Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl[1] [2]
“We certainly speak wisdom for the more mature, but not the wisdom of this age and of the great men of this world, who come to nothing; but we speak the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God (called θεου σοφία[3] in the Greek texts), which God intended from eternity for our glory.” (I Corinthians 2:6 and 7)
There is much talk in the Christian churches of the “Word of God,” and yet there seems to be very little clarity about what is meant by this. Most people understand by this what is printed in the Bible, and thus confuse the words which should serve as instruments to lead them to living work with the Word of life itself. Many believe that they will attain eternal happiness and perfection by holding fast to the ideas given in the Bible, which are mere theories and opinions for anyone who has not recognized and realized their truth within themselves, regardless of whether they understand them correctly or completely wrongly, without considering that an ideal which is not realized in us has no reality for us either, and as long as it is not realized must remain a mere dream for us.
Many of the “explanations” that have appeared in journals devoted to a pathological mysticism about the meaning of the “Word” have only increased the confusion that prevails about it, and we may therefore be permitted — quite apart from our own experiences — to consider what a spiritually discerning person understands by the “Word” (λόγος)[4]:
The Bible says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were created through Him, and without Him was not anything created that was. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John I:1-4)
This now clearly and distinctly states that the word is both the substance underlying all existence (from sub — under and sto — to stand), and life itself, which, when it comes into action, becomes vital activity; and when it passes from the dormant (latent) state into the active (active) state, it becomes manifest as life in all things; it produces in its own substance the phenomena which, in their final state of material embodiment or condensation, we call “matter”; in other words, the word expresses itself and thereby creates a spiritual world which, according to the law of evolution, becomes a material world visible to us; the word becomes language in the great book of nature, where every being is a letter.
But every word, whether spoken by God or by a man, must also contain a meaning and a thought; otherwise the word would be nonsense and thoughtless. If the word itself did not already contain the thought or idea of the work to be created, it could not bring about an ordered appearance in its “will” (as Schopenhauer calls it); if there were no reason in it, nothing rational could be created. Therefore we see in the word a trinity of reason, thought and action; or in other words “meaning, idea and realization”. Joh. Scheffler (Angelus Silesius) also says the same thing.
“The mind, the spirit, death: they teach frankly and openly,
if you can believe it, that God is triune.”
(Cherubinischer Wandersmann, p. 17.)
But the philosophy of the Orient teaches us exactly the same thing, and Rückert expresses these lessons in the following words:
“The world is God’s unthinkable thought,
And it is God’s calling to think without limits.
There is nothing in the world that does not contain thought material,
And no thought that does not help to build the world,
Therefore my spirit loves the world because it loves thinking,
And it gives it so much to think about everywhere.”
(The Wisdom of the Brahmans, p. 350.)
The word was therefore not only present at the beginning of our day of creation (Manvantara), but it is still present today. At the time when nothing objective existed (pralaya), when God rested in his self-consciousness, it was latent in him, just as it is latent or inactive in a human being who can speak but does not speak. It came into existence with the beginning of creation; i.e., creation itself came into being by expressing itself, and as it expressed itself then, so it speaks now. Meister Eckhart says: “If God were to refrain from speaking of his death for even a single moment, heaven and earth would perish” (100, 29).
Plato taught the same thing, and the Bhagavad Gita taught it thousands of years ago. It says:
“Know that I (Atma, the Spirit, the Word) am contained in all material things. These bodies are called ‘vessels’; that which gives consciousness to them is the Spirit. Exalted above all beings, yet He dwells in all; unmoved in Himself, His movement is His nature. He is too remote to be comprehended by material beings; He is remote and yet near. He is not distributed among creatures, yet He works in all. He is the light in all things that have light, and exalted above all darkness. He is the Knower, the known, and also the knowledge that dwells in the heart of all.” (Bhagavad Gita, Chapter XIII.)
If the proponents of the material worldview do not recognize this truth, it is not because they know that this spiritual view is not true, but because they themselves are not capable of this spiritual view and therefore do not know it. But view must precede knowledge; one must first become capable of perceiving and observing a thing before one can judge its properties. But the ability to gain spiritual knowledge is absolutely necessary when it comes to spiritual truths, and that is why the Apostle Paul says that we are not talking about everyday science, but about the knowledge of God (theosophy) (Corinthians 2:6 and 7), and adds: “The Spirit of God sees all things, even the unsearchable things in God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man who is in him? Likewise no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (in him).”
But we do not count among the representatives of the material world view only those scholars who deny everything that goes beyond their external sensory perception, but above all the great majority of everyday theologians and preachers who are so attached to external words and dead letters that they have completely lost the knowledge of the living word that the Spirit of God speaks within. The more a person clings to external things, no matter how venerable they may be, the less he will be able to recognize inner spiritual things. If the church is something different from God, and we cling to the church, then we do not belong to God (the divine existence), but to the church, and thereby lose God. It is the same with the church as with the Bible. We must not confuse the means with the end. As we are to be led by the death of the Church to the living death, which is life itself, so we are to be led by the Church to find God in our own higher self-consciousness. As soon as the Church becomes an end in itself, it ceases to have any higher purpose than its own mortal self. It then ceases to serve God, worships itself, and seeks to make God its servant, the means to the end. It becomes itself the Antichrist.
This divine inner life is thus the spiritual life and the spiritual substance from which the whole world, man and all things are built, the word which is the basis of all material existence, of all development and unfolding. However, this life is not expressed by nature or by natural man, but by God himself in and through nature and man. Therefore, in this regard, F. Rückert says in his presentation of the wisdom of the Brahmans:
“Thought indeed brings the world into being;
The one that God thought, not the one you think, fool.
You think it, without the world coming into being because of it
And without it falling away if you think it away.
The world came into being from spirit and rises in spirit;
Spirit is the ground from which it circles back to.
The spirit, an etheric scent, has condensed itself into itself,
And starry nebulae have cleared into suns.
The fog has decomposed into air and water,
And mud became earth and stone and finally plant and animal,
And human form, in which the human spirit
Awakens through God’s breath and praises him, the primordial spirit.”
(„Lehrgedichte” [“Didactic poems”], p. 11.)
This “heathen view” is in complete agreement with the “Christian doctrine”; indeed, it even seems as if the latter had emerged from the former; for we find the same world view, if not in the same words, then at least in the spirit described in the Bible, in the writings of Eckhart, Jakob Böhme, Paracelsus, Eckertshausen, etc. But it is most fully presented in H. P. Blavatsky’s “Secret Doctrine.”
Jakob Böhme tells us that everything that exists is the eternal death itself. “For there is no decree there, for if there were a counsel in it, there would also have to be a reason for the counsel, and then again a reason for it, and there would have to be something before God or after God, according to which he would deliberate. But he himself is the original and the one, and if there is a single millennium, he is himself, and he alone is good; for a single thing cannot be contrary to him (to himself); for it is only one and has nothing to do with it.” (Mysterium magnum, chapter 61, verses 64 and 65.)
The eternal Word is therefore all life, all substance; in other words, the essence in all phenomena or bodies and forces in nature, and from the Word everything was made that was made. (John 1:1.) When the divine Word resounds, it “penetrates the whole depth of its own being” (Böhme, “Aurora”, 2) and thereby the ideas contained in its being become alive and realized. This takes place both in nature on a large scale and in individual human phenomena, but just as every force expresses itself differently depending on the conditions of its environment and the properties of the organisms in which it works, so too the inner or spiritual life, through its activity, brings to fruition that which is contained in the organism in which it awakens. In a cherry stone, life, when it comes into action, develops a cherry tree; in the germ of an animal, an animal; in the human germ, a human being; and from the divine spark contained in the human heart, a radiant God.
But just as life must penetrate a tree in order to bring fruit to fruition, so too must man be penetrated by the “spirit of Christ,” i.e. by the spiritual life of the God-man who dwells in him, in order to attain spiritual rebirth through him. He should not be a dreamer, nor wallow in the ideas of his imagination, but should direct his whole will, thoughts and feelings towards remaining in his own higher self-consciousness within him, which is the consciousness of his God, penetrating ever more deeply into it and no longer thinking at all about his transitory personal self. In this connection it may be of use to him to utter certain words inwardly, by which he reminds himself of his own higher nature and the purpose of his existence; for spiritual truths, even if they have been recognized, are all too easily forgotten again by the son of earthly man. In this consist the “occult exercises,” which are regarded by some as a great secret, but against the publication of which we have all the less objection, as the The Indian sage Sankaracharya described this method more than two thousand years ago in his “Atma Bodha” (theory of self-knowledge).[5]
This teaching is also known in America among the “Christian Scientists” and a follower of this teaching says the following about it:
“When we look at the universe, in which all life is, we must see in it not only what now seems to be, but what was in all the past and will be in all the future. “Universe” means “the revolving One.” We look out upon the land and sea of our earth, and we see change; we look up into the sky at night, and the same stars that shone to the shepherds of Galilee shine to us; the same constellations move over the horizon, and man and the stars both seem to comprise a consciousness that is but one; that is, the man who looked up at the stars in the infancy of our earth, and the man who looks at them to-day, may be one and the same man, according as we measure him; either by the things which are seen, or by the consciousness which perceives, thinks, feels, and knows.
“Is there anything in the universe that extends beyond man and the stars? Is there a “unitary rotation,” a universe that, whether man beholds or the stars shine, is an eternal unity moving over and in land and sea, stars and men?”
“Yes! It is such (being). In all forms it is formless, in all time it knows no time; it maintains the stars in their places, it is clothed with them as with a garment; it is space that knows no space; infinite, the same yesterday, today and forever. It knows no change, and its rotation creates no shadow.
“It is life in everything; we can sense it, but not understand it; it is not understood or comprehended by anything but itself. It is the one unchanging quality in all material things, but it is not matter. It is substance, that which is subordinate to all things (sub – under, sto – stand): the basis of all things. It is the universe of power, intelligence and love. “In it we live and die, in it we have our being.” Think about it carefully, look up at the starry sky and feel the infinity of life.
“By making this observation, we begin to sense what the (eternal) truth is, towards which life in us strives. We put ourselves in contact with it through our thoughts and, through our mind, that is, that which feels and thinks within us, see ourselves placed between the imperishable and the perishable. But this is life as a whole. Forms change, but the eternal basis, substance of existence is the universe, from which we hope for truth, wisdom and life.”
“To consider ourselves firmly as a part of this unchanging universe is to take the first step towards mental and physical health; to comprehend it within ourselves is to take the whole of life; we must distinguish between what is true and truth itself, which is absolute, perfect and unchanging.
“When Pilate asked Jesus what truth was, Jesus remained silent. The silent Christ as the whole human being is the answer, but what is true today will be false tomorrow, because truth is a relative concept and refers to something that is not true (an opposite). It is true, for example, that Columbus discovered America, but it is not the truth itself. Truth (in itself) refers to nothing and has neither time nor place, it is always present. The discovery of America required time and place, growing consciousness, the acquisition of certain knowledge. There is knowledge that is opposed to ignorance; something perceived in contrast to the unknown; something that grows and therefore changes. But consciousness itself, which absorbs this new knowledge, is not changed by it; it is the only thing that we can consider as infinity or truth. Truth has no opposite in itself; it is a perpetual affirmation or negation; it is the eternal word: “Let there be!”
“For example, if the truth compels me to say: “(just is!), there is no time and no place, nor any state in which (just is!) not. If it compels me to say: “I am!”, it would be against the truth to say: “I am not.” If I can say (in knowledge): “Wisdom is!”, there is no place, time or state in which wisdom is not. If I could (in truth) say: “God” or “the good is!”, I can under no circumstances say: “Good is not!”
“Does this thought raise you to a great height? Well, try to remain there; do not seek to descend. This is our standpoint, and from it I will lead you to the knowledge of this life full of contradictions. Take deep into your mind the principles of which we speak; for they are principles, and not mere theories. He who believes everything affirms everything. We cannot affirm God or the good in some things and deny it in others; we must rather assume that our narrowness is only what we see when we fail to see God, rather than that God is narrow in anything.
“Will you then voluntarily remain in the slavery of your limited understanding,[6] or will you affirm the existence of the truth of the good as something that exists independently of your tenacity to see it? Are you clear that the sun does not (as it seems) rise in the east and set in the west? Must you not contradict all your sense impressions in order to be able to affirm that the earth moves and the sun stands still? Does it require greater faith to affirm the same with regard to the (divine) sun (the soul) and the (human) earth, yourself?
“All is Good! (There is no evil!) Say this continually; let your mind rest upon it. This brings you to wisdom, and wisdom is God. Repeat to yourself the following: Existence is Lines. Existence is knowledge, power, self-consciousness. Existence is the infinite spirit of love. Nothing separates existence from the Self. Unity is indestructible, unchangeable, it is the All of life. In it and with it I live and breathe and am. I fear no evil, for you are with me. Your wholeness is my health, my well-being. The sun and its rays are one and inseparable from each other. The reality of life consists in its radiance. All rays are one with the sun of existence, the sun of truth. My life is an indestructible ray from the center of the divine sun. God is; I am!
Anyone who understands the above will also be able to answer the question: “Where can we find God?” Let us free ourselves from the false but generally accepted idea that “God” is something outside our nature, a being alien to us; let us replace the word “God” which is so often misused with the expression “divine existence”, then we only need to become conscious of our own divine existence to satisfy even the most stubborn sceptic, and this is not “pious enthusiasm”; for the enthusiast and fantasist does not search within himself, he raves about what is outside himself, whether it be of a scientific or religious nature; he searches outside, for what he can only find within, and in doing so loses himself.
But of course these things are not understandable to everyone. Goethe rightly says:
“It is indeed innate in everyone, that his feelings reach upwards and forwards”; but in our age of servility to authority, of moral cowardice, of conceit, of the pursuit of wealth and pleasure, and of the presumption, hypocrisy and hypocrisy which are particularly prevalent in England, this innate feeling is generally stifled by selfishness before rhyme has developed and man has acquired the ability to think for himself. This is why Sankaracharya says that such teachings are only intended for those who have the ability (in themselves) to distinguish the true from the false, the real from the apparent, the immortal from the transitory, which is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Comparatively few people can see beyond the limits of their own personal ego, which, with its delusions and desires, stands like an impenetrable wall between them and freedom. But everything that springs from egoism, however virtuous it may seem, has no value in the spiritual realm. Even the selfish desire to enjoy personal pleasures in heaven is contemptible and prevents man from attaining that blessedness which is eternal and limitless. Prayer for personal advantages and favors is also a sign of cowardice and helplessness; it springs from the delusion of the self, which would like to make even the will of God in the universe subservient to its lust. What is based on a foolish belief is based on foolishness, and what is based on apparent reasons is based on appearance. Both are baseless and collapse upon themselves. Kernning says: “Nothing can ascend to heaven that has not come down from heaven.” Therefore, “occult exercises” are useless if the intention is to obtain something with which one can boast or to elevate oneself above others.
A mystic is not someone who can talk learnedly about spiritism, hypnotism, etc., or repeat what he has read, heard, or made up about them. Nor is someone a mystic who is carried away by his feelings and lets himself be moved by every wind. Mysticism is not mysticism; spirit-seeing is not theosophy. Just as piety is the opposite of true religion, false scholarship is an obstacle to true knowledge, and conceit and spiritual shortsightedness are barriers on the way to the knowledge of God, so too is mysticism the inverted reflection of true mysticism. The person who is caught up in vanity and selfishness has only his own self in mind, whether he is conscious of it or not; all his thoughts and actions are colored by selfishness; Indeed, the more a man is possessed by any passion and is identified with it, the less he knows himself. He feels, thinks and acts in self-love, although his sagacity knows enough reasons to deceive himself into believing that what he does is for the good of the world.
But of all existences the most pitiable are those persons without will, who, having no energy of their own, are always guided by foreign influences, and who are usually called “mediums,” and by this we do not include those persons who give themselves up to hypnotic and spiritualistic experiments, but all those who allow themselves to be led by foreign influences, whether visible or invisible, to act against their own reason and conviction. They are what are called “fool” in ordinary life, and of which there are all possible degrees and shades. The fool sacrifices his true self on the altar of the passion which controls him; the mystic sacrifices his personal will, controlling it by the will of his Divine Self.
Man is his own master! — but only he who has truly healed himself, who stands firmly on his own feet and needs no outside support; he alone will understand the true meaning of the word “freedom,” which is a deep mystery for all who are not free from selfishness. He desires neither the treasures of fantasy nor those of the earth; for he has fantasy in his own breast, and all that he wants on earth is his; for he is content with what he already possesses.
But as far as practical rules of life in this direction are concerned, W. Coryn says the following:
“He who wishes to become a mystic begins by resolving that nothing mean or weak shall take hold in him, and that in all that he does the welfare of all his fellow creatures shall be taken into account. He is therefore friendly to everyone and offends no one, either by word or deed. He gives of his possessions where it can do the most good, and helps with advice and knowledge where it can be of use and where it is desired; he shares his peace, his comfort, his wisdom with those who need it. He promises nothing that he does not intend to keep, and his given word is sacred to him. To those who have been hard hit by fate he speaks of the truth of immortality and of the great ends of nature, which it pursues, even though it is painful and it is not easy to understand why it acts in this way. He is strong in his higher self-consciousness and remains unmoved within himself; but his peace and calm radiates to all who approach him and communicates to those with whom he comes into contact; whoever is with him is calmed, encouraged and strengthened by his presence. For him, every moment is an aspiration for good; every breath a prayer, every exhalation an emanation of the divine spirit of love for the good in all; behind his magical thinking and energetic deeds is the inner word in his candle, which is his will, his conscience, his hope, his calm, his infallible guide, which permeates and fills him and his thinking. His thoughts come and go, the word, the life within, does not change.
“He is self-controlled, cares little about possessions and comfort, and is therefore free from all worries about them, as well as from the disappointments that go with them. In his mind the highest ideal to be attained always hovers before his eyes, and at every moment he seeks to rid himself of everything that prevents its realization. He always holds fast to clarity and truth. His thoughts are not occupied with the pettiness of his own self, but with the whole and the great, with the well-being of humanity, with the evolution of nature and the fulfillment of its purposes. He meditates daily, and by withdrawing his soul from all external things, he seeks to become one with the soul of the world in his consciousness; he sees his ego as something extending into the furthest distance in space, as one with the essence that is present in all people, animals and things as embodied or un-embodied love. He takes part in the emotional life of nature and all creatures in it; he sees himself as one with the higher man, the God-man, whose voice he hears in his heart.
“Every night he looks back on the day he has lived through and investigates where and how he has failed to come closer to his ideal, what worthless thoughts and hindering ideas and wishes have wasted his precious time. In his study he considers man and nature and their mutual relations on the various levels of existence (the physical, psychic and spiritual planes), so that his intellectual progress can keep pace with his spiritual growth and he becomes rounded and perfect in every respect.
“He practices in all these directions, and then his mystical powers begin to spread. He begins to know the thoughts of people and to sense what they feel even before their thoughts have become words; he “feels” the coming of messages and “suspects” their content; he knows the feelings and thoughts of those who write to him; he senses in advance the occurrence of important events; and what is “conscience” for us is for him intuition, an unmistakable teacher of the secrets of the past and the future.
“The more his sympathy for humanity grows, the more he can feel its thoughts, and his intuition becomes a growing light for him to see into the inner hearts of men, whereby he learns the wisdom of humanity from his own observation and is enabled to say and do what is best for men, so that he moves among them like a walking stream of blessing. He sees the psychic coloring of his age, of the countries and cities, and recognizes what the future must bring.
“He stands alone, without the support of others, he thinks his own thoughts, and frees his mind from the confusion of thoughts and sensations which are not his own, but which rush upon him like the waves of the sea, generated by the thoughts of others, and which we, in our ignorance, take for our own thoughts.
“So he lives as a participating spectator in the shadow play of life, but in his rest not moved by its storms. The bodies in which he clothes himself (his reincarnations) wear out one after the other, are discarded and renewed; but he himself is elevated above all this, he soars to ever higher spheres of thought and lives elevated above the abysses of life and death, knowing himself, for the thread of his memory is no longer torn; he knows who he was in times immemorial and knows the goal to be reached; earthly life is only a spectacle for him; he sees how the curtain is raised and lowered. Finally the door of the masters and teachers of all times and all nations opens to him, and he attains the fellowship of the great ones who have gone before and now oversee the world and come to the aid of suffering humanity with a strong hand.
“Does the greatness of such a destiny frighten you? Know that none of us need stop and say, “This is not for me! I cannot soar so high?” Everything has a beginning, and this beginning takes place as soon as one of us conquers an angry thought, casts off a sensual desire, and begins to strive for the light. Let us not think too lowly of ourselves. The goal is far away, but for him who struggles daily, even if only a little, victory is certain. One life (incarnation) follows another, and what has hardly become a habit today becomes an instinctive drive tomorrow; much, very much of our future depends on what we do right now, for the history of mankind is approaching a turning point. If we now come to the aid of nature in its struggle between spirituality and materiality, we will reap good fruits in a future life, when a cycle more favorable to spiritual flourishing begins.
“The tasks that have to be solved are different for everyone. Everyone has to go their own way, overcome their own particular difficulties, but in the end all paths come together, like all rivers to the sea; everyone heads to the goal.”
Each path leads to the goal; but one in a straight line and in a short time, the other by a roundabout route and after perhaps millions of years. Anyone who knows how to control himself stands before the open gate; anyone who remains a slave to his [lower] nature is forced by nature to return and go again to the school of suffering and disappointment until knowledge awakens in him. What is missed in one life can certainly be made up for in a subsequent life on earth, but according to the calculations of the Indian sages, it is to be expected that the souls of the present generation, when they next appear on earth in physical existence, will find the conditions for spiritual progress less favorable than now.
According to this calculation, we are now at the end of the first cycle of 5000 years of the Kali Yuga (the black age, which lasts 432,000 years), which will end between the years 1897 and 1898. With regard to this period, the Vishnu Purana [viṣṇu purāṇa] prophesies the following:
“In those times, stubborn rulers will rule the earth; people who are violent, wicked and given to lies. They will destroy women and cattle, steal from their subjects and commit adultery. They will acquire a large following and much power. Their lives will be short and their desires insatiable. People of various nationalities will join forces with them and follow their example, and the people will perish. Prosperity and honesty will decrease until the world is completely corrupt. A man’s reputation will be determined by his wealth. Wealth alone will be respected. In trade and industry, lying will be the only means of obtaining a benefit, and everyone will be judged only by what he appears to be on the outside; those who have much wealth will be considered blameless. The general means of advancement will be dishonesty, and those who are weak (poor) will be enslaved. Boast and conceit will take the place of real knowledge; love will depend on generosity, mutual (capricious) consent (to sexual union) will be considered equal to marriage, and the dignity of the respected will consist in their fine clothes, he who is strongest (in the favour of the mob) will rule. The people who can no longer bear the burdens imposed on them will emigrate and social decay will advance in the Kali Yuga until the human race comes close to annihilation. …”
Has this idea of the approaching age of depravity, in whose onset thousands of Indians believe, also begun to germinate in the minds of Europeans, or are there other causes which have given rise to prophecies in the West of the impending “end of the world”, as have already been voiced from various quarters? This is perhaps difficult to decide. The idea, even if not exactly the correct one, springs from feeling, and there may well be many who are able to sense the truth of the coming upheaval and then interpret the matter in a way that seems most appropriate to them. But it is certain that the above description in the Purana [purāṇa] applies to our present age, and daily observation shows that things are getting worse instead of better; all the more so as the rulers of whom we are speaking are to be found not so much on thrones as in parliaments.
Indeed, after the remaining 417,000 years of Kali Yuga have passed, Krita Yuga [kṛta yuga], the golden age, will follow; indeed, the root of life contained in every human being will not perish; the trunk of the tree will remain standing; but how many millions of personal forms of existence will perish like dry leaves blown away by the storm wind? The person who has succeeded in uniting with the trunk, with his God, can certainly view with equanimity both the creation and the destruction of the worlds as a spectacle that does not affect him personally; but the person who does not succeed in this union shares the fate of that part of his constitution with which he has become identical.[7]
Many will hear these teachings for the first time and believe that they know all this much better, although they know nothing about the spiritual constitution of the universe and of man and have never thought about it, and will shrug their shoulders in contempt. But anyone who can penetrate into the spirit of these teachings and is capable of this higher world view will not need any further “proof” to see how important it is, especially now, that the whole of humanity should not only be made aware of the existence of a higher nature that dwells within themselves, but that scientific reasons should also be presented to those who doubt in order to make the existence of this higher nature clear to them and to induce them to find it within themselves and to unite with it. The time of blind faith in dogmas is coming to an end, and where one’s own view ends, the mind demands proof.
Not in order to replace the old dogmas, nor to give the unthinking herd a new leader whom it should blindly follow, but in order to give people the opportunity to support one another in the search for truth, an association was founded at the instigation of certain adepts in India, who are also personally known to the author of these pages, in which no authority should prevail other than the truth itself, as it reveals itself in every individual who is capable of it. A nucleus was to be formed in which the principles of universal love of humanity, recognized by every rational being, would not only be “believed” theoretically, but put into practice, and through the study of the teachings of the ancient sages and the dissemination and discussion of the relevant literature, which was previously only accessible to a few, everyone, whether he was a “member” of this society or not, should be given the opportunity to reflect on these teachings and to form his own opinion about them.
One of the above-mentioned adepts speaks about the purpose of this connection as follows:
“Man consists of ideas and is guided by ideas. His own subjective (inner) world is the only reality for him, even on this psychic level. For the occultist, the horizon of this inner world expands and it becomes reality for him all the more as he recognizes the objective world of appearances for what it is. His final goal is self-knowledge in the Absolute (Parabrahm). Therefore, he who strives for higher (spiritual) knowledge should direct all his desires towards the one highest ideal and seek to attain it through total self-sacrifice, love of humanity, goodness of heart and all the highest virtues that can be attained on earth. The more he strives to attain this ideal, the more his will moves in this direction, the greater his power becomes. Once he has become strong (internally), the tendency arises in the material organism (Sthula Sharira) [sthūla śarīra] to do only that which is in harmony with the high aspiration he is pursuing, and his (noble) actions then double his inner strength according to the well-known law of effect and reaction.
“But what are the practical results and how do they come about? Observation and experience teach us that progress is a law of nature. It follows from this that humanity is still in an imperfect state of development and is moving towards perfection. This perfection will only come about when higher powers of perception develop in people and the standpoint they occupy in relation to their position in nature becomes clear to them. The highest perfection is only conceivable when the force which animates the individual human being works in harmony with the One Life which moves the whole towards this end: And the best means of achieving this is knowledge and science.
“To those who understand this, it will also be clear that the final purpose of the law in nature is to perfect man by the union of the human spirit with the spirit which animates the whole. With this high purpose constantly kept before their eyes, an intellectual union should be formed in which all (whatever their individual opinions) unite for this purpose. To achieve this practical result, union, we must uphold the highest ideal which represents the true man; we must point others to this ideal and ourselves act in accordance with this ideal. Each should strive with total self-sacrifice to walk the right path himself and to show it to others; if we exert our forces as a whole to attain this ideal, great things can be achieved by this co-operation on the spiritual plane. As this is the most important work in which an occultist can engage, every one who strives after higher knowledge should strive to promote this work. This creates a spiritual tidal wave which lifts the whole up and enables the intellectual and spiritual capacities of our generation to spread. The dissemination of philosophical knowledge contributes to this end, and it is this dissemination which we expect from our students.”
This is therefore the basis of that “Theosophical Society” about which the most perverse views still prevail in Germany today, some of which are spread in the daily press, which understands nothing of this, and some of which are confirmed by the behavior of incompetent members. The true spiritual community of those who strive for the highest has existed since time immemorial, for this very striving unites them. Attempts have often been made to give this spiritual community an external expression by founding a society; but since the world on the whole was incapable of spiritual views, only a caricature was created. Whether the world is now ripe enough for such a society to exist, or whether it will fall victim to the sectarian influences that threaten to creep into it, only the future will tell us.
Notes:
[1] Mysticism and world end. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Sphinx 20, issue 108 (February 1895), 81-95 [Mystik und Weltend] Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025. The original text was set using the German fraktur or blackletter.
[2] See, Magie” [“Magic”] by Dr. Franz Hartmann. Leipzig, Wilhelm Friedrich. 1894. Page 251 etc.
[3] [R.H.—Greek = theo sophia]
[4] [R.H.—Greek = logos]
[5] A German translation of this work appeared in the “Lotusblüten” No. XXIII. Scholars are not unanimous about the period in which Sankaracharya lived. Recently also published by W. Friedrich in Leipzig. [R.H.—Clues have been provided in the writings of T. Subba Rao (Row)]
[6] The limited mind, which cannot go beyond its own egoism, is Kama Manas [kāma manas], or what Goethe calls Mephistopheles in “Faust” in contrast to Buddhi Manas, spiritual knowledge.
Editor’s note: Dr. Franz Hartmann develops this idea excellently in his writings on Paracelsus.
[7] See A. Besant: “Death and what then?” Leipzig, Wilhelm Friedrich.