The present issue of this magazine closes the first year of its publication. It was not started because its projectors thought that they alone knew the true Path, but solely out of an intense longing to direct inquiring minds towards a way which had seemed to many persons who had tried it, to hold out the possibility of finding an answer to the burning questions that vex the human heart.
All our devotion to Aryan literature and philosophy arises from a belief that the millions of minds who have trodden weary steps before ours left a path which might be followed with profit, yet with discrimination. For we implicitly believe that in this curve of the cycle the final authority is the man himself.
Our belief may be summed up in the motto of the Theosophical Society, “There is no religion higher than Truth,” and our practice consists in a disregard of any authority in matters of religion and philosophy except such propositions as from their innate quality we feel to be true.
It seems plain that in every religion is found the belief that that part of man which is immortal must be a part of the Supreme Being, for there cannot be two immortalities at once, since that would give to each a beginning, and therefore the immortal part of man must be derived from the true and only immortality.
This immortal spark has manifested itself in many different classes of men, giving rise to all the varied religions, many of which have forever disappeared from view. Not any of them could have been the whole Truth, but each must have presented one of the facets of the great gem, and thus through the whole surely run ideas shared by all. These common ideas point to truth. They grow out of man’s inner nature and are not the result of revealed books.
From our present standpoint it appears to us that the true path lies in the way pointed out by our Aryan forefathers, philosophers and sages, whose light is still shining brightly, albeit that this is now Kali Yuga, or the age of darkness.
At the same time we do not intend to slight the results arrived at by others who lived within our own era. They shall receive attention, for it may be that the mind of the race has changed so as to make it necessary now to present truths in a garb which in former times was of no utility. Whatever the outer veil, the truth remains ever the same.
The study of what is now called “practical occultism” has some interest for us, and will receive the attention it may merit, but is not the object of this journal. We regard it as incidental to the journey along the path.
True occultism is clearly set forth in the Bhagavad-Gita, and Light on the Path, where sufficient stress is laid upon practical occultism; but after all, Krishna says, the kingly science and the kingly mystery is devotion to and study of the light which comes from within. What is wanted is true knowledge of the spiritual condition of man, his aim and destiny. This is offered to a reasonable certainty in the writings of H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge. It is not thought that Utopia can be established in a day; but through the spreading of the idea of Universal Brotherhood, the truth in all things may be discovered. A beginning has been made. Let us then together enter upon another year, fearing nothing, assured of strength in the Union of Brotherhood. For how can we fear death, or life, or any horror or evil, at any place or time, when we well know that even death itself is a part of the dream which we are weaving before our eyes.