SUN-LIFE AND EARTH-LIFE: by Per Fernholm
Indwelling
If thou couldst empty all thyself of self,
Like to a shell dishabited,
Then might He find thee on the Ocean shelf,
And say—"This is not dead,"—
And fill thee with Himself instead.
But thou art all replete with very thou,
And hast such shrewd activity,
That, when He comes, He says: "This is enow
Unto itself—'twere better let it be:
It is so small and full, there is no room for Me."
T. E. Brown, "Collected Poems."
THERE, in your garden, is a plant, busily engaged in collecting material for its future growth, although you can see nothing as yet above the ground. Still in the darkness of the earth it is sending out numerous root-threads amongst many strange material things, of which some serve it as nourishment. Buried in the soil without any visible link with the life of the air above, it lies, dormant and inactive until that life above reaches it with its beneficent influence in the form of rain and sunshine, quickening the soul of the plant to begin the weaving of its material garb on the already present ideal form.
And then, one day, the budding life breaks through the soil separating it from the air, and from now on a new life is entered upon, a double existence. The roots in the dark "prison of earth" continue to collect nourishment for the redoubled activity needed to build the ideal form. But the plant is now directly nourished and stimulated to growth by water and air and sunshine by means of its leaves as well. And thus, in proper time, the culmination comes in form of the flower, in its beauty really belonging to another world and a constant promise of a higher life. When it has given its message, blended its note of form, color, and fragrance in the great symphony of vegetable life, it passes away to rest; but in doing so it produces a store of seeds for future plant-lives similar to its own, thus binding together past and future and securing the continuity of its species.
How much food for thought there is in a simple picture that we constantly have before us! How thoughts and analogies built upon it help us—far better than the filling of our brains with narrow and petty theories without any spark of life, or the poisoning of our emotional life by our artificial aims and desires. Men are overburdened by false ideas and unsound emotions of their own making. Purification of heart, mind, and body, is surely needed, before the wholesome influences always reaching us from the Center of Life can make us grow rightly, intensely, though quietly and in silence.
"I am not of this world," said the great Master whom the Western world professes to follow. It was the Christos that spoke thus, the spiritual, glorious, ideal being that breathes the air of the higher life. Each of us has—nay, each one in essence is—the Christos, though few have consciously and purposely taken up the great task before us all: to weave the worthy, shining garment that will allow this spiritual being to take actual form in manifested existence. Man is not like the flower, he is self-conscious, and he cannot grow as the flower grows until he freely uses his self-consciousness in full accordance with the laws of life. He cannot hope to burst through the dark soil of material existence that separates him from the air where the spiritual sun sheds its glory until, in every moment of daily life, he feels its influence and adjusts his life accordingly, gathering nourishment from all his duties, from all the opportunities that the threads of his mind may encounter, and pushing upwards all the time.
Trust is the key to it all, the magic power that will bring the human plant to bloom. Compassion is the guiding power for the mental root-threads in their work of gathering nourishment; the giving of the good tidings to all we can reach, the extending of aid to all as we progress. And when the glorious moment arrives when the soil opens above us, there comes redoubled activity in our earthly life, reaching out farther and farther, inspiring and stimulating more and more the hearts of the "hosts of souls" that grope blindly in the dark and finally have come to doubt even the existence of any spiritual life.
We watch the plant in our garden and nurse it even before we see any visible sign of its growth, knowing that it will blossom in due time. Have we ever thought that there may be beings in the spiritual world that watch the humans in like manner and give them the tenderest care? Have we thought of how some already may have reached up into the air of spiritual existence, preparing to bloom, or already blooming, or, in going to rest, scattering all over the earth seeds of potential spiritual growth? How these may be working with all the powers of heart, mind, and body, to give the good tidings to us that still struggle in the dark? How they are to be recognized by that divine Compassion that does not shut out anyone of the blind and faltering human beings, and how they are able to inspire that Trust which acts like a kindling spark, producing light and order in a chaos?
The sun does not enter into the growth of a plant otherwise than spiritually, inspiring and drawing it upwards. It is not of this world; and yet it is the basis of all growth in this world. So even in human life; the Christos stands apart from all nature's activity, and yet it is illuminating every particle therein, living in the heart-life of all. The mind can open to its rays by acting in unison with the heart, by finding its way upward in trust, and by expanding, as compassion makes it embrace ever wider circles of earthly existence. Seen thus, earth-life, dark and confusing as it still often may be, has its great purpose and is felt to be the means of a glorious spiritual blossoming. Every thought and act may then serve the interblending of the spiritual influences with the lives of our fellows, and as purification proceeds and the life-currents more and more easily and normally find their course through our hearts and minds, Joy becomes manifest and comes to stay with us, the Joy of True Living, precursor of the blossoming of the spiritual life.
In this work of bursting through the dark soil of material existence, woman has her predominant position. Being in close contact with nature she can clothe the spiritual rays entering her heart in a thousand forms that make everything she touches radiant in its turn. And she can protect the sanctuary thus brought down to earth. If her trust is sublime, her spiritual will unflinching, none will dare to desecrate it. She can challenge others to leave the false and cheap glitter of life, for the precious jewels of the higher life. How glorious her position as guardian of the home, if she enters into it in the right spirit, trustingly! The seeds of love and unselfishness, scattered over the earth by those who already have blossomed forth in the higher glory, may in such a home find the soil needed for their quickening. And what a reward for a mother to watch over and guide such a soul in acquiring a serviceable instrument for the delivering of its message of Truth, Light, and Liberation!
The most fertile soil is often composed of the most unpleasant and incongruous ingredients, and it is often the darkest. Our age is certainly dark, but just because of the swift vibrations of material life it permits a growth that could not be equaled at any other time. This century has to make a bold step forward towards the realization of a higher life. Let the woman who feels its urge and who longs to help and serve, know that by doing rightly the small duties that lie nearest at hand, her path will gradually widen. The plant blooms where the seed falls. What woman cannot, deep within the heart, feel some hint of the glory and joy of stepping forth as a conscious worker with nature?
One of the most wonderful passages in the pearl of the Eastern scriptures, the Bhagavad-Gîtâ, that poem of the spiritual life, is where Arjuna discovers the majesty of Krishna, whom he had taken for a friend and at times had treated "without respect in sport, in recreation, in repose, in thy chair, and at thy meals, in private and in public"; and where he exclaims: "Forgive, O Lord, as the friend forgives the friend, as the father pardons his son, as the lover the beloved." We will all some day waken to find Krishna, the Christos, at our side. But we must ask ere we can receive, we must call before the inner Christ can show himself in his true form, before he really can help us. We must change our whole attitude, our polarity, and drink in the light from above. We must let Sun-life illuminate Earth-life and draw forth the divine blossoms.
THE SPADE OF THE ARCHAEOLOGIST: THE RESURRECTION OF TRUTH—ERROR'S FUNERAL:
by Ariomardes
THE resurrection of the prehistoric age of Greece, and the disclosure of the astonishing standard of civilization which had been attained on the mainland and in the isles of the Aegean at a period at least 2000 years earlier than that at which Greek history, as hitherto understood, begins, may be reckoned as among the most interesting results of modern research into the relics of the life of past ages....
All preconceived ideas may be upset by the results of a single season's spade work on some ancient site. The work is by no means complete; but already the dark gulf of time that lay behind the Dorian conquest is beginning to yield up the unquestionable evidences of a great and splendid and almost incredibly ancient civilization....
Most surprising of all, in many respects, was the revelation of the amazingly complete system of drainage with which the palace was provided. Indeed the hydraulic science of the Minoan architects is altogether wonderful in the completeness with which it provided for even the smallest details....
Perhaps the most striking and interesting result that has been attained is the remarkable confirmation given to the broad outlines of those traditions about Crete which have survived in the legends and in the narratives of the Greek historians.—The Scientific American, in a review of James Baikie's Sea Kings of Crete.
Preconceived ideas may certainly be said to be in a precarious situation, if they can be so easily upset by a spade. Pagan tradition, however, comes out triumphant. Should we not therefore, place more faith in the pagan legends than in the preconceived ideas?
Refusing to believe that the Greek legends were imaginary, Schliemann and his successors investigated the sites at Troy, Tiryns and Mykenae, there discovering the old civilization described. Now we learn that this was but the dying remnant of a still older and grander civilization whose center was Crete. How much more has the spade to reveal to us? How much further will discovery go? It can but show, as revelation follows revelation, that the map of ancient history sketched in H. P. Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine is correct; that our annals, as far as we can trace them back, record not a rise but a fall. The present Fifth Root-Race of humanity, being in its middle course, has reached the lowest point of its cycle before its reascent; the earlier of its seven sub-races have lived; some of the most enduring of their colossal works in masonry have survived, silent yet eloquent witnesses. The spade is slowly uncovering the vestiges of civilization gradually rising in knowledge and culture as we go backwards; until at last the completed chain of history will conduct us to the glory of our Race in the Golden Age of its birth.
Confirmation, Theosophy has in plenty, as H. P. Blavatsky foretold of the dawning years of this century. Recognition, it may get later. And this important question arises: Will archaeologists, while admitting the truth of the Theosophical teachings about history, also admit those teachings as to the nature of Man and other kindred subjects, which logically depend on the historical teachings? If not, then, Archaeology, thy name is inconsistency. For Nineteenth Century views of the origin of man will not fit.
And let us not become so absorbed over the Aegeans as to forget the rest of the world and devise theories to account for our own particular discoveries regardless of the discoveries in other fields. The ancient Chimu civilization recently uncovered in Peru claims our attention. History in America too goes back through rising stages to a mightier past. And linking all, we have the admissions, now being made on all sides, as to the truth of the Theosophical teachings (in The Secret Doctrine) about Atlantis. This links together the prehistoric cultures of the Old World and the New.
Even in mechanical science there was prowess, as we learn in connexion with these drainage works of Crete. Perhaps we have been wont to solace our pride by the reflection that if the Egyptians surpassed us in building, and the Greeks in art, in science at least we bear the palm. But is this consolation merely based on the fact that the civilizations with which we have so far been familiar have not expended their genius in that particular direction? Could antiquity have surpassed us in applied science also, if it had had the mind to apply its abilities in that direction? Nay, have there actually been civilizations which surpassed us? This particular Cretan culture seems to have been distinguished by many features which connect it more with modern times than with the intervening Greek culture. The same has been said with regard to the choice and treatment of subjects in the decorative and imitative pottery unearthed on the Chimu site in Peru.