Superhuman Men In History And In Religion by Besant Annie

Author:Besant, Annie [Besant, Annie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Global Grey
Published: 2015-02-20T16:00:00+00:00

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IV. THE RESTORATION OF THE MYSTERIES

LONDON, 8th June 1913.

FRIENDS:

The very title of this lecture obviously implies certain ideas on the part of the speaker. First, that the speaker believes that such things as “Mysteries” exist or have existed; clearly that they existed in the past, otherwise the word ‘restoration’ would be inapplicable; but the presence of that word in the title also implies the thought on the part of the speaker that restoration is possible. It is within the limits of that phrase that I want, if I can, to lead your thoughts tonight to these great possibilities, the evolution of which from within the man is not impossible. I want, if I can, to show you that when these Mysteries existed there was a general recognition of the fact of a higher evolution for man than the evolution that was normal and common at the time, that those higher possibilities of the human Spirit were matters of common belief, if not of common achievement; but that today the very belief in the possibility is regarded as well-nigh a superstition, an absurdity, and as long as this belief is thus regarded, man’s evolution cannot go on as rapidly as some of us believe it might advance were these believed in. With the ordinary laws of nature worked with even intelligently, progress is comparatively slow; but if it be true that a deeper knowledge can quicken the turning of the wheels of evolution; if it be true that as regards man’s higher nature knowledge may play the same part as it plays in the rapid improvement of the lower nature of the animal kingdom; if knowledge in the higher realms, as in the lower, is the great means of advance by which man learns to co­operate with nature, and by that co-operation to quicken the working of natural laws; if that be true, then at the stage that man has reached today there open before him magnificent possibilities, and those possibilities - placed within reach of achievement, however difficult that achievement may be - do seem to open up vistas of splendour and of beauty that we must naturally desire for the growth of the human race.

Now, looking at religions in the past, we find a universal recognition that Religion has two sides: one, the public or exoteric, meant for the masses of the people; the other, the hidden or esoteric, open practically only to those who were willing to strive to perfect themselves more rapidly than their fellows; open to those who were willing to pay the price of knowledge everywhere - industry, labour, self-surrender - in order that the knowledge might be gained. Exoteric religion, according to the universal view of the past, had to do with man as we know him in this lower world; man in his consciousness working in the brain, working through the physical body, expressing itself in actions, emotions, thoughts. Thought, emotion, conduct: these are the three mani­festations of consciousness in man

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