Social work is the outgoing impulse to help the less fortunate—either by alms-giving or through other forms of service—and seems to have its basis in the scriptural injunctions, which advocate feeding the poor, care for the sick and the old, etc.

Madame Blavatsky writes in Five Messages (p. 8): "Theosophists are of necessity the friends of all those movements in the world, whether intellectual or simply practical, for the amelioration of the condition of mankind." But we must not lose sight of the fact that man is not just his body, nor just his mind but something more. Instead of laying emphasis on mere material charity—providing food, clothing and shelter, or amenities for the diseased—more importance must be given to alleviating mental and moral suffering. Mr. Judge observes that the physical woes of the race are only skin-deep; the real cause of these woes is mental and moral.

It has been observed that in the last few years, the usual problems of poverty, lower life expectancy, malnutrition, etc., are not so much a cause for concern as mental and moral problems. Today, a social worker is more concerned about helping people combat loneliness, competition, stress, etc.

Today, the majority of people going to a psychiatrist are not "sick" in a conventional sense. According to Dr. Erich Fromm, "They complain of being depressed, having insomnia, being unhappy in their marriages, not enjoying their work, and any number of similar problems." What they really suffer from, says Dr. Fromm, "is an inner deadness. They live in the midst of plenty and are joyless." Another psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl, writes in his book, The Unheard Cry for Meaning, that of the students attempting suicide at an American University, 85 percent did so because life seemed meaningless. He writes:

This happens, in the midst of affluent societies and in the midst of welfare states! For too long we have been dreaming a dream from which we are now waking up; the dream that if we just improve the socio-economic situation of people, everything will be okay, people will become happy. The truth is that as the struggle for survival has subsided, the question has emerged: survival for what? Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.

Madame Blavatsky observes that "true evolution teaches us that by altering the surroundings of the organism, we can alter and improve the organism;" but this is not the complete solution. In "Let Every Man Prove His Own Work" (U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 31), she shows that philanthropists who sought to make people happy by improving their physical conditions or external environment—by building homes, starting soup kitchens, etc.—were ultimately disappointed. Those who had spent their lives doing such works confessed that, "as a matter of fact, misery cannot be relieved. It is a vital element in human nature, and is as necessary to some lives as pleasure is to others...that misery is not just endurable, but agreeable to many who endure it." For instance, a woman who worked all her life for the amelioration of prostitutes, confessed in the end that it was not possible to better the condition of these girls, because they seemed to "love the very state which wealthy people may call misery." Even today, we find that when blankets are given to the poor during winter, they sell them off. At times proper houses are built for them, yet they sell those and go back to living in their huts. Madame Blavatsky advises the exercise of discretion even in helping others. She writes:

...it takes a very wise man to do good works without the danger of doing incalculable harm. A highly developed adept in life may grasp the nettle, and by his great intuitive powers, know whom to relieve from pain and whom to leave in the mire that is their best teacher....Kindness and gentle treatment will sometimes bring out the worst qualities of man or woman who has led a fairly presentable life when kept down by pain and despair. (U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 31, p. 10)

We, not having such intuitive power, will do well to follow the advice of Mr. Judge: "If some pathetic story of suffering has moved you, act on the emotion while your cheeks are still wet with tears." However, in the above-mentioned article, Mme. Blavatsky puts human suffering in a much wider perspective. Pain has a definite and important place in man's life. When we learn to see pain in the right perspective, we should not want to shun pain. Often people are driven to commit suicide for trifling reasons like inability to pass an exam, unrequited love, etc. We should not grumble, fret and fume but regard every unfavourable situation as an opportunity to learn and grow. Growth involves change and every change is accompanied by pain.

Pain arouses. It is only when we experience pain that we wake up and begin to ask questions of life. Why me? What have I done to deserve this? Often pain makes us realize that we need to surrender our personal will to the Divine Will. Yet, pain also softens. Pain arouses sympathy in us. Pain often brings out the best in a human being. There are many incidents of people working to relieve the suffering of spastics, of cancer patients, of leprosy victims, all because someone in the family had undergone similar suffering. Pain increases the moral capacity. We do see people who would not steal or beg even in grinding poverty, but bear it with dignity. The ladder which takes us to the top, is made up of rungs of suffering and pain. Life is a school. We are put in a certain painful or unfavourable situation again and again till we learn the necessary lesson.

We need to exercise discrimination even in physical charity. We should think twice before giving money to a beggar, if we see him buying cigarretes, tobacco or alcohol. It has been observed time and again that lakhs of rupees are given in charity by sympathizing people toward cyclone or flood relief, but a lot of it is retained by the middlemen—very little actually reaches the needy.

Unless people's minds and hearts are charitable, it is no use their pouring out their wealth. Thus, if people lack integrity at higher as well as lower levels, if they feel that it is right for them to cheat and prosper—no matter how many others suffer—mere physical acts of charity are not enough to bring about peace and happiness.

Madame Blavatsky writes:

All good and evil things in humanity have their roots in human character, and this character is, and has been, conditioned by the endless chain of cause and effect....Progress can be attained, and only attained, by the development of the nobler qualities. (The Key to Theosophy, pp. 232-33)

This also implies that it is not enough to impose laws, in order to improve any social, economic or political system. It has been noticed, for instance, that so long as men are dishonest, bullies and twisters, they always find out some new way of cheating and evading tax. However stringent the laws, people succeed in finding loopholes. As a Christian author observes, we cannot have good society without good men, and we cannot have good men merely by imposing laws. The emphasis must be on individual morality.

When someone asked Robert Crosbie, "Why is it that Theosophists are so passive to political and social conditions?" He replied:

No true Theosophist is passive to anything; his knowledge, however, shows him where his energy can be best used for the benefit of humanity. He does not waste his energy poulticing the boils on the body corporate, but devotes it to the pointing out of the seat of the disease and the remedy. It is apparent to anybody that the cause of all human troubles is selfishness and ignorance....The prevailing idea is that there is but one life, and that each must stuggle for himself as against all others....The Theosophist knows what the true way is; that man lives many lives, and that in each life he reaps what he sowed in other lives, as well as in this one; that if every man were to have this knowledge, he would see that true happiness for all can be obtained only when each human being uses all his powers for the good of others. Under such a way of thinking, no man would be allowed to suffer for one moment, because there would be many willing hands to help on every side. The greatest need, then, is to have a right and true philosophy of life....(The Friendly Philosopher, p. 77)

Madame Blavatsky suggests the "true basis" for social work in The Key to Theosophy. Accordingly, for the efforts towards social amelioration to be fruitful, they must be based on four principles: "Universal Unity and Causation; Human Solidarity; the Law of Karma; Reincarnation. These are the four links of the golden chain which should bind humanity into one family, one universal Brotherhood."

Why is there such obvious disparity in society? Why are the rich becoming richer and the poor, poorer? It is due to neglect of social duty on the part of the rich toward the poor. It is because we do not realize that we are pilgrim-souls. What each one of us needs to do, has been suggested in The Voice of the Silence: "Give light and comfort to the toiling pilgrim." It shows that we must not only give comfort—physical and mental relief—but also give "light" i.e., "right knowledge" or the "bread of wisdom," to the distressed. We must look upon every human being as a "toiling pilgrim." This at once changes the whole attitude of mind. Every ordinary man is really a toiling pilgrim—because, a man, besides being a businessman, a sweeper, a teacher, is a pilgrim in the ultimate analysis, as one side of his nature is toiling towards human evolution.

The laws of Karma and Reincarnation are doctrines of responsibility and hope. When people are taught that they cannot escape the consequences of their actions, then, "besides feeling in themselves the true dignity of human nature, they will turn from evil and eschew it as they would a physical danger." (The Key to Theosophy, pp. 245-46). When people feel that this life is the only life, they struggle to keep body and soul together at any cost.

As we take to heart the words of The Voice of the Silence: "let each burning human tear drop on thy heart and there remain; nor ever brush it off, until the pain that caused it is removed," let us also remember the true basis for helping others.