That life is educative is a very common idea. Everyone talks about learning the lessons of life, about gaining experience, and so forth. But there is a great deal of confusion because people, generally speaking, do not know what it is they are supposed to learn. A boy at school or a young man in college knows why he is there and what he is learning. When a young man or woman specializes in any subject, he or she knows the purpose and has some idea of what future awaits him or her. But how many are aware of the nature of their studies in the School of Life? How many can answer the questions: "What is the purpose of this School of Life? When shall I graduate from here? We are here to learn; but learn what, and for what purpose? Are people fitted for gaining knowledge from the experiences of day-to-day existence? Has their ordinary school and college education equipped them to live in peace and to grow in rhythm? Has their knowledge of science brought to them tranquillity of mind? Has their understanding of philosophy enabled them to face with equipoise the anguish of the heart? Has their study of poetry humanized and beautified their character?

In the struggle of existence, the learned and the unlearned pass through similar experiences of joy or sorrow, with more or less the same reactions to them. For example, in meeting frustrations in life, the learned graduate, even the expert scientist or the scholarly metaphysician, reacts more or less in the same manner as the unlearned peasant. Nay more, the unlearned poor often have a philosophy of life, however crude and simple, that enables them to face their troubles with a sturdier resignation than is displayed by the rich and the scholarly. Truly, the spiritual path is often easier to the poor and the guileless than to the cultured and the rich.

There is another view connected with the concept of self-education. It is said that a self-made man is a graduate of the School of Life. In the world of competition, in the race of life, the self-made man is one who has achieved success, one who has been able to amass wealth. But can such a man bear his misfortunes more stoically than the ordinary man? Is he master of his passions, his anger, greed, etc.? If he has educated himself and made himself, can he teach others to attain what they are longing for—contentment with life, which is ever progressing?

In the same way, what is ordinarily known as self-education is not education of the self, about the self, or by the self; it only means the effort to get ordinary knowledge about one subject or another, which is often unrelated to life and its actual problem. So also, growth and progress mean growth in the worldly sense, progress in the social set. Progress is generally understood as moving on from poverty to wealth; and often that progress includes the gratifying of sense-life, of lust and greed. Thus common terms like self-education, progress, growth, etc., are loosely used, and neither in our numerous educational institutions, nor in our social order and the civilization of today, is there real Self-education and Self-growth.

Theosophy teaches that just as the human body is built on a pattern and evolves according to a plan, so also the Self in man unfolds according to pattern and plan. Modern science is unaware of that pattern, though along many lines, especially in chemistry, physiology and embryology, it is nearing the view that nature moves according to design. The human body with its definite number of organisms expresses a pattern, and the way in which that pattern grows indicates a plan. Theosophy teaches that the fundamental law of growth, from within without, in the human kingdom, is the Law of Self-Redemption. As Madame Blavatsky states in her Secret Doctrine:

There is one Eternal Law in nature, one that always tends to adjust contraries and to produce final harmony. It is owing to this law of spiritual development superseding the physical and purely intellectual, that mankind will become freed from its false gods, and find itself finally—SELF-REDEEMED. (II, 420)

This is a very significant statement and contains some basic ideas that we have to use for educating ourselves: (1) Man has to redeem himself; no one else can redeem him. In redeeming himself, he educates himself. (2) This redemption or self-education has a dual aspect: We have to give up something, and we have to acquire something. We have to discard our false gods and we have to co-operate with the spiritual law of our own soul which is superior to both body and mind. This education leads to real growth by overcoming the conflict caused by body and mind.

Let us study these principles.

(1) Man has to redeem himself. Applied to our subject of educating ourselves, this principle indicates that we begin by acquiring the right attitude to all knowledge. That right attitude is not to accept anything on blind faith, without investigation and without reason. In the modern world, true science possesses that attitude, but in the ancient world the practice of testing and checking and verifying was cultivated in every department of knowledge. This is so important that even today the Chelas of the Great Gurus are taught to check by their reason and intuition the postulates and axioms of soul-science; further, they learn to check by actual experience and experiment what their reason has accepted as true.

As in the past, so today, students of Theosophy are advised to check in the same manner all they hear and read, beginning with simple and basic facts of Theosophy. The mental habit necessary consists in examining the propositions of Theosophy, not doubtingly to find flaws, but patiently trying to understand those propositions. This is important because most people today live blindly accepting what they hear or what they read. The human soul cannot redeem itself when its chief instrument of mind is allowed to be exploited by priest or politician, by scientist or sociologist. Even for boys and girls Theosophy advocates the cultivation of reason and intuition and the habit of inquiry and examination, patient and thorough. Theosophy does not favour what is ordinarily called religious education, i.e., cramming into the heads of boys and girls religious beliefs which their own reason cannot accept, a method which, moreover, fosters the spirit of sectarianism. So every man and every woman must some day take the first step in self-education and begin to examine by the light of reason his or her own beliefs, customs and habits. In this examination each one needs the guidance of knowledge, and the sincere individual soon finds that there is real guidance in the ancient Brahma-Vidya, which in modern times we call Theosophy.

(2) The task of self-redemption has a dual aspect. Man must become free from his false gods, and, next, he must find the spiritual Law working within himself.

What are false gods? We are not using the words "god" and "gods" merely in the religious sense, though the god of the religion into which one is born is accepted blindly by most people. It is said that Hindus are polytheists because they believe in many gods, while Muslims, Christians and Jews are monotheists, i.e., believers in only one god. But when we analyse their beliefs, customs and habits, we find that all of them worship different kinds of gods. The Muslim does not only worship Allah, or the Jew only Jehovah; all worship also the god of wealth, the god of fame, the god of power, the god of happiness, and so on. There are many gods a person has.

First, there is the god of one's own creed. The Muslim believes in Allah, the Parsi in Ahura Mazda, the Christian in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.

Then there is the god of society to which that Muslim or Parsi or Christian belongs. In our civilization, we are influenced by what other people say and do. For instance, the Parsi is afraid of public opinion and will ask, "What will my community say?" Often he is more afraid of his community than even of Ahura Mazda! Similarly, the church-going Christian is more anxious about the good opinion of his priests and prelates and fellow religionists than the good opinion of Jesus the Christ!

Next, the same person who follows one god in religion, another god in society, adopts still another god in the shape of the programme of his political party and that party's leaders. Here we come across people who follow the god of nationalism.

Then, the same person who has religious, social and political gods adopts still another from science. He supports his questionable habits, his own likes and dislikes, by quoting what he believes to be facts of science. A meateater, for instance, may quote scientific authorities against vegetarianism, because he likes meat! One fond of alcoholic beverages may quote some "authority" who says that alcohol in small doses can do no harm and even does good!

We could go on quoting many more "gods" that ordinary men and women worship blindly. Everyone has to learn to put away these "gods" of blind belief and to seek the Light of the Spirit, of the one true God. That true God is our own Divine Self who is capable of enlightening our own reason. And more—the way in which that soul functions, enables us to adjust all contraries and to produce harmony.

In each one of us the body, the mind and the spirit have come together. We may or may not recognize this, but our recognition or non-recognition does not make any difference to the fact. In each one of us the Law of Spirit operates; just as laws of body govern the body, and laws of mind govern the mind, so also the laws of soul and spirit govern their workings. Physiology teaches us a great deal about the laws of the body, and psychology teaches us that the mind moves according to its own laws. While physiology is on surer ground, modern western psychology is a young and halting science and the actual knowledge it offers is meagre. When we come to soul and spirit, we find that modern science does not even recognize them. Theosophy reverses the process and begins with the soul as an independent entity using the mind and the body. All of us know that body and mind are two of the constituents of man, but most people are vague and indefinite about the soul.

The maxim, "a sound mind in a sound body," is accepted by all. But the combination is somewhat rare. Who has not experienced the conflict of mind and body within himself? Illness of body disables the mind; mental moods affect the body. And because there is conflict within us, we find ourselves in conflict with other people. This internal conflict is the greatest problem for healers of body and of mind. How to reduce the conflict to a minimum and establish harmony to the maximum degree? We cannot fully succeed till we recognize that there is the spiritual Law of the Soul, which alone is capable of resolving this conflict. Self-education consists in establishing rhythm and harmony within ourselves by not allowing the pairs of opposites to arise in the life of body and mind.

Theosophy teaches that the soul in us is alone capable of establishing harmony between the conflicting factors of our own nature. Our senses and our reason often advise contrary actions; our body and our mind are in conflict; our likes are selfish and our aspirations are unselfish; as long as the soul, as the supreme and final judge, will not act, so long conflict and warfare will continue. And as long as the conflict between the members of our own constitution continues, so long shall we find opponents and enemies in the world. For this reason, we find that such scriptures of the soul as the Gita, the Gathas, the Dhammapada, the Tao Te King refer to the pairs of opposites. Zoroaster begins his great sermon by announcing that there are two spirits opposed to each other. In the Gita, over and over again we are called upon to rise above the pairs of opposites. Chapter IV says about the wise man:

He is contented with whatever he receives fortuitously, is free from the influence of "the pairs of opposites" and from envy, the same in success and failure; even though he act he is not bound by the bonds of action. (IV, 22)

We find an identical teaching in the passage from The Secret Doctrine we have considered above. The spiritual man is full of contentment with his lot—with his environment, with his Karma—but he has first to go beyond the pairs of opposites.

There are many pairs of opposites, but their main divisions are three: heat and cold in reference to the body; pain and pleasure in reference to feelings and emotions; fame and ignominy in reference to the mind. These three are further summed up in one supreme pair of opposites—raga-dvesha, attraction and aversion. A truly spiritual person is full of contentment with whatever comes, by the power of rising above attractions and aversions; and because he has done so, he is without envy. There are many people who seem resigned to their lot, but it is a false kind of contentment; they are content because there is nothing else to do. Their disposition has become sour and bitter. That is not true resignation; they speak of the "good luck" of others, and even though they may not be envious, they do wish that good luck for themselves. This false contentment and resignation has a corroding influence; it weakens the mind, narrows the heart, and dulls the very vitality, Prana, of the body. In daily life, we have to act; in the battles of existence we have to accept a failure here and a defeat there, but we must do so by rising above the pairs of opposites, so that we face with equal-mindedness success as well as failure, and face them with cheer and not with a whine.

Thus, to face the events of life is to learn the lessons they bring. Let us overcome the two main obstacles: First, do not be passively resigned and repeat, "This is my Karma"; but say cheerfully, "Now let me learn what this particular Karma has to teach. Next, do not be afraid to act; do not try to run away from the field of duty. The Gita teaches that by acting, by doing our duties, the fetters of destiny, the bonds of fate, the chains of Karma, fall away. A truly spiritual man is not bound and feels not the good or evil effects of Karma, yet he lives and labours. Though acting, he is not bound.

All of us ordinary mortals are crushed by the many pairs of opposites; nowhere can we be free from their deadening effects. After the birth of the body, the infant learns to gain the sight of the eyes. At school, in college, in the struggles of life, the young man or woman gains the sight of mind; but very few obtain the sight of the heart, because they do not educate themselves. Heart-perception is what we have to obtain, and growth of the self is marked by that perception of the heart. As long as we do not obtain heart-perception, we are infants crying in the night, crying for the light, and the end of life comes ere we have found that light. Metaphorically speaking, men and women are dead units; it is said that in the midst of life we live in death. Theosophy says to the student who has awakened himself by self-edication: Behold, you live in the midst of the dead. The truly living are men and women of heart-perception, and the mark of that heart-perception is joyous contentment which energizes them to fear not the evils of life but to conquer them. Such Conquerors of Life and Death are the Perfected Souls who act as Teachers to all who are pupils in the School of Life.