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A CALL TO THE "AWAKENED" FROM "THE UNSEEN AND UNKNOWN," FOR AN ESOTERIC COLLEGE, AND FOR G.....R DEPT. NO. 1. |
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To The "Awakened" INTRODUCTION. A CALL TO THE OCCIDENT FROM THE "UNSEEN AND unknown": THE WISE WILL UNDERSTAND! To those who have developed a Soul-Consciousness; who have seen the "Lights"; and who have pierced the "Shadows": — Peace and Greeting! Art thou conscious of the presence within thyself of an actor more or less independent of inherited bodily peculiarities and acquired habits? Has your consciousness ever been able to pervade all portions of your body? Have you recognized within yourself the existence of possibilities that have never been called out by the circumstances and experiences of your earth-life? Do you feel that you are in possession of powers that have never been utilized in the present sphere of your duties? Have you felt emotions and had the memory of sensations that could not have been the result of any of your known experiences? If so, ask yourself whence you derived those powers and feelings — seeing that you could not have developed them by any of your known past actions. Think long upon these things, for they will ultimately bring to your understanding a unique and a special message! Have you ever felt the sense of immeasurable age? Have you searched for antique relics within your soul? Has the breath of a higher spiritual life ever swept through the halls of your memory and removed the dust from those ineffaceable hieroglyphs carved upon your ego by the successive personalities through which you have passed on your upward way? Has the enchantment of an aeolian tone ever thrown you into a reverie filled with a nameless melancholy and accompanied with an indistinct recollection of other times and places? If you have ever had such retrospective states of consciousness, try and recall them and, if possible, reproduce them by reproducing the mental and emotional conditions which brought them about before, and if they recur dwell upon them for a long time — the curtain may rise! Have you ever upon visiting a new place felt you had been there before? Have you returned to that place all alone free from anxiety and disease and awaited the recurrence of memories belonging to another life-history? Did you ever awake with a "memory that you had slept very pleasantly?" Have you ever felt upon learning a new truth "that sometime and somewhere you knew that before?" Have ideas ever dawned within your mind that were not the result of a reasoning process? Have you had convictions of the truth of statements that you were unable to comprehend? Have you believed in matters that were contrary to the verdict of your understanding and experience? Have you practised passivity of mind and observed the phantorama passing through your consciousness? Did the images come in a regular and systematic order, and was that order the result of your own will or was it not? Have you ever been the spectator of your own actions, and have you ever disapproved of your own conduct? Art thou searching for light? Then thou must go within thyself and calm every gust of passion and every breath of evil desire, or the first flickering of the flame will be blown out, — and if it is, it will require many long, long years to relight it! Art thou conscious of something within thee which often thinks and wills for thee in a manner contrary to thine own desire, and hast thou not a greater respect for that something than thou hast for thyself? Canst thou realize that "something" to be thy true self? Study these hints — for they are but mere hints, and if you belong to that class of people who are to become acquainted with themselves you will have revealed to you that which cannot be described by human speech. The above hints belong to the domain of the G.....R, but the Lights and the Shadows belong to the domain of the G...K.. Perhaps less than one person in a million is able to see more than two of these lights, or more than one kind of the shadows. These faculties belong to the next Cycle, and the sixth and seventh of the lights will perhaps be seen by no one until after the commencement of the next Kali-Yug (about 1900) and the several new Cycles that have the period of their commencement about that time. The Lights and Shadows are the first phenomena of certain ultra-psychic faculties peculiar to the next age of development. There are many phases of soul-consciousness; — you may possess some of them and not be aware of your power; your phase may be of a kind incapable of being aided by others; and again the consciousness of such a power may never dawn within you until, while looking into the eyes of your Master, you have heard words fraught with a meaning not conveyable by speech alone. To all persons in search of truth it will be said by the G ..... R: " Go and make the acquaintance of those whose business it is to administer to the soul, and if they fail to reach the chord within your nature that you know exists, then you must seek someone else; and if all other methods fail come to the representatives of one of the departments of the G.....R." The First Department under ADHY-APAKA is at present accessible to all persons having mental and moral integrity; and the capacity to pass membership in the G.....R Dep. No. 1 must be preceded by the capacity to pass the tests and requirement of the inner circle of the Society Esoteric. To such persons there will be given an opportunity of access to a member of the G...K.. , and there will come the Peace that comes of a knowledge of the how and the why of many of those phenomena they do not at present understand; and if they prove worthy there will come a time when they will be greeted by one who will whisper into their ears a wild, weird word, and the veil of the Sammadhic Isis will be lifted, and that which you do not now comprehend will daily become more and more clear. To those who have entered the "Path''; who have conquered the "Evils"; who have gained the "Right Desires"; — a word of Consolation and of Hope! Do not think you have entered the Path because you have started out in search for the Truth, or because you have resolved to live a better and a higher life, or because you have decided upon a course of action. A long series of impartial self-dissections must precede your entrance into the Path; you must have had an introduction to your Soul, and you must have freed yourself from all attachments. Do not think you are walking in the Path because you are outwardly conforming to the course of action and demeanor common to those who are walking in the sacred way. Your path cannot be marked out for you; — your special work lies in another part of the great field of action. You are losing development while you are doing the work of another; your will is asleep while you are being guided by another. If you happen to be in the Path, do not therefore conclude that you have found the Right Way. The path will ultimately lead you into the way if you do not falter, but you will continue to fail until you have conquered the Evils forever, and severed all attachments that prevent your progress. He who has mastered the Evils is a greater warrior than all the Caesars, Attilas, Hannibals, Alexanders, and Napoleons! If for one year your cerebral fibres have not been congested with the debris deposited by Anger, Hate, Malice, and Revenge; if for one year you have been absolutely free from the despotism of Ambition and Fear; if for one year you have been free from the pestilence and poison of Anxiety, Sorrow, Grief, and Restlessness, do not therefore conclude that you have conquered the Evils. Perhaps circumstances were such that you were not tempted strongly; — as long as there are any possible conditions capable of reproducing them you have not conquered them. To have conquered the Evils does not signify that you have the Right Desires. The elimination of the evils is a negative virtue; it is simply the curing of diseases, the rectification of abnormal conditions. Right desires cannot exist as long as the evils find a place in the human soul. To have been undisturbed by those outward circumstances which bring about the evils, — not because you have conquered their power of affecting you, but because you have been in conditions and surroundings where these disturbing causes did not exist, — is not to have conquered the evils! As long as there are any conditions, possible in this earth-life, capable of momentarily disturbing the quietness of your mind and soul you have not attained that Peace which is the only atmosphere in which the right desires can exist, or in which they can bloom and bear fruit! Serenity can only be obtained by desiring it for a long time, and then the desire must be connected with a purpose having for its object the good of the human race! The desire for knowledge increases with its attainment, and the desire for power grows with the recipient's capacity to judiciously utilize it for the good of humanity and of all creatures. These three are the basis of all the right desires. Those who are permitted to learn the Mahopanishada will recognize in these desires the most perfect of all prayers, and will know why they are so, and what a prayer is, and how it operates upon the universal consciousness. They will know that a perpetual desire is a continuous prayer, and that it operates like all other forces with an effect proportional to its intensity and to the time during which it acts. To this class of people enough of the Secret Knowledge will be taught to enable them to comprehend the how and the why of the action of the evils and the desires, and of the methods for the elimination of the one and the inculcation of the other. The principles of the culture are rationalized. When you understand the how and the why of a thing, — for instance of the evil effects of anger, — when you understand it as well as a physicist understands the laws of sound and of hearing, then you will have more confidence and zeal in your work. When you know as well why and how the desires benefit you, as the chemist knows why and how the sun's rays benefit plants, then you will be able to apply the right desires to the perfection of your own soul-growth, and you will be able to do it understandingly and rationally. The laws of prayer have a physical side, and are capable of systemized and quantitative applications in the production of results regarding our own soul-growth. Its effect is both objective and subjective, — it is a physical condition capable of utilizing certain forces by virtue of harmonic attunement with the forces called into play, and a condition capable of exciting the influx of the forces in accordance with the need of the organism making the prayer. This order of knowledge completes that wonderful culture which first recognized the necessity for the extermination of the Evils and the inculcation of the Right Desires; it extends those empirical rules into laws and systemizes the culture of the East and makes of it an exact science! To those who have enlisted in the great battle for the eternal Truths and who have heard the Voice that speaks only in the Silence: — a Work and a Promise! There are those who have enlisted in the great battle for Truth, but have not conquered the Evils; they do themselves and the world good for a time and then fall out of the ranks. Their assistance in accomplishing the elevation of humanity is not therefore any the less desirable. Those who are not able to make attainments are often glad for the opportunity of giving financial and manual assistance. The good done by such persons is always one step on their upward course. Truth is that which makes us free; it is the voice of the Infinite All. To have enlisted, means more than to have made a resolution that from this time on you intend to devote a certain amount of your energies to the destruction of error and to the promulgation of Truth. It must be your highest aim to possess more of that accurate knowledge of ALL THAT IS, and it must be the work of your life to extend that knowledge and to teach it to others. It is a recognized Law of Nature that you will only receive as you are able to use and as fast as you do use; and to obtain more truth you must constantly teach what you get to others and apply it to practice in your own life. If it has not been the main work of your life, for at least several years past, to extend among the people of the world a more accurate knowledge of the belief and conviction you have; — if it is not the dearest joy of your life a to bring to the understanding of another a new truth, then you do not belong to this class of people. It is to be supposed that during this time you have taught many errors; there can be no ratio between finite and infinite knowledge, and as long as you do not possess infinite knowledge you are liable to teach some error. If you are engaged in the work of spreading the truth you will be willing to make a sacrifice for its sake, and to abandon any theory for the sake of a single fact; for a fact is a portion of the word of the Infinite. If you are engaged in this great battle you are incapable of intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, and egotism. You will be ready to make any sacrifice whatever for the sake of truth. You will give all you are, all you have, and all you hope to be, for the opportunity of acquiring the truth, and you will make it the business of your life to put it into practice as fast as you receive it, and to teach it to others as fast as you understand it yourself. Are you capable of applying these tests to yourself? Would you sacrifice social position, wealth, fame, and popularity for the sake of what you believe to be true? Let the Infinite be your Judge, and let your Inmost be the criterion regarding the advisability of presenting yourself to the preliminary examinations for entrance into the G.....R for further knowledge and means. If you have heard the Voice that speaks in the Silence you will not need to be told what it is, or where to find it; and if you have not heard it you must seek for it in the expanse of your own soul — patiently, ardently, prayerfully seek for it — until you find it: and if you hear it follow its promptings, — for it is the Voice of Yahveh. Unto such persons there will be given a glorious work, in accordance with their peculiar faculties and tastes, and this work will belong to the elevation of the Race and the emancipation and perfection of the Ego. This work will not be an arbitrary assignment of duties. The selection will be made by the devotee; — the methods, knowledges, and the means will be supplied by the Secret Scientific Association: but this association will not extend help, or divulge any secrets, except to those who have forever eliminated from their lives the "evils"; gained the "right desires "; and devoted their time to the teaching of truth. Those of the Third Class will be placed under conditions wherein they will be able to select that course in life consistent with the higher hygiene. The work that will be given to them will call out all their capabilities, bring into play all their aspirations and emotions, and will satisfy all their sentiments of moral and altruistic duty, and that will develop all their faculties, and utilize all their capabilities. The essential condition of the higher hygiene is to have a purpose in life, — one that causes all other duties to seem insignificant and all other purposes to be comparatively trivial; and if this purpose is based upon a thorough conviction of the truth of that which the work involves, then the domination of mind by such a motive will eradicate all weakness and disease, and death will be impossible until the purpose has been accomplished. Such a purpose must be consistent with the highest aspirations of the soul. If it is founded upon faith it is well; but it cannot be as strong as if founded upon a thorough understanding of the laws and causes of the matters in hand. That which we know is more certain to us than that which is a matter of faith. While it is the great purpose of our lives to teach that which we absolutely know — (not that which we have reason to believe) while it is the mission of our lives to accomplish that which our understanding tells us can be accomplished, and the fulfillment of which will realize all our dearest dreams; while we are busy with a work in which all our convictions are centred and from which all our pleasures are derived, we will not be sick, and we will continually grow in strength and in spiritual and intellectual beauty. This is the first element of the higher hygiene: the selection of a vocation congenial to the growth of the soul. This work will not be arbitrarily assigned but will be determined under exact experimental conditions. This work will belong to one of the Departments of the movement of the G.N.K.R and will lead you directly into the special path which you are to follow, and which no one can select for you. Do not think you can call upon a member of the G.....R and enlist and immediately have revealed to you a knowledge too sacred to be misunderstood; and it cannot be understood without a long previous preparation and a long course of study; and is a work too important to be commenced by one who may drop it under difficulties, — a work that can only be entrusted to those who will devote to its accomplishment the entire value and strength of their lives. To those who have been "interiorly illuminated", and who have dedicated themselves to the "Guidance": — a Revelation and a Secret! The interior illumination cannot be the result of a few weeks' practice, or the outcome of a few months' instruction under favorable circumstances; it must be the result of transmitted hereditary acquirements, of the experiences of former lives, and of a long preparatory course. Those who are illuminated can present themselves to the management of the inner circle of the Society Esoteric, which is preparatory to the Dep. No. 1. under ADHYAPAKA of the G.....R and if favorable development is observed, there will be an opportunity offered for obtaining the revelation and the secret. But do not think you can make this the object of your entrance into the Society: those who desire power only for the novelty of it will never obtain it; — those who desire to comply with the requirements for membership simply to possess the knowledge of what the revelation may be, or rather as a matter of curiosity, will never be able to receive the knowledge they expect. It is a great responsibility to possess a knowledge of matters not belonging to the public, and it involves a sacred and a serious duty. The dedication of your life and all that you are, and have, and hope to be, to the Guidance is a matter of more serious import than anything you can do in this life. It must not be the result of a sudden impulse, but the outcome of a slow growth. No one should covenant complete obedience to the guidance of the Inmost, until for some time it has already been the trusted guide of all their actions: much less should they dedicate all they are, have, and hope to be, to any special work, or to the guidance of the master, or to the guidance of the Supreme Spirit, until they have thoroughly comprehended its meaning and full significance. Those whose lives prove that they have dedicated their all to the Guidance, will with the permission of ADHY-APAKA be enabled to meet and talk with VIDYA-NYAIKA, and if the applicant proves able to receive he will have explained that which will give him the confidence that comes of complete understanding of the methods, means, and possibilities at the disposal of the Department No. 1, G.....R and also of The Society Esoteric. There will be revealed to him, among other things, the proof that the ultimation of the religious work contemplated is not an impracticable dream, — that the means for accomplishing such an undertaking will be placed at the disposal of the Society as soon as they are able to use the means. Such a person will know that an ideal city can in reality be built, and that it is going to be built, and that the necessary knowledge, methods and means are at hand, waiting the assistance of the proper people. The secret by which it will be accomplished will be made plain, and the applicant can add to his faith the assurance of accurate knowledge, and to his zeal the strength of complete conviction. To this class of people there will be given a knowledge of some sacred secrets; and they will thereby know that the desired ultimates are not based upon religious and philosophical hypotheses merely; but are the outgrowth also of accurate scientific investigation. The laws of adverse psychic conditions are capable of physical demonstration; and the presence of people not leading the higher life in a community of high ethical standards is detrimental, not only to the purer and better, but also to those who are lower in the scale of attainment; and the reasons for this will appear plain. The sanitary conditions necessary for the higher life will be explained in a manner new to the scientists of the age; and those who hear the revelation will comprehend the necessity of forming a special colony or community wherein there can be maintained the conditions, various and complex in their kind, essential to the higher growth of people belonging to the new cycle. The next two classes of people belong to two different methods of culture and to two separate lines of work, and from their number will be selected the membership of that organization to which the three branches of the G.N.K.R are contributory, and which will not find permanent embodiment until after 1896. To those who have removed the "Veil" from the "Sacred Shrine," and who have cast their "Lives" as an "Offering" into the "Flame" that forever burns up on the "Om-Altar " in the "Inmost"; — A "Mission" and a "Glory"! After the "awakened" have conquered the "evils" and gained the "right desires," and have entered the "path" to do and to die for the eternal Truth; when they have heard the "voice" and have been interiorly "illuminated"; and when they have dedicated themselves to the "guidance"; and when they have mastered all available accurate exoteric knowledge relating to these several subjects, and have learned the "revelation," they can commence the removal of the Veil from the Sacred Shrine. And then, O joy of duty! O worship through action! When once it has been removed, that veil can never be replaced. There are those who will say that allusion is made to the personality, or the individuality which veils our consciousness from the recognition of the true entity of the man, or from the recognition of the Infinite will within us, and that the removal of this selfhood constitutes the removal of the "veil" which obscures true knowledge. There are others who will say that when you have conquered the passions you have removed the veil; and others will contend that this is to be accomplished by the control of the passions; and still others will believe that it means the elimination of ignorance. Some will say it is the removal of those physical and spiritual conditions which cause the higher senses and faculties to remain dormant; and there are some intuitive people who will claim that it is the removal of the effects of all "sambudhisms" and inspirations except those of the Infinite Consciousness. It may be that others will think it alludes to the obliteration of the effects of the "psychisms" of local karma. It is not the province of this paper to explain what is meant, but it certainly means all of the above and vastly more. Alas that there are those who will attempt to remove the veil and still cling to their own lives: to do so is death! Beyond this stage your life is no longer yours, — it becomes an offering and a perpetual sacrifice upon the Om-Altar, about which no one can know until by them and for them the "veil" has been removed. To the Mission many shall be called, but few chosen; and of those that are chosen, how many shall receive the Glory? To those who have learned from Nature her Laws, Method and Means, and who have studied and understood the Mahopanishada, and who in the Solitude have heard the pulseless Stillness break into waves of eternal Tone freighted with the aspirations and emotions of a higher and a newer life: — a priceless Jewel, a nameless Peace, and an ineffable Joy! Those who have seen the Lights and pierced the Shadows, and have removed the Veil, and who have learned, understood, and experimentally known the exoteric portion of modern science, and have learned the secret Laws of ENS, MOVENS and OM, and have heard the eternal Tone, such persons will be taught the Mahopanishada, or the Grand Secret Knowledge and Mystic Doctrine. This is an order of knowledge that must be practiced as it is learned; to it belongs the complete understanding of the physical methods and causes of all the mysteries of the past. You have heard of the attempt to find the "universal solvent," and the "philosopher's stone," and the "elixir vitae," — these are but playthings in the laboratory of the Mahopanishada! Here will be taught all the laws of matter and spirit reduced to a mathematical and physical quantitative basis. The mysteries from the modus operandi of the Infinite Will and Consciousness to that of sensation and life will be studied as we now study chemistry and botany! Here will be studied the Forces and explained the Laws and taught the verities contained in all the wonders and mysteries of the years gone by! The sacred orgies of Dionysus — the mystic symbols of the Brotherhood — the thaumaturgist's art — the customs of the women of Thessaly and Epirus — the rites of Sabazius — the mental states of the seership of the ancient Pythoness and the modern Hypnot, Clairvoyant and Medium — the Favatma of the Hindoo Yogni and the Sammadhi of the Hindoo worship — the Isvara of the ancient Yogins — the "communion" of Plotinus and Apollonius of Ephesus — the mystery of the Priestesses of Isis, and of the Vestal virgins robed in white — the beauty of the "Holy Form" — the magic of the "mystic wand" — the rythm of the "solar dance" — the mystery of the Sybils, Seers, Signs, and Sigils; of Talismans, Amulets and Charms, and all that progress used to frighten or amuse the infant races of the world. The sacred vault where Menes taught the Knights of Truth, the rythmic tone of Memnon to the sun, the sacred well within the mighty pyramid where old Arabic priests divined the fate of men, the Bo tree's silent shade where fakirs sit and think, the Sal tree's whispering leaves — the silent caves in mountainside hid far from all the haunts of men — the brazen posts within the Temple of the Sun — Aaron's golden bells — the tinklings in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and Augustus — the brazen bowls of the mysteries for calling the kora — the wonders of mesmerism — the seven hundred thousand rolls thought to have been burned in Caesar's time — all these are just as active now, and potent too, as when in medieval days they stirred the social currents of the world. We will understand why the priestesses of northern Germany were led by their hierophants to the roar of tumultuous waters, or why the priestesses of Dodona placed themselves under the oak of the Pelasgian Zeus and listened to the rustling of the leaves, the murmuring of a spring, or the monotonous lullaby of a brook; — why the Rosicrucians and Druids sought the aeolian tones of a wind-swept harp — why the breath of AEolus worked enchantments upon the minds, of the Grecian poets, or why the beautiful blue of the sky inspired the Buddhists of Ceylon to thought, prophecy, and song. Is it all a dream that Epimenides could separate his body from his soul and wander among the star-isles of the milky-way? or that Appollonious could stand before the Dominitian crowd and appear in the grotto of the Hill of Puteoli? Is it all a fancy that the adepts can render themselves invisible, or that the mystic Simon Magus flew off into the air before a multitude of witnesses? Is levitation a physical possibility, and is it a laudable ambition to become the greatest of the Meipo? Are the Pyramids understood, and the thoughts in the cave-temples of Ellora and Elephanta explored? Can the sacred Vach still resound? Is there a real Helicon and was Olympus a fable? To understand the physical cause of all these phenomena and to take them from the realm of the wonderful and out of the supernatural, will not destroy their beauty, truth, and influence. To understand that Spirit and Soul are capable of being experimented upon in the laboratory, will not make spiritual knowledge less potent. To understand the real mystery of the processes of life, and to know how it is formed, will not diminish our capabilities to take care of ourselves; and to know the nature and physical cause of the Infinite Consciousness will not lead us to respect it less, or to be less devotional. It will not make us less devout, with Zoroaster as a guide, to search the starry circle of the night and read from stars, and suns, and constellations, the fateful omens of the time. To reduce the mind to a series of physical reactions, and to formulate the forces concerned in psychic phenomena, will not take them from the sphere of human use.
These great and wonderful powers that so excite the astonishment and credulity of the world, will not be less operative for human good, when once their causes and methods have been rescued from the domain of the mysterious and the unknown, there will still be left all there is of truth and beauty. All the books that men have given to the world, and all the things that men have built and done, will be the object-lessons in the great curriculum of the ENS, MOVENS and OM. Sculpture with her chiseled form and sympathetic pose; Painting with her motley garb; Decoration with her quaint design, and antique curve and curious tints and shades; Music's sweet consoling voice, and flowers with their perfume pure, will be no less instructive or refining because their laws are understood, and that mystery no longer shrouds the meaning, and the beauty they contain. All that observation with a constant and an ever varied gaze can picture to the mind; each stream, and hill, and tree, and flower, and tone; all we feel, and touch, and smell, and taste; each gauze-like cloud that veils the sacred breast of life and light — each star embosomed by the azure deep of space — and every hope and aspiration high — becomes no less sacred, no less unimpeachable in its evidence for the truth, no less a revelation from the Infinite All, because we understand the physical properties and forces producing these phenomena! Will evil become less repulsive if we understand why and how it affects us? Or will we be less efficient in the cause of right if we know absolutely the beneficent results coming therefrom? Will we be less likely to pray properly if we comprehend what it is and how it affects the universal consciousness? Will the practice of the Yoga of Pantanjali be less productive of results if we understand why certain actions are recommended, and if we know the rational principle upon which it is based, and can we not thereby eliminate the errors accumulated around the system by time and creed? Are not these mental conditions and strange phenomena all the effects of adequate and efficient causes? and if so, are they not the results of forces? and will not a knowledge of these forces reveal to us the mystery of the proper method and the correct practice? To have removed the Veil, and mastered the Mahopanishada is to have taken a culture in comparison with which the culture of the Past is a kindergarten. To have done so and to have won the Jewel is to have gained the greatest prize the next age has to offer. There are things not meet to mention here! There will be a temple more wonderful than Birdsing-Deo's Palace, or the Gwalior castle in central India! and its structure will typify more important truths than the Phallic emblems in the Mahody Elephanta, the Minarets of Islam, or the more modern Campanile and Duomo! There are decrees more important than papal bulls and encyclicals, and decisions of more moment than those of ecumenical and nicean councils. There will be a college of more significance than that of the thirty thousand monks at the collegiate monastery of Shu-Tukt, a course of instruction better than that of Dshashi-Lumbo and Si-Dzang! There will be a course of study wherein the scriptures of the world and the text-books of science as they are now known will be but primers! "Power belongs to him who knows," says the book of Evocation of the Brahmins. "The human heart has never fully uttered itself" says Festus. "The cumulative effect of will, like all other forces, accomplishes results of a magnitude proportional to the intensity of the forces acting, and to the time during which they are continuously applied to the accomplishment of the same purpose" says VIDYA-NYAIKA. |
