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The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett - 1923
By A. T. Barker
Letter No XI
Received by A.O.H., June 30th, 1882.
Simple prudence misgives me at the thought of entering upon my new role of an " instructor." If M. satisfied you but little I am afraid of giving you still less satisfaction since besides being restrained in my exclamations, —for there are a thousand things I will have to leave unrevealed—by my vow of silence I have far less time at my disposal than he has. However, I'll try my best. Let it not be said that I failed to recognise your present sincere desire to become useful to the Society, hence to Humanity, for I am deeply alive to the fact that none better than yourself in India is calculated to disperse the mists of superstition and popular error by throwing light on the darkest problems, but before I answer your questions and explain our doctrines anyfurther, I'll have to preface my replies with a long introduction.First of all and ag-ain I will draw your attention to the tremendousdifficulty of findings appropriate terms in English which wouldconvey to the educated European mind even an approximatelycorrect notion about the various subjects we will have to treatupon. To illustrate my meaning I'll underline in red the technicalwords adopted and used by your men of Science and whichwithal are absolutely misleading not only when applied to suchtranscendental subjects as on hand but even when used by themselves in their own system of thought.
To comprehend my answers you will have first of all to viewthe eternal Essence, the Swab^vat not as a compound elementyou call spirit-matter, but as the one element for which the English has no name. It is both passive and active, pure SpiritEssence in its absolute absoluteness, and repose, pure matter inits finite and conditioned state, —even as an unponderable gasorthat great unknown which science has pleased to call Force.When poets talk of the ** shoreless ocean of immutability " wemust regard the term but as a jocular parodox, since we maintainthat there is no such thing as immutability—not in our Solarsystem at least. Immutability say the theists and Christians ** isan attribute of God " and forthwith they endow that God withevery mutable and variable quality and attribute, knowable asunknowable, and believe that they have solved the unsolvable andsquared the circle. To this we reply if that which the theists callGod, and science " Force " and " Potential Energy/* were to be-come immutable but for one instant even during the MahaPralaya a period when even Brahm the creative architect of theworld said to have merged into non-being, then there could beno manwantara, and space alone would reign unconscious andsupreme in the eternity of time. Nevertheless, Theism whenspeaking of mutable immutability is no more absurd thanmaterialistic science talking of "latent potential energy," andthe indestructibility of matter and force. What are wetobelieve as indestructible? Is it the invisible something thatmoves matter or the energy of moving bodies ! What doesmodern science know of force proper, or say the forces, —thecause or causes of motion. How can there be such a thing aspotential energy, i.e., an energy having latent inactive powersince it is energy only while it is moving matter, and that if itever ceased to move matter it would cease to he, and with itmatter itself would disappear. Is force any happier term?Some thirty-five years back a Dr. Mayer offered the hypothesisnow accepted as an axiom that force in the sense given it bymodern science, like matter is indestructible namely whenit ceases to be manifest in one form it still exists and has only passed into some other jorin. And yet your men of science have not found a single instance when one force is transformed into another, and Mr. Tyndall tells his opponents that "in no case is the force producing the motion annihilated or changed into anything else." Moreover we are indebted to modern science for the novel discovery that there exists a quantitative relation between the dynamic energy producing something and the " something " produced. Undoubtedly there exists a quantitive relation between cause and effect, between the amount of energy used in breaking one's neighbour's nose, and the damage done to that nose, but this does not solve one bit more the mystery of what they are pleased to call correlations, since it can be easily proved (and that on the authority of that same science) that neither motion nor energy is indestructible and that the physical forces are in no way or manner convertible one into another. I will cross-examine them in their own phraseology and we will see whether their theories are calculated to serve as a barrier to our " astounding doctrines." Preparing as I do to propound a teach- ing diametrically opposed to their own it is but just that I should clear the ground of scientific rubbish lest what I have to say should fall on a too encumbered soil and only bring forth weeds. *' This potential and imaginary materia prima cannot exist with- out form," says Raleigh, and he is right in so far that the materia prima of science exists but in their imagination. Can they say the same quantity of energy has always been moving the matter of the Universe? Certainly not so long as they teach that when the elements of the material cosmos, elements which had first to manifest themselves in their uncombined gaseous state, were uniting the amount of matter-moving energy was a million times greater than it is now when our globe is cooling off. For where did the heat that was generated by this tremendous process of building up a universe go to? To the unoccupied chambers of space they say. Very well, but if it is gone for ever from the material universe and the energy operative on earth has never and at no time been the same, then how can they try to maintain the *' unchangeable quantity of energy," that potential energy which a body may sometimes exert, the force which passes from one body to another producing motion and which is not yet *' annihilated or changed into anything else." Aye, we are answered, " but we still hold to its indestructability ; while it re- mains connected with matter, it can never cease to be, or less or more." Let us see whether it is so. I throw a brick up to a mason who is busy building the roof of a temple. He catches it and cements it in the roof. Gravity overcame the propelling energy which started the upward motion of the brick, and the dynamic energy of the ascending brick until it ceased to ascend.At that moment it was caught and fastened to the roof. Nonatural force could now move it, therefore it possesses no longerpotential energy. The motion and the dynamic energy of theascending brick are absolutely annihilated. Another examplefrom their own text books. You fire a gun upward from the footof a hill and the ball lodges in a crevice of the rock on that hill.No natural force can, for an indefinite period move it, so the ballas much as the brick has lost its potential energy. " All themotion and energy which was taken from the ascending ball bygravity is absolutely annihilated, no other motion or energy suc-ceeds and gravity has received no increase of energy." Is itnot true then that energy is indestructible ! How then is it thatyour great authority teaches the world that ** in no case is theforce producing the motion annihilated or changed into anythingelse"?
I am perfectly aware of your answer and give you these illus-trations but to show how misleading are the terms used byscientists, how vacillating and uncertain their theories and finallyhow incomplete all their teachings. One more objection andIhave done. They teach that all the physical forces rejoicing inspecific names such as gravity, inertia, cohesion, light, heat,electricity, magnetism, chemical aflSnity, are convertible one intoanother? If so the force producing must cease to be as theforce produced becomes manifest. *' A flying cannon ball movesonly from its own inherent force of inertia." When it strikesitproduces heat and other effects but its force of inertia is not theleast diminished. It will require as much energy to start it againat the same velocity as it did at first. We may repeat the process a thousand times and as long as the quantity of matterremains the same its force of inertia will remain the sameinquantity. The same in the case of gravity. A meteor falls andproduces heat. Gravity is to be held to account for this, but theforce of gravity upon the fallen body is not diminished. Chemicalattraction draws and holds the particles of matter together, theircollision producing heat. Has the former passed into the latter?Not in the least, since drawing the particles again together whenever these are separated it proves that the chemical aflfinity is notdecreased. For it will hold them as strongly as ever together.Heat they say generates and produces electricity yet they find nodecrease in the heat in the process. Electricity produces heatwe are told? Electrometers show that the electrical currentspass through some poor conductor, a platinum wire say and heatsthe latter. Precisely the same quantity of electricity, there beingno loss of electricity, no decrease. What then has been converted into heat? Again electricity is said to produce magnetism.
I have on the table before me primitive electrometers in whose vicinity chelas come the whole day to recuperate their nascent powers. I do not find the slightest decrease in the electricity stored. The chelas are magnetized, but their magnetism or rather that of their rods is not that electricity under a new mask. No more than the flame of a thousand tapers lit at the flame of the lamp is the flame of the latter. Therefore if by the uncertain twilight of modern science it's an axiomatic truth *' that during vital processes the conversion only and never the creation of matter or force occurs " (Dr. J. R. Mayer's ** Organic Motion in its connection with Nutrition ")—it is for us but half a truth. It is neither conversion nor creation, but something for which science has yet no name.
Perhaps now you will be prepared to better understand the difficulty with which we will have to contend. Modern science is our best ally. Yet it is generally that same science which is made the weapon to break our heads with. However you will have to bear in mind (a) that we recognise but one element in Nature (whether spiritual or physical) outside which there can be no nature since it is Nature itself,^ and which as the Akasa per- vades our solar system every atom being part of itself pervades throughout space and is space in fact, which pulsates as in pro- found sleep during the pralayas and the universal Proteus, the ever active nature during the Manwantaras ; (b) that consequently spirit and matter are one, being but a differentiation of states not essences, and that the Greek philosopher who maintained that the Universe was a huge animal penetrated the symbolical significance of the Pythagorean monad (which becomes two, then three A and finally having become the tetracktis or the perfect square (thus evolving out of itself four and involuting three Q^ forms the sacred seven)—and this is far in advance of all the scientific men of the present time ; (c) that our notions of " cosmic matter " are diametrically opposed to those of western science. Per- chance if you remember all this we will succeed in imparting to you at least the elementary axioms of our esoteric philosophy more correctly than heretofore. Fear not my kind brother ; your life is not ebbing away and it will not be extinct before you have completed your mission. I can say no more except that the Chohan has permitted me to devote my spare time to instruct those who are willing to learn and you will have work enough to " drop " your Fragments at intervals of two or three months. My time is very limited yet I will do what I can. Yet I can promise nothing beyond this. I will have to remain silent as tothe Dyan Chohans nor can I impart to you the secrets concerningthe men of the seventh round. The recognition of the higherphases of man's being on this planet is not to be attained by mereacquirement of knowledge. Volumes of the most perfectly constructed information cannot reveal to man life in the higherregions. One has to get a knowledge of spiritual facts by per-sonal experience and from actual observation, for as Tyndall putsit ** facts looked directly at are vital, when they pass into wordshalf the sap is taken out of them." And because you recognisethis great principle of personal observation, and are not slowtoput into practice what you have acquired in the way of usefulinformation, is perhaps the reason why the hitherto implacableChohan my Master has finally permitted me to devote to a certainextent a portion of my time to the progress of the Eclectic. ButI am but one and you are many, and none of my Fellow Brotherswith the exception of M. will help me in this work, not even oursemi-European Greek brother who but a few days back remarkedthat when " every one of the Eclectics on the Hill will have be-come a Zetetic then he will see what he can do for them." Andas you are aware there is very little hope for this. Men seekofthe knowledge until they weary themselves to death, but eventhey do not feel very impatient to help their neighbours with theirknowledge ; hence there arises a coldness, a mutual indifferencewhich renders him who knows inconsistent with himself andunharmonious with his surroundings. Viewed from our standpoint the evil is far greater on the spiritual than on the materialside of man ; hence my sincere thanks to you and desire to urgeyour attention to such a course as shall aid a true progression andachieve wider results by turning your knowledge into a permanentteaching in the form of articles and pamphlets.
But for the attainment of your supposed object, viz. —foraclearer comprehension of the extremely abstruse and at first in-comprehensible theories of our occult doctrine never allow theserenity of your mind to be disturbed during your hours of literarylabours, nor before you set to work. It is upon the serene andplacid surface of the unruffled mind that the visions gatheredfrom the invisible find a representation in the visible world.Otherwise you would vainly seek those visions, those flashes ofsudden light which have already helped to solve so many of theminor problems and which alone can bring the truth before theeye of the soul. It is with jealous care that we have to guardour mind-plane from all the adverse influences which daily arisein our passage through earth-life.
Many are the questions you ask me in your several letters, Ican answer but few. Concerning Eglinton I will beg you to wait for developments. In regard to your kind lady the question is more serious and I cannot undertake the responsibility of making her change her diet as abruptly as you suggest. Flesh and meat she can give up at any time as it can never hurt; as for liquor with which Mrs. H. has long been sustaining her system, you yourself know the fatal effects it may produce in an enfeebled constitution were the latter to be suddenly deprived of its stimulant. Her physical life is not a real existence backed by a reserve of vital force, but a factitious one fed upon the spirit of liquor however small the quantity. While a strong constitution might rally after the first shock of such a change as proposed, the chances are that she would fall into a decline. So would she if opium or arsenic were her chief sustenance. Again I promise nothing yet will do in this direction what I can. " Converse with you and teach you through astral light? " Such a development of your psychical powers of hearing, as you name,—the Siddhi of hearing occult sounds would not be at all the easy matter you imagine. It was never done to any one of us, for the iron rule is that what powers one gets he must himself acquire. And when acquired and ready for use the powers lie dumb and dormant in their potentiality like the wheels and clockwork inside a musical box ; and only then does it become easy to wind up the key and to set them in motion. Of course you have now more chances before you than my zoophagous friend Mr. Sinnett, who were he even to give up feeding on animals would still feel a craving for such a food, a craving over which he would have no control and,— the impediment would be the same in that case. Yet every earnestly disposed man may acquire such powers practically. That is the finality of it; there are no more distinctions of persons in this than there are as to whom the sun shall shine upon or the air give vitality to. There are the powers of all nature before you ; take what you can.
Your suggestion as to the box I will think over. There would have to be some contrivance to prevent the discharge of power when once the box was charged, whether during transit or subsequently : I will consider and take advice or rather permission. But I must say the idea is utterly repugnant to us as everything else smacking of spirits and mediumship. We would prefer by far using natural means as in the last transmission of my letter to you. It was one of M's chelas who left it for you in the flower- shed, where he entered invisibly to all yet in his natural body, just as he had entered many a time your museum and other rooms, unknown to you all, during and after the ** Old Lady's " stay. But unless he is told to do so by M. he will never do it, and that is why your letter to me was left unnoticed. You have an unjust feeling towards my Brother, kind sir, for he is better and more powerful than I—at least he is not as bound and restricted as I am—I have asked H. P. B. to send you a number of philosophicalletters from a Dutch Theosophist at Penangf—one in whom I takean interest : you ask for more work and here is some. They aretranslations, originals of those portions of Schopf)enhauer whichare most in affinity with our Arhat doctrines. The English is notidiomatic but the material is valuable. Should you be disposedto utilise any fK>rtion of it, I would recommend your openingadirect correspondence with Mr. Sanders, F.T.S. —the translator.Schoppenhauer's philosophical value is so well known in thewestern countries that a comparison or connotation of his teachingsupon will, etc., with those you have received from ourselves mightbe instructive. Yes I am quite ready to look over your 50 or 60pages and make notes on the margins : have them set up byallmeans and send them to me either through little ** Deb "orDamodar and Djual Kul will transmit them. In a very few days,perhaps to-morrow, your two questions will be amply answeredbyme.
Meanwhile
Yours sincerely,
K. H.P.S. —The Tibetan translation is not quite ready yet.
