The first object
is considered to be the most important (the other two being complementary to
the first). It is quite an idealistic outlook, with the object of encouraging
tolerance and kindness as a means of promoting world peace and fairness for all
in a cosmopolitan spirit of philanthropy, acknowledging the spiritual nature of
all:
Two general objects, one restricted object, of
attention. Every one entering the society is supposed to sympathize with
the theory of essential brotherhood: a kinship which exists on the plane of the
higher self, not on that of the racial, social, and mental dissimilarities
and antipathies. These elements of discord pertain to the physical man and
are the result of unequal development under the law of evolution. We believe
the human body to be but the shell, cover, or veil of the real entity; and
those who accept the esoteric philosophy and the theory of
"Karma" (the universal law of ethical causation) believe that the
entity, as it travels around certain major and minor cycles of existence
with the whole mass of human beings, takes on a different body at birth, and
shells it off at death, under the operation of this Karmic law.
Yet though
it may thus clothe and reclothe itself a thousand times in a series of
reincarnations, the entity is unchanged and unchangeable. being of a divine nature,
superior to all environments on the earthly plane. It is the physical body
only which has racial type, color, sex, hatreds, ambitions, and loves. So
then, when we postulate the idea of universal brotherhood, we wish it
understood that it is held in no Utopian sense, though we do not dream of
realizing it at once on the ordinary plane of social or national
relations.
Most assuredly, if this view of the kinship of all mankind could
gain universal acceptance, the improved sense of moral responsibility it
would engender would cause most social evils and international asperities
to disappear; for a true altruism, instead of the present egoism, would be the
rule the world over. So we have written down as the first of our declared
objects this altruistic asseveration, and have been working practically to
bring about a beginning of the better law.
It is not the policy of self-preservation, not the
welfare of one or another personality in its finite and physical form that
will or can ever secure the desired object and screen the Society from the
effects of the social "hurricane" to come; but only the weakening of
the feeling of separateness in the units which compose its chief element.
And such a weakening can only be achieved by a process of inner enlightenment. It is not violence that can ever insure
bread and comfort for all; nor is the kingdom of peace and love, of mutual
help and charity and "food for all," to be conquered by a cold,
reasoning, diplomatic policy.
It is only by the close brotherly union of men's
inner SELVES, of soul-solidarity, of the growth and development of
that feeling which makes one suffer when one thinks of the suffering of
others, that the reign of Justice and equality for all can ever be
inaugurated. This is the first of the three fundamental objects for which the
Theosophical Society was established, and called the "Universal
Brotherhood of Man," without distinction of race, colour or creed. (Blavatsky, The Theosophical Society: Its
Mission and its Future, Lucifer, Vol.
II, No. 12, August, 1888, pp. 421-433, CW 10, pp. 74-75)
First of all, poor is that theosophic culture
which fails to transform simply a "good citizen" of his own native
country into a "good citizen" of the world. A true theosophist
must be a cosmopolitan in his heart. He must embrace mankind, the whole
of humanity in his philanthropic feelings. It is higher and far nobler to
be one of those who love their fellow men, without distinction of race,
creed, caste or colour, than to be merely a good patriot, or still less, a
partizan.
To mete one measure for all, is holier and more divine than to
help one's country in its private ambition of aggrandizement, strife or
bloody wars in the name of GREEDINESS and SELFISHNESS. Severe denunciation is
a duty to truth." It is; on condition, however, that one should
denounce and fight against the root
of evil and not expend one's fury by knocking down the irresponsible
blossoms of its plant. The wise horticulturist uproots the parasitic
herbs, and will hardly lose time in using his garden shears to cut off the
heads of the poisonous weeds. (Blavatsky Is Denunciation a Duty?, Lucifer,
Vol. III, No. 16, December 1888, pp. 265-273, CW 10, 199-200)
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