THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

Evening Star, Issue 11892, 21 May 1903, Page 1

THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

: "•■ At a public meeting held in the rooms of the Theosophical Society last evening Mr A. W. Maurais delivered an address entitled 'Enigmatical Sayings.' The discourse had reference to various obscure utterances found in the. Scriptures of the world, upon which light had been thrown by the study of comparative religion and philosophy in which the Theosophical Society were engaged. Several "dark sayings" were given, and the speaker essayed to throw light upon them by quotations from other sources. Thus, a statement in one.of the Indian Upanishads that a man who saw any •, difference bev tween one thing and another in this world went. " from death to death," was. held to be an allusion to the alleged fact that until the omnipresence of God was fully realised the soul was reincarnated over and over again.. " Just as a spider -spins forth and inwinds, as plants grow on the earth, as hair and down from man, so from imperishable That comes forth this all." Quotations were given from a Gnostio treatise to show an inner meaning in the sayings of Jesus that unless a man deserted his father and mother and followed Him be was not worthy of Him. According to this treatise (the 'Pistes Sophia') the parents who had to be deserted were the rulers of the lower sphere, who had given man his astral' hoij, or desire nature, called "a counterfeit of the Spirit," and which continually urged man to the gratification of lust. These rulers had to be deserted that the soul might i. turn to the true Father. The Prodic-.! Son was represented to be the soul thro, i into the earth-life, and returning to <;.-ii after testing the pains and pleasures ri the world. Several other quotations wi i • made, mostly from Indian Scriptures. ■ iiiG. Richardson presided.