Come Out from Among Them

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?

And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.

–– Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians (vi, 14-17)

The ordinary man is an idolater. Idols are not only of stone, mud, metal or stained glass. Customs and habits, social shibboleths and religious dogmas and a hundred other varieties of "idols" exist, and bowing down to these frustrates the soul. Man generally lives according to the routine established for him; unconsciously to himself he is a slave to family, communal, religious, national and racial customs and taboos. Instead of seeking a rational basis for his actions, he is guided by what is done and what is not done in his own set or circle. The aspirant who earnestly resolves to emancipate himself from slavery to the lower self and daily attempts to purify himself, to give up non-rational living and to be guided in all circumstances by philosophical principles only, is often dubbed "queer."

His enemies are twofold: His own innate weaknesses, and his affinities with relatives and friends, who would persuade him to be "normal and natural," i.e., to be as they are. The second enemies strengthen the first; hence the advice of the Initiate Paul to "come out from among them, and be…separate."

This separation in thought is not from the souls of people but from the tendencies and weaknesses inherent in them. The aspirant must learn to distinguish between the evil-doer and the evil act, between his friends and kin and their wrong tendencies. The people we contact have to be helped and served and not to be condemned. But we cannot help and serve them by continuing in the ways of personality, prides and prejudices. By ourselves rising above these limitations we make it easier for our Karmic affinities also to rise.

What are those tendencies which we must overcome in ourselves and which demand that we come out from among those surcharged with them? From what shall we abstain because it is right to abstain?

© "The Theosophical Movement" (September 2003) published by Theosophy Company (India) Private Limited, 40 New Marine Lines, Mumbai 400 020. Reprinted with permission.

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