At last people grew so selfish and material that the mahatmas were no longer sought as guides and teachers by the great mass of humanity. The chief reason for their withdrawal lies of course in the danger of entrusting their occult knowledge to people who would selfishly misuse it and so bring disasters upon themselves and others. Unfortunately, the same restriction still prevails, for though people have progressed enormously, they have not yet learned the folly and the dangers of selfishness. The mahatmas, then, in those far-off times, began special work with individuals here and there who were more promising than humanity in its unevolved masses. For, of course, at that time there was also the same inequality of development among human beings that holds everywhere today.
Some egos are older than others and therefore more developed in character and intelligence.
It was these advanced egos that the mahatmas singled out and gathered into schools or colleges in different parts of the world. Every country in antiquity had one or more of these occult schools for the study of the spiritual sciences, called in theosophical writings the Mystery schools. Two important points should be brought out here. One is that even among the mahatmas themselves there are many grades of development. There are other still greater and more evolved beings on the Ladder of Life, who are very properly to be called the Teachers of these Great Sages or Seers themselves, and who are also Superior, or still more highly evolved, Men than the Great Sages themselves are.