WHAT IS THEOSOPHY?
Theosophy has been understood in two ways : in a very broad sense it is seen as direct knowledge of God through mystical experience. Man's consciousness is the centre from which all understanding is seen to begin but for Theosophy, individual consciousness is not the point at which everything must end also. The individual consciousness is the point from where man bridges the gulf between 'I' and that which is not 'I'.
It is the point from where man makes a flight towards the unknown.Theosophy believes that these experiences can be, and must be shared by all.
Historically, the word Theosophy denotes what can be aptly called the wisdom-tradition handed down by a long succession of prophets and mystics. Every religion has two kinds of wisdom to offer to its two kinds of disciples. One consists of ethical precepts understood by all and necessary for the preservation of civilization. The other is the occult or the hidden wisdom revealed only to those who have desire to know. Theosophy affirms that the occult world (that is the world beyond the ordinary sense-perception) is neither inaccessible nor incomprehensible. The method adopted by Theosophists in their pursuit of the occult, or what we today call parapsychological phenomena is described by Dr. Annie Besant in these words:
" Theosophy differs from modern science in that it includes under "Science" investigation into superphysical worlds. Its methods are the same; investigation by observation, framing of hypothesis, discovering of invariable sequences of natural laws. It uses the senses for observation, but the senses intensified into supersenses, responding, in fact, to vibration of matter finer than that which affects the physical sense."
Theosophy as a way of inquiry did not begin with the Theosophical society which was established in 1875, and nor will it end with the apparent obscuration of the Society. But it is undeniably true that the Theosophical Society marked a Renaissance in the study of the occult. It was a movement that tried to unite the urge to discover that which eludes the grasp of science and that which science has mastered and naturalised. Theosophy, however, was eclipsed in the last fifty or more years or so but a general revival of parapsychology that we witness today may be a sign that the basic instinct of the Theosophical movement is not extinguished after all.
Copyright : Sushama Karnik
Theosophy has been understood in two ways : in a very broad sense it is seen as direct knowledge of God through mystical experience. Man's consciousness is the centre from which all understanding is seen to begin but for Theosophy, individual consciousness is not the point at which everything must end also. The individual consciousness is the point from where man bridges the gulf between 'I' and that which is not 'I'.
It is the point from where man makes a flight towards the unknown.Theosophy believes that these experiences can be, and must be shared by all.
Historically, the word Theosophy denotes what can be aptly called the wisdom-tradition handed down by a long succession of prophets and mystics. Every religion has two kinds of wisdom to offer to its two kinds of disciples. One consists of ethical precepts understood by all and necessary for the preservation of civilization. The other is the occult or the hidden wisdom revealed only to those who have desire to know. Theosophy affirms that the occult world (that is the world beyond the ordinary sense-perception) is neither inaccessible nor incomprehensible. The method adopted by Theosophists in their pursuit of the occult, or what we today call parapsychological phenomena is described by Dr. Annie Besant in these words:
" Theosophy differs from modern science in that it includes under "Science" investigation into superphysical worlds. Its methods are the same; investigation by observation, framing of hypothesis, discovering of invariable sequences of natural laws. It uses the senses for observation, but the senses intensified into supersenses, responding, in fact, to vibration of matter finer than that which affects the physical sense."
Theosophy as a way of inquiry did not begin with the Theosophical society which was established in 1875, and nor will it end with the apparent obscuration of the Society. But it is undeniably true that the Theosophical Society marked a Renaissance in the study of the occult. It was a movement that tried to unite the urge to discover that which eludes the grasp of science and that which science has mastered and naturalised. Theosophy, however, was eclipsed in the last fifty or more years or so but a general revival of parapsychology that we witness today may be a sign that the basic instinct of the Theosophical movement is not extinguished after all.
Copyright : Sushama Karnik
