Theos-Talk Archives (April 1995 Message tl00041)

A.P.  Sinnett's first book was ~The Occult World~ published in
1881.  The following letter, excepting three passages, was
contained in it.  This letter from Master Koot Hoomi to A.O.
Hume was not included in the first three editions of ~The Mahatma
Letters to A.P.  Sinnett~.  Vic Hao Chin's chronological edition
(abbreviated as MLC) puts it in Appendix I.  There are slight
differences in the wording of ~The Occult World~ letter and the
MLC version.  The three passages deleted from ~The Occult World~
are surrounded by double angle brackets << >>.  -- Nicholas

************************

Amritsur Nov. 1st [1880]

Dear Sir,

Availing of the first moments of leisure to formally answer your
letter of the 17th ultimo, I will now report the result of my
conference with our chiefs upon the proposition therein
contained; trying at the same time to answer all your questions.

I am first to thank you on behalf of the whole section of our
fraternity that is especially interested in the welfare of India
for an offer of help whose importance and sincerity no one can
doubt.  Tracing our lineage through the vicissitudes of Indian
civilization to a remote past, we have a love for our motherland
so deep and passionate, that it has survived even the broadening
and cosmopolitanizing (pardon me if this is not an English word)
effect of our studies in the hidden laws of nature.  And so I and
every other Indian patriot feel the strongest gratitude for every
kind word or deed that is given in her behalf.

Imagine then, that since we are convinced that the degradation of
India is largely due to the suffocation of her ancient
spirituality; and that, whatever helps restore that higher
standard of thought and morals must be a regenerating national
force; every one of us would naturally and without urging be
disposed to push forward a Society whose proposed formation is
under debate; especially if it really is meant to become a
society untainted by selfish motive, and whose object is the
revival of ancient science and tendency to rehabilitate our
country in the world's estimation.  Take this for granted,
without further asseverations.  But you know, as any man who has
read history, that patriots may burst their hearts in vain if
circumstances are against them.  Sometimes, it has happened that
no human power, not even the fury and force of the loftiest
patriotism, has been able to bend an iron destiny aside from its
fixed course, and nations have gone out like torches dropped into
water in the engulfing blackness of ruin.  Thus, we who have the
sense of our country's fall though not the power to lift her up
at once, can not do as we would either as to general affairs or
this particular one.  And with the readiness but not the right to
meet your advances more than half way we are forced to say that
the idea entertained by Mr.  Sinnett and yourself is
impracticable in part.  It is, in a word, impossible for myself
or any Brother or even an advanced neophyte, to be specially
assigned and set apart as the guiding Spirit or Chief of the
Anglo-Indian Branch.  We know it would be a good thing to have
you and a few of your selected colleagues regularly instructed
and shown the phenomena and their rationale.  For though none but
you few would be convinced, still it would be a decided gain to
have even *a few* Englishmen of first- class ability enlisted as
students of Asiatic Psychology.  We are aware of all this and
much more; hence we do not refuse to correspond with and
otherwise help you in various ways.  But what we do refuse is to
take any other responsibility upon ourselves than this periodic
correspondence and assistance with our advice; and, as occasion
favours, such tangible, possibly visible proofs as would satisfy
you of our presence and interest.  To "guide" you we will not
consent.  However much we may be able to do, yet we can promise
only to give you the full measure of your deserts.  Deserve much
and we will prove honest debtors; little and you need only expect
a compensating return.  This is not a mere text taken from a
school boy's copybook, though it sounds so, but only the clumsy
statement of the law of our order; and we can not transcend it.
Utterly unacquainted with Western, especially English modes of
thought and action, were we to meddle in an organization of such
a kind you would find all your fixed habits and traditions
incessantly clashing, if not with the new aspirations themselves,
at least with their modes of realisation as suggested by us.  You
could not get unanimous consent to go even the length you might
yourself.  I have asked Mr.  Sinnett to draft a plan embodying
your joint ideas for submission to our chiefs, this seeming the
shortest way to a mutual agreement.  Under our "guidance" your
Branch could not live, you not being men to be guided at all in
that sense.  Hence the Society would be a premature birth and a
failure, looking as incongruous as a Paris Daumont drawn by a
team of Indian yaks or camels.  You ask us to teach you true
Science, the occult aspect of the known side of nature: and this
you think can be as easily done as asked.  You do not seem to
realize the tremendous difficulties in the way of imparting even
the rudiments of *our* Science to those who have been trained in
the familiar methods of *yours*.  You do not see that the more
you have of the one the less capable you are of intuitively
comprehending the other, for a man can only think in his worn
grooves, and unless he has the courage to fill up these and make
new ones for himself he must perforce travel on the old lines.
Allow me a few instances.

In conformity with exact modern Science you would define but one
cosmic energy, and see no difference between the energy expended
by the traveller who pushes aside the bush that obstructs his
path, and the scientific experimenter who expends an equal amount
of energy in setting a pendulum in motion! We do.  For we know
there is a world of difference between the two.  The one
uselessly dissipates or scatters force, the concentrates and
stores it.  And here please understand that I do not refer to the
relative utility of the two as one might imagine; but only to the
fact, that in the one case, there is but brute force flung out
without any transmutation of that brute energy into the higher
potential form of spiritual dynamics, and, in the other there is
just that.  Please do not consider me vaguely metaphysical.  The
idea I wish to convey is, that the result of the highest
intellection in the scientifically occupied brain is the
evolution of a sublimated form of spiritual energy, which, in the
cosmic action, is productive of illimitable results, while the
automatically actin brain holds or stores up in itself only a
certain quantum of brute force that is unfruitful of benefit for
the individual or humanity.  The human brain is an exhaustless
generator of the most refined quality of cosmic force, out of the
low, brute energy of nature; and the complete adept has made
himself a center from which irradiate potentialities that beget
correlations upon correlations through Aeons to come.  This is
the key to the mystery of his being able to project into and
materialise in the visible world the forms that his imagination
has constructed out of inert cosmic matter in the invisible
world.  The adept does not create anything new, but only utilises
and manipulates materials which nature has in store around him; a
material which throughout eternities has passed through all the
forms; he has but to choose the one he wants and recall it into
objective existence.  Would not this sound to one of your
"learned" biologists like a madman's dream?

You say there are few branches of science with which you do not
possess more or less acquaintance, and that you believe you are
doing a certain amount of good, having acquired the position to
do this by long years of study.  Doubtless you do.  But will you
permit me to sketch for you still more clearly the difference
between the modes of -- physical called exact -- often out of
mere politeness - - and metaphysical sciences? The latter, as you
know, being incapable of verification before mixed audiences, is
classed by Mr.  Tyndall with the fictions of poetry.  The
realistic science of fact, on the other hand, is utterly prosaic.
Now for us poor and unknown philanthropists, no fact of either of
these sciences is interesting except in the degree of its
potentiality of *moral* results, and in the ratio of its
usefulness to mankind.  And what, in its proud isolation, can be
more utterly indifferent to every one and everything, or more
bound to nothing, but the selfish requisites for its advancement
than this materialistic and realistic science of fact? May I not
ask then without being taxed with a vain "display of science"
what have the laws of Faraday, Tyndall, or others to do with
philanthropy in the abstract relations with humanity viewed as an
integral whole? What care they for MAN as an isolated atom of
this great and harmonious Whole, even though they may sometimes
be of practical use to him? Cosmic energy is something eternal
and incessant, matter is indestructible, and there stand the
scientific *facts*.  Doubt them and you are an ignoramus; deny
them, a dangerous lunatic; a bigot; pretend to improve upon the
theories -- an impertinent charlatan.  And yet even these
scientific facts never suggested any proof to the world of
experimenters, that nature consciously prefers that matter should
be indestructible under organic rather than under inorganic
forms; and that she works slowly but incessantly towards the
realisation of this object -- the evolution of conscious life out
of inert material.  Hence their ignorance about the scattering
and concretion of cosmic energy in its metaphysical aspects;
their division about Darwin's theories; their uncertainty about
the degree of conscious life in separate elements; and, as a
necessity, the scornful rejection of every phenomenon outside
their who stated conditions and the very idea of worlds of
semi-intelligent if not intellectual forces at work in hidden
corners of nature.  To give you another practical illustration.
We see a vast difference between the qualities of two equal
amounts of energy expended by two men, of whom one, let us
suppose, is on his way to his quiet daily work, and another on
his way to denounce a fellow creature at the police station,
while the men of science see none.  And we -- not they -- see a
specific difference between the energy in the motion of the wind
and that of revolving wheel.  And why? Because every thought of
man upon being evolved passes into the inner world and becomes an
active entity by associating itself -- coalescing, we might term
it -- with an elemental; that is to say with one of the semi-
intelligent forces of the kingdoms.  It survives as an active
intelligence, a creature of the mind's begetting, for a longer or
shorter period proportionate with original intensity of the
cerebral action which generated it.  Thus, a good thought is
perpetuated as an active beneficent power; and an evil one as a
maleficent demon.  And so man is continually peopling his current
in space with a world of his own, crowded with the offspring of
his fancies, desires, impulses, and passions, a current which
reacts upon any sensitive or nervous organisation which comes in
contact with it in proportion to its dynamic intensity.  The
Buddhist calls this his "Skandha," the Hindu gives it the name of
"Karma"; the Adept evolves these shapes consciously, other men
throw them off unconsciously.

The adept to be successful and preserve his power must dwell in
solitude and more or less within his own soul.  Still less does
exact science perceive that while the building ant, the busy bee,
the nidifacient bird accumulate, each in their own humble way as
much cosmic energy in its potential form as a Haydn, a Plato, or
a ploughman turning his furrow, in theirs; the hunter who kills
game for his pleasure or profit, or the positivist who applies
his intellect to proving that + x + = -, are wasting and
scattering energy no less than the tiger which springs upon its
prey.  They all rob nature instead of enriching her, and will all
in the degree of their intelligence find themselves accountable.

Exact experimental Science has nothing to do with morality,
virtue, philanthropy, therefore can make no claim upon our help,
until it blends itself with metaphysics.  Being but a cold
classification of facts outside man, and existing before and
after him, her domain of usefulness ceases for us at the outer
boundary of these facts; and whatever the inferences and results
for humanity from the materials acquired by her methods, she
little cares.  Therefore as our sphere lies entirely outside hers
-- as far as the path of *Uranus* is outside the earth's -- we
distinctly refuse to be broken on any wheel of her construction.
Heat is but a mode of motion to her, and motion developes heat;
but why the mechanical motion of the revolving wheel should be
should be metaphysically of a higher value than the heat into
which it is gradually transformed -- she has yet to discover.
The philosophical but transcendental (hence absurd?) notion of
the mediaeval theosophists that the final progress of human
labour aided by the incessant discoveries of man, must one day
culminate in a process, which in imitation of the sun's energy --
in its capacity of a direct motor -- shall result in the
evolution of nutritious food out of inorganic matter -- is
unthinkable for men of science.  Were the sun, the great
nourishing father of our planetary System, to hatch granite
chickens out of a boulder "under test conditions" tomorrow, they
(the men of Science) would accept it as a scientific fact,
without wasting a regret that the fowls were not alive so as to
feed the hungry and the starving.  But let a *Shaberon* cross the
Himalayas in a time of famine, and multiply sacks of rice for the
perishing multitudes -- as he could -- and your magistrates and
collectors would probably lodge him in jail, to make him confess
what granary he had robbed.  This is exact science and your
realistic world.  And though as you say you are impressed by the
vast extent of the world's ignorance on every subject, which you
pertinently designate as "a few palpable facts collected and
roughly generalized and a technical jargon invented to hide man's
ignorance of all that lies behind those facts"; and though you
speak of your faith in the infinite possibilities of nature --
yet you are content to spend your life in a work only that same
exact science.  <<You cause a waste of cosmic energy by tons, to
accumulate hardly a few ounces in your volumes -- to speak
figuratively.  And despite your intuitive perceptions of the
boundless reaches of nature, you take up the position that unless
a proficient in arcane knowledge will waste upon your embryonic
Society an energy which without moving from his place he can
usefully distribute among millions, you, with your great natural
powers will refuse to give a helping hand to humanity by
beginning the work single handed, and trusting to time and the
great Law to reward your labour.>>

Of your several questions we will first discuss, if you please,
the one relating to the presumed failure of the "Fraternity" to
"leave any mark upon the history of the world." They ought, you
think, to have been able with their extraordinary advantages to
have "gathered into their schools a considerable portion of the
more enlightened minds of every race." How do you know they have
made no such mark? Are you acquainted with their efforts,
successes, and failures? Have you any dock upon which to arraign
them? How could your world could your world collect proofs of the
doings of men who sedulously kept closed every possible door of
approach by which the inquisitive could spy upon them.  The prime
condition of their success was, that they should never be
supervised or obstructed.  What they have done they know; all
those outside their circle could perceive was results, the causes
of which were masked from view.  To account for these results,
men have in different ages invented theories of the interposition
of "Gods," Special providences, fates, and the benign or hostile
influences of the stars.  There never was a time within or before
the so-called historical period when our predecessors were not
moulding events and "making history," the facts of which were
subsequently and invariably distorted by "historians" to suit
contemporary prejudices.  Are you quite sure that the visible
heroic figures in the successive dramas were not often but their
puppets? We never pretended to be able to draw nations in the
mass to this or that crisis in spite of the general drift of the
world's cosmic relations.  The cycles must run their rounds.
Periods of mental and moral light and darkness succeed each
other, as day does night.  The major and minor yugas must be
accomplished according to the established order of things.  And
we, borne along on the mighty tide, can only modify and direct
some of its minor currents.  If we had the powers of the
imaginary Personal God, and the universal and immutable laws were
but toys to play with, then indeed might we have created
conditions that would have turned this earth into an Arcadia for
lofty souls.  But having to deal with an immutable Law, being
ourselves its creatures, we have had to do what we could and rest
thankful.  There have been times when "a considerable portion of
enlightened minds" were taught in our schools.  Such times there
were in India, Persia, Egypt, Greece and Rome.  But, as I
remarked in a letter to Mr.  Sinnett, the adept is the
efflorescence of his age, and comparatively few ever appear in a
single century.  Earth is the battle ground of moral no less than
of physical forces; and the boisterousness of animal passions
under the stimulus of the rude energies of the lower group of
etheric agents, always tends to quench spirituality.

What else could one expect of men so nearly related to the lower
kingdom from which they evolved? True also, our numbers are just
now diminishing but his is because, as I have said, we are of the
human race, subject to its cyclic impulse and powerless to turn
that back upon itself.  Can you turn the Gunga or the Brahmaputra
back to its sources; can you even dam it so that its piled up
waters will not overflow the banks? No, but you may draw the
stream partly into canals and utilize its hydraulic power for the
good of mankind.  So we, who can not stop the world from going in
its destined direction, are yet able to divert some part of its
energy into useful channels.  Think of us as demi-gods and my
explanation will not satisfy you; view as simple men -- perhaps a
little wiser as the result of special study -- and it ought to
answer your objection.

"What good," say you, "is to be attained for my fellows and
myself (the two are inseparable) by these occult sciences?" When
the natives see that an interest is taken by the English and even
by some high officials in India in their ancestral science and
philosophies, they will themselves take openly to their study.
And when they come to realise that the old "divine" phenomena
were not *miracles,* but scientific effects, *superstition* will
abate.  Thus the greatest evil that now oppresses and retards the
revival of Indian civilisation will in time disappear.  The
present tendency of education is to make them materialistic and
root out spirituality.  With a proper understanding of what their
ancestors meant by their writings and teachings, education would
become a blessing whereas now it is often a curse.  At present
the non-educated as much as the learned natives regard the
English as too prejudiced, because of their Christian religion
and modern science, to care to understand them or their
traditions.  They mutually hate and mistrust each other.  This
changed attitude toward the older philosophy would influence the
native Princes and wealthy men to endow normal schools for the
education of pundits; and old MSS.  hitherto buried out of the
reach of the Europeans would again come to light, and with them
the key to much of that which was hidden for ages from the
popular understanding; for which your skeptical Sanscritists do
not care, which your religious missionaries do not *dare,* to
understand.  Science would gain much -- humanity every thing.
Under the stimulus of the Anglo Indian Theosophial Society, we
might in time see another golden age of Sanscrit literature.
<<Such a movement would have the entire approbation of the Home
Government as it would act as a preventative against discontent;
and the sympathy of European Sanscritists who, in their divisions
of opinion need the help of native pundits, now beyond their
reach in the present state of mutual misunderstanding.  They are
even now bidding for such help.  At this moment two educated
Hindus of Bombay are assisting Max Muller; and a young Pundit of
Guzerat a Fellow of the T.S.  is aiding Prof.  Monier Williams at
Oxford and living in his house.  The first two are materialists
and do harm; the latter single handed can do little, because the
man whom he is serving is a prejudiced Christian.>>

If we look to Ceylon we shall see the most scholarly priests
combining under the lead of the Theos.  Society in a new exegesis
of Buddhistic philosophy and -- at Galle on the 15th of
September, a secular Theosophical school for the teaching of
Singhalese youth opened, with an attendance of over 300 scholars;
an example about to be imitated at three other points in that
island.  If the T.S.  "as at present constituted," has indeed no
"real vitality" and yet in its modest way has done so much of
practical good, how much greater results might not be anticipated
from a body organized upon the better plan you could suggest!

The same causes that are materialising the Hindu mind are equally
affecting all Western thought.  Education enthrones skepticism
but imprisons spiritualism.  You can do immense good by helping
to give the Western nations a secure basis upon which to
reconstruct their crumbling faith.  What they need is the
evidence that Asiatic psychology alone supplies.  Give this and
you will confer happiness of mind on thousands.  The era of blind
faith is gone; that of enquiry is here.  Enquiry that only
unmasks error, without discovering anything upon which the soul
can build, will but make iconoclasts.  Iconoclasm from its very
destructiveness can give nothing, it can only raze.  But man can
not rest satisfied with bare negation.  Agnosticism is but a
temporary halt.

This is the moment to guide the recurrent impulse which must soon
come, and which will push the age toward extreme atheism, or drag
it back to extreme sacerdotalism, if it is not led to the
primitive and soul-satisfying philosophy of the Aryans.  He who
observes what is going on today, on the one hand among the
Catholics, who are breeding miracles as fast as the white ants do
their young, on the ohter, among the free thinkers, who are
converting by masses into agnostics -- will see the drift of
things.  The age is revelling at a debauch of phenomena.  The
same marvels that the spiritualists quote in opposition to the
dogmas of eternal perdition and atonement, the catholics swarm to
witness as the strongest proof of their faith in miracles.  The
skeptics make game of both.  All are blind and there is no one to
lead them! You and your colleagues may help furnish the materials
for a needed universal religious philosophy; one impregnable to
scientific assault because itself the finality of absolute
science; and, a religion, that is indeed worthy of the name,
since it includes the relations of man physical to man psychical,
and of the two to all that is above and below them.  Is not this
worth a slight sacrifice? And if after reflection you should
decide to enter this new carer, let it be known that your Society
is no miracle-mongering or banqueting club, nor specially given
to hte study of phenomenalism.  Its chief aim is to extirpate
current superstitions and skepticism, and, from long sealed
ancient fountains to draw the proof that man may shape his own
future destiny, and know for a certainty that he can live
hereafter, if he only wills; and that all "phenomena" are but
manifestations of natural law, to try to comprehend which is the
duty of every intelligent being.  <<You have personally devoted
many years to a labour benevolently conceived and conscientiously
carried out.  Give to your fellow creatures half the attention
you have bestowed on your "little birds," and you will round off
a useful life with a grand and noble work.>>

Sincerely your friend