This writing is provided to promote clear thinking, hope, and constructive action in light of the ‘current’ world situation.

 

It was written during the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, during that World War. It is provided here to emphasise the issues in the current crises. While the players and names in this ‘war’ have changed, I suggest the underlying issues are fundamentally the same. If you will, in reviewing these words, see if they ring true to your own intelligence, and in humanity’s collective hindsight of 70 years. May they now assist us, and may we with intelligence and love and will, update them in the way they must be to address the our current conflict.

 

I have endeavoured to edit out references to the countries and specifics involved during World War II, to avoid association only to that time. I have also omitted the author, so that the words stand on their own, and either they meet with your own inner recognition as true or useful, or not.

 

 

CONFLICT BETWEEN FORCES OF ANCIENT ORIGIN

 

… Today … separative­ness, materialism and selfishness are in conflict with spiritual energy and with the spirit of cooperation or understanding fusion. The law which will determine the results can be expressed in the words that have been often used: by holding, man loses; by relinquishing, he gains; by seeking to grasp that which he has, it must and will inevitably disappear. Reflect upon this law.

 

The method whereby the forces of separation and of selfishness work are by competitive cooperation. Throughout the world, groups … bring about the attainment of various materialistic goals, the achievement of personal or national ambitions, and the imposition of intellectual plans and concepts (the so-called ideologies) upon the mass of the people. …

 

The emphasis is upon the economic situation; upon the possession of land or cultural predispositions and tendencies and with the relations between people and nations; these latter are based fundamentally … on that which is tangible and objective, guarded, defended or gained and procured by definitely tangible means which are in themselves separative and divided. … Success depends upon the gained group cohesion, the group willingness to sacrifice, plus loyalty and allegiance to some directing personality.

 

Behind these many groups stand the forces of ancient origin which are pledged either to the material or the spiritual values. …

 

… affecting both the reactionary bodies and those who stand for the new ideals and the coming civilisation and culture …

 

The … type of force, which is responsible for the state of world affairs at this time, is that of the Jews … their problem is being used today to focus, qualify and condition the world feeling-nature and the emotional reactions of the sensitive nature of humanity and of the planetary Logos. … Through the Jewish people throughout the world, feeling—sympathetic or antagonistic, expressive of love or conditioned by hate—is being gathered to a focus … preparatory to a great and permanent change.

 

… when humanity will have solved correctly the Jewish problem, and when it has been resolved in a humanitarian and sound manner, then … a great transmutation will have taken place. … in the Jewish problem is definitely producing cleavage as a part of the divine plan. The Jews are instruments in the working out of the Plan for the production of certain syntheses and to bring humanity to certain realisations and decisions.

 

… When the mind aspect … is more fully developed, then the … problem of the Jews will disappear. Mankind is not yet handling its problems intelligently. Thus the forces and energies of the creative process are exceedingly active at this time in preparing what I might call the "material of the world" … for the coming changes. … These effects will constitute the new Aquarian culture and civilisation. …

 

… humanity, unaware generally of the implications of the situation, is suffering, bewildered and full of fear. Between these two groups stands the New Group of World Servers, constituted today of two bodies of people:

 

1. Those who are aware of [a Divine] Plan [not religiously named], are subject to and sensitive to [spiritual] impression and dedicated to the task of bringing about the desired fusion or group at-one-ment. …

 

2. A small minority who have emerged out of the New Group of World Servers [not aligned with any outer organization] and who can (in every country) function in group formation if they choose, and so bring about the fusion for which [they are] … working and for which the point of tension in humanity and in the [spiritual] Hierarchy predisposes and has prepared the hearts of men. …

 

Here is the picture of these esoteric interrelations, and here you can note the position which you could hold, for these groups have a definite opportunity to bring about this world fusion and so precipitate the "crisis of love" to which I have so oft referred. The Great Approach upon the side of humanity is now going on, with the tension induced thereby growing momentarily; this will increase with growing speed and tension until 1942 when either the first stage of fusion will have been made upon earth, resulting in widespread goodwill and world understanding or in postponement— …

 

And now, as to the methods to be employed in creating these groups. The primary method is the presentation of the more advanced ideas (which are stimulating in their effects upon the minds which are receptive) and the presentation of the vision …

 

… The vision has to be sensed, sought and discovered individually by each group member, and it is this personal knowledge and this personal dedication to the revelation which leads next to the organisation of the group life …

 

It is in connection with vision that much of the group difficulty lies. … the vision is a vision of group work, of group relationships, of group objectives, and of the group fusion to the larger Whole.  … This is not yet the case, because the needed conditions are not fulfilled.

 

The early seeds sown among animal-men were imbued with, or qualified by, separateness—a necessary quality for the unfoldment of self-consciousness, but one which must now be superseded.  The groups now in process of forming will be distinguished by the quality of fusion, and this should be as inevitable a development as is the separative and protective nature of the ordinary human consciousness. …

 

… The force which it later exerts will be due to constant pervasive pressures and the steady spreading of the group influence and ideals. … This will be due eventually to two factors:

one, the power of the groups upon the subtler planes of thought and desire, and finally upon egoic [or Soul] levels; this will become steadily more potent;

secondly, to the activity of those who form part of the key groups; they will themselves form corresponding groups of nine, or seven or five, and thus there will be a gradual spreading throughout the world of an esoteric network. …

 

… The influence of these new groups is due to the close inner relation demonstrated through uniform thinking and a recognised unity of purpose. It is for this reason (a truly scientific one in its nature) that I have emphasised so strongly the ordinary characteristics of the trained disciple, which are non-criticism, sensitivity and love. …

 

The emphasis upon the work which serving groups must seek to develop is that of an organised, scientific activity. …

 

The desire … at this time is to fill the world of striving forces with points of spiritual energy, and to distribute everywhere those who are affiliated with spiritual groups and are therefore linked subjectively to their group brothers in all lands, so that a pervasive, intelligent influence can ceaselessly make its impact felt upon the minds of men …

 

 

THE WORLD CRISIS

September 1939

 

Humanity is passing through an acute crisis and its karma or fate is heavy upon it. Being so close to events, it is not easy for humanity to see them in their true perspective and it is in order that you may see more clearly that I write today. A broader vision and a wider horizon may help you to understand …

 

There are two outstanding and important points …

The first is that humanity is today and on a large scale aware that what is happening is entirely its own doing and the result of humanity's own mistakes. Men either feel responsi­ble for what is occurring, or they are shifting the responsibility openly and deliberately on to shoulders other than their own. …

The second fact is that in spite of war and separation, of cruelty and of passions and selfishness running wild, there is nevertheless, today, more true understanding, more goodwill and more outgoing love than at any previous time in the history of the race. ...

 

Be not deceived, therefore, by the outer clamour of war … hearts everywhere are full of compassion both for themselves and for all others; the wide scope and the vast extent of the conflict is indicative of an inner unity and a subjective interrelation of which all are somewhat conscious and which the conflict itself does not negate. …

 

The task of all … is to see that prolonged suffering does not undermine the present right and essential attitudes and that the chaos and clamour does not shut out response to the voice of the soul which has been speaking with increasing clarity … The stimulation which was set up … led to three results or happenings, and these we are today experiencing.

 

  1. The first was a fresh inflow of the Christ principle of spiritual or true love … resulted in the immediate and rapid growth of all movements towards peace, world under­standing, goodwill, philanthropic effort and the awakening of the masses to the issues of brotherhood.

 

  1. The second was the stimulation of the principle of relationship and this led to the growth and the perfecting of all sources of inter-communication such as the press, the radio and travel. …

 

  1. The third was the inflow of the force of will or power from the … [spiritual] centre. … only twice before in the history of mankind has this … energy made its appearance and caused its presence to be felt through the tremendous changes which were brought about. …

 

This little known divine energy now streams out … [and] embodies in itself the energy which lies behind the world crisis of the moment. It is the Will of God to produce certain racial and momentous changes in the consciousness of the race which will completely alter man's attitude to life and his grasp of the spiritual, esoteric and subjective essentials of living. It is this force which will bring about (in conjunction with the energy of love) that tremendous crisis—imminent in the human consciousness—which we call the second crisis, the initiation of the race …

 

This Shamballa energy now for the first time is making its impact upon humanity directly and is not stepped down … This change of direction constituted a somewhat dangerous experiment as it necessarily stimulated the personalities of men, particularly those whose personalities were along the line of will or power and in whom the love aspect of divinity was not sufficiently expressing itself …

 

The effects of this widespread stimulation have been all that was anticipated and the so-called "evil results" of the force upon ambitious and powerful personalities in all countries and all schools of thought have, nevertheless, been offset to some extent by the growth of the sense of relationship everywhere and by the spread of the Christ energy which generates at-one-ment, loving understanding and goodwill.

 

You might here rightly enquire how this can be so when humanity is overwhelmed by a ghastly world war at this time. … the Hierarchy is guided in its conclusions by the mass light and by the inner subjective oft unexpressed reactions of the multitude and never by the outer happenings upon the physical plane. The fate of the form life and of outer organisations is deemed of small importance compared with the sensed inner spiritual development. That development must necessarily outrun the outer manifestation.

 

Humanity is today further advanced spiritually and mentally than might appear from external happenings.

The first result of such development is eventually the destruction of the outer form because it is proving inadequate to the pulsing, inner, spiritual life; then,

secondly, comes the building of the new and more adequate outer expression. This accounts for the world crisis at this time. The cause is based upon four major factors upon which I would like somewhat to enlarge:

 

1. Upon the point achieved in racial evolution. This today warrants the building of a better vehicle for human and racial expression.

 

2. Upon the karmic causes … [of] an ancient conflict …

 

3. Upon the coming into incarnation of certain potent personalities whose destiny it is to bring about great evolutionary changes.

 

4. Upon certain planetary happenings, connected with the life of the One "in Whom we live and move and have our being." These involve the impact upon our planet of Forces and Energies which will be instrumental in altering the existing civilisation and culture, in climaxing karmic necessity and in thus engineering release, presenting humanity with that stage in the experience of the disciple which we call "the meeting of the Dweller on the Threshold with the Angel of the Presence," and inducing as a consequence a certain planetary initiation.

 

These four stages of the Law of Cause and Effect (as it affects humanity at this time) might be called:

 

… The disciples of the world today must endeavour to see why and to what end the present terrible happenings have occurred. A clear expression and statement of causes is needed—free from emotional bias and partisan emphasis. What is happening today is not the result of immediate occurrences. When I say "immediate," I refer to all happenings which have occurred within the Christian era. I want you to attempt to regard the present crisis as being caused or initiated by events which are of so ancient an origin that modern, orthodox historians have no record of them.

 

Only two points of view will serve truly to clarify what is happening at this time.

 

First of all, a recognition that modern academic history constitutes only one page in a vast historical record and that the initiating events of which we are in search and which are working out as effects in the planetary life at this time belong to an age so distant that no modern historian recognises its episodes. Information anent this ancient period must be sought …

 

Secondly, that a study of the microcosm, man, will be found to hold, as always, the key to the study of human affairs as a whole. …

 

This world crisis is related to the approach or the relation of the Hierarchy to Humanity. That great spiritual centre of force, the Human Kingdom, has now reached a point of such potency and of such a high vibratory activity that it is shaken to its very depths …

 

This precipitates a crisis … this present world crisis, if met correctly and rightly controlled, will result in the manifestation of the fifth or spiritual kingdom upon earth. This (as you know) will be brought about by the at-one-ing of the two centres—the human centre and the Hierarchy. One of the major planetary syntheses is taking place or, perhaps I should say, can take place.

 

… Let us, therefore, consider these four points …

 

 

The Cause of the Present Crisis

 

… the great Law of Rebirth is the controlling and major law in all the processes of manifestation. … For the first time since its inception, the human family is in a position to note for itself the processes of the rebirth of a civilisation as an expression of spiritual culture at a particular point in evolution. Hence the magnitude of this crisis as it assumes its place in the human consciousness. Many lesser crises, initiating specific tribal, national and racial experiments in the renewal of form have gone on and have been registered by some group within a nation or by a nation itself (if advanced enough). Such a national registration took place for the first time in connection with the French Revolution. Such registrations of evolutionary intent have taken place with increasing clarity and understanding during the past two hundred years. … But the crisis today is far vaster, embracing as it does the majority of nations in both hemispheres. No nation remains at this time unaffected and the results are and must be registered in some aspect of the national life.

 

… This world crisis, with all its horror and suffering, is—in the last analysis—the result of successful evolutionary processes. … Cycles of civilisation such as that we call our modern civilisation are analogous to a particular, individual, human incarnation with its inception, its progress and growth, its useful maturity and its ensuing deterioration and subsequent death or the passing away of the form.

 

Forms are ever open to attack. A strong subjective life and spiritual detachment are the two safeguards. Where the form is more potent than the life, danger is imminent; where attachment to the material aspect or organisation is present, spiritual values are lost.

 

Today we are watching the death of a civilisation or cycle of incarnation of humanity. It is indeed death but it is beneficent and needed. It is this realisation of the passing of a civilisation which gives rise to the recurrent and foreboding cry, "This is the death of civilisation; it must not be" …

 

That humanity is bringing about this needed change in unnecessary, cruel and painful ways is indeed true … Nevertheless, for the progress of the soul of the individual and the soul of humanity, death is inevitable, good and necessary; it is also a practice with which we are all most familiar in our own experience and in watching it in others. But we need to remember that the worst death of all (as far as humanity is concerned) would be if a form of civilisation or a body form became static and eternal; if the old order never altered and the old values were never transmuted into higher and better ones, that would indeed be a disaster.

 

We need to bear in mind also that the forces of destruction or death are two-fold:

first, the rapidly emerging and developing life with its demand for more room for expression and fuller experience, and its spiritual aspiration for change and progress; and

secondly, the reactionary forces and the conservative attitudes which adhere to the well known and the familiar, and which hate the new, the untried and the unknown. …

 

… Reasoning, analysis and the presentation of differing viewpoints are going on in every country on a large scale with varying results, based on differences of temperament, of tradition, of development and of training.

 

This stage of death and of birth (for the two are proceeding simultaneously) can be easily grasped by the esotericist as he studies the world war in its two distinctive periods: 1914 to 1918, and 1939 until 1942. The first stage (if you could see the situation as it truly is) was most definitely the death stage; the second stage, in which we now find ourselves, is literally the stage of birth—the birth pangs of the new order and of the new civilisation through which humanity's sense of life can express itself. The mother dies in order that the child may live; the form is sacrificed to the life. But today, the form aspect, the Mother or matter aspect, is dying consciously, and just as consciously the child, the infant civilisation, is coming into being. This is the new thing and it is in this that we are all participating. It is the death of the personality of humanity and the coming in of the soul.

 

[And so we may pause and ask – what phase of ‘the war’ have we been in subsequent to WW II, and now, today?]

 

 

… Pain has always been the purifying agent, employed … to bring about liberation. … The Lord of Pain has descended from His throne and is treading the ways of earth today, bringing distress, agony and terror to those who cannot interpret His ends, but bringing also a re-stimulation of the instinct to self-preservation which—in its higher aspect—is the instinct to immortality; it tends to focus humanity's attention upon the life aspect and not upon the form. The names of the Lords of Karma signify, symbolically and from the angle of their inner meaning, Relationship, Enlightenment, Pain and Return. …

 

 

Ancient Karmic Events

 

… Today, the karma of humanity is descending upon it. I would remind you, however, that the continuous emphasis laid upon the malevolent aspects of karma conveys a wrong impression and negates the full grasp of the truth. There is as much good karma as there is bad; even in the present world situation, the good karma emanating from the soul of humanity balances the evil which comes from the material aspect and is continuously over-emphasised. It is the rhythm of matter in contradistinction to the rhythm of the soul, and these constitute the initiating causes of the present conflict, both in individual lives and in the general world situation. …

 

… Today, all that is taking place is due,

first of all, to the essential duality of man;

in the second place, it is due to certain major lines of cleavage which were brought about by this essential dualism in an early stage of human history, and

thirdly, to the growing tendency towards synthesis which the inflow of the Shamballa force is producing at this time.

 

This is the simplest statement I find it possible to make anent this complex problem. … It was the coming into incarnation of the spiritually self-conscious human being which is the inciting cause of the present conflict. Had … the spiritual entities which are humanity itself not taken unto themselves material forms, and had the positive spiritual element not attached itself to the negative material aspect, the present world conflict would not be taking place.

 

But the divine plan of evolution was based upon the production of this relationship between spiritually conscious man and the form aspect, and thus the great Law of Duality came into action, bringing about the "fall of the angels," as they descended from their sinless and free state of existence in order to develop full divine awareness upon earth, through the medium of material incarnation and the use of the principle of mind. This was the divine plan, emanating from the Mind of God and swept into activity and progressive unfoldment by an act of His Will. At its inception, there took place the original "war in the heavens," when the sons of God who responded to the divine urge to experience, to serve and to sacrifice, separated themselves from the sons of God who responded to no such inspiration but who chose to stay in their original and high state of being. To this truth, Christ Himself bore witness in the story of [Page 119] the Prodigal Son and his relationship to his elder brother, who had not left the Father's home. It is obvious, is it not, from this parable, where the approbation of the Father lay; a careful study of this story and an intuitive understanding of its implications may evoke some day a response to the "sin of experience," as it has been called, and a comprehension of the two major laws governing the process: the Law of Evolution and the Law of Rebirth. Here lies the prime initiating cause of what is taking place today.

The second cause arose slowly out of the first. Matter and spirit, focussed in the human family and expressing their basic qualities and essential nature, were eternally in conflict. …

 

… the dualism of man's essential nature was, as always, present and the lines of cleavage gradually appeared; slowly yet steadily, the pioneering souls (a very small minority) shifted their consciousness gradually higher … and a recognition of the factor of desire for that which was material and a capacity for emotional reaction began to develop. … the lines of demarcation between what constituted purely physical life and that which—though still material—could be the goal of effort and thus acquired, began to control the purely animal nature; man began to be acquisitive and to surround himself with that which he wanted. The lines of cleavage between the instinctual animal and acquisitive man began to be more clearly defined.

 

… Men began to congregate together for their greater material comfort and protection, and the rhythmic processes of concentration and their world-wide extension began. … The past few hundred years have seen a major problem arise in the present tendency of humanity to collect together in great cities and to congregate in vast herds, leaving the countryside denuded of its population and creating serious problems of sustenance, of health and also of crime. … Right before our eyes this rhythm is today changing and a serious problem is being solved; cities are being evacuated and—as men and women are driven forth for one reason or another into the country—the lords of evolution are forcing the breaking up of the rhythm of concentration and substituting for it the rhythm of dispersion. This will do much for the race and will facilitate the unfoldment of a subjective synthesis which will greatly enrich humanity and give new values to living.

 

The cleavage between the two groups (the one expressing the forces of materialism and the other the energy of light) grew gradually wider until towards the close of the Atlantean Age it was so wide, and the lines of demarcation between the two schools of life and thought were so clear, that a crisis was precipitated in the then civilised world of which the present conflict is a definite effect. Let us also hope that it constitutes a climax which will never again occur. Then took place the great war between the Lords of Form and the Lords of Being, or between the Forces of Matter and the Great White Lodge. … The Forces of Light triumphed because the Hierarchy was forced to intervene potently, and, with the aid of certain great Lives extraneous to our planetary life, They brought the Atlantean civilisation to an abrupt end after a long period of chaos and disaster. This took place through the medium of a culminating catastrophe which wiped hundreds of thousands of human beings off the face of the earth. This historical event has been preserved for us in the universal legend of the great flood.

 

… [Page 124] This nucleus which was saved, formed the basis of our present root race, the Aryan. The whole theme of the Old Testament is built around the development and growth of this nucleus. Symbolically speaking, the inhabitants of the ark and their descendants and the Jewish race stand for the salvaged remnant of humanity—salvaged in spite of themselves and in face of stupendous difficulties by the Great White Lodge.

 

Two points warrant attention here. The first and least important from the standpoint of the soul is the disappearance off the earth of practically all signs of the [previous] civilisation …

 

The second point is that for the good of humanity, the Hierarchy withdrew into the back­ground, leaving man to find his own way out of the mirage and illusion of materialism in right ways and eventually to bring to an end the ancient cleavages. War must be brought to its final consummation and expression with a view to its final discarding as a means of arriving at desired ends.

 

 

The Modern Era

 

… The lines of cleavage between materialism and spirituality (as we now understand the terms) have become increasingly clear. Two things have tended to bring this about.

First, the pronouncement of the Ten Commandments. These, though negative in their form and dogmatic in their attitude, have made the issues and the required attitudes adequately clear. …

Second, the Hierarchy withdrew in order that humanity, on reaching maturity and years of discretion, should not be handicapped and hindered by coercion and undue safeguarding but should express its major divine characteristics. Of these, free will and the discriminating use of the mind are the outstanding qualities. … There is a tendency to free will (note that term) today and we call it liberty and independence, freedom of thought and the right of the individual to determine the issues which control or should control the group of which he is a part. These are all attributes and qualities of free will but not the divine principle of free will per se. Of that we know as yet but little. Only the disciples of the world and the initiates know the true significance and implications of freedom of choice, and the right use of the will, and this because they are motivated by group good and the need of the majority.

 

The test to which humanity was to be subjected and which is today the controlling factor was whether—given mental development and knowledge—it would consecrate that knowledge and its scientific and mental attainment to group good or to selfish ends, to material issues or to spiritual incentives and impulses. This ancient conflict has now been carried through into another field of human expression, that of the mind and—as the race has progressed and the personalities of human beings have reached a high stage of integration and achieve­ment—the conflict has become acute, the issues clearer and the ranging of the opponents into two clearly defined groups is now so complete that the final struggle has become possible.

 

[So, did that final struggle happen, or not, and if not, what are we in now?]

 

Intelligent appreciation of the situation and a general capacity to present to the mind the underlying conditions has now been achieved by the bulk of the intelligent people upon the planet and, though the point of view is necessarily coloured by national traditions, inherited ideas and policies as well as by environmental control and bias, the race has gone a long way towards its final emancipation. … But … the masses of the people—the middle classes… —are still victims of authority, of control, and remain relatively unthinking and childlike. This means that the true conflict is between a small minority to whom the issues are illuminatingly clear and who have definitely ranged themselves on one side or other of the embattled forces. A mere handful of men … are now … directing the forces of light or of darkness and bringing into being a direct line-up of millions of men whose will is that of their leaders.

 

The lines of cleavage have grown steadily until now they can be expressed in terms of a humanity which is oriented towards the higher spiritual and altruistic values and whose keynotes are sacrifice, group good and world understanding, and those whose focus is predominantly material and whose aims are selfish, animated by ambition and the spirit of acquisition. It was the acuteness of this situation, and the wide extent of the cleavage, which induced the watching Hierarchy to permit a direct inflow of the Shamballa force (in spite of its attendant risks) to pour into the world. The objective was to stimulate the free will of the masses; the result upon them has been relatively good as it has led to the formulation and expression of the great world ideologies …

 

But another result of this inflow of the will-to-power has been to stimulate a certain group of outstanding personalities in many lands so that they have assumed control of the masses and can thus determine the policies and methods—religious, political and social—of the different nations. In every nation a relatively small group of people decide all important issues and determine all major national activities. This they do either by force, terror and deception or by persuasion, fair words and the application of ideological motives. Of this situation in the world the Lords of Destiny are availing themselves in order to bring the ancient conflict to an end and so enable humanity to pass into the new Aquarian Age relatively free and with a clearer understanding of right human aims, right relationships and man's predestined future.

 

… The point which is, however, of major importance is for you to arrive at a clear under­standing of what is at stake and a just appreciation of the values involved and also a correct grasp of the ideals animating the two groups of opponents.

 

[a long time ago …] the conflict was between two small groups and the masses of the people were simply the blind and miserable victims of the fight and of the situation.

 

Today, it is not possible to make such a clear distinction between the forces engaged, nor is it properly admissible. No nation or group of nations can be classed in a broad generalisation as either black or white. Bear this in mind. Only those with no vision and an intolerant and prejudiced spirit will speak thus. … Those who seek to see the establishment of goodwill and understanding are in the majority but are … relatively futile to control the situation as yet or to force their leaders to follow the mass will-to-good. They are either inspired or protected by the Hierarchy of Light and it is with them that the task of stimulating the free expression of this goodwill must be carried forward when the conflict ends.

 

As for the other group, they are those who through inclination or ancient karma are the descendants of the Lords of darkness; their actions and ideals make possible the activity of the forces of materialism. I would have you note that phrasing. Even the most dangerous of them are nevertheless conscious of some form or another of idealism, but they are misguided and full of response to the will-to-power … Because of these reactions and tendencies, they constitute focal points for those Lives and Energies which are inherent in matter itself and whose influence and work are dedicated to the preservation of form, and of that which is. They endeavour constantly to negate the new and to hold back the evolution and development of the human consciousness.

 

Forget not that the real issue is in the field of consciousness and that the struggle is between form and the life within the form, and between progress, leading to the liberation of the human spirit, and reactionary activity, leading to the imprisonment of the human conscious­ness and the restriction of its free expression.

 

I would pause here and solemnly beg you not to make the lines of cleavage wider by placing yourself, and all who follow your form of ideology, upon the side of the Forces of Light and all other people and their ideologies, with which you may not agree, upon the side of the Forces of Darkness.

 

The issue is, in the last analysis, the right to express the will-to-good, the right to express human relationships, untrammelled by territorial barriers and national habits of thought; it involves the right and the felt necessity to shew love to all beings and thus stamp out all hate and separateness. It concerns the right of all nations to live at peace with their neighbours and harmoniously with each other and to express the true and subjective synthesis of humanity, and not place national possessions, frontiers, culture, power and ambition before the general good and the happiness of the world of men. This is the real and underlying issue.

 

All the national challenges and patriotic calls are simply the attempts of the leaders every­where to hold the people to a particular line of thought and of action. To make the world safe for democracy, to gain room to live, to defend the rights of little nations, to preserve the balance of power, to meet force with force, to restore ancient and historical boundaries, to impose some culture deemed desirable, to prevent economic destruction, to conserve national stakes and interests are all the talking points of the leaders today.

 

But the real issue is the intangible one of Direction. Which way will humanity go? Will it go the way of selflessness, expressed in a willingness to act always in the interests of all, thus promoting world understanding and world unity, or the way of selfishness and aggression, expressed in an intense nationalism, thus sacrificing the true and larger values of liberty, independence and freedom to think.

 

This selfishness may show itself through active aggression or an active neutrality. Those nations who participate in no way in this struggle will lose much and—enhancing their own selfish struggle and clouding the real issue in beautiful words—will help to prolong the struggle and hold back their own people from useful opportunity.

 

I would point out here also that as in all families, business and organisations there are those who are the focal points of authority and the designers of the planned activities, so within that group or organised body which goes by the name of humanity there are similar focal points or those who plan, direct and produce the outer happenings and events. … These focal points are used to bring about two major changes in the world;

·         the first is the fusion and blending of peoples and minorities so that coordinated empires and cultural nations are appearing everywhere and,

·         secondly, the changing of frontiers and the altering of boundaries so that a complete re-adjustment of the map of the world in Asia, Europe and Africa can take place.

 

It will be apparent to you that three major methods or modes of producing these fusions can be noted. Great Britain, the United States of America and the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (the U.S.S.R.) are working out the principle of federation, of relation and of the fusion of bodies into concentrated wholes, responding to the same inspiration but employing their own specialised methods to bring about the desired ends. … Be not surprised by my including Russia in this triplicity. Their ideology is fundamentally as sound as that in the other groups, but the difference lies in the factors of personality and the mode of applying the ideology. The control of powerful and dangerous personalities, and the use of the methods of force and cruelty have been avoided in the first two groups of nations, and the reason is based upon the different source of the inspiration producing the effects. Another reason is to be found in the placing of power in the hands of those who are historically unprepared to rule and of those whose past unfoldment has as yet brought them only to the nursery stage of evolution.

 

Nevertheless in these three groups there is much of interest to be noted.

 

In these three, you have an interesting and immediate expression of the three divine aspects, each of which inspires and colours the embryonic civilisation.

 

A most interesting experiment is, therefore, working out in these three groups of interrelated elements and differing national ideals.

 

It will also be apparent to you if you have rightly understood the above suggestions that the Shamballa force is

 

… The men who inspired the initiating French revolution; the great conqueror, Napoleon; Bismarck, the creator of a nation; Mussolini, the regenerator of his people; Hitler who lifted a distressed people upon his shoulders; Lenin, the idealist, Stalin and Franco are all expressions of the Shamballa force and of certain little understood energies. These have wrought significant changes in their day and generation and altered the face of Europe, incidentally affecting Asia and conditioning attitudes and policies in America.

 

The results even when dangerous and terrible, have developed two vital characteristics in humanity.

  1. One has been the widespread development of the discriminating faculty, and
  2. secondly, a tendency to dispersion with its consequences of diffusing civilised and cultural values and the diverse gifts of the many people to the world soul.

 

… It is this that is of importance from the standpoint of evolution and the growth of the world consciousness. The physical plane happenings are incidental and of no permanent lasting power.

 

The physical plane events and precipitations are carried forward and made possible through focal points of energy who are the world dictators, the world statesmen, and the outstanding human beings in all lands as well as by groups which are actively working in every country for their own ends or—as is more often the case—under the influence of some group ideal or wisdom plus personal ambition, personal will-to-power and personal aggrandisement. … But all these leaders are simply human beings and like other men—idealistic, mistaken, lovers of their country, egoists, impressionable, foolish, cunning, powerful, focussed on some goal or ambition, with clear vision and at the same time myopic reactions, cruel or wise as the case may be—but, in the last analysis, highly developed personalities. They are being used to engineer great and needed changes and to alter the face of civilisation. The wrong methods employed and the evil things done are the fault of humanity as a whole, and of the habits of thought which have made mankind selfish and cruel and cause this great and universal spirit of the will-to-change to manifest so powerfully and cruelly.

 

Blame not the personalities involved or the men who produce these events before which we stand today bewildered and appalled. They are only the product of the past and the victims of the present. At the same time, they are the agents of destiny, the creators of the new order and the initiators of the new civilisation; they are the destroyers of what must be destroyed before humanity can go forward along the Lighted Way. They are the embodiment of the personality of humanity. Blame your­selves, therefore, for what is today transpiring and seek not to evade responsi­bility by placing it upon the shoulders of spectacular men or any statesmen, dictator or upon any group. Look not to one person or to one group of persons and accuse them of causing the present world condition. …

 

Humanity must take action and will do so, when the right time comes. … no one national group is purely wrong and evil or purely good and unselfish. There are mixed motives everywhere. Nationalism, aggression, selfishness and cruelty in all countries face a desire for world understanding, peaceful relations, and an unselfish and beneficent spirit also in all countries. …

 

It is the universality of these conditions and the clear-cut issues that have made this period one of planetary opportunity and planetary initiation. Initiation is essentially a moving out from under ancient controls into the control of more spiritual and increasingly higher values. … It is equally the recognition of a renewed sense of the need for change and the wise engineering of these needed changes so that real progress can be made …

 

In the last analysis, and from the standpoint of the Hierarchy, the present conflict between the personality of humanity (expressing the material values as the dominating factor in life experience) and the soul of humanity (expressing the spiritual values as the dominating factor in human affairs) is identical with the conflict which takes place within a human being's consciousness when he has reached the stage of discipleship and is faced with the problem of the pairs of opposites.

 

… The Dweller on the Threshold (the threshold of divinity, my brothers) is humanity itself with its ancient habits of thought, its selfishness and greed. Humanity today stands face to face with the Angel of the Presence—the Soul Whose nature is love and light and inclusive understanding. The great problem today is which of these two will emerge the victor out of the conflict, and which of these two great agencies of life will determine humanity's future and indicate the way which humanity will decide to go.

 

The issues at stake are clear to all right-thinking people. Intolerance and an intense national pride and self-satisfaction can blind men to the facts of the case today, but there are enough people thinking clearly to make the future of right decision more probable than at any previous time in the history of the race.

 

 

Preparation for World Goodwill

 

The causes of the present war are ancient. This historical sequence of the predisposing factors can be clearly traced in the exoteric records of all nations as well as in the esoteric records of the Hierarchy. The inherent human qualities which have led to the development of the present war are well known. All who are conscious of and observers of the war within their own natures, between personality selfishness and the selflessness of the soul, are aware of the implications and the correspondences.

 

Where then lies the solution? What must be done to arrest the fires of hate and of aggression, of revenge and of fear? What also must be done to prepare for that time when the rebuilding of the world of men and the inauguration of the new and better civilisation arrives? With this we might now briefly deal.

 

As regards active participation in the work to be done in preparing the world for the expres­sion of goodwill, there is little to be done of an active exoteric nature at this time; it is necessary to wait with patience and to see what is going to happen and along what lines the activity of the nations will run. But there is very much to be done of an esoteric and a preparatory nature and it is this which I seek to impress upon your minds.

 

Up to date and in spite of appearances, the Forces of Light are victorious and are definitely holding things steady. It is for this reason that nothing has yet quenched the spirit of goodwill and of sympathetic understanding which exists among the peoples of all nations …

 

There is little hate or vindictiveness to be found, and this fact constitutes the difference between this war and the last, in 1914. It indicates a triumph for the Forces of Light and in it lies the hope of the future. It is here, however, that the time factor must be considered, for a prolonged war may cause a change in this desirable attitude, and much drastic experience may produce deep psychological and unavoidable changes in human thought and action. This must be consciously offset. It has not yet occurred but it could happen and if it does much pain, terror, fearful anticipation, suffering and the agony entailed by the sight of suffering might eventually turn this goodwill into a [Page 139] dynamic spirit of hate and revenge unless it is definitely and consciously offset. Groups who are adhering to the principles of the Forces of Light, who are bending every effort to end the spirit of aggression and to rid the world of the focal points for material influence and power, must yet carry forward the task of binding men and women of every nation together in a spirit of loving understanding; they must interpret nation to nation in terms of brotherhood and of the new order.

 

This is no easy thing to do at this time. The astral or emotional bodies of human beings (which constitute the astral body of humanity as a whole) are today in a state of chaos, and are swept by ancient desires, ancient and deep-seated selfish attitudes and by ancient hatreds. The task is also complicated by the activity of the mental processes of man which is characterised by pronounced and developed illusions, by separative attitudes and by specious arguments. But there are, at the same time, enough people in the world who are responsive to the spirit of goodwill, of tolerant understanding, and animated by a desire for permanent right human relations.

 

I have earlier suggested to you that it should be possible to have—at a later date—a world-wide recognition of a Day of Forgetfulness, of Forgiveness and of Fulfilment of the Biblical injunction to "forget the things which lie behind and to press forward" into the New Age, the new relationships and the new civilisation. For that time we can all begin to plan, and to work for that psychological moment wherein this idea can be presented. It will come immediately after the cessation of hostilities. But today and in every land, where possible, the peoples must be educated in this expression of human synthesis and human interrelation.

 

It involves, however, an emphasising of the values to which I have referred earlier in this article. This is humanity's joint responsibility because of humanity's general mistakes, and the ancient wrong attitudes and controls. It involves, consequently, a stepping down from the position of critics and assigners of responsibility to that of a joint shouldering of the stupendous task of changing present conditions and of instituting those reversals of policy which will make a united world order possible and beautiful. This is no easy task. It is one which calls all men and women of goodwill in the world today and challenges them to prepare whilst the conflict is on for what can be done when it is over.

 

I have given much in the past which can provide a platform of objectives and of methods. Nothing that I have outlined is now abrogated; only fulfilment is postponed. … it lay in the hands of the spiritually minded men of the world, in the hands of the Churches in all lands and of the men of goodwill and of the world aspirants so to work that the present conflict could have been avoided. But the spirit of Christ was lost in clerical organisation; emphasis has been laid upon technical theology; the spirit of goodwill was not expressed dynamically and practically, but theoretically and negatively; the aspirants of the world had no true sense of values but were content to give a little time to the spiritual life and to other people, but much time was lost in individual, personal aims. A spirit of inertia settled down upon the better inclined and upon the more understanding people; nothing that we could do served to arouse them to powerful action or to sacrifice personal temporary values to the lasting and universal values. The individual remained more important to himself than did the good of the whole.

 

Be not over-distressed, my brothers. You are not alone in this but part of a vast number, if that is to you any real satisfaction. But a renewed opportunity lies in front of you and it is of a practical nature, falling into definite spheres of work and of planned activity.  …

 

3. When the Great Invocation is thus rightly used and the world centres are consequently consciously interrelated, then certain extra-planetary Energies can be called in by the Ruler of Shamballa to aid in the re-adjustments required for the New Age and its coming civilisation. These Forces—spiritual and potent in nature—exist in two categories: solar Forces which are inter-planetary and cosmic Forces which enter into our solar system via Jupiter as the transmitter of divine energies from Virgo and Aquarius which Jupiter esoterically governs. …

 

Few even of the Members of the Hierarchy are conscious of the impact of force from extra-solar centres or reservoirs of spiritual force. Only the group of Contemplatives in the Hierarchy which are given the exoteric name of Nirmanakayas are responsive to Their influence in any conscious manner and then only when that influence has been stepped down by certain powerful agencies in Shamballa. …

 

 

CALL TO A UNITED ACT OF SERVICE

November 1939

 

The situation is serious. … The Members of the Hierarchy are hard put to it to turn the tide in favour of that true and more spiritual civilisation which is on the way. This civilisation will be a combination of the best which has hitherto been produced and that which is new and, as yet, dimly sensed by the best of the world thinkers. The tide must be turned in favour of that which we call righteousness.

 

The seeds of evil are in every country; those who war against that which is good are numerous in every land, whether they war with aggressive and planned intent, whether they preserve an attitude of passivity and acceptance, or a planned neutrality … or are actively fighting for that which is against the material forces.

 

The World Crisis was, as you know, inevitable, but physical warfare could have been avoided if right psychological methods had been employed, and it could have been cured if a process of transmutation and of transference had been correctly carried forward, and if the spirit of sacrifice had also been demonstrated by the world aspirants. The need for group sacrifice has not met with adequate response, except in those cases where it has been imposed by governments upon their nationals. Such is the sorry history of what is taking place today.

 

What can be done at the present moment to arrest defeat and the overwhelming of the Forces of Light? Here I refer not to the outer physical victory. True victory will not be indicated unless the higher values which should govern human civilisation emerge with clarity and power. … I would ask you, therefore, to participate in the subjective focussing and rallying of the world thinkers, and particularly the heads of organisations, groups and churches of all kinds and temperaments who can swing their many adherents into a uniform and united activity.

 

The Masters of the Wisdom have no time today to do the task Themselves; Their hands are full, combating the forces of materialism. … The Masters of the Wisdom are active in dispelling the depressions and terrors which settle down upon all Their workers in the arena of the world today, as these workers struggle to stand steady under the fierce impact of wrong thinking and of world-wide despair; these workers are likewise sensitive (owing to their point of integrated development) to the agony of mind, the tension of emotion and the ravages of physical pain which are felt by all those upon whom the War has had its dire effects, and upon whom it has laid the hand of suffering. Such a sensitivity and such a sympathetic response are apt to produce a condition of negativity and a psychic pre­occupation with the immediate situation among all workers, and thus render them deaf to the call of their actual duty or else liable to become distraught by the dual effort of being effective in service, whilst at the same time fighting off emotional reactions. The capacity of the worker to respond, therefore, to the inner voices and to serve dispassionately and selflessly is seriously handicapped.

 

I challenge all workers and all members of the New Group of World Servers to leave their personal problems behind. This is a time of crisis and such problems must be solved through complete self-forgetfulness. I ask you to work anew with fresh ardour in joyful service, forgetting past weaknesses and failures in the urgency of that which I ask all to do for the world.

 

There has been much lack of joy in the service rendered to the world lately. When I speak thus, I refer not to happiness, which is a personality reaction, but to that joyous confidence in the law and in the Hierarchy which lies behind the Biblical words, "The joy of the Lord is our strength." "Rise up and fight, Arjuna," preserving the flame of love intact, permitting no breath of hate to disturb the serenity of love or upset that inner poise which will enable you to sound forth the clarion note of world understanding, that will rally all men and women of goodwill to the aid of the Hierarchy. This will bring to an end all hatred, separativeness and aggression, which are the three major sins of humanity. All men have hated; all men have been separative in both thought and action; all have been and many still are materialistic, full of pride and the desire to gain that which is not their own by right.

 

This spirit of acquisitive­ness belongs to no one group; it has been a universal and general fault, and has produced the present disastrous economic situation, thus precipitating the world into war, hate and cruelty.

 

The fusion of many minds into one directed activity is today of supreme importance … Unity of directed thought and purpose is the guarantee of inevitable and future success. The power of massed thought is omnipotent. The potency of focussed and directed mental activity is unpredictable. If you accept this premise and this statement, then act upon it.

 

The Spirit of Peace is hovering close to humanity, seeking opportunity to make His Presence felt. The Spirit of Peace is not an abstract concept but a potent Individual, wielding forces hitherto unfamiliar to our planet. Great Forces are awaiting the hour when They can function as the Liberators and the Deliverers of mankind. But the door to Their entrance must be opened by humanity itself and it will be opened by a united act of the will, expressed through some formula of words and expressed in sound. It will be brought about by an activity performed simultaneously by all men and women of goodwill and by all the world aspirants and disciples. The door will not open unless the act of invocation is backed by the focussed will. The directed determination of the man or the group who is using the suggested formula, prayer or invocation is essential.

 

I would ask you to call as many people as you can reach through the medium of every available channel to a definite activity … making … great appeals to the Forces of Peace and Light, so that they may help humanity. I would ask you to get in touch with leaders and workers—important and unimportant—in every land, asking them to associate themselves in their own way and with their own people, and to do this on as large a scale as possible …

 

The times are ripe for a response to these ideas; the recognised pain and distress of the world will open both hearts and purses. The idea of a Christmas appeal and call to prayer and to invocation of the Prince of Peace will be potent in evoking a desirable reaction, and will serve also to blend into closer unity all who recognise the work the Hierarchy is attempt­ing to do. I would ask you to call for help from all sides, and to let these ideas work out into the world on the basis of their usefulness and opportuneness. Omit from this appeal none that you know, for through them millions can be reached and swung into the desired activity.

 

To those of you who can appreciate and use the Great Invocation, I would suggest its renewed and earnest use. This alternative invocation might, however, be suggested and found useful:

 

"O Lord of Light and Love, come forth and rule the world.

May the Prince of Peace appear and end the warring of the nations.

May the reign of Light and Love and Justice be begun.

Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with us."

 

 

 

THE COMING WORLD ORDER

April 1940

 

This analysis of world conditions is being written … where there is, as yet, relative physical safety and time for the re-adjustment of views, and the opportunity also to give direction—… to a world sorely needing guidance and vision. There is great confusion of voices. Those who know the least speak ever the loudest and apportion the blame for events with facility. There is much mental distress everywhere, occasioned by the war and also by the desire of the well-intentioned to stress their particular solutions of the world problem.

 

It is necessary, therefore, to speak with directness, to indicate the inherent dangers of the present situation, to present its amazing opportunity to bring about needed changes, and to point out the lines of demarcation between the right and the wrong ways of living, between a vision of the new world order …

 

We start with the premise that two opposing world visions confront humanity and that two world orders are presented to mankind. Between these man must choose, and his choice will determine the future.

 

… Those who perceive the risks, the opportunity, and the important decision to be made are struggling with almost frantic haste to awaken the masses to the uniqueness of this moment. What mankind decides … will condition the future as no other human decision has ever before done in the history of mankind.

 

There have been points of crisis before in history, but not one that involved the entire planetary population. There have been periods of danger, difficulty, war, famine and distress, but none which conditioned the lives of untold millions as does the present. Time and again there has been the emergence of leaders, conquerors, dictators and world figures, but they have hitherto come at a time when their influence was limited by world communications and by national limitations; therefore their power was not universal and their progress was arrested by the conditions of the period in which they lived. Today, the entire planet is involved and all the nations of the world are definitely affected.

 

There is the setting up of barriers in a futile effort to keep out of trouble and avoid war; dominant groups are swinging many nations under their banners so that they are either associated with the totalitarian powers or with those nations which are opposing them. The nations which are not actually belligerents are equally active in the task of endeavouring to preserve their national integrity.

 

The conflict today is a world conflict. … The momentum of this struggle is gaining daily. Fresh areas of the world are being swept into the conflict every week. The real issues, the impending economic results and the political implications are emerging with growing clarity in every land and—make no mistake—even in those lands which lie numbed and suffering … Among them there is a silent and at present voiceless revolt. The inner speechless revolt in itself constitutes a menace to world peace and, if evoked into full expression, may plunge the world still deeper into conflict.

 

Facing humanity today are two major dangers. These are:

first, the conflict will be so prolonged that humanity will be completely exhausted, and thus a stalemate will be reached and a situation will arise which will bring to an end all civilised relationships and all hope of an ordered life of beauty, peace and culture.

Secondly, the nations not yet involved will fail to see the realities of the situation and will not come to the assistance of those fighting for the preservation of national and individual freedom. If this should prove to be the case, then—without so intending and yet inevitably—they will stand on the side of evil and share in the responsibility of engineering world disaster.

 

Today, there are no more than two parties in the world …

 

… From the economic standpoint, every country is involved, and ruin stalks in the wake of war; the stopping of imports or of exports in many lands is bringing about the financial ruin of thousands; the pressure of economic disaster, the fear of famine and pestilence and the constant risk of becoming actively a part of the war faces every country not yet actually in the fighting line. The fear of defeat, of death and injury, and of the loss of all possessions is added to these problems, where the nations at war are concerned.

 

Humanity must face up to these facts. No matter how people may evade the truth, no matter how they may escape into a dream world of wishful thinking, the fact remains—inevitable and undeniable—that the world is at war and everyone is involved.

 

 

The Goodwill Work

 

… We endeavoured to make clear that differing forms of government and varying ideological systems were right and possible, provided that human beings lived together in goodwill and recognised their blood brotherhood.

 

… the issue was abundantly clear in the minds of those who were in touch with human affairs; immediately certain nations took sides against the forces of aggression; … the remaining nations, who took refuge in short-sighted neutrality and defence programmes—a neutrality and programmes which have proved quite futile to protect them.

 

Where, then, should the New Group of World Servers stand? What should the men and women of goodwill do? Should they side with the … powers [that] will bring the conflict more rapidly to an end, or should they stand on the side of the neutral powers, frantically pursuing ineffective peace programmes, policies of appeasement, and play into the hands of the totalitarian powers?

 

Humanity having decided to fight out the battle physically, there was nothing left to do but issue a challenge to the men and women of goodwill to take their stand on the side of such action as would release humanity through the destruction of the evil forces. These had determined to prove that might was right. Therefore, the forces fighting for progress and civilisation had to meet force with force.

 

The challenge was taken up by the democracies who [Page 179] stand for human rights and liberty. Because of the decision to fight on the side of spiritual progress, the spiritual forces of the planet had no alternative but to align themselves on the side of the allied democracies, and endeavour to awaken the neutral nations to the issue. They ranged themselves against the leaders of the aggressor …, though not against their poor deluded or subdued peoples. They too must be liberated by the allied democracies.

 

On the basis of an active will-to-good, the men and women of goodwill, acting under the inspiration of the New Group of World Servers, had no alternative but to take their stand with the spiritual forces and join the struggle for the liberation of humanity … But the spirit of goodwill must be, steadily and unchangingly, the motivating impulse. No hate must be allowed to enter in. The greatest good of the greatest number lies today in the release of the nations from the domination of the totalitarian powers.

 

 

The Pacifist Position

 

The second point upon which I would touch is the arguments brought out by the pacifists of the world. All true and good people are pacifically minded and all hate war. This is a fact which the academic idealist and pacifist often forgets. Such people tell us that two wrongs do not make a right; and to meet murder with murder (which is their definition of war) is sinful; that war is evil (which no one denies) and that one must not take part in it. They contend that thinking thoughts of peace and of love can put the world straight and end the war. Such people, fighting the existent fact of war, usually do little or nothing concrete to right the wrongs which are responsible for the war, and permit their defence—personal, municipal, national and international—to be undertaken by others. The sincerity of these people cannot be questioned.

 

It should be remembered, in countering these ideas and in justifying the fighting spirit of the Christian democracies, that it is motive that counts. War can be and is mass murder, where the motive is wrong. It can be sacrifice and right action, where the motive is right. The slaying of a man in the act of killing the defenceless is not regarded as murder. The principle remains the same, whether it is killing an individual who is murdering, or fighting a nation which is warring on the defenceless. The material means, which evil uses for selfish ends, can also be employed for good purposes.

 

The death of the physical body is a lesser evil than the setting back of civilisation, the thwarting of the divine purposes of the human spirit, the negating of all spiritual teaching, and the control of men's minds and liberties. War is always evil, but it can be the lesser of two evils, as is the case today.

 

The present war, if carried forward to a successful completion by the defeat of the totalitarian powers, constitutes a far lesser evil than the subjugation of many nations …

 

It is no doubt an undeniable spiritual truth that right thought can change and save the world, but it is also true that there are not enough people able to think to do this work. Also, there is not enough time in which to do it. The thoughts of peace are mainly founded upon a stubborn idealism that loves the ideal more than humanity. They are based also upon an unrecognised fear of war and upon an individual inertia which prefers the dream world of wishful thinking to the shouldering of responsibility for the security of humanity. …

 

 

I. THE WORLD TODAY

 

What are the causes which have produced present world conditions? What are the underlying pressures which are producing the present chaos or those which can produce eventual order? Before there can be correction, there must be appreciation of error; there must be understanding of the predisposing causes producing the necessity; there must be realisation of the general guilt and a shared responsibility for the evil conditions; there must be determination to make restitution, and to cease from evil doing.

 

The tendency to fasten the war on … evil men should not blind us to the causes which have made … evil work possible. He is mainly a precipitating agency, for through him world selfishness and cruelty have been brought to a focus. But, as Christ has said: "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh." (Matthew 18:7.) The causes of this rampant evil are inherent in humanity itself.

 

Ancient and untrammelled selfishness has ever been a characteristic of man; the desire for power and for possession has ever motivated men and nations; cruelty, lust, and sacrifice of the higher values to the lower have been deeply rooted human habits for ages. Of these ancient habits of thought and behaviour all peoples and all nations are guilty. Steadily, as the world grew closer, the lines of cleavage and the antagonism of the nations increased, and thus the present war (beginning in 1914) is the inevitable result of wrong thought, selfish goals and ancient hatreds. Individualistic interest, separative aims and aggressive desire march towards their inevitable finale—war and chaos.

 

The economic situation also provides a symbol of this condition. The nations divide them­selves into the "Haves" and the "Have Nots," and thus bring in the present era of gang­sterism. Organised gangs in the United States came into being as an expression of these tendencies in national life. … The allied nations and the United States are recognising the menace of national and international gangsterism and are endeavouring to crush it. But—and this is the point of importance—these conditions have been made possible by humanity as a whole.

 

 

Materialism and Spirituality

 

There are today three major human trends:

First of all, a trend towards a spiritual and free way of life;

secondly, a trend towards intellectual unfoldment; and

lastly, a potent trend towards material living and aggression.

 

At present, the last of these innate tendencies is in the saddle, with the second, the intellectual attitude, throwing its weight upon the side of the material goals. A relatively small group is throwing the weight of human aspiration upon the side of the spiritual values. The war between the pairs of opposites—materialism and spirituality—is raging fiercely.

 

Only as men turn away from material aggression and towards spiritual objectives will the world situation change, and men—motivated by goodwill—force the aggressors back to their own place and release humanity from fear and force. We are today reaping the results of our own sowing. The recognition of the cause of the problem provides humanity with the opportunity to end it. The time has arrived in which it is possible to institute those changes in attitude which will bring an era of peace and goodwill, founded on right human relations. These two forces—materialism and spirituality—face each other. What will be the outcome? Will men arrest the evil and initiate a period of understanding, cooperation and right relationship, or will they continue the process of selfish planning and of economic and militant competition? This question must be answered by the clear thinking of the masses and by the calm and unafraid challenges of the democracies.

 

On all sides the need for a new world order is being recognised. … There is a constant demand for the Allies to state their peace aims and indicate clearly what adjustments will be made after the war, because a vision of the future world policy will help humanity through the present crisis.

 

 

Historical Background

 

Throughout the Middle Ages, the rule of powerful monarchs, the spread of empires and the march of national conquerors were outstanding characteristics. A relatively small number of people were involved. The Church of the time had immense power in all European countries; it controlled the education of the people, but laid no foundation for right political thought. The history of the past is the history of many forms of government.

 

Races and nations have come and gone. Political regimes and religious forms have played their part, have persisted or disappeared. The sorry history of humanity has been one of kings and potentates, rulers and warriors, presidents and dictators—rising into power at the expense of their own or other nations. Conquerors come and go—Akbar, Genghis Khan, the Pharaohs, Alexander the Great, Caesar, Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, Napoleon, Hitler and Mussolini. These have all upset the rhythm [Page 184] of their times and have come to power through aggression and slaughter. As the nations grew more closely interrelated, their influence and their field of expression increased. The growing means of communication brought this about; Great Britain knew nothing of the movements of Alexander; the peoples of America knew naught about Genghis Khan; but the sound of the marching armies of Napoleon was heard over a far wider area, and the triumphs of Hitler—diplomatic and military—are known throughout the world.

 

… Motivating all these conquerors was lust for gold, lust for land, lust for power, lust for personal triumph. The modern dictators are no exception. They bring nothing new.

 

 

World Anarchy

 

The history of the world has been built around the theme of war; its points of crisis have been the great battles. The thought of revenge motivates some nations; the demand for the righting of ancient historical wrongs influences others; the restitution of lands, earlier held, directs the acts of others. … Such is the picture today. Anarchy rules the world; famine stalks the inhabitants of … there is no safety on land or sea or in the air; the nations are on the verge of financial ruin; science has turned to the invention of the instruments of death; the populations of cities and entire districts are shifted from one part of a country to another; families and homes are broken up; there is intense fear, hopeless looking into the future, bewildered questioning, suicide and murder; the smoke of countless fires blackens the skies; the seas are strewn with dead and with wrecked vessels; the thunder of guns and the noise of exploding bombs are heard … war rises up from the waters, marches over the lands and descends from the skies.

 

It is to this situation that the old order has brought humanity. It is to this disaster that man's cruelty and selfishness have tended; no nations are exempt from this criticism, and all are more rapidly moved by selfish purpose than by the spirit of sacrifice.

 

Even idealistic … can only be aroused into action by an appeal to her self-interest and security.

 

For our encouragement let us recognise that the same humanity which has brought about these terrible conditions can also create the new world, the new order and the new way of life. The selfish, wicked past can give way to a future of understanding, of cooperation, of right human relations and of good. Separativeness must be superseded by unity.

 

 

II. THE NEW WORLD ORDER

 

I assume that my readers recognise some intelligent or spiritual direction of humanity. I care not by what name they call that guiding Purpose. Some may call it the Will of God; others, the inevitable trends of the evolutionary process; still others may believe in the spiritual forces of the planet; others may regard it as the spiritual Hierarchy of the planet, or the great White Lodge; many millions speak of the guidance of Christ and His disciples. Be that as it may, there is a universal recognition of a guiding Power, exerting pressure throughout the ages, which appears to be leading all towards an ultimate good.

 

Some definite direction has led man from the stage of primeval man to that evolutionary point where a Plato, a Shakespeare, a da Vinci, a Beethoven can appear. Some power has evoked man's capacity to formulate ideas, to produce systems of theology, of science and of government; some inner motivating power has given man the ability to create beauty, to discover the secrets of nature; some realisation of divine responsibility lies behind the philanthropy, the educational systems, and the welfare movements throughout the world.

 

The progress of the human spirit has been one of irresistible unfoldment, of a developing appreciation of reality, beauty and wisdom. Instinct has developed into intellect; intellect is beginning to unfold into intuition. The significance of God, the registering of man's divine potentialities, and the increasing capacity to understand and to share in the thought processes of others—all these indicate progress and unfoldment.

 

This picture of the beauty of the human spirit must be placed beside the earlier picture of man's selfishness and cruelty, of man's inhumanity to man. Both pictures are true, but only the one of beauty is eternal; the other is but transient. Man is a composite of higher and lower expressions, and behind all the wars and difficulties which accompany man's progress through the ages lies this major factor—an ancient persistent fight between man's spiritual aspiration and his material desires. This condition is today brought to a focus in the conflict raging between the … powers fighting for the rights of the human spirit and for the freedom of humanity.

 

My use of the word spiritual has nothing to do with the use of this word as the orthodox religions use it, except in so far as the religious expression is a part of the general spirituality of mankind. Everything is spiritual which tends towards understanding, towards kindness, towards that which is productive of beauty and which can lead man on to a fuller expression of his divine potentialities. All is evil which drives man deeper into materialism, which omits the higher values of living, which endorses selfishness, which sets up barriers to the establishing of right human relations, and which feeds the spirit of separateness, of fear, of revenge.

 

On the basis of these distinctions, it is surely apparent that God is on the side of … for it cannot be supposed that Christ is on the side of … the rule of cruel aggression. … Through the democracies humanity speaks. [Vox populi, vox Dei.]

 

[alternatively] … The world order, as visioned by … the educational processes … controlled by the dominant … ruthless … of mankind; the beauties of war, of struggle and of physical strength will be emphasised, and these so-called admirable objectives of the human spirit will be developed to produce a race of men in whom the "effeminate" beauties of loving kindness and wise consideration for others will find no place.

 

I would call your attention to the teaching now being given to the … youth. Might is right. … all other races [religions] are inferior. Only a chosen … should be permitted the privilege of education and of rule. The masses of the people are no more than cattle and exist only to be slaves … War is to men what childbirth is to women. War is a natural process and therefore eternally right. All sources of supply must be controlled by … and consequently even those nations at present neutral must be brought under the … sphere of influence. The … powers will dominate the economic system of the world and control all imports and exports. The standard of living in both hemispheres will be lowered; everything will be related to the good of … and no other nation will be considered. Christian teaching and Christian ethics must necessarily be eliminated, because … regards Christianity … as weak … and as responsible for the decadence of all nations … Christianity must also be overthrown because it is based on Jewish sources; the rule of Christ must come to an end, because only the rule of force is right.

 

In the world order of the … powers, the individual has no rights; he has no freedom except in so far as he serves the …; there will be no liberty of thought or conscience, all issues will be decided by the …, and the private citizen will have no right to an opinion. Men will be drafted like slaves into the service of ….

 

Such is the picture of the order which the … powers are preparing to impose upon the world, and to this their own words testify. Only insight into the true nature of this crisis, a determination to face the facts, and fearlessness will suffice to defeat …. This conquering fearlessness must be based on a recognition of the spiritual values involved, on a belief in God, and on a commonsense which is determined to establish security, right human relations and liberty.

 

It is important that people face up to the facts immediately. They must realise what is the nature of the world order which … is preparing to enforce, and what lies ahead of humanity if the … powers triumph. It is essential that the little children of the world be rescued from this overshadowing evil and from the false education to which they will be subjected if the … powers hold …. The intensive culture given to the youth of … has proved the effects of environing mental attitudes. These boys who roll their tanks and fly their planes … who wage war on women and children are the product of an educational system, and are therefore the victims of an evil process. The children of … must be rescued from the future which … the women of … must be set free from fear, as must the women in other lands; the population of … must also be liberated from the evil rule of …. This is recognised by the allied nations. Make no mistake. The … is as dear to the heart of humanity, to God, to Christ and to all right thinking people as are any other people. The … must be rescued from … world order as much as the … any … nation. In effecting this freedom, the allied nations and the neutral powers must preserve the spirit of goodwill, even when using force, which is the only means of conquest the totalitarian powers understand.

 

Steps Towards the New World Order

 

In contradistinction to the totalitarian world order, what should the rest of the world plan? Towards what world objectives should the democracies work? Utopian schemes, idealistic forms of government and cultural living processes have ever been the playthings of the human mind, down through the centuries. But these Utopias have been so far ahead of possibility that their presentation seems useless. They are most of them wholly impractical.

 

Certain immediate possibilities and attainable objectives can, however, be worked out, given a definite will-to-good and patience on the part of humanity.

 

Certain major and spiritual premises should lie back of all efforts to formulate the new world order. Let me state some of them:

 

1. The new world order must meet the immediate need and not be an attempt to satisfy some distant, idealistic vision.

 

2. The new world order must be appropriate to a world which has passed through a destructive crisis and to a humanity which is badly shattered by the experience.

 

3. The new world order must lay the foundation for a future world order which will be possible only after a time of recovery, of reconstruction, and of rebuilding.

 

4. The new world order will be founded on the recognition that all men are equal in origin and goal but that all are at differing stages of evolutionary development; that personal integrity, intelligence, vision and experience, plus a marked goodwill, should indicate leadership. … The control of labour by capital or the control of capital by labour must also go.

 

5. In the new world order, the governing body in any nation should be composed of those who work for the greatest good of the greatest number and who at the same time offer opportunity to all, seeing to it that the individual is left free. Today the men of vision are achieving recognition, thus making possible a right choice of leaders. It was not possible until this century.

 

6. The new world order will be founded on an active sense of responsibility. The rule will be "all for one and one for all." This attitude among nations will have to be developed. It is not yet present.

 

7. The new world order will not impose a uniform type of government, a synthetic religion and a system of standardisation upon the nations. The sovereign rights of each nation will be recognised and its peculiar genius, individual trends and racial qualities will be permitted full expression. In one particular only should there be an attempt to produce unity, and that will be in the field of education.

 

8. The new world order will recognise that the produce of the world, the natural resources of the planet and its riches, belong to no one nation but should be shared by all. There will be no nations under the category "haves" and others under the opposite category. A fair and properly organised distribution of the wheat, the oil and the mineral wealth of the world will be developed, based upon the needs of each nation, upon its own internal resources and the requirements of its people. All this will be worked out in relation to the whole.

 

9. In the preparatory period for the new world order there will be a steady and regulated disarmament. It will not be optional. No nation will be permitted to produce and organise any equipment for destructive purposes or to infringe the security of any other nation. One of the first tasks of any future peace conference will be to regulate this matter and gradually see to the disarming of the nations.

 

These are the simple and general premises upon which the new world order must begin its work. These preliminary stages must be kept fluid and experimental; the vision of possibility must never be lost, and the foundations must be preserved inviolate, but the intermediate processes and the experimentations must be carried forward by men who, having the best interests of the whole at heart, can change the detail of organisation whilst preserving the life of the organism.

 

 

Right Human Relations

 

The objective of their work can be summed up thus: the new world order will facilitate the establishing of right human relations, based on justice, on the recognition of inherited rights, on opportunity for all—irrespective of race, colour or creed—on the suppression of crime and selfishness through right education, and on the recognition of divine potentialities in man as well as the recognition of a divine directing Intelligence in Whom man lives, and moves and has his being.

 

The difficulties confronting the nations when the war is over may seem insuperable but—given vision, goodwill and patience—they can be solved. Assuming that humanity will not rest until the aggressor[s] … are subdued, it will be necessary for the conquering democracies to be generous, merciful, understanding and attentive to the voice of the people as a whole. It is that voice (usually sound in its pronouncements) which must be evoked, recognised and listened to, and not the voices of the separative exponents of any ideology, of any form of government, religion or party.

 

The objective of those who are entrusted with the straightening out of the world is not the imposition of democracy upon the entire world or to force Christianity upon a world of diversified religions. It is surely to foster the best elements in any national government to which the people may subscribe, or which they intelligently endorse. Each nation should recognise that its form of government may be suited to it and quite unsuited to another nation; it should be taught that the function of each nation is the perfecting of its national life, rhythm and machinery, so that it can be an efficient co-partner with all other nations.

 

It is equally essential that the new world order should develop in humanity a sense of divinity and of relationship to God, yet with no emphasis upon racial theologies and separative creeds. The essentials of religious and political beliefs must be taught and a new simplicity of life inculcated. Today, these are lost in the emphasis laid upon material possession, upon things and upon money.

 

The problem of money will have to be faced; the problem of the distribution of wealth—whether natural or human—will need careful handling and a compromise reached between those nations which possess unlimited resources and those who have few or none; the problem of the varying forms of national government must be faced with courage and insight; the restoration—psychological, spiritual and physical—of mankind must constitute a primary responsibility. The sense of security must be put on a firm basis—the basis of right relationship, and not the basis of force. Men must feel secure because they are seeking to develop international goodwill and can trust each other, and are not therefore dependent upon the strength of their armies and fleets.

 

The recognition of a spiritual Hierarchy which is working through the New Group of World Servers must steadily grow in some form or another. This will happen when the world statesmen and the rulers of the different nations and governing bodies—political and religious—are men of vision, spiritually motivated and selflessly inspired.

 

The future world order will be the effective expression of a fusion of the inner spiritual way of life and the outer civilised and cultural way of acting; this is a definite possibility because humanity, in its upper brackets, has already developed the power to live in the intellectual and physical worlds simultaneously. Many today are living in the spiritual world also. Tomorrow there will be many more.

 

 

III. SOME PROBLEMS INVOLVED

 

The new world order will be confronted with many problems. These problems will not be solved by the imposition of a solution by means of force …. They will be solved by right educational processes and by understanding the objectives of the true world order. They fall roughly into four categories: the racial problem, the economic problem, the problem of government, and the religious problem.

 

 

The Racial Problem

 

There is no way of solving the racial problem by legislation, segregation, or by the effort to produce national blocs … Such efforts will only produce insuperable barriers. With very few exceptions, there are no pure races … Tides of emigration, marching armies throughout the centuries, and modern travel have inextricably mixed and fused all the races. It may therefore be assumed that any attempt to isolate a race or to enforce so-called "racial purity" is foredoomed to failure. The only solution of this problem is the basic recognition that all men are brothers; that one blood pours through human veins; that we are all the children of the one Father and that our failure to recognise this fact is simply an indication of man's stupidity. Historical backgrounds, climatic conditions and widespread inter-marriage have made the different races what they are today.

 

Essentially, however, humanity is one—the heir of the ages, the product of many fusions, conditioned by circumstances and enriched by the processes of evolutionary development. This basic unity must now be recognised.

 

The major racial problem has, for many centuries, been the Jewish, which has been brought to a critical point … This problem is also capable of solution if properly recognised for what it is, and if coupled with an effort by the Jews themselves to solve it, and to be cooperative in the world efforts to adjust their problem. This they have not yet done … able to do little to put himself right before the world. Instinctively and intellectually, the Jew is separative; intuitively he has vision, but at the same time he possesses no sense of fusion with other peoples.

 

There is no scientific and hitherto unknown mode of solving racial problems. It is finally a question of right thinking, decent behaviour, and simple kindness. The question will not be solved by inter-marriage, or by isolating groups for occupation of special areas, or by any man-made ideas of superiority or inferiority.

 

Right human relations will come by a mutual recognition of mistakes, by sorrow for wrong action in the past, and by restitution, if possible. It will come when nations can be educated to appreciate the good qualities of other nations and to comprehend the part they play in the whole picture. It will be developed when the sense of racial superiority is killed; when racial differences and racial quarrels are relegated to the unholy past and only a future of cooperation and of understanding is actively developed; it will make its presence felt when the living standards of right relation (sought by the enlightened people of every race) become the habitual attitude of the masses and when it is regarded as contrary to the best interests of any nation to spread those ideas which tend to erect racial or national barriers, arouse hatreds or foster differences and separation. Such a time will surely come. Humanity will master the problem of right human relations and attitudes.

 

It is inevitable that racial differences, national quarrels and caste distinction exist, but it is equally imperative that they disappear. The world is one world. Humanity is one unit in the evolutionary process. Differences are man-made and engender hatreds and separation. When the children of the various races are taught from their earliest years that there are no differences, that all men are brothers, and that the apparent distinctions are essentially superficial, then future generations will approach the problem of world interrelations unhandicapped by prejudice, by pride of race, or by instilled historical resentments.

 

By right education little children can be taught right attitudes and will respond, for a child sees and recognises no differences, and the truth of the Biblical promise that "a little child shall lead them" will be proven scientifically true. In the new world order this educational process will be started.

 

 

The Economic Problem

 

This problem is basically far less difficult of solution. Sound commonsense can solve it. There are adequate resources for the sustenance of human life, and these science can increase and develop. The mineral wealth of the world, the oil, the produce of the fields, the contribution of the animal kingdom, the riches of the sea, and the fruits and the flowers are all offering themselves to humanity. Man is the controller of it all, and they belong to everyone and are the property of no one group, nation or race. It is solely due to man's selfishness that (in these days of rapid transportation) thousands are starving whilst food is rotting or destroyed; it is solely due to the grasping schemes and the financial injustices of man's making that the resources of the planet are not universally available under some wise system of distribution.

 

There is no justifiable excuse for the lack of the essentials of life in any part of the world. Such a state of lack argues short-sighted policy and the blocking of the free circulation of necessities for some reason or other. All these deplorable conditions are based on some national or group selfishness and on the failure to work out some wise impartial scheme for the supplying of human need throughout the world.

 

What then must be done, apart from the education of the coming generations in the need for sharing, for a free circulation of all the essential commodities? The cause of this evil way of living is very simple. It is a product of past wrong educational methods, of competition and the facility with which the helpless and weak can be exploited. [Page 197] No one group is responsible as certain fanatical ideologists might lead the ignorant to suppose. Our period is simply one in which human selfishness has come to its climax and must either destroy humanity or be brought intelligently to an end.

Three things will end this condition of great luxury and extreme poverty, of gross over-feed­ing of the few and the starvation of the many, plus the centralisation of the world's produce under the control of a handful of people in each country. These are:

First, the recognition that there is enough food, fuel, oil and minerals in the world to meet the need of the entire population. The problem, therefore, is basically one of distribution.

Secondly, this premise of adequate supply handled through right distribution must be accepted, and the supplies which are essential to the health, security and happiness of mankind must be made available.

Third, that the entire economic problem and the institution of the needed rules and distributing agencies should be handled by an economic league of nations. In this league, all the nations will have their place; they will know their national requirements (based on population and internal resources, etc.) and will know also what they can contribute to the family of nations; all will be animated by the will to the general good—a will-to-good that will probably at first be based on expediency and national need but which will be constructive in its working out.

 

… The resources of the world have fallen into the hands of the selfish, and there has been no just distribution. Some nations have had too much, and have exploited their surplus; other nations have had too little, and their national life and their financial situation have been crippled thereby. At the close of this war all the nations will be in financial difficulties. All nations will require re-building; all will have to attend actively to the settlement of the future economic life of the planet and its adjustment upon sounder lines.

 

This period of adjustment offers the opportunity to effect drastic and deeply needed changes and the establishing [Page 198] of a new economic order, based on the contribution of each nation to the whole, the sharing of the fundamental necessities of life and the wise pooling of all resources for the benefit of everybody, plus a wise system of distribution. Such a plan is feasible.

 

The solution here offered is so simple that, for that very reason, it may fail to make an appeal. The quality required by those engineering this change of economic focus is so simple also—the will-to-good—that again it may be over-looked, but without simplicity and goodwill little can be effected after the world war.

 

The great need will be for men of vision, of wide sympathy, technical knowledge and cosmopolitan interest. They must possess also the confidence of the people. They must meet together and lay down the rules whereby the world can be adequately fed; they must determine the nature and extent of the contribution which any one nation must make; they must settle the nature and extent of the supplies which should be given to any nation, and so bring about those conditions which will keep the resources of the world circulating justly and engineer those preventive measures which will offset human selfishness and greed.

 

Can such a group of men be found? I believe it can. Everywhere there are deep students of human nature, scientific investigators with wide human sympathies, and conscientious men and women who have for long—under the old and cruel system—wrestled with the problem of human pain and need.

 

The new era of simplicity must come in. The new world order will inaugurate this simpler life based on adequate food, right thought, creative activity and happiness. These essentials are only possible under a right economic rule. This simplification and this wise distribution of the world's resources must embrace the high and the low, the rich and the poor, thus serving all men alike.

 

 

The Problem Of Government

 

Coming now to the realm of government, under the new world order, one is faced with a very complex situation. Certain great ideological regimes have divided the world into opposing groups. There are the great democracies, under which certain of the few remaining monarchies find a place; there are the totalitarian powers in which the ancient dictatorships and autocracies of the past are summed up.

 

There is nothing new in the … policies … [of] essentially reactionary groups, for tyrants, cruelty and the exploitation of the weak are part of ancient history.

 

The democracies, with all their present ineffectiveness, have in them the germ of that which is truly new, for they are the expression of an upward surging towards self-rule and self-mastery by humanity as a whole. There is also the communistic ideal which is a curious blend of individualism, dictatorship, the ancient conflict between labour and capital, the Sermon on the Mount, and the worst aspects of revolution and exploitation. The lines which it will follow, even in the immediate future, are unpredictable.

 

There are other countries and peoples whose governments are conditioned by their environment and who at present play no real determining part in world events, except in so far as a greater power uses them. Again, there are peoples and tribes who still pursue their little lives, unaffected by the turmoil to be found in the more highly civilised parts of the world.

 

Behind all this diversity of governmental methods, certain clear outlines are emerging which indicate wider fusions and a tendency to bring about certain syntheses. Various basic trends of thought are appearing which, in the new world order, will unfold into that major synthesis so much desired by the spiritual Hierarchy of the planet, and which, whilst preserving the large national and racial outlines, will produce an underlying and subjective state of mind which will end the age of separateness.

 

Desire is today being evoked for the Federated States of Europe, modelled on the lines of the British Commonwealth of Nations or the United States of America; there is talk of a new order in Asia, of the Good Neighbour policy in America, of a Federal Union of the democratic nations; there is also the steady spread of the Soviet Socialist Republics. Certain major groupings would seem possible and probably advisable. They might be divided as follows:

 

1. A Federal Union of the great democracies after the war. This might include the British Empire as a whole, the United States, the Scandinavian countries and certain northern European nations, including Germany.

 

2. A Union of the Latin countries, including France, Spain, all the Mediterranean countries, the Balkan countries (except one or two which might be absorbed into the U.S.S.R.), and South America.

 

3. The United Soviet Socialist Republics and certain Asiatic nations working in collaboration with them, such as China, and later Japan.

 

These three great blocs would not be antagonistic blocs but simply geographical spheres of influence. They would all three work in the closest unity and economic relation. Each nation within the three blocs would preserve its sovereign independence, but between these independent nations and between these blocs there would be identity of purpose, unity of effort and the recognition of the economic control of a league of nations. This league, being formed of the representatives of all the nations and its inner governing body being chosen by the three blocs, would control all sources of supply, distribute all such supplies and determine all economic policies.

 

With the details of these future adjustments I shall not deal. They must be wrought out by the men and women of goodwill in the crucible of experiment and experience. Only universal disaster could have brought men to a state of mind wherein such propositions and solutions could be presented. The general recognition that the old order has lamentably failed is most valuable.

 

 

The Religious Problem

 

When we come to consider religion in the new world order, we are faced with a far more complicated problem and yet, at the same time, with a far easier one. The reason for this is that the subject of religion is one which is studied and somewhat understood by the majority of men. On theological interpretations there are wide differences; on a widespread recogni­tion of a universal divine Intelligence or of God (by whatever name the all-embracing Life may be called) there is a general similarity of reaction.

 

Forms of religion are so different, and the theological adherents are so fierce in their loyalties and partisanships, that the emergence of a world religion is necessarily of profound difficulty. But that emergence is very close at hand and the differences are relatively superficial. The new world religion is nearer than many think, and this is due to two things:

first, the theological quarrels are mainly over non-essentials, and

secondly, the younger generation is basically spiritual but quite uninterested in theology.

 

The intelligent youth of all countries are rapidly repudiating orthodox theology, state ecclesi­asti­cism and the control of the church. They are neither interested in man-made interpre­tations of truth nor in past quarrels between the major world religions. At the same time, they are profoundly interested in the spiritual values and are earnestly seeking verification of their deep-seated unvoiced recognitions. They look to no bible or system of so-called inspired spiritual knowledge and revelation, but their eyes are on the undefined larger wholes in which they seek to merge and lose themselves, such as the state, an ideology, or humanity itself.

 

In this expression of the spirit of self-abnegation may be seen the appearance of the deepest truth of all religion and the justification of the Christian message. Christ, in His high place, cares not whether men accept the theological interpretations of scholars and churchmen, but He does care whether the keynote of His life of sacrifice and service is reproduced among men; it is immaterial to Him whether the emphasis laid upon the detail and the veracity of the Gospel story is recognised and accepted, for He is more interested that the search for truth and for subjective spiritual experience should persist; He knows that within each human heart is found that which responds instinctively to God, and that the hope of ultimate glory lies hid in the Christ-consciousness.

 

Therefore, in the new world order, spirituality will supersede theology; living experience will take the place of theological acceptances. The spiritual realities will emerge with increasing clarity and the form aspect will recede into the background; dynamic, expressive truth will be the keynote of the new world religion. … 

 

Only those will remain as guides and leaders of the human spirit who speak from living experience, and who know no creedal barriers; they will recognise the onward march of revelation and the new emerging truths. These truths will be founded on the ancient realities but will be adapted to modern need and will manifest progressively the revelation of the divine nature and quality. God is now known as Intelligence and Love. That the past has given us. He must be known as Will and Purpose, and that the future will reveal.

 

When the racial problem has disappeared through the recognition of the one Life, when the economic problem has been solved by the nations working cooperatively together, when the problem of right government within each nation has been determined by the free will of their respective peoples, and the spirit of true religion is unobstructed by ancient forms and interpretations, then we shall see a world in process of right experience, right human relations and a spiritual moving forward to reality.

 

… Thus the four major world problems are today being precipitated by … into the arena of action; they are evoking enquiry everywhere; the attention of men in every land is now focussed on these problems, and solution is inevitable when the war is over. When these problems are rightly approached by the men and women of goodwill, then we shall see a "world planning" for the production of harmonious living such as never before has been possible.

 

It is for humanity to solve its serious problems on the basis of brotherhood, and so bring in a way of living which will provide adequate supply of the necessities of life through the proper organising of time, labour and goods. This will lead to an interplay between the citizen and the state which will evoke the service of the individual and the right protection of the state. Humanity will then be free for the experiment of spiritual living, and this will express itself through awakened human lives. Can more be asked for or expected than this? Such a way of life can be made possible if the men and women of goodwill, of intelligence and of idealism can begin the task of inaugurating the new world order.

 

 

IV. THE TASK AHEAD

 

This brings us now to the practical aspects of the subject and to the answering of the following question: Given the possibility of the new world order, what can be done to bring it into being at this time, in the midst of the conflict?

 

The period into which we are now entering divides itself into two parts:

 

1. The present period of the war itself, until the defeat of … and the end of the actual fighting.

 

2. The period after the guns have ceased roaring. The needed peace, reconstruction and rebuilding will then have to be determined.

 

It is with these periods that we must concern ourselves. They are, and will be, times of great difficulty and of painful conflict and adjustment. The task of restoring the world to harmony and order is a stupendous one. The educating of people everywhere in the necessity for new ideals of right living, for the new rhythms and the new "sharing" will not be easy. The work of healing the wounds of humanity, of rebuilding the shattered civilisation, of instituting disarm­a­ment, of recognising national, material and psychological needs, and of rescuing and restoring the happiness of the little children of the world and planning their future security will take the best that is in the men and women of goodwill; it will call for the wise guidance of the New Group of World Servers and will engage the attention of intelligent people and understanding minds in every nation.

 

The first preliminary is for the men and women of goodwill to decide once and for all with which of the two forces, battling together, they will take their stand, mentally and spiritually, even if they are not called upon by their country to do so physically.

 

I write at this time for those who take their stand on the side of the constructive forces which are fighting for the … freedom of the peoples. I would here remind you that among the people in … there are thousands who also silently take their stand with those struggling for victory … The Forces of Light are found in every land but are at present only able to express themselves effectively in the countries ranged against ….

 

The men and women of goodwill, associated with the New Group of World Servers, should seek intelligently to understand the current problem, and to study the world situation from all possible angles. Intelligent understanding, love of one's fellowmen and sound commonsense are prerequisites of all demanded service. Men should cultivate these qualities, divorcing them from all sentimental emotion and dealing factually with circum­stance and environing conditions.

 

It must be realised that the task to be done will take time, and the men and women of goodwill must brace themselves for sustained effort, for opposition, and for that dead lethargy and sick inertia which afflicts the masses of the people in every land. The immediate activities are two in number:

 

1. The finding of those people in every country who react to the vision of the new world order and who are the men and women of goodwill.

 

2. The presentation of the future possibilities, by them, to the masses of people in all lands.

 

I would here remind you that members of the New Group of World Servers and men and women of goodwill must be sought for in every department of life. They will be found among the adherents of all the current ideologies and in political and scientific circles, among the world educators and philanthropists, among the creative workers, the industrialists, in ordinary homes and in the ranks of labour.

 

 

The New Group of World Servers

 

The New Group of World Servers is not a new organisation which is forming in the world. It is simply a loose linking together of all men of constructive peace aims and goodwill who lay the emphasis upon the prior need of establishing right human relations before any lasting peace is possible. This group in no way interferes with the allegiance and loyalties of any man. It is a banding together of all who seek to express the spirit of Christ and who are free from the spirit of hatred and revenge. The challenge of this group to the world is to drop all antagonisms and antipathies, all hatred and racial differences, and attempt to live in terms of the one family, the one life, and the one humanity.

 

The New Group of World Servers believes that (through the agency of goodwill) the new world order can be firmly established on Earth. Today, in the interim period of the war, preparation for reconstruction can go forward simultaneously with the effort to defeat the … powers.

 

The men and women of goodwill must not be energised into activity with the note of sacrifice. The war has exacted much of that from them. The clarion note of joy through goodwill activity must be sent out. Let the beauty of what can be, the glory of the vision and the spiritual, scientific and physical rebuilding of humanity be held before them, inspiring them to renewed effort.

 

Through the work earlier done all over the world by the men of vision and of goodwill, there exist today many thousands of people … who are waiting for the guidance which will start them into right activity. In every land the men and women of goodwill are to be found, ready to respond to a clear call and intelligent organisation in the service of reconstruction. Let them be found.

 

The message to be taught prior to any future peace consists of the following three clear and practical truths:

 

1. That the errors and mistakes of past centuries, culminating in the present world war, are the joint errors and mistakes of humanity as a whole. This recognition will lead to the establishing of the principle of sharing, so needed in the world today.

 

2. That there are no problems and conditions which cannot be solved by the will-to-good. Goodwill nourishes the spirit of understanding and fosters the manifestation of the principle of cooperation. This cooperative spirit is the secret of all right human relations and the enemy of competition.

 

3. That there is a blood relationship between men which, when recognised, dissolves all barriers and ends the spirit of separativeness and hate. The peace and happiness of each is the concern, therefore, of all. This develops the principle of responsibility and lays the foundation of right corporate action.

 

These are the basic beliefs of the men and women of goodwill and provide the incentive to all service and action. These three practical and scientific truths embody the three basic facts and the initial acceptance of all world servers. They are contrary to no world position, subversive of no government or religious attitude and are innate in the consciousness of all men, evoking immediate response. Their acceptance will "heal" international sores.

 

I call on all the men and women of goodwill in the world to study the principles of the new world order. I call upon them, as they fight for justice and the rights of the little nations and the future of the children of all nations, to begin to educate those whom they can reach, in right attitudes and in that foresighted vision which will make the mistakes of the past impossible in the future.

 

One basic divine attribute is not yet as strong as it should be in humanity—the attribute of forgiveness. It is still associated with magnanimity. It is not seen to be essentially a condition of future relation between all nations, based upon a recognition of our common humanity. …

 

All the great Powers have also sinned in some degree and all have grievously erred in the past. …

 

Three recognitions will save the world when the guns cease firing:

 

1. The recognition of joint responsibility for past world conditions. The truth that "all have sinned" must be faced.

 

2. The recognition that … the future new world order will inaugurate an era of truthful propaganda and national and international information.

 

3. The recognition that the past has gone with all its evils, and that a future of unlimited possibilities for good and for constructive changes lies ahead. The future must be developed by all nations in the closest collaboration.

 

These three points must be constantly presented to the public in the simplest language, because it is the inert mass of unthinking people who will constitute the hardest problem. Appeal must be made to the best that is in them, because the immediate task ahead is the development of those right attitudes without which no peace can be lasting and justice will not be possible.

 

Peace must not be imposed by those who hate war. Peace must be a natural outcome and expression of the human spirit, and of a determination to change the world attitude into one of right human relations.

 

This is no impossible idealistic dream, but an immediate possibility, given the spirit of forgiveness and goodwill. Patience will be required, because the nervous strain of war and pain and anxiety, fear and underfeeding will have to be reckoned with.

 

Human beings will be the same as before the war, except for exhaustion and a willingness on the part of the majority to accept almost any terms which will allow them to live quietly again, free from the immediate fear of bombs and starvation and ruin.

 

The great need will be for slow action, leaving time for the needed healing processes and adjustment before the final peace terms are settled by the nations, sitting in conclave. Nations will have to shift from a war footing to settled peace activities, and from the organised tensions of war to the comparative relaxations of peace. Disarmament must go forward as an initial move, but in such a manner that the question of unemployment is not unduly aggravated. The "turning of the cannon into ploughshares" must be carried out with judgment, and only wide international planning can take care [Page 209] of this stupendous process.

 

The settling of national boundaries and spheres of influence will be one of the utmost difficulty and can only be satisfactorily determined if goodwill is actively present and consciously used, and when the wishes of the people involved are consulted in a non-partisan spirit. The emphasis upon past historical boundaries as a determining factor is ever dangerous. Wise and slow action will here be needed and proper consideration of population desires. It is not the restoration of the ancient landmarks which is desirable, but the restoration of national and racial spheres of influence in accordance with the present situation.

 

It is not the imposition of any particular ideology upon the world, or its removal, which is of importance, but the establishing of those world conditions which will give all the nations adequate food, the necessities of life, and opportunity then to express themselves, and to make their unique contribution to the welfare of the whole family of nations.

 

The working details will have to be developed by all peoples in the closest collaboration. Men of vision, and not just politicians; world servers, and not just military leaders; and humanitarians, and not just the rulers of nations, must determine these tremendous issues. As they do so they must be able to count upon the support of the men and women of goodwill in every land. To sum up:

 

The interim between the present time and the final adjustment falls into two major periods and the practical work in each can be clearly defined:

 

1. The interim between today and the cessation of war. This must be used in the following ways:

 

a. To educate and stabilise all men and women of goodwill.

 

b. To discover the workers, humanitarians and those men and women of understanding and vision who will respond to the principles here given.

 

c. To prepare these men and women to work in unison for justice and right human relations in all countries after the cessation of the war.

 

2. The interim between the end of the physical fighting and the final peace settlement. It is to be hoped—for the sake of justice—that this interlude will cover several years of rehabilitation and education. During these interludes between the past and the new world order, the men and women of goodwill can actively aid the statesmen of all nations by intelligent cooperation, in the planned focussing of enlightened public opinion, and in defining and teaching the real meaning of right human relations.

 

It is with the first interlude that we are now concerned. It is desirable to get into immediate touch with those whose names are already known to you, and set them to work and let them—in their turn—find others, and guide them also into the way of reconstruction. Let all these names and addresses be gathered together in central and national mailing lists, but let them also be kept in both New York and London, for it is the task of the English speaking peoples to rebuild the world with the help of all other nations. There must, therefore, be some measure of centralisation of the work and some way in which these people can be reached and swept into cooperative activity.

 

With goodwill to all, with a staunch belief in the divine possibilities of human beings and in the future resurrection of humanity, with an exalted recognition of God, with an acknowledg­ment of the fundamental values of Christ's teaching, and with a joyful determination to go forward with the work of reconstruction, I call upon those who respond to this vision immediately to set to work.

 

I call you to no organisational loyalties, but only to love your fellowmen, be they German, American, Jewish, British, French, Negro or Asiatic.

 

I call you from your dreams of vague beauty, impossible Utopias and wishful thinking to face life as it is today; and then to begin, in the place where you are, to make it better.

 

I call you to the experiment of right human relations, beginning with your own personal relations to your family and friends, and then to the task of educating those you contact so that they also start a similar work. It is the work of attaining right individual relations, right group relations, right intergroup relations, right national relations and right international relations.

 

I call you to the realisation that in this work no one is futile or useless, but that all have a place of practical value.

 

I call you to recognise that goodwill is a dynamic energy which can bring about world changes of a fundamental kind, and that its mode of expression is through the activity of the individual man and woman and through their massed intent. The massed power of goodwill, the dynamic effect of intelligent and active understanding, and the potency of a trained and alive public opinion which desires the greatest good of the greatest number, are beyond belief. This dynamic power has never been employed. It can, today, save the world.

 

 

THE WORLD CRISIS FROM HIERARCHICAL VIEWPOINT

April-May 1940

 

Another Wesak Festival will be close at hand when you receive this communication. Its urgency, imminence and finality prompt me again to attempt to awaken those of you who receive it to the present opportunity and to the spiritual urgency of this high moment in human affairs. The three Full Moon periods of April, May and June are most significant and determining, and upon what happens during the next few weeks, whilst the sun is still moving northwards, much will depend.

 

In this communication I would like to do two things: First of all, give you a better idea as to how the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet regards the present world crisis, and secondly, indicate to you certain major eventualities which are dependent upon three things:

 

1. A possible divine intervention which may be brought about through the aspiration of all right-minded people, plus the intelligent and constant use of the Great Invocation, now being used in its tens of thousands by the world aspirants in every country.

 

2. The emergence of certain clear lines of demarcation between the activities of the Forces of Light and the forces of materialistic aggression.

 

3. The place which clear thinking, wise speech and skill in action should play in the attitude of the world disciples and the men and women of goodwill everywhere.

 

I shall endeavour to speak with a reasonable brevity and clarity, and I do so with complete freedom from what you call bias. I speak in terms of humanity—without distinction of race, colour or nation; I have no particular political views, because I know that all potential theories, ideologies and governments are temporary states and conditions, controlling different groups of human beings on their way from the human state to the divine. This is a point of view oft overlooked by many of you who—temporarily and oft fanatically—belong to one or other of these ephemeral states of mind and passing human attitudes. I have no particular religious preferences, knowing as I do that all roads lead to God and that the sense of divinity is so dominant and inherent in the human heart that naught at any time can crush it out; life, experience, trial, pain and instinctive human orientation lead all men finally back into the light of God.

 

I can and do, therefore, love all men, irrespective of nationality and present ideas, as do all with whom I am associated. Looking upon the moving screen of time with a vision which reaches into the future and is inclusive of the past (for this is the prerogative of all trained world disciples) I know that present events will play their timely part, will give place to others in due time, and that—when the immediate processes of readjustment in human values, spiritual objectives and political schemes, religious orientations and territorial syntheses are completed—the world will settle down again to the processes of daily living.

 

The immediate opportunity and situation in which we find ourselves will have proved dynamically useful or (such is the sad possibility) negatively futile. A fresh cycle of civilisation, culture and growth will have been inaugurated which will be coloured by the ancient hues of selfish desire and aggressive acquisitiveness, or by the newer and more beautiful colouring of happy and satisfactory international relationships, of religious understanding and of the much needed and demanded economic cooperation.

 

Such a dual possibility confronts us now. One—new, right and spiritually oriented; the other, ancient, evil and undesirable. Whether man will go forward into the better way of life or permit the perpetuation of the old ways and the domination of selfish personal, national and racial interests remains yet to be determined.

 

Two things are, however, obvious to us as we look at the present world situation; first, that the lines of demarcation between the two ways of living and the two objective attitudes are far more clearly defined than at any previous time in the history of humanity; secondly, that it is the muddled thinking of vast masses of well-meaning people (many of them not immediately implicated in the world conflict) which is largely responsible for the slowness of the final crisis and the postponement of the advancing decision.

 

For decades, we, the teachers of the race of men, have watched certain great world (or planetary) tendencies take shape, assume defined and pronounced outlines and become conditioning potencies. This shaping and definition was essential if the issue was to be presented with clarity to humanity, thus enabling a basic choice to be presented to the sons of men and the placing in their hands of certain determinations which could, if rightly directed, carve out for them a new and better future. Such a presentation has never before been possible, because never before has mankind been at the stage where it could grasp the situation intelligently, or been so closely and rapidly interrelated by the radio, telephone, the press and the telegraph. [and internet]

 

The needed choices can now be made in cooperation, in consultation and with open eyes. The choice is clearly before the thinking people in every country, and upon their decision rests the fate of the less intelligent masses. Hence the present responsibility of the national leaders, of the representatives of the people in the governments, of the churches, and of the intelligentsia in all lands, without exception. There should be no shirking or evasion of responsibility. There is, however, much.

 

In past communications I have oft spoken of the Forces of Light and the Forces of Materialism, meaning by these terms the controlling trends towards brotherhood, right human relations and selfless purpose, and those which reverse these higher tendencies and bring into human affairs selfish acquisitiveness, emphasis upon material interests, brutal aggression and cruelty. The two positions are clear to the unprejudiced onlooker.

 

To these two groups I would add a third. This third group is taking shape in the world today with extreme definiteness and is composed of those who throw the weight of their influence and of their action on neither side; theoretically, they may advocate the higher way, but practically they do nothing to further its interests.

 

This third group is formed internally of two groups:

first, those people who are potentially weak and are therefore ridden by fear and terror, feeling that they dare not move in any way against the forces of aggression, and

secondly, an intrinsically powerful group who, through selfish material interests, plus a sense of separative superiority, or distance from the seat of trouble and the domination of false values, hold aloof from the situation and shirk their evident responsibility as members of the human family. This latter group includes, among others, a number of powerful democracies and republics. Fear, terror and a sense of helpless futility govern the reactions of the one, and who can criticise? Selfishness and separativeness control the other group.

 

You have, therefore, in the world at this time three groups of people who embody the three major views of the whole of humanity, plus the unthinking masses, swayed by propaganda, controlled by their governments, and the prey of the loudest voices. It is of value to you to get this picture clearly in your minds, and I would like again to define them.

 

1. The ancient entrenched forces of aggression, of material acquisition and pure selfishness, working through a pronounced cruelty which reaches out and grasps what it wants, irrespective of any other rights, historical and legal possessions or the will of anyone.

 

2. The forces of spiritual purpose, embodied in the will to protect the rights of others, along with individual rights; to end aggression and its consequent fear, and to throw the weight of their combined influence on to the side of the most spiritual values, of human freedom, of the right to think, and of kindness. I use the word "kindness" advisedly because it embodies the idea of kin-ship, of brotherhood and of right human relations. It is world goodwill in expression, just as the will-to-good is the basis of any possible peace—a goodwill which would negate any premature peace at this time, because the latter would give time for the Forces of Materialism to consolidate their gains and prepare the way for further aggression. Kindness, the will-to-good and peace—such should be the practical expression and the formulated intention of those who are conditioned by the Forces of Light.

 

3. The force of mass negativity, as expressed today by the dominated people in the strongholds of aggression and by the neutrally minded people everywhere. They are all coloured by racial fear, by the instinct to self-preservation, and by short-sighted selfish interest.

 

The problem is one of exceeding difficulty because, even though the lines of demarcation are becoming steadily more distinct, yet the exponents of these three groups are to be found in every land and among all people—in every church and in every home. No nation or group is exempt from this triplicity. It is rooted in human attitudes, and that is why this conflict is a strictly human conflict and not a European war.

 

Every nation has its selfish, aggressive people, who believe that might is right and that men must be governed by the law of the jungle, taking what they want, no matter at what cost to others. Every nation has those within its borders who see the vision of right human relations, who seek to live by the law of brotherhood, who respond to the influence of the Forces of Light and of the spiritual Hierarchy, and who desire peace, kindness and goodwill to rule world affairs and control the policies of the governments.

 

Every nation has also within it those neutrally-minded people who fail to think clearly, who seek to place the blame upon the shoulders of all except themselves, who theorise and speculate, advise, and assign responsibility, but who refrain from any active participation in the processes of adjustment, from reasons of pride or unwillingness to pay the price. Many of them are group conscientious objectors who will eventually profit by the victory of the Forces of Light but who refuse to share in the struggle, reserving themselves for the future peace settlements, longing for the conflict to end, but doing nothing to bring that about. Many are entirely sincere, but their thinking needs adjusting.

 

If you will rightly grasp the reality of the statements made above, you will do your share in the mental clarification which is going on in the world. These three groups are functioning today and are in conflict. The neutrally-minded group is definitely hindering the work of the Forces of Light. These three world attitudes are to be found in every nation, as well as in the consciousness of every single individual. The realisation of this may enable you to grasp and shoulder your individual responsibility better.

 

You will realise the need to ascertain for yourself where you stand and will refuse to be conditioned by other people's points of view and the world-wide propaganda; you will appreciate where your nation stands and on which side, and where you, as a soul, stand. You will then be able—if you are sincere and clear-thinking—to work for that group within the whole which seems to you to embody the highest possible activity and aims, and you will relinquish that attitude of futile negativity, smug neutrality or bewildered confusion which may distinguish you. You will then emerge from the glamour of propaganda and of world illusion into the clear light of your own soul, whose essential nature is love and selflessness and whose major aspiration is to bring peace and goodwill among men and to see the consummation of the mission of Christ.

 

This will lead eventually to the disappearance of so-called neutrality upon earth—a neutrality in act, for there is never neutrality in thought.

 

One of the things which the spiritual leaders of humanity have sought to do is to bring clearly to the attention of men the basic duality which is found in the world today—the duality of selfish, material living and that of unselfish spiritual objectives. This is now clearly defined. The second stage of their task now lies ahead, and that is so to stimulate the vision of men everywhere that—beginning with the intelligentsia—they can consciously take their stand under one or other of the two banners, and so know what they are doing and why. The neutrally-minded waver between the two and, to date, do nothing.

 

I would like in this connection to deal with one problem which has somewhat disturbed the least clear-thinking among those whom I have for some time taught. I have for years sought to develop in the world a group of men and women who would stand for the spiritual values, who would love all men, who would foster the spirit of goodwill, and who would stand to humanity (as far as they could) as the Hierarchy of Light, as Christ and His disciples seek to do. This has been interpreted by some of you as meaning that you must refrain from rebelling against the evil thing in your midst, and from all criticism and partisanship. You seem unable to love with steadfastness the offender and yet to rid the world of the offence. The situation might clarify if you answered to yourself one or two questions:

 

Do you believe that the Hierarchy of Light, under the leadership of Christ, is on the side of cruelty, aggression and the slaughter of the defenceless?

 

Do you believe that the world can be saved by a refusal to think and by the shirking of individual responsibility, thus ignoring a situation which does exist?

 

Do you feel that there are no issues and principles which are worth fighting for and dying for, if need be?

 

Do you stand with the Forces of Light or with the Forces of Materialism?

 

What are you doing to aid the side which claims your allegiance, loyalty and idealism?

 

Are you governed by a sense of individual futility—that weapon which the Forces of Materialism are using now so potently to stun possible opponents into helplessness?

 

A clear and searching analysis of the spiritual objectives of humanity will enable you to answer these questions. If you do not need to answer them because your position is clear in your mind, the study of the questions may enable you to serve your day and generation more ably and to present the situation more clearly to the bewildered.

 

A horror of war and a longing for peace are no excuse for slack thinking, nor do they provide an alibi or the opportunity to shirk individual or national responsibility. The conflict is on. It is of ancient lineage.

 

The issues are clearly marked between right and wrong, between cruelty and kindness, between aggression and freedom.

 

To evade responsibility because of past national mistakes and historical sins and failures is an unwarranted alibi; the shirking of due participation in the struggle because every nation has certain materialistic objectives is wrong; a nation is but the sum total of its people.

 

To refuse to think because of the general condition of fatigue in which you share is no excuse, and is unworthy of the world disciples and aspirants.

 

The Hierarchy of Light is seeking to arouse men everywhere to the basic dualism underlying this conflict and to the essential significance of the issues with which humanity is faced. Hence the emphasis which I am laying upon the need to face the problem, to think clearly and intelligently about what is going on around you, and to take right and cooperative action. The whole world problem will be clarified and the end of the conflict more rapidly reached when there are only two parties and not three. The recognition of this underlying dualism is necessary prior to the shifting of humanity's consciousness away from its major preoccupation—acquisitive material desire, aggressively obtained—into soul consciousness, with its correlations, group interests, the meeting of group need, and the functioning of a steady group cooperation on a world scale. This is true of individuals, of nations and of races; as you, an individual, work out your own problem in your daily life, you are helping to solve the world problem. This is the situation as the Hierarchy sees it today and with which it challenges all men and women of goodwill.

 

They ask you to share in the conflict in some way, and remind you of the occult significance of those oft misunderstood words of Christ, "He that is not with me, is against me."

 

In closing these remarks upon clear thinking I would add two more. There is some confusion arising out of the basic idealism which underlies the activities of many people in many countries. It is the importance of the somewhat new ideal of the good of the state as a whole versus the good of the individual and the good of humanity. The state becomes almost a divine entity in the consciousness of the idealist. This is necessarily part of the evolutionary plan, but in so far as it constitutes a problem, is too big for the individual to solve alone and unaided. Of one fundamental truth I can, however, assure you.

 

When men everywhere—within the boundaries of their particular state and whilst upholding its authority and its civilisation—begin to think in terms of mankind, then public opinion will become so potent and so right in its inclusiveness that state policies must inevitably conform to the larger ideal, and the sacrifice of the individual and of humanity in large numbers to the individual state will no longer be possible. The part will be seen in its proper relation to the larger whole. It is this arousing of public opinion to world rights, to inclusive human interests and to international cooperation that is the true goal of all present spiritual endeavour. Eventually it will be realised that the responsibility for what governments do rests squarely upon the shoulders of the individual citizens who put governments in their position of power. This is a responsibility from which no citizens of any nation are or should be exempt, and to this all national thinking of the right kind is fortunately awakening.

 

The second point I would briefly add is that, with the precipitation of the present world situation, the citizens of all nations are involved in a condition from which there is no escape except through right action and wide vision on their part; to this world situation they must conform their lives temporarily, patterning their activities upon the needs of their own particular nation.

 

For those who are swept into the world conflict under one or other of the clearly defined banners, their immediate action is clear—participation in the national emergency. This is, however, wholly compatible with a subjective process of right and clear thinking, which must run parallel to the demanded outer activity and which will lay a foundation for the increasingly right action as time elapses. This will involve right action on the part of those who are fighting under the Forces of Light, and will lead to an eventual right and just peace; it will involve also right action upon the part of those who have been swept into a bewildered activity under the Forces of Materialism, leading finally to a revolt against that which is wrong and evil—for the hearts of all men and the springs of the divine life are not to be permanently directed into wrong channels of activity.

 

The responsibility for the immediate world moves and the present gigantic national enterprises is now out of the hands and the control of the individual; the responsibility for the future, nevertheless, still lies in his hands. This shouldering of right responsibility must be preceded, however, by an interlude of clear thinking plus right action as a citizen.

 

The problem of those living in neutral countries is different, and along what lines it should be solved I have earlier indicated.

 

As for the world disciples and aspirants (among whom you range yourselves), the entire problem can be seen along still wider and more comprehensive lines. You are forced by circumstance and karma, and by the free decision of your souls, to work under one or other of the two banners or in some one of the neutral and negative countries. Your problem in all three cases is to see clearly the spiritual focus of this world crisis, to swing the weight of any influence you may have—objective or subjective, spiritual, emotional or mental—on to the side of the Forces of Light. As you do so, you must preserve an understanding attitude of steadfast love (not sentiment or emotional reaction) to men and women everywhere, without any exception or reservations in your consciousness.

 

That action has to be taken, at times, which hurts or damages the form side of life or the physical forms, is entirely compatible with the constant preservation of soul love—a thing which it is hard for the disciple to learn and master, but which is nevertheless a governing principle in evolution.

 

This world crisis and the present world war will, it is hoped, awaken men to the realisation that the form side of manifestation, with its aggressive selfishness, its cruel emphases and its separative tendencies, carries inevitably with it the seeds of its own eventual elimination and the unavoidable results of pain, suffering, war, disease and death.

 

This situation is therefore of man's own making and the result of his material nature and lack of soul control. But—the soul is eternal; its nature is inclusive love; and the whole aim of the present crisis is to shift the focus of human awareness out of the form and the material aspect of living, into the consciousness of the soul, and to do this at any cost to the hindering forms. It is against this transference of emphasis that the Forces of Materialism are today fighting.

 

For this reason, humanity is swept into a vortex of conflict, and the issue depends upon the clear thinking, wise speech and selfless intent of the world disciples, working in collaboration with all the forces for good in the world today, doing their duty as citizens of their own country but cultivating ceaselessly and unrelentingly a world-consciousness.

 

Let me now enlarge somewhat upon the possibility of divine intervention.

 

Hovering today within the aura of our planet are certain great spiritual Forces and Entities, awaiting the opportunity to participate actively in the work of world redemption, readjustment and reconstruction. Their Presence is sensed at times by the spiritually-minded people of the world, and Their reality is recognised by the mystics and occultists working in every land. Men and women express this recognition according to the trend of their religious and psychological training and their particular mental or emotional bias.

 

The advent of Christ, or His "second coming," is anxiously anticipated by many orthodox Christians, who regard this world war as indicating the end of the world and as preparatory to the appearance of the Christ, to bring peace on earth. Others, more orientally minded, await the appearance of an Avatar Who will transmit from God the needed world message or new type of energy.

 

Prophecy and astrology indicate a Coming One and their many differing opinions seem to converge on Him; occultists invoke everywhere the Forces of Light and call for the appearance of that extra-planetary Potency to Whom they give the title, "Spirit of Peace."

 

Those with no religious or metaphysical bias recognise, however, that all times of emergency seem ever to evoke some Liberator or some man or group of men who are capable of changing world affairs and inaugurating—under the stress and strain of the times—the new and needed fresh cycle of civilisation and culture.

 

Many refrain from specification of the requirements of such a Coming One today, because of the magnitude and planetary nature of His task, but they secretly hope and pray for His appearing. Still others regard such an idea and hope as simply a psychological fulfilment and the embodiment of the wish-life of the people—this time of humanity as a whole, for the first time in racial history. Such people are apt to feel that this embodiment has no true substance or place in the life of mankind, but wish that it had. They forget that when a thoughtform has been constructed of sufficient potency and has been built over a long period of time by the people of the world, a further and final stage becomes ever possible. The form can be rendered so magnetic that it can attract an Energy which will inform it and give it active potency; it can then become a vital link between the subjective world of energy and the objective world of forces and a thing of power, of impelling and guiding activity, and therefore the expression of a Life. This thoughtform, duly informed, becomes a mediating factor, constructed by humanity but animated by the will-to-good of some great and spiritual Entity. That thoughtforms, embodying evil lives can be and are constructed is equally true, but with these we are not at this time dealing.

 

We come now to the significant point of what I have to say today in this connection.

 

A great and vital thoughtform is in process of construction upon our planet and within our planetary aura. It is being built by the power of sound, by the magnetic pull of invocation leading to eventual evocation, and by the force of desire-substance, animated by the power of thought. It is being constructed by the united efforts of the Hierarchy, of the world disciples and aspirants, of the men and women of goodwill in all nations, and also through the inchoate longings of men everywhere, of all religious beliefs, political views and group loyalties. It is safely anchored upon the physical plane, is of vast proportions upon the astral or emotional plane, but lacks vitality and power upon the mental plane.

 

It is here, within the realm of thought substance, that the weakness of the structure of this thoughtform becomes apparent. It is already potent spiritually, owing to the scientific work of the occult Hierarchy and Their trained helpers. This spiritual life relates the thoughtform to the waiting extra-planetary Forces and can make Their work possible and effective. It is potent physically and emotionally through the work of the lovers of humanity, the well-meaning efforts of the emotionally oriented people and the agonised longings of the masses, who hate war, desire quiet, and demand peace and good living conditions.

 

There is, however, a gap or hiatus upon the mental plane, for the minds of men are not functioning correctly.

 

The disciples and world aspirants are not thinking with clarity, nor are they working in unity. They are evading issues or are thinking separatively or nationally or fanatically; they are not convinced of the potency of invocation or of prayer; they are failing to realise that it is possible to work ardently for those conditions which will lead to peace, and yet fight simultaneously so that those conditions may be available; they fail to love all men without exception in their longing to see their own loyalties emerge triumphant; they work doubtingly, hoping for the best but believing in the worst; they use the method of prayer and of invocation because such methods seem to have been successful in the past, and because they are told that "faith can move mountains," but they feel inwardly quite hopeless and uninspired and are not at all sure what faith intrinsically is; they realise that a united front and a spirit of joyous certainty are psychological assets of well-nigh invincible potency, but they feel unable to arouse within themselves the slightest enthusiasm.

 

It is this negative and lukewarm attitude, this mental uncertainty and this failure to link up the spiritual and the physical worlds in a positive relationship which is holding back the Forces of Light and the actual presence of the Spirit of Peace, and thus negativing a possible divine intervention. It is the test of group work.

 

The faith of many individuals is real and deep, but they stand alone; the knowledge that the few have of the nature of the waiting Forces of intervention is being negated by the faithlessness of the world disciples and aspirants, weighed down by world karma, by their own physical fatigue and by their horror of the present situation, plus the difficulties of individual circumstance.

 

The problem can be most simply stated. Either the spiritual Hierarchy exists, with all its potencies of love, wisdom and skill in action, or for ages humanity has suffered from hallucinations; either Christ and His group of Masters, initiates and disciples are facts in the natural processes of evolution, historically proven and known through Their spiritual activity down the ages, or men have been victims during those ages of a gigantic fraud—emanating from what and where?

 

Either the consistency of the evolving presentation of the spiritual effort of the Hierarchy is a witness to a great reality or mankind has developed a mentality which is an instrument for the fabrication of non-existent facts, and this is in itself so paradoxical as to give the lie to the inference. Either the spiritual worlds and the three worlds of human endeavour can be related, or there is nothing to past beliefs, to ancient stories of manifesting divinity and to the constantly recurring periods of divine intervention.

 

I would here face you with these alternatives and would ask you to consider your own position in these matters. Does the story of Easter and of the living Christ carry no truth, and is it not possible for that Risen Christ to express His power on Earth through His chosen instruments? Is there no foundation for the myth of the annual return of the Buddha, holding the door open between Shamballa and the Hierarchy so that, at need, intervention may be possible through that open door? …

 

Is it quite impossible that when humanity awakens to the fact of this mediatorship and can then avail itself of the straight line of ascent and descent through the doors held open by the Buddha and the Christ, some stupendous appearing may be imminent and suddenly take place? May it not be possible that through the ascent of man's aspiration and spiritual desire, and through the descent of the waiting Potencies, certain great changes may take place, for which all the past has been only preparatory and through which the Aquarian Age of brotherhood and understanding may make itself felt by virtue of these great Potencies?

 

… If you are to do your share in this work of salvage, it will necessitate certain attitudes and activities on your part which I would like briefly to touch upon, leaving you to take right and appropriate action and to follow, with all other disciples and aspirants, the indicated stages:

 

  1. Study with care and answer with sincerity and to your own complete satisfaction the questions I put to you earlier in this communication. When you have done this, you will know where you personally stand.

 

Nevertheless, it could be if, in your own life of meditation and of discipline, in your speech with others and in the general tone of your intercourse with your environment, you can eliminate the negative and more selfish reactions and (for the sake of human welfare) temporarily, at least, live at your highest point of aspiration.

 

Secondly …

 

You will note that what I have said concerns your mental attitudes and your emotional reactions to present world affairs. It concerns also your soul tension, your willingness to undergo soul tension, and your capacity to stand as part of the great chain of intermediaries who are today being called to the service of the race in an hour of urgency. It concerns the organising of yourself as an integrated personality in relation to your soul and to humanity; it involves the recognition of the work which you can do from the point of integration. I would ask you to ponder with care upon this paragraph, stating the possibilities of your task.

 

I call you to a period of clear thinking. I seek not to mould your political approach to life, but I do seek to aid you to see humanity and its welfare—not only in terms of your own nation or your own political group—but in terms of the whole, and as we, the teachers on the inner side, are forced to see it.

 

I seek to see you free yourselves from the condition where you are swayed by propaganda of a political, national or religious kind, and deciding for yourself where you, as a soul, must stand in this world crisis and on which side you will place the emphasis of any influence you may wield; I would have you note where your highest ideals will lead you and whether the springs of your life's decisions and attitudes are truly pure and unadulterated.

 

I seek to draw your attention away from the many minor issues, the many clamouring voices, and from the widespread concentration upon the unworthy pasts and the undesirable aspects of all nations (without exception), and help you to see with clarity the major dualism which underlies the present world conflict—might against right, materialism against the higher values, freedom against imprisonment, cruelty against fair dealing, liberty and safety against fear and aggression. Then, having balanced these pairs of opposites within your consciousness, decide where your loyalty, your interest and your ability to serve will be placed, and then go forward to further the ends of one or other of the two groups, at no matter what cost, but knowing where you stand and why you stand there.

 

That the will of Shamballa may be enabled to express itself through love and through the meditation of the Hierarchy, working through all disciples, aspirants and men and women of goodwill, is the earnest prayer of your fellow disciple and co-worker.

 

 

THE WORLD CRISIS TODAY

June 30, 1940

 

… Few disciples there are at this time who can thus think synthetically or who see the vision as a whole, precipitating as that which will condition eventually the entire human family. Many there are who are awakening to the need so to do and who are finding, in their processes of readjustment, many bewildering problems. For these sincere but bewildered people, I write. I find that there is little that I can say to the provincially minded or to those with the purely parochial point of view. Their limitations of vision lie within themselves and only dire events and strenuous emergency will enable them finally to transcend the petty quibbling and quality of their lower mind, with its concrete tendency to hark back to the past and its fear to venture with faith into the future.

 

… —as the New Age is ushered in—there must inevitably come a judgment day (speaking symbolically) and the emergence of a clear line of demarcation between that which is new and that which is of the old age; there must appear the distinction between exoteric happenings and esoteric attitudes and between those who see a new world order, developed and brought to functioning activity by the Forces of Light, through cooperation, coordination and understanding, and a world order which will be imposed by terror, through dictatorial government, by the suppression of liberty of conscience, and by the enthronement of a race whose values are, at this time, anti-spiritual and anti-social.

 

This judgment day is now upon humanity, and the final decision will be arrived at by those whose normal inclinations and natural tendencies are on the side of law and order, and whose will-to-good is directed towards right human relations and true human welfare. These enlightened people will back their judgment with a focussed will to bring in the era wherein these values will dominate, and they are also willing to take the necessary measures to make these values possible.

 

I would like to deal openly and frankly with the problems with which you are being confronted when you face the world as it is today and the world as it may be tomorrow—a world whose fate is still unsettled. I would present possibilities with a definite application to the reactions of such empires as those of Great Britain, France and Holland, and with indication as to how the United States of America should be expected to respond. … I refer to that group of Allies who today stand with their purpose focussed in Great Britain, driven there by the trend of events. I do this because the basic hope of right human relations, of true and lasting peace, of liberty of conscience and of free and happy homes rests upon their triumphing; they are, at this time, the point of positive attack by the Forces of Evil. …

 

Would you have me at this time of planetary crisis refrain from direct speech, have me withhold from you who read my words the truth—a truth which is already apparent to those who ponder the signs of the times with an unprejudiced mind, unbiased thought and a true love of humanity? This last quality, a true love of humanity, constitutes a basic test of wrong or right action. It is phenomenally clarifying if applied at this time to the combatants.

 

Would you have me deal with pleasant platitudes anent a future happy world, when perhaps the very possibility of such a world trembles in the balance?

 

Would you have me present the attitude of the Hierarchy as that of a placid band of onlookers, ready to help the world when the conflict is over, but at present insulated from all action and simply waiting till the dust and clamour of battle settle, to stimulate in men's minds the vision of a new world order wherein everyone will have a good time, where there will be no unemployment, wherein fear and terror will find no place and everyone will be happy, well fed and reasonably intelligent?

 

Would you have me picture to you the great band of disciples, initiates and aspirants as a band of pacifists, cherishing the form side of life, afraid of death and remaining passive in the face of the death struggle of human liberty, of life, conscience and mind?

 

I tell you that this I cannot do. The Hierarchy is very different from this. Pacifism, as interpreted by you, has no place in its ranks. The destruction of form in battle (which causes so much fear to many of you) is of small importance to those who know that reincarnation is a basic law of nature and that there is no death.

 

The forces of death are abroad today, but it is the death of liberty, the death of free speech, the death of freedom in human action, the death of truth and of the higher spiritual values. These are the vital factors in the life of humanity; the death of the physical form is a negligible factor in relation to these, and one easily righted again through the processes of rebirth and fresh opportunity.

 

I would say to those who preach a passive attitude in the face of evil and human suffering and who endorse a pacifism which involves no risks:

With what do you propose to fight the forces of aggression, of treachery, evil and destruction which are today stalking over our planet?

What weapons do you bring to this combat?

How will you begin to stem the onslaught and arrest the whirlwind?

Will you use prayers for peace, and then patiently wait for the forces of good to fight your battle and for God to do the work?

 

I tell you that your prayers and your wishes are unavailing when divorced from right and potent action. Your prayers and petitions may reach the throne of God, symbolically speaking, but then the reply comes forth: The Forces of Light will strengthen your arms and turn the tide in your favour if you stand up and fight for that which you desire. Who will arrest the progress of aggressive selfishness if the men and women of goodwill rest back upon their idealism and do naught that is practical to justify their hope or aid in the materialisation of the desired ideal.

 

There are those in the world today who (despite past national selfishness and wrong) are fearlessly and with true insight fighting humanity's battle, and with them the Hierarchy stands, as it has ever stood on the side of liberty, right understanding and correct attitudes in human affairs. I would say to those who cry, "Peace, peace when there is no peace": Are you going to profit by their death and sacrifice when the ultimate triumph of the Forces of Light comes to pass? Are you going to take the position that you can then live in a safe world because others gave their lives that you might do so? Are you going to issue forth from the safe security of your pacifist alibi and gratefully acknowledge what they have done and grasp your share of the gains which they have purchased at such a cost?

 

I would warn you not to be glamoured by the false premise that you must stand by your hard-earned convictions, even at the expense of other peoples' lives and the downfall of nations, forgetting that fear and false pride will make this argument of importance to you. Are the peace-minded people of the world going to reap the benefits of a peace for which they have paid no price? It is the people who value peace above all else who are today seeking by every possible method to stop …

 

Let me tell you something about the peace for which the Hierarchy works and which the spiritually minded people of the world envisage even whilst they fight, and for which they are ready to pay the ultimate price.

 

Peace, when it comes, will be the result of right world conditions and right human relationships. It is an effect and not a cause; it is the effect of certain subjective attitudes which are not yet present in the world on a sufficiently wide scale. …

 

There is no peace on the planet anywhere today. There is no peace in the questioning hearts of those who are not actively sharing in the struggle against evil. There is no peace in any field of human endeavour. It is not to be found in the economic field, torn as it is by the conflict between labour and capital, and between great schools of economic thought; it is not to be found in the religious field, where the struggle is going on between authority (tainted with old world churchianity) and experimental religion; it is not to be found in the social order, where class is ranged against class, poor against rich, and man against his brother; it is certainly not in the political field, where party strife controls and blinds the warring groups, hiding the wider vision of world affairs and the needs of humanity as a whole.

 

There is no peace, and peace will not come through an applied and fanatical pacifism or through the loud talking and wishful thinking of those who hate war and who at the same time swell the tide of conquest and delay true victory by their violently uttered opposing views.

 

I tell you that all nations hate and oppose war; even Germany, behind the imposed terror, shrinks in horror at what is being done. The same love of peace which inspires the ordinary pacifist inspires those who are today fighting in order that peace may be the result of their sacrifice and the effect of the establishing of those right conditions which Germany is set to prevent.

 

Yet many neutrally minded and pacifist people are unwilling to pay any price for what they profess so much to cherish.

 

A complete refusal to fight on the part of the Allies and of those who are seeing with clarity the issues at stake would open the door to the world domination of the Forces of Materialism and Aggression. It is upon this that these evil forces count when they face the greatest neutral of all, the United States of America, and for which they are preparing as they disseminate their lying propaganda and plant their agents in every country and every state—preparatory to a peaceful conquest of a people who refuse sufficiently to value the spiritual issues at stake to take positive action.

 

And we, the teachers on the inner side, who for aeons have aided in the preparation of humanity for the coming age of peaceful cooperation and brotherhood, see all this future hope imperilled. Aggression and the rape of peaceful nations go steadily forward, as nation after nation crumbles under the iron heel of Germany, grinding the peoples of the world and sweeping them into slavery on a scale of serfdom and cruelty that the world has never before seen. As those who sought to arrest German progress succumb to treachery and pain and desert their comrades, the machine of evil marches on; neutral nations, resting back upon their peaceful intent and the claims of civilisation, are absorbed by the forces which impose the German demand for living space, and are thus denuded of liberty, of territory, and of all economic resources. And, at the same time, the greatest and most powerful neutral nation in the world arms for defence of its territorial rights, but refuses to arm for the defence of human liberty.

 

Do I speak too strongly to those of you who are not participating in this planetary war? I speak with clarity because I seek to arouse you to the true issues whilst there is yet time. I seek to arrest in you the idea that the western hemisphere is the seat of all civilisation, the custodian of the best that there is in humanity, and that the spiritual future of humanity lies in the cherished land of liberty.

 

Liberty is a thing of the human soul and is found throughout the entire human race. Civilisation is a universal human right and not the prerogative of one nation. I tell you that humanity is everywhere spiritually minded and that the new race, the coming civilisation, and the new age culture will be found throughout the world—the universal inheritance of the human race. But everywhere humanity is the victim of propaganda—a propaganda which can only be seen in its true light when men think in terms of human liberty; when they together take the needed steps to ensure human happiness, and learn in so doing to face world conditions as they are, not hiding their heads in a dream world of their own making.

 

The world of the future, of which men in all lands dream, is more than a possibility if men will shoulder their just responsibilities and together make it a fact in human experience. But such a world will not be possible for many long years if … goes down in the crash of battle and under the impact of the … war machine. It will emerge into realisation when there are enough people in the world who think clearly, see the vision truly, act intelligently, and meet force with force, which is the only method which the forces of aggression can understand.

 

Today the forces of evil have swept over … Nothing has arrested their progress—neither truth nor armed might nor sacrifice. Today Great Britain stands with a handful of her allies upholding the banner of human liberty. With her stand … Behind stand their great empires with their resources as yet untouched. Behind them again stand the spiritually minded peoples in every nation, and behind them all stands the Hierarchy of Light.

 

In this interlude prior to the final struggle I write to those who are looking on with sympathy but without sacrifice and I ask you: Where do you stand?

 

I bring to you some of the contrasts in this war, in all simplicity and in an effort to enable you to choose right action.

 

The first great contrast might be called the way of appeasement and the way of aggression. The method of peaceful discussion was tried by the peace-loving peoples of … I would remind you that it is to the eternal credit of the Allies (e'en though it lacked worldly common sense) that their preparations for war proved inadequate in the face of German preparedness. They were not one-pointed in their war effort, for the higher value of world civilisation engrossed them and the activities of their empires, which live at peace within themselves. They have made many grievous errors in the past (as have all peoples), but the way of expiation and of sacrifice is theirs, willingly accepted, and their reward is the freedom of humanity.

 

I will give you another contrast, growing out of the above. This is the emphasis upon a new world order within a rapidly changing world. …

 

I would ask you to contrast the expressed aim of the Allies, reiterated again and again in the speeches of the statesmen of both France and Great Britain and summed up in the words of a great Englishman, a government official and an aspirant to right and truth:

"We shall use all our influence when the time comes in the building of a new world in which the nations will not permit insane armed rivalry to deny their hopes of fuller life and future confidence nor be forever overborne by grim foreboding of disaster. The new world that we seek will enlist the cooperation of all peoples on a basis of human equality, self-respect and mutual tolerance. We shall have to think out many things that lie on the route of international contacts—social, political and economic—and find means of reconciling the necessity of change in a constantly changing world with security against the disturbance of the general peace through resort to violence. To this order that we shall create, all nations have their contribution to make, and a great responsibility both in thought and action will rest upon our people. We, not less than others, have our lesson to learn from past failures and disappointments."

 

I would have you note the recognition, by this spokesman for the Allies, of the need of change, the realisation of the coming world order and the humble statement anent past mistakes.

 

I would call your attention very briefly also to the contrast in the methods employed: cruelty versus kindness, merciless bombing and machine gunning on the one side, and the constant refraining from attack upon the enemy by the Allies, for fear of killing the defenceless; I would call your attention to the broadcast from Great Britain, warning the Germans to take cover when they hear the British planes over Germany.

 

I would call your attention to the reticent but truthful propaganda which lays no emphasis upon that which could stir up hate, and the lying information from Berlin and conquered cities. It is not my purpose to do more than indicate these contrasts which grow out of a widely differing subjective attitude to humanity. It is, however, of value for us all to face them in the process of clarifying issues.

 

The basic contrast between freedom of speech, thought and action which distinguishes the democracies, and the cruel suppression of all liberty of thought and personal activity which controls the masses in … today, is too well known to require emphasising by me. But I bring these contrasts to your attention, asking you to recognise your responsibility to stand behind those who fight for liberty and to end the activity of those who are the enemies of all human freedom.

 

I would ask you to exercise your imagination in an effort to visualise a world in which there is a complete defeat of the Allies, expressing as they do the ideals for which the Forces of Light have ever stood. I would remind you of two things:

First, that these Forces were defeated in the earlier phase of the conflict thousands of years ago, and

secondly that—if They again go down to defeat—it will be largely due to the unpreparedness and to the pacific attitude of the neutrals of the world.

 

Had the Allies been ready (and that in itself would have indicated attitudes similar to those now being expressed by Germany) and had the neutrals stood together from the outbreak of hostilities and proclaimed as one voice: This thing must not be—Germany would then have been arrested in her triumphant progress.

 

The Allies, however, were not prepared for the onslaught of the forces of evil; on the physical plane, their position was not impregnable. The neutrals at the same time have chosen and are still choosing the negative and weak way; and through fear, a misplaced idealism, or a separative spirit, plus the failure to grasp the acuteness of the world crisis and its significant implications, have placed humanity in a position of imminent though not inevitable disaster. 

 

These are points which require careful consideration and consequent readjustment of the attitude of those who are doing nothing to further the efforts of the Forces of Light and of the men of goodwill throughout the world.

 

What shall be done to stop the progress of aggression, of selfish nationalism and cruel attack upon the weak and the defenceless?

 

It is self-interest, short vision, and prejudice that basically govern neutrality and make the neutral nations … refuse to fight for human welfare.

 

How, then, shall we awaken the world to the realities of the situation and so focus and direct a great world effort to throw off the yoke of the dictators as they seek to dominate the lands outside their own? How shall we free humanity to take its next step forward, without fear and terror and only conditioned by a world which is seeking unitedly to do that which is best for the whole, and not simply that which is best materially for the part?

 

These are the questions with which we are today confronted. Desperately and fearfully, men are seeking a solution and turning hither and thither for help and comfort. Shall the demand, so widely prevalent at this time, for divine intervention, rise so strongly to heaven that it will perforce draw forth a response and, at the same time, deprive mankind of its right to settle its own affairs, decide its own issues and make progress by the method of trial and error, by the success of its own clear vision and its firm determination to find the right way out of the situation? Such intervention is possible, but it is not deemed desirable by the Forces of spiritual knowledge. They are therefore holding Their hand, feeling that this time humanity must be encouraged to battle to the end on behalf of its hope and its vision.

 

Men pray for peace but will not pay the price of peace. Calmly praying and leaving the work to other men, forces or God, is the easy way, satisfying the emotional nature, but not involving clear thinking. Humanity has come of age; the child stage is over, and for weal or woe, for good or ill, men must decide for themselves the way that the world, their governments and their social order must go.

 

A new world order is possible, and there are certain steps which need to be taken if the vision of this new world is to enter into the realm of accomplished fact. Certain angles of the vision I can—with the greatest brevity—point out to you; I can indicate the sign posts on the way to the future world order. … every step of that way will entail a fight, the overturning of that which is old and loved and the destruction of that which is inhuman, selfish and cruel; I shall have to impress upon you the prime and initial necessity to overthrow the entrenched forces of aggression as they function today ...

 

First, I would ask you all to ponder on the vision of this new world order, preserving an open mind and realising that this new mode of living hovers over humanity and will materialise when selfishness is defeated, right human relations are correctly envisaged, and the ideal of this new world order is divorced from all nationalistic concepts and aspirations.

 

It will not be an American world, or a French world, or a British world, or a totalitarian world. It will be the outcome of the civilisation which is passing and the culture which is the flower of that civilisation, but at the same time it will be neither of them. It will be a human world, based on right understanding of correct human relations, upon the recognition of equal educational opportunities for all men, for all races and all nations, and upon the fundamental realisation that, "God hath made of one blood all the peoples upon the earth." It will be a world in which racial distinctions and national unities will be recognised as enriching the whole and as contributing to the significance of humanity. Such distinctions and nationalities will be preserved and cultured, not in a separative isolation, but in the realisation that the many aspects of human unfoldment and differentiation produce one noble whole, and that all the parts of this whole are interdependent.

 

All will comprehend their relation to each other in one progressive, synthetic, human endeavour, and the enterprise of united living will produce an interior work which will flower forth in the production of a beauty and a richness which will distinguish humanity as a whole. In this all will share, with wisdom and a planned efficiency, offering to the planetary life and to each other that which they have to contribute. This will be made possible because the whole of mankind will be recognised as the essential unit and as being of greater spiritual importance than the part.

 

This is no idle and visionary dream. It is already happening. Embryonic movements toward this world synthesis are already being made. There is a dream of federation, of economic interdependence and of religious unity, plus social and national interrelation which is rapidly taking form, first in the minds of men, and then in experiments.

 

There is a tie of united purpose, felt by many in the political and economic fields, which is no wish fulfilment or fantasy but indicative of an emerging reality. It is felt and recognised by thinkers everywhere, and has worked out in the field of government through the medium of the federation of the British Dominions and their relation to Great Britain, and in the federation of the United States of America. It finds itself distorted and parodied in the concept of the superstate with which the dictators of the world glamour their peoples. But the links are being forged which will draw down the vision and precipitate on earth the pattern of things as they should be in this next world cycle.

 

When this vision of the new world order has been grasped by the men and women of goodwill throughout the nations, and has become part of the life and mind of every disciple and aspirant, then the next step will be to study the factors which are hindering its materialisation. For this a broad tolerance and an unprejudiced mind are essential, and these qualities are rare in the average student and the small town man.

 

Past national mistakes must be faced; selfishness in the spheres of both capital and labour must be recognised; blindness, nationalistic ambitions, adherence to ancient territorial demands and assumed rights, inherited possessiveness, the refusal to relinquish past gains, disturbances in the religious and social areas of consciousness, uncertainty as to the realities of subjective and spiritual life, and the insincerities which are based on glamour and fear—all these factors are woven into the life pattern of every nation, without exception, and are exploited by the evil forces and evaded by the well-meaning but weak people of the world. These must all be seen in their true perspective.

 

The eyes of the people who seek to work under the Forces of Light must be lifted from the world of effects into the realm of causes; there must be appreciation of the factors which have made and conditioned the modern world, and these predisposing factors must be recognised for what they are. This sizing up of the situation and this recognition of blame and responsibility must preface every attempt to bring down into active being the new world order.

 

This new world will not come as an answer to prayer or by the passive wishful thinking and expectation of the peace-loving idealist and mystical visionary. They point the way and indicate the needed objective. It will come when the mystic and the man of vision awakens to the need of the hour and comes down from the world of dreams, of theories, and of words into the hard arena of daily and public life. He must be willing to fight for that which he desires and knows to be good and true and right, and must stand firm against those who seek to distort the vision and to arrest its appearance, arming for battle so that final disarmament may be possible.

 

A clear vision of the future world order (in broad and general outline but not in detail), an intelligent recognition of the hindrances and impediments which block its appearance, and a willingness to take the necessary steps upon the physical plane and to pay the required price and tender the demanded sacrifices are essential attitudes, prior to the elimination of the hindrances which stand in the way of the coming new world. It is a practical vision—long desired, much discussed and clearly outlined. The hindrances appear to be many, but they can all be summed up in the one word Selfishness—national, racial, political, religious and individual selfishness.

 

The practical aspect of the mode of elimination of the hindrances can also be simply stated. The vision will appear as fact on Earth when individuals willingly submerge their personal interests in the good of the group; when the group or groups merge their interests in the national good, when nations give up their selfish purposes and aims for international good, and when this international right relation is based upon the total good of humanity itself. Thus the individual can play his part in the bigger whole, and his help is needed, and thus the sense of individual futility is negated.

 

To the most unimportant man in the most unimportant national unit there comes the call for sacrifice and service to the group of which he is part. Eventually humanity itself is thus swung—again as an integral unit—into the service of the Planetary Life. …

 

What now of the immediate present, and what can the individual do to aid the cause of humanity and arrest the tide of evil? If he is fighting already upon the side of the Forces of Light and of the Allies, he knows his destiny and service. But what of those who question what they can do, and yet are eager to see clearly and to play their part when right vision is theirs? To them I would say the following things:

 

1. Eliminate prejudice, national pride, and religious antipathies out of your consciousness. The past mistakes of the Allies, as history gives them, are facts which they themselves do not deny. They stand not alone in selfishness, for the same faults taint every national record. But they stand today for a new and spiritual order, based on a desire for synthesis, right methods of government and the good of the people. The unhappy past of all nations is today used as an alibi by those who do not choose to shoulder responsibility, or to sacrifice anything for the cause of humanity. A recognition of our own shortcomings and a spirit of tolerance and forgiveness are needed by all today.

 

2. Refuse to be afraid of any results of right and positive action. Fear lies behind much of the dissenting attitudes today, and fear kills truth, hides the vision and arrests right action. The great Leader of this Christian era has warned us not to be afraid of those who kill the body, but to fear only those who seek to kill the soul. The forces of aggression are slowly and ruthlessly killing out love and hope (qualities of the soul) … This, along with the great humanitarian plea, is sufficient reason to impel all men of goodwill to take up arms on the side of the Forces of Light. I would commend this to your imaginative attention. To put it even more practically, I would ask you if you would care to have your children subjected to the educational processes of the … regime—with its crushing of all humanity, its emphasis upon pride of race [religion] and its cult of cruelty? Can you then stand idly by or simply resort to prayer and talk about the beauties of peace when the little children in the appropriated lands come under the soul-killing system of …? Refuse, then, in their interests, to be afraid.

 

3. Having sensed the vision, recognised the hindrances, and dealt with innate prejudice and fear, it will then become apparent to you what (in the face of this dangerous crisis) you must do. It is not for me to tell you what it is. The details are for you to decide; the methods which you must employ will become clear to you; the humanitarian issues will become increasingly plain to you; you will then range yourself on the side of the Forces of Light, and will uphold the hands of those who are fighting for world peace and security, preparatory to the inauguration of the new world order.  This you will do with no thought of self. You will face life truly and sincerely, with a fully dedicated sacrifice of time, self, money and, if need be, of life. You will realise dynamically that the attitude of the passive onlooker is not that of the agent of the Forces of Light or of a lover of humanity.

 

4. You will also learn to keep your mind free from hate, refusing to hate the deluded sinner even when imposing upon him the penalty of his sin. Hate and separation must cease, and they will cease as the individual aspirant stamps them out in his own life. The great error of the neutrally minded and of the pacifist is his refusal to identify himself constructively with human pain. Even when he reacts with violent emotion over the suffering, for instance, of little children in this great war, and of the defenceless refugee, he does not truly care enough to do anything about the situation, involving as it does sacrifice. This sounds harsh, but is a needed statement of fact. Sympathy which does not produce positive action of some kind becomes a festering sore.

Thus, by thought and word and deed, the lover of humanity will enter the battle against evil; with complete self-forgetfulness, he will take up the cause of humanity, hiding not behind the sense of futility and seeking no alibi in a misinterpreted idealism. He will face the facts of the present situation in the light which streams from the vision itself. He will then press forward into the age of right human relations, of spiritual unity and shared resources with complete confidence because his sense of values is adjusted. He knows that humanity has a divine mission which must be carried out on the wings of love, through understanding action, selfless service and the willingness to die in battle if that is the only way in which his brother can be served and freed.

 

… These are difficult and terrible days. Men and women are needed who have the courage and the insight to stand with steadfastness and to take the steps which are needed—no matter what they may be—to bring this war to an end.

 

Vast sections of humanity can do no more than acquiesce in the unhappy fate which has overtaken them. They are unable to think or pray or even to summon faith to their aid. They feel without hope. For them, you must think; for them, you must pray; for them, you must have faith and—above all else at this time—for them you must act.

 

The work of reconstruction lies in the future. The demand today is for the building of a bulwark of defence around humanity; then—having fulfilled every physical plane requirement—to stand immovable. But you must stand with faces turned towards the enemy of the souls of men, ready to do battle, literally and physically, ready to take every needed step to drive the enemy back, and ready to sacrifice to the uttermost so that he may advance no further.

 

Your work will, therefore, be of a threefold nature.

On the levels of mental consciousness, your vision of the need and of the future will be clear, inspiring you and enabling you to be a source of strength to all around you; your faith will see behind the obvious to the "substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," as the initiate, Paul, expresses it; your thought will then be anchored in right action, soul directed.

On the emotional side of life, you will find no time for idle tears or for vague, sympathetic talk, because you will be completely identified with what is going on and all emotional energy will be directed to the pursuit of every available mode of practically alleviating the pain. The heart energy will be occupied with the task of giving understanding help so that there is no scope for the usual emotional solar plexus reactions.

On the physical plane you will not be occupied with the problem of what to do, because every physical effort, time, and personality emphasis will be directed to the shouldering of your due share in arresting the forces of aggression from any further advance. This might mean fighting in the ranks of the Allied Armies, or it might mean driving an ambulance under Red Cross auspices; raising funds to succour the refugees; speaking on public platforms or to groups upon the issues at stake, or participating in some form of national effort to bring aid and strength to the Allies. Whatever it is, it will call for all that is in you and all that you are, integrated and directed to a sustained, substantial, one-pointed effort.

 

It will throw your will-to-good behind every attempt to frustrate the activities of the evil alliance which you may find in your environment; it will lead you to work with watchfulness for the good of your own country, whilst at the same time swelling the tide of the national effort to end war through the tangible victory of the Forces of Light. Ponder on these words.

 

… The rediscovery and the immediate sustaining of the members of this group [NGWS] must be undertaken anew. In all lands they must be reached, if possible, and rehabilitated with wisdom, and re-established subjectively. They must be aided objectively and again inspired to work in order that they may form the nucleus of the Forces of Reconstruction when the Forces of Light have won the victory over the forces of aggression. This is the first point which I would ask you to consider doing.

 

 

I would like first of all to touch upon the three points which I have made above—natural law, free will and karma. In so doing I may succeed in clearing up some of the confused thinking …

 

Natural law is the inevitable working out upon the physical plane of forces and energies which have long been generated. People are apt to think that these must lie outside of human control and constitute part of the inscrutable will of God, and that with them man has naught to do. When it is realised that certain aspects of natural law are concerned purely with the forces—subterranean, superficial and aerial—of our planet, the premise will be seen as correct in the present condition of the mental attitudes of the race and will remain so for a very long time.

 

There are, nevertheless, causes and effects which can come under the category of natural law which are yet not so far removed from human control. For ages man has generated energies which must inevitably produce events upon the physical plane, evoke response upon the plane of the emotions, and induce mental reactions. It is here that natural law and the law of karma meet and interact upon each other.

 

There are many people today who find an alibi for themselves in the present world situation, and a consequent release from definite action and responsibility, by saying that what is today happening is simply karma or the working out of cause and effect, and that there is nothing, therefore, that they can do about it; they take the position that it is not their affair, and that in due course of time the process will be worked out and everything will be all right again.

 

The slate will then be cleaner and incidentally they will not have been embroiled, but will have safely (even if uncomfortably) looked on. In so doing they overlook the third aspect of this same law, to which we have given the name of free will. It is the right use of free will and its understanding expression which must eventually straighten out and adjust the working out of karma and transmute that which now works such evil and havoc in the world into a demonstration of good and of the successful foundation for the pursuit of true happiness. Therefore, those who are looking on at the tragic sufferings of humanity and who refuse to be implicated, and thus succeed in evading responsibility as an integral part of the human family, are definitely storing up for themselves much evil karma.

 

In some way they must learn participation, because the present situation has in it the seeds of release for humanity when the nature of evil is somewhat grasped, and above all when the oneness of humanity and the rights of human beings are truly recognised. Those who war against the race of men and who seek to wrest from them their God-given goal of freedom must be driven back from whence they came. Those who refuse to share in that struggle for freedom will be left out of the gains of freedom, even if it only means within their own home limits, in their life habits and in their private circumstances. When I here speak of "being driven back from whence they came" I am using phrases in both the simple and the occult sense.

 

It is therefore the free will and the will-to-good of humanity which must actively end the present conflict. One of these, the first, concerns man's responsibility to man; the other, rightly understood, concerns the right relationship of man to divine purpose, his right orientation to the divine goodwill, and his correct participation in its expression. Where these conditions exist, there can be drawn forth an act of divine intervention.

 

Natural law is today producing great changes in nature through the effects of aerial and physical combat, through the results of the fluid movement of whole sections of the world population and through the effects of vast economic changes and processes. Conditions have been set in motion which must now work out to their predestined end, and it is the task of those who guide humanity spiritually to see that out of the surface evil and material activity good may eventuate, and that out of the wicked, materialistic intent lying behind the present aggressive activity of certain groups ultimate good may be engineered and the evil activity ended. But this possible good will be the result of the spiritual activity of those who know the law and who understand the purpose of the will of God; it will be wrought out in spite of, and not because of, the brute force and the selfish goals of the world aggressors; these embody and ensoul the materialistic forces of the planet in a manner utterly new in expression.

 

Free will involves a basic understanding of the lines of world cleavage; it concerns right choice and consequent correct action for the group and is determined every time by that which is right for the whole and not so much by that which is right for the part. Humanity is only now reaching the point where free will can be of significant importance. There has been little free will to date. This is definitely the needed demonstration at this moment. It is the lack of true free will which is today holding up the final activity. This is a statement of importance and it is here that the great and free neutrals can give a right lead to human affairs.

 

Aggression, fear, terror, foreboding and the numbness that comes from undue and ceaseless mental and physical pain are stultifying and negating free will in many sections of the world at this time. There is no free will in many parts of … today.

 

Prejudice, the misinterpretation of presented facts, false and over-emphasised idealism, racial and nationalistic thoughtforms and the withdrawing fear of responsibility are hindering the expression of free will in the less damaged parts of the world. Moral unpreparedness and the refusal to relinquish the many and differing misinterpretations of truth or of Christ's teaching are hindering many people today.

 

Release for humanity will come when the so-called good people of the world give up their pet theories and their beloved ideals and grasp the essential fact that entry into the Kingdom of Heaven and into the new age will take place when mankind is truly loved and selflessly served, and when the true, divine purpose is seen and humanity is found to be one indivisible whole. Then petty nationalisms, religious differences and selfish idealisms (for that is what they often are as most people are idealists because they seek to save their own souls) are subordinated to human need, human good and the future happiness of the whole.

 

The simplification of the attitude of men is the crying need at this time. Ideologies must go; old ideals must be relinquished; petty political, religious and social schemes must be discarded, and the one driving purpose and the one outstanding determination must be the release of humanity from the imposition of fear, from enforced slavery and the reinstatement of men in freedom and with due opportunity to express themselves through right human relations. This is not as yet possible and it is the appalling situation of terror, of slavery and of imposed and penalising rule which is breaking the heart of humanity and causing deep distress and questioning in those whose hearts are not yet so broken.

 

As to Karma, what man has made he can unmake. This is oft forgotten. Karma is not a hard and fast rule. It is changeable, according to man's attitude and desire. It is the presenting of the opportunity to change; this grows out of past activities, and these rightly met and correctly handled lay the foundation for future happiness and progress. The present situation is the fault of all peoples in all countries (particularly the more intelligent) and includes also the great neutrals if the Law of Rebirth and of joint responsibility means anything at all. Karma is not all that is bad and evil. Men make it so through their stupidities.

 

There are today great forces of evil seeking expression in the world; these emerge out of the past and seek to determine and bring about a very evil future wherein selfishness, material objectives, and the good and well-being of one race out of the many must be imposed upon the world—a world which innately revolts against such an imposition and distortion of reality. The force of evil example is shown in the fact that two other races seek abjectly to copy or aid the forces of aggression, focussed at this time through the aggressor race.

 

At the same time, the forces of good are seeking to offset this imposition of material selfishness and are now at bay with the issue still undecided—except upon the mental plane. It has yet to work out as the triumph of good upon the physical plane. When those who are not so drastically implicated in the present conflict relinquish their selfishness, their prejudices and their interpretations and see the basic duality of this conflict in its true light, they will throw the weight of their influence increasingly on the side of goodwill and right human relations; then the bad karma which they apparently placidly accept for others and reject for themselves will be changed into the good karma which is the true destiny of humanity and will usher in the new era of joy and of peace and spiritual synthesis—that synthesis which we call brotherhood.

 

It is because of the delay in right understanding, and the slowness of many to appreciate the true situation, that Those Who guide the race and work on the spiritual side of life have been unable to do much up to date except spiritually strengthen the hands of the workers with the Forces of Light. The faith of many has kept the door ajar, yet even these have forgotten frequently that "faith without works is dead." It is only when faith finds active expression upon the physical plane in right cooperation and sacrifice (even unto death) that the door can be forced wide open and divine intervention become possible.

 

It is only when the vision and dream of peace—which beguiles so many well-meaning people—gives way to the determination to take every possible means to achieve that peace in practical ways upon the physical plane that the inner spiritual forces will be enabled to work also more actively on earth.

 

Curiously enough, they are often hindered today by the idealists, who love their ideals more than they love humanity and who cling to their special interpretations of what they think Christ meant, at the same time excluding that real love which characterised His every act and which would drive them into active, selfless service to the Forces of Light. They do nothing to bring the conflict to an end because they are preoccupied with their own dreams, ideals and interpretations; when they can let these go because of love of humanity, then the new vision will come and the world will be saved; the Forces of Light will find potent expression and the forces of aggression will go down to defeat.

 

Given, therefore, an eventual fusing of vision and physical plane activity (the major need at this time), what form is it possible for the hoped-for divine intervention to take? I make no prophecies. All that I seek to show is that the blocking or hindrance is to be found today on the side of humanity. It does not lie on the side of the forces of light, life and love; it is not to be found on the side of Christ and His disciples or of the Masters of Wisdom, as these (under diverse names) constitute the spiritual Hierarchy of the planet. Call Them by what name you choose, the most cherished belief of humanity is that there exists in the world always and for ever a hidden Reality, Those Who have conquered death, Who possess illimitable powers to help, and Who can be reached by prayer and invocation.

 

It is the potency and grasp of things material and the fact of undivided focus upon the physical plane that has given the forces of aggression so much success up to the present time. These forces, through their very potency, have fused and blended together a group of seven men who personify in themselves great and specific aspects of material forces (connected with the seven types of energy in their lowest and most material expressions) and their manifestations—war, fear and cruelty.

 

… When those who are on the side of the Forces of Light and of non-aggression can see their goal with equal clarity and are equally and uniformly united with the objective of ending oppression and slavery and of freeing humanity, then we shall see also an embodiment of spiritual force which will bring disaster to these …. Such a unification of objective and of purpose is possible and needed; and when it does take place, the force generated and the power let loose upon the physical plane will be of so stupendous a nature that human liberation will rapidly be brought about.

 

It is for this that I have worked and for this I have sought to arouse all of you. This spirit is growing among the allied forces, though the falling away of France was inevitable. France was animated by somewhat selfish purposes—the security and safety of France more than with the integrity and happiness of humanity, and this led to an inevitable collapse; France is learning, however, and its unshakable masses and its spiritual nucleus will save the day for the broken nation. The neutral powers are still selfish (though they seek by philanthropy to veil it), but they are rapidly awakening to the true issues, and when there is real synthesis of goal and of purpose and a true unification of vision upon the mental plane, of fixed and unalterable desire upon the emotional plane, and a dedication to practical effort upon the physical plane, then there will be hope that the embodiment of "the desire of all nations" will appear.

 

That embodiment is one mode in which divine intervention can take place. The Prince of Peace will lead His people—through war—to peace. Those who think only in terms of peace as they understand it and desire it are apt to forget the Biblical implication that the Prince of Peace takes a definite part in the battle of Armageddon (now in full progress). After achieving victory, He will then lead His triumphant cohorts through the gates into "Jerusalem," the city of peace. The symbolic and practical significance of this is becoming increasingly apparent. This notable event can and will take place when the free will of the people, blended by invocation and prayer, can make this possible.

 

Divine intervention could also take the form of a cataclysmic happening which would bring aggression to an end through destruction. It would probably be at such a cost of human life that there is definite hesitation over employing it by the custodians of natural law and the workers who understand divine purpose, apart from the fact that humanity has now reached the point in evolution where the expression of human free will is definitely possible. …

 

Which of the two methods—divine embodiment and natural cataclysm—will be employed will really be decided by humanity through its use or non-use of free will and understanding. If humanity fails to unite under the banner of the Forces of Light against the forces of material aggression and selfishness, then the "fiery ordeal" might be unavoidable.

 

There are also sleeping hosts which may be evoked for the aiding of the spiritual forces, and certain ancient prophecies hint at these, but as we study the new Invocation phrase by phrase, I may be able to make this matter clearer, for there are several significances and meanings behind each phrase. The one thing I seek to make clear in these opening remarks is that natural law, free will, and karma are becoming increasingly related and are all aspects of one great law, embodying divine purpose—a purpose which must work out through the medium of humanity itself if the present opportunity is to be met correctly and in line with divine purpose.

 

 

Are there enough people in the world today whose focussed and illumined thought can be organised and directed towards these Lives in such a manner that They can be attracted and led to respond to human need for deliverance? Such is the problem. It is possible, but not, perhaps, probable. The problem of a blended demand from the spiritual Hierarchy and from humanity—simultaneously expressed—will have to be met, and this is by no means easy of accomplishment.

 

 

Planned collaboration with the work of the Christ at this time is useful and needed; it will serve at least to elevate humanity and its thought, and produce a permanent spiritual stabilisation. Great potencies and the expression of ancient evil from the past are rampant upon earth at this time, released through unusual human selfishness, cruelty and error, and focussed through the medium of one unhappy race and the power of certain dangerous men—men who are easily subject to evil impression and influenced, obsessed, by selfishness and evil—by forces of destruction.

 

Is it possible to evoke at this time eternal good, latent in Lives which would normally contact humanity in some far distant future, and thus hasten the day of heightened and deepened spiritual contact in the immediate present? Such is the question. If this can be done, the evil past and the glorious future may perhaps be brought into contact in the unhappy present, and an event take place which will produce stupendous changes.

 

… Forces. There are divine attributes, divine qualities and divine potencies which the most enlightened humanity of all time have as yet failed even to register, sense or vision—all three aspects escaping contact with these potencies. Yet these powers exist, and the right handling of the present crisis by spiritually oriented humanity may bring about the release of some of these higher energies and the establishing of a line of factual influence along which They can move and consequently contact the Earth. Ponder on this and limit not Deity through the rigidity and finiteness of little minds.

 

 

It is a recognized truth today that all expression upon the physical plane is the result, first of all, of thought, then of desire, and finally of physical plane activity. A man sees a vision and a possibility. He broods over it and it enters then into the realm of mental invention. A thoughtform is then organised, whether it is the thoughtform of a sewing machine, of a political party, of an economic idea, or some other type of organisation with some planned objective. Much reflection and brooding will eventually produce a magnetic field which will become so potent that desire will enter in; then the dream or vision enters into a new stage of vitalisation. In due time, when the processes of desire have adequately developed, the vision will precipitate upon the physical plane. Physical activity and concrete methods of manifestation are then coordinated and gradually the thoughtform becomes an expressed reality, recognisable by all men.

 

Thought, desire, activity—such is the history of human vision and dream. Down the ages, from the very night of time, man has dreamed, expectant of divine revelation and of divine intervention. When all else seems to fail, men look to God.

 

Again and again in the history of the race, the vision has taken form and the dream has materialised upon the wings of powerful desire and demand. Again and again, God has revealed and sent His Messengers and Representatives to aid and guide humanity. But this happens only when the demand is adequately voiced and the need has cried to high heaven. Never yet has the response failed.

 

Again and again lately, the nations of the world have been called to prayer, and this proclaimed appeal of millions cannot be disregarded or remain negligible. An answer must be forthcoming, though it may not take the same form as of old, because man is today—in spite of appearances—more capable of handling his own affairs and determining consciously his own events. No matter how unrealised, back of all these demands and prayers in the many Christian countries, lies a subtle, deep-seated conviction that the return of Christ is imminent; there is widespread acceptance of the concept that the Presence of the Son of God can be evoked and that He must come to the assistance of His people. No matter what the dogmatic interpretation or the theological idealism, some form of this belief lies behind the cry of the millions.

 

Will this demand from the hearts of men induce the return of the Christ of Galilee? Will it bring about the emergence into manifestation of some great Son of God Who will embody perhaps another and unknown aspect of God's life and quality? Will it perhaps produce the embodiment of another divine revelation, and—just as the Buddha expressed the Wisdom of God and Christ revealed to us the Love of God—is it not possible that He Who may come will unfold to us the nature of the Will or Purpose of God, thus presenting that will-to-good which must be called into activity if the evil will-to-power is to be swept from the Earth.

 

I present this possibility to your attention and would ask you to think about it. Thus, if this should prove the correct result of all invocation and prayer, we shall have the balancing of the personality will, of material selfishness and acquisitiveness, and the selfless will which seeks to aid the whole of humanity. The will of the lower self and the will of the Self or Soul will be brought into conflict with each other, with humanity throwing the weight of its influence upon one side or the other.

 

When I speak of throwing the weight of human influence upon one side or another, I refer not alone to thought power and to what so many euphemistically call "work on mental levels." I refer to the conscious activity of the whole man, working mentally, emotionally and most emphatically physically also. Only those, therefore, who are integrated personalities can work in this manner, and herein lies a difficulty.

 

Those people today who work only mentally or who sit and send thoughts of love broadcast into the world, and who bask thus in the beauty of their own idealism (making frequently no adequate balancing physical effort to bring this present evil situation to an end through right choice, sacrifice and strenuous service), are in reality of no service at all to any except themselves. There are those who send thoughts of love to the group of evil men who are responsible for world disaster, believing thereby to influence them for good. I would remind them that love is essentially an impersonal potency or energy, dependent for its effect upon the type of form which it contacts and upon which it makes an impact. Pouring, therefore, upon the selfish materialistic nature, it will only enhance desire and promote increased acquisitive aggression, and thus foster the lower nature and distort the true expression of love, leading to increased evil activity.

 

Pouring upon the selfless, the pure and the disinterested, it will foster reality and true love. These are points which should be remembered at this time by the well-intentioned but occultly ignorant server.

 

One point you need to grasp more clearly, and it is both an encouragement and a point difficult of belief. If the sons of men who are cooperating with the Forces of Light at this time stand with steadfastness, and if the "massed intent" of the men of goodwill is brought down from the mental plane (where most goodwill, desire, prayer and invocation becomes "frozen") and is carried away from its easy focus in the wish life of the aspirant, goodwill becomes active in expression and in tangible deed upon the physical plane, so that the work done through the means of invocation and prayer, plus the needed fighting for the right, is done by those who can truly coordinate and integrate on all three levels and thus function as a whole. This will mean the finish of the dominance of matter for all time. Such a desirable condition may come very slowly, from the standpoint of man's myopic vision, and may even not become apparent in its full significance to you in this life; nevertheless the victory will have been gained.

 

Matter and materialistic interests will no longer rule the coming generation as they have ruled the last two. When the forces of aggression, of greed and cruelty are driven back, it will mean the conquest of selfish desire by unselfish love and sacrifice. This is the reward of those with whom we work, if reward is desired. This achieved situation will then bring into closer relation humanity and the spiritual Hierarchy; they will be en rapport in a manner new in history.

 

The defeat of the oppressing nations and the liberation of the oppressed will be only the outer and visible sign of an inner and spiritual event—one for which all enlightened people are working. It will—after a period of adjustment, which will necessarily bring its own peculiar difficulties—usher in the new world, with all that is entailed in that phrase.

I have placed before you the possibility.

 

… it is humanity which determines its own fate. Men have transcended the child stage and are now adult, though not mature. Maturity is achieved through self-engendered experience and decision, and for some time we who seek to guide have confined our efforts to reaching the intelligent people, impressing the spiritually minded, and in stimulating humanity to right action without encroaching upon man's growing expression of freewill.

 

So the outcome is unpredictable, though we may see a certain measure of inevitability in future happenings. But man is free to choose the way that he shall go, and much of the responsibility for his choices rests upon the shoulders of the more instructed of the human family and upon those who have achieved some measure of vision.

 

With these thoughts … I would leave you to work out these ideas in the recesses of your reflective consciousness. … I would ask you to … cooperate—…by your love of humanity, and by your activity on the side of the Forces of Light—with those on the outer and inner planes who are seeking to drive aggression back to the place from whence it came, and to end the rule of hate and fear.