Evolution of Life and Form: Four lectures delivered at the twenty-third anniversary meeting of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras, 1898Besant, Annie
Religion
Evolution of Life and Form: Four lectures delivered at the twenty-third anniversary meeting of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras, 1898
Besant, Annie
Evolution; Life -- Origin; Theosophy
Let me give you a story for each of these to make the action clear. You
see that a man is strong; well and good; but that strength must be
tested to see if there be a flaw anywhere; if there is a rope on which
the life of a man is going to depend, he holding it and descending a
precipice, that rope must be pulled and tested to see if there be any
weak point in it which might break when the man's body is hanging upon
it, so that he would fall. There may be a flaw in the rope, and not
till it has been tested will the man risk his life upon it. How much
less then will the Deva risk the progress of an advanced man on a virtue
not strong enough to bear every strain? He will test it with every
possibility of strain, until it has proved itself strong enough to bear
the weight which it may be called upon to hold up. We will take our
stories from the _Mahâbhârata_, which you all know, or ought to know.
Arjuna was seeking to get divine weapons; he was to be a great leader in
a battle still in the future. We are at the time of the thirteen years'
exile, and you may remember that he spent many of these years in the
search for these weapons. During his search, he sought Maheshvara, who
had promised to give him His own weapon, and he performed many
austerities in order that he might come pure into the presence of God.
One day as he was performing worship, a wild boar came along; at the
same time a hunter appeared, a hunter of a very low caste, a hunter of
the hills. Now you remember that Arjuna was a Kshattriya, and he
accordingly caught up his bow to shoot at the wild boar; the hunter also
raised his bow to shoot at the wild boar. Two arrows went from the two
sides and the boar was struck dead. Arjuna was very angry at the
interference of this low-caste hunter, and cried: "How dare you shoot at
the wild boar which was mine?" and he began to quarrel and to threaten
to slay him. Said the hunter: "If you wish to fight, fight"; at that,
Arjuna showered his arrows on the hunter but they all fell off from him.
The hunter, laughing, said: "Excellent! Excellent! go on! go on!"; and
Arjuna hurled at him weapon after weapon, but everything failed. Arrows
fell off him, everything broke against him--trees, rocks, everything; he
remained untouched and uninjured, until at last He showed Himself as
Mahâdeva, and praised the man who had held his own against the God. Thus
He tried Arjuna's strength; could he be sent to Kurukshetra with
celestial weapons if his strength were too little for the fight? Try him
against the Divine potency, limited in order to be faced and fought;
when his courage is found to be dauntless and his strength sufficient,
then send him to Kurukshetra tried and proved, able to lead his men to
victory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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