Chelas And Lay Chelas
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As the word Chela has, among others,
been introduced by Theosophy into the nomenclature of Western
metaphysics, and the circulation of our magazine is constantly
widening, it will be as well if some more definite explanation
than heretofore is given with respect to the meaning of this term
and the rules of Chelaship, for the benefit of our European if
not Eastern members. A "Chela" then, is one who has
offered himself or herself as a pupil to learn practically the
"hidden mysteries of Nature and the psychical powers latent
in man." The spiritual teacher to whom he proposes his candidature
is called in India a Guru; and the real Guru is always an Adept
in the Occult Science. A man of profound knowledge, exoteric and
esoteric, especially the latter; and one who has brought his carnal
nature under subjection of the WILL; who has
developed in himself both the power (Siddhi) to control
the forces of nature, and the capacity to probe her secrets by
the help of the formerly latent but now active powers of his being: – this
is the real Guru. To offer oneself as a candidate for Chelaship
is easy enough, to develop into an Adept the most difficult task
any man could possibly undertake. There are scores of "natural-born"
poets, mathematicians, mechanics, statesmen, etc., but a natural-born
Adept is something practically impossible. For, though we do hear
at very rare intervals of one who has an extraordinary innate
capacity for the acquisition of occult knowledge and power, yet
even he has to pass the self-same tests and probations, and go
through the same self-training as any less endowed fellow aspirant.
In this matter it is most true that there is no royal road by
which favourites may travel.
For centuries the selection of Chelas – outside the hereditary
group within the gon-pa (temple) – has been made by the
Himalayan Mahatmas themselves from among the class – in Tibet,
a considerable one as to number – of natural mystics. The only
exceptions have been in the cases of Western men like Fludd, Thomas
Vaughan, Paracelsus, Pico di Mirandola, Count St. Germain, etc.,
whose temperamental affinity to this celestial science more or
less forced the distant Adepts to come into personal relations
with them, and enabled them to get such small (or large) proportion
of the whole truth as was possible under their social surroundings.
from Book IV of Kiu-te, Chapter on "the Laws of Upasans,"
we learn that the qualifications expected in a Chela were: –
1. Perfect physical health;
2. Absolute mental and physical purity;
3. Unselfishness of purpose; universal charity; pity for all animate
beings;
4. Truthfulness and unswerving faith in the law of Karma, independent
of any power in nature that could interfere: a law whose course
is not to be obstructed by any agency, not to be caused to deviate
by prayer or propitiatory exoteric ceremonies;
5. A courage undaunted in every emergency, even by peril to life;
6. An intuitional perception of one's being the vehicle of the
manifested Avalokitesvara or Divine Atman (Spirit);
7. Calm indifference for, but a just appreciation of everything
that constitutes the objective and transitory world, in its relation
with, and to, the invisible regions.
Such, at the least, must have been the recommendations of one
aspiring to perfect Chelaship. With the sole exception of the
1st, which in rare and exceptional cases might have been modified,
each one of these points has been invariably insisted upon, and
all must have been more or less developed in the inner nature
by the Chela's UNHELPED EXERTIONS, before
he could be actually put to the test.
When the self-evolving ascetic – whether in, or outside the active
world – had placed himself, according to his natural capacity,
above, hence made himself master of, his (1) Sarira – body;
(2) lndriya – senses; (3) Dosha – faults; (4) Dukkha – pain;
and is ready to become one with his Manas – mind; Buddhi – intellection,
or spiritual intelligence; and Atma – highest soul, i.e.,
spirit. When he is ready for this, and, further, to recognize
in Atma the highest ruler in the world of perceptions,
and in the will, the highest executive energy (power), then may
he, under the time-honoured rules, be taken in hand by one of
the Initiates. He may then be shown the mysterious path at whose
thither end the Chela is taught the unerring discernment of Phala,
or the fruits of causes produced, and given the means of reaching
,Apavarga – emancipation, from the misery of repeated
births (in whose determination the ignorant has no hand), and
thus of avoiding Pratya-bhava – transmigration.
But since the advent of the Theosophical Society, one of whose
arduous tasks it was to re-awaken in the Aryan mind the dormant
memory of the existence of this science and of those transcendent
human capabilities, the rules of Chela selection have become slightly
relaxed in one respect. Many members of the Society becoming convinced
by practical proof upon the above points, and rightly enough thinking
that if other men had hitherto reached the goal, they too if inherently
fitted, might reach it by following the same path, pressed to
be taken as candidates. And as it would be an interference with
Karma to deny them the chance of at least beginning – since they
were so importunate, they were given it. The results have been
far from encouraging so far, and it is to show these unfortunates
the cause of their failure as much as to warn others against rushing
heedlessly upon a similar fate, that the writing of the present
article has been ordered. The candidates in question, though plainly
warned against it in advance, began wrong by selfishly looking
to the future and losing sight of the past. They forgot that they
had done nothing to deserve the rare honour of selection, nothing
which warranted their expecting such a privilege; that they could
boast of none of the above enumerated merits. As men of the selfish,
sensual world, whether married or single, merchants, civilian
or military employees, or members of the learned professions,
they had been to a school most calculated to assimilate them to
the animal nature, least so to develope their spiritual potentialities.
Yet each and all had vanity enough to suppose that their case
would be made an exception to the law of countless centuries'
establishment as though, indeed, in their person had been born
to the world a new Avatar! All expected to have hidden
things taught, extraordinary powers given them because – well,
because they had joined the Theosophical Society. Some had sincerely
resolved to amend their lives, and give up their evil courses;
we must do them that justice, at all events.
All were refused at first, Col. Olcott, the President, himself,
to begin with; and as to the latter gentleman there is now no
harm in saying that he was not formally accepted as a Chela until
he had proved by more than a year's devoted labours and by a determination
which brooked no denial, that he might safely be tested. Then
from all sides came complaints – from Hindus, who ought to have
known better, as well as from Europeans who, of course, were not
in a condition to know anything at all about the rules. The cry
was that unless at least a few Theosophists were given the chance
to try, the Society could not endure. Every other noble and unselfish
feature of our programme was ignored – a man's duty to his neighbour,
to his country, his duty to help, enlighten, encourage and elevate
those weaker and less favoured than he; all were trampled out
of sight in the insane rush for adeptship. The call for phenomena,
phenomena, phenomena, resounded in every quarter, and the Founders
were impeded in their real work and teased importunately to intercede
with the Mahatmas, against whom the real grievance lay, though
their poor agents had to take all the buffets. At last, the word
came from the higher authorities that a few of the most urgent
candidates should be taken at their word. The result of the experiment
would perhaps show better than any amount of preaching what Chelaship
meant, and what are the consequences of selfishness and temerity.
Each candidate was warned that he must wait for years in any event,
before his fitness could be proven, and that he must pass through
a series of tests that would bring out all there was in him, whether
bad or good. They were nearly all married men and hence were designated
"Lay Chelas" – a term new in English, but having
long had its equivalent in Asiatic tongues. A Lay Chela is but
a man of the world who affirms his desire to become wise in spiritual
things. Virtually, every member of the Theosophical Society who
subscribes to the second of our three "Declared Objects"
is such; for though not of the number of true Chelas, he has yet
the possibility of becoming one, for he has stepped across the
boundary-line which separated him from the Mahatmas, and has brought
himself, as it were, under their notice. In joining the Society
and binding himself to help along its work, he has pledged himself
to act in some degree in concert with those Mahatmas, at whose
behest the Society was organized, and under whose conditional
protection it remains. The joining is then, the introduction;
all the rest depends entirely upon the member himself, and he
need never expect the most distant approach to the "favor"
of one of our Mahatmas, or any other Mahatmas in the world – should
the latter consent to become known – that has not been fully earned
by personal merit. The Mahatmas are the servants, not the arbiters
of the Law of Karma. LAY-CHELASHIP
CONFERS NO PRIVILEGE UPON ANY ONE EXCEPT THAT OF
WORKING FOR MERIT UNDER THE OBSERVATION OF A MASTER.
And whether that Master be or be not seen by the Chela makes no
difference whatever as to the result: his good thoughts, words
and deeds will bear their fruits, his evil ones, theirs. To boast
of Lay Chelaship or make a parade of it, is the surest way to
reduce the relationship with the Guru to a mere empty name, for
it would be primâ facie evidence of vanity and unfitness
for farther progress. And for years we have been teaching everywhere
the maxim "First deserve, then desire" intimacy with
the Mahatmas.
Now there is a terrible law operative in nature, one which cannot
be altered, and whose operation clears up the apparent mystery
of the selection of certain "Chelas" who have turned
out sorry specimens of morality, these few years past. Does the
reader recall the old proverb, "Let sleeping dogs lie"?
There is a world of occult meaning in it. No man or woman knows
his or her moral strength until it is tried. Thousands
go through life very respectably, because they were never put
to the pinch. This is a truism doubtless, but it is most pertinent
to the present case. One who undertakes to try for Chelaship by
that very act rouses and lashes to desperation every sleeping
passion of his animal nature. For this is the commencement of
a struggle for the mastery in which quarter is neither to be given
nor taken. It is, once for all, "To be, or Not to be";
to conquer, means ADEPTSHIP; to fail, an ignoble
Martyrdom: for to fall victim to lust, pride, avarice, vanity,
selfishness, cowardice, or any other of the lower propensities,
is indeed ignoble, if measured by the standard of true manhood.
The Chela is not only called to face all the latent evil propensities
of his nature, but, in addition, the whole volume of maleficent
power accumulated by the community and nation to which he belongs.
For he is an integral part of those aggregates, and what affects
either the individual man, or the group (town or nation) reacts
upon the other. And in this instance his struggle for goodness
jars upon the whole body of badness in his environment, and draws
its fury upon him. If he is content to go along with his neighbours
and be almost as they are – perhaps a little better or somewhat
worse than the average – no one may give him a thought. But let
it be known that he has been able to detect the hollow mockery
of social life, its hypocrisy, selfishness, sensuality, cupidity
and other bad features, and has determined to lift himself up
to a higher level, at once he is hated, and every bad, or bigoted,
or malicious nature sends at him a current of opposing will power.
If he is innately strong he shakes it off, as the powerful swimmer
dashes through the current that would bear a weaker one away.
But in this moral battle, if the Chela has one single hidden blemish – do
what he may, it shall and will be brought to light.
The varnish of conventionalities which "civilization"
overlays us all with must come off to the last coat, and the Inner
Self, naked and without the slightest veil to conceal its reality,
is exposed. The habits of society which hold men to a certain
degree under moral restraint, and compel them to pay tribute to
virtue by seeming to be good whether they are so or not, these
habits are apt to be all forgotten, these restraints to be all
broken through under the strain of chelaship. He is now in an
atmosphere of illusions – Maya. Vice puts on its most alluring
face, and the tempting passions try to lure the inexperienced
aspirant to the depths of psychic debasement. This is not a case
like that depicted by a great artist, where Satan is seen playing
a game of chess with a man upon the stake of his soul, while the
latter's good angel stands beside him to counsel and assist. For
the strife is in this instance between the Chela's Will and his
carnal nature, and Karma forbids that any angel or Guru should
interfere until the result is known. With the vividness of poetic
fancy Bulwer Lytton has idealised it for us in his Zanoni,
a work which will ever be prized by the occultist; while in
his Strange Story he has with equal power shown the black
side of occult research and its deadly perils. Chelaship was defined,
the other day, by a Mahatma as a "psychic resolvent, which
eats away all dross and leaves only the pure gold behind."
If the candidate has the latent lust for money, or political chicanery,
or materialistic scepticism, or vain display, or false speaking,
or cruelty, or sensual gratification of any kind, the germ is
almost sure to sprout; and so, on the other hand, as regards the
noble qualities of human nature. The real man comes out. Is it
not the height of folly, then, for any one to leave the smooth
path of common-place life to scale the crags of chelaship without
some reasonable feeling of certainty that he has the right stuff
in him? Well says the Bible: "Let him that standeth take
heed lest he fall" – a text that would-be Chelas should consider
well before they rush headlong into the fray! It would have been
well for some of our Lay-Chelas it they had thought twice before
defying the tests. We call to mind several sad failures within
a twelvemonth. One went bad in the head, recanted noble sentiments
uttered but a few weeks previously, and became a member of a religion
he had just scornfully and unanswerably proven false. A second
became a defaulter and absconded with his employer's money – the
latter also a Theosophist. A third gave himself up to gross debauchery,
and confessed it with ineffectual sobs and tears, to his chosen
Guru. A fourth got entangled with a person of the other sex and
fell out with his dearest and truest friends. A fifth showed signs
of mental aberration and was brought into Court upon charges of
discreditable conduct. A sixth shot himself to escape the consequences
of criminality, on the verge of detection! And so we might go
on and on. All these were apparently sincere searchers after truth,
and passed in the world for respectable persons. Externally, they
were fairly eligible as candidates for Chelaship, as appearances
go; but "within all was rottenness and dead men's bones."
The world's varnish was so thick as to hide the absence of the
true gold underneath; and the "resolvent" doing its
work, the candidate proved in each instance but a gilded figure
of moral dross, from circumference to core. . . .
In what precedes we have, of course, dealt but with the failures
among Lay-Chelas; there have been partial successes too, and these
are passing gradually through the first stages of their probation.
Some are making themselves useful to the Society and to the world
in general by good example and precept. If they persist, well
for them, well for us all: the odds are fearfully against them,
but still "there is no Impossibility to him who WILLS."
The difficulties in Chelaship will never be less until human nature
changes and a new sort is evolved. St. Paul (Rom. vii, 18, 19)
might have had a Chela in mind when he said "to will is present
with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For
the good I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that
I do." And in the wise Kirátárjuniya of Bharávi
it is written: –
The enemies which rise within the body,
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