The changing world, and lectures to theosophical students. / Fifteen lectures delivered in London during May, June, and July, 1909

by Annie Besant

And on this day, looking backward to those who have gone through death’s portal, shall we not also look forward to those who are coming back through birth’s portal to work in the Movement in the future as they worked in the Movement in the past? How far has it struck you, during the days of storm and stress through which you have been passing, that to those who believe in Reincarnation and Karma there is no possibility of real separation, no possibility of lasting discord? For those who went far away apparently from the Movement, or who left it by the gateway of death, see on the other side the fundamental unity, even though on this side, for a while, they may have been blinded by the superficial differences, and join together in the work from which, on this side perhaps, for the moment, they had let themselves slip away for some trivial discord, some passing divergence of opinion. Take that great man amongst us round whom raged the last great struggle, the one before the struggle which is now nearing its close—W. Q. Judge—one of the greatest and noblest workers in our Movement, even though in the last days of his life he made the great rent in the Theosophical Society which cost us for the time pretty well the whole Society in America. He again, winning clearer vision on the other side after something of difficulty and something of struggle (for the man was strong, and was not easy to move or change even when the physical body had been cast away), he after a while worked his way through the mistake that had been made, and has again thrown his life force, his enormous energy into the Movement of which the outer partial manifestation here is the Theosophical Society, and into that Theosophical Society also. For remember that the Theosophical Society is only the partial manifestation of that great stream of Life which is flowing in the other worlds, and of which some appears here. This great Theosophical stream is like one of those rivers which flows underground, and then bubbles up above the ground so that all can see. And the river of the Ancient Wisdom, with its source in the Great Lodge of the Masters, is out of sight for the greater part of its course, in worlds greater and higher than this, and then comes up above the earthly surface and shows itself partially in what we call the Theosophical Society; and into that River of Ages lives which have passed onward throw their energy from the other worlds, so that they are working in the same Movement and strengthening the same current, and are not apart from us, but with us all the time.

And then there are some others to whose return amongst us we have the right to look forward. One whom I may remind you of, who has not passed through death’s gateway, although out of sight for so long, is that faithful chelā of H. P. Blavatsky—Damodar—who left India after the great Coulomb struggle, went up into the Himālayan region, and found his way to his Master’s home near far-off Shigatze. He has been living and working there ever since, and is now a man of middle age, but his return ere very long we may without fear look forward to. He will come back to us with all the gained knowledge that he has won during these many years’ training in the presence of the Teachers Themselves; he has already shown himself in India, not physically, but preparing to come back when the Movement is ready for his work, and the getting ready of it is the work which we have to do in the few years in front. For ere many years have gone we may look for his coming as a leader and teacher amongst us.

And of those who passed through death’s gateway some have already come back, H. P. Blavatsky amongst them; so that in the years that come many of you will see that strong life again manifested amongst us to take share in the working of the Society, for which he is working now as ever before. Remember how a Master said of him: “The brother whom you know as H. P. Blavatsky, but we—otherwise.” One who was spoken of in such words by the Master M. does not leave the work to which he has put his hand because the worn-out body was thrown aside for the time—the brother whom we know as H. P. Blavatsky, but They otherwise, the great and strong disciple will again come amongst us to work more powerfully than in the woman’s body that last time he wore. And others, too, who worked with him in the earlier days—Subba Rao, whose name many yet know; he is now a lad of nearly fifteen, in the Indian body once more, born in fact in the same family (using the word “family” in the wider Indian sense), a lad of fifteen, very soon to be ready again to take up his work.

And there are others, less well known, who have been reborn, and who are preparing to take part in the great forward movement which is so soon to begin. But before that work could begin it was necessary to have the shaking through which we have been passing during the last three years. I have told you often that from time to time these shakings recur, and are necessary before a great time of onward progress. Few of you probably will remember the progress that was made after the Coulomb trouble, but many of you will remember the spring forward which the Society took after the American secession. History repeats itself in small cycles as well as in large ones, and before the great forward movement could take place it was necessary that the shaking should occur once more, to shake out for the moment those who were not ready to go forward.

What is the great difficulty before the world? When those who know more and are able to teach are to come forward and live among the men and women of the time, and bring to them the treasures they have harvested of the Wisdom of the ancient days, the one thing that stands in the way of their reception is the spirit which is not able to recognise greatness when it sees it, but meets it with suspicion, doubt, slander, calumny; which ever supplies evil motives where there is no understanding of the reasons for action, and so paralyses those who know, and builds up barriers which even they cannot overstep. You saw it in the life of H. P. Blavatsky. Look back to that life of hers; see how her efforts, her endeavours to teach and spread the Wisdom, the message with which she was charged, were everywhere frustrated. And that has been so now for very many centuries. When the greatest of all Teachers came, that mighty Teacher whom in the East we call the Bodhisattva, whom in the West we call the Christ, when He came—mightiest of spiritual Teachers, the very spirit of Wisdom and love incarnate—He could not live three years in this world ere He became so insupportable to the people of His day that they slew Him, while His love for the Father was denounced as blasphemy, His teaching denounced as coming from the devil. And that same spirit has been seen ever since. The great teachers have ever been met with the same spirit, and we have to change it. The chief mission of the Society at the moment is to prepare the way of the Lord, and the only preparation that can be made is to substitute reverence for greatness instead of suspicion and hatred. And because that is the immediate work which lies before us, it was necessary to shake out of the Society those whose spirit was rather suspicion of greatness than acceptance of it when seen. For the immediate work is the preparing of the world for the coming of greater Ones, in order that the new impulse may be given when the new sub-race and Root Race are to be born.

That is the immediate work, the preparation for the coming of some of those whom I have been mentioning—Damodar, Subba Rao, H. P. Blavatsky—not, remember, with flourish of trumpets, or with anyone declaring “this is so-and-so” and “this is someone else,” with the exception, perhaps, of the first named (Damodar), who went as a boy to his Master, and is now middle-aged, but will be recognised by old Indian friends. But others will be coming in new bodies, unknown, with no proof of who they are. They will have to make their way, they will have to prove their apostolate, and probably their views of things will be very different from the views of many of those in the Theosophical Society. Inevitably so; for people whose eyes are opened to more than one world cannot see things, as those see them whose eyes are blind save to one; those who see the wider horizon will have different thoughts from those who are cabined in by the life and conventions of their day. And that is why the great Ones are always misunderstood, for They must be other than those to whom They come, else how could They teach? And that is where your General Secretary spoke very truly in saying that the mind often misleads, and the things we “think” cover over the things we “know.” Now the things you know, you know by the light of the Spirit which is within you; by that intuition which is the voice of the pure, not the impure reason, speaking above the mind and through the mind, but very often in contradiction to the mind. And in order to hear that voice of intuition, so far as I know, there is only one way, that when once you see the Light shine out through any human being, you hold to that human being, no matter what the mind may say. That is what spells success, and that was pre-eminently the case with H. P. Blavatsky, for anyone more confusing to the ordinary mind you could not possibly come across—awkward, athwart one’s conventions in every way; in speech, manner, actions, the very reverse of all that you would expect. When I first met her and saw in her the power of the Master, from that day to this I have never challenged and never doubted her. And very, very largely because of that have come the knowledge and power that I have won not by reasoning and arguing—“Was she right or wrong?” “Would it not have been better if she had been different from what she was?”—but having once seen in her the Light of Truth, refusing to see anything else except the Messenger of the Master.

And that is what you need in the coming days, that is what some of you have been winning through the storms of the last three years—to realise that when once you have known a teacher to be a teacher you shall cling to that knowledge, no matter what clouds for a time surround, no matter what storms for a time may hide; for that means intuition, which is above the concrete mind; it means the testimony of the God within you to the God without you, and that cannot lie. And we have to spread that through the whole Society in order to make the way possible for those who will be coming amongst us during the next few years, and the greater Ones who will come later if we can welcome the Messengers, but not otherwise. Our years of mortal life are not those by which time is reckoned in the great cycles of the occult world. It is true that we say: “Probably between thirty and forty years hence a great Teacher will come back, the greatest Teacher, the Teacher of Gods and men.” But a date like that, which is counted by the revolutions of the world, is always a doubtful thing from the occult standpoint; for time there is measured by consciousness, and not by the turning of the sun. Efforts may shorten or failure may retard the date, and hence it is always rather vaguely put; and if, when these less great ones came we were not able to receive them, if we are repelled by the superficial appearance and have not the intuition to recognise the Messengers, that will inevitably delay the coming of the greater Ones.

At different times different virtues are wanted. To know the virtue of the time and to develop it, that is wisdom. At one time courage is the great thing wanted; at another time recognition of spiritual greatness, and the power to hold to it, and that is the virtue wanted now. Not in order that you and I as individuals may take part in this great work, but in order that the world may be prepared, that the way of the Lord may be made straight, so that He may come. For He cannot come to be a curse to the world instead of a blessing, as He would be if the world were wholly unprepared. And so greater and greater Ones will be coming in order that the greatest of all may be welcomed when He appears amongst us.

Some of you think, but you think mistakenly, that you would recognise, say, a Master, or even a Christ, if He appeared. Are you so sure? They never have been recognised by the people of their time save by a small minority, and why should we be different? The Christ was not recognised when He came last; His Messengers have not been recognised since, save by a minority. They are so different from the people of their time that there is much to get over before you can recognise them. And it is a good practice sometimes to throw yourself back to those days in Judea when the Son of Man trod the earth. Realise what He would have seemed to you then, not what he seems to you now through the vista of centuries of the adoration of millions of men. What would he have seemed as the vagabond travelling about on foot, with a number of half-educated people round Him, disturbing the peace of society, antagonistic to the respectabilities of His day, looked down upon by the aristocracy of the time? See Him as they saw Him, and ask yourself: “Should I have recognised the Christ?” And that is where the test has been, right through these last three years, and where it will be as the people I have been speaking of gradually come amongst us again. If you would recognise them when they come, try to cultivate the power which answers to greatness without, by cultivating greatness within, remembering that spiritual recognition is the recognition of all those who are kindred to yourself. If you have the virtue in you of the spiritual man you will know spiritual men when you meet them; but if you cannot answer to Him, then He will pass you by unknown, and probably disliked.

Now our work is clear before us: to try to change the public opinion of the world into the attitude which is sometimes called disparagingly hero-worship, which is essentially the thing we need at the present time—the power to know the hero when we see him. “No man is a hero,” it is said, “to his valet.” And people think that that means that he is small when seen close by. Not so; but that the small soul which is typified by the word “valet” cannot appreciate the greatness of the hero near whom he stands. The servant soul does not recognise the greatness of the hero, and therefore the hero is no hero to him. Only the heroic recognises the hero; and if you can develop that in yourself which is like a Master, then, and then alone, will you know a Master when He comes. And the best way to cultivate it is for a time to let go that spirit of criticism which makes people so superior to those around them. Cultivate the faculty of admiration rather than that of criticism. Try, when you meet a person or when you read a book, to see the good things in the book or person, and not the faults. And the faults in the people around you, these are no business of yours; and if you would once understand that and live it, your path would be so much easier. So many of you are so anxious to get other people out of their faults that you really have no time to look after your own steps and put them in the right way. The faults of the other people will work out through karma, and they are not your business—a hard but true lesson. Of course, if you are a master or a teacher, and have others in your charge, their faults are then yours to correct; but you are not, generally speaking, masters or guardians, and you have no responsibility to criticise or put others right. Take out of your friends the value of the good and let the faults go. You need not say they are virtues, you need not pretend that you think wrong right; but you can say: “That part of the man is not my business; let me help the God in him to manifest, and let the other side in him wear out in its own way.” If you can do that you will be more useful now than in any other spirit, and it is that lesson I would ask you to take with you. Think of H. P. Blavatsky and of those who have passed away in the spirit that they helped us, and not in the spirit that would blind our eyes to their value, and then carry that spirit on to the people around you, and in every one round you try to see the God, and let the rest go. Admire the admirable, and leave aside the regrettable; for in doing it you will help them more to conquer their faults than by criticism.