Light on the Path advises us to listen to the song of life. Amidst human slaughter and war-drums, with food shortage and starvation all around, and with all kinds of diseases taking their toll, it seems incredible that one can listen to the song of life. The picture of our world is so dark and gloomy that one wonders how there can be a song of life, and whether there is any joy in living. But if we turn our gaze from the human kingdom to nature in all its beauty and bounty, we do find it singing the song of life in its manifold moods, emitting its own expressions in colour, rhythm, sound, harmony, motion, each performing its own duty, providing true joy to human beings.

Sunrise every morning and sunset every evening put us in inner communion with the orb of light, both physical and spiritual. Then it is that the song of life can be heard, because we are in tune with the Infinite, away from the noise and clamour of the objective world. The vast firmament with rolling clouds during the day and sparkling stars during the night is an amazing sight which overwhelms us, but it opens our mental horizon far and wide and takes us away from our narrow, limited, petty, personal existence. The earth produces a thick green carpet of parks and meadows, fields and farms, with beautiful trees, flowers and fruits; the birds soaring heavenwards sing their melodies, giving us indescribable joy—then it is that we can listen to the song of life.

Sri Krishna is ever playing on his magic flute the divine melodies, but human beings prefer to remain where they are, from the spiritual point of view, so that all the sweetness of life is missed out, the joy of life becomes a remote experience, the meaning and the purpose of life is not understood, and the goal of life remains unknown. Sri Krishna's flute is ever playing melodious tunes to awaken human beings from their slumber, to activate their minds and hearts to reach the harmonious centre of life where peace and joy abide eternally. Human beings prefer to remain in their tamasic sleep unless and until some kind of sorrow or suffering bewilders them. Then they begin to question life's mysteries and try to understand what the great teachers have taught down the ages. That becomes a turning point in life for some.

What is life? It is the manifested expression of the divine source, the one reality back of all visible and invisible forms. Life is the teacher and brings us all the lessons necessary for our growth and evolution under the law of karma, pleasant or painful as the case may be. So it is life itself which sings, as it opens before our eyes one chapter after another which discloses to us its meaning and message. Life is also a school where we learn as we go through different grades of experiences, physical, mental and moral, individual and collective. Some are fruitful, others barren, depending on whether we have worked with the law or against it.

Light on the Path also tells us: "Store in your memory the melody you hear." The melody must be in tune with the Infinite, for then only is it worth storing. It is not the brain memory but the soul memory that records the melodious tunes of the experiences of the soul. Further, we are asked to "learn from it the lesson of harmony." Around us, in the outside world, there is discord between man and man, nation and nation. Only at the centre of life does eternal harmony prevail, whose other name is compassion. To the extent that we unfold compassion we shall reach the very centre of life. Self-knowledge is of loving deeds the child; it is the way to compassion. And it is through the very law of compassion that the great teachers come down upon earth to sing the song of life, now of ashoi, purity of thought, word and deed, as did Lord Zoroaster; of love and meekness and humility, as did Jesus. The picture of Buddha in meditation is a song in itself, indicating the four truths: sorrow is, the cause of sorrow; the cure of sorrow; and the Noble Eightfold Path leading to Nirvana and renunciation of it.

What does Sri Krishna play on his flute? He sings of his divine pedigree, and how he comes upon earth cycle after cycle for the preservation of the just, the destruction of the wicked, and the establishment of righteousness. So we naturally owe our heart's gratitude to all the teachers for their devotion to the spiritual welfare of humanity. Had it not been for them, humanity would have been in worse plight and misery. Theosophy is in the world to keep alive in man his divine intuitions so that he may listen to the song celestial. When human memory fails, then the teachings are forgotten, the teachers are forgotten, and chaos and confusion prevail in the world.

Light on the Path further tells us: "There is a natural melody, an obscure fount in every human heart. It may be hidden over and utterly concealed and silenced—but it is there. At the very base of your nature you will find faith, hope, and love." So, however silent and concealed it may be, the melody is certainly there and needs to be approached and attuned to. This can only be achieved by the cultivation of faith, hope and love. Faith in the great teachers and their teachings, their very life example of service and sacrifice, of wisdom and compassion, of purity and truth.

One must also have faith in one's own Higher Self. "Even if thou wert the greatest of all sinners, thou shalt be able to cross over all sins in the bark of spiritual knowledge." What a solemn affirmation, what an encouraging note to those who have gone astray, to follow the eternal verities and walk the path of righteousness! It requires discrimination. "Even if the man of most evil ways worship me with exclusive devotion, he is to be considered as righteous, for he hath judged aright." He has taken a right turn of mind and heart and therefore there is hope for him. The last of the great teachers was H. P. Blavatsky, who came not just to one nation or one race, but to the whole of Humanity, to sing the greatest of songs, that of brotherhood, so that all outward distinctions may fall away, and man look upon man as a divine ray of the Supreme Self. Tennyson speaks in "Locksley Hall" of "the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world." And again in "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After" he says:

Only That which made us, meant us to be mightier by and by,
Set the sphere of all the boundless heavens within the human eye,
Sent the shadow of Himself, the boundless, thro' the human soul;
Boundless inward, in the atom, boundless outward, in the Whole.