Eastern Psychology has given the West a clue to certain mysteries previously baffling as, for example, in the departments of: 1. Mesmerism and hypnotism. 2. The supposed posthumous relations of the disincarnate entity with the living. 3. The nature and relations of Force and Matter capable of practical verification by whomsoever may learn and follow out the experimental methods of the Oriental Schools of Occult science. Eastern Occult Science and its complementary philosophy throws light upon some of the deepest problems of man and nature. But Occultism is colourless, cosmopolitan, unsectarian, sexless, unworldly, altruistic.

This historic collection of all of Sri Chinmoy’s university lectures in eBook form has been released to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sri Chinmoy’s arrival in the West on 13 April 1964. Sri Chinmoy’s very first university lecture was given at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, on 10 January 1968. It was entitled “Spirituality: What It Is and What It Is Not.” This inaugurated a whole era of talks which saw Sri Chinmoy travelling ceaselessly across the length and breadth of America and around the world to address the youth of each country. He would spend countless hours travelling by car or train to reach far- flung universities, sometimes visiting two or even three in the course of a single day. After many of these sublimely inspiring discourses, he would answer questions from the audience or spend time instructing sincere seekers in the age-old practices of concentration, meditation and contemplation. By the mid-seventies, Sri Chinmoy had spoken volumes and he began to include longer and longer periods of silent meditation in his lectures. Then, in 1984, in a significant departure from the spoken word, he introduced the theme of Peace Concerts. At these concerts, Sri Chinmoy would play his own soulful and devotional compositions on a variety of instruments of both Eastern and Western origin, meditating between each instrument and sometimes giving aphorisms on peace and related themes. In 2003 yet another form of Sri Chinmoy’s self-offering unfolded when he travelled to a number of universities to honour distinguished professors for their significant contributions to the betterment of humanity by physically lifting them overhead. This remarkable endeavour was part of his “Lifting Up the World With a Oneness-Heart” award programme. Thus, through words, silence, music and a combination of physical and spiritual upliftment, Sri Chinmoy has shared his profound spiritual message with the aspiring Truth- seekers and God-lovers of the university-world for four decades. Sri Chinmoy’s words are mantras for the modern age, reverberating in our hearts with their timeless and truly life-transforming wisdom. In his exquisite prose, which is suffused with the very breath and cadence of poetry, Sri Chinmoy has revealed all the many stages of the seeker’s journey towards the Golden Shores of the ever-transcending Beyond. For generations to come these three volumes will awaken the inner mounting cry of seekers everywhere to achieve the highest Goal of Yoga—union with God—in this life.

Human life, devoid of all its world-ideals and beliefs, becomes deprived of its higher sense and meaning. But the world-ideals can never completely die out. Exiled by the fathers, they will be received with open arms by the children. The Theosophical Movement was reborn in 1875 and thus the cyclic evolution of theosophical ideals continues.

The Theosophical Movement was started among Western people by Western people, in the country where the preparations for the new Root Race are already going on. One object of the Movement runs along two parallel lines: 1. The union of the West with the East by reviving in the East of the towering eminence which once were hers. 2. The development in the West of that Occultism which is appropriate for it so that it may, in its turn, uplift the Eastern fatherland of virtues. Organisations, like men, tend to fall into ruts of mental and psychic action which, once established, are difficult to obliterate. It is more difficult to touch the heart of those who, crippled by metaphysical dogmatism, have built a hard shell around themselves and contradict a priori that which clashes with their encrusted notions, than to warm up the cockles of the occidental heart, which is neither encumbered with deeply entrenched opinions laid on a foundation of oriental mysticism, nor buttressed with a pride inherited from the past. Heaven’s Light always shines in the heart of every man. That Light is our true Master. All other Masters are but servants of the same Light; in it all Lodges beat to heaven’s own music. Woe to those who, having started in the path with the aid of Madame Blavatsky, shall in any way try to belittle her and her work. “The angered gods have feet of wool.” Those who are partial receive but a limited view of truth. The elementals are partial forms, while the human soul is total and, according to the power and purity of that form which it inhabits, “waits upon the Gods.” Pure motive is prerequisite to True Knowledge. Devotion to others is prerequisite to True Magic. The magic amulet which alone can protect the aspirant from evil is harmlessness and that boundless love of humanity and self-sacrifice which led Buddha to say: “Let the sins of this dark age fall on me.” Motive alone determines whether an out of body experience is horrendous or tremendous. The greatest struggle and yet the highest honour for the man of flesh is to transfer all the love and affection from his little self to all selves, and love them with all his heart. This kind of total yet joyful surrender will please the Higher Self, who the Lord of all living beings and Master of Compassion in the Universe. The evolutionary cycle of the Universal Monad necessitates an eternal spiral journey of spirit into the darkness of matter, with a proportionate obscuration of spirit (though the two are one, active and passive by turns), followed by an inverse ascent of spirit towards its previous state and finally the defeat of matter. The diastole and systole of the heart (one spiral moving inside the other) are caused by the rhythmic movement of Akasha, the Soul of the World. But do not rush to grasp that movement too soon, for when heart beats too fast it destroys life. The Light of Atma-Buddhi is a spiralling force which, if misused, it can kill. It is much easier and safer to sink back into the Eternal than to dive in. Resist without resistance. No replies should be made to attacks. The elementals are mirrors of our own mind and of the mental strata formed by the age, the race, and the nation we are living in. Their action is invariably automatic and unconscious. They can only be contacted through correlations of colours and sounds. Fear them not, nor recoil in horror or repulsion. While the lower mind keeps whirling in a narrow circle, seemingly dead, kept alive by its own motion, the higher mind watches over and waits patiently for its hour to strike. When spirit wills, matter obeys. Whoever feels his heart beating in unison with the great heart of humanity; whoever feels his interests are one with those who are poor and less fortunate than himself; every man or woman who is ready to hold out a helping hand to those who suffer; whoever understands the true meaning of the word “egoism,” is a Theosophist by birth and right. The American Republic was meant to be a brotherhood of nations, and that is the core value of its declaration and constitution, and the symbol of Western Occultism — “a new era in the affairs of the world.” We are all bound together in one living whole. Hence the thoughts and acts of one react upon all, and vice versa. Theosophy is the only universal system of philosophy and high ethics underpinned by Divine Laws, which underlies the religions of every age. Practical Occultism is incidental to the journey along the path. Between theoretical Occultism or Theosophy, and practical Occultism or Occult Science, there is a bottomless pit. Let us all draw closer together in mind and heart, soul and act, and try thus to make that true brotherhood through which alone our universal and personal progress can come.

Theosophy is both a science and a religion, the science of Truth and the religion of Justice. And The Secret Doctrine infuses a raison d’être and intelligibility into a universe whose drift has been utterly unperceived by western thought.