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The Externalization of the Hierarchy - Section II - The General World Picture
If you will rightly grasp the reality of the statements made above, you will do your share in the mental clarification which is going on in the world. These three groups are functioning today and are in conflict. The neutrally-minded group is definitely hindering the work of the Forces of Light. These three world attitudes are to be found in every nation, as well as in the consciousness of every single individual. The realization of this may enable you to grasp and shoulder your individual responsibility better. You will realize the need to ascertain for yourself where you stand and will refuse to be conditioned by other people's points of view and the worldwide propaganda; you will appreciate where your nation stands and on which side, and where you, as a soul, stand. You will then be able - if you are sincere and clear-thinking - to work for that group within the whole which seems to you to embody the highest possible activity and aims, and you will relinquish that attitude of futile negativity, smug neutrality or bewildered confusion which may [217] distinguish you. You will then emerge from the glamor of propaganda and of world illusion into the clear light of your own soul, whose essential nature is love and selflessness and whose major aspiration is to bring peace and goodwill among men and to see the consummation of the mission of Christ.

This will lead eventually to the disappearance of so called neutrality upon earth - a neutrality in act, for there is never neutrality in thought.

One of the things which the spiritual leaders of humanity have sought to do is to bring clearly to the attention of men the basic duality which is found in the world today - the duality of selfish, material living and that of unselfish spiritual objectives. This is now clearly defined. The second stage of their task now lies ahead, and that is so to stimulate the vision of men everywhere that - beginning with the intelligentsia - they can consciously take their stand under one or other of the two banners, and so know what they are doing and why. The neutrally-minded waver between the two and, to date, do nothing.

I would like in this connection to deal with one problem which has somewhat disturbed the least clear-thinking among those whom I have for some time taught. I have for years sought to develop in the world a group of men and women who would stand for the spiritual values, who would love all men, who would foster the spirit of goodwill, and who would stand to humanity (as far as they could) as the Hierarchy of Light, as Christ and His disciples seek to do. This has been interpreted by some of you as meaning that you must refrain from rebelling against the evil thing in your midst, and from all criticism and partisanship. You seem unable to love with steadfastness the offender and yet to rid the world of the offence. The situation might clarify if you answered to yourself one or two questions:

  • Do you believe that the Hierarchy of Light, under the leadership of Christ, is on the side of cruelty, aggression and the slaughter of the defenceless? [218]
  • Do you believe that the world can be saved by a refusal to think and by the shirking of individual responsibility, thus ignoring a situation which does exist?
  • Do you feel that there are no issues and principles which are worth fighting for and dying for, if need be?
  • Do you stand with the Forces of Light or with the Forces of Materialism?
  • What are you doing to aid the side which claims your allegiance, loyalty and idealism?
  • Are you governed by a sense of individual futility - that weapon which the Forces of Materialism are using now so potently to stun possible opponents into helplessness?

A clear and searching analysis of the spiritual objectives of humanity will enable you to answer these questions. If you do not need to answer them because your position is clear in your mind, the study of the questions may enable you to serve your day and generation more ably and to present the situation more clearly to the bewildered.

A horror of war and a longing for peace are no excuse for slack thinking, nor do they provide an alibi or the opportunity to shirk individual or national responsibility. The conflict is on. It is of ancient lineage. The issues are clearly marked between right and wrong, between cruelty and kindness, between aggression and freedom. To evade responsibility because of past national mistakes and historical sins and failures is an unwarranted alibi; the shirking of due participation in the struggle because every nation has certain materialistic objectives is wrong; a nation is but the sumtotal of its people. To refuse to think because of the general condition of fatigue in which you share is no excuse, and is unworthy of the world disciples and aspirants.
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