Is social reform necessary? What kind of social reform do we need today? How is it to be achieved? These questions are being asked by all earnest thinkers, for there is no doubt that humanity en masse is sick and does need a physician. There are many "physicians" and many "cures." What can the student of Theosophy offer? Has he been able to make Theosophy practical?

H.P.B's article "Le Phare de l'Inconnu" (The Theosophist, July, August, September and October 1889; reprinted in The Theosophical Movement, May, June, August and September 1947, and in She Being Dead Yet Speaketh) contains important ideas. She wrote of the triple aim of the Theosophical Movement, which is the aim of all true reforms: "Full and entire liberty of conscience allowed to all, fraternity reigning between the rich and the poor, equality recognized in theory and practice between the aristocrat and the plebeian."

Referring to how the great reform is to be achieved, she said: "All this must come about naturally and voluntarily on both sides...without any social shocks, without a drop of blood being spilled." This will only be possible "by the recognition of the axiomatic truth of Oriental Philosophy, which teaches us that the great diversity of furtune, of social rank and of intellect, is due but to the personal Karma of each human being. We reap only what we have sown."

This seemingly hard saying, left to stand alone, might breed appalling conceit in thought and action on the part of those who are not suffering in this life towards those who are. It should never be interpreted as advocating an attitude of non-interference with the suffering of others, in the belief that it is their Karma to suffer. Such an attitude breeds callousness and numbs our human instincts. Always and ever, whenever and wherever we see human suffering, we have to try to alleviate it. The Great Ones are always helping those who suffer; they do not turn aside, so why should we? We would not if we remembered what H.P.B. goes on to say:

If the personality of each physical man differs from that of every other, the immortal individuality, or immaterial being in him, emanates from the same divine essence as does that of his neighbours. He who is thoroughly impressed with the philosophic truth that every Ego begins and ends by being the indivisible WHOLE, cannot love his neighbour less than he does himself. But, until this becomes a religious truth, no such reform can take place.

A few centuries ago, the triple aims mentioned above were the rallying cry of the French Revolution—"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." But the true implication of these words was lost sight of. Liberty became licence and came to mean merely freedom of action instead of freedom of conscience. Equality between aristocrat and plebeian became inequality. Fraternity existed only among the poor, and not between the poor and the rich. We have to remember today that the triple basis for reform must be established voluntarily by the rich and the poor, the reformer and the conservative, and not through force.

H.P.B. called the Theosophical Society "The Republic of Conscience," for every Fellow has the right to believe what he likes and how he likes. He is "at liberty to study what he pleases, provided he does not venture into unknown paths which would of a certainty lead him to black magic."

How can this freedom be possible when Theosophy is "Divine Wisdom"? "Let us repeat," H.P.B. wrote, "for the hundredth time: The truth is one! The moment it is presented, not under all its aspects, but according to the thousand and one opinions which its servants form about it, it is no longer the divine TRUTH, but the confused echo of human voices." This is true in the case of reformers, however sincere they be in their approach. What we should seek, therefore, is to spread abroad the three foundational ideas given above as the basis for all reforms, after we have tried to apply them in our own life and environment.

In reference to liberty of conscience, we must consider religions. Theosophy strives to unite all religions by pointing to their oneness of essence. H.P.B. wrote:

...our greatest ambition would be to reconcile the different religious systems, to help each one to find the truth in his own religion, while obliging him to recognize it in that of his neighbour. What does the name signify if the thing itself is essentially the same?

To fulfil this ambition, each one will have to reject "the parasitic plants of human fabrication, which...are choking all religions and churches in the world. Let him accept but the essence, which is the same in all."

Whereas, says H.P.B., we cannot stop the Christian nations from "cutting each other's throats" and "exterminating in one day in their wars more men than the Caesars killed in a year," it is the duty of Theosophists to

save as many of the survivors as possible. Nucleus of a true Brotherhood, it depends upon them to make their Society a bridge destined in the near future to carry the humanity of the new cycle beyond the muddy waters of the deluge of hopeless materialism. These waters rise continuously, and at this moment are inundating all civilized countries. Shall we leave the good to perish with the bad, terrified by the clamours and mocking cries of the latter, whether against the Theosophical Society or ourselves? Shall we watch them perish one after the other—this one of lassitude, that one unable to obtain a ray of the sun that shines for everyone—without stretching to them a plank of safety?—Never!

What do we mean by fraternity—the second foundation of true reform mentioned by H.P.B.? We are to suppose that fraternity already exists among the "rich" and among the "poor," and it is fraternity between these two classes that has to be the force binding all humanity. This fraternity should not be narrowed down to fellow feeling felt by the rich towards the poor, but must include that which was so lacking in the French Revolution—brotherliness from the poor to the rich. This idea should be extended today and made applicable to the conditions between the "rich" nations and the "poor" nations, for the method and basis of giving and the method and basis of receiving are very important. Charity, i.e., help of any kind, harms the receiver if he does not feel grateful to the giver. Lack of gratitude on the part of the receiver may breed indifference in the giver. It is but natural that those who have should give to those who have not. H.P.B. quotes this beautiful saying: "The poor man is the son of the rich one"; and still more striking is that which tells us: "Give to eat first to him that is hungry, and take that which remains for thyself."

The third of the aims of true reform is "equality recognized in theory and practice between the aristocrat and the plebeian." Who is an aristocrat and who a plebeian? And what does equality mean here? The dictionary says that the aristocrat is "one who belongs to the aristocracy, one who behaves like a noble man." Aristocracy is "government by a privileged upper class; any class having special privileges or considered superior." With these definitions in mind, we can use the term for anyone who is considered superior, no matter what class he belongs to. So anyone with special knowledge or character is an aristocrat. Who is a plebeian? "One of the common people"; hence, we might say, all those without knowledge or of special characteristics is the result of Karma, self-engendered, there is no place for pride or for jealousy. With reincarnation in mind, let us remember that one born a king "may wander earth in rags for things done and undone." The reverse is equally true.

Until these fundamental aims are realized, what are we to do? H.P.B. wrote:

What we must try to do in the meantime is to bring a little peace into the world, in the hearts of those who suffer, by raising for them a corner of the veil which hides the divine truth. Let those who are strongest show the road to those who are weaker, and help them to climb the steep hill to life; and let them teach these to fix their eyes on the Beacon which shines on the horizon like a new star of Bethlehem beyond the mysterious and unknown sea of the Theosophical Sciences—and let the disinherited ones of life recover hope.

How shall we endeavour to put these far-reaching and deep-searching ideas into practice? The tendency today is to practise before learning. We must realize that everything starts first as an idea and ends in practice; only then can the practice be successful and bear good fruits. "Theosophy has a hard battle to fight," H.P.B. wrote elsewhere, and we must fight that battle by impressing on ourselves and then on the world that

that which our enemies look upon as an invention of the nineteenth century, is as old as the world. Our society is the tree of Brotherhood sprung from the seed planted in the world by the angel of Charity and of Justice, on the day when the first Cain killed the first Abel. During the long centuries of the slavery of woman and the missery of the poor, this seed was watered by all the bitter tears shed by the weak and the oppressed. Blessed hands have replanted this seed in one corner of the earth and another, and in different climes, and at epochs far apart. "Do not to another the thing thou wouldst not he should do to thee," said Confucius to his disciples. "Love one another, and love every living creature," preached the Lord Buddha to his Arhats. "Love one another," was repeated like a faithful echo in the streets of Jerusalem.

"The world must move," H.P.B. wrote, "and advance under penalty of stagnation and death. Mental evolution progresses pari passu with physical evolution, and both advance towards the ONE TRUTH—which is the heart of the system of Humanity, as evolution is the blood." That One Truth we know today as Theosophy.

It is only Theosophy, well understood, that can save the world from despair, by reproducing social and religious reform—a task once before accomplished in history, by Gautama, the Buddha; a peaceful reform, without one drop of blood spilt.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.

—Martin Luther King