Theosophical
Society President
The Hidden Work of Nature
First
Published 1915
Never, in the
history of mankind, has there been a time as to-day when it could be so truly
said that,
The old order changeth, yielding place to
new,
And God fulfils Himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
It is true that “the man in the street”
knows of no such great change ; life for him moves as of old in its fixed
grooves, and if the world’s progress has multiplied for him life’s
conveniences, it has also multiplied for him life’s needs. Change to him is
largely a matter of a surplus of comforts over pains, and in this regard the
old order has changed but little for him. But the man in the library, the
laboratory, the studio, the pulpit, is aware of the great change, and he knows
that it began with the work of
The importance of the work of modern scientists lies in the fact that they have
marshaled for us the events of nature into an orderly pageant of evolution.
What exoteric religion has not been able to do, science has achieved, and that
is to show Life as one. Technological trinities of Creator, Creation, and
Creature, or dualities of God and Man, have not unified life for us in the way
science has done. Mysticism alone, with its truth of the Immanence, has
revealed to men something of that unified existence of all that is, which is
the logical deduction from modern evolutionary theories.
When we contemplate the pageant of nature, we see her at a work of building and
un-building. From mineral to bacterium and plant, from microbe to animal and
man, nature is busy at a visible work, step by step evolving higher and more
complex structures. Though she may seem at first sight to work blindly and
mechanically, she has in reality a coherent plan of action. Her plan is to
evolve structures stage by stage, so that the amount of time needed by a given
creature for its self-protection and sustenance may be less and less with each
successive generation. The higher the structure is in its organization and
adaptability, the more time, and hence more energy, there is free for other
purposes of life than sustenance and procreation.
Two elements in life arise from the perfection of the structural mechanism
which the higher order of creatures reveals. First, they have time for play,
for it is in play that such energy manifests as is not required for gaining
food and shelter. The second element manifests itself only when human beings
appear in evolution, and men begin to show a desire for adaptability.
Adaptability to environment exists in the plant and in the animal, but it is in
them purely instinctive or mechanical; with man on the other hand there is an
attempt at conscious adaptability.
When this desire for adaptability increases, nature reveals a new principle of
evolution. To the principle of the survival of the fittest by a struggle for
existence, she adds the new one of evolution by interdependence. Therefore we
find human units aggregating themselves into groups, and primitive men
organizing themselves into families and tribes.
Once more this means a saving of labor and time in the material struggle for
existence. Some of both is now at nature’s disposal, to train men to discover
new ways of life and action. To the play of the individual, there is added a
communal life which makes civilization possible. For civilization means that
some individuals in a community are dissatisfied with what contents all the
others, and that therefore they are burning with a zeal for reform, and the
spirit of reform sooner or later is inevitable in evolution. The survival of
the fittest can only come about by that mysterious arrival of the fittest which
no scientist can explain. Nature now ushers in “the fittest” in the few who are
planning for reform. For reform means that organisms will consciously adapt
themselves more and more to the exigencies of environment, for to each
successive change to greater adaptability nature has something new to give.
Thus individual men and women become nature’s tools; she works with their
hearts and minds and hands to create social and political activities. Religion
and science and art appear among men; the struggle for existence is no longer
nature’s sole means for bringing to realization her aim ; interdependence of
units, and therewith reform, are the means which she uses now.
Then it is that nature proclaims to men that message which she has kept for
them through the ages. It is the joy of social service. Strange and unreal, as
yet, to most men is the thought of such joy. But evolution has only lately
entered on this phase of her work, and ages must yet elapse before social
service becomes instinctive in men as are now self-assertion and selfishness.
That day must inevitably be the handful of reformers today are as the “missing
links” of a chain which stretches forward from man to superman. As, from the
isolation and selfishness of the of the brute, nature has evolved the
interdependence of men, so too, is self-sacrifice the next logical step in her
evolutionary Self-revelation.
A more inspiring picture there could hardly be than this, of nature at work on
her building and un-building. Yet there are not a few dark shadows in the
picture. So long as the individual lives only the few brief years of his life,
so long as nothing of him remains as an individual after his death, there is a
ruthlessness about nature which is appalling. Where is today “the glory that
was
So long as we contemplate nature’s visible work only, not the greatest
altruist but must now and then feel the shadow of great despair. That which
alone makes life and self-sacrifice real and inspiring to great souls — the
thought and the feeling that their work will endure forever — is lacking when
we consider nature’s work in the light of modern science alone. Yet many an
altruist would be content to die, and be nothing thereafter, if he could but
feel that nature had some pity for his fate. Well the poet voices the feeling
which arises from the conception of nature, or of a deity who is as passionless
as nature; -
Life is pleasant, and friends may be nigh,
Fain would I speak one word and be spared ;
Yet I could be silent and cheerfully die,
If I were only sure God cared;
If I had faith and were only certain
That light is behind that terrible curtain.
It is here that Theosophy steps in to continue the work of science, and explain
the true significance of nature’s manifestations. As modern science points to
nature’s visible work, so Theosophy points to a Hidden Work of Nature.
There is a hidden Light which reveals to men that nature is but one expression
of a Consciousness at work ; that this Consciousness is at work with a Plan of
evolution; and that this Consciousness carries out its plan through us and
through us alone. The moment that we realize the significance of this message
of the Hidden Light, that men are immortal souls and not perishable bodies, we
begin to see that, while careful of the type, nature is not less careful of the
single life too. For then we see that nature’s latest phase, a fullness of life
through social service, necessarily involves the recognition of men as souls;
for it would be useless for nature slowly to fashion a reformer, unless she
could utilize his ability and experience for greater reforms in the future.
That his specialized
abilities shall not be dissipated would surely then be logical, in a nature for
which we postulate an aim which persists from age to age.
It does not require much profound thought or speculation to deduce from this
view of nature’s work that men live for ever as souls, and that, through
reincarnation, they become fitter tools in nature’s hands to achieve her
purpose of evolution. Let but reincarnation be considered a part of nature’s
plan, and at once the tragedy of nature transforms itself into an inspiring and
stately pageant. For then the future is ourselves ; it is we who shall make the
glorious utopias of dreams; we who painfully toil today to fashion bricks for
nature’s beautiful edifice in far-off days; we, and not others, shall see that
edifice in its splendor, and be its very possessors. Though the spirit of
action of the best of us is ever a sic vos non vobis, “thus ye work, but
not for yourselves”, yet in reality, like bread cast upon the waters, our work
shall greet us ages hence, and we shall then be glad that we have toiled so
well now.
So comes to us the message of the Hidden Light that nature is consciously going
from good to better, from better to best, and that she works out her splendid
purpose through us, who may become her ministers, or must be her slaves.
The spirit of reform, then, being a part of the evolutionary process, the next
point to note is that in all effective reform there are two elements: first the
reform is brought about by individuals working as a group, and second, the
group has a leader. It is fairly easy to understand the grouping of individuals
to co-operate for a common aim as a part of nature’s evolutionary plan; their
united action but expresses the social instinct. But it is perhaps less easy to
see that nature selects the leader, and sends him to a particular group
to crystallize its dreams and plans into organization and action. Yet this is
the message of the Hidden Light — that a leader does not appear by a mere
concatenation of chance circumstances, but only because he is selected for a
particular work, and is sent to do it. For a leader does not come in evolution
as a “sport” – a passing variant produced nobody knows how; he is fashioned by
a slow laborious process lasting thousands of years. Life after life, in a
process of rebirth, the would-be leader must earn his future position by
dedication to works of reform ; by little actions for reform as a savage, by
larger actions as a civilized man, he trains himself for the role which nature
has written for him.
If we look at reformers in the light of reincarnation, we shall see that their
present ability to lead is simply the result of work done in past lives. Since
biologists are agreed that acquired characters are not transmissible, we must look
for that rare inborn capacity to lead, not in the heredity of the organism, but
in a spiritual heredity which is in the life and in the consciousness of the
individual. This is exactly what reincarnation says ; the individual acquired
his ability to lead today only be endeavors to lead many a past life, and by
partial successes at least in so doing.
Furthermore, the Hidden Light reveals to us that each present movement for
reform was rehearsed in many a primitive setting long ago, with the present
leaders and their coadjutors as actors. We need but look at the reform
movements for the amelioration of the lot of the working classes in
So nature plans and achieves, and the stately pageant moves on. But her purpose
is not achieved slowly and leisurely , adding change to change; she does not
bring about a new order of things by an accumulation of small changes. Nature
goes by leaps, per saltum; and as in the biological world crises appear,
and nature makes a leap and ushers in new species, so too is it in the world of
human affairs. Though there is a slow steady upward movement for progress through
reform, yet now and then there is a crisis in the affairs of men. Then things
happen, and after the crisis is over, there is, as it were, a new species of
human activity. Reform takes a new trend, and a whole host of new reforms are
ushered in to make life fuller and nobler.
One such crisis in human affairs came in
So too was it in India, six centuries before Christ ; another “dreamer”
appeared, Siddhartha, Prince of the Satya clan. Men listened to Him and loved
Him and followed Him, but they little dreamed that He was in reality building
an Empire of Righteousness, which even after twenty-five centuries should
embrace within it five hundred millions of souls. To the critics of His time,
he was but another “Teacher”, one of hundreds then living in
Every so often, then, there is a climax in human affairs, and always such a
climax is preceded by an age when men “dream dreams.” In
In every such climax, small or great, the resolution of the crisis comes
through the intermediary of a Personality. For as nature weaves the tangled
knot of human fate, “nowise moved except unto the working out of doom,” she
plans too the Solver of the knot. For every crisis which is of her planning,
she has prepared the Man who holds the solution in his heart and brain.
In this out twentieth century, men dream dreams as never heretofore. East and
West, North and South, the machinery of human life grates on the ear, and there
is not a single man or woman of true imagination who can say, “God’s in his
heaven, All’s right with the world!” De profundis clamari better
describes the wail of every nation. Millions are spent on armies and navies,
while the poor are clamouring for bread ; and statesmen themselves are wringing
their hands that they cannot give a nation’s wealth back to the nation in
hospitals and schools and fair gardens and clean habitations. For there are
“wars and rumors of wars.” The spirit of charity grows year by year, but it
seems as though charity but added patches to a rotting garment, and the more
the patches which are put on the more the rents appear. Strife between capital
and labor, race hatred between white and brown and yellow and black, a deadlock
between science and religion, and more than all else, the increasing luxury of
the few and the increasing misery of the many, these are but a few of the
problems facing philanthropists today.
Every reformer realizes, in whatever department he works, that for lasting
reform a complete reconstruction is needed of the whole social structure, if
poverty, disease and ignorance and misery shall be as a nightmare that has been
but shall never be again. All are eager for reform ; thousands are willing to
co-operate. But none knows where to begin, in the true reconstruction. Each is
indeed terrified, lest in trying to pull one brick out of the social edifice,
to replace it by a better, he may pull the whole structure down, and so cause
misery instead of joy.
This is the crisis present before our eyes, confronting not one nation, but
all. “Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord,” is true today as never
before.
Everywhere, in every department where men work for reform, mean are looking for
a Leader. Where is He whom nature has selected,in whose mind is the Plan, in
whose is the spirit and in whose hand is the Power? Let him but appear, let him
but say, “This is how you shall work,” and thousands will flock to Him in joy.
And it is this message of the Hidden Light that He is ready, for when from the
hearts of men a cry goes forth, from the bosom of God a Son shall come. The
world is in the birth throes once again for the coming of the Son of Man, and
the young men who see visions today shall in their prime find Him in their
midst, the Wonderful, the Councillor, the Prince of Peace.
Never an age, when God has need of him,
Shall want its man, predestined by that need,
To pour his life in fiery word and deed,
The great
When He, whom the world waits for, and whom
nature has planned to come “unto this hour,” shall appear, what will be His
work? What but to carry on nature’s work one step further? The day is past when
men can go forward with competition as their cry of progress ; nothing lasting
can now come for men unless it is brought about by interdependence and
co-operation. The best of men today see the inevitable coming of this new age,
when men shall be sons of God in deed and not merely in name; but their cry for
altruism and co-operation is as a voice cast in the teeth of the tempest. They
can but gather round them here an enthusiast and there a disciple ; but they
accomplish little, for they lack the character which compels the world to
listen. Till comes that Personality who is not of one nation but of all, whose
message is not for this century alone but for all others to come ; till then
the dawn of the new day will drag its slow length along. But when He comes,
then indeed what He says and what He does will be the proof to us that it is He
and not another, whom nature has planned to be the Shadow of God upon earth to
men, the Savior who is born unto them this day.
Then once more shall the Hidden Light be
revealed to men, that Light that “shineth in darkness, and the darkness
comprehended it not.” Then science shall be our religion, and religion our art
; then shall we cease to be nature’s slaves, and enter upon our heritage, and
become her councillors and guides. Then shall we know, not merely believe, that
behind the seeming pitiless plan of nature there is a most pitiful Mind,
careful of the type and careful of the single life too. Nevermore shall our
eyes be blinded by passionate tears as we look at the misery of men, and feel
the utter hopelessness of its effective diminution ; for we shall know that
nature but veils an Eye that sees, a Heart that feels, and a Mind that plans,
for One shall be with us to be a Martyros, a Witness, of that Light that
shineth in darkness, even when the darkness comprehends it not.
He will call on the many to co-operate in all good works “in His name and for
the love of mankind”; He will teach them the next lesson which nature has
planned for them, the joy of neighbourly service. But to a few He will give the
call to follow Him through the ages. For He comes to usher in a new age ; that
age must be tended and fostered decade after decade, century by century, till
the seed becomes the tree and the tree bears flowers, and by the perfecting of
man comes the fulfillment of God. As He is nature’s husbandman, so will he need
helpers in those fields from whence alone comes the Daily Bread for men.
The many will love Him for the peace and joy which He will bring ; but a few
will answer the call to follow Him life after Life, toiling, toiling in a work
seemingly without end. To these few alone will be it given to know the
inwardness of the message of the Hidden Light. It is that nature keeps her
diadems not for those who reap happiness in her pleasant fields and gardens,
but for those who co-operate with her in her Hidden Work, and try “to lift a
little of the heavy karma of the world.” For this is Nature’s Hidden Work, to
weave a vesture out of the karmas of men which shall reflect the pattern given
her from on high ; and the weaving halts, unperfected, till through the actions
of all men there shall shine one great Action. When the perfect vesture is
woven for him who desires it, and the karmas of all men act in unison, then,
and not before, will come “that day” when Nature can say to all men, as now to
her God : “I am in my Father, and ye in me and I in you.” Unto that hour she
toils at her Hidden Work, and it is the Hidden Light which reveals to men her
process of evolution as she shapes in moulds of dust immortal Sons of
God.
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Statement
The dominant
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कार्डिफ थियोसोफिकल सोसायटी
मिशन स्टेटमेंट
कार्डिफ थियोसोफिकल सोसायटी के प्रमुख और मुख्य गतिविधि
थियोसोफिकल शिक्षाओं का अध्ययन को बढ़ावा देने के लिए और सहायता के लिए है
के रूप में Helena Petrovna Blavatsky के लेखन से परिभाषित,
William Quan Judge, Alfred Percy Sinnett और उनके वंश.
इस मिशन स्टेटमेंट बाधा नहीं थियोसोफिकल गैर
गतिविधियों लेकिन ये एक आध्यात्मिक प्रकृति की होनी चाहिए
और / या सोसायटी की वस्तुओं के साथ संगत.
Kārḍipha
thiyōsōphikala sōsāyaṭī
Miśana sṭēṭamēṇṭa
Kārḍipha thiyōsōphikala
sōsāyaṭī kē pramukha aura mukhya
gatividhiThiyōsōphikala
śikṣā'ōṁ kā adhyayana kō
baṛhāvā dēnē
kē li'ē aura sahāyatā
kē li'ē haiKē rūpa mēṁ
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky kē
lēkhanasē paribhāṣita
William Quan Judge, Alfred Percy Sinnett,
Aura unakē vanśa.
Isa miśana sṭēṭamēṇṭa bādhā
nahīṁ thiyōsōphikala gaira
Gatividhiyōṁ lēkina yē ēka ādhyātmika
prakr̥ti kī hōnī cāhi'ē
Aura/ yā sōsāyaṭī kī vastu'ōṁ kē
sātha saṅgata.