Chela
Chela (Sanskrit: चेल cela "servant, slave; disciple, pupil; dress, garment") is the name given in the Eastern wisdom teachings to that spiritual disciple who not only works on purifying his astral body, i.e. his urges and desires, but also already begins to ennoble his deeper habits and temperament. He thereby transforms his etheric body. If this work has progressed far enough, the chela remains similar to his earlier incarnations in temperament and habits.
„What man himself has worked into the astral body is called manas; that is the fifth basic part. So as much as man has worked into himself, so much is manas in him; therefore a part of his astral body is always manas. But it is not directly given to man to exert an influence also on his etheric body. Just as one learns to come to a higher moral level, so one can also learn to work into his etheric body. He who learns this is a disciple, a chela. Through this, man becomes master of his etheric body, and as much as he has worked into it, so much of Budhi is present in him. This is the sixth basic part, the transformed etheric body.
We can recognise such a chela by something. The ordinary man is not similar to his former embodiment, neither in form nor temperament; but the chela has the same habits, the same temperament as in the former embodiment. He remains similar. He has consciously worked into the body that bears procreation and growth.“ (Lit.:GA 95, p. 18)
In Richard Wagner's opera ]]w:Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]], which is based on the last chapter of Wolfram von Eschenbach's work "Parzival", chelahood is treated in the form of Lohengrin.
„So what are the qualities of the initiation stages of a chela?
First: The overcoming of the personal, the freeing of the God within. Secondly, freedom from all doubt; all scepticism ceases. The things of the spiritual stand before his soul as facts. Freedom also from all superstition, for since he is able to examine everything himself, he can no longer fall prey to any deception. At a still higher stage the key of knowledge is then delivered to him. It is said that he receives speech; he becomes a messenger of the supersensible world. The depths of the spiritual world are revealed to him. This is the second stage of chelahood. The third stage is when man, as he says "I" to himself in ordinary life, can now say "I" to all the beings of the world, when he is raised to embrace the universe. On this third level, in mysticism, the chela is called the "swan"; it becomes the mediator between the arhat, the teacher, and the people. Thus the Swan Knight presents himself to us as a messenger of the great White Lodge; thus Lohengrin is a messenger of the Grail Community.“ (Lit.:GA 92, p. 110)
Literature
- Rudolf Steiner: Die okkulten Wahrheiten alter Mythen und Sagen, GA 92 (1999), ISBN 3-7274-0920-7 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
- Rudolf Steiner: Vor dem Tore der Theosophie, GA 95 (1990), ISBN 3-7274-0952-5 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
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