The second Ray of Love-Wisdom, through the many extant
educational processes and through the modern conflict of ideas (producing
thus a borderland between the areas of influence of the first and second
rays) is opening the minds of thousands of people. The pronounced contrast
in ideas—as, for instance, the contrast between totalitarianism and the
democratic freedom of thought (does such democratic freedom really exist,
my brother?)—is forcing men to think, to reflect, to question and to meditate.
The world is thereby greatly enriched, and the whole human family is transiting
out of a pronounced cycle of karma yoga into the required cycle of raja
yoga, from unthinking activity into a period of illumined mind control.
It is a mental illumination which is brought about by the meditative and
the reflective activity of humanity as a whole, and this is carried forward
under the guidance of the New Group of World Servers, working under hierarchical
impression.
Members of all the ray types are to be found in the New
Group of World Servers, either through the activity of the personality ray
or of the soul ray; therefore, the energies of [Page 220] all the rays are
being brought to bear upon this creative period in modern human history.
It is interesting to have in mind the fact that through the medium of all
the fighting forces of the world (naval, military and air) much needed hierarchical
work is being accomplished; the energy of the fourth Ray of Harmony through
Conflict is making itself phenomenally felt—this time in conjunction with
the unusual activity of the first ray. Therefore, through the Forces of
Light, liberation into freedom will come and it will mean the freedom of
all mankind. I make here no defence of war or of fighting, brother of mine.
I simply deal with world conditions as they exist today, and with the processes
and the methods which are characteristic of the civilisations which have
already disappeared and of the civilisation out of which we are today emerging.
As man leaves the animal, the strictly physical and the highly emotional
and inflammable stages behind him and learns to think, then (and only then)
will war cease. Fortunately for humanity, this is happening most rapidly.
For the first time in human history, the lines of demarcation
between that which is right from the angle of the spiritual values (the
essential freedom of the human spirit) and that which is wrong (the imprisonment
of the human spirit by materialistic conditions) are clearly perceived by
the majority of the nations of the planet. Within the United Nations is
the germ and the seed of a great international and meditating, reflective
group—a group of thinking and informed men and women in whose hands lies
the destiny of humanity. This is largely under the control of many fourth
ray disciples, if you could but realise it, and their point of meditative
focus is the intuitional or buddhic plane—the plane upon which all hierarchical
activity is today to be found.
The fifth Ray of Concrete Knowledge is also expressing
itself powerfully in the meditation and the reflection of the world scientists
in all fields of human interest; in their hands the form of the new civilisation
is being constructed. I would remind you that when I use the word "scientist,"
I refer to all who are working in the social sciences and the economic [Page
221] sciences as well as the large group of chemists, biologists, physicists,
etc., who are usually covered by that term. The organising, defining power
of the mental plane is being brought to bear upon all phases of human life
by the scientists of all the many schools of thought; out of this meditative
and creative thought which they all so admirably demonstrate will come the
structure of the new civilisation.
The sixth ray disciple is active also in organising the
mystical aspiration of the masses of men everywhere which is in itself a
most potent energy; these aspirational men (no matter what may be their
immediate aspiration) are necessarily polarised upon the astral plane but
are not yet capable of the clear mental perception of the massed intelligentsia
or susceptible to the influence of the accurate, esoteric approach. Their
guided, mystical orientation will be one of the most powerful factors in
the destruction of the old values and in the massed recognition of the spiritual
truth which underlies all life; it is with this reorientation that sixth
ray disciples, wielding sixth ray energy, are occupied at this time. You
need to remember that the one-pointed attitude of the mystic, functioning
in group formation, will be a powerful factor in the creative work being
done by the Hierarchy and by the New Group of World Servers, because theirs
will be a massed effect, and usually wielded unconsciously.
Under the influence of disciples on the seventh Ray of
Organisation or of Ceremonial Order, that powerful physical concretisation
of energy which we call "money" is proving a topic of the most
definite concentration; it is being most carefully considered, and the minds
of thinking financiers and of wealthy humanitarian persons and philanthropists
will be gradually led forward from a strictly philanthropic activity to
an activity which is impulsed and brought into expression by spiritual insight,
and by a recognition of the claims of Christ (no matter by what name He
may be called in the East or in the West) upon the financial reservoir of
the world. This is a hard thing to bring about, for the subtle energies
of the inner worlds take much time in producing their effects upon the objective,
tangible plane of divine manifestation. Money is not yet used divinely,
but it will be. [Page 222] Nevertheless, the task is well in hand and is
engaging the attention of disciples upon all the rays, under the guidance
and the impression of the powerful seventh ray Ashram—now already in process
of externalisation.
The effect of human meditation at this time is to change
conditions, to invoke the higher, spiritual potencies, to work with concentration—both
vertically and horizontally—within the world of men and within the Kingdom
of God. This vertical and horizontal activity holds the secret of creative
meditation. It is invocative of the higher energies, and creates a channel
of contact between soul and spirit. This is brought about by what I have
called "vertical meditation." It is also evocative and creates
a ferment or dynamic movement in that level of being which must be affected
or changed, and this is the horizontal aspect. Both the vertical and the
horizontal activities are descriptive of the method of invocation and of
evocation, as employed by all the linking groups between the various planetary
centres; …
Evidence, however, of the growth of the human intellect
along the needed receptive lines can be seen in the "planning"
of the various nations, and in the efforts of the United Nations to formulate
a world plan which will eventuate in peace, security and right human relations.
It is bridging work which has now to be done—bridging
between what is today and what can be in the future. If, during the next
150 years, we develop this technique of bridging the many cleavages found
in the human family and in offsetting the racial hatreds and the separative
attitudes of nations and people, we shall have succeeded in implementing
[Page 90] a world in which war will be impossible and humanity will be realising
itself as one human family and not as a fighting aggregate of many nations
and people, competitively engaged in getting the best of each other and
successfully fostering prejudices and hatred. This has, as we have seen,
been the history of the past. Man has been developed from an isolated animal,
prompted only by the instincts of self -preservation, eating, and mating,
through the stages of family life, tribal life and national life to the
point where today a still broader ideal is grasped by him—international
unity or the smooth functioning of the One Humanity. This growing idealism
is fighting its way into the forefront of the human consciousness in spite
of all separative enmities. It is largely responsible for the present chaos
and for the banding together of the United Nations. It has produced the
conflicting ideologies which are seeking world expression; it has produced
the dramatic emergence of national saviours (so-called), world prophets
and world workers, idealists, opportunists, dictators, investigators and
humanitarians. These conflicting idealisms are a wholesome sign, whether
we agree with them or not. They are definitely exploiting the human demand—urgent
and right—for better conditions, for more light and understanding, for greater
cooperation, for security and peace and plenty in the place of terror, fear
and starvation.
It is difficult for modern man to conceive of a time when
there will be no racial, national or separative religious consciousness
present in human thinking. It was equally difficult for prehistoric man
to conceive of a time when there would be national thinking and this is
a good thing for us to bear in mind. The time when humanity will be able
to think in universal terms still lies far ahead but the fact that we can
speak of it, desire it and plan for it is surely the guarantee that it is
not impossible. Humanity has always progressed from stage to stage of enlightenment
and from glory to glory. We are today on our way to a far better civilisation
[Page 91] than the world has ever known and towards conditions which will
ensure a much happier humanity and which will see the end of national differences,
of class distinctions (whether based on an hereditary or a financial status)
and which will ensure a fuller and richer life for everyone.
It will be obvious that very many decades must elapse
before such a state of affairs will be actively present—but it will be decades
and not centuries, if humanity can learn the lessons of war and if the reactionary
and the conservative peoples in every nation can be prevented from swinging
civilisation back on to the bad old lines. But a beginning can immediately
be made. Simplicity should be our watchword for it is simplicity which
will kill our old materialistic way of living. Cooperative goodwill is
surely the first idea to be presented to the masses and taught in our schools,
thereby guaranteeing the new and better civilisation. Loving understanding,
intelligently applied, should be the hallmark of the cultured and wiser
groups, plus effort on their part to relate the world of meaning to the
world of outer efforts —for the benefit of the masses. World Citizenship
as an expression of both goodwill and understanding should be the goal of
the enlightened everywhere and the hallmark of the spiritual man, and in
these three, you have right relations established between education, religion
and politics.
since November 1919. During that period the world has
seen great and significant changes, and one of the most significant has
been the growth—the phenomenal growth—[Page 339] of spiritual perception.
This shows itself in the fact that, in spite of the world catastrophe, in
spite of the rampant horror and evil which is stalking our planet, and in
spite of human pain, terror, suspense and uncertainty, there are today two
factors present in the human consciousness: the vision of a better future
and a fixed, unalterable determination to make that vision fact in human
experience. This better world is to be a world in which the spiritual values
will control, viewing those values as that which is good and right for the
whole of humanity and not simply as religious and theological interpretations.
Spiritual perception has become inclusive and now concerns the physical
plane as well as the metaphysical.
It is not perhaps easy for you to realise the importance
of this development which—again in the face of all contending forces—has
enabled men to recognise that the Kingdom of God must function on Earth;
that it must be externalised and that it need not be some distant point
of wishful thinking but should condition man's daily life and control all
his planning for the future. For this, men are today working and fighting.
They call the vision by many names: better world conditions, the new world
order, world reconstruction, the new civilisation, brotherhood, fellowship,
world federation, international understanding—it matters not. It is the
theme of betterment, of universal welfare, of general security, of widespread
opportunity, irrespective of race, colour or creed. This is the factor of
importance. The underlying purposes of God are working out, and with this
note I seek to begin my Wesak communication to you.
This is the hopeful and most important side from the angle
of the Hierarchy Who view all world events from the angle of the future.
There is, however, the other side. It is not necessary for me to emphasise
the seriousness of the present situation. The war is not yet won. At the
time of writing, in spite of sporadic successes and the staying power of
the Allied Nations, and in spite of a basic trend towards ultimate victory,
the powers of evil have had things very much their own way. They have triumphantly
moved forward, [Page 340] except in Russia. This was to be expected at first,
because if evil is simply the dominance of matter and the negation of the
spiritual values, it is obvious that on the material plane the line of least
resistance is to be found for them. Their initial triumphing is, therefore,
to be expected. The course of the war hitherto has demonstrated this. When
the spiritually-minded people of the world, the men and women of goodwill,
the idealists and the kindly, decent folk in every land can bring to bear
upon the physical plane the same unified determination and the same united
will-to-victory that the forces of evil have shown, then the Forces of Light
will assume the upper hand and control human affairs.
The difficulty with which the Hierarchy was confronted
in the effort to bring this about was due to the fact that the condition
of unity of objective, of method and of interrelation had to be brought
about without any infringement of the free will of the individual, group
or nation. The occult law of spiritual freedom had to be recognised and
protected. No such recognition or safeguarding hinders the activities of
the forces of evil. The will-to-power and an organised, evil minority took
control. Freedom of conscience and of action was removed, and the enforced
submission of the majority to the will of a ruthless minority brought about
a spurious but temporarily most effective unity. This has been lacking in
the case of the United Nations, fighting for the Forces of Light and on
behalf of human freedom.
Freedom, my brothers, can itself prove a limitation when
it delays right action, when it centres attention upon the petty differences
and the personality inclinations of people and when it serves to prevent
that unity of action which can win the war. It has been necessary for the
leaders of the peoples to take valuable time to bring them to a proper sense
of values and to the realisation that individual and national differences
and points of political and religious disagreement must all give place to
the one supreme requirement—the winning of the war and the releasing of
humanity from the threatened slavery, the steadily mounting fear, and the
world domination of the Black Lodge.
[Page 341]
As I have earlier told you, an ancient conflict is again
in full swing and humanity has now the opportunity to settle it once and
for all, and—for ever after—be free in a sense not hitherto known. This
conflict falls into three stages:
1. The stage of physical warfare in which we are now engaged
and from which there is no escape.
This requires the Will-to-victory.
2. The stage of reorganising world affairs when the war
is over. This should properly fall into two phases:
a. The establishing of right human relations during a
prolonged armistice, if possible. This phase will prove in many ways as
difficult as the war itself, but will work out on mental and emotional levels
of warfare, instead of physical.
b. The task of rehabilitation. This will be both physical
and spiritual in scope and will embrace those activities which stretch all
the way from the rebuilding of blasted cities, the restoration of the scorched
earth, the psychological care of the youth, the sick in mind and the bewildered,
and the re-enunciation of the essential spiritual values which must guide
humanity in the future.
This will involve the Will-to-good.
3. The stage wherein will come the recognition of the
opportunities of peace, the right use of security, and the planned education
of the youth of all lands in the principles of the new age.
This will involve the Will-to-organise.
Thus on all three levels of human living, mankind will
be conditioned by a tendency towards the good, the beautiful and the true.
Speaking esoterically, the personality of humanity will be integrated and
reoriented towards the good [Page 342] life, a new and better way. For the
attainment of these objectives, I summon you today and all whom you can
reach.
One thing you must constantly bear in mind. When the war
is over, when this time of acute trial and tribulation have come to an end,
a great spiritual awakening (of a quality and a nature quite unpredictable
now) will arrive. The war will have taught humanity many lessons and will
have torn the veil of self away from many eyes. Values which have been hitherto
expressed and understood only by those whose "eyes are on God,"
will be the goal and the desire of untold thousands; true understanding
between men and between nations will be a longed-for objective, and what
humanity determines to have it ever succeeds in achieving. This is an occult
law, for desire is, as yet, the strongest force in the world; organised,
unified desire has been the basic reason for the appalling Axis successes.
The only factor which can successfully oppose desire is
Will, using the word in its spiritual connotation and as an expression of
the first great divine aspect. There has been but little of that organised,
spiritual will shown by the United Nations; the Allies are animated naturally
by desire for victory, desire for the arrival of the end of this all-engulfing
world cataclysm, by desire for peace and the return of stability, the desire
to end war once and for all and to break its constantly recurring cycle,
and a steadily mounting desire to bring to a finish the terrible toll of
suffering, of cruelty, of death, of starvation and of fear which is gripping
humanity by the throat in the attempt to strangle out its life.
But all this determination is in most cases simply the
expression of a fixed and united desire. It is not the organised use of
the will. The secret of the will lies in the recognition of the divine nature
of man. Only this can evoke the true expression of the will. It has in fact
to be evoked by the soul, as it dominates the human mind and controls the
[Page 343] personality. The secret of the will is also closely tied in with
the recognition of the unconquerable nature of goodness and the inevitability
of the ultimate triumph of good. This is not determination; it is not whipping
up and stimulating desire so that it can be transmuted into will; it is
not an implacable, unshakable, immovable focussing of all energies in the
need to triumph (the enemies of the Forces of Light are adept at that).
Victory for the United Nations does not lie in the effort to produce this
focussing with better effect than the enemy. The use of the will is not
expressed by an iron fixation to stand steady and not yield to evil forces.
Determination, the focussing of energy and the demonstration of an all-out
effort towards victory are only (where the United Nations are concerned)
the expression of a one-pointed desire for peace and for an ending of the
trouble. This type of effort is something which the masses can give, and
which they do give on both sides in this conflict.
There is, however, a plus, a something else, which will
swing the tide of victory on to the side of the United Nations. This will
come through the effort to understand and express the quality of spiritual
Will; it will be the manifestation of that energy which makes the first
divine aspect of Will or Power what it is; it is that which is the distinctive
feature of the Shamballa force; it is that peculiar and distinctive quality
of divinity which is so different that even Christ Himself was unable to
express it with facility and understanding. Hence we have the episode in
Gethsemane. It is not easy for me to express its significance in words.
Two thousand years have gone since Gethsemane and since Christ made His
initial contact with the Shamballa force, and by this means and on behalf
of humanity established a relationship which even after two thousand years
is but a thin, frail line of connecting energy.
This Will force is nevertheless available for right usage,
but the power to express it lies in its understanding (as far as may be
possible at this midway point in human evolution), and in its group use.
It is a unifying, synthetic force, but can be used as a regimenting, standardising
force. May [Page 344] I repeat those two key words to the use of this Shamballa
energy: Group Use and Understanding.
Mankind has had much difficulty in comprehending the significance
of Love. If that is so, the problem in relation to the Will will naturally
be still more difficult.
the three aspects of world glamour (illusion, glamour
and maya) in an amazing manner, and their powerful assault upon the consciousness
[Page 355] of humanity is dependent not only upon the response of Germany,
Japan and Italy to this ancient miasma but also upon the fact that every
nation—the United Nations as well as the Totalitarian Nations—are tainted
with this universal condition. The freedom of the world is consequently
largely dependent upon those people in every nation who (within themselves)
have moved forward out of one or other of these "glamorous illusions
of mayavic impressions" of the human soul into a state of awareness
wherein they can see the conflict in its wider terms, i.e., as that existing
for them between the Dweller on the Threshold and the Angel of the Presence.
The United Nations, with all their faults, limitations,
weaknesses and nationalisms, are focussing the conflict between the Dweller
and the Angel, and thus the three forms of glamour and the final form of
the conflict between the spiritual ideal and its material opponent are appearing
simultaneously. The United Nations are, however, gradually and most decisively
throwing the weight of their effort and aspiration on to the side of the
Angel, thus restoring the lost balance and slowly producing on a planetary
scale those attitudes and conditions which will eventually dispel illusion,
dissipate glamour and devitalise the prevalent maya. This they are doing
by the increased clear thinking of the general public of all the nations,
bound together to conquer the three Axis Powers, by their growing ability
to conceive ideas in terms of the whole, in terms of a desirable world order
or federation, [Page 357] and their capacity to discriminate between the
Forces of Light and the potency of evil or materialism.
4. Releasing new life into the planet through the medium
of every possible agency. The first step towards this release is the proving
that the power of materialism is broken by the complete defeat of the Axis
powers and, secondly, by the ability of the United Nations to demonstrate
(when this has been done) the potency of the spiritual values by their constructive
undertakings to restore world order and to lay those foundations which will
guarantee a better and more spiritual way of life. These constructive attitudes
and undertakings must be assumed individually by every person, and by nations
as collective wholes. The first is being undertaken at this time. The second
remains as yet to be done.
5. Bringing home to the nations of the world the truths
taught by the Buddha, the Lord of Light, and the Christ, the Lord of Love.
In this connection it might be pointed out that basically:
a. The Axis nations need to grasp the teaching of the
Buddha as He enunciated it in the Four Noble Truths; they need to realise
that the cause of all sorrow and woe is desire—desire for that which is
material.
b. The United Nations need to learn to apply the Law of
Love as enunciated in the life of Christ and to express the truth that "no
man liveth unto himself" and no [Page 359] nation either, and that
the goal of all human effort is loving understanding, prompted by a programme
of love for the whole.
If the lives and teachings of these two great Avatars
can be comprehended and wrought out anew in the lives of men today, in the
world of human affairs, in the realm of human thinking and in the arena
of daily living, the present world order (which is today largely disorder)
can be so modified and changed that a new world and a new race of men can
gradually come into being. Renunciation and the use of the sacrificial will
should be the keynote for the interim period after the war, prior to the
inauguration of the New Age.
b. The United Nations need to learn to apply the Law of
Love as enunciated in the life of Christ and to express the truth that "no
man liveth unto himself" and no [Page 359] nation either, and that
the goal of all human effort is loving understanding, prompted by a programme
of love for the whole.
...
from p. 364, written in 1942,
The Interlude Between War and Peace:
... what can be done (whilst the war is still in progress)
to prepare for usefulness at that time. When the war broke out, I published
an article entitled The Present World Crisis, and in it tried to trace the
origins of the conflict and the factors which made this catastrophe possible.
Later, another article appeared, called The Coming World Order, which sought
to hold out to a suffering world a vision of a material and spiritual future
which the hearts of men have long demanded. Thus an attempt was made to
deal with both the past and the future.
More at that time was not possible, owing to the disunity
existing among those nations which today form the United Nations. There
was also a lack of understanding and a selfish perspective among those nations
at that time neutral. Above everything else was the fact that the issues
involved had to be settled by humanity itself and it was not then possible
to foretell with any accuracy what humanity would do.
Even the most enlightened of men and the spiritual leaders
of the race could not judge what line mankind would take or whether there
were enough clear-sighted people in the world who could and would sweep
the mass of men into effective opposition to the Axis Powers.
The question was: Would world fear and universal
selfishness dominate, or would the spirit of freedom and the love of liberty
be strong enough to weld the free nations into one united and steadfast
whole?
Today the issue is clear and the end inevitable. The free
nations and the defeated and enslaved little nations are subjectively and
practically unified into one intense spiritual determination to win the
war; the fate of the Axis Nations is therefore unalterably settled, even
though, at this time of writing, they seem to be victorious all along [Page
365] the line.
It is only the time of the final victory of right against
might which remains as yet the factor of uncertainty, and this is owing
to the enormous prepared strength of the aggressor nations and the unpreparedness
of the democracies. This unpreparedness is being rapidly remedied.
This article is an attempt to indicate the problems, and
perhaps some of the solutions, which must inevitably fill the interlude
between the ending of the war and the coming world order. It will be necessary
to deal with this subject in a broad and general way, for the subject is
too vast for us to be intelligently specific.
We can, however, consider the immediate work to be done
in preparation for the cessation of war and indicate the first steps which
can and should be taken to initiate sound reconstruction processes. The
period of rehabilitation and of reconstruction should be the deep concern
today of all who love their fellowmen.
There are those who will consider the study of the coming
reconstruction period as premature. They believe (and rightly) that our
first immediate concern is to win the war, and with this I am fully in
agreement. The will-to-victory is the
first and basic essential, for there will be no true reconstruction
activity if the Axis nations triumph. But there are many today whose task
is not that of fighting and whose place and function is perforce in the
civilian aspects of the life of the nations. These can think, and talk,
and work in preparation for the future.
There are others who feel that only the trained expert
in the fields of economic and political readjustment can approach this
difficult problem with any hope of making a useful contribution. Still
others feel that peace is the only thing that matters and that it should
be followed by a long period of mental quiet in every country; they believe
that people everywhere are too exhausted and unhappy to be ready as yet
to undertake any work of rebuilding.
Others again are so completely pessimistic that they
despair of ever reclaiming the world, and they look sadly for a breakdown
of all the civilised processes of living.
There is some truth in all these points of view. The work
of the experts will be sorely needed, but [Page 366] the understanding interest
and the sustaining power of those whose hearts are aflame with love can
alone make their work possible. It will not be the institutionalised activities
and the financial enterprise of economic and social workers and government
agents which will alone be needed, but above all else, the solution must
be found in the uprising of goodwill in the hearts of men. This will provide
the right compassionate incentive.
Most certainly the world could be rehabilitated for purely
commercial and selfish reasons, and because trade interchange, buying and
selling capacity and the restoration of financial stability are important
factors in world restoration. But these are not the basic motives which
would restore humanity to self-respecting and secure living. They will provide
the motive power for many men and groups, but not the motive which can produce
true constructive rebuilding of the fabric of human life.
The work of reconstruction will be the work of the intelligent
men and women of goodwill, and theirs will be the task to restore new life
and happiness to humanity, and it is for them I write. Please bear this
in mind.
I am not writing for technical experts and trained
advisors to the government, but to those who have goodwill in their hearts
to all men, and who, because of it, want to do their share in bringing tranquillity
and peace to the world—a peace based on surer values than in the past and
upon sounder planning.
In the last analysis, it is not peace for which
the men of goodwill are working, but for the growth of the spirit of understanding
and cooperation; this alone will be strong enough to break down racial barriers,
heal the wounds of war, and build a new world structure adequate to the
intelligent demands of the masses.
In the earlier pamphlets, I sought (along with many other
thinking people) to indicate the steps which might be taken to avert the
impending cataclysm. Among the most important upon which emphasis was laid
was the growth of world goodwill, for goodwill is the active principle of
peace. I sought also to stress international understanding, a future of
shared planetary resources, and a recognition of [Page 367] a general historically-proved
guilt in relation to the war, plus those ideas which could—if developed—end
the era of separativeness.
In spite of all the efforts of the men of goodwill, of
all the peace organisations, and the enlightened work of the world thinkers,
educators and leaders, two things happened which it had been hoped might
be averted.
The first was a definite and focussed precipitation
of the spirit of evil and of materialism through the medium of the Axis
nations, using the aggression of Japan as the initial focal point and
expressing itself later in full force through Germany.
The second was the failure of the neutral nations, in
the early stages of the war, to take the needed steps to ally themselves
actively with the nations fighting totalitarianism, and their inability
to realise the full horror of what lay ahead for mankind. The selfishness
of humanity was even more deep-seated than was grasped, and the United
Nations came into cooperative activity only after two years of war and
the planned rape of many of the neutral nations. The blindness of the
neutral nations definitely upset the calculations of far-sighted workers
for world good and seriously delayed the ending of the war.
The critical point is now passed, and the humanitarian
grasp of the issues involved, and the unity existing among the Allied Nations,
guarantee the inevitable defeat of the Axis Powers. Other factors also ensure
the ultimate victory of the forces of right and the freedom of the world.
There is not time to enlarge upon them, but they can be listed and people
can then see how assuredly they guarantee the triumph of the free peoples
of the world. These factors are:
1. The will-to-victory is steadily growing. Appeasement,
pacifism and uncertainty are as steadily dying out.
2. The plight of humanity everywhere, as the result
of Axis aggression, is definitely steadying public opinion and evoking
an unalterable determination to end the evil initiated and carried forward
by Germany and Japan, aided somewhat unwillingly by Italy.
[Page 368]
3. The resources of the United Nations are vast and
are now in process of mobilisation. Their massed use and their manufacturing
potential are practically inexhaustible and are rapidly being organised.
The man power and the resources of Germany and of her allies have reached
their peak, bringing enormous present potency, but a steady decline is
indicated for the future.
4. The issues in this war are being increasingly clearly
realised; even the ignorant and the prejudiced recognise today that these
issues can be grouped under three major positions, and this enables them
to make a personal choice as to loyalties.
a. The democratic position, with its emphasis upon
the Four Freedoms and the Atlantic Charter, ensuring right human relations
and the ending of aggression.
b. The totalitarian position, with its emphasis upon
world dictatorship, the slavery of the many conquered nations, its anti-racial
bias and its blatant cruelty and terrorism.
c. The appeasement and the pacifist attitudes—idealistic
and impractical and finding their focus today in the attitude of Gandhi.
He brings into clear perspective the uncompromising, fanatical attitude
which is non-realistic and which will willingly sacrifice lives, nations
and the future of humanity in order to attain its object. If Gandhi
were to succeed in his objective now, it would precipitate civil war
in India, sacrifice all immediate hope of freedom for that country,
permit the Japanese to realise an easy conquest of India, bring about
a slaughtering of countless thousands, and permit Germany to join hands
with Japan across Asia, with the appalling probability of a totalitarian
victory.
These three points of view are today being clearly
realised by men everywhere, and their decisions as to loyalties and
adherences are clarified.
5. The spirit of freedom is triumphing in every land
(even in the conquered countries, much to the bewilderment of [Page 369]
Germany), and the beauty of the human spirit is emerging everywhere, both
in the conquered lands and in the nations fighting, with their backs to
the wall, for human liberty.
6. An intense interest in after-war conditions is evidenced
by the utterances of leaders, politicians, lecturers and the spiritually
minded men everywhere; this is testified to by the articles, pamphlets,
books, speeches and plans dealing with the new world order. The forces
of rehabilitation and of goodwill are rapidly mobilising; they constitute
a great army within all nations, and they are an invisible army, but one
which is as yet inchoate, uncertain as to method and process, though clear
as to goals and principles.
The above six factors ensure the defeat of the Forces
of Evil and the triumph of the Forces of Light, and with these as the basis
of optimism we can look ahead with sure hope to the ending of the war, to
the demobilisation of the armies, to the tranquil passage of the seven seas
and to the time when fear begins to die out.
What then will be the dangers to be offset? For what must
we be prepared when the task of reconstruction confronts us? It might be
useful to enumerate some of the dangers for which we must be prepared. Let
us consider them in the order of their importance:
1. The danger of too prompt a peace settlement. Let
us work hard for a prolonged armistice, during which the heat of battle
and the fires of revenge can have time to die down, the agony of mankind
can be assuaged, and time be gained for calm, unhurried planning.
2. The danger of a return to so-called normality. The
outstanding disaster which faces humanity at this time is a return to
the state of affairs prior to the outbreak of war, and the rehabilitation
of the old familiar world, with its imperialism (whether of empire or
finance), its nationalisms and its distressed, exploited minorities, its
vile distinctions and separative barriers between rich and poor, between
[Page 370] the oriental and the occidental, and between the castes and
classes which are found in every land—without any exception.
3. The dangers incident to the necessary adjustments
between the nations. Any adjustment made upon the basis of historical
tradition or ancient boundaries will only serve to plunge the world again
into war. These adjustments must be carried out on the basis of humanity
itself; the will of free peoples must be the determining factor and not
the will of technical, political experts, or of some ruling class or group.
In the world which is coming, the human equation will take a predominant
position; human beings will determine, as far as in them lies, their own
destiny and men will exercise their free will in establishing the kind
of world in which they choose to live. They will decide in which country
they prefer to claim citizenship and the type of government to which they
choose to give allegiance. This will necessarily all take time and must
be an unhurried process. It will call for a planned education of the masses
in every country; and the principles of freedom, and the distinction between
freedom and license, will have to be carefully taught. A new world based
upon the restoration of territorial limits, historically determined, will
fail to end strife, aggression and fear. A new world based on human values
and right human relations can institute (slowly to be sure, but inevitably)
that new civilisation which men of goodwill demand for humanity as a whole.
4. The dangers growing out of hate, revenge and pain.
These dangers will be the most difficult to avoid. A deep-seated hatred
of the Nazi regime (and of the German nation as endorsing that regime)
is steadily rising. This is almost inevitable, being based on the facts
of Nazi activity. The task of the United Nations after the war will of
necessity be—among other things—to protect the German people from the
hate of those whom they have so appallingly abused. This will be no easy
thing to do. Retribution and revenge must not be permitted, and yet at
the same time a just payment for evil action cannot, and should not, be
[Page 371] avoided. The law ever works, and that law states that whatsoever
a man or nation sows, that shall it also reap. Germany has sown evil broadcast
throughout the civilised world, and for some time to come her lot must
be hard and she will have to pay in sweat and toil and tears for her evil
deeds. But this payment should be part of the great work of rehabilitation
and not a vengeful exaction, and if this is borne in mind, no serious
mistakes will be made. The German people must work strenuously to put
right the evil they have done, as far as in them lies, but the next generation—at
present in the cradle or at school—must not be penalised. The little children
and the babies of the German race—innocent of the wrong actions of their
fathers and brothers—should not be implicated in the penalties exacted.
The young men of today in Germany must, by the labour of their hands and
the sweat of their brows, rebuild that which they have so ruthlessly destroyed,
but the unoffending, though weak, elderly people, the little children
and the adolescent boys and girls must be exempt and must be trained to
be citizens of a better and a finer Germany than has ever yet existed—a
Germany that is a constructive part of the whole and not a menace and
a terror to all right-thinking men. The arousing of the men of goodwill
in every nation—men who see humanity as a whole and all men as brothers—is
the only way in which this rising tide of hate can be stemmed. It will
not be stemmed by telling those who have suffered at the hands of the
Axis nations that they must not hate, or by exhorting people who have
been the victims of traitors that they must not bear ill-will to such
men as Quisling and Laval. It will be offset by a great demonstration
of practical love and understanding on the part of the United Nations—a
love which will work out in the form of food for the hungry, nursing for
the sick, the rebuilding of the ruined cities, and the restoration of
the "scorched earth." The problems of hate and revenge will
require the utmost skill in handling and will necessitate exceedingly
wise action on the part of the free nations.
[Page 372]
5. The danger to humanity of the effects of war upon
the children and the adolescents of the nations. The children of today
are the parents of the coming generations, and they have been through
a shattering psychological experience. They can scarcely ever be truly
normal again. They have seen the very depths of cruelty, wickedness, pain,
horror, terror and uncertainty. They have been bombed, shell-shocked and
machine-gunned. They have known no security and look forward today to
no sure future. Millions have known no parental control; they have been
separated by war from their families and frequently do not even know their
own names. Even when the family unit has been preserved intact, their
fathers are usually engaged in war work, either at home or abroad, and
their mothers are working in factories or on the land; the children have
therefore no home life or control. Malnutrition has weakened their stamina
and rampant evil has undermined their morale and their standards of value.
From the humanitarian and spiritual standpoint, the vital problem after
the war will be the restoration of the children of the world to happiness,
security, proper standards of life and conduct and some measure of understanding
control. This is essentially a problem of education. Educators and psychologists
of vision in every country must be mobilised and the "pattern of
things to come" for the children must be intelligently determined.
This will have to be done on an international scale and with the wisdom
which comes from a grasp of immediate need and a far-sighted vision.
6. The dangers of re-emergence of the nationalist spirit.
Intense nationalism was one of the prime movers in bringing about this
war and no nation has been exempt from this spirit of national pride and
from a nationalistic, separative outlook. Selfish interests have controlled
the reasons for which every nation has entered this war; individual security
has prompted the entry of even the most enlightened democratic nations.
That to these selfish incentives they have added world need and the love
of freedom is true and serves [Page 373] to balance, though not offset,
the selfish motives; that the instinct of self-preservation gave them
no alternative is likewise true, but the fact remains that there would
have been no war if the democratic nations had been the determining factor.
That in itself gives rise to questions. Why did the powerful democracies,
in the last analysis, permit this war when, united and banded together
from the start, they might have arrested it in the initial stages? Also,
given the existent aggressor nations, collective self-interest forced
the democracies into combat, and yet this same self-interest should have
made them take the steps which would have guaranteed the peace. National
types, individual national interests, national cultures and national civilisations
exist side by side, but instead of being regarded as contributory to one
integrated whole, they have been zealously competitive and have been regarded
as the peculiar and distinctive prerogatives of some one nation and as
existing for the sole good of that nation. In the future, the contributory
factor in life must be emphasised and developed, and the good of the entire
family of nations must be substituted for the good of one nation or a
group of nations. The education of the public in this ideal necessitates
no loss of national identity or individual culture. That must remain and
be developed to its highest spiritual goal for the enriching and the collective
good of all. It is only the motive for the emphasis of any specific racial
and national culture which must be changed.
The family of nations, viewed as a unit, its correct and
proper interrelation, and the shouldering of responsibility for the one,
or for the weak, must be the realised goal of all national enterprise; the
resources of the entire planet must be shared collectively and it must be
increasingly realised that the products of the earth, the gifts of the soil,
the intellectual heritage of the nations, belong to the whole of mankind
and to no one nation exclusively. No nation liveth unto itself, any more
than any individual can happily so live; the nation or individual who attempts
so to do must [Page 374] inevitably perish off the face of the earth. All
nations have made this selfish attempt, as history, ancient and modern,
goes to prove. Their tradition, their resources, their national genius,
their past history, their mineral and agricultural products, their strategic
position on the planet, have been used in past centuries for the benefit
of the nation claiming them; they have been exploited for the increase of
the power of that nation at the expense of the suffering of others. This
is the sin which Germany is today committing, aided by Japan and feebly
followed by Italy. Power politics, the exploitation of the weak, aggression,
economic selfishness, ideals based on pure commercialism and materialistic
and territorial goals colour all the past history of mankind in both hemispheres,
and have laid the foundation for the present war.
Some nations, particularly the great democracies, like
the British Commonwealth of Nations and the United States of America, now
realise that these attitudes and activities must end and that the hope of
the world lies in the spread of right human relations, in economic interchange,
broad unselfish international politics and the growth of the spirit of cooperation.
They believe unalterably, and as a basic national policy, in the rights
of the individual and that the State exists for the benefit of that individual;
to that they add the belief that the State also exists for the benefit of
all other states and for humanity as a whole. Other nations, such as the
Axis Powers, are violently crystallising the ancient viewpoints, emphasising
the worst aspects of the old and evil order, and are aggressively grasping
all that they can for themselves. They regard the individual as of no value
and hold that he exists only for the benefit of the State; they believe
that the State is the sole unit of importance, and that only their particular
state counts. They divide the family of nations into a superstate for the
control of Europe and another for Asia, and regard all other states as slave
states; they would perpetuate the ancient evil of force and war and would
and do resort to unheard-of cruelties in the effort to raise their state
to supreme eminence.
[Page 375]
This is the old order which must pass, but its dangers
must be recognised. For its abolishing, the United Nations are fighting,
but the difficulties are many, even though the spiritual strength of all
good men is on their side and the Forces of Light are fighting to aid them.
The nationalistic spirit is not dead as yet in any country.
It must be helped to die. Minorities with historical backgrounds but no
territorial rights are clamouring for a place to call their own and in which
to build up a nation. The small nations are full of fear, wondering what
place in the family of nations they will be permitted to hold, and whether
the evil plans of the Germans will spare any of their citizens eventually
to form a nation. The demand for national recognition is widespread; the
emphasis upon humanity as the important unit is little heard.
Those nations impede the path of progress who live in
the memory of their past history and boundaries and who look back upon what
they call "a glorious past," resting upon the recollection of
national or empire rule over the weak. This is a hard saying, but the nationalistic
spirit constitutes a grave peril to the world; if perpetuated in any form,
except as contributory to the good of humanity as a whole, it will throw
the world (after the war) back into the dark ages and leave men no better
off than they were, even though there have been twenty years of travail
and agony.
We could take the nations, one by one, and observe how
this nationalistic, separative or isolationist spirit, emerging out of an
historical past, out of racial complexes, out of territorial position, out
of revolt and out of possession of material resources, has brought about
the present world crisis and cleavage and this global clash of interests
and ideals. But it would profit not.
The intelligent student of history (who has no
nationalistic bias) knows well the facts and is deeply concerned today with
the processes which must be brought to bear to end the world strife.
He knows that the efforts to attain national aggrandisement,
a place in the sun, Lebensraum, financial supremacy, economic control [Page
376] and power must end. At the same time he realises that if humanity is
to get rid of these evil products of selfishness, certain basic values must
be preserved. Past and present cultures and civilisations are of great value;
the peculiar genius of each nation must be evoked for the enriching of the
entire human family; the new civilisation must have its roots in and emerge
out of the past; new ideals must come forth and be recognised, and for that
the events and education of the past will have prepared the people. Humanity
itself must be the goal of interest and effort, and not any particular nation
or empire. All this has to be wrought out in a practical, realistic manner,
divorced from visionary, mystical and impractical dreams, and all that is
done must be founded on one basic recognition—human brotherhood, expressing
itself in right human relations.
The revolt so widely prevalent against the "vague
visionings" of humanitarian dreamers is based upon the fact that out
of the welter of words and the plethora of plans, little of practical value
has emerged and nothing sufficiently potent to end the old and horrid ways
of life. Nothing really effective had been done, prior to the war, to offset
the visible and shrieking evils.
Palliative measures have been tried and compromises made
for the sake of peace, but the basic evils of national ambition, economic
disparity, and virulent class distinctions (hereditary or financial) still
remained. Religious differences were rampant, racial hatreds widespread,
and the economic and political orders remained corrupt, fostering party,
social and national strife.
Today the war has cleared the air. The issues are clear
and at least we know what has been wrong. In their demonstration of supreme
selfishness, national ambition, racial hatred and utter barbarity and cruelty,
plus their complete lack of all humanitarian feeling, the Axis Powers have
served the race by showing us what must not, and shall not, be permitted.
The democracies have awakened also to their weaknesses and to the realisation
that true democracy does not as yet exist, owing to widespread political
corruption, and to the ignorance and unpreparedness of the masses for [Page
377] true self-government. Imperialistic powers, such as Great Britain,
are publicly repudiating the old points of view and are forging ahead in
the task of world reconstruction.
The conservative reactionary is no longer popular. The
small nations are realising their helplessness and their complete dependence
upon their larger neighbours, and these in their turn, are recognising their
responsibilities to the weak and small. People everywhere are waking up
and beginning to think, and never again can they sink back into the negative
condition of the past. There is faith on every hand that a new and better
world order is possible and that it is even probable.
How can we simply and clearly express the goal of this
hoped-for new world order and word briefly the objective which each person
and nation should hold before itself when the war ends and opportunity faces
each and all? It is surely that every nation, great and small (with the
minorities given equal and proportionate rights) should pursue its own individual
culture and work out its own salvation as seems best to it, but that each
and all should develop the realisation that they are organic parts of one
corporate whole and that they must contribute to that whole all they have
and are.
This concept is already present in the hearts of countless
thousands and carries with it great responsibility. These realisations,
when intelligently developed and wisely handled, will lead to right human
relations, economic stability (based on the spirit of sharing) and to a
fresh orientation of man to man, of nation to nation, and of all to that
supreme power to which we give the name "God."
This is the vision and it is holding countless thousands
steady in the path of duty, and for it many in every nation are prepared
to work. In spite of the background of an evil past, in spite of the present
world carnage, in spite of the almost overwhelming psychological problems
confronting humanity, in spite of political machinations and old-time diplomacy,
in spite of the improbability of any quick successes, there are thousands
ready to start with the preparatory work.
The number of men and women of vision [Page 378]
and of goodwill is now so large (especially among the United Nations) that
there is a chance of eventual success and it is possible today to make a
start. The outline of the future world structure can already be dimly seen;
the failure—complete, obvious and irremediable—of the old order and the
old world is everywhere recognised. The will-to-good is growing.
One of the interesting things which it is helpful to recognise
is that this vision is more clearly seen by the man in the street and by
the intelligentsia than it is by the exclusive classes. Through the material
difficulties of life, and by resultant processes of thought, men know changed
conditions are necessary and that there is no alternative.
The task ahead falls into two categories:
First, directing mass
thought and energy into right lines so that good motive and wise action
can bring in the desired era of right human relations and eventual peace;
secondly, educating those
whose apathy and lack of vision impede progress.
This latter phase of the work is well under way and a
powerful, though small, group among the world leaders is voicing certain
general propositions which must be regarded as imperative when world readjustment
starts. Their demand is for a new governing principle in politics and in
education, founded on universally recognised human rights, on the need for
spiritual unity and the need to throw overboard all separative theological
attitudes and dogmas in every field of thought.
There is a mounting appeal not only for international
understanding and cooperation, but also for class understanding. These demands
are being expressed from every platform and pulpit and through the pen in
every land, except in those sad lands where freedom of speech is not permitted.
The average man looks on at all of this and is frequently
overwhelmed by the magnitude of the unfolding task, by the diversity of
opinions expressed, by the many suggestions, plans and schemes for world
betterment, and by a sense of his own utter unimportance and futility in
the face of this gigantic human undertaking.
He asks himself many questions. Of what
use am I? What can I do? How can my little voice be heard, and of what
use is it when heard? What [Page 379] part can I play in the vast arena
of world affairs? How can I prove myself useful and constructive? How
can I offset my ignorance of history, of society, of political and economic
conditions in my own country, not to speak of other lands? Humanity is
so immense, its numbers so vast and its races so many that he feels himself
a helpless, insignificant unit. He has no academic or general training
which would enable him really to grasp the problems or contribute to their
solution. What, therefore, can the man in the street, the business man
in his office, the woman in her home, and the average citizen everywhere
contribute at this time and in the future to the helping of the world?
It is for this type of person I write.
I would start by reminding the general public of one important
fact. This is that focussed, determined, enlightened public opinion is the
most potent force in the world. It has no equal but has been little used.
The gullibility of the average citizen, his willingness to accept what is
told him if it is said loudly enough and with sufficient plausible force,
is well known.
The well-turned phrases of the trained politician, intent
on his selfish purposes, the arguments of the silver-tongued demagogue as
he exploits some pet theory at the expense of the public, and the rantings
of the man with a cause, a theory or an axe to grind, all find an easy audience.
Mass psychology and mob determinations have been exploited down the ages,
for the unthinking and the emotional are easily swayed in any direction,
and hitherto this has been turned to their own advantage by those who do
not have the best interests of humanity at heart. It has been used for selfish
and evil ends far more often than for good.
Of this tendency the negative and helpless attitude of
the German people under the Nazi rulers is the outstanding example.
But this negative receptivity (which does not deserve
the name of public opinion) can be as easily turned to good ends as bad,
and to constructive measures as to destructive. A little planned direction
and a wisely outlined programme with this in view can and will bring about
[Page 380] the needed change and make a sound and intelligent public opinion
one of the major factors in world reconstruction.
One of the most interesting features of this war period
has been the direct contact which has been set up by some of the world leaders
with the man in the street and the woman in the home, as witness the talks
given by Roosevelt
and Churchill. Those
given by the Axis leaders are in a totally different category, for they
have been directed to the male youth of their countries and to the man in
uniform. Only the lesser leaders in Germany, for instance, talk to the people
in their homes, and then only to give them orders, to foster hate and to
misrepresent the truth. In all these cases, however, the value of mass opinion
is recognised and the need to sway the mass mind, either bending it to the
will of some leader, such as Hitler, or educating it in those principles
which are of benefit to the whole.
The second point which needs to be grasped by the average
citizen is that the mass is made up of individuals; that each of us, as
an individual, is a definite and integral part of the whole. This is a basic
and important fact and has a bearing on our subject. The first step in the
rebuilding process which lies ahead of us is to reach the individual, show
him his importance, indicate to him his very real sphere of influence, and
then set him to work in that sphere and with what he has. In this way, his
normal and natural sense of futility will disappear, and he will gradually
realise that he is needed and can do much. Having grasped this for himself,
he can then try to bring the same constructive attitude to those around
him, and they will then do likewise.
May I point out here that the value of the individual
is surely based on the inherent divinity of the human spirit and on the
integrity of the whole. It is founded also on the knowledge, which must
underlie all future reconstruction work, that at the very heart of the universe
is a divine Power, call it what you will, and on the faith that love is
the very law of life itself, in spite of all appearances and the record
of the past.
It is essential that we be practical in our approach to
[Page 381] the subject and that the reconstruction plans involve steps which
are possible and which the average man can take. The first practical attitude
to be taken is to crush out hate because it is non-constructive and hindering.
It blinds the vision and warps the judgment, and simply feeds the growth
of fear and horror. But the love demanded of us is neither emotional nor
sentimental. It is intensely practical, and expresses itself in service
and cooperative activity. It seeks to aid all movements that benefit humanity
and are in line with the new incoming era. Many people think that an emotional
reaction and clamouring outcry of horror at what has overtaken the world
indicates love and spiritual sensitivity. It is far more likely to indicate
self-centredness and personal discomfort.
True love has no time for these reactions, because
the work of alleviation is entirely engrossing. The man who loves his fellowmen
is mentally poised and intelligently working; he is mobilising all his forces
for the service of the hour. A truly compassionate heart is not emotional.
Our second step, therefore, after the recognition of individual
responsibility, is to replace emotion by practical love, expressed in selfless
service. The third step is to reorganise our lives so that we have time
for this needed service. Most people are not getting the maximum of results
out of their daily lives, and this for several reasons. Frequently they
do not really desire to make the sacrifices which such service demands;
often they are under the delusion that their present output of service represents
their utmost possibility; again, they fancy that their health could stand
no more active work, or that they require time for themselves, or they waste
many valuable hours doing those things which yield no real results.
If, however, the need today is as great as we
are led to believe, if this is the hour of man's extremity, if the issues
are so great that the entire future of the race depends upon the outcome
of the war, then the one thing that really matters is for man to play his
part, to mobilise his time and all that he has and make that supreme effort
which will release life and energy and make the winning of the war something
immediately possible and the rebuilding [Page 382] era a success.
This he must do at any cost, even that of life itself.
A spiritual paradox becomes apparent. The individual is of supreme importance,
and yet at the same time what happens to him as he serves and fights for
human freedom is of no individual importance at all. A brief period of organised
effort and, at the end, death, is of more vital usefulness today than a
futile doing of the things a man feels like doing in a leisurely way, and
then meandering feebly down the years.
Therefore, the development of a sense of individual responsibility,
the expression of real love in service and the reorganising the life so
as to get the utmost out of each day constitutes the preparatory stage for
the man who seeks to participate in the reconstruction period.
Having then done this to the best of his ability (and
many have already made a good beginning) he must develop in himself and
evoke in others the spirit of goodwill. This will-to-good is of immediate
effectiveness, because it governs a man's relation to his family and his
household, his business or social associates, his casual acquaintances and
all with whom he may come in contact. It enables him to begin the work of
reconstruction right where he is and trains him in a familiar environment
to practise right human relations. It is the major and potent factor which
can enable the otherwise futile individual to become a focal point of constructive
influence. He will then discover that, as a result of this, his sphere of
constructive influence is continually enlarging.
These are the first four steps, and they are perhaps the
most difficult, for they are non-spectacular and almost constitute spiritual
platitudes. But they are the essential and unavoidable preliminaries for
the man who wants to work wisely, usefully and intuitively in the future.
To the above he can then add the following efforts and
attempt to impose upon himself this suggested programme:
1. Study and reflect upon the many proposals which are
being made by world leaders and thinkers as to the coming world rehabilitation.
It will be necessary to plan your reading [Page 383] and to know what
is being discussed. Cultivate an intelligent opinion, based on goodwill
and on what you, as a result of study, feel should be done. Then discuss
the ideas in your home, among your friends and in your environment without
fear or favour. It will help you to do so if you regard such discussions
as a service and believe that your interests and enthusiasm cannot fail
to have an effect.
2. If possible, gather people together to discuss and
study the coming world order, or cooperate with those who are already
doing so. Look upon this meeting together as a definite contribution to
the moulding of public opinion and as a method of building up that reservoir
of thought power which can be of use to those whose task it is to rebuild.
If only two people cooperate with you in this matter, the effort will
not be lost or futile, for you will be helping to change the content of
world thought and impressing other minds, even if you do not know it.
3. Extend your interest to many countries and try to
understand the diverse problems of those countries. Many know people in
these foreign lands, and lists can be made of their names and addresses.
As soon as the war is over and the lines of communication are again open,
you can seek to reach these people, attempt to locate them through any
available agencies, and then, when found, strengthen them with the knowledge
of your goodwill or interest and by cooperating with them during the period
of reconstruction. No matter how slight has been your contact with them
in the past, foster it by thought and prayer, and later by direct communication.
Thus a great network of relationship will be set up which will serve to
weld a new world into one harmonious and understanding whole.
4. Pray constantly, and to your prayers add meditation
and reflection. Behind the world pattern and structure stands its Originator,
its Planner, its motivating Energy, its central Will, its living Creator,
its God. Seek by prayer to reach that central Will and point of Life,
thus blending yourself [Page 384] with the sensed divine objective and
identifying your will with the Divine Will. This central Will-to-Good
can be reached by the man whose own will-to-good is a living, practical
experience, and the more that goodwill is expressed, the more easily will
you discover and cooperate with the divine Plan and follow the guiding
hand of God in world affairs. The real work of reconstruction will be
done by those who, in the silence of their own hearts, have walked with
God and learnt His ways.
5. Find two other people to work with you. There is
a unique potency in this triple relationship. God Himself, so say all
the world Scriptures, works as a Trinity of goodness, and you can, in
your tiny sphere, do the same, finding two other people of like mind with
you to form a goodwill triangle of light and spiritual interplay. Each
of the two who cooperate with you can, in their turn, do the same, and
thus a great network of goodwill can spread throughout the world. Through
it the Forces of Light will be able to work and you, in your place and
sphere, will have aided and helped.
6. Find out and study the methods, techniques and objectives
of the various groups and organisations which are interested in world
reconstruction. You may not agree with all of them or with their plans
and modes of working, but all are needed. The types of men are many, the
races and conditions are varied, and the problems to be solved will call
for innumerable ways of working. All can play their part if based on real
goodwill and if fanaticism is absent. The fanatic is a danger wherever
he is found, for he sees only one side of a question and is unable to
appreciate the various points of view. He will not admit that all are
needed. Cooperation is the key to expressed goodwill, and in the future
period of rehabilitation cooperation will be the outstanding need. Keep
a record of all such groups, their leaders, objectives and programmes.
It will prove useful when the war is over. Establish helpful and friendly
relations with them to the best of your ability.
[Page 385]
7. Find and keep a record also of the men and women
of goodwill in your environment. Be spiritually aggressive in this matter
and go out to discover them. When you have found them, then be interested
in what they are doing, and also endeavour to have them cooperate with
you in your lines of activity. Keep a register of the names and addresses
of these people, adding also their capacities and functions if any, and
thus build up a mailing list. You will then be aware of a group which
can be depended upon to work in a spirit of goodwill and for world reconstruction.
Later, these lists can be amalgamated, if deemed desirable, and form a
vast mailing list of people in every country who will work along these
indicated lines and who could be reached simultaneously. They will form
a body of synchronised public opinion, sufficiently strong to mould ideas,
influence the masses, and aid the world leaders to right and appropriate
action.
8. Above everything else and growing out of all the
above suggestions, plan definitely for the rehabilitation—physical, psychological
and spiritual—of the children of every country. They have been the victims
of wickedness. Let them be the recipients of loving goodwill instead.
The problems of economic rehabilitation, of territorial boundaries, of
the demobilisation of armies and the subsequent re-employment of the demobilised,
and of world rebuilding are profoundly important and will call for expert
aid. But the problem of the children, as earlier pointed out, underlies
the whole necessity for world rebuilding, is greater than all other problems,
is above all racial and national barriers, and evokes the best in every
human heart. The children have prior claim upon all men.
I would therefore appeal to all whom I can
reach through this article to concentrate their major effort—mental, spiritual
and practical—on preparing themselves to aid the children
of Europe and the other countries which have suffered so much at the hands
of the Axis Powers. This will take much time and careful planning; it will
necessitate [Page 386] enlisting the cooperation of trained experts in the
field of child welfare, doctors, surgeons, nurses, psychologists and educators;
it will require much money to make the preparation effective, to send a
trained personnel into the destitute and ruined countries and to carry forward
the work whilst there; it will take also loving, compassionate action and
long patience.
It nevertheless constitutes the most important opportunity
confronting the men and women of goodwill; it is the foundational activity
of the new world order, for that order must be brought into being for the
sake of the children of today. They will inhabit this new world, express
the new ideals, and hand on to their children that for which we have fought
and died, the best that we have inherited, and all that we have succeeded
in salvaging for them. The thought of the children in the subjugated lands
did not arrest the onward march of Hitler's soldiers; the sanctity of the
home and the physical and moral needs of small children aroused no flicker
of compassion in the young men trained under the Nazi system of education;
the relationship of mother and child did not enter into the calculation
of the German agents as they separated children from parents and set the
child adrift in a world of carnage or in an institutionalised establishment.
The planned cruelty must be remedied, and it must be remedied by the men
and women of goodwill and loving hearts.
9. Begin now to lay aside, no matter what the personality
may demand, such small sums as can be spared and which can accumulate in
preparation for the work of reconstruction. If we can all do this, it will
enable us to take our share in the work without placing an undue load on
others. Will you see to it that this sacrifice and its resulting fund be
preserved inviolate in your own hands until such time in the future as you
may choose to use it?
These are the practical suggestions which it would seem
possible to make at this particular time. They are of a general nature and
basically individual. The whole scheme of rebuilding is as yet in the formative
thought stage.
The [Page 387] process to be followed today is
one of self-education and the awakening of all whom we can reach. It will
demand the intelligent study and consideration of methods with which to
meet this need, and the discovery of those who, irrespective of nationality
or religion, can be depended upon to cooperate in the various phases of
the work of reconstruction. In this work of preparation, all can share.
To this task we are all called, and to it there are many
voices calling today; there are thousands who have dreamed the same dream,
seen the same vision, believed in the divine possibilities which are latent
in all human hearts and who know, past all controversy, that selfishness
and universal greed have brought the world to its present desperate plight.
They know also that selfless sharing and cooperative understanding between
all men of goodwill everywhere can rebuild a new world, bring into being
a more beautiful life, and restore that which humanity itself has destroyed.
The best is yet to be. We can rest back upon the realisation that the history
of the human race has been one of a steady moving forward down the ages
and towards the light.
Esoterically speaking, the work of the Hierarchy is to
focus the divine will-to-good as it affects humanity. The work of spiritually
minded men is to evoke that will-to-good on earth through as full an expression
as possible of goodwill. It is the goodwill of the masses, focussed everywhere
through the United Nations who are fighting for the liberation of mankind
and through the New Group of World Servers, which is sufficient to invoke
the will-to-good and only this is adequate. This is an important statement
and one on which I would ask you to ponder
an undesirable effect upon the appeasers and pacifists
of the world. These would, for humanitarian reasons and from love of the
forms through which humanity functions, bring the war to an immediate end.
In their well-meaning blindness they would sacrifice the
future of humanity and the lives of millions of people at a later date for
a temporary cessation of hostilities. I would emphasise to you that the
Forces of Evil must be defeated now; the evil leaders must be wrenched from
their high place, and the complete defeat and annihilation of those responsible
for launching this horror on humanity is an absolute necessity and bounden
duty, if security, well-being and a new order of happier living is to be
the lot of coming generations. A temporary ending of the war would only
give time for the Forces of Evil to reorganise, and the future war would
be infinitely worse than this one. This the intelligent humanitarian is
saying, and this is the opinion of the Hierarchy. The Hierarchy stands firmly
on the side of those who demand a war to a finish, and the reasons are the
ultimate saving of millions of lives and the preservation of certain basic
spiritual values.
The issue is far more serious spiritually than you know;
[Page 427] the work of the Hierarchy is handicapped not only by the restrictions
under which the Forces of Light must work, but also by the work and utterances
of the silly little men with small vision who see not the future possibilities
if the war came to an inconclusive finish, and who (for the present comfort
of the present generation) would sacrifice the children of tomorrow and
later generations. The work of the Hierarchy is handicapped by the attitudes
of men with no perspective and much selfishness, of no cruelty but of stupid
thinking. These men—in the houses of legislature in the various United Nations,
in Parliament, in Congress, and in the churches—plead for the cessation
of the war before victory is won and before the enemies of humanity are
beaten to their knees in supplication for mercy and in a demand for peace.
They see the end of business as they have known it; they see the familiar
landmarks of their comfortable world disappearing; they dislike the results
of the war as it affects them; or they cannot bear the general suffering
and prompted by pity they demand an immediate peace. Others are prompted
by isolationism and the desire to withdraw from participation in the misery
of war; others hate those whose duty it is to carry the war to a successful
climax, or see their particular ambitions threatened by the conditionings
of a changing world. They would sacrifice future generations, as I have
said above, to their short-sighted policy and feeble judgment. They spread
disunity, therefore, and shackle the hands of those administering in high
places. Their efforts prolong the war, dishearten the fighting forces, break
down national and military morale, and lay a poor foundation for the work
of the post-war world. There are many of these in every nation, there are
too many in the United States of America; there are none in the U.S.S.R.,
and hence her triumphant march forward.
the Christ, is also at this time carrying forward three
major activities. I can tell you briefly what they are, but only the disciples
of the world will grasp the true implications.
He is, first of all, occupied with the process of deflecting
the will-energy, emanating from Shamballa, in such a way that it will not
be seized upon and misused by the Axis Powers in order to stiffen their
peoples into increased opposition to the Forces of Light. It must be rechannelled
and used to stiffen the purpose of the United Nations to carry the war to
a finish of victory and of triumph, to increase the will-to-unity of all
the allied peoples and to make firm the intention of the post-war planners
that freedom, educational facilities, truth and right living shall be [Page
436] the lot of the incoming generation. This necessitates on the part of
the Christ a concentration for which we have no equivalent word and a purely
spiritual endeavour (a monadic effort) of which we have no faintest idea.
Secondly, He is working within the confines of the Hierarchy
itself, preparing His disciples, the Masters, for certain great post-war
events. For the war will end. The Restoration of the Mysteries, the initiation
of those disciples who have stood firm and unafraid during the war, the
enlargement of Their ashrams, owing to the almost unforeseen development
of the spiritual sense among the world aspirants who would not normally
have become disciples during this incarnation, and also the externalisation
of Their ashrams during the next one hundred years, preparatory to the reappearance
of the Hierarchy upon earth, are some of His present hierarchical responsibilities.
These involve a tremendous expenditure of force, of second ray energy, just
as His first activity demands an unusual expenditure of first ray power—something
which even He, in His high place, is only now learning to handle, as a pledged
Disciple of Sanat Kumara.
His third activity is the effort to offset the growing
hate in the world, to strengthen the trend towards unity, and to show people
everywhere the danger of separateness. A growing and (from the worldly point
of view) reasonable hatred of the German people and of the Japanese is steadily
rising. This hate they have brought upon themselves. Hate ever lacks discrimination.
The great Law of Spiritual Retribution requires that justice be meted out,
but hatred will close the eyes of justice. The law must be administered,
and the world will see the expression of that same law, stated in the words,
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." But the materialistic
law of hate and of separation must be negated and offset. The problem with
which the Christ is faced is wellnigh—from the human angle—insoluble. He
will require the united effort of all men of goodwill to stem the rising
tide of hate—the floodgates of which were opened by Germany when she began
her attacks upon the [Page 437] Jews; she is now in danger of drowning in
the waters which she has set loose. There is also a rising tendency to separation
among certain of the Allied Nations, with which the Christ must deal. Several
of them are as houses divided against themselves. Such are Poland, France,
Yugoslavia and Greece. How can their differences be reconciled?
The hate of those who have suffered at the hands of the
Axis Powers, or as a result of war conditions, must be offset. How can this
be done? Such are some of the problems with which the Christ is wrestling.
He must work through His disciples, and They must be trained. He must work
through the stimulation of the hearts of the intelligent people and of the
humanitarians everywhere.
There is nothing which I tell you at this time that you
do not already know.
Do I need to ask you to work individually and in the place
where you are for national and world unity? Must I plead with you to do
what you can to heal divisions, and thus render effective that basic integrity
which should unite the three major world powers through which the Hierarchy
is attempting to work? Do I need to enjoin the necessity to counteract hate
with justice, understanding and mercy? Have I to continue explaining the
need for the complete triumph of the Forces of Light, for the triumphant
progress of the armies of the United Nations, and for that triumph to be
won first of all on spiritual levels and then carried through—with commonsense
and persistence—on to the physical side of life, as well as in the intervening
mental world? Do I need to ask for the control of emotions in the general
interest, and for the consecration of time, energy and money to the enormous
task of human salvage?
Extremely powerful forces were taking advantage of human
stupidity to intrude into world affairs, and that potent groups of evil
beings were organised to exploit the existing world situation. They knew
also that the combination of ancient evil with men's selfishness would inevitably
prove too strong for even the United Nations, if they were left unassisted
to meet the Axis Powers and the Lords of Evil emerging from their hiding
place.
So the Hierarchy took its stand upon the side of the United
Nations and let it be known that it had done so. In doing this, definite
physical steps were taken to aid the Forces of Light; men and leaders were
carefully chosen and picked disciples were placed in positions of power
and of authority.
The leaders of the United Nations and of their armies
are not Godless men, as are the leaders of the Axis Powers; they are men
of rectitude and of spiritual and humanitarian purpose and are able thus
to work—consciously or unconsciously—under the inspiration of the Hierarchy.
This has been amply demonstrated. On account of this decision of the Hierarchy,
Christ became automatically the Leader of these Forces.
His work has been greatly hindered by the sweet sentimentality
of the unthinking Christian and by the well-meaning, but oft unintelligent,
pacifist. Both these groups would sacrifice the future of humanity to temporary
methods of "being nice" or "being kind" or taking gentle
measures.
The forces of evil, stalking the world today,
do not understand [Page 477] such measures. The cry of such people that
"God loves all men" is true—eternally and forever true. It is
one of the unalterable facts of existence itself. God loves—without distinction
and irrespective of race or creed. To that Great Life naught matters but
humanity and its perfecting, because upon humanity depends the salvation
of all the kingdoms in nature. But this statement (made in time and space
and as it concerns the form aspect and not the spirit in man) is frequently
misleading, and the simple-minded are apt to forget that the Christ said,
"He that is not with me is against me."
Men fail also to realise the potency of the thought wielded
by Those who work under and with the Christ. Thought is pure divine energy,
impersonal and—like the sun—it pours down upon the worthy and the unworthy,
unless definitely and deliberately directed.
The Hierarchy was therefore faced with the problem and
the necessity of seeing that pure impersonal thought energy did not find
its way into the ranks of those fighting human freedoms, for it stimulates
the minds and the mental processes of the good and the bad alike. This danger
They deliberately offset by directing Their thought to the forces fighting
under the leaders of the United Nations and by openly taking Their stand
upon the side of right human relations. They did not dare to do otherwise,
for—in their place and given circumstances—the leaders of the forces of
evil have proved themselves cleverer and more calculating than those fighting
for human freedom. It is this distinction and its necessity that some kindly
and well-intentioned but ignorant Christian thinkers often overlook.
The work of Christ in relation to the war has also been
handicapped by the commercially minded in all nations, particularly in the
neutral countries, who have profited by the war, as well as by "big
business" interests in many lands. These are focussed at this time
through certain monied groups in every powerful nation, particularly in
the United States. He has been hindered also by those individuals who [Page
478] seek to exploit the plight of suffering humanity to their own financial
advantage.
Therefore, when the war broke out and humanity chose to
fight and the forces of evil were let loose upon our planet, the Hierarchy
ceased its efforts to bring peace through goodwill and openly sided with
those fighting to drive evil back whence it came, and to defeat the Axis
nations. Because of this decision on Their part, unthinking people claim
that the statements of those who represent the Hierarchy on earth have been
contradictory and that the actions of the Hierarchy have not been compatible
with their preconceived ideas of how love should be demonstrated.
For the past five years, therefore, the efforts of the
Christ and of His followers, the Masters of the Wisdom, have been directed
towards clarifying the true issues in the minds of men, towards indicating
the lines along which right action should be taken, and towards unifying
inter-allied policies. They have been occupied with banding together the
men of goodwill throughout the world in preparation for the Cycle of Conferences
and the coming world readjustments. They have sought to protect the sufferers,
organising methods of relief, guiding the minds of army leaders, and arousing
public opinion to take those steps which will eventually lead to right human
relations.
Temporarily, the German people and the Japanese have been
left to their fate and to the tender mercies of the armies of evil; the
present debacle in Germany is a testimony as to what evil can bring upon
those who follow it. With all these modes of strengthening the Forces of
Light and of extricating humanity from the descended evil, the Hierarchy
has also been occupied with lines of activity which may not be disclosed,
because they concern the handling of the subjective forces of evil. The
potency of these forces will be realised if the length of time which the
war has lasted is considered and also the fact that two nations have been
able to withstand—until the past few months—an entire world of nations united
against them.
This is a phenomenal fact in itself and a witness to the
[Page 479] strength of the evil group—objective and subjective—which has
sought to gain dominance over mankind. Had the Hierarchy not taken sides
with the United Nations and thrown the power of its thought into the battle,
victory might still be a long way off. Today it is well-nigh in our hands.
5. You will now understand the meaning of the words used
by so many of you in the second
of the Great Invocations: The hour of service of the saving force has
now arrived. This "saving force" is the energy which science has
released into the world for the destruction, first of all, of those who
continue (if they do) to defy the Forces of Light working through the United
Nations. Then—as time goes on—this liberated energy will usher in the new
civilisation, the new and better world and the finer, more spiritual conditions.
The highest dreams of those who love their fellowmen can become practical
possibilities through the right use of this liberated energy, if the real
values are taught, emphasised and applied to daily living. This
"saving force" has now been made available by science, and
my earlier prophecy substantiated.*
[Page 498]
As I said above, the first use of this energy has been
material destruction; this was inevitable and desirable; old forms (obstructing
the good) have had to be destroyed; the wrecking and disappearance of that
which is bad and undesirable must ever precede the building of the good
and desirable and the longed-for emergence of that which is new and better.
The constructive use of this energy and its harnessing
for the betterment of humanity is its real purpose; this living energy of
substance itself, hitherto shut up within the atom and imprisoned in these
ultimate forms of life, can be turned wholly into that which is good and
can bring about such a revolutionising of the modes of human experience
that (from one angle alone) it will necessitate and bring about an entirely
new economic world structure.
It lies in the hands of the United Nations to protect
this released energy from misuse and to see that its power is not prostituted
to selfish ends and purely material purposes. It is a "saving force"
and has in it the potency of rebuilding, of rehabilitation and of reconstruction.
Its right use can abolish destitution, bring civilised comfort (and not
useless luxury) to all upon our planet; its expression in forms of right
living, if motivated by right human relations, will produce beauty, warmth,
colour, the abolition of the present forms of disease, the withdrawal of
mankind from all activities which involve living or working underground,
and will bring to an end all human slavery, all need to work or fight for
possessions and things, and will render possible a state of life which will
leave man free to pursue the higher aims of the Spirit.
The prostituting of life to the task of providing the
bare necessities or to [Page 499] making it possible for a few rich and
privileged people to have too much when others have too little, will come
to an end; men everywhere can now be released into a state of life which
will give them leisure and time to follow spiritual objectives, to realise
richer cultural life, and to attain a broader mental perspective.
But, my brothers, men will fight to prevent this; the
reactionary groups in every country will neither recognise the need for,
nor desire this new world order which the liberation of cosmic energy (even
on this initial tiny scale) can make possible; the vested interests, the
big cartels, trusts and monopolies that controlled the past few decades,
preceding this world war, will mobilise their resources and fight to the
death to prevent the extinction of their sources of income; they will not
permit, if they can help it, the passing of the control of this illimitable
power into the hands of the masses, to whom it rightly belongs.
The selfish interests among the big stockholders, the
banking firms and the wealthy organised churches will oppose all change,
except in so far as it will benefit them and bring more financial gain to
their coffers.
Signs of this opposition can already be seen in the utterances
of certain powerful men who are today encouraging a gloomy outlook in London
and in Washington and elsewhere; the Vatican, that wealthy and reactionary
ecclesiastical organisation, has already expressed its disfavour, because
that Church knows—as do all the vested and monied interests—that their days
are numbered, provided humanity governs its decisions during the next fifty
years by the idea of the greatest good to the greatest number. World decisions
must therefore, in the future, be based upon a steady determination to further
right human relations and to prevent selfish control, financial or ecclesiastical,
by any group of men, anywhere, in any country.
We believe the determination of Great Britain, the United
States, and Canada, who are in possession of the secrets, is along these
lines.
These few suggestions will give you much food for thought
and real ground for happy, confident, forward thinking. [Page 500] Organise
now for the goodwill work. The future of the world lies in the hands of
the men of goodwill and in those who have unselfish purpose everywhere.
This release of energy will eventually make money, as we know it, of no
moment whatsoever; money has proved itself (owing to man's limitations)
a producer of evil and the sower of dissension and discontent in the world.
This new released energy can prove itself a "saving
force" for all mankind, releasing from poverty, ugliness, degradation,
slavery and despair; it will destroy the great monopolies, take the curse
out of labour, and open the door into that golden age for which all men
wait. It will level all the artificial layers of modern society and liberate
men from the constant anxiety and gruelling toil which have been responsible
for so much disease and death. When these new and better conditions are
established, then men will be free to live and move in beauty and to seek
the "Lighted Way."
Money—as
with all else in human living—has been tainted by selfishness and grabbed
for selfish individual or national ends. Of this, the world war (1914-1945)
is the proof, for although there was much talk of "saving the world
for democracy" and "fighting a war to end war," the main
motive was self-protection and self-preservation, the hope of gain, the
satisfaction of ancient hatreds, and the regaining of territory.
The two years which have elapsed since the war have proved
this to be so. The United Nations is occupied with rapacious demands from
all sides, with the angling of the nations for place and power, and for
the possession of the natural resources of the Earth—coal, oil, etc., and
also with the underground activities of the great Powers and of the capitalists
which they all create.
Yet all the time, the one humanity—no matter what the
place of residence, what the colour of the skin, or what the religious beliefs—is
clamouring for peace, justice and a sense of security. All this, the right
use of money and a realisation on the part of many of their financial responsibility
(a responsibility based on the spiritual values) would rapidly give them.
With the exception of a few great far-sighted philanthropists, and of a
mere handful of enlightened statesmen, churchmen and educators, this sense
of financial responsibility is to be found nowhere.
The time has now come when money must be re-valued and
its usefulness channelled into new directions. The voice [Page 627] of the
people must prevail, but it must be a people educated in the true values,
in the significances of a right culture, and in the need for right human
relations. It is therefore essentially a question of right education and
correct training in world citizenship—a thing that has not yet been undertaken.
Who can give this training? Russia would gladly train
the world in the ideals of communism, and would gather all the money in
the world into the coffers of the proletariat, eventually producing the
greatest capitalistic system the world has ever seen. Great Britain would
gladly train the world in the British concepts of justice and fair play
and world trade, and would do it more cleverly than any other nation because
of vast experience.
The United States would also gladly undertake to force
the American brand
of democracy upon
the world, using her vast capital and resources in so doing, and gathering
into her banks the financial results of her wide-spread financial dealings,
preserving them safely by the threat of the atomic bomb and the shaking
of the mailed fist over the rest of the world. France will keep Europe in
a state of unrest as she seeks to regain her lost prestige and garner all
she can from the victory of the other allied nations.
Thus, my brother, the story goes—each nation fighting
for itself and rating each other in terms of resources and finance. In the
meantime, humanity starves, remains uneducated, is brought up on false values
and the wrong use of money; until these things are being righted, the return
of the Christ is not possible.
In the face of this disturbing financial situation, what
is the answer to the problem? There are men and women to be found in every
land, every government, every church and religion, and every educational
foundation who have the answer. What hope is there for them and for the
work with which they have been entrusted? How can the people of the world,
the men of goodwill and of spiritual vision help? Is there anything they
can do to change the thinking of the world in regard to money, and to deflect
it into channels where it will be rightly used? The answer lies within these
people themselves.
[Page 628]
There are two groups who can do much: those already using
the financial resources of the world, if they will catch the new vision
and also see the handwriting on the wall which is bringing the old order
down in destruction; and secondly, the mass of the good, kindly people in
all classes and spheres of influence.
The power of the little man and of the unimportant citizen
is not yet truly grasped, yet there is a vast opportunity before them if
they have the courage and the patience to do the needed work.
These men and women of goodwill and spiritual inclination
must reject the thought of their relative uselessness, insignificance and
futility, and realise that now (in the critical and crucial moment that
has come) they can work potently.
The Forces of Evil are defeated, though not yet "sealed"
behind the door where humanity can put them and which the New Testament
foretold would happen.
The world is in the balance again. Evil is seeking every
avenue available for a new approach but—and this I say with confidence and
insistence—the little people of the world, enlightened and selfless in their
viewpoint, exist in sufficient numbers to make their power felt—if they
will. There are millions of spiritually-minded men and women in every country
who, when they come to the point of approaching in mass formation this question
of money, can permanently rechannel it.
There are writers and thinkers in all lands who
can add their powerful help, and who will if correctly approached. There
are esoteric students and devoted church people to whom appeal can be made
for aid in preparing the way for the return of the Christ, particularly
if the aid required is the expenditure of money and time for the establishing
of right human relations and the growth and spread of goodwill.
A great campaign to raise money is not demanded, but the
selfless work of thousands of apparently unimportant people is required.
I would say, my brothers, that the most needed quality is courage; it takes
courage to put aside diffidence, shyness and the dislike of presenting a
point of view, particularly a point of view connected with money. It is
here [Page 629] that the majority fail. It is relatively easy today to raise
money for the Red Cross, for hospitals and for educational institutions.
It is exceedingly difficult to raise money for the spread of goodwill, or
to secure financial sources and the right use of money for forward looking
ideas, such as the return of the Christ. Therefore I say that the first
prerequisite is courage.
The second requirement for the workers of the Christ is
to make those sacrifices and arrangements which will enable them to give
to the limit of their capacity; there must not be simply a trained ability
to present the subject, but each worker must practise what he preaches.
If, for instance, the millions of people who love the Christ and seek to
serve His cause gave at least a tiny sum of money each year, there would
be adequate funds for His work; the needed trusts and the spiritually-minded
trustees would then automatically appear.
The difficulty is not with the organising of the money
and work; it lies with the seeming inability of people to give. For one
reason or another, they give little or nothing, even when interested in
such a cause as that of the return of the Christ; fear, or the love of purchasing,
or the desire to give presents, or failure to realise that many small sums
mount up into very large sums—all these things militate against financial
generosity, and the reason always seems adequate. Therefore, the second
prerequisite is for everyone to give as they can.
Thirdly, the metaphysical schools and the esoteric groups
have given much thought to this business of directing money into channels
which appeal to them. The question is often asked: Why do the Unity School
of thought, the Christian Science Church, and many New Thought movements
always manage to accumulate the required funds, whilst other groups, and
particularly the esoteric groups, do not? Why do truly spiritual workers
seem unable to materialise what they need?
The answer is a simple one. Those
groups and workers who are the closest to the spiritual ideal are as a house
divided against itself. Their main interest is on abstract spiritual levels,
and they have not apparently grasped the fact that the physical plane, when
motivated from the spiritual levels, is of equal importance.
The large metaphysical [Page 630] schools are focussed
on making a material demonstration, and so great is their emphasis and so
one-pointed is their approach that they get what they demand; they have
to learn that the demand and its answer must be the result of spiritual
purpose, and that that which is demanded must not be for the use of the
separated self or for a separative organisation or church. In the new age
which is upon us, prior to the return of the Christ, the demand for financial
support must be for the bringing about of right human relations and goodwill,
and not for the growth of any particular organisation. The organisations
so demanding must work with the minimum of overhead and central plant, and
the workers for the minimum yet reasonable salary. Not many such organisations
exist today, but the few now functioning can set an example which will be
rapidly followed, as the desire for the return of the Christ grows. Therefore
the third prerequisite is the service of the one humanity.
The fourth prerequisite must be the careful presentation
of the cause for which the financial support is required. People may have
the courage to speak, but an intelligent presentation is of equal importance.
The major point to be emphasised in the preparatory
work for the return of Christ is the establishing of right human relations.
This has already been started by men of goodwill all over the world, under
their many names, and here I have done naught but indicate another motive
for presentation.
We come now to the fifth prerequisite: a vital and sure
belief in humanity as a whole. There must be no pessimism as to the future
of mankind or distress over the disappearance of the old order. The good,
the true and the beautiful is on its way, and for it mankind is responsible,
and not some outer divine intervention. Humanity is sound and rapidly awakening.
We are passing through the stage where everything is being
proclaimed from the housetops—as the Christ stated would be the case—and
as we listen or read of the flood of filth, crime, sensual pleasure or luxury
buying, we are apt to be discouraged; it is wise to remember that it is
wholesome for all this to come to the surface and for us all to know about
[Page 631] it. It is like the psychological cleansing of the subconscious
to which individuals submit themselves, and it presages the inauguration
of a new and better day.
There is work to do, and the men of goodwill, of spiritual
instinct, and of truly Christian training must do it. They must inaugurate
the era of the use of money for the spiritual Hierarchy, and carry that
need into the realms of invocation. Invocation is the highest type of prayer
there is, and a new form of divine appeal which a knowledge of meditation
has now made possible.
To this end I will give you a short form of spiritual
demand which I would ask you all to use in the place of any prayer, meditation
or invocation for money
which you may have hitherto used. It is short and powerful, but requires
a unified group or a truly integrated personality to use it....
I have naught to add in the way of an appeal for funds,
courage or understanding. If the courage of the Christ, as He faces return
to this physical outer world, if the need of humanity for right human relations,
and the sacrificing work of the disciples of the Christ are not enough to
fire you and to energise you and those whom you can reach, there is nothing
that I can say which will be of any use.
The United Nations is still the hope of the world and
can remain so; it is a great field of experimentation, but is suffering
today from an initial error. That error was the admitting of a totalitarian
Power into its nations. For seven long and terrible years the Forces of
Light had been fighting totalitarianism.
In the early days of the post-war period the Nations compromised
with principles and admitted Russia to the United Nations. Had they proceeded
to unite all the other nations of the world on the sure ground of economic
reform, of needed national reorganisation and of regional groups (a better
term than "blocs"), Russia would have been forced to conform,
for her very existence would have been at stake. An initial error can lead
to much trouble, and it is this type of trouble which the United Nations
today faces.
The distribution of the world's resources and the settled
unity of the peoples of the world are in reality one and the same thing,
for behind all modern wars lies a fundamental economic problem. Solve that
and wars will very largely cease.
In considering, therefore, the preservation of
peace, as sought for and emphasized by the United Nations at this time,
it becomes immediately apparent that peace, security and world stability
are primarily tied up with the economic problem.
When there is freedom from want, one of the major causes
of war will disappear. Where there is uneven distribution of the world's
riches and where there is a situation in which some nations have or take
everything and other nations lack the necessities of life, it is obvious
that there is a trouble-breeding factor there and that something must be
done. Therefore we should deal with world unity and peace primarily from
the angle of the economic problem.
With the cessation of World War II came the opportunity
to inaugurate a new and better way of life, and to establish that security
and peace for which all men ceaselessly long. Three groups immediately appeared
in the world:
1. The powerful, reactionary, conservative groups desirous
of retaining as much of the past as possible, having great power and no
vision.
2. The fanatical ideologists in every country—communistic,
democratic and fascist.
[Page 168]
3. The inert masses of the people in every land, ignorant
for the most part, desiring only peace after storm and security in the
place of economic disaster; they are victimised by their rulers, by established
old conditions, and kept in the dark as to the truth of the world situation.
All these factors produce the present disorders and condition
the deliberations of the United Nations. Though there is no major war, there
is no peace, no security and no immediate hope of either.
It is essential for the future happiness and progress
of humanity that there should be no return to the old ways, whether political,
religious or economic. Therefore, in handling these problems we should search
out the wrong conditions which have brought humanity to its present state
of almost cataclysmic disaster.
These conditions were the result of religious faiths which
have not moved forward in their thinking for hundreds of years; of economic
systems which lay the emphasis upon the accumulation of riches and material
possessions and which leave all the power and the produce of the earth in
the hands of a relatively few men, while the rest of humanity struggle for
a bare subsistence; and of political regimes run by the corrupt, the totalitarian-minded,
the grafters and those who love place and power more than they love their
fellowmen.
It is essential that there should be a presentation of
these things in terms of the spiritual welfare of humanity and a truer interpretation
of the meaning of the word "spiritual". The time is long past
when a line of demarcation can be drawn between the religious world and
the political or the economic. The reason for the corrupt politics and the
greedy ambitious planning of so many of the world's leading men can be found
in the fact that spiritually minded men and women have not assumed— [Page
169] as their spiritual duty and responsibility—the leadership of the people.
They have left the power in the wrong hands and permitted the selfish and
the undesirable to lead.
The word "spiritual" does not belong to the
churches or to the world religions. "Pure religion and undefiled"
is pure charity and a selfless following of the Christ. The churches are
themselves great capitalistic systems particularly the Roman Catholic Church,
and show little evidence of the mind that was in Christ. The churches have
had their opportunity, but have done little to change men's hearts or to
benefit the people.
Now, under cyclic law, political ideologies and national
and international planning are occupying the attention of the people and
everywhere efforts are being made to bring about better human relations.
This, in the eyes of the spiritually minded and of the enlightened worker
for humanity, is a sign of progress and an indication of the innate divinity
in man. That is truly spiritual which properly relates man to man and man
to God and which demonstrates in a better world and the expression of the
Four Freedoms throughout the planet. For these the spiritual man must work.
The Kingdom of God will inaugurate a world which will
be one in which it will be realized that—politically speaking—humanity,
as a whole, is of far greater importance than any one nation; it will be
a new world order, built upon different principles to those in the past,
and one in which men will carry the spiritual vision into their national
governments, into their economic planning and into all measures taken to
bring about security and right human relations. Spirituality is essentially
the establishing of right human relations, the promotion of goodwill and
finally the establishing of a true peace on earth, as the result of these
two expressions of divinity.
[Page 170] The world today is full of warring voices;
everywhere there is an outcry against world conditions; everything is being
dragged out into the light of day; abuses are being shouted from the housetops,
as the Christ prophesied they would be.
The reason for all this outcry, discussion, and noisy
criticism is that, as men awaken to the facts and begin to think and plan,
they are aware of guilt within themselves; their consciences trouble them;
they are conscious of the inequality of opportunity, of the grave abuses,
of the entrenched distinctions between man and man, and the factor of racial
and national discriminations; they question their own individual goals as
well as national planning.
The masses of men in every land are beginning
to realize that they are largely responsible for what is wrong, and that
their inertness and lack of right action and thinking has led to the present
unhappy state of world affairs. This constitutes a challenge and no challenge
is ever totally welcome.
The awakening of the masses and the determination of the
reactionary forces and of the monied interests to preserve the old and fight
the new are largely responsible for the present world crisis. The battle
between the old, entrenched forces and the emerging, new idealism constitutes
the problem today; other factors—though important, individually or nationally—are
from the true and spiritual standpoint relatively negligible.
The unity, peace and security of the nations, great and
small, are not to be attained by following the guidance of the greedy capitalist
or the ambitious in any nation, and yet in many situations that guidance
is being accepted. They are not to be gained by the blind following of any
ideology, no matter how good it may seem to those conditioned by it; yet
there are those who are seeking to impose their particular ideology on the
world—and not solely in Russia. They will not be reached by sitting back
and leaving the changing of [Page 171] conditions to God or the evolutionary
process; yet there are those who make no move to help, even while knowing
well the conditions with which the United Nations have to deal.
Unity, peace and security will come through the recognition—intelligently
assessed—of the evils which have led to the present world situation, and
then through the taking of those wise, compassionate and understanding steps
which will lead to the establishing of right human relations, to the substitution
of cooperation for the present competitive system, and by the education
of the masses in every land as to the nature of true goodwill and its hitherto
unused potency.
This will mean the deflecting of untold millions of money
into right educational systems, instead of their use by the forces of war
and their conversion into armies, navies and armaments.
It is this that is spiritual; it is this that is of importance
and it is this for which all men must struggle. The spiritual Hierarchy
of the planet is primarily interested in finding the men who will work along
these lines. It is primarily interested in humanity, realizing that the
steps taken by humanity in the immediate future will condition the new age
and determine man's destiny.
Will it be a destiny of annihilation, of a planetary war,
of worldwide famine and pestilence, of nation rising against nation and
of the complete collapse of all that makes life worth living? All this can
happen unless basic changes are made and made with goodwill and loving understanding.
Then, on the other hand, we can have a period (difficult
but helpful because educative) of adjustment, of concession and of relinquishment;
we can have a period of right recognition of shared opportunity, of a united
effort to bring about right human relations, and of an educational process
which will train the youth of all nations to function as world citizens
and [Page 172] not as nationalistic propagandists.
What we need above all to see—as a result of spiritual
maturity—is the abolition of those two principles which have wrought so
much evil in the world and which are summed up in the two words: Sovereignty
and Nationalism.
World Disunity
What at this moment appears to prevent world unity and
keeps the United Nations from arriving at those necessary settlements which
the man in the street is so eagerly awaiting?
The answer is not hard to find and involves all nations:
nationalism, capitalism, competition, blind stupid greed. It is an intense
emotional nationalism which made the Polish nation so difficult a member
of the family of nations; it is materialism and fear, plus a lack of spiritual
interest, which makes France so constant an obstructionist and has led her
to work against united world action; it is fanatical adherence to an ideology
and national immaturity which prompts so much of Russia's activities; it
is a rampant capitalism which makes the United States one of the most feared
of the nations, plus her gestures of armed power; it is the fast dying imperialism
which handicaps Great Britain and a clinging to responsibilities and territories
which she is realizing could well be turned over to the United Nations;
the hope of Great Britain lies in her socialistic tendencies which enable
her to take the "middle path" between the communism of Russia
and the capitalism of the United States.
It is the smug greed of the nations which escaped the
war which is hindering progress; it is the devious actions of the Jews and
the hatred which they cultivate which tend also to undermine the hope of
peace; it is the chaos in India and China which is complicating the work
of the well-intentioned; it is the unchristian and undemocratic treatment
of the Negro peoples in the United States and Africa which is contributing
[Page 173] to the ferment; it is the blind inertness and lack of interest
of the masses of the people which permit the wrong men to be in power; it
is fear of the rest of the world which makes the Russian leaders keep their
peoples in ignorance of the attitude of other nations on world affairs;
it is the wrong use of money which colours the press and the radio in Great
Britain and still more in the United States, thus keeping much of the truth
from the people; it is the upheaval of labour everywhere which feeds the
turmoil and forces unnecessary suffering upon the public; it is powerful,
political and international distrust, lying propaganda and the apathy of
the churches which still further complicate the problem.
It is—above all else—the refusal of that public
to face life as it is and to recognize the facts for what they are. The
mass of men need arousing to see that good comes to all men alike and not
just to a few privileged groups, and to learn also that "hatred ceases
not by hatred but that hatred ceases by love". This love is not a sentiment,
but practical goodwill, expressing itself through individuals, in communities
and among nations.
Such is the sad and sorry picture of the world today and
only the blind and the uncaring will deny it. Only a keen realization of
the situation and of the sources of the trouble will serve to impulse mankind
to take the needed action. But there is another side of the picture and
there is that which will balance the evil, though, as yet, it will not completely
balance and offset it.
Today men and women everywhere—in high place and in low,
in every nation, community and group—are presenting a vision of right human
relations which must constitute the standard for the future of mankind.
Everywhere they are exposing the evils which must be eliminated and they
are educating ceaselessly in the principles of the new age. It is these
men who are of importance.
In politics there are great and wise statesmen [Page 174]
who are endeavouring to guide their people wisely but have as yet too much
with which to contend; of these Franklin
D. Roosevelt was an outstanding modern example, for he gave of his best
and died in the service of humanity.
There are enlightened educators, writers and lecturers
in every land who are seeking to show the people how practical is the ideal,
how available the goodwill in mankind, and how easily applied are these
ideals when there are enough men and women of goodwill active in the world
to force the issue. This is the factor of importance. There are also scientists,
physicians and agriculturists who have dedicated their lives to the betterment
of human living; there are churchmen in all the faiths who follow sincerely
the footsteps of the Christ (though they are not the leaders) and who repudiate
the materialism which has ruined the churches; there are men and women in
their untold millions who see truly, think clearly and work hard in their
communities to establish right human relations.
Security, happiness and peaceful relations are desired
by all. Until, however, the Great Powers, in collaboration with the little
nations, have solved the economic problem and have realized that the resources
of the earth belong to no one nation but to humanity as a whole, there will
be no peace. The oil of the world, the mineral wealth, the wheat, the sugar
and the grains belong to all men everywhere. They are essential to the daily
living of the everyday man.
The true problem of the United Nations is a twofold one:
it involves the right distribution of the world's resources so that there
may be freedom from want, and it involves also the bringing about of a true
equality of opportunity and of education for all men everywhere.
The nations which have a wealth of resources are not owners;
they are custodians of the world's riches and hold them in trust for their
fellowmen. The time will [Page 175] inevitably come when—in the interest
of peace and security—the capitalists in the various nations will be forced
to realize this and will also be forced to substitute the principle of sharing
for the ancient principle (which has hitherto governed them) of greedy grabbing.
There was a time—a hundred years or more ago—when a just
distribution of the world's wealth would have been impossible. That is not
true today. Statistics exist; computations have been made; investigation
has penetrated into every field of the earth's resources and these investigations,
computations and statistics have been published and are available to the
public.
The men in power in every nation know well exactly what
food, minerals, oil and other necessities are available for worldwide use
upon just and equitable lines. But these commodities are reserved by the
nations involved as "talking and bargaining points". The problem
of distribution is no longer difficult once the food of the world is freed
from politics and from capitalism; it must also be remembered that the means
of distribution by sea, rail and air are adequate.
None of this will, however, take place until the United
Nations begin to talk in terms of humanity as a whole and not in terms of
boundaries, of technical objectives and fears, in terms of the bargaining
value of oil, as in the Near East, or in the language of mistrust and suspicion.
Russia distrusts the capitalism of the United States and—to a lesser degree—that
of Great Britain; South America is rapidly learning to mistrust the United
States on the ground of imperialism; both Great Britain and the United States
mistrust Russia, on the basis of her spoken word, her use of the veto and
her ignorance of western idealism.
Yet it must be remembered that there are statesmen in
Great Britain, the United States and Russia who are endeavouring to work
for the common man and to speak [Page 176] on his behalf in the conclaves
of the nations. As yet selfish opposition has rendered their work futile
and the monied interests in many countries have negated their efforts. Russia
has no monied interests, but she has vast resources in men and arms and
these she plays off against the capitalistic interests. Thus the war goes
on, and the man in the street waits hopelessly for a decision which will
lead to peace—a peace based on security and right human relations.
To further complicate the problem, it must be borne in
mind that the East and the West approach life from different angles. The
Eastern approach is negative and subjective; the Western is positive and
scientific and, therefore, objective.
This is further complicated by the fact that western Europe
and eastern Europe look at life and the modern problems from different angles;
this makes cooperation difficult and definitely complicates the problems
confronting the United Nations. Church and State are not in sympathy; capital
and labour carry on a constant war; the man in the street pays the price
and waits for justice and freedom.
World Unity
There is no counsel of perfection to give the world or
any solution which will carry immediate relief. To the spiritual leaders
of the race certain lines of action seem right and to guarantee constructive
attitudes.
1. The United Nations, through its Assembly and Committees,
must be supported; there is as yet no other organization to which man
can hopefully look. Therefore, he must support the United Nations but,
at the same time, let this group of world leaders know what is needed.
2. The general public in every nation must be educated
in right human relations. Above all else, the children and the youth of
the world must be taught [Page 177] goodwill to all men everywhere, irrespective
of race or creed.
3. Time must be given for the needed adjustments and
humanity must learn to be intelligently patient; humanity must face with
courage and optimism the slow process of building the new civilization.
4. An intelligent and cooperative public opinion must
be developed in every land and the doing of this constitutes a major spiritual
duty. This will take much time but if the men of goodwill and if the spiritual
people of the world will become genuinely active, it can be done in twenty-five
years.
5. The world economic council (or whatever body represents
the resources of the world) must free itself from fraudulent politics,
capitalistic influence and its devious scheming; it must set the resources
of the earth free for the use of humanity. This will be a lengthy task
but it will be possible when world need is better appreciated. An enlightened
public opinion will make the decisions of the economic council practical
and possible. Sharing and cooperation must be taught instead of greed
and competition.
6. There must be freedom to travel everywhere in any
direction and in any country; by means of this free intercourse, members
of the human family may get to know each other and to appreciate each
other; passports and visas should be discontinued because they are symbols
of the great heresy of separateness.
7. The men of goodwill everywhere must be mobilized
and set to work; it is upon their efforts that the future of humanity
depends; they exist in their millions everywhere and—when organized and
mobilized—represent a vast section of the thinking public.
It will be through the steady, consistent and organized
work of the men of goodwill throughout the world that world unity will be
brought about.
At present, [Page 178] such men are only in process of
organizing and are apt to feel that the work to be done is so stupendous
and the forces arrayed against them are so great that their—at present—isolated
efforts are useless to break down the barriers of greed and hate with which
they are confronted. They realize that there is as yet no systemized spread
of the principle of goodwill which holds the solution to the world problem;
they have as yet no idea of the numerical strength of those who are thinking
as they do.
They ask themselves the same questions which are agitating
the minds of men everywhere: How can order be restored? How can there be
fair distribution of the world's resources? How can the Four Freedoms become
factual and not just beautiful dreams? How can true religion be resurrected
and the ways of true spiritual living govern the hearts of men? How can
a true prosperity be established which will be the result of unity, peace
and plenty?
There is only one true way and there are indications that
it is a way towards which many millions of people are turning. Unity and
right human relations—individual, communal, national and international—can
be brought about by the united action of the men and women of goodwill in
every country.
These men and women of goodwill must be found and organized
and thus discover their numerical potency—for it is there. They must form
a world group, standing for right human relations and educating the public
in the nature and power of goodwill. They will thus create a world public
opinion which will be so forceful and so outspoken on the side of human
welfare that leaders, statesmen, politicians, businessmen and churchmen
will be forced to listen and comply. Steadily and regularly, the general
public must be taught an internationalism and a world unity which is based
on simple goodwill and on cooperative interdependence.
[Page 179]
This is no mystical or impractical program; it does not
work through the processes of exposing, undermining or attack; it emphasizes
the new politics, i.e., politics which are based upon the principle of bringing
about right human relations. Between the exploited and the exploiting, the
warmongers and the pacifists, the masses and the rulers, this group of men
of goodwill will stand in their organized millions, taking no side, demonstrating
no partisan spirit, fomenting no political or religious disturbance and
feeding no hatreds. They will not be a negative body but a positive group,
interpreting the meaning of right human relations, standing for the oneness
of humanity and for practical, but not theoretical, brotherhood. The propagation
of these ideas by all available means and the spread of the principle of
goodwill will produce a powerful organized international group. Public opinion
will be forced to recognize the potency of the movement; eventually the
numerical strength of the men and women of goodwill in the world will be
so great that they will influence world events. Their united voice will
be heard on behalf of right human relations.
This movement is already gathering momentum. In many lands
this plan for the formation of a group of people who are trained in goodwill
and who possess clear insight into the principles which should govern human
relations in world affairs is already past the blueprint stage. The nucleus
for this work is present today. Their functions might be summarized as follows:
1. To restore world confidence by letting it be known
how much goodwill—organized and unorganized—there is in the world today.
2. To educate the masses in the principles and the practice
of goodwill. The word "goodwill" is largely [Page 180] used
at this time by all parties and groups, national and international.
3. To synthesize and coordinate into one functioning
whole all the men and women of goodwill in the world who will recognize
these principles as their personal directing ideal, and who will endeavour
to apply them to current world or national events.
4. To create mailing lists in every country of the men
and women of goodwill who can be counted upon to stand for world unity,
right human relations and who will try—in their own lands—to reach others
with this idea, through the medium of the press, the lecture platform
and the radio. Eventually this world group should have its own newspaper
or magazine, through means of which the educational process can be intensified
and goodwill be found to be a universal principle and technique.
5. To provide in every country and eventually in every
large city, a central bureau where information will be available concerning
the activities of the men and women of goodwill all over the world; of
those organizations, groups and parties who are also working along similar
lines of international understanding and right human relations. Thus many
will find those who will cooperate with them in their particular endeavour
to promote world unity.
6. To work, as men and women of goodwill, with all groups
who have a world programme which tends to heal world differences and national
quarrels and to end racial distinctions. When such groups are found to
work constructively and are free from scurrilous attack or aggressive
modes of action, and actuated by goodwill to all men and are free from
an aggressive nationalism and partisanship, then the cooperation of the
men of goodwill can be offered and freely given.
[Page 181] It takes no great effort of the imagination
to see that, if this work of spreading goodwill and educating public opinion
in its potency is pursued, and if the men of goodwill can be discovered
in all lands and organized, that (even in five years' time) much good can
be accomplished. Thousands can be gathered into the ranks of the men of
goodwill. This is the initial task. The power of such a group, backed by
public opinion, will be tremendous. They can accomplish phenomenal results.
How to use the weight of that goodwill and how to employ
the will to establish right human relations will grow gradually out of the
work accomplished and meet the need of the world situation. The trained
use of power on the side of goodwill and on behalf of right human relations
will be demonstrated as possible, and the present unhappy state of world
affairs can be changed. This will be done, not through the usual war like
measures of the past or the enforced will of some aggressive or wealthy
group, but through the weight of a trained public opinion—an opinion which
will be based on goodwill, on an intelligent understanding of the needs
of humanity, on a determination to bring about right human relations and
on the recognition that the problems with which humanity is today confronted
can be solved through goodwill.
The Avatar of Synthesis has become, for the time being,
His close Associate. [Page 77] This is an event of supreme and planetary
importance. His relationship and planned help date from the time of the
pronouncing of the great Invocation and its use by men everywhere. Owing
to the stupendous task confronting Christ, the Avatar of Synthesis will
fortify Him, and He will be buttressed by this "Silent Avatar"
Who (to speak symbolically) will "keep His eye upon Him, His hand beneath
Him and His heart in unison with His."
This Being is closely related to the Will Aspect of divinity,
and His cooperation has been made possible through Christ's Own attainment
along the line of the highest, spiritual will. He works under the great
natural Law of Synthesis, producing at-one-ment, unification and fusion.
His function (in unison with the energy of Christ) is to generate spiritual
will in humanity, the will-to-good; His potency works in three fields of
activity at this time:
a. Within the spiritual Hierarchy itself, revealing
the nature of the divine will-to-good which the Kingdom of God must express,
and the nature also of divine Purpose.
b. Within the Assembly of the United Nations, though
not within the Security Council; He is there generating a slowly growing
will-to-unity.
c. Within the masses of men everywhere, fostering the
urge to a general betterment.
His activity is necessarily a mass activity, for He can
only channel His energies through the mass consciousness or through a group
conscious entity, such as the Hierarchy, the United Nations or Humanity.
The focal point of His effort and the Agent through which distribution of
His energy can be made is the New Group of World Servers; [Page 78] this
group is uniquely related to this Avatar of Synthesis.
The bringing together of all the agents of goodwill (who
are responsive to the energy of the divine will-to-good) constitutes the
major objective of the New Group of World Servers and always has been. Their
work can now be constructively and creatively intensified through the association
of the Avatar of Synthesis with the Christ. Their task is to usher in the
New Age; in that New Age, the five Kingdoms in Nature will begin to function
as one creative whole. Their work falls into the following parts, functions
or activities:
a. The production of a human synthesis or unity which
will lead to an universal recognition of the one humanity, brought about
through right human relations.
b. The establishing of right relations with the subhuman
kingdoms in nature, leading to the universal recognition that there is
One World.
c. The anchoring of the Kingdom of God, the spiritual
Hierarchy of our planet, in open expression on Earth, thus leading to
the universal recognition that the sons of men are one.
These objectives the Avatar of Synthesis will foster and
aid and for this purpose He has associated Himself with the Christ, working
through the Hierarchy, under instruction from the "centre where the
will of God is known." These three related events and distributing
points of energy have all come into activity during the point of tension
in which Christ and the Hierarchy are at this time held. They all serve
to re-direct and focus energy in relation to humanity, for all are the result
of the decision made by Christ after His point of crisis, and are all connected
[Page 79] with the hierarchical preparation for Christ's reappearance.
These forces of reconstruction are effective mainly in
relation to those entities which we call nations. The Hierarchy is at this
time attempting to channel them into the Assembly of the United Nations;
the use made of these impersonal energies is dependent upon the quality
and the nature of the recipient nation, on its measure of true enlightenment
and on its point in evolution. Nations are the expression today of the massed
self-centredness of a people and of their instinct to self-preservation.
These energies can, therefore, increase that aspect of their lives. They
can, however, and in spite of this, increase the potency of the objective
which the United Nations (at present) theoretically hold before the eyes
of men everywhere. The main object of the Hierarchy is so to distribute
these constructive, synthesising energies that the theory of unity may slowly
be turned into practice, and the word "United" may come to have
a true significance and meaning. It is with this type of energy that the
Avatar of Synthesis is peculiarly allied. He will convey to humanity, with
the aid of the Christ, [Page 94] something for which we have as yet no name.
It is neither love nor will, as we understand them. Only a phrase of several
words will bring to us something of the meaning. This phrase is "the
principle of directed Purpose." This principle involves three things:
1. Understanding—intuitive and spiritually instinctual,
but intelligently interpreted—of the Plan, as it can be worked out in
the immediate future by the Christ and His disciples.
2. Focussed intention, based upon the above and emphasising
an aspect of the will, hitherto undeveloped in man.
3. Capacity to direct energy (through understanding
and intent) towards a recognised and desired end, overcoming all obstacles
and destroying all that stands in its way. This is not the destruction
of forms by force such as we have seen imposed upon the world, but a destruction
brought about by the greatly strengthened life within the form.
The significance of these divine principles will make
little sense to us today; we are dealing with major mysteries. A mystery
remains a mystery only when ignorance or unbelief exist. There is no mystery
where there is knowledge and faith.
All we know at this time is that the Christ will fuse
and blend within Himself three principles of divinity; when He appears "the
light that always has been will be seen; the love that never ceases will
be realised, and the radiance, deep concealed, will break forth into Being."
We shall then have a new world—one which will express the light, the love
and the knowledge of God in a crescendo of revelation.
[Page 95] The beauty of this synthesis which Christ will
manifest, and the wonder of the presented opportunity, must surely be apparent
to all of us. Great Forces, under potent spiritual Leadership, are standing
ready to precipitate themselves into this world of chaos, of confusion,
of aspiration, of hope and of bewilderment. These groups of energies are
ready for focussing and distribution by the Hierarchy and that Hierarchy,
under its Great Leader, the Christ, is closer to mankind than ever before
in human history.
The New Group of World Servers are also standing attentive
to direction in every country in the world, united in their idealism, in
their humanitarian objectives, in their sensitivity to spiritual impression,
in their united, subjective purpose, in their love of their fellowmen and
in their dedication to selfless service. The men and women of goodwill are
also to be found everywhere, ready to be guided into constructive activity
and to be the agents, gradually trained and educated, for the establishing
of that which has never yet before truly existed—right human relations.
In the hands of the United States, Great Britain and Russia,
and also in the hands of France, lies the destiny of the world disciple,
Humanity. Humanity has been passing through the tests which are preparatory
to the first initiation; they have been hard and cruel and are not yet entirely
over. The Lords of Karma (four in number) are today working through these
four Great Powers; it is, however, a karma which seeks to liberate, as does
all karma. In the coming crisis, true vision and a new freedom, plus a
wider spiritual horizon may be attained. The crisis, if rightly handled,
need not again reach the ultimate horror.
The area of difficulty—as is well known—is the Near East
and Palestine. The Jews, by their illegal and terroristic activities, have
laid a foundation of great difficulty for those who are seeking to promote
world peace. As a Jewish member of my Ashram pointed out (and I commend
him on his soul vision), the Jews have partially again opened the door [Page
430] to the Forces of Evil, which worked originally through Hitler and his
evil gang.
The "sealing" of that door had not been successfully
accomplished, and it is the part of wisdom to discover this in time. These
Forces of Evil work through a triangle of evil, one point of which is to
be found in the Zionist Movement in the United States, another in central
Europe, and the third in Palestine. Palestine is no longer a Holy Land
and should not be so regarded.
I would have you bear these points in mind while you investigate
the world picture. This picture is taking shape and warrants recognition.
It involves the Jews (who are not a nation but a religious group) the Near
East and Russia. In the maps which are to be found in the Archives of the
spiritual Hierarchy, the entire area of the Near East and Europe—Greece,
Yugoslavia, Turkey, Palestine, the Arab States, Egypt and Russia—are under
a heavy overshadowing cloud. Can that cloud be dissipated by the right
thinking and planning of Great Britain, the United States and the majority
of the United Nations or—must it break in disaster over the world? Will
it present a task too hard for correct handling by that inexperienced disciple—Humanity?
The leaders of the Zionist movement of aggression constitute
a real danger to world peace and human development and their activities
have been endorsed by the expediency policy of the U.S.A. and, in a secondary
degree, by Great Britain, under the influence of the U.S.A. It is the Zionists
who have defied the United Nations, lowered its prestige and made its position
both negative and negligible to the world. It is the Zionists who have
perpetrated the major act of aggression since the formation of the United
Nations, and who were clever enough to gain the endorsement of the United
Nations, turning the original "recommendation" of the United Nations
into an order. The rule of force, of aggression and of territorial conquest
by force of arms is demonstrated today by the Zionists in Palestine, as
well as the demonstration of the power of money to purchase governments.
These activities run counter to all the plans of the spiritual
Hierarchy and mark a point of triumph of the forces of evil. I am emphasising
the activities of these two countries because through the leaders of these
groups of aggressive men the forces of evil—dammed back temporarily by the
defeat of the evil group which Hitler gathered around him—have again organised
their attack on the spiritual development of humanity.
The world today still remains divided into people of evil
intention and great power and their victims, plus the negative reactions
of the remaining nations. There is no nation in the United Nations which
has attempted to swing the tide of evil by ranging itself and other nations
on the side of freedom. There are only groups of unillumined men who seek
to control national destinies. There is still emotional reaction to situations
and the emotional exploitation of individuals and nations by those who are
in [Page 682] no way emotional but who are mentally convinced that certain
lines of activity must be followed, leading to their own individual good
but which—in the long run—are not good for the peoples involved.