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[[T. Subba Row]] wrote about this from the point of view of the [[Esoteric Philosophy]]:
 
<blockquote>This philosophy recognises two paths, both having the same end, a glorified immortality. The one is the steady natural path of progress through moral effort, and practise of the virtues. . . . The other road is the precipitous path of occultism, through a series of initiations. Only a few specially organised and peculiar natures are fit for this path.<ref>Tallapragada Subba Row, ''Esoteric Writings of T. Subba Row'' (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1980), 112-113.</ref></blockquote>
 
== Gradual path ==
 
[[T. Subba Row]] described this gradual path of [[evolution]] as:
 
<blockquote>. . . the steady natural path of progress through moral effort, and practise of the virtues. A natural, coherent, and sure growth of the [[soul]] is the result, a position of firm equilibrium is reached and maintained, which cannot be overthrown or shaken by any unexpected assault. It is the normal method followed by the vast mass of humanity, and this is the course [[Śaṅkarācārya|Sankarâchârya]] recommended to all his [[Sanyāsī|Sannyasis]] and successors.<ref>Tallapragada Subba Row, ''Esoteric Writings of T. Subba Row'' (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1980), 112-113.</ref></blockquote>
 
<blockquote>This school recommended as the best path for all, a devotion to virtue, a gradual withdrawal from the grosser material concerns, a withdrawal of the life forces from the outward world and its interests, and the direction of these forces to the inner life of the soul, until the man is able to withdraw himself within himself, so to speak, and then, turning round to direct himself towards the logos and the spiritual life and away from the material plane; passing first into the astral life, and then into spiritual life, till at last the logos is reached, and he attains Nirvana.<ref>Tallapragada Subba Row, ''Esoteric Writings of T. Subba Row'' (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1980), 114.</ref></blockquote>
 
== Occult path ==
 
[[T. Subba Row]] described the occult path as follows:
 
<blockquote>The other road is the precipitous path of [[occultism]], through a series of [[initiations]]. Only a few specially organised and peculiar natures are fit for this path.<br>
Occult progress, growth along this path, is effected by the [[adept]] directing through the [[chela]] various occult [[force]]s, which enable him to obtain prematurely, so to speak, a knowledge of his spiritual nature: and to obtain [[Siddhi|powers]] to which he is not morally entitled by degree of his progress.<br>
Under these circumstances it may happen that the chela loses his moral balance, and falls into the [[dugpa]] path.<ref>Tallapragada Subba Row, ''Esoteric Writings of T. Subba Row'' (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1980), 113.</ref></blockquote>
 
Because of its very nature, the [[chela]] must fulfill [[Chelaship#Rules for Chelaship|certain requirements]] if he is going to succeed:
 
<blockquote>But this path is eminently dangerous to those who do not hold the talisman which ensures safety; this talisman is a perfectly unselfish, self-forgetting, self-annihilating devotion to the religious good of mankind, a self-abnegation, which is not temporal, but must have no end for ever, and the object of which is the religious enlightenment of the human race. Without this talisman, though the progress of the chela may be very rapid for a time, a point will come when his upward advance will be arrested when real moral worth will tell; and the man who progressed along the slow and steady path may be first to merge himself in the light of the [[logos]].<ref>Tallapragada Subba Row, ''Esoteric Writings of T. Subba Row'' (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1980), 113-114.</ref></blockquote>
 
Due to all these difficulties, the would-be disciple should let the path find him and not the opposite:
 
<blockquote>It is therefore wiser not to seek the path of [[chelaship]]; if the man is fit for it, his [[Karma]] will lead him to it imperceptibly and infallibly; for the path of occultism seeks the chela and will not fail to find him, when the fit man presents himself.<ref>Tallapragada Subba Row, ''Esoteric Writings of T. Subba Row'' (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1980), 114.</ref></blockquote>
 
== See also ==
*[[Practical Theosophy]]
*[[Service]]
*[[Meditation]]
 
==Online resources==
===Articles===
*[http://hpb.narod.ru/OccultismSouthernIndiaTSB.html# The Occultism of Southern India] by T. Subba Row
 
===Audio===
*[https://archive.org/download/1294_20191220/1294.mp3# Theosophy: The Road in the Pathless Land] by John Algeo
*[https://archive.org/download/1151_20191125/1151.mp3# The Path to the Masters of Wisdom] by Clara Codd
*[https://archive.org/download/1173_20191125/1173.mp3# Man's Pathway to Perfection] by Geoffrey Hodson
*[https://archive.org/download/1172_20191125/1172.mp3# From Man to Superman] by Geoffrey Hodson
*[https://archive.org/download/1232_20191205/1232.mp3# The Golden Stairs: The Ideal of Human Progression and Perfection] by Joy Mills
 
== Notes ==
<references/>
 
[[Category:Theosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Theosophical worldview]]

Latest revision as of 15:12, 5 April 2023

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