And How Humanity Can Overcome
It
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
In
1878, Helena P. Blavatsky wrote an article
on the occult side of East-West relationships. It discusses the esoteric
roots of the inter-religious tensions which are spreading in the 21st century. It
highlights the fact that enemies often identify with one another, in a
subconscious way. “It takes two to tango”,
as the popular saying goes. As in judo or karate or chess game, active
adversaries live a special kind of unity.
In her thought-provoking article, Ms. Blavatsky mentions the secret
societies created in the region of Peshawar,
in the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where in the first half
of the 21st century the taliban and followers of Osama Bin Laden (1957-2011) have their strongholds.
The text examines the work and influence of Mr. Abdul Ghafur (1794-1877), the ruler of a tribe in Swat, in Peshawar,
now Pakistan. Published a few months after the death of Mr. Ghafur, the article says:
“If there be truth in the Eastern
doctrine that souls, powerful whether
for good or bad, who had not time in one existence to work out their plans, are
reincarnated, the fierceness of their yearnings to continue on earth thrusting
them back into the current of their attractions, then Ghafur was a re-birth of that Felice
Peretti, who is known in history as Pope Sixtus V, of crafty and odious
memory.” [1]
Felice Peretti was the Catholic Roman Pope Sixtus V from 1585 through 1590. Abdul Ghafur was born some 200 years after the
death of this pope. In his “Philosophical Dictionary”, the 18th century French
philosopher Voltaire describes Sixtus V in this words:
“Sixtus V was born petulant, obstinate, haughty, impetuous, vindictive,
arrogant: this character seems to have been curbed during the trials of his novitiate. As he
begins to enjoy some influence in his order he loses his temper with a
caretaker and beats him with his fist;
once inquisitor at Venice, he exercises his office with insolence; behold him
cardinal, he is possessed della rabia
papale: his rage subdues his nature; he buries his person and his character
in obscurity; he apes the humble and the dying; he is elected pope: in this
moment all the long-restrained resiliency of the spring, which policy had kept
under control, is restored; he is the proudest
and most despotic of sovereigns.” [2]
H.P. Blavatsky makes a comparison between Pope Sixtus V and the Akhund
of Swat:
“Both were born in the lowest class of society, being ignorant peasant
boys and beginning life as herdsmen.
Both reached the apex of power through craft and stealth and by imposing
upon the superstitions of the masses.
Sixtus, author of mystical books and himself a practitioner of the forbidden sciences to satisfy his lust
for power and ensure impunity, became Inquisitor-General. Made Pope, he hurled his anathemas alike against Elizabeth
of England, the King of Navarre, and other important personages. Abdul Ghafur,
endowed with an iron will, had educated
himself without colleges or professors
(...). He was well versed in the Arabic and Persian literature of alchemy and
astrology as Sixtus was in Aristotle, and like him knew how to fabricate
mesmerized talismans and amulets (....).
Each held millions of devotees under the
subjection of their psychological influence, though both were more
dreaded than beloved.” [3]
As to Ghafur, Blavatsky writes
that in spite of the secrecy and mystery he imposed about his life, “the one certain thing is, that he was the
founder and chief of nearly every secret society worth speaking of among Mussulmans, and the dominant spirit in all
the rest.”
This is no small accomplishment. Blavatsky adds that he used false
antagonisms, stimulating hatred in both sides of political or social disputes.
Hatred is a strange form of language: many get used to it. Persons, sects
and nations get deeply involved with each other thanks to mutual hatred. In such
situations war and conflict are desired by both sides. War is big business as
much as it is a tragedy, and mutual destruction is a way of life. One may easily
get addicted to the feelings of frustration and ill-will. These facts and circumstances
help us understand the reality beneath the
surface, in the 21st century politics of systematic conflict.
The very fact that the same individual soul was born once in the West
and made the Christian Pope; and then
was born again in a Eastern country to be a top
Islamic religious leader, shows that the “mystical disciples of hatred” search
for contrast and use antagonisms for their own purposes, though they may disguise
their love for conflict under the elegant appearance of religious feelings.
A
Mysterious Hindu Visits Abdul Ghafur
As we have seen, Blavatsky says that Abdul Ghafur created secret
societies in Islamism from where he lived,
in the region of Peshawar.
This was not far from the cave
systems where the sacred Bamian Statues were located until their destruction by
the Taliban in 2001. It is the same
region where the Taliban and Al Qaeda have their refuges in Afghanistan and
Pakistan.
Powerful as he was, Mr. Ghafur still had his reasons to be afraid of the
Sages who work with truth and use honesty and compassion in their efforts to benefit mankind. HPB
writes in 1880:
“One highly dramatic incident in the life of the ‘Pope of Saidu’ is the
following well-authenticated case, which was much commented upon in his part of
India [4] about twenty years
ago. One day, in 1858, when the Akhund,
squatting on his carpet, was distributing amulets, blessings and prophecies
among his pious congregation of pilgrims, a tall Hindu, who had silently
approached and mingled in the crowd without having been noticed, suddenly
addressed him thus: ‘Tell me, prophet,
thou who prophesiest so well for others, whether thou knowest what will be thine
own fate, and that of the Defender of the
Faith, thy Sultan of Istamboul, twenty years hence?’ ”
The old Ghafur, says HPB, was
“overcome with violent surprise”. He stared at his interlocutor, but no
answer came. “In recognizing the Sikh,
he seemed to have lost all power of speech”, and “the crowd was under a spell”.
HPB describes the scene:
“ ‘If not’, continued the
intruder, ‘then I will tell thee. Twenty years more and your Prince of the Faithful will fall by the
hand of an assassin of his own house.
Two old men, one the Dalai Lama
of the Christians, the other the great prophet of the Moslems - thyself - will
be simultaneously crushed under the heel of death. Then, the first hour will
strike of the downfall of those twin foes of truth - Christianity and
Islam. The first, as the more powerful,
will survive the second, but both will soon crumble into fragmentary sects,
which will mutually exterminate each other’s faith. See, thy followers are powerless [5], and I might kill thee now, but
thou art in the hands of Destiny, and that knows its own hour’.”
HPB concludes:
“Before a hand could be lifted the speaker had disappeared.”
As predicted, “the rival pontiffs
of Rome and Swat” died almost simultaneously. Roman Catholic Pope Pius IX died in
1878 [6]. Abdul Ghafur died in 1877.
The Hindu visitor was stern
enough when he defined Christianity and
Islam as “twin foes of truth”, an
expression which reminds one of the Prayag Letter from a Mahatma, and also of
the Letter 10, in the non-chronological editions of “The Mahatma Letters”. [7]
The “downfall of Christianity and Islam” mentioned by the unknown
visitor may mean not their nominal end, but the end of their authoritarian
structures. While violence must be abandoned,
an honest debate and contrast of views should be welcome.
In the Letter 120 of “The Mahatma
Letters” (Chronological Edition), one sees that H.P.B.’s Masters want the members of theosophical movement to be open to confrontations
of ideas while keeping peace in their
minds and hearts. Theosophists must understand and transcend the paradoxes and
contradictions of life. Frankness is the best if not the only way to
get rid of occult hatred and psychological
violence. One of the ways for the theosophical movement to help purify human
mind as a whole consists in developing the habit of looking directly at challenges
and disagreements, with calm attention -
and go beyond them.
As to the presence and work of Abdul Ghafur in the Peshawar region, it seems
to indicate the occult and strategical importance of that place. It is precisely the same region where the
Fourth Race Bamian statues, commented by H.P. Blavatsky in “The Secret
Doctrine” [8], were destroyed between
March 2 and March 11, 2001,
by the Taliban/Al Qaeda
“mystical” terrorists.
The Bamian Statues are connected to the complex systems of caves once
used by Buddhist Arhats and Ascetics, and now probably used (in that region) by
some of the taliban and Al Qaeda
members.
The destruction of the Statues was
concluded in March 11, 2001. Astrologically March 11 and September 11 make a direct opposition. From the occult point of view, the destruction of the “Twin Towers” in New
York in September 11, 2001 may have concluded a “twin operation” with the March
11 destruction of the Buddhist Statues in Bamian, Afghanistan. The theosophical movement itself
was founded in New York, and it is in New York that the United Nations (an
outer seed of the future brotherhood of nations) is based. The city attacked by Al Qaeda is also
a symbol of the entire Western world.
Anti-Semitism Is Shared by Nazis
and Muslims
Although Christ and his disciples were Jews, the systematic persecution
of Jews is a “Christian” invention. The centuries-old
disease of anti-Semitism is shared by many in the Muslim world. And Adolf Hitler, who was discreetly supported
by the Vatican as long as he lived, had close relationships with some of the
main Arab leaders.
Just along the lines shown by Blavatsky in her 19th century article, in
the first half of 20th century the worship of death was common to Arab
nationalism and “Christian” Nazism. While German Nazism and Italian Fascism (another
allied to the Vatican) were defeated in 1945, the same did not happen to the
ideology of intolerance in the Islamic world.
Haj Amin El-Husseini, the founder of the present-day Palestinian people,
was “the most important leader in the Arab world in the twentieth century” according
to Caroline Glick.[9] He was also an
enthusiastic supporter of Nazism and cooperated with Adolf Hitler in more than
one aspect. In 1941 Husseini and Hitler had a meeting during which they planned
that, after Nazism had eliminated the Jews in Europe, Hitler would help
Husseini destroy the Jewish presence in the Arab world. [10]
Islam is greater and deeper than its extremists. It probably has the cultural
resources and means necessary to overcome the medieval policy of religious hatred
and its “mystics of fear”. Islam teaches
compassion, which is the opposite of violence. The passages of the Qur’an which recommend
cruelty and violence must be accepted as
expressing a radical lack of wisdom and compassion. They must be forgotten. Dead letter approaches to religious
scriptures has to be abandoned worldwide. A sense of universal brotherhood and a
freedom from authoritarian priesthood is stimulated by people of goodwill in
every religion or philosophy.
Frank intercultural dialogue must be expanded. Theosophists and friends
of peace should not pretend they have nothing to do with inter-religious
violence. The wider knowledge one has, the deeper and the more urgent his moral
obligations. It is the special duty of students of theosophy to unmask
ideological systems of religious hatred, as H.P. Blavatsky did in her time.
The “friends of peace” who accept
sugar-coated disrespect for life seem to think that criminals and decent people
are all the same. Such naïve people renounce having discernment. They will see
in due time that there is a difference between Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi and Mussolini, a
murderer and a friend of life.
Pseudo-esoteric “Quietism” is a form of irresponsibility which purports to
transcend karma. In fact it denies both ethics
and theosophy. Humanity needs to directly face its karmic challenges - including
ethical crisis, ecological degradation, nuclear
proliferation, Islamic Terror and
anti-Semitism - before it can be able to expand its consciousness. Fulfilling one’s
moral obligations is an unavoidable step, and it is previous to attaining
higher levels of spiritual learning.
Monotheistic Religions Must
Work for Peace
Esoteric Philosophy teaches a universal respect for all life. It
stimulates unconditional respect among nations. It sees all life as sacred. It
also invites its students to observe and take lessons from human failures, as
from contrast and contradictions. In the
famous Letter 120, in the Chronological Edition of the Mahatma Letters [11], one reads:
“... Discord is the harmony of
the Universe”.
Even before that Letter,
Alexander Pope, the English poet
of the 18th century, had already thus explained this aphorism of esoteric wisdom:
“All Nature is but art, unknown to thee
All chance, direction, which thout canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good;
And, spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.” [12]
Both Islam and Christianity must get rid of the mainly subconscious cult
of death - whose unfortunate rituals include War.
The problem has been diagnosed by Erich Fromm, who called it
“necrophilia”, literally “love for death”. This emotional and spiritual disorder
is also discussed by Sigmund Freud and
others. There is a religious form of necrophilia, and a skeptical and
materialistic variety of it. Both promote and sustain violence, physical and emotional.
The problem is often simultaneous to the adoration of money and of machines. Its
symptoms include nearly all forms of disrespect for life, and a contempt for the ecological balance in
natural environments. [13]
By promoting respect for life and ethics, Western Society and Islam will
be able to free themselves in due time from religious hatred and thus cease to
support the weapons industries and their priests of death, the arms dealers. Judaism,
which only recently obtained the means to defend itself, must practice self-restraint and non-violence as
much as possible, while helping build the common path to a constructive interreligious
future.
True, it is necessary to avoid naïve and short-term forms of pacifism
which only provoke extra amounts of violence. But the Jewish ability to create new
cultural and economical scenarios must be used with a long-term perspective to
promote international peace, cross-cultural cooperation, and respect for life.
An old Arabic proverb says:
“The dogs bark but the caravan goes on.”
Violence produces noise, while cooperation makes the world become a better
place, and it does so in silence. At any given time, friendship and mutual help
between the Muslim world and the Non-Muslim world have been much stronger than hatred and conflict. The Qur’an, the
Christian Bible and the Jewish Torah must be studied from the point of view of
respect for religious diversity, and adapted to the cross-cultural needs of
present civilization. Jonathan Sacks is
among the thinkers who open the way to a healthy future regarding inter-religious
respect and dialogue.
The principle of reverence for all life has started to be more widely adopted,
and the process may take time to be complete. It does not matter exactly when it will happen. This is the only path to go,
and the correct thing to do is to work in its direction. We may try to reduce the
cost to pay in human lives and suffering. Islam can be seen as a
wisdom-searching religious movement, and the Qur’an teaches:
“But Allah doth call
To the Home of Peace:
He doth guide whom He pleaseth
To a Way that is straight.
To those who do right
Is a goodly (reward) -
Yea, more (than in measure)!” [14]
Among the cultural treasures to be rescued in the next steps of the Muslim
revival - away from terror and hatred - one
can find the works of its great philosophers of the Middle Ages, among them
Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina - also
known as Avicenna - and Averroes.
Maimonides, the Jewish philosopher,
had many an Arab friend. Platonism and ancient theosophy are influential in classical Muslim philosophy, and
Islam has every tool necessary and every reason to evolve, in its own way, towards
the next civilization of universal brotherhood.
NOTES:
[1] See the article
“The Akhund of Swat”, in the “H.P.B. Collected Writings”, TPH, Volume I, pp.
369-375.
[2] “Philosophical
Dictionary”, Voltaire, Basic Books, Inc., New York, 1962, Preface by André
Maurois, entry on “Character”, volume I, pp. 124-125.
[3] “The Akhund of
Swat”, in the “H.P.B. Collected Writings”, TPH, Volume I, pp. 369-370. On Pope Sixtus V’s use of talismans, see
“Isis Unveiled”, H. P. Blavatsky, T.U.P., Pasadena, Vol. I, pp. 617-618.
[4] That is, the
“Great India” of the 19th century.
[5] A reference to
the fact that the crowd stood
still, like under a spell, as the Hindu talked.
[6] Source of the date: “Encyclopaedia Britannica”, 1967, vol.
17, p.
1136.
[7] The Prayag Letter
is Letter 30 in the Chronological Edition (TPH, Philippines) of “The Mahatma
Letters to A.P. Sinnett”. It is Letter CXXXIV in the edition of the Theosophical
University Press (TUP, Pasadena, California), and in the edition of Adyar (TPH,
India) of the same Letters. The Letter 10 (“On God”) of the TUP and TPH-Adyar
editions corresponds to Letter 88 of the Chronological edition.
[8] “The Secret
Doctrine”, H. P. Blavatsky, Theosophy
Co., Los Angeles, USA, Vol. II, pp. 337-
341.
[9] “The Israeli
Solution, a one-state plan for peace in
the Middle East”, Caroline B. Glick, Crown Forum, New York, 2014, 324 pp., see
p. 28.
[10] “The Israeli
Solution”, Caroline B. Glick, read pp. 40-44, especially 42. See also the book
“A Place Among the Nations, Israel and the World”, by Benjamin Netanyahu, Bantam Books, 1993, 467 pp., chapter II among
others.
[11] The Chronological
edition was published by the TPH in the Philippines in 1993. See p. 412. In the various non-chronological editions of
“The Mahatma Letters”, the same document is published as Letter
85. See p. 401 in the TUP
edition, Pasadena, CA.
[12] Alexander Pope,
“Essay on Man and Other Poems”, Dover Publications, New York, 1994, 99 pp., see
pp. 52-53.
[13] See for instance
“The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness”,
by Erich Fromm, Fawcett Publications, Inc., Greenwhich,
Connecticut, USA, copyright 1973, 576
pp.
[14] “The Holy Qur’an”,
With Text, Translation and Commentary by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, published by Amana
Corporation, Brentwood, Maryland, USA, 1989, 1754 pp., see Surah 10 (paragraphs
25-26), p. 487.
