Helena Petrovna von Hahn, more popularly known as Madame Blavatsky or H.P.B., came from a noble family in Ukraine.

Her father, Peter von Hahn was a descendant of German nobility; while her mother, Helena Andreyevna Hahn, came from one of the oldest families of Russian nobility and was also a celebrated novelist. As a child she would often have visions and displayed clairvoyance as well as other metaphysical phenomena.

Years later, she traveled through Europe and the Middle East studying under various teachers and Sufi saints. She met her teacher, an Indian yogi named Master Morya, in London who later directed her to go to New York in the United States. Once there, she founded the Theosophical Society. In 1885, she started to write “The Secret Doctrine” which was finally published three years later in 1888. “The Secret Doctrine” has been acknowledged by many as one of the most remarkable books in the world. It is considered to be the Bible of Theosophy, a sourcebook of the esoteric tradition that outlines the fundamental tenets of the secret doctrine of the past ages.

Published as two volumes during her lifetime – “The Cosmogenesis” and “Anthropogenesis” - “The Secret Doctrine” explains the origin and evolution of the universe and of humanity through an account of "Root Races" dating back millions of years. Although the writer of “The Secret Doctrine,” Madame Blavatsky often expressed that she was only the compiler of ancient wisdom that was passed on to her. The true authors of the work were her teachers, the Mahatmas, or Great Souls, who were the guardians of the Secret Wisdom of the ages.

Today on Between Master and Disciples, we invite you to listen to “The Voice of The Silence” and “The Two Paths,” excerpts from Madame Blavatksy’s book, “The Voice of Silence.”

We thank you for your kind presence for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples. Join us again next Wednesday for part 2 of excerpts from Madame Blavatsky’s book, “The Voice of The Silence.”

Now, please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Planet Earth: Our Loving Home, coming up next right after Noteworthy News. May Providence guide you in wisdom and love.

We appreciate your magnanimous company for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples. Join us again next Wednesday for part 3 of the excerpts from Madame Blavatsky’s book, “The Voice of The Silence.” Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Planet Earth: Our Loving Home, coming up next right after Noteworthy News. We wish you and your loved ones much joy and abundance every day.

Thank you, compassionate viewers, for your gentle company for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples. Planet Earth: Our Loving Home is coming up next, right after Noteworthy News. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television. God bless, and farewell for now.

The Voice of the Silence by H. P. Blavatsky Fragment I: The Voice of Silence These instructions are for those ignorant of the dangers of the lower “Iddhi” (psychic faculties).

He who would hear the voice of Nada, "the Soundless Sound," and comprehend it, he has to learn the nature of Dharana (the intense and perfect concentration of the mind on an interior object).

Having become indifferent to objects of perception, the pupil must seek out the rajah of the senses, the Thought-Producer, he who awakes illusion. The Mind is the great Slayer of the Real. Let the Disciple slay the Slayer. For: When to himself his form appears unreal, as do on waking all the forms he sees in dreams; When he has ceased to hear the many, he may discern the ONE – the inner sound which kills the outer. Then only, not till then, shall he forsake the region of Asat, the false, to come unto the realm of Sat, the true.

Before the soul can see, the Harmony within must be attained, and fleshly eyes be rendered blind to all illusion. Before the Soul can hear, the image (man) has to become as deaf to roarings as to whispers, to cries of bellowing elephants as to the silvery buzzing of the golden firefly. Before the soul can comprehend and may remember, she must unto the Silent Speaker be united just as the form to which the clay is modeled, is first united with the potter's mind. For then the soul will hear, and will remember. And then to the inner ear will speak – the Voice of the Silence. And say: If thy soul smiles while bathing in the Sunlight of thy Life; if thy soul sings within her chrysalis of flesh and matter; if thy soul weeps inside her castle of illusion; if thy soul struggles to break the silver thread that binds her to the Master (Higher Self); know, O Disciple, thy Soul is of the earth.

When to the World's turmoil thy budding soul lends ear; when to the roaring voice of the great illusion thy Soul responds when frightened at the sight of the hot tears of pain, when deafened by the cries of distress, thy soul withdraws like the shy turtle within the carapace of Selfhood, learn, O Disciple, of her Silent "God," thy Soul is an unworthy shrine.

When waxing stronger, thy Soul glides forth from her secure retreat: and breaking loose from the protecting shrine, extends her silver thread and rushes onward; when beholding her image on the waves of Space she whispers, "This is I," – declare, O Disciple, that thy soul is caught in the webs of delusion.

This Earth, Disciple, is the Hall of Sorrow, wherein are set along the Path of dire probations, traps to ensnare thy Ego by the delusion called "Great Heresy". This Earth, O ignorant Disciple, is but the dismal entrance leading to the twilight that precedes the valley of true light – that light which no wind can extinguish, that light which burns without a wick or fuel.

Saith the Great Law: "In order to become the Knower of All Self thou hast first of Self to be the knower." To reach the knowledge of that Self, thou hast to give up Self to Non-Self, Being to Non-Being, and then thou canst repose between the wings of the Great Bird. Aye, sweet is rest between the wings of that which is not born, nor dies, but is the Aum throughout eternal ages.

Bestride the Bird of Life, if thou would'st know. Give up thy life, if thou would'st live. Three Halls, O weary pilgrim, lead to the end of toils. Three Halls, O conqueror of Mara (Great Ensnarer), will bring thee through three states into the fourth and thence into the seven world, the worlds of Rest Eternal.

If thou would'st learn their names, then hearken, and remember. The name of the first Hall is Ignorance – Avidya. It is the Hall in which thou saw'st the light, in which thou livest and shalt die. The name of Hall the second is the Hall of Learning. In it thy Soul will find the blossoms of life, but under every flower a serpent coiled.

The name of the third Hall is Wisdom, beyond which stretch the shoreless waters of Akshara, the indestructible Fount of Omniscience. If thou would'st cross the first Hall safely, let not thy mind mistake the fires of lust that burn therein for the Sunlight of life. If thou would'st cross the second safely, stop not the fragrance of its stupefying blossoms to inhale. If freed thou would'st be from the Karmic chains, seek not for thy Guru in those Mayavic (illusory) regions.

The Wise Ones tarry not in pleasure-grounds of senses. The Wise Ones heed not the sweet-tongued voices of illusion. Seek for him who is to give thee birth, in the Hall of Wisdom, the Hall which lies beyond, wherein all shadows are unknown, and where the light of truth shines with unfading glory. That which is uncreate abides in thee, Disciple, as it abides in that Hall. If thou would'st reach it and blend the two, thou must divest thyself of thy dark garments of illusion. Stifle the voice of flesh, allow no image of the senses to get between its light and thine that thus the twain may blend in one. And having learnt thine own Agnyana (ignorance or non-wisdom), flee from the Hall of Learning. This Hall is dangerous in its perfidious beauty, is needed but for thy probation. Beware, Lanoo (Disciple), lest dazzled by illusive radiance thy Soul should linger and be caught in its deceptive light.

This light shines from the jewel of the Great Ensnarer, Mara. The senses it bewitches, blinds the mind, and leaves the unwary an abandoned wreck. The moth attracted to the dazzling flame of thy night-lamp is doomed to perish in the viscid oil. The unwary Soul that fails to grapple with the mocking demon of illusion, will return to Earth the slave of Mara (Great Ensnarer).

Behold the Hosts of Souls. Watch how they hover o'er the stormy sea of human life, and how exhausted, bleeding, broken-winged, they drop one after other on the swelling waves. Tossed by the fierce winds, chased by the gale, they drift into the eddies and disappear within the first great vortex.

If through the Hall of Wisdom, thou would'st reach the Vale of Bliss, Disciple, close fast thy senses against the great dire heresy of separateness that weans thee from the rest. Let not thy "Heaven-born," merged in the sea of Maya (illusion), break from the Universal Parent (SOUL), but let the fiery power retire into the inmost chamber, the chamber of the Hear and the abode of the World's Mother. Then from the heart that Power shall rise into the sixth, the middle region, the place between thine eyes, when it becomes the breath of the One-Soul, the voice which filleth all, thy Master's voice. 'Tis only then thou canst become a "Walker of the Sky" who treads the winds above the waves, whose step touches not the waters. Before thou set'st thy foot upon the ladder's upper rung, the ladder of the mystic sounds, thou hast to hear the voice of thy inner God (the Higher Self) in seven manners.

The first is like the nightingale's sweet voice chanting a song of parting to its mate. The second comes as the sound of a silver cymbal of the Dhyanis (Lords of meditation), awakening the twinkling stars. The next is as the plaint melodious of the ocean-sprite imprisoned in its shell. And this is followed by the chant of Vina (Indian string instrument). The fifth like sound of bamboo-flute shrills in thine ear. It changes next into a trumpet-blast. The last vibrates like the dull rumbling of a thunder-cloud. The seventh swallows all the other sounds. They die, and then are heard no more. When the six are slain and at the Master's feet are laid, then is the pupil merged into the One, becomes that One and lives therein.

Before that path is entered, thou must destroy thy lunar body, cleanse thy mind-body and make clean thy heart. Eternal life's pure waters, clear and crystal, with the monsoon tempest's muddy torrents cannot mingle. Heaven's dew-drop glittering in the morn's first sunbeam within the bosom of the lotus, when dropped on earth becomes a piece of clay; behold, the pearl is now a speck of mire.

Strive with thy thoughts unclean before they overpower thee. Use them as they will thee, for if thou sparest them and they take root and grow, know well, these thoughts will overpower and kill thee. Beware, Disciple, suffer not, e'en though it be their shadow, to approach. For it will grow, increase in size and power, and then this thing of darkness will absorb thy being before thou hast well realized the black foul monster's presence.

Before the "mystic Power" (Kundalini or mystic fire) can make of thee a god, Lanoo, thou must have gained the faculty to slay thy lunar form at will. The Self of matter and the Self of Spirit can never meet. One of the twain must disappear; there is no place for both. Ere thy Soul's mind can understand, the bud of personality must be crushed out, the worm of sense destroyed past resurrection. Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become that Path itself. Let thy Soul lend its ear to every cry of pain like as the lotus bares its heart to drink the morning sun. Let not the fierce Sun dry one tear of pain before thyself hast wiped it from the sufferer's eye. But let each burning human tear drop on thy heart and there remain, nor ever brush it off, until the pain that caused it is removed.

These tears, O thou of heart most merciful, these are the streams that irrigate the fields of charity immortal. 'Tis on such soil that grows the midnight blossom of Buddha more difficult to find, more rare to view than is the flower of the Vogay tree. It is the seed of freedom from rebirth. It isolates the Arhat both from strife and lust, it leads him through the fields of Being unto the peace and bliss known only in the land of Silence and Non-Being.

Kill out desire; but if thou killest it take heed lest from the dead it should again arise. Kill love of life, but if thou slayest tanha (the fear of death and love for life), let this not be for thirst of life eternal, but to replace the fleeting by the everlasting.

Desire nothing. Chafe not at Karma (retribution), nor at Nature's changeless laws. But struggle only with the personal, the transitory, the evanescent and the perishable. Help Nature and work on with her; and Nature will regard thee as one of her creators and make obeisance. And she will open wide before thee the portals of her secret chambers, lay bare before thy gaze the treasures hidden in the very depths of her pure virgin bosom. Unsullied by the hand of matter she shows her treasures only to the eye of Spirit – the eye which never closes, the eye for which there is no veil in all her kingdoms. Then will she show thee the means and way, the first gate and the second, the third, up to the very seventh. And then, the goal – beyond which lie, bathed in the sunlight of the Spirit, glories untold, unseen by any save the eye of Soul.

There is but one road to the Path; at its very end alone the "Voice of the Silence" can be heard. The ladder by which the candidate ascends is formed of rungs of suffering and pain; these can be silenced only by the voice of virtue. Woe, then, to thee, Disciple, if there is one single vice thou hast not left behind. For then the ladder will give way and overthrow thee; its foot rests in the deep mire of thy sins and failings, and ere thou canst attempt to cross this wide abyss of matter thou hast to lave thy feet in Waters of Renunciation.

Beware lest thou should'st set a foot still soiled upon the ladder's lowest rung. Woe unto him who dares pollute one rung with miry feet. The foul and viscous mud will dry, become tenacious, then glue his feet unto the spot, and like a bird caught in the wily fowler's lime, he will be stayed from further progress. His vices will take shape and drag him down. His sins will raise their voices like as the jackal's laugh and sob after the sun goes down; his thoughts become an army, and bear him off a captive slave.

Kill thy desires, Lanoo (Disciple), make thy vices impotent, ere the first step is taken on the solemn journey. Strangle thy sins, and make them dumb forever, before thou dost lift one foot to mount the ladder. Silence thy thoughts and fix thy whole attention on thy Master whom yet thou dost not see, but whom thou feelest. Merge into one sense thy senses, if thou would'st be secure against the foe. 'Tis by that sense alone which lies concealed within the hollow of thy brain, that the steep path which leadeth to thy Master may be disclosed before thy Soul's dim eyes. Long and weary is the way before thee, O Disciple. One single thought about the past that thou hast left behind, will drag thee down and thou wilt have to start the climb anew.

Kill in thyself all memory of past experiences. Look not behind or thou art lost. Do not believe that lust can ever be killed out if gratified or satiated, for this is an abomination inspired by Mara (Great Ensnarer). It is by feeding vice that it expands and waxes strong, like to the worm that fattens on the blossom's heart.

The rose must re-become the bud born of its parent stem, before the parasite has eaten through its heart and drunk its life-sap. The golden tree puts forth its jewel-buds before its trunk is withered by the storm. The pupil must regain the child-state he has lost ere the first sound can fall upon his ear.

The light from the ONE Master, the one unfading golden light of Spirit, shoots its effulgent beams on the disciple from the very first. Its rays thread through the thick dark clouds of matter. Now here, now there, these rays illumine it, like sun-sparks light the earth through the thick foliage of the jungle growth. But, O Disciple, unless the flesh is passive, head cool, the soul as firm and pure as flaming diamond, the radiance will not reach the chamber (of the heart), its sunlight will not warm the heart, nor will the mystic sounds of the Akasic heights reach the ear, however eager, at the initial stage.

Unless thou hearest, thou canst not see. Unless thou seest thou canst not hear. To hear and see this is the second stage. When the disciple sees and hears, and when he smells and tastes, eyes closed, ears shut, with mouth and nostrils stopped; when the four senses blend and ready are to pass into the fifth, that of the inner touch – then into stage the fourth he hath passed on.

And in the fifth, O slayer of thy thoughts, all these again have to be killed beyond reanimation. Withhold thy mind from all external objects, all external sights. Withhold internal images, lest on thy Soul-light a dark shadow they should cast. Thou art now in Dharana (intense and perfect concentration of the mind on an interior object), the sixth stage.

When thou hast passed into the seventh, O happy one, thou shalt perceive no more the sacred three, for thou shalt have become that three thyself. Thyself and mind, like twins upon a line, the star which is thy goal, burns overhead. The three that dwell in glory and in bliss ineffable, now in the world of Maya (illusion) have lost their names. They have become one star, the fire that burns but scorches not, that fire which is the Upadhi (the basis) of the Flame. And this, O Yogi of success, is what men call Dhyana (the last stage before the final on this Earth), the right precursor of Samadhi (the internal state of imperturbability achieved through meditation). And now thy Self is lost in “Self,” thyself unto “Thyself,” merged in “That Self” from which thou first didst radiate.

Where is thy individuality, Lanoo (Disciple), where the Lanoo (Disciple) himself? It is the spark lost in the fire, the drop within the ocean, the ever-present Ray become the all and the eternal radiance. And now, Lanoo (Disciple), thou art the doer and the witness, the radiator and the radiation, Light in the Sound, and the Sound in the Light.

Thou art acquainted with the five impediments, O blessed one. Thou art their conqueror, the Master of the sixth, deliverer of the four modes of Truth. The light that falls upon them shines from thyself, O thou who wast disciple but art Teacher now. And of these modes of Truth: Hast thou not passed through knowledge of all misery – Truth the first? Hast thou not conquered the Maras' King at Tsi, the portal of assembling – truth the second? Hast thou not sin at the third gate destroyed and truth the third attained? Hast not thou entered Tau, "the Path" that leads to knowledge – the fourth truth?

And now, rest 'neath the Bodhi tree, which is perfection of all knowledge, for, know, thou art the Master of Samadhi – the state of faultless vision. Behold! thou hast become the light, thou hast become the Sound, thou art thy Master and thy God. Thou art “Thyself” the object of thy search: the Voice unbroken, that resounds throughout eternities, exempt from change, from sin exempt, the seven sounds in one, the “Voice of the Silence.” Om Tat Sat

Fragment II: The Two Paths And now, O Teacher of Compassion, point thou the way to other men. Behold, all those who knocking for admission, await in ignorance and darkness, to see the gate of the Sweet Law flung open!

The voice of the Candidates: Shalt not thou, Master of thine own Mercy, reveal the Doctrine of the Heart? Shalt thou refuse to lead thy Servants unto the Path of Liberation? Quoth the Teacher: The Paths are two; the great Perfections three; six are the Virtues that transform the body into the Tree of Knowledge.

Who shall approach them? Who shall first enter them? Who shall first hear the doctrine of two Paths in one, the truth unveiled about the Secret Heart? The Law which, shunning learning, teaches Wisdom, reveals a tale of woe.

Alas, alas, that all men should possess Alaya (the eight consciousness), be one with the great Soul, and that possessing it, Alaya (the eight consciousness) should so little avail them! Behold how like the moon, reflected in the tranquil waves, Alaya (the eight consciousness) is reflected by the small and by the great, is mirrored in the tiniest atoms, yet fails to reach the heart of all. Alas, that so few men should profit by the gift, the priceless boon of learning truth, the right perception of existing things, the Knowledge of the non-existent! Saith the pupil: O Teacher, what shall I do to reach to Wisdom? O Wise one, what, to gain perfection?

Search for the Paths. But, O Lanoo (Disciple), be of clean heart before thou startest on thy journey. Before thou takest thy first step learn to discern the real from the false, the ever-fleeting from the everlasting. Learn above all to separate Head-learning from Soul-Wisdom, the "Eye" from the "Heart" doctrine. Yea, ignorance is like unto a closed and airless vessel; the soul a bird shut up within. It warbles not, nor can it stir a feather; but the songster mute and torpid sits, and of exhaustion dies. But even ignorance is better than Head-learning with no Soul-wisdom to illuminate and guide it.

The seeds of Wisdom cannot sprout and grow in airless space. To live and reap experience the mind needs breadth and depth and points to draw it towards the Diamond Soul. Seek not those points in Maya's realm; but soar beyond illusions, search the eternal and the changeless SAT (the one eternal and Absolute Reality and Truth), mistrusting fancy's false suggestions. For mind is like a mirror; it gathers dust while it reflects. It needs the gentle breezes of Soul-Wisdom to brush away the dust of our illusions. Seek O Beginner, to blend thy Mind and Soul. Shun ignorance, and likewise shun illusion. Avert thy face from world deceptions; mistrust thy senses, they are false. But within thy body – the shrine of thy sensations – seek in the Impersonal for the "eternal man"; and having sought him out, look inward: thou art Buddha.

Shun praise, O Devotee. Praise leads to self-delusion. Thy body is not self, thy “Self” is in itself without a body, and either praise or blame affects it not. Self-gratulation, O disciple, is like unto a lofty tower, up which a haughty fool has climbed. Thereon he sits in prideful solitude and unperceived by any but himself. False learning is rejected by the Wise, and scattered to the Winds by the good Law. Its wheel revolves for all, the humble and the proud. The "Doctrine of the Eye" is for the crowd, the "Doctrine of the Heart," for the elect. The first repeat in pride: "Behold, I know," the last, they who in humbleness have garnered, low confess, "thus have I heard".

"Great Sifter" is the name of the "Heart Doctrine," O disciple. The wheel of the good Law moves swiftly on. It grinds by night and day. The worthless husks it drives from out the golden grain, the refuse from the flour. The hand of Karma (retribution) guides the wheel; the revolutions mark the beatings of the Karmic heart. True knowledge is the flour, false learning is the husk. If thou would'st eat the bread of Wisdom, thy flour thou hast to knead with Amrita's (immortality) clear waters. But if thou kneadest husks with Maya's (illusion) dew, thou canst create but food for the black doves of death, the birds of birth, decay and sorrow.

If thou art told that to become Arhan (worthy one) thou hast to cease to love all beings – tell them they lie. If thou art told that to gain liberation thou hast to hate thy mother and disregard thy son; to disavow thy father and call him "householder"; for man and beast all pity to renounce – tell them their tongue is false. Thus teach the Tirthikas, the unbelievers.

If thou art taught that sin is born of action and bliss of absolute inaction, then tell them that they err. Non-permanence of human action; deliverance of mind from thraldom by the cessation of sin and faults, are not for "Deva Egos" (the reincarnating ego). Thus saith the "Doctrine of the Heart."

The Dharma of the "Eye" is the embodiment of the external, and the non-existing. The Dharma of the "Heart" is the embodiment of Bodhi (True, divine Wisdom), the Permanent and Everlasting. The Lamp burns bright when wick and oil are clean. To make them clean a cleaner is required. The flame feels not the process of the cleaning. "The branches of a tree are shaken by the wind; the trunk remains unmoved." Both action and inaction may find room in thee; thy body agitated, thy mind tranquil, thy Soul as limpid as a mountain lake.

Wouldst thou become a Yogi of "Time's Circle"? Then, O Lanoo (Disciple): Believe thou not that sitting in dark forests, in proud seclusion and apart from men; believe thou not that life on roots and plants, that thirst assuaged with snow from the great Range – believe thou not, O Devotee, that this will lead thee to the goal of final liberation. Think not that breaking bone, that rending flesh and muscle, unites thee to thy "silent Self". Think not, that when the sins of thy gross form are conquered, O Victim of thy Shadows, thy duty is accomplished by nature and by man.

The blessed ones have scorned to do so. The Lion of the Law, the Lord of Mercy (Buddha), perceiving the true cause of human woe, immediately forsook the sweet but selfish rest of quiet wilds. From Aranyaka (a hermit who retires to the jungles and lives in a forest, when becoming a Yogi) He became the Teacher of mankind. After Julai (Buddha) had entered the Nirvana (the highest paradise), He preached on mount and plain, and held discourses in the cities, to Devas, men and gods.