Plato was right: ideas rule the world, and, as men's minds will receive new ideas, laying aside the old and effete, the world will advance: mighty revolutions will spring from them; creeds and even powers will crumble before their onwards march crushed by the irresistible force. It will be just as impossible to resist their influx, when the time comes, as to stay the progress of the tide. But all this will come gradually on, and before it comes we have a duty set before us; that of sweeping away as much as possible the dross left to us by our pious forefathers. New ideas have to be planted on clean places, for these ideas touch upon the most momentous subjects. It is not physical phenomena but these universal ideas that we study, as to comprehend the former, we have to first understand the latter. They touch man's true position in the universe, in relation to his previous and future births; his origin and ultimate destiny; the relation of the mortal to the immortal; of the temporary to the eternal; of the finite to the infinite; ideas larger, grander more comprehensive, recognizing the universal reign of Immutable Law, unchanging and unchangeable in regard to which there is only an ETERNAL NOW, while to uninitiated mortals time is past or future as related to their finite existence on this material speck of dirt. —From a Master's LetterIn times of crisis, in the outside world or in our inner world, people are apt to become impatient and to exclaim: "This is no time for philosophy; this is the time for action!" But can right action ever be divorced from philosophy, the love of wisdom? Are we to cease being lovers of wisdom because we must act?
As has been so aptly said: "Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed." Those defences must be in the nature of great ideas capable of inspiring men and women to noble action. Yes, it is ideas that are the movers of our minds and it is the quality of their energy that in turn determines human behaviour. We speak of the "influence" of an idea. We say that ideas are "contagious." We know that when the ripening of an idea is due, when its hour strikes, so to speak, that idea will spread with a force that nothing can resist. The power of an idea for weal or for woe is a factor to be reckoned with and modern psychology has come to accept it.
The silent magic inherent in great and universal ideas was recognized since the remotest antiquity. Such grand and noble ideas have a magnetism all their own through which they exercise their own beneficent influence and spread far and wide.
The very polarity of man can be changed through the ideas he holds and lives by, and no idea has greater power for good than that of the existence in every human being of a Divine Ego. This forms the basis of all spiritual philosophy and of all spiritual discipline. It will regenerate and transform the person. It will inspire and heal him.
The Spiritual Leaders of the World are true Psychologists. They know that Plato was right and that ideas do rule the world. They make use of this basic law in their compassionate service of humanity. Cycle after cycle they set in motion true and sublime ideas for the benefit of humanity. These ideas once set in motion move on, influencing the minds of men and women for good, reawakening in their origin, their divine destiny. Again and yet again, do the Great Enlightened Ones strike the keynote of Truth and, reaffirming the Eternal Verities, generate a spiritual current for the elevation of humanity. It is thus that are born all spiritual movements intended to free the human mind from the dominion of ignorance and selfishness, of prejudice and superstitions, and to direct it towards "the kingdom, the power, and the glory" of Brotherhood.
Thus was born in our world on the 17th of November 1875 the Theosophical Movement of our era. Conceived in the realm of the Spirit, in line with all previous efforts to free the human mind, it was launched through the instrumentality of that valiant woman, H. P. Blavatsky, in the city of New York. This month of November marks, therefore, the 127th Birth Anniversary of the present Theosophical Movement. It was launched into the world for the healing of nations and the redemption of Man. The great Truths it set in motion pertaining to the Immortal Spirit are charged with magnetic currents of healing power. They call men and women away from creedal exclusiveness, as from gross materialism, and reveal the blessings of a life of service as opposed to the life for self. Says Madame Blavatsky:
The love of truth is inherently the love of good; and so predominating over every desire of the soul, purifying it and assimilating it to the divine, thus governing every act of the individual, it raises man to a participation and communion with Divinity, and restores to him the likeness of God.The long-exiled Spirit of man must be given its rightful place, and this can be achieved only by asserting man's divine nature. We must endeavour to gain conviction of this mightiest of all truths and then learn to eradicate in ourselves all desires that are selfish and separative, making our minds pure and clean and worthy to be instruments of the Divine. The Future of Man is like unto a God, a creative builder, a wise educator, a compassionate healer. The Theosophical Movement was started to lighten the way to the "new order of ages" and to make easier the travail of its birth. To this task each and every one can bring his own contribution. Our epoch is a great challenge. Let us meet it with understanding and with resourcefulness. Let us ideate on the Eternal Verities, those archetypal ideas which belong to the realm of the Spirit Immortal, and which possess the power to liberate our minds from the bondage of sense and lift them to the region of pure thought, to the vision of truth, goodness, and beauty. Thus purified and regenerated, let us translate our vision into wise and self-sacrificing action.
Let us take courage then and have full confidence that if we remain true to the higher moral and spiritual ideas and values one day we shall witness the full victory of the Spirit. Have not the Sages of old proclaimed: "By unrighteousness man prospers, gains what appears desirable, conquers enemies, but perishes at the root"?
Our reverential salutations to the Blessed Ones whose benediction sent H. P. Blavatsky to our world to restate those Sublime Truths for the benefit of all humanity.
Unity of everything in the universe implies and justifies our belief in the existence of a knowledge at once scientific, philosophical and religious, showing the necessity and actuality of the connection of man and all things in the universe with each other; which knowledge, therefore, becomes essentially RELIGION, and must be called in its integrity and universality by the distinctive name of WISDOM-RELIGION. It is from this WISDOM-RELIGION that all the various individual "Religions" (erroneously so called) have sprung, forming in their turn offshoots and branches, and also all the minor creeds, based upon and always originated through some personal experience in psychology. Every such religion, or religious offshoot, be it considered orthodox or heretical, wise or foolish, started originally as a clear and unadulterated stream from the Mother-Source. The fact that each became in time polluted with purely human speculations and even inventions, due to interested motives, does not prevent any from having been pure in its early beginnings. There are those creeds—we shall not call them religions—which have now been overlaid with the human element out of all recognition; others just showing signs of early decay; not one that escaped the hand of time. But each and all are of divine, because natural and true origin; aye—Mazdeism, Brahmanism, Buddhism as much as Christianity.
—H. P. Blavatsky
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