self into the higher life, into the wider universal Self does the way open, and there is no limit to the glory and the splendour which man may then attain.

Continues...

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20 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 81 : Desire only that which is beyond you. - It is beyond you, because when you reach it you have lost yourself. - 2

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 81 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 6 - THE 10th RULE

🌻 10. Desire only that which is beyond you. - It is beyond you, because when you reach it you have lost yourself. - 2 🌻

324. At each of these stages we feel that we have grasped the truth, and entered upon the real life, but presently we realize that there is something still higher, as high again as that was beyond our previous experience. All the way up we have to drop the lower before we can really gain the higher.

That is to say, we have to lose the life we know before we can reach the higher life which we hope to attain. At each stage, as we reach it, we find that we have lost the self which we have known previously, because we have transcended it. We have lost it in finding a higher self.

325. It is written in the books that we become one with the Logos, merged in Him. Now, that final result we know nothing of, but this much some of us can say from our own personal experience, that many such mergings at different levels take place in the progress of the soul, and in each of them it seems that we become utterly one with the highest which then we can reach, yet never through all that do we lose anything of our true Self.

When we rise, let us say, into the buddhic consciousness, and lose the causal body, we have lost the lower life, but that was never more than a very inadequate manifestation of a small part of us. All that we have gained through the long series of lives is still there.

What we have shed is only the outer form in which our various qualities expressed themselves. We have the qualities still, on a higher level, shining forth with greater brilliancy, but the form in which they were cast has gone.

Because people so constantly identify the life with the form, to many it seems that should they lose that form there would be nothing left. On the contrary, nothing that has been gained is ever lost.

Continues...
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19 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 80 : 10. Desire only that which is beyond you. - It is beyond you, because when you reach it you have lost yourself. - 1

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 80 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 6 - THE 10th RULE

🌻 10. Desire only that which is beyond you. - It is beyond you, because when you reach it you have lost yourself. - 1 🌻

321. C.W.L. – “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

That happens over and over again at various stages. Consider the man of the world living his ordinary life, which is very largely a life in his emotions – in some cases in quite the lower emotions.

As soon as he begins to understand the higher side of things he realizes that there is something higher and nobler than that. But he finds also that unless he is willing to put aside that lower and coarser life, he cannot really grasp the higher; he must lose the lower in order that he may gain the higher.

322. At the next step the man comes to live in his mind to a large extent. He realizes that to be swept about by tides of passion is, after all, ignoble, and that the mind should select and dominate the emotions and allow only such as it approves, for the sake of progress.

Presently he gets beyond that, and finds that the mind also is not fully satisfactory, but that there is a higher life than that of the mind. So gradually he begins to live in the ego, and to look at everything from that standpoint, which is a very great advance.

But eventually even that is not enough for him. He realizes that there is a unity which lies beyond that stage, and so he begins to have some experience of the buddhic plane, and when he touches that nothing below it will ever again satisfy him.

323. Even that wonderful buddhic consciousness will, in its turn, be transcended. Beyond it is the consciousness of the atmic plane – nirvana. Above and beyond that again is the Monad.

Those who are not yet Adepts see the Monad manifesting as a triple spirit on the plane below its own, but on the attainment of Adeptship the Monad and the ego will have become one, and they will be conscious as the Monad – the Divine Spark.

Continues...

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18 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 79 : Desire only that which is within you. - The only light that can be shed upon the Path - 1

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 79 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 6 - THE 9th RULE

🌻 9. Desire only that which is within you. - The only light that can be shed upon the Path - 1 🌻

315. Originally we had a most beautiful statement of philosophy – the one philosophy that lies behind all religions. When the Gospel story, which was meant as an allegory, was degraded into a pseudo-historical account of the life of a man the religion became incomprehensible.

Consequently all the texts which really refer to this higher side of things have been distorted, and of course, they will not fit in with the truth which lies behind the idea. Because Christianity has forgotten much of its own original teaching, in these days it is customary to deny that it could ever have possessed any esoteric teaching.

The spiritual man has the Gnosis, and therefore understands that all the incidents related therein – the birth, the initiation, the illumination, and the ascension happened not once only in one place, but are steps in the spiritual life of every man as he progresses.

316. Modern orthodoxy still bases its beliefs on the ignorant faith of the undeveloped multitude, and persists in disowning what now remains of its once magnificent heritage, in the shape of a few priceless fragments of the Gnostic teaching. Having lost the higher interpretation it makes a desperate effort to present the lower one in a comprehensible form, but that cannot be done.

Students of Theosophy have the knowledge which enables them to interpret all these strange doctrines, and to see sense and beauty even in the crude utterances of the street preacher, because they understand what he would mean if only he knew a little more about his subject.

317. So what we are to desire is that which is within ourselves all the time; we shall not find it elsewhere. This very same idea was presented to us long ages ago in ancient Egypt. There they centred all their ideas of religion in “the hidden light” and “the hidden work”.

“The hidden light” was the Light that is in every man, and “the hidden work” was that which would enable him to manifest it, to bring it out in himself and then to help its development in others.

That was the cardinal point of their creed – that the Light is there, however much it may be overlaid: and however hopeless it may appear, our work is to withdraw the veils and let the Light shine forth.

318. People often make the mistake of looking for it elsewhere. They say: “We want the Masters to help us; we want the Masters to raise us.”

But I say, with the greatest reverence and respect, the Master cannot do that, the Logos Himself cannot do it. The Master can tell us how we may raise ourselves. The process is exactly analogous to the development of strength in the muscle.

No one can do that for another, but if he has the knowledge he can tell him how to do it for himself, and that is all the help one can have from outside. Another person can tell us that he followed certain rules and exercises and found that they brought good results.

The Master or the advanced pupil can also undoubtedly pour upon us force which makes our work easier, but that is all. It is the same all the way through. If we do not feel within us the power to respond to the beauty and glory of nature, that beauty and glory will pass us by. If we cannot see God within ourselves, it is useless to look for Him outside.

When we have realized ourselves as part of Him, then will the God within respond to the God without, and we shall begin to be really useful in His work, which, after all, is our chief object in life.

Continues...

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17 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 78 : Kill out the hunger for growth - Grow unconsciously, but eagerly anxious to open soul - 2

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 78 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER

📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 6 - THE 7th RULE

🌻 7. Kill out the hunger for growth - Grow unconsciously, but eagerly anxious to open soul - 2 🌻

305. C.W.L. – As far as we have gone in this book we have had the negative side of things before us. We have been told to kill out certain desires, but now we come to the positive side and learn what we may, and indeed must, desire. It may strike us as curious that we should be told to desire anything. 

Those who have studied the Indian books will remember that this is a point on which even the Upanishads differ. One Upanishad deprecates desire of all kinds; it argues that even to desire the right must be avoided, because we must be absolutely without any preference for this or for that. 

Another of those great scriptures directs that we must have the desire for progress, and says that when all other desires are conquered but the desire for the growth of the soul then there is for a man no more possibility of grief. 

We can reconcile those two statements if we take the first one to mean that if we have the desire to cooperate in even the higher work of the world as a separate self, thinking of ourselves and of the great things we can do, there is still a tinge of the idea of separation; 

but if we are able to think of ourselves as a part of humanity and as earning our advance on behalf of the humanity of which we are a part, and there is no longer any thought of self, then we have raised and purified our desire into an aspiration which is altogether desirable. 

Continues...

🌹 🌹 🌹 🌹 🌹

16 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 77 : Kill out the hunger for growth - Grow unconsciously, but eagerly anxious to open soul - 1

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 77 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 5 - THE 7th RULE

🌻 7. Kill out the hunger for growth - Grow unconsciously, but eagerly anxious to open soul - 1 🌻

302. Grow as the flower grows, unconsciously, but eagerly anxious to open its soul to the air. So must you press forward to open your soul to the Eternal.

But it must be the Eternal that draws forth your strength and beauty, not desire of growth. For in the one case you develop in the luxuriance of purity; in the other you harden by the forcible passion for personal stature.

303. A.B. – In the later stage of growth the disciple will feel himself opening out into the Eternal and realizing its beauty more and more.

The wish to grow that he may be greater than his brother then becomes impossible for him. Before that stage is reached he is still in danger, because of the greatness of what he has already achieved.

If he thinks of his growth as belonging to the separated self, and feels that he is himself becoming great, he is likely to fall. The only way to avoid that danger is to get rid of the wish to be great, to yield not to the desire for growth for one’s own sake.

For when he is on the higher plane of human growth the disciple must be indifferent as to whether he grows or not, but must care only for the divine Life and the divine Will, and think only of the joy that that can bring to all who welcome it into their lives.

304. C.W.L. – We are to grow as the flower grows. Why? Because the flower grows unselfishly, absolutely altruistically. It grows not to display itself, but in order that its race may become greater by its death. It exists not for the sake of obtaining fruit for itself, because the fruit does not come until the flower is dead.

Its entire growth is not for itself, but for other plants yet to come. So it is not by thinking of ourselves, but by striving for the good of others that we must press forward. The one great idea – that of helping in the work of the Logos – must draw us on.

We must work for the attainment of all virtues and powers simply in order that we may be of more use in His service; by forgetting ourselves in unselfish work we grow as part of the whole and so “develop in the luxuriance of purity”.

Continues...

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15 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 76 : Kill out desire for sensation. - Learn from sensation and observe it - 7

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 76 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 5 - THE 6th RULE

🌻 6. Kill out desire for sensation. - Learn from sensation and observe it - 7 🌻

300. Our attitude towards these things is very much that which we should take towards the troubles of little children.

A child breaks a doll and is in a tempest of tears and a passion of regret over it; we do all we can to sympathize with that child, but we are quite philosophical, we do not share the passion of regret. We are not in despair because a doll is broken or because this or that small matter may have happened in the school-life of the child.

We realize that there is a future, and that as compared to that future all these little matters are only temporary and not of great importance, although they are tremendously so to the child. We should be failing in our duty if we did not give the sympathy, but we should be foolish if we felt as much as that child felt – we should ourselves be acting in a childish manner.

It is exactly the same with the man who is learning to adopt a philosophical attitude. He sympathizes with the people who are so passionately upset over these things, but he himself is not disturbed. Just as one says to the child:

“Oh, well, never mind, it will be all right by and by,” so we should like to say to those who are surging under these emotions: “If you would only believe it, everything will come right and all will go well.” If we say that, we are considered unsympathetic, but it is absolutely true. We often find it difficult to avoid wonder as to how people can be so blind.

We see them surging wildly about things that do not matter in the least. They are often people with splendid possibilities, but they do not see them, and they allow themselves to be overwhelmed by mad surges of desire. We did the same thing ourselves thousands of years ago, perhaps.

Therefore we learn to be patient, understanding that it is a stage in evolution, though a very undesirable stage. So those of us who are still in danger of yielding to emotions of that sort must pull ourselves up and say: “Twenty lives ago this was perhaps excusable, but now, the time for it is past.”

If in every-day life we see a man of mature age throwing away all his time in pleasure we know that that may have been all very well twenty years ago, but now he ought to be thinking about the more serious things of life.

In the same way we ought to have risen to a level where our emotions are the higher emotions, where we have the one great idea of the work that God wills us to do.

Continues...

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13 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 75 : Kill out desire for sensation. - Learn from sensation and observe it - 6

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 75 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 5 - THE 6th RULE

🌻 6. Kill out desire for sensation. - Learn from sensation and observe it - 6 🌻

298. As far as lies in our power we will take steps to prevent what has been done from being done again, but we must have no sense of hatred. It is a case of noblesse oblige.

We stand quite infinitely above the sort of person who does that kind of thing; we are ages past him in evolution and development; we stand as far removed from him as he stands from the animal kingdom, and since that is so we ought to show our higher development by not sharing that passion of hatred.

299. We can study the effects of sensation only if we dissociate ourselves from it, if we stand outside and try to control the feeling and to learn from it. We must not be swept away in any such maelstrom of popular feeling, but we must try to see where it is wrong, and do what we can to put it right.

Many people, who are under the influence of that sensation of tremendous passion, think of us as rather apathetic, and cold; it is even possible that they sometimes think of us as lacking in patriotism if we refuse to hate. Of course that is not logical, but then people are not logical when under the influence of these great waves of hatred.

We can explain to them that patriotism does not call on one to hate other countries, but they sometimes do not see that we can love our own country without being obliged to hate another.

Continues...

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12 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 74 : Kill out desire for sensation. - Learn from sensation and observe it - 5

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 74 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 5 - THE 6th RULE

🌻 6. Kill out desire for sensation. - Learn from sensation and observe it - 5 🌻

295. Our enemies intentionally went to work deliberately to stir up hatred against us. That may, perhaps, have been effective for the time, as one of the tricks of the campaign.

They may have found that it paid in getting recruits and money, and so on; but it was a serious moral mistake. By it they put themselves quite conclusively in the wrong, as far as all higher aspects of the matter were concerned. But there is danger in such a case lest we should feel hatred too.

One has to be absolutely determined in the fight against evil, to carry it through to the uttermost, and yet be entirely free from anything like a thought of hatred. Remember how the Lord Buddha said: “Hatred never ceaseth by hatred.” On the contrary, it is always stirred up by it.

296. When one hears of terrible atrocities perpetrated upon women and children, one cannot but feel intense indignation. There is no harm in feeling indignant against such evil-doing.

It is a terrible thing, and all right-minded people will and should denounce it decidedly, without any sort of palliation or excuse; but it would be a great mistake to hate the unfortunate man who commits the crimes. He is to be pitied much more than blamed. It is not our business to blame him, but it is our duty to make it impossible for him to do these things again.

Our attitude should be that which a man would take towards some wild beast that is attacking his children. He would not dignify it by hating it, but he .would put it out of the way. We should be exceedingly sorry for the unfortunate people who did such things, because we see what the karma of it must be.

297. It is a terrible thing that women and children should be massacred, more terrible, perhaps, for the relations than for the victims themselves, but it is worst of all for those who commit the crime; it is they who are most to be pitied, because their suffering in the end will be very far more terrible.

Continues...

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11 Jan 2021

Theosophy / దివ్య జ్ఞానం - తలాలు ( dimensions) - 2

 

Theosophy/దివ్య జ్ఞానం - తలాలు ( dimensions) - 2 :

శాస్త్రజ్ఞుల స్థాయికి, ఋషుల స్థాయితో పోలిస్తే.... కొన్ని కోట్ల రెట్లు స్థాయీ భేదాలు ఉన్నాయి. మనకు అసలు ఏమీ తెలియదు. ఏదో నాలుగు ముక్కలు మాట్లాడి వేసుకుని అనుభూతి రహితంగా జీవిస్తున్నాము. అందుచేత మనము ఈ ఏడు తలల సాంద్రతను అర్థం చేసుకోవాలి. పరిపూర్ణమైన ఇటువంటి.... ఘనీభవించిన, అటువంటి ఆత్మ శక్తి ఏమిటి అంటే భౌతిక శరీరము. దీనినే మనము ఏడవ తలము అన్నాము. అంటే ఫిజికల్ ప్లేన్ అంటే మెటీరియల్ ప్లేన్ అంటే మేటర్. మనం మాట్లాడుకునే ఆది తలం.... భౌతిక- ఆదితలం.... అంటే 7.1 తలం. భౌతిక ఆది శరీరము ఏడు రెట్లు ఘనీభవిస్తే మనకు కనిపిస్తున్న ఈ భౌతిక - భౌతిక(7.7 తలం) శరీరము ఏర్పడుతుంది.

పదార్ధములలో ఉన్న అణువుల మధ్య ఉన్న ఖాళీ జాగా ఏమిటి? ఈ ఖాళీ జాగా నే "ఆకాశము" అంటాము కదా! ఆకాశ తత్వం యొక్క లక్షణం ఏమిటి శబ్దమే కదా! రూపం నకు నామం ఉంది. నామాతీత స్థితిలో ఎక్కడ ఉంటాం? విజ్ఞాన తలంలో ఉంటాం......నామ,రూపా తీత స్థితిలో ఏముందో...అదే విజ్ఞాన మయ తలం. ఆత్మ దాని పైన ఉన్నది. దానికి పైన ఉన్నది అనుపాదక తలం. దానికి పైన ఉన్నది ఆది తలం.

మనం ఎక్కడున్నాం? భౌతిక తలంలోనే ఉన్నాము. ఎంత తక్కువ స్థితిలో మనం ఉన్నామో తెలుసుకోండి..... ఎందుకు గురువులు మనల్ని పట్టించుకోరో మనకు అర్థం అయి ఉండాలి..... మీరు అరూపా స్థితి (నామ రూపాస్థితి)కి వస్తే తప్ప గురువు చెప్పింది మనకు అర్థం కాదు.

ఇప్పుడు మీరున్న స్థితిలో మీకు గురువు ఏదైనా చెప్పాడనుకోండి......గీత గీసేసు కుంటారు. ఇంకా ఆ గీత దాటరు. రూపం కదా !రూపాన్ని దాట గలగాలి.

అగ్నిలో పదార్ధాలన్ని వేసి సూక్ష్మీకృతం చేసి అంటే దాన్ని అరూపా స్థితికి తీసుకొని వెళ్లి, చల్లార్చి మనకు కావలసిన రూపాన్ని ఇచ్చుకుంటాము. ఈ ప్రక్రియే "యజ్ఞవిద్య" అనే అద్భుతమైన శాస్త్రము.

మనము జీవాత్మ ఎక్కడ ఉందో తెలుసుకోవాలని ప్రయత్నం చేస్తున్నాము. అది ఆది యొక్క ఆది తలంలో ఉంది.(1.1) ఆ స్థితికి చేరాలంటే, భౌతికంగా ఏడు తలాలు దాటి(7.7-7.1), కామము యొక్క ఏడు తరాలు దాటాలి(6.7-6.1) అవి దాటాక మనస్సు యొక్క ఏడు తలాలు దాటాలి(5.7-5.1) అలాగే 4.7-4.1,3.7-3.1,2.7-2.1,1.7-1.1 అలా అన్ని తరాలు కలిపి మొత్తం 49 తలాలు దాటాలి. వీటిని "49 మరుద్గణాలు "అని అంటారు. కానీ ఈ 49 మరుద్గణాలలో....మనం 42 తలాలకి నమస్కారం పెట్టేస్తున్నాము. అంటే ఆ తలాల యొక్క పరిజ్ఞానం మనకు లేదు.

ఇక మిగిలిన తలాలలో7వ తలమైన భౌతిక తలంలో

ఉన్నటువంటి 7 తలాల్లో కూడా మొదటి మూడు తలాలు అయిన భూః భూవః సువః గూర్చి మనం మాటలాడుతున్నాం. తర్వాత ఉన్న మహః జనః తపః సత్యం....ఈ తలాల గూర్చి సవ్య అవగాహన లేదు.(సశేషం)

📚శ్రీ మారెళ్ళ రామకృష్ణ మాష్టరు గారు

🖋️భట్టాచార్య


11 Jan 2021

Theosophy / దివ్య జ్ఞానము - తలాలు (dimensions) - 1

 

Theosophy / దివ్య జ్ఞానము - తలాలు (dimensions) - 1 :

శక్తి పదార్థంలోని అవతరణ చెందినప్పుడు, ఏడు రకాలుగా సాంద్రతలను పెంచుకుంటూ... ఏడు తలాలు గా (dimensions) ఆవిర్భవిస్తుంది.

1. ఆది తలం
2.అనుపాదక తలం
3.ఆనంద(ఆత్మ) తలం
4.విజ్ఞాన తలం
5.మనస్సు - (అరూపా మరియూ సరూపా మనస్సు)
6.కామ తలం
7.భౌతిక తలం

మొదట శక్తి మాత్రమే ఉన్నది. ఈ ఘనీభవిస్తే పదార్థం అవుతుంది. అత్యంత సూక్ష్మ సాంద్రత ఉంటే... ఆత్మ అవుతుంది. ఈ శక్తి మొదట ఆదిశక్తిగా(the primary force)ఉన్నది. అది "ఆది తలం". ఆదిలో కేవలం ఒకే రకమైన శక్తి ఉన్నది.

ఆరు క్రమ క్రమంగా పెరుగుతున్న సాంద్రత గల తలాల నుంచి క్రిందికి దిగి భౌతిక తలంగా మారింది. యోగులు ఏం చెబుతున్నారంటే... పై ఆరింటి గురించి మనకు ఏమీ తెలియదు. మనకు తెలిసింది ఏమిటంటే... భౌతిక జగత్తులో ఏడు ఉప తలాలు. మనము చెప్పుకుంటున్న ఈ ఏడు తలాలు, భౌతిక తలం లోని ఏడు ఉపతలాలు మాత్రమే. అవేమిటంటే.....

.(7.1)--భౌతిక - ఆది
(7.2)--భౌతిక - అనుపాదక
(7.3)--భౌతిక - ఆత్మ
(7.4)--భౌతిక - విజ్ఞాన
(7.5)--భౌతిక - మనస్సు (అరూపా మరియూ సరూపా)
(7.6)--భౌతిక - కామ
(7.7)--భౌతిక - భౌతిక తలాలు.

మనం ఆత్మ గురించి మాట్లాడుతున్నా, ఆది గురించి మాట్లాడుతున్నా... మనకి అసలు ఆత్మ గురించి గానీ ఆ ఆది తలం గురించి గానీ ఏమీ అర్థం కాదు. అర్థమైన వారు మహా యోగులు అవుతారు. మనం దేని గురించి మాట్లాడుతున్నా, భౌతిక తలంలోని, ఏడవ తలంలోని... ఆ ఉప భాగమై ఉంటుంది. నిజానికి మనం ఎక్కడున్నాము అంటే..... భౌతిక జగత్తులోని మనోమయ సరూపా తలం లో ఉన్నాము. (7.5 తలం). నామము, రూపము లేకపోతే మనకు ఏది అర్థం కాదు .యోగులు మానసిక తలం లోని "అరూపా స్థితి" లో జీవిస్తున్నారు. వారు ఎవరైనా సరే..... శ్రీరామ శర్మ ఆచార్య కావచ్చు, మాస్టర్ సి.వి.వి కావచ్చు, మహావతార్ బాబాజీ కావచ్చు. భౌతిక శరీర ధారి ఎవరైనా ఇది దాటి వెళ్ళలేరు.

ఈ స్థితిని శ్రీ అరవింద ఘోష్ supramental descent అన్నారు. కానీ గురువులందరూ ఎక్కడున్నారంటే గాయత్రీ మంత్రం లోని "స్వః తలం" లోనే ఉన్నారు. కానీ మనకి చెప్పడానికి క్రిందికి దిగివచ్చారు. మానవ జాతి ఇంకా ఆధ్యాత్మిక విద్య లోకి ప్రవేశించి ఉన్నది తప్ప .....ఇంకా మానవజాతికి, ఆధ్యాత్మిక విద్య ఏమీ తెలియదు. ఎప్పుడు తెలుస్తుంది? జ్వాలా కూలుడు వ్రాసిన పుస్తకం "the externalisation of hierarchy" మనం మొదలు పెట్టినప్పుడు. సప్త ఋషులు బాహ్య అభివ్యక్తీకరణ జరిగినప్పుడు ఆధ్యాత్మిక విద్య భూమిమీద స్థిరపడుతుంది.(సశేషం)

మారెళ్ళ. రామకృష్ణ మాష్టరు గారు

భట్టాచార్య

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 73 : Kill out desire for sensation. - Learn from sensation and observe it - 4

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 73 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 5 - THE 6th RULE

🌻 6. Kill out desire for sensation. - Learn from sensation and observe it - 4 🌻

293. We have to learn from sensation by observing it in others also. In this way we come to understand human nature.

We can see how other people make fools of themselves under the influence of emotion, and seeing how bad it looks in them, and how much harm it obviously does them, we learn to repress any touch of the same thing in ourselves.

It is naturally much easier to see things in others than in ourselves, when we are standing outside as spectators. We should not, however, look at other people in order to criticize them and pick out their faults, but only to see what we can learn from them.

When we see them distinctly not living up to their best and highest, because of some passion or emotion or some feeling of repugnance, we can make a mental note of that, without feeling in the least that we are better than they, and we can think:

“Might not the same thing have happened to me? Let me see that it shall not happen.” Thus without getting into the habit of criticizing, which is always bad, we can learn from the mistakes of other people.

When we see another person come to grief, however sorry we may be for him, there can be no harm in thinking: “Let me not fall over the precipice too; it is enough that one person has done so.”

294. Great waves of sensation flooded the world during the war. Among them was a tremendous amount of repugnance and hatred against the powers with whom we happened to be at war.

I am not in the least meaning to defend the atrocities committed by those powers. I know that they occurred, because I have myself, astrally, seen a very great deal of them, that filled me with shame for humanity. I do not for a moment wish to deny those facts, to gloss them over, or to excuse them.

But there was also great danger and harm in the strong rush of feeling against those who committed the crimes. The people responsible for the atrocities were those who committed them, and the individuals by whose orders they were done – not the whole nation.

Assuredly a great many things were done by men in the past with which we should not like to identify ourselves – and that has been the same in every nation. We must not let ourselves be carried away into injustice in thought any more than into injustice of speech or of action.

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10 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 72 :Kill out desire for sensation. - Learn from sensation and observe it - 3

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 72 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 5 - THE 6th RULE

🌻 6. Kill out desire for sensation. - Learn from sensation and observe it - 3 🌻

291. The way is to get a firm grip on it in the very beginning. A wave of anger, depression, jealousy, or any of these passions will start in a moment and grow rapidly into a very big thing. It comes up so suddenly and people are so accustomed to regard it as the self that they do not for the moment recognize it, and so do not at once pull up and stop it, and say:

“This is not I; I decline to be swept away; I stand firm.” If we remember to do that in time the emotion disappears promptly. Most people make the resolve not to be overcome when they are quite calm, but unfortunately when the wave of sensation arrives with a rush upon them they do not at the moment want to resist it.

The soul inside is not immediately awake to the danger, so it allows itself to be swept away and to be identified with the emotion or sensation. We must therefore learn to catch it exactly at the moment of its coming, for if we let that slip it is a very difficult matter, when the sensation is in full blast, to check it suddenly, though sometimes another person can do it for us.

Afterwards, when we remember, we regret it. The practical thing to do is to try to control the sensation each time a little sooner, and if we can suppress it once before it gets into its swing, the probability is that we shall be able to do so invariably after that.

292. It is difficult at first only because the man as a Self has abdicated his rights on so many previous occasions that he has got out of the habit of asserting them. But if he will once assert them at the critical moment he will find that he can do it again and again, because the elemental that is the cause of the difficulty will begin to be afraid, will begin to realize that he cannot sweep everything before him.

At first he is quite confident, like a dog that rushes at a man, barking and snarling because he thinks him to be afraid; but if the man does not turn and run away the dog hesitates and begins to be a little doubtful about the enterprise. The elemental has not the intelligence of a dog.

He may or may not know that we are stronger than he, but if he does not, it is only because we have not asserted ourselves. We should let him know that we are his master; when once he feels that, he will hesitate at the very beginning to start his wave. Check him at the beginning, and there will be no further trouble.

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09 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 71 : Kill out desire for sensation. - Learn from sensation and observe it - 2

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 71 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 5 - THE 6th RULE

🌻 6. Kill out desire for sensation. - Learn from sensation and observe it - 2 🌻

287. Sometimes in a moment of temptation it is helpful to recognize that it is merely your past that has been revivified, and then you are right to say: “This is not I.” Then you look on it as outside yourself, as no part of your being or activity, and you know that it cannot hold you or stain you.

The patient confidence that arises from this knowledge has a great element of strength in it. You know that you are drawing nearer the time when you will not even feel this temptation. Presently it will not have the power to affect you at all.

288. In the deliberate process of weighing, measuring, and observing his own past feelings and thoughts, the disciple is killing the very last possibility of life in that dead self. The Voice of the Silence means this, when it says with regard to desire: “Take heed lest from the dead it should again arise.”

The old feelings and thoughts are done with, not when they are merely buried out of sight, but when the very last fragment of them is worked out to the end, when the man looks at them and sees with perfect clearness just what they are and that they are no part of himself. In this quiet study he then kills them beyond all possibility of recall to life.

289. C.W.L. – We have first to learn to observe the working of sensation in ourselves from outside. So long as we are being swept away by it we cannot learn anything from it, because we are then slaves to it, but if we can rise and look down upon it, and think of it as something belonging to our past we are then in a position to observe and study it.

290. Waves of sensation are flowing all over the world and we have to learn to understand them so as to be able to help others, but of course we can do that only when we are no longer swayed by them. Doubtless it is largely a matter of temperament, but for many it is one of the greatest difficulties that sensations and emotions swirl them about, and as yet they do not understand fully how to control them. It is like standing in the breakers and trying to master them.

A man cannot govern a thing which knocks him over again and again and sweeps him away; but people do not realize that emotion is really not an external force like that, but that it is within one-self and may be brought perfectly within one’s control if one understands how to do it.

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08 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 70 : Kill out desire for sensation. - Learn from sensation and observe it - 1

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 70 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 5 - THE 6th RULE

🌻 6. Kill out desire for sensation. - Learn from sensation and observe it - 1 🌻

283. Learn from sensation and observe it, because only so can you commence the science of self-knowledge, and plant your foot on the first step of the ladder.

284. A.B. – The disciple must observe the working of sensation in himself, so that he may gain some self-knowledge from it. He can attain to such knowledge only by the deliberate study of his own thoughts.

The first effect of trying to study your own thoughts is to stand away from them, to separate them from yourself. The very fact of your studying them has drawn your life away from them, so as to destroy for the time being the identification of yourself with your thoughts which habitually exists.

A man does not identify himself with the object of his study, with the thing at which he is looking. It is a saying among the followers of Shankaracharya that subject and object can never be the same. So the very effort of study weakens the forms, and in that mere act you are gaining freedom.

285. Closely allied to this advice is the instruction to test experiences, the object being that the man may experience the condition of being no longer affected by them. When a man is observing his own sensation, in order to learn from it, be may experience that sensation, but at the same time he may do with it something higher – he may measure this force without yielding to it. There will come times too, when the disciple who is practising this observation of sensations will find that dormant sensations in himself are being re-awakened.

286. All of us have reminiscences of the past, which may be said to hang about us as our dead selves, and are liable to be revivified from outside.

They may come to life again by contact with other men’s thought-forms along the same lines, or they may be awakened by the deliberate action of some power which is working for our purification, or is testing us either from the dark or the white side. Suppose a man has that dead self vivified he will then feel what is usually called the force of temptation.

The disciple, having studied the way in which these things work, recognizes what has happened; he measures the power of the resuscitated thought and says to it: “You are not my living Self; you are merely my ‘I’ of the past – so get away from me.”

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07 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 69 : Kill out all sense of separateness - 14

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 69 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 5 - THE 5th RULE

🌻 5. Kill out all sense of separateness - 14 🌻

280. This passage, with which the Master Hilarion’s note concludes, has often been misunderstood; some people have interpreted it to mean that each individual at some time must have committed all possible sins.

It does not mean that, because the wise man does learn something from the experience of others. When we have seen a person burnt by putting his hand in the fire we need not put our own hand into it also before we are sure it is not a good thing to do.1 (1 Ante. Vol. II, p. 106.)

So we need not commit all possible crimes in order to make up our minds about them. We have all at some stage of evolution risen from a primitive human condition and have passed through the various stages of life between that and our present condition, but there is no reason to assume that we did badly in each stage.

There is some reason to suppose that most of us in the course of our long series of lives have sampled the different types of mistakes which it is possible for a human being to make, but we certainly did not go through every detail. When one form of a particular evil is touched, that, I think, stands to the wise soul as experience of a wide range of similar mistakes.2 2 Ante. Vol. II, p. 106.

281. Then there is another consideration. Every man when he reaches the buddhic consciousness looks out through that and experiences all that others experience. We think of the glory and the wonder of the buddic consciousness because it brings us into union with the Masters.

We must not forget that it also brings us into harmony with the vicious and the criminal. Their feelings must be experienced, as well as the glory and the splendour of the higher life. So when we are able to touch the buddhic plane we may gain experience of the lower and more unpleasant aspects of life by entering into the consciousness of the people who are going through those particular phases.

We do not require to do this as a lesson, because we already know by the hypothesis that these are things which are impossible for us. But we must have sufficient experience to be perfectly sympathetic, or we cannot give help to others. The perfectly sympathetic person knows intuitively the difficulties and temptations of others, and so is full of love even for the erring one.

By sympathy he makes the “soiled garment” his own. When we have finally abandoned separateness and realized unity we shall find that we are merged in the divine Life, and that the attitude of love is the only one which we can adopt towards any of our fellow-men, whether they be high or low.

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06 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 68 : Kill out all sense of separateness - 13

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 68 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 5 - THE 5th RULE

🌻 5. Kill out all sense of separateness - 13 🌻

276. So with us; it is not in the least necessary that we should put ourselves into the worst conditions. On the contrary we can often help more effectively by not hampering ourselves in that way.

If a man finds himself in a peculiarly unpleasant crowd, perhaps filled with some savage feeling or outburst of passion, he can throw a shell round himself and so protect himself from the evil influence, but he cannot do very much with that crowd while he is occupied in doing that. On the other hand, if he were away from it he would be able to pour more force upon it. Even then, if a crowd of undeveloped men is under the sway of some crude passion, very little can be done with it from higher planes, because the force poured out could hardly affect it while it was in that state.

Therefore we need not enter evil surroundings unless we see clearly that we can do definite good there, although we must do the best we can if we find ourselves in such an environment. I have heard, for example of preachers who have gone into drinking saloons and started a religious service, and there have been cases where such a bold move as that was actually successful.

There would, of course, be many occasions when such a procedure would end in a fiasco. In these things, as in war, a very bold and apparently rash move may occasionally turn out well, but usually more can be accomplished by working in a reasonable way.

277. Remember that the sin and shame of the world are your sin and shame; for you are a part of it; your karma is inextricably interwoven with the great Karma.

278. We do not realize that down here, but on reaching the buddhic plane we see that it represents a real truth. There we feel: “I am part of that which humanity cannot avoid; something exists in it which is a shame to me” and we feel it so because we as part of humanity have caused it. On the other hand we have our share in every good that has been done. When one man has taken a step forward we feel it as a triumph for all; through him all humanity has come a little nearer to its goal.

279. And before you can attain knowledge you must have passed through all places, foul and clean alike. Therefore, remember that the soiled garment you shrink from touching may have been yours yesterday, may be yours tomorrow.

And if you turn with horror from it, when it is flung upon your shoulders, it will cling the more closely to you. The self-righteous man makes for himself a bed of mire. Abstain because it is right to abstain, not that yourself shall be kept clean.

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05 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 67 : Kill out all sense of separateness - 12

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 67 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 5 - THE 5th RULE

🌻 5. Kill out all sense of separateness - 12 🌻

273. There is another curious little point about that. The things which horrify us most are those to which we have a certain leaning ourselves – from which we are conceivably in danger. When one is absolutely free from the slightest tendency towards a particular crime one looks down on it without horror; but if one feels oneself filled with horror at a particular human failing, he may take it that it is a fault which has been a real danger to himself not long ago – perhaps a life or two back.

274. When we go among evil influences we sometimes have to surround ourselves with a shell in order to keep them off. That is often the best policy, since we are still very human; but to have to do that is to a certain extent a confession of weakness.1 (1 Ante, Vol. I, Part V, Ch. 6: Service.)

The absolutely strong man walks straight into the middle of all these perils, certain that they cannot affect him, but that would not be a wise thing for all of us to do. Our force is limited and by making a shell we can save ourselves from using up a certain amount of it unnecessarily.

A man who is perfectly sure of his own power can walk unharmed among all sorts of dangers, because he is sure of himself. Perfect strength destroys all shrinking. We draw back from a case of infectious disease because we are afraid we may catch it; if we were certain we were immune from that disease the idea of catching it would not occur to us.

275. The idea that we must not think of ourselves as separate from the wicked or the, foolish man does not necessarily imply that we must always be in close association with such people, though contact is sometimes useful. There are many good people who endeavour, in a great city like London, for example, to help the poor by going to live among them in the slums.

Some of our students hold the opinion that that is also our duty with regard to the wicked and the foolish people. That is not always the best way to help them. We may learn from the Masters’ conduct in that respect. The Great Ones do not come down and live in the slums of our great cities.

Why do They not do so? For one reason, They would be unable to carry on Their work for humanity. It would take nearly all the time of the Master to clear a place where He could work at all, and the amount of work done would be reduced to perhaps one hundredth part of what it would otherwise be.

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04 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 66 : Kill out all sense of separateness - 11

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 66 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 5 - THE 5th RULE

🌻 5. Kill out all sense of separateness - 11 🌻

270. One of the finest symbols of brotherhood that I have come across was a vision of one of our members of an Eastern temple supported by many hundreds of pillars. He said: “All these pillars are helping to support the temple, and they are therefore symbols of individual souls who form a part of the temple of humanity.

Some of these pillars are on the outside, are seen and admired all the time. They also face the sunshine and the rain. Others are far away in the interior of the forest of pillars, never having the sun shining directly upon them at all, never being admired by people as they pass. Some of these pillars are in places where the worshippers gather round and sit leaning against the plinth of the pillar all day long.

Other pillars are in less approachable places, but each one is an integral part of the temple and is doing its work. That is like the brotherhood of humanity. Some people may feel that they are doing a great deal; others may never know of a single opportunity of help that comes to them, and yet they are all bearing their part and are just as much pillars in the temple as those which are more prominent in the public eye.”

271. Many of our students are eager to claim unity with the Master and the saints, and not so anxious to claim unity with the criminal, the drunkard, the inefficient, the sensual, the cruel. But since humanity is one, we must be one with the less evolved people as well as with the greater; in the one case there is a part of ourselves towards which we must reach up, but in the other case there is a part of humanity which we must try to help. How can we help them? First of all by thinking in the right way about them.

If we shrink from them with horror, if we hate them, we are making their path more difficult. If we allow the natural and justifiable feeling with regard to the evil that is being done to influence our attitude towards the person who does it, we are making an error. It is scarcely possible to avoid that sometimes, but we can always to some extent reason ourselves out of it.

272. Doctors meet with cases of the most loathsome and horrible diseases – which in many an instance the man concerned has brought entirely upon himself. But no doctor who is really earnest in his work thinks of that when the patient is before him.

He does not shrink from the man with horror, but regards the disease as an enemy that has to be fought and conquered. That is a very good example of the attitude that we ought to be able to adopt when we have to deal with a degraded person.

Undoubtedly the probabilities are that we could not produce very much effect upon an absolutely degraded drunkard, whose will is almost gone; but to shrink from him in horror or to feel contempt is not the way to help him. In the same way when a man commits a terrible crime we may have the greatest possible horror of the crime, but not of the criminal. It is difficult for us to separate them, but we have to do it.

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02 Jan 2021

LIGHT ON THE PATH - 65 : Kill out all sense of separateness - 10

🌹 LIGHT ON THE PATH - 65 🌹

🍀 For those WHO DESIRE TO ENTER WITHIN - For DISCIPLES 🍀

✍️. ANNIE BESANT and LEADBEATER
📚. Prasad Bharadwaj

CHAPTER 5 - THE 5th RULE

🌻 5. Kill out all sense of separateness - 10 🌻

267. We all have to stand alone and isolated because each of us must learn to depend upon himself and to realize that he is God, that the divine spark in him is in truth part of the All. Until we can do that we are not entirely reliable for the higher phases of the Master’s work.

In the meantime, for all our ordinary work in life, whether physical, astral or mental, the knowledge that the Master envelops us and is close behind us all the time is a very great strength and comfort. We do our regular work each night on the astral or mental plane, as the case may be, and in doing it we know always that the power of the Master protects us.

If at any moment we encounter something enormously stronger than ourselves which threatens to overwhelm us, just as on the physical plane a great storm or earthquake might do, we always know that we can draw indefinitely, infinitely, on His power. Even that the disciple must learn to do without, when the time comes, but only in order that he may become as strong a centre as the Master Himself.

268. Do not fancy you can stand aside from the bad man or the foolish man. They are yourself, though in a less degree than your friend or your Master. But if you allow the idea of separateness from any evil thing or person to grow up within you, by so doing you create karma, which will bind you to that thing or person till your soul recognizes that it cannot be isolated.

269. C.W.L. – This is the first part of a long note by the Master Hilarion. Of course we all bold in theory that humanity is a mighty brotherhood and is really a unity. The Master here admits that there are degrees in this unity, and that there are therefore degrees of separateness, that we are to some extent more separated from the bad and the foolish than we are from our friend or our Master.

The idea of the brotherhood of man is often twisted to imply the equality of man, which it really cannot mean. In any family of many brothers there must be considerable differences of age among them, and there must similarly be differences of soul age among these members of the greater human brotherhood.

Again, just as in the physical family it is the business of the elder to help and train the younger, so in the family of humanity must the elder protect the younger and help them in any way they can. Brotherhood implies variety; it requires this difference of age, and also that many people shall be doing different kinds of work.

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01 Jan 2021