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HPB-SB-8-131: Difference between revisions
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... | {{Style P-No indent|secured in America some 25,000 members. The Colonel said that they accepted Dayanandji as their chief religious guide. We wonder at the curiosity and energy of the members. We wish the members every success in their peculiar efforts.}} | ||
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... | {{Style S-Small capitals|Now that certain American Theosophists}} have come to India, it would interest the reader to know the aims of the Theosophical Society, which was founded at New York in 1875. The objects of the Society are thus described:— | ||
The objects of the Society are various. It influences its fellows to acquire an intimate knowledge of natural law, especially its occult manifestations. As the highest evelopment, physically and spiritually, on earth, of th Creative Cause, man should aim to solve the mystery of his being. He is the procreator of his species, physically, and having inherited the nature of the unknown but palpable Cause of his own creation, must possess in his inner psychical self this creative power in lesser degree. He should, therefore, study to develop his latent powers, and inform himself respecting the laws of magnetism, electricity and all other forms of force, whether of the seen or unseen universe. The Society teaches and expects its fellows to personally exemplify the highest morality and religious aspiration; to oppose the materialism of science and every form of dogmatic theology, especially the Christian, which the Chiefs of the Society regard as particularly pernicious; to make known among Western nations the long-suppressed ''facts'' about Oriental religious philosophies, their ethics, chronology, esoterism, symbolism; to counteract, as far as possible, the efforts of missionaries to delude the so-called “Heathen” and “Pagans” as to the real origin and dogmas of Christianity and the practical effects of the latter upon public and private character in so-called civilized countries; to dis seminate a knowledge of the sublime teachings of that pure esoteric system of the Archaic period, which are mirrored in the oldest Vedas, and in the philosophy of Gautama Buddha, Zoroaster and Confucius; finally, and chiefly, to aid in the institution of a Brotherhood of Humanity, wherein all good and pure men, of every race, shall recognize each other as the equal effects (upon this planet) of one Uncreate, Universal, Infinite, and Everlasting Cause. | |||
Persons of either sex are eligible to Fellows of the Society. We read:— | |||
Its Fellowship is divided into three Sections and each Section into three Degrees. All candidates for active fellowship are required to enter as probationers in the Third Degree of the Third Section, and no fixed time is specified in which the new Fellow can advance from any lower to a higher Degree; all depends upon merit. To be admitted into the highest Degree of the first Section, the Theosophist must have become freed of every leaning toward any one form of religion in preference to another. He must be free from all exacting obligations to society, politics and family. He must be ready to lay down his life, if necessary, for the good of Humanity, and of a brother Fellow of whatever race, colour or ostensible creed. He must renounce wine and every other description of intoxicating beverages, and adopt a life of strict chastity. Those who have not yet wholly disenthralled themselves from religious prejudice and other forms of selfishness, but have made a certain progress towards self-mastery and enlightenment, belong to the second Section. The Third Section is probationary: its members can leave the Society at will, although the obligation assumed at entrance will continually bind them to absolute secrecy as to what may have been communicated under restrictions. | |||
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. | The Society receives as probationers persons of every shade of religious opinion. The American Theosophists now at Bombay, it is said, will stay in this country permanently to carry on, with the help of Native scholars, a calm and impartial examination of Oriental religious philosophy. | ||
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