Compassion, the Spirit of Truth

Compiled and edited by Dr C.A. Bartzokas, MD · Integrative Theosophical Studies, Series 3 — The Heart Doctrine · 402 pages

At 402 pages this is the principal work of the Philaletheians library, first published in 2005 and now in its fourth electronic edition. Its subject is Compassion understood not as sentiment but as law — the Immutable Law of Universal Sympathy and Sacrifice — together with its mutable facets, worldly love or selfishness on one side and devotional love or Bhakti on the other. The method is integrative, as the series title promises: the ethical precepts of the Bhagavad-Gita, Light on the Path, the Narada Bhakti Sutra, The Voice of the Silence and other ancient texts of initiation are set against their metaphysical roots in the Secret Doctrine of the Heart, so that each illuminates the other.

The book is built for study rather than for reading through. It opens with a compiler's note on chapter structure and a keywords glossary — Christos, Desire, Duty, God, Love, Man — before the argument proper begins. Chapter three establishes that Deity is Life and Law and vice versa; chapter four takes the one eternal Law in its threefold manifestation and treats Karman as action, Yugas as cycles and Yajna as compassion and sacrifice, examining each first as it appears in the Bhagavad-Gita and then in the light of Theosophy; chapter five sets Narada and Krishna side by side as speaking with one voice. The cover carries the tricoloured ultraviolet image of the Sun composed from SOHO observations in 1998.

Read the full text (PDF, 6.9 MB, 402 pages)