To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

70 / TO LIGHT A THOUSAND LAMPS
ously, it is their karma or they wouldn’t have to meet those
conditions; but how can we isolate their karma from our
own? We are one family, and all of us have had a share in
creating the present diªcult circumstances. Besides, is it
not also our karma to be profoundly concerned, and if at all
possible to help alleviate the awful misery that exists in so
many parts of our globe? There is some consolation in the
fact that the world conscience is awakening and becoming
more sensitive and acute, so that an increasing number
of self-sacrificing and knowledgeable men and women are
already dedicating their lives to practical humanitarian
service.
Much as our hearts yearn to be of help, many of us
can o¤er little in the way of tangible relief. But there is
not one of us who cannot work to eradicate the causes —
deep-seated and long in the making — that have resulted in
humanity’s plight. This is an enormously long-range goal,
admittedly, but does this make it any the less worthy? In a
letter written in 1889 to the American theosophists assembled
in convention, HPB quotes these lines from one of her
teachers:
‘‘Let not the fruit of good Karma be your motive; for
your Karma, good or bad, being one and the common property
of all mankind, nothing good or bad can happen to you
that is not shared by many others.’’ ...‘‘There is no happiness
for one who is ever thinking of Self and forgetting all
other Selves.’’
And then this telling sentence:
‘‘The Universe groans under the weight of such action