Personal Experience In Relation to Theosophy

Opening Address to the German Summer School at Rendsberg, July, 1953

By U. G. Krishnamurti

THE HISTORY OF THEOSOPHICAL thought is the history of the evolution of modern thought. As of all other, the survey of Theosophy in successive periods of the Society's history is the general evolution and progress of human thought. The leaders of the Society have a place not only in the Theosophical Movement, but also in the history of world thought itself, in the whole intellectual advance that has been registered these seventy-seven years. Every leader has contributed to this onward and forward movement some small fresh fragment to the Temple of Theosophical Wisdom. Progress always appears in different lights to different people. The Society is not simply a working institution; it is a Society, a spiritual organisation. It is different from the ordinary human societies or clubs that men form for ordinary purposes of human association; but it is still a Society composed of people of various nationalities, and therefore, not something that you can talk about in the abstract. It is like any other organisation made up of members. Sometimes in the life of any spiritual movement, we just seem to be jogging along; nothing very much appears to be happening, and we do not seem to be getting anywhere in particular; it is only when we pause to look back and take our bearings, that we realise what a long way that we have, in fact, come from where we started, and what tremendous advances we are really making. There is bound to be loss as well as gain, but the leaders have in these seventy-seven years made significant contributions in and through the Theosophical Society, to the religious life of the community as a whole. Each of them had something new to say, and that is why we revere them, but each of them in a different fashion proclaimed a different facet of Theosophy, and they carried the Society forward with them because they journeyed with their faces towards the light. They have left their mark upon the outlook and activities and have also helped to set the general tone and direction of … the people.

Let us very briefly see the different stages of growth and the gradual objectivisation of the ideals of Theosophy. Let me very briefly survey the background of the Theosophical Movement and the conditions of the world before its advent.

The world was then divided into two camps, that of rigid materialism and that of a narrow and bigoted form of religion. It was an age of conquering science when religion was on the defence. The increase of “valid knowledge” called Science was having a disturbing effect on the religious traditions. Religion had become bankrupt, for it had no real life in it. The mechanistic theory of man and the universe grew in clarity and prestige. The philosophy that emanated was a materialistic philosophy which sought in matter the solution of all mysteries. In this maelstrom of opposing and conflicting forces was heralded the Theosophical Society. Thus what was wanted, the Theosophical Society supplied. So the work of H. P. Blavatsky is of great consequence, as she supplied a philosophy of life which was broad enough to include both spirit and matter. The great Theosophical treatise, The Secret Doctrine, by Madame Blavatsky, brought together all sorts of facts in the domain of mysticism, religion, philosophy and science to prove that quite apart from science and religion, dogma and worship, there is one step beyond mind touching spirit, which may be called the transcendental aspect of Theosophy. She tried to establish the Law of Reincarnation, the Theory of Karma, the power of mind over matter; and she stressed the … progress which, in fact, is Occultism. It appealed to the intellectuals of that time and so she was able to gather around her great personages like Edison, Sir William Crookes, Alfred Russell Wallace, W. T. Stead and Sir Oliver Lodge, though they dropped out of our ranks later. Thus the early efforts of H.P.B. proved the supremacy of spirit over mind.

But when Dr. Annie Besant came to the scene she tried to contact that spirit and make that Transcendental into Immanent. And her method of achieving this was the service of mankind. What is the motive for service? Each one of us has to try and delve as deeply as possible within himself to see what really is the propelling force or hidden motive behind his activities. This is how modern Psychologist, E. M. Delfield, warns us when he says:

“The philanthropist is relatively safe when he acknowledges safely to himself the elements of satisfaction in his work. The person who says: ‘I give freely and look for no return; I wear myself out for the sake of others; I accept honors and responsibility unwillingly; the money I receive for my work is nothing to me; I do not want gratitude’ is being hoodwinked by his unconscious. People do not consider it decorous to realise that they are doing more interesting work and getting more pay than ever before, an outlet for their energies, and many are the better for it.” Why the urge for service at all? Because we realise … the unity of self in all, “the touch of the one feeling of what Tennyson called the actual immanence of God in the infinitesimal atom and in the vastest system.” Dr. Besant taught us that life is only for service. She stressed the central truth as distinct from dogmatic and institutional forms. This appealed to the modern mind, which was becoming increasingly rationalistic in temperament and outlook. She made the evolving Universe intelligible to millions of people, and from the heights of her idealism she set in motion thought currents which spiritualised them more than any other single influence.

Leadbeater helped us to see the other worlds to which we also belong, the worlds invisible and intangible. Our citizenship is also in Heaven, the unseen world is only an expansion of that which is seen. There is one more contribution of his. At the time of the inauguration of the Theosophical Society the Adepts did not use the phrases “The Inner Government of the world”, “The Ideas of the Manu, the Bodhisattva and the Logos”. These were all later revelations. These were elaborated by the investigations of Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater from whom we also heard of the Monad, the Group Soul, etc.

But the cycle is not complete; if we want to complete this cycle we must be able to see the immanence as well the transcendence. It is really the summation, the integration, the climax of the groups of thought-form, the thought processes and evolution. When all is said and done, the immanence and transcendence are not exclusive of … “the double movements in religious effort and experience”.

And in the words of an American Philosopher, adapted slightly, even the Truths of Theosophy may dust the mind by their dryness unless they are effaced each morning, and rendered fertile by the dews of fresh and living truth. Otherwise our love of Theosophy has no reality behind it. The vital principles and truths that operate in any spiritual movement are likely to become a dogma or creed, when the movement settles down. Each one of us must discover his own mystery, what the Light on the Path calls “final secret”. To do this is to discover something in terms of our own experience, a vital transforming experience. Until we have discovered that centre in ourselves, whatever may be the magnitude of our contribution, all that activity, all that contribution, is bound to be devoid of the unique and vitalising factor, namely, individual inspiration. In the ultimate analysis, it is the individual that matters. Only to the extent that an individual is inspired from within himself can he contribute to the common work and thus energise what we call group activity. This process of inwardness, if I may say so, is not a morbid isolationism or an ivory tower outlook. Now we cannot go deep down into ourselves except in a state of relationship with others. To the extent that we are periodically able to go deep down into ourselves can we find that inspiration which is necessary to carry on our … zest and enthusiasm.

It is said that the Maha-Chohan has given, as it were, a charter for the work of the Theosophical Society, when He said: “The Theosophical Society was chosen as the cornerstone, the foundation of the future religions of humanity”. Shall we not see that day? The world needs Theosophy. The forces of the world are with us, the times and the spirit of the age are with us, and I have no doubt the Truths of Theosophy which insist on a quest more than on a creed and enable us to join the pursuit of the ideal, that is a thing that has still a future because they are of eternal value.