Page:A Collection of Esoteric Writings.djvu/102

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88

That we should all try to love our neighbours as ourselves, that we should forgive our enemies, that we should do good to those who do evil to us, that we should value purity of life, truth and goodness far above wealth or place or personal enjoyment,—these are truths admitted ubique, semper et ab omnibus, and surely these furnish a wide enough platform on which we can all, whether Bramhins, Christians, Theosophists, Aryans or what not, meet and labour in one universal being Brotherhood.

H. X.

I.

Replied by T. Subba Rao, b.a., b.l., f.t.s.

A letter signed by "H. X." has appeared ia the December issue of the Theosophist under the heading abovementioned coataining some observations on "the Theoretical Questions of Personal, Impersonal, and No-God." Anything like an intelligent discussion of these questions is beset with almost insurmountable difficulties; and it is not likely that any one, who has not exactly defined to himself what is knowable to man and what is unknowable, by a careful examination of the nature of man and his latent powers, will ever be profited by devoting any portion of his time to speculations concerning these subjects. Jesus declared that nobody had ever seen the Father; Buddha was silent when he was questioned about the nature of the Absolute and the Infinite, and our Sankarachariar said that all that was written on these questions only revealed the depth of human ignorance. But mankind have never ceased to speculate on these questions. Thousands of conflicting hypotheses have come into existence by reason of these speculations: disputants have never ceased quarrelling about them and the human race has divided itself into hundreds of warring sects on account of their differences of opinion in theoretical Metaphysics. If, as is stated by "H.X.," differences of opinion on matters "Spiritual" are inevitable, there must be an irrepressible desire in the human being to grapple desperately with the unknowable and unknown without knowing anything about the real capabilities of his own powers.