Theosophical Correspondence.
Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
Theosophical Life
Question: — What is meant by “theosophical life”?
Answer: — One should understand it as the inner spiritual life which is inherent in the person reborn in the divine spirit. A person can be very good, pious and virtuous on the outside and follow all the rules of the morality he has been taught, attend church, give alms, etc. and still have no spiritual life; for all external virtues belong to the external, mortal person, and the external person, as the Apostle Paul says, understands nothing of the spirit of God; it is foolishness to him. This spiritual, theosophical life is not a matter of the intellect, but arises from the awakening of the inner person to the self-consciousness of his higher existence in the spirit. It must be felt before it can be understood. Without the feeling of the eternal within us, no “distinction between the permanent and the non-permanent” is possible, which is the first condition for attaining true self-knowledge. Faith, hope, love, patience, mercy, justice, selflessness, self-control, fulfillment of duty, calmness, etc. are spiritual powers which only have lasting value in the eternal if they arise from the knowledge of the eternal in the heart; for only what comes from God in our inner being returns to God. Externally adopted morality can pave the way to the awakening of the theosophical life and make man receptive to it, but it cannot create it. Morality arising from self-conceit is also a great obstacle. Everything that the external man does in his selfhood has no value in the eternal; but what the Spirit of God accomplishes in and through us after we have come to its knowledge is well done. For this reason, the personality of an inwardly enlightened man can still be afflicted with many passions and yet he can still have the theosophical life. His task is to overcome these passions so that the inner life permeates the outer and the whole person progresses on the path to perfection. These passions are overcome by means of the inner power of knowledge. If a person had to first abandon all his faults out of personal self-will before the true light could reveal itself in him, he would hardly ever attain the spiritual life. But every person has a spark of the divine light of self-knowledge within him, and if this is awakened, the light spreads within and the external vices decrease of their own accord, just as the rising of the sun drives away the shadows on the outside.
Clairvoyance in medicine.
Question: — What is to be thought of examining patients by means of clairvoyance?
Answer: — There are undoubtedly people whose astral senses are so highly developed that they can see through material bodies and consequently discern the state of internal organs by clairvoyance. Others perceive the state of a patient by transmitting the patient’s feelings to them; they feel his illness. In many cases, however, the alleged clairvoyance consists only in “mind-reading,” i.e. in transmitting the images of the imagination. In such a case, for example, if a patient were to imagine that he had swallowed a frog, the “clairvoyant” would see such a frog in his stomach. As long as man is not perfect, he is always subject to doubt and error.
Cremation.
Question: — Is it more expedient to burn the corpses than to bury them?
Answer: — For the living, it is undoubtedly more expedient if the corpses are burned, since, especially in cities, the valuable land can be used for something more useful than the construction of cemeteries, and because this also eliminates the danger of the wells being poisoned by the ingress of corpse water; but whether the cremation of the corpse can have an unfavorable influence on the departed or departing soul is something that scholars do not seem to agree on, and this will depend on the circumstances in which the soul finds itself. If it has become completely free of the attractions of the earthly world, it will be indifferent to it, as the “Atma-Bodha” says, whether its abandoned body “lies in the holy city of Benares or in a dog pen”, and it will therefore not worry about burning or burying it; but with earthbound souls other relations may prevail, so long as a spiritual connection still exists between the soul and the etheric body. In general it may be said that burial can be compared to the slow farewell to a friend, and burning to a violent separation.
The Historical Jesus.
Question: — Is Jesus of Nazareth a historical figure?
Answer: — If you read the Mahābhārata, an Indian epic poem written long before the Christian era, you will find the following in it:
“In Mathura there lived a cruel tyrant named Kamsa, in whose body a demon lived. Under him all human misery took over. Then Vishnu decided to descend to earth as a god-man; he was born to Devakī, which means “divine woman”, and called himself Krishna. Devakī was Kamsa’s sister. When she married Prince Vasudeva, a bird prophesied to Kamsa that his eighth nephew would kill him. The tyrant then had all his sisters’ children killed immediately after their birth. When Krishna lay under Devaki’s heart, she was kept prisoner in the palace and closely guarded. But the tyrant was deceived about her birth; the false father carried the baby boy out through the guards, who were blinded by divine decree, and brought him to a shepherd in the field. He waded through the waters of the swollen Yamuna [River], and the shepherds fell on their knees before him and the little boy and worshipped him because he bore divine symbols. At the same time, a shepherdess had given birth to a girl. Vasudeva swapped the children and brought the girl to the palace. When she was seized by Kamsa’s guards, she flew to heaven and cried: “The one you seek has escaped your power. The hour of your downfall is near.”
Then Kamsa ordered that all newborn boys in the whole kingdom be killed. The foster father was warned by divine inspiration and fled with the child to a distant region. Krishna spent his youth among shepherds. When he had grown up and had gained many followers through his beauty and wisdom, he dethroned the tyrant of Mathura and set out to free the earth from vicious princes, giants and monsters and finally to ascend to heaven again as Vishnu.” (Compare “Weber, Indian Sketches”)
Similar pre-Christian myths can be found in the ancient traditions of most peoples; it would take us too far to name them all here. All of these myths are based on one truth, the story of the redemption of mankind through the revelation of the deity that takes place in it. The story of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth by the Virgin Mary therefore brings us nothing new, nothing that has never been seen before. But whether all this happened and was repeated at the beginning of the Christian era exactly as described in the “New Testament” is something we must leave to you and other scholars to judge. In my opinion, a person named “Jehoshua,” to whom the life story of Jesus of Nazareth is largely based, really existed, although he was stoned and not crucified, and the story of this great master was mixed up with the sun myth described above. You can find more about this in my book: “Jehoshua, the Prophet of Nazareth.”
Note
[1] Hartmann, F. (1908). “Theosophical Correspondence. What is meant by theosophical life? Clairvoyance in medicine; cremation; the historical Jesus.” Hutwohl, R. (trans.), Theosophischer Wegweiser 9, no. 4 (January), 133-136. [Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025]