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.Q.But if it is punished in this life for the misdeeds committed in aprevious one, then it is this Ego that ought to be rewarded also, whetherhere, or when disincarnated.A.And so it is.If we do not admit of any punishment outside of this earth,it is because the only state the Spiritual Self knows of, hereafter, is thatof unalloyed bliss.Q.What do you mean?A.Simply this: crimes and sins committed on a plane of objectivity and in aworld of matter, cannot receive punishment in a world of pure subjectivity.We believe in no hell or paradise as localities; in no objective hellfiresand worms that never die, nor in any Jerusalem with streets paved withsapphires and diamonds.What we believe in is a postmortem state or mentalcondition, such as we are in during a vivid dream.We believe in animmutable law of absolute Love, Justice, and Mercy.And believing in it, wesay: Whatever the sin and dire results of the original Karmic transgressionof the now incarnated Egos no man (or the outer material and periodical formof the Spiritual Entity) can be held, with any degree of justice,responsible for the consequences of his birth.He does not ask to be born,nor can he choose the parents that will give him life.In every respect heis a victim to his environment, the child of circumstances over which he hasno control; and if each of his transgressions were impartially investigated,there would be found nine out of every ten cases when he was the one sinnedagainst, rather than the sinner.It is on this transgression that the cruel and illogical dogma of the FallenAngels has been built.It is explained in Vol.II of The Secret Doctrine.All our "Egos" are thinking and rational entities (Manasaputas) who hadlived, whether under human or other forms, in the precedent life cycle(Manvantara), and whose Karma it was to incarnate in the man of this one.Itwas taught in the Mysteries that, having delayed to comply with this law (orhaving "refused to create" as Hinduism says of the Kumaras and Christianlegend of the Archangel Michael), i.e., having failed to incarnate in duetime, the bodies predestined for them got defiled, hence the original sin ofthe senseless forms and the punishment of the Egos.That which is meant bythe rebellious angels being hurled down into Hell is simply explained bythese pure Spirits or Egos being imprisoned in bodies of unclean matter,flesh.Life is at best a heartless play, a stormy sea to cross, and a heavy burdenoften too difficult to bear.The greatest philosophers have tried in vain tofathom and find out its raison d'être, and have all failed except those whohad the key to it, namely, the Eastern sages.Life is, as Shakespearedescribes it:& but a walking shadow-a poor player,That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,And then is heard no more.It is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Page 66The Key To Theosophy - HP Blavatsky.txtSignifying nothing.Nothing in its separate parts, yet of the greatest importance in itscollectivity or series of lives.At any rate, almost every individual lifeis, in its full development, a sorrow.And are we to believe that poor,helpless man, after being tossed about like a piece of rotten timber on theangry billows of life, is, if he proves too weak to resist them, to bepunished by never-ending damnation, or even a temporary punishment? Never!Whether a great or an average sinner, good or bad, guilty or innocent, oncedelivered of the burden of physical life, the tired and worn-out Manu("thinking Ego") has won the right to a period of absolute rest and bliss.The same unerringly wise and just rather than merciful Law, which inflictsupon the incarnated Ego the Karmic punishment for every sin committed duringthe preceding life on Earth, provided for the now disembodied Entity a longlease of mental rest, i.e., the entire oblivion of every sad event, aye, tothe smallest painful thought, that took place in its last life as apersonality, leaving in the soul-memory but the reminiscence of that whichwas bliss, or led to happiness.Plotinus, who said that our body was thetrue river of Lethe, for "souls plunged into it forget all," meant more thanhe said.For, as our terrestrial body is like Lethe, so is our celestialbody in Devachan, and much more.Q.Then am I to understand that the murderer, the transgressor of law divineand human in every shape, is allowed to go unpunished?A.Who ever said that? Our philosophy has a doctrine of punishment as sternas that of the most rigid Calvinist, only far more philosophical andconsistent with absolute justice.No deed, not even a sinful thought, willgo unpunished; the latter more severely even than the former, as a thoughtis far more potential in creating evil results than even a deed.Verily I say unto you, that whosoever looketh at a woman to lust after her,hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.We believe in an unerring law of Retribution, called Karma, which assertsitself in a natural concatenation of causes and their unavoidable results.Q.And how, or where, does it act?A [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]