Lay-Chelaship confers no privilege upon any one except that of working for merit under the observation of a Master.  And whether that Master be or be not seen by the Chela makes no difference whatever as to the result:  his good thought, words and deeds will bear their fruits, his evil ones, theirs.  To boast of Lay Chelaship or make a parade of it, is the surest way to reduce the relationship with the Guru to a mere empty name, for it would be prima facie evidence of vanity and unfitness for farther progress.  And for years we have been teaching everywhere the maxim “First deserve, then desire” intimacy with the Mahatmas.

Now there is a terrible law operative in Nature, one which cannot be altered, and whose operation clears up the apparent mystery of the selection of certain “Chelas” who have turned out sorry specimens of morality, these few years past.  Does the reader recall the old proverb, “Let sleeping dogs lie?” There is a world of occult meaning in it.  No man or woman knows his or her moral strength until it is tried.  Thousands go through life very respectably, because they were never put to the test.  This is a truism doubtless, but it is most pertinent to the present case.  One who undertakes to try for Chelaship by that very act rouses and lashes to desperation every sleeping passion of his animal nature.  For this is the commencement of a struggle for mastery in which quarter is neither to be given nor taken.  It is, once for all, “To be, or Not to be;” to conquer, means Adept-ship:  to fail, an ignoble Martyrdom; for to fall victim to lust, pride, avarice, vanity, selfishness, cowardice, or any other of the lower propensities, is indeed ignoble, if measured by the standard of true manhood.  The Chela is not only called to face all the latent evil propensities of his nature, but, in addition, the momentum of maleficent forces accumulated by the community and nation to which he belongs.  For he is an integral part of those aggregates, and what affects either the individual man or the group (town or nation), reacts the one upon the other.  And in this instance his struggle for goodness jars upon the whole body of badness in his environment, and draws its fury upon him.  If he is content to go along with his neighbours and be almost as they are—­perhaps a little better or somewhat worse than the average—­no one may give him a thought.  But let it be known that he has been able to detect the hollow mockery of social life, its hypocrisy, selfishness, sensuality, cupidity and other bad features, and has determined to lift himself up to a higher level, at once he is hated, and every bad, bigotted, or malicious nature sends at him a current of opposing will-power.  If he is innately strong he shakes it off, as the powerful swimmer dashes through the current that would bear a weaker one away.  But in this moral battle, if the Chela has one single hidden blemish—­do what he may, it shall and will be brought to light.