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A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - Section Two - Division D - Thought Elementals and Fire Elementals |
(d.) The Future Coming of the Avatar THE COMING AVATAR
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We have touched upon the subject of Avatars and the various classes into which they might be divided. We might now enlarge somewhat more upon the methods. The methods whereby certain cosmic Existences and certain highly evolved Entities appear among men to do a specific work might be very inadequately, and cursorily summarized, as follows:
The handicap of words is great, and the above phrases but convey a hint as to the true meaning. Therein lies safety for the student, for the real significance would be incomprehensible to him, and would but mislead him and guide him along the path of misunderstanding. Until a man is a pledged initiate, he cannot comprehend the matter. Of these, the most ordinary method is the first. All these methods of manifestation will perhaps be better understood by the student if he interprets them always in terms of force and energy, and if he notes that dim reflections of the same processes, and faint analogies can be traced among the reincarnating jivas. When a man has reached a certain development and can be of service to the world, cases occur when he is over-shadowed by a great adept, or - as in the case of H. P. B.- by One greater than an adept. A chela can be a center through which his master can pour His energy and force for the helping of the world, and in certain important crises men have been over-shadowed by more than one of the Great Ones. 50 [750] 50 Discipleship or Chelaship ...The ancient mysteries were but a school of spiritual training and perfection in true wisdom; that the preliminary qualification was the purification of the heart from all sensual passions and false preconceptions; that, while the hand of the Master might lead the neophyte through the dangers of the stage where, like the infant, he could not walk alone, he was obliged, in the higher paths, to learn to guide and guard himself, as the adult man has to do in ordinary life; that the ultimate goal was the expansion of the self into infinite existence and potentialities; and, lastly, that, however the initial forms and ceremonies may have differed in appearance, an identical aim was in view.- The Theosophist, Vol. IX, p. 246. The pure heart and clean mind alone permit one to attain salvation. This was his doctrine. So, likewise, is it taught in the Aryan Mahabharata (Sec. CXCIX. Vana Parva) which says: "Those high souled persons that do not commit sins in word, deed, heart and soul,
are said to undergo ascetic austerities, and not that they suffer their bodies to be
wasted by fasts and penances. He that hath no feeling of kindness for relatives cannot be
free from sin, even if his body be pure. That hard-heartedness of his is the enemy of his
asceticism. Asceticism, again, is not mere abstinence from the pleasures of the world. He
that is always pure and decked with virtues, he that practices kindness all his life, is a
Muni, even though he lead a domestic life." |
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