WAR KARMA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3192, 17 September 1917, Page 8

WAR KARMA

THEOBOPHIOAL SOCIETY LECTURE. "War Karma: Past, Present and Future" was the subject of an address given at the rooms of the fheosophical Society last nisht by Miss C. W. Christie, national lecturer. Miss Christie began by giving a definition of karma, which she said was the law of cause and effect, eternal, allembracing, and unfailing in its action. All that came to us to-iiay of pleasure and pain was, she said, simply the result of our past activities. Karma was neither all good nor all bad. There were three links in its chain, that with the past, which determined the actions of the pre-1 sent, and that with the present which determined the actions of tho future. No life could, be separate from its preceding life, neither could it be separate from, that which follows. Nations were but en-'-largcd individuals. A nation was a cell in the body of the universe, but au important organ in the body of the planet. To-day Europe", with her scientific knowledge, her organising power, her courage, endurance, and her vast wealth, was using all this tremendous power to kill the very flower of her humanity, to lay waste her cities, her art treasures and her beautiful pastoral lands, plunging the whole world into an agony of sorrow, terror, and bereavement. Why should our civilisation be brought to Buch a 'terrible' state? Tho reason was not far to seeki We had been unable to understand God's law, the law of His being. The link of tho past was that war which marked the end of a past civilisation and the loss of all knowledge gathered through the ages. Our present was linked with the past chiefly in three ways. Firstly bv our leaders, who on both sides were the same as in tho great war of tho past; secondly, by the 'camp followers," those who were constantly upsetting everything, who were simply, working for their own selfish welfare in the world. These two were the same as in the past. Thirdly, those who, with the memory of the past, the power of past experience, would bring about the victory ol the future. These last, the victors in this war. were awakening to the real meaning of brotherhood after the sleep of ages. The third link in the karmic chain, the link of the future, would bo made by our actions in this time of national trouble, and these actions would decide our position and work in the new race. It was our duty to crush the power that menaced humanity, bnt wo must bear no hatred. Every ounce of energy must be used for freeing the nations .from the ivrnntq' voke At the conclusion of the address I? wS announced that; Miss Christie would speak at the society's rooms.on the following Sunday, the subject being "Some Problems of Personal, Individual, and National Karma,'