ABSTRACT
There are many books on the twin doctrines of Karma and Rebirth, but the tendency of each new publication is to present the subject as more and more mechanical, until so nearly does this timeless, universal Law approximate to a soulless Fate that what is in fact a reign of law becomes a reign of terror, and compassion, described in The Voice of the Silence as ‘the Law of Laws, eternal Harmony’, is utterly ignored. The cause of this degradation is probably twofold; first, the general tendency of Western thought to materialize whatever spiritual principles swim into its ken, and secondly, the increasing departure from the available sources of our knowledge of the doctrine, with the corresponding reliance of each writer on previous textbooks and his own ideas.
