The Inner, Long Term Purpose
of the Theosophical Movement
Carlos
Cardoso Aveline
“The Fire and Light” has
28 chapters
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The following text reproduces chapter twenty-
three of the book “The
Fire and Light of
Theosophical Literature”, by Carlos C. Aveline,
The Aquarian Theosophist, Portugal, 255 pp., 2013.
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“...Tell
me whether I am too sanguine when I say
that if
the Theosophical … [Movement]
survives and
lives
true to its mission, to its original impulses through
the
next hundred years - tell me, I say, if I go too far in
asserting
that earth will be a heaven in the twenty-first
century
in comparison with what it is now!”
(H.P. Blavatsky, in her 1889 book “The Key
to Theosophy”, Theosophy Co. edition, p.
307)
In the
last paragraph of “The Key to Theosophy”, HPB sees a direct relationship
between the state of the theosophical movement and the state of human karma and
civilization. The movement is for her a causal factor; the state of the
civilization belongs to the world of effects.
The
importance of HPB’s statement is great. It reveals the magnetic nature of the
link between the theosophical movement and mankind. The movement is a
collective “body” possessing active seeds
of buddhi-manasic activity. Mankind is the soil
or the object of agricultural
activity. If the right seeds are correctly planted, the crop will be available
in due time. HPB’s sentence describes the nature of the occult responsibility
of the movement, with regard to mankind. It is occult, yet it is real. It is
unavoidable, for it is part of human evolution. It is in the very essence of
the movement, in its astral light substance, in its aura.
That
helping mankind is the duty of the movement is stated in numerous passages in
the “Mahatma Letters” and in “Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom”.[1] It is recorded in the first object
of the movement, which is “to create a nucleus of universal brotherhood”.
Individuals
can always deny - in deeds, more than in words - that this is the purpose of
the movement. Many behave as if this goal were but a propaganda slogan. Yet the
movement itself can only live by being faithful to its own magnetic nature,
made of universal wisdom and ethics. If at any time the movement has less
vitality than expected, all one has to do, in order to identify the problem, is
to examine the amount of altruistic motivation in its members. In such an
examination, the observer should start by verifying his own degree of
altruism.
In
the fulfillment of its long-term task, the movement needs individuals who take
practical steps to expand their own Antahkaranas,
thus widening contact with their higher selves. This requires self-discipline.
The
arithmetic number of such individuals is of secondary importance. In the right
time, these comparatively Few will be able to stimulate and help ignite the
fire of inner life in many others. The collective awakening will spread
throughout mankind in a rhythm dictated by Karma. This has started to gather
momentum from 1875, but its results are not necessarily visible yet.
It
is the duty of these students of theosophy, and also a source of happiness for
them, to TRY and activate the potentiality by which growing sections of the
theosophical movement will go beyond attachment to routine [2] and will help produce more elements of information and stimuli
for thousands and millions of people worldwide to expand contact with their own
immortal souls or higher selves.
This
must gradually open room for the next and sixth type of present human psyche,
which in the terms of “The Secret Doctrine” is called “sixth sub-race of fifth
root-race”.
The
sixth human type or “sub-race” of
present root-race will be ready to live universal brotherhood in a conscious
and practical way. Its gradual appearance will make humanity see brotherhood as
a fact, thus abandoning the now common practice of fratricide. The theosophical
movement was created to help prepare that.
The
dharma and duty of theosophists is not to try to prevent geological changes through social activism. It is true that
the effects of geological changes will be less dramatic if planetary
consciousness expands, and this is a noble goal. But geological events are part
and parcel of human and planetary evolution, and they are necessary to it. The
theosophical duty is to make an effort to understand the present challenges
from the point of view of esoteric philosophy, and to share the theosophical
view of the planet so as to help mankind’s spiritual and ethical
awakening.
The
planet is septenary, and its various levels of consciousness are all
interconnected. In the 21st century, a multidimensional transition is taking
place. Old forms of theosophical action get dysfunctional. New forms are still
in their beginnings. The inner crumbling of old forms of theosophical work
expands in parallel to the outer crisis of a materialistic civilization; and
these two facts take place together with the acceleration of geological events
in every country and continent.
While
reflecting on the principle stated by HPB in her closing paragraph at “The
Key”, one can select these two questions for meditation and contemplation:
*
Is there a causal relationship between the process of sustaining and activating
the movement along its Original Lines and the necessary self-renewal of present
civilization?
*
How best can each of us, and all of us, TRY to be gradually more helpful in
this unified and permanent process of creation, preservation and renewal, which
occurs in the long term and mainly at the invisible or causal level?
NOTES:
[1] See
for instance “The Great Master’s Letter”, also known as “View of the Chohan on
the T.S.” and as “The Maha-Chohan Letter”.
[2] Mental dispersion and the search for
“novelties” are forms of routine.
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In September 2016, after a careful analysis of the state of the
esoteric movement worldwide, a group of students decided to form the Independent Lodge of Theosophists,
whose priorities include the building of a better future in the different
dimensions of life.
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