There Is Nothing Above
the One Law in the Universe
 
 
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
 
 
 
 
 
The false idea that the law of Karma can be transcended or avoided by wise men got somehow infiltrated in the theosophical movement.
 
The actual relation between wise men and the eternal law can be correctly understood by examining some fundamental principles stated in the classical teachings of theosophy.
 
A Master of the Wisdom clearly stated that true Adepts are but servants of the Law:
 
“…Law is LAW with us, and no power can make us abate one jot or tittle of our duty.” [1]
 
However, low level sorcerers – sometimes disguised as angels of light or pseudo-esoteric leaders – try to put themselves above or outside the dynamics of harvesting what one sows.
 
Universal law is boundless in its reign, as the Teachers say:
 
“There is but one general law of life, but innumerable laws qualify and determine the myriads of forms perceived and of sounds heard.” [2]
 
True, the Masters of the Wisdom transcend the lower aspects of Karma. Immortal Sages obey the Law and cooperate with it in such a close way that Death no longer exists for them. As they work for mankind, the Mahatmas modestly help Nature and serve the Law of Karma which eternally operates on all levels of being and consciousness.
 
One should consider a practical example. In the 1880s, when an attempt was made to establish in India a theosophical newspaper which would be called “Phoenix”, a Raja Yogi wrote:
 
“While the greatest good ought to result from the successful establishment of such a journal, the strict law of justice forbids us to do aught to lessen in the slightest degree the merit to which he who shall make the dream a reality will be entitled.” [3]
 
The idea is both popular and baseless that there is anything above the law in the universe – for instance, a monotheistic god. The opening lines of letter ten, in “The Mahatma Letters”, say:
 
“Neither our philosophy nor ourselves believe in a God, least of all in one whose pronoun necessitates a capital H. Our philosophy falls under the definition of Hobbes. It is pre-eminently the science of effects by their causes and of causes by their effects, and since it is also the science of things deduced from first principle, as Bacon defines it, before we admit any such principle we must know it, and have no right to admit even its possibility.” [4]
 
The attempt to place some sort of deity above the law is a cause of unnecessary delusion. The letter ten says:
 
“Parabrahm is not a God, but absolute immutable law, and Ishwar is the effect of Avidya and Maya, ignorance based upon the great delusion. The word ‘God’ was invented to designate the unknown cause of those effects which man has either admired or dreaded without understanding them, and since we claim and that we are able to prove what we claim – i.e. the knowledge of that cause and causes we are in a position to maintain there is no God or Gods behind them.” [5]
 
In the second paragraph of Letter 83 one sees how obedient to law is a Master of the Wisdom as he relates to every being, including his lay disciples:
 
“You have ill comprehended the Law of Karma (…) if you could have imagined that I would dare to provoke its awful retaliations by forcing you or anyone to take up a line of action (…).”  [6]
 
The Masters serve the Law and do not pretend to challenge it. Spoiled children, on the other hand, often think they can be smarter than their own parents and thus try to deceive them.  
 
Following the example of poorly educated children, dishonest politicians try to deceive their “parents”, the Mother Nation and Father State (State Law).  Misinformed esoterists   pretend to be so smart than they can “transcend” Karma and try to make others believe that only ignorant people are subject to the Law of Justice.
 
The result is disaster.
 
Being a just Parent, the living process of Karma has no personal preferences regarding its children. All are equal before the Law.  An Eastern Sage gave theosophists a remarkable lesson in Politics and Sociology, as he wrote:
 
“…In our sight an honest boot-black [is] as good as an honest king, and an immoral sweeper far higher and more excusable than an immoral Emperor.” [7]
 
Therefore a master teaches humanity to understand the moral Law of Nature, the law of Karma, which unfailingly guides all beings of the universe.
 
One of the Masters taught:
 
“The cycles must run their rounds. Periods of mental and moral light and darkness succeed each other, as day does night. The major and minor yugas must be accomplished according to the established order of things. And we, borne along on the mighty tide, can only modify and direct some of its minor effects.  If we had the powers of the imaginary Personal God, and the universal and immutable laws were but toys to play with, then indeed might we have created conditions that would have turned this earth into an Arcadia for lofty souls. But having to deal with an immutable Law, being ourselves its creatures, we have had to do what we could and rest thankful.” [8]
 
One must have a realistic attitude in philosophy, and we can read in the Mahatma Letters:
 
“Nature is destitute of goodness or malice; she follows only immutable laws when she either gives life and joy, or sends suffering [and] death, and destroys what she has created. Nature has an antidote for every poison and her laws a reward for every suffering. The butterfly devoured by a bird becomes that bird, and the little bird killed by an animal goes into a higher form. It is the blind law of necessity and the eternal fitness of things, and hence cannot be called Evil in Nature. The real evil proceeds from human intelligence and its origin rests entirely with reasoning man who dissociates himself from Nature. Humanity then alone is the true source of evil. Evil is the exaggeration of good, the progeny of human selfishness and greediness. Think profoundly and you will find that save death – which is no evil but a necessary law, and accidents which will always find their reward in a future life – the origin of every evil whether small or great is in human action, in man whose intelligence makes him the one free agent in Nature. It is not nature that creates diseases, but man. The latter’s mission and destiny in the economy of nature is to die his natural death brought by old age; save accident, neither a savage nor a wild (free) animal die of disease. Food, sexual relations, drink, are all natural necessities of life; yet excess in them brings on disease, misery, suffering, mental and physical, and the latter are transmitted as the greatest evils to future generations, the progeny of the culprits. Ambition, the desire of securing happiness and comfort for those we love, by obtaining honours and riches, are praiseworthy natural feelings but when they transform man into an ambitious cruel tyrant, a miser, a selfish egotist they bring untold misery on those around him; on nations as well as on individuals.” [9]
 
Students of theosophy ought to make sure they learn from true teachers.
 
Mahatmas and Initiates teach a simple life. They are thoroughly ethical. They humbly follow the boundless Law of constant Equilibrium and living Justice.
 
NOTES:
 
[1] “The Mahatma Letters”, Letter XXIX, 1926 edition, p. 226. The book is available in our websites: click here to see it.
 
[2] “The Mahatma Letters”, 1926 edition, Letter XL, p. 255. See the book here.
 
[3] Letter LXXIX, p. 382, both TUP edition and 1926 edition of “The Mahatma Letters”.
 
[4] Letter X, p. 52, both TUP edition and 1926 edition of “The Mahatma Letters”. This letter is published as an independent article: “Masters Teach That There is No God”.
 
[5] The same p. 52, Letter X, 1926 edition of “The Mahatma Letters”.
 
[6] Letter LXXXIII, p. 394, 1926 edition of “The Mahatma Letters”.
 
[7] Letter XXIX, p. 223 (upper half), 1926 edition of “The Mahatma Letters” (same page in the TUP edition).
 
[8] “First Letter of K. H. to Hume”, in “Combined Chronology, for use with ‘The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett’ & ‘The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett’ ”, by Margaret Conger, published by Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, California, 1973, 47 pp., see p. 35.
 
[9] From the Letter X in “The Mahatma Letters”. See the text, published as an independent article: “Masters Teach That There is No God”.
 
000
 
The above article was published in the associated websites on 23 September 2019.  An initial version of it was included with no indication as to the name of the author in the July 2018 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, pp. 3-5. Original title: “Real Teachers Humbly Obey the Law”.
 
000