[In this section we seek to answer frequently asked questions, at U.L.T. meetings or during private conversations and discussions with people who seek the answers in the light of Theosophy. Answers given in this section are by no means final. Only a line of thought is being offered by applying general principles of Theosophy.]

Question: Many of us are sensitive to public opinion about our dress, behaviour and other personal choices in life. Is it a valid feeling to care for other people's reaction?

Answer: The question is of great importance. It is necessary to ask, "What constitutes public opinion?" Generally, it is not made up of the views of spiritually enlightened people. Often, it does not have any moral basis but only reflects customs and traditions. Hence H.P.B. writes:

In our day, vox populi [voice of the people, or public opinion]...is no longer vox dei [voice of God], but ever that of prejudice, of selfish motives, and often simply that of unpopularity. (The Key to Theosophy, p. 239)

Can we follow the norms? Can we adopt the dress code, the life-style, the values of the "free society" we live in today? Where would it lead us? It was equally useless to live by the suffocating, narrow views of the old society. Yet, then as now, a person not following the norms runs the risk of being singled out. Today, a teenager who refuses to wear trendy clothes, to have boyfriend/girlfriend, to have a cell-phone, to go to nightclubs, movies, etc., would be labelled as "backward." Equally great was the risk of being ostracized and isolated if one dared to go against the orthodox views of the society of earlier times. It is this difficulty of having to swim against the stream and being ridiculed or persecuted as an odd one that prompts most of us to conform to public opinion, without rationalizing. But, as Buddha suggests, the multitude is always inclined to criticize. Thus:

This is an old saying, O Atula; it is not of this day only. "They blame him who sits silent, they blame him who talks much, they blame him who speaks moderately in measured terms." There is not anyone in the world who is not blamed. (The Dhammapada, verse 227)

But on the other hand we are not advised to be self-opinionated. The attitude to be adopted—whether it is dress, behaviour or any life style involving moral principles—is very well described by a Master of Wisdom:

Do not despise the opinion of the world, nor provoke it uselessly to unjust criticism. Remain rather as indifferent to the abuse as to the praise of those who can never know you as you really are, and who ought, therefore, to find you unmoved by either, and ever placing the approval or condemnation of your own Inner Self higher than that of the multitudes. (U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 22, pp. 10-11)

Whether it is choice of clothes, books or career, there is an innate desire for approval and sanction for the choices we make. We are free-willed beings and yet we use our free will to choose those things which have the sanction of our society, community, religion or family. But, a little reflection shows that there is a need to think for ourselves, to discriminate and sometimes to oppose. There is need to differentiate between spiritual and moral principles on the one hand and mere customs and traditions on the other. We must follow certain norms of good behaviour, using our own judgement, and always be prepared to take the consequences.

Jesus said, "Come ye out from among them and be ye separate." A certain amount of moral courage is required to go against the society and at times even against religious authority. In his essay on "Self-reliance," Emerson writes:

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude....A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition as if everything were titular and ephemeral but he. I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions.

Light on the Path suggests that the disciple must learn to pay attention to his own inner voice. It is pointed out that "Only he who is untameable, who cannot be dominated, who knows he has to play the lord over men, over facts, over all things save his own divinity, can arouse this faculty [of intuition]" (p. 49). In other words, it matters not if we make mistakes or even contradict our previous behaviour; so long as we learn to be self-reliant and learn to discriminate. Often, it may happen that we are being guided by our lower [kamic] nature instead of our higher nature. But we can slowly learn to distinguish and finally arrive at a stage when our intuition can guide us, unerringly, to choose the right course of action. We are asked to develop intuition through exercise and by following it through mistakes. Most thinkers and philosophers have condemned blind following of public opinion calling it "herd-instinct."

Question: Is it interference with another's Karma, if we attempt to help him to solve his problems?

Answer: The doctrine of Karma is abstruse and often there is warped understanding of it. In India, especially, some people mistakenly believe that to help anyone or take another's help is to get involved and create a tie with that person, which in turn means having to be born again, instead of freedom from the round of births and deaths. Such people are afraid that they might act out of personal desire or out of emotions which would prove binding and obstruct their progress. One who refuses to enter into kindly relationship with others is compared in The Voice of the Silence to a pilgrim who—after walking in the heat of the day—is afraid of plunging into the river for fear of being swept away. Such a person is in danger of dying of heat. One who keeps calculating as to which way he would not be bound by Karma, may be called "a false pietist of bewildered soul." "Inaction based on selfish fear can bear but evil fruit," says The Voice of the Silence.

So in the Gita we are advised to perform our duty. As The Voice of the Silence suggests, "The man who does not go through his appointed work in life has lived in vain. Follow the wheel of life; follow the wheel of duty to race and kin, to friend and foe." It is our duty to help the person who comes our way, under Karma. Our assumption that helping another amounts to interfering with Karma, is a misconception. Mr. Judge writes:

If karma were something about each man which we could plainly see, as, for instance, if each one of us had written upon him what was his karma and what punishments or rewards should or should not be meted out to him, then it would be easy for one to say in any particular case what one should do in the premises. But such a state of things does not prevail. ("Forum" Answers, p. 28)

Mr. Judge goes on to explain that Karma includes both action and reaction. When a person decides to help another, he does not interfere with Karma, as his act of helping is also a part of Karma. In other words, we must realize that we are continually affecting one another through our thoughts, feelings and actions. Hence, it is difficult to say what portion of another's karma is strictly of his own making. As Mr. Judge suggests, "The indissoluble unity of the race demands that we should consider every man's troubles as partly due to ourselves, because we have been always units in the race and helped to make the conditions which cause suffering" ("Forum" Answers, p. 55). As Light on the Path says, no man acts in isolation. We must understand that Karma is not fatalism. When it is said, "accept the woes of birth," we are not expected to passively accept the consequences. We must do our best to change the situation and in the process we may need the help of another. To ignore the suffering of another by saying, "it is his karma!" is gross misunderstanding of the doctrine of Karma. If a person meets with an accident and we are the only one present at the scene, then under karma, it is our duty to help him get suitable medical aid. If a person comes to us asking for money, or seeking solace, or to solve a legal or moral problem, he acts under karma, and we must help to the best of our ability.

One of the aphorisms on Karma says, "The [karmic] effects may be counteracted or mitigated by the thoughts and acts of oneself or of another [Italics ours]." In fact, to refuse to help a person would be an act of omission. "Inaction in a deed of mercy becomes an action in a deadly sin," says The Voice of the Silence (p. 33). Mr. Judge observes that if we refrain from helping out of fear of "interfering" with another's karma [i.e., if we fear that by helping we are not allowing that other to experience the share of punishment due to him under karma] "we not only lay up wrath against ourselves, but at the same time set the germs in our own character which will sprout in selfishness and pain. We need not fear that karma will not do justice. It often does it by offering to us a chance to help another, and, if we stand aside, it will at another day give us the punishment for our selfishness and arrogance" ("Forum" Answers, p. 29). H. P. Blavatsky writes:

In helping on the development of others, the Theosophist believes that he is not only helping them to fulfil their Karma, but that he is also, in the strictest sense, fulfilling his own. It is the development of humanity, of which both he and they are integral parts, that he has always in view, and he knows that any failure on his part to respond to the highest within him retards not only himself but all, in their progressive march. By his actions, he can make it either more difficult or more easy for humanity to attain the next higher plane of being. (The Key to Theosophy, p. 234)

If we help impersonally, without expecting any return or reward, we are not setting up the karmic focus where the results can return. So also, we must help in such a way as to enable the person to take the consequences of his actions in a right manner and to extract the necessary lesson. We should not end up doing his "homework" for him, or make him dependent on us.

Even Masters help humanity, as they "people their currents in space with entities powerful for good alone." Their very presence charges the atmosphere with beneficent influence and They are said to alleviate collective suffering of humanity, "protecting it from further and far greater misery and sorrow."