05 May 2006
The following information was first published in England in 1932
THE SCIENCE OF Raja Yoga Those who are apt to sweep aside Occultism as fanciful nonsense-for I write this introduction less for Theosophists than for the lay reader-will find if they consult the dictionary that occult means existing but not immediately perceptible. Thus the occultist maintains that in and around us exist planes of being not immediately perceptible, but, as already stated, subject to perception by those who are prepared to develop the necessary faculties. The process of developing these has in India been reduced to an exact science known as Raja Yoga, of which slightly varying forms have been secretly taught in every civilisation. See Raja Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda. (Various editions.)
Briefly stated the science of Raja yogis consists in a number of graduated processes calculated to bring about such an intense and specific concentration of mind that the practitioner, or Yogi, loses all consciousness of his body and becomes for the time-being super-conscious. Expressed in material language, he leaves the physical plane and enters a higher plane of consciousness where he undergoes certain ecstatic experiences, and, what is highly important for this argument, brings back the memory of those experiences when he returns to his body. This condition is called Samadhi or super-conscious trance. (This is not to be confounded with the subconscious trance of the spiritistic medium or hypnotic subject; the latter remembers nothing when the trance is concluded, or if he does remember anything, it is usually too unimportant to be termed Illumination.)
To quote Swami Vivekananda :
When the mind has been trained to remain fixed on a certain internal or external location, there comes to it the power, as it were, of flowing in an unbroken current towards that point....When this power has been so much intensified as to be able to reject the external part of perception and remain meditating only on the internal part, the meaning...then it acquires knowledge of the finer manifestations of Nature and of what occultists call the Higher Planes. This knowledge, however, can be acquired by means other than that of entrancement, which is more suited and appeals more to the Oriental than to the Westerner, who is more active by nature and whose whole organism is differently constituted. Yet by whatever scientifically regulated process the finer manifestations are perceived, the practitioner comes to know once and for all that he is immortal, and that our physical plane is but the grossest of all planes of consciousness. If he so desires, he is enabled to contact disembodied entities who once lived on earth, and also the Devas, those hosts of Spiritual Intelligences who are treading a line of evolution different from our own, but who play an important part in carrying out the great scheme of Nature and the government of our Solar System. Further he knows that the doctrine of Reincarnation is a fact, and that the law of sequence and consequence, termed Karma, is also a fact. He knows that he possesses not merely a physical body but other bodies of much rarer matter which envelope and interpenetrate that physical body and also interpenetrate each other. (These subtler bodies he can see around his fellow-men in the form. of auras which vary in size and colour according to the development and character of each individual.)
Finally, if he persists and attains the goal of this age-old science of Yoga, he will reach the Nirvanic plane, the plane of complete, eternal and unconditional Bliss.
When a man has reached Nirvana or Liberation he is not compelled to retain his physical body or to re-incarnate in another. The choice is open to him either to live a disembodied existence for all eternity - or to remain as a Master of Wisdom for a considerable time, at any rate, on the earth. In the latter case he holds some Office in the occult Hierarchy, and helps in a large variety of ways the development of humanity.
Those who attain Liberation (or Adeptship, in Western terminology) yet who remain on earth, are of course not subject to the limitations of ordinary men. They have attained the goal, therefore all the Higher Planes are open to them. Moreover their consciousness is one of perpetual Joy .In whatever work they may be engaged, this joy-consciousness never leaves them. Being Adepts in Yoga they can perform miracles, but seldom choose to do so, because except in very rare circumstances they regard all miracle-working as a form of exhibitionism. Indeed their lack of vanity is so complete, that despite their nobility and great powers, they have been modest enough to term themselves the Elder Brothers and Servants of Humanity, since, in their own words, they live to serve as well as to guide, for those who guide do but serve.
Yet in their guidance they never interfere with the workings of free-will, for that is against the Law. They suggest but they never coerce; they inspire but never command. Their activities, in fact, are so numerous and varied, and have been so eloquently delineated by that great orator and disciple, Dr Annie Besant, that I cannot do better than quote from her pamphlet on The Masters :
They aid, in countless ways, the progress of humanity. From the highest sphere They shed down light and life on all the world, that may be taken up and assimilated as freely as the sunshine, by all who are receptive enough to take it in. ...Next. the Masters specially connected with religions use these religions as reservoirs into which They pour spiritual energy, to be distributed to the faithful in each religion through the duly appointed " means of grace". Next comes the great intellectual work, wherein the Masters send out thought-forms of high intellectual power to be caught up by men of genius, assimilated by them and given out to the world; on this level also They send out Their wlshes to Their disclples, notifying them of the tasks to which they should set their hands. Then comes the work in the lower mental world, the generation of the thought-forms which influence the concrete mind and guide it along useful lines of activity in this world, and the teaching of those who are living in the heavenly world. Then the large activities of the intermediate world, the helping of the so-called dead, the general direction and supervision of the teaching of the younger pupils and the sending of aid in numberless cases of need. In the physical world the watching of the tendencies of events, the correction and neutralizing, as far as law permits, of evil currents, the constant balancing of the forces that work for and against evolution, the strengthening of the good, the weakening of the evil.
It will be seen from this that although the Masters may have their heads in Heaven, their feet walk the earth, which is another way of saying that they are no vague dreamers but eminently practical men. They have shed all the vices and weaknesses of ordinary mortals, it is true, but they have plodded through those vices and weaknesses themselves on the way towards Adeptship. Therefore their attitude is one of complete understanding and tolerance, combined with a great sympathy and what is equally important, as they say themselves-a pronounced sense of humour. This latter, among their many other qualities, was engagingly apparent when that remarkable woman and initiate, H. P. Blavatsky, towards the end of last century founded the Theosophical Society, and first brought the Masters Koot Hoomi and Morya to the notice of an unreceptive world. Since that time, however, a certain element of sacerdotalism has crept into the Society, and the Masters have come to be looked upon rather as glorified parsons: a distinction to which they prefer not to lay claim. It is always difficult to dissociate any form of ecclesiasticism from sectarian points of view, and as one of the great ideals which the Masters seek to inculcate is Unity in Diversity, this attitude is to be deprecated. And even more to be deprecated is the policy to which Alice Bailey draws attention in her admirable book, Initiations Human and Solar.
She writes :
Certain schools of occultism and of theosophical endeavour have claimed to be the sole repository of Their teaching, and the sole outlet for Their efforts, thereby limiting that which They do, and fonnulating premises which time and circumstance will fail to substantiate. They work most assuredly through such groups of thinkers, and throw much of Their force into the work of such organizations, yet, nevertheless, They have Their disciples and Their followers everywhere, and work through many bodies and many aspects of teaching. Throughout the world, these Masters have come into incarnation at this time with the sole intent of participating in the activities and occupations and truth-dissemination of the various churches, sciences and philosophies, and thus producing within the organization itself an expansion, a widening, and a disintegration where necessary , which might otherwise be impossible. It might be wise for occult students everywhere to recognize these facts, and to cultivate the ability to recognize the hierarchical vibration as it demonstrates through the medium of disciples in the most unlikely places and groups. Nevertheless even if some members of the Theosophical Society have been inclined to fall into the sectarian error mentioned of arrogating to the Society the sole right to receive and give forth the Masters' teachings, let us not forget how much we are indebted to that Society and its leaders for the wealth of occult knowledge which it has offered to the world. It is merely regrettable that the vast output of Theosophical literature does not circulate as freely as could be desired.
NOTES
1. Nirvana is not annihilation, as uninitiated Orientalists have supposed. On the contrary it is the very opposite; it is one-ness with Life itself, yet without loss of individuality. The only annihilation involved is that of all limitations, all human weaknesses and selfishness.
See E. Shure, The Great lnitiates ?
2. The modus operandi by which all miracles are performed is to be found in the Aphorisms of Patanjali.
3. The recent benefic aspect of Jupiter to Uranus, early in July 1932, was utilised by the Adepts to bring the Lausanne Conference to an unexpectedly successful issue after the preliminary discussions had threatened to prove abortive.
Proy.
