Universal Brotherhood, Volume XIII, No. 10, January 1899: A Magazine Devoted to the Brotherhood of Humanity, the Theosophical Movement, Philosophy, Science and ArtVarious
Religion
Universal Brotherhood, Volume XIII, No. 10, January 1899: A Magazine Devoted to the Brotherhood of Humanity, the Theosophical Movement, Philosophy, Science and Art
Various
Theosophy -- Periodicals
There is a very much deeper meaning than some people suppose, to what
Paul said to the Romans, "None liveth to himself, and no man dieth to
himself." In inflicting a wound upon himself, the suicide wounds all
there is, and his death shocks every living thing. That is so because of
the oneness, the solidarity, the interdependence of all that is. Hence
it is that the atom is as necessary to the universe as a world. It is a
very old philosophy, but it is a demonstrable cosmological and
psychological fact, for we know that man necessarily lives and moves and
has his being under the same law of growth and maintenance that supports
and sustains every other entity, even from the atom subdivided into a
million parts away to the mightiest god. It is just as incumbent upon
the bowlder that it fulfill its destiny as it is that man should fulfill
his. Hence, it is a violation of the law of being to purposely or
unnecessarily retard the unfoldment of one's self or any other thing.
The wrong done to the thing hindered reflects back upon the doer in
force, in addition to the injury done to that which was wronged.
The divinity which shapes the course of a man's journey through the
worlds of existence is his own thoughts and acts, and, furthermore,
every thought and act exerts an influence for good or for evil
everywhere. It is true, altogether true, that every man is more or less
his brother's keeper, and that no one can escape the consequences of his
acts and thoughts upon his own life, nor of the influence they exert
upon the lives of others. The interdependence of all things and the
universality of being is seen in all things. This is a principle of
existence which to know the full meaning of, one must know one's self.
Existence as a personality and individuality, with power to reason and
understand, is at once the most sublime and most fearful stage of
unfoldment. It is sublime when considered as evidence of individual
possibilities, and fearful when, in the presence of God in
manifestation, the responsibility which the realization of the
universality of being and the interdependence of all things imposed upon
the individual is felt. The law of being makes a relationship to exist
between individuals as a whole which transcends the ties of
consanguinity. You may call it universal brotherhood, if you like, but
any way, the relationship imposes tasks of toil and burdens of duty upon
everyone, and to wilfully make the burden of duty or the task of toil
harder for one's self or for another is to defy the power of the
universe and invite the wrath of the source and maintainer of being.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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