A Textbook of Theosophy | Page 4

by God. He permeates it; there is nothing in it which is
not He; it is the manifestation of Him in such matter as we can see. Yet
He exists above it and outside it, living a stupendous life of His own
among His Peers. As is said in an Eastern Scripture: "Having
permeated this whole universe with one fragment of Myself I remain."
Of that higher life of His we can know nothing. But of the fragment of
His life which energises His system we may know something in the
lower levels of its manifestation. We may not see Him, but we may see
His power at work. No one who is clairvoyant can be atheistic; the
evidence is too tremendous.

Out of Himself He has called this mighty system into being. We who
are in it are evolving fragments of His life, Sparks of His divine Fire;
from Him we all have come; into Him we shall all return.
Many have asked why He has done this; why He has emanated from
Himself all this system; why He has sent us forth to face the storms of
life. We cannot know, nor is the question practical; suffice it that we
are here, and we must do our best. Yet many philosophers have
speculated on this point and many suggestions have been made. The
most beautiful that I know is that of a Gnostic philosopher:
"God is Love, but Love itself cannot be perfect unless it has those upon
whom it can be lavished and by whom it can be returned. Therefore He
put forth of Himself into matter, and He limited His glory, in order that
through this natural and slow process of evolution we might come into
being; and we in turn according to His Will are to develop until we
reach even His own level, and then the very love of God itself will
become more perfect, because it will then be lavished on those, His
own children, who will fully understand and return it, and so His great
scheme will be realized and His Will, be done."
At what stupendous elevation His consciousness abides we know not,
nor can we know its true nature as it shows itself there. But when He
puts Himself down into such conditions as are within our reach, His
manifestation is ever threefold, and so all religions have imaged Him as
a Trinity. Three, yet fundamentally One; Three Persons (for person
means a mask) yet one God, showing Himself in those Three Aspects.
Three to us, looking at Them from below, because Their functions are
different; one to Him, because He knows Them to be but facets of
Himself.
All Three of these Aspects are concerned in the evolution of the solar
system; all Three are also concerned in the evolution of man. This
evolution is His Will; the method of it is His plan.
Next below this Solar Deity, yet also in some mysterious manner part
of Him, come His seven Ministers sometimes called the Planetary
Spirits. Using an analogy drawn from the physiology of our own body,

Their relation to Him is like that of the ganglia or the nerve centres to
the brain. All evolution which comes forth from Him comes through
one or other of Them.
Under Them in turn come vast hosts or orders of spiritual beings,
whom we call angels or devas. We do not yet know all the functions
which they fulfil in different parts of this wonderful scheme, but we
find some of them intimately connected with the building of the system
and the unfolding of life within it.
Here in our world there is a great Official who represents the Solar
Deity and is in absolute control of all the evolution that takes place
upon this planet. We may image Him as the true KING of this world
and under Him are ministers in charge of different departments. One of
these departments is concerned with the evolution of the different races
of humanity so that for each great race there is a Head who founds it,
differentiates it from all others, and watches over its development.
Another department is that of religion and education, and it is from this
that all the greatest teachers of history have come--that all religions
have been sent forth. The great Official at the head of this department
either comes Himself or sends one of His pupils to found a new
religion when He decides that one is needed.
Therefore all religions, at the time of their first presentation to the
world, have contained a definite statement of the Truth, and in its
fundamentals this Truth has been always the same. The presentations of
it have varied because of differences in the races to whom it was
offered.