Part 1. Mahatmas and Chelas, by H.P. Blavatsky. Part 2. How a Chela found his Guru, by S. Ramaswamier. Part 3. The Sages of Himavat, by D.K. Mavalankar. Part 4. The Himalayan Brothers, do they exist? by M.M. Chatterji. Part 5. Interview with a Mahatma, by R.K. Brahmachari. Part 6. H.P. Blavatsky on the experiences of A.F. Tindall.

No spiritual progress at all is possible except by and through Humanity at large, when all sense of separateness, all selfishness, all feeling of personal interest and desire, has been merged in the wider consciousness of Unity. It is only when the whole of Humanity has attained happiness that the individual can hope to become permanently happy for the individual is an inseparable part of the Whole. Food for thought and a warning He who is thoroughly imbued with altruistic feelings, with a willingness to forget self, and readiness to help his neighbour to carry the burden of life, is to become the object of ridicule, slander, and vilification. It is one of the most difficult yet necessary things in life to learn to disdain. Disdain protects and crushes.

Kama-Deva is the first conscious all-embracing desire for universal good, love, and for all that lives and feels, needs help and kindness, the first feeling of infinite tender compassion and mercy that arose in the consciousness of the Creative Force, that came into life and being by a single ray of Light and Truth. That pure desire, of whom Love is born, is the progenitor of affection. Pythagoras’ Primeval Monad which, having flashed out like lightning from the Central Point and thrilled through the Germ retires into Darkness is the Rootless Root of all things. The Pythagorean system is based entirely upon sacred numbers, harmony, and correspondences or affinities. Space is filled with atoms actuated by ceaseless rotationary motion. Aggregated atoms, through mutual collisions, produce lateral movements of affinity. Sounds and colours are spiritual numerals. The cause of the splendour and variety of colours lies deep in the affinities of nature, for there is a singular and mysterious alliance between colour and sound. The Creative Force produces colours, sounds, and numbers, in the shape of rates of vibration, which compound and dissociate atoms and molecules. There is mutual sympathy between terrestrial and celestial things. Terrestrial natures receive the plenitude of the celestial; and celestial, of supercelestial essences, while every order of things proceeds gradually in a majestic descent from the highest to the lowest. True magic is firmly based on the mysterious affinities between organic and inorganic bodies, the visible productions of the four kingdoms, and the invisible powers of the universe. That which science calls gravitation, the ancients and the mediæval Hermetists called magnetism, attraction, affinity. Magnetism is attraction to the virtue of the substance, rather than blind attraction between two masses. Eastern Occultists bring down the properties of matter to attraction and repulsion; modern Scientists, to gravitation and phylogenetic relations. Affection is one of the most powerful attractions between two loving spirits — the embodied and the disembodied one — further enhanced by the harmony between the two and the magnetic purity of those left on earth. The attraction of the “shells” of the departed to places and persons is brought forth by the law of magneto-vital affinities. But the ascent of the higher Ego to the bliss of pure subjectivity will be impeded if its alter ego is weighted down with base feelings. The reincarnating Ego is drawn by magnetic attraction to the atmosphere of the parent or parents, whose vibrational frequency is most sympathetic to its own, and with whom its karmic affinities are strongest. The virtues of the Macrocosm are represented in the Microcosm or Man. The magnetic power of Man can thus draw those celestial virtues which correspond to his own. It is the science of Astrology that determines the nature of effects, by a knowledge of the law of magnetic affinities and attractions of the planetary bodies. But it is the Karma of the individual himself, which places him in that particular magnetic relation. The Occultist follows the ethnological affinities and their divergences in various nationalities, races, and sub-races, by observing the auric shades and gradations of colour of the inner man. He can thus unerringly pronounce to which of several distinct human families, and to what particular group or sub-group that man belongs. The secret of healing lies in the knowledge of the affinities between kindred atoms. Find that metal, wood, stone, or plant that has the most correspondential affinity with the body of the sufferer, and that particular agent will lead invariably to his cure. Strong will creates and sympathy attracts even adepts. In Europe, more than anywhere else, there is a Universal Brotherhood, an alliance of affinities, of strong magnetic yet dissimilar forces and polarities, centred around one dominant idea. The cause of spiritual failure lies in the egotism of the age, whether conscious or unconscious. And even western philanthropy, so often pervaded by selfish motives and worldly affinities, is unable to warm humanity with its beneficent rays. Blessed are the pure-hearted who have only intuition, for intuition is better than intellect.

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.

As the sun we see is not the true sun, so too the light of intellect is not the real sun of our moral being. Only by untiring devotion to the welfare of humanity, and unutterable aspiration to the Divine Self within, we can move closer to the true sun who is the source and object of our being, and the Light of Truth for All.