Theos-Talk Archives (November 1998 Message tl00028)

THEOSOPHY is that ocean of knowledge which spreads from shore to
shore of the evolution of sentient beings.

Unfathomable in its deepest parts, it gives the greatest minds
their fullest scope yet, shallow enough at its shores, it will
not overwhelm the understanding of a child.

It is wisdom about God for those who believe that he is all
things and in all, and wisdom about nature for the man who
accepts the statement...that God cannot be measured or
discovered.

Although it contains by derivation the name God [theos] and thus
may seem at first sight to embrace religion alone, it does not
neglect science, for it is the science of sciences, and therefore
has been called the WISDOM RELIGION

For no science is complete which leaves out any department of
nature, whether visible or invisible.  Embracing both the
scientific and the religious, Theosophy is a scientific religion
and a religious science.

It is not a belief or a dogma or invented by man, but is a
knowledge of the laws which govern the evolution of the physical,
astral, psychical, and intellectual constituents of man and
nature.

Theosophy knows that the whole is constituted of the visible and
the invisible, and perceiving outer things and objects to be but
transitory [Maya] it grasps the facts of nature, both without and
within.

It is therefore complete in itself and sees no insolvable mystery
anywhere and hails the reign of law in everything and every
circumstance.

Theosophy holds that Man is a Soul.  Further, that all Nature is
sentient, and that the vast array of objects and men are not mere
collections of atoms fortuitously thrown together, and thus,
without law - evolving LAW;  but down to the smallest atom all is
soul and spirit ever evolving under the rule of LAW, which is
inherent in the whole.

The course of evolution is the drama of the Soul, and, Nature
exists for no other purpose than the Soul's experience.

There must be beings in the universe whose intelligence is as
much beyond ours, as ours exceeds that of the black beetle, and,
who take an active part in the government of the natural order of
things.  That such intelligences were once human and come like
all of us from previous worlds, where, as varied experience [as
we see all around us] had been gained by them as is possible for
us on this one.

WE are therefore not appearing for the first time when we come
upon this planet, but have pursued a long, and immeasurable
course of activity and intelligent perception on other systems of
globes, some of which were destroyed ages before the present
Solar system condensed.

This immense reach of the evolutionary system means that this
planet on which we now are is the result of the activity and the
evolution of some other one that died long ages ago, leaning its
energy to be used into the bringing of this one into being.  And
the present inhabitants came in their turn from some older world
to proceed here with their destined work in matter.

The most intelligent being in the universe, man, has never been
without a friend, but has a line of "elder brothers" who
continually watch over the progress of the less progressed.

They preserve the knowledge gained through aeons of trial and
experience, and continually seek for opportunities of drawing the
intelligence of the race on this or other globes to consider the
great truths concerning the "destiny of the soul."

These elder brothers keep the knowledge they have gained of the
laws of nature in all departments, and are ready when cyclic law
permits to use it for the benefit of mankind.

They have always existed as a body, all knowing each other, no
matter in what part of the world they may be, and all working for
the race in many different ways.

In some periods they come out, are well known, and move among
ordinary men whenever the social organization, the virtue, and
the development of the nations permit it.
For if they were to come out openly and be heard of everywhere,
they would be worshiped as gods by some, and hunted as devils by
others.  In those periods when they do come out some of their
number are rulers of men, some teachers, a few great
philosophers, while others remain still unknown except to the
most advanced of the body.

They may be truly called the bearers of the torch of truth across
the ages;  they investigate all things and beings;  they know
what man is in his innermost nature and what his powers and
destiny, his state before birth and the sates into which he goes
after death of his body;  they have stood by the cradle of
nations and seen the vast achievements of the ancients, watched
sadly the decay of those who had no power to resist the cyclic
law of rise and fall;  and while cataclysms seemed to show a
universal destruction of art, architecture, religion, and
philosophy, they have preserved the records of it all in places
secure from the ravages of either man or time;  they have made
minute observations , through trained psychics of their own
order, into the unseen realms of nature and of mind, recorded the
observations and preserved the record;  they have mastered the
mysteries of sound and color through which alone the elemental
beings behind the veil of matter can be communicated with - and,
(which implies a knowledge of the very foundations of nature) -
they know what the ultimate divisions of time are [in any
manvantara] and what the meaning and the times of the cycles are.

Strange stories are widely known in India about wonderful persons
who are said to be of immense age, and who keep themselves
secluded in places not accessible to the ordinary traveler.  The
these beings is well known in Sanskrit:  "Mahatma" a compound of
two words, "maha" great, and "atma" soul.  The belief in their
existence is shared by the educated of all classes.  The pundits,
or learned class say the Mahatmas are men or souls with unlimited
knowledge of natural laws and of man's history and development.
Some believe that there are stores of books and records in
secluded places all over their land and beyond the Himalayas in
Tibet and beyond not known to travelers and the access to these
being possible only for the Mahatmas and Adepts.

[ culled from OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY and ECHOES FROM THE ORIENT - by
W. Q. Judge ]