NIRVANA
Nirvana
A Study in
Synthetic Consciousness
by
George Sidney Arundale
First published 1926
Dr Arundale
was International President of
the
Theosophical Society (Adyar) from 1933 to 1945
__________
CHAPTER V
Some Reflections
... the city that is
built
To Music, therefore
never built at all,
And therefore: built
for ever.
TENNYSON (Gareth and
Lynette).
I THINK I am justified
in my surmise that in some definite way entry into Nirvanic consciousness
modifies every lower vehicle from the Buddhic downwards; so that the very
physical body itself is changed, and will become more so as time passes. It
has, I imagine; been the same with all previous expansions of consciousness,
for form is dependent upon consciousness. Outer forms are reflections, shadows,
of inner realities. To us, density suggests permanence, durability, reality.
From the inner
standpoint, the greater the density the less the permanence, the less the
durability, the less the reality. I feel my very physical body changed
consequent upon this entry into a new realm of being, but I do not know how far
others perceive the change, if change there be. I suppose a clairvoyant would
perceive the readjustment. Life in all its details, on all planes, becomes much
more wonderful, stupendous, majestic beyond conception, for even the little
things are perceived to be contributing to great ends. “Not a sparrow falls to
the ground” has a new significance, for it is wonderfully true of the whole of
life.
As for myself, I cannot
walk in the garden„ through the Australian bush on my way to work in town,
without perceiving everything around me in terms of the Light I know. The
growing grass, the trees swaying in the breeze, the birds singing in the air
and flying from tree to tree, the insects crawling on the ground, the very
earth I tread in all its varied forms of rock and
mould, the water
trickling down the hill-side, the very air I breathe: all is imprisoned
splendour, sacred to every sense I possess. I am more in tune than ever before
with the Purpose of Life. I see God working out His Purpose in all around me;
and all around me is
shining Light, restless, ordered growth-movement. Colour, form, place, storm,
sound, stillness, time - all are growth, because Light ever shines. It is the
nature of Light to shine - a fact which down here people sometimes express in
the phrase, the import of which is little apprehended - God
is Love. God shines,
for He is Light and Love Ineffable.
May I repeat once more
that Nirvana is everywhere? We do not need to go, we only need to perceive.
Heaven lies about us in our infancy, in the infancy of our evolution, but we
are not alive to it. A Master may pass us in the street, embodied Heaven may
pass us by, and we shall go on our way unheeding, perhaps uninfluenced, or
hardly influenced. The truth may be uttered to our very ears, yet we may remain
deaf to the utterance. If we have not heard Nirvana it is simply because our
sense of hearing is yet too crude.
If we have not seen
Nirvana it is simply because our sight is yet too dim. Nirvana lies about us.
Do we stop to consider what weaknesses in us, what lack of growth, veil from us
the Vision Splendid? Nirvana is in the very air we breathe, in the very sights
we see, in the most trifling circumstances of our daily lives. So, too, is
Buddhi.
So near, and yet
apparently so far. Is it not worth while to strive to refine our senses that
these glories may become unfolded to our sight, to our hearing? How? There is
but one way, a way most simply put in At the Feet of the Master, embodying the
words of a Great Teacher as taken down by a pupil. Begin to live the precepts
therein set forth, it is enough to begin, and soon we shall know these Heavens.
Let there be none who, knowing of the way, are too foolish, too lazy, to tread
it.
I have said elsewhere
that to preserve my balance in the midst of the new and blinding splendours I
had to know that there was more beyond even these. I am now beginning to
perceive that equally must I remember the existence of the less. Only thus
shall a true balance be preserved. I must not ignore time because I know
something of Eternity. I must not ignore the darkness because I know something
of the Light. I must not ignore diversity because I know something of the
Unity. I must not ignore man because I have learned something of God. I cannot,
and do not, perceive the significance of Eternity, of Light,
of Unity, of God, save
as I work in their respective shadows of Time, of Darkness, of Diversity, of
Man and of all that leads up to Man.
Not that I feel more
bound to specific growth. Were I treading the Pathway leading to the office of
Manu, or of Bodhisattva, or of Mahachohan, I should, I imagine, be coming
infinitely closer to Races or to Faiths, to this world to which these Great
Ones so specially belong. But because I belong to the Staff, I am called to an
apprenticeship to more general functions. The opening of the Nirvanic
consciousness seems to bring me closer both to the great Lord of our world
Himself and to our Lord the Sun, the Lord of the Universe.
Hitherto I have had to
live in the world because I have grown in and through it. Now I seem to belong
to this world only because, for the time being, I am sent here. Members of the
Staff may be sent anywhere, to function on another plane, to serve in any
world. Glorious is the service of those who are messengers of our Lord the Sun,
members of His Staff. I am but the humblest apprentice in the ranks of that
great body, though it may be that for many lives I have been working towards
such apprenticeship. One day, in some far distant future, I shall become a
wanderer through the spaces, a messenger of the Universal Will.
My home will be the
Universe, for I serve my Lord the Sun wheresoever it shall please Him to send
me.
For the time being I am
concerned with the mass, with crowds, with the larger shapings, but it does not
seem to matter whether the mass be human or sub-human, whether the crowds be
men or congregations in the lower kingdoms. I experience a peculiar joy in the
sense of being sent, entirely irrespective of the objective.
I presume the future
Manu and the future Bodhisattva must grow in attachment to those with whom in
the distant future they will be officially concerned. Already they are planning
their peoples or their, faiths, little though some of them may remember the
fact in their waking consciousness. From the very moment of their consecration
to office their true life’s work may be said to begin.
It is, of course, the
same with us of the Staff we too have our ceremony of consecration. But our
objectives are fleeting objectives, which vary as the need varies. We fill
gaps; we make new pathways; we establish and strengthen communications. We
start activities which their proper rulers will take over and
direct; we are hurried
to danger points. Any world may be our special world for the time; any plane may
be the special plane of our activity; any race or nation may be our special
race or
nation; any faith may
be our 0special faith; any place may be our special place; but only for the
time.
We of the Staff live in
the Will of the Lord, ready for His bidding. As His messengers we go forth,
returning to Him as soon as the message has been delivered, be the delivery of
it a piece of work or an intimation of His Will. There is no great apotheosis
of achievement for us; no mighty consummation.
We may sow seed, or
carry seed to the sower, or till the soil. We have no concern with the greater
harvests. We shall go elsewhere, perhaps, long before fields in which we have
laboured are ready for the reapers. I have said above that we of the Staff live
in the Will of the Lord; but truly all live in the Will of the
Lord. How then can I
express the difference between one kind of living and another? The only
comparison I can make is with an army. There is the Commander-in-Chief. He has
his Generals and his Staff, his officers and men.
All live in the will of
the Commander-in-Chief, for all are carrying out his will. But you will at once
see the difference between the work of the Generals scattered over the area of
the campaign and that of the Staff who go out from headquarters, convey the
orders, carry out the specific duties entrusted to
them, and 0then return.
The Staff are the Commander’s personal representatives; the Generals his
agents. In some ways there is less responsibility upon the Staff than upon the
Generals. The Generals are given an objective and possibly a general plan, but
they must work out the scheme themselves. The work of the Staff is in some ways
far more specific, but needs
great adaptability; a
member of the Staff must be able to go anywhere and do, with reasonable
efficiency, anything. Above all, he must live in great detachment from his
work, while wholeheartedly doing it.
A most interesting
revelation lies in the realization of the way in which the great Company of
Servers,* (*See Appendix D.) from ourselves upwards, forms a wonderful centre
of Light - one of the Suns of the world, of which our Lord the Sun is the
heart. The Company of Servers, viewed in the deeper insight afforded me by this
expansion of consciousness, becomes one unity through the ages. I do not know
quite what language to use, but it is as if this Company might be likened to a
film-roll-part in action on the screen, part completed, part yet to come.
At any particular time,
such and such members are active on the physical plane, others not yet engaged,
yet active on other planes - and here is where the film simile fails, for from
one point of view the whole Company is active all the time on one plane or
another, to the common end.
There seems to be no
particular past, present or future. There is as much future in the Company as
present or past. It may be that some have yet to join its ranks. Yet they are
already of the Company from a certain standpoint, and are borne upon its
strength. There is, of course, variation in strength of
functioning, but the
Company of Servers is a type apart, to which Monads seem to be attached ab
initio, however long it may take for the type to be expressed in the outer
consciousness. It is a kind of predestination, the Monad having taken the resolve.
This centre of
Light-formed, as I have said, by the Company of Servers - is a process of
expansion of world-consciousness. It is a world-chakra, growing in
Light-intensity. It is not, of course, the only centre. There are many others,
hidden as well as outer. Among the former is the true Rosicrucianism; among the
latter the great
centres of Light such as Adyar, 0Sydney, Ommen and Huizen, such as Ojai and
It is as if the whole
world were passing through some kind of initiation, and the world gains an
added radiance, distinctly perceptible to inner sight.Another fact of great
significance is that to be a pupil of a Master, even to be a member of a
Master’s School of Training, involves a very beautiful partial
identification with the
Master’s Light. From the very moment that an individual is connected with a
Master, His Light to some extent shines through him and in him. At Sonship the
connection is made indissoluble, but even then the extent to which the
connecting “wires” can bear increasing transmission depends upon their strength
and purity. There may be a feeble glow or a radiant brightness.
The Masters have
explained to us that those of us, with whom They have definite and special
links, are in a special measure not only Their representatives in the outer
worlds, but also representatives of our Lord the Sun, consecrated to shine for
Him and in His Brightness in the outer darkness. Surely this is a great and
wonderful privilege for us, bearing a solemn and heart-searching responsibility
all the more stupendous when we know in some slight degree Who and What He is.
As He causes His Light to shine alike upon the just and upon the unjust, the
saint and the sinner, the poor and the rich, the weak and the strong of all
Faiths and Nations, so must the sunshine of our own power, compassion and
understanding reflect His glory upon all. We must be all things to all men. We
must be in the outer worlds a faint reflection of that which makes Nirvana so
glorious a witness to the Love of God. As the Sun is all things to His
universe, so must we little suns be all things to ours.
It is not what men do
to us that matters. It is not what circumstances are to us that matters. All
that matters is what we are to them. Circumstances and people may frown upon
us, but we can only smile. Circumstances and people may persecute us, ridicule
us, despise us. We can but give our goodwill in return.
We must be all good
things to all men. A hard task for those who have been accustomed to return
evil for evil, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a blow for a blow, an
injury for an injury, a frown for a frown. But we have learned otherwise. We
have ceased to have the power to injure. We can no longer hinder, we can but
help and serve; for this is all we care to do. The
taste for satisfying
the lower nature at the expense of others has departed from us. We can no
longer feel hurt. We can no longer feel annoyed. We can no longer feel shocked.
We are concerned with
what we can do for others, not with what others do to us - that is their
business. Let those who know something of the great Hierarchy strive to understand
more clearly what that Hierarchy is, and of Whom it is composed. Let each
member of the Society meditate upon these greater
Suns in the firmament
of the world, unifying himself to the utmost of his power with Their Radiance.
Let each member feel this Radiance surging through him to the outer world,
lifting him into a divine and clear-cut, over-flowing ecstasy as it floods his
being.
Let us learn to reflect,
as occasion demands, the varied glories of the Seven Rays. The members of Their
Staff of workers must be able, no matter to what Ray they may individually
belong, to become channels for any colour in the great Spectrum of the Rays. We
must sense the respective variations of these Rays on the theme of the
Light-Splendid and in the thrill of our response realize how glowing must be
the varied life which we should radiate into the world.
But may I say here that
it is utterly immaterial to what Ray we belong? From one standpoint each of us,
everything, belongs to all the Rays. As for the dominant Ray, the less we
bother about it the better. I have noticed that most people who talk about
their Rays are very little on any Ray. While we speculate about ourselves, we
remain small, for we are the centre of our circles. When we forget ourselves
and are lost in the work, then we shall cease to speculate and wonder, for we
shall know. Leave yourselves alone and devote yourselves to others.
I notice as a fact of
very considerable importance that each individual is a reflection, however
feeble, of the line to which he belongs, or on which he happens to be working.
Every teacher, whoever and wherever he may be, simply because he is a teacher,
becomes in some degree an image of Those Who serve the Teaching Ray, though too
often this image is distorted and barely recognizable, sometimes even worse
than a distortion. As every Christian priest is a humble representative of the
Christ, so is every teacher a humble representative of one of the Great Heads
of the Teaching Department of the world. This privilege is his because of his
office, and apart from all question of his worthiness. To be a teacher is to be
a representative of the Great Teachers. The responsibility cannot be escaped
any more than the privilege.
The same principle
holds good in all departments. Those who rule, the statesmen, the politicians,
all engaged in statecraft, are humble representatives - worthy or unworthy - of
the Great Rulers. They may desecrate and degrade the office; yet the office
remains, however besmirched. The same principle holds good in all sub-divisions
of departments. All this is in compliance with, in expression of, the great
Unity of all Life.
One thus becomes able
to see the Real in every one, however much the unreal may interpose. One
perceives the Truth despite the camouflage. Every teacher, by virtue of his
office, is a Christ in miniature; but how little most of them realize their
possibilities and responsibilities! Many teachers are careless and
perfunctory, many are
incredibly cruel; yet upon each of them, as a teacher, the Christ-Light sheds
its glory, however blankly unaware of this privilege he may be, however little
the 0glory may shine through, be the windows of his soul open or closed. He is
part, for the time being at all events, of the heavenly Teacher, the embodiment
of the Teaching Principle in life.
Applying this fact
within a more circumscribed area, we realize that those who are members of a
Church dedicated to some special Teacher are part of His body corporate, and
thus partake of His essential nature. For example, those who are in communion,
through the dedication of their church, with St. Alban, are thereby linked to
him, become members of his family and may draw upon his life.
He is the father of
that Church-family. It becomes very much worth while, therefore, to acquire all
available authentic information about St. Alban, his lives, his line of work,
his special characteristics, and so on. As members of his Church it becomes
easier for us to contact him, and to develop in our own natures the glorious
qualities existing in his. There is very much more in the dedication of a
Church to a Saint than appears at first sight. There is also very much more
than appears at first sight in becoming a teacher or a politician, in taking an
office of whatever kind which involves responsibility to the outer world.
And not only is the
link made with an Elder Brother, it is also made with His angels, and with all
other grades attached to the same department. The fact that we belong to this
Earth links us in a wonderful degree with the Earth-Life, makes us
representatives of the Earth-Spirit, of the Earth-consciousness. It would be
well if we related ourselves more definitely to the larger life around us, so
that we might become more effective instruments, less obstructive channels.
Have you ever meditated on the life-force you draw from our very globe itself,
from its various constituent elements of earth, air, fire, water, and so forth?
Interrelationship, interaction, everywhere. Our very existence modifies the
world, and qualifies it according to our natures, just as we ourselves are
creatures of the Earth, its children.
__________
THEOSOPHY
NIRVANA
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