English
It is necessary to insert an apology here for that last expression in dealing with a Nature that has no beginning and no end? Of all Nature we cannot assuredly predicate an end or a beginning; but one of the most narrow-minded blunders of exoteric thinking is that which carelessly identifies the human family to which we belong with the eternities generally of time and space. Esoteric science, in its coherent reasonable- ness, recognises this human family, its origin and for- tunes, as a definite episode within the eternities—how- ever protracted may be its duration. The climax of the episode is reached when the creative power, which in some unimaginable manner sufficed to launch the planetary system, returns to itself focalised in individualities. But what is the nature of such individualities ? By the hypothesis they partake of the human nature in so far as they are individual ; of the divine nature, in so far as they are once again identified with the creative power of the Spirit. They are no longer men—they are gods. Not God, which, as far as language can deal with such ideas, must be a designation assigned to Universal Omnipotent Spirit, but the agents of Divinity wielding its powers, pur- suing its ideas. Esoteric teaching shows us in these perfected beings at once the purpose of humanity and 338 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. the governing power of the next evolutionary under- taking in Nature which shall follow on after that out of which they themselves have arisen. “The hosts of the Dhyan Chohans”’ is the expres- sion by which Oriental philosophy endeavours to describe these sublime fruitions of the human race; and it is theoretically possible that any of the myriads of ordinary men and women on whom we look around at this stage of the world’s progress, may so cultivate and expand their nascent individualities as to reach the condition foreshadowed. But there are many intervening grades in the spiritual hierarchy that cul- minate in the godlike condition of the Dyhan Chohan. Tong before the attainment of that pre-eminence the up-growing Egos struggling clear of the enthralments of material life, will begin to exercise powers and dis- charge responsibilities in Nature, in connexion with which they are already, in a measure, co-operative with the Divine purpose. The hosts of ordinary humanity, let us bear in mind, are conscious only—in their physical intellects,—of the material plane of Nature whereon they are mani- festing. But the spiritual consciousness dominant within them, is working all the while in the “ Higher Self.’ The attraction to matter, to material life, with its gratifications and sympathies, is at war with this dormant aspiration. As long as it remains the more powerful the Ego after death, and after the Devachanic period has expired, is drawn back to material mani- festation by the Karma of its last life. But whenever the spiritual aspiration has made itself heard in that THE ELDER BRETHREN OF HUMANITY. 339 life, there will be in the circumstances of the new existence some improved opportunities for the culture of the spiritual consciousness. If these are duly employed, they will rapidly be developed into contact of some kind with the grand realities of the higher planes of being. The incarnate man will begin by finding new senses and powers of perception developing within him. Operating, as we shall see later on, as snares and false beacons sometimes when they have been acquired in a wrong way, these psychic faculties are none the less the avenues to sublime knowledge when rightly directed. For the genuine neophyte they consti- tute the first links of communication that consciously unite him with the Adept world, with those of his elder brethren who are already advanced in the scale of Nature far beyond the normal characteristics of ordinary mankind. Thus illuminated he may enter on the path that leads upward to these levels of existence. His initia- tion has commenced, and with the thirst for spiritual progress becoming a more powerful force in his nature than the animal clinging to material life, the attractions that drag him back to normal incarnation cease to assert themselves. For several lives probably those attractions will continue to operate, after he has begun his higher evolution : and failure of one kind or another may constantly throw him back. But if he is resolute and persevering, the spiritual attractions conquer in the end, and his incarnations if they are then continued at all, will be voluntarily undertaken as affording him facilities for the better accomplishment of the work to 340 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. which he will have dedicated himself—the cultivation of the spirituality of the race at large. On the level he will have attained he will be already a co-worker with the Divine purpose, a conscious exponent of the Divine Will. Keeping still, for the present, on the level of generali- ties, and postponing the more exact examination of the steps on the path of initiation, I may remark that for any one who can even dimly discern the attributes of such existence as is attained to by the fully spiritu- alised man, there is little need to look beyond that condition in search of motives for an upward struggle. But let me interpolate here a few observations con- cerning the most ennobling of those motives before going on to speak of those which appeal to feelings of personal desire, however lofty in their character. It is not to be doubted that by the time the spiritual consciousness of a man on the upward path is fully developed he is already so far a participator in the Divine nature that the unselfish eagerness to acquire the power of benefiting others is really the most efficient motive for exertion that can appeal to him ; and perhaps realising this great truth, more or less perfectly, in advance, there are many still incarnate human beings who proclaim this as already the only motive that really commands their zealous effort. We need not cast discredit on their early belief in their own interior nobility of purpose. But without claiming that men still on the normal levels of incarnation should be already infused by so lofty a sentiment, it is no degrada- tion of their nature so far, if they recognise as the first THE ELDER BRETHREN OF HUMANITY. 341 motive that inspires them with the courage and physical self abnegation required for the cultivation of their spiritual natures, a longing to come into closer relations with beings so glorified as those who have broken the bondage of the flesh or have already taken their place in superior realms of existence. No unworthy pandering to selfishness is involved in the representation of spiritual exaltation as in itself a goal befitting the most enthusi- astic aspiration—as regarded from the lower standpoint of material existence. Emotions and motives may follow one another in due order, but it would be a great mistake to add needlessly to the ordeals of the first steps in occult progress by depriving them of the encouragement to be derived from the reflection that even earlier the achievements of such progress carry with them rewards of an extremely elevated order. So then we work back to the position that the career of initiation—the path of occult progress—is an enter- prise not only worthy of being the pursuit of the loftiest human virtue ; there is no other career of philanthropy or benevolence that is comparable with it, for the more the community of those who attain Adeptship is strengthened numerically and otherwise, the greater is the influence working on mankind at large for their spiritual advancement, and their elevation above the lamentable Karmic conditions that give rise to the physical miseries and suffering to which ordinary philanthropy, unable to look beyond the one life, is limited in choosing its spheres of activity. But lest this reflection should be misunderstood, let me point out that the career of occult progress is not one which has 342 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. to be selected in preference, or as an alternative to other benevolent activities. Whatever these may be, for good men impelled to engage in them from beautiful and generous sympathy with their fellow creatures, their work in such directions, instead of impeding their occult progress, must be directly subservient thereto if they do but blend with the immediate emotions of sympathy which dictate their practical philanthropy the desire for spiritual knowledge, and the efforts to attain it that may be compatible with their duties and assumed responsibilities in life. One of the most common mistakes concerning this subject made by those who pick up a few imperfect ideas from Oriental litera- ture and tales of Eastern ‘‘ yogeeism,” is the notion that the occult path means withdrawal from all human companionship, and absorption in a spiritual selfishness that seeks a personal beatitude by means of solitary meditation and austere practices. ‘That which occult training does undoubtedly demand is self-denial in the sense of entire abstinence from the fruitless indulgence of self, and some time devoted if possible compatibly with altruistic duties to the interior cultivation of the spiritual consciousness. But there is no life of philan- thropic activity so full that it would not include the necessary opportunities for this. On the contrary it is, broadly speaking, most assuredly true that the active philanthropist is by virtue of being so, in far more favourable conditions for the attainment of spiritual advancement than the man who is merely bent upon his advancement, however blameless his relative inactivity. THE ELDER BRETHREN OF HUMANITY.