Masonic, Occult and Esoteric Online Library
Compassion - The Spirit of Truth
By Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Feel the Great Heart within
51 The [transcendental] nature of Bhakti cannot be described. Some regard the indwelling spirit as a wonder, whilst some speak and others hear of it with astonishment; but no one realises it, although he may have heard it described.
52 Like the taste of a mute.
53 At times Bhakti wells up [spontaneously] in the heart of those who are [mentally and ethically] fit. It is even the same exhaustless, secret, eternal doctrine I have this day communicated unto thee because thou art my devotee and my friend.
54 Bhakti is true love, [1] unsullied by matter, innocent of desires, an ever-expanding continuum: [The branches of the Ashvattha tree] growing out of the three qualities with the objects of sense as the lesser shoots, spread forth, some above and some below; and those roots which ramify below in the regions of mankind are the connecting bonds of action.
54 [2] a subtle form of [exalted] consciousness. Neither by studying the Vedas, nor by alms-giving, nor by sacrificial rites, nor by deeds, nor by the severest mortification of the flesh can I be seen in this form by any other than thee.
55 Having reached That [in the primary stage of Bhakti], 2 one looks only at That, hears only That, speaks only of That, and thinks only of That. With thy heart place all thy works on me, prefer me to all else, exercise mental devotion continually, and think constantly of me.
56 The secondary stage of Bhakti [gauni] is threefold, according to one’s predominant inclination [i.e., sattva, rajas, tamas]; and [fourfold, according to] motivation.4 Know also that the dispositions arising from the three qualities, sattva, rajas, and tamas are from me; they are in me, but I am not in them. The whole world, being deluded by these dispositions which are born of the three qualities, knoweth not me distinct from them, supreme, imperishable. For this my divine illusive power, acting through the natural qualities, is difficult to surmount, and those only can surmount it who have recourse to me alone.
57 Each preceding stage [of secondary Bhakti] is nobler than the succeeding one.
