Theosophy and Life's Deeper Problems: Being the Four Convention Lectures Delivered in Bombay at the Fortieth Anniversary of the Theosophical Society, December, 1915Besant, Annie
Religion
Theosophy and Life's Deeper Problems: Being the Four Convention Lectures Delivered in Bombay at the Fortieth Anniversary of the Theosophical Society, December, 1915
Besant, Annie
Theosophy
Now, for a moment, put yourselves by imagination in the position of one
of those infant races, hearing the words of the Teacher, and willing
to learn. "If," said the Teacher, "you follow that course of conduct,
misery will result." You may remember the words of the Lord Buḍḍha,
that "as the wheels of a cart follow on the heels of the ox, so misery
follows on the commission of evil. As the wheels of the cart follow the
heels of the ox, so happiness follows on the commission of right." And
why? because, as we shall see to-morrow, right is harmony with law, and
wrong is discord with it. And, as the law cannot be broken, as the law
itself is inviolable, the man who dashes himself against it is like the
ship that dashes against a rock; the rock remains unmoving, but the
ship is shattered into pieces. So is it with the law, the expression of
the Divine Nature.
Now the recognition of law was helped by those declarations of the
Teachers. For when a man, disobedient and careless, committed a wrong
act, he suffered; and then he said: "I was told that I should suffer;
after all, the Teacher was right; I have made myself miserable by
disobeying the law." And the earlier lessons of man ran along these
lines.
Let us see how it worked out. A savage. His passions are his guides.
He knows none other. He wants and takes; he desires and grasps; but
he is living among others who also want and take, who also desire
and grasp, and, there is a conflict between the desires of one man
and another. We will follow one man: He sees his neighbour's wife;
desires her; he takes her; perhaps, kills the husband--he is quite a
savage, remember. He sees in his neighbour's tent food that he wants;
he strikes the man down, and takes away the food. And he thinks: "I
have done well; I am happy; I have gained a beautiful woman; I have
gained food; I am no longer hungry. This is the path of happiness for
me." But he has made enemies. The friends of those whom he may have
struck down in his licentiousness, they are his enemies, and presently
he has to die, perhaps is killed in revenge. But, what we call Death
is only the striking away of the body in which the Spirit eternal is
dwelling, and this ignorant creature, when the body is struck away,
finds himself in the midst of people whom he robbed and murdered during
his life on earth. He is surrounded by enemies; he finds on the other
side antagonism and hatred; and he learns in the other world--the
world we call Preṭaloka or Kāmaloka--he learns there that to do these
things means sorrow, and that pain is the ultimate result of the desire
unjustly satisfied. It makes a little impression upon him. But during
his life, he has not only robbed and murdered: he has loved; perhaps
he has loved the woman he stole; perhaps he has loved the child that
was born of her. Those little seeds of love remain. The Spirit carries
them with him as he passes out of the body, and when he has suffered
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