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The Illusion of Tomorrow Part II

The Theosophical Movement, Vol. 20, No. 9, July 17, 1950

The tendency to procrastinate, to put off until tomorrow that which should be done today, is a Karmic heritage of the race that has placed mankind a million years behind in its evolution. Except for the necessary task of earning a livelihood, our time, for the most part, is wasted. We vacillate from trifle to trifle, from one set of demanding circumstances to another, with the result that, at the end of our lives, little of real advance has been achieved. Why is this so? Why is it that, in spite of countless types of labour-saving devices, we are usually behind the event, and always in a hurry to catch up with things and affairs that press themselves upon our attention? Why is it that we have no time for worthy pursuits?

To blame Kali-Yuga is to mistake effect for cause, to shift the onus of responsibility onto something outside, when it belongs upon ourselves. Kali-Yuga, it is true, is an age of psychic and mental unrest. It is an age when greed and ambition are the rule, while divine aspirations are an abnormality. But is this a reason to contend that we must be greedy and ambitious? Is it the teaching of the Masters that, because we are living in an age of darkness, and under difficult circumstances, our lives must be dark and disordered, and our characters blotted with the sins of sloth and indifference? If this were true, man would be but a puppet—a mere pawn, moved by blind forces upon a meaningless chess-board of fate.

Kali is not an omnipotent God external to man, who rules our thoughts and causes our sins and troubles. In days of old, Kali was “a benevolent goddess, a being of light and goodness,” whose work, in the words of H. P. Blavatsky, was “to bring about reconciliation between Brahmā and the gods.” If the “female aspect of Śiva” has become now a dark and blood-thirsty being, it is because it was created such by man. Man himself is the maker and sustainer of all cycles; and he alone can institute the causes for a better age. Kali will change its colour only when the heart of man is changed.

He who blames time for his failure to achieve, likewise mistakes illusion for reality. For what is time, after all? Is it a thing, or a being, or anything whatsoever external to man—or is it inner? According to The Secret Doctrine “Time is only an illusion produced by the succession of our states of consciousness as we travel through eternal duration.” It is man himself who creates the illusion, and he alone determines the length of its duration. One has much time or little for his use—depending upon where he centres his consciousness—that is to say, upon whether it is placed in that part of his being which is eternal, or in his evanescent, changing personality. In the Christian Bible is a verse saying that one day is as a thousand years to the Lord and a thousand years as one day. Such is the concept of time to the Soul. But the man who lives in his body and centres his consciousness entirely on the plane of physical sensation is swallowed up in the swirl of moments. Rushing feverishly from one perishable experience to another, he can think of nothing else, has time for nothing but the gratification of his desires.

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Jewels of Wisdom

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Cross Currents

The Law of Human Perfectibility Part II

By Cittih

Suppose a net has been cast into a lake to catch fish. Some fish are so clever that they are never caught in the net. They are like the ever-free. But most of the fish are entangled in the net. Some of them try to free themselves from it, and they are like those who seek liberation. But not all the fish that struggle succeed; A very few do jump out of the net, making a big splash in the water. Then the fishermen shouts, “Look! There goes a big one!” But most of the fish caught in the net cannot escape, nor do they make any effort to get out. On the contrary, they burrow into the mud with the net in their mouths and lie there quietly, thinking, “We need not fear any more; we are quite safe here.” But the poor things do not know that the fishermen will drag them out with the net. These are like the men bound to the world. “The bound souls are tied to the world by the fetters of ‘lust and possessions.’” They are bound hand-and-foot. Thinking that these will make them happy and give them security, they do not realize that it will lead them to annihilation.

These things provide happiness to people and this deluded state continues for most of us from birth till death unless one fine day if and when you are lucky then nature wakes you up and you realize that there is some life threatening situation, or some event which jolts you out of this state, it completely shakes you up and then we might start thinking.

We might ask the question why is there pain in my life, why suffering, what is suffering, why I am going through this situation, what have I done, why I didn’t get certain opportunities in life, there are many why’s and if we really serious put in effort then we finally may ask . . . what is the purpose of life. What is the bigger picture . . . What will happen when I die. Why was I born, who am I?

This is when some of us may see glimpses of Truth and see that there is some order in the chaos of life. There is no event which is coincidental or accidental. Every microsecond of our life is unfolded with Mathematical precision. Whatever happens . . . happens due to the perfect Law. We may call this Law of Karma. Also we see that the whole of humanity in one way or the other is connected not only on the physical, astral and mental planes but others as well.

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Divine Wisdom: Theosophy is…

The Wisdom of the Ages

There is nothing new about Theosophy.  It is as old as man himself. Humanity’s Great Teachers and Sages, particularly in the East, have pointed to ancient civilizations that significantly pre-date the great Egyptian, Indian or Chinese civilizations of the hoary past. A great deal of H.P. Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine is devoted to revealing the common strains of a “Parent Doctrine”, a body of ideas if you will, that were passed down from generation to generation in the ancient world. This tradition can be discovered and verified.  Those ideas were expressed in different ways and in different forms but they are, at their core, the identical tenets. These ideas are a synthetic whole that comprise Divine Wisdom and are revealed to intuitive individuals through Noumenal Nature.  Because knowledge is power, and for man’s own protection,  these ideas have their esoteric and exoteric dimensions.

Go here to read our 21 statements about Theosophical Philosophy