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

According to H. P. Blavatsky, a Chela or Disciple "is one who has offered himself or herself as a pupil to learn practically the 'hidden mysteries of Nature and the psychical powers latent in man'. The spiritual teacher to whom he proposes his candidature is called in India a Guru; and the real Guru is always an Adept in the Occult Science." The aim of the period of chelaship is to become in turn an Adept and share in their work.

Because chelas are being trained by one of the Masters some people assume that they cannot err. Mme. Blavatsky wrote to dispel this idea:

What are Chelas, and what are their powers? Have they faults, and in what particular are they different from people who are not Chelas? Is every word uttered by a Chela to be taken as gospel truth? . . . Some persons have gone so far as to say that when a man is a Chela he is at once put upon a plane when each word that he may unfortunately utter is taken down as ex cathedra, and he is not allowed the poor privilege of talking like an ordinary person. If it be found out that any such utterance was on his own account and responsibility, he is charged with having misled his hearers. Now this wrong idea must be corrected once for all.

Another erroneous idea is that the chela is in constant touch with the Master, and always guided by him:

In fact the Chela is an unfortunate man who has entered upon “a path not manifest,” and Krishna says that “that is the most difficult path.” Instead of being the constant mouthpiece of his Guru, he finds himself left more alone in the world than those who are not Chelas, and his path is surrounded by dangers which would appal many an aspirant, were they depicted in natural colours, so that instead of accepting his Guru and passing an entrance examination with a view to becoming Bachelor of the Art of Occultism under his master’s constant and friendly guidance, he really forces his way into a guarded enclosure, and has from that moment to fight and conquer—or die.

What a chela writes or says is, except in rare occasions, comes from his own understanding and is not a message coming from the Master:

It may happen with them, as it does with any author occasionally, that they evolve either true or beautiful utterances, but it must not be therefore concluded that during that utterance the Guru was speaking through the Chela. If there was the germ of a good thought in the mind, the Guru’s influence, like the gentle rain upon the seed, may have caused it to spring into sudden life and abnormally blossom, but that is not the master’s voice. The cases in fact are rare in which the masters speak through a Chela.

Some synonyms frequently found in the Theosophical literature are "Disciple" and "Lanoo".

Lay Chela

Lay chela is the aspirant who is working unselfishly for humanity and who, although not in any official personal relationship with one of the Masters of Wisdom has succeeded in calling their attention due to his or her good work and spiritual maturity. Mme. Blavatsky described it as follows:

A Lay Chela is but a man of the world who affirms his desire to become wise in spiritual things. Virtually, every member of the Theosophical Society who subscribes to the second of our three "Declared Objects" is such; for though not of the number of true Chelas, he has yet the possibility of becoming one, for he has stepped across the boundary-line which separated him from the Mahatmas, and has brought himself, as it were, under their notice. The joining is then, the introduction; all the rest depends entirely upon the member himself, and he need never expect the most distant approach to the “favour” of one of our Mahatmas, or any other Mahatmas in the world should the latter consent to become known—that has not been fully earned by personal merit. The Mahatmas are the servants, not the arbiters of the Law of Karma. LAY CHELASHIP CONFERS NO PRIVILEGE UPON ANYONE EXCEPT THAT OF WORKING FOR MERIT UNDER THE OBSERVATION OF A MASTER.

If the aspirant shows signs that he may be able to become an accepted chela, he will be put under Probation.

Accepted Chela

In 1883 Mme. Blavatsky published some of the qualifications a person have to possess to some extent before he can be accepted as a chela in probation:

From Book IV of Kiu-ti, chapter on “the Laws of Upasana,” we learn that the qualifications expected in a Chela were:

1. Perfect physical health;
2. Absolute mental and physical purity;
3. Unselfishness of purpose; universal charity; pity for all animate beings;
4. Truthfulness and unswerving faith in the law of Karma, independent of any power in nature that could interfere: a law whose course is not to be obstructed by any agency, not to be caused to deviate by prayer or propitiatory exoteric ceremonies;
5. A courage undaunted in every emergency, even by peril to life;
6. An intuitional perception of one’s being the vehicle of the manifested Avalokiteshvara or Divine Atman (Spirit);
7. Calm indifference for, but a just appreciation of everything that constitutes the objective and transitory world, in its relation with, and to, the invisible regions.

Such, at the least, must have been the recommendations of one aspiring to perfect Chelaship. With the sole exception of the first, which in rare and exceptional cases might have been modified, each one of these points has been invariably insisted upon, and all must have been more or less developed in the inner nature by the Chela’s UNHELPED EXERTIONS, before he could be actually put to the test.

Probation

At this point the aspirant can be taken as a probationary chela. During a period that typically (but not always) lasts seven years, the aspirant is subjected to tests "to prove their fitness, and develop the qualities necessary to the security of both Master and pupil." One of the Masters described the period of probation to A. P. Sinnett as one when the pupil is--

...tested, tempted and examined by all and every means, so as to have his real nature drawn out. This is a rule with us as inexorable as it is disgusting in your Western sight, and I could not prevent it even if I would. It is not enough to know thoroughly what the chela is capable of doing or not doing at the time and under the circumstances during the period of probation. We have to know of what he may become capable under different and every kind of opportunities.

Once the chela has successfully gone through the probation becomes a regular accepted chela ready to prepare himself for Initiation.

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.

According to C. W. Leadbeater the stage of accepted disciple includes two degrees--"Acceptance" and "Sonship". During the 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.

See also

• Chelaship
• Probation
• Initiation
• Masters of Wisdom

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