And for years we have been teaching everywhere the
maxim "First deserve, then desire" intimacy with the Mahatmas.
Now there is a terrible law operative in Nature, one which cannot be
altered, and whose operation clears up the apparent mystery of the
selection of certain "Chelas" who have turned out sorry specimens of
morality, these few years past. Does the reader recall the old proverb,
"Let sleeping dogs lie?" There is a world of occult meaning in it. No
man or woman knows his or her moral strength until it is tried.
Thousands go through life very respectably, because they were never put
to the test. This is a truism doubtless, but it is most pertinent to
the present case. One who undertakes to try for Chelaship by that very
act rouses and lashes to desperation every sleeping passion of his
animal nature. For this is the commencement of a struggle for mastery
in which quarter is neither to be given nor taken. It is, once for all,
"To be, or Not to be;" to conquer, means Adept-ship: to fail, an
ignoble Martyrdom; for to fall victim to lust, pride, avarice, vanity,
selfishness, cowardice, or any other of the lower propensities, is
indeed ignoble, if measured by the standard of true manhood.
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