Theosophical Correspondence
Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
Escape from the world and renunciation.
Question: — To become a Theosophist, must one leave everything behind, as the Bible commands?
Answer: — The Bible has an external (exoteric) and a hidden (esoteric) meaning. It is a book that deals with spiritual things, and these must be understood in a spiritual sense. This includes an understanding of spiritual (occult) truths, which is not everyone’s cup of tea, and therefore the greatest and most disastrous misunderstandings and abuses have arisen from an external and wrong understanding of the Bible’s verses. Escaping from the world is not renunciation, running away is not victory, and enthusiasm is not edifying. Every power develops from the center to the periphery. Anyone who strives to do his duties in an unselfish manner and to fill the position assigned to him in this life to the best of his ability will attain a higher level of self-knowledge through self-control and will thereby become ripe for a wider sphere of activity. The more a person’s knowledge of eternal truth grows, the more his attraction to the material and sensual fades into the background; the more spiritual life awakens in him, the more he is freed from this attraction and the less he is bound to material things, without having to neglect his external duties; he follows the principle: “Give to Caesar (the secular) what is Caesar’s, and to God (the spiritual) what is God’s.”
Everything that arises from self-love has no value in the divine; but one cannot free oneself from the bonds of self-love in any other way than through the knowledge of God (the knowledge of the higher self). One should not confuse the drive of vanity, the desire for fame, the desire for miracles and the desire to satisfy curiosity with the striving for spiritualization, nor megalomania with true self-confidence. True renunciation does not consist in the sacrifice of external things in an attempt to gain something better for oneself, but in the sacrifice of self-delusion in the light of wisdom. No one can sacrifice his own individuality in his own conceit; the sacrifice takes place when the light of knowledge rising within causes the darkness of ignorance and its offspring, the delusion of “selfhood,” to disappear. It is not the animal man who sacrifices himself to God, but God sacrifices himself in him in order to transform him. (Compare Bhagavad-Gītā, Chapter IV, 24.) Without the light from above, all fidgeting is in vain, and impatience leads to nothing.
Theosophy and occult science.
Question: — To become a theosophist, must one study the occult sciences?
Answer: — A theologian was taken across a lake in a boat. On the way he asked the boatman: “Can you read and write?”
“No!” answered the boatman; whereupon the theologian said:
“Then half your life is lost.”
When they reached the middle of the lake, a storm arose and the boat began to fill with water. Then the boatman said to the theologian: “Can you swim?”
“No!” answered the theologian.
“Then your whole life is lost,” said the boatman.
Similarly, the study of the occult sciences is only useful when it is applied to life in eternity. Theosophy consists in the inner experience of those truths which are theoretically taught in theology and the occult sciences, and without the practical experience of divine things the theories relating to them have no lasting value. The purpose of all human science is to discover, invent, collect and apply that which can be of use to men for the short period during which they walk about on this planet, and which can make this life, which is like that of a mayfly, pleasant to them. How much higher and more valuable is that knowledge which is designed not only to give a scientific basis to morals and religion, and thereby to bring heaven to earth, but also to enable men to avoid the sufferings which await them beyond the grave, in the underworld, and in subsequent incarnations. “Every man is the architect of his own happiness”; but in order to determine one’s own destiny one must know the natural laws which govern it (karma). The study of theosophical teachings is therefore of the highest importance for everyone, provided it is properly applied; but he who believes that the satisfaction of his scientific curiosity about the things that go on in the universe is the ultimate conclusion of wisdom, is mistaken, and he who spends much time pondering over things which are of no use to him for his spiritual growth loses his precious time which he could much better employ in attaining knowledge of the Supreme through love of the Supreme and thereby attaining true enlightenment.
Note
[1] Hartmann, F. (1908). “Theosophical Correspondence. Escape from the world and renunciation. Theosophy and occult science.” Hutwohl, R. (trans.), Theosophischer Wegweiser 9, no. 9 (June), 293-294 [Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025]