Very few persons deny their faith and belief in human Brotherhood; nor do they deny the right of others to a similar belief or faith; yet few seek the source from which this feeling arises.
In our modern world, Brotherhood has become synonymous with the idea of "group conformity" within a social, political, scientific, philosophical or religious sphere, and such groupings vary from race to race, nation to nation.
It is only when we begin to question the reason why such a universal faith and belief should find such diverse ways of expressing itself, ways that tend to separate instead of uniting the races and nations making up the Human Family, that we try to seek the answers that will substantiate the belief in the reality of Brotherhood that we all have, yet cannot explain. Does not the very natural feeling that the idea or ideal of the Brotherhood of Man evokes within most of us show us the intrinsic truth underlying the idea?
The teachings of Theosophy give a key to the understanding of this feeling innate in the hearts of so many, yet understood by so few. These teachings tell us that, in the early childhood of Humanity, devotion arose spontaneously in the minds and hearts of men towards those Exalted Beings who watched over them and taught them the arts and the sciences as well as spiritual knowledge. This early stage of our present Humanity's evolution was called the "Golden Age" or the "Age of Innocence," when men were of One Mind, One Heart and One Religion, and so felt and knew their Unity or Oneness with one another. (See The Secret Doctrine, I, 210-11, and 272-73)
Mankind during this period knew its Elder Brothers, its Instructors and Protectors, who then moved freely on earth. One of the ideas burnt into primitive man's consciousness at that time was that the Power which united him to all his brothers was to be found within himself.
The struggle for independence that we see everywhere reflects perhaps a similar struggle that took place as men grew from childhood to maturity, from dependence to independence, by accepting the responsibility of their own individual evolution. This led in time to the sense of separateness, the great curse from which Humanity suffers even now.
Humanity requires today those valiant Souls who, perceiving the true cause of human misery and suffering, are willing to renounce the idea of individual salvation to work for and with Humanity in the true spirit of Brotherhood, seeking within themselves that Unity which transforms dependence into independence, and independence into interdependence.
This requires once again the recognition of the Lodge of Elder Brothers, of Perfected Souls or Compassionate Buddhas, who remain ever within the sphere of our world in order to help their younger brothers to assume their responsibilities as brothers to their fellow men. They send in our midst from time to time a Messenger from their own Fraternity, to keep alive in the world their Message and Teachings, the study and application of which on our part will help to establish on Earth a nucleus of Brotherhood based upon the true concepts of God, Law and Being, or Spiritual Evolution.
In order to re-establish a true basis for religious, philosophical and scientific thought, the Message for our time and era was reiterated through the writings of Madame H. P. Blavatsky, the accredited Messenger sent by the Elder Brothers, who are the Living Embodiments of all that they teach, and whose Message can transform the faith and belief of those who study and apply it into the Compassionate Wisdom of the True Brothers of Humanity.
The field for this transformation is the inner nature of the student who determines to become a disciple of the Great Teachers. Dependence on the Teacher must in time give way to independence in thought, word and action, but this independence must be based on the true concept of Interdependence, which is the basis of true Self-Knowledge and Universal Brotherhood, as embodied in the lives and teachings of Great Souls, the Mahatmas.
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