Theosophy Explained In Questions And Answers

Theosophy is the wisdom underlying all religions when they are stripped of accretions and superstitions. It offers a philosophy which renders life intelligible and demonstrates that justice and love guide the cosmos. Its teachings aid the unfoldment of the latent spiritual nature in the human being, without dependence or fear.

The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, is a worldwide body whose primary object is Universal Brotherhood based on the realization that life, in all its diverse forms, human and non-human, is indivisibly One, The Society imposes no belief on its members, who are united by a common search for truth and the desire to learn the meaning and purpose of existence by engaging themselves in study, reflection, purity of life and loving service. The work of the Theosophical Society involves a way of life which leads to self-knowledge and knowledge of the laws of being. Only when man begins to act, think, feel, and ‘be’ in accordance with the unchanging and unchangeable laws which pervade and regulate all things in the visible as well as the invisible worlds, does his psyche permit spiritual energy to flow through from hidden depths. Both individual regeneration and the reordering of human society in such a way that harmony, freedom and creativity flourish, depend on

Pestanji T. Pavri, a Professor of Mathematics and an engineer by profession, a Thesophist with knowledge presents in this book a variety of theosophical subjects such as evolution and man’s place in the universe in the form of Questions and Answers. The book has been very popular and continuously in print since the beginning of this century. It is readable but is also a valuable reference book.

As beginners in the study of Theosophy ask numerous questions, an attempt has made in this book to present the broad teachings of Theosophy in a systematic way in the form of questions and answers. The material collected here is drawn from over seventy books and pamphleta, mainly the works of that wonderful occultist, Bishop C.W. Leadbeater,and the famous President of the Theosophical Society, Dr Annie Besant. The purpose of this book is to make the study of Theosophy a little easier in its elementary stage, before more advanced and compherhensive books, dealing with abstruse and metaphysical question are taken up for study.

My sincere thanks are due to Mr. Ernest Wood, Secretary of the Theosophical Educational Trust and Principal of Sind National College, and to Mr H.C. Kumar, Vice-Principal of Sind National College, for many useful suggestions and practical help.

Ever since the year 1875 witnessed the revival of Theosophy in the world of modem thought, particularly through the agency of the Theosophical Society, thinking people in every country have been steadily adopting its explanations of life’s difficulties and mysteries. Many who have have studied deeply have been convinced, by experience or thought, of the truth of its accumulated teachings, and hundreds of thousands of others of less studious disposition have come to regard them as in the highest degree probable — the safest and most reliable guide in human life. Though many of the statements with regard to such matter as the life after death, the law of justice (Karma), and the pilgrimage of the soul to human perfection through repeated rebirths or reincarnations, come to us on the distinct authority of great Himalayan adepts, sages and seers, their assistants in the outer world, supported by the teachings of many religions and the experiences of many ancient and modern mystics and philosophers of East and West, those statements are deeply satisfying to the scientific and logical mind, and requirement of our best moral opinions and conscientious addition to this, many private investigators along the line of self-training advocated for those eager for direct knowledge — have learned by their own immediate supersensuous experience of the truth of one or more of the facts presented to the world. The philosophy thus satisfies all of the three human instruments of true authority, reasoning and direct perception.

Yet it is not merely a subject for philosophers and for schools. Above all, it is for ‘the man in the street’. It brings to him that mind-and-heart-satisfying knowledge which makes life a perpetual joy, full of purpose and power. It makes him realize the deceitfulness of most of life’s difficulties and trials, and their true place as instruments of immediate progress; so that like the swan of eastern fable, he becomes able, almost without effort, to separate the milk from the water of common life. By it he learns that both labour and unselfish love are never denied their fruits and their full satisfaction.

It is with regard to this practical aspect of Theosophy that Professor P.T. Pavri has compiled this work, so as to place the whole subject in clear and decided light before the general reader. His work has been a labour of love resulting from careful studies extending over several years in the intervals of his duties as an engineer and later as student at Adyar and as Professor of the Sind National College. That his presentation has been eminently successful will be apparent to all who glance through the pages of the book, which is most conveniently arranged so that it is equally useful to the continuous reader and one who prefers to dip here and there.

I should strongly recommend this book also to theosophical study groups in Lodges and elsewhere, particularly as a theosophical dictionary or companion to be resorted to when difficulties and doubt arise: it is full of useful detail.