Theosophy

THEOSOPHY

Meher Baba

The Theosophists, including Besant Bai and Master Murti, do not have even a smell of the Truth. It is said that the spirit of the World Teacher will manifest itself to the world through the medium of this boy, and the wire-puller of this show is supposed to be somewhere in the Himalayas.

There is nothing but ice and stones and dust in the mountains and on the plains. The real teachers like the Buddha, Krishna, Jesus and Zoroaster, never kept themselves perched on some mountain peak or hid themselves in the jungle. They freely mingled with those they had come to save. In spite of their unimaginable exultation, they came down to the lowest levels of men.

Not a single spiritual Master ever required any vehicle save his own physical body. In truth, this false note of the Theosophists in the eternal God-man's song of God and man is the result of the multifarious aspects of my work, and my methods in clearing a path for my manifestation.

December? 1925,
Meherabad,
SW p262-263
Besant Bai = Annie Besant
Master Murty = Jiddu Krishnamurti

Krishnamurti a new world teacher? God forbid. You cannot compare the Sadguru Ramakrishna of Calcutta with Krishnamurti. Ramakrishna was Rama and Krishna personified. Krishnamurti is living in all majesty and splendor, pomp and power, and moving about England in aristocratic, fashionable circles, playing tennis and golf, leading a most comfortable life. He does not have the slightest idea, not even a wisp, of the real Truth.

So it is also with these funny, showy Theosophists. Their greatness lies only in editorship, writing and speaking with high-sounding words about planes, powers, colors, secret doctrine, society and caste. Truth is far, far beyond this.

If you desire to aspire for Realisation, you should hold your very life in the palm of your hand, ready to give it up at any moment. Then alone will you be deemed worthy, and be able to experience Truth.

26 June 1926,
Meherabad,
to visitors who asked him about the Theosophists,
LM3 p816-817

About Krishnamurti:

He is not as advanced as some think. He does good, and will come to me one day. I will help him advance on the Path.

November 1931,
Harmon-on-Hudson, New York
to Max Wardhall,
LM4 p1469

Charles Norwood: What is your opinion of the Theosophists Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater?

Baba: They have done some good work, but there is still much to be done. They are somewhat advanced souls. But at a certain stage of advancement, without the guidance and help of a Master, hostile forces are created, resulting in delusion. It all becomes a jumble, and there is confusion.

24 November 1931,
New York,
LM4 p1488

Meher Baba was asked about one of Krishnamurti's teachings:

Q. It has been said that by breaking through the different hindrances of lust, hate, etc., one can develop true love. But your teaching is that by developing true love, one can break through these hindrances.

Baba: The method of love is direct. The other method is indirect and round about. It is like reaching the mouth (for eating) with your hand from behind the neck.

Q. It has been said that a person can, by increasing his own intensity of awareness and effort, break through his bonds and attain freedom. If one can thus free himself, why is a Master necessary?

Baba: How can you free yourself, when your hands and feet are bound? I can set you free because I am free. If you think that by relying upon yourself you can attain the truth, you depend upon a teaching. But then why not rely upon the ocean of truth, the living embodiment of truth, rather than a dead formula or principle?

1930s? A p49-50

Q. Have you met Annie Besant?

Baba: No, but I know her. She was an advanced soul.

Q. I know her since I was a child. They all started it (Theosophy) with good ideas, but too much schism and personality spoiled it. And there are so many divisions now.

Baba: That's the trouble. In spirituality, it is the heart that counts, and not the head. Too much of intellectual discourses undermine the object with which these (movements and institutions) are started...

1934,
Zurich, Switzerland?
A p41

Garrett Fort: Is there really the place known as Shambala, the Astral centre where the Masters dwell in disembodied form? Baba: It is presumed that you already know that planes are not places. The state and stage connoting Shambala exists. There is difference of terminology only. This is also known as Vidnyan.

Garrett Fort: Are there seven rays as told about in the occult books, and are there Masters who function on these respective rays, such as Jesus, who stands on what is called the sixth ray of devotion, or abstract realism; the Master Djwal Khul on the second ray of love/wisdom; the Master Hilarion on the fifth ray of concrete knowledge or science, the incarnation of Paul of Tarsus, this time in a Cretan body and spending much time in Egypt?

Baba: The seven rays with their peculiar characteristics are a symbolic expression of the seven stages of the return journey of a Realised soul to normal consciousness. Those Realised beings who have a duty to perform and a mission to fulfill, have to come down to normal consciousness and take their stand at one of the seven stages of the return journey best suited for the fulfillment of their task. These seven stages of the return journey have their peculiar features and characteristics, and reflect the outward circumstances of a Master. For instance, one Master lives on earth like a prince, another lives in all austerity. One is in the midst of the busy world, another in seclusion. The powers are peculiar to different stages. For instance, healing of diseases and bringing of the dead to life is characteristic of the fourth stage.

Garrett Fort: Where is the Hall of Learning of which I have read, where those on the Path are taken as they progress to take the first few initiations? Books allegedly dictated by Hilarion describe it impressively, telling of the great host of souls who stand within it, veiled, thinking themselves alone until their veils are raised with various initiations. Here take place the ceremonies of the soul that begin in December and last until Easter. Is all this true, or just told as symbolism?

Baba: Hall of Learning is pure symbolism. It is analogous to Islamic belief and picture of Darbare Muhammadi, i.e. the court of Muhammad. The inner court presided over by Muhammad in person, and the outer court presided over by deputies, and the outermost court consisting of those prepared souls clamoring for entry, is similar to the picture drawn by Hilarion, as you say.

Garrett Fort: Will I have to wait until I have received Realisation to carry on work on the Astral plane, as I asked when I first met you? Do I work now without being able to bring anything through? How long will it be before I am able to direct my consciousness deliberately to leave my body and establish contact with those whom I love, or would like to help, regardless of time and place?

Baba: Yes, you are working on the Astral plane, but unconsciously. In order to do so consciously, you are to attain Illumination (6th plane) which is a prelude to Realisation. I have assured you of the experience one day.

Garrett Fort: Is it impertinent to ask why you are focusing our attention on such a high goal, rather than showing us the lower planes and giving us understanding of their properties and functions? The high ideal is so removed from our understanding that it leaves us empty, unsatisfied, still as blind as ever, like a class of children listening to the nebular theory. Without this more elementary knowledge, how can we go back into the world and answer the questions of those who only need and can understand just a little to help solve those problems? We would seem to be then like hundreds of spiritual teachers whose words go over the heads of the humble seekers. Most of them are too tired or too blind to deal with higher concepts. They need the simple remedies first.

Baba: There is no higher or lower goal. There is only one goal, Self-realisation. The journey of the planes, from one to the other, is like changing one prison cell for another, or amounts to exchanging iron fetters for golden ones. In neither case is one free, and it is perfect freedom from the bindings of the physical and the spiritual planes that I aim at. The advancement on the planes may connote progress and beautitude, tempting to the wayfarer. But the allurements of a plane once entered are difficult to shake off. In fact, the bindings (sanskaras) of the physical plane are much easier to destroy than the bindings of the Astral planes. I wish you to be free once and for ever. The lower planes are the result of imagination, and are based on illusion. However, I shall someday explain the lower planes in a manner practical and understandable even to a layman.

1936,
India,
A p26-28,
also T p195-197

In December 1937 Meher Baba visited a branch of the Theosophical Society in Nagpur. He told those gathered,

"I give my blessings to you, so that you may long more and more to finally realise the Truth through experience."

LM6 p2256

Baba visited the Theosophical Society in Nagpur again in November 1944. He had dictated this message, which was read out to them:

True love is very different from an evanescent outburst of indulgent emotionalism or the enervating stupor of a slumbering heart. It can never come to those whose hearts are darkened by selfish cravings, or weakened by constant reliance on the lures and stimulations of the passing objects of sense. But to those whose hearts are pure and simple, true love comes as a gift through the activising grace of a Master.

Such love is energising and life-giving. It breaks asunder the narrowness and the prejudices which separate man from man. It inspires man for selfless and creative action which contributes to the well-being of all, without distinction of caste, color, race, nationality, creed or sex. It lifts him from the slavishness of sanskaric attachments to the unhampered freedom of the divinely conscious soul. And it initiates him into the dynamic harmony of life in eternity.

Affirmation of the separative ego is the chief veil between man and his own divine self. But the doors of the heart have to be thrown open by the surrenderance of ego-affirmation, if God as the supreme beloved is to make his entry in the heart.

No one can realise God except through the grace and help of a God-realised Master, who is Truth incarnate. Only a God-realised Master can awaken this true love in the human heart, by consuming through the fire of his grace all the dross that prevents its release. Those who have got the courage and the wisdom to surrender themselves to a Perfect Master are the recipients of his grace.

The grace of the Master does come to those who deserve it. And when it comes, it enkindles in the human heart a love divine, which not only enables the aspirant to become one with God, but also to be of infinite help to others who are also struggling with their own limitations. There is no power greater than love.

to the Theosophical Society,
Nagpur
14 November 1944,
Me p73

Theosophy Book Two

Index - Book One