Universal Wisdom Tradition and the TS,The

Every great religion has two parts, an inner and an outer, a spirit and a body, 'the knowledge of God' which is 'Eternal Life', and its dogmas, rites and ceremonies. The inner part, 'the wisdom of God in a mystery', spoken of by St Paul as known to 'the perfect', is that which has, since the third century, been known in the West as Theosophy: in the East it has been known for ages under its Samskrt equivalent, Brahma-Vidya,  God-Wisdom, God-Knowledge, or God-Science. Such Theosophy , or mysticism, the direct knowledge of God by man belongs equally to all the great religions as their sustaining life, and may be possessed by any individual, even outside any religious organization. The Brahma-vadins,  Knowers of God, in Hinduism : the Gnostics, the Knowers,  who Origen declared were necessary to the very existence of the Christian Church: the Sheikh in Islamic Sufism- these are typical theosophists from the stand point of the modern Theosophical Society. No man is truly a theosophist who has not direct knowledge of God, and he may win this through any religion or by his own unaided efforts.