David M. Grossman – USA
A point comes in our search for meaning in life where we are ready to take a next step. We know there is a higher side to things, that the “day to day” is the water flowing under the bridge, here today gone tomorrow.
Traditionally people have sometimes turned to the spiritual life through various religious structures by withdrawing from physical worldly life, becoming nuns or monks as in Buddhism or Christianity, living in monasteries or in more extreme expressions as in the examples of Indian Yogis withdrawing into the proverbial cave and embracing the totally austere and solitary life for a time.
Theosophy has been (re)introduced to the world in a more populous, technologically fast paced, and urban environment than in the past and presents a path of chelaship or spiritual pathway that is designed you might say to interface and benefit from the difficulties of the materialistic and challenging civilization we inhabit at present. In other words in an odd sort of way we are advised to embrace rather than abandon the world.
William Q. Judge sheds some light on this when he suggests “to do the duty before us to do,” that the law of karma works in such a way as to present us in our lives those circumstances and challenges that offer us the best means for growing and moving forward on the spiritual path of life. Aphorism 18 in Judges Aphorisms on Karma says:
(18) Every instrument used by any Ego in any life is appropriate to the Karma operating through it.
When we perceive this fact consciously and act accordingly, we have entered the Path of chelaship.
The word “chela” oddly enough in English actually refers to each of a pair of hinged pincer-like claws terminating the anterior limbs of a crab, lobster, or scorpion. It was HPB and her Theosophical writings through which the Sanskrit word Chela became more widely known in English as denoting a disciple or student of a guru, especially in the context of esoteric or spiritual teachings.
By definition a chela is traditionally a follower of a teacher or guru. A disciple is usually a student of a teacher, leader, or philosopher. We often think of the 12 disciples or apostles of Jesus when we think of the term discipleship.
Today we can also think of a disciple as one who follows certain principles which refine and strengthen his or her higher proclivities and align with ones true nature. Thus the person may not consider himself a Buddhist, a Christian a Hindu or a Jew but exemplifies those qualities that all religions encourage us to cultivate in our lives. The study of Theosophy is very conducive to this point of view as reflected in the second object off the Theosophical Society, “To encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy and science.” As Madame Blavatsky expressed it in her book The Secret Doctrine, “Don’t follow me or my path, but the path that I show.” True understanding and individual transformation must come from within.
Light on the Path, a theosophical classic leans into the idea that the teacher or Guru is within. This is not to imply that there are not actual Masters of Wisdom or teachers we may karmically be or become aligned with and take direction from in the work of becoming “conscious co-workers with nature,” in other words aiding in the spiritual upliftment and fulfillment of all that lives. We must each purify ourselves by the heat of the “alchemical furnace” of self-transformation.
It is stated in Light on the Path:
These rules are written for all disciples: Attend you to them. Before the eyes can see, they must be incapable of ears. Before the ear can hear, it must have lost its sensitiveness. Before the voice can speak in the presence of the Masters it must have lost the power to wound. Before the soul can stand in the presence of the Masters its feet must be washed in the blood of the heart.
It begins with the eye and the ear, in other words we are told we must take control of and overcome the power of the senses. Later on, it speaks of the personal desire nature:
Kill out ambition. (1) 2. Kill out desire of life. 3. Kill out desire of comfort. 4. Work as those who are ambitious. Respect life as those who desire it. Be happy those who live for happiness. 8…… “Learn from sensation and observe it, because only so you can commence the science of self-knowledge, and plant your foot on the first step of the ladder.” Mabel Collins, Light on the Path
William Q. Judge points out:
There is no idleness for the Mystic. He finds his daily life among the roughest and hardest of the labors and trials of the world perhaps but goes his way with smiling face and joyful heart, nor grows too sensitive for association with his fellows, nor so extremely spiritual as to forget that some other body is perhaps hungering for food.
Live well your life. Seek to realize the meaning of every event. Strive to find the Ever Living and wait for more light. ….. If you are striving for light and Initiation, remember this, that your cares will increase, your trials thicken, your family make new demands upon you. He who can understand and pass through these patiently, wisely, placidly-may hope.
Musings On The True Theosophist’s Path
The road of chelaship is the path to inner unity, the conscious refinement and ordering of our lower principles; body, astral body and kamic nature, all energized by prana from the matter side, and illuminated through the light of higher Manas (mind) fueled by Atma/Budhi, so they become a fit trinity for the real individuality, Ego or “Real Person,” Atma-Budhi-Manas. The impulse to do this comes from a growing realization over time and lifetimes that there is a universal purpose to life and a life worth living is one that is lived on behalf of that purpose.
H.P. Blavatsky writes in The Secret Doctrine:
—(c) The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over-Soul, the latter being itself an aspect of the Unknown Root; and the obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul — a spark of the former — through the Cycle of Incarnation (or “Necessity”) in accordance with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the whole term. In other words, no purely spiritual Buddhi (divine Soul) can have an independent (conscious) existence before the spark which issued from the pure Essence of the Universal Sixth principle, — or the over-soul, — has (a) passed through every elemental form of the phenomenal world of that Manvantara, and (b) acquired individuality, first by natural impulse, and then by self-induced and self-devised efforts (checked by its Karma), thus ascending through all the degrees of intelligence, from the lowest to the highest Manas, from mineral and plant, up to the holiest archangel (Dhyani-Buddha). The pivotal doctrine of the Esoteric philosophy admits no privileges or special gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego through personal effort and merit throughout a long series of metempsychoses and reincarnations.
The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, Page 17 PROEM.
Thus, the Path of the chela unfolds with the active awareness that, we are all in this thing called life together and the aspiration to participate consciously, “to be the better able to help and teach others” becomes the motivating engine of our being.
The world we live in today is very polarized and to hold a unifying vision for all mankind is tricky. With the stark divisions between left and right, black and white, this religious belief or that, making choices that affect the air, earth and water, the first step, before any and all meaningful actions, demands that we root ourselves in those universal principles that are true foundations for health, harmony, unity and vision in the world. From that basis only do we have a “true North” compass that will help us navigate a positive course and not add to the polarization caused by selfish and misguided actions.
The acts of love and compassion, forgiveness and generosity are the active ingredients for chelaship. Jesus certainly stressed this road to his inner circle, his disciples, “Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.”(John8:7) “Turn the other cheek,” (Matthew5:39) “Love thy neighbor as thy self,”(Matthew 22:39) “the truth will set you free” (John 8:32) to name a few.
When we turn to Mahayana Buddhism we find in it similar precepts for treading the path:
Right View, Right Resolve, Richt Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.
All have to do with refining and transforming the mind and inner nature to be fit instruments for the Higher Self to manifest into true chelaship, mastering ourselves so to speak and becoming candidates for what HPB refers to as Adeptship, the long term goal of disciple or chelaship.
The idea of initiation has long been connected with spiritual development and the acquirement of Occult or special knowledge as in the ancient Egyptian Mystery Schools where the neophyte (chela) would advance step by step through vows, trials and a series of awakenings (initiations).
In her first major work, Isis Unveiled, HPB remarks on the process of initiation into various Mystery Schools. She points out:
The Mysteries are as old as the world, and one well versed in the esoteric mythologies of various nations can trace them back to the days of the ante-Vedic period in India. A condition of the strictest virtue and purity is required from the Vatou, or candidate in India before he can become an initiate, whether he aims to be a simple fakir, a Purohita (public priest) or a Sannyasi, a saint of the second degree of initiation, the most holy as the most revered of them all.
No one who has not practiced, during his whole life, the ten virtues which the divine Manu makes incumbent as a duty, can be initiated into the Mysteries of the council," say the Hindu books of initiation.
Isis Unveiled, vol. 1, pgs.98-99
“When the student is ready, the Master will appear” is a phrase familiar in Theosophical circles and conveys a different facet of the idea of initiation, thinking of it as a verb; “to initiate.” So while the term initiation conveys the idea of knowledge or certain truths being bestowed upon the student when he is ready, we should also consider and emphasize the idea that the Chela or Disciple, in order to develop, learn and come into contact with deeper mysteries of life must himself “Initiate,” be an active initiator him or herself. Again this idea ties in with “embracing life” in the sense it was earlier mentioned.
If we assume that all beings are evolving, in that sense we are all on the Path of Chelaship, albeit unconsciously. When we awaken to this fact and perceive life’s purpose more fully, we become part of the conscious stream of evolution. Only then are we actively on the Path of Chelaship.
As Krishna tells Arjuna in the final chapter of the Bhagavad Gita:
There dwelleth in the heart of every creature, O Arjuna, the Master — Isvara — who by his magic power causeth all things and creatures to revolve mounted upon the universal wheel of time. Take sanctuary with him alone, O son of Bharata, with all thy soul; by his grace thou shalt obtain supreme happiness, the eternal place.
Thus have I made known unto thee this knowledge which is a mystery more secret than secrecy itself; ponder it fully in thy mind, act as seemeth best unto thee.
William Q. Judge rendition, Bhagavad Gita, Ch. 18, pgs. 130-131
Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.
Carl Gustav Jung