Strive to get a clear, comprehensive and common-sense view of Theosophy, and to the world give only that view, and the world will appreciate. Never consider yourself as the actor, and think of the real Self.

—W. Q. Judge

March 21 always brings to the minds of all sincere students of Theosophy the remarkable life and work of William Quan Judge, for on that day, in the year 1896, he closed his life record. Whether we try to understand him as a man or as a worker in the Theosophical field, we find in him one predominant quality—his loyalty and devotion to Theosophy, to Masters, and to H.P.B.; to the teachings, the Custodians of the teachings and their transmitter for our generation. It is this loyalty, this devotion, which stood him in good stead where others failed, and here is something we all can learn from, remembering that not only are the Custodians, the Masters, alive and in physical bodies today, but also that H.P.B. is not dead and gone; she still remains alive, for her heart and vitality pulsate throughout the Theosophical Movement and in every word she wrote.

To know Mr. Judge, the man, we have to take note of the inner and outer environment of the Ego in the Irish borrowed body, and the "NIRMANAKAYA...that blended with him," as H.P.B. wrote. Everyone has two environments in which he lives: one that is composed of his family, friends, nation, race, etc., and the other his inner environment of secret endeavours, thoughts, feelings and desires. This latter is the more important, for it is the battleground on which takes place the struggle between the spiritual, or egoic, and the personal, the results of which make themselves known later on, perhaps not until coming lives. They show themselves in the expressions of our feeling-thoughts, namely, our actions, for the latter are the embodiments of the former.

As far as the outer personality of Mr. Judge is concerned, we have been given the picture of a lovable man, kind, sympathetic, "never narrow, never selfish, never conceited." The Irish poet AE wrote that he considered Judge "the wisest and sweetest of any I have ever met....I have more reverence for him than for any other human being I know of." His friends described him as completely trustworthy. "I trust Judge more than anyone in the world," wrote H.P.B. He made many friends, and it is owing to the foresight and endeavours of some of these friends that pure Theosophy is alive today and the original writings of the teachers are still in print.

With regard to his inner environment, we can learn much from a study of his letters and of his Notes on the Bhagavad-Gita. There is a statement in the latter book (pp. 4-5) which gives an insight into his character:

What I propose here to myself and to all who may read these papers is to study the Bhagavad-Gita by the light of that spiritual lamp—be it small or great—which the Supreme Soul will feed and increase within us if we attend to its behests and diligently inquire after it. Such at least is the promise by Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita—the song Celestial. (Italics ours)

It was just that attitude of trust and loyalty which was fundamental to his life, keeping him always at the heart of the Movement. Through struggles and dark periods of despondency, such as come to every earnest student when he begins to feel his unworthiness, he kept on, writing after one such period:

These last days have been a trial to me. Quite vividly the question of sticking fast or letting go has come up. I believe that I have been left alone to try me. But I have conquered. I will not give up; and no matter what the annoyance or bitterness, I will stand.

His trust in H.P.B. was equal to her trust in him. "I will never forget Judge's loyalty and devotion, his unswerving friendship." she declared. And she wrote to him: "Take my place in America now and, after I am gone, at Adyar." She defended him all she could, and about none did she write as she did about him, as in the last of her Five Messages to the American Theosophists.

As for Mr. Judge as a worker for Theosophy and the Theosophical Movement, we find that, though living a troubled life, feeling an exile and alone, he remained steadfast and devoted to the last, filling any place that was vacant in the Work, without looking for results. His chance came when he returned to the U.S.A. from India, at a time when the Theosophical Society was passing through a crisis, and resuscitated the work there from coast to coast. Under his leadership, a spectacular revival of Theosophy took place in America. He founded the magazine The Path, which H.P.B. described as "most excellent." His Path begins to beat The Theosophist out of sight," she wrote. "The Path alone is his certificate for him in Theosophy."

Often ill, always kind, always working, never pushing himself forward, he embodied the spirit of the Movement. When he died his spirit lived on in Robert Crosbie, and lives today in the resuscitated Movement.

Judge's personal attitude toward himself and his sense of responsibility towards the Movement were revealed strongly in the tribulations that came after the death of H.P.B., culminating in the "case" against him. Though he suffered greatly in his person, he refused to harbour hatred towards anyone and did all he could to help his friends also to free themselves from ill feeling. "Forgive, forgive and largely forget," and "Cast no one out of your heart" were his mottoes. He could forgive and forget the personal hurt to himself and act only for the good of the Movement.

It is when he saw that the wrongs being committed were harming Theosophy and the Theosophical Movement that his strength was revealed. He fought hard to prevent the Theosophical Society from straying away from the lines laid down; also to check the development of psychism within the Society, but, unfortunately, psychic traits and tendencies have, since his day, led students into the most dangerous delusions. The evil directed against him finally ruined his health and brought about his death, but not before he had made the administration of Theosophical work in America completely free and independent of the Parent Society, though in friendly relationship with it. This change in the outward form, not in Theosophical ideals, aspirations, aims and objects, was an inevitable one, and in making it he but followed H.P.B.'s example, for she, too, had left the Headquarters of the Society at Adyar and begun a new movement in the West on the original lines, with the founding of Lucifer and of the Lodge which bore her name.

Mr. Judge's knowledge was stupendous. He had throughly inbibed the teachings of H.P.B. and of the Masters, and was able to expound them in his own writings in a simpler, more understandable form. His work along these lines has kept alive the philosophy for us, in its main fundamentals, and our gratitude to him for so doing is great.

One other point which emerges when we try to understand this great man is that he never thought that the Work was his. The Work was Masters', and he but tried to help Them with that Work. This was the real reason for the opposition he had to face from those who did not have the same loyalty and devotion to the Masters and to H.P.B. that he had, the "charges" against him being only the apparent reasons. He had the task of keeping the memory of H.P.B. clean and pure, and of preserving the Teachings as she gave them. The proof remains; during his lifetime he was the life-force which kept the Path straight, and after his death this task fell upon Robert Crosbie, his pupil. It now falls upon all true students of Theosophy who are aware of their responsibility and are awake to the reality that we cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve H.P.B. and Those behind her if we collaborate with those who deny her and Them, by altering Their Teachings and casting aspersions against Them.

Humility is to the virtues what the chain is to the rosary; remove the chain, and all the beads escape; take away humility, and all the virtues disappear.

—The Cure d'Ars