Chela
Chela (devanāgarī: चेल cela) is a Sanskrit word that meaning "servant" or "slave." In Hinduism the term is used to denominate the religious student or disciple of a spiritual master or guru. In Theosophy the term is frequently used to refer to a person that, after having successfully gone through a period of probation, has become a disciple of one of the Masters of Wisdom, being thus a candidate for initiation into the occult science.
General Description
In her The Theosophical Glossary H. P. Blavatsky defines it as "A disciple, the pupil of a Guru or Sage, the follower of some adept of a school of philosophy (lit., child).[1] Some synonyms frequently found in the Theosophical literature are "Disciple" and "Lanoo".
According to A. Besant and C. W. Leadbeater
Dr. Annie Besant described a disciple in the following way:
A "disciple" is the name given, in the occult schools, to those who, being on the probationary path, are recognized by some Master as attached to Himself. The term asserts a fact, not a particular moral stage, and does not carry with it a necessary implication of the highest moral elevation. . . . Discipleship implies a past tie between Master and disciple, and a Master may recognise that tie, growing out of past relationship, with one who has still much to achieve; the disciple may have many and serious faults of character, may by no means—though his face be turned to the Light—have exhausted all the heavy Karma of the past, may be facing many a difficulty, fighting on many a battlefield with the legions of the past against him. The word "disciple" does not necessarily imply initiation, nor saintship; it only asserts a position and a tie—that the person is on the probationary path, and is recognised by a Master as His.[2]
Lay Chelas
Accepted Chelas
The accepted chela or disciple is one that has successfully gone through the period of probation and the Master is now ready to bring him into a closer relationship.
Later teachings
According to C. W. Leadbeater the stage of accepted disciple includes two stages--"Acceptance" and "Sonship". During the stage of acceptance the astral and mental bodies of the disciple are brought into union with those of the Master. The stage of Sonship involves the union of the causal body also:
We have already spoken of the close relation between an accepted pupil and his Master; all the time this intimacy has been steadily growing, and it usually happens that when the pupil is approaching the portal of Initiation the Master considers that the time is ripe for Him to draw the chela into a still deeper union. He is then called the Son of the Master, and the link is such that not only the lower mind but also the ego in the causal body of the pupil is enfolded within that of the Adept, and the latter can no longer draw a veil to cut off the neophyte.[3]
Online resources
Articles and pamphlets
- Gurus and Chelas An Article by E.T. Sturdy and a Reply by Annie Besant
- Some Difficulties of the Inner Life by Annie Besant
- Are Chelas "Mediums"? by H. P. Blavatsky
- Chelas by H. P. Blavatsky
- Chelas and Lay Chelas by H. P. Blavatsky
- Practical Occultism by H. P. Blavatsky
- Spiritual Progress by H. P. Blavatsky
- Why Not I? by C. W. Leadbeater
Notes
- ↑ Blavatsky, H. P., Theosophical Glossary (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1918), 74.
- ↑ Besant, Annie, Discipleship And Some Karmic Problems (Adyar Pamphlets, No 195, Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, March 1935),3-4.
- ↑ Charles Webster Leadbeater, The Masters and the Path, (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1992), 63.