The Masters of Wisdom

Wisdom Teachings
Sublime Beings

When we set forth on the path to the Light and try to act in the right way, we often find that our behavioural patterns are stronger than ourselves: we easily fall back into engrained habits. In order to liberate ourselves, we need help. We get it from those who have liberated themselves already. These are the teachers, the Masters of Wisdom, who are also called the Elder Brothers of mankind or the Hierarchy. They can show us the direction and lead from the unreal to the real, for they have walked the way themselves. They know our problems from their own experience, because they have gone through similar problems as we do. Therefore they don’t laugh at us when we make mistakes or fall. They got help from their masters. Thus they have awoken to the truth and become representatives of truth.

Therefore it is helpful to follow the footsteps of these advanced human beings. They guide and support us out of compassion. However, they can only help us from a certain point. They are powerless, if we don’t take the first steps and work on ourselves in order to take up a new rhythm in our life. No master, not even the greatest ones like Christ, Buddha or Krishna, can relieve us from this; otherwise they would have transformed the whole world long ago. Only if we are ready to transform our personality and to devote ourselves to the work of good will, they can start to work with us. It is based on our own decision and not on compulsion. The masters respect the freedom of the individual soul. It has to decide for itself if it wants to take shelter under a higher rhythm or not.

The term “master” means an expert. In a spiritual context the expression is used for the high souls, who have gained mastery over life. Another name for master is Yogi, but also soul or universal consciousness. The different masters are expressions of the One Master, who is also called “Ishvara” in Sanskrit, meaning “master of all that is”. They are individual souls, who have become channels of THE MASTER, the master consciousness. The names of the masters are but name tags relating to the One Master.

Every master is an outpost of the master consciousness. He can lead us to that consciousness and won’t interpose himself. He who has realised the master consciousness in himself becomes a channel for the master light and thus is called a master. Everyone who experiences the Master in himself has the connection with the masters. The Master in us and the Master in form of a master is the same; he is for us the reflection of our own higher self.

Many people would like to come into contact with a great master. For this some set out to search in the Himalayas or at another place. But a master is not a statue which you can visit at a place. He can stay everywhere and nowhere, he decides to whom he reveals himself. Nothing can prevent him from being here together with us. Physical nearness to a master is not real nearness, but the psychological alignment. People of his closest surroundings might know nothing of him. We too cannot recognise him, even if he is physically present, if we haven’t approached the master in ourselves, the soul. A man has not yet become a master only because he has been given the title “master”. A master is a human being who has gained mastery over the mind, the senses and the body, who stays firm in the buddhic state as a soul and works impersonally for the Plan.

There are people who deny the existence of the masters, consider them as an untenable hypothesis or even laugh at the wisdom. We should not share our understanding of the masters with such people. They too will some day arrive at the point where the understanding of this wisdom opens up to them. However, it is important not to treat those who don’t follow the path of light as bad or weak.

Many people comment about the masters on the basis of their own ignorance. Some approach them with their own goals, which they want to have fulfilled, and try to manipulate them. They exploit the wisdom of the masters and go to the extent of harming them. Judas was a patriot who had expected his master to do away with the Roman Empire and to set up a kingdom. Many Jews had this understanding. When Jesus did nothing of the kind, he was disappointed and betrayed him.

Many people have their own fantasies about the masters. Some have “visions” of the masters, but these are only their own illusions. They see many things, hear many voices and speak irresponsibly about it. They receive messages from their own source, which they call “master”. They can make the “masters” speak and write everything they want. There are mislead by alluring astral forms and not able to overcome the distortions of the subtle world. As a rule their way of life does not agree with what they pretend, because the wisdom is applied in a wrong manner. Right discrimination is one of the most important faculties on the path of light. Only under very rare circumstances, when there is the urgent need, the masters appear. Instead that we think we want to see them, we should consider how we could cooperate in the work.

When we are integrated with our inner master, the soul, a master will establish contact with us in order to work with us. It is not the case that we can look at pictures of masters and then chose a master for ourselves, but he establishes the contact with us depending on our abilities. We are not able to know who our master is, but the master knows us. When we get into the habit of offering ourselves to the master whom we don’t know yet directly before sleeping, we enter into contact with him during sleep. When we consciously and regularly invoke the master in the prayer, he emerges from the heart lotus and gives the necessary impulse to our consciousness in order to inspire us for development and transformation. Thus the master works from inside and urges us to become an effective worker of good will. Then we are no longer onlookers and visitors, but we accept responsibility and get involved in the work and in the group.

It is not a miracle to produce a contact with the masters; faith and humility alone already bring about the first contact. It is enough to lead an average moral life without aiming to harm others in thought or deed. We should have faith in the existence of higher beings, then there will definitely be a contact with at least one of the masters. It needs not be known to us, but the master will start to work in the form of good thoughts in our mind. For some time we may mistake the good thoughts as our own but that doesn’t matter. We receive thoughts which never occurred to us previously, and we find interest in new things. The masters see that living thoughts are created in our lives, and we should take care to put them into practice. Thus great changes happen in us.

We can visualise the master through the view. Then we get his presence through the eyes of the master. Just like an iron piece becomes a magnet itself through the presence of a magnet, we gain mastery, when we see the master. If we cannot visualise, we can just propose the presence of the master and have the feeling to do our meditative exercises in his presence. Some names of masters have also become mantrams, whose sound we can utter and feel the presence. When we try to carry out in daily life the instructions given by him, the transformation is greatly accelerated.

The presence of the master inspires us towards the light, towards fiery will, study, service and self-transformation. He who continuously conducts this work has no longer the feeling to do something, but to be in the master consciousness. In truth it is the master consciousness radiating through him. He doesn’t see the master limited to a certain form, but realises that the master works through the form of every being and thus can give his presence. Therefore every master says: “See Me in all that surrounds you!” This is the way to experience the universal consciousness, the master consciousness.

K.P. Kumar: Hercules / Occult Meditation / notes from seminars / E. Krishnamacharya: The Masters of Wisdom. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India.