To truly do justice to the theme of this article would require something much lengthier and much more detailed. But here our aim is just to give a brief and concise introduction and overview of the Theosophical work and energy of Raghavan N. Iyer (1930-1995) who was an influential figure both within the United Lodge of Theosophists and in the world at large.

Today, his name, work, and writings, are almost entirely unknown within the ULT at large (some ULT Lodges in the USA, particularly the Santa Barbara Lodge which he founded and also the San Diego Lodge, forming notable exceptions to this) as also in the wider Theosophical Movement. This mostly stems from his firm belief and repeated insinuations (direct enough to amount to a “claim”) that he was the new Messenger or representative or Teacher from the Masters of Wisdom, for the 1975-2000 cycle of work and activity, the centennial cycle or “end-of-century effort” that had been foreseen by H. P. Blavatsky and mentioned numerous times by her and William Q. Judge, as also later by Robert Crosbie and B. P. Wadia.

They maintained that it is only in the closing 25 years of a century that the Mahatmas use an agent or agents to give out more of Their teaching and knowledge to the world, to help further humanity’s enlightenment and spiritual evolution. The modern Theosophical Movement was therefore established in the year 1875 and Raghavan Iyer considered himself the centennial successor to HPB and her work and carried out his directly Theosophical work through the agency of the ULT or United Lodge of Theosophists which Robert Crosbie had founded in 1909 in order to rescue HPB’s and her closest colleague William Judge’s work and teachings from the varying degrees of oblivion to which they had been consigned after their death by the various different Theosophical Society organisations.

We will not dwell on this point here, as the details of it form a large part of another article: What Happened In The 1975-2000 Cycle? As we said there: “However, the United Lodge of Theosophists at large – i.e. the vast majority – did not support Raghavan Iyer and did not view or accept him as the 1975 Teacher or Messenger from the Masters, least of all as an Avatar.”

Nowadays, thanks largely to the online and publishing efforts of Theosophy Trust, his vast body of Theosophical writings is becoming more and more known and appreciated around the world. Ultimately it is of secondary importance whether one views him as (a) the Masters’ Messenger for the 1975 Cycle, (b) the 1975 Teacher from the Masters’ Brotherhood who was also the Avatar for the Aquarian Age, (c) the intended Messenger or at least a chela (disciple) of the Masters but who somehow, in some way, went off course (those who hold this view point to certain controversies associated with him in the late 1980s), or (d) just a knowledgeable and talented student of Theosophy . . . these being the main range of opinions held within the ULT about Raghavan Iyer. All anyone can really have on matters such as these is a personal view, opinion, and perspective. That does not mean one cannot hold a view, opinion, or perspective on this subject that is actually correct; what it means is that one cannot definitively prove it to be correct. The one thing that no-one can justifiably consider him to have been is an ordinary student of Theosophy, for a proper, careful, reflective, and genuinely unbiased, unprejudiced study of even five or ten of his main articles will very quickly demonstrate his truly extraordinary depth of insight, understanding, perception, and expression.

B. P. Wadia (who had written in the 1950s regarding the coming 1975 Messenger that “The very ardency of faith of so many of our students may narrow their vision. “Where, oh! where is the Messenger?” some will cry.”) wrote regarding the subject of recognition of the 1975 Teacher and indeed of any spiritual or esoteric teacher:

“You cannot know the status and dignity of a teacher even on the physical plane save and except by the test of knowledge. How will a student of physics or mathematics know a true physicist or mathematician save and except by testing the knowledge that these teachers impart in their own subjects as against our own knowledge? So, through our own spiritual insight alone we are able to see the profundity of the spiritual nature of a real teacher. Apply this to no less a person than H.P.B. How can we know that H.P.B. was a real teacher? If we go by all that her colleagues as well as those who lived with her and worked with her say, we would very much bring her down, not only to the ordinary human level but perhaps to an extraordinary human level where she becomes a mixture of falsehood and truth, of fiction and genuine philosophy, etc. We have to proceed on the basis of the spiritual rule – from the teaching to the teacher.”

“From the teaching to the teacher” is a phrase which Wadia used very often. Raghavan Iyer said in his article “Noetic Discrimination” that “From the Teaching to the Teacher is an ancient axiom, which may be used as an infallible mantram.”

So let us forget about claims, opinions, and questions of esoteric authority for a moment (those for whom they are important can and should of course delve deeper) and take a brief but informative glimpse at the teaching, message, and work of Raghavan Iyer.

WORK WITHIN AND BEYOND THE MODERN THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT

Raghavan Iyer worked within the United Lodge of Theosophists as well as in the world at large. His early life, his connection with B. P. Wadia, and his active involvement with the ULT from the age of 10 years old, beginning in his native India and then also as a young man with the London, England Lodge of the ULT, have been discussed in the article linked to earlier.

To quote from the biographical introduction at the beginning of “The Gupta Vidya” (a three volume series of books containing 149 of Iyer’s articles, compiled and prepared by him for publication in the year of his death, 1995, but which did not get published until 2020):

“After accepting a professorship at the University of California (Santa Barbara) in 1965, he taught classes and seminars in political philosophy until his retirement at the age of fifty-six. . . . His lectures . . . unfailingly inspired students to cultivate an abiding confidence in themselves as learners and to become viable contributors to the emerging City of Man. His formal lectures and innumerable informal gatherings affected generations of students who later contributed to diverse fields of work, worship, and humanitarian service. . . . Shri Raghavan Iyer was a devoted consultant and lecturer to various world organizations committed to some form of universal human betterment. . . . In later years he became a contributing member of the Task Force appointed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to develop “The Global 2000 Report for the President” – a call for Promethean initiatives to meet the most compelling needs of an emerging global civilization. [Note: Iyer’s contribution to this was published as a book titled “Novus Ordo Seclorum,” which is the well known phrase “A New Order of Ages”] . . . His most well-known and prominent books are The Moral and Political Thought of Mahatma Gandhi (1973) and Parapolitics – Toward The City of Man . . . . Later, in 1983, he edited an extraordinary collection of spiritually inspiring readings entitled The Jewel in the Lotus – aptly characterized by Professor K. Swaminathan, a noted compiler of Gandhi’s collected writings, as “a Universal Bible.” . . .  [After establishing the Santa Barbara centre of the United Lodge of Theosophists] Shri Raghavan and [his wife] Nandini founded several ancillary institutions that further served the global aims of the worldwide Theosophical Movement. One such ancillary institution is the Institute of World Culture in Santa Barbara . . . There is a wholesome blending of spiritual, intellectual, ethical, and cultural themes for focused thought and extensive discussion. The Institute . . . has, in its own way, contributed to a deeper appreciation of the often unsuspected power of classical and renaissance cultures to provide illuminating perspectives on a host of contemporary national and global issues. . . . His sympathies were always compassionately inclusive and his repeated emphasis – from first to last – was to “draw the larger circle” through universality of thought, the richness of imagination, the therapeutics of speech, and the magic of selfless action.”

The philosophy, teachings, and work or approach of Gandhi were viewed extremely highly by Iyer, as they had also been by the one he would sometimes call his “spiritual teacher” and “mentor,” B. P. Wadia. This, plus Gandhi’s own connection to HPB and Theosophy, can be read about in Gandhi on Blavatsky and Theosophy. Iyer was considered one of the world’s leading experts on Gandhian thought and Gandhian philosophy. Despite part of his work being in the realm of political philosophy, he did not mix political matters with the ULT and its directly Theosophical work; they were separate areas of his work. But his suggestions and ideas about “Parapolitics” were heavily influenced by Theosophical principles and ancient philosophers.

The Institute of World Culture was not a unique idea of his, however, but was partly modelled on and inspired by the Indian Institute of World Culture that B. P. Wadia had helped to establish in connection with the Bangalore ULT and which for some years also had a branch inside the London ULT in England. In the 1950s, Wadia had appointed Iyer as director of the Indian Institute. The Institute of World Culture in Santa Barbara is still active today, as can be seen from its website here and YouTube channel here.

The Pythagorean Sangha and the Maitreya Academy were names of two further groups which Raghavan Iyer established in Santa Barbara, though it appears these were mostly private groups and largely of an invitation-only character and thus open mainly (or even solely) to his most serious and committed students and co-workers. The Pythagorean Sangha and Maitreya Academy have not existed since the late 1980s.

Amongst other books and publications, he also published in 1989 a special centenary edition of “The Voice of The Silence” (H. P. Blavatsky’s translation from the publicly unknown Book of the Golden Precepts, a secret esoteric Buddhist treatise) for which the Dalai Lama wrote a foreword. Iyer and the Dalai Lama had known each other since the early 1960s and now his son Pico Iyer, who is a very well known and popular travel writer, novelist, and public speaker, enjoys a friendship with the Dalai Lama and has interviewed him on several occasions (some are on YouTube) and written books about him and his work. Not many are aware that the Dalai Lama also wrote a foreword to the book “The Brotherhood of Religions” by Sophia Wadia (B. P. Wadia’s wife), as also did Mahatma Gandhi.

There was also his 1985 publication of his translation of the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most accurate literal translations that has been made. The feature that most made it unique was the inclusion of a relevant accompanying quotation from the world’s spiritual and philosophical literature for each of the Gita’s 700 verses. This edition of the Bhagavad Gita also contains the Sanskrit transliteration of each verse, plus verse numbering, which, although traditionally and usually done, is absent from the William Judge rendition commonly in use within the ULT. The Dhammapada and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali were other important sacred scriptures translated by him in textually accurate editions, that precise textual accuracy having been lacking in the other renditions of these texts available in ULT literature.

Among the vast array of publications and projects which Raghavan Iyer either produced, inspired, or oversaw, was a series of 18 thick pamphlets known as “The Secret Doctrine Series.” Each is around 50 to 80 pages long and consists of extracts and sections from “The Secret Doctrine” by H. P. Blavatsky on the following themes and with these titles: The Gupta Vidya; The Book of Dzyan; Glyphs and Symbols; Gods, Monads & Atoms; The Great Sacrifice; Globes, Rounds & Races; Space; Duration; Motion; The Logos; Cosmic Hierarchies; Cyclic Evolution; Meta-Geometry; Meta-Astronomy; Meta-Biology; Meta-Psychology; Meta-Chemistry; Meta-Geology. These pamphlets made “The Secret Doctrine” accessible to those who were unfamiliar with it or felt daunted by its size and also inspired many to begin studying the book in its entirety for themselves.

“The Secret Doctrine” is in fact the main source that Iyer’s many articles are based on and regularly quote from. Many of them may be slightly hard to follow or fully appreciate for those who have not yet studied “The Secret Doctrine” and gained some grasp and understanding of the above themes.

As an introduction, one can read his comparatively short article titled “The Gupta Vidya” (originally titled “Spiritual Evolution”) which beautifully weaves together twelve of the key teachings of Theosophy, paraphrasing often from “The Secret Doctrine,” into an inspiring and uplifting introduction to the Gupta Vidya, i.e. the Esoteric Philosophy, or “The Life-Giving Stream,” an article about “The Secret Doctrine,” the Stanzas of Dzyan, their central and practical importance, and how to approach them in one’s daily life. His writings often show a depth of understanding and a depth of meaning which is only encountered in the writings of a rare few since the time of HPB and WQJ.

If Iyer had said or even indicated that the Theosophical teachings provided to us by HPB and WQJ have an “expiration date” of 1975 stamped on them, that would be a cause for concern but he did not. Those teachings have not ceased to be valid, relevant, worthwhile, or applicable, but on the contrary have many depths and contemporary practical applications still unexplored.

“The Secret Doctrine” in particular is a book that would take more than one lifetime, probably even more than two or three, to fully study, absorb, assimilate, and comprehend to the highest degree possible. The Master K.H. said it would be “a source of information and instruction for the earnest student for long years to come.” Similarly, “The Secret Doctrine” – the “triple production” of the Masters K.H. and M. with the one They called “Our Direct Agent” HPB – declares right at the start that “it will take centuries before much more is given” from the SECRET DOCTRINE itself. Centuries, plural, before much more at all is divulged. In light of this, it is not surprising to find that Iyer did not claim to be giving a massive outpouring of new and previously unknown teachings. At the same time, however, he did use the phrase “the secret doctrines of the 1975 cycle.”

The books and pamphlets mentioned above have unfortunately not been reprinted since 1989 and some are now completely unavailable from any source. Many are still available, however, from Concord Grove Press, affiliated with the Santa Barbara ULT, which published them.

Theosophy Trust, which was started some years after Iyer’s death by a few of his students, has the majority of his articles (most of which were originally published in “Hermes” magazine) in print, in the slightly edited and revised form in which Iyer himself prepared them in 1995 for publication as a book titled “The Gupta Vidya” in three volumes: (1) “God, Nature and Man” (2) “The Golden Thread” (3) “The Pilgrimage of Humanity.” “Gupta Vidya” is a Sanskrit term often used in Theosophy as a synonym for Theosophy or the Esoteric Doctrine itself; it literally means “Secret Knowledge” or “Secret Science.” As he passed away before “The Gupta Vidya” could be published, it did not become available until 2020, upon the 25th anniversary of his passing. Various compilations of some of these – and also some other – articles by Iyer have also been published by Theosophy Trust in recent years, under such titles as “Meditation and Self-Study,” “The Dawning of Wisdom,” “Consciousness and Civilization in The Aquarian Age,” “Wisdom in Action,” “The Mysteries of Karma,” and “Self Actualization and Spiritual Self-Regeneration,” and some are now published in Spanish translations.

As for “Hermes,” he was founder and editor-in-chief of this monthly magazine or journal, from 1975 to 1989, when it ceased publication and was replaced by “Vidya” magazine, which is still published on a quarterly basis today. Not all “Hermes” articles were by Iyer himself; many Theosophical students and ULT associates contributed and some of these series of articles have also been published in book form by Theosophy Trust, under such titles as “Teachers of The Eternal Doctrine,” “Theosophical Astrology,” and “Symbols of The Eternal Doctrine.”

Raghavan Iyer did not attach his name to the many articles he published in “Hermes”; they almost all appeared anonymously and unsigned, as has been the “ULT way” since its inception. A few of them were published under the pen name Punarvasu and a few under the pseudonym of K. S. Lakshminarayan. As his own actual name follows all his articles on the Theosophy Trust website, one might get the impression that they were also signed like that when first published by him. The inside front cover of “Hermes” did always identify him by name as the editor, however, which has not been done in any other ULT magazine. His name did appear on books he had written, edited, and translated and was also to appear on the posthumously published three volumes of “The Gupta Vidya.”

If there be any doubt as to Iyer’s appreciation for, and sympathy with, what some might call the “traditional” ULT approach, one can find and read his words in a June article of his (written for the annual ULT Day anniversary) titled “The Lodge and The Sangha” in which he corresponds the ULT approach to the Buddhist approach of “taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.”

Another aspect of his work was the pioneering of communal housing and communal living for those who were committed to the Santa Barbara ULT and who wished to be involved in the communal experiment. It is referred to, for example, in his 1981 New Year message (“Buddhi Yoga in Dharmakshetra”) which says in part: “The more immediate goals are (1) the permanent establishment of the Mystery-Fires in the West as in the East, and (2) the parapolitical pioneering of a minor Golden Age for all humanity at this point of time in Kali Yuga. The breath of all Work for the Movement – in the Lodge, the Institute, in Hermes and the communal households – must be for humanity and the civilization of the future.”

It was an initial attempt or beginning of what he had in mind when referring to “the Aquarian communities and secular monastic ashrams of the future” which, in time, may lead and contribute towards a collective condition in which “individuals will become more humane, and more worthy of the Aquarian design of Civitas Humanum, the City of Man.” (from the article “Aquarian Spirituality”) Although sometimes described as communes, these communal households were nothing like the stereotypical, stark, unpleasant communes that most people think of when hearing that word. It is sometimes argued that Iyer himself should have lived in the communal houses, seeing as he was promoting it. In later years, he did in fact do so.

A “FRESH AND VIVIFYING” THEOSOPHICAL INFLUENCE

The period of the 1975-2000 cycle had the very important significance, according to Raghavan Iyer, of being the seventh, the culmination, the synthetic climax, of Tsong-Kha-Pa’s Seven Century Plan. HPB had said that it was the great Tibetan Buddhist reformer Tsong-Kha-Pa (1357-1419) who initiated and, in a sense, decreed the specific series of centennial or end-of-century efforts by the Masters. Rather than them being an endless, ever-ongoing thing, he apparently set things up so that there would be a carefully orchestrated series of seven such impulsions, thus spanning seven centuries, and corresponding to the seven Principles or components of the human constitution. This is elaborated on in greater detail in What Happened In The 1975-2000 Cycle? where it is shown that B. P. Wadia was in fact the first Theosophist to make and publish such a notion, starting in the 1940s. So this concept did not originate with Iyer, though he did greatly emphasise it.

In his November 1975 article, exactly 100 years since the modern Theosophical Movement was founded, Raghavan Iyer’s article “The Seventh Impulsion” in “Hermes” magazine stated – in the third person, as was his custom when speaking and writing about such matters – among many other things:

“The Guru [i.e. the Teacher for the 1975 Cycle] . . . His work involves the sutratmic [Note: “Sutratma” means “thread soul” and is defined by HPB as that on which the pearls or jewels harvested from all past soul-experiences are entwined together and united in one whole.] synthesis of the Seven Century Plan. His duty is to nothing less than the whole of humanity, . . . His teaching will be pure theosophia and his expression of it will be as fresh and vivifying as are those of every Guru when first delivered.”

To use a phrase from that passage, Raghavan Iyer did truly bring and spread a “fresh and vivifying” Theosophical influence in many respects. Anyone who has made a thorough, impartial, and open-minded study of his writings will agree that he deepened the expression, broadened the scope, and more greatly universalised the “flavour” of Theosophy in a very 20th/21st century way which any ULT Lodge and individual Theosophist could admirably derive inspiration from.

Emerson, Thoreau, Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, William Blake, “A.E.” (George William Russell), Kahlil Gibran, Shakespeare, Sufi poems, Sikh verses, Native American teachings, the Gnostic Gospels, Tibetan Buddhist texts including Tsong-Kha-Pa’s “Lam Rim Chen Mo” and Shantideva’s “The Way of The Bodhisattva,” the Yoga Vasishtha, Druidic invocations to the Sun . . . all these and much more receive place in Iyer’s work and writings and are all shown to embody and be part and parcel of the THEOSOPHIA itself, the Universal Divine Wisdom, of which the specifically characteristic Theosophical teachings of H. P. Blavatsky are the most important and most complete portion in modern times but nevertheless only a portion and not the whole, as she herself repeatedly stated. Such activities on Iyer’s part helped to bring Theosophy more “up to date,” seeing as the majority of those just mentioned were unmentioned by HPB due to chronological factors, i.e. many were either not yet translated, discovered, known of, or born, during her era.

To see and reverence the Divine Wisdom wherever it may be found, including in the sunrise, sunset, the stars of the night sky, in the rhythmic cycles of solstices and equinoxes, and to recognise precious traces of the Gupta Vidya or Secret Doctrine from every corner of the world; this is an important part of Raghavan Iyer’s message and approach.

A wide range of words – not only or predominantly from Eastern philosophies but also from many of the Western esoteric traditions, “alchemy” and “therapeutics” being favourite terms of his – are used in Iyer’s writings and expressions, as part of an effort to more broadly “universalise” the student and his or her mind and outlook.

As HPB spoke of the Secret Doctrine or Esoteric Philosophy or Theosophy itself as the synthesis of three things, or as having three facets: Religion, Philosophy, and Science, Iyer started and popularised a fresh definition of Theosophy as:

* The Philosophy of Perfectibility (sometimes rendered as The Philosophy of Perfection)

* The Religion of Responsibility and

* The Science of Spirituality.

He also associated the Philosophy of Perfectibility with Krishna, the Religion of Responsibility with Buddha, and the Science of Spirituality with Adi Shankaracharya.

The Great Lodge of Masters he often called “The Brotherhood of Bodhisattvas.”

His speech, his writing, his use of words and phrases, was very mantramic in nature and effect. The article “Mantrams” from William Q. Judge’s “Conversations on Occultism” series may have inspired him in this. This relates to there being a greater degree of emphasis on the Logos or Verbum or Vach in his writings than is found in the original Theosophical literature. HPB once wrote, “When the term Logos, Verbum, Vach, the mystic divine voice of every nation and philosophy comes to be better understood, then only will come the first glimmering of the Dawn of one Universal Religion.”  (“Theosophical Articles and Notes” p. 89)

It was also part of his message that in the closing decades of the 20th century and beyond, people want and will want meditation, i.e. to know how to safely and effectively meditate but also to know why. It is the duty of the Theosophical Movement to lead the way in this, he said.

Raghavan Iyer never really taught anything that contradicts or disagrees with the Theosophical teachings as given by HPB and WQJ – unless one considers his Avatar teaching, partially described here, to be so; some consider it in contradiction as well as implausible but there are others who do not – and he also did not actually give out directly any overt or unmistakable “new” teachings or doctrines.

The emphasis there is on “overt or unmistakable.” There are indeed a number of “new” teachings to be found in his writings but they are not very numerous or major and attention is not drawn to them, i.e. he nowhere says anything to the effect of “What I am about to tell you is a newly revealed teaching.” They indeed appear to be simply “extensions of known present day truths” (i.e. the truths of HPB’s and WQJ’s teachings already known to Theosophists), to use B. P. Wadia’s words when speaking about the coming 1975 Messenger. There are also quite a lot of subtle hints and clues which shed light on things or statements in HPB’s writings, but these can be easily missed or overlooked if one is not paying attention or does not have close familiarity with HPB’s teachings. 

Aside from mentions of the Seven Century Plan and the Seventh Impulsion (both of which we mentioned B. P. Wadia gave assent to), that which most clearly and unmistakably stands out as new in Raghavan Iyer’s writings is predominantly the information regarding the Aquarian Age, the New Age of Aquarius, not only its start date (19th June 1902, according to Iyer) but also various details, descriptions, and preparatory guidance about it (and which is almost entirely unmentioned and unprovided in the rest of our Theosophical literature) – for a condensed version of this, alongside HPB’s statements on the subject, please see our article Theosophy On The New Age of Aquarius – plus there is some emphasis on the phrase and significance of “Brahma Vach” (a Sanskrit term occasionally used by HPB and which can be translated as “Divine Word,” “Divine Sound,” “Divine Logoic Speech”) and the name, work, and significance of Hermes and what is signified esoterically by that mystical name, as well as a lot of attention given to the concepts of “noetic” and “psychic” as distinguished from and relating to one another. HPB’s article “Psychic and Noetic Action” he considered one of her most important for the present era. He also popularised ten significant statements from HPB’s “Gems from The East” as the “Aquarian Axioms.”

Several other areas of emphasis or frequently repeated themes in his writings relate to (1) the importance of developing a permanent, unbroken continuity of consciousness and steps one can take in this life to begin to develop it, (2) the importance of correct, harmonious, and compassionate breathing; not just physical breathing but “mental breathing” and “spiritual breathing” too; this also relates to what he frequently called “mental posture,” (3) Buddhi Yoga – see the quotes in the section “On Buddhi Yoga” later on in this article, (4) the spiritual will, (5) the great sacredness and proper use of both speech and silence, and the relation these have to the Logos, (6) the necessity and importance of self-study, self-examination, and self-understanding, for purposes of self-mastery. None of these themes just listed are entirely “new” as such to Theosophists but the way they are spoken about and described often is. Some might at first imagine that the subject of mystical “breathing” has no link with the original Theosophical teachings but in fact “The Voice of The Silence” instructs: “Thou hast to live and breathe in all, as all that thou perceivest breathes in thee.”

ON BRAHMA VACH: “. . . the great Rishi, masquerading as H. P. Blavatsky, set forth before the world the ancient Stanzas of Dzyan. During the nineteenth century, the Sixth Century Impulsion in the septenary series initiated by Tsong-Kha-Pa, the term ‘Brahma Vidya‘ was often used as an equivalent to Theosophia. Whilst Brahma Vidya refers to the sacred science, spiritual knowledge has not, over a hundred years, been put to intensive use by very many individuals. . . . In the 1975 Cycle . . . human beings . . . are being forced to ask themselves what it means to be a human being and how one uses sound and speech. . . . Nothing can be done about the right use of speech on the plane of appearances without getting to the root of the problem on the plane of thought. There must be a restoration of the Mysteries and an elimination of the worldly worship of secondary and tertiary emanations through religious systems and mindless rituals. New rules must be created for speech, and new criteria must be created for silence, so that meditation can become more widespread and constructive. It must be brought home that Dzyan means self-reform through meditation, and that maturity is nothing more than mastery over the power of speech. For these reasons, Brahma Vidya in the 1975 Cycle has been supplanted by the term ‘Brahma Vach‘, as a synonym for Theosophia. The aim is to get to the root of that which is beyond even the pre-cosmic sidereal gods. Whether it is called the Logos or Vach or Brahma Vach, it is the primordial latent sound and light in Parabrahm.” (“Aquarian Harmony”)

ON HERMES: “The full awakening of Buddhi Manas is technically impossible without coming into conscious relation with the hierarchy of the informing Intelligences connected with Mercury-Budha-Hermes. These Rishis, Mahatmas, Dhyanis and Chohans, mirroring the Divine Mind on the plane of Aditi-Akasha, fulfil a necessary hierophantic role in relation to spiritual humanity. This was shown, for example, in the life of the emperor Julian, who prayed to the Occult Sun every night through the intercession of Mercury.” (“The Logos and Man”)

“The vibration of the Logos associated with Hermes-Mercury-Budha which rejoices in the void anticipates, encompasses and transcends all historical parameters. This vibration represents the reverberation of Brahma Vach, unaffected and unmodified by the great vicissitudes of the historical process and the cycles of manifestation. It is archetypally and magnificently summed up in the figure of Sage Bhusunda in Valmiki’s Yoga Vasishtha. . . . Surveying vast worlds, epochs, civilizations and historical eras, Bhusunda stood apart, rooted in dharana and dhyana. He represents the eternal spectator, unaffected and unmodified by the vicissitudes of the process of history. It is this supreme detachment rooted in meditation that may be called the Hermes current.” (“Dhyana Marga”)

“The extraordinarily evocative power of the name and presence of Hermes is especially relevant to the 1975 Cycle and to the civilization of the future. Hermes is a generic name, associated with potent thought, and linked to Mercury-Buddha – a Dhyani – as well as with multiple incarnations in the history of humanity. As the god Hermes-Thot, he is the pristine archetype of Initiators in ancient Egypt, where he was reverenced as Hermes Trismegistus, a name applying to an entire lineage of Initiators. This solar line of spiritual Teachers can be traced back to Shiva as Dakshinamurti, the Initiator of Initiates. The hoary tradition which holds that Hermes taught all sciences to the nascent Mediterranean civilization suggests that he instructed those ready for divine theurgy. The arcane sciences transferred by Hermes from latent to active potency collectively constitute divine gnosis, a precise and comprehensive knowledge of the complex laws governing the seven kingdoms of nature. . . .

“Hermes is the paradigm of the oldest sacred tradition, going back a million years ago to India (Bharata Dwipa). There, among the Initiates, the basis was laid in all the Mystery Schools for the Manasic development of the seminal civilizations of the Fifth Race. When the most creative minds of the Aquarian Age gain a sufficient knowledge of Sanskrit, they will come to see that all latter-day sciences are but pale and poor fragments compared with the systematic ontology and epistemology of Brahma Vidya, Theosophia or Dzyan.

“. . . To understand the work of Hermes at a more fundamental level in relation to civilization, one must begin to generate a conception of the cosmic hierarchies in Nature and in Man which unites the spiritual with the physical, and both of these with the moral and the political. This fundamental recognition of the relationship of the celestial and the terrestrial must be forged through a living link in the psychological realm. That link is Man. Only through the rediscovery within human nature of all orders of being from the gods to the elementals can there be a recovery of the continuity of the Great Chain of Being from the highest to the lowest. All hierarchies – from the Dhyanis through the danavas and daityas, to the devas or gods, the devatas and elementals – are represented within the individual human being. . . .

“This universal Aquarian diffusion of the true ideal of spiritual science and lifelong learning will enable human beings to awaken a vibrant sense of universal justice, universal compassion and universal concord. It will enable people to learn anew how to think, how to speak and how to contribute fearlessly yet appropriately to the collective fund of human wisdom: how to evoke benevolent spirits. If one employs harsh words, or even gentle words in a harsh manner, one will attract negative elementals. These, over time, accumulate, blocking the capacity to question or to formulate truths. But, by purifying words, speech and the aura around words and by cleansing one’s motivation, one’s tone of voice and one’s movements, one can reorient oneself and so draw finer elementals into one’s sphere. Through this elevation of the orbit of one’s consciousness, one may become more benevolent and more magnanimous, while at the same time learning to use potent knowledge with more deliberation, courage and compassion.

“The regeneration of global civilization through such a tapping of the inward spiritual resources of humanity is the enigmatic Hermetic and Avataric function exemplified by Hermes-Thot. It is the sacred function central to every Mystery School in recorded and unrecorded history. It goes back directly to Dakshinamurti, the Initiator of Initiates, and it has never been absent from the earth. It has been self-evidently crucial when the beginnings of civilizations were laid in different parts of the world. To make it now a vital part of a universal outlook in the dawning Aquarian Age, where there is more freedom from competitiveness and more openness to universal truths, could lead to a new kind of soul-etiquette. Founded upon the principle of drawing the larger circle, there could be the elaboration of a new code of relationship between human beings which would be more hospitable to the profoundly paradigmatic teachings of the Upanishad, “Sit down near me and let me whisper in your ear.” This is the ancient Platonic-Upanishadic method, born with the human race, perpetually nourishing it, and recognized by the noblest precursors of the Aquarian Age.” (“Aquarian Civilization”)

AN INTERESTING ACCOUNT FROM A ULT ASSOCIATE WHO KNEW RAGHAVAN IYER

This is quoted from an email we received from a visitor to this website, who preferred to remain anonymous:

“I knew Raghavan from the time I was a junior at UCSB [i.e. University of California, Santa Barbara] in the fall of 1979 where I sometimes would hear him lecture three times per week. Once in an auditorium of 300 captivated [Political Science] undergraduates, once answering questions like an adept at a Sunday night meeting at Crosbie Hall [i.e. the venue of the Santa Barbara Lodge of the United Lodge of Theosophists], and once at the Wednesday night study class giving the most thorough and lucid explanations on the Secret Doctrine that I have ever heard. In each case, the talks given were extraordinary, captivating and intellectually brilliant besides being deeply spiritual and transformative. Though touching on the widest possible range of topics, each was like a deep dive into the heart of humanity, immersing through his words and presence in the noetic elixirs of spiritual knowledge and compassionate insight.

“I have also known him through all the intervening years until his death in 1995. In addition, I was near him on a daily basis for the last three years of his life while he was doing the final editing on The Gupta Vidya. I am not claiming I was a disciple, only a helper who happened to be there and who stuck around because I saw the Movement which RNI [Raghavan Narasimhan Iyer] represented as a path of service to suffering humanity.”

“Like HPB and other great teachers, everyone who was even briefly near RNI were put through psychological tests and trials. This is part of the function of the Guru as “adjuster.” All the defects of conception, hidden motives and impurities of character rose to the surface. If initial internal struggles were successfully passed, you could be sure others would follow, again and again. As Jesus is reported to have said: “He who is close to me is close to fire.””

The above is typical of what has been shared by numerous ULT associates over the years (naturally there were also numerous who did not consider their experience in such a positive or elevated light) and is not an isolated perception of things.

A few decades ago, supporters of Raghavan Iyer were far more numerous than they are now and not only Santa Barbara but almost every ULT Lodge around the world had at least a few such supporters among its associates. Today, however, due largely to the internet and publishing efforts, that number is slowly starting to grow again.

THE FINAL YEARS

In mentioning Raghavan Iyer once to a fellow ULT associate, the associate (who hadn’t heard of him before) immediately responded, “If he implied he was the new Messenger, he was obviously a fake!” But this is very odd reasoning or logic. Some associates seem to have made an idol or a god out of ULT principles of impersonality and anonymity – even though the ULT’s founder, Robert Crosbie warned against that – to the extent that they believe that even the new Messenger from the Masters – whoever that might be, whether Iyer or anyone else – should never even imply that they are the new Messenger and should instead stay in the shadows and never draw any attention to themselves and never even hint at who or what they are.

But clearly the principles that apply in general must have exceptions and especially when regarding a Messenger from the Masters. HPB clearly did not abide by any of the ULT principles of anonymity and of avoiding making any claims or direct statements about oneself or one’s occult status. We agree entirely that those principles are the best and safest in almost every case as regards Theosophists at large but to expect that if there was to be a true successor of HPB that they would not at the very least clearly indicate their role and mission, shows a lack of thought and reflection on the subject. This may be one of the reasons why B. P. Wadia wrote that “so many” of even the staunchest and best ULT associates may fail to recognise the 1975 Messenger because “the very ardency of their faith may blind them.”

Yet it would be misleading to imply that opposition arising from the above was the only factor in why Raghavan Iyer’s public Theosophical work came to an end in 1989, six years before his death.

Another factor was because of various things that came to a head in that year. Those Theosophists who have learnt to “think cyclically” will notice that 1989 marked the ending of the second 7 year cycle since the auspicious year 1975. Seven year cycles are always important in the work of the Theosophical Movement, as also in human life and everything else in Nature. The ending of one 7 year cycle and beginning of another is always an important time, especially for those who are very involved with the esoteric or occult side of life. Interestingly, the period of public and prominent Theosophical teaching from both HPB and Iyer was 14 years: from 1877-1891 in HPB’s case and from 1975-1989 in Iyer’s case.

Not having been in California in 1989, we do not feel qualified to say what was true and untrue in the news articles and other reports, public and private, that circulated regarding Iyer, his ways of conducting or leading the activities of the Lodge and its associated endeavours, and his attempts to advance certain plans towards the ULT at large which some, whether rightly or wrongly, deemed would have been damaging and disruptive, or even destructive, if they had succeeded (although Iyer’s intentions were unquestionably constructive, from his perspective).

Some people were already so biased against Iyer that they automatically believed and accepted everything the newspapers said, never thinking to question any of it, since it fit in nicely with their own mental narrative about him. Perhaps HPB’s important words in the “What is Practical Theosophy?” section in “The Key to Theosophy” (p. 250-251) regarding never automatically believing negative reports about someone unless one has definite proof for oneself that the details of it are indeed so, was forgotten.

What we do know – and it would be unfair to them to simply deny or dismiss it – is that a large number of actively committed associates at the Santa Barbara Lodge, who had initially wholly supported Iyer, were becoming increasingly unhappy and concerned due to a wide array of reasons. On the other hand, other Santa Barbara associates were becoming increasingly unhappy about what they considered mistreatment of Iyer in the form of slander and persecution. From their perspective, it was decades of prejudice, bias, and misunderstanding against him that was coming to a head. As can be seen, however one interprets it, it all became something of a messy situation and it would probably not be edifying to go into it further.

To cut a long story short, 1989 was to be Raghavan Iyer’s last year of major public work in all spheres, including the United Lodge of Theosophists. The “Hermes” journal ceased publication in September 1989 and was then replaced by “Vidya” magazine, edited by Nandini Iyer (1931-2021), Raghavan’s wife. “Vidya” avoided any republication of any of Raghavan’s articles and other writings and his name was only ever mentioned in it once or twice over its first 30 years or so. This was partly because in late 1989 Raghavan Iyer ceased all involvement with the work of the Santa Barbara ULT and the ULT in general, although he did not cease private involvement with those ULT associates who wished to maintain contact with him.

It did not mark a complete end to his work for Theosophy and humanity, however, as he decided to prepare the three volumes of his book “The Gupta Vidya” – which he would consider his major and lasting contribution and legacy for Theosophical students and spiritual aspirants of the future – for publication.

In his opening acknowledgements at the start of “The Gupta Vidya,” dated March 10, 1995 (his 65th birthday) he acknowledged that there may be “errors and deficiencies in this work” (hardly a claim to infallibility and perfection which some have accused him of pretending to possess) and said that he owed “whatever is of value in these volumes” to H. P. Blavatsky, William Q. Judge, Robert Crosbie, B. P. Wadia, Bhavani Shankar, and Damodar K. Mavalankar, among others. He also wrote: “This three-volume work on the Gupta Vidya is gratefully dedicated to The Venerable Lohan (“The Great Sacrifice”), The Maha Chohan (Arghyanath, the “Lord of Libations”), Agatsya Muni [Note: this is normally spelt Agastya] (“the Regent of Aryavarta”), Mahatma M. (Rishi Vishvamitra) and Mahatma K.H. (“Pitaguru”). They called it forth and for Them it was recorded.”

As we mentioned earlier, “The Gupta Vidya” did not actually get published until 2020. We ought also to mention that in 1991 he compiled and edited “The Essential Writings of Mahatma Gandhi” for Oxford University Press; this has been reprinted several times since then.

On 20th June 1995, Raghavan Iyer passed away. Being so well known in the world at large for his educational, literary, and intellectual-philosophical activities, his death brought obituary articles in several leading newspapers in different countries, the UK included, although very few even mentioned his Theosophical work. Raghavan Iyer, Henry Geiger, and B. P. Wadia were probably the most famous and publicly well known of all who have been actively involved with the work of the United Lodge of Theosophists.

In his 2012 book “The Man Within My Head: Graham Greene, My Father and Me,” Raghavan Iyer’s son Pico – who is not a Theosophist, at least not in name – writes that despite knowing his father’s family background and origins, “I realized that I had no sense at all of where my father came from. He was a mystery I could never solve.” (p. 61)

An online meeting of the San Diego ULT from 2022 in which Iyer’s article “Aquarian Therapy” is presented and discussed can be viewed on YouTube here and a 2013 talk from another ULT Lodge based around his writings on the Aquarian Age – but which avoids referring to him by name (some ULT groups prefer him to be quoted anonymously, or just as “Hermes magazine,” if quoted at all) – is on YouTube here. These are quite rare exceptions for ULT meetings, although within the past year or so a new online ULT study group has started, consisting of students from a number of different ULT Lodges, focused on the study and discussion of Iyer’s writings, primarily from his book “The Gupta Vidya.” Those meetings are advertised on a website here.

SOME EXCERPTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF RAGHAVAN IYER

“Any person can joyously rediscover his or her membership in the commonwealth of humanity by incarnating the best that can be gleaned from the great religions, cultures and literatures, diverse schools of thought and differing modes of creativity. Anyone can devise his own blend of flavours from the world’s heritage, and can make anything one’s own through frequent use. Every person can become an active beneficiary of the precious jewels of mystical texts and traditions, a distiller of the evocative meanings of enduring myths, and a grateful partaker of the sumptuous banquet of human sapience. Anyone may draw freely upon soul-wisdom, especially by striving to enrich the quality of one’s ideation for the sake of becoming a pristine ray of light focussed upon the Spiritual Sun, upon enlightened beings and the ethical welfare of the entire human race. This is the well-tested benediction of the Philosophia Perennis.” (Foreword to “The Jewel in The Lotus”)

“Where the attention or the eye of the Adept falls there is a tremendous intensification of noetic life-currents. There is an intimate relation between the Fohatic energies of ideation and attention focussed in the Eye of Shiva and the Kriyashaktic power of quickening spiritual and material life. In their self-training all disciples must progressively learn to master the power of attention preparatory to any real initiation. First, one has to learn to withhold attention, and one has to do it many times over until it becomes a totally natural process. Lowering one’s eyes when going out into the world, holding one’s tongue when in company, restraining one’s hands from grasping at objects, the disciple learns by withdrawing and withholding attention how it is possible to choose a great idea out of the voidness and how to choose by acceptance what comes under karma in the world.” (“Spiritual Will”)

“A simple but crucial Pythagorean exercise is not to go to sleep and not to wake up without deliberately giving oneself a chance to dissociate from the namarupa (name and form) – “I am not the body and the brain, I am not the subtle vestures, I am not my likes and dislikes, I am not this name.” By coming closer to the constant recognition that one is essentially THAT which is beginningless and endless (OM TAT SAT(, one can begin to centre consciousness in the spiritual heart. Most of what is called living is off-centre, and therefore a rather drowsy state of alienation from the inmost depths of being. If one honestly practised this daily exercise before going to sleep and on waking, and then tried to link these two points through a third point during each day, one would soon establish a temporal triad through which the mind is firmly brought back to the central theme of true selfhood. By making such noetic connections between points in consciousness, it is certainly possible to initiate a current in which one can stay continuously. This can eventually generate a golden “line of life’s meditation” upon the AUM, the Soundless Sound, the Agathon, the Ineffable Good, and Sarvodaya, Universal Welfare.” (Foreword to “The Jewel in The Lotus”)

“All the senses must be controlled and directed by self-conscious Manas. It is only through concentrated thought enriched by deep meditation, in silence and secrecy in the quiet hours of the day, that one may gather into oneself the spiritual forces of the cycle, and form a coherent inner body of meditation. By preparing for sleep and by coming out of it with a strong current of ideation, one can quicken the spiritual will and release the faculties, skills and knowledge of the soul which would otherwise be locked up. Not every age, and hence not every incarnation, is equally filled with opportunities for inward development; thus, access to spiritual teachings at those moments when the opportunities are great is a privilege indeed.” (“Involution”)

“Spiritual will is generated by and works through seminal ideas. The more one allows the mind to soak in the sublimely abstract, until this is more real than anything else, the more one is able in a Promethean way to direct the flow of consciousness through concentrated thought. Such meditative purification strengthens the spiritual will and provides continuous inspiration in the daily performance of duty. When one becomes familiar with its cleansing effects, one will look forward to every encounter with the spiritual, and even in brief spells of leisure one’s mind will naturally turn to sacred themes. Those who freely benefit from this mental discipline are truly fortunate in their simplicity of stance. Without taking anything for granted, they cherish the profound privilege of contemplating and reaffirming the fundamental principles of spiritual life. They are thereby protected against the errors of futile speculation, and against complex attempts to reconcile the irreconcilable by adapting the spiritual sciences to material conceptions. By honouring the basic rules and sharpening discernment through practice, they stay within the forward current and gain true self-respect. They recognize that the mere thought of falling away from it, through foisting blame upon the external world, rapidly destroys the sacred foundation of discipleship. Men and women, in general, may not be able all at once to live purely by the power of thought and ideation. But if even a small number of people make an honest effort to do so, lending beauty and significance to their days in the knowledge that others are doing the same, a strong magnetic field may be generated whereby weaker brethren would be held up, whilst those who build strength would not be brought down by the weakest links in the chain. Everyone could be pulled up together; there would be a proper balancing because different people experience the different cycles of moods at different times. If their minds and hearts are focussed upon the collective effort, if they feel part of and have inserted themselves into a larger whole reflecting the will and the wisdom of Shambala, the mighty Brotherhood of Bodhisattvas, then they will move in dulcet harmony with the Demiurgic Mind of the cosmos. They will taste the rapture of self-conscious participation in the Divine Motion of noumenal reality, the awesome Dance of Shiva as well as the playful sport of Krishna and the gopis.” (“The Descent of Manas”)

“Knowledge only becomes wisdom through meditation acting as the basis of realization. The more one meditates, the more one’s knowledge becomes real. The more it becomes real, the more it acts upon one’s life-atoms and the spiritual will, transforming the sense-organs and the body, altering and elevating one’s whole life. It becomes the current of a living power made free in a human being, and is highly potent. The Secret Doctrine is for those who devoutly seek to become Men of Meditation. As a preparation, it is helpful to gain even a little spiritual knowledge, by Buddhic intuition, of the universal, hidden, archetypal, regenerating current of spiritual life-energy referred to as the living stream of wisdom. If one can get into the current, it is bound to make a change that will work slowly but infallibly. The proper use of The Secret Doctrine and The Voice of the Silence could be like unto the study of the Vedas or of the Gospels according to John or Thomas. Even if taken in small doses but on a regular basis, the way Nature does all things, much benefit can accrue. This is really the problem: Can people learn to grow as they have seen trees grow? A little bit done regularly is of inestimably more value than doing a lot one day and nothing for weeks.” (“The Life-Giving Stream”)

“The Spiritual Will alone is constantly able to alchemize, renovate and refine the life-atoms of the vestures, increasing their lightness and porosity to Divine Light. When the vestures are suffused by that Light, it becomes possible to think, feel, act, breathe, smell, taste, touch, see and hear benevolently. One is enabled to employ Divine Wisdom as a science governing every relationship to the atoms that one touches and blesses. . . .

“One must replace lunar emanations by solar energies. The sun does not wax and wane, but ceaselessly emanates light, life and energy so that in and around every human being there is a magnetic field of self-sustaining motions of the Spiritual Will, the Spiritual Heart and the Spiritual Mind. All that waxes and wanes, participating feebly in the vicissitudes of change, is secondary and instrumental. It is ephemeral and relatively unreal when seen from the noetic standpoint of the Spiritual Sun, mirrored in Atma-Buddhi-Manas.

“Atma-Buddhi is the invisible sun in man, the Atman being like the invisible disc itself, and Buddhi is its centrifugal light. Manas is the centripetal organ for focussing that light, the seat of pure thought and spiritual will. What is below is like the moon which receives reflected light from the sun. Manas would be rather like Venus, the fixed star in highest heaven, Lucifer-Hesperus. This has nothing to do with the personal mind, which is extremely fickle and volatile, ever-changing and in a constant state of self-obscuration. The ordinary mind has developed into a perverse instrument because it is fiercely gripped within the cruel claws and greedy tentacles of the demon of selfish desire. Kama manas is like a motor-power driving the personal man to a pseudo-life sustained by futile fears of death and the obscure past.” (“Self-Emancipation – Buddhi Yoga”)

“True spiritual will, the conscious direction of energy by intelligent ideation and self-conscious volition, is the supreme criterion and sovereign talisman of Aquarian humanity. Opposed to this vision are the irrational and involuntary forces of blind desire, the persistent and obscuring veil cast over human perception and action through lives of thoughtless involvement with the grosser fields of material nature.

“. . . there exists today an increasing number of Aquarian pioneers, like the scattered droplets presaging the monsoon, who have begun in earnest the difficult task of gradually centering themselves in the Verbum – Brahma Vach.

“By removing what is excessive and by refining a sense of what is essential, they are learning to radiate benevolence and intelligence. They are learning the constructive use and dissemination of thought, feeling and will-energy. They have become self-consciously engaged in the transformation of the energy-field of the entire earth, that grand project which is the task of the Aquarian Age. The forces of harmony will be progressively strengthened, whilst disharmony will become nothing but a dialectical opportunity for growth. As the Aquarian Age unfolds, there will be a continuous increase in human awareness, a deepening of privacy. Each human being will become more of a solitary person of silence and meditation. In mature Aquarian culture, what is said and done will be meaningful and thoughtful, deliberate and discerning, but rendered with ease, sweetness and even beauty.” (“Aquarian Harmony”)

~ * ~

On Buddhi Yoga

NOTE: The Sanskrit term “buddhiyoga” or Buddhi Yoga appears three times in Krishna’s teachings to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, namely in 2:49, 10:10, and 18:57. It literally means “Wisdom Yoga” or “The Yoga of Wisdom,” union with the Divine through the cultivation and practice of spiritual wisdom. Translators of the Gita sometimes also render it as “The Yoga of Discrimination,” in the sense of “The Yoga of Discriminative Intelligence,” i.e. spiritual intelligence that is able to discriminate or discern between what is true and false, real and unreal, etc. In William Q. Judge’s rendition of the Bhagavad Gita, “buddhiyoga” is translated as “mental devotion.” As will be seen, Iyer links it with what he frequently calls “mental posture.”

Krishna does not specifically elaborate by name on Buddhi Yoga but from its context it seems to be more or less synonymous with what he presents as Jnana Yoga, the Yoga of Spiritual Knowledge, also called the Yoga of Wisdom. It is linked by Iyer with another term used in the Gita, Jnana Yajna, “Wisdom Sacrifice.” But whereas Hinduism often views Jnana Yoga as separate and distinct from, and an alternative to, the other main Yogas of the Bhagavad Gita – Karma Yoga (the Yoga of Action and Duty) and Bhakti Yoga (the Yoga of Devotion) – the Gita itself does not make such a distinction but blends them all together, merging these essential qualities and faculties of human nature into a grand, integrated, and practical synthesis. As can be seen below, this is also characteristic of the Buddhi Yoga presented and recommended by Raghavan Iyer. It is not intended to replace or supplant the Raja Yoga of Theosophy which is most characterised by the cultivation of concentration, conscious living, and meditation, but is simply part and parcel of it. Buddhi Yoga is particularly concerned with the uniting together of our Manas and Buddhi principles, i.e. the mind with the light of wisdom which is its source and illumination. Although H. P. Blavatsky and William Judge never referred by name to Buddhi Yoga, it is unquestionably found in their message, and was sometimes spoken of by name by influential figures connected with the United Lodge of Theosophists in India, such as B. P. Wadia, Sophia Wadia, and Bhavani Shankar. For more, see the article Buddhi Yoga – The Yoga of Wisdom.

“Only Buddhi Yoga, the meditative withdrawal of the mind from the illusion of time and the delusion of uniqueness, and its spontaneous blending with pure consciousness will unveil the immense sanctity and awesome seriousness of our Work as well as the inestimable privilege of participation in the birth of a new world – Novus Ordo Seclorum.” (“Buddhi Yoga in Dharmakshetra”)

“Having given Arjuna preliminary instruction in Buddhi Yoga in chapter two of the Gita, Krishna conveys in chapter four the correct mental posture of the disciple. He depicts that divine bhakti which is the prerequisite for jnana and also the true spirit of Karma Yoga, because they all fuse into a sacred current of consciousness. . . . In this depiction of the perfect posture of the chela, Krishna stresses the humility of the wise and the silence of the strong, virtues of the Sage whose portrait was given in the second chapter of the Gita. Having conveyed this ideal posture, Krishna proceeds in the seventh chapter to present Buddhi as an element in cosmic manifestation. Here he goes beyond the teachings of the Sankhya School, which holds that Buddhi is a kind of radiant matter or substance present throughout all Nature. Krishna affirms Buddhi as wisdom itself and inseparable from himself, something that no human being can develop except by the grace of the Lord. . . . no human being can develop Buddhi Yoga on the basis of individualistic conceptions of progress. One cannot simply say to oneself that because one has seen through one’s illusions, one is now going to become an apprentice in Buddhi Yoga. To say that is to misapprehend the nature of the quest. All forms of yoga require, at some level, what M. K. Gandhi called anashakti, egolessness; this is supremely true in Buddhi Yoga. . . .

“. . . one must recognize that there are those who have gone beyond the initial stages of Buddhi Yoga. They have become constant in the power of Jnana Yoga, men and women of ceaseless meditation and contemplation. They are the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of ceaseless contemplation, constantly ideating and thereby sustaining the possibility of human aspiration. They are able to do this through their conscious choice of mental solitude and their freedom from attraction and repulsion. Above all, they exemplify perfection of mental devotion. They have become supremely steadfast, like the immovable Himalayas. They are rock-like in their strength of tapas, bhakti and dhyana. Krishna repeatedly gives encouragement to all beginners making their first tentative steps on the path by urging them to discern in themselves something in common with the highest beings who have ever existed. He offers to Arjuna a living portrait, in potent words, of the true Sage. . . .

“. . . without giving any room to fantasy and expectation, one must understand how, through this acceptance of immediate svadharma [i.e. “self-duty,” one’s own duty or Dharma in life], one may strengthen the power of mental devotion or Buddhi Yoga. Growth in the power of sacrifice or Jnana Yajna is always possible in every circumstance. But that growth requires a turning away from the region of separative consciousness towards the realm of the united hosts of perfected performers of yoga who reside within the universal form of Krishna. To begin to apprehend this is to begin to prepare for the opening of the Wisdom-Eye, a process that is beatified by the realization of the universal vision given to Arjuna by Krishna in the eleventh chapter of the Gita.  . . .

“To become a true votary of Buddhi Yoga through the performance of svadharma is to become ready to serve the divine will of the Atman, the workings of the Logos and the Avatar behind all the turbulent sifting and chaos of the historical process. The Buddhi Yogin recognizes the intimations of the divine dialectic [Note: The philosophical term and practice of “dialectic” means the reasoned investigation, examination, and enquiry into the truth of ideas and metaphysical concepts.] in maturing human beings, mellowing minds and hearts, broadening and expanding their quintessential humanity. Cooperating with the Light of the Logos within, they are able to rediscover the germ of purity of consciousness and thereby enter the family of the wise, the fraternity who know all of this and exemplify it ceaselessly. The true hallmark of these Rishis and Mahatmas is the power of devotion and adoration. They are constant in adoration of Krishna, His lila, His wisdom, the joy of His dance, the beauty of His unconditionality. They understand from within themselves the way in which Krishna may be seen in Arjuna, in Arjuna’s aspiration to reach up to Krishna, and also in Krishna’s enjoyment of the seeming separation of himself from himself in Arjuna. This is the mysterious art of the universal diffusion of the one Light, the problem of the One and the many, and the participation of the many in the One. Through Buddhi Yoga, bhakti and svadharma there can be a self-conscious return to the One, but only on behalf of the many. This is the sacred Teaching of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, given to sustain humanity throughout Kali Yuga.” (“Buddhi Yoga and Svadharma”)

“To grow up is to grasp that one cannot merely oscillate between extremes. Human thought too often involves the violence of false negation – leaping from one kind of situation to the exact opposite rather than seeing life as a fertile field for indefinite growth. This philosophical perspective requires us to think fundamentally in terms of the necessary relation between the knower and the known. Differences in the modalities of the knowable are no more and no less important than divergences in the perceptions and standpoints of knowers. The universe may be seen for what it is – a constellation of self-conscious beings and also a vast array of elemental centres of energy – devas and devatas all of which participate in a ceaseless cosmic dance that makes possible the sacrificial process of life for each and every single human being. If one learns that there are degrees within degrees of reflected light, then one sees the compelling need to gain the faculty of divine discrimination (viveka). That is the secret heart of the sacred teaching of the Bhagavad Gita.

“The Gita is a jewelled essay in Buddhi Yoga. Yoga derives from the root yog, “to unite”, and centres upon the conscious union of the individual self and the universal Self.” (“Anamnesis”)

“Krishna’s sovereign remedy of buddhi yoga, the yoga of divine discernment, points to the crucial connection between viveka, discrimination, and vairagya, detachment, between self-chosen duty and voluntary sacrifice, dharma and yajna, individual self-conquest and the welfare of the world, lokasangraha. Even a little of this practice, as taught in the Gita and as realized by Gandhi, is invaluable: “In this path of yoga no effort is ever lost, and no harm is ever done. Even a little of this discipline delivers one from great danger.” [Bhagavad Gita 2:40].” (“The Gandhian Bridge Between Heaven and Earth”)

“Students of Theosophy are helped to do this and are thus prepared for true meditation by study of The Secret Doctrine. This study is literally what it says, a study of the Secret Doctrine, not merely of a book. The Secret Doctrine is in nature and it is in every one of us. Concerning the book The Secret Doctrine, unlike almost any other book of the modern age, one could assume that every word has been chosen with great care. It is also wise to assume that there are a lot of blinds and also a lot of aids. It is meant to speak authentically to the widest possible audience, but in that code language where each one determines what he can receive. . . .

“It uses many conceptual languages and speaks in terms of many myths. No one finds all of these immediately meaningful. There is also a catechism and a hidden mathematical logic to the book, but grasping them involves the reflection of Buddhi, or intuition, in Manas, the focus of ideation.

“What this means for us, first of all, is not to read the book except when in a state of calm; secondly, not to read the book with any anxiety. . . . We can become familiar and friendly with the book and put ourselves in the position of the writer in trying to see why there is a certain framework. We can read the contents of both volumes and try to see not the details of the framework, but the method which is in the contents. It is the Hermetic method of coming from above below, the method of analogy and correspondence, of the same and the other. It is not taught in the modern age in schools, in universities, or in our society. It includes what we call deductive reasoning and has a place for experience, but excludes induction. It really goes beyond all such divisions. It is what used to be called in the East the archetypal dialectic, Buddhi Yoga, and was also taught by Pythagoras and Plato.

“The Secret Doctrine, then, involves planes of consciousness, degrees of knowledge, stairways of reality, a series of superimpositions of pictures – like pictures created with certain photographic techniques where different forms and shapes assumed by the same object are simultaneously represented. One might say of the book, and this is a paradox, that, like everything cosmic, the more we study it, the more we learn how to study it. The more we read it, but with love, the more that is worthwhile will emerge. Particularly to be enjoyed are those statements in the book which are combinations of sounds that are mathematically precise. One day there will be men who will pronounce the Stanzas and perform magic. But that will be a very different kind of humanity. Today there are men who can enter into the deeper realm of the book, even though they don’t know where they are in terms of ordinary conceptions of growth and progress. In other words, The Secret Doctrine is a book to take up again and again. We should read it up to that point where the mind is calm and not exhausted. Put it away, and preferably sleep, after one has read it. Let things happen.” (“The Hermetic Method”)

“Anyone who has contemplated the rings of an ancient pine or mighty oak, and seen how the steady growth of Nature follows her own seasons without reference to the vagaries of human emotion, can begin to appreciate how the smallest of the small, the aniyamsam aniyasam, becomes the One and the many, ekanekarupa. There is an immediate connection between the Atman in and beyond all, and the most minute of the myriads of invisible atoms within every single living form. The highest sees through the eyes of the lowest. Hence the Kriyasaktic power of creative imagination lies waiting to be aroused in every Manasic being, but this requires the uttermost refinement of faith, will and desire through Buddhi Yoga.” (“The Fires of Creation”)

“Every atom of Monadic life is imbued with an inherent will to self-manifestation, and each is subject to delusion through identification with the illusory forms of the diffused potency of self-ideation. The human Monad, having arrived at the stage of incipient consciousness of its identity with the Logos, is in effect a psychic embryo still trapped in the matrix of astral matter, but capable of a new birth into noetic awareness through the arousal of its Buddhic capacity of intuitive apprehension.

“The inward stirrings of higher life within human consciousness presage a golden future for the race as a whole, but under the strictures of universal law this prospect will not be realized by its units until they gain some comprehension of Buddhi Yoga, the science of spirituality. The essential factors of this arcane science are hidden within the Mysteries of Divine Wisdom, but they may be sought through fidelity to the inner voice of conscience and the guiding light of intuition. Above all, one must learn the elements of the mathematics of the soul, the art of impersonal computation of karmic causes rooted in relaxed detachment towards personal likes and dislikes on the astral-physical plane.

“Philosophical concepts like ‘universal unity’, ‘human solidarity’ and ‘global interdependence’ cannot be grasped through the inverted imagery of the astral light and the imitative ratiocinative responses of kama manas. Their hidden meanings must be progressively apprehended by elevating the horizon of one’s awareness and the centre of cognition above the limits and inversions of the fourth plane of Spirit-Matter. This is learnt by recognizing that one must replace phenomenal fantasy and concrete images with noumenal awareness and creative imagination through the activation of Buddhi-Manas.” (“The Fire of Purgation”)

“At all times the spiritual vanguard at the forefront of human evolution points towards the noetic possibilities of human life and architectonic perfection in spiritual consciousness. Every creative advance in monadic evolution depends upon the critical range and potent fullness of self-consciousness. Through its depth of perception in reference to the world, it impels a natural movement towards the Heavenly Man, the Divine Prototype, the Daimon of the immortal Self in every human being. By withdrawal from the selfish clutches of the grosser vestures and the demoniac tendencies, the human Monad reascends through Buddhi Yoga to the state of transcendental union with its parent Self, the universal Ishwara, the Logos in the cosmos and the God in man.” (“Self-Emancipation – Buddhi Yoga”)

“As there is no ultimate ontological distinction between divine and human nature, every sincere effort to comprehend the function of the triple Logoi within and beyond the cosmos involves a self-conscious awakening of the afflatus of the higher Triad in man. This primary fact of spiritual life stands behind the teaching of The Voice of the Silence that “Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become that Path itself.” In order to commence this journey properly, it is initially necessary to connect the luminous conception of the three Logoi with an elevated and expanded view of the creative activity of human intelligence. As that intelligence is progressively refined through the patient practice of Buddhi Yoga, one can become an alchemical apprentice aiding the divine evolution of ideas, the Fohatic nerve-current of cosmic and human evolution. Jnanasakti, Kriyasakti and Itchasakti constitute the triune force of spiritual ideation, volition and energy.” (“The Logos and Man”)

“All over the globe, the paramount problem is one of renewing and maintaining the minimal standards of being truly human. Only those souls who already have a profound grasp of sunyata and karuna, the voidness of all and the fullness of compassion, will undergo the lifelong training of discipleship and awaken the Bodhichitta, the seed of the Bodhisattva. There is thus the immense gain that the mixing of incompatible vibrations may be mitigated in this century. At the widest level, universal good – Agathon – is the keynote of the epoch. The religion of humanity is the central emphasis of the 1975 cycle. Those who are self-elected by their own meditations, by their generous natures, and by their cooperative acts, who are willing to become true disciples of the Mahatmas, will readily undergo the rigorous discipline and share the rich resources of the divine dialectic [Note: See definition of “dialectic” above], Buddhi Yoga, mirroring the divine wisdom of Brahma Vach or Theosophia. They will ceaselessly attempt to draw the larger circle. There is no reason why breadth should be at the expense of depth. A new balancing between a much broader diffusion of the fundamental truths of “the golden links” and a much deeper penetration into the visible is now possible and will come to a full flowering by the end of the century. In the climactic rush of the closing years, there will be an unprecedented outpouring of creative energies and spiritual resources, as well as the closing of many doors, plunging into obscurity many protracted illusions of the past. The religion of humanity is the religion of the future, fusing the philosophy of perfectibility, the science of spirituality and the ethics of growth in global responsibility.” (“Drawing The Larger Circle”)

“People therefore naturally find, as all the Mahatmas have, that the sovereign mode of Buddhi Yoga is total surrender of the will, called ishvarapranidana by Patanjali – total surrender and total devotion. That alone is what brings one closer to understanding the mysterious eleventh chapter of the Bhagavad Gita – Vishvarupa Darshana Yoga, The Yoga of the Vision of the Cosmic Form – which precedes the twelfth chapter on Bhakti Yoga, The Yoga of Devotion, and follows the magnificent ninth and tenth chapters – The Yoga of the Sovereign Science and the Sovereign Secret and the Yoga of Divine Excellences.” (“Nirvana and Samsara”)

“Lord Krishna strings the sacred teachings of the Bhagavad Gita on the golden thread of mental posture, the relation between the spiritual seeker and the Divine Wisdom embodied as the Light of the Logos in lustrous beings. Mental posture refers primarily to an attitude of mind, and constitutes the sacred trust between chela and Guru. Those who wish to become sincere and true servants of all mankind with its immense suffering, and of the Great Masters of Wisdom with their inexhaustible light, must prepare themselves by a process of purgation whereby they negate the false conceptions of themselves derived from the world into which they are born, from their heredity, upbringing, environment and education. This is done by a method of intense self-questioning. Platonic thought is essentially a dialogue with oneself. When people really begin to ask questions of themselves, and also attempt to apply the principles involved in formulating questions in a multiplicity of contexts, then they gradually begin to glimpse the dynamic, albeit mysterious, relation between manifest and unmanifest.

“We could compare wisdom to light – the ineffable light of the Invisible Sun. Is this light obscured in a solar eclipse? Actually, it is then even more accessible to men of meditation. Is this light inaccessible during an eclipse of the moon? Not to men of meditation. But, alas, most human beings are not men of meditation. They have never really thought seriously, hungered sufficiently, wanted with enough intensity of one-pointed devotion, the great Teaching in relation to the immortality of the soul. Divine Wisdom can come alive through the Manas–Taijasi, the thinking principle irradiated by the Buddhic fire of the divine dialectic. Before Buddhi can become one with Manas, before Truth and Love can be brought together in a mystic marriage, there is a preliminary betrothal. The thinking principle sunders its false allegiance to the shadowy self or the astral body, and then draws towards the hidden light of the sun, the light of Buddhi which is fully lit in a Buddha.” (“Mental Posture”)

“As one’s meditation upon the sacred symbols of the Gupta Vidya deepens, one will begin to discern, amidst the cacophony of worldly events, fruitful opportunities for effective service to others. What is wisdom in Shamballa is seldom seen as wisdom on earth, and though the potent seeds of the New Cycle are burgeoning in the soil everywhere, this will not be evident to those who are entrapped in anxious self-concern. With the good earth groaning under the burden of personal greed, what may seem like oppressive karma to the personality is, in fact, from the standpoint of the soul, beneficent karma. The acute sense of alienation from life caused by this gap in consciousness can be overcome only by turning the mind around and redirecting it away from the constricting circle of the separative personality towards the luminous sphere of the immortal soul. It is essential to reach in consciousness to the core of the idea of renunciation, and this is impossible without eliminating every trace of greed from one’s nature. Even the minutest residue of greed is incompatible with the pristine spirit of gratitude exemplified by the galaxy of Bodhisattvas. One must learn to test oneself daily, to scrutinize the quality of one’s desires and dreams.” (“Deliverance from Bondage”)

~ * ~

“While we may know about the long and complex history of the doctrine of reincarnation, the crisis of our time is such that the response of thinking men and women is and should be, “How does it help me? What difference could it make to my life?” . . . What we need is metanoia [i.e. a Greek philosophical term meaning a complete change of mind, life, and approach], a fundamental breakthrough in consciousness. Otherwise the notion of immortality avails us naught. Many Theosophists of every sort hold to reincarnation as a dogma rather than as a basis for meditation. It cannot help unless a man can really come to see that it is a fact in nature – a law of life in a universe of cyclic processes – and can live by that law increasingly. . . . Anyone who can existentially restore the alchemical and healing qualities of sound, speech and silence, to some limited extent, in the smallest contexts – in relations with little children, with all he encounters even in the most trivial situations – does a great deal for the Bodhisattvas. Those Illuminated Men, by their very power of thought and ceaseless ideation, continually benefit humanity by quickening any spark of authentic aspiration in every human soul into the fire which could help others to see. The truth of reincarnation requires much more than a casual scrutiny of our external lives and our spoken language. It must be pondered upon in the very silence of our souls. It is a theme for daily meditation. In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that true wisdom is a meditation upon birth, death, decay, sickness, and error. To meditate upon each of these and all of these together is to begin to know more about the cosmic and the human significance of the truth of reincarnation.” (“Reincarnation and Silence”)

“Karma is Deity in action – the eternal, divine pulsation and breathing of the Absolute. It is the Unknowable at its Rootless Root, but it is partly cognizable as a law of eternal causation and ethical retribution, mirroring and maintaining the universal unity and total interdependence of all gods, monads and atoms. On the three formless arupa planes, and on the four planes of conditioned consciousness and modified ever-changing matter, it reflects absolute harmony, justice and compassion. These are ceaselessly mirrored in the workings and manifestations of karmic sub-totals, embodied in the vestures, the ideational causation of all beings, the networks of interrelations between the seven kingdoms and all the beings therein. Karma is the progressive driving force behind cosmic and human evolution and involution, and, as such, it is inexorable, impersonal, universal, irresistible, omnipresent and omnipotent. Self-conscious monads can cooperate with this Law, but they cannot cancel or supersede it.” (“Deity in Action”)

“The Wheel of the Good Law revolves for all at all times. If individuals are not aware of everything that is emanating out of them and creating effects throughout the whole of nature, this is because they are indulging in their own vibrations in a self-protective or egotistic manner. Whether positive or negative, one’s feelings nonetheless affect the overall vibratory field of life in which all living beings live, move and have their being. Unlike mechanical means of recording, which make a frozen image of the motion that produced them, the karmic preservation of vibrations preserves the actual motion itself. Because karma works regardless of whether one knows about it or not, everything produces irreversible consequences that return upon oneself quite independently of whether one remembers producing the causes or not. Since one is ceaselessly interacting with everything else and constantly sending out and receiving back karmic vibrations, human life on the objective plane is perilous. Depending upon one’s past thoughts, feelings and actions, the universe can be a hazardous place. . . . Measures of self-protection, locking oneself behind doors, are only hopeless and delusive stunts. Because of the integrity of karma and the universal memory, there is no place to hide from the consequences of one’s actions.” (“Resonance and Vibration”)

“The practical implication lies in the inexorable fact that whatever karma any human being generates between the age of twenty-one and thirty-five must be properly adjusted between the age of thirty-five and forty-nine. These twenty-eight critical years out of a human being’s average of seventy are more intense than the period before twenty-one, despite the extenuating theories of those who want to blame heredity or environment or childhood. The middle period is crucial because the power of thought is activated in a manner that has a vital bearing upon the twenty-one years that complete the average span. There is a cyclical rhythm in every human life which is related to the mystery of numbers and the mathematics of collective cycles. To be able to work with these laws and cycles is what has always been valued as wisdom throughout the history of the human race. Wisdom always works with the processes of life and its continuities through generations that are understood by all peoples. Anything that is not based upon this organic pattern is unnatural and a sign of ignorance, of cutting oneself off from what it is to be human, from the whole of life, from the laws of nature and from the historical currents that move towards righteousness, enlightenment and growth.” (“The Verbum”)

“To minimize the dangers to the soul and to maximize the continuity of spiritual self-consciousness between the commencement and close of incarnation, one must learn to look back and forwards over the entire span of a lifetime, breaking it up into successive septenary cycles and their sub-phases. All cycles participate in birth, in adolescence, in slow and painful maturation, in the shedding of illusions, and in a sort of death or disintegration leading to new beginnings. . . .

“The period of fourteen days beginning with the winter solstice and culminating on the fourth of January, which is sacred to Hermes-Budha, may be used as a period of tapas for the sake of generating calm and sacrificial resolves. The precious time between January and March may be spent in quiet inward gestation of the seeds of the coming year. Care needs to be taken if one is to avoid excess and idle excitement at the time of the vernal equinox and deceptive dreams about the carefree, indolent summer. From March until June there is an inevitable and necessary descent into manifestation, but if the summer solstice is to find one prepared for the season of flourishing, one must not give way to the extravagances of anticipation and memory. If one observes this solstice with one’s resolves intact, then one is in a good position to maintain inward continuity, free from wastefulness and fatigue, until the onset of autumn. Then arriving at the autumnal equinox, not having accumulated a series of debts and liabilities owing to lost opportunities and forgotten resolves, one will be able to maintain the critical detachment needed to participate in the season of withdrawal and regeneration, culminating in the return of the winter solstice.

“By setting oneself realistic goals and working with the rhythms of nature, it is possible over a period of seven years to nurture within oneself the seedlings of the virtues – “the nurslings of immortality” – needed to become a true servant of the Servants of Humanity. . . . Spiritual rebirth initially means being born again with new eyes and with the ability to see each successive year and cycle as truly new. This noetic perspective can be gained only by linking each year or cycle with its predecessors, not in detail but in essence. And infallibly, if one is able to live consciously and self-consciously throughout the cycles and seasons of life, one will be able to use the thread of continuity at the moment of death.” (“The Rebirth of Humanity”)

“Ultimately, all the potentiality of the zero, of shunyata or the void, is present throughout the plenum. The void is the plenum. All of Nature stands as an open invitation to every group of human beings to take conscious advantage of the Fohatic potential that exists everywhere throughout the body of Nature, but which is most powerful in the realm of ideation, the realm of Mahat, universal mind or Aether-Akasha. This is an invaluable lesson for any group of pilgrim souls to learn if they would constitute themselves true helpers of the servants of humanity in the coming decades and in the dawn of the Aquarian Age. In all relationships – in one’s household, at work and in the greater society – one may participate in the unfoldment of the ascending cycle that will stretch right into the next century.

“To ally oneself truly with other human beings on behalf of the cause of humanity is to touch upon a much greater richness in human nature than can ever be experienced otherwise. . . . One will begin to see the profound importance of the plane of mentality – the plane of intellection – which is broader in its scope than any other plane. One will also begin to grasp the grandeur and magnitude of the vast inheritance of all human beings over eighteen million years. . . . By stepping outside the realm of petty calculation, one becomes a creative participant in the universal wisdom-sacrifice, the jnana yajna, of the cosmos.

“Each breath is a sign of involvement in the Great Sacrifice. Each thought is itself a part of that sacrifice. How, then, can human beings impose some narrow view, whether egotistic or bilateral, upon the boundless stream of universal sacrifice? Instead of ensnaring oneself in the unnecessary tensions of a pseudo-sense of justice, which is merely a noisy mass of humbug that will leave, at death, an ugly rupa, one should reduce oneself to a zero. No amount of self-inflation and fearful grasping, no adherence to concretized images of oneself and one’s possessions – physical, mental or even spiritual – can contribute one iota to one’s well being as a soul. It is not prudence but folly that leads human beings to store up treasures in the realm of manifestation. From instant to instant the entire cosmos passes through a neutral point, a metaphysical zero point, and instantly and effortlessly it is regenerated in all its vastness. If the universe itself continually depends upon the mystery of All and Nothing within the Zero, there can be no greater wisdom for human beings than to cooperate self-consciously with the zero principle. Living from day to day and moment to moment in calm assurance of the ontologically boundless plenty of the Great Sacrifice, the neophyte can learn to rest upon the bosom of the infinite waters of Truth.” (“The Zero Principle”)

“If one is tough enough to attempt a decisive change in the tonality and tangible quality of one’s way of living, one must appreciate the wisdom of considering the arcane and accredited Teachings about elementals. In them one will find the seeds needed for planting fresh resolves in clean soil. Fundamentally, one must learn to see the universal and undivided diffusion of life in all of cosmic Nature, invisible and visible. This means understanding that there is nothing more powerful on earth than the paramatman, the Highest Self, and its perpetual buddhic radiance, the Holy Ghost, the light of daiviprakriti, the voice of Brahma Vach. The Father-Atman, the Mother-Buddhi, and the Son-Manas in man, as in the cosmos, are omnipotent. No demon, no illness, no malicious entity, no paranoid ism or ideology, can touch the man or woman who truly lives in the atman.” (“The Healing of Elementals”)

“Spiritual growth depends upon the daily, hourly and constant practice of walking towards the sun. No matter how heavy and footsore the pilgrim through self-imposed karmic burdens from the past, it is always possible to take gentle steps towards the light, to thrill at the thought that others are doing the same, and to learn from them and love them as companions on the Path.” (“The Fires of Creation”)

“High seriousness immediately arouses and attracts the higher classes of elementals. When one is serious and concentrated – what Emerson termed “man thinking” – and in earnest, one attracts refined grades of elementals. When one is vacillating, loquacious, weak-willed or contradictory, the worst elementals are inexorably drawn to one. Put simply, one must clean out one’s house and temple. Turn to the God within and lock the doors to the demons without. Open your eyes to the stars, your ears to the music of the divine spheres, and your heart to the pulse-beat of humanity. Then, very quietly, walk alone in a new direction.” (“The Healing of Elementals”)

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WHAT HAPPENED IN THE 1975-2000 CYCLE?

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