The Theosophical Movement
As Part Of a Global Antahkarana
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
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A version of the following
text was
published at “The Aquarian Theosophist”
in January 2006, pp. 25-30. Original title:
“H. P. Blavatsky And The Guardian
Wall”.
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The
concept of a collective antahkarana
cannot be easily found in the theosophical literature. Yet the actual existence
of collective connections to higher realms of consciousness is not difficult to perceive.
According to the “Theosophical Glossary”, the sanscrit word Antahkarana or Antaskarana means “the path or bridge between the Higher Ego
and the Lower Manas, the divine Ego
and the personal soul of man”. [1]
Seen in itself, the concept refers to the individual life. But there is no actual separation between different beings. Individual and collective
lines of evolution interact with each
other all the time at the various levels and sub-levels of consciousness. Human
individuals influence each other, mutually stimulating or hindering their
connections with their higher selves. In every society there are cultural
characteristics, collective activities and even institutions that enhance or
endanger the working of individual Antahkaranas.
There is also the collective impact caused by the work of each Messenger
of Truth.
History, ancient and modern, has
shown that the individual lives of highly evolved beings
have a definite impact on the collective karma, sometimes over long
periods of time. They create bridges towards higher streams of consciousness
which affect millions of lives; and these lives, in their turn, gradually
change the whole of humanity.
As one calmly thinks about this, a wide, abstract, flexible concept of
“collective antahkarana” may start to make sense. The life of H. P. Blavatsky
in the 19th century is an example of that. Her tremendous impact in
human history was documented by Sylvia Cranston. [2] H.P.B.’s teachings and the school of thought she left
in the world are permeated by magnetism coming from higher sources and
pertaining to abstract levels of consciousness.
The quality and importance of the higher magnetism emanating through
H.P. Blavatsky’s work derives from the fact that she was a direct agent of those sages who are called Immortals
by Taoism, Rishis or Jivanmuktas by Hinduism, Arhats by
Buddhism, and raja-yogis or Adepts
by the esoteric philosophy.
The presence and influence of her
writings is a central part of the present-day cultural bridge between human
civilization and higher levels of consciousness. H.P.B.’s work also constitutes
a subtle, higher-manasic “bridge” to future stages of human development. Such a vibrating current
in the ocean of life does not include all of the theosophical movement, though, for a large
part of the movement is only nominally theosophical. HPB said so in her own time, and so did her
Masters. It is easy to understand that
no external label can ever
guarantee the authenticity of anything.
As H.P.B. worked for mankind, she was surrounded by a powerful magnetic
field. Those energies were impressed in nearly everything she did, said or
wrote. Her aura transmitted a bit of
it into every situation she was involved in.
Her direct disciple Alice
Cleather described the impact H.P.B. caused on people and on society:
“Like a Light brought into a dark
place full of creatures which ‘love
darkness rather than light’, so was the real H.P.B. Instanly, like moths attracted to a lamp, all
the denizens of this dark place which is our earth - the realm of illusion
(...) - were irresistibly attracted round her. Not only did they obscure the Light - this they did
abundantly - but finally in 1891 they put
it out ; i.e., it was withdrawn
from our midst, returning to the realm from whence it came.” [3]
Alice Cleather wrote about the moment when she first saw H.P.B.
physically, in Lansdowne Road ,
London
“When we were ushered into the well-known double drawing-room on the
ground floor my attention immediately became riveted on the figure of a stout,
middle-aged woman seated with her back to the wall before a card table,
apparently engaged in playing Patience.
She had the most arresting head and
face I had ever seen, and when she lifted her eyes to mine, on Mr.
Keightley presenting me, I experienced a distinct shock as her extraordinarily
penetrating blue eyes literally ‘bored a
hole’ through my brain. She looked steadfastly at me for a few seconds (most
uncomfortable ones for me) then, turning to Mr. Keightley, remarked
indignantly: ‘You never told me she was like this!’ - absolutely ignoring his
assertion that he had repeatedly done so. Exactly what ‘like this’ indicated I
never subsequently discovered. Such was my introduction to the greatest
incarnated soul of our times; but at that early date I realised nothing more
than that she took one’s breath away ; and that ‘life was never the same
again.’ From that moment I became her
devoted disciple...” [4]
The enlightening impact of H.P.B.’s work on human evolution exposes and
displaces various levels of routine, and the reaction against it has been
strong. Since the 1880s, theosophists have had to defend the teacher
and the teachings against numerous attacks coming from dogmatic religions and
also from inside the theosophical movement.
Life is probatory, and every student of theosophy has to face tests. From
Pythagoras of Samos to Apollonius of Tyana, as from Alessandro Cagliostro to
H.P.B., attacks against Messengers of Truth always threaten the sources of
human inspiration and aim at damaging
the cultural and occult bridge to the higher realms.
The idea of collective antahkarana is equivalent to the symbolical image
of Jacob’s ladder in the Bible. Genesis, 28:11-13, tells us the story of
Jacob’s Ladder thus:
“At sunset he came to a holy place and camped there. He lay down to sleep, resting his head
on a stone. He dreamt that he saw a stairway reaching from earth to heaven,
with angels going up and coming down on it. And there was the Lord standing
beside him.”
The Angels are the Messengers of
the “Gods” among human beings. They inhabit
the Divine Ladder , the eternal and Unbroken Link between Masters and
Men.
Another metaphor in the theosophical literature is undoubtedly related
to this same occult fact. In “The Voice of the Silence”, a higher aspect of the
collective Antahkarana is described not as a symbolical Ladder, but as a
“Guardian Wall”. In the Fragment III of that book, we see the description of
the path of sacrifice trodden by great souls:
“Self-doomed to live through future Kalpas [5], unthanked and unperceived by man; wedged as a stone with
countless other stones which form the ‘Guardian Wall’, such is thy future if the seventh gate thou passest. Built by the
hands of Masters of Compassion, raised by their tortures, by their blood
cemented, it shields mankind, since man is man, protecting it from further and
greater misery and sorrow. Withal man
sees it not...”
In an explanatory note, H.P.B. writes about the “Guardian Wall”:
“It is taught that the accumulated efforts of long generations of Yogis,
Saints and Adepts, especially of the Nirmanakayas - have created, so to say, a
wall of protection around mankind, which wall shields mankind invisibly from
still worse evils.” [6]
Such a complex notion transcends all metaphors used to describe it.
The image of a Guardian Wall and the idea of a ladder to heaven, as
that of a collective Antahkarana, are symbols of the multidimensional process by which humanity has access to divine guidance and
inspiration. In “Light on the Path”, a classical work, a reference is made to
the same basic fact:
“When you have found the beginning of the way the star of your soul will
show its light; and by that light you will perceive how great is the darkness
in which it burns. Mind, heart, brain, all are obscure and dark until the first
great battle has been won. Be not appalled and terrified by the sight; keep
your eyes fixed on the small light and
it will grow. But let the darkness within help you to understand the
helplessness of those who have seen no light, whose souls are in profound
gloom. Blame them not. Shrink not from them, but try to lift a little of the
heavy karma of the world; give your aid to the few strong hands that hold
back the powers of darkness from
obtaining a complete victory.” [7]
Indeed, a few strong hands of
Adepts, Messengers and Disciples do keep an open connection between the eternal
wisdom and the common karma of our humanity. H.P.B.’s life was dedicated to
enhance this living connection. In May 1891 the last words she spoke before
dying revealed that she saw this “occult ladder” betwen Masters and Men as a
matter of great importance for her as an individual. HPB’s last words are recorded in a text published in 1894:
“In 1890 the Headquarters was moved to 19 Avenue Road; the folowing year
H.P.B. left us and her last message for
the Society was given to Mrs. [Isabel] Cooper-Oakley the night but one before she died. At three a.m. she looked up
and said ‘Isabel, Isabel, keep the
link unbroken ; do not let my last incarnation be a failure’.” [8]
This link is a global connection between the higher and the lower.
In her biography of H.P.B., Sylvia Cranston comments another aspect of
her final words:
“By ‘last’ she apparently did not mean her final incarnation, as that
would be contrary to one of the basic teachings of the Voice of the Silence, epitomized in the ‘Pledge of Kwan Yin’, the Buddhist Goddess
of Mercy: ‘Never will I seek nor receive private individual salvation; never
will I enter into final peace alone; but forever and everywhere will I live and
strive for the redemption of every creature throughout the world’.” [9]
This suggests that the individuality once known as “H.P.B.” would not cease to actively help
mankind. The content of the Kwan Yin’s
Pledge is strikingly similar to the description of the Guardian Wall in “The Voice of the Silence”, which was
quoted a few paragraphs above:
“Self-doomed to live through future kalpas, unthanked and unperceived by
man, wedged as a stone with countless other stones... ”
The impact of HPB’s work for humanity, certainly including several
incarnations of the spiritual soul of which she was but one life, is a significant element of our present-day
collective antahkarana. It will
constitute a stone, among countless others,
in the long-term and time-honoured Guardian Wall.
Theosophical literature has a number of references to the collective
bridge linking mankind to higher levels
of consciousness.
In “The Key to Theosophy”, H.P.B. wrote about the Esoteric School London
“H.P.B. said that the Inner Group was the Manas of the T.S, the E.S. was
the Lower Manas, and the T.S. the quaternary.” [10]
As Manas and Lower Manas contain Antahkarana, H.P.B. was implying
that the theosophical movement, the E.S. and the I.G. of her day formed
something similar to a collective Antahkarana.
In the Mahatma Letters, one can read these words from one of the
Adept-Teachers:
“Tho’ separated from your world of action we are not yet entirely
severed from it so long as the Theosophical Society [meaning, the Theosophical Movement] exists.” [11]
Here, again, the theosophical movement is seen as a bridge. Another
reference can be found in a letter by H.P. Blavatsky. She writes:
“W.Q.Judge is the antaskarana between the two Manases, the American
thought & the Indian or rather the trans-Himalayan Esoteric knowledge.”[12]
H.P.B. saw the role played by William Judge in the making of a permanent
spiritual link between the Americas
The wider, global “collective ladder” needs constant occult attention.
Building, sustaining and expanding it is a long term process. The task includes
a current of “messengers” of various degrees of development, who come century after century. Sometimes the
same soul comes once and again at brief intervals. H.P.B. hinted in “The Secret
Doctrine”:
“In Century the Twentieth some disciple more informed, and far better
fitted, may be sent by the Masters of
Wisdom to give final and irrefutable
proofs that there exists a Science called Gupta
Vidya; and that, like the once-mysterious sources of the Nile, the source of all religions and
philosophies now known to the world has
been for many ages forgotten and lost to
men, but is at last found.” [13]
In the 20th Century, she wrote; and the Messenger didn’t show up. But
Masters do not have to give to the public the exact dates and timing of
what they do for mankind.
We should be content with the small elements of information we are able
to gather about this work. We have
H.P.B.’s word that there may be another Messenger. We are not
in a position to complain if we have to wait for another 100 or 200 years. We must be willing to fulfil whatever task is in front of us, while
understanding that our lifetime is part of a much wider perspective.
William Judge wrote in a article entitled “The Closing Cycle”:
“H.P. Blavatsky has clearly pointed out in the ‘Key’, in her conclusion,
that the plan is to keep the T.S. alive as an active, free, unsectarian body
during all the time of waiting for the next great messenger, who will be
herself beyond question.” [14]
That plan every student can help.
If Judge’s words are true, the
same monad who animated “H.P.B.” may come again sooner or later and will then
have to use at least part of her old public and private skandhas or karmic heritage in order to help human
kind. Indeed, while referring to the
theosophical movement, H.P.B. wrote:
“It has my magnetic fluid”. [15]
And Theosophy teaches that Karma is about affinities.
As long as no new Messenger or Messengers appear in a way that is easy
enough for all to see, the students of theosophy are the caretakers of the
work-to-be-continued. For many of them, it can be a stimulatingly task to help
defend and preserve - for an unknown amount of time - those karmic patterns of the heart of the esoteric movement which
such a great soul or souls will probably have to face, and perhaps select,
adapt and use again, for the long-term benefit of mankind as a whole.
NOTES:
[1] “The Theosophical
Glossary”, by H. P. Blavatsky, The Theosophy Co., Los Angeles
[2] See especially the
Part Seven of the book “HPB - The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena
Blavatsky, Founder of the Modern Theosophical Movement”, by Sylvia Cranston,
published by Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam Books, New York , USA
[3] “H.P. Blavatsky,
Her Life and Work for Humanity”, Alice L. Cleather, Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta
[4] “H.P. Blavatsky As
I Knew Her”, Alice L. Cleather, Thacker,
Spink & Co., London
[5] Kalpas: Cycles of Ages.
[6] “The Voice of the
Silence”, translated and annotated by H. P. Blavatsky, Theosophy Co., Los
Angeles
[7] See the Note
referring to Rule 20, in the part I of “Light
on the Path” (Theosophy Co.) a book
transcribed by Mabel Collins.
[8] “The Path”
magazine, July 1894, volume IX, page
121. Her “last incarnation” was probably not the one she was then closing, but
the following one. “Last” could mean “last before liberation from
unconscious rebirth”.
[9] “HPB - The
Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky”, by Sylvia Cranston,
1993, see p. 407.
[10] “The Inner Group
Teachings of H.P. Blavatsky”, Point Loma Publications, 1985, p. 27.
[11] “The Mahatma
Letters to A. P. Sinnett” , T.U.P., 1992, Pasadena ,
CA , USA
[12] “Letters That Have
Helped Me”, by W. Q. Judge, Theosophy
Co., 1946, pp. 277-278. The sentence is part of a letter written by H.P.B. Canadian
author Ernest Pelletier reports that the magazine “Theosophia” published a reproduction of the original letter in its
volume 7, March-April 1951, pp. 8-9. See
“The Judge Case, a Conspiracy Which Ruined the Theosophical CAUSE”, by Ernest
Pelletier, Edmonton Theosophical Society, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 2004, page
27 - Part I, Chronology.
[13] “The Secret
Doctrine”, H. P. Blavatsky, The Theosophy Co., Los Angeles
[14] “The Closing Cycle”,
in “Theosophical Articles”, by W. Q. Judge, Theosophy Company, Los Angeles Bombay (Mumbai), India
[15] See “Theosophical
Articles”, H. P. Blavatsky, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles Calcutta
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The above text has been revised by the author in October 2011.
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