The Theosophical Forum – July 1936

DIVINE DESIRE — Leoline L. Wright

[Note: page numbers cited for The Esoteric Tradition are to the 2-vol. Second Edition and do not correspond to the 1-vol. 3rd & Revised Edition.]

(Thoughts suggested by The Esoteric Tradition)

Cosmic Kama: The "Desire" of the Rig-Veda, which Desire is pure impersonal universal compassion and sympathy; the source of the cosmic driving or impelling energies of the Universe involving the living intelligently electric impulses thereof. The womb of Fohat, considered as the motive yet intelligently guided Force or Forces of the Hierarchical Universe. — G. de Purucker: The Esoteric Tradition, 952-3

It is well to raise our hearts now and again to the threshold of Cosmic Divinity; to refresh our weary, sorrow-laden lives with a draught from those deep inner worlds of stainless being where bliss abides. It is well to remind ourselves that this Kali-Yuga — dark, strenuous, terrible, in which we suffer and toil — is but an inconsiderable fraction of the great cycle of existence. And the reminder is well for two reasons: first, that we may not despair; second, and sharply important, that we may lose no moment of its swift momentum. For terrible and dark as it is, Kali-Yuga is the chela's immediate opportunity for intensive, self-directed growth.

Our Teacher reminds us in regard to the kamic principle that:

. . . It is the seat of the living electric impulses, desires, aspirations, considered in their energic aspect. Usually however, although there is a divine Kama as well as an infernal one, this word is restricted, and wrongly so, to evil desire almost exclusively. — G. de Purucker: Occult Glossary, p. 84

So in reading the heading-quote above, we change our usual point of view and look into the inner worlds which it opens before us. We are able to imagine something of the Divine Desire which awakens in the consciousness of the Solar Logos when "the last vibration of the seventh eternity thrills through infinitude." In that mighty Heart of brooding Love there dwells the supernal felicity of its own Self-realization; its communion with the god-worlds and the Cosmic Deeps. That compassionate Being, our Cosmic Hierarch, visualizes the cohorts of god-sparks yet to be born from its Consciousness-Substance and yearns that they too may know "the seven ways to bliss" and come at last to wing self-conscious flight along the Circulations of the Cosmos to its holy Presence in the palaces of the Sun.

This that we are living is not life; these our thirsts and cravings are not true desire; this that we experience — all is but a caricature, a hideous distortion in the convex mirrors of Maya,

Children of the Solar Consciousness-Life are we, even as the innumerable lives composing the cells and the atoms and the infinitesimal corpuscles of man's physical body live and move and have their being in man, their overlord; his vitality, their vitality. So we are linked through this Solar Entity of cosmic magnitude with spaces still more grand, with Forces and Substances, far-flung over and in and through Kosmic Space. — The Esoteric Tradition, 201

Its vitality our vitality! its Forces and Substances ours if we but realize our true reason for being, and put to work the imagination and the impersonal will. "Back of will stands desire," we have been taught as Theosophical students from the very first. And so let us look again at our opening quote about Divine Desire where we are told it is

The womb of Fohat, considered as the motive yet intelligently guided Force or Forces of the Hierarchical Universe.

Link now these words with those of H. P. Blavatsky:

. . . Love in his primitive sense is Eros, the Divine Will, or Desire manifesting itself through visible creation. Thence Fohat, the prototype of Eros, becomes on earth the great power of "Life-electricity," or the spirit of "Life-giving." — The Secret Doctrine, II, 65

The "spirit of "life-giving'" — almighty Love; impersonal, undemanding, selfless Love. Is not this the "Life-electricity" that we need? Wherever there is unity in our Lodges of the Theosophical Society; where there is brotherly harmony in thought and deed; where there is Theosophical service, unselfish, never remitting, never discouraged, never careless, there is gradually formed a core of "Life-electricity." And pouring through that clear laya-center of our united hearts the Lodge-force from our Silent Watcher floods out in blessing and inspiration upon the world for which his sacrifice is made.

We see then that Cosmic Desire is expressed in Cosmic Love, the origin and fount of universal life. It is the harmonious energy which binds all things into a spiritually purposeful organism moving inevitably to "one divine far-off event," the attainment of godhood by every monad within the organism. Thus we read on page 1079 in this grand book of our study:

. . . everything in the Universe works in a universal harmony; everything is harmonious, for nothing works unto itself alone and apart from other things —

only Man, wilful stony-hearted Man who, it seems, must be to the sustaining Cosmic Patience like a corroding wound that holds back the healthful progress of all. But no! — it is not so. For man's desperate wilfulness is but a dark bubble on the mighty Life sweeping in cycling waves majestically around our Planetary Chain. And we read further, on page 1080:

. . . the changing astronomical positions of the planets and of the sun and moon all take place according to the workings of the wheels of the great and intelligently guided cosmic mechanism — for indeed there are mechanicians, divine beings, behind and within and guiding the mechanical operations; these operations being the automatic responses of nature to the manifold inner urges flowing forth from these divine and spiritual hierarchies of beings as urgent impulses expressing themselves in action.

And all this harmonious vast interworking is after all but the "daily living" of those great Beings — gods, Dhyani-Buddhas. They live and work to the sublime rhythm of the Dharma of obedience. They are the imbodiment of their own divine karman whose smoothly sweeping beneficences carry along man's struggles against the current like mere dissolving foam. Well for us to reflect now and again upon these compassionate Cosmic Buddhas whose abodes shine upon us from the violet spaces of Space. Not only do they cherish us, and suffer our fretfulness within their radiant bliss, but hold us compassionately as well to the ends for which we and all things live and have our being. Else how easily might we, poor self-exiled wanderers, lose our spiritual way.

When day is over and night for a space lays a cool mysterious hand on all our fevers, well for us to meditate upon Divine, Compassionate Desire. So close, benign, and actual it is! Does it not bind the very atoms of our bodies with its electrical harmonies? So may we raise our human hearts before we sleep to the god within ourselves who is our link with the Cosmic Gods, and yearns, in its perpetual silent watch, for our salvation.



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