"There are no victims in the world, and no villains. And neither are you a victim of the choices of others. At some level you have all created that which you say you detest, and having created it you have chosen it," writes Neale Donald Walsch (Sunday Times of India, April 24, 2005). It is easier to change oneself rather than another. It is only when we accept the responsibility of our actions that we find the power to change. Often, we disown "bad" things/actions that are of our own making, because in calling them bad we are calling ourselves bad. It is this intellectual and spiritual dishonesty which makes the world what it is today. To change the condition of the world, everyone must accept or even feel a deep inner sense of responsibility for the world. Further:

The world's natural calamities and disasters, its tornadoes and hurricanes, volcanoes and floods, its physical turmoils are not created by you specifically. What is created by you is the degree to which these events touch your life....

These events are created by the combined consciousness of man. All of the world, co-creating together, produces these experiences. What each of you do, individually, is move through them, deciding what, if anything, they mean to you, and Who and What You Are in relationship to them....You cannot change the outer event (...you are not grown enough in your consciousness to alter individually that which has been created collectively), so you must change the inner experience....Judge not, and neither condemn, for you know not why a thing occurs, nor to what end.

Rather, seek to change those things or support others who are changing those things which no longer reflect your highest sense of Who You Are.

World-reform must begin with self-reform. The good and bad conditions in the world are the result of collective Karma. We have had a hand in making the total situation. Today, if we find people to be selfish and cruel, we are partly responsible for it, under the law of Karma. Action of each individual has a far-reaching effect on the whole of mankind as well as on all the lower kingdoms of nature—for good or ill. This makes each one morally, and inescapably, responsible and accountable for his thoughts and actions. Human thoughts have dynamic power. The cumulative force of evil thoughts is responsible for the calamities of nature. Light on the Path teaches: "Remember that the sin and shame of the world, are your sin and shame; for you are a part of it; your Karma is inextricably interwoven with the great Karma" (p. 16). Thus, instead of condemning a person for his weaknesses we must learn to look upon him as a fellow pilgrim whose boots have become too heavy with mud, and stretch out a helping hand. The panacea is suggested by H.P.B.:

If the action of one reacts on the lives of all, and this is the true scientific idea, then it is only by all men becoming brothers and all women sisters, and by all practising in their daily lives true brotherhood and true sisterhood, that the real human solidarity, which lies at the root of the elevation of the race, can ever be attained. It is this action and interaction, this true brotherhood and sisterhood, in which each shall live for all and all for each, which is one of the fundamental Theosophical principles that every Theosophist should be found not only to teach, but to carry out in his or her individual life. (The Key to Theosophy, p. 232)

Progress can be attained and only attained, by the development of the nobler qualities....In every conceivable case he himself must be a centre of spiritual action, and from him and his own daily individual life must radiate those higher spiritual forces which alone can regenerate his fellow-men. (Ibid., pp. 233-34)

Until just over a century ago, most physicists believed that ether filled all of space. The reasoning was that just like sound waves, light waves, too, needed some medium to move through. Albert Michelson and Edward Morley reasoned that if ether filled all of space, then all celestial bodies must display motion relative to it. Anyone standing on Earth and facing in the direction of earth's motion through space must experience an "ether wind" rushing past his/her face. Since the Earth is travelling at 30 kilometres per second around the sun, Michelson and Morley reasoned that the ether wind should reduce the speed of light travelling in the same direction as the Earth (and hence against the ether wind) by 30 kilometres per second. However, as the Michelson-Morley experiment in 1887, and similar experiments conducted since then, failed to prove the existence of ether, the accepted conclusion was that there is no ether. Hence it was established that light always travels through space at the same speed. Einstein based his special theory of relativity on this conclusion. Subsequently, however, when Dayton Miller repeated the Michelson-Morley experiment, the results supported the existence of an ether wind blowing over the Earth at 8 kilometres per second.

Once again search is on for ether. Recently, Maurizio Consoli of the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Catania, Sicily, proposed to carry out an ether-detecting experiment. The existence of ether will change many conclusions in physics. Taking ether as an absolute frame of reference, signalling at speeds faster than light would be possible—something forbidden in special theory of relativity.

A Master of Wisdom observes that for modern science, ether has been a purely hypothetical medium, "the existence of which is so far only a convenient hypothesis to serve the ends of her undulatory theory." However, there are those "who regard ether as reality, and who know that....it pervades the densest solids as readily as water does a sponge" (The Theosophist, September, 1882). Dr. D.W. Richardson, F.R.S., mentioned the existence of sun-force or imponderable and invisible agency, being the material substance flowing from the Sun through Space, filling the voids between the particles of solid bodies. (S.D., II, 524) H.P.B. observes:

Not only "through space," but filling every point of our solar system, for it is the physical residue, so to say, of Ether, its lining on our plane; Ether having to serve other cosmic and terrestrial purposes besides being the "agent" for transmitting light. It is the astral fluid or "Light" of the Kabalists. (S.D., II, 524 fn.)

Further, H.P.B. explains the nature of ether, thus:

In its lowest strata, where it merges with the astral light, it may be called molecular on its own plane; but not for us. But the ether of which science has a suspicion, is the grossest manifestation of Akasa, though on our plane, for us mortals, it is the seventh principle of the astral light, and three degrees higher than "radiant matter." When it penetrates, or informs something, it may be molecular because it takes on the form of the latter, and its atoms inform the particles of that "something." We may perhaps call it "crystallized ether." (Transactions, p. 108)

Aether-Akasa is the fifth and sixth principles of the body of Kosmos—thus corresponding to Buddhi-Manas, in Man; Ether is its Kosmic sediment mingling with the highest layer of the Astral Light. Beginning with the fifth root-race, it will develop fully only at the beginning of the fifth round. (Transactions, p. 108)

Does low self-esteem lie at the root of individual and societal problems and dysfunctions? Efforts are on in the U.S.A. to raise people's sense of self-worth and self-esteem with the hope of reducing crime, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, school underachievement and pollution. "Yet surprisingly, research shows that such efforts are of little value in fostering academic progress or preventing undesirable behaviour," write Roy F. Baumeister, Jennifer D. Campbell, Joachim I. Krueger and Kathleen D. Vohs. (Scientific American, January 2005). Most investigators ask people what they think of themselves, and that seems to be an inadequate method to judge self-esteem. In most analyses, people with a healthy sense of self-respect are clubbed with those who are narcissistic or those who feign high self-esteem. It is crucial to determine the causality, i.e., if there exists only a correlation between self-esteem and certain positive outcomes, or does high self-esteem bring about positive outcomes? Often, positive self-image is a result of success or good behaviour. For instance, "The strong correlation between self-esteem and happiness is just that—a correlation. "It is plausible that occupational, academic or interpersonal successes cause both happiness and high self-esteem and that corresponding failures cause both unhappiness and low self-esteem. It is even possible that happiness, in the sense of a temperament or disposition to feel good, induces high self-esteem." Researchers conclude that high self-esteem does not lessen a tendency toward violence or deter adolescents from turning to alcohol, tobacco, drugs and sex and that it fails to improve academic or job performance.

Should parents, teachers and therapists seek to boost self-esteem wherever possible? Although high self-esteem seems to be a valuable attribute, a heightened sense of self-worth may prompt some people to demand preferential treatment or to exploit their fellows. "Such tendencies would entail considerable social costs."

We seem to derive our sense of identity from what we are not. What we call "I" or self—the personality—is only an instrument of the true, spiritual self. The real worth of this self does not lie in intellectual achievements, physical beauty, wealth, status, fame, etc. H.P.B. explains this by an analogy. The atoms of gold are scattered through the substance of quartz and although the miner is not able to see the gold atoms through his naked eye he knows that it is the presence of gold atoms, which makes his quartz valuable. So also the real value or worth of every individual is derived from the presence of the divinity within. Self-esteem or self-worth based on personality or any other externals can sooner or later make a man self-centred and selfish, leading to a sense of separateness. Mr. Judge writes:

Try to recollect that you are a very small affair in the world, and that the people around do not value you at all and grieve not when you are absent. Your only true greatness lies in your inner true self and it is not desirous of obtaining the applause of others. (Letters That Have Helped Me)

Light on the Path suggests that for progress on the spiritual path it becomes necessary to conquer the self. "And that power which the disciple shall covet is that which shall make him appear as nothing in the eyes of men" (p. 4). "All weapons of offence and defence are given up; all weapons of mind and heart, and brain and spirit....Never again can the neophyte raise his voice in self-defence or excuse" (pp. 77-78). When a man is able to regard his own life as part of the whole—like a grain of sand on the seashore, among innumerable other grains of sand, which now and then get sunrays—he will no longer struggle in order to obtain anything for himself and that is the surrendering of personal rights. (p. 76)

Scientists are exploring the possibilities of establishing a future human colony at the moon's north pole. They have identified a section along the rim of a 73-km-wide crater called Peary which appears to be constantly lighted and fit for a human colony, says a report in Nature, quoted in New Scientist. Scientists say that though the moon's environment is harsh with temperature varying from minus-100 degrees centigrade to 100 degrees centigrade, such extreme temperatures do not exist at the poles. Since poles of the moon never experience a sunset, this, "scientists believe, will provide a stable temperature of about minus-50 degrees centigrade and a steady source of energy, both considered crucial for the establishment of any future lunar base." (The Times of India, April 15, 2005).

What has Theosophy to say about the relationship between moon and earth? Mr. Judge writes:

The moon was once a large and vital body full of beings. It lived its life, went through its cycles, and at last having lived its life, after vast ages had passed away, came to the moment when it had to die....(U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 24, p. 7)

It is then that the moon threw out into space all her energies, leaving nothing but the physical vehicle, which energies condensed and formed our earth. Then gradually the beings from moon migrated to earth. The moon then began disintegrating while still revolving around the child, our earth. Further, "It is likely that before our sixth round is ended, it being the round relating to Buddhi as the vehicle of spirit, the body of the moon, which was the vehicle for prana and astral body, will have disappeared."

To imagine that we are here by chance, that there is no law, that there are accidents, that we are not responsible for ourselves being impinged upon while others are gratified of their desires—is an error. We have brought ourselves into the present condition by doing similar things before. We have in other lives pursued a course that shut us out from a knowledge of our own nature. We have so acted through the inherent power within ourselves as to bring about a closure between our high perception and our lives in the body; we have affected others in a similar way, and they in their turn come back to affect us and keep us on that plane of thought and action. For it can be seen that our thoughts are action more than the acts themselves. It is the way we think that produces action, and others are permeable to those thoughts of ours, be they good or bad.

—Robert Crosbie