Printed in the Summer 2023 issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: Hebert, Barbara, "The Goal of the Perfect" Quest 111:3, pg 16-17
Barbara Hebert
National President
One of the basic teachings of the Ageless Wisdom is that there are beings on this planet whose primary purpose is to facilitate the expansion of the consciousness of all beings. The goal of these perfected human beings is to assist humanity in its spiritual development and ease the suffering of the world.
Because these beings have rarely been seen, some people may believe that they are simply figments of someone’s imagination, the result of a need for a personalized deity or even a wish for a paradise in which someone rescues us from our suffering. Any of these things may be true—or maybe not. As seekers on the path to Truth, it is important that we suspend our need to see in order to believe. As Hamlet says in Shakespeare’s play (act 1, scene 5), “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Throughout the ages, there have been wise ones who embody spiritual knowledge and who share what many would call the Ageless Wisdom. If we were to meet one of them, they would immediately be recognizable by their special nature and by the innate strength, compassion, wisdom, and love that emanate from them. Many names have been given to these great teachers over the eons.
Theosophical teachings refer to these wise ones in several ways: the Mahatmas, the Masters of Wisdom, the Masters, or adepts. H.P. Blavatsky introduced the concept of the Mahatmas to the Western world in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The word adept derives from the Latin adeptus, meaning one who has obtained. Blavatsky defines adept as “one who has reached the stage of Initiation, and become a Master in the science of Esoteric philosophy” (Blavatsky, 6). The term Mahatma is from Sanskrit: maha means great and atma means soul; therefore, Mahatma means great soul. It is a title rather than a proper name.
Throughout the ages, the Masters have existed, shining the light of their love, compassion, and wisdom on humanity and the world. Looking through history, we see beings such as Buddha, the sages of Greece, Muhammad, Jesus, Mary the mother of Jesus, Lao Tzu, indigenous sages, Confucius, Kwan Yin, Krishna, Radha, and many others. There are too many to name and many others whose names will never be known. Each in their own way brought light to our planet, which is shrouded by the suffering of humanity.
They bring the light of their wisdom, love, and compassion, because they too have walked the path we are walking now. They have experienced the joy, sadness, love, heartbreak, happiness, and suffering of living physical lives as human beings.
The Ageless Wisdom tells us that we are on a journey of progressive spiritual development, incarnating again and again in physical bodies in order to grow and learn. Through this journey, through our experiences in physical incarnation, we unfold all aspects of ourselves. The great elders have completed this journey and are perfected human beings.
In her book There is No Other Path to Go, Radha Burnier, the late international president of the Theosophical Society, tells us:
In the Liberated Adept or Master, [the] virtues, which are of the very nature of consciousness, have flowered into perfection as their consciousness has blossomed fully in perfect measure, revealing powers as yet latent in the average person. They are perfect in wisdom, compassion, love, and selfless purity. Purity implies the total absence of the sense of a separate self. Perfect love implies not choosing, not giving love in return for something else. (Burnier, 52‒53)
However, these great beings have made a conscious choice not to move forward, but rather to remain in physical bodies on the planet in order to facilitate the continuing growth of humanity.
According to the occult teachings, then, many of the Mahatmas retain physical bodies and sacrifice their own movement into nirvana in order to help humanity.
We may wonder how the Mahatmas help humanity. In Letter 112 of The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett (chronological), the Mahatma Koot Hoomi talks of the work of the adepts, saying that their “prime duty [is] of gaining knowledge and disseminating through all available channels such fragments as mankind in the mass may be ready to assimilate” (Chin, 382). In The Esoteric Writings of T. Subba Row, the author, an admired early Theosophist, states:
The adept hierarchy is as strictly a product of nature as a tree is: it has a definite and indispensable purpose and function in the development of the human race: this function is to keep open the upward path, through which descend the light and leading without which our race would require to make each step by the wearisome, never ending method of trial and failure in every direction, until chance showed the right way. In fact the function of the adept hierarchy is to provide religious teachers for the stumbling masses of mankind. (Row, 113)
Shankaracharya, the Indian philosopher who is regarded as the founder of Advaita Vedanta and believed by many to be an incarnation of Shiva, states:
The great and peaceful ones live regenerating the world like the coming of the spring; having crossed the ocean of embodied existence themselves, they freely aid all others who seek to cross it. The very essence and inherent will of Mahatmas is to remove the suffering of others, just as the ambrosia-rayed moon of itself cools the earth heated by the intense rays of the sun.
While we do not know the details of the Masters’ work, we do have a glimpse of its essence: alleviating the suffering of humanity by encouraging forward movement in spiritual development. The Ageless Wisdom teachings tell us that we can join them in this great work.
An analogy of a young child and a high-school senior might help us understand how we can help the Mahatmas. A young child and a senior in high school are working together in the same room. The senior is working on calculus, while the young child is coloring: learning to hold the crayons properly, exploring shapes, and experimenting with various colors. The senior knows that he cannot do the work for the child but assists through encouragement, while the child assists the older student by supporting the necessary study environment.
Our collaboration with the Mahatmas is similar in many respects. They cannot do our work for us, but they do support and encourage us, often in unseen ways. We can add to the environment they are working to create through meditation, awareness of the thoughts we are sending out into the world, and living a life of altruism, to name a few ways. Our role in helping the Mahatmas is very much like the role of the first-grader helping the senior: we are using our intentional energy to create an environment that focuses on the unity and interconnectedness of all beings.
Additionally, our own spiritual self-transformation also facilitates the work of the Mahatmas. N. Sri Ram, another late international president of the Theosophical Society, writes:
The Masters of Wisdom, who aid evolution, although They are interested in all changes that make for human progress, are especially concerned with the spiritual regeneration of mankind, which is of fundamental importance. Because, when that takes place, all else follows . . . What the Masters want . . . is this regeneration, beginning with ourselves.
Therefore our work for the Mahatmas is twofold: spiritual self-transformation and living a life of altruism. The work of living a life of altruism transforms us spiritually, so these two avenues of help are in reality the same path, with a single aim: the alleviation of the world’s suffering through the expansion of consciousness, which brings us to an awareness of our ultimate unity and interconnectedness with all life.
If we focus on living altruistic lives, whether we believe in the Mahatmas or not, we are helping all living beings and alleviating suffering to the best of our ability. In this way, we are joining in the work of the great sages who, throughout time, have brought light to the world through their love, compassion, and wisdom.
Sources
Blavatsky, H.P. Theosophical Glossary. London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1892.
Burnier, Radha. “Masters and Gurus.” In No Other Path to Go. Adyar, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1985.
Chin, Vicente Hao, Jr., ed. The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in Chronological Sequence. Quezon City, Philippines: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993.
Row, Tallapragada Subba. Esoteric Writings of T. Subba Row. Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1980.
Shankaracharya. “The Great and Peaceful Ones.” Universal Theosophy website; accessed April 2, 2023.
Sri Ram, N. “Human Regeneration.” Theosophy World website: accessed March 29, 2023.