English
The situation could only be rendered intelligible with the help of such a compre- hensive survey of the whole scheme of evolution on which we are launched, as the foregoing chapters ot this book have already set forth. We are thus enabled at the same time to realise the magnitude of the work already accomplished up to date, and the equal magni- tude, in another direction, of that which is still before us. We cannot properly appreciate the nature of accelerated spiritual evolution, nor understand the place in Nature occupied by the most advanced repre- sentatives of our humanity, without keeping the outline of the whole Manvantaric scheme in view. There are men now living on earth who, belonging 326 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. completely to our own human family, have already attained the maximum point of development and exalta- tion which I have just been endeavouring to describe as that belonging to the final culmination of the progress on which the whole family is launched. If one were merely to count, supposing that were possible, the number of lives which would have to be spent in the ordinary course of evolution between this and the close of the seventh round,—each of these lives separated from the other by long periods of spiritual rest, some- times by intervening experiences that are not restful at all but sadly the reverse,—we should have to deal with numbers which again would hardly lie within the grasp of imagination, and yet already, though we have got on past the middle point of the whole Manvantara by a period which is relatively a mere handful of years, we find some of the most determined climbers already on the topmost heights of the system to which we belong. That within a brief series of lives, even though each in turn is devoted with unremitting intensity to the great purpose in view, it may be possible to reach these heights, will be as I say a matter of marvel to those who really appreciate the magnitude of the task to be accomplished. Sometimes people who hear vaguely about abnormal capacities and powers possessed by those who have gone in advance of their kind are inclined, in their ignorance of what this advancement really implies, to expect that if they make an honest effort in that direction they ought to realise their aspirations at once; to take their degrees in occult science with as little difficulty as they might accom- THE ELDER BRETHREN OF HUMANITY. 327 plish a similar process in connexion with the teaching of a university. The absurdity of this view will be appreciated by anyone who realises in his thinking the true meaning of high initiation, the true place occupied in Nature by those whom we speak of as the great Adepts. The evolutionary interval which separates ordinary humanity from them has to be measured, as I have described, by the whole of the second half of the Manvantara. The processes of initiation leading up to high Adeptship are in reality epitomes of the second half of the Manvantara, in which the acquisition of knowledge, moral dignity and faculty, for which Nature has assigned the immeasurable ages to come, will be condensed within the brief series of three or four or half a dozen lives. We shall come later on to examine more minutely the nature of the efforts by which the earlier progress along that road is accomplished ; but we must have a general idea of the whole effort in mind before we can examine the details intelligently, and the foremost thought to be embraced in connexion with the general idea I have been endeavouring to convey is, that the summit levels of evolution have to do with the complete identity between the whole progress of the individual and that at which, as he ascends to lofty altitudes, he is enabled to appreciate in all its com- pleteness, the Will of which this whole world and all the other worlds around us are the manifestation. There are possibilities of accelerated evolution, let us recognise frankly, that lie within the reach of men who set themselves to compass their progress on purely selfish principles—whose spiritual aspirations have no 328 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. infinite range, whose hope in connexion with ulterior progress is that it may in some fashion redound to their own power, who sometimes vainly imagine that the great possibilities they feel germinating within them will enable them to rob Divinity itself of its treasures, whatever they may be, and accomplish triumphs which may gratify their personal pride through a range of the future, which is all they care to think of as infinity. Whoever sets out on the path of occult progress with such motives as his actuating principles will, in all probability, do no more than plunge himself in agonising failure, which will render existence in one way or other a misery for him for a long portion of the normal road on to which he will be hurled violently back. But if across a thousand indescribable perils the candidate for merely selfish spiritual advancement succeeds, so far as success is possible, in attaining his object, it will be a success qualified from the beginning with interior conditions that can only be described as the reverse of beatitude, and it is impossible in the nature of things that spiritual progress of this evil character can transcend the limits of the world period in which it is undertaken. For those who prefer the path of service, the service of the Divine Ideal, to that of selfish aggrandisement the maximum heights of evolu- tion even within this Manvantara are attainable, and they, when attained, instead of representing a finality, are found to be but the avenues of approach to beati- tudes of spiritual existence within the universe the very nature of which it would be folly at this stage of our thinking to grapple with in thought. For to the THE ELDER BRETHREN OF HUMANITY. 329 vision of those who are already on the summit of the Manvantara the horizon that extends beyond is infinite again, and something of what they see can be communi- cated to us, so that without being able to realise the conditions of consciousness which would transcend our own system, we may realise, even with some assurance, the possibility of ulterior progress for perfected human- ity into conditions of existence in which the individuality of the human being is merged into the governing hier- archy of the cosmos. But leaving considerations of that nature aside for the present, and also considerations in the other direction which have to do with the mis- direction of great spiritual energies, let us concentrate our attention on the possibilities that lie before us in reference to that legitimately accelerated evolution to be accomplished by treading the path leading to Adept- ship. That path, we should always bear in mind, is a short cut across the enormous spirals of the regular highway, leading humanity upward during the second half of the Manvantara. It thus only became a possi- bility of nature after the first half of the Manvantara was concluded ; for the complete undertaking included a double process—the involution of spirit in matter, and the evolution of spirit from matter. The first half of the Manvantara is the descent into manifestation : the second half the re-ascent therefrom. One gets lost in an ocean of metaphysical speculation if we go into the question as to what spirit can gain from material manifestation. It is the potentiality of all things, including material manifestation: how can it be 330 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. enriched if it is everything to begin with ? It will be worth while, perhaps, to deal with this problem when we are in a position to grapple with it from the point of view, let us say, of an exhaustive comprehension of the solar system. Then mysteries which have to do with that whole of which the solar system is an infinitesimal particle, will perhaps come within the range of our mental grasp. At present the attempts to work out schemes of thought relating to such mysteries are rather the outcome of ignorance concerning mysteries that are relatively near us than of aptitude for dealing with those still far off. ‘The theory of our planetary system is, at all events, intelligible. Spiritual energies involve themselves in matter and evolve therefrom. They cannot begin to evolve slowly or rapidly till the process of involution is complete. Thus it is only after the middle point of the Manvantara that accelerated evolution becomes possible, simply because evolution itself, as far as the human family was concerned, only began then. But even during the last Manvantara the already differentiated entities of the human family were in a position to fulfil the purpose of their existence at that stage more or less satisfactorily. Thus we have seen that the entities who had derived most from the experi- ences of that Manvantara were not required, to make their appearance on this planetary chain till near the middle of this world period. They came into incarna- tion then as already the elder brethren of the race, and many of them at once began to fulfil the purpose of their existence in this Manvantara in turn in the most THE ELDER BRETHREN OF HUMANITY. 331 satisfactory manner. They kept thus ahead of the main body, and at once began to appreciate the teach- ing of those more advanced beings from another evolu- tion who were the early guardians of this human family. They were ripe to enter on the path then opening before mankind, the course of which led them rapidly to the high levels of consciousness and capacity. There is nothing in their extraordinarily rapid progress to shock the understanding, if we pay attention to the simplicity of the predominant idea which is the all- embracing motive of occult progress.