Christianity is the official creed of the masculine social energy of the generation. It is not that Christian dogmatism is more hateful to us than any other form of obstructiveness, but because it is enjoying a wider power to prevent man’s moral development and crush truth. Has Christianity so clear and innocent a record, and freedom from dogma, as to command the immediate reverence of the Heathen? The Theosophical Society is the platform of true Brotherhood, a bond of amicable tolerance, a fulcrum by which the lever of Progress may move the mass of Ignorance. It has no one religion to propagate, no one creed to endorse. It stands for truth alone, and nothing but Truth.
The Theosophist believes in neither Divine nor Satanic miracles. There is neither Saint nor Sorcerer, neither Prophet nor Soothsayer for him. There are only Adepts, or proficients in the production of feats of a phenomenal character, to be judged by their words and deeds. It is only theological bigotry and intolerance that could so maliciously and arbitrarily separate two harmonious parts, psychic and physical phenomena, into two distinct manifestations of Divine and Satanic Magic, or “godly” and “ungodly” works. The very name Apocrypha forbids critics to trust them for information. The Occultists, however, claim that, one-sided and prejudiced as they may be, the Apocryphal Gospels contain far more historically true events and facts than does the New Testament, the Acts included. The former are crude tradition; the latter (the official Gospels), an elaborately made up legend. Simon Magus was a Kabbalist and a Mystic who, like so many other reformers, endeavoured to found a new Religion based on the teachings of the Secret Doctrine, yet without divulging more than necessary of its mysteries. He rejected the individuality of his personal spirit, and recognized the Divine Ray which dwells in his Higher Ego as a reflection of the Universal Spirit. By Simon Magus we must understand the Apostle Paul, whose Epistles were secretly, as well as openly, calumniated and opposed by Peter. The Church extols unstintingly his wonderful magic feats. On the other hand, Scepticism, represented by scholars and learned critics, tries to make away with him altogether. Thus, after denying the very existence of Simon, they have finally thought fit to merge his individuality entirely in that of Paul. The virus of insatiable power and ambition, culminating finally in the dogma of infallibility and tyrannical authority of the Churches, are the curse of humanity and the great extinguishers of Light and Truth. The aim of the Tannaïm, ancient Israeli Initiates, who were Kabbalists of the same secret school as John of the Apocalypse, was to conceal the real meaning of the names in the Mosaic Books. Be that as it may, no Christian could rival Simon’s thaumaturgic deeds. Simon could not submit to the leadership or authority of any of the Apostles, least of all to that of either Peter or John, the fanatical author of the Apocalypse.
The “Aristotelean philosopher” is the mouthpiece of that majority in modern society which has worked itself out an elaborate policy full of sophistry and paradox, behind which every member clumsily hides his personal views. His “respectable deference to public opinion,” is short-hand for hypocrisy. He confuses phenomena for which the agency of “disembodied spirits” is claimed, with natural phenomena for which every tithe of supernaturalism is rejected. He, who does not believe in Spiritualism cannot believe in Christianity, for the very foundation of that faith is the materialization of their Saviour. If Spiritualism and Occultism are superstition and falsehood, so is Christianity with its Mosaic miracles and the witches of Endor, its resurrections and materialization of angels, and hundreds of other spiritual and occult phenomena. Is belief in the Holy Ghost less blind than belief in the “ghosts” of our departed fathers and mothers? Is faith in an abstract and never-to-be-scientifically-proven principle any more “respectable” or worthy of sympathy than that other faith of believers, as earnest as Christians are, that the spirits of those whom they loved best on earth, their mothers, children, friends, are ever near them, though their bodies may be gone? Physical as well as psychological phenomena court experiment and the investigations of science; whereas, supernatural religion dreads and avoids such. The former claims no miracles, no supernaturalism to hang its faith upon, while religion imperatively demands them, and invariably collapses whenever such belief is withdrawn. An abusive, uncompromising bigot is more honest than a mild-spoken, sneering hypocrite. A lady who will not blush to empty in the view of all a tumbler of stiff brandy and soda, will stare, in shocked amazement, at another of her sex smoking an innocent cigarette! Madame Blavatsky defends the Cause of Truth from its detractors and traducers. Facts existed in the “pre-scientific past,” and errors are as thick as berries in our scientific present. Modern science is atheistic, phantasmagorical, and always in labour with conjecture. Not to know is its climax. With whom then, is the criterion of truth to be left? Are we to abandon Truth to the mercy and judgment of a prejudiced society, constantly caught trying to subvert that which it does not understand? A society ever seeking to transform sham and hypocrisy into synonyms of “propriety” and “respectability”? During that incessant warfare, in which old creeds and new doctrines, conflicting schools and authorities, revivals of blind faith and incessant scientific discoveries running a race as though for the survival of the fittest, swallow up and mutually destroy and annihilate each other — it would take a sage much wiser than King Solomon himself to decide between fact and fiction! Mental slavery is the worst of all slaveries. It is a state which, as brutal force has no real power, indicates either an abject cowardice or a great intellectual weakness. Undisputed fact is the only tribunal we submit to and recognize it without appeal. The Theosophical Society is an absolute and uncompromising Republic of Conscience; preconception and narrow-mindedness in science and philosophy have no room in it: they are as hateful and as much denounced by us, as dogmatism and bigotry in theology. The worms of sham and hypocrisy have gnawed the roots of wisdom and hardened the human heart. Instead of spiritualizing matter, the Shakers of America, and the “Apostles” of the Calcutta New Dispensation, materialize spirit. Spiritualism, as a sect, has as much a right for recognition as any other Christian sect. But then, how can belief in spirits, the surviving souls of departed men — quite an orthodox Christian dogma — be held disreputable by the Christian public? As long as the Christian public professes belief in, and veneration for its ancestral faith, it behoves them little to throw the accusation of “degrading superstitions and credulity” into the teeth of Spiritualism. The scientific basis of Spiritualism corroborated by modern science.
Progress review of the aims and mission of the Theosophical Society, September 1889, on the occasion of the fifth volume of “Lucifer.” 1. To establish a nucleus of universal brotherhood of man. The Indian National Congress was planned by our Anglo-Indian and Hindu members after the model and on the lines of the Theosophical Society, and has from the first been directed by our own colleagues, men among the most influential in the Indian Empire. From Ceylon the religion of Gautama streamed out to Cambodia, Siam, and Burma; and from this holy land the message of Brotherhood reached Japan. We depicted the chromatic vibrations of the aura of Gautama in the Buddhist Flag — sapphire blue, golden yellow, crimson, white, and scarlet. 2. To promulgate the study oriental philosophy and literature. Our magnificent achievements in India. The revival of Buddhism in Ceylon. Neither race, nor creed, nor colour, nor social class, nor old antipathies are irremovable obstacles to the grand ideals of altruism and brotherhood. 3. To investigate the occult laws and principles in nature and man. We work on the basis that the Higher Self in every man is colourless, cosmopolitan, unsectarian, sexless, and pre-eminently altruistic. The early fruits of the Theosophical Tree, August 1890, a year later. The Theosophical Society arose to defend true science and true religion against a sciolism that was becoming more and more arrogant, and to stem the headlong descent to materialism. The popularity of theosophical and mystical literature indicates the despair and hope of the churches — despair that science will ever read the puzzle of life; hope that the solution may be found in the secret doctrine. The modern Theosophical Movement is a necessity of the age. It has spread under its own inherent impulsion, and owes nothing to adventitious methods. Its strongest allies are the yearnings for light upon the problem of life, and for a nobler conception of the origin, destiny, and potentialities of the human being. Alone the organs of disembodied “angels” poured as unsuccessfully as ever their vials of wrath, mockery, and brutal slander, upon us. However, the utmost malignity and basest treachery have not been able either to controvert our ideas, belittle our objects, disprove the reasonableness of our methods, or fasten upon us a selfish or dishonest motive. The Adyar Library, founded by the loving labour of Colonel Olcott, is the crown and glory of the Theosophical Society. Progress review of the three objects of the Theosophical Society. The clear note of universal brotherhood was struck and the evangel of religious tolerance declared in India, where previously there had been only sectarian hatred and selfish class egotism. And by bringing the people of Ceylon, Burma, Siam, and Japan, into fraternal relations with the Hindus, and creating channels for international intercourse upon religious and educational subjects. In the East End of London we have founded the first Working-Women’s Club, wholly free from theological creeds and conditions. We have revived the study of oriental literature across the globe, thus opening up the vista of a new spiritual day for the world, the harbinger of a new marriage between science and religion, and of peace between the people of the most incongruous sects. We have placed before the thinking public a logical, coherent, and philosophical scheme of man’s origin, destiny, and evolution — a scheme pre-eminent above all for its rigorous adherence to justice. Theosophy, the universal solvent, is fulfilling its mission. For many a long year humanity, the “great orphan,” has been crying aloud in the darkness for guidance and light — but no more!
Devil-evil is a mighty motor in the struggle for life. See how the Christianity of Jesus Christ was degraded to “Church” Christianity. There are two Jesuses: The real Jesus, a Master of Wisdom, and Jesus travestied by pseudo-Christian fancy and clad in pagan robes borrowed from heathen gods. Unmanifested Logos is forever concealed. The “forever concealed” followed Thorah’s advice and did so arrange its forms as to become manifested as the Universe. And if Thorah, why not Satan? Evil is the dark side of good. Yet every goodness has its defect. Truth is mighty and will prevail. Every hitherto far-hidden truth, whether concealed by Nature or human craft, must and shall be revealed some day or other.
While every vice is hid by hypocrisy, every virtue is suspected to be hypocrisy. Christian societies roll around the mire of hypocrisy, steeped in false pretence. Deceit and hypocrisy are at work for dear self’s sake, in every nation as in every individual. Selfishness, whether it breeds ambition for aggrandizement of territory, or competition in commerce at the expense of one’s neighbour, can never be regarded as a virtue. The middle classes are honeycombed with false smiles, false talk, and mutual treachery. For the majority, religion has become a thin veil thrown over the corpse of spiritual faith. Our century is a boastful age, as proud as it is hypocritical; as cruel as it is dissembling. There are more hypocrites in a square yard of our “civilized soil” than antiquity has bred of them on all its idolatrous lands. Instead of courtesy and sincerity, we have feigned politeness and falsification on every plane; falsification of moral food, and the same falsification of eatable food. Sanctimonious hypocrisy has stifled genuine religious spirit, which is now regarded as madness.
Orissa Society of Americas 30th Annual Convention Souvenir for Convention 1999 at Toronto, Canada re-published as Golden Jubilee Convention July 4-7, 2019 Atlantic City, New Jersey commemorative edition. Odisha Society of the Americas Golden Jubilee Convention will be held in Atlantic City, New Jersey during July 4-7, 2019. Convention website is http://www.osa2019.org. Odisha Society of the Americas website is http://www.odishasociety.org
No one can escape from the clutches of Karma by adopting masterly inactivity. For how can a hermit practice charity or industry if he runs away from man? The greatest ascetics and saints of our own day are not those who retire into inaccessible places, They live in the midst of us. Lord Buddha retreated from society only for the first six years of his ascetic life. “Self-culture” is for cloistered yogins who live apart from the society of their fellow human beings: they are spiritually selfish! Some theosophists have arrived at a certain hostility and indignation towards matter. But “where two or three are gathered” in the name of the Spirit of Truth — the Spirit of Theosophy will be in the midst of them.
