"Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven [which
is within you] and all other things will be added
unto you," teaches the Bible. "The real
riches lie in the kingdom within, yet many people
live their whole lives not knowing how to find them,"
writes psychotherapist Jasmin Lee Cori (Sunday Times
of India, February, 8). We should not seek this
inner life superficially but try to penetrate to
the core of our being. There are various paths open
to us. "In a sense, there are two journeys:
one to find ourselves and one to lose ourselves.
Of course it is not that simple. At different levels,
the truth looks different....Just as the view from
the mountain looks different from different vantage
points, so too the view of reality varies according
to our level of consciousness." Many of the
popular books on spiritual growth are concerned
with the first journey and confuse self-actualization
with self-realization. Self-actualization is fulfilling
all of one's human potential, whereas self-realization
consists in knowing one's identity as the more universal
self. When we undertake the journey of finding ourselves,
we are conditioned by our past. The second journey
consists in realizing that we are not what we think
ourselves to be, but are part of the larger unity.
Jasmin Cori writes:
It may be said that both journeys culminate
in knowing who we really are....In the first
journey, what we discover is the authentic person,
without mask or self-limitation. In the second
journey, we learn that any such identity is
still only a part of the picture....we discover
that we are something much more eternal and
mysterious, something that can change into almost
any form and still be true to itself...
Thus it is not about controlling, but about
giving up control; not about knowing, but about
entering the way of unknowing; not about getting
more, but about giving up everything that stands
between you and the no-thing-ness of your true
nature....The contemplative life is about...surrendering
everything between you and God.
We are given hints regarding the inner spiritual
journey in various verses of The Voice of the
Silence, which advises us to sacrifice the personal
self to the Impersonal Self. Thus:
The Path is one for all, the means to reach
the goal must vary with the Pilgrims....Kill
in thyself all memory of past experiences. Look
not behind or thou art lost....Within thy body—the
shrine of thy sensations—seek in the Impersonal
for the "Eternal Man"; and having
sought him out, look inward: thou art Buddha.
In a meditation recommended by Mr. Judge we seem
to undertake a journey to find our true Self by
losing some aspects of ourselves. Thus:
Every day and as often as you can, and on going
to sleep and as you wake—think, think,
think, on the truth that you are not body, brain,
or astral man, but that you are THAT, and "THAT"
is the Supreme Soul. For by this practice you
will gradually kill the false notion which lurks
inside that the false is the true, and the true,
the false. By persistence in this, by submitting
your daily thoughts each night to the judgment
of your Higher Self, you will at last gain light.
(Letters That Have Helped Me)
It seems that the paradoxical
concept, we must "stoop to conquer,"
is being discussed and even practised by some
in the business world. Robert Greenleaf, a retired
AT&T executive, writes of Servant Leadership
in his book under that title—a concept that
springs from genuine concern for the people. A
servant is able to become a leader because his
motive is to "serve"—first, last
and all the time. According to Greenleaf, a servant-leader
is servant first and hence different from the
person who is leader first, who is motivated by
the desire for power or material possessions.
We observe this slow transformation from servant
to leader in the lives of great men, who had the
compelling drive to be of use to the world and
solve its problems, writes Suma Varughese (Life
Positive, February 2004). "It is the service
motive that makes servant leadership a spiritual
idea, for all true service comes from an understanding
of the unity of creation." Stephen R. Covey,
author of the pathfinding 7 Habits Series, speaks
of a paradigm shift in the management role, "from
one who drives results and motivation from the
outside in, to one who is servant-leader—who
seeks to draw out, inspire and develop the best
and the highest within people from the inside
out." Greenleaf advocates that the leadership
concept must be based on openness, the ability
to listen, humility, the cultivation of intuition
as a means to insight, introspection, faith and
so on.
Mahatmas—truly Great Souls—describe
themselves as "servants of humanity."
The moral principle underlying the concept of
servant-leader is humility. Tao Te King teaches
that qualities of lowliness and humility are necessary
for all great leaders and rulers. Thus:
He who is great must make humility his base.
He who is high must make lowliness his foundation....
Therefore the Sage, wishing to be above the
people, must by his words put himself below
them; wishing to be before the people, he must
put himself behind them. In this way, though
he has his place above them, the people do not
feel his weight....Therefore, all mankind delight
to exalt him, and weary of him not.
Theosophy teaches that true discipline cannot
come about by imposing rules or through any other
external control. Thus Mr. Crosbie advises:
The Authority which we recognize is not what
men term authority, which comes from outside
and which demands obedience, but an internal
recognition of the value of that which flows
through any given point, focus or individual.
This is the authority of one's Self-discrimination,
intuition, the highest intellection. If we follow
what we recognize in that way, and still find
it good, we naturally keep our faces in that
direction. (The Friendly Philosopher, p. 372)
What is Truth? It is not easy
to define and is equally difficult to find in
our world of illusions. We live in the world of
relative realities and half-truths, says Z. Husain
(Dignity Dialogue, February 2004). "Our moods,
our happiness, our sadness are all relative."
Are the table and chair in front of us really
motionless, as we suppose? The moon appears motionless
in the sky, but is that so? We say nothing moves
against gravity, and yet water travels against
gravity and feeds the highest leaf on the tree.
Husain writes:
Most of the time we ourselves keep the truth
hidden. Our judicial system proclaims, "Truth
shall prevail." But each step of the judicial
ladder defines truth in a different way. So
where is the Truth?...
All beliefs acquired inductively from experience
can at best be probable, but not certain. Socrates,
who was condemned to death, held the belief
that all truth is innate in the human soul.
A man has only to discover himself and gain
the knowledge.
Where should a common man go to find the truth?
In the article "What is Truth?" reprinted
in U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 17, H.P.B. differentiates
between Absolute and Relative truths. She points
out that even to acquire relative truth we must
cultivate love of truth for its own sake. On
the other hand, Absolute Truth can only be attained
by paralyzing the lower personality. Thus:
In every age there have been Sages who had
mastered the absolute and yet could teach but
relative truths. For...every one of us has to
find that (to him) final knowledge in himself.
The greatest adept living can reveal of the
Universal Truth only so much as the mind he
is impressing it upon can assimilate, and no
more. (p. 2)
Outside a certain highly spiritual and elevated
state of mind, during which Man is at one with
the Universal Mind—he can get nought on
earth but relative truth, or truths, from whatsoever
philosophy or religion. (p. 11)
To reach the Sun of Truth we must work in dead
earnest for the development of our higher nature.
We know that by paralyzing gradually within
ourselves the appetites of the lower personality,
and thereby deadening the voice of the purely
physiological mind...the animal in us may make
room for the spiritual.... (pp. 2-3)
All forms of life—plants,
birds and beasts—display an instinct for
globalization, writes Bittu Sahgal, editor of
Sanctuary Asia magazine, in his article appearing
in Afternoon Despatch & Courier (February
4). It has been observed that when food was short
in Siberia, the birds flew to India. Similarly
turtles, whales and the vast schools of fish have
been found to follow their globalization instincts
in search for food and safety. Ultimately their
instinct guides them back to the nesting beach
or tree on which they were born. "But not
a single species ever tried to overpower nature."
Sahgal writes:
There is one overriding principal intrinsic
to the survival of such pioneer globalisers—never
do they destroy the resources upon which they
depend. If they break this cardinal rule...they
die....
Homo Sapiens of all descriptions—the
World Bank, International Monetary Fund and
World Trade Organisation varieties, plus the
World Social Forum ones—would do well
to look closer at the manner in which nature
commands, marshals and protects its wards. Never
has nature forgiven one species for exercising
more power and influence than it deserved. Which
is precisely what Homo Sapiens is busy doing
right now, ignorant perhaps of the fact that
the extinction files are full of those who tried
to battle nature.
Theosophy teaches that the ancients have always
revered Nature, never seeking to conquer it. An
article, "Morality and Pantheism that appeared
in the magazine The Theosophist (November 1883),
expressed the Theosophical views regarding man-nature
relationship thus:
If an individual attempts to move in a direction
other than that in which Nature is moving, that
individual is sure to be crushed, sooner or
later, by the enormous pressure of the opposing
force. We need not say that such a result would
be the very reverse of pleasurable. The only
way therefore, in which happiness might be attained,
is by merging one's nature in great Mother Nature,
and following the direction in which she herself
is moving: this again, can only be accomplished
by assimilating man's individual conduct with
the triumphant force of Nature, the other force
being always overcome with terrific catastrophes.
The effort to assimilate the individual with
the universal law is popularly known as the
practice of morality.
It seems twenty-first-century
technologies pose a greater threat to humanity
than did the twentieth-century technologies underlying
weapons of mass destruction. Unlike twentieth-century
technologies, the modern technologies—robotics,
genetic engineering and nanotechnology—appear
to be within reach of individuals, as they "do
not require large facilities and rare materials.
Knowledge alone will enable their use," writes
Bill Joy, a co-founder and chief scientist of
Sun Micro-Systems (Wake Up India, October-December,
2003). We seem to have overlooked the ensuing
consequences, in our desire for new discoveries
and innovations. We need to proceed with caution,
seeing that benefits seem to far outweigh the
dangers and disadvantages. "Specifically,
robots, engineered organisms and nanobots share
a dangerous amplifying factor: they can self-replicate.
A bomb is blown up only once, but one altered
gene can become many, and quickly get out of control."
There are ethical issues involved. For instance,
it is possible to construct destructive nanotechnological
devices that are selectively destructive, affecting
certain area and only a select group of people.
Nanotechnology—which consists in manipulating
matter at the atomic level—threatens to
destroy the biosphere on which life depends. Thus:
The only realistic alternative is relinquishment:
to limit development of the technologies that
are too dangerous, by limiting our pursuit of
certain kinds of knowledge. Although humankind
inherently "desires to know," if open
access to, and unlimited development of, knowledge
henceforth puts us all in clear danger of extinction,
then common sense demands that we re-examine
our reverence for knowledge....
The new Pandora's boxes of genetics, nanotechnology
and robotics are almost open, yet we seem hardly
to have noticed. Ideas cannot be put back in
a box: unlike uranium or plutonium, they do
not need to be mined or refined; they can be
freely copied. Once they are out, they are out....
If we could agree, as a species, what we wanted,
where we were headed and why, then we could
make our future much less dangerous—then
we might understand what we could and should
relinquish. If the course of humanity could
be determined by our collective values, ethics
and morals, and if we had gained more collective
wisdom over the past few thousand years, then
a dialogue to this end would be practical....
It is also felt that scientists, technologists
and engineers should adopt a strong code of ethical
conduct that would ensure that they will desist
from creating or developing any knowledge-enabled
technologies of mass destruction. Material progress
or scientific pursuits do not make for happiness.
Individual and collective happiness rests on the
realization of interdependence and a strong feeling
of love and compassion for humanity in the heart
of every individual.
Theosophy teaches that certain kinds of knowledge
are like two-edged weapons that can both kill
and save and hence must be used with care. In
an Editor's Note to the article, ³From Theosophy
to Shakespeare² (The Theosophist, July 1883),
Mme. Blavatsky expresses the view—relevant
even today—that certain scientific discoveries
should never be made public. Thus:
Some of the discoveries of certain sciences—such
as chemistry and physical science—ought
to have been kept "occult" at any
rate. It is very questionable whether the secrets
of gunpowder, nitro-glycerine, dynamite and
the like, have more benefited than wronged humanity;
at least they ought to have been withheld from
the knowledge of the ignorant and unprincipled
portions of mankind. Such, at least, was the
opinion of Faraday, and some other great men
of science. And this may explain, perhaps, why
the occultists will not give out their even
more perilous secrets promiscuously.
Light on the Path says that scientific quest
for knowledge—obtained by work and experiment—is
held in high esteem by the Adepts. "Every
fresh discovery drives them a step forward."
And yet, science needs to base its work on the
foundation of morality and philanthropy, as expressed
by a Master of Wisdom:
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....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 their abstract relation
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?
For countless generations hath the adept builded
a fane of imperishable rocks, a giant's Tower
of INFINITE THOUGHT, wherein the Titan dwelt,
and will yet, if need be, dwell alone, emerging
from it but at the end of every cycle, to invite
the elect of mankind to co-operate with him
and help in his turn enlighten superstitious
man. And we will go on in that periodical work
of ours; we will not allow ourselves to be baffled
in our philanthropic attempts until that day
when the foundations of a new continent of thought
are so firmly built that no amount of opposition
and ignorant malice guided by the Brethren of
the Shadow will be found to prevail.
—Master K.H.
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