William Q Judge's Aphorisms on Karma and Hindu Scripture (Part 3)

Keep in mind that Mr. Desikacharya is arguing from the  Dvaita Vedanta school, a very theistic, dualistic and realistic philosophy. His critique seems to be that when the Aphorisms agree with his school, then they can’t be original esoteric ideas and when they don’t agree with Vedantic scripture, then they aren’t valid.  I think that his very erudite references can just as easily show that the aphorisms are compatible with Vedantic schools in general and the ones that do not have parallels in Hindu scriptures show that they are not dependent on same.

(22) Karma may be of three sorts (a) Presently operative in this life through the appropriate instruments; (b) that which is being made or stored up to be exhausted in the future; (c) Karma held over from past life or lives and not operating yet because inhibited by inappropriateness of the instrument in use by the Ego, or by the force of Karma now operating.

This is exactly what is called Sanchita Prarabdha, by our Vedantic writers, who group the second and third classes of Karma into one, and name it Sanchita, which simply means that which is stored np for operation in future. I may here add that no notice is taken of Agami (future) Karma in the above Aphorism. The reader is referred to the Vedanta Sutras IV, 1, 13 and 15, and any Commentary thereon.

(23) Three fields of operation are used in each being by Karma: (a) the body and the circumstances; (b) the mind and intellect; (c) the psychic and astral planes.

With a slight difference in detail, this is just the same as is given in our writings, e. g ., the Bhagavadgita.

 (24) Held-over Karma or present Karma may each, or both at once, operate in all of the three fields of Karmic operation at once, or in either of those fields a different class of Karma from that using the others may operate at the same time.

This is an inference from the two preceding Aphorisms.

 (25) Birth into any sort of body and to obtain the fruits of any sort of Karma is due to the preponderance of the line of Karmic tendency.

See Aphorism No. 16.

“ The important Karma, with its auxiliaries, determines the nature of enjoyment, (such as rank, age, &c.) in the next birth.” (Vyasadeva, Commentary on Patanjali, II, 13)

 (26) The sway of Karmic tendency will influence the incarnation of an Ego, or any family of Egos, for three lives at least, when measures of repression, elimination, or counteraction are not adopted.

 (27) Measures taken by an Ego to repress tendency, eliminate defects, and to counteract by setting up different causes, will alter the sway of Karmic tendency and shorten its influence in accordance with the strength or weakness of the efforts expended in carrying out the measures adopted.

(28) No man but a sage or true seer can judge another's Karma. Hence while each receives his deserts appearances may deceive, and birth into poverty or heavy trial may not be punishment for bad Karma, for Egos continually incarnate into poor surroundings where they experience difficulties and trials which are for the discipline of the Ego and result in strength, fortitude, and sympathy.

 “ He who knows Karma is a wise man.” (Bhagavadgita, V. 19)

In the Chhandogyopanishad, mention is made of a great Adept, Raikwa by name, who was suffering from leprosy, as the result of bad Karma in one of his previous births, and, notwithstanding that he was a knower of Brahman, he had to experience the effects of Karmas other than Prarabdha. (See also Brahmasutras, IV, 4—15).

(29) Race-Karma influences each unit in the race through the law of Distribution. National Karma operates on the members of the nation by the same law more concentrated. Family Karma governs only with a nation where families have been kept pure and distinct; for in any nation where there is a mixture of family -- as obtains in each Kaliyuga period -- family Karma is in general distributed over a nation. But even at such periods some families remain coherent for long periods, and then the members feel the sway of family Karma. The word "family" may include several smaller families.

(30) Karma operates to produce cataclysms of nature by concatenation through the mental and astral planes of being. A cataclysm may be traced to an immediate physical cause such as internal fire and atmospheric disturbance, but these have been brought on by the disturbance created through the dynamic power of human thought.

In the Mahabharata, Yanaparva, it is said that at the end of Kaliyuga, owing to the prevalence of Adharma and neglect of religious duties, famines, pestilence, and cataclysms will take place, and carry away men and women by thousands. The whole manifested nature, whether material or astral, is governed by Karmic law. Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra and other deities do their work, towards an individual, a nation, a race, or the whole world, according to the nature of the fruits of Karma they deserve. In Sanskrit writings, thought and the deity presiding over it are identical, and so both are involved when an action relating to either of them is mentioned.

(31) Egos who have no Karmic connection with a portion of the globe where a cataclysm is coming on are kept without the latter's operation in two ways: (a) by repulsion acting on their inner nature, and (b) by being called and warned by those who watch the progress of the world.

Ibn Arabi on the Unity of Religions and Religious Tolerance

A few quotes from the great Sufi Theosophist Ibn Al-Arabi  ‎(25 July 1165 – 8 November 1240):

'My heart has become capable of every form; it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
And a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Ka‘ba and the tables of the Tora and the book of the Koran.
I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love's camels take, that is my religion and my faith.' 

The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, by Ibn al-Arabi, tr. Reynold A xi, 13-15

 

'Do not attach yourself, to any particular creed exclusively, so that you disbelieve in all the rest; otherwise you will lose much good, nay, you will fail to recognize the real truth of the matter. Let your soul be capable of embracing all forms of belief. God, the omnipresent and omnipotent, is not limited by any one creed, for He says, "Wheresoever ye turn, there is the face of Allah" (Kor. ii, 109); and the face of a thing is its reality.' It is vain to quarrel about religion. 'Everyone praises what he believes; his god is his own creature, and in praising it he praises himself. Consequently he blames the beliefs of others, which he would not do if he were just, but his dislike is based on ignorance. If he knew Junayd's saying—"the water takes its colour from the vessel containing it"—he would not interfere with the beliefs of others, but would perceive God in every form and in every belief.' 

(The Bezels of Wisdom 283)

Links of interest:
UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals:
http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

William Q Judge on Reincarnation and Capital Punishment

If one believes in reincarnation and is aware of certain occult aspects of the after-life processes, what about capital punishment? What happens to a person so treated?  Apparently the repercussions have rather dire consequences. The following extracts from one of Judge's better known articles deal with this topical question:

From ignorance of the truth about man's real nature and faculties and their action and condition after bodily death, a number of evils flow. The effect of such want of knowledge is much wider than the concerns of one or several persons. Government and the administration of human justice under man-made laws will improve in proportion as there exists a greater amount of information on this all-important subject. When a wide and deep knowledge and belief in respect to the occult side of nature and of man shall have become the property of the people then may we expect a great change in the matter of capital punishment.

 

But even though those of the second class are not by intention enemies of Society, as are the others, they too before their execution may have their anger, resentment, desire for revenge and other feelings besides remorse, all aroused against Society which persecutes them and against those who directly take part in their trial and execution. The nature, passions, state of mind and bitterness of the criminal have, hence, to be taken into account in considering the question. For the condition which he is in when cut off from mundane life has much to do with the whole subject.

All the modes of execution are violent, whether by the knife, the sword, the bullet, by poison, rope, or electricity. And for the Theosophist the term violent as applied to death must mean more than it does to those who do not hold theosophical views. For the latter, a violent death is distinguished from an easy natural one solely by the violence used against the victim. But for us such a death is the violent separation of the man from his body, and is a serious matter, of interest to the whole state. It creates in fact a paradox, for such persons are not dead; they remain with us as unseen criminals, able to do harm to the living and to cause damage to the whole of Society.
 

What happens? All the onlooker sees is that the sudden cutting off is accomplished; but what of the reality? A natural death is like the falling of a leaf near the winter time. The time is fully ripe, all the powers of the leaf having separated; those acting no longer, its stem has but a slight hold on the branch and the slightest wind takes it away. So with us; we begin to separate our different inner powers and parts one from the other because their full term has ended, and when the final tremor comes the various inner component parts of the man fall away from each other and let the soul go free. But the poor criminal has not come to the natural end of his life. His astral body is not ready to separate from his physical body, nor is the vital, nervous energy ready to leave. The entire inner man is closely knit together, and he is the reality. I have said these parts are not ready to separate - they are in fact not able to separate because they are bound together by law and a force over which only great Nature has control.

When then the mere physical body is so treated that a sudden, premature separation from the real man is effected, he is merely dazed for a time, after which he wakes up in the atmosphere of the earth, fully a sentient living being save for the body. He sees the people, he sees and feels again the pursuit of him by the law. His passions are alive. He has become a raging fire, a mass of hate; the victim of his fellows and of his own crime. Few of us are able, even under favorable circumstances, to admit ourselves as wholly wrong and to say that punishment inflicted on us by man is right and just, and the criminal has only hate and desire for revenge.

The Theosophist who believes in the multiple nature of man and in the complexity of his inner nature, and knows that that is governed by law and not by mere chance or by the fancy of those who prate of the need for protecting society when they do not know the right way to do it, relying only on the punitive and retaliatory Mosaic law - will oppose capital punishment. He sees it is unjust to the living, a danger to the state, and that it allows no chance whatever for any reformation of the criminal.

Theosophy and Capital Punishment, The Path, September, 1895

http://www.theosophycanada.com/theosophy-and-capital-punishment-judge.php

image thanks to thelibertarianrepublic.com

Book Review: The Esoteric Papers of Madame Blavatsky - Daniel Caldwell

Blavatsky’s Esoteric Instructions have had a complicated history – three pamphlets were distributed privately in her lifetime and two more based on notes from her classes posthumously. The three pamphlets and different class notes were included in the posthumous Secret Doctrine Vol. 3 in 1897. The SD3 went on to become probably HPB’s most influential work, the complex, challenging, eloquent erudition of her other writings having noticeably less influence than the more direct, straightforward and explicit texts  that make up these writings. They had a marked influence on C.W. Leadbeater, Alice Bailey and a host of writers in the new age/popular occult vein (That is not to say that new age interpretations are an accurate representation of the originals, more of a vulgarization). For complicated reasons, the SD3 went out of print in 1980 and the instructions reappeared in Blavatsky’s Collected Writings, Vol. 12 and the SD3 was renamed The Esoteric Writings of H.P. Blavatsky. Cambridge University has since issued an edition of the SD3. The Theosophical Publishing House has recently released a new stand-alone version entitled Esoteric Instructions (without the additional SD3 material). Moreover, Henk Spierenburg edited a collection of private class notes entitled The Inner Group Teachings, with similar and additional material, and there have been other more obscure editions.

Daniel Caldwell’s large 700-page 2004 edition from Kessinger is remarkably complete. Included are facsimile reproductions of the original pamphlets (some 250 pages in all), and an earlier first printing of the first two pamphlets that has slight differences from the subsequent printings. Of particular  note is the inclusion of the rare 6^th instruction pamphlet issued in 1900 which contains much little-known material of considerable interest. There is also a reproduction of the ‘Inner Group’ class notes (some 60 pages) and numerous administrative memos, letters and book extracts pertaining to the esoteric section of the Theosophical Society. The only significant omissions being color versions of the diagrams, and some annotations and an historical essay from the Spierenburg book (NB- additional esoteric section material can be found in the SD3 (notes on oral teachings) and Judge's Echoes of the Orient, Vol. 3). Although the variations in page layout give the book a somewhat cluttered appearance, this book contains a cornucopia of new and valuable historical material covering the final period of HPB’s life.

It may be useful to note that it is not advisable to follow practically the ‘Inner Group’ instructions without a competent teacher (which would presumably entail complying with the various rules and pledges included in the instructions) any more than one should follow Hindu or Buddhist Tantric texts practically without a qualified instructor. Moreover, I personally feel that these instructions are best studied as (presumably) originally intended by Blavatsky, as a culmination of the three-volume Secret Doctrine series; in any case, the instructions give numerous references to the first two volumes of the Secret Doctrine, so a certain amount of knowledge of these works is helpful.

PS. One needn't be deterred by the originally intended monthly frequency of the instructions - there is considerably more than a month's worth of study in each pamplet - the complete instructions contain matter for several years' worth of study.

links of interest -
Happy Peace Day!
http://www.peaceoneday.org/

Blavatsky on Religion

Something that might not be obvious to some is that Blavatsky was not totally against organized religion per se; although she was critical of dogmatism and abuse in organized religion  and was concerned with reforms within those structures; yet she was not one to want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, as it were. She was concerned with the problem of what today we would call fundamentalism, which is why freedom of thought and tolerance were important aspects of her policy. The second quote, I think, is one of her clearest statements on this question:

 “Orthodoxy in Theosophy is a thing neither possible nor desirable. It is diversity of opinion, within certain limits, that keeps the Theosophical Society a living and a healthy body, its many other ugly features notwithstanding. Were it not, also, for the existence of a large amount of uncertainty in the minds of students of Theosophy, such healthy divergencies would be impossible, and the Society would degenerate into a sect, in which a narrow and stereotyped creed would take the place of the living and breathing spirit of Truth and an ever growing Knowledge.” First Letter to the American Convention

“Yet the masses could not be allowed to remain without some sort of moral restraint. Man is ever craving for a “beyond” and cannot live without an ideal of some kind, as a beacon and a consolation. At the same time, no average man, even in our age of universal education, could be entrusted with truths too metaphysical, too subtle for his mind to comprehend, without the danger of an imminent reaction setting in, and faith in Gods and Saints making room for an unscientific blank Atheism. No real philanthropist, hence no Occultist, would dream for a moment of a mankind without one tittle of Religion. Even the modern day Religion in Europe, confined to Sundays, is better than none. But if, as Bunyan* put it, “Religion is the best armour that a man can have,” it certainly is the “worst cloak”; and it is that “cloak” and false pretence which the Occultists and the Theosophists fight against. The true ideal Deity, the one living God in Nature, can never suffer in man’s worship if that outward cloak, woven by man’s fancy, and thrown upon the Deity by the crafty hand of the priest greedy of power and domination, is drawn aside." (THE SECRECY OF INITIATES) Blavatsky Collected Writings, Volume 14 Page42

 

"But so also is the Occultist justified, if he would serve truth and only truth, in rejecting such a onesided view. The student of Occultism must belong to no special creed or sect, yet he is bound to show outward respect to every creed and faith, if he would become an Adept of the Good Law. He must not be bound by the prejudged and sectarian opinions of anyone, and he has to form his own opinions and to come to his own conclusions in accordance with the rules of evidence furnished to him by the Science to which he is devoted. Thus, if the Occultist is, by way of illustration, a Buddhist, then, while regarding Gautama Buddha as the grandest of all the Adepts that lived, and the incarnation of unselfish love, boundless charity, and moral goodness, he will regard in the same light Jesus––proclaiming Him another such incarnation of every divine virtue."  (THE DUTY OF THE TRUE OCCULTIST TOWARD RELIGIONS) Blavatsky Collected Writings, Volume 14 Page 108

links:
Canada's sad role in the Syrian refugee crisis:
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/drowned-boys-family-sought-refuge-in-canada

Thomas Taylor on Paul's Letter to the Hebrews

Thomas Taylor (1758-1835) was an amazingly knowledgeable Neoplatonic scholar and had a strong grasp of the spiritual sense of this philosophy, which Blavatsky appreciated. In his Collectiana (1806),  

http://www.universaltheosophy.com/pdf-library/1806_Collectanea-or-Collections.pdf

he has an article (pp. 19-23) on a gnostic/platonic aspect of Paul's letters. Today, the authorship of the Letter to the Hebrews is in doubt, although the Platonic and Gnostic elements in Paul's writings are widely recognized and were pointed out in Blavatsky's writings. I think Taylor's interpretation still holds up today.

It has lately occurred to me, that the 3d verse of Hebrews xi. is not only erroneously translated in all the modern versions of the New Testament, but that, in its true meaning, it strongly favours one of the leading dogmas of those ancient Christian heretics, the Valentinians, and shows St. Paul to have entertained opinions somewhat analogous to the Platonic theory of ideas. The passage in the original is as follows:

Πίστει νοοῦμεν κατηρτίσθαι τοὺς αἰῶνας ῥήματι θεοῦ, εἰς τὸ μὴ ἐκ φαινομένων τὸ βλεπόμενον γεγονέναι.

This, in the English version, is rendered:“Through faith we understand, that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen, were not made of things which do appear.”

 

In the first place, the worlds is evidently a forced interpretation of αἰῶνας (aeonas); and, even admitting it was not, leaves the passage very ambiguous, from the uncertainty to what worlds St. Paul alludes. If we adopt ages, which is the general sense of the word in the New Testament, we shall indeed avoid a forced and ambiguous interpretation, but we shall render the meaning of the Apostle trifling in the extreme: for as he has elsewhere told us, “that all things were framed by the word of God,” what particular faith does it require to believe, that by the same word he framed the ages?

I observe, in the second place, that according to the definition of faith, given in the first verse of this chapter, that it is “the evidence of things not seen,” it is clear, that St. Paul is speaking in this passage of something invisible. Since then αἰῶνας (aeonas) is neither worlds nor ages, what shall we say it is ? I answer, the aeones of the Valentinians: and, agreeably to this, the whole passage should be translated as follows: “By faith we understand, that the aeones were framed by the word of God, in order that things which are seen, might be gene rated from such as do not appear (i. e. from things invisible).”  Every one who is much conversant with Greek authors, must certainly be convinced, that εἰς τὸ (eis to) means in order that: and I was glad to find, that Bishop Pearson translates as I have done, the latter part of this verse.

 

Now we learn from the second book of Irenaeus against the Heretics, that according to the Valentinians, all created things are the images of the aeones, resident in the pleroma, or fullness of deity.And does it not clearly follow, from the above version, that according to St. Paul too, the aeones are the exemplars of visible, or created things? To which we may add, that this sense of the passage wonderfully accords with the assertion, that “faith is the evidence of things not seen.” For here the things which do not appear are the aeones; these, according to the Valentinians, subsisting in deity. So that from our version, St. Paul mightsay, with great propriety, that “we understand by faith, that the aeones were framed by the word of God, in order that things which are seen, might be generated from such as do not appear:” for this naturally follows from his definition of faith.

It appears likewise, that St. Paul mentions these aeones, Heb. i. ver. 2, where he asserts, “that they were produced by God through Christ.”

 

I farther add, that among these aeones of the Valentinians were nous, buthos, sige, aletheia,sophia i.e. intellect, a profundity, silence, truth, and wisdom, which, as the learned Gale well observes in his notes on Jamblichus de Mysteriis, &c. prove theirdogmas to be of Chaldaic origin. For these words perpetually occur in the fragments of the Chaldaic oracles; not to mention that the middle of the Chaldean intelligible triad, is denominated αἰῶν, aeon.

 

It will be said, perhaps, that these oracles were forged by certain heretical Christians; but this may be easily confuted by considering, that they were largely commented on by Porphyry, Jamblichus, and Proclus, who are well known to have been great enemies to the Christian religion; and that it is very unlikely, men of such uncommon learning and sagacity should have been so grossly deluded *. Besides, though these oracles were the fountains of the Valentinian dogmas, yet it will be found, by a diligent inspection, that they are repugnant in most particulars to the leading tenets of Christians of all denominations. Hence Proclus has largely shewn, in his books on Plato's Theology, that the several orders of gods men tioned in these oracles, are perfectly conformable to those delivered by Plato in various parts of his works.

I only add, that as these aeones of St. Paul, and the Valentinians, are the exemplars of the visible universe, it is evident that in this respect they are analogous to the ideas of Plato.

* That some of these oracles may be confidently ascribed to Zoroaster, and that others of them are of much less antiquity, is, I think, evident from the following considerations: in the first place, Johannes Picus, earl of Mirandula, in a letter to Ficinus, informs him, that he was in possession of the oracles of Zoroaster, in the Chaldean tongue, with a commentary on them, by certain Chaldean wise men. And that he did not speak this from mere conjecture (as Fabricius thinks, and many other learned men have thought he did) is evident, from his expressly asserting, in a letter to Urbinatus (Op. p. 256) that, after much labour, he had at length learned the Chaldean language.And still farther, he has inserted in his works, fifteen conclusions, founded on this very Chaldean manuscript, though they appear to have escaped the notice of all the critics.

In the next place, Proclus cites one of these oracles as prior, and another as posterior, to Plato. And what is still more, inwill be found, by a diligent inspection, that they are repugnant in most particulars to the leading tenets of Christians of all denominations. Hence Proclus has largely shewn, in his books on Plato's Theology, that the several orders of gods mentioned in these oracles, are perfectly conformable to those delivered by Plato in various parts of his works. I only add, that as these aeones of St. Paul, and the Valentinians, are the exemplars of the visible universe, it is evident that in this respect they are analogous to the ideas of Plato. his MSS. Scholia on the Cratylus, he says, that certain oracles respecting the intelligible and intellectual orders, were delivered by Theurgists, under the reign of Marcus Antoninus,

 

Geoffrey Farthing on Reincarnation

Geoffrey Farthing's writings are accurate and well-researched; a recommend author. Here are two helpful charts from his book When We Die dealing with the Theosophical description of the reincarnation process (The term Etheric Double corresponds to the earlier terms, Astral Body or Linga Sarira):

http://www.blavatskytrust.org.uk/html/when_we_die/WhenWeDie_GFarthing.pdf