The Key to Theosophy: Being a Clear Exposition, in the Form of Question and Answer, of the Ethics, Science and Philosophy for the Study of Which the Theosophical Society Has Been FoundedBlavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Religion
The Key to Theosophy: Being a Clear Exposition, in the Form of Question and Answer, of the Ethics, Science and Philosophy for the Study of Which the Theosophical Society Has Been Founded
Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Theosophy
THEO. I am not surprised to hear you say that. Europeans have got so
much into the ingrained habit of considering right and wrong,
good and evil, as matters of an arbitrary code of law laid
down either by men, or imposed upon them by a Personal God. We
Theosophists, however, say that “Good” and “Harmony,” and “Evil”
and “Dis-harmony,” are synonymous. Further we maintain that all
pain and suffering are results of want of Harmony, and that the
one terrible and only cause of the disturbance of Harmony is
selfishness in some form or another. Hence Karma gives back to
every man the _actual consequences_ of his own actions, without
any regard to their moral character; but since he receives his due
for _all_, it is obvious that he will be made to atone for all
sufferings which he has caused, just as he will reap in joy and
gladness the fruits of all the happiness and harmony he had helped
to produce. I can do no better than quote for your benefit certain
passages from books and articles written by our Theosophists—those
who have a correct idea of Karma.
ENQ. I wish you would, as your literature seems to be very sparing on
this subject?
THEO. Because it is _the_ most difficult of all our tenets. Some short
time ago there appeared the following objection from a Christian
pen:—
“Granting that the teaching in regard to Theosophy is correct,
and that ‘man must be his own saviour, must overcome self and
conquer the evil that is in his dual nature, to obtain the
emancipation of his soul,’ what is man to do after he has
been awakened and converted to a certain extent from evil or
wickedness? How is he to get emancipation, or pardon, or the
blotting out of the evil or wickedness he has already done?”
To this Mr. J. H. Connelly replies very pertinently that no one
can hope to “make the theosophical engine run on the theological
track.” As he has it:—
“The possibility of shirking individual responsibility is not
among the concepts of Theosophy. In this faith there is no such
thing as pardoning, or ‘blotting out of evil or wickedness
already done,’ otherwise than by the adequate punishment
therefor of the wrong-doer and the restoration of the harmony
in the universe that had been disturbed by his wrongful act.
The evil has been his own, and while others must suffer its
consequences, atonement can be made by nobody but himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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