To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

What Is Theosophy? / 9
imbodying in them as it pursues its course through the arc
of matter.
Here’s a vision to lift the heart: to feel that every human
being is a necessary part of the cosmic purpose is to give
dignity to our strivings, to the urge to evolve. The reason
for this grand ‘‘cycle of necessity’’ is twofold: whereas we
start as unself-conscious god-sparks, by the time we have
experienced all there is to learn in every life form, not only
shall we have awakened into fuller awareness the multitudes
of atomic lives which serve as our bodies on the various
planes, but we ourselves shall have become gods in our own
right.
When we grasp the intimate relationship of these three
postulates to ourselves, we come to see how all the other
teachings flow forth from them; they are as keys to a larger
understanding of reimbodiment, cycles, karma, what happens
after death, the cause and relief of su¤ering, the nature
of man and cosmos, the interplay of involution/evolution,
and more — all the while the awakening soul is pursuing
the eternal quest.
The theosophical philosophy is vast as the ocean: ‘‘unfathomable
in its deepest parts, it gives the greatest minds
their fullest scope, yet, shallow enough at its shores, it will
not overwhelm the understanding of a child.’’* Even
though its truths go deeply into cosmological intricacies, a
beautiful simplicity runs through the whole: oneness is the
golden key. We are our brothers, no matter what our racial,
social, educational, or religious background. And this aªn-
*William Q. Judge, The Ocean of Theosophy, p. 1.