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THE NEW GROUP OF WORLD SERVERS - Part 2

First of all, a preliminary period of emergence into the public consciousness, and thus of making its presence felt.  This will be done through the steady communication of the new ideals and the constant emphasis laid upon the essential oneness of all humanity.  It will [425] be the result of the uniformity and inclusiveness of the note sounded by one here and another there.  During this stage there must be no hurried work and no precipitate action of any kind.  The growth of the group and of its ideas will be slow and sure.  The group exists already.  It has not to be formed and organised, and there is therefore for none of you the assuming of any sense of responsibility nor the organising of any activity desired to lure these disciples, who have chosen thus to work subjectively, into publicity.  Such are not the methods approved by the Elder Brothers of the race, nor is it the way that They Themselves work.

Know each of you for yourselves whether you stand for the new position, the new attitude towards work, and for the subjective method.  Decide once and for all whether you prefer to work in the old exoteric ambitious manner, building and vitalising an organisation, and so producing all the mechanism which goes with such a method of work.  Remember that such groups are still greatly needed and are useful.  It is not yet the new age and the little ones must not be left exposed to the new forces, nor turned out bereft of the nursery to which they naturally belong.

Should the new mode of work appeal to you, see to it that the personality is subordinated, that the life of meditation is kept paramount in importance, that sensitivity to the subjective realm is cultivated, and any necessary outer activities are handled from within outwards.  Avoid a purely mystical introspection or its opposite extreme, an over-emphasised organising spirit, remembering that a life of truly occult meditation must inevitably produce outer happenings, but that these objective results are produced by an inner growth and not by an outer activity.  An ancient Scripture teaches this truth in the following terms:

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"When the sun progresses into the mansion of the serving man, the way of life takes the place of the way of work.  Then the tree of life grows until its branches shelter all the sons of men.  The building of the Temple and the carrying of the stones cease.  The growing trees are seen; the buildings disappear.  Let the sun pass into its appointed place, and in this day and generation attend ye to the roots of growth."

Little groups will spring up here and there whose members respond to the new note and whose growth into the world group will be watched over by one or more working disciples.  But these latter do not organise the groups; they grow as a man in this place and another in that place awakens to the new vision or comes into incarnation in order to take his place in the work and bring in the new era.  These groups will demonstrate no sense of separateness; they will be unaware of personal or of group ambition; they will recognise their unity with all that exists, and will stand before the world as examples of pure living, constructive building, creative activity subordinated to the general purpose, beauty and inclusiveness.  Perhaps in the early stages of integration, the words friendliness and cooperativeness best describe them.  They are not interested in dogmas or doctrines and have no shibboleths.  Their outstanding characteristic will be an individual and group freedom from a critical spirit.  This non-criticism will not grow out of an inability to see error, or failure to measure up to an idea; falsity, impurity and weakness will be recognised for what they are, but when noted will only serve to evoke a loving helpfulness.

Little by little these groups will come to know each other and to meet with one another at set times and places.  They will come to these mutual conferences with no desire to impress one another and with no thought of relative numerical strength; they will demonstrate no ambition to increase their ranks.  How should they when [427] they know themselves all to be members of the one world Group?  They have no teaching to give of a doctrinal nature and will not seek to demonstrate learning.  They will meet solely to discuss modes of world helpfulness, the formation of a platform so universal and composed of such basic truths that it can be presented under all the varying methods and utilise the many terminologies.  They will endeavour to employ each other's terms, and to familiarise themselves with each other's approach to reality and symbology.

Little by little also the special contribution and note of each group will be recognised and where a need exists for just that special approach and the particular note or method of interpretation in any part of the world, there will be an immediate and united impulse to facilitate the work that that special group could do in that place.

These groups, with the one subjective group of conscious living souls behind them, will be too busy with world service and interests to waste time on trifling non-essentials.  They will not have the time to play around with group names and insignia and badges and the technicalities of fraternities when they meet together.  World needs, world opportunities, and the rapid development of the consciousness of mankind and the initiation of humanity into the spiritual realities will so engross their attention that they will have no interest in purely physical plane arrangements, nor in laying the emphasis upon their own personal growth.  They will be well aware that response to world need in service and the life of focussed meditation will promote their growth.  Their eyes are not upon themselves, upon their own good characters, or upon their individual accomplishments.

Later as a result of their telepathic relationship and their united conferences, there may emerge certain esoteric groups and schools for development in order more rapidly to equip them for world service.  In these schools [428] modes of meditation, the intensification of vibration and the laws of the universe will be taught, and the right use of colour and of sound.  But all will be subordinated to the idea of service and the uplift of humanity.  Also the schools referred to in Letters on Occult Meditation will gradually come into being.

But what use is it for me to forecast the future in more explicit terms and hold out a picture of an intriguing quality when at the present time the integration of the group of world mystics and its close welding is not an accomplished fact?

World unity, brotherhood in its true sense, the growth of telepathic interplay, the elimination of the non-essentials which serve to separate the thoughts of men and bring about separateness on the physical plane, and the laying of a true emphasis upon the fundamentals of the Ageless Wisdom, the manifestation of a true understanding, the bringing about of at-one-ment with the soul, the recognition of those who belong to the group of world Saviours—this is the immediate work to be done and this must engross your attention.

This and this alone warrants the expenditure of all that any of you have to give—love and life, time and money.

This and this alone justifies your existence and calls forth from all of you who respond to the vision that utter self-sacrifice which is so rare and so far-reaching in its effects.  The casting of all that one has at the feet of the Lord of Life in order that the work of world salvage may go forward, the elimination out of one's life of all that can possibly hinder, the giving of all that one has until it hurts to give, the ruling of one's life on the basis of surrender, asking oneself all the time:  What can I relinquish in order that I may help more adequately?—that and more than that lies ahead of all of you who hear the call and respond to the need and opportunity.

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Let me tell you this—this group now in process of forming, will in time develop its own "yoga" and school of training which will gradually supersede that of the raja yoga and bhakti yoga schools.  The method of training will only be given to those who have trained the mind and learnt to control the emotions.  Hence the key to what is now going on.  The mode of training will be no easy short cut to the goal.  Only the intelligent can attain it and only coordinated personalities will be eligible to the teaching.  The keynote of the new yoga will be synthesis; its objective will be conscious development of the intuitive faculty.  This development will fall into two categories:  first, the development of the intuition and of true spiritual perception, and secondly, the trained utilisation of  the mind as an interpreting agent.

In the book Agni Yoga, some of the teaching to be given has filtered through but only from the angle of the will aspect.  No book has as yet made its appearance which gives in any form whatsoever the "yoga of synthesis".  We have had "bhakti yoga" or union through devotion.  Raja Yoga is now receiving emphasis, which is union through the mind.  It sounds like a redundancy to speak of union through synthesis, but it is not so.  It is union through identification with the whole—not union through realisation or through vision.  Mark well this distinction, for it holds the secret of the next step for the personalities of the race.  The Bhagavad Gita gives us primarily the key to the yoga of devotion.  Patanjali teaches us the yoga of the mind.  In the Gospel story we have the portrayal of realisation, but the key or the secret of identification is still withheld.  It lies in the custody of a few in this integrating group of mystics and knowers and will be wrought out into manifestation in the furnace of  their individual experience and thus given to the world.  But the time is not yet.  The group must grow in strength and knowledge and in intuitive perception.

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You ask me:  What keeps a man from becoming a member of such a group?  I tell you with emphasis that four things only keep a man from affiliation.

First:  an uncoordinated personality.  This involves necessarily an untrained mind and a feeble intellect.

Second:  a sense of separateness, of distinction, and of being set apart or different from one's fellow men.

Third:  the possession of a creed.  No matter how good a formula of beliefs it may be, it inevitably produces exclusiveness.  It bars some out.

Fourth:  pride and ambition.

You ask again:  How shall one qualify?  The rules are simple, and are three in number.  First, learn to practice harmlessness; then desire nothing for the separated self, and thirdly look for the sign of divinity in all.  Three simple rules, but very hard to accomplish.

Behind this group of mystics, which includes thinkers in every department of human thought (let me reiterate the word thinkers) and of human knowledge stands the Hierarchy of Masters and in between these two groups stand also a band of teachers, of whom I am one.  These act as intermediaries and as transmitters of energy.  May I repeat and beg you to attend, that this group which is slowly forming is gathered out of every imaginable group of thinking and intelligent men.  As yet, and this may surprise a few, there are not very many occultists (so-called) among them.  This is due to the fact that the occultists are numerically few in relation to the masses of humanity, and also to their tendency to be sectarian, exclusive and self-righteous.  Selfless humanitarian workers are there; political leaders and economists and scientific workers in the world's laboratories are also there; churchmen and religious adherents from all the [431] world religions are there and the practical mystics and a few occultists.  The true occultist is rare.

The group is and will be kept entirely subjective.  Its members are linked telepathically, or they recognise each other through the quality of the work they are doing in the outer world and the inclusiveness of the note they sound.  It is inspired from above by the souls of its members and the Great Ones, and is energised into activity by the need of humanity itself.  It is composed of living conscious souls, working through coordinated personalities.  Its symbol is a golden triangle enclosing an even-armed cross with one diamond at the apex of the triangle.  This symbol is never reproduced in form at all.  It shines above the heads of all who are in the group and cannot be seen by anyone (not even a clairvoyant) except a group member, and then only if—for purposes of work—his recognition needs stimulation.  The motto of the group is The Glory Of The One.

More I may not tell you now, but this will give you some idea of the reality of the work that is going on.  It may serve as an incentive to fresh effort on the part of all working to equip themselves for selfless service.

We are to take up now a very brief consideration of two types of energy of a major kind, which are, in themselves, composed and blended of coordinating energies.  The subject matter is therefore of so advanced a nature that it is useless for the aspirant to give much time to its study.  Volumes would be necessitated likewise if all that could be said were written, and it will only be possible in this book to outline some broad generalisations, and to indicate certain facts of interest.  The main reason that it profits us not to study these energies too closely is because the planetary Spirit or Logos and the planetary Entity are the two forms in active manifestation which respond most forcibly to the impact of these energies.  The human being responds, and that only subconsciously, [432] because (in his form nature) he constitutes a part of the planetary expression.

The planetary Spirit is a Being Who, ages ago, passed through the state of consciousness which we call the human state and has left it far behind.  He (using the personal pronoun simple for the sake of terminological clarity) has an origin which lies outside the solar system altogether; his life is focussed in the planet; his consciousness lies in realms beyond the concept of the highest adept in our planetary Hierarchy.  The planetary Entity is the sum total of the forms which constitute the form through which the planetary Spirit is manifesting, and therefore is the synthesis of the planetary physical, astral and mental elementals.  For the purposes of our consideration, this Entity is the sum total of all physical, vital, astral and mental forms, which, blended and fused, constitute our planet.  Each is the embodiment of energy, and these two major streams which produce the form and the consciousness aspects of our planetary existence make their impact on the human being.  The life of the planetary Spirit makes its impact via the soul; and the life of the planetary Entity is registered through the medium of the personality mechanism.

The duality of these energies is primarily astral-buddhic, and the bias of the life forces and the general trend of the impulses influencing humanity in this great cycle are the attractive energy of the intuitional nature of the planetary Logos, and the potent force of the astral (desire) body.  In other words, the astral elemental, which embodies the desire nature of the planetary Logos is exceedingly potent, particularly in this present cycle, but the strength of the spiritual and intuitional nature of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being is steadily increasing.  On the one hand, you have the devastating expression of the wild hunt for pleasure, of sex and of the crime incident to the satisfying of desire. [433] This characterises our present civilisation and is now at its height; it may be said that it is even on the decline, little as you may sense it.  At the same time, there is found the open door of initiation.  Both these opportunities (if I might so term them) are found simultaneously present, but the strength of the one is weakening, and the trend towards the other is growing.  Thus the way out can be seen.

In the above paragraph, the dominant planetary urges present in evolution are summed up and man's reaction to them noted.

Solar energies have also a dual effect.  First, there is what we might call the pranic effect, which is the result of the impact of solar force, emanating from the physical sun.  This produces definite results upon the objective forms, and these are termed physical or vital.  These enter the human body via the spleen and also via a centre found between the shoulder blades; this centre is between the throat centre and the heart centre in the spinal column, but nearer the heart than the throat.  Secondly, there are energies which emanate from what is esoterically called "the heart of the sun"; these sweep through one or other of the planets in seven great streams and pour into the soul of man and produce that sensitivity which we call awareness.  These seven types of energy produce the seven types of souls or rays, and in this thought you find the secret of soul unity.  During manifestation, owing to the seven types of energy impacts, playing upon the matter of space, one finds the seven types of soul, the seven fields of expression, and the seven grades of consciousness and of ray characteristics.  These differentiations as you well know are like the colouring that the prism takes when subjected to the rays of the sun, or to the tracery of pattern found in reflection upon a limpid pool.

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