THE RIDDLE

OF LIFE

AND

HOW THEOSOPHY

ANSWERS IT

PRICE TEN CENTS

By ANN I E BESANT

C O N T E N T S

Chapter

I . The Meaning of Theosophy

II . The S o lar System

II I . Man and H is Worlds

IV . Man and H is Mortal Bo dies

V . Man’

s Immortal Bodies

The Law of Re - Birth

VI I . The R iddle of Love and Hate

VI I I . Karma— The Law of Action and Re - action

The Three Threads of the Cord of F ate

" . Thought- Power and its Use

" I . Steps on the Ifath

" I I . Our E lder érothers

THE RIDDL’

E’

oFfLiF—ECHAPTER I .

THE MEAN I NG OF THEOSOPHY .

The word Theosophy is now on the lips of many,and as

M . " ourdain spoke - prose wi thout knowing it , so many are Theoso

phists who do not realise it . F or Theosophy is Divine Wisdom,

and that Wisdom is the Light which lighteth every man whocometh into the world . It belongs to none exclusively ; i t b elongsto each inclusively ; the power to receive it i s the right to posses sit ; the fact of posses sion makes the duty of sharing . E veryreligion, every phi losophy, every science, every activity, drawswhat it has of truth and beauty

“

from the Divine Wisdom, butcannot claim it as its own against others . Theosophy does not

belong to the Theosophical Society ; the Theosophical Societybelongs to Theosophy.

What is the essence of Theosophy ? It i s the fact that man ,being himself divine, can know the Divinity whose life he shares .

As an inevitab le corol lary to this supreme truth comes the factof the Brotherhood of Man . The div ine Life is the spirit in everything that exists , from the atom to the archangel ; the grain ofdust could not be were God absent from it ; the loftiest seraph isbut a spark from the eternal F ire , which is God . S -harers in oneLife

,all form one Brotherhood . The immanence of God , the soli

darity of Man, such are the basic truths of Theosophy.

Its secondary teachings are those which are the common teachings of all religions

,living or dead ; the Unity of God ; the triplicity

of H is nature ; the descent of Spirit into matter , and hence thehierarchies of inte lligencie s, whereof humanity is one ; the growthof humanity by the unfoldment of consciousnes s and the evolutionof bodies , 13. e . ,

reincarnation ; the progres s of this growth underinviolable law, the law of causality, i . e .

, karma ; the environmentto this growth, the three worlds , physical , astral and mental , orearth

,the intermediate world, and heaven ; the ex1stence of divine

Teachers,superhuman men .

All religions teach or have taught these , though from timeto time one or another of these teachings may temporari ly fallinto the background ; ever they reappear— as the doctrine of re

incarnation fell out of ecclesiastical Chri stianity, but i s now returning to it, was submerged, but i s again emerging.

It i s the mission of the Theosophical Society as a whole tospread these truths in every land , though no individual memberi s bound to accept any one of them ; every member i s left abso

lute ly free , to study as he pleases , to accept or to reject ; but if the

261274

Tii E'

RIDDLE OF LIFE

Society,‘

as'

acéollectiviity, z ceased‘

to accept and to spread them,it

would also cease to exist .This unity of teachings among the world - religions i s due to the

fact that they are all founded by members of the Brotherhood ofdivine Teachers , the custo dian of the D ivine Wisdom ,

of Theosophy .

From this Brotherhood come out,from time to time

,the F ounders

of new religions , who ever bring with them the same teachings ,but shape the form of those teachings to suit the conditions of thetime, such as the intel lectual s tage o f the people to who -m Theycome , their type, their needs , their capacities . The essentials areever the same ; the non - essentials vary. This identity is shownin the symbol s which appear in all faiths , for symbo ls form thecommon language of religions . The circle, the triangle, the crossthe eye , the sun , the star , with many another , ever bear theirsilent te stimony to the fundamental unity of the religions of theworld . Understanding this , the Theosophical Society serves everyreligion within its own domain

,and draws them together into a

Brotherhood .

In morals,Theosophy builds its teachings on the Unity, seeing

in each form the expression of a common Life, and therefore thefact that what injures one injures a l l . To do evil 0 e .

, to throwpoison into the life - b lood of humanity, i s a crime against the Unity .

Theosophy has no code o f mora ls , being itself the embodiment ofthe highest mora lity ' i t presents to its students the highest moralteachings Of all rel igions , gathering the m ost fragrant b lossomsfrom the gardens of the world - faiths . Its Society has no code

,for

any code that cou ld be generally imposed would b e at the averagelow level of the day

,and the Society seeks to raise its members

above the ordinary level by ever presenting to them the highestideal s , and infusing into them the loftie st aspirations . It leavesaside the law of Moses to walk in the spirit of the Buddha , of theChrist . It seeks to evolve the inner law, not to impose an outer.Its method with its least evolved members i s not expuls ion, butreformation .

The embodiment of the Divine Wisdom in an organisation givesa nucleus from which i ts life - forces may radiate . A new andstrong link is thus made between the spiritual and the materialworlds ; it i s in very truth a Sacrament

“ the outward and visib lesign o f an inward and spiritual grace , a witness of the Life ofGod in Man .

CHAPTER II .

THE S OLAR SYSTEM.

A Solar System is a group o f worlds circling round a centralSun, from which they draw light , life and energy. On this allTheosophists and non - Theosophists are agreed . But the Theoso

phi st sees much more than this in a Solar System . It i s to him avast F ield of E volution , presided over by a divine Lord , who hascreated its ' matter out of the aether of Space, permeating thismatter with H i s Life

,organizing it into H is Body, and from H is

H eart, the Sun, pouring out the energy which circulates throughthe System as its l ife - blood— l ife - blood which returns to the H eartwhen its nutrient properties are exhausted, to be re - charged andsent forth again on its l ife - sustaining work .

H ence a Solar S ystem is to the The osophist, not merely asplendid mechanism of phys1cal matter , but the expression ofa L ife, and the nursery of Lives derived therefrom, instinct inevery part with latent or active intelligence, desire and activity .

It “exists for the sake of the Self,” in order that the germs of

D ivinity, the embryonic Selves emanated from the supreme Self,may unfold into the likenes s of the Parent- God , whose naturethey share, being truly

“ partakers of the divine Nature . Itsglobes are man - bearing, and not men alone but also sub - humanbeings, are its inhabitants . In worlds subtler than the physicaldwell beings more highly evolved than men , as also beings lessevolved ; beings clothed in bodies of matter finer than the physical ,and therefore invisible to physical eyes , but none the less activeand intel ligent ; beings among whose hosts myriads of men arefound

,men who have , for the time , discarded their fleshly rai

ment,but who, none the less , are thinking, loving, active men .

And even during l ife on our physical earth, encased in the gar

ment of the flesh , men are in touch with these other worlds andother - world beings

,and may be in conscious relation with them,

as the F ounders , Prophets , Mystics and Seers of all the faithshave witnessed .

The divine Lord manifests H imself in H is System in threeA spects , or

“Persons,the Creator, the Preserver , the Regenera

tor ; these are the H oly Spirit, Son and F ather of the Christian ;the Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva of the H indu ; the Chochmah,

Binah and Kether of the H ebrew Kabbal ist ; the Third , Secondand F irst Logos of the Theosophist

,who uses the old Greek term,

the Word,” for the manifested God .

The matter of the System is built up by the Third Logos ,seven types of atoms being formed by H im ; aggregations composed of these yield the seven fundamenta l kinds of matter foundin the System, each denser than its predecessor, each kind being

5

THE RIDDLE OF LIFE

correlated with a distinct stage of Consciousness . We call thematter composed of a particular type of atom

,a p lane

,or world

,

and hence recognis e seven such planes in the So lar System ; thetwo highest are the divine, or super - spiritual planes

,

- the planeso f the Logoi, and the lower of these two is the birthplace andhabi tat of the human Self, the Monad, the God in man ; th e twosucceeding are the spiritual p lanes, reaching which man reali seshimself as divine ; the fifth

,sti ll densifying

, i s the intel lectualplane ; the s ixth, the emotional and passional, the seat of s ensations and desires , is generally called the astral plane ; the seventh ,the physica l plane . The matter of the spiritual p lanes is correlated with the spiritual stage of Consciousness

,and is so subtle

and so p lastic that it yields to every impulse of the Spirit,and

the sense of separateness is lost in that of unity . The matterof the intel lectual plane i s correlated with the intellectual stageof Consciousness , with Thought, Cognition,

“

and every change inThought is accompanied with a vibration of its matter . The lateW. K . C l ifford seems to have recognised

“mind - stufi as a constituent of the cosmos , for, as every force needed its medium,

thought, regarded as a force, needed a special kind of matter forits working. The matter of the astral plane i s correlated with thedesire stage of Consciousness

,every change of emotion, passion,

desire,sensation being accompanied with a vibration of its matter.

The matter of the physical plane i s the coarsest or densest, andis the firs -t to be organized for the activ e expression o f humanConsciousness .

These s even kinds of matter, interpenetrating each other— asphysical sol ids , l iquids , gases and ethers interpenetrate each otherin the objects round us — are not al l spread evenly over the wholearea occupied by a Solar System, but are partly aggregated intoplanets

,worlds or globes ; the three finest kinds of matter do

spread over the whole, and are thus common to the system, butthe four denser kinds compose and surround the globes, and thefields occupied by these are not in mutual touch .

We read in various Scriptures of “ Seven Spirits” : Chris

tianity and Muhammadanism have seven Archangels ; " oroastriani sm

,seven Am shaSpends ; H ebraism has seven Sephiroth ; Theos

ophy cal ls them the seven p lanetary Logoi ; and they are theRulers of the Planets Vulcan, Venus, E arth, " upiter, Saturn,

Uranus and Neptune .

E ach of these seven Planets is the turning point in a chainof interlinked worlds, presided over by the Planetary Logos

,and

each chain i s a separate F ield of E volution from its earliestbeginnings up to man . There are thus seven such subsidiaryF ields of Evolution in a Solar System

,and

‘

they are , naturally,at different stages of progress . The chain consists of seven

6

TH E RIDDLE OF LIFE

globes,of which generally one is of physical and s ix of finer

matter ; in our own chain, however, our earth has two sisterglobes vis ib le to physica l s ight— Mars and Mercury— and fourinvis ib le companions . The wave of evolutionary life, bearing theevo lving beings

,occupies one globe at a time— with certain special

exceptions which need not be mentioned here - passing on to thenext in order when the lessons on the earlier have been learned .

Thus our humanity has trave led from globe 1 , on the mentalp lane

,to globe 2, on the astral ; from that to globe 3 , Mars, and

to globe 4,our E arth ; it will pass on to globe 5 , Mercury, and

from that to globe 6,again on the astral, and thence to globe 7,

on the mental . This comp letes a great evolutionary Round , as it

i s aptly cal led .

This huge scheme of evolution cannot b e readi ly grasped bythe ignorant

,any more than can the correspond ing scheme of

the astronomer,which deals on ly with the physica l p lane . Nor

i s it necessary that it should be understood by those of smal lintell igence , s ince it has no imm ediate bearing on life . It i s

interesting only to the man who, desiring to understand , is readyto grapple with the deeper prob lems of nature, and does not

grudge strenuous intellectua l exertion .

CHAPTE R I I I .

MAN AND H IS WO R LDS .

Man is a spiritual Intel ligence , who has taken flesh with theobject of gaining experience in worlds below the Spiritual, inorder that he may be able to master and rule them , and in laterages take hi s place in the creative and directing H ierarchies ofth e universe .

There is a universal law that a Consciousness can only knowthat which it can reproduce ; one Consciousness can know anotherin proportion as it i s ab le to reproduce within

*

itse lf the changesin that other . If a m an feels pain when another man feels it,happiness when the other feels it, anxiety, confidence, etc .,

withthe other

,at once reproducing his mo ods

,that man knows the

other . Sympathy— feeling together— i s the condition of knowledge .

But Consciousness works in bodies ; we are clothed , not naked ;and these bodies are composed of matter . Consciousness mayaff ect Consciousness

,but how can Consciousness afiect these

bodies ?

There is another law,that a change in Consciousness i s at once

accompanied with a vibration in the matter near it, ari d eachchange has its own answering vibration, as a musical sound and

TH E R IDDLE OF LIFE

a particular length and thickness of string invariab ly go together .In a Solar System all the separated Consciousnesses are part ofthe Consciousness of the divine Lord of the system, and all thematter of the system i s H is B ody—

“in H im we live and move and

have our b eing . H e has formed this matter and related it toH imself, so that it answers everywhere by innumerable kindsof vibrations to the innumerable changes in H is Consc iousness,each to each . Over H i s whole vast kingdom his Consciousnessand H is matter answer each other in perfect and perpetual harmony and inviolab le relation .

Man shares with the divine Lord th is relation, but in anelementary and feeb le way ; to the changes in his Consciousnes sanswer vibrations in the matter around him, but this i s only perfee t and complete, at first

,in the super- spiritual wor lds where

he exists as an emanation from the L ord ; there— every Vibrationof matter i s answered by a change in his Consciousness, and heknows that world

,his b irthplace and his home . But in worlds of

matter denser than that lofty r egion he is as yet a stranger ; thevibrations of that denser matter, though all around him, do not

affect him,are to h im non - existent

,as the waves which carry

messages by wireless telegraphy do not aff ect us in this world ,and are to our senses non - existent . How then can he grow to thelikeness of his divine Parent

,to whom every vibration has a mes

sage,who can s et up any wil led vibration in matter by a change

in Consciousness, who i s conscious and active at every point of

H is system ?

The answer comes in the words : Involution and E volution . H e

must involve himself in matter, attract to himself an encasementof matter draw round himself materials from al l the worldsspiritual

,intellectual, emotional and physical ; this i s the involving

of Spirit in matter— Involution— sometimes called the descent ofSpirit into matter, sometimes the fall of Man . Then, havingacquired this encasement, he must slowly try to understand thechanges in himself— in his own Consciousness — the surging

,con

fusing, bewildering changes that come and go without any willof h is, due to the vibrations set up in this material encasement

of hi s by vibrations in the larger world around him,and that

force upon his Consciousness unsought changes and moods . H e

has to disentangle these, to refer them to their proper origins,

to learn through these the existence and the details of the surrounding worlds

,to organise his own appropriated matter— his

bodies— into more and more complex,receptive and discrimina

tive agents , to admit to or shut out from these bodies at wil l theVibrations that hurtle round th em outside, and at last, throughthem, to impress the changes in his Consciousness on external

Nature, and thus to become its Ruler instead of its slave . This i s

8

TH E RIDDLE OF LIFE

E volution, the ascent of the Spirit through matter, its unfoldingwithin a material encasement, drawn from the various worldswhich form its environment, th e permeation with its own life ofthe matter it appropriates, thus rendering it the docile servant ofSpiri t, and redeeming it from its cruder uses to the service ofthe liberated Sons of God .

This material encasement, drawn from the different worlds,

must be gradually organised , by impacts from wi thout and answersfrom within, into a

“body,” or a vehicle of Consciousness . It i s

organis ed from below upwards,or from denser

,to finer

,the

materials from each world being organised separately, as a meansof receiving communications from, and acting upon, its own world .

The physical mater ial i s first drawn int-o a fairly compact mas s ,and the organs which carry on l ife - processes , and those of thesenses , are first s lowly evo lved ; the wonderful and complicated

physical body is evolved through millions of years, and is stil levolving ; i t puts man into touch with the physical world aroundhim

,which he can se e , hear, touch, taste and smell , and in which

he can bring about changes by the use of his brain and nerves,directing and controll ing his muscles

,hands and feet. This body

is not perfect , for there is still much in the physical world aroundit to which it cannot answer— forms

,l ike atoms , which it cannot

see,sounds which it cannot hear, and forces which it cannot per

ce iv e , till they have brought about effects by moving large massesof matter big enough f or i t to s e e . H e has made " delicate instru

ments to help his senses and to increase their perceptive rangetelescopes and microscopes to he lp the eye, microphones to helpthe ear

,galvanometers to find out forces which escape his senses .

But presently the evolution o f his own body wi l l bring all hisphysical world within his ken .

Now that the phys ical body i s highly organised , the next finermaterial

,the astral, i s being s imilarly evolved , and i s bringing

man gradual ly into touch with the astral— the emotional, passional,desire— world around him . Most of th e people of the advancedraces are becoming slightly conscious of astral impacts , whilesome are distinguishing them clearly. Premonitions, warnings ,conscious touch with the dead , etc , a l l are affections of the astral.

body from the astral world . They are vague and dim because ofthe poor organisation possessed by this body at present, but thosewho have forced its evolution are free of the astral world , aseveryone is of the physical .

The third state of matter, the mental, i s also in course of

organisation, and i s putting man into touch with the intellectualworld around him . As the mental body evolves th e man comesinto conscious relation with mental currents

,with the minds of

others near and distant,“ l iving” and “ dead .

”

9

THE R IDDLE OF LIFE

The Spiritual worlds stil l remain after this for man to conquer, and they have their appropriate body, the

“ sp iritual body”

of which S . Paul speaks . Thi s organisation of matter to be theservant of Spirit is the part assigned to man in the great workshopof the worlds , and when the human stage is over there is nothingin the Solar System which he is incapable of knowing and affecting. H e came forth from the divine Lord pure indeed, but ignorantand useless outside the subtle region of his b irth ; he returns ,after his long pilgrimage , a wis e and strong Son of God , readyto b ear his part throughout the ages of the future as a ministerof the divine Will in ever -widening fie lds

'

of service .

CHAPTE R IV .

MAN AND H IS MO RTAL BOD I ES .

The Worlds in which man is evolving as he treads the c ircleof births and deaths are three : the physical world

, the astralor intermediate world , the mental or heavenly world . In thesethree he l ives from birth to death in his waking day - l ife ' in thetwo latter he lives from birth to death in his sleeping night - l ife

,

and for a while after death ; into the"

last he occasional ly,but

rare ly, enters in his sleeping night - l ife , in high trance, and in ith e Spends the most important part of his l ife after death, theperiod spent there lengthening as he evolves .

The three bodies in which he functions in these worlds are allmortal ; they are born and they die . They improve l ife after life

,

becoming more and more worthy‘

to serve as the instruments ofthe unfolding Spirit . They are copies in denser matter of theundying spiritual bodies

,which are unaffected by birth and death,

and form the clothing of the Spirit in the h igher worlds, whereinhe lives as th e spiritual Man, while he l ives here as the man offlesh

,the carnal man . These undying spiritual bodies are that

of which S . Paul speaks : We know that if our earthly house ofthis tabernacle were dis solved we have a building of God, an housenot made with hands

,eternal in the heavens . F or in this we

groan,earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which

i s from heaven”(2 Cor. V . 1 , These are the immortal bodie s,

and they will be dealt with in another chapter of this series .

The three mortal bodies are : the physical , the astral , and themental

,and they are related severally to the three worlds above

named .

THE P HYS ICAL BODY .

This is at present the most highly- developed body of man, andthe one with which we are al l familiar . It consists of sol id , l iquid ,gaseous and etheric matter , the first three exquisitely organi sed

10

TH E R IDDLE OF LIFE

into cells and tissue s, these being built into organs wh ich enablethe consciousnes s to become aware of the outside world

,and the

latter possessing vortices through which forces pour . As theetheric part of the body separates at death from the solid

,liquid

and gaseous part, the physical body is often sub - divided into denseand etheric ; the former i s composed of the organs which receiveand act ; the latter is the medium of the life - force s and theirtransmitter to its dense comrade . Any tearing of this physicalbody into its dense and etheric parts during physical life i sunwholesome ; i t i s torn out by anaesthetics, and slips out, undriven,in some peculiar organisations , general ly termed

“medium istic”;

apart from its denser comrade it is helples s and unconscious adrifting cloud with force - centers , useless when there is nothingto which it can transmit th e forces playing through it

,and sub

ject to manipulation from outside entities , who can use it as amatrix for materialisation . It cannot go far from; the dense partof the body, s ince the latter would perish if disconnected from it ;when disconnection occurs the dense part “ dies

,

”73 . e .

,loses the

inpouring of the Vita l forces which sustain its activities ; eventhen the etheric part , or etheric doub le , hovers near its life - partner

,

and is the wraith, or“ shade, sometimes seen after death, drift

ing over graves . The physical body as a whole is man ’s mediumfor communication with the physical world

,and it is some times

called , for this reason , th e body of action .

” It receives alsovibrations from the subtler worlds , and when it i s able to reproduce these it “ feel s” and “ thinks ,

” i ts nervous system beingorganised to reproduce these in physical matter . As the viewles sair

,strongly vibrating, throws the denser water into ripples , as

the Viewless light throws the rods and cones of the retina intoactivity, so does the viewless matter of the subtler worlds throwinto responsive vibrations the denser matter of our physical body,both etheric and dense . As evolution proceeds, and the physicalbody evolves

,i . e .

,appropriates finer and finer combinations of

matter from the outside world , i t becomes responsive to more andmore rapid vibratory waves , and the man become s more and more“ sensitive . Racial evo lution largely consists in this ever - increas

ing sensitiveness of the nervous system to outside impacts ; forhealth, the sensitivenes s must remain within limits of elasticity,i . e .

, the system must immediately regain its normal conditionafter distortion ; if thi s condition be present, such sensitivenes s ison the crest of the evolutionary wave, and makes possible the

manifestation of genius ; if it b e not present, if equilib rium be not

swiftly and spontaneously restored , then the sensitiveness i s nu

healthy and mischievous , leading to degeneration, and finally,i f

unchecked, to madness .

11

TH E R IDDLE OF LIFE

THE ASTRAL BODY.

The development of this body differs enormously in different

persons, but in all it i s the body which yields the experience o f

pleasure and pain, which is thrown into action by pass ion, desire

and emotion, and in which reside the centers of our sense - organs

o f s ight, hearing, taste, smell and touch . If the passion, desire

and emotion are low, sensual, animal, then its matter is coarse ,its vibrations consequently are comparatively slow

,and its colors

are dark and unattractive— browns, dark reds and greens, and

their combinations , l it from time to time with flashes of scarlet "

as in the brown - red indicates sensuality and greed ; grey- green

indicates deceit and cunning ; brown indicates selfishness scarlet

on left of head indicates anger ; yellow round head indicates

intelligence ; grey- blue above head indicates primitive religious

feeling (feti sh worship , touches of deep rose colour indicate

beginning of love . As evolution goes on the matter becomes

finer,and the colours c learer, purer and more brill iant . Green

indicates sympathy and adaptability ; rose indicates love ; b lue

indicates religious feeling ; yellow indicates intelligence ; violet

above head indicates spirituality. These colours are not fanciful,but are the descriptions given by clairvoyant investigators .

We are us ing this body throughout our waking hours, and in

educated and refined people it has reached a fairly high stage of

evolution . Its finer matter is closely in touch with the coarser

matter of the mental body, and the two are constantly working

together, acting and re acting on each other . The ordinary ap

pearance of the astral body is transformed by love inasmuch asanother human being has , for the time, become the center of hi sworld . S e lfishne s s

,deceit and anger have vanished, and an

immense increase in the crimson color of love i s observab le .

Other undesirable changes there are, but it i s an opening of thegolden gates for the one who experiences it, and it i s his faultif they close again . When the astral body is moved with intenseanger the whole , organism is suffused by the b lack hue of maliceand ill - will

,which expresses itself in coils o r vortices of thunder

ous blackness, from which fiery arrows of anger dart out, seekingto injure the one for whom the anger is felt— a tremendous andtruly awful spectacle .

In sleep the astral body slip s out of the physical , in companywith the mental and higher bodies , and in the class of people justmentioned the consciousness functions in it during the hours of

* The se illustrations are reproduced f rom Man Vis z ble and I nv is ible,by C .

W. Leadbeate r . London Theosophical P ublishing S ociety. 10 5 6d net.

12

THE RIDDLE OF LIFE

sleep of the phys ical body. We learn much during our sleep, and

the knowledge thus gained slowly filters into the physical brain,

and is occasionally impressed upon it as a vivid and illuminative

dream . F or the most part the consciousness in the astral world

concerns itself little with the happenings there, being chiefly

interested in its own exe rcise in thought and feel ing ; but it i s

possible to turn it outwards, and to gain knowledge of the astral

world . Communication with friends who have lost their physical

bodies by death is constantly carried on there, and the memory

may be brought back into waking consciousness, thus bridging the

gulf otherwise made by death .

Premonitions , presentiments, the sensing of unseen presences

and many allied experiences are due to the activity of the astralbody and its reaction on the physical ; their ever - increasing fre

quency i s merely the result of its evolution among educated peo

ple . In a few generations it will be so generally developed thatit will become as familiar as the physical body . After death welive for some time in the astral world in the astral body use dduring our life on earth

,and the more we learn to control and use

it wisely now the better for us after death .

THE MENTA L BODY .

This body,of finer material than the astral , as the astral i s

finer than the physical, is the body which answers by its v ibrations to our changes of thought . E very change in thought makes

a vibration in our mental body, and this, transmitted by the astralto the physical, causes activity in the nervous matter of our brains .

This activity in the nervous cells causes many electrical and

chemical changes in them, but it is the thought- activity whichcauses these, and not the changes which produce thought, as thematerialists of the nineteenth century imagined .

The mental body,l ike the astral, varies much in different peo

ple ; it i s composed of coarser or of finer matter, accord ing to theneeds of the more or les s unfolded consciousness connected withit. In the educated it i s active and wel l - defined ; in the unde

v e loped it i s c loudy and inchoate . Its matter , drawn from themental p lane, i s that of the heaven - world, and it is continuous lyactive

,for man thinks in his waking consciousness when out of the

physical body in s leep , and after death , and lives wholly in thoughtand emotion when he leaves the astral world behind him, and

passes into heaven . As this is the body in which long centuries

will be passed in the heaven - world, i t is only rational to try toimprove i t as much as possible here . The means are study

,

thought, the exercise of good emotions, aspiration (prayer) and

13

TH E R IDDLE OF LIFE

beneficent endeavors , and, above al l, regular and strenuous meditation . The using of these will mean a rapid evo lution of the mentalbody, and an immense enrichment of the heavenly life . E vi lthoughts of all kinds befoul and injure it

,and , if persisted in . will

become veritab le diseases and maimings of the mental body,incur

able during its period of life .

Such are man’

s three mOrtal bodies : he casts off the physicalat death, the astral when ready to enter the heaven - world . Whenhe has finished his heaven - l ife his mental body also disintegrates

,

and he is a Spirit c lad in hi s immortal bodies . On descendingfor re - birth a new menta l body is formed and a new astral

,con

formab le to his character,and these attach themse lves to his

physical body, and he enters by birth on a new period of mortall ife .

C HAPTER V.

MAN’S IMMO RTAL BOD I ES .

We have a building of God , an house not made with hands ,eternal in the heavens , said the great Christian Initiate S . Pau l ;for in this "body" we groan, earnestly des iring to be clothed uponwith our house which i s from This heavenly house it i swhich is built of Man ’s immortal bodies , the habitation of theSpirit through unending ages

,the dwelling - p lace of man himself,

through births and deaths, through the measureless period of hisimmortal l ife in manifestation .

The Spirit which is“

the offspring of God i abides ever in thebosom of the F ather , in very truth a Son of God , Sharer in H is

eternal l ife . God made man “ to be the image of H is own eternity.

”f This Spirit we ca l l the Monad , because it i s a unit, the

very essence of Selfhood . The Monad , when he descends intoma tter in order to conquer and spiritualise i t, appropriates to himself an atom of each of the three higher worlds , to make thenucleus of his three higher bodies— the super - spiritual , the spiritualand the intellectual . To these

,by a thread of spiritual (buddhic )

matter,he attaches also a particle from each of the three lower

worlds,the nuc leus of the three lower bodies .

F or long long ages he broods over these , as his future mortalbodies

,just touched with his l ife , climb s lowly upwards through the

mineral,vegetable and animal kingdoms ; meanwhile little aggrega

tions of the matter of the three higher worlds , the“ building of

God in the heavens form a channel for his l ife, beginning to*2 Corin thians , V , l , 2.

TActs , " V I I , 29 .

I The Wisdom of S olomon , I I , 2 3 .

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THE RIDDLE OF LIFE

manifest in those worlds ; and when the animal form has reachedthe point at which the upclimbing l ife makes strong appeal to thehigher

,he sends down through these an answering pulse of his

l ife,and the intellectual body is suddenly comp leted , as l ight

flashes out between the carbons of an electric arc . The man hasindividualised for life in the lower worlds .

The super— spiritua l ( atm ic) body i s but an atom of its lofty

world , finest film of matter, embod iment of Spirit,“God made

flesh” in a very real‘

sense , d ivinity d ipping down into the oceanof matter, not less divine because embodied . Gradually into th i ssuper - spiritual body will pass the pure result of al l experiences

,

stored up in eternity,the two lower immortal bod ies gradually

merging themselves in it,blending with i t, the glorious vesture of

a man conscious ly divine, made perfect.The spiritua l ( buddhic) body is of the second manifested wor ld ,

the world of pure spiritual wisdom, knowledge and love in one,

sometimes called th e Christ - body,” as i t is this which is born

into activity at the first great Initiation, and which develops to the“

fulness of the measure of the stature of Christ”* on the Path ofHo liness . It i s fed by a l l lofty and loving aspirations, by purecompassion and all - embracing tenderness and pity.

The inte llectua l ( causa l) body i s the higher mind,by which the

man dea ls with abstractions, which is of the nature of knowledge ,

”t in which he knows truth by intuition, not reasoning, bor

rowing from the lower mind ratiocinative methods only to establish in the lower world abstract truths which he himself knowsdirectly . The man in this body is ca lled the ego

,and when this

body blends with the next above it, he is called th e spiritual ego,and begins to realize his own divinity . It i s fed and deve lopedby abstract thinking, by strenuous meditation, by dispass ion , bythe yoking of intellect to service . It i s by nature separative

,being

the instrument o f individualization and must grow strong and se lfsustaining in order to give the neces sary stability to the subtleSpiritual body with which it i s to b lend .

These are man’

s immortal bod ies, subject neither to birth nordeath ; they give the continuous memory which is the essence ofindividuality ; they are the treasure - house of all that deserves immortal ity ; into them can enter

“

nothing that defileth ; :c they arethe everlasting dwel ling - p lace of the Sp irit . In these the promi seis reali zed : “ I will dwe l l in them and walk in These fulfi lthe prayer of the Christ : That they also may be one in U s .

”1l

These make good the triumphant cry of the H indu : “ I am Thou .

* Ephesians,‘

IV ,1 3 .

TP rashna Upan ishat, IV , 9 .

I R ev e lation, " " I , 27.

§ 2 Corin thians, V I , 16.

115 . " ohn, " V I I , 21 .

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CHAPTER VI .

THE LAW OF RE - B I RTH .

RE I NCAR NAT IO N IN THE PAST.

There i s , perhaps , no philosophical doctrine in the world thathas so magnificent an intellectual ancestry as that of R eincarnation— the unfolding of the human Spirit through recurring liveson earth

,experience being gathered during the earth life and

worked up into intellectual faculty and conscience during theheaven - l ife, so that a. child i s born with his past experiences transmuted into mental and moral tendencies and powers . As MaxMul ler truly remarked, the greatest minds humanity has producedhave accepted Reincarnation . Reincarnation is taught and il lustrated in the great epics of the H indus as an undoubted fact onwhich morality is based, and the splendid H indu literature ,

whichi s the admiration of E uropean scholars , i s permeated with it . TheBuddha taught it and constantly spoke of his past b irths . Pytha

goras did the same, and Plato included it in his philosophicalwritings . " osephus states that it was accepted among the " ews ,and re lates the story of a captain who encouraged his soldiers tofight to the death by remind ing them of their return to earth . Inthe Wisdom of S o lom on it i s stated that coming into an undefiled

body was the reward of “being good . The Christ accepted it ,telling H is disc ip les that " ohn the Baptist was E l ijah . Virgiland Ovid take it for granted . The ritual composed by the learningof E gypt incu lcated it . The Neo - Platonic schools accepted it,and Origen

,the most learned of the Christian F athers , declared

that “ every man received a body according to his deserts and hisformer actions . Though condemned by a Roman Catholic Council ,th e heretical sects preserved the o ld tradition . And i t comes tous in the Middle Ages from a learned son of Islam :

“I died out

of the stone and I became a p lant ; I died out of the plant and Ibecame an animal ; I d ied out of the animal and I became a man ;why shou ld I fear to d ie ? When did I grow less by dying ? Ishall d ie out of the man and shall b ecome an angel .

”In later

time we find it taught by Goethe, F ichte, Schelling, Lessing, toname but some among the German phi losophers . Goethe in hisold age looked j oyful ly forward to his return ; Hume declaredthat it was the only doctrine of immortality a philosopher cou ldlook at, a V i ew somewhat similar to that of our British ProfessorMcTaggart, who, late ly reviewing the various theories of immor

tal ity, came to the conc lusion that R eincarnation was the mostrational . I need not remind any one of literary culture thatWordsworth, Browning, Rossetti and other poets believed it. Thereappearance of the belief in R eincarnation is not

,therefore

,an

emergence of a belief of savages among civil ized nations,but a

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THE RIDDLE OF LIFE

disease, congenital drunkennes s , so m uch the worse for him ; hehas done nothing to deserve them . If everlasting bliss be tackedon to the one and everlasting torment to th e other the unfortunateone must accept his i l l fate as he may. H ath not the potter powerover the clay ? Only it seems sad if the clay be sentient .In another respect special creation is grotesque . A spirit i s

special ly created for a small body which dies a few hours afterbirth . If life on earth has any educational or experimental valuethat spirit will be th e poorer forever by missing such a life

,and

the lost opportunity can never be made good . If, on the otherhand, human life on earth is of no essential importance and carrieswith it the certainty of many ill doings and suff erings and thepossibility of everlasting suffering at the end of it, the spirit thatcomes into a body that endures to old age is hardly dealt with , asit must endure innumerable ills escaped by the

‘

other without anyequivalent advantage and may be damned for ever ,The list of injustices brought about by special creation might

be extended indefini te ly, for it includes all inequalities, it . has

made myriads of atheists , as incredible by the intelligence andrevolting to the consc ience. It places man in the position of theinexorable creditor of God , stridently demanding :

“Why hastthou made me thus ?

”

The hypothesis of science i s not as blasphemous as that ofspec ial creation

,but heredity only explains bodies ; it throws no

light on the evo lution of intelligence and conscience . The

Darwinian theory - tried to inc lude these, but failed lamentab ly toexplain how the social virtues could be evolved in the struggle forexi stence . Moreover, by the time the parents had acquired theirripest fruition of high qualities the period of reproduction wasover ; children are for the most part born in the heyday of phys icalvigour while the intellectual and moral qualities of their parentsare immature . Later studies have, however, shown that acquiredqualities are not transmissible, and that the higher the type thefewer the offspring .

“Genius i s steri le, says science, and thus sounds the knell ofhuman progres s if heredity be its motive power . Intelligence andreproductive power vary inversely ; the lower th e parents the moreprolific are they. With the discovery that acquired qualities arenot transmissib le science has come up against a dead wal l . Itcan off er no explanation of the facts of high intelligence andsaintly l ife . The child of a saint may be a profl igate ; the childof a genius may be a dolt. Genius

“comes out of the blue .

This glory of humanity, from the scientific standpoint, seemsoutside the law o f causation . Science does not tell us how tobuild strong minds and pure hearts for the future . She does notthreaten us with an arbitrary will , but she leaves us withoutexplanation of human inequalities . She tells us that the drunkard

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TH E RIDDLE OF LIFE

bequeath s to his children bodies prone to disease, but she doesnot explain why some unhappy children are the rec ipients of thehideous legacy.

R eincarnation restores justice to God and power to man . E veryhuman Spirit enters into human life a germ, without knowledge ,without conscience, without discrimination . By experience.pleasant and painful

,man gathers materials

,and as before ex

plained, builds them into mental and moral faculties . Thus thecharacter he is born with is self -made, and marks the stage hehas reached in his long evolution . The good disposition, the finecapacities, the noble nature are the spoils of many a hard foughtfield, the wages of heavy and arduous toil . The reverse marksan early stage of growth

,the small development of the spiritual

germ ,

The savage of today is the saint of the future ; all tread asimilar road ; all are destined to ultimate human perfection . Painfollows on mistakes and is ever remedial ; strength is developedby struggle ; we reap , after every sowing, the inevitable result ;happiness growing out of the right, sorrow out of the wrong . Thebabe dying shortly after birth pays in the death a debt owingfrom the past, and returns swiftly to earth, delayed but for a brief

space and free of his debt to gather the experience neces sary forhis growth . Social virtues, though placing a man at a disadv antage in the struggle for exi stence , perhaps e ven leading to thesacrifice o f his physical li fe, bui lt a noble character for his futurelives and shape him to become a servant of the nation .

Genius inh eres in the individual as the result of many lives ofeffort , and the steril ity of the body it wears does not rob the futureof i ts services , as it returns greater on every reb irth . The body

poisoned by a father’s drunkenness i s taken by a spiri t learning

by a lesson of suffering to guide its earthly life on lines betterthan those followed in the past .

And so in every case the individual past explains the individual present

,and when the laws of growth are known and

obeyed a man can build with a sure hand his future destiny,

shaping his growth on lines o f ever - increasing beauty unti l hereaches the stature of the Perfect Man .

WHY OUR PAS T L IVES ARE FO RGOTTEN

No question is more often heard when reincarnation is spokenof than :

“If I were here before, why do I not remember it ?

”A

little consideration of facts will answer the question .

F irst of all, let us note the fact that we forget more of our

present l ives than we remember . Many people cannot rememberlearning to read ; yet the fact that they can read proves thelearning. Incidents of childhood and youth have faded from our

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TH E RIDDLE OF LIFE

memory, yet they have left traces on our character . A fal l in‘

babyhood is forgotten,yet the victim is none the less a cripple .

And this, although we are using the same body in which the forgotten events were experienced .

These events,however, are not wholly lost by us ; if a person

be thrown into a mesmeric trance, they may be drawn from thedepths of memory ; they are submerged, not destroyed . F everpatients have been known to use in delirium a language known inchildhood and forgotten in maturity. Much of our sub - consciousness cons ists of these submerged experiences , memories throwninto the background but recoverable .

If this be true of experiences encountered in the present body,how much more must it be true of experiences encountered informer bodies

,wh ich died and decayed many centuries ago . Our

present body and brain have had no share in those far - off happenings ; how should memory assert itself through them ? Ourpermanent body

,which remains with us throughout the cycle of

reincarnation, i s the spiritual body ; the l ower garments fall awayand return tp their elements ere we can become reincarnated .

The new mental, astral and physical matter in which we arereclothed for a new life on earth receives from the spiritualintelligence, garbed only in the spiritual body, not the experiencesof the past, but the qualities , tendencies and capacities which havebeen made out of those experiences . Our conscience

,our instinctive

response to emotional and intellectual appeals , our recognition ofthe force of a logical argument, our assent to fundamental principlesof right and wrong, these are the traces of past experience . A

man of a low intellectual type cannot se e a logical or mathematicalproof ; a man of low mo ral type cannot feel the compel l ing forceof a high moral ideal .When a philosophy or a science i s quickly grasped and applied ,

when an art i s mastered without study, memory is there in power,though past facts of learning are forgotten ; as Plato said, i t isreminiscence . When we feel intimate with a stranger on firstmeeting , memory i s there , th e Spirit’s recognition of a friend ofages past ; when we shrink back with strong repuls ion from anotherstranger

,memory is there, the spirit

’

s recognition of an ancientfoe .

These affinities , these warnings , come from the undying spiri tualintelligence which is ourself ; we remember, though working in thebrain we cannot impress on it our memory . The mind - body

,the

brain, are new ; the sp iri t furnishes the mind with the results ofthe past, not with the memory of its events . As a merchant

,clos ing

the year’

s ledger and opening a new one , does not enter in thenew one all the items of the o ld , but only its balances , so does th espirit hand on to the new brain his judgments on the experiencesof a life that is closed, the conclusions to which he has come, the

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THE RIDDLE OF LIFE

decis ions at which he has arrived . This i s the stock handed on tothe new life, the mental furniture for the new dwel l ing — a realmemory .

R ich and varied are these in the highly evolved man ; if theseare compared with the possessions of the savage, the value of sucha memory of a long past is patent . No brain could store thememory o f the events of numerous lives ; when they are concretedinto mental and moral judgments they are availab le for use ;hundreds of murders have led up to the decis ion I must not killthe memory of each murder would be a useless burden, but thejudgment based on their results , the instinct of the sanctity ofhuman life

,i s the effective memory of them in the civilized man .

Memory of past events,however, i s sometimes found ; children

have occasional fleeting glimpses of their past, recalled by someevent of the present ; an E nglish boy who had been a sculptorrecalled it when he first saw some statues ; an Indian child recogn ised a stream in which he had been drowned as a little child in apreceding life

,and the mother of that earlier body. Many cases

are on record of such memory of past events .Moreover, such memory can b e gained . But the gaining i s a

matter of steady effort, of prolonged meditation , whereby therestless mind , ever running outwards , may be controlled andrendered quiescent, so that i t may be sensitive and responsive tothe Spirit and receive from him the memory of the past . Only aswe can hear the stil l small voice of the spirit may the story of thepast be unrolled , for the spirit alone can remember, and castdown the rays of his memory to enlighten the darkness of thefleeting lower nature to which he is temporarily attached

.

Under such conditions memory is possible, l inks of the past areseen

,o ld friends are recognised , old scenes recalled , and a subtle

inner strength and calm grows out of the practical experience ofimmortality . Present troubles grow light when seen in their trueproportions as trivial and transient events in an unending life ;present joys lose their bril liant colours when seen as repetitions ofpast del ights ; and both alike are equally accepted as usefulexperiences , enrich ing mind and heart and contributing to thegrowth of the unfolding life .

Not until pleasure and pain , however, have been seen in th elight of eternity can the crowding memories of the past be safelyconfronted ; when they have thus been seen, then those memoriescalm the emotions of the present, and that which would otherwisehave crushed becomes a support and consolation . Goethe rejoicedthat on his return to earth - life he would be washed clean of hi smemories, and lesser men may be content with the wisdom whichstarts each new life on its way, enriched with the results , butunburdened with the recollections of its past .

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TH E RIDDLE OF LIFE

memory, yet they have left traces on our character . A fal l in‘

babyhood is forgotten,yet the victim is none the less a cripple.

And this, although we are using the same body in which the forgotten events were experienced .

These events, however, are not wholly lost by us ; if a personbe thrown into a mesmeric trance, they may be drawn from thedepths of memory ; they are submerged, not destroyed . F everpatients have been known to use in delirium a language known inchildhood and forgotten in maturity. Much of our sub - consciousness consists of these submerged experiences , memories throwninto the background but recoverable .

If this be true of experiences encountered in the present body,how much more must it be true of experiences encountered informer bodies

,which died and decayed many centuries ago . Our

present body and brain have had no share in those far - ofi happenings ; how should memory assert itself through them ? Ourpermanent body, which remains with us throughout the cycle ofreincarnation, i s the Spiritual body ; the lower garments fal l awayand return tp their elements ere we can become reincarnated .

The new mental, astral and physical matter in which we arereclothed for a new l ife on earth receives from the spiritualintelligence, garbed only in the spiritual body, not the experiencesof the past, but the qualities tendencies and capacities which havebeen made out of those experiences . Our conscience

,our instinctive

response to emotional and intellectual appeals , our recognition ofthe force of a logical argument, our assent to fundamental principlesof right and wrong, these are the traces of past experience . A

man of a low intellectual type cannot see a logical or mathematicalproof ; a man of low mo ral type cannot

“ feel”the compell ing force

of a high moral ideal .When a philo'sophy or a science i s quickly grasped and applied ,

when an art i s mastered without study, memory is there in power,though past facts of learning are forgotten ; as Plato said, i t isreminiscence . When we feel intimate with a stranger on firs tmeeting, memory is there , th e Spirit’s recogni tion of a friend ofages past ; when we shrink back with strong repulsion from anotherstranger

,memory is. there, the Spirit

’

s recognition of an ancientfoe .

These affinities , these warnings , come from the undying spiritualintelligence which is ourself ; we remember, though working in thebrain we cannot impress on it our memory . The mind - body

,the

brain, are new ; the Spirit furnishes the mind with the results ofthe past, not with the memory of its events . AS a merchant

,closing

the year’

s ledger and opening a new one, does not enter in thenew one all the items of the old , but only its balances , so does thespirit hand on to the new brain his judgments on the experiencesof a life that is closed, the conclusions to which he has come, the

20

THE RIDDLE OF LIFE

decisions at which he has arrived . This i s the stock handed on tothe new life

,the mental furniture for the new dwel l ing — a real

memory .

R ich and varied are these in the highly evolved man ; if theseare compared with the possessions of the savage, the value of sucha memory of a long past is patent . No brain could store thememory o f the events of numerous lives ; when they are concretedinto mental and moral judgments they are available for use ;hundreds of murders have led up to the decision I must not killthe memory of each murder would be a useless burden, but thejudgment based on their results , the instinct of the sanctity ofhuman life

,i s the effective memory of them in the civilized man .

Memory of past events,however, i s sometimes found ; children

have occasional fleeting glimpses of their past, recalled by someevent of the present ; an English boy who had been a sculptorrecalled it when he first saw some statues ; an Indian child recognised a stream in which he had been drowned as a little child in apreceding life

,and the mother of that earlier body. Many cases

are on record of such memory of past events .Moreover, such memory can b e gained . But the gaining is a

matter of steady effort, of prolonged meditation, whereby therestless mind, ever running outwards , may be controlled andrendered quiescent, so that i t may be sensitive and responsive tothe Spirit and receive from him the memory of the past . Only aswe can hear the still smal l voice of the sp irit may the story of thepast be unrol led, for the Spiri t alone can remember

,and cast

down the rays of his memory to enlighten the darkness of thefleeting lower nature to which he is temporarily attached .

Under such conditions memory is possible, l inks of the past areseen

,old friends are recognised

,old scenes recalled

,and a subtle

inner strength and calm grows out of the practical experience ofimmortal ity . Present troubles grow light when seen in their trueproportions as trivial and transient events in an unending life ;present joys lose their brilliant colours when seen as repetitions ofpast delights ; and both alike are equally accepted as usefulexperiences , enrich ing mind and heart and contributing to thegrowth of the unfolding life .

Not until pleasure and pain , however, have been seen in thelight of eternity can the crowding memories of the past be safelyconfronted ; when they have thus been seen, then those memoriescalm the emotions of the present, and that which would otherwisehave crushed becomes a support and consolation . Goethe rejoicedthat on his return to earth - life he would be washed clean of hi smemories , and lesser men may be content with the wisdom whichstarts each new life on its way, enriched with the results , butunburdened with the recollections of its past .

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CHAPTER VI I .

THE R I D D LE OF LOVE AND HATE

To the great majority of us life presents a series of tangles andpuzzles — tangles we cannot unravel , puzzles we cannot solve . Whyare people born differing so widely in mental and in moral capacity ?

Why has one infant a brain denoting great intellectual and moralpower

,while another has a brain which marks him out as one who

will be an idiot or a criminal ? Why has one child good and lovingparents and favourab le circumstances , while another has profligate

parents who detest him , and is reared amid the foulest surroundings ? Why is one lucky and another unluclfy

” ? Why does onedie old and another die young ? Why is one person prevented byaccidents” from catching a steamer or a train that is wrecked,while scores or hundreds of others perish unaided ? Why do welike one person the moment we se e him, while we as promptlydislike another ? Questions like these are continual ly arising,and are as continually left unanswered , and yet answers are withinreach ; for all these seeming incongruities and injustices, theseapparently fortuitous events, are merely the results of the workingout of a few simp le and fundamenta l natural laws . An understanding of these underlying laws makes life intelligible, therebyrestoring our confidence in the divine order and endowing us withstrength and courage to meet the vicissitudes of fortune . Troub leswhich strike us like “bolts from the blue” are hard to bear

,but

troubles which arise from causes we can understand,and can

therefore control,can be faced with patience and resignation .

The first principle that must be firmly grasped ere we c an

begin to app ly it to the solving of life’

s problems is that o f R eincarnation . Man is essentially a Spiri t, a living and self- consciousindividual, consisting of th is self- conscious life in a body of verysubtle matter ; l ife cannot work without a body of some kind ; thati s

,without a form of matter, however fine and subtle the matter

may be,which gives it separate existence in this unive rse ; bodies

are often therefore spoken of as vehicles, that which carries thelife, making it individual . This Spirit, when he comes into thephysical world by the gateway of birth , puts on a physical bodyas a man puts on an overcoat and hat to go out into the worldbeyond his own home ; but the physical body is no more the manthan the overcoat and hat are the body which wears them . As aman throws away worn - out garments and puts on new ones

,so

does the Spirit cast o ff a worn - out body and take to himself another

(Bhagav ad When the physical body is outworn the manpasses through the gateway of death, dropping the physical vestureand entering the unseen” world . After a long period of rest andrefreshment, during which the experiences of the past life on earth

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THE RIDDLE OF LIFE

helped and taugh t by spiritual Intelligences who were men inworlds older than our own , as wel l as by the most highly evolvedmen of our own humanity ; we Shal l repay the debt by protecting,helping and teaching human races in worlds that are now in theearly stages of their growth , preparing to become, untold ageshence

,the homes of future men . If we find around us many who

are ignorant,stupid and even brutal, l imited in both mental and

mora l powers , i t i s because they are younger men than we are,younger brothers

,and hence their errors should be met with love

and helpfulness instead of with bitterness and hatred . As they are,so were we in the past ; as we are, so shall they be in the future ;and both they and we shall go onward and onward through theeve rlasting ages .This then is the first fundamental principle wh ich renders l ife

intelligible when applied to the conditions of the present ; I canonly work out from it in detail here the answer to one of thequestions propounded above, namely, why we like one person anddislike another at s ight ; but all the other questions might beanswered in similar fashion . F or the complete answering, however,we need to grasp also the twin principle of R e - incarnation— thatof Karma, or the Law of Causation .

This may be stated in words familiar to all : Whatsoever aman soweth , that sha l l he also reap .

”Amplifying this brief axiom

,

we understand by it that a man forms his own character, becomingthat which he thinks ; that he makes the c ircumstances of hisfuture life by th e effects of his actions upon others . Thus : If Ithink nobly I shall gradual ly make for myself a noble character

,

but if I think basely, a base character wil l be formed .

“Man iscreated by thought ; that which he thinks upon in one l ife hebecomes in another, as a H indu Scripture has it . If the minddwell s continually on one train of thought

,a groove is formed into

which the thought- force runs automatically,and such a habit of

thought survives death , and , s ince it be longs to the Ego , is carriedover to the subsequent earth - life as a thought - tendency and capacity.

Habitual study of abstract problems , to take a very high instance,wil l resu lt, in another earth - life, in a we ll - developed power forabstract thinking, while fl ippant, hasty thinking, flying from onesubj ect to another , will bequeath a restless, ill - regulated mind tothe following birth into thi s world . Selfish coveting of the possess ions of others , though never carried out into active cheating inthe present

,makes the thief of a later earth - life

,while hatred and

revenge,secretly cheri shed, are the seeds from which the murderer

springs . So again, unselfish loving yields as harvest the philan "

throp ist and the saint, and every thought of compassion helps tobui ld the tender and pitiful nature which belongs to one who is“a friend to all creatures .

”The knowledge of th is law of change

les s justice, of the exact response of nature to every demand,

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THE RIDDLE OF LIFE

enables a man to build his character with all the certainty ofscience, and to look forward with courageous patience to the nobletype he is gradually but surely evolving .

The effects of our actions upon others mould the externalcircumstances of a subsequent earth - l ife . If we have caused widespread happines s we are born into very favourable physical surroundings or come into them during life, while the causing ofwidespread misery results in an unhappy environment. We makerelationships with others by coming into contact with them individually

,and bonds are forged by benefits and injuries, golden links

of love or iron chains of hate . This i s Karma . With thesecomplementary ideas clearly in the mind, we can answer ourquestion very easily.

Links between E gos , between individualized Spirits, canno tantedate the first separation of those Spirits from the Logos , as

drops may be separated from the ocean . In the mineral andvegetable kingdoms the l ife that expre sses itself in stones andplants has not yet evolved into continued individualized exi stence .

The word “ Group - Sou l” has been used to expres s the idea of thi sevolving life as it animates a number of s imilar physical organisms .

Thus a whole order, say of p lants , l ike grasses, umbell iferous orrosaceous plants

,i s animated by a single group - soul, which evolve s

by virtue of the simple experiences gathered through its countles sphysical embodiments . The experiences of each plant flow into thelife that informs its whole order, and aid and hasten its evolution .

As the physical embodiments become more complex, subdivisionsare set up in the group - soul, and each subdivis ion slowly andgradually separates off, the number of embodiments belonging to

each subdivis ional group - soul thus formed diminishing as thesesubdivisions increase . In the animal kingdom th is process ofSpec ial ization of the group - souls continues , and in the highermammalia a comparative ly small number of creatures i s animatedby a single group - soul, for Nature i s working toward individualization . The experiences gathered by each are preserved in thegroup - soul, and from it affect each newly - born animal that i t informs ; these appear as what we call instincts, and are found inthe newly - born creature . Such is the instinct which makes anewly - hatched chicken fly to seek protection from danger underthe brooding wing of the hen, or that which impels the beaver tobuild its dam . The accumulated experiences o f its race, preservedin the group - soul , inform every member of the group . When theanimal kingdom reaches its highest expressions

,the final sub

divisions of the group - soul animate but a S ingle creature,unti l

finally the divine life pours out anew into this vehicle now readyfor its reception, and the human Ego takes b irth and the evolutionof the self- conscious intelligence begins .

From the time that a separated life animates a S ingle body,

25

THE RIDDLE OF LIFE

link s may be set up with other separated l ives,each likewise

dwelling in a S ingle tabernacle of fle sh . E gos,dwelling in physical

bodies, come into touch with each other ; perhaps a mere physicalattraction draws together two Egos dwelling respectively in maleand female bodies . They live together, have common interests ,and thus links are set up . If the phrase may be al lowed, theycontract debts to each other, and there are no bankruptcy courtsin Nature where such liabilities may be cancelled

.Death strikes

away one body, then the other, and the two have passed into theinvisible world ; but debts contracted on the physica l plane mustbe discharged in the world to which they belong, and those twomust meet each other again in earth - life and renew th e intercourse

,

that was broken off . The great spiritual Intelligences who ad

minister the law of Karma guide these two into rebirth at the sameperiod of time, so that their earthly lifetime s may overlap

,and in

due course they meet . If the debt contracted be a debt of loveand of mutual service, they will feel attracted to each other ; theE gos recognise each other , as two friends recognise each other,though each be wearing a new dress , and they clasp hands, not asstrangers, but as friends . If the debt be one of hatred and ofinjury

,they shrink apart with a feeling of repulsion, each recog

nising an ancient enemy, e yeing each other across the gulf ofwrongs given anad received . Cases of these types must be knownto every reader, alth ough the underlying cause has not been known ;and indeed these sudden likings and dislik ings have often fool ishlybeen spoken of as “ causeless , as though , in a world of law, anything could be without a cause . It by no means follows that Egosthus linked together necessarily re - knit the exac t relationshipbroken off down here by the hand of death . The husband and wifeof one earth - life might be born into the same family as brother ands ister, as father and son, as father and daughter, or in any otherblood relationship . Or they might be born as strangers , and meetfor th e firs t t ime in youth or in maturity, to feel for each other anover-mastering attraction . In how brief a time we become closelyintimate with one who was a stranger , while we l ive beside anotherfor years and remain al iens in heart " Whence these strangeafli nitie s

,i f they are not the remembrances in the E gos of the

loves of th eir past ? “ I feel as if I had known you all my l ife ,we say to a friend of a few weeks , while others whom we haveknown all our lives are to us as sealed books . The Egos knoweach other, though the bodies be strangers , and the old friendsclasp hands in perfect confidence and understand each other ; andthis, although the physical brains have not yet learned to receivethose impressions of memory that exist in the subtle bodies , butthat are too fine to cause vibrations in the gross matter of thebrain

,and thus to awaken respons ive thrills of consciousness in

the phys ical body .

26

THE RIDDLE OF LIFE

Sometimes,alas " the l inks , being of hatred and wrong - doing,

draw together ancient enemies into one family, there to work outin misery th e evil results of the common past. Ghastly familytragedies have their roots deep down in the past, and many of theawful facts recorded by such agencies as the Society for the Protection of Children, the torture of helpless children even by theirown mothers , the malignant ferocity which infl icts pain in orderto exult in the S ight of agony— all this becomes intelligible whenwe know that the soul in that young body has in the past infl ictedsome horror on the one who now torments it, and is learning byterrible experience how hard are the ways of wrong .

The question may arise in the minds of some : If this be true ,ought we to rescue the children ?” Most surely yes . It i s our dutyto relieve suffering wherever we meet it , rejoicing that the GoodLaw uses us as its almoners of mercy .

Another question may come :“How can these links of evi l

be broken ? Will not the torture infl icted forge a new bond , bywhich the cruel parent will hereafter be the victim, and the torturedchild become the oppres sor ?”

Aye "“H atred ceases not by

hatred at any time, quoth the Lord Buddha,knowing the law .

But H e breathed the s ecret of re lease when H e continued :“H atred ceases by love . When the Ego who has paid his debt ofthe past by the suff ering of infl icted wrong is wise enough, braveenough , great enough to say, amid the agony of body or of mind :“ I forgive " ” then he cancels the debt he might have wrung f romhis ancient foe

,and the bond forged by hate melts away forever

in the fire of love .

The links of love grow strong in every successive earth - l ife inwhich the l inked two c lasp hands, and they have the added ad

vantage o i growing stronger during the life in heaven , whereintothe l inks of hate cannot be carried . Egos that have debts of hatebetween them do not touch each other in the heavenly land , buteach works out such good as he may have in him without contactwith his foe .

When the E go succeeds in impressing on the brain of his physical body his own memory of his past, then these memories drawthe E gos yet closer, and the tie gains a sense of security andstrength such as no bond of a single l ife can give ; very deep andstrong is the happy confidence of such Egos , knowing by their ownexperiences that love does not d ie .

Such is the exp lanation of afli nities and repuls ions , seen in thelight of Reincarnation and Karma .

27

C HAPTE R V I I I .

KARMA— THE LAW OF ACT I O N AND RE - ACT IO N

The word Karma simply means Action . But the connotationof the word is far - reaching, for much more goes to the makingof an action than the ordinary person might think . E very actionhas a past which leads up to it ; every action has a future whichproceeds from it ; an action implies a desire which prompted it,and a thought which Shaped it

,as well as a visib le movement to

which the name of act” i s usually confined . E ach act i s a l inkin an endless chain of causes and efiects

,each effect becoming

a cause, and each cause having been an effect ; and each link inthis endless chain i s welded out of three components , desire ,thought and activity. A desire stimulates a thought ; a thoughtembodies itself in an act. Sometimes it is a thought

,in the form

of a memory, that arouses a des ire , and th e desire bursts into anact . But ever the three components— two invis ible and belongingto consciousness, one vis ib le and belonging to the body— arethere ; to speak with perfect accuracy, the act i s also in consciousness as an image before it i s extruded as a physical movement.Desire— or Will— Thought, Activity, are the three modes of consciousness .

This relation of desire , thought and activity as Action, andthe endless interl inkings of such actions as causes and effects, areall inc luded under the word Karma . It i s a recognized successionin nature

,i . e ., a Law . H ence Karma may be Englished into Cau

sation,or the Law of Causation . Its scientific statement is : “

Ao

tion and R eaction are equal and opposite .

” Its religious statementcannot be better put than in the wel l - known verse of a ChristianScripture : “

As a man soweth , so shall he als o reap . Sometimesit is called the Law of E quil ibrium, because whenever equilibriumis disturbed, there i s a tendency in nature to restore the conditionof equilibrium .

Karma is thus the expression of the D ivine Nature in its aspectof Law . It is written :

“ In whom there i s no variableness, neithershadow of turning ,

” The inviolableness of natural order ; the exacti tude of natural law ; the utter trustworthiness of naturethese are the strong foundations of the universe . Without thesethere could be no science

,no certitude , no reasoning from the

past, no presaging of the future . Human experience would be

come useless, and life would be a chaotic irrationality .

What a man sows , he reaps . That i s Karma . If he wants rice,he must sow rice . Useless to plant vines and to expect roses ;idle to sow thistle - down and h0 pe for wheat . In the moral and

the mental worlds, law is equally changeless’

; useless to sow idleness

,and hope to reap learning ; to sow carelessness, and look for

28

TH E R IDDLE OF LIFE

discretion ; to sow selfishness , and expect love ; to sow fear andhope for courage . This sane and true teaching bids man study thecauses he is setting up by his daily desires , thoughts and actions ,and realiz e their inevitable fruiting . It bids him surrender all thefal lacious ideas of

“ forgiveness ,” “vicarious atonement,

” “ divinemercy, and the res t of the opiates which superstition offers to thesinner . It cries out as with a trumpet - b last to al l those who thusseek to drug themselves into peace : “Be not deceived ; God i snot mocked ; whatsoev er a man soweth that shal l he also reap .

That is the warning side of the law . But note the encouraging .

If there i s law in the mental and moral world we can bui ld ourcharacter ; thought makes quality ; quality makes character .

“As

a man thinks, so he is .

” “Man is created by thought ; what a manthinks upon , that he becomes .

” If we meditate on courage,we

shall work courage into our character . So with purity, patience ,unse lfishne ss , self - control . Steady persevering thought sets up adefinite habit of the mind , and that habit manifests i tself as aqual ity in the character. We can build our character as surelyas a mason can build a wall, working with and through the law.

Character is the most powerful factor in. destiny, and by building a noble character, we can ensure a destiny of usefulness , ofservice to mankind .

AS by law we suff er , so by law do we triumph . Ignorance o f law leaves us as the rudderless boat driftingon the current . Knowledge of law gives us a helm by which wecan steer our ship whithersoever we will .

C HAPTE R I " .

THE TH REE TH READS OF THE COR D OF FATE*

To the Greek there were three F ates who spun the cord oflife . To the knower of th e Wi sdom there are three F ates also,each of them ever spinning a thread

,and th e three threads they

spin are twisted into one, and form the strong cord of Destinywhich binds or loosens man

’

s l ife on earth . These three F atesare not the women of the Greek legend ; they are the three Powerso f the human Consciousness ; the Power to Wil l, the Power toThink, the Power to Act. These are the F ates which spin thethreads of human destiny, and they are with in the man

,not out

side him . Man’

s destiny is self -made, not imposed upon him arbitrari ly from without ; his own powers , blinded by ignorance, spinand twist the cord that fetters him, as his own powers , directedby knowledge, liberate his limbs from the self - imposed shackles,and set him free from bondage .

* Repr inted, with pe rm ission , f rom B ibby’

s Annual, 19 10 .

29

THE RIDDLE OF LIFE

The most important of these three Powers i s his Power toThink ; man means thinker ; i t is a S amskrit root, and from thisare derived the Engli sh man— identical with the S amskrit rootthe German mann

,the French homme

,the Italian uomo, etc . The

thread of thought i s woven into mental and moral qualities,and

these qual ities in their totality form what we call character . Thisconnection of thought and character i s recognised in the Scripturesof nations . In the Bible we read : As a man thinks , so i s he .

This is the general law . More particularly : “H e that looketh

upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery alreadywith her in his heart . Or : H e that hateth his brother i s amurderer .

”On the same lines dec lares an Indian scripture : Man

is created by thought ; as a man thinks , so he becomes . Or : “A

man consists of his be lief ; as he believes , so i s he .

”

, The rationa le

of these facts i s that when the mind is turned to a particularthought and dwells on it, a definite vibration of matter i s set up ,and the oftener this vibration is caused the more does i t tend torepeat its elf, to become a habit, to become automatic . The bodyfollows the mind and imitates its changes ; if we concentrate ourthought, the eyes become fixed, the muscles tense ; an effort toremember i s accompanied with a frown ; the eyes rove hither andthither

,as we seek to recover a lost impression ; anxiety, anger ,

love , impatience, have al l their appropriate muscular accompaniments ; the feeling which makes a man inclined to throw himselffrom a height is the inc l ination of the body to act out the thoughtof fall ing . The first step towards a deliberate creation of character l ies , then, in the de liberate choosing of what we will think,and then of thinking persistently on the quality chosen . E re longthere will be a tendency to Show that quality ; a little longer, andits exercise will have become habitual . We spin the thread ofThought into our destiny, and find ourselves with a character bentto all noble and useful ends . As we have thought, we have become . Thought m akes character.

The Power to will i s the second F ate, and spins a strongthread for the cord of destiny . Will shows itself as desire : desire to possess , which i s love, attraction, in innumerable forms ;desire to repe l, which is hate , repulsion ,

driving away that whichi s to us undesirable . As truly as the magnet attracts and holdssoft iron, so does our des ire to attract draw to us that which wewish to possess and hold as ours . The strong desire for wealthand success brings them into our grasp ; what we will to have,stead ily and persistently, that comes to us sooner or later . F leeting, indeterminate, chang ing fancies , these have but little attrac

tive force ; but the man of strong wi ll obtains that which he wills .

This thread of will brings us objects of desire and opportunitiesfor gaining them . Wi ll makes opportunities and attracts obj ects .

The third thread is spun by the Power to Act, and this is the

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TH E RIDDLE OF LIFE

meditation,and one of the simplest methods— which has also

\the

advantage that its value can be tested by each person for him

self— is as follows .E xamining your own character, you pick some distinct defect

in it. You then ask yourself, what i s its exact opposite, the'

virtuewhich is its antithesis . L et us say that you suffer from irritab ility ;you select Patience . Then, regular ly every morning, before goingout into the world , you s it down for from three to five minutesand think on patience— its va lue

,its beauty, i ts practice under

provocation,taking one point one day, another another, and think

ing as stead i ly as you can, recalling th e mind when i t wanders ;think of yourse lf as perfectly patient, a model of patience, andend with a vow, This Patience, which is my true Se lf, I will feeland show tod ay .

F or a few days, probably, there will b e no change perceptible ;you will still feel and show irritability. Go on steadi ly every morning . Presently, as you say an irritable thing, the thought willflash into your mind unbidden, I should have been patient. Stillgo on . Soon the thought of patience will arise with the irritab leimpu lse

,and the outer manifestation wi ll be checked . Still go on .

The irritab le impu lse wil l grow feebler and feebler, until you findthat irritabil i ty has disappeared

,and that patience has become your

normal attitude towards annoyances .H ere is an experiment that anyone can try, and prove the law

for himself. Once proven,he can use it, and build virtue after

virtue in a S imilar way, unti l he has created an ideal charaéterby the Power of Thought .

Another use for this power i s to help any good cause by sending to it good thoughts : to aid a friend in troub le by sendingthoughts of comfort ; a friend in search of truth by thoughts,clear and definite

,of the truths you know . You can send out into

the mental atmosphere thoughts which will raise , purify, inspire,all who are sensitive to them ; thoughts of protection, to be guardian angel s of those you love . R ight thought i s a continua l benediction which each can radiate, like a fountain spraying forthsweet waters .

Y et must we not forget the reverse of this fair picture . Wrongthought is as swift for evil as i s right thought for good . Thoughtcan wound as well as heal, distress as well as comfort . Ill thoughtsthrown into the mental atmosphere poison receptive minds ;thoughts of anger and revenge lend strength to the murderousblow ; thoughts which wrong others barb the tongue of s lander,wing the arrows loosed at the unjustly assailed . The mind . tenanted by evil thoughts acts as a magnet to attract l ike thoughtsfrom others

,and thus intensifies the original i l l . To think on evil

i s a step towards doing evil, and . a pollu’

ted imagination promptsthe realization of its own foul creations . “

As a man thinks so he

3 2

THE RIDDLE OF LIFE

becomes,

” is the law for evil thoughts as well as for good . Moreover

,to dwell on an evil thought gradually deprives i t of its re

pulsiv ene ss , and impels the thinker to perform an action whichembodies it.Such is the Law of Thought, such its power . If ye know

these things,happy are ye if ye do them .

C HAPTE R " I .

STEPS ON THE PATH .

The normal course of human evolution leads man upwards ,stage by stage

,But an immense distance separates even the

genius and the saint from the man who “ stands on the thresholdof divinity — still more from him who has fulfi lled the Christ’scommand : Be ye perfect, as your F ather in heaven i s perfect .Are there any steps which lead up to the gateway of which it iswri tten : Strait i s the gate and narrow i s the way that leadethunto life, and few there b e that find it ?” Who are the perfect,of whom Pau l the Apostle speaks ?

Truly are there steps which lead up to that Portal , and thereare few which tread that narrow way . The Gate i s the Gate ofInitiation , the second birth , the baptism of the H oly Ghost and ofF ire ; the Way leads to the knowledge of God, which is l ife in theE ternal .In the western world the stages , or steps, have been called

:

Purgation, Illumination, Union ; by those stages th e Mystic— whois rap t to the B e atific Vision by devotion— denotes the Path . In theeastern world the Occulti st— the Knower, or Gnostic— sees thesteps in somewhat other fashion

,and divides the path into two

great stages, the Probationary and the Path Proper ; the Probationary represents the Purgation of the Mystic ; the Path itselfthe Mystic

’

s Illumination and Union . H e further seeks to dev e lop in himse lf on the Probationary Path certain definite qual ifications , fitting him to pass through the Portal wh ich ends it ;while on the Path itself he must whol ly cast away ten “ fetters

,

"

which hold him back from attaining Liberation,or F inal Salva

tion, and must pas s through four other Portals, or Initiations .The qualifications must each be developed to some extent

,

though not completely, ere the first Portal can be passed . Theyare :

(1 ) D iscrim ination : the power to distinguish between the rea land the unreal , the eternal and the fle eting

— the piercing vis ionwhich sees the True and recognizes the F alse under all disguises .(2) D ispassion or D esire lessness : the ri sing above the wish topossess objects which give pleasure or to drive away objects which

3 3

THE RIDDLE OF LIFE

give pain , by utter mastery of the lower nature, and transcending of the personality. ( 3 ) The S ix E ndowments, or Good Con

duct : control of the mind, control of the body— speech and ac

tions— tolerance, endurance or cheerfulness , balance or one - po inteaness , confidence . (4) D esire f or Union, or Lov e . These arethe qualifications, the development of which is the preparation forthe first Portal of Initiation . To these should the man addresshimself with resolution, who has made up his mind to travel forward swiftly

,so that he may become a H elper of Humanity.

When he has acquired sufficient of these to so knock at theDoor that i t shall be Opened unto him, he is ready to pass overits threshold and to tread the Path . H e i s initiated, or receivesthe “ second birth . H e i s called among the H indfis the Wanderer

(Pariv rajaka) , among the Buddhists he who has entered thestream”

S rotapanna or S otapanna ; and before he can reach thesecond Initiation he must cast off Wholly the “ fetters” of S eparateness— he must realize that all s elves are one ; D oubt— he mustknow and not merely bel ieve the great truths of Karma, Re incarnation and the Pe rfectio n to be reached by the treading of thePath ; S uperstition

— the dependence on rites and ceremonie s .

These three fetters whol ly cast off , the Initiate is ready for thesecond Portal, and becomes the Builder (Kutichaka) or he whoreturns but once ,

”Sakadagam in ; he must now develop the powers

of the subtle bodies , that he may be useful in th e three worlds,fitted for service . The passing through the third Portal makeshim the United (H amsa,

“ I am H e or “ he who does not return”

save with his own consent— the Anagam in. F or the fourth Gateshould be passed in the same life, and for him. who has passedthat

,compulsory rebirth i s over. Now he must throw ofi the fet

ters of D esire— such rarefied desire as may be left in him— andof R epu lsion

— nothing must repel him,for in all he must se e the

Unity. This done , he passes through the fourth Portal , and be

comes the Super- individual (Paramaham sa,beyond the I”) or the

Venerable (Arhat) ,F ive are the filmy fetters that yet hold him,

and yet so hard is it to break their cobweb subtlety that sevenl ives are often used in treading the Space that separates the Arhatfrom the Master, the F ree, the Immortal, the Super-Man,

“H e who

has no more to learn” in this system,but may know what H e will

by turning on it H is attention . The fetters are : Desire for lifein form, desire for life in formles s worlds, pride— in the greatnessof the task ach ieved, possibility of being disturbed by aught thatmay happen, i llusion— the last film which can distort the Reality .

When all these are cast away for ever, then the triumphant Son ofMan has finished H is human course, and He has become

“ a Pillarin the Temple of my God who shall go out no more

”

; H e i s theMan made perfect, one of the F irst - born,

“

an E lder Brother of ourrace .

3 4

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3D

D Q'

Q"

.

C HAPTER’

" ii .

oun ELDE R BROTHERS .

We have traced the steps by which a man may climb to thestatus of the Super -man . Let us now consider the relation to theworld of Those who stand at that great heigh t, and who yet areof the human family, our E lder Brothers .

All religions look back to a founder,who rose high above hu

manity ; all ancient history tell s of l ofty Beings , who laid the foundations of nat ions , and guided them during th eir infancy andyouth . We hear of divine Kings, of divine Dynasties, of divineTeachers ; the testimony of the past is so unanimous, and the ruinsremaining of past c ivilizations are so mighty, that we cannot reas "

onably declare the testimony to be worthless, nor the civil izations to be the unaided product of an infant humanity .

It i s also noteworthy that the most ancient Scriptures are thenoblest and most inspiring. The Classic of Puri ty of China, theUpanishats of India, the Gathas— fragmentary as they are — o i

Persia,are far above the level of the later religious writings of the

same countries ; the ethics found in such ancient books are all

authoritative, not hortative, they teach “as having authority andnot as the scribes .

No religion deni es or ignores these facts, as regards its ownTeachers and its own Scriptures ; but, unhappily, most are apt todeny or ignore them where the Teachers and the Scriptures o f

other religions are concerned . Students of the Wisdom real i zethat a ll these claims must be impartially recognised or impartial lyrej ected ; and Occultists know that while many legends and fablesmay have gathered round these mighty Beings, none the les s They,of a verity, have exi sted in the past and exist in the present .

The Occult H ierarchy which rules , teaches and guides theworlds is a graded Order, each rank having its own multifariousduties and carrying them out in perfect harmony, working out aportion of the plan of the Supreme Lord, the Logos of the system,

in a service which is perfect freedom . Two leading departments of our section of th is H ierarchy are concerne d. the one withthe ruling, the other with the teaching of our worlds .Those whbm the H indfis call the four Kumaras* are the Chiefs

of the Ruling Department , and the Manus of Rounds and Races areTheir Lieutenants, with , below Them, the grade of Adepts , whichnumbers among its members Those called Masters, to carry outthe details of Their work. Theirs to guide evolution

,to shape

races,to guide them to continents builded for their dwelling, to

administer the laws which cause the ris e and fall of peoples , ofempires , of civilizations

* “The Ancien t F ou r . Bhagabad- Gitd, " , 6. S ays H . P . Blav atsky :

H ighe r than the F ou r is only One .

”

3 5

TH E RIDDLE or LIFE

At the head of the Teaéhing‘

Department stands the Enlightened, the Buddha, who, when H e passes away from earth, handsthe Teacher

’

s staff to H im who is to become a Buddha in H i s turn,the Bodhisattva, the actual T eacher of the worlds , This Supreme

Teacher is the ever - living Presence who overshadows and inspiresthe world - faiths, who founds them, as they are needed for humanguidance, and who, through H is H elpers among the ranks ofAdepts , guides each religion so far as is permitted by the stubbornne ss and ignorance of men . E very great spiritual wave flowsfrom this department of the White Brotherhood, and irrigates ourearth with the water of l ife .

In the grade of Adepts alluded to above are Those to whom the

name of Masters” more pecu liarly belongs,in that They accept as

chelas, or discip les, those who have reached a point of evolutionfitting them to approach the Porta l of Initiation, and are resolutelystriving to develop in themselves the qualifications before described , There are many of this rank in the H ierarchy— Those whohave passed the fifth Initiation— who do not take pupil s, but areengaged in other work for the helping of the world . E ven beyondthis rank some wi ll stil l keep under Their charge chelas who havelong been devoted to Them, the tie formed being too sacred andtoo strong to break.

The Theosophical Society is an open road whereby these greatTeachers may be sought and found . We have amongst us thosewho know Them face to face ; and I, who write , add my humbletestimony to that which has echoed down the ages , for I too haveseen

,and know .