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< Mr. Epes Sargent, Mr. Roden Noel, and the “Spiritual Body.” (continued from page 14-122) >
a spiritual body; and hence the scornful defamation of Spiritualism as being a worse materialism than that which it would displace.” The bearing of contemporary speculation on this question is ably treated by Epes Sargent in the pages following; but enough has been quoted to shew how free he was from the confusion of ideas imputed to him. The truth is that for expressed, or objective individuality, a body of some sort is indispensable. We make a body by thinking; originating it with difficulty, but feeling it afterwards in the reactive organism to which all spontaneity testifies. That is the “spirit-body,” the Kama Rupa of Buddhism.
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The Indian Mirror.
Calcutta, Thursday, Dec. 28, 1882.
…OW TO KNOW THE REAL SELF.
[3]By the late Bramhachari Bawa.
(Theosophist.)
Three thousand five hundred years ago, all men believed in one common religion—the Vedokta dharma, or the religion enjoined by the Vedas. The highest duty or dharma of every sensible man is to acquire wisdom, and not to amass matter. Even a knowledge of and control over the laws of nature is but nothing compared to the actual experience or anubhavio dnyan of the essence of the animal soul—the Paramatma. It alone can solve the mystery of the incomprehensible universal delusion or maya, who attains this experience and ever lives in the conviction that all the rest is false (unstable) The materialistic science of the West, which is progressing gradually only to pull down to-day the edifice they constructed yesterday, will never be able to arrive at a satisfactory solution. A yogi can acquire omniscience, while the modern worldly scientist could effect no such thing—not even after ages of diligent researches. The one traces the material and spiritual delusion of the universe to its true central point; the other in his hopeless researches fails and falls off baffled at every step for the very method adopted by him is not commensurate with the magnitude of the object sought for. How can he hope to analyse the external nature without trying to gain a mastery over his own self, especially as he himself admits that man is but a part of nature? The yogi gradually disentangles himself from the snares of maya, as he progresses onward; the physiologist is lost in the mazes of his own experiments, and he advances only to find the web which he has himself woven, more and more intricate. This may appear absurd to many; but a true initiate in the mysteries of nature knows it well enough. Men understand and accept ideas just according to their receptivity. The Western intellect which has begun to sprout (shoot forth) is not yet ripe enough to come face to face with nature, much less so without the help of those who have for ages been learning to lift up her veil. The teachings of the Vedas only can ensure success, and before the attempt is made, the eternal quietude of the real self must be realized, in contradistinction to the ever-active and disconsolate soul.
Thirty-five centuries ago, the Vedic religion was not so powerless in effecting this object as now-a-days—and why? The excellent system of classifying men according to their spiritual yearning has been abolished. Formerly, the caste of every one depended solely on his tendencies for internal development; but now an Aryan is reckoned a Brahmin, Khatriya, Vaisya, or Sudra, according to his birth only. A Brahmin’s son is as much a Brahmin as his father, whether he possesses necessary qualifications for the caste or not. Thus the original intention of the founders of the Vedic religion is deplorably lost sight of. Since men fit to be classed as Brahmins began to be selfishly excluded, merely because of their having been born in lower castes, and unworthy men retained in the higher castes, a confusion arose in the ranks of the Vedic mystics, which resulted at last in the degeneration of Hindus from esotericism to exotericism. The confusion of castes gave rise to a religious and political revolution, the direful effects of which we see in the world’s debased creeds.
The Anti-Christian.
Calcutta, September 1882.
A MIS-APPREHENSION, POINTED OUT.
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“We wish”, says the Thinker, the new mouth-piece of the Hindu Freethought Union (speaking of ourselves) “all our accusers(*) will think twice, before they rush into print.” So far so good; but we should not like to be classed with the accusers for writing a line or two as a piece of advice. We are not all knowing, we judge from circumstances; and as no charge whatever was brought against the late secretary (at least publicly) before his being an F. T. S., one may easily be led to believe that the dissention took place owing to matters of opinion and belief. What we wrote, we wrote deliberately and not rashly, but in justice to the Union we publish somewhere else, the present Sub Protem Secretary’s letter word per word, even with his heading “correspondence” though we should rather have avoided using the word in connection with a single letter. We thank him however for pointing out our “mis.apprehension”.
Now we have both sides of the case before us, and have nothing more to say. Strange, that the mis-behaviour, the want of energy &c. &c. of Mr. Mudaliar was not felt before his joining the Theosophical Society!
* But we are always in sympathy with the Thinker,—Ed. A. C.
CORRESPONDENCE.
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Sir,
In your last issue of the paper, you say that the late Secretary of our Union was ‘literally expelled’ from it owing to differences in matters of ‘opinion and belief,’ and charge the Union with rashness and narrowmindedness. Will you allow me to say that you are under mis-apprehension regarding the expulsion of the Secretary? The Secretary was removed from the union not because he had joined the ‘Theosophical Society,’ but because he vilified the union in all possible ways in his paper and misbehaved in the union. The question ‘can a true<... continues on page 14-124 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The writer has not been identified.
- ↑ How to Know the Real Self. by unknown author (signed as The late Bramhachari Bawa), Indian Mirror, The, Calcutta,Thursday,December28,1882; Our Contemporaries; printed Theosophist attribution
- ↑ The beginning of the title in the Indian Mirror clipping is partly covered. A version of the article appears in The Theosophist, Vol. IV, No. 4, January 1883, p. 97; differences in wording and the dates printed in the two publications are retained.
- ↑ A Mis-Apprehension, Pointed Out. by unknown author, Anti-Christian, The, Vol.I,No.9,Calcutta,September1882; day not printed
- ↑ Correspondence. by unknown author (signed as P. Apputhorar Chetty), Anti-Christian, The, September1882,No.9; addressed to editor; signed Madras,3rd Sep.82 on124
Sources
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The Theosophist, v. 4, No. 4, January 1883, p. 97