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For our ignorance of those ways — which one portion of mankind calls the ways of Providence, dark and intricate, while another sees in them the action of blind fatalism, and a third simple Chance with neither gods nor devils to guide them — would surely disappear if we would but attribute all these to their correct cause. With right knowledge, or at any rate with a confident conviction that our neigh- bors will no more work harm to us than we would THE LAW OF KARMA 271 think of harming them, two-thirds of the world's evil would vanish into thin air. Were no man to hurt his brother, Karma-Nemesis would have neither cause to work for, nor weapons to act through. . . . We cut these numerous windings in our destinies daily with our own hands, while we imagine that we are pursuing a track on the royal road of respectability and duty, and then complain of those ways being so intricate and so dark. We stand bewildered before the mystery of our own making and the riddles of life that we will not solve, and then accuse the great Sphinx of devouring us. But verily there is not an accident in our lives, not a misshapen day or a mis- fortune, that could not be traced back to our own doings in this or another life. . . . Knowledge of Karma gives the conviction that if — 'Virtue in distress and vice in triumph Makes atheists of Mankind/ it is only because that mankind has ever shut its eyes to the great truth that man is himself his own savior as his own destroyer; that he need not accuse heaven, and the gods, fates and providence, of the apparent injustice that reigns in the midst of humanity. But let him rather remember that bit of Grecian wisdom which warns man to forbear accusing That which 'Just though mysterious, leads us on unerring Through ways unmarked from guilt to punishment' — which are now the ways and the high road on which move onward the great European nations. The Western Aryans have every nation and tribe like their 272 GNANI YOGA eastern brethren of the fifth race, their Golden and their Iron ages, their period of comparative irrespon- sibility, or the Satya age of purity, while now several of them have reached their Iron Age, the Kali Yuga, an age black with horrors. This state will last . . . until we begin acting from within instead of ever following impulses from without. Until then the only palliative is union and harmony — a Brother- hood in actu and altruism not simply in name." Edwin Arnold, in his wonderful poem, "The Light of Asia," which tells the story of the Buddha, explains the doctrine of Karma from the Buddhist standpoint. We feel that our students should become acquainted with this view, so beautifully expressed, and so we herewith quote the passages referred to: "Karma — all that total of a soul Which is the things it did, the thoughts it had, The 'self it wove with woof of viewless time Crossed on the warp invisible of acts. "What hath been bringeth what shall be, and is, Worse — better — last for first and first for last; The angels in the heavens of gladness reap Fruits of a holy past. "The devils in the underworlds wear out Deeds that were wicked in an age gone by. Nothing endures: fair virtues waste with time, Foul sins grow purged thereby. THE LAW OF KARMA 273 "Who toiled a slave may come anew a prince For gentle worthiness and merit won; Who ruled a king may wander earth in rags For things done and undone. "Before beginning, and without an end, As space eternal and as surety sure, Is fixed a Power divine which moves to good, Only its laws endure. "It will not be contemned of any one: Who thwarts it loses, and who serves it gains ; The hidden good it pays with peace and bliss, The hidden ill with pains. "It seeth everywhere and marketh all: Do right — it recompenseth ! Do one wrong — The equal retribution must be made, Though Dharma tarry long. "It knows not wrath nor pardon ; utter-true Its measures mete, its faultless balance weighs; Times are as naught, to-morrow it will judge, Or after many days. "By this the slayer's knife did stab himself; The unjust judge hath lost his own defender ; The false tongue dooms its lie; the creeping thief And spoiler rob, to render. 274 GNANI YOGA 9 "Such is the law which moves to righteousness, Which none at last can turn aside or stay ; The heart of it is love, the end of it Is peace and consummation sweet. Obey ! "The books say well, my brothers ! each man's life The outcome of his former living is; The bygone wrongs bring forth sorrow and woes, The bygone right breeds bliss. "That which ye sow ye reap. See yonder fields ! The sesamum was sesamum, the corn Was corn. The silence and the darkness knew ; So is a man's fate born. "He cometh, reaper of the things he sowed, Sesamum, corn, so much cast in past birth ; And so much weed and poison-stuff, which mar Him and the aching earth. "If he shall labor rightly, rooting these, And planting wholesome seedlings where they grew, Fruitful and fair and clean the ground shall be, And rich the harvest due. "If he who liveth, learning whence woe springs, Endureth patiently, striving to pay His utmost debt for ancient evils done In love and truth alway; THE LAW OF KARMA 275 "If making none to lack, he thoroughly purge The lie and lust of self forth from his blood ; Suffering all meekly, rendering for offence Nothing but grace and good : "If he shall day by day dwell merciful, Holy and just and kind and true ; and rend Desire from where it clings with bleeding roots, Till love of life have end : "He — dying — leaveth as the sum of him A life-eount closed, whose ills are dead and quit, Whose good is quick and mighty, far and near, So that fruits follow it. "No need hath such to live as ye name life ; That which began in him when he began Is finished : he hath wrought the purpose through Of what did make him man. "Never shall yearnings torture him, nor sins Stain him, nor ache of earthly joys and woes Invade his safe eternal peace ; nor deaths And lives recur. He goes "Unto Nirvana. He is one with Life Yet lives not. He is blest, ceasing to be. Om, mani padme Om ! the dewdrop slips Into the shining sea! 276 GNANI YOGA "This is the doctrine of the Karma. Learn! Only when all the dross of sin is quit, Only when life dies like a white flame spent. Death dies along with it." And so, friends, this is a brief account of the opera- tions of the Law of Karma. The subject is one of such wide scope that the brief space at our disposal enables us to do little more than to call your attention to the existence of the Law, and some of its general workings. We advise our students to acquaint them- selves thoroughly with what has been written on this subject by ourselves and others. In our first series of lessons — the "Fourteen Lessons?' — the chapter or les- son on Spiritual Cause and Effect was devoted to the subject of Karma. We advise our students to re-study it. We also suggest that Mr. Sinnett's occult story entitled "Karma" gives its readers an excellent idea of the actual working of Karma in the everyday lives of people of our own times. We recommend the book to the consideration of our students. It is published at a popular price, and is well worth the consideration of every one interested in this wonderful subject of Reincarnation and Karma. THE TWELFTH LESSON. Occult Miscellany. In this, the last lesson of this series, we wish to call your attention to a variety of subjects, coming under the general head of the Yogi Philosophy, and yet ap- parently separated from one another. And so we have entitled this lesson "Occult Miscellany," inasmuch as it is made up of bits of information upon a variety of subjects all connected with the general teaching of the series. The lesson will consist of answers to a number of questions, asked by various students of the courses in Yogi Philosophy coming from our pen. While these answers, of necessity, must be brief, still we will endeavor to condense considerable information into each, so that read as a whole the lesson will give to our students a variety of information upon several important subjects. Question I : "Are there any Brotherhoods of Ad- vanced Occults ts in existence, in harmony with the Yogi Teachings? And if so, what information can you give regarding them?" Answer : Yes, there are a number of Occult Broth- erhoods, of varying degrees of advancement, scattered through the various countries of the earth. These Brotherhoods agree in principle with the Yogi Teach- ings, although the methods of interpretation may vary somewhat. There is but one TRUTH, which becomes apparent to all deep students of Occultism, and there- fore all true Occultists have a glimpse of that Truth, and upon this glimpse is founded their philosophies and 277 278 GNANI YOGA teachings. These Occult Brotherhoods vary in their nature. In some, the members are grouped together in retired portions of the earth, dwelling in the com- munity life. In others the headquarters are in the large cities of the earth, their membership being com- posed of residents of those cities, with outlying branches. Others have no meeting places, their work being managed from headquarters, their members being scattered all over the face of the earth, the communication being kept up by personal correspond- ence and privately printed and circulated literature. Admission to these true Occult Brotherhoods is diffi- cult. They seek their members, not the members them. No amount of money, or influence, or energy can gain entrance to these societies.