Of a total of 700 verses, 423 are protreptics to Devotional Love (Bhakti). We have arranged these verses in eighteen sections, thus imparting the salient points of Bhakti in a coherent and meaningful order. Our selections are from W.Q. Judge’s recension of The Bhagavad Gita: The Book of Devotion, prepared in collaboration with James Henderson Connelly, with “Antecedent Words” and footnotes, first published in 1890. 1. Qualifications. 2. Devotion. Through Brahman. Through faith: Know that food which is pleasant to each one, as also sacrifices, mortification, and alms giving, are of three kinds; hear what their divisions are. Through sacrifice: Those who practice severe self-mortification not enjoined in the Scriptures are full of hypocrisy and pride, longing for what is past and desiring more to come. They, full of delusion, torture the powers and faculties which are in the body, and me also, who am in the recesses of the innermost heart; know that they are of an infernal tendency. Through gifts: OM TAT SAT: these are said to be the threefold designation of the Supreme Being. By these in the beginning were sanctified the knowers of Brahman, the Vedas, and sacrifices. Therefore the sacrifices, the giving of alms, and the practising of austerities are always among those who expound Holy Writ preceded by the word OM. Through renunciation: Among these divided opinions hear my certain decision, O best of the Bharatas, upon this matter of disinterested forsaking, which is declared to be of three kinds. It is impossible for mortals to utterly abandon actions; but he who gives up the results of action is the true renouncer. The threefold results of action — unwished for, wished for, and mixed — accrue after death to those who do not practice this renunciation, but no results follow those who perfectly renounce. Through action: Hear now, O Dhananjaya, conqueror of wealth, the differences which I shall now explain in the discerning power and the steadfast power within, according to the three classes flowing from the divisions of the three qualities. Now hear what are the three kinds of pleasure wherein happiness comes from habitude and pain is ended. Through spiritual knowledge. 3. Devotion’s True Path. Head learning versus heart doctrine. 4. Fight Arjuna, fight! 5. He and She. 6. Liberation. From re-birth. From the fruits of action. From the pairs of opposites. Outward looking senses disturb the soul. Unaffected by pain or pleasure, self is content within Self. When at one with the Supreme, self experiences the imperishable bliss of Self. Equal-minded, fearless, just, pure, unexpecting, contend with whatever come to pass, full of faith is my beloved. Final steps. 7. Mansion of death. 8. Meditation. Raise self by Self. In what particular form shall I meditate on thee? The divine form includes all forms. 9. Mind control. 10. Nature’s three qualities. Overcome the three qualities by disconnecting the bonds of action. 11. Origin of perfections. 12. Primacy of personal duty. 13. Restrain thy senses! 14. Spirit, when clothed in matter, experiences the qualities of matter. Bodies are the envelopes of the Soul. 15. The object of wisdom is me. What is wisdom? 16. The ignorant cannot see me. 17. The wicked despise me. 18. The wise worship me.

How may it be possible for anyone, who has no independent means, to subsist upon entering Chelaship? Reply by H.P. Blavatsky. During the eleven years of the existence of the Theosophical Society I have known, out of the seventy-two regularly accepted chelas on probation and the hundreds of lay candidates — only three who have not hitherto failed, and one only who had a full success. Can the Mahatmas be selfish? True knowledge consists in getting at the root of all phenomena, and thus arriving at a correct understanding of the primal cause, the “rootless root,” which is not an effect in its turn but THAT, the ever incomprehensible Causeless Cause (Be-ness) of both spirit and matter, and the oldest dogma in Occultism. Is the desire to live selfish? The only difference between an ordinary man, who works along with Nature during the course of cosmic evolution, and an Occultist, is that the latter, by his superior knowledge, adopts such methods of training and discipline as to quicken the process of his evolution, and thus ascend in a comparatively short period of time to that apex of physical and spiritual perfection (a god on earth) towards which the ordinary man may take billions of years to reach. Beyond the Hall of Learning is the Great White Lodge, the magnificent hierarchy of Masters, Gurus and Chelas all over the world. Every aspirant to chelaship has a Guru, although he many not be aware of it. Guru is the chela’s benefactor. If we have reverenced our teacher, we will now revere our unknown Guru. We must place our hand in his hand with all love, and trust, and confidence, for it is to mighty Karma we have appealed, and the Guru is an agent of Karma. The faith and love between Guru and chela act as a stimulus to both, and as a purifier to the mind of the chela. The business of the Guru is to keep adjusting the chela’s progress, and not to submerge him with knowledge, or push him forward. The Guru–chela affinity is sacred and precious, not lightly taken up or lightly dropped.

“Light on the Path” is a treatise written for the personal use of those who are ignorant of the Eastern Wisdom, and who desire to enter within Its influence, authored by Mabel Collins, nom de plume of Kenningale R. Cook. Warning by Boris de Zirkoff: The use of the physical senses as a stepping-stone to spirituality is fraught with danger and disappointment. H.P. Blavatsky defends the Cause of Truth and its detractors. The sparkle of that precious jewel, “Light on the Path,” has been dimmed by an indelible dark stain. Madame Blavatsky is the origin and fountainhead of all Esoteric Knowledge, and has the means and the necessary knowledge to teach. Mabel Collins may have been “studying” Madame Blavatsky for a time but she never “studied under” her, as she claims to have done. See how those whom god wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason. Firstly, out of the blue, Dr. Coues proudly proclaimed himself “Perpetual President of the Esoteric Theosophical Society of America.” He then began casting slurs upon Madame Blavatsky and upon the Section of which she is the Head, in order to destroy one through the other. Secondly, for a woman to confess to the world that she has been deliberately deceiving it for years, simply for the pleasure of fathering the cause of a deception upon a supposed enemy, is a psychic riddle in itself. While the latter publicly proclaimed her own untruthfulness in order to slander a hated enemy, the former jumped at the opportunity to gratify his wounded vanity at the cost of breaking the pledge and his word of honour to the Theosophical Society, which he took upon joining it.

People will never conspire except against real Power. In their blind ignorance, the Mysteries and the Unknown have been, and ever will be, objects of Terror for them. Would-be aspirants must not lure themselves with the idea of any possibility of their becoming practical Occultists by mere book-knowledge. Study and you will believe. Be prepared to devote your whole life. Be prepared for martyrdom. Give up personal pride and all selfish purposes, and be ready for everlasting encounters with friends and foes. Beware of Public Opinion, this invisible, intangible, omnipresent, despotic tyrant; this thousand-headed Hydra (the more dangerous for being composed of mediocrities) is not an enemy to be scorned by any would-be Occultist, courageous as he may be. Barrier upon barrier, obstacles in every form and shape will present themselves to the student.

1. The first is like the nightingale’s sweet voice chanting a song of parting to its mate. 2. The second comes as the sound of a silver cymbal of the Dhyanis, awakening the twinkling stars. Our body is an Aeolian harp chorded with two sets of strings: one made of pure silver, the other of catgut. 3. The next is as the plaint melodious of the ocean-sprite imprisoned in its shell. It is the Voice of Divine Wisdom and last word of the Secret Doctrine. 4. And this is followed by the chant of Vina, attuning fellow disciples to the harmonies of Wisdom. Even the memory of the sleeper is like the seven-stringed Aeolian harp, his mind sweeping over the chords. 5. The fifth like sound of bamboo-flute shrills in thine ear, bestowing knowledge of the awful mysteries and priceless secrets of initiation. 6. It changes next into a trumpet-blast, beckoning the Dragon of Esoteric Wisdom to come out of Darkness. 7. The last vibrates like the dull rumbling of a thunder-cloud. When the six are slain and at the Master’s feet are laid, then is the pupil merged into the One, becomes that One, and lives therein. The seventh swallows all the other sounds: they die, and then are heard no more. The two Opposing Forces are finally harmonised. The freed Spirit rises to its former glory. The Great Serpent uncoils. Only Sat remains. The Higher Self is swallowed up by the Great Serpent; the lower, disappears forever.