BP 573 P7W119 ■ WAD I A A 3 8 PROBLEMS OF NATIONALl AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS o ■AX/ |!-'-'S (K^Wfi-y \ •. m/ I K-ji f{-S»K^f V" ■Mix K8W Vmgx\o\ : xrSto^VS? '■••• ■^ja&vyss-'' THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES • Problems of National AND International Politics B. P. WADIA V > Problems of National AND International Politics > B. P. V WADIA Author of "Growths Through Service" and ' ' The Inner Rider. ' ' THEOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK 230 Madison Avenue New York City Copyright 1922 By Theosophical Association of New York. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. 1 PREFACE This lecture was delivered at the Calcutta Con- vention of the Theosophical Society (which has its international Headquarters at Adyar) in December, 1917. It is a humble attempt of a student of The- osophy to understand some of the principles of Po- litical Evolution in the light of the teachings given through the Secret Doctrine of H. P. Blavatsky in the last quarter of the last century. I February, 1922. PROBLEMS OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS By *B. P. Wadia The subject of this lecture sounds controversial, but I do not think my address will be dragged into the arena of controversy for some time to come. In a way I wish it would form a topic of hot debate, for then it would mean that the world is changing in its views on political problems. We have often heard that Theosophy has nothing to do with politics ; but I do not think any instructed member of our Society will rule out of court the study and exposition of such problems of politics as I desire to place before you to-day, though I am inclined to believe that the world outside the Theosophical Society will pass it by, with a good natured shrug of the shoulder. I can guarantee more Theosophy than politics in this lecture, but at the outset I would like to make clear two points: first, that what I say embodies my own personal opinion and should not be regarded in any way as authoritative. There is always a danger of individual opinions of prominent Theosophists being taken as tenets or doctrines of the Theosophi- cal Society, and I think it becomes the duty of stud- ent after student of the Sacred Science, as he puts the fruits of his study before the Society, to affirm that individual opinions do not narrow the fine, broad platform of our international organisation. The second point is this : I would like you to note that what I say here is the result of the study of an individual brother, with all his limitations of vision and penetration and understanding. RELIGION AND POLITICS— A COMPARISON The first thing I should like to point out is this, that the prevailing- view from which the entire range of politics is observed, is the Western and modern one. The way in which the hoary East looked at political problems was different. In these later cen- turies in which the Western world has been influen- cing, more and more, the thought-atmosphere of our civilisation, the older view of politics has gone out of fashion, is forgotten, is not even considered. Just as the nineteenth century scholars traced the source of religion to superstition and described the evolu- tion of religion from the totem and the fetish to monotheistic phases of thought, so also our political thinkers trace the history of our political evolution from the far-off periods when savage tribes tried their hands at the art of government. The patri- archal family, like the totem in religious thought, is the seed from', which the many-branched tree of modern politics has grown. It is said: One Uni- versal God from the totem, our vast political struc- ture from the patriarchal family. That is not the view that Theosophy takes. Our Society has been instrumental in enabling the world, thanks to the teachings of H. P. Blavatsky, to take a somewhat different view of the origin of Religion and religions. It has not wholly succeeded as yet, but already we have taken a great step, and we find that some of the ablest thinkers of the West are inclined to take our view regarding the evolu- tion of religion. Similarly we may succeed — I think we shall — in helping Western civilisation to accept our view regarding theories of Political Science. The Theosophical outlook in matters religious is being accepted very fast nowadays, and I shall not 6 be surprised if our angle of political vision presently finds acceptance in the world of international politics which is steadily emerging before our eyes. * It is that T'heosophical outlook on political problems, not of any one particular nation, but of humanity as a whole, which is the object I have in view. I will not talk of Home Rule and Communal Represen- tation, or the 'Russian Revolution and American Trade, or the many and varied problems which are now engaging the attention of politicians and states- men in different countries. All that I propose to lay before you is a few principles which bring us to the elevated spot from which, as Theosophists, we view, understand and interpret the political progress of communities, nations and races. It is fitting, there- fore, to mention here that you should only expect a somewhat disjointed lecture; the sequential flow of idea after idea, linked one to another — thus presentr ing a complete picture — is beyond me to-day. I shall endeavour to put before you a few ideas, which appear to me to be principles, which may enable all of us to study further — that is all I can do. DIVINE GOVERNANCE Modern civilisation does not yet accept the view of the older world, that the evolution of forms and institutions, and the corresponding unfoldment of souls and principles, takes place according to some definite scheme, divine in origin and mainly super- physical in nature. It does not yet favour the idea that humanity is guided along its path of progress in terms of a well defined plan. The divine govern- 1 Woodrow Wilson, the great democrat, in his excellent volume, The State, makes reference to kinship — which according to him is a fundamental principle active in tho production of the original State — and Religion (cf. pp. 14 and 16, where the origin of Religion and the State are discussed). ance of the world is regarded as an absurdity by science, and is only made use of by religious folk as a figure of speech to console their minds in times of sorrow or difficulty. For a statesman or a poli- tician, the consideration of divine interference as a factor of practical politics, the consultation of divine schemes and plans as an aid to his everyday work, would be a fantastic notion indeed ; any legislator who dared to talk, even vaguely, along such lines, would be shown the way to the nearest lunatic asy- lum. A man or woman holding such views or be- liefs works in silence and has to keep them private, more or less, if he or she happens to be a politician. Now that is the first point I would like to put before you. The instructed Theosophist believes or knows that there is a divine scheme according to which progress — sub-human, human, super-human, physical and visible or superphysical and invisible — is taking place. The scheme of progress, divine in origin, was an object of study to the ancients. The Divine Kings who guided the infant humanity of later Lemurian and Atlantean days, did their magnificent work in terms of that scheme. At the dawn of our Aryan Race, the ancient Rshis and Yogis had visions of the Plan, and performed their task accordingly. As man was able to stand alone more and more, as his in- stinct and mind unfolded their powers in course of time, as his intuitions began to work, according to the dictates of the Plan, physically he was left to himself to build his individuality and advance with the help of his awakened nature. The Readers of the Plan vanish from the pages of history, and when we come to what is now called historical times, the very existence of the Scheme is not referred to. Take the Puranas — and the facts of the existence of a scheme, as also the workers of the scheme, are evi- 8 dent ; take the later Iranian writings or Greek ones, and we still come across references to the existence of the old Seers and Divine Kings and religious Teachers. But come to modern history, and we have no Scheme and no Divine Helpers who aided mankind on its upward journey. StilL later, and the notion of an upward journey becomes non-exist- ent, and only in the latter part of the nineteenth century, because of the writings of Darwin, evolu- tion — only materialistic and bodily — comes into prominence. The happenings of our later days, the many scientific discoveries, the work of Spiritualism and Psychical Research, but above all the teachings put forward by the Theosophical Society, are caus- ing the thought of the world to tend to the idea that there may exist some kind of process or plan or scheme, according to which the entire progress, along many lines, of the whole of mankind has been taking place. The oft-quoted lines of the great Vic- torian poet, Tennyson, are only an index to the thought of his world which has been groping in the dark td find a better understanding of this ever- moving panorama of evolution. At the beginning of his In Memoriam he advises us to let "'reverence in us dwell," and at the end, with the help of that reverence, he sings of One God, one law, one element, And one far-off divine event, To which the whole creation moves. That Divine Event has a political significance which forms part of our study this morning. THE PLAN AND THE HELPERS Now that is the first idea to be grasped for the purposes of our lecture: that even the political evolution of humanity is taking place in exact terms 9 of a Divine Flan ; further, that the political evolution proceeds along lines to which it is guided by Those who know of the plan. Theosophists must risk the ridicule of the world and affirm that Divine Helpers exist to-day as in the far-off past, and on Theosophi- cal politicians will devolve the task of familiarising the modern world with the concept that man's poli- tical evolution is, fundamentally and in the main, guided by Rajarshis, Manus, Lawgivers, who labour from behind the veil, unknown and unrecognised by the vast majority, but of whose existence and activi- ties some few know even to-day. That, then, is the second idea : Divine Helpers — Masons of the great Architect of the Universe — who build according to knowledge. The politicians and the statesmen of to-morrow, who will lead an international civilisa- tion from glory to glory till the end of the fifth stage of the vast drama of evolution on our globe, will be men and women who, in an increasing num- ber, will be pupils and disciples of these Divine Helpers. Some of the great statesmen of to-day are unconsciously led by these helpers to take one step or another ; most of the great and significant events of to-day are the outcome of such unrecog- nised guidance, direction and help. As humanity grows into Justice and Liberty, thej hand of the Divine Helper will become visible to an increasing extent, till in the culminating civilisaton of our Aryan Race, Gods will walk the earth as of old, and the Golden Age will have returned. THE FREE MAN Our next stage is to enquire into the purpose of the divine scheme, as far as human political evolu- tion on this globe is concerned. The purpose of all evolution, according to Theosophy, is to bring man to the realisation of his divinity, not merely latent, 10 but divinity which has become fully patent. Man, by and through the help of evolution, becomes God, knows Himself and His universe, can and does use the Power of His Will, can and does create a uni- verse all His own, which He fills with His Love and guides with His Wisdom. In other words, the pur- pose of evolution is the unfoldment of man, through the stages of Superman, to that Perfection which is embodied in the shastraic conception of the Su preme Purusha. Man is striving to become a Per- fect Individual — free in mind, morals and activities. The purpose of all evolution is to enable him to attain to that exalted status. The various branches of the tree of evolution serve the one purpose — to give man the necessary shelter while he is engaged in the Herculean labour of growth unto a Perfect Individuality. Bearing this purpose in mind we shall have to study the principles of man's political evolution in the light of Theosophy. The aim of political evolu- tion on our globe seems to me to be the production of the Free Man, who will Jive and love and labour among Free Men, uninterfered with by State-laws of any kind or description. Our emancipated Free Man has unfolded his divinity to the extent which enables him to understand and apply the laws of his being to his own good, and without injury to any- one else. He does not require the aid of any set of rules or regulations, laws or enactments, made by others; further, the laws of his life, which are the outcome and the manifestation of his unfoldment. however different from those of his neighbour, do not interfere with the latter's existence ; our Free Men have different outlooks on life and the world* but each of them, in his individual freedom, living according to his own enlightened conscience and the set of laws and rules which he has made for himself, 11 lives without interfering with or harming his fellow Free Men, whose enlightened consciences have given them their points of view and their outlooks, and who have made for themselves their own sets of rules of conduct and laws of life. Bearing in mind this purpose of the political evolution of mankind on this globe, we shall endeavor to study the principles which guide that evolution. The production of the Free Man, who lives according to self-made laws, and therefore is self-reliant, is the object of Nature which she strives to attain through the political evolution of human- ity. To use the technical Theosophical language, our Free Man is one who has realised the Power of his Atma to a certain extent ; this realisation has made him find and adopt the law of his being, which law finds expression in his own life. He lives in the company of other Free Men, who similarly, through atmic realisations, have found their individual laws of being and life. Imagine a community of men and women who have realised the power of Atma, whose individualities therefore have attained freedom of thought and movement, who are detached, each a monarch unto himself, and yet live in harmony because each has lost the power to impose or to wound. The common tie between them all is the self-effort of each to live his life in terms of the laws of his own being — a life of inner richness and reality which receives only one kind of aid from without, vis., in the self-effort of each to gain the view-point of the others. I can not describe adequately the end of political evolution which, will flower in this splendid civilisation in the seventh root-race on this our earth. I want just to present the goal to be reached, so that our study of the path to it may be a little facilitated. 12 THE INDIVIDUAL— THE MAIN FACTOR Now you will see that the main factor of political evolution is the individual. The family, the tribe, the community, the nation, and their respective theatres of growth — the home, the village, the pro- vince, the country, and the institution called the State, common to all, which grows from simplicity to be a complex organism — are all playgrounds for the unfoldment of the individual, are all instruments by whose aid our Free Man will eventually come to birth. In this, once again, we differ in our ideas from the Western thinkers and exponents of Political Science. The evolution of the State, the growth of political institutions, cannot be studied by itself without any reference to thd individual. In the study of the institution of the family in the home, or the tribe in the village, the individuals who are the component parts form the most important factors. In this materialisitic age, a scientific medical man hardly takes into account, when he is consulted about the bodily ailments of a man, the influence on the disease of that man's emotions and thoughts or of the play of his soul-forces. Similarly our political doctors of modern times have divested the study of political institutions of its most im- portant factor, the individual, and concern them- selves mainly with rules and laws which affect their environment, and which the evolving individuals bring into existence at different stages of their life- journeys. This is the great obstacle ; at least I have found it to be so, in my study of the Western polit- ical writers; in their splendid expositions they take us away from realities into concepts which are re- moved from living, human interest. Also their ex- positions do not take account of the fact that the individuals who formed the original, simple State of 13 the family once, are exactly the same individuals who, as they go on unfolding their powers, form the more complex States of the village or the nation ; that family ties and blood-relationships evolve into communal and racial bonds, and that the war be- tween country and country is not to be traced merely to feuds between family and family, or tribe and tribe, but the causes thereof have to be looked for elsewhere, viz., in the individuals whose warring pro- pensities are the\ outcome of insufficient soul-de- velopment. A whole volume could be written on this theme, but it is sufficient to make a passing reference and go on. You will see immediately from this, that family, tribe, country — in other words the State, the ever- growing, complex State — is not of primary but secondary importance. The individual, as he evolves, leaves behind him these institutions. They are not created by him, however great a share he may have contributed in building them up. It is all very well for our Western political doctors to trace the State to the family, but who brought the family into being? And who indicated to the ignorant savage, who was nothing more than an embodiment of barbaric instincts, how to live har- moniously the State-life of family or tribe? I know that it is said that these savage ancestors of ours instinctively evolved the laws of family life, etc. ; however, I am not here to prove the error in the theories which are now accepted, but rather to give the Theosophical outlook on these problems. Aristotle, who is still in many respects regarded as the greatest authority on the problems of polit- ical science, traces the origin of the State to the household. Plato of old, and Seeley of modern times, conceded the great part the individual plays 14 in the formation and evolution of the 'State, and yet they seem to overlook the fact that the State exists for the purpose of the individual. Of course the whole problem is thrown back on the original sin of Materialism, which denies the divinity of men and things, and refuses to see the hand of God in evolution. THE STATE—ARCHETYPAL AND OTHERS The State at its different stages of evolution is an institution which we come across in our study of the divine scheme. The State is an archetype of the world of Spirit; the State is an Idea, in the sense in which Plato used that word ; the State is a concept — arupa, formless, as Theosophists would say. That archetype bursts into many shapes in the world of matter, just as many triangles burst from the archetypal triangle ; that State-Idea is the womb of all States, large and small, political or religious, autocratic or bureaucratic or democratic, family and tribe and nation States ; that arupa State is like Professor Owen's strange archetypal mammal, made up of all the States of which we are aware, and of those of which we do not yet know. 1 The manifestations of that archetypal, formless State which exists in the realm of Spirit, are to be found in the world of matter. The archetypal State is thus projected for the purposes of afford- ing playgrounds to the individuals who are evolv- ing on this earth ; even these projections are more or less sorted out and a few particular ones are assigned to our globe, and we shall come across others on other planets when we quit this theatre 1 Of the various western political thinkers, 1ihe late Professor Seeley has lines of reasoning which often come near to the ancient and Theo- saphical thought. Thus, for example, on the idea of the archetypal Stiate, we find some cognate thoughts in his Introduction to Political Science (pp. 16-18) : 15 of strife. This projection we can study when we study the divine plan, and by studying the sorting- process we come to know of the divine helpers and co-operators who work at the plan. This brings us to the idea that the fundamental principle of human political evolution on this globe is the State, in which man lives and by whose aid he evolves. In this, at any rate, Eastern and Wes- tern political thinkers are at one, though they differ as to the relative importance and value of the indi- vidual and the State, the genesis of the latter, and the impression the former leaves thereon. In their definitions they are as the poles asunder. How- ever, it is not my task to-day to describe the be- liefs and opinions of Western and Eastern political savants ; I want to confine myself to obtaining a Theosophical outlook on the subject of the State, its origin, purpose and function, and concomitant problems pertaining to human political evolution. "The division of mankind into States is of vast importance, first, because of its universality ; secondly, because of its intensity and the momentous consequences it has had. When I speak of its universality I admit that I stretch considerably the meaning commonly given to the word State. In the Greek or Roman,, or in the European sense of the word, the State has been aaid is by no means universal; on the con- trary, it is somewhat rare among mankind. Bulj we want some one word to denote the large corporation, larger than the family yet usually connected with the family, whatever form it may assume, and the word State is the only word which can be made to serve this purpose. Sometimes it would be better called a tribe or clan, sometimes a church or religion, but whatever we call it the phenomenon is very universal. Almost everywhere men conceive themselves as belonging to some large corporation. "They conceive themselves, too, as belonging to it for life and death ; they conceive that in case of need this corporation may make unlimited demands upon them ; they conceive that they are bound, if called upon, to die for it. "Hence most interesting and memorable results follow from the existence of these great corporations. In the first place, the growth •nd development of the corporations themselves, the various forms they assume, the various phases they pass through ; 16 then the interaction of these corporations upon each other, the wars they wage, the treaties they conclude, all the phe- nomena of conquest and federation ; then again the infinite effects produced upon the individual by belonging to such a corporation, those infinite effects which we sum up in the single, expressive word civilisation; here, you see, is a field of speculation almost boundless, for it includes almost all that is memorable in the history of man- kind, and yet it is all directly produced by the fact that human being! almost everywhere belong to States. "This peculiar human phenomenon, then, the State in the largest acceptation of the word, distinct from the family though not uncon- nected with it, distinct also from the nation though sometimes roughly coinciding with it, is the subject of political science. Or, since the distinctive characteristic of the State, wherever it appears, is that it makes use of the arrangement or contrivance called government, we may say that this science deals with government as political economy deals with wealth, as biology deals with life, as algebra deals with numbers, as geometry deals' with space and magnitude." ■ The divine origin of the State is acknowledged by the Mahabharata: "In the early years of the Krta-Yuga, there was no sovereignty, no king, no government, no ruler. All men used to protect one another righteously. [This is the age and regime of Perfection of Innocence with which all phases of evolution begin, and as indicated by H. P. B. in her monumental work. — B. P. W-] After some time, however, they found the task of righteously protecting each othe* painful. Error began to assail their hearts. Having become subject to error, the perceptions of men became clouded, and as a conse- quence, their virtues began to decline. Love of acquisition got hold of them, and they became covetous. When they had become subject to covetousness another passion, namely wrath, soon possessed their minds. Once subject to wrath, they lost all consideration of what ought to be done and what should be avoided. Thus, unrestrained licence set in. Men began to do what they liked and to utter what they chose. All distinctions between virtue and vice came to an end. When such confusion possessed the souls of men, the knowledge of the Supreme Being disappeared, and with the disappearance of the highest knowledge, righteousness was utterly lost. The gods were then overcome with grief and fear, and approached Brahma for pro- tection and advice. Brahma then created by a fiat of his will a son named Virajas. This son, born of the energy of Brahma, was made the ruler of the world" (Shanti Parva, Mahabharata.). Compare this with Milton's view in his Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, where he says that all men were borne free, that wrong sprang up through Adam's sin, and that to avet their own complet* 17 CIVILISATION— NO ORIGIN I have already referred to the origin of the State It is of divine origin, archetypal in nature ,and it is a component part of the scheme of the Logos. Its purpose has also been indicated. The many mani- festations of that archetypal State are so many theatres of progress in which human beings gain experience and garner wisdom. States, simple and complex, have ever existed as they exist to-day. I do not think we can truthfully posit, as some Western writers have done, that when the earth was young, all human beings were savages, were naked in body, mind and soul. The Secret Doctrine raises the curtain on a very different drama. Oc- cultism, which is defined as the study of the Divine Mind in Nature, gives us a different idea.. The divine scheme contains pictures different altogether from those drawn for us in modern books. I have searched in vain in thej pages of the The Secret Doctrine for a reference to the time when cultured, civilised human beings were altogether absent from the field of evolution. This old earth has been from very early times more or less the same in this, that human beings of different stages of growth, and therefore of intelligence and culture, have been evolving side by side as they do to-day. In this our twentieth century, the intellectual American and the Red Indian savage live on the same con- tinent ; in this our country of India, yogis, sages and saints dwell side by side not only with illit- destruction, men agreed "by common league to bind each other from mutual injury and jointly to defend themselves against any that gave disturbance to such agreement.'' In the Mahabharata the origin of the science of politics is given in Shanti Parva (Section 59), where it is named Dandaniti, and it is described as divine in source. Students of esoteric lore may study this section with great profit to gain light on the subject. 18 erates, but with semi-savage hill-tribes. The sav- age and the civilised man have always been there from times immemorial. Therefore States, both simple and complex, of many types and several kinds, have also been in existence. 1 And our Theo- sophical study and research yield the fact that these States afford the means with the help of which members of the human kingdom evolve along many lines, including the political. That, in short, is the Theosophical view about the purpose of the State. 1 GROUPS The important fact implied in this purpose is that human beings move in groups — a fact which Western political thinkers also affirm. They agree 1 Here again, Professor Seeley lias some remarks which I would like you to ponder over in the light of what I am saying: "Ancient men, too, lived in states and submitted to government. And if we go to countries remote from Europe, to China, which has always been unaffected by western civilisation, or to India, which has usually been so, we still find governments and States. It is true that these ancient or remote States differ very much from those with which we are familiar. They differ, indeed, more than we readily understand. Observers and students, instead of being surprised at the resemblance, have been too much disposed to assume them and exaggerate them. They have taken for granted that men, wherever found, must have kings and nobles and governments like those of Europe. And perhaps some error has crept into history from this cause; as, for instance, it has recently been maintained that the Spanish accounts of ancient Mexican institutions are too much coloured by Spanish prepossessions. But when all due allowance has been made for this cause of error, we do find States, even if States of a differ- ent kind, just as we find languages everywhere, though the unlikeness of the Bantu or the Chinese language to Greek or German may be greater than we could at first have conceived possible.'' — Introduction to Political Science, pp. 30-31. And in examining the problems before him actuated by the noble motive of looking for truth in every quarter, Professor Seeley gives a hint, and it would be well for his students and successors to think it over, and follow the suggestions made. 1 Pramathana'h Banerjea, in his most excellent book, Public Ad- ministration in Ancient India, has this significant remark: 19 with the occult view that States grow in complexity as evolution proceeds. A more civilised State is a more complex organism. A family-State of evolved individuals is much more complex than a tribe-State of less evolved beings ; a municipal-State is more complex^ than a province-State, if the former has evolved further than the province; it may well be the reverse. The idea we want to get hold of is that more civilised States are more complex or- ganisms. A NEW VIEW OF RACES In this fact is embedded the principal function of the State. Highly evolved beings progress faster than less evolved beings ; therefore the former require as their playground a much more complexly organized State than the latter. Nature always provides suitable environment for further progress ; it separates an individual or puts him in with others in the same family or tribe or race as is most suitable for the further harmonious growth of the individual I have found the study of this subject more illumi- nated in this way : We Theosophists are familiar with the teachings of the root- and the sub-races ; these races are known to us, through our literature, as instruments or channels of racial progress on the side of body or form ; the type of the race is a bundle of bodily characteristics; the ethnological features make up the type — thus the Aryan type is "We can no longer think of excluding any state because we do not like it, any more than a naturalist would have a right to exclude plants under the contemptuous name of weeds, or animals under the name of vermin. Accordingly we must throw open our classification to political organisms the most unlike our own and the most unlike those which we approve." —Ibid., p. 33 "It was always considered the duty of the State to offer facilities for the performance of their duties by the people" (p. 282). 20 described in one way, the sixth root-race type in another fashion and so on. Now for the study of our subject look at the psychological aspects of root-races and sub-races. A man's consciousness has unfolded to a certain extent along certain lines, and therefore he belongs to a particular root-race and to a particular sub-race thereof; in that sub- race, branches and families are arranged to make possible the unfoldment of that sub-race type of consciousness. Thus, for example, in the third sub- race — a remnant of it is all that is at present left — you find branches and families of all grades of advancement which can harbour the unfolded souls of spiritual people, artists and writers on the one hand, and also the less evolved souls of individuals struggling in the lower strata of society. You will understand me better if I say that in this 1st sub- race of the Aryan Race, there are 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th sub-race people to be found 1 ; a Hindu is a mem- ber of the first sub-race as far as his bodily type is concerned — though even here I believe certain exceptions will have to be made — but he may be a Teuton or a Kelt when his soul-unfoldment is taken into account. A Pars! is a third sub-race individual ttodily — broadly and generally speaking — but he may be a Hindu or a Greek as far as his conscious- ness is concerned. Caste confusion has come to prevail not only in this country, but throughout the world, if we confine our thoughts to one line of evolution only ; but chaos vanishes when we study the problem of races from the point of view of sev- eral lines of evolution. Therefore in our study of human grouping, in and through which political evolution takes place, 1 I may go even further and say, psychologically, that 6th and 7th race people may be included. Compare the line of thought suggested by H. P. B. in The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I pp. 160-162; Edition of 1888. 21 we have to take into account the various aspects of the grouping. The family-grouping of to-day is more or less the family-grouping of the past: there are savage families and there are cultured families, but we cannot dub a family savage because the bodies provided by that family belong, say, to the 4th race. A Mongolian family may be very far in advance of a Teutonic family when soul-un- foldment is taken into consideration ; but speaking strictly from the ethnological standpoint, a scientific expert may rightly affirm that the Mongolian body is inferior to the Teutonic body . THE MANIFOLD FUNCTION OF THE STATE We have to get hold of this idea very clearly — the function of the State is a many-sided affair and it has to do with the whole of the individual and not any particular aspect or aspects of him. In under- standing the function we have to bear in mind the purpose of the State. The purpose of the State is to afford a playground for the progressing individ- ual, and its functions consist in a deliberate hand- ling and affecting of the whole individual. The Theosophical "man" is different from the creature science has brought into existence in the nineteenth century. Man is sevenfold and tenfold from the point of view of the Theosophist; he is double, and at the most triple, from the point of view of modern science. Therefore from our standpoint the func- tion of a State — any State, family-State, or race- State, or nation-State — is sevenfold or tenfold. The State has certain virtues, if we may put it in a somewhat concrete manner, and these the in- dividuals passing through the State have to, and do, acquire. These virtues may not be acquired to the full ; the individual may not, and in almost every case does not, acquire all that the State offers him ; but under a certain law of evolution — this is 22 another fascinating study which Theosophists may take up with advantage — any individual passing through a particular State does not leave it alto- gether until by repeated rebirths, continuously or at intervals, he acquires definitely the virtues of the State. We may put it differently and say that he does not leave that state till he is sufficiently influenced by it. Looked at from the point of view of the individual, as a soul, he takes birth repeat- edly in that environment which affords him oppor- tunities to take his next step of advancement. An example will make this clear. Suppose a man's further step depends on the development of a cer- tain virtue, he will find himself in the State which has within it the power to help him to evolve that virtue. A man who needs the development of in- tense patriotism may well find himself to-day in this land of India as a young man. The State of India — composed of several factors — affords him the fine opportunity to develop patriotism. On the other hand, one who is outgrowing patriotism and acquiring a humanitarian outlook, will find Ger- many a suitable channel for the purpose. This brings us to the recognition of the fact that the number of projections or manifestations of the archetypal State used on this globe, is a definite number — somewhat vast but still limited — suitable to the corresponding types of evolving humanity on earth. 1 Looked at from this standpoint, States may be defined as natural institutions which correspond with certain phases of human evolution. 1 Once again Seeley's remarks are worth quoding-. He says: "It would not be surprising if all the States described by Aris- totle, and all the States of modern Europe into the bargain, should yield but a small proportion of the whole number of varieties, while those States less familiar to us, and which our manuals are ant to pass ovtr in silence as barbarous .yielded a far larger number." — Introduction to Political Science, p. 34 23 A NEW CLASSIFICATION Now human evolution — for the purposes of our study especially — may be said to consist of the evolution of material organisims, physical as well as superphysical, and unfoldment of the Spirit and its instruments and channels — Will, 2 Pure and Compassionate Reason, 1 Reasoning Mind, 2 Mind, 3 Emotional Mind, 4 Feelings, 5 and Instincts. 6 As I have pointed out, political evolution aims at the production of the Free Man, by the help of States which are natural institions. 7 The develop- ment of man, material and spiritual, referred to above, is many-sided, proceeds along many lines, and the poltical is only one of them. The political evolution consists in the man making himself one with the State with a view to learning everything that the State has to teach and acquiring every virtue that the State has to offer. A man passes through one projection after another of the arche- typal State, building faculties, unfolding powers, acquiring virtues. He does all this through the in- strumentality of the grouping arrangement of Na- ture. This grouping arrangement is a very econ- 2 Atma. J Buddhi. 2 Buddhi-Manas or Higher Manas. 3 Mind untouched by Buddhi but free from the influence of Kama. 4 Kama- Manas. 6 Kama. 6 Instincts are twofold: (a) outcome of our feelings when our body- contacts them ; and (b) outcome of the physical elemental contacting the physical body. 7 Professor Seeley concedes that the States are natural institutions ; thus he is on the way to accept the divine origin of the State, and I daresay will preach it when he returns to earth to occupy the then Regius Professorship of the then Cambridge. He says: "Now certainly the State is not so purely a natural product as a tree or an animal ; still it is in part a natural product, and to the extent that it is a natural product it must be said to be in the strict sense without an object." Loc, cit., p. 40. With the latter portion of the quotation we, of course, cannot agree, but we do not want to enter into discussions. 24 omical arrangement of Nature, as it is also most sympathetic to the evolving entities, always pro- viding short cuts and paths least difficult, however full of obstacles they may sem to us to be. 1 THE STATE CEASES TO BE USEFUL The State is the outcome of the grouping arrange- ment ; there may be other outcomes but the State appears to be the main one ; at any rate it is so for the subject of our study. The individual passes through State after State, arriving at more complex States as he progresses further and further, but at the same time he is gaining ground in another direc- tion — he must "regain the child-state he has lost." He is becoming self-reliant, is able to stand alone, and is in a position to render help to men in his capacity as superman. The political evolution is over when the man needs no more the aid of the State. Aristotle was right when he said that "Man is naturally a political animal ; and one who is not a citizen of any State, if the cause of his isolation be natural and not accidental, is either a superhuman being or low in the scale of civilisation," to which we would add the class of one who does not belong to the human kingdom at all. 1 Man, by entwining himself in the meshes of the ever-growing complex State, acquires the virtues the States have to give him, but he all the time is also endeavouring to cast off fetters which are concomitants of that ac- quirement. There is in political evolution, as in 1 This, again, is a fascinating by-path which I must forego the temptation to tread. It is said in books of Occultism and Yoga that a man may escape from the bondage of birth and death at almost any stage of evolution, provided he makes the proper use of his environment and responds to it as a soul and not a personality. Nirvana is said, to be a change of Condition and not conditions, and in human political evolution, it seems to me, the gaining of Freedom is a rich possibility. 1 Aristotle, as pointed out by Seeley, '"almost excludes from his investigation all States but that very peculiar kind of State which flourished in his own country". 25 other kinds of progress, the time of forthgoing and the time of return — the Prayrtti and Nivrtti marp-as. Now it is very difficult for me to describe the process which a man adopts when he is passing through States, first simple and later on complex, till he begins to return to the- simple, and eventually gets there. I have tried to paint this picture in many ways, but there is only one which seems intelligible enough to be presented, and that I give here. YOGA WITH THE STATE Theosophists are familiar with the idea of yoga, of union with the Higher Self, or with the object of devotion, or with the Supreme. We also know of the union of the consciousness of the disciple and Master — the yoga between the Teacher and the pupil. If we bring to bear this idea of yoga or union of conscience in the matter of States and in- dividuals, we get not altogether an inadequate idea of the process whereby an individual grows polit- ically, through the instrumentality of the State, and at the end triumphantly emerges a Free man — a per- fect Anarchist — using the term in the philosophical sense — the perfect man of Leo Tolstoy and Walt Whitman. I know there are aspects of this analogy which are far from exactitude of detail, but I am only applying general and broad principles, and there is hardly an analogy perfect in all its parts. Picture, therefore, an individual, say, in the family-State: even there, he is, to use the Aristo- telian phrase — not a very complimentary one to budding Gods — "a political animal." In that ele- mentary State 1 of the family he is evolving politi- callv — learning," something which will enable him to become the Free Man, the Perfect Citizen of a Per- 1 I am not forgetting that there are evolved family-States which are more complex than evolved tribe-States. 26 feet Commonwealth, where each man lives his life by the laws which he has made for himself. He is learning this lesson by the process of yoga or union with the family-State, and the consciousness of that State widens and continues to widen, till the com- plete family-State — i.e., a State where laws of con- sanguinity predominate and guide human endeav- our — is realised by the individual. It begins at an early stage of human evolution, and even in modern civilisation human beings, on the whole, have not emerged out of it. Complex family-States, suitable for highly evolved beings, exist to-day in which human beings are acquiring the virtues of the householder, which State is not yet transcended. The man of the family to-day is performing yoga with the consciousness of his family, and thereby with that of the family-State. The tribe-State, similarly, is not altogether left behind by men who have even come to twentieth century European civilisation ; in modern England, for instance, we have Yorkshire men and Lancashire men, as we have here Panjabisj and Madrasis. Through our country or provincial experiences we are mak- ing a union with the tribe-State, and are gaining the virtues a tribe-State offers. Perhaps this ex- ample is not quite happy, because tribes were wan- dering bodies once — and there are to-day in exist- ence ramifications of wandering tribes who are not ■much affected by geographical boundaries 1 — and provincial population has settled down in a space area. However, if we examine deeply and trace the evolution of tribes, I do not think my example will be altogether rejected. Similarly again, human beings gain experience and acquire virtues through nation-States, race-States, and so on. By contact- ' We may with advantage examine the position of the members of our T. S. as belonging to a kind of wandering tribe. 27 ing and making close ties with States, and our fel- low men in the States, individuals are evolving politically. THE TWO PATHS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION This process has two definite stages, as you al- ready must have noticed, to which I have referred in passing. There is the first factor — the entwin- ing of the individual with the State, and the second — the extricating of himself from the State when he has nothing more to gain therein. Before our very eyes is taking place a somewhat strange phenom- enon, perhaps for the first time in the history of humanity — settled family-life is more and more be- ing given up by members of the evolved races under economic and other pressure. The inclination to get married and settle down is less strong to-day than in ages past. Time was when civilisations had no bachelors, where family life was supreme and the chief function which members thereof had to perform was going through the marriage rite and living the married life. ' In its place to-day we find a more complex State than the family-State, and we are all evolving through nation-State and race-State. The principles of nationality are being utilised to-day as those of the family-State were once used. We are making ourselves one with 1 Cf. 'Maine's Ancient Law. He says: "The idea that a number ot persons should exercise political rights in common simply because they happen to live within the same topographical limits was utterly strange and monstrous to primitive antiquity. The expedient which in those times commanded favour was that the incoming population should feign themsek'es to be descended from the same stock as the people on whom they were engrafted ; and it is precisely the good faith of this fiction, and the closeness with which it seemed to imitate reality, that we cannot now hope to understand. One circumstance, however, which it is important to recollect, is that the men who formed the various political groups were certainly in the habit of meeting together periodically for the purpose of acknowledging and consecrating their association by common sacrifices. Strangers amalgamated with the brotherhood were doubtless admitted to theie sacrifices ; and when that was once done, we can believe that it seemed equally easy, or not more difficult, to conceive them as 28 our respective nations and races, and in a few centuries we should have completely transcended that and should be engaged in making ourselves one with a more complex organism of an interna- tional and inter-racial character. Even to-day there are men and women who are dreaming some such dreams and aspiring after some such State. THE TRUE POLITICIANS Therefore we see that it is also a question of escaping from a State when the lessons it has to teach are learnt, just exactly as a disciple becomes a Master and leaves behind the stage of disciple- ship. Thus we get a picture of the function of the individual in the State, and indirectly of the latter towards the former. This applies to all the mem- bers of the human family — for they are "political animals" and will be perfect citizens of an an- archical commonwealth — once again in the philo- sophical sense. But while all men and women un- dergo political evolution, they are not all politicians. That is altogether a different evolution, to which a certain number of humanity belong — most prob- ably one-seventh of the total number. For these par- ticular individuals, the general political evolution becomes more deep or more strenuous. Once again we are entering a side-track of our main subject, but a very fascinating track. I will pass on by sharing in the common lineage. The conclusion, then, which is sug- ?ested by the evidence is not that all early societies were ormed by descent from the same ancestor, but that all of them which had any permanence and solidity either were so descended or assumed that they were. An indefinite number of causes may have shattered the primitive groups, but wherever their ingredients recombined, it was on the model or principle of an association of kindred. Whatever were the facts, all thought, language and law adjusted themselves to the assumption. But though all this seems tei bi* to be established with reference to the communities with whose records we are acquainted, the remainder of their history sustains the position before laid down as to the essentially transient and terminable influence of the most powerful Legal Fictions. At some point of time*— probably as soon as they felt themselves strong enough to resist extrinsic pressure — all these States ceased to recruit themselves by fictitious extensions of consanguinity." p. 131. 29 saying only that these particular human beings who are evolving as politicians — not necessarily all the members of Parliament or Legislative Councils — often become Political Helpers of Humanity, Manus and Lawgivers. Rajarshis and Regents. A very good description of these true Politicians is to be found in Plato's Republic, where they are described as "artists who imitate the heavenly pattern" ; and "herein will lie the difference between them and every other legislator — they will have nothing to do either with individual or State, and will inscribe no laws, until they have either found, or themselves made, a clean surface." How will they copy the pattern when they have obtained a "clean surface"? Says Plato : "And when they are filling in the work, as I conceive, they will often turn their eyes upwards and downwards : I mean that they will first look at absolute justice and beauty and tem- perence, and again at the human copy ; and Avill mingle and temper the various elements of life into the image of a man; and this they will conceive according to that other image, which, when exist- ing among men, Homer calls the form and likeness of God." But all that, as Kipling would say, is another story. TWO PRINCIPLES I have referred above to the simultaneous proces- ses whereby a man gets entwined and also extricates himself from the State — the two margas, as it were, of human political evolution. The first, I have described in terms of yoga, union with the State ; the second may be aptly spoken of as a spiritual counterpart of the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest — the existence of a Free Man and not of a "political animal," to be- come the fit "Anarchist," surviving all the bonds 30 and fetters that long- evolution imposes on us. These two aspects lead us to the inference that there must be also two fundamental principles on which this double-aspect process rests. I think a little careful study confirms our expectation for we find that, common to all States, simple and complex, are two appendages, the principle of union (with co-operation as its central manifestation), and the principle of unity (with the supreme purusha, the Perfect Citizen, the Free Man, as the goal ever held in view). Let me put it a little more clearly. We find that an individual belonging to a partic- ular State, in the process of yoga with that State entwines himself, by the help of this principle of union, with other members of the State. The State is not apart from the individual, though it is created for him ; the individual, so to say, is part of the machinery of the State; without him the necessity for the State vanishes. The divine scheme provides for the State because individuals have to have a playground for progress. Where would be the need for a playground if no players have to play any game? The playground implies players — the latter form part of the former. Now the individual and the State have a similar relationship. The indi- vidual acquires; the virtues of the State through the instrumentality of fellow-citizens. In perform- ing yoga with the State an individual co-operates with other individuals in that State. All the time thq individual learns how to co-operate — in the family with a few, in the tribe with a few more, as a nationalist with many, and an internationalist with many more, as a humanitarian with all. That is the first process, which is predominantly in mani- festation in the first half of the human political evolution. Progress is fast, and is mainly achieved, in the first period, by this co-operation. The second 31 phase is predominant in the second half, and the individual, as individual, emerges in that period and receives his due homage. His mastery over the State, his independence of the State — he being, as it were, more than the State — are phases of the second half of political evolution. The key-note of the first is union, co-operation with others ; that of the second is unity, as a result of which the indi- vidual, self-reliant, self-satisfied, flowers as the Free Man, the perfect Citizen of a Lawless Kingdom. THE TWOFOLD WAY Lest I be misunderstood, I will say that I do not contend that in simple and early State-conditions men co-operate with each other, and in the second half they are warring entities. There are no two periods, but rather are there two phases common to all States ; these States may be simple or com- plex in structure ; they may be stable or moving in space; they may be early or late in time. In the remotest past and in the most simple of family- States, both the processes are at work, as a little observation shows. In the most complex world- State of the future also — the world-State of Free Men — these two are to be found. Thus it will be seen that to unite with others and yet retain one's individuality is the double-faced evolution through which we have to make headway. Thus co-operation and competition are not opposed to each other, but are supplementary, or complementary, whichever way you like to look at the pair. It is a maddening idea, but it is apparently true — that we are engaged in the work of obtaining something only to leave it behind, to reject it, to throw it away. We make ourselves one with our family, and then we want to escape it ; with our tribe, and then we have to leave it ; with our nation, and then we have to quit 32 it. Get and give away; try to be rich, gain wealth, and then aspire to be possession-less! And this through tens of thousands and millions of years ! PRINCIPLES AND RACES This tremendous drama — call it a farce if you please — has seven acts which, in Theosophy, we call the seven root-races. Each root-race has seven scenes which we call the sub-races, and each sub- race several parts. In each act one phase of the seven-fold man plays the leading part, the remain- ing six phases also are at work on the stage. The perfection of the whole is aimed at in the very end, but the greatest impetus for the perfection of each is given to it when it plays the leading part. Take an example : in one particular act or root-race Kama plays the leading part ; Kama will not show per- fection at the end of that act, but only at the end of the play, but it receives the greatest impetus to- wards perfection in the particular act or root-race. The Kama in man will manifest perfection at the close of evolution, but it receives the greatest help to attain it in the root-race where Nature plays upon that particular human principle. All the States, from the most simple to the most complex, in that particular root-race, are engaged in aiding Kama in the individual to progress towards perfect manifestation. The double process of union, or co- operation, and of unity, implying competition in all States of that root-race, are mainly and chiefly in reference to Kama. What happens in root-races, also happens in sub-races of each of the root-races. All these principles I have been speaking about have to be taken into account in the real study of political problems of any nation. I have brought you far away from electorates and franchise, Home Rule, wholesale or step-by-step or in compartments, 33 votes for women, or no votes for women, free-trade or protection, etc., etc., etc. But then we are at last at the beginning' of our subject — Problems of National and International Politics. Only the Theosophical outlook is what I have been able to present, and I believe that you, my brothers, can apply those principles to the problems which affect your citizenship. 34 A SYSTEMATIC COURSE OF READING arranged by THE THEOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK. Key to Theosophy Ocean of Theosophy Popular Lectures on Theosophy Echoes from the Orient The Occult World In the Outer Court The Science of the Emotions A Study in Consciousness Isis Unveiled The Secret Doctrine H. P. Blavatsky Wm. Q. Judge Annie Besant Wm. Q. Judge A. P. Sinnett Annie Besant Bhagavan Das Annie Besant H. P. Blavatsky H. P. Blavatskv The Bhagavad Gita The Bhagavad Gita Notes on the Gita Doctrine of the Heart Light on the Path Practical Occultism The Voice of the Silence Annie Besant Wm. Q. Judge Wm. Q. Judge Annie Besant Mabel Collins H. P. Blavatsky H. P. Blavatsky These books can be obtained at the Headquarters of The Theosophical Association 230 Madison Avenue, New York City. 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