The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-01-01
CONTINUED from page ID
THEOSOPHY AS A CUL |

aminer Of Bombay, India. q few years
ago.
Modern theosophists claim to have
the true solution for the problems OF
the universe and of man from the
Upanishads and Buddhist Sutras
through oriental savants, nahatmas,
the faithful repositories Of a profound
and superhuman wisdom. The objects
of their society are: (a) to form the
nucleus of universal brotherhood Of
humanity without distinction Of race,
creed. sex, caste or color. (b) to en-.
courage the study of comparative re-
ligion, philosophy and s,,ionce; (e) to
Investigate the unexplainable laws OF
nature and the powers latent in man.
fiy object this evening is not to
consider theosophy as a system of the
hidden and occult, although it is this
view of it that has attracted the many
who delight in the weird and mys-
terious, and whose previous religious
convictions have been Of the vaguest.
| prefer to look at it as Mr.. Beaman
presents it to us-a definite code of
thought or belief, Offering a solution
of the problems of life and destiny.
Modern Theosophy.
so presented, modern theosophy is
reducible to three fundamental dog
mas.
First, the oneness in essence OF the
spirit in man with God; second, re-
incarnation; third, Karma, or the law
of justice.
"rhe chief difficulty of the Christian
system, says Mr.. Beaman, is it's doc
trine of personal God, distinct from
the world, it's creator, preserver and
governor, the Father of men, whose
attributes are wisdom, omnipotence
and love. Such a doctrine cannot be
reconciled with the evils and miseries
of human life and the unequal distri-
button of the goods of life, fortune
and reputation. God would be the au
thor Of all this cruelty and injustice.
I'm the theosophical system, he ex.
plains, God is not really distinct from
the world, since the world necessarily
emanates from Him and mems souls
are but sparks of the divine essence
endowed, however, with freedom. Be
cause Of freedom men have sinned
and, as a consequence, filled the WORLD
with evil.
"This theory avoids, indeed, the diff
oI1l fvr of fox -,
the administration of a wise, omnip
otent and loving ruler, but it. does not
get rid of the difficulty altogether; il
merely transfers it to the divine es
sence itself. If these evils are the re
suit, or punishment of sin, and sin is
the act of mans soul, and mans soul
is one in essence with God, then sin is
the act of the divine essence and Goo
Himself is the author of sin. Besides
since the world is a necessary emana
ton of God, it must be absolutely the
best world God can produce. This
makes God directly and necessarily re
sponsible for all the sin and evil OF
the world. The Christian idea of q
personal God, distinct from the world
at least maintains the dignity and per
lection of the divine essence and pre-
sents the world to us as being, not
the very best God could produce, but
the best for the end God had in view
namely, to test mans virtue and fidel
ity to Gods law, to give him free
scope to bring out the best that was,
in him by conflict with evil and thus
prepare him for the reward exceed
ing great" in the life to come.
The Law of Karma.
"The law of Karma, of which theoso
phists make SO much, is merely the
law of retributiye justice: AS man
sows, so shall he reap, and as such
it is common to Christianity ant
theosophy. The difference is in the
method by which it is carried out. Fol-
the Christian there is only one life
and the final reckoning comes at itf
close. The theosophist believes in ar
indefinite series of lives, each start
ing with the resultant Of virtue OF
sin from the previous one. After deatl
the soul passes into another body ex
actly proportional to the merits or de
merits of its former life.
'The Christian view has in its favor
the obvious fact that every man knows
he has one life and that he has nc
consciousness of having lived a pre-
viods life, and the exercise of .yog' OF
the jogging of memory cannot evokt
such consciousness. Besides, the scrip
ture tells him that it is appointed fol
men once to die and after this the
judgment
"The burden Of proving that there is.
an indefinite series of lives, therefore
rests on the theosophist His onl.
plausible argument is an hypothesis
which accounts for the problem of lif
and the inequality Of gifts and suf
ferings. But the trouble with this
hypothesis is that it does not work |,
looks good when in the case of the
two infants who come into the world
the one well born and the other iii
born, the theosophist says one is be
ing rewarded and the other punished
for the deeds Of their former lives
But when applied to the well-born who
later in life falls into dreadful calami
ties notwithstanding their meritorioui
conduct, or to the ili-born who without
merit of their own rise to high well
being, or to the innocent who are vic
Tins of fire and earthquake and thu
guilty who escape 1t, it does not worl