The Theosophic teaching that the master takes on the karma of his pupil is often misunderstood. So many students think that the master hesitates to accept a pupil because of this heavy liability of accepting his karma. The measure of truth in this belief is that the master does have some moral responsibility for the self-injuring mistakes committed by the pupil as a direct consequence of special knowledge entrusted to him or for society-injuring misuse of special powers transferred to him or aroused into activity within him because of special instructions given by the teacher--in either case before he was sufficiently strong morally and pure in motive. But the general karma of the pupil is not accepted nor can it be accepted by any master. That is the pupil's making and he himself must work it out.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 6 : Student-Teacher > # 319
