New Worlds to Conquer
It can be confidently asserted, we think, that Theosophy is the only teaching in the world today that has all the answers. It can explain the past, account for the present, and lay down inspiring lines for the future. In this series of articles there has been so far an endeavor to outline what Theosophy explains about the past and the present. This has been done necessarily in but the most fragmentary manner though it is hoped that sufficient leads have been given for truly interested inquirers to follow.
In conclusion some picture should be drawn of what Theosophy explains about the future. There are two main classes of seekers whom we may consider here. (We need not discuss the great rank and file of those who are in such inner need that the message of Theosophy comes like manna from heaven.) These two classes comprise those who take a constructive and vital concern in the shaping of our modern world into a future that can assure some measure of happiness and progress to everyone.
There are first those who are working to bring about the kingdom of heaven upon earth. They represent the psychological trends of our time. They are such people as those behind the social research clinics which are springing up in our large cities. Then there is the second class which fortunately we have always with us — the winged ones, adventurers in the world of intellect and spirit. These are very few. They are the pioneers in the realm of ideas. They shape the molds of mind into which all other workers sooner or later pour their efforts whether they are conscious of it or not. These adventurers are they through whom the Cosmic Spirit-Soul, the Welt-Geist, sends its vitalizing currents into the soul-life of the race. For both classes of pioneers Theosophy has a message and a promise. To the first group with their science of human relationships Theosophy contributes its teachings about the Spirit-Soul at the core of every being, making of that being a deathless part of the Cosmic Spirit-Soul from which it sprang. For the Cosmic Spirit-Soul is the Universal Self and Fount of everything in our Universe. Evolution is the unfolding within every being of the powers and faculties of its Spirit-Soul in progressive stages of self-expression. In this process the complex aspects of man's nature have been evolved, including his psychological apparatus and his physical body. This evolution is brought about through reimbodiment in ever more highly evolved forms, checked and guided by Karman. Karman is due to the action of free will and the consequent reactions.
Out of these teachings there springs a creative psychology which, when applied in the laboratory of human research, will prove a master-key. The single teaching of the Buddhic principle in man contains in its application the very elixir of life. From this divine principle in our composition springs the electricity of impersonal love. Impersonal love is that all-embracing spiritual emotion from which alone regeneration in human nature and life can spring, once we have discovered the source of it in ourselves and are determined to cultivate it. Through Karman in many lives here on earth the human personality has entangled us in a thousand crippling bonds and tormenting miseries. The elixir of impersonal self-forgetting love will dissolve these bonds. It will transmute all suffering into the joyful power of helping others. This teaching is but one of the great truths in the spiritual alchemy of Theosophy which can create new combinations of undreamed of happiness and splendor in all the relations of daily living.
As to the second group, the star-aspiring adventurers, there is indeed little left in the physical world for their adventuring spirits. Theosophy however will provide a spiritual quest — yes, even a physical one — that offers to the faithful seeker a magnificent fulfilment. In a brief article like this not much more than a clue can be given. The inquirer is therefore recommended to our literature, particularly to The Esoteric Tradition by G. de Purucker. In that book the author has brought together, from The Secret Doctrine and other authoritative sources, the teachings of the Archaic Science in regard to the Spirit-Soul of man and the Circulations of the Cosmos, describing the inner reaches of man's evolution during life and after death. And that nothing may be denied us, the subjects of Initiation and the Mystery-Schools and other fascinating leads are sufficiently treated. In bringing back to men these long-forgotten teachings, Theosophy has indeed revealed new and authentic worlds to be sought and conquered.