THE TOUCH OF INDIA'S MYSTICISM
With the often observed recoil
against repression there has been with the spiritual awakening, a
reaction which has carried many beyond the Western method of careful,
demonstrated thinking, and introduced the visionary theories of the
East, which represent the ideas of the childhood
of the race. This occultism of India
is the antithesis of Spiritualism, which
absorbed the modicum of truth it
contains, leaving a large remainder as fossils of monstrous beliefs.
Instead of delving in the rubbish
heap of the past with the expectation of
finding some jewels, perchance mouldering from the decay of its wearer,
dead thousands of years, let us go forward to the new fields where the
horizon broadens out to the universe.
We have not one thing to learn that
is fresh and new from the "hidden wisdom" of the Orient; not one fact in
physical science or spiritual philosophy. Moral maxims and instructions
are not included, for these are
the world's property, and no race or sacred writing has a patent on
them.
The very fact that there is a claim
of mystery, of hidden meaning, should condemn. This claim of the riddle,
that only the inspired priest, or the chosen taken with incantations
into the holy of holies, can interpret, proves, of itself, the riddle
worthless, and the interpreters frauds, or infatuated. Knowledge has no
mysteries, has no ritual to enter her gates, no password, or sign or
grip. She spreads out her store, from the infusoria which finds an ocean
in a drop of dew, to the stellar system which stretches beyond the power
of the telescope. The man of knowledge has
no secrets to sell, or whereby to
surround himself with mystery
He says to all: "Come with your lamps,
your tapers and torches. Mine will
burn no dimmer for lighting yours,"
and the world flames with the torches
of the knowledge he freely imparts.
Spiritualism has felt the touch of the
occult Indian mysticism, and has suffered just as far as it has yielded.
From thence came reincarnation and pre-existence, which have caused
dissension and, if received, would as effectually destroy the spiritual
philosophy as death would destroy life. From thence comes the constant
pressure to go to the pundit for spiritual knowledge, instead of seeking
it at the spiritual source. How strong this belief is, is shown by the
credence given the claims of the high priestess
of Theosophy, and the existence of the
entirely fabulous "Mahatmas."
It is time Spiritualism cast aside
dependency or the past. It has not to dig
in the fermenting compost heaps of
India for truths which it already has expressed in modern phrase. Its
advance guard, the extreme picket line,
are the truth-bearers, not the laggards
in the rear.
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