The New Avatar and The Destiny of the Soul Part 24

If, however, the intelligent student will follow these clews, he will find a ma.s.s of material and abundant evidence to corroborate the general thesis.

Every great religion has had its Avatar, its Redeemer, its _Christos_.

Each of these religions has adapted from its predecessors and transformed the old, in whole or in part, to suit the conditions and apparent needs of the time.

Each of these revivals of religion has been inst.i.tuted on account of the abominations of a dominant priesthood and the poverty and degradation of the ma.s.ses. What was at first claimed and inst.i.tuted as a Divine Revelation for the elevation and happiness of the whole people, has openly and shamelessly degenerated into enslavement of the ma.s.ses and the creation of a despotic and arrogant cla.s.s who enslaved both body and soul in the name of Religion.

Priest, Prince, and Potentate generally, united to terrorize through force, and by superst.i.tion and fear, in order to retain their power.

The reaction has invariably resulted from economic conditions, as in the case of the Protestant Reformation, when the gold sent to Rome through the shameless sale of Indulgences, threatened to impoverish the whole of Northern Europe, and Princes broke allegiance to the Priesthood in desperate self-protection.

Then, and then only, came sufficient protest and Reformation.

The religionist is apt to regard and designate Science as "profane," and Religion _per se_, as essentially "holy."

Nothing can be really considered "holy" that does not elevate, encourage, and inspire the whole human race and promote the Brotherhood of Man.

Whenever any religion fails to do this it becomes indeed a profanation of holy things.

The only religion that ever became the inspiration of a whole people, so far as history records, was that of Christna, with the teeming millions of India. Buddhism was driven out of India by the powerful and unscrupulous Brahmans, and took refuge in Ceylon, Thibet, and adjacent provinces.

The religion of Jesus met a similar fate from the Jews and the Roman governors, until Pagan Rome adapted and transformed it on the principle of dominance and exploitation inherent in the genius of the Latin Race.

Since which time no one will pretend to claim that the Religion of Jesus has ever dominated the human race or any large part of it.

Rome to-day no more represents the religion of Jesus than the Brahmans of to-day represent that of Christna, or Buddha, or the religion of the Vedas.

Nothing is so amazing to-day as that the intelligence of the present age fails to recognize this fact.

All of these religions of the past have adapted their teaching to the mult.i.tude through parable and allegory. Nothing in literature can be found more beautiful and inspiring, and at the same time comprehensible to the commonest intelligence, than Christna's "Parable of the Fisherman."

Christna and Buddha, like Jesus, taught to their disciples a "Secret Doctrine," apprehensible only to the few. "To you it is given to know the mysteries," but to others, who are without, it is not given.

It can readily be proven from at least a half score of the early Church Fathers (see page 70 _et seq._ of the author's "Mystic Masonry"), that the early church practiced "Initiation," patterned after those of the Gnostics, Therapeutia and the Mysteries of Egypt, and divided their neophytes and postulants into three degrees, as in Blue Lodge Masonry to-day.

While the great ma.s.s of mankind to-day are incapable of apprehending these genuine mysteries of life, and of the individual soul of man, it is doubtful if any civilization ever existed where so many were willing and capable of understanding them as are found here in America to-day.

The reason for this and the growth of intelligence have already been outlined.

A new race is slowly forming here, designated by the ancient Wisdom as the "Fifth Race," and called the _Manasic_, the growth of Intelligence, or "Mind."

It is above all things important that with this development of _Mind_ there should also develop that of _Buddhi_, or Loving Kindness, the essential element in the Universal Brotherhood of Man; a thing largely overlooked in the modern theory of Evolution, and ignored, or set at naught by Romanism by its dogmas, anathemas, and persecutions. Instead of the brotherhood of man, she has exhibited the cruelty and rapacity of devils. (Establishment of Roman Catholic Caste.)

This all-around development of the whole man, as essential to human evolution, is everywhere insisted upon by all the great Masters of antiquity, and is ill.u.s.trated and exemplified in the genuine Greater Mysteries.

Hence, the saying in Kabala, "The wicked _obey_ the law through _fear_; the wise _keep_ the law through _knowledge_." The Saviors all preached and practiced the "Good Law," and obedience to legal mandates.

The explanation usually given of an Avatar by the ancient Masters, as "a descent, embodiment, or incarnation of _Vishnu_," who is not only the "Preserver," but the "Rejuvenator" of mankind, is rather a _blind_, and was an interpretation given to the common people, or the "profane."

All things--even heaven and earth--pa.s.s away, and all things are renewed.

This renewal, or regeneration, through the constructive principle of evolution, is "designed" to be continually on higher and still higher planes.

It is not the range of experience, nor the growth of intelligence alone, that elevates man, but the progressive and constructive growth of the soul, from the physical toward the spiritual plane of Being.

This actual growth means Knowledge, Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge of the Law, Obedience to its Commands, and Realization of its Rewards.

This Constructive Psychology is the _growth of the Soul_.

Man pa.s.ses, therefore, from the age of Fable, Superst.i.tion, and Fear, to the age of Faith and Obedience, and finally to that of actual Knowledge.

This _age of Knowledge_--not for all of mankind, but for a larger number who are worthy and well-qualified, duly and truly prepared than was ever known at one time before--has at last dawned.

The question is continually asked, "Why do the Masters of Wisdom Conceal their Knowledge?"

The only adequate answer is that so few are ready, willing, and able to receive it in the right way, and to use and not abuse it.

Those who deny that any such knowledge has ever existed, or exists to-day, or can exist, had better waste no time over it. They cannot alter it, nor destroy it, as their predecessors have tried to do for ages, often murdering or crucifying all who were even suspected of possessing it. They might as well try to destroy the law of gravitation, or imagine that by murdering the foremost mathematician of the day that they had destroyed the science of mathematics. I am speaking of _Knowledge_ of Spiritual things.

A new Avatar, therefore, is not simply an individual, though many individuals may understand and exemplify it--the Initiated, the Illuminati--and one man may lead in representing it.

To call it "the descent and embodiment, or Incarnation of Vishnu," in a metaphysical sense, the Spirit (generically), that renews, rejuvenates, transforms, and regenerates, is by no means an empty metaphor.

In the same sense we speak of the "Genius of Greece," or of Rome, or of Civilization.

The _idea_ is composite, and represents an underlying and _universal principle and potency_.

But after all metaphor and generalization, each Avataric movement centered around an individual _Man_, and this _Man_ embodied the principle and undertook the special work of an evangel, or _Christos_, or "Avatar,"

amongst men.

Not only have there been many Avatars, and many Buddhas, but when we realize the meaning of these terms and the mysteries they represent, we discover that while it may be the special mission of one, like Christna, or Buddha, or Jesus, to undertake the work of enlightening and redeeming any age; there are other Masters, or Illuminati, engaged in other work, on different planes, to promote the same general results.

The result with each of the great Saviors of mankind has been, that the common people, or the priesthood, have eventually either crucified or deified them.

In the case of Jesus they have done both. Eight separate and deliberate attempts have already been made to a.s.sa.s.sinate the present representative of the School of Natural Science, who was educated in the order of the Illuminati, and delegated by that Order to present these great truths to the world to-day.

This individual is only in the broadest _metaphysical_ sense (as already defined), an Avatar, which, as shown, is a _composite idea_, _focused_ in and _represented by_ an individual man or teacher.

The work of this Master is to instruct, to exemplify, and to demonstrate, the ancient Wisdom on Scientific lines, in keeping with the needs, the opportunities, and the scientific spirit of the present age.

He does not preach to the mult.i.tude in parables. He undertakes to instruct the few who are ready and qualified to receive such instruction, and who will properly use and not abuse it, and he does this "without money and without price"; "without the hope of fee or reward." (Herein is the Avataric Spirit of Freemasonry.)

What his reward will be with the rabble, or with the "money changers," he knows too well, but to such as he, fear is unknown.

I am speaking not _for_ him, but _of_ him, after the blessed privilege of seven years of the most intimate a.s.sociation, and such co-operation as I have been capable of giving.

His plan and motive seem to be to get as much as possible of this knowledge of the soul, and of spiritual things, to the attention of the "progressive intelligence of the present age," in order that it may become exemplified and diffused among all cla.s.ses, and for the benefit of the whole human race.

We have pa.s.sed the age of fable, and of blind faith, and have come to the age of fact and law. _Kali Yuga_ means the Iron Age.